Empyreal Lord, General of Vengeance

This towering angelic general has five wings of fire, a flaming bastard sword, and resplendent golden armor.

ECOLOGY

Environment any (Heaven)
Organization solitary (unique)
Treasure triple (+5 evil-outsider–bane flaming burst holy bastard sword, +5 full plate, other treasure)

The General of Vengeance is the son of the archdevil Dispater and a demigoddess of flame. He rejected his father’s evil, losing his sixth wing to the archdevil’s wrath, and escaped to Heaven, where he spent several millennia attempting to prove himself to the heavenly hosts and the other empyreal lords. Though many empyreal lords still find him far more bloodthirsty than they would prefer, the many centuries have proven the General of Vengeance’s honor, loyalty, and determination time and again, and the other empyreal lords have come to trust his word completely.

Now the General of Vengeance leads the war against Hell as the General of Vengeance. He is not content to plan from the sidelines and allow his forces to succeed or fail on the strength of his strategies alone. Instead, he leads by example from the forefront of his army, a shining figure of golden flame daring any foe to confront him and hewing through the ranks of devils to create a vulnerable area in the otherwise perfect infernal formation where his own armies then strike.

Thus far, his strategy has served him well, as the archdevils prefer self-preservation to risking themselves in a direct confrontation with the General of Vengeance—but it won’t take too many more successful forays before Barbatos moves to take decisive action, possibly bolstered by the forces of the General of Vengeance’s father, Dispater.

The General of Vengeance’s domain is a magnificent, towering fortress of steel and silver that stands upon the lower slopes of Heaven.

The domain is simply named the General of Vengeance’s Fortress, as the General of Vengeance has no use for a fancier appellation.

There is beauty to be found in the fortress’s design, but it is the sort of beauty and elegance of design and functionality that would be lauded by engineers and military tacticians, rather than artists and poets; the General of Vengeance specifically built his fortress to withstand a thousand-year siege and prevent ingress into Heaven for that entire duration, even by hosts of enemies that, like most evil outsiders, have access to teleportation magic.

The General of Vengeance’s Faith

The General of Vengeance’s worshipers number among them crusading knights and soldiers for justice, as well as oath-takers and those who have been grievously wronged by evil and now seek righteous vengeance. His followers must deal with the fundamental paradox of his faith: unlike those who worship forgiving empyreal lords, the General of Vengeance’s chosen fight against evil foes unwaveringly and usually without offering second chances, and yet the General of Vengeance rose to his place from the depths of Hell itself. Most worshipers don’t see this as hypocrisy but rather as a sign that the impetus for redemption must come from the former sinner, and even then not merely as an excuse to escape punishment for their sins. Thus, they don’t take the initiative to offer opportunities for redemption to evildoers, but they listen carefully, if skeptically, to any who come seeking such a chance. For his part, the General of Vengeance empathizes with the moral dilemmas of his followers, as he constantly struggles with his own darker impulses. Thus, while he is unforgiving to his foes, he is particularly forgiving when it comes to lapses of judgment from his followers, allowing a wrathful paladin atonement when others might not. Certain other faiths are quick to interpret this willingness to “bend the rules” for certain circumstances involving paladins who, perhaps, go too far in pursuing their faith’s goals as weakness in the General of Vengeance, and worry that there may be a little too much of his diabolic father lingering in his veins. The General of Vengeance has little need for pomp and circumstance in his worship, favoring utilitarian places like battlegrounds, fortresses, and war rooms as sacred spaces.

The General of Vengeance’s holy symbol is a bastard sword across a crimson wing. His favored weapon is the bastard sword.

His clerics have access to the domains of Destruction, Good, Law, and Nobility, and the subdomains of Archon, Judgment, Martyr, and Rage.