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Azuth

2022-12-16T20:22:23Z

162.158.34.69:

{{FRWiki article|Azuth}}
{{Deity|name=Azuth
|icon=Ig_hu_azuth.png
|alias=The High One, Patron of Wizards, Lord of Spells, the Hand of Sorcery, the Lord of Spellcraft
|power=L
|pantheon=F
|symbol=Human left hand pointing upward outlined in blue fire.
|alignment=LN
|cleric=LE, LN, LG, N, CN
|portfolio=[[Wizard]]s, mages, [[spellcaster]]s in general, [[monk]]s (Shining Hand).
|Domain name=Buxenus/Azuth
|worshippers=Philosophers, sages, [[sorcerer]]s, [[wizard]]s
|domain_knowledge=1
|domain_law=1
|domain_magic=1
|domain_canon=Illusion and Spell
|weapon=[[Quarterstaff]]
|weapon_canon=
|superior= [[Mystra]]
|allies=[[Mystra]], [[Savras]] the All-seeing, [[Velsharoon]] the Vaunted, [[Oghma]], [[Deneir]], [[Leira]]
|enemies=[[Cyric]]}}
[[File:Azuth_symbol.jpg|thumb|Symbol of Azuth]]

'''Azuth''' ''(Ah-zooth)'' is the god of wizards and mages and to a much lesser degree, all spellcasters, as opposed to Mystra, who is the goddess of all magic. Azuth is Mystra’s servant, friend, and advisor. This last role has become even more important in the years since the Time of Troubles. Before the Godswar, he and Mystra were much closer and very affectionate toward one another, but Azuth’s relationship with Mldnight/Mystra is much more professional. He regards the new Mystra as an inexperienced daughter facing a taxing and complex job whom he must coach to allow her to best perform her duties. In religious art, Azuth is most often portrayed as a bearded old man unbent by age, wielding a stout, gem-topped staff. Savras the All-Seeing, a rival god of mages whom Azuth defeated, was Azuth’s foe for centuries. Savras now serves Azuth, albeit uneasily, as a demipower of diviners and truth-speakers. The two deities seem to cautiously be working toward friendship and a formal division of duties, albeit with Savras continuing to serve Azuth. Azuth also works closely to guide the Magister, the mortal spellwielding champion of magic who serves Mystra. Likewise, Velsharoon, demipower of necromancy, must pay at least lip service to Azuth’s commands. Azuth is a sober sort of father-figure deity, but he is not humorless or mean-spirited. He has a rather dry, sardonic wit and appreciates plays on words and subtle humor. He has perfected a straight-faced delivery to such a degree that often those who hear him speak are left wondering whether some of his comments were said seriously or in jest. When he is in good humor, he likes to present those who have called on him with small gifts, such as flowers in unusual colors, magical fabric of elegant drape, or edible delicacies. When he is upset, his wrath is terrible to behold as the air crackles with magical energy about him that seems to flow both into and out of his eyes and the Old Staff, a divine artifact of ancient construction that he wields to devastating effect.

Azuth is commonly depicted as a white-bearded, white-haired vigorous old man dressed in gray silk robes carrying a staff one and a half times his height that is topped with a huge, cabochon-cut topaz. He never wears a hat. Azuth can shape change at will, and he often appears as a 20-foot-tall pyramid shape with no apparent eyes or mouth that is covered with sparkling, pulsing lights. In this shape, he glides along, perfectly able to see, speak, and unleash spells.

Azuth sometimes appears as a glowing, intangible floating mouth surrounded by mustache and beard and sometimes as a white, glowing, upright hand with its forefinger extended to a point that is outlined with a shimmering silver aura. Most often he appears as an electric blue radiance. Sometimes he manifests merely as an echoing, dry, male voice or such a voice accompanies another manifestation. In all manifestations, he has the power to unleash spells, identify from a distance without triggering the powers of an item or spell, and know the end result of any magic he sees being cast before it takes effect. Azuth also acts or shows his favor through the appearance or presence of pure gray cats and dogs (which Azuthans consider lucky), gray owls, gray mice, golems, watch ghosts, devas, and the Favored. The Favored are human archmages given a second life by Azuth to serve him with their spells and researches. They can fly and employ ESP at will, but are otherwise living mages in all respects.

=The Church=
Azuthan clergy tend to be folk who love magic for its own sake. They do not exult in power, for that is the tendency of those who enjoy what magic can allow them to do to others, but in elegance, complexities of dweomer, and deft use of spells. Wizards, clerics, specialty priests, and monks serve in the clergy of Azuth. Within the church hierarchy, 45% of the titled clergy are wizards. Another 30% are clerics, who form the strong right arm of the faith, 20% are specialty priests, and 5% are monks. Relationships between the three groups are good, though there is some resentment against a current trend to promote specialty priests into positions of power. However, because of this trend, more novices of the Azuthan faith have chosen the path of a specialty priest than a cleric. Specialty priests of Azuth are known as magistrati. In areas where Azuth has temples, shrines and monastic communities, the ruling (not necessarily the most powerful) clergy member holds the title of “the First” and is addressed as “Revered One.” Other clergy members in large clerical communities have expanded on this idea: The most powerful user of alteration magic is called First Transmuter, the leading specialist in divination magic is First Diviner, etc. The First may bestow or revoke such titles within his or her parish. Clergy members of high rank and long years in the church are granted the title of Master. Azuthan clergy eschew most further titles.

