Malbolge

Malbolge was the sixth layer of the Nine Hells of Baator. Ruled by the archdevil Glasya, the Tyranny of Turmoil, as it was known, was the prison of the Nine Hells where devils found guilty of breaking the law underwent years of torturous punishment under the supervision of Asmodeus's daughter. The Crushing Lands, sometimes titled the Crushing, was one of the most inhospitable of Hell's circles, its endless avalanches making it unpopular even among the baatezu.
==Description==
Malbolge was best described as one seemingly endless, infinitely large slope, as if it were the sides of an impossible massive mountain. Boulders and other debris would rain down from its heights in deadly and deafening landslides, and to avoid these, the inhabitants lived either in great caves carved into the mountainside or crumbling fortresses. In older days there were many fortresses of bronze, but those slowly fell into ruin one way or another.
Some locations in the relatively modern Malbolge were shielded from rockslides by structures built with upslope-pointing projections such that avalanches washed around the protected areas beneath them. Other structures were erected atop adamantine pillars embedded into the mountain, allowing them to withstand the constant battering even if their supported platforms still swayed. Here, cages containing condemned devils were typically lowered on chains beneath the platforms so they would be struck by the avalanches, resulting in agonizingly painful but non-lethal injuries. Roofed trenches and tunnels allowed for travel between locations, though even that was dangerous.
==Geography==
Malbolge was arguably the most treacherous of Hell's layers, and the hardest to traverse. The landscape was similar to that of the plane of Gehenna in regards to the difficulty of scaling it, slowing movement down to about half the normal rate even for those skilled in mountaineering and to a quarter for those without such aptitude. The entire circle existed on a tilt ranging from mild (about 10-15 degrees) to severe (which could be beyond 75 degrees). There were no naturally-occurring horizontal planes to be found, making it difficult to rest or build, and making falling a constant danger, as one could plummet anywhere from before smashing into stone. Most baatezu had the privilege of teleportation to mitigate this issue, while most travelers did not.
Those seeking to scale Malbolge also had to contend with the jagged boulders, if not dodging them to avoid being crushed then climbing over them when they were at rest. Frequently parts of the layer would break off and roll downhill, but ultimately no one knew where the boulders came from. They would shift and roll down Malbolge, sometimes settling briefly but always moving on, seemingly at random but in truth they following a prearranged pattern too complex for mortal minds to grasp. Every ten minutes there was about a 1 in 5 chance a boulder would crash through somewhere and every hour there was a similar chance of a rockslide, although these would be somewhat forecast by the frequency of boulder encounters up until then.
Amid the smaller boulders of Malbolge were great "islands of stone", larger rocks that tended to be more stable. Even these however were not anchored to the mountain itself, and all attempts to build atop such boulders inevitably failed when their bases rolled over during particularly violent landslides. Occasionally boulders stopped moving long enough for dark tunnels to form through the piles, although exploring or idling in them was unwise since, despite offering protection from other boulders, the rocks that made up the passages could start moving at any moment and pulp their occupants. Sometimes the boulders shifted enough to reveal passages into the underlying stone, although whether this was compacted granite or just another, larger boulder was itself a mystery. Beneath the relatively stable bedrock of hellish stone were rumored to be entrances to underground cities, strongholds and other ancient places.
Malbolge did have something of a ground layer, but from it rose jagged shards of obsidian known as "the Knives", towering monoliths that leant against each other to form passages or jutted out in great sheets. Though seemingly stable enough, attempts to walk across them revealed that even their foundations were unsteady, and their sudden shifting would drop travelers into the razor-lined pits below to be sliced and cleaved. The steaming sky above meanwhile was a firmament boiling with leprous colors that showered burning droplets down upon those below.
==Cosmography==
By Asmodeus's decree, no planar portals could connect directly to any layer of Hell besides Avernus. This meant that in general, if one wanted to get to Malbolge, they would have to go the layer above it, Stygia, and find a portal, and likewise would need another to get to Maladomini below. Portals existed from Set's Stygian realm of Ankhwugaht, to at least one of the bronze fortresses of Malbolge, as well as from another fortress to Baalzebul's primary city of Malagard.
===World Axis===
In the World Axis cosmology model, the Nine Hells were a planet-shaped astral dominion floating in the Astral Sea, no longer of infinite size nor consisting of layers. In this cosmology, Malbolge was one of, if not the smallest and least populated of the Nine Hells, a cavern kingdom less than wide with a ceiling a overhead. Dozens of sinister lamps burning with a yellow-green radiance were suspended from the roof.
