Mentiri

The fearsome prison known as Mentiri is hidden deep in the heart of Dis, at the terminus of a confusing labyrinth. Run by bone devils and staffed by barbazu and spinagons, it serves a dual purpose.

One wing, the Bastille of Flesh, houses mortals captured in Baator. Here virtuous paladins languish together with heartless mercenaries and chaotic evil intruders. Mentiri's jailers subject all their prisoners to hideous deprivations so that they must compete with one another to survive. Many prisoners, stripped of all decency and hope, are quickly corrupted. They either stoop to acts of evil, or begin shamelessly toadying to the guards. Either option eventually turns them to lawful evil alignment. Once prisoners become lawful evil and thereby grant their souls to Dispater, they are taken out and executed. Moments later, they reappear as soul shells on the Shelves of Despond.

Mentiri's other wing, the Bastille of Souls, warehouses the soul shells of individuals who were not lawful evil when they died but somehow ended up in Baator anyway. Some were captured on raiding parties to other planes; others are the souls of mortals slain in Baator and somehow trapped there. Because they do not rightfully belong to him, Dispater can't turn them into lemures or wring divine energy from them, but he can and does hold them for ransom or exchange. Regardless of the reasons for their presence, mortals whose souls are trapped in Baator cannot be raised or resurrected.

Harvester devils approach the still-living comrades and families of the individuals slain in Baator and try to convince them to sign Faustian pacts in exchange for their loved ones' release. Released souls return to their destination planes as determined by alignment. Souls captured in raids are returned to their rightful planes in trade for misdirected lawful evil souls, or for goods, information, or services. Such negotiations are conducted by amnizus in Dispater's employ.