The Cult of the Goat's Head, also known as the Order of the Goat's Head,[1] was a religious order dedicated to the worship of Orcus, the demon prince of undeath, during the mid-to-late 14th century DR.[2]
Organization[]
Members of the Cult wore goat-head headdresses[4][5] in honor of their goat-headed deity, Orcus.[6] Their symbol was a horned goat's head.[3]
Prior to his destruction, Zhengyi the Witch-King was leader of the Cult,[2] and afterwards the powerful and malevolent Banak was the highest ranking priest.[1][7]
Activities[]
The Cult was deeply entrenched in the cultures of evil humanoids and goblinoids of Vaasa.[8]
In their heyday, clerics of the Goat's Head could summon legions of undead,[1] but in the mid-to-late 14th century DR, their powers were greatly diminished.[9]
Base of Operations[]
Prior to its destruction, Castle Perilous was the headquarters of Zhengyi and the Cult. Afterward, the Cult hid in the Black Holes of Sunderland.[2][10]
Relationships[]
The Cult of the Goat's Head was surrounded by enemies. They fought and tried to undermine the peoples of Vaasa and Damara, and were opposed by King Gareth Dragonsbane.[3][10] At the same time, they warred with worshipers of rivals to their lord Orcus, including followers of Kiaransalee[10] and Eltab.[11]
History[]
The Cult had long been active across Vaasa,[12] but came to prominence in the Year of the Bright Blade, 1347 DR, with the rise of Zhengyi the Witch-King, the Cult's leader in the mid–14th century DR.[2] Members of the cult served as priests and trusted advisors in the Witch-King's armies,[4][5] and aided in his conquests of Vaasa and Damara by raising a vast army of undead.[13] In one notable battle, a single priest of the Goat's Head—rumored to have been High Priest Banak himself—defeated a Nar raiding party by single handedly raising enough undead to decimate the riders.[1]
After the end of this Vaasan War in the Year of the Prince, 1357 DR, the Cult was involved with the bandit army of the Citadel of Assassins,[8] whose leaders were likewise worshipers of Orcus.[14][15]
In the Year of the Serpent, 1359 DR, the Bloodstone Wars erupted, pitting Gareth Dragonsbane and Damara against Zhengyi and the Cult. This conflict ended when Gareth and his adventuring companions defeated Zhengyi at Castle Perilous, and then launching an attack against Orcus himself.[3] The scout Celedon Kierney stole the Wand of Orcus,[16] and with the aid of Bahamut, the artifact was destroyed. Bahamut then gifted the party with the Tree-Gem, a relic that acted as the seed for a mighty white tree in Bloodstone Pass that banished the power of Orcus and other forces of the Abyss from the Bloodstone Lands.[3] With this in place, the clerics of the Goat's Head were left unable to commune with their demon lord.[9] Their mighty artifacts crumbled to dust and they lost most their potent magical power, retaining only very limited and low-powered spells.[8][9] Diminished, they fled to the Black Holes of Sunderland to hide and regroup.[10]
A duel with a member of the Cult of the Goat's Head.
Despite their weakened position, the Cult of the Goat's Head continued to serve as priests among the evil inhabitants of Vaasa.[8] Their influence remained great, and they continued to recruit new cultists into their ranks despite Orcus's banishment.[17] This meant that they remained a threat that Gareth Dragonsbane hoped to eliminate. However, unbeknownst to either Gareth or the Cult, the power of the Cult during Zhengyi's reign had caught the attention of Kiaransalee,[2] who sent her drow faithful from V'elddrinnsshar in the Underdark deep below Vaasa to attack the cultists and their followers within the Black Holes. Over the course of a decade, the drow did significantly greater damage to the cult than the surface-dwelling forces and bounty hunters of Gareth Dragonsbane. By the Year of the Unstrung Harp, 1371 DR, the cult had been almost completely exterminated.[10]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
- Adventures
- Bloodstone Pass • The Mines of Bloodstone
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 R.A. Salvatore (1989). The Bloodstone Lands. Edited by Elizabeth T. Danforth. (TSR, Inc), p. 17. ISBN 0-88038-771-8.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Eric L. Boyd (November 1998). Demihuman Deities. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 23. ISBN 0-7869-1239-1.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 R.A. Salvatore (1989). The Bloodstone Lands. Edited by Elizabeth T. Danforth. (TSR, Inc), p. 6. ISBN 0-88038-771-8.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb (August 1987). “Cyclopedia of the Realms”. In Karen S. Martin ed. Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (TSR, Inc.). ISBN 0-88038-472-7.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Anthony Herring, Jeff Grubb (1993). Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms Campaign. (TSR, Inc.), p. 124. ISBN 1-56076-695-6.
- ↑ Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson (1986). The Mines of Bloodstone. (TSR, Inc), p. 22. ISBN 0-8803-8312-7.
- ↑ R.A. Salvatore (1989). The Bloodstone Lands. Edited by Elizabeth T. Danforth. (TSR, Inc), p. 45. ISBN 0-88038-771-8.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 R.A. Salvatore (1989). The Bloodstone Lands. Edited by Elizabeth T. Danforth. (TSR, Inc), p. 54. ISBN 0-88038-771-8.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 R.A. Salvatore (1989). The Bloodstone Lands. Edited by Elizabeth T. Danforth. (TSR, Inc), p. 23. ISBN 0-88038-771-8.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Eric L. Boyd (November 1998). Demihuman Deities. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 25. ISBN 0-7869-1239-1.
- ↑ Jeff Crook, Wil Upchurch, Eric L. Boyd (May 2005). Champions of Ruin. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 130. ISBN 0-7869-3692-4.
- ↑ Reynolds, Forbeck, Jacobs, Boyd (March 2003). Races of Faerûn. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 91. ISBN 0-7869-2875-1.
- ↑ R.A. Salvatore (1989). The Bloodstone Lands. Edited by Elizabeth T. Danforth. (TSR, Inc), p. 4. ISBN 0-88038-771-8.
- ↑ R.A. Salvatore (1989). The Bloodstone Lands. Edited by Elizabeth T. Danforth. (TSR, Inc), p. 50. ISBN 0-88038-771-8.
- ↑ R.A. Salvatore (1989). The Bloodstone Lands. Edited by Elizabeth T. Danforth. (TSR, Inc), p. 53. ISBN 0-88038-771-8.
- ↑ R.A. Salvatore (1989). The Bloodstone Lands. Edited by Elizabeth T. Danforth. (TSR, Inc), p. 47. ISBN 0-88038-771-8.
- ↑ R.A. Salvatore (1989). The Bloodstone Lands. Edited by Elizabeth T. Danforth. (TSR, Inc), p. 24. ISBN 0-88038-771-8.