Praetor
Praetors are demonic commanders and magistrates within a small corner of a fiefdom of a mighty archdevil or demon lord. Each commands small cohorts at their liege’s behest, raised from the denizens within the ever-shifting domains of Hell. Yoke Fiends muster at their command and Hell Knights, bound to blind obedience, bend their knees to these field commanders of Hell.
Though mortals who have seen a Praetor and lived to tell the tale often believe they have seen the very Devil himself, this is not so. In truth, Praetors are twisted bastard offspring of a beast, such as hyena or jackal, and a devil, granting each Praetor demonic cunning and bestial strength. However, due its lowly mortal blood it is not able to attain the important command positions, unless they show great strategic acumen or cruelty over long years of service.
Being a descendant of celestial beings, no matter how fallen and tarnished, each Praetor is a mighty being, towering over lesser creatures. They are born with four faces, matching the features of their angelic progenitors. The human-like face of each Praetor is then ripped away at birth by midwives of Lilith, both to scorn their divine heritage and to mock the Trinity, leaving them with three faces, each capable of independent thought and speech. Their three mouths weave a web of lies and hypnotic magic through their three voices that can speak of the same subject simultaneously, subtly twisting and corrupting its words as it makes false promises to those the Praetor wishes to lead into ruin. Their wings carry the likeness of their bestial broodmothers, with fanged mouths that vomit gore whenever human blood is spilled in the name of a Praetor. Such blood can then be used to power the Goetic magic it uses.
Despite their lowborn status in Hell’s hierarchy, Praetors are very useful to their masters. As they are partly born as creatures of natural order they can sneak into the mortal realm without breaking the Covenant of Hell which binds each rebel seraphim. Thus they can lead the hunting parties of the Court to plague Earth without triggering a direct confrontation with Heaven. Thus Court’s warbands are most often led by one of these blasphemous cambions as they hunt for their lord’s enemies, desecrate holy places, or seek to recover ancient relics from the time of the First Rebellion when fallen angels rained on earth like burning stars.
Some Praetors are great warriors, trained in the esoteric fighting pits of the Iron City of Dis, while others are schooled in the Goetic arts in the mighty Sorcerers’ basalt towers. This makes them very versatile and dangerous opponents, even though they can be slain in combat as part of their essence is tied to mortal flesh. Thus even though Praetors are treated with disrespect by the devils and lords who make up the Court, oftentimes they are gifted powerful weapons, talismans or armour so they can carry out their duties. In battle they wield ancient swords, wicked barbed polearms, or storied hunting rifles which are not subject to the laws of physics and time that YHWH has set. Strange artefacts and relics grant them terrible powers which amplify their Goetic magic.
If Praetors succeed in their tasks, they are sometimes granted boons from their lords, further enhancing their capabilities. If they fail though, they will be given into the hands of those the Praetor has delivered into the withering Hellfire, or even worse, turned into Hell Knights, their form crushed, broken and shunted into the black armoured suits where their broken forms must then serve other Praetors.
Some few are said to have performed some great deed in service of Inferno, and rewarded with Dark Apotheosis; Such a victorious Praetor will have the mortal aspects of their being shorn off from their bodies with pincers of iron, leaving only a pure demonic creature that can finally assume its rightful place in the ranks of the Infernal nobility and join the Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent as a full-fledged aristocrat of Hell.