Cyric

Cyric, known as Sirhivatizangpo by his Gugari worshipers and as N'asr by the Bedine, was the monomaniacal Faerunian god of strife and deception, and the greater god of conflict and murder, as well as lies, intrigue and illusion. It was he who murdered Mystra and caused the Spellplague, throwing the cosmos into turmoil in an act that cost him much of his following.

"It all depends on me, you see. Nothing is certain until I have beheld it and set it in place, until I have placed myself above it or below, before it or after...I am the One, the All, the Face Behind the Mask. I am the Everything."

- Cyric, on the Night of Despair, Nightal 28 1368 DR.

Description
When he was a mere man, Cyric had a lead athletic build.

As a god, Cyric's avatar appeared as a slender man with ghastly pale skin and intense, dark eyes, and the same hawkish nose he had in life. He wriggled and squirmed when be came anxious or impatient, a rather regular occurrence.

After a decade of godhood his appearance transformed to one more reflective of his horrific nature. Cyric's visage went gaunt until it resembled a skull-like mask and his skin turned red in hue as over wrapped tightly wound cords of muscle. Cyric's eyes appeared as small flames within his skull, his teeth were crooked and yellowed, and his fingers were stripped of flesh until only bone remained. With some effort, Cyric could hide this appearance with use of illusion magic when making appearances in the Realms.

Cyric's face and hands later became horribly scarred from burns inflicted upon him by the souls of his faithful that failed him. These wounds could not be hidden by any form of magic available to the god. Similarly, Cyric's heart appeared as a mass of poisonous brown sludge interwoven with white cords, the spirits of the gods he had slain.

Personality
"If you lavish godhood on the pretenders that chained you here, then you're right. I'm no god. I'm very much more than that."

- Cyric, to Kezef the Chaos Hound.

As a man Cyric was petty, self-centered, and enjoyed manipulating individuals into ruining or ending their own lives. He came to believe that everyone lived their lives truly alone; placing trust in others was folly that would only end in suffering or more likely death.

As a god Cyric worst traits were magnified. He remained entirely self-centered and believed himself entirely superior to all other beings in the multiverse. Despite or perhaps because of this, Cyric often acted out like a child, becoming restless, moody, and irrationally impatient when things didn't go his way fast enough for his living. He remained exceptionally petty, as evidenced by the churlish nicknames for other gods he forced courtiers in his divine realm to speak. In truth he was terrified of other powers, to the point of paranoia.

Cyric was singularly unpredictable and made dramatic shows of anger when it suited him, only to resume his normal behaviors on a whim. He was also wholly self-delusional. Cyric would fantasize horrors about those perceived to have wronged him, conflate these fallacies with half-truths and false memories until all that remained were self-exaltation and recollections of his glorious victories. In truth his mind was utterly chaotic, barely able to hold back his myriad of conflicting selves.

Abilities
Cyric could manifest in the Realms in the form of his usual avatar, or that of a terrible spider, or the visage of a skull.

His god-given powers were amplified while on Pandemonium, the plane of pure chaos.

For a time, Cyric was stripped of any and all magical powers by Mystra, when she refused to grant him access to the Weave.

Possessions
Cyric's throne room within his divine realm was a monument to his victories, housing twisted trophies that besmirched other gods and degraded their followers. Included among them were a painting of a Deneiran faithful, the pigment of which was made of children's blood; the executioner's axe of a crazed king that venerated Tyr; and the nail a worshiper of Sune used to blind himself after receiving a vision of the goddess of beauty.

He drank from a ruby-studded silver chalice crafted to resemble a cloven heart. It was said to be filled with the tears of jilted lovers and crestfallen idealists.

Weaponry
For the first ten years of his godhood, Cyric wielded the sentient longsword? Godsbane, a blade with which he was completely enamored. The sword was one of his most dear possessions and companions, but was in fact the transformed sentience of the God of Illusions, Mask. While in Cyric's possession, Mask cooed into Cyric's ear, fulfilling the role of his lover and enabling his worst delusions and most twisted plots.

Following the revelation of Mask's treachery, Cyric acquired a new blade of state, the +5 longsword named Razor's Edge.

Divine Realms
When becoming a deity Cyric took over the former realm of Myrkul, Bone Castle, in the Gray Waste of the Great Wheel cosmology (also known as the plane of Hades). When he lost dominion over the dead to Kelemvor, he relocated to Pandemonium and fashioned himself a warped and changeable realm he named the Castle of the Supreme Throne, but was generally called Shattered Castle by others. Within the World Tree cosmology, Cyric took the batrachi realm of the Supreme Throne from Limbo and fashioned his own plane from it. The Supreme Throne survived the transition into the World Axis cosmology, though it became a prison for the Mad God.

