@Palomides- No worries. These threads are all about brainstorming, and every DM's going to pick and choose what works with their vision of the planes. I'm sure everyone has their own ideas of what the Ancient Baatorians are, and I'm just as sure that not everyone will want them to be ascended gehreleths. Which is fine.
But yes, I was implying that gehreleths are the most basic form of post-yugoloths life on the Lower Planes. I wouldn't go so far as to say that all other fiends are composed of the same slime, but of course you're free to do so. Instead, I'd say that this is why it's so important to round up nupperibo and manes, and reshape them into lemures and dretches-- creatures composed in part of the soulstuff of the damned, rather than hosts for raw evil, with no loyalty to Asmodeus. There's a deep, dark conspiracy in place to keep the demodands, the true natives of all the Lower Planes, from coming to power. High-up fiends are probably the only ones aware of it. The yugoloths are probably behind it.
Keeping the pitiful nupperibos down is actually the toughest task, because the lower ranks of baatezu won't make a move without being orderered, and no one wants to tell them how important the issue really is. Hence the nupperibo trade, as a convenient means for the yugoloths to see the creatures tagged and tracked.
In the Abyss, the problem mostly takes care of itself. Based on the sheer hostility of the plane and its fauna, wandering hungry fiends, and the dozens of demon princes and the old obyriths, a mane isn't likely to survive for the thousands of years it would need to ascend unaided. As for Hades, you've got the hags and their mysterious process for creating larvae, as well as the lurking yugoloths, who've Taken Steps to attend to the problem.
...
'Loths don't aspire to godhood, while Apomps very clearly did. I treat this as the reason for his exile. The yugoloths don't believe in anything, because doing so creates gods, who are always going to be a potential threat. The gehreleths believe in Apomps, making them utterly contemptible. If Apomps controls the gehreleths, and the gehreleths can potentially possess other living things, then there might be mortals who can't be manipulated by the yugoloths, and that can't happen.
@Palomides- No worries. These threads are all about brainstorming, and every DM's going to pick and choose what works with their vision of the planes. I'm sure everyone has their own ideas of what the Ancient Baatorians are, and I'm just as sure that not everyone will want them to be ascended gehreleths. Which is fine.
But yes, I was implying that gehreleths are the most basic form of post-yugoloths life on the Lower Planes. I wouldn't go so far as to say that all other fiends are composed of the same slime, but of course you're free to do so. Instead, I'd say that this is why it's so important to round up nupperibo and manes, and reshape them into lemures and dretches-- creatures composed in part of the soulstuff of the damned, rather than hosts for raw evil, with no loyalty to Asmodeus. There's a deep, dark conspiracy in place to keep the demodands, the true natives of all the Lower Planes, from coming to power. High-up fiends are probably the only ones aware of it. The yugoloths are probably behind it.
Keeping the pitiful nupperibos down is actually the toughest task, because the lower ranks of baatezu won't make a move without being orderered, and no one wants to tell them how important the issue really is. Hence the nupperibo trade, as a convenient means for the yugoloths to see the creatures tagged and tracked.
In the Abyss, the problem mostly takes care of itself. Based on the sheer hostility of the plane and its fauna, wandering hungry fiends, and the dozens of demon princes and the old obyriths, a mane isn't likely to survive for the thousands of years it would need to ascend unaided. As for Hades, you've got the hags and their mysterious process for creating larvae, as well as the lurking yugoloths, who've Taken Steps to attend to the problem.
...
'Loths don't aspire to godhood, while Apomps very clearly did. I treat this as the reason for his exile. The yugoloths don't believe in anything, because doing so creates gods, who are always going to be a potential threat. The gehreleths believe in Apomps, making them utterly contemptible. If Apomps controls the gehreleths, and the gehreleths can potentially possess other living things, then there might be mortals who can't be manipulated by the yugoloths, and that can't happen.