Legendlore: Bhaal the Lord of Murder | D&D 5E God Breakdown

i choose death i can destroy your kingdom being by mirroring your subjects and i can starve your kingdom merku by staying my hand and so i shall build a kingdom of my own of those who decide who lives and dies and where you both shall kneel before me hello and welcome my friends and viewers to this week's episode of legend lore where i draw and talk about monsters characters gods and other things from d and d fifth edition while giving a small but quickly digestible history about them together we'll go over their origins within the game how they're utilized in the modern edition and how you guys can utilize them in your own games join me this week as we will be covering the dark god of ritualistic murder within the forgotten realms ball before he was a god ball was but a man a power hungry adventurer who along with his companions bane and mirkul sought to attain the portfolio of dragon the god of the dead the three were able to travel to dragal's domain and the god willingly offered his realm and power to the dark three resulting in a vicious squabble that only ceased when dragon suggested that they play a game to divide his power amongst them after a rousing game of knucklebones bane emerged the victor choosing first and claiming the domains of hatred strife and tyranny for himself mirkul coming second chose to rule over the dead themselves doing so to spite bane as death was the ultimate fate for all and so he would command all of the dead including bane's own minions in life ball the last of the three chose the divine province of the act of death itself as he hoped to draw power from the ending of life reveling in its act in the many forms that it could take from the murders of vicious killers to the righteous smiting of paladins ball was originally the patron deity of assassins and their victims but eventually common murderers used his presence to justify their own actions which ended up warping his manner of worship and becoming less refined and meticulous and planned when the time of troubles came ball lost his powers and was forced to walk the realm as immortal like all the gods and unfortunately was slain by the upstart mortal cyric using the sword known as gonzbane in truth god's vein was but the chosen form of the god mask and ball's death allowed cyric to steal elements of his divinity and portfolio there's also no doubt that mask also benefited from the death of this god as well however ball was immensely clever and foresaw his own death to come during the time of troubles and thus went about securing his own life by fathering children by many mortal women this act created his heirs known as the ball spawn who were involved in a series of conflicts in infighting before one stood above the others ultimately foiling ball's plan to return through his children for a time this would actually be the plot of the dnd based video game baldur's gate 2 throne of ball in regards to his active clergy at the time of his death many urban balls were very quick to convert to the worship of cyric whom they referred to as cyric ball in the sort of amalgamation of the two those who worshipped him within more rural areas maintained their original faith and a schism grew between the cyric bolas and the dregs of his remaining original followers in time due to their loss of power upon the death of their god the original ballas were either killed or eventually converted by force to the worship of cyrik if you guys want to catch up a little bit more on cyric and his own lore there's a link in the description to check out syrix legend lore despite the loss of his clergy though this would not be the end for ball for the last known ball spawn a man known as abdel adrian resisted his murderous impulses caused by his lineage and became a famed and beloved figure within the city of baldur's gate however another ball spawned by the name of vacant attacked adrian while he was in the middle of a speech and while the ultimate winner of the duel wasn't exactly known the victor being the true last of the ball spawn transformed into a massive blood-sucked creature and began to rampage with the city stopped by the efforts of a group of adventurers this is the events of the d d 5th edition module murderer in baldur's gate which i highly recommend checking out with all of his children dead killed by each other's hands ball's essence was finally freed he returned and reclaimed the murder domain from cyric but the lord of murder was no longer a complete deity he was effectively still mortal left to reconstruct his clergy and restore his worship in the hopes of returning to true godhood the clergy of ball known as ballists is a disorganized network of local cults with both urban and rural branches often keeping distant relations from one another collectively they all believe that murder is both the duty to their god and the game for their enjoyment and each member of ball's church was expected to perform at least one murder every 10 days specifically in the darkest moment of the dead of night if possible however murder is rarely ever so perfectly timed despite the fear he commanded ball's actual portfolio was subject to debate by most scholars in his most common depictions he was viewed as a figure that might have taken strength and violently punishing murderers and war mongers while others had believed the more noble notion that he judged whether a murder was righteous or not yet still many believe that he simply thrived off the act of murder itself which was a belief stoked by his own half mortal children the ball spawn during the time that he was dead ball had many scattered cults the most infamous being known as the death stalkers who were one of the few sects who attempted to try and bring him back to life as such the death stalker served as the most well-known order upon his resurrection but many others still exist ball is known to have three recorded avatars a shape-shifting monstrosity called khasgoroth a corpse like male humanoid known simply as the slayer and a gargantuan beast known as the ravager while kazurath is simply an aspect of the god malar that ball controlled the lord of murder often preferred to assume the form of the slayer while in urban areas so as to attempt some form of infiltration and blending in while in this form he resembled a humanoid corpse with a feral face bearing ivory skin that was inset with deep bleeding lacerations the ravager which ball assumed when visiting rural regions was a 30-foot tall monstrosity with a grimacing horned head and face that featured a mane a flowing beard and eyes filled with the flames of the lower planes in some extreme cases the ball spawn after ball's death were actually able to turn into creatures similar to these ones in terms of allies and foes ball maintains a very strange relationship with his two former party members murakul benefits from his acts of death as ball's victims become new members in his army and bane maintains power over strife and struggle having very little use for an alliance with ball since he likes to take care of his own business himself ball alongside both bane and rapool was once served by the goddesses talena and loviatar while he was a greater deity beyond that he is reviled by a majority of the other gods specifically shanti helm ilmater lathander lyra and tyr and of course there's the immense thirst for revenge that he shares against cyric for stealing his power and it is unknown whether or not he knows that