Relationships
"I have little desire to see yet another godling who might be a possible opponent. If you even have any power worth noting."

- Cyric, to Abdel Adrian in 1369 DR.

During his time in the thieves' guild of Zhentil Keep, Cyric was instructed by his mentor Marek. He maintained one acquaintance with the young man Quicksal, during that time in his life, though they could hardly be called friends.

Cyric looked down upon and even hated most of the other deities of Toril, and held particular loathing for Mystra, Kelemvor, and Bane. Over time he became paranoid of the Realms' greater powers, believing they all conspired together to strip him of his divinity, and was ultimately left alone with no allies.

He remained willing and even excited to cavort with some of the Seven Lost Gods, dangerous otherworldly beings that even the gods themselves feared.

During his time as Lord of the Dead, Cyric was dutifully served by his seneschal Jergal, the god whose former portfolios Cyric later claimed. Jergal attempted to advise Cyric, guide him during his dealings with other deities—especially the Circle of Twelve Powers—and help properly govern his divine domain. The former god of the dead was wholly unsuccessful in his efforts.

He remained allied with Mask for a time, but believed him a weakling and coward. After Mask was revealed to have taken the form of Cyric's sword Godsbane, the two became hate enemies. Similarly, Cyric drew the ire of Oghma when he manipulated the god's dominion over the spread of knowledge in an attempt to convert all the Realms to the Cyricist faith.

Cyric made himself a wide variety of enemies. These included gods such as Mystra, Kelemvor, Azuth, Tyr, Torm, Deneir, Leira, Iyachtu Xvim (deceased 1372 DR), Bane, and many others.

Activities
"Didn't you hear Ao? There was no crime. Leira died because I willed it. Any of you could be next. That's my place in the Balance: To weed out the weak from this pathetic pantheon."

- Cyric, to his fellow greater powers.

Throughout his existence as a god Cyric constantly plotted and schemed against the rest of the pantheon.

Church
The Cyricist church was hated across Toril with good reason: Cyric's church was pledged to spread strife and work murder everywhere in order to make folk believe in and fear the Dark Sun. It supported cruel rulers and indulged in intrigue in such a way that the world wouldn't be overrun by wars. His church was often beset by internal feuds and backstabbing, though those conflicts waned over time. Many outside the church viewed it as a twisted den of madness, trickery, and death. But its clergy condemned this outlook, preferring to see their religion as enlightened. It supposedly revealed that all societal bonds of friendship, family, and love were nothing but weak ties that always withered away, and therefore were useless, weak, and pitiful.

Cyric's clerics prayed for spells at night, after moonrise, and often trained as rogues or assassins. Cyric's church had few holy days and did not even celebrate the date of his ascension to divinity. Whenever a temple acquired something, or someone, important enough to be sacrificed, its high priest declared a Day of the Dark Sun to signify the holiness of the event. Eclipses were considered holy, being accompanied by feasts, fervent prayers, and bloody sacrifices.

In the early year's of Cyric's divinity, Zhentil Keep and the surrounding lands of the Moonsea were considered the center of his worship in the Realms. During this time the Zhentarim served as an extension of the Cyricist church. Following the decline of Cyric's influence, his religion endured throughout Amn and the Lands of Intrigue. The tenets of Cyricism fit in well with their culture of ambition, lack of reliance on others, and "buyer beware"–type contracts. Additionally, Cyric's faith spread across some unlikely groups, including the insular Bedine people of Anauroch, and renegade githyanki that forewent worship of their lich-queen.

Deceased
Cyric's immortal servants were known as the 'denizens' or 'shades', souls that dwelled within the Bone Castle and the surrounding City of the Dead, along with the False—souls of the dead that lied about the god they worshipped—and the Faithless of the Wall. He considered his denizens to be servile minions whose only purpose was to appropriately fear their god and cater to his needs. Cyric had their immortal forms changed to grotesque and powerful monstrosities that better suited his liking. He offered protection from his terrible plots in exchange for their eternal service, but only upheld his end of the bargain when convenient.

Notable Worshipers

 * Malchior, the greedy and cunning Cyricist that dwelled in the fortress of Darkhold.
 * Malik el Sami, Cyric's chosen and often-favored agent to carry out his will. As a boon, Cyric tore Malik's heart out of his chest and replaced it with his own.

