In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the Blood War is an eternal conflict between the fiends of the Lower planes. The Tanar'ri are the demonic forces of the Abyss, an evil plane of chaos. Representing the equally evil but lawful realm of Baator are the Baatezu, the dominant caste of devilkin. Neutral evil Yugoloths play both sides against the other. The Blood War has raged on since the Age Before Ages, a dark time when the Prime Material Plane had not fully developed. The conflict is massive, spanning entire planes of reality, and hosting an almost infinite number of fiends.
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The Blood War concept was introduced as part of the new background for the outer planes in 1991's Monstrous Compendium Volume Outer Planes Appendix. The conflict is revealed as a bitter war of annihilation between the baatezu race and the tanar'ri; an absolute, all encompassing, and virtually eternal struggle.[1]
The Blood War was thoroughly detailed in various books throughout the Planescape setting, particularly the 1996 boxed set Hellbound: The Blood War.
The 4th edition of D&D's Manual of the Planes updated the Blood War into a smoldering cold war that was formerly an all-out war.
No one in the outer planes seems to have any real notion of what started the Blood War. The yugoloths like to entertain the notion that the War is their own personal experiment into the nature of evil, one which they created and will ultimately end on their own terms. Other fiends have their own notions about the war, colored by their particular alignments and racial propaganda. Some demons and devils seem to believe that their respective races could actually gain control over the other. However, the most powerful archdukes of Hell and the most cunning princes of the Abyss pay the Blood War little concern.
Many lesser fiends actually embrace the War because it staves away the cosmic boredom of being ageless. A few races survive on the carnage the Blood War produces; the armanites, centaur-like tanar'ri, must constantly battle with other creatures because otherwise they will turn on one another; the molydei are another race of demons who prowl the Abyss, searching for deserters or rogue demons, whom they press-gang into fighting. Certain creatures are bred by other fiends exclusively for the Blood War, including the Nessian war hounds and the milvorn. The yugoloths are given purpose by the Blood War; constantly shifting from one side to the other, they as a race gain much of their wealth and power from the spoils of war and the high price of their services, though some (including the yugoloths themselves) believe this is simply a facade over older and darker motivations.
The fiendish codex Hordes of the Abyss dictates that the Blood War is a simple offshoot of the primordial wars between law and chaos. The demons and devils (in keeping with their sadistic and violent natures) simply would not cease their fight, even after the rest of the multiverse had grown more tolerant.[2]
However, the fiendish codex Tyrants of the Nine Hells claims a different perspective on the origins of the Blood war. The mythologies in the codex claim that the seeds of the Blood War lay in the cradle of the cosmos itself; "In the beginning- and even before- chaos was all that existed. Out of it came demons- the living manifestations of chaos...". It claims that the chaos was intolerable to the universe, and thus Law arose to fight it. Initially, the primordial lords of order battled the demons themselves, however after inventing numbers and time, they came to understand the demons were infinite in number. Knowing this, they grew weary of endless conflict, and yearned to build worlds and foster races. Thus, they created winged warriors dubbed (in later terms) 'angels' to fight the demons for them. The bravest, toughest and fiercest angels were headed by one named 'Asmodeus'. They were the champions of combat and killed far more demons than even their masters. However, as the eons wore on, to better combat the demons Asmodeus and his angels took on some of the fierce and terrible traits of the Demons. Soon they were ugly, monstrous, barbed, and armoured beings of combat, and the other angels and gods shunned them. Rightly pointing out that they were merely fulfilling their duties, indeed superbly, legally Asmodeus and his kindred could not be banished. In a series of events that eventually led to the pact primeval, Asmodeus and his angels, now dubbed 'Devils', were either granted (or exiled to, depending on perspective) a realm of their own to take the unpleasant combat of what was essentially the blood war away from the realms of pure Law which held no concept of Good or Evil. This realm was Baator, the nine hells, and thus formed the 'Blood War'.[3]
The second Fiendish Codex suggests that this baatorian perspective may include a great deal of historical revisionism and propaganda.[3] The devils' mythology conveniently omits that the plane of Baator was not an empty plane when they arrived there, and in fact they conquered its original inhabitants, the Ancient Baatorians.
Despite millennia after millennia of constant strife, no side has yet been able to gain a definitive, permanent advantage over the other. Despite their vast differences, the tanar'ri and the baatezu are surprisingly balanced combatants on the fields of the Blood War. The chaotic denizens of the Abyss, while far more numerous than the devils, are, true to their alignment, constantly warring amongst themselves. They can contest the might of the Nine Hells only through sheer individual power, and their seemingly limitless, if unorganized and uncoordinated supply of warriors. The baatezu, on the other hand, deploy smaller numbers onto the field, but their warriors are regimented, well-trained and well-disciplined, all the while making incredible use of their generals' ruthless strategies. This violent balance could keep the Blood War fueled for an indefinite period of time
One thing, however, is certain: were one side able to eliminate all opposition, and thus gain control over the entirety of the Lower Planes, the multiverse as a whole would be in great danger. With no enemies left in the Lower Planes, the fiendish rulers could then turn their attentions towards other worlds and planes, and it is likely that no force could hope to stop them. Even the celestial beings of the Upper Planes, formidable as they are, could face destruction at the hands of the tanar'ri or the baatezu, weighed down as their alignments demand by the needs of good and justice—the fiends, having no such compunctions or scruples, could easily use the celestials' morality against them. In the past, agents of the heavenly races have even planted powerful weapons or artifacts among the ranks of the demons or the devils. This appears to be a reliable indicator that even the beings of the Upper Planes do not want the war to end
There is a prophecy that says that the Blood War will end when the Crawling City, a city on the plane of Gehenna that is home to millions of Yugoloths, directly enters the Blood War.[4]
4th Edition's Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide states that Asmodeus killed the power Azuth and consumed his divine essence. He then proceeded to use this power to push the Abyss to the bottom of the Elemental Chaos, thus ending the Blood War with the victory of the Devils (Law). Some question this, though, saying that Asmodeus didn't win the war, but rather ran from it, since the Demons weren't destroyed or enslaved, just "pushed out of the way". Regardless, this explanation only applies to the Forgotten Realms setting; the default 4th edition books are vague as to the Blood War's status, and as a Forgotten Realms deity, Azuth was not present in these.
The Dark Eight are a coven of pit fiend generals who reside on the Ninth Layer of Hell, Nessus. They plot and strategize the movements of Hell's armies. Bel, Lord of the First Layer, was once a mighty leader on the battlefields of the War, and now uses his influence with the Dark Eight to retain control of Avernus.
Baltazo, a grotesque minor demon lord, was also a mighty general in the Blood War, but has since retired to the Plane of Infinite Portals, while the female demon lord J’zzalshrak, called The Errant General, has Blood War campaigns as her portfolio.
Interestingly, the greatest powers of the Nine Hells and the Abyss do not take an active role in the Blood War. The sole exception from Baator is Bel, Lord of Avernus. The mighty pit fiend has strong ties to the Dark Eight, the pit fiend generals who oversee all of Hell's involvement in the War; this relationship keeps the relatively weak Bel safe from the other archdukes. The mightiest demon princes, such as Orcus, Graz'zt, and Demogorgon, constantly war with each other within the Abyss, and have little concern for the Nine Hells. Asmodeus himself builds a mighty force of devils within his fortress of Malsheem in wait of a cataclysmic battle he claims will dwarf the Blood War.