Church of Bane

[Di-Master]

Information known by all (religion +5 sufficient),

BANE,
Titles: The Black Lord, The Black Hand, Lord of Darkness
Bane is the evil and malicious greater deity of fear, hatred and tyranny
[Vadania only], dominion: Banehold, sometimes called Barrens of Doom and Despair. Other inhabitants: Loviatar

His ultimate goal is to eventually control all of Faerûn.

Stories from the past depict him as a dark, rather shadowy appearance with a resemblance of dark armor and his tell-tale jeweled dark gauntlet. He emanates an aura of vast power and cruel intelligence. Noone, apart from his most loyal HighPriests is alive after having seen him.

Among the evil gods, Bane's church is among the most stable and most powerful. [People in Phlan have experienced it first hand in the previous years]. While there was a time when the god encouraged sectarianism and violent disputes, that time has long since passed and today the god's Faithful are as likely to solve their disputes through reasonable debate than through show of force.

Banite customs are often quite spartan in nature and the god's followers celebrate no holidays in honor of their god, instead showing their gratitude to him through service and the ritual torture and sacrifice of sapients offending to the god.

Relationships

While Bane believes himself the rightful ruler of all the planes and cannot tolerate being subservient to anyone, the church, unlike many evil churches, to work with others if it serves his interests.

Bane also had working relations with the gods Loviatar, Talona, and Mask;
Malar was also known to work along with Bane at times.

But as numerable as his allies, Bane had many enemies as well, such as Torm, the former-junior, now-senior member of The Triad and Bane's killer during the Time of Troubles, Cyric, Oghma. For a time, Bane's most hated foe was the goddess of magic, Mystra, whose power he coveted.

[Di-Master]

Although Bane had many foes, he did find allies in a few gods and in particular continued a working relationship with the other members of the Dead Three.

It was during this time that Bane sired a son, Iyachtu Xvim, some say by a tanar'ri, others by a fallen paladin of good. Xvim resented his father but nonetheless served compliantly as his servant during this period, along with other servants of the Black Hand such as Bhaal.

Eventually, Bane's plots backfired against him and in one particularly overambitious gambit, he and Myrkul attempted to steal the Tablets of Fate from the Ao the Overgod himself. For this, the two and every other god was banished from their astral dominions to traverse Toril's surface in an exercise of humility, precipitating the Time of Troubles. It was Ao's hope that through this, the gods would learn not only to be content with what power they had, but to respect the needs and wishes of their worshipers.

However, not all the gods were so willing to learn and all of them tried to regain their divine power as quickly as possible. Bane was among these but unfortunately for him he was slain by the young god Torm on Eleasias 13, 1358 DR near Tantras.
Myrkul was destroyed by Mystra, goddess of magic. (Marpenoth 15)
Bhaal fell dead to the sword Godsbane, wielded by a young mortal named Cyric (Eleint 26)
They earned their name of the Dead Three when they all perished during the Time of Troubles

Subsequently the majority of Bane's power fell from him to the mortal Cyric, who temporarily claimed the powers of all the Dead Three. A smaller portion fell to his son, Iyachtu Xvim, an eventuality that Bane had anticipated should he himself perish.