Baphomet

Baphomet

abyssal lord, "Prince of Beasts"
AoC: Minotaurs, battle, beasts, uncontrolled nature
Worshippers: Minotaurs, evil rangers or druids, ferals
AL: CE	WAL: CE,NE,CN
Symbol: A bull's head
Home p/r: Abyss/Endless Maze
Allies: Dwiergus, Malcanthet, Pale Night
Enemies: Ardat, Graz'zt, XXXXXX, Yeenoghu
Favored Weapon: Glaive or Greataxe
Domains: Animal, Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Strength
Subdomains: Ferocity, Fur, Rage, Tanar'ri
Known Proxies: None

A vicious, bestial lord, the demon Baphomet claims reign over the violent natural world and the creatures that live in it. He would see civilization utterly ripped asunder, having no need for the trappings of urban life. And yet he has his own brilliance, especially towards the ways of beast and man. A scholar in many ways, he has brought life to any number of new races of tanar'ri through his knowledge of dark sciences.

History

By the tales of those that follow Baphomet, he was long ago a mortal — though tales are split on if he was man or beast in those early days. It is said that he saw the gods as little better than cattle, nothing but beasts to use as he wished, to survive through the benefit of, and to abandon when he had no further need of them. The gods took great offense at this treatment, cursing him to be neither man nor beast but a merger of both, and casting him into the depths of the Pit. He saw this curse as none at all, however; instead, he embraced his new life. With the aid of the ancient being known as Pale Night, he took quick control of his layer, forming the Endless Maze around her realm and the lands within.

From then, he began work on testing the limits of what the tanar'ric form could sustain. Through the allegiance of Dwiergus, the Chrysalis Prince, he constructed his great Tower of Science, where he began experimentations on crafting new forms of Abyssal life. Over the coming centuries, he had a number of successes, including the creation of both the buleazu and the goristroi. These now-widespread beings came first from the laboratories of Baphomet, in addition to the lesser-known races the ghour and the ankashar.

He further began to come to the attention of the minotaur, a race of beings trapped between beast and man much as he was. Seeing common kinship in them, he established himself as a patron of the darker members of those people, spreading word of his worship throughout their number. From the minotaur, the cult of Baphomet began to grow, soon including many other mortals as well; he became quite popular with giants and ogres as well, as well as those that would see the natural world overcome and subsume civilization, see violent, natural instinct supplement intellect rather than be subsumed by it.

At some time, though the reasons have been lost even to them, Baphomet and Yeenoghu came into conflict with one another. Some say it was an allegiance that went sour, others say rivalry over the gnolls, still others claim that some of Baphomet's knowledge was stolen from Yeenoghu. It could be all these and more. But the reasons are no longer relevant, and the gnolls are now as much an enemy to Baphomet as Yeenoghu himself. The war with both the demon and his race is Baphomet's largest priority, even above his cults, and near all his attention is focused on the goal of wiping them from existence. A number of souls of sacrificed gnolls fill the Endless Maze, and it is one of Baphomet's great joys to torture them endlessly merely to revel in their suffering.

Yeenoghu is far from Baphomet's only foe, however, for the lord has a habit of treating other Abyssal lords much the way he once treated gods. A recent example is that of Ardat, Queen of the Harpies.

References

• Dragon #341 - Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Baphomet, pp.20-33