Bane

D&D 2024 deity: Bane. Source: Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn. pantheon Faerûnian Bane, a god of tyrants and ambition, has a simple ethos: the strong have the duty to rule over the weak. A tyrant who can seize power must do so; not only does the tyrant benefit, but so do those under the tyrant's rule. When a ruler succumbs to decadence, corruption, or decrepitude, a stronger and more suitable ruler will rise. Bane is one of the Dead Three, a trio of gods including Bhaal and Myrkul who attained divinity when they absorbed the divine station of a former death god, Jergal, and were then slain during the Time of Troubles. Bane was the first of the three to return and has risen to a more prominent position than he ever held before his death. Although Bane's worshipers have committed dark deeds in his name, most of them don't do so out of malice. Bane represents ambition and control, and those who have the former but lack the latter pray to him to give them strength. Bane favors those with drive and courage, and he aids those who seek to become conquerors, carve kingdoms from the wilderness, and bring order to the lawless. Whatever form Bane takes, he is marked by his jet-black right hand. If he wishes to conceal his identity, he wears a gauntlet or glove over this hand. He appears to mortals in dreams as a powerful, shadowy figure in armor wearing a black, jeweled gauntlet. When he sends an emissary, it is usually a Horned Devil, or it could be a possessed Knight with pitch-black eyes who remembers nothing of the encounter later. At many times and in many places in Faerûn, the faithful of Bane have been heralded as saviors for slaughtering raiders, throwing down corrupt rulers, or saving armies on the brink of defeat. But just as often, the worship of Bane has created or supported cruel dictatorships, aided mercantile monopolies, or subjugated entire populations. Priests of Bane wear a black-enameled gauntlet on one fist. Cults of Bane are particularly active in Ba...