Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Feb 04, 2004 15:57:02	I was working on a campaign for the western Flanaess and realized there are some gaps in relation to Baklunish deities. There really isn't an evil deity at all, which is a little strange. I thought about Incabulos and Nerull and some of the generic evil deities and none felt right to me. Suggestions? Also there needs to be a sea deity. I know that an Oeridian deity could fill in but it doesn't seem right that they don't have one of their own. With so much coast line and major merchant shipping I find it hard to believe they don't have one. Geshtai I guess could have a more oceanic aspect I suppose but she seems mainly a landlocked deity with oases and the like. Finally a deity of sagely knowledge is needed. Delleb is perfect except for being Oeridian. Istus seems too magically oriented with divination and the such. Perhaps my idea of the Bakluni having many sages and bookish professions isn't accurate?
#2 zombiegleemax Feb 04, 2004 17:58:18	I don't know if this will help you or not, but in my campaign I have the Bakluni being pretty monotheistic followers of Istus, with the other Bakluni deities functioning as saints ala Roman Catholocism. It works out fine and helps make them more culturaly seperate from the eastern lands. Oh, and as for a Bakluni god of evil, I invisaged them as being demon or devil worshippers. For a sea god, substitute the powers of the elemental planes of air and water.
#3 Greyson Feb 04, 2004 19:20:50	Thalantha al-Hazun (The Unholy Trio, in Ancient Balklunish) Al' Fazal (The Tyrant, The Mighty One, Our Terrible Master), LE Intermediate God of Tyranny, Oppresion and Slavery. Al' Fazal is the Balklunish god of evil dominion and control. His adherents seek domination in government, religion and social arenas in a continuing effort to amass power and control. They work to disfranchise and enslave their subordinates - professing that few in society are suited to govern. Fazaltine tenets assert that most creatures must be goverened with an iron fist and forced to work for the few elites given the gifts of leadership and strength. The rule by fear and violence. The Tyrant seeks obedience, not love. Domains: Evil, Force, Law and Strength. Weapons: Scimitar, Morning Star. Kor Ahir (Hatred's Son, The Black Demon, The Accursed One), CE Intermediate God of Hatred, Misery and Sin. Kor Ahir is the Balklunish god of hate, malice and sore cursings. He hates everything and everyone. His followers bring discord and strife everywhere they are allowed to abide. The always seek to pull down power around them and spread despair. They murder, rob, cheat and steal because of an insidious emptiness that fills their hearts. It is said that Hatred's Son has taken all meaning and value from his followers. All that is left is spiteful dissenters who want all to be miserable. It is whispered in secret conclaves that Ahir lent his dark hand to the cause of the cataclysms. Domains: Chaos, Evil, Death and Destruction. Weapons: None. Mindhu (The Torturer, Black Sister, Daughter of Pain), NE Intermediate Goddess of Anguish, Malign Punishment and Torture. The Black Sister is the Balklunish Goddess of unjust pain and torture. She is the patron deity of torment of the mind, body and spirit. Her morbid followers are zealous executioners, torturers and other bringers of pain. They delight in depraved twistings, stretchings and mutilations of the body - all in an effort to extract screams of excruciating pain and pleas for relief - which never comes. She is the most feared Balklunish deity. Domains: Trickery, Healing, Madness and Evil. Weapons: Whip, Spiked Chain. Knowledge of the above powers is not taught among the Balkluns, and their secrets are dilligently kept from public disourse. Followers of the Unholy Trio are assidously hunted down and slain.
#4 OleOneEye Feb 04, 2004 19:47:21	The Invoked Devastation was horrendous on the Baklunish people. Not only were the populous all but obliterated, the Baklunish gods were all killed as well. In the thousand years since, only a few Baklunes have arisen to the level of godhood. The pantheon is far from complete, leaving openings for many contemporary personages to raise to godhood. The relative weakness of the Baklunish people compared to Oeridians and Suel can be directly traced to the lack of gods to direct their worshippers. Other pantheons continually attempt to gain worshippers in the Baklunish lands, with Iuz making special efforts to raise as the primary evil god of the region.
