Planar Renovation Project: Carceri

I Carceri more as the plane of Bitter Spitefulness, the natives are that way, and the plane itself reflected in its environment is like that. It's spiteful, and wants entrap and harm others.

With Carceri things are more underneath the surface. You could say it's vengeance as one of the themes, but that implies something too out there in the open like the Abyss. Carceri is more about such things seething and lurking just beneath the surface, buried under many layers. The man is there on Carceri, it's the beast the lurks there under the man's skin. Distaste and spite are what there, as Carceri is more rather the intent than the actual manifestation.

I've been toying around with trying to tie the idea of vestiges and binders from the 3.x Tome of Magic to those entities imprisoned in the orbs of Carceri. It fits in with the idea of binders being hunted by various religious types - the gods went to great pains to trap the vestiges and deny them their freedom, and binders give them an opportunity to experience the world outside of their prison. Binders are described as sort of playing with fire by doing what they do. I wouldn't turn all of the vestiges into prisoners of Carceri of course, but a number of them work quite well as prisoners. Anyway, just wanted to capture this idea before it slips away.

Cronus - King of the Universe, CE

From his throne atop Mount Othrys in Carceri, Cronus oversees his crumbling domain. Once he ruled the titans and laid claim to all of the lands watered by the River Oceanus, from Elysium to Arborea. He even conquered the Pelasgian pantheon, led by the goddess Eurynome, and seized her realms and worshippers for himself.

Those days are gone. He was betrayed by his own wife, Rhea, and his own children, the Olympian gods. Even some of the titans rose up against him, and old betrayals of his own came back to haunt him. The hecatoncheires, who he had once promised to free from Tartarus, helped banish him to that plane. His youngest son led them to victory against him, as he, youngest son of his own father, the sky god Uranus, had once led his siblings to victory in castrating the sky. Now he rules only the bowels of Carceri, his plans for escape crumbling beneath him like the walls of his own marble palace.

Oceanus - Oceans, CE

One of the eldest of titans, Oceanus was the personification of the celestial river that bears his name.

Note that it's possible that Oceanus only stole the River Oceanus from older gods like Pontus, after the titans stole the universe from the previous generation of deities - Uranus, Pontus, and Ourea. Who, in turn, stole the universe from Nyx, Erebus, Tartarus, Eros, and Gaea. Who, in turn, stole the universe from Chaos.

In any case, Oceanus was cast into Tartarus after he sided with Cronus in the Titanomachy, the Clash of the Titans where they warred against the Olympian gods, and since that time the Oceanus has been under the care of celestial beings like balaenas, guardinals and eladrins. His daughter Styx was soon cast after him.

Now Oceanus stews in the freezing seas of Porphatys, endlessly plotting his revenge. Due to the nature of Carceri, his schemes always betray themselves in a terrible circle, like Oceanus' own circular flow.

Ceos - the Mind, CE

Titan of the mind and the night, Ceos is a powerful psionicist and a master of nightmares. Nightmare steeds gallop through his domain, night hags make pilgrimages to it in order to learn his secrets, and he is served by quori and drifters from the Plane of Dream. He is wedded to Phoebe, the terrifying titan of the moon.

Iapetus - Rage, CE

The furious titan of unthinking anger, Iapetus is the father of the titans Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus. Of these, only Prometheus lacks the impetuous nature of their father; this is because he is also the son of Iapetus' sister Themis. The others are descended from Iapetus' equally unthinking daughter Clymene. Clymene now dwells unhappily in Iapetus' palace, while Themis gains some satisfaction from her role as judge of the dead.

Crius - Gravity, CE

Crius, Titan of Gravity, dwells on an orb in Colothys with constantly changing and shifting gravity tides. Objects and beings can quickly grow as light as a single hair to as heavy as a mountain; the gravity tides can pull them toward Crius' orb or push them away, toward a specific target.

Crius is the father, with his half-sister Eurybia, of the titans Perses, Pallas, and Astraeus.

Tethys - the Sea, N

Consort of Oceanus, foster-mother of Hera. Mother of the Oceanids, the River Styx, the River Cocytus, the River Acheron, the River Lethe, Amphitrite, and Doris (mother of the Neriads).

As mother of both Cocytus and Styx, Tethys commands a tremendous amount of respect in Carceri and the lower planes in general. Hydroloths, marraenaloths, wastriliths and other fiends view her with a reverence that approaches worship.

Hera, of the Olympians, views her as more of a mother than her real mother, Rhea. She seldom visits, but she sometimes uses a visit with Tethys as an excuse to leave Olympus and get away from Zeus for a time. This is regardless of whether she actually goes to see Tethys.

Hyperion - the Sun, CE

Hyperion is the husband of his sister Theia, and the father of Helius, Eos, and Selene (who is possibly the same as the goddess Selune of Toril and Celene of Oerth).

His orb in Carceri and and his palace on Mount Othrys burn with the heat and light of a giant red star.

Theia - Sorcery, NE

Theia, also known as Euryphaëssa and Basileia, is the titaness of sorcery. Her orb shines with blinding eldritch light. She taught magic to her children, Helius (who taught magic to his daughter Circe), Eos, Selene (who, as Selune, taught magic to her daughter Mystra), and her children by Oceanus, the master thieves known as the Cercopes. Hecate went to her as part of her wanderings, later continuing her tutelage under Ceos and Nyx. Theia is said to have taught the Incantifers the magic that allowed them to make themselves more than human. Beings from across the planes continue to petition the titaness to teach them; most are killed or transformed for their arrogance.

Themis - Justice, LN

The titaness of perfect justice, She was briefly married to Iapetus. After the banishment of the other titans, she became the second wife of Zeus (Zeus later divorced her and married Hera). With Iapetus, she is the mother of Prometheus and Clymene (who Iapetus left Themis for; she is the mother of Epimetheus, Atlas, and Monoetius), With Zeus, Themis is the mother of Astraea (goddess of Justice), the Seasons and some say (incorrectly) the Fates.

Themis created the Oracle at Delphi, which was later taken from her by Apollo. Since then, Themis spends most of her time in the Underworld in Pluton, where she and her proxies Aeacus, Rhadamanthys, and Minos judge the dead.

Mnemosyne - Memory, N

Mnemosyne is the titaness of memory. The Romans worship her as Moneta, goddess of finance. With Zeus, Mnemosyne is the mother of the Muses.

