 Beshaba
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| Alias(es): | Lady Doom, The Maid of Misfortune, Black Bess, the Maid of Misrule, Tyche's Unpleasant Daughter |
| Power: | Intermediate deity |
| Pantheon: | Faerûnian pantheon |
| Symbol: | A rack of sharp-pointed black antlers on a red triangular field |
| Alignment: | Chaotic evil |
| Cleric alignment: | CN, CE, NE |
| Portfolio: | Random mischief, misfortune, bad luck, accidents |
| Worshippers: | Assassins, auspicians, capricious individuals, gamblers, rogues, sadists |
| Domains: | Chaos |
| Favoured weapon: | Flail |
| Allies: | None |
| Enemies: | Tymora, Shaundakul |
Beshaba (Beh-SHAH-ba), the Maid of Misfortune, is a deity feared and placated in Faerûn much more than she is venerated. When represented, she is shown much like her avatar appears, as a lovely maiden with snow-white hair, her features twisted by maniacal laughter. In Anauroch, where she pretends that she is Shaundakul to perform mischievous and malicious tricks (such as causing oases to dry out, blinding people, and causing travelers to get lost), she appears as a jackal-headed man. Needless to say, this behavior has done much to befoul the reputation of the real Shaundakul. She is known as Tyche’s unpleasant daughter, but this is more a poetic title than one designating her maternal lineage. In actuality, Tyche was not her mother in the sense of giving birth to Beshaba, rather Beshaba is half of the deity once known as Tyche, with Tymora being the other half. It is said among sages that when Tyche split to become her two warring “daughters” in the Dawn Cataclysm, Beshaba got the looks, and Tymora all the love. (The Dawn Cataclysm was a war among the gods that preceded the Time of Troubles and is said to have heralded the fall of Myth Drannor.) Certainly many men seem to lose their senses when they meet the gaze of Beshaba, either being overwhelmed with lust and driven to carry out Beshaba’s every whim in reckless, slobbering haste or descending into pure gibbering madness on the spot. In women, her gaze is said to inspire mania reflective of Beshaba’s own inner turmoil or a similar insanity.
Before the Dawn Cataclysm, there was but one goddess of luck, Tyche. Ever flirting with fortune and disaster, Lady Luck bestowed and withdrew her favor at a whim. After eons of toying with the affections of various powers, Tyche found herself embroiled, along with the rest of her circle of deities, in a war between the gods resulting from the actions of a current paramour, Lathander. Always fickle with her favors, Tyche kissed the Morninglord with misfortune and wandered off to explore the Realms. During her travels, Lady Luck discovered a budding rose of unequaled beauty. Delighted with this fortuitous happenstance, Tyche reached to pluck this delightful token, which she assumed was a peace overture from Lathander, who sought to regain her good graces. Much to her amazement, Lady Luck could not pluck the rose from its bush no matter how hard she tried. Frustrated, she cursed the rose with bad luck, and flower’s stem broke in her hands. Carelessly, Tyche stuck the plucked rose behind her ear and continued on her way. Unbeknownst to Tyche, the rose was a manifestation of Moander, god of corruption and decay. The severed rose stem crept into Tyche’s ear and subtly began to rot her from the inside out. Lady Luck now suffered from misfortune, and it sprang from her own careless hand. When Tyche returned home, she came across her dear friend, the goddess Selûne, waiting to speak with her. Also waiting for her were Lathander, who wished to regain her affections, and Azuth, who had come to mediate the dispute between the two. Selûne wept great tears as she saw the corruption destroying her friend from within, and before Tyche could even intuit her intent, Selûne lashed out with a bolt of purifying light. Tyche’s rotten core split right down the middle and a smaller, brighter version of the goddess of luck stepped out, allowing the goddess of the moon to save that which was good and pure in her friend. However, following this first figure from the rotten external shell was another form stunning to behold, but full of dark malice and capricious ill will. As the two emerged, they immediately fell upon each other in hate, struggling madly, and were only separated by the combined efforts of all three visitors. It is said that Tymora, Tyche’s Fair-Haired Daughter, embodies all the grace and kindness of her mother, while Beshaba, Tyche’s Unpleasant Daughter, got only her looks. Since their birth, the twin aspects of Tyche — Tymora, Lady Luck, and Beshaba, Maid of Misfortune — have battled each other in a civil war that continues to this day.