In the World Axis, the River Styx connected Malbolge to both Stygia and Maladomini. Several canals, each hundreds of miles long, connected Malbolge to Stygia, and were kept clear of shifting ice by a great fleet of icebreakers maintained by Lord Levistus. At the farthest shores, the canals lead off into the darkness towards Malbolge, the ice gradually thawing as one approached the sixth Hell. The passages leading there transitioned into the Hag Countess's fetid open veins, and were lined with colorful, virulent, intoxicating blossoms, as if Glasya was contrasting her domain with that of Levistus.
The Road of Perdition, a great marble boulevard lined with hideous statues, led from Malbolge to Maladomini, although the winding tunnels of the seventh Hell reached into Malbolge, as well as the lower Hells, on their own. A ring of razor-sharp stone about a across surrounded the layer, ending at the outer wall where vast tunnels lead to the adjoining realms.
==Notable Locations==
* The Birthing Pits, fetid pools inside bulging mounds where most damned souls were marched to. Pain devils pushed and prodded them into the foul liquid filled with wriggling maggots and snapping, toothless mouths. Hours later, lemures crawled out and dribbled down the side of the hill before being driven off by the excruciarch attendants to wander the layer mindlessly. Most of the pits were hidden by forests, but the most notable was located in the center of the layer.
* Glasya's Citadel, the unnamed palace of the archduchess after Malbolge returned to its mountainous state. It was supported by sturdy but seemingly cracked and unstable pillars and buttresses, and beneath it was a labyrinth lined with cells and torture chambers where those who displeased Glasya were confined and tormented.
* The Garden of Delights, an enclosed garden somewhere near the center of Ossiea tucked behind high walls of bleached skulls. It was a beautiful, expansive place filled with plants from across the planes. The perfumes of riotous flowers and whispers of succubi soothed visitors, putting them at ease and chasing away their fears. No fauna lurked waiting to pounce and no flora was a poisonous trap. This was a place of true beauty in a realm of ugly lies, of respite and refuge in the middle of Hell itself. It existed to put the victims of Malbolge at ease, just long enough to make it truly agonizing when its comforts were cruelly taken away.
* The Hag Countess's Stronghold, the unnamed citadel of Malagard during her time as Malbolge's ruler. Her fortress was the core of a mountain-sized boulder that perpetually rolled down Malbolge's slope on a path unknown to any of her nobles. The strange palace was one of the surest and most costly places to acquire a large amount of souls in all the Nine Hells. It housed a coven of three night hags and an assortment of annises, green hags and medusas at all times, as well as a stable full of nightmares.
* The Hair Forest, also known as the Forest of Sighs, a dense, gnarly woodland composed of the black, twisted, scaly, oozing hairs of the Hag Countess, enlarged and rooted in white, flaky soil. Glasya used it both to hide her treasures and oubliettes, where prisoned languished in isolation. When she grew bored of her playthings they were impaled on the branches and left to rot for decades. It was believed that the trees kept the victims alive by pumping the victims full of nutrients while slowly feeding on their souls.
* The Hag's Innards, a cramped series of twisted passageways formed by Malagard's intestines. Her rotting bulk seeped below Malbolge, retaining a fleshy appearance despite being as sturdy as stone. Non-devils within the intestinal corridors were treated like undigested food and met with periodic sprays of acids, while the rooms were relatively normal and carved out of the maggot-rich earth.
* The Lakes of Bile, a collection of putrid pools that produces various potent poisons bottled and sold by Glasya's forces to interested parties across the planes. Toxic fumes rose from the lakes, often mixing with unpredictable results. The entire area was imbued with an ambient toxicity that made it dangerous for mortals to be around, while any devils not already immune to poisons eventually became inured to their effects.
* Maggoth Thyg, a cavern whose walls glowed with a grayish, brain-numbing light. The falling boulders of Malbolge often blocked off the obscure defile leading there, but it always reopened somehow. Devils sent to investigate never returned, and terrible cries from within its depths sometimes echoed across the slopes, imperceptible to the petitioners but audible and innately terrifying to the resident devils.
* Ossiea, the fortress-palace of Glasya, a white, lustrous building lavishly decorated with baroque ornamentation. Seemingly constructed from stone, closer inspection revealed it to be the enlarged and distorted skull of Malagard fused with the lacquered bones of countless victims, many among them devils who displeased Glasya. The palace stood beyond the edge of the Hair Forest, above perfumed gardens atop a rounded hill. It was adorned with erotic statues and unnerving sculptures, decorated with poisonous plants, and filled with haunting music. Beneath the luxurious, well-guarded playrooms was a long, tubular corridor reminiscent of an enormous throat, the pinkish walls still moving as if by the continued breathing of an immense creature.
