Geryon was once an archdevil in the Nine Hells,before being ousted from his position as ruler of Stygia. Later,Geryon returned,and sought to reclaim his layer from the Frozen Prince Levistus.
Description[]
Although Geryon typically stood 10 ft (3 m) tall, his serpentine body stretched to 30 feet (9.1 meters) in terms of length and ended in a venom-dripping barb. His humanoid torso was muscular, with massive, bat-like wings protruding from his back, and his large, bestial arms ended in clawed hands similar to paws. Despite his mismatched bodily structure, the Wild Beast had a kind of raw, animalistic presence that made him weirdly alluring and his head boasted a strangely handsome visage.
Sometimes he took the form of smaller beings to make movement easier, preferring the shapes of monsters like ogres and minotaurs or beasts like tigers.
Personality[]
Before being deposed, Geryon was among the most content of the archdevils, satisfied with conducting his hunts and allowing his subjects to maintain his empire while avoiding the politics that plagued the Nine Hells. He was still an incessant being that persistently pursued his quarry beforehand, but he had become more jealous after being overtaken, applying his determined hunter attitude to regaining his former authority. While other devils commanded their fiendish forces from a distance, Geryon was vicious and bloodthirsty, preferring to crush enemies with his own two hands. Although useful in the Stygian wastelands, his bestial savagery was also a weakness that negatively impacted his ability to garner souls and forge proper hierarchies. Despite his barbaric nature and his "Lord of the Filth" title, a mocking play on words similar to Baalzebul's "Lord of the Lies" epithet, Geryon was ironically immaculate and preferred a clean environment, leading some to believe he was slightly insane.
Powers/Skills[]
Even when diminished in strength, Geryon was a terrifying combatant able to rip mortals apart with only his favored weapon, his claws. He used them not only to rip his enemies to shreds, but to restrain them before injecting them with the vitality-stealing venom present in his stinger, a favorite tactic of his. The former lord of Stygia was immune to the cold and naturally regenerated from most injuries at a frightening rate, but his recovery would be temporarily halted if he was hit with blessed weapons, holy power, or radiant energy. His gaze could strike terror in his enemies and he was delighted by the sight of his enemies cowering before him, whether a natural response or not.
Despite his brutish appearance and typical demeanor, Geryon was still capable of acting tactically, rivaling Zariel in his reputation for martial skill. Weakening foes from afar before closing in for the kill was one of his preferred methods of fighting and he had a wide range of spell-like abilities allowing him to bewitch his foes, take on other forms, manipulate the cold, create a symbol of pain, pronounce an unholy word, teleport, and even grant the wishes of others. He was known to summon gelugons but could also call upon barbazus, hamatulas, osyluths, and pit fiends. He would begrudgingly use weapons if necessary, although he had a tendency to lose his composure and descend into an animalistic frenzy when seriously injured, crushing his foes beneath his fists rather than using any kind of plan.
History[]
Geryon's origin story in the Codex of Betrayal portrayed him as a champion of He Who Was, the goodly deity Asmodeus himself supposedly worked under. The only ones Geryon cared for more than his master were the other six angels whose team he was a part of that traveled, fought, and worshiped together. One day, the seven were sent to face off against an unrecorded enemy, possibly a primordial at the end of the Dawn War or a creature from the Far Realm, that annihilated four of them and severely crippled the bodies and souls of the surviving three.
Unable to properly save all of them, He Who Was supposedly used the essence of the weaker two to save Geryon, hence his later portrayal as a three-headed being with a fragmented personality. Geryon was as unimaginably grief-stricken as He who Was himself, but over time his gratitude for being saved turned into bitter hatred when he realized that his deity's patchwork magic had cursed him to feel the thoughts and emotions of his kin, forcing him to relive his anguish forever.
It was by appealing to Geryon's desire to silence the voices in his head that Asmodeus eventually swayed him to his side. He became a trusted general, assassin, and saboteur for the rogue angel, and after moving to the Nine Hells, Asmodeus fulfilled his end of the bargain by merging the pieces of Geryon's splintered psyche so that the thoughts of his brethren felt more like hazy memories than vivid experiences. What Asmodeus could not undo (at least then) was the splitting of his form by the infernal power of Hell so that he possessed three torsos resembling the dead angels and three heads that Geryon spoke out of depending on his mental state: cunning, furious, and manic.
After the fall but before he ruled Stygia, Geryon was wont to go on extended expeditions on the Material Plane, seeking out the most dangerous and wealthy foes to pillage whenever he was summoned by foolish mortals.
After his latest displacement of the Serpentine Lord, Levistus had gotten himself sealed within an iceberg for killing Asmodeus' consort Bensozia, leading Geryon to be put back in charge. Some reports claimed Geryon initially disliked the burdens of leadership and preferred his relative freedom, although he eventually came to enjoy the political intrigues of the Nine Hells. He had become much more heinous during his time serving Asmodeus, and wicked deeds that could once be attributed to a twisted sense of loyalty or vengeful fury were done solely out of malevolence. While not particularly notable, his reign was generally stable until the Reckoning of Hell.
The reigning archdevils of the Nine Hells had been putting the final phases of their plans to conquer the plane into action and had chosen their allies in the coming war against each other before they would battle Asmodeus and try to usurp him. Geryon seemingly sided with Mephistopheles, but in truth he was supporting Asmodeus from the shadows all along. He, along with Asmodeus' own agents, had been gathering intel, planting their own servants and converting the commanders of the enemy forces, but took no steps to actually prevent the rebellion from occurring. In fact, Geryon had encouraged his nemesis Moloch to join the battle through the mouth of Malagard.
When the lords and their forces were about to finally clash, Geryon blew his horn, signaling every pit fiend commander to turn against their leader and allowing Asmodeus to win the war completely unscathed. With some caveats, every treacherous lord besides Moloch, who had been convinced by Malagard at Geryon's request to remain defiant after defeat, was reinstated,but for some unfathomable reason Asmodeus also deposed Geryon as well, despite his loyalty.
After being stripped of both power and authority what Geryon did afterwards was disputed. It was claimed by some that he simply slinked off into the depths of Stygia to be forgotten for some time. Others reported he became a vestige that wandered the Astral Sea for untold millennia, with rumors that he had simply returned to the astral energy that he was partially made from. He was said to have come across Tytherion and after having brooded in exile for some time, eventually tried to forge his own legacy by offering his emissary services to other planar beings like Tiamat and Zehir, trying to become a greater interplanar influence than other devils. Whatever happened to him after being cast down, Geryon had eventually returned to prominence within Stygia and as he once did, sought to defeat Levistus and return to his former glory.
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