Beshaba is spiteful, petty and malicious. While most people tremble in fear at Beshaba’s attendance at any event even in spirit, Beshaba is almost always invited and welcomed formally in the opening speeches or ceremonies of formal functions (such as marriages and coronations), contests of sport or martial prowess, and at the naming ceremonies of children. If she is not so invited, she may take offense and wreak endless misfortune upon those involved. She is difficult to understand as her actions often seem random, but in the main she is jealous of the favorable opinion people have of her sister and demands equal veneration (or at least equal lip service) to that given to Tymora or she will ruin the lives who so slight her. Talos has recently been courting the affections of Beshaba, perhaps with an eye toward eventually controlling misfortune and bad luck along with destruction. Beshaba has not returned his overtures. Beshaba prefers to appear as a 12-foot-tall giant head wreathed in snow-white, swirling hair, with her features twisted into a sneer of madness as she laughs maniacally. If she so desires, her cold laughter can have the same effect as a banshee’s wail on individuals whose gaze she manages to meet. Even seeing this manifestation from afar brings down misfortune on all who do not worship her. Beshaba can spit spell effects from her mouth when so manifested, but she prefers to work more subtly: When her manifestation is about stout weapons and walls suddenly give way, freak accidents occur, and fell coincidences befall. This head manifestation usually appears only when clergy of Beshaba are active in the vicinity; on other occasions, Beshaba is seen only as a grotesque shadow where no shadow should be, accompanied by faint, far-off, maniacal laughter. Beshaba also acts through the appearance or presence of alu-fiends, bebiliths, bodaks, eyewings, fetches, quasits, rats, cockroaches, and insane watchghosts (the latter in Anauroch, especially).
The Church
All clergy of Beshaba higher in rank than novices receive Beshaba’s Boon: Her maliciousness will never be visited upon them personally. The worship of Beshaba is fairly widespread and varied throughout the Realms. Her followers prefer to keep a low profile even in those cities which profess tolerance and those towns which actively support evil religions. As a rule of thumb, if Tymora can be found in the area, then Beshaba probably goes hand in hand. Her followers and priests can often be found where plots are being hatched and fell actions are foretold. The spiteful, the malicious, and the reckless dominate the exclusively human clergy of the Maid of Misfortune. The Beshahan priesthood is split approximately in half into clerics and specialty priests, with only a smattering of mystics belonging to the priesthood (and most of them dwelling apart in remote regions). Relations are good between the different types of priests, although it should be noted that the faith is led by priestesses — priestesses locked in an endless, vicious struggle for personal supremacy. Male clergy tend to be underpriests or the Black Fingers (professional assassins) of Beshaha; those high in status in Beshaba’s church are almost exclusively female. Specialty priests are referred to as doommasters (a genderless term in this church). Many Beshaban shrines are simply places designated to the faithful by the clergy for offerings, but otherwise not significantly decorated except by a discreet symbol or rack of horns attached to something painted red. Doommasters prefer underground facilities, especially those with a gothic flavor, for their temples, whether they are excavated facilities or ones converted from natural caverns. In ascending order of rank, the titles in general use by the church of Beshaba are: Bewildered (as in “Bewildered Brother Gorm” or “Bewildered Sister Lashayal” — the Bewildered are the novices), the Unfortunate (full priests who use similar forms of address as the Bewildered), Finger of Fear, Hand of Strife, Higher Hand of Strife, Hand of Gloom, Higher Hand of Gloom, Hand of Horror, Higher Hand of Horror, Hand of Despair, Higher Hand of Despair, Mistress/Master of Dread, and Nails of the Lady.
Dogma
The ethos of Beshaba is the beliefs of Tymora stood on their head. Bad things happen to everyone, and only by following Beshaba may a person perhaps be spared the worst of her effects. Too much good luck is a bad thing, and to even it out, the wise should plan to undermine the fortunate. Whatever happens, it can only get worse. Beshaba charges her novices to simply fear her and revere her. All her clergy are to spread the message across Faerûn to obey Beshaba and make offerings to appease her. If she is not appeased, all will taste firsthand the curse that is spreading Faerûn-wide: “Beshaba provides!” (What she provides, of course, is misfortune to all and in generous supply.) Her clergy are to make others worship her and then they will be spared the ill luck she can bring. They should not falsely advise any being in how to worship Beshaba, or they will pay the price of being cast out and cursed with misfortune all their days.
Day-to-Day Activities
Beshaba is worshiped largely out of fear, and it is the task of her clergy to spread that fear by starting talk of Beshaba’s power and latest wickedness and by instructing all in how to make offerings to her or in how to join her clergy if they would prefer to be protected against all misfortune. Along the way, the members of her priesthood take care to indulge their tastes for random cruelty and sadism. They enjoy acting mysteriously to manipulate simpler folk into serving them in matters both great and small, from providing them with food, luxurious shelter, and companionship to giving them weapons to wield against their rivals in the church of Beshaba and against the clergy of all other faiths.