* Slag, the Final Fortress, the last of the great bronze fortresses of Malbolge's previous administrations. It was a great half-melted structure with galleries hosting the preserved remains of hundreds of creatures dipped in molten gold and set in niches so that Moloch could gaze upon the twisted expressions of their agonizing final moments. Glasya encouraged the structure to be left standing as a reminder of what stood before and what she had overcome.
* The Ten Towers, crooked spires of ivory that were once Malagard's fingers. They were hollowed out to create roosts and guard posts for the erinyes tasked with watching over Malbolge, but Glasya set aside the first to be the Tower of Pain, where enemies too dangerous to be left in her palace were kept. The regimens of punishment became more excruciating the higher one went, with the lower levels housing minor foes, including many adventurers, while the uppermost chamber interred loyalists and sycophants who refused to renounce their service to the Hag Countess.
==Inhabitants==
The primary inhabitant of Malbolge was Glasya, Hell's most infamous criminal and highest warden. That she could hold both statuses simultaneously was clear evidence that, in the infernal realms, crime paid so long as one avoided conviction. Unlike her peers, she was not overly interested in affairs beyond the Hells, keeping her focus on the political developments of her own layer. 
Before the Reckoning of Hell, all the dukes of Malbolge were envoys from Maladomini. After the Reckoning, most of the archdevils present either fled Malbolge and returned to the court of Baalzebul or stayed loyal to Moloch and thus were exiled or destroyed. No unique devils rose to duke status during Malagard or Glasya's rule, and the continued turmoil did nothing to convince the previous ones to return. As a result, Malbolge hosted few figures of note under Glasya's employ. 
To compensate, Glasya spared Malagard's most talented minions, absorbing them into her circle after sufficient groveling and sentencing loyalists to innovative torture regiments. Since then she was known to aggressively recruit the servants of other archdukes, particularly those sidelined for excessive ambition, who were happy to conspire against those who held them back. This blatant poaching was authorized by Asmodeus, but did not endear Glasya to her peers and made many of the elite members of Malbolge targets of other archdukes.
Glasya's chief lieutenant and advisor was Tartach, high marshal of Malbolge and chamberlain of her palace. Formerly an agent of Baalzebul sent to serve as legate of the Moloch regime, Tartach joined the Princess of Hell at great personal risk, and his invaluable service allowed the Archduchess to remain unfazed by her lack of dukes.Also spelled "Tartash" in some sources. There was also Beleth, the Prince of Imps, who was granted a small domain in Malbolge after Asmodeus's rise to power in Hell. He endured on that layer throughout its many changes in leadership, and fortunately for him Glasya, seeking to establish her own power base independent of her father, saw fit to employ him. Through this he maintained his rank of viscount and role as spymaster, and became responsible for gathering information and sabotaging the enemies of Glasya.
Many of the other archdevils found in Malbolge were not under Glasya's authority. Amon, a servant of Geryon, was known to treat Malbolge as a safe haven during his period of attempting to avenge his master, during which Glasya thought to use his vanity to lure him into her personal service. Moloch still lingered on Malbolge, but was reduced to an imp whenever he re-entered the Hells and so lived a dual existence scheming there or on other layers and wandering others planes searching for power, and rumor had it he was attempting to build an army with which to invade the Crushing Lands. In the past, the Archduchess Fierna was also known to spend much of her time in Malbolge within the palace of her "best friend" Glasya.
Garrisoned on Malbolge were Glasya's Creeping Cadre, a relatively fledgling army specialized in weapons and magic that left lingering marks. Their potent poisons, festering sicknesses, wands of enervation and scrolls of energy drain were enough to unnerve even their field commander, General Furcas of the Dark Eight.
===Devils===
An extremely inhospitable layer, Malbolge tended to be avoided even by devils, and across it could be found freaks and castoffs disfigured by Glasya's displeasure and left to dwell in the darkness. Yet despite this and Glasya's seemingly uncaring demeanor, she managed to surround herself with devils (among other servants) that leapt to do her bidding. Devils of all descriptions were in her employ, and she went so far as to add special chambers in Ossiea to cater to every variety, such was its diversity that even an ice devil could find a climate to its liking in Glasya's court. However, the changes Malbolge had undergone made it difficult to determine what remained true regarding the plane's infernal population.
