My E-Haven

hiya!

[dizzyditzyboy]

Having multiple F/O's is funny cause sometimes my brain will alternate between which ones to think about randomly throughout the day and it kinda feels like they're all fighting to try and get my attention or something

[romanticalindeed]

ladies, LADIES!!! There's enough of me for all of you, calm yourselves...

says me to f/os who are all very masc dudes.

[fireeternal]

rare selfshippers i love you. like i've never heard of that guy a day in my fucking life but you're so right pookie he seems perfect for you

[goddamned-beacon-of-truth]

me asf as fuck /ref

[starg0ld]

[tavs-adventures]

You're sitting in a Library in Wyrm's Rock Fortress reading a Book about the Elder Brain

Gortash: Hi there! Remember that time you showed me Love and Affection by sparring me and defending me from Orin?

Putting down your book, you give Gortash a confused look. You'd only done that to save Wyll's father.

(Y/N): ...?

Gortash dramatically flops onto your lap, making you raise your arms up so he doesn't squash the book you're reading

Gortash: Well I'm here to stay now. I got feelings. That's how it works. You showed me basic human kindness through bloodshed. Something I'm not used to. But hey you did it, you fucked up. I'm your problem now.

(Y/N): ...

You slowly put your hand in his hair, ruffling it. The Warlock goes limp in your lap, humming with his eyes closed as you continue Reading.

[citruskushh]

Snuck into Gortash's office with Karlach to see what would happen if you were already allied with him. Ended up with the BRATTIEST gif of him when he looks at you while she's ranting at him.

The way he had his eyes on Durge but has to at least look at her while she's raging. He has to fully reshift his body towards her.

[thedeafprophet]

Karlach and Gortash is a fascinating platonic dynamic but its also downright hilarious that the game has her state multiple times that they were not lovers and that it wasn't like that. because of course, that's the only relationship and a woman and a man could have had in the past

i like to imagine the writers sat in a room, looked at the tropes inherent to "charismatic evil politician man betrays his tough female bodyguard," and said, "If we do not make Karlach state this in plain, unambiguous Common, people are going to assume they were exes."

[twis-world]

Thinking about how Jason and you would be practically parents to the children of Crime Alley.

Jason would be the one they go to for tough love. To learn how to fight, how to fend for themselves, how to stick together and always move as a unit. The necessary skills they need in order to simply survive the night.

Now you? You would be the one they go to for warmth and safety. A skinned knee? They would run up to you with teary eyes and a faux scowl, acting as if they don’t want to be hugged and coddled. You would be the one they would go to with their worries and insecurities, wanting to let down the tough kid act for just a second. To be seen as the child they are.

And you and Jason couldn’t be happier to take on the mantle.

[lelalyo]

I hope you guys didn't think I'd forgotten about Gortash Week!

Flesh | m̷a̷c̷h̷i̷n̷e̷

Originally I wanted to do something with machine but it didn't work out and I couldn't think of something profound for flesh so you get Gortash Thirst Trap 😂💚

[drmace]

Gortash Week DAY 4 - SACRED / BLASPHEMOUS (both)

"In my name."

Formally, the banites do not worship Gortash himself, but Bane's Chosen. Yet the stronger his cult of personality becomes, the more that distinction begins to disappear. Bane remains the source of authority, but the object of devotion gradually becomes Gortash himself.

I think it's hard to argue that, out of the three Chosen, Gortash comes across as the least devout. Part of that is simply because Larian gave Bane and his relationship with Gortash very little attention. Even so, what we do see paints a pretty clear picture.

Unlike Ketheric and Orin, whose stories are inseparable from their gods, nearly all of Gortash's ambitions revolve around himself. Throughout the game, nothing suggests that his ambitions are driven by devotion to Bane. His plans are always about his city, his rule, his future.

Gortash's interests simply align with Bane's. Gortash seeks absolute control for himself, while Bane gains influence through every conquest. Whether Gortash acts out of devotion or ambition hardly matters when the outcome serves them both.

And in the end, Gortash doesn't speak of bringing glory to Bane. He speaks of becoming a god himself and rising above Toril like the sun.

After all, I don't think a man described as "Not Even Everything Is Enough" would have stayed in anyone else's shadow for long

[itwasabeautifulwebbing]

"i totally could have dominated that brain. i almost had it." "you really really didn't tho."

for the lover/tyrant prompt: failed tyrants are still tyrants, right?

[ninekiwiz]

the mane 6!! all of them!!

