One of the more unusual devils of the Nine Hells are the Erinyes, also known as the Eumenides or the Furies; they have always maintained a lot of independence from the strict hierarchy of the hells because they are the spirits that are sent to the prime material plane to collect those who have condemned themselves to an eternity of punishment, primarily by making false oaths. Swearing an Oath is a kind of magic in Dungeons and Dragons; it holds real power, so when someone talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk, there are infernal consequences, thanks to the great pact between celestial and infernal forces, that only those who broke their promises to the gods would be consigned to the nine hells. When you break such an oath, and it involves any kind of battle situation, the Erinyes, the Furies of Hell, the infernal opposite of an Asgardian Valkery, will arrive swiftly to collect your damned soul.
Furies do not bargain, they don't play silly games with mortals, and they are brutal, efficient, and extremely well-experienced as infernal beings; as long as they are not destroyed in battle within the Nine Hells, they can usually return to active duty after some recovery time, variable depending on the exact nature of their defeat outside of the Hells. Devils reform eventually and usually have recovery boosts in place or can get themselves mired down in obligations if they are forced to beg or bargain for those boosts to restore them to their former power. Erinyes who get stuck in the Nine Hells have plenty to keep them occupied for centuries if need be. If you think of each of the Nine Hells as a different hostile environment for training purposes, there is that the Erinyes also engage in contests of strategy with Ice Devils, jungle warfare with monstrous plants and animals attacking them constantly; they also lead excavation and capture teams deep into the mysterious ice fields of Cania and many of the isolated citadels there are owned by the Erinyes, stocked with their own private army of specialists and laboratories, forges and stockpiles of powerful arms and armor.
There is a good reason for this isolation and fortification, and here we need to go into the history of the Erinyes and the Brachinas. The origin of the first devils is shrouded in confusion, it makes good tactical sense in a multiverse where time travel is possible through magic, you don't want your infernal enemies in the Blood War getting accurate coordinates to important formative events in your history. We know that at some point, the forces of Law that were fighting against the forces of chaos became corrupted and became native to the lower planes, not the celestial ones, there were a particular breed of Celestials who became the first Erinyes, and from the ranks of those, successive generations of new Erinyes have been born, and also the deliberately altered Brachinas are elevated from the population of Erinyes. Pit fiends and archdevils use the extremely seductive and attractive brachinas as playthings, discarding them as quickly as they select them. Thus, these seducers are quick to take any assignment they can to avoid the brutal attentions of their masters and remain in the prime material plane until they have attained whatever number of souls they are after. Brachinas can be male or female, they have amber hair and violet eyes, they are extremely sexy and known as Pleasure devils for a very good reason. They specialize in corrupting the servants of the gods, the virtuous and the self rightious but weak willed, they delight in orchestrating their doom, unlike the Erinyes, who just think all mortals are weak-willed beings easily driven to evil with a simple promise of physical gratification. But, the Erinyes are not seducers, they are assassins, and its easy to see how this can be confusing, so lets take a look at their origin in Greek mythology, they are quite different to how they are presented in Dungeons and Dragons games.
That whole thing where the elves believe their spirits were spawned from the spilled blood of their god Corellon, that is actually from the mythology of the Furies, the Erinyes were sister goddess figures similar in some ways to the cursed Gorgon sisters, ironically, the gorgons, including Medusa were supposed to have wings, while the Erinyes did not, well, the reverse is true in dungeons & dragons, along with some important behavior and appearance aspects which make the original Furies more like Harpies than fallen angels. So, D&D furies are very sexy, original recipe Furies are hideous hell hags who scream horribly as they rip you open with brass claws.
So, lets just ignore real world history, its not really applicable.
A few important, defining aspects of the Erinyes is that they are the most similar to mortals in the Nine Hells, they can be any particular gender they wish, but unlike other devils, who can only sire children, the Erinyes can also carry and birth them as a mother, they seclude away their offspring and oversee their development closely, not allowing any outside interference, so their culture remains strong. Erinyes are not succubi, you can tell them apart instantly by their wings, the Erinyes have dark feathers, the Succubi have the classic fiendish bat-like skin membrane wings, there are far fewer Erinyes and Brachinas than there are Succubi, but they outrank them in the infernals ranks of the hells and their commands carry the authority of Asmodeus, thanks to his ascension to even greater levels of power.
Unlike most other devils, the Furies can enter the mortal worlds whenever they choose to, however they can't take anyone else with them so they are used to operating alone. They will use magic to disguise their celestial wings and locate some goons they can easily control, not always through magic, gems and coins also work just fine, but so does their reputation for being master martial artists and they can get quite a lethal cadre of followers just be teaching them a few of the combat techniques they know.
Oh, I should say, Erinyes can't transport people out of hell, nor can they take inorganic material back and forth, but they can take one being with them back to the Nine hells, a victim they are dragging back for eternal damnation.
I'll quote directly from the forgotten realms wiki article on them in regards to their society within the Hells, as its quite complex.
