Yeenoghu
Demon Prince of Savagery, Ruler of Ruin. CE Intermediate power of gnolls, ghouls, cannibalism, savagery [He/Him]
Realm: Abyss / The Death Dells
Pantheon: Abyssal
Proxies: Splitfang (gnoll cambion proxy [he/him] / CE); Grakellan (planar gnoll sorceror personal attendant [he/him] / CE)
Yeenoghu is most well-known on the Material Plane for being the patron of the gnolls, whose worship he usurped from their creator. His demonic essence corrupts them and drives them to acts of wanton and petty brutality; fittingly, Yeenoghu himself is one of the most fecklessly sadistic and violent demons in existence.
His philosophy is simple: might makes right, and savagery is the highest virtue. To him, civilization is weakness, and he revels in the chaos and destruction that comes from tearing down order. Yeenoghu’s rise to power is a tale of brutality and cunning, for he usurped the worship of the gnolls from their creator, Gorellik. He twisted their very essence, driving them to acts of senseless brutality and carnage, reflecting his own sadistic nature. He’s also subdued the King of the Ghouls, Doresain, a bold move that put him on &*%$#’s bad side, though the latter has yet to act against him directly.
Ruler of the Death Dells, the 422nd layer, Yeenoghu travels about the sweltering jungles and savannahs in a massive ramshackle iron fortress dragged by a throng of tormented prisoners. He conceals from others, particularly his most hated rival Baphomet, that he lacks full command of the layer—a vast wasteland sits like a stain on his pride beyond the Screaming Peaks, a remnant of Azael, the former lord of this layer. In his most lucid moments, Yeenoghu sometimes travels to the coast of the blood-red ocean to consult with the decaying obyrith lord Bechard, who has spent millennia slowly dying and relishes what little chance the Prince of Savagery offers to wreak a few more swaths of destruction across the planes before his last hour comes.
Speaking of rivals, Yeenoghu’s hatred for Baphomet runs deep. The Prince of Beasts and the Prince of Savagery have been locked in an eternal conflict for reasons long forgotten, their enmity a constant source of bloodshed and strife in the Abyss. But Baphomet isn’t his only foe. Yeenoghu’s ambition has made him enemies with other powerful entities, including Malcanthet, the Queen of Succubi, and &*%$#, the Demon Prince of Undeath.
Yeenoghu’s Vice
Now Yeenoghu’s a beast of unparalleled savagery for sure, feared across the multiverse for good reason. But like any dark lord, he’s got his chinks in the armour, though they ain’t obvious, and they sure as the Abyss ain’t easy to exploit.
Yeenoghu’s greatest strength—his insatiable bloodlust and savage nature—might also be his downfall. You see, the Prince of Gnolls thrives on chaos and carnage. He revels in the hunt, the kill, the feast. But this endless hunger, this unquenchable thirst for blood, it blinds him. It makes him predictable in a way. If you know his hunger, you can bait the beast.
There are whispers that Yeenoghu harbors a twisted obsession, a macabre fascination with a particular type of prey. Not just any prey, mind you, but celestial beings—pure, radiant creatures of the Upper Planes. The thought of defiling and consuming such holy flesh drives him to a frenzy. His hatred for purity, his desire to corrupt and destroy, it borders on barminess.
His obsession, this gnawing hunger, is more than just a predilection for celestial flesh. It’s said that during the Blood War, he once had a taste of an aasimon’s essence—a planetar, no less. The experience was intoxicating, transcendent, but fleeting. Since then, he’s been consumed by the need to recreate that moment of perfect corruption, to drink deep from the well of celestial blood.
Some say that if a cunning planewalker could somehow capture a celestial being and use it as bait, Yeenoghu might be lured into a trap. It’s a risky gambit, though. The celestial would need to be powerful enough to tantalize him, yet vulnerable enough to be caught. And even then, there’s the matter of dealing with the beast once he’s ensnared.
There’s another whisper, even darker, about a relic—an artifact forged in the deepest pits of the Abyss, imbued with the power to bind Yeenoghu’s savage essence. This relic, known as the Fettering Chain, is said to be crafted from the bones of his most feared rival, the fallen demon lord Azael. The chain holds a piece of Azael’s spirit, a lingering curse that could, if wielded correctly, shackle Yeenoghu’s power, dampening his ferocity, and making him vulnerable. And that’s assuming the relic isn’t just a myth, a cruel joke whispered among the desperate and the damned, or even planted by Yeenoghu himself. Is he that devious? Perhaps.
Canonical Sources:
- Book of Vile Darkness [3e], p11,140-143; stats for Yeenoghu, the dark of the King of the Ghouls
- Dragon Magazine #270 p65, the weapon Battlemonger; #341 p23-24, Baphomet’s hatred of Yeenohgu; #358 p65, Gorellik, the gnoll power deposed by Yeenoghu now wandering Pandemonium
- Fiendish Codex 1 [3e] p59,71,78-79,107,146-148,152,154,156; description for Yeenoghu and his realm
- Planescape Monstrous Compendium II [2e] p120; stats for the vorr
- Monster Manual 4 [3e] p67-70; clerics of Yeenoghu
- Monster Manual 5 [3e] p67; Yeenoghu-blooded template for gnoll characters
- On Hallowed Ground [2e] p49-50,98,137,162,176; entry for Yeenoghu and his realm
- Planes of Chaos [2e] Book of Chaos p9,18,23; Yeenoghu and his realm
Sources: Afroakuma, first published here, and Jon Winter-Holt