Malbolge's population was known to consist of imps, barbed devils, bone devils, and horned devils. Glasya was specifically known to enjoy a special relationship with erinyes (who she once commanded as Queen) and paeliryons; the two devil types made up the nobility of her court and were shown distinct favoritism. In stark contrast, though lemures (and nupperibos) had been found in her service in the past, not even Glasya could bare to look at the wretched creatures or hear their mewling cries. War devils and brazen devils were reported to watch over the mistress of Malbolge in her palace. Other devils that had served in Malbolge under Glasya's dominion included spinagons, legion devils, cambions, chain devils and pain devils.
Of particular note were the hellwasp devils, whose original population was believed to dwell in Glasya's Garden of Delights. Once demons in service to a wasp-like demon lord defeated by Glasya over the course of the Blood War, the curious creatures flocked to her as their new queen and followed her back to the Nine Hells. They formed a new colony in Malbolge, becoming unquestioning and unwavering agents that lived to serve her whims.
===Petitioners and Planars===
Glasya was known to address petitioners in the audience chamber of her palace, with various devils, mortal thralls, and damned souls that had caught her eye also in attendance. Several members of her court were reckless mortal courtiers and the damned among nobility or figures of wit, although Glasya was fully willing to kill them upon growing bored of them.
===Others===
Non-devils were also known to dwell on Malbolge. The largest populations of succubi in the Nine Hells could be found on the layer (as well as the layers of Dis and Stygia. Several night hags were born on Malbolge (as well as hell louses and paeliryons), having developed from tumor-like masses that grew under what were once the Hag Countess's ribs.
Infernal vermin infested Malbolge during its corrupted period, with monstrous insects (including giant spiders, giant centipedes, and giant wasps) being especially common, though hellstinger scorpions and hell louses also plagued the layer. The larger and more intelligent specimens learned to avoid the layer's powerful devils.
Rumors of the old places beneath Malbolge spoke of ancient monsters that predated even the baatezu. Laughs and cries could be heard from below the mountain ever since Malagard took over. By some reckoning these were the ancient baatorians, a race of infernal natives displaced by the coming of Asmodeus, while other legends spoke of at least one ancient citadel in the deepest reaches whose angels remained loyal to He Who Was, Asmodeus's original divine master, and who since had been driven mad and twisted into something wholly different from angels and devils alike.
==History==
Malbolge had outlasted many overlords, control over the layer changing hands many times over the course of eons. Every Hell adopted the characteristics of its ruling archdevil, and little of its original form remained after millennia of upheaval. 
In ages past, Malbolge was said to be a vast and beautiful garden, cherished by whatever deity held dominion over it. Then came Asmodeus's rebellion and war, which saw the realm ruined, reshaped and eventually make its way to the control of Lucifer. Malbolge's condition at the time was unclear, but it was taken from Lucifer by Asmodeus for violating the rules of infernal promotion by having a child in secret.
After Lucifer's destruction, Asmodeus gifted Malbolge to Baalzebul, a fallen archon turned baatezu who upon his descent quickly rose up the infernal hierarchy and managed to displace a lord who had been with Asmodeus since before the fall of Hell's king, replacing the unknown lord as Archduke of Maladomini. Malbolge was granted to Baalzebul as a reward for some despicable service, but also to another, Asmodeus's greatest warrior, Moloch. Moloch had earned his place among the archdevils for his tireless service and hatred of Asmodeus's demon enemies. His reward was to be dominion over Malbolge, but not as an archduke; rather, he was to be a grand duke, a Lord of the Nine under another of his peers, a state of affairs deemed acceptable by Baalzebul.
===Reign of the Viceroy===
Under the regime of Moloch, and by extension Baalzebul, Malbolge was geographically similar to Maladomini in most ways (with the exception that Maladomini was flat).See the page on Maladomini's geography. It was a craggy, ashen, lifeless plane of black, broken rock, as if hundreds of miles worth of city-sized building blocks had suddenly tumbled into a gargantuan pile, creating a series of huge passages and twisting, angular locations beneath the surface of the heap. Even then Malbolge was unstable, its steep and shifting surface liable to end any misstep in a pit of sharp obsidian shards.
Malbolge was volcanically active, its fire pits and caverns yielding many rubies, sapphires, and diamonds such that raw, unmined gems could be found along the tortured surface. There was arjale and tantulhor to be found, though in rarer quantities than in Phlegethos. The sky was alight with blood-red steam, and the air was hot, choking and permeated by the stench of burning, for Malbolge floated atop a sea of lava that released deadly clouds of noxious gray-green gas.