Holy Days/Important Ceremonies
Beshaba is worshiped in two ways: by those who believe only in her power and wish to appease her and by her faithful clergy. To appease Beshaba, one must make an offering of something valuable and hold it in flames until it is at least partially consumed. Beshaba’s name must be called out while this is done, and a prayer of praise and entreaty must be made while on one’s knees immediately afterward. Beshaba is said to look more kindly on entreaties made by those who allow themselves to burn their fingers somewhat in the offering. Priests of Beshaba must make an offering to the Lady at least once a day by setting fire to brandy, wine, or spirits while uttering the name of the goddess and dipping a black antler tine into the mixture; prayers follow. A second prayer similar to the first must be made to Beshaba each night outside under a dark sky. If a member of the clergy is forcibly confined, at least a prayer during the hours of darkness is expected to be attempted. The night-time offering is a personal prayer for guidance, and the goddess often answers it with nightmare visions later in the evening. Devotees of Beshaba Midsummer and Shieldmeet with wild revels of destruction and rudeness to mark Beshaba’s nature as Maid of Misrule. Otherwise they ignore the calendar, holding special ceremonies upon the deaths of important clergy and when a priestess ascends to a new rank. The funeral ceremony is known as the Passing. It is a rare time of dignity and tender piety among the clergy. The body of the departed is floated down a river amid floating candles in a spell ceremony designed to make the corpse into an undead creature and teleport it to a random location elsewhere in the Realms to wreak immediate havoc. Senior clergy use spells or magical items to scry from afar to see what damage is then done by the creature’s sudden appearance. The ceremony of ascension in rank is known as the Marking. It is a ceremony involving drum music, dancing over flames, and the permanent marking of the priest with a brand or tattoo. The priest being promoted must bear the pain without benefit of spell or potion to ease it.
Major Centers of Worship
The most holy center of Beshaban worship is the Spires Against the Stars, a hilltop fortress north of Satadush in eastern Tethyr that was once a vampire-haunted, abandoned castle of a noble family. The Spires is headed by Nails of the Lady Dlatha Faenar, an elderly but (through magic) still lushly beautiful priestess who has ruthlessly slain her rivals and so far eluded all attempts to destroy or depose her over the course of almost a century. Dlatha is said to be able to wield magics too potent for most mortals to use or comprehend.
Affiliated Orders
Beshaba has a secret society of assassins dedicated to her name called the Black Fingers. It is comprised of male members of her clergy and evil thieves and fighters.
Priestly Vestments
Female priests of Beshaba wear robes of mauve, purple, and black, and are branded or tattooed on one in step with Beshaba’s Badge (the antlers) and on one thigh with a row of marks of rank which can only be read by fellow initiates. These are covered by normal clothing when the priestess is outside of temples or sites where ceremonies are being conducted. Male priests wear robes of crimson and are tattooed with Beshaba’s Badge on one cheek, a device which can be covered only by a mask, mud (or a similar substance), or long, unkempt hair. In services, doom masters of either gender who are leading a ceremony prefer simple black tunics with the symbol of Beshaba on the chest and black stockings. When working in the field, under cover, on a quest, or simply traveling, most Beshaban clergy wear utilitarian garb appropriate to their locale and the level of danger they anticipate encountering
Specialty Priest
NAME: Doommaster (not implemented in game)
ALIGNMENT: CE
WEAPONS: All bludgeoning weapons
ARMORS: All armor types up to and including plate mail and shield
MAGICAL ITEMS: Same as clerics
- Once per day, a doommaster can reduce the saving throw or attack roll of one individual by one. The priest using this power glows a deep, radiant red for one round when doing so.
- At 3rd level, doommasters have the ability to cast Tasha’s uncontrollable hideous laughter once a day.
- At 5th level, doommasters have the ability to cast bane of Beshaba once a day.
- At 7th level, doommasters have the ability to cast misfire or lower resistance once a day.
- At 10th level, doommasters have the ability to cast misfortune once a day.
- At 15th level, doommasters have the ability to automatically succeed at one saving throw that would avert an unfortunate or damaging effect for themselves once a day. This does not allow them to circumvent effects that normally do not allow saving throws.
- At 20th level, doommasters have the ability to create the same effects as a Mordenkainen’s Disjunction once a tenday.