Ecology of the Yugbugs (Patreon)

Okay, I've been putting this off long enough. We're gonna make yugoloths into something interesting and fun and distinct from devils or demons. Here's my pitch for an underlying lore for them that unifies as much previous material as possible into something sort of coherent.

Origin: Yugoloths are a race of calcified protosouls from the same pre-multiverse as the obyriths, who escaped bound within the sarcophagus-ark of Gehenna, which the present planescape was grown around. They were discovered by the baernoloths, who with the aid of the Yugola Night-Coven enshrined those souls in new bodies.

Nature and Purpose: Now returned to the cycle of life, dead yugoloths reincarnate as soul larva, eventually growing into mezzoloths. The many successors to the Yugola Coven still manufacture cauldronborn bodies for yugoloths, however, which are distributed through rent-auctions in which yugoloths bid the rates they are willing to pay to pilot that body for a set period of time. The coven destroys most of the wealth they bring in this way, because the exploitation and endless precarity is its own purpose; yugoloths were made to suffer because night hags are just nasty like that. Yugoloths also serve a key role in keeping the Blood War in a state of constant unresolved escalation, which was the baernoloths' ultimate goal for their creation.

Society: Basically all yugoloths are in immediate danger of debt-slavery. They're always scheming to indebt or extort each other in one way or another, and once in debt they are pushed to seek progressively more lucrative (and therefore more expensive/dangerous/unpleasant) opportunities. Many become mercenaries because nothing pays as well. They need to rent a form they can't quite afford for the chance to bring in enough money to cover their debts. They're always broke no matter how rich they get, because they don't just need to be rich, they need to be richer than all the other yugoloths bidding for their body. If their debts catch up to them, their creditors can transfer them to servile, bestial canoloth forms or exorcise them entirely. With very few exceptions, yugoloths at every level of society are one or two missed paydays away from a debt spiral that will put them into a particularly terrible form of destitution and slavery. They have to advance, because without advancement they'll never get ahead of the interest.

Hierarchy: Yugoloth society is hierarchical, but extremely fluid. Companies (or their investors) hire managers/commanders based on perceived return, but bodies come with aptitudes and knowledge, and bodies cost money, so practically speaking higher-caste bodies generally fill higher-caste positions. There is extreme social mobility, in that a yugoloth of virtually any status can (and is likely to) fall from grace, though few enough of the coveted higher forms exist that most yugoloths will never make it to those upper echelons before falling into destitution themselves.

Personality: Yugoloths are cloyingly friendly, transparently desperate, and shamelessly opportunistic. They fully expect that today's enemy is tomorrow's employer (and vice versa), and will try to impress/ingratiate you or pitch you something even while they're actively killing you. They will double-cross you, then turn right around and try to sell you their Deluxe Triple-Cross package (with Quadruple-Cross Protection Plan included!). They don't hold grudges, but they'll pretend to if there's a way to get paid for it. They've all got side hustles and grifts and get rich quick schemes. They think you're an NPC, and struggle to imagine you're capable of a rich inner life. They're generally easy marks for exactly the kinds of schemes they trick others with.

History: Yugoloths often take credit for the creation of all other fiends. That's mostly untrue, but not entirely. The Yugola Coven sold the cauldron-waste and defective souls from their creation process as raw materials to the obyriths, from which they created the first tanar'ri, intending to create a servitor race modeled after the canoloths. Fueled by the raw chaos unbound by the obyriths' shard of evil, the tanar'ri mutated and spread out of control and all but annihilated their creators. Later Asmodeus, in his war to annihilate He Who Was and conquer Baator, enlisted yugoloth mercenaries, one of whom was the ultroloth known as The General of Gehenna. The General sold Asmodeus his troops and the secrets of their creation, and from them Asmodeus created the first Baatezu legions with which he eventually prevailed. This closely-held secret is what allows merrenoloths to flaunt many of the restrictions on infernal travel, though nominally the reason is that the Styx is formally considered to be a part of Hades within infernal law.

Evil: Demons will torment and kill you because its great fun. Devils will do it because you deserve it, and because it's their sacred right and duty to be the ones that do it to you. Yugoloths are a bit different; they don't recognize you as a person at all, they just think you look better when you're having a bad time. A yugoloth will ruin your life like you might adjust a crooked painting; there was just something a little bit wrong about you being happy, and they've fixed it. They can be cruel or malicious when dealing with each other and with other fiends, but killing a prime is like killing a fictional character - it's a question of aesthetics, not morality.

Mezzoloths

Dhergoloths