Diabolus

Originating on a distant plane, the Diaboli appear to many humanoid cultures as nightmares incarnate. They have
dispersed across the infinite planes as much to spread their creed of benevolent chaos as to escape the rampant horrors
of an invading reality.

Note: The Diaboli's description assumes the existence of two unusual places in your campaign's cosmology:
The Far Realm: First introduced in The Gates of Firestorm Peak and frequently mentioned elsewhere (most recently in
DRAGON #330), the Far Realm is a place of unimaginable chaos and insanity. Many of the creatures that live within the
Far Realm have seemingly random anatomies—often with masses of wriggling tentacles or wholly alien appendages.
Lovecraftian in character, the Far Realm is a veiled and unknowable parallel existence outside the Great Wheel from
which maddening horrors and malignant intelligences seek to wreak their immortal plots upon the unsuspecting planes.
The Region of Dreams: Introduced as an alternative plane in the Manual of the Planes, the Region of Dreams does not
exist in the core cosmology of the Great Wheel. With your DM's permission, you can add the Region of Dreams as a plane
coterminous with the Material Plane and whatever Transitive, Inner, or Outer Planes you desire. Like EBERRON'S Dal
Quor, the Region of Dreams is where the consciousness goes when a creature dreams.

Origin.
Diaboli hail from a demiplane just slightly out of phase with the rest of the multiverse. Called by humanoids the
Demiplane of Nightmares, this realm borders coterminously with the Region of Dreams and the Ethereal Plane.
Unfortunately for the Diaboli and the creatures that share their frightening home, the boundaries between their reality
and those of the Far Realm—a place that exists outside of reality from which pseudonatural creatures originate—seem
particularly thin. As such, the maddeningly chaotic taint of the Far Realm constantly seeps into the Demiplane of
Nightmares like a breached dam trickling water.

Adventurers.
Most Diaboli dislike violence and attempt to live their lives as peacefully as possible. Those who do take up the dangers
of adventuring do so for several reasons. Many find themselves thrust into violence to defend their homes from fearful
humanoids who raid and slaughter them. Others take up the trident in order to forcefully hold back the taint of the Far
Realm that constantly threatens to seep into both their native demiplane and their adopted homeworlds. Finally, a few
Diaboli turn to violence for the same selfish or exalted reasons as humans: wealth, power, guardianship, love, lust, or an
unquenchable hope that they can make a better world for their children.

However, Diaboli innately fear most humans and humanoids they meet and find the forms of such creatures repulsive.
For their part, many humans and humanoids feel the same way about Diaboli. Only rarely do the two groups put aside
their revulsion of one another and make attempts to communicate and trade. Even after the Diaboli and native
humanoids set up peaceful lines of communication, a tension always exists between two such groups. At worst, this
quiet unease leads to cool but respectful meetings, but even at best a gathering of Diaboli and humanoids brings about
an air of extreme politeness, as if both sides fear insulting or otherwise provoking the other.

Adventurers from both sides often make the initial steps of peaceful communication—many find it difficult not to
befriend those with whom they frequently face lethal dangers. Because they themselves often live at the fringe of their
societies, adventurers often judge a companion not by appearance but by competence, and most Diaboli adventurers
prove quite competent.

Culture
On their home demiplane, the Diaboli act much as humans do on the Material Plane: they farm, hunt, build villages and
towns, interact peacefully with some of the creatures they share their home with, and they violently oppose others.
Some Diaboli become philosophers of renown, while others skulk the dark alleyways waiting for their next mark.

As such, they also possess a wide variety of personalities. Unlike humans, however, the great majority of Diaboli live
chaotic, disorderly lives. The spectrum of personalities exhibited by Diaboli is therefore somewhat narrower than that of
humans, but still much wider in its possibilities than most other Material Plane humanoids. Diaboli generally reflect only
the gentler, less frightening aspects of chaos in their personalities. Many reflect this chaos with extreme absent-
mindedness, mild to severe mood swings, wild bouts of creativity, and generally mercurial natures.

Diaboli have a unifying belief in the superiority of anarchy. They build their societies around the belief that since they
cannot provably define any one form of government as better than any other they must simply live without
governments. Despite their chaotic natures, Diaboli strongly believe in traditions and ancient mores that continue to
maintain their societies. Along with these strong and repeatedly proven customs, Diaboli hold together their otherwise
free-willed societies with a mixture of traditions, taboos, customs, and a strong sense of fair play. "Do what thou wilt but
harm none" unifies the Diaboli and acts as the great truth from which all traditions and taboos grow.

Societies of Diaboli on the Material Plane seem at once both oddly familiar and strangely disconcerting. They build their
villages in a haphazard manner, seemingly without any consideration for the defense of structures— much less with an
eye toward moving around effectively between the buildings. Their buildings resemble ruins, with beams and timbers
protruding at odd angles from leaning stone walls. Various colors of paint cover random areas of the structures,
camouflaging them somewhat from a distance.
While Diaboli martial technology lags well behind the civilized races of the Material Plane, their more cerebral aspects of
culture far exceed those of most races. They spare no amount of energy or wealth developing advanced forms of
philosophy and art. Most Diaboli promote a level of tolerance and generosity far more liberal and welcoming than any
Material Plane humanoid race, with the sole exception of their attitude toward humans, whom they detest above all
others. The Diaboli view humans as hideous devils or demons in much the same way that humans view them.

