Lords of Hell (Shadow Hearts)

The Lords of Hell, also referred to as the Gods of Destruction are six high-ranking demons in the game Shadow Hearts: Covenant seen as gods of various parts of hell. Asmodeus, Astaroth and Amon are said to be the most prestigious of the six and the ones who play out in the game's main story-line, however the demons Baal, Gaap  and Orobas are considered peers among hell's lord and seen less if only for their lack of ferocity than the more well respected three.

Amon
The only hell lord to be seen in the previous game Shadow Hearts, Amon is first encountered as the demonic benefactor of the warlock Albert Simon. He is demonic god of destruction and a harbinger of the Apocalypse. Simon had benevolent goals for his powers as a warlock and chose Amon because the demon was the least inherently evil of his brethren while also being hailed as the fiercest. Amon is amoral and cares not if he is harming the good or wicked but just craves destruction. While he corrupts Simon somewhat he is never able to possess him and eventually is passed on from Simon to the main protagonist Yuri Hyuga, as one of his fusions- (demonic transformed states). Amon is just as willing to help Yuri destroy the forces of evil as he was to help Simon destroy the world but refuses to help anyone unless they prove themselves stronger than him. He is seen as the source of natural disasters and an angel of death for God.

Asmodeus
Albert Simon invoked Amon for the sole purpose of stopping his mad pupil Grigori Rasputin who had invoked Asmodeus the lord of demons. Unlike Simon and Yuri, Rasputin quickly gave into his base desires and became heavily influenced by Asmodeus' ambition and anarchistic nature. When confronted by Yuri, in the form of Amon, Rasputin invokes Asmodeus' full power and is completely consumed by Asmodeus' will becoming fully possessed by the demonic lord. Asmodeus seeks to destroy all life on the planet but in the most circuitous ways possible so humans die slowly over thousands of years in abject misery and pain which he savors. After being possessed Rasputin abandons his previous goals of world conquest to simply watch man-kind suffer slowly. Asmodeus has power of space, light and dark and his preferred method is of torment is to use his demons to enslave others either through possession or real world oppression. Asmodeus is both sadistic and arrogant, however he considers The Fallen Angel Astaroth a rival and fears Amon as more powerful than either of them, if only slightly and makes a point trying to kill both or anything else he can not completely dominate.

Astaroth
Astaroth is invoked by Grigori Rasputin's second in command, Nicolai Conrad. Nicolai had intended to betray his master at the height of his victory as he thought stopping the mad megalomaniac might endear him to the people oppressed by him allowing Nicolai himself steal his subjects as a hero. To compare with his master's power Nicolai used the Émigré Manuscript to invoke the last of the three great gods of destruction Astaroth. With the help of his comrades, Lenny and Veronica, Nicolai journeyed into Astaroth's palace and took the demon into himself all the while claiming to his allies that such an act was at the behest of their leader Rasputin. Nicolai maintains is identity from the demonic god much longer than Rasputin keeping it in check with his ego and pride however when Rasputin abandons his plans of world domination denying Nicolai the opening to kill him and play the hero Nicolai's ambitions are completely subverted. Astaroth is still kept in check until Nicolai is rejected by Karin, the game's deuteragonist, whom he had been enamored with since the game's start. When Nicolai's pride is dashed he quickly becomes influenced by Astaroth and his need for destruction. After being taken to Japan and experimented on by the mad doctor Hojo Nicolai's ego is completely shattered in the process and Astraoth is completely freed from Nicolai's heart. Like Asmodeus, Astaroth seeks the destruction of all life on earth. However unlike Asmodeus, Astaroth wishes to destroy the world is a very immediate manner and opts to blow apart the planet's ley-lines by sending his demonic energy through the veins of Mt. Fuji. Astaroth may want humans destroyed in an immediate fashion but he considers watching humans kill each-other to be an amusement and relishes turning humans against one another as pawns while he waits on his larger plans to see them all dead. Asatroth is described as a fallen angel cast out of heaven for seeing humans as unworthy of his love and now seeks their outright annihilation as his divine purpose in life.

