Dispater

Dispater

The Lord of Dis rules with an iron fist

Languages	Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Infernal
Affiliations	The Ten Hells
Aliases	The Lord of Irons, The Iron Duke, The King of Secrets
Date of Death	925 PR
Place of Death	The Iron City of Dis
Species	Archdevil
Gender	Male
Height	10 feet
Eye Color	Orange

Dispater is the Archduke of the Second Layer of the Ten Hells, Dis.

Physical Appearance

Dispater is a large armored devil wearing heavy cast iron armor. The armor has little in plaes or segments, rather it moves as if were made of liquid molten metal, shifting as Dispater moves. Since Dispater has never been seen without it, many believe this armor is actually his skin. He wears large pauldrons made of sharp spines and nails, and trailing behind him is a vast cape made of ash, smoke, and night itself. His helmet its crowned with fire and the symbol of his authority, his mask shaped to look like a growling devil and his eyes burning hotter then the forges of his many factories. At all time he carries his Iron Staff. The staff of shaped to resemble his iron tower and is crowned with one of the shard of the Ruby Rod, the very artifact that gives Dispater complete control over DIis.

Personality

Dispater is calm and calculating, yet at the same time utterly paranoid. Dispater never raises his voice because he never needs to. Every word he speaks is chosen, measured, and sharpened for effect. He values order above all else, not out of compassion but because structure gives him absolute oversight and only furthers tighten his grip over Dis. Secrets are his real currency, and he collects them the way other archdevils gather souls. He doesn’t gloat, doesn’t rage, and doesn’t threaten without purpose; his menace comes from the fact that he already knows how every conversation, bargain, and betrayal will end. Yet, after centuries of ruling and dealing in secrets, Dispater has seen countless archdevils fall to their own ambitions, leading him to wonder when it will be his turn to fall as well. He rarely ever leaves the Iron Tower, only ever leaving at Asmodeus' command, and instead controlling the city through his son Balgoor and his powerful armies.

History

Little is known about Dispater's life before they became a devil. Some believe he was a tyrannical king, while others claim he was a paladin of Asmodeus who slew hundreds in the name of the Hells. But whoever they may have been, when Dispater arrived in the Hells they were already on the fast track to becoming an archdevil. But this was from a time at the beginnings of recorded history when the Hells were still freshly made, so nothing is for certain.

Dispater quickly found a place at Asmodeus' side, serving as one of Asmodeus' advisors and enforcers. Early into his infernal career, Dispater found kinship with another rising devil, the Pit Fiend Bel who was making a name for themselves in the Blood War. Both shared a similar desire for order and absolute rule, and so throughout the centuries they found themselves to be staunch allies and trade partners, with Dispater selling Bel weapons and Bel selling Dispater souls and secrets.

As decades past, the Hells continued to grow. Starting with one layer, then two, then three, and more, with Asmodeus always ruling from the bottommost layer. When Asmodeus departed the second layer to go and rule the third, he left the layer under the command of Dispater who named the layer after himself. During his rule of Dis, Asmodeus had begun toe construction of a great city, a project Dispater would continue expanding for the rest of his days. In the center Dispater would construct a massive tower from which he would lord over his new kingdom.

Twice during Dispater's reign the devil engineer of the Blisterworks, Belphagor, would attempt to overthrow the Iron Lord. The first coup attempt ended with Belphagor being stripped of his power and his demotion from being a Pit Fiend. The second ended with Dispater cursing Belphagor so that Belphagor could never again make an infernal contract and that Belphagor was to be tortured in Ironfell Prison for a century. Dispater's advisors questioned why he didn't just kill Belphagor. Dispater reasoned that Belphagor was to valuable a resource to dispose of, but that if Belphagor ever crossed him again, Dispater wouldn't hesitate to destroy him.

At another point in time, Dispater managed to trick the noble genie Efreeti Dalia Emberval into giving him three wishes. But after making the first two, Dispater refused to make the third and in doing so trapped Dalia Embervale in Dis. To prevent himself from accidentally using the wish, Dispater turned it into a red gem, and placed in in the care of the warden of Ironfell Prison, Zuul.

Attack of the Demogorgon (600s PR)

In the 600s PR the Demogorgon and a contingent of his demonic armies were able to breach through Duumal and attack the iron city of Dis. it took three days of constant battle until Dispater and the devils of Dis were able to defeat the Demogorgon and banish the demons back into the Abyss.

But for allowing this attack to occur, Asmodeus punished and humiliated Dispater. For the next 500 years, Dispater would always have to be preceded by an Imp named Boil, nicknamed the "Lord of Irons" given his ability to emit steam from his hands.

The Infernal Insurrection (925 PR)

When the River Styx dried up, Dispater foresaw the chaos that would soon descend upon the Hells on two fronts. First, without the Blood War to preoccupy their time, a lot of powerful devils were now unburned and free to scheme and betray to their heart's desires. Secondly, with the River Styx gone, no new souls would enter the Hells, which mean that there would be no new devils to replace those that would perish in the coming tumultuous times.

His first action was to send his son Balgoor to dissolve the Infernal Office of Abyssal Observance, seeing its presence now as a waste of resources. Those working there were either executed or permanently relocated to become fixtures of Dispater's archives. The infernal cleric Nyrgoth was one of these officers of observance, who managed to escape the clutches of Balgoor.

