Mephistopheles Mephistopheles , also known as the Lord of No Mercy and the Cold Lord , is the lord of Cania , the eighth of the Nine Hells . He was the main opponent of Baalzebul during the Reckoning of Hell , and still holds a claim to his own layer . He seeks to take Baalzebul ' s layer away from him , that he may gain enough power to one day challenge Asmodeus for rulership of all the Nine Hells . Mephistopheles is something of a walking contradiction . Unstable and thoroughly wicked , he presents multiple faces to those he meets . On the one hand , he can be charming , erudite , and civil . But beneath the veneer of respectability is a vicious temper and unchecked ambition . He is patient and cunning , yet when alone , he flies into a fury , screaming and shrieking , tearing at his skin and destroying everything around him in a thunderous explosion of hellfire and devastating magic . He has one goal , one reason for existence : He covets Asmodeus ’ s throne . It is , in his mind , his destiny to rule the Nine Hells . So confident is he that he has told this to Asmodeus himself . One would think that such arrogance would be reason enough for the Lord of the Ninth to bring this archdevil to heel , but curiously , Asmodeus hasn ’ t . It seems he ’ s content to let Mephistopheles have his delusions . Mephistopheles ' naked ambition and haughtiness does not sit well with his peers . Some are drawn to his power , such as Dispater , but most despise him , seeing him as an unstable and unpredictable element in the Hells ’ convoluted politics . Among his enemies , Baalzebul is his greatest . The Lord of Lies has long opposed his every effort . So long as Baalzebul lives , Mephistopheles spends his time hatching plots to eliminate his ancient rival , leaving Asmodeus secure in his position as the Lord of the Nine Hells . Despite his distractions , Mephistopheles still poses a grave threat . He commands legions of ice devils as well as the pit fiends , barbazu , and cornugons that have flocked to his banner . In addition , it falls to him to protect the only gate into Nessus , so he nominally commands the army whose sole duty it is to safeguard Asmodeus ’ s realm . To make matters worse , he has mastered the essence of Hell , channeling it into a foul destructive energy called hellfire . With such tools at his disposal , it seems Mephistopheles will one day make good on his promise to rule in Asmodeus ’ s stead . Thankfully , Mephistopheles does not exert the same influence on the Prime Material Plane . Many mortals confuse him and Asmodeus , believing they are one in the same . This frustrates Mephistopheles to no end ; above all , he wants to be worshiped as a god . Still , he has a number of small cults that revere him as the god of hellfire . He also attracts disaffected devilworshipers , stealing individuals from other archdevils . His temples are strange places , hidden and out of the way . Decorated with fire pits , they are unbearably hot and the pits are rigged so that they flare up during ceremonies at the most dramatic moments . The cultists meet to perform sacrifices , binding their living victim on a blackened altar and immolating him alive . His screams add the chorus to their silent prayers . Appearance . This diabolical , nine - foot - tall fiend has crimson skin and handsome - yet - diabolical features : white eyes with red irises and pupils , long , straight , black hair , broad leathery wings , curling horns , and sharp talons , all of the deepest red , and sooty black scales . He has huge muscles befitting his great strength , yet his speech is as whispering wind . Swathed in a flowing black cape , he is the vision of evil . Background . Once the court magus of Asmodeus in Nessus , Mephistopheles gained the rulership of Cania by seizing it away from Rimmon . After the Reckoning , he seemed to fall into a slumber , remaining frozen and unmoving , until he led a coup against himself in the guise of Baron Molikroth and then destroyed all his co - conspirators against himself . In more recent events , Mephistopheles had persuaded his half - breed son , Magadon , to release the devil inside of him and therefore bring himself and his fellow companions Erevis Cale and Drasek Riven to Cania through some manipulation of Erevis Cale ' s ability to travel the shadows . Mephistopheles then proceeded to kill his half - breed son , when Erevis Cale stepped in and promised Mephistopheles a portion of the god Mask ' s divinity to him in return for Magadon ' s soul . Mephistopheles agreed to this under one condition , that condition being he kept half of Magadon ' s soul there until delivery . Erevis Cale later returned to Cania and sacrificed his life for the return of Magadon ' s soul . It was at this time that the new demigod Drasek Riven , who had also absorbed part of Mask ' s divinity traveled to Cania and paid Mephistopheles a visit . Riven attacked and badly wounded the archdevil , and told him that if he ever stepped out of his domain that Riven would utterly destroy him . Mephistopheles replied by telling Riven that he will come back , and he will be waiting for him . He seemed to think that Riven would be back for Erevis Cale at some point in time . Mephistopheles , along with Dispater , was once an ally of Mammon , but Mammon betrayed them both . Attack on Toril . Not too long after 1372 DR , a drow matron afterwards known to history only as the Valsharess managed to bind Mephistopheles into her service on the material plane , in Toril . Aided by his powers , she proceeded to conquer much of the Underdark , and even went on to try to expand her influence on the surface , attacking Waterdeep through Undermountain . Previously , an adventurer fleeing the briefly re - activated but now again falling Netherese city of Undrentide into the Plane of Shadow had come across a strange relic that they had used occasionally to access the small plane of a strange creature known as the Reaper . This item was in fact meant for the leader of a cult of Mephistopheles , and contained a piece of the devil ' s own flesh . Later the adventurer , by then quite famous and powerful , came to Waterdeep to aid the city in its struggle against the Valsharess ' s forces . Mephistopheles manipulated the Valsharess to eventually bring the adventurer into her inner sanctum , where she ordered him to kill them . At this point , her control over Mephistopheles was loosened , since the relic carried by the adventurer bound them to the archdevil , and by ordering him to kill the adventurer she broke the pact which she used to bind him . Instead of complying , Mephistopheles left the adventurer and his party free to duel and kill the Valsharess . He then sent them to Cania in his stead and set out to conquer Toril , intending to turn it into a new layer of Hell that would go down below the Ninth and make him the new supreme ruler of the plane . He raised the dead souls he had gained from the recent battles between the Valsharess and her enemies as a special form of spiritual army and began to follow a similar course of conquest to hers , advancing from the Underdark to Waterdeep . However , the adventurer , who had by this time grown in power far beyond that of most other mortals , was able to escape Cania by learning the Reaper ' s true name ( " Hecugoth the Abandoned " ) , return to Toril and banish Mephistopheles back to his old domain before he could destroy the City of Splendors . According to this account , Mephistopheles ' s true name is " Thra ' axfyl the Ambitious " . It can be deduced however that since Mephistopheles remains a threat to the planes as nobody ' s slave , the adventurer either did not learn this or chose for some reason to not use it to its full potential . Notes . Mephistopheles is the patron of fire and magic . In truth , Mephistopheles is no god , but instead a powerful archdevil who rules Cania , the eighth layer of the Nine Hells .