"If there is a conflict between two demons, it is their right to work out their differences through violence. Killing another demon is allowed, by law.
Although there is no punishment for killing another demon, the living demon does take on any favors that the dead demon owed. This usually means that they may suddenly be in debt to the Master of the deceased demon.
If the demon now owes substantial favors to more than one Master (Their previous one as well as the deceased demon) then it is possible for one Master to consolidate the debt through favor swapping. This can however be a complex procedure, and the Demon that owes the favors may owe additional favors for taking up the valuable time of the Demon Master's accountants.
In the end although there is technically no punishment for the killing of another demon, it often ends with a substantial increase in favor debt, displeasure of the deceased demon's Master, and an all around bad time for the demon who survives.
Demons rarely kill other demons, if they can help it.
-Year one Demonic Law and Punishment guidelines, textbook excerpt"
How great is that? In less than 200 words, it delivers a more engaging concept for fiends than anything I see in pages and pages of lore in the monster manual.
The problem with demons in modern D&D (and a lot of other similar games and media) is that they really aren’t very different from most other monsters. They might have a few thematic powers and resistance to fire damage, but the players can see through that and tell that they are just sacks of HP to be hacked up. If they’re really evil, so what? That doesn’t differentiate them much. Undead and aberrations and so on are all evil too.
I’ve written before about how to make more interesting demons by portraying a demon on the material plane as someone convinced they are trapped in a simulation. Giving them a truly alien frame of reference makes them act in a way genuinely distinct from other NPCs and people and monsters in the world.
The Demon’s Mirror example above is a great way to rethink how devils behave differently than other monsters (under D&D’s particular law/chaos devil/demon taxonomy, the concept outlined above fits obligation-oriented devils better than chaos-sowing demons). A devil is constantly negotiating within a complex hierarchy of other devils. It is powerful, but its actions are also constrained in a very particular way that is alien to other creatures.
Factions. Why don’t devils form one continuous hierarchy uniting all devilkind, and use their superior organization to destroy demons once and for all? The network of favors and obligations gives devils strong reason to fracture into diverse factions. Powerful devils might endlessly scheme to consolidate all of devilkind under their rule, but the complex web of favors prevents it, either putting an aspiring devil emperor in an impossible contradiction of obligations, or sparking an outright internal war amongst those who could be next in line.
Minions. Devils have a strong reason to attract other creatures to serve them. They need minions to defend their holdings; even if a devil lord is powerful enough to easily kill an interloper, they would have to be wary of doing so blindly without knowing what favors that interloper owes. Indeed, a devil lord could send a devil loaded with onerous favors to intentionally die at the hands of a rival devil lord for this very reason. Devils also have a strong reason to capture – rather than kill – each other. Interrogating a devil to learn what favors it owes would be a common occurrence.
Hooks. Devils have to be very careful about killing other devils… but mortals don’t. Devils have a strong incentive to involve mortals in their schemes, using them as cats’ paws against their enemies. On a first meeting -- as they measure the PC’s power and consider what use they could put them to -- a devil can be surprisingly cordial and polite... unless they suspect that another devil has already met this PC and sent these adventurers to kill them. If they harbor such suspicions, their demeanor can change very quickly.
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