==Dogma==
Followers of Azuth feel that reason is the best way to approach magic, and that it may be examined and reduced to its component parts through study and meditation. Calm and caution are the watchwords of Azuthan clergy members as they strive to avoid mistakes that even magic cannot undo. They are taught to use Art (magic) wisely and to be always mindful of when it is best not to use magic.
Novices in the faith are charged to: “Teach the wielding of magic, and dispense scrolls, items, and spellbooks throughout Faerûn that the use and knowledge of magic may spread. Encourage everyone to try their hand at wielding magic. Drive home the lesson that with magical power comes grave responsibility, and live that lesson yourself. Try to gain a copy of every new spell, spell variant, or magical idea you encounter without regard for its worth or importance — and make a copy of that copy for a temple library. Train others in what you know of magic, not hoarding your knowledge for yourself, and encourage creativity in magic in all ways and at all times.”

==Day-to-Day Activities==
Azuthan clergy members very often serve as messengers between mages. They strive to remain above reproach and to be regarded as trusted neutral parties by all. They organize annual Mage Fairs, and at those Mage Fairs they try to settle feuds, curb overly destructive or deceitful magic, and sponsor spellweaving contests. They also give out scrolls of the winning spells from previous years and small, useful magical items as prizes in these contests. Most wizards see the priesthood as helpful, but members of the church of Azuth may go to great lengths to serve a prime goal that many wizards do not find so pleasing: They try to ensure that no spell or magical item is unique to one mage in Faerûn so that the death of a single wizard does not take any spell or the knowledge of how to construct an item out of the world forever. Azuthan clergy members do this by magical spying (and even temporary thefts), by copying every wizardly writing they can find including command words and cryptic phrases (not just complete incantations), by encouraging the barter of spells, and by organizing some drives in which wizards are paid handsomely to contribute a spell to the latest folio of the ongoing Azuthan spell cyclopedia (a written collection of spells from various mages duplicated magically in bulk, bound, and distributed by the priesthood for a minor fee covering production costs).

==Holy Days/Important Ceremonies==
The church of Azuth holds a holy revel to mark the ascension of a new Magister and of any mage to the ranks of the Favored. Every twilight the faithful of Azuth pray silently to the High One for guidance in all their doings that day and the next. Azuthan priests otherwise avoid a lot of ceremony, but in temples and abbeys of the Lord of Spells, all three major meals of the day are accompanied by readings from the writings of great mages on the ethics of magic use, speculations as to what magic can be made to do in the future, and various philosophies of magic. When a being is confirmed as a priest of Azuth, she or he must undergo the Transforming, a ritual in which the novice spends a tenday in thrall to an involuntary, ongoing shape change cast on him or her by a Master. In this ceremony, the novice must see life through the eyes of a bewildering variety of shapes forced upon him or her in succession by the magic. No shape the novice is placed in is unable to survive in the environment in which this ritual takes place, but the experience is typically humbling. The ritual is typically held in a walled, secluded temple garden that is temporarily off limits to all others, but which normally serves as a place for contemplation. The spell used in this ritual is a church secret, and it has been used by some Masters on foes in the defense of temples and abbeys under attack. Azuthan clergy and laity alike also celebrate occasional Wild Nights, in which they dance in the midst of unleashed wild magic just to feel its power and effects. (Other wizards and priests stand by to rescue anyone who runs into harm.)

==Major Centers of Worship==
The House of the High One in Saerloon is the most revered temple of the Azuthan faith. It is run jointly by six Masters (all human male priests or wizards of 18th or greater level): Helven, Lhun, Mirren, Ormil, Riilath, and Thelcaunt. Another very powerful temple of Azuth is the House of the High One Ascendant. It is located in the mountains near Lhair in western Halruaa. Here First Arleenaya Kithmaer runs a huge temple complex expanded out from natural caverns in the mountains and fronted by a grand formal stone archway and portico ornamented by the finest carvings stone shape and grand master sculptors can achieve.

==Affiliated Orders==
Azuthan clergy members who have done great service in recovering magical knowledge thought lost are often voted into the Order of the Forgotten Page by the Firsts of the church and allowed to wear a special silver trim on the collars of their ceremonial vestments. Members of the faith who have served the church in helping to eliminate a magical imbalance or monstrosity are granted the title “Shield of the High One,” given a minor protective magical item, and told a secret phrase or word that allows them aid from any temple or shrine of Azuth in the form of healing, shelter, and small loans, when necessary.

