Myrkul

Myrkul was a god of the dead and later a god of decay and exhaustion in the Faerûnian pantheon. He was originally a mortal man, a necromancer named Myrkul Bey al-Kursi, who ascended to godhood alongside Bhaal, the god of murder, and Bane, god of tyranny. His portfolio and home, the Bone Castle, were both usurped by the mortal Cyric and later passed on to the ascended Kelemvor. However, as that which is dead can never truly die, Myrkul was worshiped as a god once more in the 15 century DR, the Reaper who brought more souls for the new Lord of the Dead to judge. The face of the Lord of Bones, the white skull shrouded in a black cowl, was recognized across the Realms as the symbol of fear and death, the paragon of nightmares.

"But I choose the dead, and by doing so I truly win… All things must die—even gods."

- Myrkul Bey al-Kursi

Description
As a mortal, Myrkul Bey al-Kursi was described as a reticent and withdrawn individual. His thin frame and gangly limbs were hidden behind dark robes, and he spoke in a high-pitched but soft voice.

The avatar of Myrkul appeared as a skeleton of a man hidden in flowing black robes. His wrinkled, lesioned skin and blackened, cracked lips gave the appearance he was just on the verge of death. He spoke in a rather high whisper, though his words never showed enough inflection to convey feeling or concern.

Personality
It was very important to Myrkul that Faerûnians always kept him in the back of their mind. He had mastered the skill of sparking unease and fear amongst mortals through every action or mere word and never missed an opportunity to remind the world that he was waiting for them all.

Powers
When Myrkul's avatar appeared in the realms, his mere touch could disrupt the life force of non-divine living beings, siphon away their strength, or even inflict mummy rot upon them. Likewise, his touch could also immediately reanimate any dead being into an undead form or create undead at will.

Realm
Myrkul ruled from the realm of the Bone Castle, within the Gray Wastes. After the Time of Troubles, it was sent adrift on the Astral Plane.

Relationships
From his mortal life and well into godhood, Myrkul maintained a complicated kinship, if not outright friendship, with Bane and Bhaal. He counted Shar as an ally and Chauntea, Lathander and Mielikki among his foes, though the latter was likely a much longer list.

Despite his death, whom his faithful referred to as Cyruk, the transition of Myrkulyte mausoleums to Cyricist temples was a smooth and painless transition.

Worshipers
The worship of Myrkul was never popular in Faerûn, his influence inspired through the fear of death. He wasn't widely worshiped so much as dreaded, and even blamed for the natural difficulties that accompanied growing old.

His worshipers, who were often undertakers in one form or another, were a morose, secretive lot, reticent to share their faith with those outside his meager and unorganized church. These Myrkulytes were tasked with ensuring the people of Toril both feared and respected death. To aggrandize Myrkul's power they would propagate rumors that merely touching one of his priests would bring certain death.

Following the Avatar Crisis, Myrkul's worship continued on in part due to the efforts of the horned harbingers, those beings that each came into contact with a remnant of the god's divinity.

Symbol
The holy symbol of Myrkul was a white skull inset into a black triangle.

Mortal Life
As a mortal, Myrkul's full name and title was said to have been Myrkul Bey al-Kursi, Crown Prince of Murghôm. He was a powerful adventuring necromancer, traveling with Bane and Bhaal his mortal years circa the Shadowed Age of ancient Netheril, each dedicated to a quest to attain divinity for themselves. The trio scoured the Realms for power and information to get closer to godhood, and eventually managed to slay one of the Seven Lost Gods in the. That year they led a coalition of forces drawn from the Moonsea North, and slew Maram of the Great Spear at the Monument of the Ancients in the Frozen Forest. Having gained some divine power, they embarked into the Gray Waste, and after slaying legions of undead, stood before the Lord of the End of Everything, Jergal.

The ancient god had grown tired of his reign and freely agreed to hand over his dominion of the underworld. As the three could not decide who among them would sit upon the throne of the dead, they left the decision to chance with a game of knucklebones. Bane emerged the winner and declared himself "ruler for all eternity as the ultimate tyrant". Myrkul had come in second place and his decision seemed to out-maneuver the Black Lord.

So Myrkul ascended, or rather descended, as the Lord of the Dead, ruler of the underworld. While he would never have the predominant worship that Bane, or even Bhaal, had in Faerûn he became a symbol of fear that every mortal would recognize and remember.

Betrayer's Crusade
When the Rashemen city of Mulsantir was ravaged by a plague known as the Black Whisper, only two priests, both of them faithful to Myrkul, were willing and able to tend Rashemi that died within the streets. As a rare symbol of recompense, the Lord of the Dead retrieved the Silver Sword of Gith from the Abyss and presented it to his follower, Akachi. Myrkul anointed him as his chosen and directed him to continue his teachings in Faerûn.

