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.

"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.

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.

Personality
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
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
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Worshipers


The Church of Cyric was hated all over Toril, and for 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 (thus falling under the sway of Tempus). His church was often beset by internal feuds and backstabbing, but this conflict decreased in recent years

Cyric's faithful servants in the Bone Castle and the surrounding City of the Dead were referred to as the city's 'denizens'. He believed them to be servile minions whose only purpose was to appropriately fear their god and cater to his needs. He had their bodies transformed to those more to his liking, and only ensured their safety until he felt it inconvenient to his aims.

as Cyric gained better control of himself and consolidated the churches of the deities whose portfolios he took over.

Cyric's clerics, who often trained as rogues or assassins, prayed for spells at night, after moonrise. Cyric's church had few holy days and did not even celebrate the date of his ascension to divinity (this would also honor Mystra, called "the Harlot" by Cyricists). 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.

The religion of Cyric was widely and openly active in Amn. It fit in well with their culture of ambition, lack of reliance on others, and "buyer beware"–type contracts.

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.

Notable Worshipers

 * Malik el Sami, Cyric's chosen and often-favored agent to carry out his will.

Temples
Main article: Category:Temples to Cyric

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.

Cyric the Adventurer
Before the Gods War, Cyeic 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.

As the Time of Troubles began in 1358 DR, they met Caitlan Moonsong, who beseeched the trio to help her on a quest to free the now-mortal Lady of Mysteries, who had been imprisoned in Castle Kilgrave north of Arabel by Bane. Along the way, they met Midnight, a beautiful wizardess. Once the goddess had been freed, she attempted to ascend the Celestial Stairway to confront Helm, the God of Guardians, with the information that Bane and Myrkul had stolen the Tablets of Fate. But Helm's orders were clear, and without the two Tablets he would not let Mystra pass, and thus the Lady of Mysteries attacked the God of Guardians in a bid to pass him and re-enter the planes. 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.

Cyric 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).

During the decade after 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.

When Cyric still could not find Kelemvor's spirit, he ordered to Jergal to completely annihilate one denizen within his realm each hour until it was uncovered.

Cyric also released Kezef the Chaos Hound, and created a book called the Cyrinishad, a magical tome that proclaimed him the One True Deity. This last plot ultimately failed (though not before the book was written and read by both Mask and Cyric, which cost Mask most of his power and drove Cyric insane).

In 1385 DR, in retaliation for his murder of Mystra, which sparked the Spellplague, Lathander, Tyr, and Sune trapped Cyric in the Supreme Throne for 1000 years.

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 Ring of Winter • The Avatar series (Shadowdale, Tantras, Waterdeep, Prince of Lies, Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad) • The Sentinel
 * The Harpers series (The Parched Sea)
 * 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