==Priestly Vestments==
The vestments of the priesthood of Azuth are shimmering gray and usually made of silk, though these are layered with heavier and more sensible materials in the North. The symbol of Azuth is worn on the chest, and the color of the aura on the symbol denotes an individual’s rank within the church. Most acolytes, monks, mage apprentices, and adventurers have a yellow aura surrounding the symbol of Azuth. Higher level adventurers and clergy members at large without official position wear symbols with a red aura. Those with First designation in the church have a white aura. When not used to identify rank, the symbol of Azuth has a blue aura. In the North, usually only the forefinger of Azuth’s symbol is shown ablaze. From Chessenta southward — notably in Halruaa — the entire hand is surrounded by flame.
In the field, clergy of Azuth wear sensible clothing, predominantly in shades of gray. They wear the symbol of their faith over their hearts, either stitched onto a tunic or robes or inlaid in metal armor.

==Specialty Priests==

NAME: Magistrati (Not implemented in game)

ALIGNMENT: LN

WEAPONS: Any bludgeoning weapons.

ARMOR: None.

MAGICAL ITEMS: Same as clerics, plus all items normally usable by wizards including magical scrolls.

- Magistrati can cast priest spells faster than other priests. Their casting time on all priest spells of one round or less is reduced.

- Magistrati, starting at 2nd level, may cast wizard spells in addition to priest spells. Magistrati cast these as mages of half their actual level. Magistrati pray for their wizard spells instead of studying to memorize them, and chosen wizard spells replace clerical spells potentially available for use that day. Because of this, magistrata may never cast 8th- or 9th-level wizard spells. Further, a magistrate may only take wizard spells from a single school. This school is determined when the first wizard spell is requested from Azuth. From that point on, all wizard spells prayed for by that magistrata must be from that school and cannot be from any other.

- Magistrati may use magical scrolls in addition to clerical scrolls.

- At 5th level, magistrati can identify magical items by touch. Use of this ability cannot awaken any curse or item powers and does not temporarily reduce a magistrata’s Constitution or require him or her to rest after using the ability. An item may only be identified once by a particular magistrata.

- At 7th level, magistrati have the ability to cast magic missile once a day. This is an ability and does not conflict with their restriction to only one school of wizard spells.

- At 9th level, magistrati have the ability to cast fireball or lightning bolt once a day. This is an ability and does not conflict with their restriction to only one school of wizard spells.

- At 12th level, magistrati have the ability to create a wall similar to anywall spell once a day. This is an ability and does not conflict with their restriction to only one school of wizard spells.

Auril

2022-12-16T20:13:24Z

162.158.34.69:

{{FRWiki article|Auril}}
{{Deity|alias=Frostmaiden, Icedawn, the Cold Goddess, Lady Frostkiss
|power=I
|pantheon=F
|domain name=Pandesmos/Winter's Hall
|symbol=A white snowflake on a gray diamond (a heraldic lozenge) with a white border
|alignment=NE
|cleric=LN, N, CN, LE, NE, CE
|portfolio=Cold, winter
|worshippers=[[Druids]], elemental archons (air or water), frost giants, inhabitant of cold climates, [[rangers]]
|domain_air=1
|domain_cold=1
|domain_evil=1
|domain_fury=1
|domain_water=1
|weapon=[[Battleaxe]] - "Icemaiden's Caress"
|allies=[[Talos]], [[Umberlee]], [[Malar]]
|enemies=Amaunator (now dead), [[Moander]] (now dead), [[Sune]], [[Chauntea]], [[Shiallia]], [[Uthgar]]}} icon = Ig_hu_auril.png}}
Auril (AWE-ril) is most powerful in those regions that are affected by deep winters or crouch at the edges of the Great Glacier. She is worshiped primarily out of fear. She serves Talos and is one of the Gods of Fury, and much of her ethos is similar to that of the god of nature’s destruction. She has seen much of her personal power eroded by Talos, and as a result, the winters have grown colder in the past decade to remind the northerners who still controls the power of cold. While she can call on the other Gods of Fury for aid, she only does so with Umberlee with any confidence; Talos usually responds but then directs all the glory and worship to himself, and Malar despises her. The feeling is mutual. When portrayed, Auril appears similar to her Frostmaiden avatar. She is a fickle, vain, and evil creature whose cold divine heart remains untouched by any hint of true love, noble feeling, or honor. She often toys with those who offend her, trapping them in snow storms and then driving them insane by tantalizing them with visions of warmth and the comforts of home before she freezes them to death. Her eternal beauty is cold and deadly, the flower of womanhood preserved forever in a slab of arctic ice - with sensibilities to match the ice.

