(Thus the elven poet Suntithis famously describes the legions of Hell as the “eight infinities,” which may have inspired Aternicus to describe the apotheosis of Asmodeus as the “infinite betrayal, born eight times in blood.”) Let’s simply say “countless legions” and you can decide how much hyperbole is involved with that, if any. Some scholars cite a specific number (one hundred or one thousand or six hundred and sixty-six are popular choices) others claim there are hundreds, thousands, or even an infinite number of legions. There are eight blood legions – cruor legio – each commanded by one of the Dark Eight, the generals who serve the Archduke of Avernus.Įach blood legion is made up of an incredibly large number of individual legions. In which case you could literally go Byzantine, by drawing inspiration from Byzantine military titles and the like. If you want to add a lot of byzantine complexity, you might hypothesize that different blood legions use different org-charts (in, say, the fashion of the United States Army and Navy). But if you’re looking to expand upon these ideas, you might look there for further inspiration. Rome’s own military was reorganized countless times during its hundreds of years of history, and we’re not trying to accurately model the Roman military in any case. In my personal canon, the Legions of Hell are logically descended from the Legions of Heaven (because Asmodeus brought that military command with him when he betrayed Heaven to conquer Hell), which is why you’ll see broadly similar ranks in, for example, flashbacks to the Averniad.ĭesign Note: Our org-chart here takes inspiration from the legions of Rome, primarily because it provides a Latinate patina that feels stylistically appropriate for Heaven and Hell. What I’m looking to establish here is a broad framework that will keep us oriented and consistent, while providing clear guideposts for improvising during play.

Whenever the current system doesn’t quite work right for your current adventure… add an exception.

Create two exceptions: One grandfathered in from some other system.

Create a system that makes perfect sense.

Random Worldbuilding: Creating Noble Titles suggested a three-step process that will probably be useful to remember here:

And this is Hell itself - a fiendish bureaucracy with a legacy of aeons.

In reality, any military with have dozens of minute distinctions within and countless exceptions to systems like this. My goal with these notes is not to be hyper-detailed or encyclopedic. In designing the Remix, I eventually reached the point where it felt necessary to actually nail down some of the details of how Hell’s military is organized. With Zariel’s story at the heart of Descent Into Darkness, the legions of Hell play a significant part in the campaign.

Dark legions remix