Zarosian dukes

The Zarosian Dukes were twelve Chthonian demons from Infernus, each in charge of a legion of demons, that Zaros claimed ownership over after having outsmarted the lord of demons, Hostilius the Autocrat.

After encountering conscious life for the first time on his travel through the universe, Zaros was deeply fascinated by the demons' society and culture, and desired to get them to follow him in order to give their society 'a purpose'. He made a deal with the demon lord Hostilius to give him twelve legions of demons, in return for secrets to travel to other worlds to expand their society and devour new beings. Hostilius was however not willing to part with his demons and tried to decieve Zaros by forming a cryptic contract that would leave only the benefits for the oldest signatory believing himself to be the oldest creature and possibly also possesing memories of even older demons that would be convincing. Zaros however revealed that he was born aeons ago and began to wander the universe aeons before Hostilius had even spawned. As he had proen his seniority to Hostilius, Hostilius had no choice but to hand over twelve dukes and their legions of demons to Zaros and got nothing in return.

At some point Zaros left Infernus again to continue his exploration, leaving his demonic dukes and legions behind for many, many years, but not losing his right to them. When Zaros set foot on Gielinor and discovered its perfection, he decided to stay there. He came across a hydra-god called Loarnab, who terrorized its surroundings. Zaros decided to slay the creature, harness its power and claim its territory. He started by summoning the Duke Nemesis of his first legion along with 100 of his Avernic demons to slay Loarnab. After a fierce battle that killed almost all the Avernic demons, Zaros stepped in and used powerful smoke, shadow, blood and ice magic to succumb Loarnab and started to harness its power to fuel a portal to let all twelve dukes and their legions enter Gielinor; as the twelth and last legion entered Loarnab died.

After Loarnab's death Zaros began to build his empire with the twelve dukes loyally by his side. The dukes took and held leeading positions in the empire over many years, but as time passed they became fewer, mostly leaving their ranks to Mahjarrat. It is unknown how many of the twelve dukes are left today after the fall of the Zarosian Empire.

Trivia

 * "By the Twelve" was an expression of surprise used by demons in the Zarosian Empire as evidenced by the Cthonian demon Senecianus in Broken Home.