Auril appears most often in one of two avatar forms: the Frostmaiden or Icedawn. The Frostmaiden is a lithe, furious figure of action and is the most often seen avatar of Auril in all regions of Faerûn except the south and east. Her skin is blue, her hair is long, free-flowing, and white, and a fine gown of white lawn thickly furred with frost swirls about her.
Icedawn is a silent, gliding apparition of icy hauteur, an impassive figure an ornate crown and hooked, spurred armor of opaque, light blue ice. She casts no spells.
Auril usually manifests as icy breath accompanied by a cold, ruthless chuckling and a blue-white radiance that leaves a thin line of frost to mark its passage. She also appears as a blank-eyed face of frost with long, wind-whipped white hair that radiates intense cold. Auril uses this latter manifestation if she wants to speak, slay, or confer items of power upon worshipers. She slays with her life-chilling kiss and confers boons by breathing them out of the face’s mouth. Auril also indicates her favor or disfavor or sends aid through the presence or actions of water elementals, ice paraelementals, undead, winterwolves, frost giants, and other arctic creatures.

=The Church=
Auril is feared and worshiped in order to hold off the depredations of the harsh winters with which she threatens Faerûn. Trappers, miners, and settlers in the North, some barbarians and inhabitants of the Great Glacier, and residents of the lands crouching at any glacier’s edge revere her and honor her in attempts to placate her cold fury come winter time. In recent years, winters have been getting longer and colder, and more and more folk have been making the prayers to Auril that her clergy urge be done. A few clans of frost giants are led by shamans in her service. Priestesses of Auril roam the lands of Faerûn, especially in the North, though her clergy are now being seen more often in the Heartlands. Auril’s church has a few males within its ranks, but most clergy of the Frostmaiden are female.
Specialty priests of Auril, called icepriestesses and icepriests, make up one third Auril’s priesthood. The relationship between the specialty priests and the clerics of Auril is very good. The entire church is very loosely and informally organized, and clergy members wander and are largely independent. Most priests of Auril use only the honorific “Hand of Auril” or “Icebreath,” but at temples such as the House of Auril’s Breath at Glister the clergy use formal titles. In ascending order, these are: Postulant, Votre, Icewind, Storm Sister/Storm Brother (a title given to the great bulk of priests between 3rd level and 8th), Frosttouch, Lady/Lord Cold), Lady/Lord Deep Winter, Lady/Lord Cold Circle, and High Hand of Ice.
Priestesses of Auril are often seen scampering lightly through the snows in summer-weight clothing or bathing in frigid river waters in the depths of winter to no apparent ill effect. They need much less food than other beings because of this ability, and often roam the northlands energetically when blizzards have forced other folk to hole up against the weather. Many priestesses of Auril make some living delivering medicines, messages, and needed supplies throughout the northlands in winter.

==Dogma==
Auri charges her clergy to: “Cover all the lands with ice. Quench fire wherever it is found. Let in the winds and the cold; cut down windbreaks and chop holes in walls and roofs that my breath may come in. Work darknesses to hide the cursed sun so that the chill I brine may slay. Take the life of an arctic creature only in great need, but slay all others at will. Make all Faerûn fear me.”
Auril’s clergy are commanded to revere her and sing her praises into any chill breeze or winter wind. They are to make all creatures fear or worship her and to bring down her cold power against all so that all may know her and quake before her. They are not to raise their hands against any other priest of Auril.

==Day-to-Day Activities==
Clergy of Auril seek to make all folk fear their goddess and her clergy (to cut down on the attacks they face) through the fury of the winter weather. They also try to make themselves personally wealthy and influential by carrying out tasks that others cannot in the worst winter weather and by magically protecting those who pay or obey from the worst winter conditions. Clergy members make offerings to the goddess of some of the wealth they amass by scattering it in falling snow during a storm or throwing it through cracks in river ice or glacial crevasses during the winter.
In the cold months, Auril expects each of her priests to force or persuade someone to pray to her in the approved manner by beseeching Auril for mercy and praising her for the “cold cleansing” she brings. This prayer must last for the length of time it takes a piece of ice larger than the “supplicant’s” hand to melt against his or her bared flesh. It must be done out of doors and preferably at night. During the winter, Aurilian clergy are also expected to slay at least one creature by cold. This is often done so as to provide worshipers or potential worshipers of the goddess with food or to slay a personal foe of the priestess or priest.

==Holy Days/Important Ceremonies==
Midwinter Night is the most holy time of the year to clergy of Auril. It is a festival of icc-dancing that lasts the whole night through, during which the goddess desires her clergy both to enjoy themselves and to lure as many folk as
possible into her service. Postulants are instructed in the ways of the goddess, and must undergo the most sacred ritual of Auril to gain admittance into her clergy: the Embracing. This personal ritual may occur at any time of year, but if it is in summer, the postulant must journey to arctic or high mountain regions in order to find a blizzard. The Embracing consists of running through a blizzard all night long dressed in only boots (though they may be thigh-high), a thin shift, and body paint depicting symbols sacred to Auril. Celebrants either perish of exposure or are accepted by the goddess by being rescued from the pain and shivering by Her Embrace. Thereafter, clergy members usually pray in private, by lying out in the snow all night long in prayer vigil. In summer, her clergy usually immerse themselves (except for their heads) in the coldest water they can find, typically by lying down in a fast-flowing stream. Auril answers their queries and gives them directions and missions through mind visions. Two informal but enthusiastically celebrated rituals are the Coming Storm and the Last Storm — howling ice storms called up by clergy working en masse with all the cold magic they can muster. Together they bring fierce weather down upon a town or region to mark the onset of winter or its last gasp as spring begins.