Temples
Main article: Category:Temples to Cyric

The Mortal
The mortal Cyric was born a bastard to two of Zhentil Keep's most unfortunate souls around the early 1330s DR. His mother unsuccessful and destitute bard that lived in the poorest part of Zhentil Keep, and his father was a low-ranking Zhentilar officer that refused to acknowledge Cyric as his son. Cyric's mother resorted to prostitution and depended on the good will of others to keep her son alive, successful until the day she was slain by Cyric's father. The illegitimate Cyric was sold into slavery by his father, as recompense for the inconvenience of his existence, and shipped off to the southern nation of Sembia.

The infant Cyric was purchased by a childless merchant-class couple as an heir to pass on their wine-making business. Astolpho the vintner and his wife raised Cyric in the lap of luxury for years, catering to the young lad's every want and desire. At the age of ten, circa the, Cyric uncovered the truth of his birth and dramatically ran away from his family's estate. While he was promptly returned home by local guardsmen, Cyric boisterously asserted to all that his true home was Zhentil Keep and word of his origins spread rapidly across the Sembian elite. Over the course of the next two years, Cyric's parents became pariahs among their peers and their businesses came to ruin. The young man's growing mistrust of his parents turned to derision and outright hatred of them. At the mere age of 12 years old, Cyric murdered his parents in their sleep and left Sembia north for Zhentil Keep.

Believing the death of his parents would grant him peace, Cyric set out to make a life of his own. The reality of surviving in the Realms quickly set in with Cyric. Within a tenday he found himself near-starving, stricken with fever at the border of the Dalelands. In a strike of twisted fate, the dying child was captured by Zhentarim slavers and taken north to their home city in the Moonsea.

The Adventurer
Before the Gods War, Cyric attempted to steal the Ring of Winter from a powerful tribe of frost giants, but was unsuccessful and became trapped in their cave. The opportunity to flee only came when a band of adventurers, including the mercenary Kelemvor Lyonsbane, attacked the frost giants' lair while also trying to find the Ring of Winter. Kelemvor's entire party, save himself, was slain and only he and Cyric managed to escape. Once back in Arabel the two eventually joined Adon, a young cleric of Sune, and they took work for the local city watch to uncover a traitor.

During the Time of Troubles the, Cyric went went to make offerings to avatar of Tymora when she appeared in Arabel. Cyric was doubtful about the gods' arrival to the mortal realms and postulated that a divine being would have no use his gold. Some time later, Cyric, Kelemvor, and Adon met Caitlan Moonsong, a mysterious young girl. Caitlan beseeched the trio to help her on a quest to free the now-mortal Mystra, who had been imprisoned in Castle Kilgrave by the avatar of the god Bane. They were soon joined by Midnight, a charming adventuring magic-user to whom Cyric felt an immediate connection.

The group freed Mystra from the clutches of Bane on Midsummer, and accompanied her to the Celestial Stairway where she confronted still-divine Helm, the God of Guardians. Despite Mystra's insistence that she deliver to Ao the message that Bane and Myrkul had stolen the Tablets of Fate, Helm would not let her re-enter the planes. The avatars of the two gods fought a brief but terrible battle, one that excited Cyric's bloodlust it never had been before, and Helm slew Mystra on the steps of the Stairway.

During their travels together, Cyric became jealous of Midnight and Kelemvor's growing romance, and detached himself into isolation. When Cyric became gravely wounded, Mystra attended to him during their travels to Tilverton.

. Helm, having retained his divine powers for just the purpose of guarding the stairways, easily slew Mystra. On Midsummer, her divine essence was spread over the nearby lands by a powerful explosion as her avatar was destroyed. Helm's mention of the tablets, as well as witnessing the destruction of a deity, did much to kindle the powerlust in the young Cyric, and when Midnight announced that the now-dead goddess of magic had instructed her to recover the tablets, Cyric was eager to help, planning to take the tablets for himself when chance came.

The God
On Marpenoth 15, 1358 DR, Cyric ascended to godhood.

At some point, Cyric and Mask conspired to kill the goddess Leira, with the former assuming her mantle as god of deception. With Mask's assistance, Cyric successfully withheld this information from the rest of the pantheon.

making himself the God of Deception, Murder, Strife, the Dead (a title he later lost to Kelemvor), and Intrigue (when he temporarily killed Mask).