Mnemosyne dwells with her daughters in Arborea. She has an infinite palace in which every brick is inscribed with a glyph representing a memory. Deciphering a single glyph requires an intelligence check at DC 45, and then a will save at the same DC to avoid becoming overcome by the intensity of the memories. In Mount Othrys in Carceri there is a similar palace, but it has decayed so much that none of the glyphs are legible.

"You live in a deranged age, more deranged that usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, Man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing." - Walker Percy

Most don't remember her twin sisters. They've faded into Mystery, their faces blank, reflective, veiled in shadow. Her daughters, the Nine, have taken the place of the earlier Triad. The original generation has become lost, banished, overwritten, a mere palimpset.

Yet Memory knows them, and keeps them within her house still.

Mnemosyne
Titan of Memory, N

While her daughters the Muses live in Mount Olympus with Apollo, Mnemosyne resides forgotten within the House of Memory. With memories her only companions, she has lost touch with everything new. And, enraptured by the new creations inspired by her daughters, the rest of the multiverse has lost touch with Mnemosyne. The result - a fading of memory, a loss of past, of the roots of things, has been at times catastrophic.

The schism between memories and new things is a traumatic wound, but also a very old one. The blood has long since dried, the scars turned white and pale. Even the injury itself has been long since forgotten.

Mnemosyne strides restlessly through Memory's halls, a pale, furtive figure in dark robes looking for something she can no longer define. There is only one room where she dare not enter; the room of Melete, her most terrifying twin.

Her sister Aoede, on the other hand, she visits often, though Aoede never speaks except to sing her single wordless song.

Aoede
Titan of Song, CN

"...and stars rise
upon phantom tides unknown
this night sings,
'nothing is all you'll know'
...and stars rise" - fredrickartman ("translation" of The Nothing Song by Sigur Ros).

In an unlit hall in the House of Memory lies Aoede, Titan of Song. Her dark body stretches like a cat. The smell of her unwashed body is pungent, filling the hall and adjoining chambers. There is all around her a wind, and the sensation of tiny fluttering wings. There is a sound, like the waves of a distant sea crashing on an unseen shore on a hot, stifling day.

In your mind you hear a melody; you remember hearing it when you were born. There are no words, no rhythm, no pattern. There is only song.

It fills the planes.

Sailors have killed themselves on rocks trying to find the source of this song. Musicians have gone mad from hearing a few notes of it. Bards seek it their entire lives, but must be careful they do not look too deeply or they could drown in Aoede's hot, lightless sea.

The Titaness does not move from her place on the floor of the hall in the House of Memory. Her song does not change. Like her sister Memory, Aoede can no longer create anything new; not until they are willing to face their terrible sister Melete.

Melete
Titan of Practice, Meditation, and Discipline, LN

"A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim." - George Santayana

Melete is Practice, Repetition, Meditation, and Meter. When she held her place in the cosmic trinity of the first Muses she was the structure upon which all Poetry was built. She was the rhythm of myth, memory, and song that defined the Outer Planes in that older, simpler age. She was the effort, the struggle, the heroic battle that all true Poets wrestled with, until scratched and bloody and scarred they emerged from their combat with Melete, a glowing treasure in their hearts and tongues.

Melete, too, bears scars from those battles, long white lines cutting her face and hands - all of her exposed skin - into regular units, relics from the age when Melete fought her sisters, all artists, the entire multiverse with her dripping claws.

Now she sits still in her darkened corner of the House of Memory, her ruined hands folded and her eyes shut, her blank face slack. Only her brow is furrowed as she concentrates on something, putting her Titanic effort into defining the structure of... what? Perhaps nothing more than the cages of her own self-created prison. Mortals who have ventured too near have been caught too, snared by the endless loop of discipline with all objectives long since vanished from her mind. If one of her twins were to reach her, touch her, perhaps something new could be made, but no; she has grown too feral for them to approach. They no longer consider Melete to be worth the effort, and so they sit within Memory, barren as she is, barren as they all have become.

Phoebe - the Moon, CE

Phoebe's orb in Carceri glows with a cold silver light. She is the wife of Ceos, the Titan of Fear, and much of her husband's nature is transferred to Phoebe's terrifying lunar realm, which is populated with lycanthropes and spirits of madness and terror.

With Ceos, Phoebe is the mother of Leto (mother of Apollo and Artemis), and Asteria (mother of Hecate).

Leto - Light, CG

Mother of Apollo and Artemis, called Latona by the Romans and Lat by the Egyptians. Identified with the cobra goddess Wadjet. Wadjet helped Isis hide in the floating island of Chemmis, which might have been the same as Asteria/Ortygia. She is associated with the quail, who some say Zeus disguised her as.

Leto is a vengeful and terrible being when she is insulted. She is much like the Olympians in this respect.

Phorcys and Ceto - Abominations, CE

Phorcys is known as the Old Man of the Sea. Ceto is a horrible-looking sea monster, not remotely humanoid. Children of Pontus and Gaea, they sided with their half-siblings the Titans in their war with the gods, and were banished along with them. With his sister Ceto, Phorcys is the father of the serpent Ladon, and according to some also the Gorgons, the Graiae, and the monster Echidna. His orb in Porphatys, which he shares with Ceto, is haunted by medusas, hags of all kinds, ha-nagas, hagumemnons, odopi, vargouilles, lamiae, hydras, chimerae, harpies, and shrieking terrors.

Phorcys and Ceto have sent some of their daughters as gifts to Perses, where they encourage him to do their parents' will.

Atlas - Endurance, CE

A son of Iapetus and Clymene, Atlas personifies the lasting strength of the primal universe. The Olympians banished him to Mount Atlas in Arborea, where he carries the sky on his shoulders. His daughters, the Hesperides, guard the apples of immortality.

Prometheus - Forethought, CG

Prometheus is the titan of foresight and progress; with his brother Epimetheus, he created humanity from clay, or so it is said, back in the Golden Age when Cronus ruled.

During the Golden Age there was no strife or war; there was also no change. The beautiful immortals that were Golden Age humanity lived their endless lives as if asleep, every perfect summer day the same as the last.

Prometheus was born backwards, in a sense, always looking forward, the future shining like a brilliant beacon, drowning out present and past. With such light filling his senses, he could think only of the future; he was the future, as his mother Themis was cosmic Order and his father Iapetus was unthinking rage. In a time when the ravenous mouth of Cronus reduced everything to unchanging present, Prometheus could not prevent himself from helping to bring about the change to come any more than he could prevent his immortal body from breathing.

