Mezzikim are not truly a race but rather the incorporeal spirits of lesser+baatezu who have offended Baatezu Nobles. Their punishment is banishment of their spirits to the Material+Plane on various missions and the torture of their physical bodies, which they feel even in their incorporeal state.
The only way they can lessen their suffering is by tormenting mortals, which they seek to do whenever possible. Although they cannot physically interact with anything and lose most of the abilities they had in Baator, they can attempt to possess mortals and act through them. Their usually invisible forms, when seen through magical means, appear as bestial devils with scales, claws, and wings.
A victim possessed by a mezzikim loses all control of his or her body to the fiend, who cannot use any of the victim's abilities but grants the host supernatural strength and can levitate and spit bile covered needles at will. The fiend can also cause a disease in the victim or kill its host outright if it so chooses.
One way to drive a mezzikim out is to deal its hit points worth of damage to the victim, although Holy Water and the Exorcism spell are preferred because they do not risk killing the host.
The mezzikim are controlled by a council of nobles whose names are Thyle, Cykes, Tyd, Nausyyd, Dyclex, and Hyrkovan. They are all incorporeal devils of great power. They are nominally commanded by Selm, the Prince of Possessors, but in truth they have usurped most of his power.
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