To shore up his position in the Hells, Dispater began selling his stockpile of infernal weapons to different fiendish warlords in order to gain their trust and form alliances. Most notably, he sold weapons to Bel in Duumal who was using them in an attempt to claim the realm as his own. In return, Bel would trade Dispater souls and unique magic items. Their last major trade would be of theLast Demon Ratatrosk, whom Bel had discovered and captured in the deserts of Duumal. In return for the demon, Dispater sold Bel the Soulnaught, a massive war machine that bel would use to conquer all of Duumal. After purchasing the last demon, Dispater would have them locked away in Ironfell Prison to be tortured for information.

At the same time, Dispater was formulating a plan to replenish his infernal armies with new souls and devils. After the Second Infernal Emergence and the formation of the New Pact Primeval, corporeal devils were prohibited from harming any creatures other then other fiends. Since then Dispater had tasked his infernal inventor, Belphagor, with finding a way around this clause of the pact.

Belphagor's solution was to transform devils into constructs. His first creations of this kind were the Iron Maidens, imposing figures that looked like skinned humanoids embedded with sharp nails and iron metal. Their chests were able to open up to shoot out chains and drag in mortals and devils alike so their spirits could be captured. After many successful tests these infernal half devil half construct monstrosities were made the official police force of Dis. But Dispater was not entirely satisfied and ordered Belphagor to find a way to create stronger constructs that were more easy to mass produce.

Eventually, with funds donated by the archduke of Minarous, Mammon, Belphagor created the Iron Devils, infernal constructs made entirely of iron. These constructs were able to reap mortal souls, transforming mortals into devils in service to Dispater and then turn these devils into new Iron Devils, creating a self replenishing army. With these results, Dispater immediately ordered these constructs into mass production.

To ensure the support of the archdevils in Dis, Dispater hosted a massive gala at the Iron Tower called the Veil of Chains where he would unveil his new Iron Devils. The gala would be interrupted though by the arrival of the infernal dragon Barroth the Unredeemable, who had come to Dis in disguise. Barroth sought to make an alliance with Dispater in order to aid in his was against the archdevil Philani on the sixth layer of the Hells, Malbolge. To these ends, Barroth privately shared information about a coming assassination attempt on Dispater by a group of Giant's known as the Ordained. With this information Dispater was able to fend off the assassination attempt and agreed to sell Barroth as many war machines and Iron Devils that the dragon needed.

But soon after the Veil of Chains, Dispater learned about a prisonbreak at Ironfell Prison perpetrated by the Hellraisers, an adventuring party who managed to kill Zuul, steal the last wish, and rescue Ratatrosk. Enraged at this turn of events and made even more paranoid after the failed assassination attempt, Dispater decided to push up his time tables and initiated a full invasion of the Material Plane with his Iron Devils. At the same time, he placed the city of Dis on lockdown, preventing anyone from entering or leaving the city.

Dispater's Iron Devils flooded into the Material Plane and began to massacre and convert any mortals they came across into new Iron Devils. His forces would be met head on by the angels of Mt. Celestia who declared war against Dis. The battle would quickly spread across the inner planes and even spill into the Hells and outside the gates of Mt. Celestia. After some time a legion of angels would begin to lay siege outside the walls of Dis and would routinely ambush and attack foundries in Dis, seeking to end the production of new Iron Devils.

Soon after, Dispater would be approached by the archduchess Glasya, who shared with Dispater Mammon's betrayal of the Hells and how Mammon was serving as an informant for Mt. Celestia. Enraged at this revelation, Dispater joined Glasya in an invasion of Minarous and helped her subjugate and capture Mammon.

After returning to Dis, Dispater would once again be betrayed by Belphagor who sought to overthrow the Iron Duke once and for all. Belphagor had secretly created a substance known as Belphicite, a metal Dispater would not control, and created a hidden legion of Iron Devils made of this metal. He had also created large mechanized constructs known as Blister Hulks which were piloted by the heroic adventuring party, the Hellraisers. The Helraisers with their new army and Blister Hulks attack the Iron Tower, seeminly destroying it an Dispater.

But Dispater would not be defeated so easily, calling together the metal of the tower and the surrounding city to craft himself a collosal body of iron and scrap in order to destroy the Hellraisers. But even this was not enough. After his son Balgoor was slain, Dispater would fall as well, the metal of his massive iron body being torn away before his true body was then destroyed by the druid Endine di Valpadana, ending Dispater's centuries long reign.

Relationships

Asmodeus

Dispater is forever loyal to the Lord of the Hells. Even after his humiliating punishment as Asmodeus' hands after the attack of the Demogorgon, Dispater never wavered in his devotion.

Bel

While Dispater cannot be said to have any friends, Bel is the closest Devil you can approximate to being a friend of Dispater's. Both share the same vision of the Hells and have a mutual respect rarely seen among devils.

Balgoor

Balgoor is Dispater's son and serves as his father's enforcer, commanding the armies of Dis. While in public settings, Balgoor is always by his father's side serving as Dispater's bodyguard.

Powers and Abilities

Through his connection to his staff and his shard of the Ruby Rod, Dispater possesses the ability to have complete and total control over all types of iron, with there seeming to be nearly no limit on how far this control expands. And since Dis is made up nearly entirely of metal, this gives Dispater complete control of the city's streets, buildings, and inhabitants. He can sometimes extend this control to other metals for a short time to alter their shape and temperature. Using the staff, Dispater can also transform both living and nonliving matter into iron.

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