==Major Centers of Worship==
The House of Auril’s Breath in Glister, north of the Moonsea, is the largest and most influential temple to the cold goddess, boasting a congregation of over 1,600 gathering around the fires for nightly Fire and Ice rituals (all of them miners and fur trappers too afraid not to venerate Auril). High Hand of Ice (high priest) Malakhar Rhenta leads the Storm Circle of 14 or so senior priestesses in running the temple and planning the weather magic they work. The House of Auril is known more commonly to those not of the faith as the Cold House or, more bitterly, Cold Comfort Towers.

==Affiliated Orders==
Auril's church has no affiliated military or knightly orders. She is just not of a mind to sponsor prolonged martial actions; she would rather send a blizzard down on those who offend her than troops. An odd assortment of cults and fellowships have grown up around or become attached to her worship, though. These groups include the Cult of Frost, whose driving goal is the acquisition of the artifact known as the Ring of Winter; a group of wizards known as the Frost Witches, who have recorded at least one tome of frost and cold magic in Auril's name and are reputed to know the location of the Codicil of White, a priestly book describing Aurilian rituals and containing some wizard spells also; and the Sisters of Istishia, who worship Istishia as a herald of cold and servant of Auril. The Sisters of Istishia's worship seems to benefit Istishia, not Auril, as a few Aurilian priestesses have been given a divine mandate to seek out the Sisters and <i>correct</i> their theology.

==Priestly Vestments==
Priests of Auril wear ice-white ceremonial robes with blue piping. The robes are cinched at the waist by a very wide silver belt, which also holds the requisite ceremonial ice axe. The ice axe bears the snowflake-in-lozenge symbol of the faith. A silver circlet on the head is the final touch.
When adventuring, most priests of Auril wear at least the circlet, the belt, and the ice axe with their normal day-to-day clothes. Since they are immune to the effects of cold, they usually wear only what clothing they think enhances their appearance, not necessarily what others are wearing for the weather. They never encumber themselves with excessive clothing or large sleeping bundles, preferring to travel light for maximum mobility.

==Speciality Priests==

NAME: Icepriestess/Icepriest (Not implemented in game)
ALIGNMENT: NE
WEAPONS: All bludgeoning weapons and the ice axe.
ARMOR: All armor types up to and including chain mail and shield.
MAGICAL ITEMS: same as cleric.

- Icepriestesses and icepriests have an immunity to cold similar to a permanent resist cold spell. They are immune to natural cold and have a +3 bonus when making saving throws vs. any cold- or ice-based attacks.

- Icepriestesses and icepriests can cast frost fingers once per day.

- At 3rd level, icepriestesses and icepriests are able to cast frost whip once per day.

- At 5th level, icepriestesses and icepriests are able to cast ice blade once per day.

- At 8th level, icepriestesses and icepriests are able to cast ice storm or wall of ice twice per tenday.

- At 10th level, icepriestesses and icepriests are able to cast cone of cold once per day.

- At 12th level, icepriestesses and icepriests have the ability to summon an ice para-elemental once per tenday. They may do so an additional time per tenday for every level over 12.

=Server Lore=
It is rumored that during the Time of Troubles Auril's avatar manifested in her temple in the Cloudpeaks.

==[[DnD 3.5]] comparison==
*In 3.5 (Player's Guide to Faerun), the Cold domain replaced the Water domain in Auril's selection, but both are displayed here as some may find one more fitting than the other.
*The Fury domain is not canon in the Forgotten Realms, but has been included as Auril is one of the [[Deities of Fury]].
[[Category:Nature_deities]]

Bhaal

2022-12-16T19:59:47Z

162.158.34.69: Created page with "{{Deity|name=Bhaal (Dead) |alias=Lord of Murder |power=Dead |pantheon=F |domain name= Formerly: Khalas/The Throne of Blood |symbol=A white, face-on human skull surrounded by..."