Favored by Dispater for their beauty, skills, and unshakable allegiance, Erinyes were common within Dis. Stygia also possessed a large population of erinyes, with a whole regiment being responsible for protecting Levistus's frozen tomb from aerial intrusion. They could be found in great numbers within the political labyrinth of Maladomini, and within Grenopli specifically, they acted as patrollers to dispel or counter offensive magic and all other attempts at violence. Along with Paeliryons, the seductive Erinyes enjoyed a noble position and noticeable favoritism within Glasya's court, which often provided them targets. Hunters were known to stalk the skies of Malbolge for intruders without letters of safe passage, often capturing charismatic enemies for Glasya to torture or seduce at her leisure.
Even Erinyes, who did not work under archdevils, often directly reported to the Dark Eight instead of having an intermediary master. While some served as servants or were simply concubines, others had vastly superior tasks, such as spying on enemies and allies. Many Erinyes were responsible for bringing justice to Hell, although the method with which they did so varied greatly. Donning horned helms and stylized armor, Erinyes warriors brought death to those who defied their infernal masters or the orders of Asmodeus himself. As arbiters of justice, they acted on behalf of Hell and were responsible for tracking down those who broke infernal contracts. Others acted on the other side of the law, helping to free mortal souls by acting as legal counsel for those who did not receive what they were promised or were forced into making their own deals. The role that earned Erinyes the most respect among their devilish peers, however, was that of the temptress, the succubi rank below the Erinyes and the Brachinas are on a whole other level beyond either of the others.
The Archdevil Mephistopheles employs Gelugon ice devils and Erinyes operatives to patrol Cania in search of spies from the Iron City of Dis, along with escaped prisoners, slaves, experiments, and all of the above. The Gelugons and Pit Fiends who command squads of Cornugons; the Horned Devils, greater devils who can gate in a variety of other devils, from a small mob of Lemures, a group of Barbazus or Bearded Devils, the elite front line skirmishers of the Nine Hells, or a gang of Abishai or Scaly Devils, the draconic devils who are kind of the gutter scum of Hells armies and of course, a Horned Devil can also summon a few other Horned devils, so, its rare that the Ice devils or Pit fiends have to lift a finger in their own defense, the Horned devils are loyal and highly capable bodyguards for the Elite Baatezu devils.
So, why is Cania so interesting, aside from being a Frozen layer of the Nine Hells and home to the arch-devil Mephistopheles? Well, it's what is frozen inside all that ice that is the reason all the excavation and experimentation is going on. To understand what is going on with that, is to understand why the Erinyes are so involved with Cania.
There are hints in the various editions of the Manual of Planes, Planes of Law, Guide to Hell, and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes; these sources tell us the environment of Cania is brutally cold, devils other than the Gelugons don't enjoy going there, a cold gust of wind in Cania is around −60 ℉ (−51 ℃), which will kill unprotected creatures quite quickly. Storms in Cania are a great blend of freezing blizzards plus unstable ground and hidden crevasses; the very frequent avalanches are also deadly, and it wouldn't be the Nine Hells without packs of snarling lemures and mute, bloated nupperibos and worse, tucked into every crack and shelter the provides even a little protection from the freezing cold.
The entire plane seems to consist of huge mountains with highly mobile glaciers and ice sheets that travel at a brisk walking pace across the plane constantly; there are currents and flows that can be mapped unless you are anywhere near the home of Mephistopheles, named the Citadel of Mephistar, as he has control over the great glacier Nargus and his great base rests within and can travel around the plane, disrupting other ice flows in catastrophic and spectacular tumbles and explosions of ice, creating a highly chaotic and deadly landscape.
There are countless preserved corpses within the ice, but entire alien cities (such as one called Kintyre) have also been discovered. Regions where huge creatures can be seen deep in the ice or great armies of archons or devas fighting desperately against some spined creatures nobody can identify are also present. The Deep Ice of Cania tells tales of pasts that no longer exist as the multiverse has twisted and transformed over and over again in the ancient wars for control of reality itself.
My theory is that these armies and creatures date back to a time when there were far fewer different zones of existence. Creatures such as the Draeden, living demiplanes, were still able to move around in the most disrupted and chaotic areas. However, it's a task even imagining a reality in which a Draeden would feel right at home. I don't even want to think about it.
The Erinyes know a lot more about these ancient artifacts, creatures, celestial corpses, and alien cities than anyone else suspects; they occupy thousands of secret laboratory and library citadels all across Cania, in the deepest depths of the frozen wastes, in the deep chasms cut deep into the heart of massive mountains resonating with the dull grind of ice over stone, the warehouses, prisons and armories of the secret agents of Cania are loaded with potent weapons of personal and mass destruction. Nightmare creatures that have a habit of disrupting reality and causing madness in creatures that get too close to them, alien technologies that can twist matter into fractal shapes, drain or transfer life force, celestial warheads, interdimensional parasites, phase crystals, and potent engines that create inverted freezing plasma beams.