Baal
God of sorrow and despair; Baal seeks to cause others pain and weave tragedies. Baal is encountered at the Doll House, an old hermitage that belonged to a friend and fellow puppeteer of the protagonist Gepetto. The heroes go to the Doll House to uncover the whereabouts of Gepetto's friend who has not been heard from in years only to find the place abandoned and haunted. Traveling through the house will reveal that, like Gepetto, the owner had lost his daughter and created doll after doll in her image until he had a perfectly life-like replica. The puppeteer had found a tome to bring his doll to life and infuse it with the spirit of the departed. When finding the doll Gepetto hears the voice of his own daughter Cornelia, whom he had also made a life-like puppet of out of as tribute. The doll calls for Gepetto to kill himself so he can join her in the afterlife. Gepetto nearly complies before his own Cornelia puppet miraculously calls out to him to stop and that the doll is a fake. The doll then drops pretense and admits to being one of the lords of hell, Baal. Baal was summoned into the doll instead of the puppeteer's daughter and had enjoyed toying with the bereaved man's mind before getting him to kill himself as he had nearly done to Gepetto as well and countless others though similar farces. With his smokescreen dispelled Baal attacks Gepetto, Cornelia and the rest of the heroes ready to kill them himself for the shear amusement.

Gaap
Gaap is the prince of lies and demonic lord of deception. Gaap takes refuge in an enchanted woods and preys on mystics who come there in search of a rare magical flower he guards as bait to devour magi and alchemists. When the protagonist Lucia is sent to retrieve such a flower for her spells she and the party encounter Gaap in the woods. The woods feature flowers that talk, some tell the truth always, some lie, some always disagree with certain colored flowers, some seek to cast visitors out of the woods and remembering what the correct path is based on how far you have gotten and what you know of the flower's motives is the challenge of making it through the winding forest maze to the floral prize. Upon getting to the end Gaap reveals that in fact all the flower's voices were his and the so called change in motive and tone were mere red-herring to keep wanderers forever lost in his woods. Gaap enjoys watching people remain ever lost in his trap and has played more than a few ambitious mystics into walking until they die in the middle of his cursed forest. Once encountered Gaap attacks his play-things, not willing to give them the prize which he guards and only uses as bait for his cruel game.

Orobas
Orobas is the demonic lord of the space between spaces and the chaotic reaches of limbo. Orobas sleeps at the bottom of Neomeeton monastery where the Émigré Manuscript was hidden. Orobas dwells beyond the true monastery where it begins to mingle with the dark reaches of hell brought closer to earth during Patrick Heyworth's experiments with Elaine Heyworth back when the structure was still a legitimate monastery. Yuri and his friends go into the dungeon to uncover a book that their friend Roger had lost within, an erotic magazine as it turns out. Orobas ambushes the heroes upon reaching the bottom of the twisting abyss having been awakened by their presence. Orobas then announces that he intends to destroy the world, when asked why he pauses and realizes he has no idea but just thinks it is what he is expected to do. Still as a lord of hell Orobas states he has the power and authority to indulge whatever petty distraction he likes and that it does not matter if destroying the world serves a purpose or not. When defeated Orobas admits defeat and seems to think of the fight as nothing more than a game he was happy to play even if he lost. In gratitude for the amusement he offers his services to Anastasia Romanov and the party as whole whom he finds if nothing else interesting.

The Key of Solomon
As all six Demon Lord's have names they were defeated long ago by King Solomon and given a crest that made them subject to mortals when invoked. When defeated the Lords of Hell become locked in their respective crests once again and can be used by player characters to use the most powerful spells of each element in the game. If all the crest are collected and installed in the right place of the Key of Solomon, a ancient demon documentary composed by King Solomon himself, the crests will lock into place and each becomes more powerful. If all the crest in the Palace of Transgression and the other sections of Solomon's Key are all collected and properly cataloged King Solomon himself will appear to congratulate the heroes and then attempted to wipe out their souls for challenging his power with the demons he subjugated. Solomon himself is not a Lord of Hell but merely a human summoner who robbed such forces of omnipresence by linking them to the crests. When defeated King Solomon turns into a crest himself as a real world anchor, Solomon's Crest is the most powerful of all though somewhat impractical to use because of the massive spiritual energy needed to wield it.

Trivia

 * All six demonic lords are based on real world demonology as cataloged in the Key of Solomon part of the Necromoncon and ripped straight from the pages of the Goetia.
 * Like most parts of the Shadow Hearts series the Demon Lords of the Palace of Transgression are heavily Lovecraft inspired in appearance and description.
 * Each Lord of Hell shares a base description likened to the traditionally Judeo-Christian version of Satan, such as "prince of lies" or "fallen angel".