Balan is a Duke of Hell in the service of Belial

Belial (Dungeons & Dragons)

In many campaign settings for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Belial is an Arch-Devil of Hell , lord of the Fourth Hell, Phlegethos. He retained his rule after the Reckoning of Hell, though he now shares this responsibility with his daughter Fierna who serves as his mouthpiece...

, in the Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

roleplaying game.

Publication history

Balan first appears in Ed Greenwood

Ed Greenwood

Ed Greenwood is a Canadian writer and editor who created the Forgotten Realms. He invented the Forgotten Realms as a child, as a fantasy world in which to set the stories he imagined, and later used this world as a campaign setting for his own personal Dungeons & Dragons playing group...

's article "The Nine Hells Part I" in Dragon

Dragon (magazine)

Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...

#75 (1983).

Balan was briefly detailed in Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells

Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells

Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells is an optional supplemental source book for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.-Contents:...

(2006). Balan was detailed in the online version of Dragon

Dragon (magazine)

Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...

, in issue #360 (October 2007) in the "Infernal Aristocracy" feature.

Description

Balan appears as a giant, yellow-skinned man with fierce black brows and a beard which grows in tufts (something like a catfish's lower whiskers). He has gray hooves and a body which darkens to scarlet about his legs and his forked tail. He typically wears only a leather weapon belt and girdle, and shuns armor. He has red or blue flaming eyes visible at some distance, and a hoarse voice. His grin has been described as both idiotic and drooling, but his sense of humor, despite its coarseness, is quite witty. He wears a badge upon his belt depicting his own head next to a bull’s head (signifying his brutal, aggressive nature) and a ram’s head (denoting the lusty side of his nature), as well as the heads of those he has slain. He tends to be incautious in his fights, charging in with twin axes.

Relationships

Balan is a duke of Phelegethos and one of Belial's loyal supporters. He is little-liked at Belial's court; the opinions of his peers range from respect to mere toleration. Balan is belligerent and roaring, and never backs down from a fight, although he is intelligent enough to avoid being drawn into conflicts with superior foes if he can at all help it. He loves fighting with weaker opponents, however.

Before the Reckoning of Hell

Reckoning of Hell

In the cosmology of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the Reckoning of Hell was a civil war that shaped the political landscape of the Nine Hells into its current form...

, Balan was an ally of Bathym

Bathym (Dungeons & Dragons)

Bathym is a Duke of Hell in the service of Fierna, in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.-Publication history:Bathym first appears in Ed Greenwood's article "The Nine Hells Part I" in Dragon #75 ....

, a fellow duke in the service of Belial. After that conflict, however, Bathym shifted his alliance to Fierna

Fierna

In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Lady Fierna is the ruler of the Fourth Layer of the Nine Hells of Baator. She is the daughter of arch-Duke Belial and his late consort Naome, and currently shares the rulership with her father...

, while Balan continued to support Belial first and foremost, as Belial had long helped him fulfill his unspeakable desires. More than any other baatezu, Bathym is now Balan's greatest enemy; Bathym hopes to increase Fierna's control over Phlegethos and his own position with it, while Balan desires to keep Belial as the power behind the throne. For a time, they were at least civil with one another, but as Fierna continues to assert herself, it looks as if Balan and Bathym may soon come to blows.

Vassals

Balan commands 40 companies of bearded devils. Each company consists of 333 devils. He has no mortal followers.

Dogma

Balan considers death to be a state of absolute order, and so strives to bring all others to that state. He strives for the deaths of demons

Demon (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, demons are the most widespread race of fiends. The demons are chaotic evil by nature, and are native to the Abyss...

first, then women, then everyone else.