Beshaba

Beshaba, or Lady Doom as she was also known, was the chaotic evil intermediate deity of accidents, bad luck, misfortune, and random mischief, and a member of Tempus' pantheon. She demanded worship to keep her bad luck at bay. Her aim in life was to destroy her sister Tymora, or Lady Luck. She also delighted in cursing others, often causing seafarers to lose their navigational instincts.

"Beshaba, like Tymora, arose from the corrupted form of Tyche. Once Tymora came forth, all that was tainted by Moander coalesced and stepped out as the goddess of ill fortune, Beshaba. Beshaba was lovely to behold, but her heart was malicious and spiteful. Beshaba and Tymora hated one another instantly and tried to destroy each other. Fortunately other powerful gods were present at the time and helped separate the battling sisters. Beshaba fled to live on the dark planes, which were more suited to her spirit."

- Selûne

Description
Beshaba appeared as a young, tall, slim, and beautiful maiden with a wild mane of pure white hair. The woman was pale, had a small waist and voluptuous shape. Her corpse-like pale skin was countered by flushed hues of blue and violet on the cheeks and throat. Beshaba's most prominent feature were her yellow-rimmed eyes that were ablaze with insanity. She was adorned in a tight gown that snugly wrapped her body in pitch-black fabric. She wore a tiara of black pearls.

Personality
Unlike her sister Tymora, Beshaba hoarded her divine powers, creating a reserve. Meanwhile Tymora happily shared her gifts with her own worshipers as well as her godly allies.

Relationships
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 by her lustful passions. She rejected advances from Talos, among other hopefuls. Mortals who perceived the Maid of Misfortune were often destroyed by their lust or driven to maddened loyalty.

Beshaba was the twin sister and sworn enemy of Tymora, whom she sought to destroy.

She was Tempus' lover.

Beshaba was served by alu-fiends who were outfitted with silver breastplates decorated with the goddess' symbol - stag horns. Two of her loyal demonic servants were Okim and Airdna.

Worshipers
Beshaba was revered more out of fear than out of religious faith. Her doctrine stated that bad luck befell everybody and the only way to avoid it was by worshiping her. She was renowned for being spiteful and malevolent, and her priests manipulated common folk into revering and providing for them by acting mysteriously and playing on morbid fears. Her clerics offered an entreaty for their spells and made sacrifices of alcoholic beverages such as burning brandy or wine. There were two festivals in the calendar of Beshaba followers at Midsummer and Shieldmeet. Both were celebrated by revelry and indulgence in food and drink.

Red Wizards of Thay were known to erect shrines to Beshaba near their ritual chambers to ward off bad luck.

Giant black stags with red eyes who could gore an elephant with ease served the goddess of misfortune and inhabited Beshaba's Blood Tor.

Orders

 * Doommasters: The best known order of specialty priests were the Doommasters, universally feared for the way they reveled in the infliction of misfortune on others.
 * Black Fingers: Only by Beshaba's favor, some evil male clerics, thieves, and fighters of Beshaba could join the secret order of the Black Fingers. They acted as assassins dedicated to their goddess's name.
 * Wormlucks:In order to spread Beshaba's influence and counter the church of Tymora, the Wormlucks (or Priests of Bad Fortune) were created, serving as a focus for calamities which occurred wherever they went, often affecting them as well. Their style of dress was distinctive, forced upon them by the orthodox clergy to avoid confusion with them and for high visibility. They wore bright red robes worn over armor and white hair wigs, which had to be obvious and usually ill-fitting, to honor Beshaba's own locks.

History
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.

In 1368 DR, Doljust, an aging nobleman, displeased the goddess of ill-luck. Beshaba used her divine magics to twist the man's luck. She watched Doljust as he faced off against a werebat. The creature's cave had two dead toddlers in front of it, which was a grim omen of things to come. The goddess swayed the noble's hound, forcing the beast to pounce at the lycanthrope as Doljust swung his sword. As the man mourned his beloved dying dog, Beshaba's vengeance became apparent. Doljust swung his blade one again, at a sound that came from behind. A moment later, another, smaller werebat, cleaved by Doljust's sword, shifted back to its humanoid form. The adolescent werebeast was a young child who whispered "grandfather" as he died in his older relative's arms.

Trivia

 * "Beshaba's bad breath!" was a common exclamation, when facing bad luck.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Tymora's Luck