So it was that when the young god Zeus forced his father to regurgitate his older brothers and sisters, coughing the future back into the world, Prometheus pledged his aid in the upcoming struggle with the old powers. Prometheus didn't think much of Zeus, even then - he was far too impetuous, too controlled by his lusts and jealousies - but he was the only future Prometheus could see. He convinced his brother Epimetheus, who could mostly only think of the past and his regrets, to join him; Epimetheus had learned that following Prometheus gave him less to regret than otherwise, though he would have cause to reconsider that philosophy later on.

The struggle between the young gods and the titans, between the future and the unchanging now, lasted a long time; there are some who claim it continues still. Such was the scope of the conflict that the fabric of the universe was damaged; Mother Earth became more barren, the weather more violent.

As the reign of Cronus ended, eternal summer passed into autumn. Change had come to the universe, and the people of the Golden Age began to fade and die - peacefully, without pain, death being as dreamlike and inconsequential as their lives had been. Prometheus saw the future, when young Kore would be abducted by grim Hades, and knew that Earth's new custodian Demeter did not have the fortitude to continue her duty dispassionately, as Rhea and her mother Gaea had before. As Demeter suffered, so would the world, and the Golden Age humanity that Prometheus and Epimetheus had made would not survive the coming winter. Prometheus knew what he must do.

With great stealth and cleverness, Prometheus entered the forge of the gods in Olympus, where the lighting that provided Zeus with his edge against his elders was made. As lightning was his greatest weapon, his ace in the hole, he forbade any others from wielding it, but trusted Prometheus stole a bit anyway in order to prevent his chosen race from dying out entirely.

The harpies, the Hounds of Zeus, smelled the smoke from the crackling mortal hearths and, as Prometheus had known they would, reported the discovery to their master. The tale of the woes Zeus visited upon humanity, using Epimetheus as his instrument, is best saved for another day. What is important here is Prometheus' own punishment, his crucifixion on Mount Caucasus, the spine of his mother Asia (for some say the oceanid Asia was his mother, and not Themis), of the raptor child of Typhon and Echidna who tears his liver from his guts daily. Whether Caucasus is somewhere on the Material Plane, where Prometheus' creations now rule, or whether it is on a secret Demiplane of Imprisonment, or perhaps somewhere in Arborea or Carceri, is unclear - the will of Zeus keeps it hidden. For Prometheus, despite the braggings of Heracles, is imprisoned still.

Prometheus, the titan of the future, is trapped again in an eternal present, this one filled with torture and suffering rather than lazy summer days. It is believed by the sect of humans who call themselves the Prometheans, the Believers of the Fire, or sometimes the Believers of the Source after the titan who is the source of humanity and all its works, that no real progress can be made by humanity while the titan of progress remains bound. Thus all the worlds remain locked in what they term the "middle ages," superior to the dark ages before the theft of fire, but inferior to that which is destined to come; a time when warriors must sheathe themselves in steel and mages forget their spells after they cast them. One day, when Prometheus is free, the fires between atoms themselves will be laid bare for human use.

Prometheus and those who worship him hate the gods and spirits they see as enslaving humanity, trapping them in this eternal present of torment and death. They oppose not only the gods of Olympus but all benighted superstitions of the present divine order and previous ones - they oppose the faerie courts with iron and faith, they oppose the giants with swords and arrows, and they oppose the fiends of the lower planes, unless - as a few have - they present themselves as allying themselves with their cause. One day, the future will be unbound, and the heavens will tremble.

Epimetheus - Afterthought, CG

Father of mankind and its woes, Epimetheus wanders the upper planes. He has a tower in Bytopia that is perpetually falling apart.

Asteria - Flight, N

Asteria, daughter of Ceos and Phoebe, appeared as a night-black titan with eyes that sparkled like stars. She was the mother, with Perses, of Hecate. To escape the attentions of Zeus, she transformed herself into the floating island of Ortygia (or Delos), where Apollo and Artemis were born to her sister Leto. Ortygia is a demiplane that moves through the multiverse, never fixed in any one place.

Perses - Destruction, CE

Perses is the titan of elemental destruction, a bringer of plagues, earthquakes, and floods. Perses' orb in Carceri is populated with fiendish medusas, night hags, and mariliths who act as his lovers in the absence of Asteria, his wife. It always seems on the verge of falling apart. With Asteria, he was the father of Hecate.

Pallas - Storms, CE

Son of Crius and Eurybia and brother of Perses and Astraeus. Pallas is the husband of Styx, the river of the underworld. With Styx, he was the father of Bia (titan of violence), Cratus (titan of strength), Nike (goddess of victory), and Zelus (titan of jealousy).

Pallas' orb in Porphatys is covered with storm clouds and crackles with lightning. It is flooded by his wife, the River Styx. There he dwells in a vast palace, bereft of memories, with his children Bia, Cratus, and Zelus, controlled by his yugoloth advisors. They manipulate him into opposing Oceanus, who is a great rival of theirs.

His daughter Nike went to live with the Olympians.

Astraeüs - Stars, CE

Son of Crius and Eurybia Astraeus is the father (by Eos) of the wind gods Boreas, Zephyrus, and Notus, and the stars. His orb in Carceri is eternally lashed by savage winds. It is night black. Astraeus glows with the light of a distant sun.

Eurybia - light reflected off the ocean, NE

A daughter of Gaea and Pontus, Eurybia glows with the brightness of waves in the sun, but her heart has literally turned to stone as a by-product of her marrying the titan of gravity, Crius. She dwells in Carceri with her husband, stern and unyielding as the flint that makes up her heart.

Tartarus - Betrayal, CE

A sibling of Gaea, Erebus, Eros, and Nyx, Tartarus has become one with the plane of Carceri. It is his malevolent intelligence that betrays every plan the titans have to escape, that sows lies and jealousy among the inmates of the Red Prison, that prevents Mount Olympus from connecting Mount Othrys to the realm of the Olympian gods or the Underworld.

Erebus - Darkness, NE

Furious at the creation of matter in the primeval emptiness of Chaos, Erebus has retreated to the Plane of Shadow, where he broods in solitude. Mount Olympus briefly connects to his domain in its descent between Arborea and the Gray Waste.

Nyx - Night, CN

The goddess of night and the former consort of Erebus, and, before that, Chaos itself. Nyx knows all mysteries and is beyond the control of the Olympian gods. She has, on occasion, given advice to her lovers, to Uranus, to the titans, and to the Olympians. She helped train Hecate in the secrets of magic. Because it pleases her to do so, she dwells in Arborea, where she coordinates the cycle of darkness and light with her daughter Hemera, goddess of day.