{{Deity|name=Bhaal (Dead)
|alias=Lord of Murder
|power=Dead
|pantheon=F
|domain name= Formerly: Khalas/The Throne of Blood
|symbol=A white, face-on human skull surrounded by a counter-clockwise orbit of many streaming teardrops
|alignment=LE
|cleric=LN, LE, NE
|portfolio=Death, especially violent or ritual death
|domain_death=1
|domain_destruction=1
|domain_evil=1
|domain_law=1
|domain_retribution=1
|domain_trickery=1
|weapon=[[Shortsword]]
|superior=[[Bane]] (now dead)
|allies=[[Bane]] (now dead), [[Hoar]], [[Loviatar]], [[Myrkul]] (now dead), [[Talona]], [[Mask]]
|enemies=[[Chauntea]], [[Helm]], [[Lathander]], [[Torm]], [[Tyr]], [[Ilmater]], [[Lliira]]}}

Bhaal (Bahl), one of the Dark Gods, was the god of death, particularly of slaying, assassination, and violent death. His was a powerful faith in Faerun at one time, and the Lord of Murder was venerated by numerous assassins, violent mercenaries, and other brutal and fiendish killers. While he lived, Loviatar and Talona served him (though the two were rivals to each other), and he in turn served Bane. Bhaal was violent, cruel, and hateful at all times, and lived only to hunt and murder. He could be alternately cold, calculating, and ruthless or filled with a savage bloodlust. The presence of living creatures instilled a deadly hunger in the Lord of Murder and an overpowering need to kill and destroy. His minions, such as Kazgoroth the Beast in the Moonshae Islands, wrought devastation and violent death wherever they roamed. Bhaal suffered a series of reverses prior to the Time of Troubles, the most vital being his banishment from the Moonshaes. Bhaal tried to destroy the Earthmother (Chauntea) and seize the Moonshae Islands as his personal domain. The Ravager, imbued with a greater fraction of Bhaal's essence than is normally contained in an avatar, was slain by Tristan, High King of the Ffolk, who wielded the Sword of Cymrych Hugh. As a result, Bhaal was severely weakened and exiled from the Realms for a time. Before Bhaal could rebuild much of his power, he was returned to Faerun in avatar form by the will of Ao during the Fall of the Gods. Bhaal, reduced to a killing force able only to possess humans, then went on a spree of murder and destruction the like of which had never before been seen. When Lord Bane sought the power needed to challenge Torm, he slew all of the assassins in the Realms who made up the bulk of the Lord of Murder's faithful, further reducing Bhaal's power. After the Lord of Strife's destruction, Bhaal forged an alliance with Myrkul. The two gods sought the Tablets of Fate so that they could return to the Outer Planes. Bhaal was murdered soon after by Cyric. What remained of Bhaal's essence was absorbed by the Winding Water, and that river has subsequently been poisonous from the Boareskyr Bridge downstream to the Trollclaw Ford. It is believed a fragment of Bhaalís personality remains in the jet black, foul-smelling waters of the Winding Water much like Myrkul's essence survives in the Crown of Horns and fragments of Bane's personality survive in his servitor Baneliches.

Bhaal rarely appeared in avatar form, but when he did in urban settings he typically assumed a form known as the Slayer. The Slayer looked like a human male corpse with a feral face, ivory-white skin, and deep lacerations that endlessly wept black ichor that vanished before it struck anything. Bhaal manifested in rural settings, such as the Moonshaes, as a giant of a man. The Ravager, as this form was known, was over 30 feet tall, with long, tough sinews, a flowing beard and mane of hair, eyes that glowed with the flames of Gehenna, a face twisted in a grimace of supernatural hatred, and two 7-foot-long curved horns protruding from his forehead.
Bhaal manifested as a pair of flying crawling claws that could point, carry or wield things, or grow or fire bone daggers that emerged from their finger ends but did not diminish the hands themselves. Alternately, the Lord of Murder sometimes appeared as a laughing human skull that hurtled about trailing teardrops. In either manifestation, Bhaal could speak or cause darkness. He could also awaken in any lawful evil-aligned being an urge to slay. If he did so the being would rush to attack whatever target Bhaal directed it to, moaning and sobbing uncontrollably with its need to take life. The Lord of Murder often acted through a variety of violent, deadly monsters, including skeletal undead of all sorts, from death fangs to dread, and many species of tentacled monsters, from dark tentacles to philosophergrell. It is said that harrla of hate were created by Bhaal to stalk the Realms and that the hand of the Lord of Murder guided their choice of victims.

