Beshaba
Encyclopedia
Beshaba, also called The Maid of the Misfortune, is a fiction
al deity
of the Forgotten Realms
campaign setting
for the Dungeons & Dragons
fantasy
role-playing game
. Within the game, she is the Faerûn
ian deity of bad luck
, misfortune, random mischief, and accidents.
created Beshaba for his home Dungeons & Dragons game set in the Forgotten Realms
.
#54 (October 1981). Beshaba is introduced as the Maid of Misfortune, Black Bess, and Lady Doom; she is the goddess of mischief, misfortune, ill luck, accidents, (treachery, betrayal), a chaotic evil lesser goddess from the Abyss
. She is described as "a beautiful white-haired face, laughing hysterically. Ill fortune ... falls on those who behold her. Often, sure fire plans go awry, stout weapons or walls suddenly give way, and freak accidents occur to man and beast where Beshaba has been."
Beshaba later officially appeared as one of the major deities for the Forgotten Realms
campaign setting
, in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Sets "Cyclopedia of the Realms" booklet (1987).
(1990), the revised Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (1993) in the "Running the Realms" booklet, and Faiths & Avatars
(1996).
Her role in the cosmology of the Planescape
campaign setting was described in On Hallowed Ground (1996).
(2002).
in the 3rd edition Forgotten Realms cosmology, and Third Edition domains are Chaos, Evil, Fate, Luck, and Trickery. Her weapon is a "barbed" scourge, aptly named "Ill Fortune".
s.
Her clergy also make sacrifice
s: 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.
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.
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.
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al deity
Deity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
of the Forgotten Realms
Forgotten Realms
The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...
campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
for the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
. Within the game, she is the Faerûn
Faerûn
Faerûn is a fictional subcontinent, the primary setting of the Dungeons & Dragons world of Forgotten Realms. It is described at a relatively high level in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting from Wizards of the Coast, and various locales and aspects are described in more detail by separate...
ian deity of bad luck
Bad Luck
Bad Luck may refer to:* Harmful or negative luck* Bad Luck , a 1960 film directed by Andrzej Munk* "Bad Luck" * "Bad Luck" * Bad Luck, an album by Trophy Scars...
, misfortune, random mischief, and accidents.
Publication history
Ed GreenwoodEd Greenwood
Ed Greenwood is a Canadian writer and editor who created the Forgotten Realms. He invented the Forgotten Realms as a child, as a fantasy world in which to set the stories he imagined, and later used this world as a campaign setting for his own personal Dungeons & Dragons playing group...
created Beshaba for his home Dungeons & Dragons game set in the Forgotten Realms
Forgotten Realms
The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...
.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)
Beshaba first appeared within Dungeons & Dragons as one of the deities featured in Ed Greenwood's article "Down-to-earth Divinity" in DragonDragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#54 (October 1981). Beshaba is introduced as the Maid of Misfortune, Black Bess, and Lady Doom; she is the goddess of mischief, misfortune, ill luck, accidents, (treachery, betrayal), a chaotic evil lesser goddess from the Abyss
Abyss (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the Abyss or more fully, the Infinite Layers of the Abyss, is a chaotic evil-aligned plane of existence. It is one of a number of alignment-based Outer Planes that form part of the standard Dungeons & Dragons cosmology, used in the Planescape...
. She is described as "a beautiful white-haired face, laughing hysterically. Ill fortune ... falls on those who behold her. Often, sure fire plans go awry, stout weapons or walls suddenly give way, and freak accidents occur to man and beast where Beshaba has been."
Beshaba later officially appeared as one of the major deities for the Forgotten Realms
Forgotten Realms
The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...
campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
, in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Sets "Cyclopedia of the Realms" booklet (1987).
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)
Beshaba was described in the hardback Forgotten Realms AdventuresForgotten Realms Adventures
Forgotten Realms Adventures is an accessory for the fictional Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the second edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game...
(1990), the revised Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (1993) in the "Running the Realms" booklet, and Faiths & Avatars
Faiths & Avatars
Faiths & Avatars is an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms campaign expansion book. The book was designed by Julia Martin with Eric L. Boyd, and additional design by Ed Greenwood, L. Richard Baker III, and David Wise...
(1996).
Her role in the cosmology of the Planescape
Planescape
Planescape is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by Zeb Cook. The Planescape setting was published in 1994...
campaign setting was described in On Hallowed Ground (1996).
Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000-2002)
Beshaba appears as one of the major deities of the Forgotten Realms setting again, in Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (2001), and is further detailed in Faiths and PantheonsFaiths and Pantheons
Faiths and Pantheons is a campaign accessory for the 3rd edition of the Dungeons & Dragons, for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.-Contents:...
(2002).
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 DespairBarrens of Doom and Despair
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the Barrens of Doom and Despair is an evil-aligned plane of existence. It is one of a number of Outer Planes that form part of the cosmology retroactively introduced in the third edition of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting...
in the 3rd edition Forgotten Realms 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 scourgeScourge
A scourge is a whip or lash, especially a multi-thong type used to inflict severe corporal punishment or self-mortification on the back.-Description:...
s.
Her clergy also make sacrifice
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...
s: Clerics must offer an entreaty for their spells, and make sacrifices of alcoholic beverages such as burning brandy
Brandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...
or wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
. 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 SelûneSélune
The Sélune is a 91 km long river in the Manche department, Normandy, France, beginning near Saint-Cyr-du-Bailleul. It empties into the bay of Mont Saint-Michel near Avranches, close to the mouth of the Sée river. Other towns along the Sélune are Barenton, Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët and...
and Shar.
Beshaba came into being when the deity Tyche
Tyche
In ancient Greek city cults, Tyche was the presiding tutelary deity that governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny....
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
Moander
Moander is the god of rot and corruption in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.-Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition :...
, 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