Jaranda
(Planar marilith tanar’ri [she/her] / Doomguard / CE)
This fiend, like most of the other planeborne in the faction, holds her high rank due to the resources she possesses, rather than having given long years of service to the Doomguard. Jaranda controls Gallowsgate, one of the largest strongholds on the Plain of Infinite Portals (the first layer of the Abyss). Although having one of the Blood War’s tacticians on their side holds some appeal for the Doomguard, the faction’s high-ups really value Jaranda for her control of the Abyssal burg. It seems that the marilith is rather barmy (even for a tanar’ri) and is willing to let the faction’s forces use Gallowsgate as a testing ground for new military tactics and weapons. She doesn’t mind having an army attack her city, as long as it’s doing so with her permission.Â
Jaranda is actually the longest serving member of the Doomguard currently alive. She joined the faction not long after its official founding some 600 years ago. At that time, she was serving as other mariliths do – acting as a general and tactician for the armies of tanar’ri in the Blood War. Jaranda had been growing bored with the conflict since her army had been unbeaten for well over a century. Then, a small group of mortal mercenaries approached her and volunteered to fight for the tanar’ri in the next battle. Intrigued, she asked them why. It was then that they told her about the philosophy of the Doomguard and how they felt that the Blood War was a perfect means by which they could both experience and increase Entropy.
Jaranda was immediately enraptured with what the Doomguard told her. She viewed the progress of Entropy as a conflict greater than the Blood War, a battle worthy of her obvious skill and talent. The marilith quickly pulled her army from the field and personally went to Sigil to give an offer to the faction leaders: If they made her a member, and put her in charge of the faction’s military, she would give them a base in the Abyss from which they could participate in the Blood War. For the young faction, this was the chance of a lifetime, and they accepted her terms. Jaranda then returned to the Abyss and used her army to capture the stronghold of Gallowsgate. It was from this new base of operations that the marilith would craft the perfect strategy to bring war to the multiverse and further the cause of Entropy.
She is still trying to craft that strategy. Jaranda has become obsessed with finding the perfect plan, and has spiraled down into madness, discarding one grandiose plan after another. This insanity is the primary reason that she allows her stronghold to be used as a testing ground—she seeks the perfect tactics and weapons that will be the building blocks for her perfect assault on the multiverse. It also rather conveniently distracts her from trying to seize more control of the faction’s troops. The various Factols of the Doomguard have learned that it is in their best interests to occasionally introduce flaws into her plans every time the marilith comes close so that Jaranda has to create another strategy, and thus ignore the politics of the faction.
Jaranda’s natural form is typical for a marilith – a female torso with six arms and a long, serpentine body. Her skin is a dark brown in colour, matching her eyes. Jaranda’s hair is mainly snakes, clinging in tight curls to her head. The scales of her body and tail are black, with red and green highlights. The weapons she usually uses are a light crossbow, a pair of shields, and two bastard swords of sharpness. However, she only uses her natural shape in combat. Normally, she prefers to be shapechanged into a statuesque human warrior. In this shape, she wears only a knee length kilt made of poisoned throwing knives. Regardless of the form she uses, Jaranda always wears a large medallion of tanar’ri red steel emblazoned with the Doomguard’s symbol.
Source: Ken Lipka