Because interaction with the dangerous and unpredictable Far Realm is becoming increasingly frequent, the Diaboli
constantly develop techniques to combat the corrupting taint of that frightening plane. Many sages suggest the Diaboli's
losing battle against the encroaching taint of the Far Realm causes their immigration to the Material Plane. While some
Diaboli still live in the Region of Dreams, most have emigrated to the various worlds of the Material Plane as well as the
Ethereal and Astral Planes.

Language
Diaboli speak their own language, Diabolan. Diabolan words make frequent use of harsh, guttural hisses and the unique
physiologic structure of the Diaboli's forked tongue. While not difficult to learn, most humanoids of the Material Plane
find mastery of Diabolan impossible. Most words in Diabolan contain soft "f" "s," "th," and "z" sounds. Many Diaboli also
learn to communicate simple ideas by twirling and positioning their tails in a sort of elaborate code. The purely visual
Diaboli tail code can convey even complicated concepts, but it takes roughly twice as long to express something in the
Diaboli tail code as in any spoken language. Any creature may learn Diaboli tail code, although only creatures with tails
of their own can "speak" it.

Most Diaboli who make the journey from their plane learn to speak Abyssal first, as their forked tongues can most easily
form the words of that language. This leads to the belief that an inherent evilness exists within Diaboli society. A
Diabolus who speaks Common does so with a thick, snakelike accent.

Names.
Chaos influences all aspects of Diaboli life, including their naming patterns— whatever inscrutable patterns they might
actually take. For the most part, Diaboli have between two and four names, although some only bear one moniker and
others might claim as many as twelve. No discernable convention exists for determining how many different names a
Diabolus might possess. Like humans, Diaboli maintain a wide spectrum of names they use. Male Diaboli names typically
contain more consonants than female Diaboli names. Even that "rule" lacks any sort of reliable application, however, as
many males have names with no consonant sounds at all.

Male Names: Fih, Hoshaaa, Rniboshog-krs, Krnthilakeh, Rskeglsth, Slom, Uayaeo.

The torso, arms, and head of a Diabolus have humanlike musculature and
structure, but its legs resemble those of a ram or goat. Diaboli also have long
tails that end in small barbs. Small vestigial horns rise from the top of a
Diabolus's head and its elflike pointed ears stick out at severe angles. A
Diabolus's hands appear humanlike except they lack a fifth small finger,
rather having three fingers and a thumb.
Diaboli skin color ranges from mauve and lavender to the deepest near-
black violets. In addition to skin color, Diaboli vary in the amount of hair they
can grow. Bare Diaboli grow no hair over the entirety of their bodies.
Common Diaboli grow white and silver hair just as humans do, and males
often wear long but well-groomed beards. Hirsute Diaboli also grow coarse,
white, goat-like hair from the waist down. Diaboli of all three types share
the same abilities; any differences among them form culturally. All Diaboli
have reptilian eyes ranging from angry reds to bright yellows. Their long tongues fork like those of snakes and provide
the Diaboli with similar olfactory clues. Wide, prominent noses dominate their faces.

Diabolus Traits.
Ability Score Increase. Your ability scores do not increase.
Age. The Diaboli
Alignment. A carefree chaos fills the hearts of Diaboli and they constantly seek to spread the joys of such
liberation among those with whom they interact. Freedom and spontaneity mark the lives of the Diaboli,
but they seldom force their gently chaotic beliefs on others. This love of freedom marks them as almost universally
chaotic good creatures.
Some drift from the benevolent aspects of chaos—becoming engulfed or driven to horrible acts by it—developing into
either chaotic neutral or chaotic evil. Those tiny few who forsake chaos for neutrality find themselves shunned and
exiled. Neither history nor folklore record any mention of a lawful Diabolus.
Size. Your size is medium. You’re about the same size as humans.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. Within 60 feet of you, you can see in dim light as if it were bright light and darkness as if it were dim
light. You cannot discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey.
Diaboli Tail Code. Many Diaboli also learn to communicate simple ideas by twirling and positioning their tails in
a sort of elaborate code. The purely visual Diaboli Tail Code can convey even complicated concepts, but it takes roughly
twice as long to express something in the Diaboli Tail Code as in any spoken language. Any creature that can see a
Diabolus using the Diaboli Tail Code may make a DC 10 Intelligence check to realize the Diabolus is attempting to
communicate. Any creature may learn Diaboli Tail Code, although only creatures with tails of their own can "speak" it.
Weapon Knowledge. You have proficiency with trident weapons.
Natural Intimidation. You have proficiency in the Intimidation skill.
Spell Resistance. You have advantage on all saving throws against spells and spell-like effects. Diaboli come
from a demiplane slightly out of phase with other planes, which gives them some resistance to magical effects.
Tail Slash. A Diabolus can make an attack with its tail (at a -5 penalty on the attack roll). This attack deals 1d4
points of damage and injects its target with a mild poison, DC10 + your Constitution modifier + your character level
halved. The poison's initial damage causes its victim to become poisoned until it makes a successful saving throw.
Languages. You can read, write, and speak Diabolan, either Abyssal or Infernal, and Common. Note: Non-PC
Diaboli do not know Common and may only know Diabolan.