The seventh plane of the hells, Maladomini, is also ruled by Baalzebul, who dwells there in a great fortress of black stone. Baalzebul’s fortress, Malagard, sprawls for many miles, and consists of countless black spired towers linked by many open and covered bridge-spans that crisscross and slant crazily in all directions. Here Baalzebul is attended by his consort Baftis, his herald Neabaz, and his marshal Barbatos, plus Malebranche and many lesser devils of all sorts whom he has commanded to service. Malagard’s rooms, passages, and dungeons are so vast and numerous that it is said not even the Lord of the Flies himself has visited all of them. Most of those who escape cells of torment in Malagard flee to the dungeons, seldom penetrated very deeply by the devils, and many weird creatures are said to roam this lightless underworld.
The fortress above contains many rich and sumptuously (splendid and expensive) furnished chambers, many cells for prisoners and for larvae awaiting use, and rooms upon rooms that are choked with garbage. Filth of all sorts, including carrion and anything that is broken and useless (for none of the devils here can be bothered to repair anything) is carried to neglected areas of Malagard by servant spined devils, and tossed into any unused space, so that entire towers of the fortress are crammed with reeking debris.
Outside, the plane of Maladomini is very similar to Malbolge: hot underfoot (see Malbolge, above, for effects on flammable objects) and filled with stinking vapors, earth tremors and underground explosions, fire pits, smokes, and huge caves and caverns. Maladomini’s surface is also despoiled by vast quarries where lesser devils and enslaved prisoners toil ceaselessly to cut the stones from which Malagard and the castles of the Malebranche are built. Roads wind and crisscross the landscape from quarry to quarry to the various castles, and the entire plane is littered with the tumbled ruins of long-ago cities and towers, and the ever-larger new works.
Great arched bridges, carved with diabolic faces, span the rivers of molten lava that cut across Maladomini, and from the river’s canals have been cut to carry the liquid fire, so that it encircles every castle of the Malebranche with a moat of leaping flames. The rivers of lava are swelled by volcanic cascades and eruptions and run in the end to a great sea of lava that seems to encircle the plane. Within this sea are a ring of volcanic mountains, and within this ring lies the confusion of Malagard, Malebranche castles, ruins, roads, and quarries. Baalzebul is said to have vast collections of gems and plants (the latter tended continually by enslaved creatures) in Malagard, but no green things grow in this plane outside Malagard’s walls.
Neabaz (as herald) is the only devil allowed by Baalzebul to move freely about the hells. Barbatos is charged with the duty of arranging malebranche messengers and weaponry so that the armies of Maladomini can be gathered quickly for battle. These malebranche armies – 60 companies under the duke Abigor, and 28 under the duke Zepar – are customarily occupied with the endless construction of Malagard, other fortresses, and linking roads. Spined devils, typically overseen by styx devils or (rarely) bone devils, feed and tend to the wants of the malebranche laborers. Pit fiends are noticeably absent from Baalzebul’s service on Maladomini; the Lord of the Flies suspects all such of being spies for Asmodeus, and is reluctant to allow any of the creatures on the same plane he inhabits.
