Bhaal

The Lord of Murder
Dead DeityBhaal (Bahl), one of the Dark Gods, was the god of death, particularly of slaying, assassination, and violent death. His was a powerful faith in Faerûn 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 Faerûn 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. 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 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.

The Church
All clerics and specialty priests of Bhaal received religion (Faerûnian) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency. 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. For some years the former Bhaalyn of Thay referred 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, but order was imposed during Cyric’s purges among his converted faithful during the years following the year of the Banedeath (1361 DR) and now all former Bhaalists and Bhaalyn (uncomfortably) acknowledge their deity to be simply Cyric.

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 retained their belief in Bhaal for years, pointing to the fact that they still received their accustomed magical spells. However, shortly after the schism between urban and rural Bhaalists reached its height in 1367 DR and ambushes were reported between rival factions, rural Bhaalyn priests ceased receiving spells in Bhaal’s name, and most have now converted to Cyricism or Xvimism. What isolated and minute pockets of pure Bhaal worship still exist are usually in remote rural areas, presided over by an ancient priest. Many of these former worshipers are now venerating the orcish and other nonhuman pantheons as well.

The leader of an area or faction of Bhaal-worship, regardless of level, 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 (regardless of level or rank) 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 teardropshaped 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 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.”

TDN Addendum: While Bhaal is dead, branches of worshipers exist across Faerun. These individuals are not granted spells, and there has been no evidence to show that Bhaal will ever return.