Acheron - Sadness, LE

A son of Oceanus and Tethys. Father of Asclepius, god of healing. Banished to the lower planes for providing drinks to the Titans.

Styx - Oaths, NE

A daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, Styx was cast by the celestials into the lower planes after the Clash of the Titans in the hope of cleansing the higher realms of her father's evil.

She is dark and vast; things disappear forever within her depths. The gods themselves are said to fear her, and oaths sworn by Styx cannot be broken even by them.

Because her waters have long mingled with those of her sister Lethe, which also flows through the Underworld, she has taken on the other river's property of causing amnesia to all who touch her. In fact, she is said to be the more potent and terrible of the two. Lethe's water is a blessing for those for whom memories are pain; Styx is only ever a curse.

She is wedded to the titan Pallas. Some would also say she is, in a way, wedded to Leviathan, lord of Stygia, and Cerlic, leader of the marraenaloths.

Cocytus - Grief, NE

Brother of Styx, the Wailing River Cocytus is one with the frozen waters of Carceri's innermost layer. He is also a tributary of the iron river Acheron, which flows through all four layers of that plane, beginning in the ice of Ocanthus. Styx, Acheron, Cocytus, and Pyriphlegethon all flow through the Underworld in Pluton. Some also believe that Cocytus flows through Caina, in Baator, and perhaps even Nessus.

Cocytus' waters echo with the crying of restless souls.

Ophion - Creation, N

Ophion is a manifestation of the World Serpent archetype, a vast snake shaped from the winds by his lover Eurynome. He coiled around the egg that hatched into the universe. The titans, lead by Cronus and Rhea, cast him into the River Styx and Eurynome into the River Oceanus, so they could steal their mortal worshippers and take their place. Now Ophion is trapped in Carceri, coiled seven times around an orb in Porphatys. Some believe the orb may one day hatch into a new plane of existence; others say it is hopelessly infertile, and Ophion's hopes are only another of Carceri's lies.

Eurynome - Creation, NG

A goddess of creation, Eurynome is said to have emerged from Chaos at the beginning of all things. Now she dwells in Thalasia, in Elysium, banished there by the titans long before the rise of the Olympian gods. She mourns her consort, trapped in Carceri, bathed daily by the bitter waters of Porphatys, coiled around an egg that will never hatch.

Despite her isolation from the Olympians, she was once seduced by Zeus. She bore him the three Graces.

Titans of the Scarred Lands

Chern (CHURN), of the Scourge, of the Last Great Sickness and Suffering - CE

Chern of the Scourge is one of the elder titans who once ruled world of Scarn before they were overthrown by the gods. He is the father of Mane. Chern is known for creating many races of vermin and magical plagues that continue to infest the world of mortals.

Denev (den-EV), the Earth Mother (N; Earth, Nature, Death - natural, the Seasons) - N

Denev is the only titan of Scarn to side with the gods. Alone of her kind, she remains free on the Material Plane, worshiped by druids.

Gaurak (GAH-rock), the Glutton, the Voracious One - CE

The notoriously obese Gaurak is said in myth to have eaten all the forests, seas, plains, beasts, and people that once flourished on the moon, leaving it a barren and airless hunk of rock. The gods pulled out his hundred teeth before burying him. He is the father of Girzon, titan of death, and Porphyl, titan of life..

Golthain (GALL-thane) the Faceless - CE (N)

Golthain the Faceless was remembered for the mild touch of compassion he felt toward his creations, which include certain obscure races of giants. He had his eyes, ears, and tongue torn out by his brother and sister titans so that he could no longer enjoy his creations or learn how badly they treated their own creations, and the gods sundered and imprisoned him so that he would not, even blind and senseless as he was, seek revenge for the defeat of the other titans.

Golthagga (gall-THAH-ga), of the Forge, the Shaper - CE

Golthagga was the master smith of the titans of Skarn. He is remembered for creating titanic, mechanical versions of other forms of life. He was slain by the god Corean while still at his forge, but his life-force lives on in countless clockwork abominations .

Gormoth (GORE-moth), The Writhing Lord - CE

Gormoth the Writhing Lord was first poisoned by his sister Mormo and then split in half from skull to crotch by the gods. Each half was placed on opposite sides of a gorge in Carceri. They flail and writhe miserably, trying to once again become whole.

Gulaben (goo-LAH-bin), Lady of the Winds of Madness - CE

Gulaben was an invisible titan, as unseen as the winds. She created many aerial abominations, humanoids, and wind spirits. She was finally bound by a great ritual, but the site of her prison is as invisible and mysterious as she was.

Hrinruuk (he-RIN-rook) the Hunter - CE

The stealthy Hrinruuk the Hunter slew at least two gods in their great war. He was finally decapitated by the god Hedrada, and his still-living body endlessly wanders the orbs of Carceri in search of it. He is the father of Zadara and Malephus.

Kadum (KAH-doom), the Mountainshaker, the Bleeding One - CE

Kadum got his heart cut out by the gods and he was chained to a rock, which was thrown into the depths of the ocean Porphatys in Carceri. Around his prison, the waters run red with his blood, which has quickened the evolution of mutant merfolk, krakens, and other aquatic beasts. Algorn is his son.

Lethene (lay-THEEN), Dame of Storms, the Untamed One - CE

The titan of storms, Lethene mated with Kadum the Mountainshaker, and their son is Algorn. She, too, is imprisoned in Porphatys.

Mesos (MAY-zohz), Sire of Sorcery, the Disrupted - CE

The greatest sorcerer among the titans of Skarn, Mesos's essence was scattered by the gods and a council of the greatest mortal archmages. Throughout Carceri and on other planes as well, abominations made from pure magic lurk, each with a fragment of Mesos's memory.

Mormo (MORE-moh), Mother of Serpents, Queen of Witches - CE

Said to have created the medusae and other serpentine races, Mormo's pieces were strewn across Carceri. Her followers seek to put her back together.

Thulkas (thool-KAHS), Father of Fire, the Iron God - CE

Thulkas was said to be made of rock and filled with magma. Unable to break him, the god Corean instead reforged him on Golthagga's smithy into the shape of an arrow and shot him into the sun.