=The Church=

Priests of the Lord of Murder were known as either Bhaalists or Bhaalyn (the latter term being most favored east of the Dragonreach, the former westward to the Sword Coast) and were always a disorganized web of strictly local hierarchies. Bhaalists/Bhaalyn tended to be clerics in the urban areas of the Realms, while in remote areas (such as the Moonshaes), they tended to be specialty priests known as deathstalkers. Bhaal was (fittingly) murdered during the Time of Troubles by Cyric, the mortal who would become his successor. In the main, his faith has been taken over by the Dark Sun, and Bhaal's temples have been almost totally converted to the worship of the Prince of Lies. The followers of Bhaal in urban areas have almost universally switched to worshiping Cyric to the extent of adopting the new deity’s vestments, ceremonies, religion-specific spells, and the abilities he grants his specialist clergy members. They refer to the power they venerate as Cyric. The former Bhaalyn of Thay refer to him as Cyric-Bhaal to differentiate him from the lesser aspects of Cyric worshiped by former Banites, whose deity was utterly destroyed and who they felt had erroneously declared Cyric to be their deity as well. Relationships between the Bhaal-Cyricists and the factions of the other believers of Cyric were heavily strained.
Prior to the Fall of the Gods, relations between the city-bred and country versions of Bhaal’s priesthood were fair, but cool and distant. The differences between the two factions increased with the demise of the Lord of Murder during the Time of Troubles. The rural followers of Bhaal still retain their belief in Bhaal, pointing to the fact that they still receive their accustomed magical spells.
The leader of an area or faction of Bhaal-worship was always known as the High Primate/High Primistress (this strange female form of the title thankfully seems unique to this faith), and the head of a temple or fortress was its Primate/Primistress. (Often fortresses of Bhaal were citadels that sheltered many assassins and sent forth agents to nearby towns or city marketplaces to solicit patrons to hire the occupants of the citadel to perform killings.) The assistants of a Primate or Primistress (known in many other faiths as “priors”) held the title First Murder, and the First Murder could call upon the Cowled Deaths (nine most senior clergy members who held offices in the religious household or community). Underneath these eminences were the common clergy members, collectively known as Deathdealers and bearing the shared title of Slaying Hand.
Urban temples dedicated to the Lord of Murder were typically dark, spartan dungeons located beneath a city’s streets featuring an occasional mosaic or sculpture depicting a violent death. Most contained several chambers of tokens taken from the bodies of murder victims and large crypts filled with the corpses of past victims who could not be left where they fell. (The inhabitants of such crypts were often restless.) Rural holy sites were usually primitive shrines located on barren hilltops and dominated by blood-stained sacrificial altars. Typically a ring of stones carved to resemble teardrop-shaped skulls is inlaid in the ground around the altar.

==Dogma==

Bhaalists believed (in their sick and twisted way) that every murder committed strengthened holy Bhaal. As a result, they viewed murder as both a pastime and a duty. Bhaalists were required to deal death once in every tenday during the darkest period at the heart of the night. If imprisonment or other constraining circumstances made this impossible, they had to murder twice for each death missed. In accordance with the Lord of Murder’s teachings, Bhaalists strove to do that before they died, murder victims knew who was killing them and that their death was in the name of Bhaal.
Novices of Bhaal were charged as follows: “Make all folk fear Bhaal. Let your killings be especially elegant, or grisly, or seem easy so that those observing them are awed or terrified. Tell folk that gold proffered to the church can make the Lord of Murder overlook them for today".

==Day-to-Day Activities==

While Bhaal also encouraged the pursuit of personal wealth and hobbies, in the main, Bhaalists spent their nights performing murders and their days preparing for murder (procuring or caring for weapons, journeying to the appropriate site, praying to Bhaal for success, sleeping under guard so as to be fully awake for
the hours of darkness, eating, training, praying for spells, and the like). Many served as assassins, bounty hunters, and mercenaries or in organized brotherhoods of men and women in such professions. Priests of Bhaal enjoyed killing for its own sake but tried not to murder indiscriminately. Much time and thought went into the planning of not just the dark deeds, but the implications of killing this or that individual. The church tried to eliminate all rivals and those who stood against it, to be sure, but also strove to enrich itself by frightening common folk into placing offerings of coinage and valuables before Bhaalists and by taking care to let economically and socially important individuals live unharmed. High Primates spent much of their time planning the proper strategies of manipulating nearby rulers, inhabitants, and organizations into the deeds and behavior that the Bhaalyn desired.