Malbolge during this time was a noisy place populated by tormented lemures, nupperibos, horned devils, and the occasional spined devils, bone devils and styx devils, all of whom suffered under the regime. They endured not only the tortures, and disfigurements of one Lord of the Nine, but two, those of cruel Baalzebul during his visits and the almost equally cruel Moloch. At least two-fifths of the populace were missing limbs or otherwise injured for the amusement of the reigning authority, and at least half of the population (mostly from the above group) hated their masters so much they would revolt if given the chance.
Malbolge's torments did not make it a socially orderly place. Nupperibos and spinagons messily and haphazardly mined Malbolge under the command of the cornugons, whose status was measured by their yield of gems and ores, so there was an intense rivalry involving trickery and even outright theft or battle between them for who would bring the largest yield to the authorities. Otherwise the cornugons continually patrolled Malbolge in pairs, bringing any intruders in alive for torment and interrogation lest they suffer in their place, and most such unfortunates were killed in service to Baalzebul's hoarding of information.
Valuables and captives alike would make their way to the bronze, copper-clad citadels that dotted Malbolge. These were the fortresses of the cornugons in practice, but officially the homes of Moloch, where the Grand Duke would indulge in his every vice, each of the thirteen great strongholds set aside for a different cruelty. Yet Moloch could not choose to occupy the fortresses on his own, for though technically the lord of Malbolge, he was constantly ordered between his homes on the orders of Baalzebul through his (oft-bribed there) herald Neabaz. Baalzebul feared that allowing Moloch to rest for long would somehow enable him to take control of Malbolge, and so repeatedly disturbed him and suffused the duke's court with his own agents.
Baalzebul gifted Moloch the archdevil Lilith as a consort in a transparent attempt to curry his favor, hoping to leverage her talent for distracting others from what was important to his advantage. Tartach was sent to act as deputy and ambassador to vassal dukes and visitors, while Bileth was installed as tribune to act as a vigil against Moloch and others who might try to assume control of Malbolge. Baalzebul's marshal Barbatos also administrated Malbolge's defensive forces, those being the nine companiesCompany in this case being 111 soldiers rather than the usual 333. of cornugons under the pit fiend Bethage and the sixteen companies of bone devils under the pit fiend Herobaal.
===The Reckoning of Hell===
Asmodeus had not given Malbolge to Moloch and Baalzebul simply as a reward. Rather, the cleverest of the devils made Moloch Baalzebul's viceroy knowing that the two would keep their eyes on each other rather than his throne. This worked for eons, confusing as it might be to an outsider why either of them would want Malbolge in that incarnation. Moloch vied against the other archdevils, keeping them in check, while Baalzebul found it a continual struggle to keep both layers under his control. Even though all under Moloch were regarded as loyal to Baalzebul, every duke of Malbolge, Moloch included hid a few gems to sell on the side, and several among them were not content with the current regime. So did Asmodeus's arrangement begin to unravel.
It started when Moloch took the dread night hag Malagard as his advisor and second consort, which was fully acceptable for his station. Unbeknownst to him, this would be the catalyst for one of the most monumental betrayals in the Nine Hells. As part of her own schemes to usurp her father, Glasya had played a crucial part in instigating a revolt against him, and as part of the plot traveled to Malbolge to recruit Moloch's mistress to her cause. For her part, treacherous Malagard was already betraying Moloch, for in truth she was cuckolding him in favor of his long-time rival Geryon, who seemed to be of greater status and promised her higher station in turn.
Malagard seduced Moloch and, at Geryon's secret urging, gradually goaded him into greater independence with her poisonous promises. She encouraged him to join Baalzebul's alliance, arguing that once his master defeated Mephistopheles and Asmodeus, he would be in the perfect position to take the throne of Hell himself. Foolish, prideful, ambitious and needing little provocation to go to war, Moloch was convinced of Malagard's confident claims, although she did not convince him alone.
Beleth, Moloch's spymaster (if only because the Grand Duke figured he had likely already infiltrated his court) was informed by his spies of Malagard's own ambition. He turned to her, and using his information and her influence they got Moloch and even other archdukes and dukes to rise up against Asmodeus. Tartach joined the conspiracy to open the path to his own ascent, manipulating events to cast down Moloch all while plotting to double-cross Malagard and Geryon. Lilith did not actively participate in the conspiracy, but allowed it to succeed through her inaction, having come to resent her masters and lack the sufficient initiative to expose Malagard's lies.