Lesser Titans of the Scarred Lands

Algorn - the Seas, CG

Algorn is a son of Kadum the Bleeding One and Lethene, and has incredible command over water. He can create and freeze lakes or simply make water jet from his hands as an attack. He spends most of his time in Ossa, Arborea's second layer, but occasionally wanders the length of the Oceanus. He is friends with Eurynome and Nereus, and is often accompanied by river and lake nymphs.

Mane - Felines, CG

A son of Chern, Mane has always hated the vermin his father created, and seeks endlessly to destroy them. By tapping into his feline essence, Mane can cure himself of any wound, poison, or disease. Mane can transform into any giant cat and back again up to five times a day. Mane is an ally of the Cat Lord's, and is precariously trying to maintain his relationship with Bast at the same time without upsetting either power. Both are quick to jealous rages, however, and if they suspect that Mane is cheating on one of them with the other Mane could be in very bad trouble.

Porphyl - Growth, CG

A son of Gaurak the Glutton, Porphyl gives back what his father and his brother Girzon take. With his touch, seeds become mighty oaks and babes become mature warriors. Like his brother Girzon, Porphyl defers to their aunt Denev's wisdom when it comes to how often he should use his talent. He would never deliberately abuse it. He spends most of his time in the Beastlands and Arborea, communing with the various spirits of animals and nature.

Malephus - Law and Justice, LG

Another son of Hrinruuk, Malephus hunts down criminals as his father hunted down beasts. He has no skin on his arms, legs, or torso - he flayed them off himself in an attempt to reconcile with Hedrada, the Scarred Lands god of justice. The flesh ended up going to Bune, Baator's Duke of Eloquence, instead, the whole thing being one of Bune's tricks. Malephus and Hedrada never reconciled; this is the only time Malephus has ever been deceived. Normally he has the ability to unerringly detect any lie or falsehood. He cannot himself deceive anyone, even through omission. He wanders the Upper Planes seeking out injustice.

Syllia - Love, CG

A daughter of Guluben, the undetectable Lady of the Winds, Syllia inherited some of her mother's power over madness. The particular madness Syllia has command over is love. Like her mother, Syllia is hard for even gods to see coming; she creeps up with her victims unaware, and dispenses her gift in secret. She can remove hatred, unhappiness, sorrow, and apathy from anyone for at least a day or so. As a favor to the gods, she sometimes uses this power to stop wars and such.

Girzon - Death, CG

A son of Gaurak, Girzon is the lesser titan of Death; he can take life from any living being. He has always deferred to his aunt Denev when in doubt about the use of his powers, and his restraint is proverbial. Girzon spends most of his time in the sands of Pelion, the third and final of Arborea's passions, accompanied by minor spirits of death.

Zadara - Potential, N

A daughter of Hrinruuk the Hunter, Zadara inherited from her father the ability to detect the unseen, in her case the latent potential found in all she meets. In this she was surely aided by the blood of Miridum, goddess of lore, which splattered her when her father slew the demigoddess.

After the gods defeated the other titans, Zadara fled to another world, Rublia, where she attempted to pass herself off as a goddess. This ended badly. She hates Malephus for trying to reconcile with Hedrada, who decapitated Zadara's father. She uses fallen archons as servants in order to annoy Hedrada, should he hear of it. She fears Skeartim, a god of Rublia who seeks to punish her for her hubris, and fears and hates the other gods of Skarn. She has two worshippers remaining: Lethea and Lesander, two wemics from Rublia who do not know of her exile. She currently hides in Sigil, where she uses her talents to make herself a powerful Golden Lord.

Your mention of genies gives me the idea that the Red Prison might be a good place to put the lost lore required to create the Seal of Solomon. Perhaps there are suggestions in obscure sources across the planes that the Seal itself can be found here, possibly worked into the fabric of an orb or a prison full of genies somewhere.

One last idea: a "rescue service" that comes awfully expensive. They'll get the life story from a prisoner, then go and execute or bankrupt or energy-drain whoever jailed them, until the prisoner is stronger than his jailor, and can theoretically escape through the regular portals. Their price is levels and XP -- a transfer of spiritual strength, until their escapee is reduced to even less than he was before he came to Carceri. But he's free.

Maybe the jailor who is said to run this place is just as imprisoned as the Titans. He prevents the Titans from escaping because it is the only thing he can do from his cell.

One thing I've been meaning to say in this thread for a while is that everyone should download Phoenix Lore #2 (it's free) and check out the Carcerian city detailed there, Soul Silt. It's by Todd "Shemeska the Marauder" Stewart, and blatantly intended for Planescape, though a few of the serial numbers have been filed off. It's kind of funny, in fact: the article recommends "two neutral evil fiendish races from your campaign" - obviously, from the context, these are gehreleths/demodands and yugoloths, though I have seen alternate neutral evil fiendish races that have been very well designed.

Anyway, Soul Silt, unlike some planar cities, is given a definite reason for being there. It's situated by a portal from the upper layers and it's the only known source for rare pearls (which might actually be the eggs of some Carcerian creature, or a final form of the local petitioners) that can be used as gate keys. One thought I had was that it might be a good idea to make the pearls of Soul Silk the only way to get out of Carceri (or, at least, one of only a few rare ways), so that the PCs either have to buy them in Carcerian marketplaces if they're available or travel all the way down to Porphatys and purchase or harvest them themselves, gathering or purchasing enough to activate each portal leading to the outer layers and finally to another plane. It'd give them a pressing reason to visit the city (which is very interesting, I think), and emphasize the prison theme of the plane.

The Gehreleths symbolize rebellion and minor resistance/terrorist movements, I believe. They represent the more 'thuggish' side of organized crime-- the tendency for syndicates to devour themselves out of greed, hate, and paranoia. Reality-wise, the Gehreleths represent groups such as the Izzudin Al Qassam and Fath Al Islam (these groups are far more extreme than Hamas, tend to be less organized, and are more constantly at one another's throats) along with the North American prison gangs such as Aryan Brotherhood. These are groups who tend to be severely oppressed (and for good reason in the case of the prison gangs and other violent white supremacist groups), and don't accomplish nearly as much as they could due to internal strife and extreme ideology-- they don't accomplish much and are repeatedly decimated by centralized governments because they view all centralized governments as their ultimate enemy which absolutely cannot be negotiated with (although some groups attempt to form their own political wings)
The Yugoloths, OTOH, represent the more refined and organized crime syndicates such as the Italian Mafia, the Yakuza, and possibly the Russian mafia. They thrive compared to the Gehreleths because their philosophy is one of subtlety and working with/manipulating the centralized government, which gives them control over it.
This mostly refers to the Gehennan Yugoloths, however. The Gray Waste Yugoloths represent despair, inability to change with the times, clinging to outdated tradition, pain, and disease/pestilence. (whereas the Gehennan Yugoloths represent adaptation to the times)

You compare the gereleths to groups that think they are racially or religiously superior; as I suggested, the gereleths have been led to believe of themselves as a superior species by thier creator, Apomps.
Suggest? I thought it was heavily implied that the Gehreleths believe this.