==Holy Days/Important Ceremonies==

The main ritual to Bhaal is, of course, an act of slaying, during which the priest intoned: “Bhaal awaits thee, Bhaal embraces thee, none escape Bhaal” (if necessary, repeatedly). After each murder, a priest of Bhaal drew Bhaal’s symbol beside the corpse in the blood of the victim and smeared the blood on his or her own hands, from where it promptly vanished if the ceremony was done fitly. Priests also prayed to Bhaal upon retiring for slumber (in a temple, this was done en masse, in a formal ceremony known as Day’s Farewell) and whenever they set out to slay. Moreover, every increase in priestly rank was marked by a solemn private ritual in which the ascending priest went out from the temple to return only after slaying another with nothing save his or her bare hands. The events of the killing were related privately to a senior priest, and if the signs were deemed favorable, the new rank was conveyed in a church ritual held in full ceremonial regalia by all temple clergy members during which a living sacrifice to Bhaal was made. Senior priests were said have an uncanny ability to ferret out lies about this private ritual and be harsh in their punishment of those bearing false report. Lay worshipers of Bhaal (but not priests) were to pray to Bhaal for the limited safety of “his overlook” when setting forth on journeys or into known danger. They were also to pray when giving gold to Bhaalists (to ensure that the Lord of Murder accepted their gift) and whenever a violent death occurred nearby or to someone related to them. The only calendar ritual of the church of Bhaal occurred on the Feast of the Moon, when the dead of the faith were remembered and Bhaalists celebrated especially important or impressive slayings by retelling stories of these deeds. One of the most “splendid” tales of gore told often is of one of the exploits of the famous priest-mage Uthaedeol the Blood-drenched. It is of his killing of the warned and guarded King Samyte of Tethyr. Uthaedeol teleported to appear in midair in front of a pegasus-riding palace guard, slew the man, and rode his steed forcibly down to its death, smashing through a skylight into the throne room. Uthaedeol leapt clear of the pegasus as the king’s archers peppered it with shafts, and rode a prepared flight magic down to plunge into one eye of the king’s guardian black dragon. He slew the great drake with his own still-secret destroying fist spell (known to be a small, localized disintegrate effect) and rode its involuntary dying breath across the throne room, gliding along the stream of acid it breathed protected by his enchanted armor. As the armor blackened, crumbled, and fell away, Uthaedeol cast a spell that flung all arrows in the room, even those not yet fired, into swarming flight. He then sprang to meet the king in single combat with his lone dagger against Samyte’s broad sword. It is recorded that Uthaedeol slew every guard who came against him as he slashed the unfortunate monarch’s skin in hundreds of places; he then cast a spell that forced the king into a veritable dance of death so that he fell lifeless from exsanguination. The priest-mage then cast two entrapping spells and teleported away. The first trap was a meteor swarm activated whenever any spell was next cast in the throne room. It slew four court wizards of note. The second was a blade barrier set to erupt into being when someone who was blood kin to the king next entered the room. It slew the king’s two eldest sons.

==Major Centers of Worship==

The Tower of Swift Death just outside Tyraturos in Thay, where Primate Oumrant Tsulkide leads a fortress full of trained killers with the blessing (and financial support) of the Red Wizards. Cyric supplies the priests’ spells in Bhaal’s name. The Red Wizards often employ those trained in the Toner on missions for the great glory of Thay (and, oh yes, of Bhaal—er, Cyric).

==Affiliated Orders==

Bhaal’s clergy members sponsored countless brotherhoods of assassins and thieves throughout the Realms. Prominent among them were the Shadow Thieves of Amn and the Citadel of Assassins in the Galena Mountains (both of which still exist, though Bhaal does not). Although the true assassins of the Realms have all been destroyed and Bhaal murdered, guilds established in his name continue his legacy of murder and death as an avocation if not a vocation. These orders still pay ritual homage to the Lord of Murder as well as his successor, Cyric, and are comprised of evil fighters, wizards, priests, and rogues who work as assassins. All specialty priests of Bhaal belonged to a society known as the Brethren of the Keen Strike.

==Priestly Vestments==

Regardless of rank or gender, all Bhaalyn wore full ceremonial robes and cowls of deep purple or of black with violet streaks of random size, shape, and placement. The interior linings of the cowl and garments were always deep black, and a black veil was worn over the face to make the cowl seem empty to an observer. High-ranking priests sometimes added a scarlet sash to this costume for easy recognition when ill-lit rituals were taking place. Curve-bladed ceremonial daggers were worn at the belt, but only High Primates, Primates, or members of the Brethren of the Keen Strike employed them in combat or slayings; all other Bhaalists used them only in rituals.

When adventures were undertaken or guard duty performed, Bhaalyn wore full armor of the best type they could obtain or were allowed to wear. Black capes and black leggings usually accompanied the serviceable armor.

=Speciality Priest=

NAME: Deathstalker (not implemented in game)

ALIGNMENT: LE

WEAPONS: All bludgeoning and piercing weapons

ARMOR: All armor types up to and including chain mail; no shields

MAGICAL ITEMS: Same as clerics

- There is a 0.5% chance per level (round up) that any physical blow inflicted with a ceremonial dagger by a deathstalker on a man-sized or smaller creature is devastatingly potent in aim and effect (fatal or nearly fatal). The victim is immediately reduced to 0 hit points or the total indicated by the normal damage of the blow including all applicable bonuses and penalties, whichever is lower.

- At 7th level, deathstalkers may cast finger of death.

- At 10th level, deathstalkers may engage in plane skipping. Plane skipping involves the deathstalker traveling to Bhaal’s area of Gehenna, moving through the plane, and then traveling back into the Prime Material Plane at his or her destination. In general, each 10 feet moved through Gehenna equals one mile of distance on the Prime Material Plane. Direction does not matter in Gehenna, since the will of Bhaal and the intention of the traveler determine where she or he comes out. This form of travel is 100% reliable under normal circumstances, but it cannot pierce magical shields, areas sanctified to the forces of good, anti-magical areas, or areas that cannot be reached from the Outer Planes. Plane-skipping deathstalkers are not protected while in Gehenna, since Bhaal considers those capable of traveling to his homeland capable of protecting themselves. Deathstalkers may take another others with them.

- At 11th level, deathstalkers may summon an aerial servant. This servant will fight for the deathstalker and can act as a magical assassin. Only one aerial servant may be summoned per month, and only one may be controlled at a time.