For the first decade following his ascension, Cyric ordered his faithful to scour every corner of the Realms to uncover the soul of Kelemvor Lyonsbane. Unbeknownst to Cyric, Kelemvor's eternal being was being hidden away by Mask. Also during this time, he directed his clergy to scribe the Cyrinishad, a tome that would magically convert anyone that read or heard aloud to Cyric's faith.

The Cyrinishad
In the, Cyric attempted to create the Cyrinishad himself by means of his magic, but was cut off from the Weave by Mystra. Shortly thereafter Cyric was informed that the spirit of Kelemvor could be found somewhere within the City of Strife, its exact resting place obscured by magic. He immediately ordered the city's denizens to scour the city. With the search underway, Cyric took personally commissioned the Zhent scribe Rinda, daughter of Bevis the Illuminator, to pen the Cyrinishad herself. He rapidly became frustrated with the fruitless search for Kelemvor however and ordered to Jergal to completely annihilate one denizen within his realm each hour until it was uncovered. Cyric also released Kezef the Chaos Hound to could hunt down Kelemvor, having tricked Mystra to opening the magical barrier that imprisoned the beast within Pandemonium.

While Cyric was otherwise occupied, Rinda worked with Fzoul Chembryl and the gods Mask and Oghma to craft a second book, the True Life of Cyric. This tome would be used in the Cyrinishad's place and demonstrate to Cyric's faithful how deranged and treacherous the god of death really was. Mask then acquired a means to trap the unleashed Kezef, and—under the guise of Godsbane—convinced Cyric to blame Kezef's release on Mystra, in order to draw all his divine conspirators.

As growing unrest erupted in the City of Strife, Cyric remained focused on his other schemes. In Hammer of 1368 DR, he initiated the inquisition of heretics in formerly Bane-worshiping cities across the Realms. Armed with poweful Gondar suits of armor, Cyric's inquisitors began in Zhentil Keep, and continued the slaughter throughout Darkhold, Mulmaster, Teshwave, Yûlash, and the Citadel of the Raven. This tragedy later came to be known as the Second Banedeath.

Mystra took direct action and stopped the killing in Cyric's name in Zhentil Keep. She was immediately brought before the Circle of Twelve in Cynosure, accused by Cyric of interfering with the Balance, and forced to restore Cyric's access tot he Weave. After Mask and Oghma revealed themselves responsible for Kezef's imprisonment (thus confirming Cyric's paranoid fantasies), Cyric manipulated Oghma into sharing the rites to bloody Gargauthan ritual that could grant insight to the whereabouts of Kelemvor's soul.

Cyric took decisive action to complete his scheme to spread his faith across the Realms. Cyric presented the rites of the Gargauthan ritual before his Patriarch Xeno Mirrormane in dramatic fashion, and ordered his faithful to prepare for it's performance. He then raised an army of dragons and frost giants from Thar to the north and directed them to march south in an invasion of Zhentil Keep. As Rinda completed the final draft of the Cyrinishad, Cyric claimed the book himself. He revealed his awareness of her treachery, and compelled her ally Fzoul Chembryl to first read from the book himself, murder the young scribe, and set out and prepare for the public reading. After Cyric left to carry out his aspect of the bloody ritual, Fzoul revealed himself as Mask in mortal form and Rinda's death a mere charade. While Mask and his mortal conspirators were poised to carry out the reading of the True Life in front of Cyric's faithful, one complication remained: Mask's reading of the Cyrinishad left him believing Cyric was the one true god. The tome was just as effective on deities as it was on mortals.

Mystra worked quickly to garner support from the other gods in order to stop Cyric's abuse of dark magic. She turned his former inquisitors against him and spurred the unrest in the City of Strife into full on rebellion. Meanwhile, Fzoul Chembryl completed the reading of The True Life of Cyric, inciting riots in Zhentil Keep, just as Cyric's monstrous armies broke though its northern walls. Cyric returned to the Bone Castle as the city's disgruntled denizens were in full revolt. Cyric's faith across the Realms waned and he was left in profound moment of weakness. At that moment, Mask revealed himself as the intelligence behind Godsbane and professed his 'revelation' of Cyric's greatness. Kelemvor led the denizens in battle to the throne room the Bone Castle, and ran Cyric through with broken half-blade of Godsbane. Cyric's weakened form was left to be ravaged by the Burning Men and his formerly faithful denizens ascended Kelemvor as the new God of the Dead.