When Akachi's faithless lover died in an accidental arcane backfire, the priest knew her soul would be lost to the Wall of the Faithless in the City of Judgement. He begged Myrkul to spare her from this fate, but the Lord of Bones refused. Filled with anger and sorrow, Akachi renounced his god, and along with his brother Araman, assembled group to march on the City of Judgement by means of the Betrayer's Gate, tear down the wall and retrieve his beloved.

Akachi's crusaders were met on the Fugue Plane by Myrkul himself, who led an army comprised of ancient heroes, a horde of devils from the Abyss and those judged to have broken oaths with their deities. During the ensuing battle, Myrkul broke through Akachi's forces and had the former Chosen bound in chains and dragged to the basilica to face judgement. He was denounced as one of "the False", and rather than be banished to the City of Judgement, was cursed to roam Faerûn as the faceless man, an abomination with an insatiable hunger for the souls of others that became known as the Spirit-Eater. Myrkul handed down this punishment as a sort of contingency plan that ensured the people of Toril would always fear his name.

Time of Troubles
Many years later, Myrkul again allied himself with Bane and the two dark gods conspired to steal the Tablets of Fate from the overgod Ao, in hopes that the loss of these tablets would weaken him enough that he could be overthrown. In response, the gods were banished from their respective Realms, forced to live on Toril in avatars that held a mere fraction of their divine power.

Sometime in the first half of the year 1358 DR, the gods appeared in the Realm of Faerûn. While it was unclear where Myrkul first turned up, at one point he traveled to the Goldenfields, a temple dedicated to the Earthmother Chauntea, where he fought the High Priest Tolgar Anuvien. Myrkul was stopped from destroying the temple outright, but he left Anuvien dying on the ground after their battle.

On Eleasis 13, Myrkul assisted Bane with their continued pursuit of the tablets and had his clergy work to create and cast a mass-scale death spell that, by use of their true names, killed all of the assassins throughout Faerûn. These souls were consumed by Bane and his worshipers in an ultimately futile attempt for the Black Lord to assault the Temple of Torm's Coming in the city of Tantras, where one of the tablets rested under guard.



It was unknown exactly when, but Myrkul learned of the location of the other Tablet of Fate and recovered it to his realm, the Great Waste. Remaining in his realm with his tablet, Myrkul sent his night riders to intercept the mortal Midnight at High Horn, as he knew her to be in possession of the other divine artifact.

After Midnight and her companions arrived at Waterdeep, Myrkul followed from Hades through the Pool of Loss beneath the Yawning Portal inn. He rode through the city with a horde of undead and fiendish minions, finding Midnight, her allies and the remaining Tablet of Fate taking refuge in Blackstaff Tower. He briefly reunited the two divine slabs and ascended the spire towards the Celestial Stairway. A magnificent battle ensued on the tower's roof, and when the Lord of Bones was distracted by a swooping griffon he was disintegrated by the young mage whom he had been pursuing. The avatar of Myrkul was destroyed in an eruption of plague and death. Some of the dust from this explosion drifted far to the north and came to rest in the Mere of Dead Men southeast of Neverwinter, causing outbreaks of undead from ancient battles in the area.

Crown of Horns
As Myrkul's avatar was slain, just before the majority of his power was transferred to Cyric during his ascension, the last remnants of his energy entered into the Crown of Horns, which was locked away within a vault inside Khelben "Blackstaff"'s tower. The ancient Netherese artifact held what was left of his personality and memories for a decade, after which it reformed its physical form on Toril. By Myrkul's lingering will, the crown transported around Faerûn to a number of hosts, allowing the god to maintain his influence among the mortals, as he ever did, sowing dissent and fear via suggestion and influence. Among those that wore the crown were Aumvor "the Undying" and the Yuan-ti pureblood, Nhyris D'Hothek.

Third Crusade of the Faithless
In 1374 DR, while escaping from the Academy of Shapers and Binders in Thay, the Kalach-Cha passed through a portal to the Astral Plane and happened upon Myrkul's corpse, spending some time conversing with the nearly-dead god on the nature of the Spirit-Eater curse.

15 century
While many were converted to the worship of Cyric, and later Kelemvor, there were several minor shrines of Myrkul that survived through the Spellplague and past the Second Sundering. Following this cataclysmic event, the Lord of the Dead was restored as one of the gods of death, sharing aspects of his domain ironically enough with Jergal, in service of Kelemvor, despite the opposing viewpoints of their faithful.

In the later years of the century, Myrkul was a quasi-deity that remained in mortal form.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Dungeon #170: "Monument of the Ancients"
 * Novels
 * Tantras • Waterdeep
 * Video Games
 * Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
 * Card Games
 * Card Games

Connections
Myrkul