The Lower Planes include numerous broods, courts, houses and realms ruled by demonic royalty: archdevils, demon princes, exarchs, etc. Multiple such archfiends may ally to form power blocs such as the Ten Courts of Hell. While there may be racial distinctions between fiends, these are secondary to their political affiliation. The members of a court will be drawn from individuals of all breeds, broods, castes, and races who would sympathize with the court's overlord.
The physical distinctions between fiends include their race, their brood and their breed or caste. The races include nameless things who seem to have always existed, maleidolon born of evil thoughts and acts, and malanima transmuted from mortal souls. Then there are innumerable demonic broods that share physical traits in common, such as the surreal Bosch fiends, the clownish Façadas, the scaly Manalishi, or the Vang hives. Within a given brood one will find several breeds: demons created or modified to perform particular tasks, such as artificers, deceivers, imps and stalkers.
Explicitly mentioning a given demon's litany of distinctions in their flavor text is optional, but it provides a better context for why the members of the Baate'ke and Tanar'ka look like their were randomly generated rather than designed holistically based on a unifying aesthetic. The reasonable answer is that they are coalitions that recruit from multiple unrelated sources.
Sources and inspirations for this entry: Dicefreaks' Horrors of the Abyss; Green Ronin's Book of Fiends; Knights & Knaves' OSRIC; Malhavoc Press' Anger of Angels; Mongoose Publishing's Slayer's Guide to Demons, Book of Hell, and Infernum; Octavirate Games' Octavirate Weekly; et al.
Quotes
"Throughout demons' and devils' existence in the D&D game, resemblances between them have been stronger and more numerous than differences. Both species are extraplanar forces of evil that seek souls to supplement their numbers. Each breed has wretched and implike creatures at the bottom of the hierarchy and godlike archfiends at the top. Each member of both species has a wide array of similar (and often superfluous) supernatural powers. Most demons and devils are superior to members of typical PC races in every way, including incredible intelligence. Their purposes in the material world have always been similar." http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drdd/20070924&pf=true
"[T]here's really no point in making the devil/demon distinction that D&D has always done. When they're all just "fiends" and some are Chaotic Evil but others are Lawful Evil... well, there are people who are chaotic evil and there are people who are lawful evil, so this seems like another way of saying that fiends is fiends. [...] when devils are corrupted angels and who want to rule creation and demons are corrupted elementals who want to tear it down... now we're talking fundamental differences." http://alexandraerin.dreamwidth.org/553757.html
"[T]he Hellraiser mythos might be classed as "lawful evil" because it is supremely orderly in a way that is inimical to that which we perceive to be good, but that is quite a bit different an animal than the D&D devils who are traditionally also "lawful evil", because they seek to create an orderly heirarchy from within which they can accumulate personal power over others. I don't imagine the two classes of beings would really get on with each other." http://alexandraerin.dreamwidth.org/58190.html
"The Chaos Powers created demons to do their bidding, so the Gods created devils to interfere and compete with the Demons while creating Celestials to oppose both and keep them in check. All the temptations of evil are actually manifestations of Chaos...so are al[l] changes for the better."
http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/the-hell-of-evil-in-dnd/
"[Fiends] have been divided into two broad categories: demons, which seek to destroy mortal life, and devils, who want mortals to destroy themselves. While both factions count both inhuman geniuses and mindless drudges among their numbers, demonic plots focus more directly on results, while devils specialize in manipulation and subterfuge." http://4eyedmonster.blogspot.com/2014/08/demons-and-devils-part-deux.html
"Fiends can freely mix and mingle in any given court, driven more by what makes sense given the proclivities of the court's lord and the environment of his particular realm than by any division or label created by the game."http://darkheritage.blogspot.com/2012/09/d-demon-lords-and-darkheritage.html https://dark-fantasy-x.blogspot.com/2012/09/d-demon-lords-and-darkheritage.html
"Devils are beings of paradox...They feed upon the sin of intelligent beings, and each Devil resembles and feeds upon a particular Deadly Sin above all others. But is very difficult to...drive a man mad with Lust if you allow him to satisfy that Lust. You've got to tempt them, you've got to build it up and never give them the moment of catharsis they crave...So while they [devils] beget Sin, they embody Virtue." http://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2014/05/devils-embody-virtue-and-devil-based.html
"While most are familiar with the seven deadly sins...there are actually ten sins, with Despair, Discouragement and Vanity being the three lesser known sins."