mask was involved in his slaying having taken the form of the sword that killed him lastly one more interesting bit of lore that i learned is that while he was still a god ball was served by an imp butler by the name of kaspanar who i can imagine has stuck around with maul since his days as immortal possibly being conscripted or contracted to provide aid in some way and having simply rode false coattails ever since now while i sadly haven't gotten a chance to portray ball in any of my games i would play him less as the psycho killer maniac that most lord depicts him as and more as a cold and cunning individual ultimately vengeful for the wrongs that he has suffered and keen to get his due such as righting the wrong of losing the game of knucklebones against merkul and vane and having his divinity stolen away by cyric he is also immensely careful with his movements and his plans as due to cyric's actions ball is still technically immortal and can be killed again by any adventurer who has the balls to try as such he keeps much of his information secret portraying himself as godly as ever to his followers and slowly collecting a following of assassins murderers and killers he unfortunately can't be as choosy as he was when he was originally a god so he's grown to accept the more common murderer types into his fold but still nurses a wish to regain the elegance and diligence of his former clergy as such ball does all he can to make the best of his situation but is still faced with the immense difficulty of having his former party members as gods who benefit from his choices no matter which one he makes if he kills bane's followers he gives miracle command over their dead bodies and their souls and if he stays his hand to starve her coal of new blood bain's followers continue to wreak havoc and he himself gains no power as no death has occurred as such i have him eternally searching for a new way to free himself from this cursed state of attrition either by collecting a new domain from another god by force from which he can draw new power or by killing either of the two gods himself and usurping their power cyrik is definitely a target in this endeavor but due to his imprisonment within the demi plain of the supreme throne ball can't exactly get to him without the risk of trapping himself in cyric's place in regards to characters and plot hooks ball story is actually incredibly straightforward with his efforts being predominantly focused on either de-powering his former compatriots or getting revenge against cyric for his transgressions or engaging in the act that grants him the most power murder most of maul's quest and divine purposes for his followers would be focused on enacting the death of important figures ranging from political assassination to killing the priests of other faiths in order to weaken the gods they serve i like to compare her mostly to sithis from the other scroll series a god who uses assassination and death as a way to guide the future according to what he wants while taking the occasional contract to pay the bills as such ball would certainly have a divine focused assassination guild that your pcs npcs or even villains could be a part of or even control which in my world the organization takes the name the bloody wreath as a nod to his holy symbol which is a skull with a swirling of blood around it from this the targets of these guilds npcs and bcs and such can range from a noble patron who the party has befriended a high priest whose death would serve balls purposes or even a corrupt noble official whose mismanagement of his land has led to so much random death that ball can't really make any use of it he is the god of ritualistic intentional murder after all so wanton death and destruction really does not serve him in any way with that said not all of ball's worshippers have to be evil and can worship the god in hopes that he will see them succeed in their murderous endeavors utterline worshipers can be paladins dedicated to smiting the scourge of evil while evil aligned worshipers can be the more bloodthirsty serial killer types and everything in between murder while a crime in most lawful civilizations can serve both good and evil purposes a fact that ball may be very keen to take advantage of if he wishes to outgrow pain and mere cool and power lastly our magic item for this week is simply titled the knife of the lord our first vestige item as its power grows the more devoted the wiggler becomes to its creator in its first dormant form the knife of the lord has a plus one bonus to all attack and damage rolls and allows the wielder to cast the spell invisibility once for short rest its second effect is that the first successful attack made against an enemy deals an additional one before damage and marks them every successful attack made after this first 1d4 marking one increases the die increment by one so increasing a 1d4 to a 1d6 a 1d6 to a 1d8 and so on leading to the maximum die being a1b20 upon killing an enemy the die reduces back to a 1d4 and missing an attack it does not increase nor lower the dice increment in its second awakened form the knight's bonus increases to a plus two and the wielder can now cast a spell greater invisibility once per long rest additionally the wielder can now consume the mark placed on the enemy as a bonus action causing it to suffer a penalty to its next attack roll of which is equal to a roll of the increment damage die reached so if your increment die has reached up to a d12 you roll the d12 and the target's next attack roll is subtracted the number you roll in its final exalted form the knife's bonus increases to a plus 3 and the wielder upon killing an enemy that is marked can transfer the mark status to an enemy within 30 feet that it can see when this is done the damage dies increment does lower by 1 but its effect does continue and can be passed through multiple enemies so long as you kill each one first and half the bonus action to spend i've included an item stat block in the description below maul's straightforwardness in regards to his story intents domains and history makes him a very easy god to place in your world though one does need to get a little more creative when it comes to keeping his portrayal from becoming tiresome one can only deal with the mad murdering god of chaos archetype for so long i want to thank all you guys for watching and if you guys want to watch any more d d videos like this please like subscribe and share the video to anybody that you think it might help dungeon masters or players who are planning to align themselves with ball specifically and if you guys want a chance to vote on the next subject of the next video then please follow me on twitter and cast your vote on the polls in the coming day also please comment down below how you guys have used or encountered ball in your games and what you guys would like to see in upcoming videos until then i'll see you guys next time

Channel: Legendlore

Views: 36,122

Keywords: d&d 5e, dungeons and dragons, dnd, dnd 5e, 5th edition, 5e, legendlore, legend lore, legend, lore, spells, monsters, gods, forgotten realms, greyhawk, art, fantasy, dragonlance, pathfinder, rpg, roleplaying game, ttrpg, tabletop, deities, divines, dawnwar, dawn war, toril, bhaal, bhaalspawn, throne of bhaal, baldurs gate, baldur's gate, baldur, baldur's, gate, bg2, bg3, baldur's gate 3, lord of murder, bane, myrkul

Id: apeSmaOBIxY

Length: 12min 45sec (765 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 17 2021