Admittedly, the sole (or even main) target of the gereleths shouldn't be the yugoloths. They will often strike out at symbols of good because:
1) they hate anything that is good
2) in doing so, the gereleths demonstrate that they are more effective forces of evil that the seemingly inactive yugoloths
Part of the reason that the gehreleths are so ineffective is because they are bitter have-nots who want to take their frustration out upon everyone, but especially-- ESPECIALLY the have's. The haves, in this case, being anyone who can leave Carceri. Planes of Conflict states repeatedly that the maliciousness and dog-eat-dog-ness of the Gehreleths, petitioners, and damn near everything else on Carceri is fueled by their bitterness of being imprisoned, combined with their thirst for freedom.

But since they feel the yugoloths have "robbed them" of their birthright, I see the gereleths as also wanting to strike against the yugoloths and their webs of intrigue
Yes. I remember reading somewhere (wasn't Planes of Conflict as I initially thought, so it might be the Altraloth article in Dragon Magazine) that the Gehreleths absolutely hate the Yugoloths for being dominant over them. It is the Yugoloths who rule Carceri, and who keep the race's numbers down to a mere 9,999 in the process (though they can double their numbers if a need truly arises). The Yugoloths have also taken control of every last inch of remotely valuable land and resource on the plane, and exiled the remaining Gehreleths to the lonely barrens. The Yugoloths are the occupiers and oppressers of the Gehreleths, who bitterly hate them for it. They also hate the Tanar'ri, who comb the area for conscripts.

As for the reason why Gehreleths won't harm one another, the reason is implied in the PS Monstrous Compendium 1 and Planes of Conflict. If their black triangles give the individuals access to knowledge of the entire collective, then slaying a fellow Gehreleth would be self-defeating, and the entire race simply becomes that much dumber for it.

Perhaps it is an inverse relationship: the more violent residents absorb the energy of the world around them to fuel thier own burning hatred?
It's a stretch, but maybe it will inspire someone
Actually, no, I think the setup is supposed to represent how the plane becomes more ruthless, bitter, and cruel as one reaches deeper rather than anger and violence as heat. Bitterness is usually associated with cold rather than heat (hence why there are hints of bitterness in Cryonax's personality *towards the Elder Eye* in Dragon 347) The hate felt by the petitioners and natives of Carceri is the slow, festering type rather than the seething type-- Planes of Conflict even states this much (though not in the same terms)

Thanks for your reply.

I agree with all of your three points. In your second point you taged on to the idea and rasied a good question. What are Apomps motivations and goals? With the facts that he 1. Creates them and 2. gives all three types of Gereleths a physical object that gives them knowledge, Apomps Motivations and goals seems to, me, more relevant than the individual Gereleths goals.

I think the idea that keeps me biased in this view, is that a monster that an adventurer cannot relate or empathise with, as it is just programmed and controlled by Apomps, creates a moral dilemma that is not so often found in other monsters or deities. The Gereleths would then be Amoral, either diliberately or forced. I could see this beeing especially interesting in a plane like Carceri. A prison should after all be able to breed all kinds of people and monsters.

In regards to your third point. Isn't it that if a Gereleth is controlled by Apomp, through the triangle or other means, that they are very much imprisoned? Could it be that because this would mean the Gereleths are robbed of a personality, that it is difficult to get a feel for them? Because I do not get the "right feel" for it either, ironically enough.

If this seems to narrow and single minded for Gereleth behaviour, are there more aspects of the plane that could make this more diverse?

I enjoyed reading your reply so I look forward to further input/output.

Edit: Upon further thinking and reading, I feel that this concept would fit more in Hades and it seems more probable that the Gereleths do have motivations and a "moral code". Nontheless, the idea is out there now.

In regards to your third point. Isn't it that if a Gereleth is controlled by Apomp, through the triangle or other means, that they are very much imprisoned?

They aren't imprisoned or controlled by Apomps or the triangles. The triangles simply allow them access to the knowledge of all the other Gehreleths. Thus, giving us an understanding of why the Gehreleths won't fight one another. The Yugoloths have a very similar system (the higher-up loths have mental contact to some degree with the libraries of their race), but because the information is contained in books and on the flesh of petitioners instead of in the minds of their kin, the Yugoloths have no problem killing on another. Since Apomps is a rogue Baernaloth, it's likely that his goals are very similar to those of the other Baernaloths.
We know that the goal of the other Baernaloths was to create the Yugoloths to maintain a balance between the lawful and chaotic aspects of evil, and to spread evil. Problem is that they and Apomps are too weak and small in number to be of much significance, and, while they have a collective database based on the knowledge of each member, the books imply that the Gehreleths do not physically work together for the most part, which of course would greatly limit thair accomplishments.
We can assume that Apomps and the Gehreleths could be compared to a breakaway cult from a large, organized religion (the Yugoloths and their goals). The Gehreleths and Apomps are therefore viewed as heretics by the 'loths, and oppressed for it. Especially since we see many similarities between the Gehreleths and the Yugoloths, including mental contact with great databases. In addition, the Gehreleths seem to have been created to spread evil, much like the Yugoloths.

The best use of gehreleths/demodands was probably in the "Shackled City" adventure path, where a cabal of them conspired to pull a Prime Material city into Carceri. That was a pretty concrete goal, though not a goal of the entire race. 3rd edition interprets them as self-proclaimed wardens for the other inhabitants of Carceri, and I think that fits them. Bitter over their own ancient imprisonment, they've come to see themselves as the "true" race of fiends that the yugoloths usurped and the true manifestations of the plane of Carceri. If they can't escape, no one can; they're personifications of Carceri's continuous betrayal of its inhabitants, traitors to their fellow victims of Carceri's orbs.

The business with gehreleths always having the same population is kind of needlessly limiting and not something the PCs should be able to confirm themselves in any case. There are as many as the campaign needs, and I wouldn't worry about whether or not the population of them is too dense in any one location.

