Ba'al
The Daedra Lords
Ba'al (Prince of Daedra)
Suspira (Lust, Desire, Hedonism)
Revonos (Rage, Murder, Treachery)
Agemnos (Avarice, Ambition, Wealth)
Lilith (Nature, Lycanthropy, Undeath)
Klepnos (Madness, Trickery, Knowledge)
Tallakath (Sickness, Pestilence, Death & Dying)
Oblineth (Ice, Winter, The Void)
Nocturna (Dreams, Omens, Crossing Over)

Little is known about Ba'al (BHÄL), the Prince of Daedra, and he likes it that way. Even his true name is a secret: the word "Ba'al" is a contraction consisting of the first two and last two letters of his name.1

Ba'al is a god of revelry — he extracts power from drunkenness, wild and selfish revelry, binges and orgies, or any other gathering or celebration that descends into chaos and vice. Mardi Gras, if such a thing existed in the MK universe, would give Ba'al an exceedingly great amount of magical power. He also extracts an energy "tax" from the other daedra, and uses them in his bids to subvert sentient mortals to his control. His long-term goal, apparently, is to drive the gods from their place of honor and take the position of most-revered deity in the MK world.

Ba'al is also the god of Shadow, the mysterious mirror-realm that lies parallel to the material plane. It was Ba'al who first discovered this plane and taught mortals how to access it, traveling through it for rapid, stealthy transportation and drawing its essence into the material world to give weight and substance to magical illusions. Much of this knowledge has been suppressed, for extended exposure to Shadow-magic can corrupt the soul and turn a person toward evil. Still, there are a few seceretive orders that have preserved the knowledge of Shadow-magic, assassin-mages who use Ba'al's dark gifts for personal gain. Even relatively pure-hearted illusionist guilds often keep the secrets of shadow conjuration, teaching them only to their best and most disciplined students.

Appearance & Personality

Unlike the other daedra, Ba'al rarely disguises his physical form — a body of solid black, with glowing blue-white eyes that seem to burn like a gas flame. When he does choose to walk unrecognized among mortals, he might look like anyone.

Ba'al is soft-spoken and cultured; he speaks with an even tone and often seems to be the very soul of reason. Beneath his refined manners, however, is a taste for cruelty exceeded only by Revonos, and a lust for power that outstrips even Agemnos. He is, in short, the classic Luciferine devil of popular imagination: Faust's Mephistopheles, the Rolling Stones' "man of wealth and taste," or the Asmodeus of Dungeons & Dragons. He is evil made charming and palatable, and all the deadlier for it.

Divine Intervention

Boons: There are few records of bargains made by mortals with Ba'al; he chooses his servants carefully, and they rarely survive his use of them. One event that can be conclusively pinned to Ba'al's involvement is the Battle of Three Gates, where Nasoj used daedric power to cast the three devastating transformation spells that eventually gave rise to the Curse of Metamor. These spells affected both mind and body, and required the involvement of at least three daedra lords: Klepnos (who crafted the physical transformation aspects of the spells), Suspira (who provided the appearance- and libido-enhancing components of the gender-changing spell), and Lilith (who provided the bestial instincts for the species-changing spell). Since Suspira and Lilith have one of the longest-running feuds in the entire Pantheon, it is widely acknowledged by religious experts that only Ba'al could have forced them to work together on such a project.

In general, Ba'al prefers to work through pawns and intermediaries instead of taking direct action. He would rather have his imps teach a wizard a dark spell in exchange for her cooperation, or bestow a portion of his power on a trusted lieutenant, than make any broad, dramatic displays of his own power. Because of this, Ba'al's influence is usually only recognized months or years after an event has happened — unlike, say, Akkala, whose personal response to a request for aid is immediate and undeniable.

Cost: The cost of Ba'al's aid is often as disguised as the aid itself. He most often extracts payment by making desperate or power-hungry mortals into lifelong servants; those who pledge themselves to his service do gain power, but their lives are then defined by the roles and tasks he chooses to assign to them. Since Ba'al often does not tell his servants exactly what he has planned for them, they might eventually discover that their purpose is not what they thought it was; Nasoj thought that Ba'al had anointed him to be a conqueror of nations, but his most important role in the daedra lords' long-term plans was to create the Curse of Metamor; this in turn weakened the political power of Metamor and its chapter of Lothanasi, which opened the door for Ba'al to move forward with his plans to subvert the other Lightbringer chapters to his control.

Disciples

Ba'al's best-known disciples — other than the occasional lone wizard or mad cultist — are the Moranasi, or "Shadow Bringers." Ba'al conceived of them as a counter to the Lothanasi, whom Kammoloth had sponsored in order to standardize religious practices in Galendor and remove the daedra lords from the officially recognized Pantheon. The Moranasi are a relatively recent creation, only about 500 years old; initially Ba'al had tried to use the daedra's existing priests to combat the rise of the Lothanasi, but the Lightbringers were too well-organized and did not fight amongst themselves as the daedra's servants tended to do. Soon the Lightbringers were everywhere, the priests of the daedra were driven into hiding, and Ba'al had to come up with a new plan to spread his agenda.

The Moranasi of today are much like the early Lightbringers: operating in small cells, meeting in secret, spreading their message where people are receptive and avoiding head-on conflict with the existing religious establishment.2 Unlike the Lothanasi, however, the Moranasi remain firmly under Ba'al's control; while they can receive proxy spells from all of the daedra lords, they serve only Ba'al's vision and Ba'al's objectives.

In addition to the Moranasi, Ba'al's disciples include many assassins, thieves and spies and some mages, who pay homage to him as the Lord of Shadow. Many powerful tyrants throughout history, including Nasoj and several Suielman Emperors, have owed their ascent to Ba'al's favor, and the price he has exacted from them in return has often been horrible beyond imagining.

Known Disciples: Nasoj; Wicker; the Thieves' Guild that Julian Saunders once belonged to; the circle of six Moranasi who assisted in the Winter Assault.

Offspring & Servants

Like most of his activities, Ba'al's sexual liaisons with the other deities have largely remained secret. Some of the Daedra Nobles claim to be his children, and a few of them he has even acknowledged. The wraiths are unmistakably his progeny, for no other father in the pantheon could have given them their mastery over shadow. For the most part, however, Suspira and Lilith have had so many sexual partners over the centuries that the paternity of most of their children is highly uncertain. Ba'al, for his part, is content to let his self-proclaimed children squabble with each other for power, knowing that the conflict will make the survivors stronger and better prepared to assist him in his work.

Symbology

Aura: Shadows that throw everything around him into darkness, even if candles are lit and glowing nearby.

Holy Symbol: The Pentagram — a five-pointed star inscribed within a circle.3

Symbolic Creature: Black panther.

d20 Notes

Greater Deity
Alignment: Lawful Evil4
Domains: Diabolic, Evil, Pride, Shadow, Tyrant
Weapon of the Deity: Frost Scimitar


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