Hecate

Hecate was an interloper deity of abundance, magic, and moons that originated from another plane of existence.

Description
Her true form was that of a three-headed woman with a gorgeous body, milk white skin, scarlet nails, and eyes that burned like embers. She wore a deep red dress. Her avatar could take on almost any form, but she typically appeared as a beautiful woman with lustrous, dark hair.

Personality
Hecate was a very independent woman with a capricious nature. She was widely famed for her cutting wit and great eloquence, with some even claiming she was the one who taught Apollo how to be so eloquent. She promoted the use of spells and magical items, as well as the joys of abundance. She also warned against the folly of wastefulness.

Abilities
Hecate was capable of casting any spell accessible to magic-users, especially those of the illusionist school of magic, as often as she liked without any restriction. She was also capable of controlling undead.

Twin spheres of annihilation were by her side at all times, ready to be used against her enemies. They moved by themselves after being started and could not be controlled by mortals.

Possessions
Hecate's personal weapon was a +5 dagger with the ghost touch weapon quality. She also possessed the legendary eye of Gruumsh, which had been believed lost in his conflict with Corellon.

Realm
Hecate maintained two divine realms that were each on a different plane, being one of the few deities to do so. Both were known as Aeaea, with one residing in the plane of Hades on the layer of Pluton, and the other residing in the Nine Hells on the layer of Minauros.

Pluton
The Aeaea of Hades was in a constant state of night, though what kind of night depended on the whims and moods of Hecate, at least according to the petitioners. At times it was quite peaceful, while at others it was wracked with terrible weather. When a "day" came to an end on this realm everything went pitch black for about an hour, then a new moon would arise over the eastern hills.

The domain was quite hilly, with omens and portents around every corner. It had groves of poplar trees, which Hecate's most faithful petitioners were said to gather during full moons to perform arcane rites. There were meandering roads, lined with poplars, that lead and came from nowhere. And minor villages lay scattered about the realm, with more appearing along the roads that didn't remain long-term. Hecate herself had no fixed palace within the domain, though maintained a lighthouse of ancient construction on the outer fringe.

There were no restrictions on spellcasting within this domain, allowing every spell cast therein to work with maximum efficiency. However, Hecate was aware of every spell cast within her domain and determined whether or not they had their desired effect. On clear nights she allowed most spells to succeed. On stormy nights she favored those casting flashy and destructive spells.

Minauros
The Aeaea of Minauros was smaller compared to Hecate's divine realm in Pluton. It was a chilly, desolate land shrouded in fog where even those with an infallible sense of direction would become lost. The ground was blackened and charred, featuring rivers of fire and volcanoes. Within one of these volcanic craters sat a throne of obsidian, studded in fire opals.

Her realm in Minauros was littered in thousands of strange, sculptural devices that visitors risked bumping into. They blinked with eerie lights and made clanking or howling sounds. Her clerics would claim that these devices generated all the magic energy throughout the multiverse.

The validity of their claims was questionable, but it was known that they fed souls to the machines, converting them into divine and sorcerous energy that would be used by both Hecate and her minions. These devices were also capable of consuming other entities, such as extraplanar beings and mortals. Whenever supplies ran low, the lowliest of her servants would be fed to the machines.

History
Hecate was born to a pair of Greater Titans. Some believed these Greater Titans were known as Crius and Eurybia, while others claimed her parentage lied with ones named Asterie and Perses.

She had some unclear history of dealings with the Norse deity known as Loki.

Over the years she was served faithfully by a mortal, human sorceress named Circe. After many years of faithful service they came to a mutual agreement that she deserved a raise in power, thus she promoted Circe to the full status of a proxy.

In approximately 1357 DR, Hecate grew infatuated with the deity Enki, but at the time he was in a relationship with the Faerûnian deity Lliira. Unwilling to let this get in her way, she cursed Lliira so that she could return no man's love and imprisoned her in a "Pleasure Palace" called Zannibar on an unnamed world. Hecate eventually lost the feelings she felt for Enki, but neglected to remove the curse she had placed upon Lliira.

Later that same year she sent her jester out to the World Serpent Inn to acquire some suitable adventurers to obtain her a hound from the Wild Hunt, wanting to crossbreed it with her hell hounds. As the adventurers were guided through the planes by the jester and got caught up in other transactions they learned of Lliira's fate. They went on to free the goddess from her imprisonment, offering the captured hound to Hecate in return for her removing the curse.

Activities
Hecate spent some of her time crafting evil, magical items with the aid of her clerics, which she would trade with baatezu for souls to power the machines in her divine realm in Minauros. She often aided mortals for no other reason other than having nothing better to do. At night her avatar was said to wander the mortal realm or her domain of Aeaea, accompanied by a pack of hell hounds. While doing so her avatar would sometimes aid children, herders, and shepherds on a whim. But most times she would send her hounds to attack those who dared to travel on the same night as her and if they managed to fend the hounds off for some time she would call them back. On rare occasions, she would offer the traveler some form of recompense.

Relationships
Hecate had nine hell hound servants that she would unleash to hunt down anyone that desecrated her temples or attacked her higher ranking clerics. Occasionally she would simply sick them on those traveling at night.

Hecate had no allies among the various deities, with the exception of Persephone who she often visited in Hades. She was respected by Apollo and the other powers of the Olympian pantheon would sometimes come to her for advice, but they wouldn't associate with her any more than necessary. She almost always had a gift for the deities that visited her.

She was one of the Lower Planes deities that had strategic alliances with Asmodeus, lord of the Nine Hells.

Worshipers
Her worshipers were typically people that practiced dark magic and worked magic for their own personal gain. The doctrine of her church was that finding and holding power was the primary goal of all life, and that the ideal path to achieving power, wealth, and practically all desirable things was magic. Her temples were well hidden, often located in the depths of dark haunted forests where they were guarded by the undead.

Hecate's clerics were few in number and typically were cleric/sorcerers and cleric/wizards that wore blue-white garments, a color akin to moonlight. They usually worked in solitude, performing magical research, making magic items, or searching out legendary treasures, and convincing good-aligned spellcasters to use their powers for evil or selfish ends. They also would form cells of cultists in order to carry these schemes out on a larger scale. They were ruthless in their pursuits of power and influence, willing to use any trick at their disposal. They were particularly passionate about magical items, which they considered physical manifestations of power, but if they ever found an item they couldn't use a priest would donate it to the church.

All of Hecate's clerics had a special rapport with hell hounds and would not be attacked by them in any case. Each month they would make their sacrifices to her under the night of a full moon, often in the form of black ewes and honey. Failure to do so would result in her depriving the worshiper of their magical powers until the proper sacrifice was made.

On the plane of existence where she originated, she was worshiped by a collection of city-states. On that plane she was the sole source of magic for wizards and was often referred to in folktales as a sorceress or witch.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Tales of the Outer Planes, "A Simple Deed, Well Rewarded"