ECOLOGY

Environment any (Hell)
Organization solitary
Treasure double standard

His appearance is always appealing, with subtle illusory alterations that differ from viewer to viewer. The Herald is not aware of the specifics of his appearance to other creatures, though he may alter specifics as per the spell alter self. This is an illusion that is in effect anytime he is not using his terror ability, and grants him a +8 racial modifier on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks. Should a creature be able to see past the illusion, the Herald does not gain this racial modifier on opposed checks against that creature. An infernal paradox at once wondrous and terrifying, tempting and blasphemous, the entity called the Herald of Hell serves as the harbinger of Hell’s will. Few who have faced the messenger of the Lord of Hell survive the experience unchanged, for he is the very word of Hell. Typically appearing as a youth of stunning beauty and of the same race as those who look upon him—even when appearing before those of multiple races—little in the herald’s comely appearance, finery, or proud bearing sets him apart from the vainglorious princes of countless mortal nations. In his radiant eyes, though, dance hellfire flames and a hint of the power he bears himself and often offers. To encounter the Herald is to know the interest or ire of the lord of Hell himself. Like his master, the herald knows no love for mortalkind, striving only to fulfill the worlds-spanning master schemes of the Lord of Hell and draw souls into the grip of Hell by the legion. As such, he most often serves as an envoy between his lord and other deities and extraplanar figures of note, rarely deigning to set foot upon the raucous and uncouth Material Plane. When his master’s will dictates he travel to the mortal realm, though, his words bear all the weight of Hell, and typically offer temptations few souls can hope to refuse. Occasionally his master bids him answer the summons of the few mortals who hold the Lord of Hell’s favor, but even these forays typically prove subtle steps toward some greater infernal goal.

In his humanoid form, the Herald appears as a 6-foot tall mortal of surprising but unnatural beauty, with a languid voice like warm wine over silk. Although typically of male gender, this is not always the case, though he always appears before his lord in masculine form. Much of his form is an illusion, though, and a highly subjective illusion at that. Those who can see past the Herald’s shrouds of innate deception find a human-like figure resembling the idealized form he presents, though still appearing somehow hollow.

Yet even after his past heralds’ march of disappointments, the Lord of Hell holds the Herald as the most perfect of all his emissaries, for rather than elevating the messenger from among the ranks of his diabolical legions, the lord of Hell personally crafted his servant to meet his every expectation. An infernal automaton of sorts, Hell’s herald is a being zealously devoted to the Lord of Hell, even beyond the allegiances of devilkind, archdevils, or the Pit itself. Many among Hell’s infernal hierarchy have whispered of their lord’s herald’s true nature, suggesting that he is a terrible amalgam, drawn from the painwracked nightmares of past emissaries; a being shaped from the deepest proto-stuff of Hell itself; or even a vaporous being distilled from a measure of Hell’s collective suffering. Regardless, the ever-changing physical nature the herald and his unwavering loyalty to his master are widely known throughout the planes and beyond.

On the Material Plane, the Herald has become a legend in his own right. Although rarely visiting the worlds of the mortal realm, wherever he treads he takes the form of the greatest terror of the age. Such leads to highly varied reports of the herald’s form and nature, even among the Lord of Hell’s worshipers, and the confusion and apprehension seem to please both the Herald and his master greatly. Among the his lord’s enemies, the Herald is a thousand horrors known by a thousand names.