As was anticipated by the conspirators, (at least some of them, including Malagard and Beleth), Asmodeus thwarted the plots of the archdukes to usurp his power. His agent in the conflict, Geryon, blew his horn, and all the pit fiend commanders of the armies of the archdukes turned against their lords, siding with Asmodeus; it was Malagard who arranged for Moloch's armies to betray him. In the aftermath, Geryon met with Malagard and convinced her to advise Moloch to remain defiant against Asmodeus, convincing him this would make the King of Hell respect his strength. Moloch foolishly stood fast, all but spitting in his lord's face, and his impertinence was rewarded with the stripping of his station by an angered Asmodeus.
Exactly what was supposed to become of Moloch was unclear. By some accounts he was sentenced to death, and only escaped through the use of a timely use of a planar portal. By others he was officially exiled, and banished to the Prime Material plane. In some stories Moloch's fate was dealt out by Asmodeus, but in others it was by the new ruler of Malbolge, Malagard, chosen for the role by none other than Asmodeus himself. Baalzebul was removed from his position as Malbolge's overlord for his part in the Reckoning and cursed several times over, leaving Malagard the indisputable mistress of Malbolge. Many diabolical entities rankled at the decision, considering themselves infinitely more suited to the task than a non-devil, but the choice was Asmodeus's to make. Thus did the reign of the Malagard begin.
===Reign of the Countess===
When Malagard became ruler of Malbolge, she gained complete control over all its physical aspects, such as the power to start avalanches at will (often under the feet of her foes), and was nearly invincible within the layer. She changed Malbolge into its more mountainous form, causing the lava beneath to cool, crack and still, and the gases that bubbled forth from it to gather overhead into a firmament.
The form Malbolge had taken was not suitable for the creation of cities however, and so instead Malagard continued using the Copper Fortresses of the previous administration. However, the war for the Hells had seen several of the fortress sacked and ruined and they had to be built and redesigned to channel and deflect the frequent rock-flows. Even then, the fortresses struggled to repel the harsher avalanches, and none could withstand the worst of them. The fortresses stood in the plane's more stable areas, usually behind one of the "islands of stone", but even then the boulders constantly careened of the walls, creating ceaseless, terrible clanging.
Rather than holding court in the conventional way, Malagard chose to travel between the fortresses of Malbolge as befit her needs. Her nobles were scattered throughout the layer's fortresses, and so she visited them periodically. The Hag Countess delighted in surprise appearances, and so usually appeared in an expertly crafted disguise to test the responses of her subjects. Commanders always had to be on their best behavior and avoid mindless brutality during Malagard's regime, for she maintained a strict "questions first, torture later" policy.
Were Malagard to be knowingly or unknowingly disrespected or outright attacked, she would lay waste to the citadel, razing the fortress and all within it. A similar fate could be expected for inhabitants who failed to remain vigilant of the stresses in the bronze, for Malagard would come with her flaming sword to correct their mistakes. Both these things had happened more than once, and in truth, whether by her own negligence or misplaced effort, Malagard allowed the remaining strongholds to fall into disrepair.
During her rule, Malbolge's resident devils consisted of spined devils, bearded devils, and ice devils, with the rare pit fiends being the commanders of the copper fortresses. Moloch had left behind a vast army of devils and hell hounds that ceaselessly moved across the layer, and there was a fire giant presence during her reign. But in terms of dukes, the Hag Countess's regime was somewhat lacking.
Lilith and Bethage both returned to the court of Baalzebul when Moloch fell, the fate of Herobaal was unclear, (though he may have gone to tempt individuals on the mortal plane) and anyone loyal to Moloch was banished or destroyed. Reports varied on whether Bileth and Tartach returned to Baalzebul, stayed with Malagard, or did some combination of both, (though in Tartach's case, even if he did remain with the hag he was even less faithful to her than Moloch). Malagard was only too happy to keep the spymaster Beleth on her side, for she was terrified that the other forces of the Hells would team up against her, the only non-devil Lord of the Nine. No unique devils rose to dukedom under her.
Meanwhile, Moloch wasted little time preparing to return, spending centuries amassing an army of devils, monsters, and mortal followers to take back Malbolge. It almost seemed as if he would succeed, but when he was making the final preparations for the invasion, he ventured to a world on the Material Plane in search of an artifact to ensure his success. This would not have been a problem, save for the fact that the Stone of Corbinet, which he needed to re-enter the Nine Hells, was stolen from him, leaving him trapped on the plane he hated even before he was banished. His armies were left leaderless on the eve of his would-be triumph, and quickly crushed by Malagard's superior forces.