The Crucible
"As for Cyric, now he sits alone in his Shattered Keep, lost in delusions of grandeur and absolute power, leaving his church of Faerûn to grow ever more fragmented and weak...Cyric was the first to read the Cyrinishad; his own lies drove him man."

- Excerpt from The True Life of Cyric.

After his defeat, Cyric reappeared in the plane of Pandemonium where he constructed his new realm, the Supreme Throne. Having read from the Cyrinishad himself Cyric was driven entirely mad. He believed himself superior to the entirety of the pantheon, with power that rivaled that of the overgod Ao. In truth he was left with a diminished divine power, and only held onto the portfolios of intrigue, murder, and strife.

Over the next few years Cyric abandoned his divine responsibilities and peace and serenity spread across much of the Realms. By the, this became apparent to even the gods and Tempus grew with ire. The god of war was eventually convinced by Mask to formally accuse Cyric of neglecting his faithful and disrupting the Balance. Cyric was brought before the Circle of Twelve and officially changed innocent by Tyr, by reason of insanity. On the eve of the trial, Cyric commanded his loyal follower Malik el Sami to recover the lost Cyrinishad from Candlekeep, so that he may read it before the other gods at the trial.

During the initial stages of Cyric's trial, the former God of the Dead turned the attention to his accusers. He alleged that Mystra did not allow the morally upstanding individuals to die by means of magic, and Kelemvor offered such great rewards to the virtuous after death, they no longer feared their own mortality. Tyr decreed that the charges of incompetence and disrupting the Balance against Cyric would be linked to those put forth against Mystra and Kelemvor.

Back in the Realms, the priest Adon—who then served as Mystra's patriarch—was seemingly possessed by Cyric while performing last rites in Elversult. In truth, mask forced Adon to view Mystra as Cyric did, and the mortal priest driven mad in the process. Mask carried out this plot in an attempt to take back the portfolio of intrigue Cyric had taken from him, and had succeeded in compelling Mystra to take revenge against Cyric by withholding magic from his followers.

The Prisoner
"The more Chosen you murder, the more powerful the effect. Kill Joelle and Kleef, and my magic will drown Toril in strife and betrayal...it must be in the moment of their triumph. Do that, and it won't be Shar who rules supreme. It will be me."

- Cyric, appearing before Malik el Sami in 1486 DR.

In the, a new champion of Cyric named Zasian Menz arose to carry out his will on the Realms. Zasian managed to open a pathway to Celestia from the City of Brass, a plot that claimed twelve years of the priest's life.

Finally in the, Zasian freed the Sharran 'shadow mystic' Kashada from imprisonment in Celestia. Kashada was in fact an aspect of the goddess Shar the Goddess of Night. Shar had manipulated Cyric's Zasian to help her supplant the Weave with her own Shadow Weave. Cyric himself accompanied Shar to the Hall of Petitions, and Shar distracted the god Azuth long enough for Cyric to recover his arcane staff. Cyric used the Old Staff to murder Mystra, destroyed the bonds that held together the Weave, and brought upon the Spellplague, a calamitous that was felt across the multiverse.

In retaliation for his murder of Mystra, Lathander, Tyr, and Sune trapped Cyric in the Supreme Throne for 1000 years.

Cyric would not appear in the mortal Realms for over a century, and even then only as a mere manifestation. In the, during the world-shaping Second Sundering, Cyric ordered his long-faithful servant and newly-designated chosen Malik to foil Shar's faithful from securing the Eye of Gruumsh to bring initiate the Cycle of Night on Toril. While Malik and his companions—chosen of Helm, Sune, and Siamorphe—ventured through the Chondalwood, Cyric manifested before Malik as the visage of a skull in a dead tree. The imprisoned god ordered Malik to slay his fellows at their exact moment of triumph.

Rumors & Legends
There were alleged to be seven black iron keys that could free Cyric from the shackles of the Supreme Throne. Such keys fetched prices upwards of 50,000 gp.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * The Avatar series (Shadowdale, Tantras, Waterdeep, Prince of Lies, Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad) • The Fractured Sky • The Sentinel
 * The Harpers series (The Parched Sea, The Ring of Winter) • The Empyrean Odyssey (The Gossamer Plain, The Crystal Mountain)
 * Video Games
 * Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal • Neverwinter Nights: Tyrants of the Moonsea
 * Baldur's Gate series (Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear)
 * Baldur's Gate series (Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear)
 * Baldur's Gate series (Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear)

Connections
Cyric