The ancient baatorians were the primary inhabitants of the plane of Baator unthinkably long ago, before the creation of the Baatezu. They disappeared under mysterious circumstances before the baatezu appeared, evolving into beings of pure malign thought. They left behind their young, the nupperibos.
Nupperibos are blind, mute, featureless blobs of flesh in roughly humanoid form, common to Baator's lower layers. They evolve from the Larvae that emerge from the plane's astral Conduits, and most believe they are a caste of baatezu petitioners. If left alone for centuries, they develop sight and the ability to vocalize, and grow disgusting tentacles from their torsos. Ultimately, after millennia, they become mature baatorians. The baatezu go to extraordinary lengths to prevent this from happening, "demoting" them to Lemure status by melting the soul-stuff of their bodies. This "purifies" them in baatezu eyes, making them eligible to ascend the baatezu hierarchy as any other lemure could.
Those that are not transformed into lemures are used as cannon-fodder in the Blood War, or sold to the Yugoloths.
Mature baatorians can be still seen in corporeal form in the caverns beneath Baator's layer of Malbolge and the mines and dungeons beneath Maladomini. There are spined fiends frozen in the middle of battling Devas and Archons deep beneath the glaciers of Cania; these are believed to be baatorians in some intermediate shape.
The ancient leader of the baatorians, Zargon, was imprisoned by Asmodeus on the Prime Material Plane.
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