Bhaal

## **The Lord of Murder**

*Dead Deity*

Bhaal Symbol

### Symbol

A white, face-on human skull surrounded by a counterclockwise orbit of many streaming teardrops

### Favored Weapon

Dagger

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 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.