[drmace]

If anyone ever asked Gortash about it, he'd probably say something like this

[inaconstantstateofchange]

I come to you on my hands and knees (relevant to the topic right lol) begging for any and all info on Bane, Banites and how it all ties in with Gortash. I love you in advance. <3

Bane and His Cult

Alright, so after twelve and a half hours of research I still don’t fully feel like I have enough, but at a certain point I just need to get this out there, and if there is anything you – or anyone else – would like to see explored in more detail, please feel free to ask! 

Note: I love getting asks like this! There is such a vast quantity of Realmslore that having some sort of specific focus for my deep-dives is a huge help, and knowing the topic is of interest to others is a huge motivator. I also greatly enjoy getting to put my training as a historian to work, as there is so much to interpret and archive alike. 

As ever, these writeups will align with current 5e lore, and draw from 3.5e for additional supporting information. On rarer occasions – and always noted – I will reference 1e and 2e, but with the caveats that there is much more in those editions that is tonally dissonant with the modern conception of the Forgotten Realms, and thus generally less applicable.

We’ll begin with one of the most recent conclusive descriptions of Bane, from the 5e Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, an overview of the current world-state of, well, the Sword Coast: 

Bane has a simple ethos: the strong have not just the right but the duty to to rule over the weak. A tyrant who is able to seize power must do so, for not only does the tyrant benefit, but so do those under the tyrant’s rule. When a ruler succumbs to decadence, corruption, or decrepitude, a stronger and more suitable ruler will rise.  Bane is vilified in many legends. Throughout history, those who favor him have committed dark deeds in his name, but most people don’t worship Bane out of malice. Bane represents ambition and control, and those who have the former but lack the latter pray to him to give them strength. It is said that Bane favors those who exhibit drive and courage, and that he aids those who seek to become conquerors, carving kingdoms from the wilderness, and bringing order to the lawless.¹

This gives us the briefest summation of what draws people to the Cult of Bane: the desire for power and control, often deriving from a sense that they lack exactly those two things. Bane is the quintessential deity of lawful evil, which – if you’ve read any of my previous posts on the sociology of the Nine Hells – bears a striking similarity to Baator itself, the realm of lawful evil, and the place where Enver Gortash spent at least a portion of his formative years. 

The majority of the following excerpts derive from 3e, which went into far more detail on the specificities of the Faerûnian gods, including their dogmas, holy days, et cetera. One important point to note, however: any discussions of Bane’s scope of power are no longer accurate, as the time period in reference is about one hundred and twenty years before Baldur’s Gate 3 is set, at a time when Bane had just returned to life – and godhood – as nothing less than a greater god. By comparison, during Baldur’s Gate 3, he is a quasi-deity, having abandoned most of his previous godly power in exchange for the ability to directly meddle with Faerûn – forbidden to the gods by the overgod Ao – and gambling that he would be able to regain his lost power and prestige in so doing.²

The dogma of Bane – that is, the core tenets and philosophies that his followers seek to emulate – is as follows: 

Serve no one but Bane. Fear him always and make others fear him even more than you do. The Black Hand always strikes down those that stand against it in the end. Defy Bane and die — or in death find loyalty to him, for he shall compel it. Submit to the word of Bane as uttered by his ranking clergy, since true power can only be gained through service to him. Spread the dark fear of Bane. It is the doom of those who do not follow him to let power slip through their hands. Those who cross the Black Hand meet their dooms earlier and more harshly than those who worship other deities.³

Even were there nothing else to go off of, this would tell us a great deal about the group dynamics of any followers of Bane, whether established church or fragmented cult. Just as in the Hells, hierarchy is everything to proponents of lawful evil. Any cult of Bane would have a strict order to its power structure, and there would be limited – practically nonexistent – tolerance for any questioning or insubordination of that order. To the minds of Banites, such is simply the natural and superior ordering of the world. These interactions are detailed below: 

Within the church, the church hierarchy resolves internal disputes through cold and decisive thoughts, not rash and uncontrolled behavior. Bane’s clerics and worshipers try to assume positions of power in every realm so that they can turn the world over to Bane. They work subtly and patiently to divide the forces of their enemies and elevate themselves and the church’s allies over all others, although they do not fear swift and decisive violent action to help achieve their aims.³ 

The manner of tyranny that Bane holds to is similarly calculated – he is not interested in mere shows of force, but rather in insidious plots that twist and make use of existing rule of law to legitimize tyranny wherever possible. A social tide operated ostensibly within the laws of the land is far more troublesome to fight back against than a simple army.⁴ 

As far as specific ritual and day-to-day workings of the cult, some can be evidenced here, in broad strokes: 

Bane’s clerics pray for spells at midnight. They have no calendar-based holidays, and rituals are held whenever a senior cleric declares it time. Rites of Bane consist of drumming, chanting, doomful singing, and the sacrifice of intelligent beings, who are humiliated, tortured, and made to show fear before their death by flogging, slashing, or crushing.³ 

In this sense, rituals seem most likely to be used as a display of power and a test of subservience, leaving lower-ranked members of the cult at the whims of their superiors, expected – as noted previously – to attend to their commands with the same alacrity they would use were Bane himself to speak. The rites themselves are designed to reinforce and glorify the primary aspects of their god’s domain: the tyranny of forcing submission and pain from the weak. 