In 2nd edition, gehreleths are portrayed (in Faces of Sigil and Van Richten's Guide to the Fiends) as evil muses, inspiring dark writings in hapless mortal scribes from afar. The shators in particular are psychological, poetic, philosophical, intellectual, literary villains, hideous tempters and secret patrons of the arts.

I think "war robots" is very much the wrong direction for them.

In Carceri they also act as foils for the yugoloths, continually tearing down their Tower of Incarnate Pain and thus delaying the climax of their great scheme by millennia. Wherever the 'loths are active in the Red Prison, the gehreleths may also appear as opposite numbers, competing for territory and resources, like rival gangsters. Adventures on the plane should often involve the PCs dealing with the two fiendish races' competing demands and possibly manipulating them against each other.

As far as the gehreleths are concerned, they were the original race of fiends, created before the yugoloths. They were the dark angels who once ruled the Lower Planes before there were any other inhabitants, and perhaps the most powerful soldiers against the aasimon in the dawn times. The other baernaloths, traitors who were jealous of Apomps' brilliance, wrongfully cast the 'leths from their thrones and made them twisted and broken, hideous corrupted shadows of what they once were, imprisoning them in a plane created specifically to jail them for all eternity. There to stew in their own corruption, and fester, and compose grim poetry and sad songs commemorating their loss.

I also see them as a bit like the Vogons from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, compassionless bureaucrats who fancy themselves as misunderstood artistes. Though unlike the Vogons, their bureaucracy has no real rules; each has unlimited carte blanche to invent and enforce whatever "laws" they can dream up, and contradict themselves as they will. They're twisted parodies of bureaucrats whose only goal is to frustrate the helpless souls under their charge, and their feckless disregard for logic and precedent would drive Guvners insane.

The main difference is that the Vogons are intended humorously, while gehreleth/demodands should be scary, at least at times. They're monstrous Furies, armed with mancatchers or chains and dripping with slime or tar, who exist to torment and punish the treacherous dead. They're mythic guardians of the underworld. But I still think the Vogons are a good start, as far as giving them a ready personality to envision.

As far as racial goals go:

1. To destroy the yugoloths and "regain" their place as the original and dominant fiendish race.
2. Failing that, to spitefully thwart the 'loths at every turn.
3. To act as prison wardens, preventing any of Carceri's victims from escaping the plane.
4. To manipulate the minds and souls of mortals (and, where possible, immortals) to draw more victims into Carceri. Misery loves company. They don't do this by being appealing, as succubi do. They're the part of the artistic soul that revolts everyone, including the artist. They're sin, vice, bad habits, the urge to self-destruct, the urge to betray oneself and all that one holds dear, the cyclical prison of sloth and addiction and violence and frustrated rage.

Apomps is a fairly interesting character; I see it as three baernaloths hideously merged into a single being as punishment for its hubris in creating the gehreleth race, very much inspired by the three-headed Satan frozen in the lowest circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno (who gnaws eternally on the souls of traitors). Apomps urges the gehreleths to work toward the first two goals mentioned above, but is ultimately the least powerful member of the gehreleth race, more surely imprisoned than any of the others (who have been seen on other planes from time to time), and unable to affect anything on its own. The idea of becoming self-proclaimed prison wardens might even be at odds with Apomps' desires and goals; perhaps the 'leths even help keep their master imprisoned.

A plausible end-game for a campaign would be freeing Apomps from the ice so that it can punish the shator mastermind that has been plaguing the PCs. This wouldn't free the gehreleth-god from Carceri, of course, and eventually it would likely become frozen again, Carceri being what it is.

Other good uses for gehreleths (in no particular order):

1. Allying with a shator (or Apomps) in order to thwart the completion of the Tower of Incarnate Pain. For those who don't remember, this was a yugoloth scheme with obvious immediate results; the construction of a third tower that would focus the power of three planes and bring them under the 'loth's control. It's an apocalyptic scenario well suited for the climax of a campaign.
2. Unmasking the gehreleth who has been secretly controlling a villain from behind the scenes, leaving parts of its tainted spirit in books and writings.
3. Allying with the yugoloths in order to thwart the local demodand strongman and escaping Carceri.
4. Outwitting the demodand masterminds who seek to pull Curst or Cauldron or another city into their plane, or helping to liberate the city and put it back where it originated.

It's funny, as soon as I read this I thought "VOGON" even before I continued on to your next paragraph - wherein you made your case comparing the gehreleths to that foul race. I'd never thought to take the 'leths in that direction, but the more I think of it, the more fitting it seems to be. Well played.

And with that, I'd like to take this time to share some Vogon poetry with the board - generally thought to be the 3rd worst poetry in the universe.

Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
Thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits
On a lurgid bee
That mordiously hath bitled out
Its earted jurtles
Into a rancid festering [drowned out by moaning and screaming]
Now the jurpling slayjid agrocrustles
Are slurping hagrilly up the axlegrurts
And living glupules frart and slipulate
Like jowling meated liverslime
Groop, I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes
And hooptiously drangle me
With crinkly bindlewurdles,
Or else I shall rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon
See if I don't.

For the "middle-evil" planes, we have the yugoloths and the gehreleths (an off-shoot of the yugoloths). Most of the time (IMO), we are told of the yugoloths being evil and they certainly act suspiciously; but because their plans are always so damn mysterious and their methods are so subtly manipulative, I never get much of a feel that these middle-evil races are actually doing anything that produce short-term results.
Planes of Conflict made it quite clear how Yugoloths typically act. They're the ones that cause the rockslides that block the shortcut path to your destination and force you to take the longcut, or send evil minions after you. Or tell the tanar'ri unit that you had an earlier run-in where you are and what you're doing so they'll come and kill you.
Or, they'll give you the directions to the dragon's lair when you wanted directions to the nearest town.

Yes, the yugoloth are manipulating both sides of the Blood War, but in the short term, you could argue that this is a GOOD thing as it keeps them too busy to attack the Upper Planes en masse.
To an extent, yes. However, they're also manipulating things so that nobody-- fiend or celestial, gets an upper hand on chaotic evil or lawful evil-- the 'loths are there to make sure that chaos and law are in balance on the evil side.

Now don't get me wrong. I think there is a place for the scheming manipulator whose ultimate purpose can't be fathomed; and I think the yugoloths fit this role perfectly. I just think that this isn't an active enough role to justify them occupying three planes (I count Carceri since the gehreleth are often depicted as yugoloth-lite).
A 2E Dragon Magazine article also depicted such, but not because of the relation between the two-- rather, the Yugoloths had oppressed and occupied the Gehreleths and took all the good Carcerian land, and IIRC also enslaved many gehreleths and forced them to build some of the Yugoloth strongholds such as the Tower of Incarnate Pain.

