Demodands (Gehreleths)
Made with Hero Forge
(from Fiend Folio - 2003 - [credits])
The prison plane of Carceri is home to many sorts of creatures. Its petitioners plot endlessly to find an escape from their hellish existence, but watchful eyes see to it that such plots never succeed. The demodands are the self-appointed keepers of the Carcerian population. They are the jailers and wardens, although they themselves are mostly prisoners of the plane as surely as the petitioners they try to watch.
Of course, the number of petitioners on Carceri makes the demodands’ task an impossible one, but this doesn’t trouble them. After their exile from some other plane many millennia ago, for a reason long forgotten (although the kelubars and shators both agree it was the fault of the farastus), the demodands were exiled to the Tarterian Depths of Carceri to serve a penance. Once there, they took it upon themselves to set up an order, of sorts. Other subraces of demodands live on Carceri, and perhaps on other planes as well, but the farastus, kelubars, and shators are the most common.
The demodands don’t restrict their activities exclusively to Carceri. They are sometimes encountered on other planes acting as bounty hunters in pursuit of those who have escaped the Tarterian Depths. Such demodands still know their fate is to return to Carceri.
(from Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I - 1994 - [credits])
Few societies on the Lower Planes are stranger than that of the gehreleths [a.k.a. demodands]. These enigmatic fiends fight without mercy against intruders, but have never been known to attack one another. Explanations for this puzzle range from instinct to intra-species empathy; no explanation yet advanced answers all the facts.
The gehreleths are the “summoning stock” of the Lower Planes. A wizard or priest who summons a lower-planar creature often gets a gehreleth — unfortunately. Gehreleths are dangerous to summoners because they avenge deeds they are forced to perform, often plotting revenge for many years. They never forget. Gehreleths, particularly the farastu, may even disobey a summoner, regardless of the importance of the mission. They are stubborn and hate servitude.
Despite their chaotic nature, the gehreleths pragmatically observe a class system based on raw power. The farastu are the lower class and sometimes servants. Kelubar form the middle class, shators the upper class and commanders.
Gehreleths are spawned from the decaying bodies of beings that have traveled to the Lower Planes and died there. Some unidentified evil power gives them life and motivates them to destroy. They produce nothing of value and serve no purpose to anything around them.
Freshly transformed cadavers always become farastu. If a greater gehreleth is destroyed, an existing lesser rises in status and take its place; the lesser farastu ranks are replenished from new corpses.
Normally there are 3,333 of each variety of gehreleth. When the Blood War on the Lower Planes rages its strongest, the gehreleths increase their numbers to twice normal. Because they never take part in the war and are independent of the baatezu and tanar’ri, presumably this population increase protects them from both sides.
Among the forbidden books in the library of Everhaite is a text on gehreleth society, The Three Bodies of Evil by Carlvian Everhaite, an otherwise anonymous drow wizard. Fragments of the text are known to men, notably a poetic redaction entitled Calls of ye Lower Planes by Nephrosis Curwen. Here are some of his remarks on gehreleth society.
“The Gehreleth are known to worship or honor a patron deity called Apomps, the Three-sided One. This entity not only can manifest as any of the three Gehreleth races, it is in fact directly supposed to be the father and promoter of each Gehreleth. The Three-sided One breathes life into the fallen and rotting corpses of those foolish enough to venture into the Lower Planes transforming them into Farastu. This entity presents each of the Gehreleth an obsidian triangle, which is considered the personal link they have with Him. This is their only loyalty. Should the triangle for any reason be taken from them, they will do much to retrieve it. Possession of the triangle, I suspect, allows each Gehreleth to posses the memories of the whole race to a limited extent. They know who has summoned others of their kind, and their plans of revenge can span the lives of many individuals.
“Each of the races has certain peculiarities. The Farastu and the Kelubar can undergo a lengthy and painful process of self-liquefaction into the secretion they most frequently exude. These pools of tar and slime can be bottled and stored for centuries as a kind of ‘instant army’.
“The Farastu, if they are not banished after summoning, delight in setting themselves up as kings of stupid, easily bullied inhabitants of the local plane. The Farastu pursue this promotion as compensation for the servility they must observe in the Lower Planes. It is believed that the Three-sided One promotes this practice, as it permits him to know of the goings-on on other planes. Apomps seldom promotes a Farastu on any plane save for Carceri.
“The Kelubar are mad for wands and other small handheld magical items. By sneaking such easily concealed magical items back to the Lower Planes, the Kelubar can gain an important edge in the power struggles that characterize Gehreleth society.
“The Shator often travel to other planes for their favorite occupation — writing. Shator works are of two categories: magical texts on how to summon creatures from the Lower Planes other than Gehreleth (usually named creatures that the Gehreleth have some particular hatred for), and philosophical texts that promote ideas of futility and cosmic angst. When dwelling in the Prime Material Plane, the Shator hide behind a human whom they set up a philosopher or poet. These men and women come to bad ends when the Shator has decided that its mission is done.
“When dwelling on other planes, the Shators’ favorite pets are chimerae. Oddly, they sometimes show concern for these beings, treating them like a human treats a kitten.”
Gehreleths inhabit Carceri, part of the killing grounds in the eternal Blood War. However, these fiends take no part in the conflict, instead roaming Carceri as random agents of destruction. Gehreleths look disgusting and unsightly.
Gehreleths speak a guttural language of their own, but use their tongues ability to communicate with others.