#5 robbastard Feb 04, 2004 19:58:14	Gygax had a Bakluni deity called Dorgha Torgu which Paul Stormberg detailed in Oerth Journal #12. http://www.canonfire.com/htmlnew/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=2
#6 Greyson Feb 05, 2004 0:24:31	Balklunish people were slain and their ancestral lands were obliterated by the Invoked Devestation, but none of their deities were slain. Torgu was barred from allowing his power and influence to flow through Oerth's divine fabric - thus he is called The Outcast. But none of his fellow Balklunish deities perished. It is a reasonable assumption if Suel deities were "missing," too. But none of them are. Regrettably, the idea of Balklunish dieties perishing while none of the Suel powers did, does not hold much water. To avoid another cataclysmic event, Balklunish patriarchs, benevolent religious leaders and imams expunged the existence of the Unholy Trio, Torgu and the Elder Elemental God from all Balklunish religious texts, teachings and recitations. Knowledge of the former entities are known by a small aegis of Balklunish erudites and perhaps two or three Anchorite Silent Ones in Niole Dra.
#7 bdpenney Feb 05, 2004 8:25:29	I'll have some fun with this! Since I'm meddlesome as hell when it comes to spinning campaign history (Greyhawk or otherwise) I came up with the following reason why there are so few Baklunish gods left to the world: The Invoked Devestation destroyed Bakluni society and slew all but a handful of its citizens. Those who survived, the most powerful and determined among them, set to deal a horrific counterblow upon their Suel enemies. The Baklunish gods, maimed and in agony over the loss of their people, cried for vengence, and together with their most powerful remaining followers they set about this course. Gathering together at the site of Tovag Baragu a terrible ritual was begun. The lands about were rent with earthquakes and the morning sky became black as pitch. In one terrible instant the combined gathering of mortals and deities thrust their essence into their vengence, and it consumed them all. The skies of over the Suel Empire became blindingly bright, then the flames began to fall. Like the beginnings of a storm, balls of fire began to fall hither and thither in the land, causing death and conflagration to break out. Panic and chaos suddenly took hold of an empire so jubulient over destroying their enemies. Then, like a downpour, the skies above burst and all the lands were purged of all traces of life or the works of the Suel. Brighter than a supernova, the terrible flames engulfed the entire nation and brought about an end to perhaps the greatest empire ever to exist on Oearth. In the end, however, the cost of this vengence was high. In their haste for vengence the Bakluni paragons and deities underestimated the cost of their endeavor. The mortals involved were rapidly consumed by the spell; they burned their very souls away to give it the power it needed to begin. Then, as the spell grew nearer and nearer to completion, the deities themselves were consumed by its hunger. This act of vengence, which felled an empire, also felled the greatest of the Bakluni leadership and the deities they prayed to. Little remained after this terrible holocaust, and the Bakluni and Suel people were never the same since.
#8 zombiegleemax Feb 05, 2004 10:44:29	Thanks for the comments guys. I think there are some obvious reasons for why the evil deities of the Baklunish aren't known outside those lands, the most obvious being they didn't advance through the Flanaess like the Suloise did and therefore didn't advance those religions and probably supressed them in a violent manner after the Invoked Devastation. It also makes sense that an evil deity (or deities) was involved in the destruction of the Suel Imperium, and was then written out of their histories, the Baklunish not wanting to venerate the obliteration of another people. (This fits with Greyson's Kor Ahir) In fact the rise of Al'Akbar was in direct response to their atonement for such an act. My main purpose in finding an evil deity was to create a sect of assassins based around his worship, much like the holy slayers in the defunct Al'Qadim campaign. Because of the elemental flavor of many Baklunish wizards it makes sense for them to have worshiped the Elder Elemental God at some point in the ancient past, probably one of the deities that was written out of their histories.
#9 zombiegleemax Feb 06, 2004 11:11:49	The more that I consider the worship of Delleb by the Oeridians the more it bugs me. The Oeridians are supposed to be the least intellectual and most warlike race in the Flanaess, it makes much more sense for Delleb to be a Baklunish deity that the Oeridians discovered through earlier contact. This could perhaps be one indicator of their sudden cosmopolitan birth in ages past? House Aerdi an early proponent of Delleb after their blood thirsty conquest? If only Gary had finished detailing the pantheon!