It is no secret that most mortals are made up of three disparate parts: the Mind, the Body, and the Soul. The Body is simply the physical form of the being, and everything which is derived from that. The Mind is the conscious and controlled thoughts of the entity. Its knowledge, cognitive reasoning, and memories all make up the Mind of a being. The Soul is truly where the personality and uniqueness of a being lies. The core beliefs and ideals of a person lies in their Soul. Souls are unique identifiers between people, which is why some mortals can recognize their reincarnated friends in different bodies. This is why Devils do not have souls.
The main purpose of transforming larva or promising LE souls into lemures is to make them completely and utterly nondescript. Each gooey blob of flesh appears the same as the other, and they are stripped of any ability to express their individuality. If the transformation into the lowest form in Hell isn't enough to strip the dead of its soul, then the constant abuse will. Every lemure in the history of Hell has been obliterated at least five times. Because these fleshy punching bags regenerate, Devils love to cure any anger, frustration, or boredom they may have by obliterating lemures. This constant destruction and reformation is incredibly taxing on any fragment of individuality left in the being, and it doesn't take long till the soul is completely destroyed.
Though they are missing a Soul, Devils are still made up of three parts. Anything less would not only make them unbalanced, but, even worse, violate their precious Rule of Three. For this reason, Devils created the metaphysical concept of the Mouth.
At the heart of Devils are three things, all of which are represented by the Mouth: ambition, lies, and taste. Ambition is what the Devil hungers for, what it desires to devour wholeheartedly, shoving into its gullet with reckless abandon. Lies are what come out of the mouth. A Devil never gives anything away for free that is true, and how it uses its words to twist, pervert, and misinterpret reality are what make a Devil itself. Taste is what brings a smile to a Devil's lips. Each Devil has something that brings them joy in an otherwise monotonous world, whether that be fine wine, murdering children, decapitation, or a nice meal. All of these together make up a Devil's Mouth.
The first form that Devils take upon being promoted out of its horrible existence as a lemure is a spinigon, or spined devil. At this point, the entity has no real Mouth to speak of, and is indistinguishable from other similar Devils. Because of this, the spined devil's job is to be a messenger, where they can learn of more powerful Devil's mouths and emulate them to slowly gain one of their own. Slowly through promotion, each Devil develops there own ambitions, lies, and tastes. By the time a Devil has become a Pit Fiend, it has a unique Mouth, different from each other Devil.
Unique Devils are beings who have completed mastery of their Body, Mind, and Mouth, knowing exactly who they are and what they want, along with what their weaknesses are. Because of this, unique Devils can take an action with their Body, Mind, and Mouth each combat round, with each part rolling initiative individually. The Body will do all things physical for the Devil. Moving, dodging, and attacking (even bite attacks) are the general plan. The Mind is what is in charge of almost all spells and spell like abilities the Devil commands, along with psionic abilities if you play with those. It is also responsible for enacting master plans thought up by the Devil and reacting to anything its opponents do. The Mouth is responsible for interpersonal communication, using the Devil's suggestion and reality warping abilities, and any signature or special moves the Devil has up their sleeves.
Each part of the Devil must also be defeated in order to completely finish off a unique Devil. Even without a functioning Body, an Arch-Devil's Mind and Mouth are formidable enough to finish off most foes.
The Body can be defeated in classic hack and slash fashion, poisoned, or even just bound. It should be noted that just as the body is the most obviously wounded, it is also the most commonly repaired by the actions of the other two. Many a fight have been turned when a Duke of Hell healed themselves when put in a sticky situation.
The Mind is vulnerable to distractions and impairment, along with psionic attack. Foiling a Devil's master plan can usually buy you a minute while they figure out what they want to do next. In addition, keeping the mind occupied on trivial tasks or impaired through magic will buy you a minute free from the minds advances.
The Mouth of a Devil is the most tricky part to defeat. The best way to do it is usually to besmirch the fiends honor or wound it's ego. Spitting in the eye of a Devil will be sure to put you on its list of most hated enemies, but it will also buy you a few seconds of peace as it tries to regain it's composure.
An example of play:
Mortalius the Meathead is a Duke of Hell who is currently being attacked by the Knights of Night, a LG adventuring party. Gary the Fighter runs up to the Devil and swings at him with his flail, only to miss. Mortalius's Mouth takes its action to scoff at the Gary's puny attack. If Gary fails a save his confidence will be broken, giving him a -2 on most actions for the rest of the battle. Mortalius now sees Barnaby the Mage standing under a stalactite and decides to use his Mind to throw one of his many iron hammers at the cave roof. Barnaby is only saved from being impaled by his Stoneskin spell. Finally, Mortalius uses his Body to throw another hammer at Bhaltair the Paladin.
The Knights decide they need so use better tactics to take on the Dread Duke. First, Barnaby yells out the secret combination to Mortalius's Bizzar Briefcase. Confused how the mortals could have figured out such a secret, Mortalius must make a save or loose his Mind's action this round. Realizing that hurting the creatures body will be all but impossible, Gary instead attacks the Devil's Mouth, using his dagger to cut Mortalius's belt. Mortalius lets out an angry below his Mouth spend their next two rounds trying desperately to keep his Diabolical Privates unexposed. Bhaltair now takes his oppertunity to slice the Devil with his Holy Sword, damaging the Meathead's Body. The Knights of Night may yet have a chance.
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