It's important to remind ourselves that the Ice Devils, the strange, insectoid-looking Gelugons, are notoriously cold-hearted and brutal taskmasters; they can't tolerate any weakness and will simply execute weaker fiends around them when they have served their purpose or just to vent their anger. They are big, standing twelve feet tall, their hands, feet and their long tail are covered in spikes and they are very skilled at using powerful infernal arms and armor. They deal with the Erinyes all the time, so there is a harsh relationship between them where the Gelugons will randomly scheme and pitch some brilliant and nasty sneak attack on an Erinyes citadel, just to keep the Furies on their toes. Neither Gelugons or the Furies devote much of their time and attention to collecting, trading or making use of souls, they have much more interesting things to mess with that they are constantly digging out of the ice.
Now, there are other fiends that dwell in Cania, which are part of this strange, independent sub Hell going on. While in the Second of the Nine Hells you will find the Chain Devils, known as the Kytons, in Cania there are the Excruciarch devils, who are great, beefy, brutal butchers clad in thick leather aprons, mask, cruel tools of torture and great clevers for hacking apart meat and enemies. Excruciarch fiends are also known as Pain devils and they sell their services as torturers. Under their creepy leather attire, they have pale skin, red eyes, no hair, and they are only about six feet tall; they are just very broad and seem taller thanks to boots, spiked shoulder plates, and usually some large, intimidating hat. These devils love to torture helpless victims and are known to lure victims by appearing much weaker and helpless than they really are, overpowering a defeated foe and destroying any sense of hope. Standing near a Pain devil will cause small cuts to appear over your body, and any touch from a weapon they carry delivers unimaginable pain of a magical nature; they typically operate in pairs and use large scourges in battle. Where there are Pain devils, you will also find the horrific Kocrachons, insectoid but much more like bizarre beetles, while Ice devils look more like some sort of lizard mantis, the Kocrachons are 5-foot tall, dark blue-purple bugs with wings that emerge from flaps in the exoskeleton, six thin, long limbs, two legs and four arms ending with pincer claws, aside from using instruments of torture, these weak but sadistic bugs can inject a disease loaded goo into victims which will slowly kill them over weeks, they can also heal victims the same way, tormenting them constantly. Strikes from Kocrachons are particularly debilitating because the creatures spend all their time taking victims apart and and sometimes putting them back together again, weather they like it or not.
Because the Kocrachons are so resistant to cold, they tend to find a home in Cania and are common enough in the many citadels of the Erinyes that they often kick them out of the way or basically treat them as no better than furniture or unwanted pests. Erinyes most often use the bugs for their excellent ability to get information, its what they do after all, torture victims and extract secrets from them. Oh, fun fact, the devils who become the Kocrachons do so very deliberately, by enrolling in the School of Pain, located underneath the Knoll of Blades in the layer of Dis, a school founded by the pit fiend named Pearza, a member of the dreaded Dark Eight, so, while lesser devils, the Kocrachons do have a bit of a reputation for being very nasty and their slow torture being particularly good for breaking a victim's mind.
Seeing an Erinyes in combat is like watching some evil counter-universe version of Wonder Woman, armed with an enchanted rope of entanglement, epic magical sword and bow, clad in custom armor that doesn't sacrifice style for practicality, her weapon strikes are coated in caustic venom and she coordinates very quickly with her allies while laying down spells and weapon attacks from a distance, only closing into melee range when it is time to finish the fight.
Erinyes earn promotion through reputation for being extremely cunning and creative, because to rank up from their position means significant escalation in their command of the armies of the Nine Hells, its even possible for an Erinyes to go directly up to the rank of Pit Fiend, though of course they have to endure the same 1001 days spent in The Pit of Flame that the Gelugons do in order to qualify for the position.
So lets have a look at their basic stats in 5th edition D&D, they are a challenge rating 12 threat, armor class 18, 153 hit points, all attributes well above humans of course, all the physical combat side of them is fine, +8 to hit with a longsword coated in poison, +7 to hit with a longbow and poisoned arrow, nothing special about the poison at all. Says they have magic resistance but I don't see one mention of their ability to charm or enthrall anyone, nor cast any spells, nor gate in other devils, and minor oversight, while Erinyes do have telepathy, they never use it to seduce their victims. OK, so, clearly, they have all the seductive powers of the Succubus, automatically, and give them a spell list similar to a bard with some decent illusion and mind control magic, plus they are very capable of using teleportation magic, as its often part of their operational duties and a natural choice for the devil that has the power to just move freely between the infernal and mortal realms.
Plus, every single one of their weapons and their armor, plus a bunch of assorted wondrous devices should all be Magical as HELL.
And that is about all I have to say for the moment about the Erinyes, but I probably will be back to Cania later, it is the last stop before reaching Nessus and the Home of Asmodeus after all. In the meantime, my name is AJ Pickett, as always, thanks for listening, liking and subscribing and I will be back with more for you, very soon.
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