Baalzebul (BAYL-ze-bul)

Triel was once renowned as one of the most beautiful denizens of Celestia, but was physically altered after his corruption. His new form was that of a 12 ft (3.7 m) tall humanoid with shimmering, sable skin and the jittering, compound eyes of a fly. Still angelically stunning even after his fall from grace, Asmodeus put a curse upon him as punishment for a later crime, forcing him into an even more demeaning form.

The former celestial's mutated form was that of a 25 ft (7.6 m) tall slug, a grotesque abomination infamously unpleasant even to other devils. The Lord of the Flies was constantly surrounded by swarms of the buzzing, scuttling creatures that earned him his title. His body glistened with mucus, and thanks to his curse, faecal matter and other rancid filth manifested in piles wherever he went, resulting in his notoriously noxious stench. His deformed arms rested at his front and were more comparable to prehensile tails in functionality. Replacing his handsome visage was a gross, human-like face with torpid lips, incapable of properly pronouncing words without a slimy, wet lisp.

However, even when reduced to such an unsightly state, faint glimpses of the Slug Archduke's previously glorious appearance could still be made out. He had recently managed to work off his punishment, partially freeing him from Asmodeus's curse and allowing him to return to his humanoid form.

Various spell-like abilities were at Baalzebul's command, such as the power to manipulate and create light and flames, create powerful undead, enchant and mentally command others, turn invisible and use various types of divination magic. His more powerful abilities let him create symbols of pain and insanity, speak unholy words and even use wish. He could choose to summon barbazus, erinyes, gelugons or pit fiends but particularly cornugons. Normally however, Baalzebul's spells were his fallback plan used when his other supernatural powers, proved unsuccessful at dealing with his enemies.

When in his slug form, Baalzebul's first tactic was normally to belch out gargantuan clouds of flesh-devouring flies, an ability he had to wait a few dozen seconds to reuse. Although the flies normally dispersed after being spewed, he could cause them to swarm and envelop his form if he so desired for about a minute, protecting him from harm as the flies didn't attack his grotesque mass. The flies could be blown away by a strong gust of wind, but even without them shielding him, Baalzebul's stench was so putrid that simply trying to get anywhere close to him was sickening. Despite being more sluggish than he once was, he was able to burrow underground and his adhesive slime-coated form was adept at scaling surfaces.

His arms were so feeble that he normally relied on his servitors to perform tasks like turning pages, opening doors and feeding him, but they served a purpose in combat besides wielding weapons. Blood, muscle and sinew quickly withered away with even the slightest touch from the Slug Archduke's atrophied limbs, although immortals like devils or demons were immune to the effect. Like an actual slug however, limbs and body parts removed from Baalzebul simply grew back, although his regeneration was supernaturally fast, allowing him to regrow body parts in a few minutes and reattach severed limbs. His regenerative powers were less effective when he was harmed with good-aligned spells and holy weapons.

Although many of his powers were a result of his slug form, Baalzebul possessed some before his metamorphosis, such as the ability to fly or shapechange. Another was his direct gaze, which combined the powers of a fear and ray of enfeeblement spell to leave his victims trembling in terror even after he stopped staring at them. His slug form shared his gaze, but couldn't use it properly when surrounded by flies.

After he was restored to his humanoid form, Baalzebul retained his ability to shapechange. He was capable of transforming into a giant fly or a swarm of fist-sized flies, similar to those he could previously spew.

Several magical artifacts of great power could be found within Baalzebul's domain but, presuming one could avoid his cornugon guardians, were practically impossible to find amidst the collapsed structures and random refuse. The Book of Vile Darkness once made its way into his personal library, and of the six full copies known to exist, at least one contained extra pages added by the Lord of the Flies.

Baalzebul was originally the archon known as Triel, and one of the most powerful and beautiful ones to be found in Celestia. Unfortunately, Triel's selfish acts in the name of achieving his perfection resulted in his corruption and exile from the Seven Heavens. After his fall, Asmodeus, perhaps out of some lingering sense of sympathy, favoured and quickly promoted Triel to the ranks of baatezu nobility.

His ruthless lust for power served him well in Hell, and before long Baalzebul, as he had begun to call himself, mastered diabolical politics. He not only displaced the ancient, original Lord of the Seventh but managed to expunge his identity and accomplishments from infernal history. He had become the only archdevil to rule two layers of the Nine Hells, although he ruled Malbolge through Moloch and even that was a continual struggle, created his own mosquito-like ayperobo devils from lemures, and at one point was second only to Asmodeus himself.

However, Baalzebul later attempted to take the Dark Lord's throne, although the manner with which he did so to get him punished was disputed. Some claimed that he was cast down for masterminding the Reckoning of Hell, but more recently it was thought that he altered documents to confuse the bureaucracy of Hell and make Asmodeus seem incompetent, a plan upended by the unpredictable Blood War before his actions were discovered. Maladomini was thought to have become a warzone between Baalzebul, who was attempting to hide his actions, and the other archdukes trying to expose his conspiracy, supposedly resulting in the ruined state of many of Maladomini's cities.

Whatever his crime, a series of bizarre penalties befell Baalzebul; a retroactive curse turning him into a slug for a year for each lie he had told to a devil, his inability to strike deals without disaster befalling his associate, having his castle turned to excrement and filled with filth and having his dominion of Malbolge stripped from him. He recently returned to his old form, as his vanity forbade him from further extending the duration of his punishment.

Even as a slug, Baalzebul still held great influence and managed massive feats of deception, such as supposedly creating the meazels by promising to save a kingdom from dying of an awful, hunger-inducing blight. Whether they knew of his identity was unclear but upon agreeing they found themselves rendered immune to the plague but still suffering from its torturous symptoms and only able to feed upon the flesh of sentient beings, although Baalzebul's creations had a tendency to ally with the cults of his enemies.