Post by ♥Zach♥ on Dec 10, 2005 17:53:27 GMT -5
Hmm from hours of reading and looking in the internet I found records and information on two dead gods that are the coolets
I placed them in "Faiths and Pantheons" format. ;D
Bhaal
Bhaal: Lord of Murder
(Intermediate Deity)
Symbol: human skull surrounded by a counter-clockwise orbit of many streaming blooddrops
Home Plane: The throne of Blood
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Portfolio: Death, especially violent or ritual death (Murder).
Worshipers: Murderers, assassins, bounty hunters, contract killers, and mercenaries
Cleric Alignments: LE, NE, CE
Domains: Death, especially violent or ritual death (Murder)
Favored Weapon: "Bone Blades" (Dagger)
Bhaal (Bahl), one of the Dark Gods, was the God of death, particularily of slaying, assassination, and violent death. His was a powerful faith in Faerun at on 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 alterately cold, calculating and ruthless or filled with a savage bloodlust. The pretense of living creatures instilled a deadly hunger in the Lord of Murder and an overpowering need to kill and destroy. His minions, such as Karogoth the Beast inthe 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 spreee 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 and alliance with Myrkul. The two gods sough the Tablets of Fate so that they could return to the Outer Planes. After pursuing her across the Heartlands, Bhaal kidnapped Midnight and seized one Tablet of Fate, but was murdered soon after by Cyric with the sword Godsbane (later revealed to have been the avatar form of Mask). 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 that a fragment of Bhaal's 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. If Bhaal is ever resurrected, it will be in the shadow of Boareskyr Bridge.
Priests of the Lord of Murder were known as either Bhaalists or Bhaalyn and were always a disorganized web of strictly local hierarchies. They tended to be clerics in the urban areas of the Realms, while in remote areas, they tended to be specialty priests known as deathstalkers.
The leader of an area or faction of Bhaal-worship, regardless of level, was always known as the High Primate / High Primistress, 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 (regardless of level or rank) of Slaying Hand.
Urban temples didicated 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 wher they fell. 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 belived (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 ensure 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 perparing for murder (procuring or caring for weapons, journeying to the appropriate site, praying to Bhaal for success, sleeping under guard 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 mercanaries 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 Primate spent much f their time planning the proper strategies of manipulating nearby rulers, inhabitants, and organizations into the deeds and behaviour 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.
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 on the belt, but only High Primates, Primates or other members of the Brethern of the Keen strike employed them in combat or slayings; all other Bhaalists used them only in rituals.
Adventuring Garb: When adventures were undertaken or guard duty preformed, Bhaayln wore full armor of the best type they could obtain or were allowed to wear. Black capes and black leggings usually accompanied the serviceable armour.
I placed them in "Faiths and Pantheons" format. ;D
Bhaal
Bhaal: Lord of Murder
(Intermediate Deity)
Symbol: human skull surrounded by a counter-clockwise orbit of many streaming blooddrops
Home Plane: The throne of Blood
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Portfolio: Death, especially violent or ritual death (Murder).
Worshipers: Murderers, assassins, bounty hunters, contract killers, and mercenaries
Cleric Alignments: LE, NE, CE
Domains: Death, especially violent or ritual death (Murder)
Favored Weapon: "Bone Blades" (Dagger)
Bhaal (Bahl), one of the Dark Gods, was the God of death, particularily of slaying, assassination, and violent death. His was a powerful faith in Faerun at on 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 alterately cold, calculating and ruthless or filled with a savage bloodlust. The pretense of living creatures instilled a deadly hunger in the Lord of Murder and an overpowering need to kill and destroy. His minions, such as Karogoth the Beast inthe 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 spreee 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 and alliance with Myrkul. The two gods sough the Tablets of Fate so that they could return to the Outer Planes. After pursuing her across the Heartlands, Bhaal kidnapped Midnight and seized one Tablet of Fate, but was murdered soon after by Cyric with the sword Godsbane (later revealed to have been the avatar form of Mask). 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 that a fragment of Bhaal's 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. If Bhaal is ever resurrected, it will be in the shadow of Boareskyr Bridge.
Priests of the Lord of Murder were known as either Bhaalists or Bhaalyn and were always a disorganized web of strictly local hierarchies. They tended to be clerics in the urban areas of the Realms, while in remote areas, they tended to be specialty priests known as deathstalkers.
The leader of an area or faction of Bhaal-worship, regardless of level, was always known as the High Primate / High Primistress, 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 (regardless of level or rank) of Slaying Hand.
Urban temples didicated 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 wher they fell. 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 belived (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 ensure 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 perparing for murder (procuring or caring for weapons, journeying to the appropriate site, praying to Bhaal for success, sleeping under guard 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 mercanaries 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 Primate spent much f their time planning the proper strategies of manipulating nearby rulers, inhabitants, and organizations into the deeds and behaviour 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.
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 on the belt, but only High Primates, Primates or other members of the Brethern of the Keen strike employed them in combat or slayings; all other Bhaalists used them only in rituals.
Adventuring Garb: When adventures were undertaken or guard duty preformed, Bhaayln wore full armor of the best type they could obtain or were allowed to wear. Black capes and black leggings usually accompanied the serviceable armour.