https://eternitypublishing.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/articleredesigning-the-10-hells/
"The...qlippothim are the oldest grouping of demons of which I am aware...If The Abyss can be said to be alive yet slumbering, then the qlippothim are incarnations of its dreams, untainted by the thoughts or souls of mortals or gods." "The maleidolon are the first grouping of demons for whom the mortal denizens of Creation play any role in their spawning...it is their thoughts and actions that bring them forth. Most maleidolon are incarnations of specific misdeeds, and many are unparalleled masters of possession or other techniques of intimately defiling mortals." "Finally...are the mazza'im. The most recent and most likely numerous grouping of demons in The Abyss, the mazza'im are the only demons born of mortal souls." http://horrorsoftheabyss.wikidot.com/m1
"Right now, players treat devils and demons the same way. Is that a pit fiend or a balor? Imp or quasit? Who cares, just smite it. If it’s red and has horns, it probably has the same immunities and weaknesses. It’s an irrelevant distinction unless a player happens to have, say, a lawfully-aligned sword." "Demons don’t currently have their own thing. Devils have a thing: they’re manipulators. Demons’ thing is that they are red fire guys who cause destruction — just like devils and demodands. If anything, the demon’s defining characteristic is negative. Unlike devils, they’re NOT manipulators. This doesn’t even work very well, since the demons have Graz’zt and (sometimes) succubi on their team. If the demons had sole ownership of the horns, leathery wings, and brimstone, they’d at least have something." http://blogofholding.com/?p=6258
"[T]here's really no point in making the devil/demon distinction that D&D has always done. When they're all just "fiends" and some are Chaotic Evil but others are Lawful Evil... well, there are people who are chaotic evil and there are people who are lawful evil, so this seems like another way of saying that fiends is fiends. [...] when devils are corrupted angels and who want to rule creation and demons are corrupted elementals who want to tear it down... now we're talking fundamental differences." http://alexandraerin.dreamwidth.org/553757.html
"[T]he Hellraiser mythos might be classed as "lawful evil" because it is supremely orderly in a way that is inimical to that which we perceive to be good, but that is quite a bit different an animal than the D&D devils who are traditionally also "lawful evil", because they seek to create an orderly heirarchy from within which they can accumulate personal power over others. I don't imagine the two classes of beings would really get on with each other." http://alexandraerin.dreamwidth.org/58190.html
"The Chaos Powers created demons to do their bidding, so the Gods created devils to interfere and compete with the Demons while creating Celestials to oppose both and keep them in check. All the temptations of evil are actually manifestations of Chaos...so are al[l] changes for the better."
http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/the-hell-of-evil-in-dnd/
"[Fiends] have been divided into two broad categories: demons, which seek to destroy mortal life, and devils, who want mortals to destroy themselves. While both factions count both inhuman geniuses and mindless drudges among their numbers, demonic plots focus more directly on results, while devils specialize in manipulation and subterfuge." http://4eyedmonster.blogspot.com/2014/08/demons-and-devils-part-deux.html
"Fiends can freely mix and mingle in any given court, driven more by what makes sense given the proclivities of the court's lord and the environment of his particular realm than by any division or label created by the game."
"Devils are beings of paradox...They feed upon the sin of intelligent beings, and each Devil resembles and feeds upon a particular Deadly Sin above all others. But is very difficult to...drive a man mad with Lust if you allow him to satisfy that Lust. You've got to tempt them, you've got to build it up and never give them the moment of catharsis they crave...So while they [devils] beget Sin, they embody Virtue." http://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2014/05/devils-embody-virtue-and-devil-based.html
"While most are familiar with the seven deadly sins...there are actually ten sins, with Despair, Discouragement and Vanity being the three lesser known sins."
https://eternitypublishing.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/articleredesigning-the-10-hells/
"The...qlippothim are the oldest grouping of demons of which I am aware...If The Abyss can be said to be alive yet slumbering, then the qlippothim are incarnations of its dreams, untainted by the thoughts or souls of mortals or gods." "The maleidolon are the first grouping of demons for whom the mortal denizens of Creation play any role in their spawning...it is their thoughts and actions that bring them forth. Most maleidolon are incarnations of specific misdeeds, and many are unparalleled masters of possession or other techniques of intimately defiling mortals." "Finally...are the mazza'im. The most recent and most likely numerous grouping of demons in The Abyss, the mazza'im are the only demons born of mortal souls." http://horrorsoftheabyss.wikidot.com/m1
"Right now, players treat devils and demons the same way. Is that a pit fiend or a balor? Imp or quasit? Who cares, just smite it. If it’s red and has horns, it probably has the same immunities and weaknesses. It’s an irrelevant distinction unless a player happens to have, say, a lawfully-aligned sword." "Demons don’t currently have their own thing. Devils have a thing: they’re manipulators. Demons’ thing is that they are red fire guys who cause destruction — just like devils and demodands. If anything, the demon’s defining characteristic is negative. Unlike devils, they’re NOT manipulators. This doesn’t even work very well, since the demons have Graz’zt and (sometimes) succubi on their team. If the demons had sole ownership of the horns, leathery wings, and brimstone, they’d at least have something." http://blogofholding.com/?p=6258
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