Faiths & Pantheons, published a year after the Campaign Setting supplement, provides a similar description of the rituals of the cult of Bane, along with some intriguing and flavorful additions (noted in bold for ease of comparison): 

Their religion recognizes no official holidays, though servants give thanks to the Black Hand before and after major battles or before a particularly important act of subterfuge. Senior clerics often declare holy days at a moment's notice, usually claiming to act upon divine inspiration granted to them in dreams. Rites include drumming, chanting, and the sacrifice of intelligent beings, usually upon an altar of black basalt or obsidian.”⁴

As, in the “present day” of Baldur’s Gate 3, Bane has lost much of his foothold on power and his Faith’s old domains, the specifics of architecture of Banite keeps are no longer quite so relevant. However, in times past, when his Faith worked far more openly and held much greater power, the philosophy of Bane was expressed through the architecture of his churches and strongholds: 

Tall, sharp-cornered stone structures featuring towers adorned with large spikes and thin windows, most Banite churches suggest the architecture of fortified keeps or small castles. Thin interior passageways lead from an austere foyer to barrackslike common chambers for the lay clergy, each sparsely decorated with tapestries depicting the symbols of Bane or inscribed with embroidered passages from important religious texts.⁴

The social capital of a Faith – a broad term used to encapsulate all followers of a single deity – is often heavily intertwined with the power of its god, a mutualistic relationship that runs in both directions. More social weight behind the Faith means its god’s name and will is conveyed to more people, some or many of whom might apportion some worship or act in alignment with that god and empower them by so doing. More power for the god means more divine actions that can bolster their own image and the reach of their clergy. At its height in the late 1300s, the Faith of Bane was one of the most prominent and powerful, with comparable might to that of a small kingdom.⁵

Something that is important to bear in mind in a setting such as the Forgotten Realms, not only polytheistic, but an environment where the gods being worshiped are demonstrably existent, is that the followers of evil gods are not likely to be obtrusive with the less savory aspects of their dogma. Not only would that, in the majority of cases, do more harm than good to their deity’s long term goals, in the words of Elminster: 

A dead foe is just that: dead, and soon to be replaced by another. An influenced foe, on the other hand, is well on the way to becoming an ally, increasing the sway of the deity.⁶

All of this aligns with what we see of the Cult of Bane and its operation in Baldur’s Gate 3. While it does not have the same sway and might behind it as it did a hundred years before, through manipulation of law and carefully applied pressure – of whatever form most likely to yield the desired results, be it threats, bribery, blackmail, or use of hostages – Gortash has enacted a steel web of delicate, ensnaring tyranny across the entire city. 

We can even find present-day expressions of the interactions of the cult members, and find that they hold true to what their forebears experienced, further proof of the consistency of lawful evil. A personal note found on the body of a dead Banite guard at the Steel Watch Foundry calls the Black Gauntlet in charge of the Foundry Lab, Hahns Rives, a “disgrace to the Tyrant Lord”, and notes the writer’s intent to “compile a list of Rives’ shortcomings for the Overseers.”⁷ These shortcomings include: 

1. Rives failed to reprimand Polandulus for making jokes about Lord Gortash! 2. Rives missed the morning mass to Bane - twice! 3. Rives didn't punish Gondian Ofran when she missed her gyronetics quota merely because she'd lost a finger that day in the punch press.⁷

We can see evidenced here the constant scheming for position and recognition consistent with this manner of lawful evil hierarchy. Both devils and Banites orient their day-to-day lives around how to prove themselves to their superiors, while also undercutting them at any chance they have to prove their own superiority, with hopes of being raised above them. 

This is only reinforced further by another text found within the Steel Watch Foundry, Bane’s Book of Admonitions. Its text is not written out for us, but described as such:

A book of adages and precepts for Banites, providing the basic tenets of worship of the Lord of Tyranny, with suggested prayers for common situations. The heart of the book is Bane's Twelve Admonitions, a dozen rules for proper Banite conduct, with punishments specified for failure to comply. The book opens easily to a page with two of Bane's most popular admonitions, number six, the Reprimand for Leniency, and number seven, the Rebuke for False Compassion.⁸

The most likely scenario is that this book was used by the “Overseers” referenced by the anonymous Banite writing of Rives above. The exact position of the Overseers is not made clear, but from context and knowledge of Banite hierarchy, we can infer that they inhabit a place in the hierarchy above both the guard and Rives himself, and that their role is to ensure all those below them uphold the tenets of Bane at all times, never losing sight of his will. 

