Balor

When folk whisper frightened tales of the demonic, what most envision is the balor-a towering figure of fire and flesh, a horned nightmare armed with a flaming whip and a sword flying through the night in search of its latest victim. On the Abyss, balors serve demon lords as generals or captains, and they typically command vast legions of demons. Standing at 14 feet in height, only the cruelest mortal souls-those who devoted entire lives to sins too numerous to count-can fuel the formation of a balor. More often, a balor forms from a mass of dozens of mortal souls who shared debased ideologies in life.

Balor Lords

Those rare few balors who form from single souls are the ones most likely to eventually transcend the notable power they already wield, becoming a nascent demon lord. These balor lords are each unique creatures of 21st to 25th level in power who rule their own realm in the Abyss. In time, a balor lord can further develop into a unique creature with wildly different powers, even ascending to the role of a true demon lord.

When a sinful mortal soul is judged and sent on to the Abyss, it can become a deadly fiend-a demon. Demons are living incarnations of sin-be they classic sins like wrath or gluttony, or more "specialized" depravities like an obsession with torture or the act of treason or treachery. Once formed, a demon's driving goals are twofold-the amassing of personal power, and the corruption of mortal souls to cause them to become tainted by sin. In this way demons ensure a never-ending supply of new demons to bolster their ever-growing ranks in the Abyss.