Mammon

Mammon

Greed is Good

Affiliations	The Ten Hells
Aliases	The Lord of Greed
Species	Archdevil

Mammon is the Lord of Greed and a powerful ruling Archdevil in The Ten Hells. His symbol is a devil's head with long curling horns paired with the symbol for wealth.

He is a NPC in the D&D 5e campaigns Within the Wicked Wilds and The Paragon protocol, and is the mastermind behind the Infernal Insurrection.

History

Early Days

During the creation of the angels in Prehistory by the Creator Gods, Mammon was created as a servant of the Archangel of Patience, Asmodeus alongside his fellow angel, Mephistopheles. While an angel in Mt. Celestia, mammon served the gods faithfully, though deep down, he had base wants. But this was prohibited by angels as why would they ever want something other then to serve their creators, and so Mammon kept his wants secret from his kin.

Mammon watched as Asmodeus proposed the concept of souls to the gods, and aided his archangel alongside Mephistopheles in slaying the goddess Othea and transforming the realm of Thalmyr into the Hells. Now a fallen angel and risen archdevil of this new realm, the shackles of Mt. Celestia were thrown off and these secret wants that had been brewing within Mammon for so long erupted into pure unchecked greed. Mammon did not just want wealth, he wanted everything. As the Hells expanded, Mammon claimed the realm of Minarous, the third layer of the Hells.

But as the Hells grew, his unending greed made other Devils wary of the golden archdevil, and so Mammon realized he had to take a different approach to achieve what he desired. As Mammon researched how to further his goals, he discovered an interesting pattern throughout Quelmar, of how small teams of well motivated and unique individuals could achieve almost anything. This includes teams of gods, mortals, or even angels. Mammon would dub this theory the Paragon Principle, and would prepare to test it to the extreme. Mammon would steal Asmodeus' blade from when Asmodeus was an archangel and forge it into a new weapon, the Vaulkner, a weapon forged of celestial steel with ten bullets. He would then secretly mastermind events to bring together a team of mortal adventurers with grudges against the Hells before dropping the Vaulkner in their laps and subtly directing them to use it against Asmodeus' wife, Azhazni. Azhazni had long been suspicious of Mammon's motives and was always the first to call out Mammon's schemes, making her the first obstacle in his way he needed to remove. And to even Mammon's surprise, the heroes were successful, slaying Azahzni and proving his theory about the Paragon Principle.

To further his exploration of the Paragon Principle, Mammon reached out to the archangel Gabriel, someone Mammon knew he could manipulate due to Gabriel's blinding xenophobia. Playing the part of a sniveling coward who desired only gold, Mammon offered to serve as Gabriel's spy in the Ten Hells in return for celestial gold. But it was not the gold Mammon was after, but rather in an into Mt. Celestia. He shared his theory of the Paragon Principle with Gabriel and together they developed the Paragon Protocol, an initiative where Mt. Celestia would select mortal adventurers to perform missions that the angels themselves could not achieve, or be seen doing. With access the the Paragon Protocol, Mammon now had a way outside of the purview of the Hells to further his schemes, and now simply waited for his opportunity to strike.

Schemes and Disapearance

For a majority of Quelmar history Mammon played the role one of Quelmar's weaker Archdevil lords, focusing more on gaining wealth rather then gaining power and status in the Hells. This kept attention off him and by pretending to be overtly greedy on the outside with a desire for short term profits, others were blind to his long term goals, with that goal being to claim the entirety of the Hells for himself. Mammon would spend the following centuries growing his vast wealth and setting events in motion for his future plans.

Around the emergence of Tiamat, Mammon would infect all dragons with an insatiable greed. Some say this was to hinder their deadly expansion, as dragons would become more fixated on gathering hoards then slaying mortals, but others believe Mammon did so for his own nefarious means.

At some point during the BR era, Mammon made a pact with the Frost Giants of the Frostfell Empire, who sought to harness the power of the Plane of Ice to conquer the Material Plane. Mammon helped the giants craft an artifact called the Ring of Winter's Wrath. But before the giants could use it, Mammon tricked the Frost Giants and sealed them away within the Plane of Ice.

In 691 PR, after the slaying of the Red Dragon Barroth the Unredeemable, on of the Ten Heralds of Tiamat, Mammon would capture the dragons soul and keep it in his infernal vaults.