In that context, it makes sense that they would both have a book of specific punishments for specific infractions – rule of law, after all – and that, given the attempted report on Rives, punishments (“admonitions”) for the crimes of leniency and false compassion – and all compassion is false when your conception of the world does not allow for its existence – would be those most referenced. It would be incredibly important to the unity of the cult, as well as to Gortash’s plans, to harshly punish any observed leniency or break from Bane’s law among members of the cult.

Not only would failure to control the situation at the Foundry potentially spell failure for the schemes of Bane’s Chosen, any unpunished step out of line by members of the cult would be seen as tempting others to do the same, a trickle of dissent quickly becoming a flood. Better to ensure that all adherents live in merited fear of the consequence of failure. 

After all, it is said of Bane himself: “He has no tolerance of failure and seldom thinks twice about submitting even a loyal servant to rigorous tortures to ensure complete obedience to his demanding, regimented doctrine.”⁴

And, in an appropriately lawful hierarchy, the same rule must apply from the bottom, to the top.

¹ Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. 2014. p. 26.

² Descent into Avernus. 2019. p. 231

³ Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3E. 2001. pp. 237-8

⁴ Faiths & Pantheons. 2002. pp. 15-16.

⁵ Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3E. 2001. p. 93

⁶ Ed Greenwood Presents: Elminster’s Guide to the Forgotten Realms. 2012. pp. 135-6.

⁷ Rives’ Failures as a Banite. Baldur’s Gate 3. In-Game Text.

⁸ Bane’s Book of Admonitions. Baldur’s Gate 3. In-Game Text.

[drmace]

Happy Gortash Week🥳 DAY 1 - LORD │ STREET RAT (both, i think)

I think Gortash's problems with other people started, well, pretty much at birth. x) As his mother put it, he was too clever for his own good.

Though I think it's more accurate to say that the real barrier was the difference in the way he thought. While everyone else judged things by what was right in front of them, Gortash saw what they could become

That doesn't mean everyone else was stupid. The kids in the comic are objectively right - in front of them is nothing but a pile of scrap. They simply can't see something that doesn't exist yet

I think it's little moments like these that slowly shaped Gortash's disdain for other people. When you're constantly surrounded by people who can't see beyond what's right in front of them, it's very easy to start looking down on them

[unknown-mel]

Gortash Week Day 1 - LORD/STREET RAT

song: dogs by pink floyd

programs used: clip studio paint, capcut

i've been preparing so long for gortash week that i have made an entire animatic in the process and nearly burnt myself out right away </3 sooo i guess....we're starting off with a bang? next prompts that I planned on making probably won't be as um. time consuming but i just had this idea in my mind and had to get it out of my system this entire song fits him so MUCHHH

im very much a newbie at editing stuff like this and the audio quality might be cooked due to compression im so sorry

[marip0saaaa]

imagine jason making comments about his death except you thought he meant it figuratively than literal so you make fun of him for being “so emo” and it’s an ongoing thing until you actually learn about the lazarus pit and all those flashbacks of you roasting and bullying Jason about being dead has your jaw to the floor.

“🎶Back to life, Back to reality, Back to life, Back to- The here and nooow🎶”

“So yeah, if i was resurrected, sing that every year!”

“I’m going to send you back to Jesus if you keep messing with me-“

“Okay, you’re the devil, then I’m sending you back for a comeback tour! STOP PUSHING MY FOREHEAD-“

“Doesn’t that give me two birthdays if i die and resurrect? OW-“

“If you had religious trauma like me and you actually resurrected, we have the funniest thing to do right now- What! What I say?!”

“Can you not talk about being dead, FOR ONE TIME!”

“Why do you keep talking about being dead?!”

“Oh my god, i guess your demons know how to swim too?”

“If you actually died and wasn’t avenged, everybody dying, me included.”

“BECAUSE TONIGHT WILL BE THE NIGHT THAT I WILL FALL FOR YOOOOHHHHHH”

“WHY DO YOU KEEP HITTING ME- STOP- EMO BOY!”

“Hey, Emo Boy”

“Hi, Emo”

“Whatever, you’re emo”

*Cue “Emo boy” by Ayesha Erotica*

“🎶Back to life, Back to reality, Back to life, Back to- The here and nooow🎶”

It’s a mystery on how you’re still his friend, in fact, his closest friend that’s still alive to tell the tale of roasting Jason Todd.

[devilsworks]

Drew GK Jason in one of his scrapped designs! I actually love this design sm I hope they make it canon!