Great Game

The Great Game refers to an interplanar cold war between the devils of the Nine Hells and the solons of Celestia, taking place mainly on the material planes.

Celestia and the Nine Hells are not officially at war, but this does not by any stretch of the imagination mean they are at peace. The two planes are embroiled in a heated contest for influence across the cosmos—in particular over the material planes.

The main pieces in this grand chess game are tieflings and aasimar. Because the baatezu and solons are generally unable to manifest physically in Marillia (without great aid on the other side), they orchestrate the birth of tieflings and aasimar, who act as their emissaries, representatives, and champions in the material world.

Very often the activities of tieflings and aasimar come into conflict. These confrontations are almost always violent, but they have never escalated into full-on war between the two planes—only skirmishes, battles, and proxy wars. The Celestians are not willing even to attempt to topple Asmodeus from the Throne of Blood, because even if they were to succeed, they would open the flood gates for a tanar'ri invasion of the multiverse. Instead, they seek to limit his strength while not undermining his overall position: they want him strong enough to hold back the forces of the Abyss, but not so strong that he can actually win the Blood War and come after the Upper Planes.

Meta

The GG is named after a real-life conflict between Britain and Russia.