I also see them as a bit like the Vogons from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, compassionless bureaucrats who fancy themselves as misunderstood artistes.
Sounds more like the Yugoloths, to me. I remember them being just that in Planes of Conflict (and that their reasons for torture were artistic and philosophical)

Would anyone object to expanding Carceri?

(It is the prision of the Astral plane; it should be big!)

Carceri literally means "prisions"; Carcere means "prision".

What if:

In Carceri, there existed Carcere Alpha through Carcere Omega.

In each Carcere, there exists the layers Othrys through Agathys.

Most of the Carcere are wetlands (swamps, marshes). At least one carcere is a desert; one is an ocean; one is a jungle; one is mountain ranges and one is a tundra.

What do you think?

It expands the geography and the opportunity for adventure.

Not everyone plays in that edition of the planes anymore.

Personally, I like some of the newer imagining.

Ironically, the quote when I posted this:

Every few years the Clueless change their view on how the planes fit together. Every few years we prove why we call them Clueless.

— A Greybeard reviewing the third edition of a Prime book on the planes

Another fantastic thread I hadn’t read.

Alright, so:
-Gehreleths are referred to as the summoning stock of the Lower Planes, although little is made of this elsewhere.
-Gehreleths arise spontaneously from the corpses on Carceri-- most often petitioners, presumably. Yugoloths don't, which is interesting, but that's another topic.
-All gehreleths are connected; when one dies, another is formed in its place. This bond seems to be empathic or psionic as much as anything. Farastu mostly use it for remembering grudges against the mortals that summon them.
-The farastu and kelubar gehreleths have the interesting ability of liquefying their bodies, and I daresay that bottling gehreleth mercenaries is something of a cottage industry for the shator, to say nothing of other fiends and villains of the Blood War.

Alright, speculation time. Farastu seep black tar, while kelubar are covered in ebon slime, and shator emit stinking clouds. And Carceri’s layers are full of toxic swamps, acid rainforests, stinging sand, black snow, etcetera.

What if it’s all simply different states of the same substance? What if that black, acidic ooze is the ‘life’ that Apomps created, and of which he was so obscenely proud? Distilled evil, permeating whatever it touched. Corrosive ooze, spreading throughout Carceri. And when that viscous black slime slithered and seeped into the first mortal corpses, it then-- perhaps unexpectedly-- it then sewed up the dismembered pieces, and glued them all together into a mockery of a body, seeping black tar from the gaps in its stolen flesh.

A farastu’s tar holds its body together, even as it pulls the weapons out of its enemies’ hands. The ooze reshapes the corpses that make up a farastu’s body, and when the time is right, it congeals into the shorter, more massive kelubar form. A kelubar’s body is more robust, having compacted its flesh into a more stable state; in this stage, the gehreleth’s body goes into reproductive overdrive, manufacturing sheeting fountains of black slime from its brawny body.

The flabby shator are covered in what seems to be shaggy hair. It’s actually mats of dried fluid, like scabs, shot through with dead veins, gray and brown, knotted and tangled and thick as a mammoth’s wool.

...

As mentioned above, Gehreleths can liquefy their bodies, and they’re routinely summoned to the mortal world, in spite of this rarely coming up in lore outside of their own article. So maybe they’re the fiends that most readily possess humanoids? As in The Exorcist-- I could see a gehreleth acting out like that. Or, at least in terms of their methodology, like the X-Files (http://x-files.wikia.com/wiki/Purity). You don’t see the gehreleths in their natural form very often, because they don’t really have one, not exactly. They're probably easily mistaken for undead, by the clueless.

But liquid fiends are convenient for mixing into potions, or binding into other creatures for use as servants and familiars. If you summon one with its body intact, you've probably made a mistake already.

…

So Apomps was imprisoned on Carceri, but maybe, like most other victims of ‘loth machinations-- baern or otherwise-- he doesn’t know why, not really. He thinks it’s because he dared to defy the rest of his kind. Most sages who know anything about Apomps, and that’s not very many, believe the same. It sounds plausible: the gehreleths were tainted by Chaos.

But wait. Eternal punishment? For insubordination? Imprisoned with his creations for all time, as their god?

The yugoloths and their creators are many things, but they’re not petty. They're not the Olympian Pantheon. The stakes they play for are much too high for that. They hate gods, they don’t object to killing their own, and what’s more, insubordination alone probably isn't discouraged if it serves their ultimate agenda, whatever that is. The fact that Apomps and the gehreleths still exist either means that the yugoloths can’t wipe them out, or that they don’t want to. It’s possible that the yugoloths consider the gehreleths beneath their notice… but when have the yugoloths ever chosen not to spy and manipulate anyone? Isn’t it more likely that they consider Apomps and his brood to be potentially useful?

Useful, or possibly dangerous. Carceri is *the* prison plane, after all, so perhaps more than simply punishing his arrogance, the baernoloths considered Apomps’ creation to be too dangerous to roam free. Maybe Apomps and the gehreleths don’t know it, maybe the nature of Carceri keeps them from knowing it, but maybe the baernoloths’ concern was that the gehreleths would propagate across the multiverse, the way they have on Carceri. Naturally, it’s not out of concern about the evil the gehreleths would wreak, but rather the fact that it wasn’t happening on the baernoloths’ ancient timetable.

Of course, nowadays the problem has gotten wildly out of control, and Carceri is more effectively controlled by the gehreleths than they probably even realize.

…

For my campaign, I’m thinking that demodands are a larger category of fiends, of which the gehreleths are only one breed-- possibly the original defining breed. Specifically, a demodand is any fiend that arises from the bodies of the dead on the Lower Planes, rather than forming from more rarified soulstuff. So manes and nupperibo-- in other words, Ancient Baatorians-- are also demodands, and left alone, fed sufficient power of belief, it’s possible that manes and gehreleths could potentially grow into much more powerful forms.

But manes rarely survive that long on the Abyss, and I suspect the gehreleths’ obsession with the number three is as much a check on their power (and a condition of their imprisonment) as anything. It’s only on Baator, oddly enough, that the Ancient Baatorians found the freedom to grow.

Unless they’re just that much better hidden on the other planes, which is certainly possible.