During the period the Archdevil Glasya was missing during the late 840s PR, and while Asmodeus was focused on Hellmar, Mammon made a series of major economical moves, purchasing a number of properties across the Hells and endearing himself to other Archdevils by funding their personal projects. In addition he established a number of major shops and became the Hells largest importer and exporter of sold goods. During this time he established and promulgated the Mammonian Clause in hell's legal system, an optional addendum to hellish contracts where the signatory could buy out of their contract with a massive payment of gold, a majority of which went to Mammon. To incentivize the archdevils to require the inclusion of this clause among their subordinates, Mammon offered funding for several of their personal projects on the condition that the clause was automatically added to all of their future contracts with mortals. When Glasya returned to the Hells, Mammon moved back into the shadows and was forced into hiding, where he would seemingly vanish for many decades. Due to the structuring of his Infernal Empire, no one dared move to claim Minarous for themselves, as those that could were either too well funded, bribed, or intimidated to try to claim his empty throne. Many of his servants would continue his mission in expanding and defending their lord's wealth, while others would desperately search for their missing master.

During this time, Mammon took on numerous secret identities in the Material Plane, with his most famous being the masked merchant Bulio. After aiding the members of the Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company one last time in 895 PR, Mammon would leave hiding and return to the Hells.

Before his return, Mammon would steal the method to create echo copies of oneself from the human warrior Otto von Gerwig, and use it to create what he called, Vestiges, lesser copies of himself that he could use to manage his many operations.

The Infernal Insurrection

After returning from hiding, Mammon began to set the final wheels in motion for his grand takeover. By pretending to be the remnent of the slain goddess, othea the Shattered Mountain, Mammon began to manipulate the Cult of the Shattered Mountain to do his biding by sending visions to their leader, the storm giant Thrya Cloudbreaker. He convinced her to form a team of giants called the Ordained and gave her instructions on how to free Othea. After gathering the Ordained, Thrya, with the help of the Demon Lord Ratatrosk, would kill the ferryman Charon and destroy the River Styx, plunging the Hells into chaos. This chaos would catch the attention of the celestial heavens, prompting Gabriel to initiate the Paragon Protocol and send a team of mortal adventurers into the Hells. To add onto the chaos, Mammon would also release the Red Dragon Barroth from his vaults and provide funding to countless archdevils and warlords who planned to make a move in the chaos.

Mammon's true goal was to claim ownership of the Ruby Rod, and artifact that gave its wielder control of the Hells. But Mammon surmised, that if he say, purchased 51% of the land in the Hells, he could manipulate the contracts that bound the Hells and claim the Ruby Rod for himself. His reasoning for bringing the Ordained in the picture was to force Asmodeus, the rods current owner, into hiding, since anyone wielding the rods' power would be helpless against the Ordained's magic which was derived from the goddess Othea. But then his reasoning for encouraging Gabriel to initiate the Paragon Protocol, was so a team of adventurers could then clean up the mess caused by the Ordained and stop them before the giant cult could inflict any lasting damage. During this time Mammon would take advantage of the chaos to buy as much land as he could on the cheap.

During their travels through the Hells, Mammon would become close with the heroes sent by the archangel Gabriel, who were now calling themselves the Hellraisers, including Aivan Factorovich, Nyrgoth, Balaam, Aliria Servine, Sylphine Nightfall, and Endine di Valpadana. Mammon would interact with the party through his vestiges managing his Hell-wide megastore, Mammart where he sold them magical goods and supplies. He would even gift them tickets to the Garden of Pleasures after they aided him with an issue in his shop.

When the Hellraisers eventually arrived in Minarous, he let them stay in his golden palace while they recovered after escaping Dis. For their future journeys in the Hells, Mammon loaned the party his airship, the Golden Galleon, piloted by one of his many vestiges. Much later, after the Golden Galleon crashed after being attacked by the ordained, this vestige payed off the archdevil, Azu the Dog Prince, to allow the party passage through his tower into the 8th layer of the Hells, Cania. Though Mammon would not join the party, fearing that Mephistopheles would catch onto his schemes.

Though Mammon's schemes would begin to crumble after Glasya would discover his role in her mother's death after she claimed the Hill Rune from the Hill Giant Angrboda. Enraged, she would partner with the archdevil Dispater to invade Minarous and capture the Lord of Greed, with plans to torture Mammon for the rest of his days.

Servants 

• Baron Samuel Boarhide, an Archdevil servant of Mammon operating Infernal Gold mines on the first layer of Hell, Duumal.
  • After getting his hands on the Vaulkner in 894 PR with the help of mortal adventurers who stole it from a demon gunslinger, Samuel would return the weapon to his master.
• Kalzivach, a Pit Fiend servant of Mammon and Lord of the Seventh Infernal Bank. In 894 PR he entered into Eastern Amusa and began to make deals and perform rituals in order to circumvent The Pact Primeval and to find Mammon.
  • In 894 PR a number of Mammon's servants working under Kalzivach were discovered in the bowels of a draconic temple to Kavanmort. They were discovered performing a ritual that allowed them to circumvent the Pact Primeval by using willing humanoid hosts to become mortal, technically no longer being devils and allowing them to harm mortals. The only consequence of this ritual was that if the devil were to be slain, their spirit would be destroyed instead of returning to the Ten Hells.

X Add worldbuilding credits now!