It was said that a company of Riders had once ridden into the Hells themselves—namely Avernus, the first layer—and from this story, the Hellriders were named.[1][2][8][14][15] The earliest known version told that it was to rescue one of their own, such was their great loyalty to each other.[2] A later version said that they rode through a gate to hunt down and slay devils that had been harassing the good people of Elturel.[8]
A third account expanded on this. In this story, fiends roamed the Fields of the Dead north and west of Elturel, stripping fields bare, slaying livestock, burning houses, and dragging folk away to an unknown yet horrible doom. As people lived in fear, Elturel's cavalry fought the fiends, riding wherever they must and enduring great casualties, but the fiends kept appearing in greater number. The High Rider of Elturel implored the people to pray to the gods for help. Surprisingly, help came—the rogue angel Zariel (desiring to destroy devils and demons and to have a mortal army to fight for her in the Blood War) came to Elturel the next day, declaring she'd found the gate in the Fields of the Dead west of Elturel through which the devils were pouring, and that she would lead the cavalry through to defeat them where they mustered. She rallied and trained an army of thousands, among them Yael, Haruman, Olanthius, and Jander Sunstar.[14][15] One early battle was to relieve Idyllglen from attack by Yeenoghu, gnolls, and demons.[16] When she thought them ready, in the Year of the Bow, 1354 DR, Zariel, riding her golden mastodon, led them out of the city, with the cheers and good wishes of the Elturians behind them, and embarked on the Ride, a glorious mounted charge through the gate into Avernus. Courageously, they battled the infernal legions of Bel, but the horrors of the Hells became too much for some. Jander and others turned and ran, sealing the portal and trapping the majority behind them. Though they were glorified as the Hellriders, they shamefully kept the secret of their escape and abandonment of the others, telling instead that Zariel and her army had been defeated and they were grief-stricken.[14][15] But they would be the lucky ones. Those still fighting through Hell grew twisted; Haruman crucified deserters on Coward's Way. The army was ultimately wiped out. Finally captured, Zariel swore fealty to Asmodeus, and vengeance on those who'd fled her.[14] The rest in Avernus were ultimately entombed in the Crypt of the Hellriders, their souls bound by oath to Zariel and haunting the place forever after as ghosts.[15][note 3][note 4]
In any case, the Hellriders were well-established and famous across Faerûn through the late 1350s, 1360s, and early 1370s DR.
