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Beshaba, also called The Maid of the Misfortune, is a fictional deity of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Beshaba is the Faerunian deity of bad luck, misfortune, random michief, and accidents.
Overview
Lady Doom, as she is also known, demands worship to keep her bad luck at bay. She is a Chaotic Evil Intermediate Power, whose symbol is black antlers on a red field, divine realm is Blood Tor on the 13th layer of the Abyss or in the Barrens of Doom and Despair in the 3rd edition FR cosmology, and Third Edition domains are Chaos, Evil, Fate, Luck, and Trickery. Her weapon is a "barbed" scourge, aptly named "Ill Fortune".
Worshipers
Beshaba is revered more out of fear, than out of religious faith. Beshaba's doctrine states that bad luck befalls everybody, and the only way to avoid it is by worshipping her. She is renowned for being spiteful and malevolent, and her priests manipulate common folk into revering and providing for them by acting mysteriously and playing on morbid fears. Their favored weapon are scourges.
Her clergy also make sacrifices: Clerics must offer an entreaty for their spells, and make sacrifices of alcoholic beverages such as burning brandy or wine. There are two festivals in the calendar of Beshaba followers, "Midsummer" and "Shieldmeet". Both are celebrated by revelry and indulgence in food and drink.
Orders
- Black Fingers
Some male clerics and evil thieves and fighters of Beshaba can join a secret order called the Black Fingers. They act as assassins dedicated to their goddess's name. Only by Beshaba's likings can a member join this order.
History & Relationships
Beshaba is the twin of Tymora, are sworn enemies as well as 'sisters', much like Selûne and Shar.
Beshaba came into being when the deity Tyche split during the Dawn Cataclysm (a separate disaster relating to the machinations of Lathander). Tyche was infected with a taint of the dark god Moander, and was forced to split into two parts by her friend Selûne. Those two parts, Tymora and Beshaba, sprang out fully formed and immediately fought.
Beshaba, who is said to have gotten Tyche's looks where Tymora got her love, is considered to be attractive to many male deities, and some have been devoured with her lustful passions. She has rejected advances from Talos, and other hopefuls. Mortals who perceive the Maid of Misfortune are often destroyed by their lust or driven to maddened loyalty.
Beshaba's aim in life, is to desiccate and disintegrate her antithesis, "Lady Luck". She also delights in cursing others; for example, she causes seafarers to lose their navigational instincts. She has no allies. Agathos Daimon, who was Tyche's mate, fears and abhors Beshaba, but has roused himself to seek the reunification of her with Tymora.
- In Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, a mob in the Government District of Athkatla is preparing to burn Viconia, a runaway drow elf, as a sacrifice to Beshaba. This is most likely due to the mob wanting to dissaude the misfortune of a drow invasion on the city (The mob does not know Viconia has no ties to her people anymore, although it's unlikely they care either).
External links
- A Tiefling's Exultation - Information on Agathos Daimon
- History of the Fateful Coin
References
- Boyd, Eric L, and Erik Mona. Faiths and Pantheons (Wizards of the Coast, 2002).
- Martin, Julia, and Eric L Boyd. Faiths & Avatars (TSR, 1996).