===Death of the Hag===
Malagard, having witnessed Asmodeus's power firsthand, always stayed out of infernal politics for the most part, leaving Baalzebul and Mephistopheles to such folly. However, that was not to say she was not ambitious; she craved power in the Nine Hells to the point she became troubling to the other Lords of the Nine. Rather, the Countess simply sought a different path to power than most in Baator: godhood. Malagard knew that archdevils were not truly gods, and invested her time searching for a way to ascend herself, such as by investigating the god corpses of the Astral Plane to try and determine the essence of divinity. 
Malagard spent several years amassing souls for a ritual to finally achieve her coveted apotheosis; But before her plot could finally bear fruit, something went wrong. Some reports suggested she had lost favor with Asmodeus, who struck her down in a fit of pique. Other versions of events framed Glasya as the murderer of Malagard, and the witch's death as Glasya's victory over her rival. It was theorized that exiled Geryon meddled in the process somehow. And in other versions still, the attempt was unwise, foolish, or aborted, and the hag simply suffered a bizarre death. No matter the truth, the results would soon become clear.
One morning, around 1353 DR, Malagard had just dodged a boulder and slew a displeasing lemure when she collapsed to the floor in shrieking, spasming pain. Before she rolled off the layer, the land began to convulse itself, the earth quaking and the tunnels turning inside out. Only then did the realm that Malagard had come to command absolutely grip her by her wrists and ankles as she suffered a transformation even more destructive than its own. Malagard swelled and bloated without ceasing, her body haphazardly expanding to unbelievable size as an unknown force used it as the foundation for a new kind of terrain.
The hag's skull ballooned to the size of a citadel, her bones bent and popped free of her flesh, and her body burst to release a torrent of filth upon Malbolge. Her arching ribs became like mountain ranges that encircled and loomed over the entire layer, and her finger bones rose up as white towers. The slopes of Malbolge shifted and her innards became buried beneath them, forming a new maze of twisting tunnels, while her organs burst into lakes of bile and gore. Her gray hairs transformed into greasy trees and her teeth sank into the ground, becoming inexhaustible sources of ivory. Throughout the entire process, Malagard screamed, her tortured wails echoing across the land long after she should have been dead. And as the process concluded, and the survivors gathered to gaze upon this new landscape, another lord entered the picture.
It was unclear exactly why Asmodeus decided to give his daughter Malbolge, although many had come to the conclusion he had planned the deed out long ago. Many had come to believe Malagard was never meant to be anything more than a vulnerable placeholder, a figurehead to hold Malbolge until such time that the two resolved their differences and Glasya was ready to claim it herself. It would also explain why he cast down loyal Geryon and tolerated the troublemaking of his replacement Levistus, to hide his intent regarding Glasya and to use the power that would have gone to Levistus on her instead.
On the other hand, it was possible Malbolge went to Glasya as Asmodeus's own form of punishment. He had long endured her stirring up problems and intentionally undermining him, and she even went so far as to establish Hell's first crime syndicate, made worse by the fact that her fraud was entirely legal. It might have been the case that, in lieu of punishing her for lawbreaking, he decided to discipline her by making her an archdevil. By making her warden she ironically became a prisoner, saddled with responsibilities and a layer to rule to keep her ambitions in check; forcing her to collect souls through legal dealings was done perhaps both for the irony and the extra burden. It was entirely possible that Glasya's rise to rule Malbolge was part of one of their masterful schemes or a complete accident on one or both of their parts.
Regardless of who was trying to make it happen, both Glasya and Asmodeus were quick to seize upon the vacuum that had appeared in the hierarchy of the Hells. Glasya gathered her forces and abandoned her scheme to steal Maladomini, inviting Tartach to join her along the way. A golden palanquin held aloft by winged devils floated up from the layer below, and Glasya, lounging on its silken pillows, declared herself the new Lord of the Sixth. Malagard's most loyal lieutenants were crushed or fell to their deaths during Malbolge's metamorphosis, and so only her chancellor, the paeliryon Axacrusis, dared to challenge Glasya's presence. Glasya nonchalantly sashayed forth, presented a letter of authority from Asmodeus confirming her title, and demanded Axacrusis disembowel itself; their innards would be devoured for years to come.
No other archdevil dared to challenge Glasya's rule despite her newcomer status, even if they hated her. Since the Reckoning their personal legions had been vastly reduced, and none were willing to risk a second Reckoning just to claim Malbolge. Furthermore, any attack against her could be construed as an attack against Asmodeus himself and invoke the full fury of the King of the Nine Hells. Asmodeus's plans were for his daughter remained unclear, but in any event Malbolge was hers. Thus began the reign of Glasya.
