Overlords

"Welcome, Hell sovereign Overlords. I've invited you all here because you represent the controlling powers of our city. Together, you own millions of souls. Souls that are at risk with the new Extermination schedule."

- Carmilla Carmine, to her fellow Overlords at their meeting

Overlords are a class of powerful Demons in Hell. They rank just above regular Sinner Demons and place fifth in terms of power in Hell's hierarchy.

The concept of Overlords was first introduced in the pilot of Hazbin Hotel during the scene where Vaggie explains to Angel Dust about Alastor's origins.

Description
The Overlords are considered so powerful that they rule over certain parts of Hell and have an infamous reputation for doing so. Despite having the same social status and somewhat similar hierarchy, not all Overlords get along with each other. This is seen in the rivalry between Alastor and Vox, and between Carmilla and Velvette.

As stated by Carmilla Carmine, Overlords gain and increase their power by "owning" souls. A small group of overlords can collectively own millions of the souls that reside in Hell, and use them to increase their power and influence. Overlords seem to accomplish this by having their victims sign their souls away to them through contracts or soul binding deals. Valentino's binding of Angel Dust is accomplished through a contract, and Alastor's possession of Husk is likely through a deal, with Alastor being associated with deal-making by various demons in the pilot and throughout the show. This was later confirmed in "Hello Rosie!", where Alastor sealed a deal with Charlie via handshake and verbal agreement. However, not all deals or agreements involve exchanging something for a soul, meaning that the exchange can be changed for something else, such as Alastor and Charlie's deal: offering information in exchange for a favour at a time of choosing.

While there is no known way to get out of an Overlord's contract, the victim can find a loophole to their benefit, such as with Angel Dust: while Valentino owns his soul in a way that the Royal Family can't free him, he can only do whatever he wants to him while Angel is in his studio and apparently can't remove said loophole. Probably for this reason, Valentino cannot teleport his debtors to himself, unlike Alastor, who completely owns Husk's soul. Alastor is currently trying to find one to obtain his freedom.

Some Overlords may also form affiliations with each other to create subsets in the Overlord class and the hierarchy overall. One such example is with Vox, Valentino, and Velvette, who are joined in a special Overlord triumvirate called the "Vees" as major influencers in the media industry. In "Hello Rosie!" it is seen that Alastor and Rosie also have some kind of alliance, as Rosie agrees to Alastor's offer to protect the Hazbin Hotel, and also offers him to make a deal with one demon who cannot control his territories.

Sometimes, an Overlord can be owned by another demon. As shown where Alastor gained ownership of Husk back when he was considered an Overlord and Alastor himself would be later owned by an unknown demon.

Trivia

 * When asked if Stolas was a fellow Overlord, Viv stated that he is part of a separate hierarchal ranking which she refers to as "the Goetia Demons".
 * Some Overlords appear to represent a form of media or business industry. Examples of such cases being Alastor with radio, Vox with television, Valentino with pornography, Velvette with social media, and Carmilla Carmine with weapons dealing.
 * When Vaggie explains Alastor's origins, there are a total of eleven demons shown. Although, it is unknown if there are more; while Bethesda and Frederick are later on confirmed to also be Overlords.
 * Aside from the eleven demons shown in Alastor's backstory, there are also silhouettes of both Husk and Niffty behind Alastor. However, only Husk is revealed to be a former Overlord, while Niffty is known only to be Alastor's associate.
 * According to Faustisse, Alastor has no interest in being an Overlord since power is not what he really desires. Despite this, he is still regarded as an Overlord by technicality.
 * In the unofficial Voxtagram stories, Vox, Valentino, and Velvette were originally called the VVV Overlords. In these stories, the group regularly hung out together, where Velvette seemed to be the glue that binds the other two together. A 2022 teaser for the main series revealed that the trio's official name is the "Vees".
 * During an early version of the Hazbin Hotel pilot scene that depicts various overlords there was an overlord whose design originally had a single, more owl-like face and wore a hat, but in the final version was changed to have two faces and lacked the hat.
 * Another change in the final version was the inclusion of Velvette, whose placement covers another Overlord with a pair of curled horns. This Overlord can still be slightly seen in the final version.
 * Overlords can lose their status, such as Husk who in "Masquerade" mentioned once being an Overlord before losing everything from gambling, especially to Alastor.
 * Unlike the rest of the classes, the Overlord caste is the only one a demon can earn instead of being born into.
 * Zestial is the oldest of the Overlords, while Velvette is the youngest.
 * The large dinosaur-looking Overlord first seen in the Hazbin Hotel pilot, is confirmed to be named Zeezi from closed captions in "Scrambled Eggs".
 * As shown with Valentino in "Masquerade" with Angel Dust, and Alastor with Husk in "Dad Beat Dad", Overlords can manifest their ownership and dominance over the Demons whose soul they own via chains, collars, and manacles they can conjure with their powers.