Are all souls of equal value

dnd-5eeconomymonsterssoul

The Monster Manual's Devil entry describes how devils desire souls and enter into contracts with mortals to gain them.

To own a creature's soul is to have absolute control over that creature, and most devils accept no other currency in exchange for the fiendish power and boons they can provide

However, it seems to make little difference what the creature used to be in life, a common powerless beggar, or a noble, high-level paladin. They all just turn into lemures:

When the soul of an evil mortal sinks into the Nine Hells, it takes on the physical
form of a wretched lemure.

As this question asks tangentially (the main question is about ways to create magical pacts): why would a devil even bother to try and seduce an archmage or high level paladin, which is a lot of work as these victims can be resourceful, smart, wealthy, hard to seduce, and therefore costly and difficult to win. On the other hand, the devil could just offer modest riches to a beggar, who might be a lot more susceptible to to escape their wretched living conditions now and trade their soul for it. That seems like a lot less work and risk, and in the end, the devil gets a soul-turned-lemure either way.

Is there something inherent in a soul of a powerful, high level creature that makes it more valuable to devils and other traffickers in souls (night hags, for example), than a poor commoner's soul, and justifies the extra effort?

Best Answer

Devils value a powerful creature's soul higher a than weak one's

In the core rules the only hints that a more virtuous soul is of higher value is found in the Monster Manual, in the lore entry for the Succubus/Incubus, and that is pretty oblique:

The more virtuous the fiend's prey, the longer the corruption takes, but the more rewarding the downfall. After successfully corrupting a victim, the succubus or incubus kills it, and the tainted soul descends into the Lower Planes.

However, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes describes the infernal hierarchy in more detail, and offers the following (p. 18):

Each time a devil signs a contract that pledges a mortal's soul to the Nine Hells, that devil receives credit for the achievement. A stronger soul, such as a mighty warrior who leaves mortality behind to become an ice devil, is worth more than a simple peasant likely to be consigned to existence as a lemure. [emphasis added]

In addition, powerful souls can have effects on the Abyss (with whose inhabitants, the demons, devils are constantly at war (p.26)

A powerful soul might be able to dominate demons, retrieve weapons of the Blood War to use in mortal conflicts, or discover spells known only in the Abyss [...]

The Archdevil Dispater is interested in souls that know secrets (p. 11):

He covets the souls of those who seek secrets and those who have useful, secret information of their own that he can bargain for.

The description of Mammon also makes it clear that different souls have different value (p. 12):

Devils that are tasked with harvesting souls for Mammon carry with them The Accounting and Valuation of All Things, a manual that guides them in assessing the value of a soul in gold or other goods.

Baalzebul's entry points out that the souls of unskilled, weak creatures count for little in the infernal reckoning (p. 16):

Although Baalzebul claims a great number of unsuspecting souls, almost all of them are pathetic, incompetent wretches best suited for the dreg legions, whose only task is to die as slowly as possible so that they might delay the advance of an abyssal army.

And lastly, Mephistopheles (p. 16)

harvests the souls of skilled wizards and cunning sages, exactly the sort of folk he needs to further his research.

All of this supports the idea that the knowlege and prowess of a creature in life is somehow retained or transferred to its soul, and will influence how competent it will be to become more powerful in hell. Therefore, the souls of more powerful creatures are valued much higher in hell. From a devils evil perspective, beggars may be cheap to pick up, but you get what you pay for.

Related Topic