===Reign of the Princess===
Upon Malagard's death, Malbolge became a place of corrupt growth and disturbing decay, the entire layer having been infecting by the essence of the Hag Countess's rotting cadaver. The layer was abundant in bloated, terrible life, while those that died upon its cancerous ground were absorbed for nourishment in the most horrid way. Any in contact with its physical elements at the time, including its vegetation, buildings, or water, might be grasped by tendrils that drained flesh and blood and replaced it with Malbolge's own diabolical substance. Unless restored to full health with healing magic, the unfortunates would die while their bodies and souls remained trapped in Malbolge, driven to madness by unspeakable agony.
Glasya did not keep Malbolge in this hideous state, instead deciding to decorate her new home using the best materials at hand: the rotting remains of the Hag Countess herself. She remade Malbolge, turning it into a beautiful garden like it was in the distant past. But everything about this alien garden, aligned with Glasya's aesthetic vision, reflected her twisted outlook and corrupt spirit. Just as Glasya was as vile as she was comely, Malbolge was a place of aching beauty juxtaposed by horrific ugliness, a place that inspired one to recoil from corruption and dive into it at the same time.
Malbolge became a realm of illusion and inveiglement, fair at a glance, but unable to truly hide the decay, despair, and danger upon closer inspection. Its beauty was purely superficial, and its enchanting atmosphere was betrayed by the faint, permeating smell of rot. The autumnal trees were brown and twisted, their roots grasping, and any fruit they produced liable to explode and shower those below in caustic juices. Lovely fields hosted fragrant flowers, but the plants were bloated and oozing, and the aroma brought with it drugged sleep and nightmares. The shimmering ponds and rivers of the garden were pools of poisonous water and even the rocks were crumbling.
Between the dead forests and meadows was the civilization of Malbolge, which shared the hidden profanity of its nature. Ruined palaces and forsaken pavilions dotted the landscape. The beautiful white cities and towers were charnel houses with corpses impaled upon the battlements. Glasya's own capital was lavishly furnished with the finest of Hell's treasures and raised from the skull and bones of the Countess. Most of her minions came to dwell in the innards, hunting damned souls and other devils (including other servants of Glasya) for sport.
Moloch managed to work his way back into the Nine Hells after his previous defeat, having managed to insinuate himself with the outcast nobles of Avernus, and was noted to be working towards taking Baator for himself. His last rumored presence in Malbolge during its corrupted state was imprisonment beneath the fortress Slag, perhaps suffering the fate of his gold-coated victims.
===Return to Form===
Malbolge's verdant landscape concealed much of what came before, but that's exactly what it did: conceal. Glasya's influence and magic reshaped the surface, but below the environment that was once on top still existed. Beyond the writhing grass and poisonous nettles were monolithic shards and beneath the soft soil and tangled roots were tunnels formed by the jagged boulders.
Also of note in this realm were the kalabons, pieces of Malagard's flesh that retained fragments of her memory. Trapped in a state of torment, they tore themselves free of the landscape and sought out others of their kind to rebuild the Countess, but were denied this by Glasya. As such, they simply awaited in agony the day they could finally restore Malagard to her former self. 
Regardless of their failure or success, and despite Glasya taking special efforts to ensure what was left of the hag continued to suffer, Malbolge would not stay on the brink of decay forever. By the late 15 century it returned to its mountainous, boulder-wracked state.
===Recent History===
One of the traps in the Dungeon of the Ruins transported those who entered a certain room to a barren mountainside in Malbolge.
On Hammer 10 of 1487 DR, Glasya sent forces from Malbolge, led by a pit fiend named Khartach, to help ensure a ritual to divide the gods Asmodeus and Azuth would succeed, if only to maintain her own power. The infernal legions were sent to help the forces of Thymari against a summoned horde of demons and help the Chosen of the gods achieve their mission.
At one point in the late 15 century, the Chosen of the strife god Cyric, Elisande, was trapped in Malbolge by the night hag Tal’Kandelagrag before managing to escape into the Abyss with the help of adventurers.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===Appearances===
:;Card Games
::Blood Wars
===References===
===Connections===
Category:Locations in the Nine Hells
Category:Locations in the Great Wheel planes
Category:Locations in the World Axis planes
Category:Locations in the Outer Planes
Category:Locations in the Lower Planes