Church of Bane

The Church of Bane was the organization dedicated to worshiping, as well as furthering the influence of the deity, Bane. generally speaking, they were a cruel and power-hungry group of individuals who worshiped their deity under a strict hierarchy.

Organization
The church of Bane attracted a great number of wizards as well as the typical clerics.

Titles

 * High Imperceptor: Serving as the apex in the hierarchy of Bane's church, this leader was the supreme servant of the Black Lord.
 * Dreadmaster: A title granted to certain priests of Bane that mostly kept low-level positions within the church.

History
Long before the beginning of the Era of Upheaval, due in part to the ambitions of one Fzoul Chembryl, there was a great schism within the church of Bane. A fierce rivalry emerged between the orthodox and Transformed sects of his worship.

Splintering
After Bane's death during the Time of Troubles, his church underwent significant changes and the rift between his warring sects intensified. Even more troubling, The Mad God Cyric assumed his portfolio, granted spells to his priests and attempted to convert them to his direct worship. The Orthodox members of the faith saw Cyric as Bane's new form and, along with former faithful of Bhaal and Myrkul, were adamant followers of the Prince of Lies. The group of Baneites that followed the Transformation saw Bane as truly dead, insisting that Cyric assumed his portfolio of strike. They maintained a reverence of that office of power and Cyric as its holder.

Some more smaller sects of Bane-worship emerged in this time such as the ultra-orthodox Risen Cult of Bane in the Moonshae Isles. They maintained that Bane was still alive following the Avatar Crisis and that Cyric, whom they referred to as "the Pretender", usurped his power and would face a divine punishment upon Bane's return.

By 1361 DR almost all of Bane's clergy had converted to the worship of Cyric, with few holdouts in the Moonsea and more specifically Zhentil Keep. By this time Cyric had grown impatient and frustrated and his followers carried out an inquest against the remaining Baneites in Zhentil Keep that would come to be known as the Banedeath. Over the period of a tenday, all remaining temples, shrines or other evidence of Bane's worship were purged from the city. The last remnants of the true church of Bane went underground while a small group began reverence to Iyachtu Xvim, Bane's divine son. The High Imperceptor of Bane went in hiding during these years