Hecate

Hecate is an interloper deity of abundance, magic, and moons who originates from another plane of existence. She is known by worshipers of the Olympian pantheon, considered a rival to Astora's own goddess of magic Mystra.

Description

Her true form was that of a three-headed woman with a gorgeous body, milk white skin, scarlet nails, and eyes that burned like embers. She wore a deep red dress. Her avatar could take on almost any form, but she typically appeared as a beautiful woman with lustrous, dark hair.

Hecate's personal weapon was a +5 dagger with the ghost touch weapon quality. She also possessed the legendary eye of Gruumsh, which had been believed lost in his conflict with Corellon.

Twin spheres of annihilation were by her side at all times, ready to be used against her enemies. They moved by themselves after being started and could not be controlled by mortals.

Personality

Hecate is an enigmatic goddess whose motivations and methodology are always unclear. At times her behavior seems to be in accordance with lawful evil, with greater tendencies towards the former. Some claim that her movements are governed by ancient laws she adheres to despite the lack of any clear schedule, and her preference for kinds of magic notably changes with the nightly weather. At other times, however, she is noted to be independent and capricious, a chaotic evil goddess that gets what she wants, and that in fact it is her mood which causes the weather to change. She is patron of those who use magic for their benefit, promoting its use in both spell and item form and the idea that it is the key to all desirable things.

Her exact ethics aside, Hecate's morality is mystifying in general, seemingly at odds with a being of evil. She often hinders mortals just because she has nothing better to do, but also helps them by the same principle. She is a defender of children who, on rare occasions, notices and exacts vengeance on people who harm them, and sometimes appears at night to lonely shepherds to defend their flocks. Those who unknowingly travel on while she is (on whatever she considers \"her night\") are attacked by her hounds, but if the beasts are held off she calls them back and perhaps even offers recompense to her victims.

In any case, Hecate is an incredibly dangerous and deceptive goddess. She is widely famed for her cutting wit and great eloquence, with some even claiming she is the one who teaches Apollo his oratory skills. Few can detect the plans she puts in motion as she plays champions like instruments, but she could prove neglectful to the consequences of her actions (even regarding divine beings) after losing interest.

Divine Realm

Hecate maintains two divine realms that are each on a different plane, being one of the few deities to do so. Both are known as Aeaea, with one residing in the plane of Hades on the layer of Pluton, and the other residing in the Nine Hells on the layer of Minauros.

Pluton

The Aeaea of Hades is in a constant state of night, though what kind of night depends on the whims and moods of Hecate, at least according to the petitioners. At times it is quite peaceful, while at others it is wracked with terrible weather. When a \"day\" comes to an end on this realm everything goes pitch black for about an hour, then a new moon arises over the eastern hills.

The domain is quite hilly, with omens and portents around every corner. It has groves of poplar trees, which Hecate's most faithful petitioners are said to gather during full moons to perform arcane rites. There are meandering roads, lined with poplars, that lead and come from nowhere. And minor villages lie scattered about the realm, with more appearing along the roads that don't remain long-term. Hecate herself has no fixed palace within the domain, though maintains a lighthouse of ancient construction on the outer fringe.

There are no restrictions on spellcasting within this domain, allowing every spell cast therein to work with maximum efficiency. However, Hecate is aware of every spell cast within her domain and determines whether or not they have their desired effect. On clear nights she allows most spells to succeed. On stormy nights she favors those casting flashy and destructive spells.

Minauros

The Aeaea of Minauros is smaller compared to Hecate's divine realm in Pluton. It is a chilly, desolate land shrouded in fog where even those with an infallible sense of direction become lost. The ground is blackened and charred, featuring rivers of fire and volcanoes. Within one of these volcanic craters sits a throne of obsidian, studded in fire opals.

Her realm in Minauros is littered in thousands of strange, sculptural devices that visitors risk bumping into. They blink with eerie lights and make clanking or howling sounds. Her clerics claim that these devices generate all the magic energy throughout the multiverse.

The validity of their claims is questionable, but it is known that they feed souls to the machines, converting them into divine and sorcerous energy that is used by both Hecate and her minions. These devices are also capable of consuming other entities, such as extraplanar beings and mortals. Whenever supplies run low, the lowliest of her servants are fed to the machines.

Activities

Hecate spends some of her time crafting evil, magical items with the aid of her clerics, which she trades with baatezu for souls to power the machines in her divine realm in Minauros. She often aids mortals for no other reason other than having nothing better to do. At night her avatar is said to wander the mortal realm or her domain of Aeaea, accompanied by a pack of hell hounds. While doing so her avatar sometimes aids children, herders, and shepherds on a whim. But most times she sends her hounds to attack those who dare to travel on the same night as her and if they manage to fend the hounds off for some time she calls them back. On rare occasions, she offers the traveler some form of recompense.

Worshippers

Hecate's worshipers were typically people that practiced dark magic and worked magic for their own personal gain. They were ruthless in their pursuits of power and influence and willing to use any trick at their disposal to accomplish their goals. Clerics were few in number in her clergy and usually sorcerers or wizards as well.[note 4] On the plane of existence where she originated, Hecate was worshiped by a collection of city-states and was the sole source of magic for wizards, often referred to in folktales as a sorceress or witch.

Typically clerics of Hecate worked in solitude, performing magical research, making magic items, or searching out legendary treasures. They were especially passionate about magical items, which they considered physical manifestations of power, but if they ever found an item they couldn't use a priest would donate it to the church. They would also form cells of cultists in order to enact schemes on a larger scale. and tried to convince good-aligned spellcasters to use their powers for evil or selfish ends.

Dogma

The doctrine of Hecate's church was that finding and holding power was the primary goal of all life, and that the ideal path to achieving power, wealth, and practically all desirable things was magic. She taught the joys of abundance but also warned against the folly of wastefulness, teaching that a good harvester, whether of crops or wildlife, left some behind for next year.

Rituals

Clerics of Hecate wore blue-white garments, a color akin to moonlight. Her temples were well hidden, often located in the depths of dark haunted forests and guarded by the undead. Each month, clerics of Hecate would make their sacrifices to her under the night of a full moon, often in the form of black ewes and honey. Failure to do so would result in her depriving the worshiper of their magical powers until the proper sacrifice was made.

All of Hecate's clerics had a special rapport with hell hounds and would never be attacked by them.

Relationships

Hecate had nine hell hound servants that she would unleash to hunt down anyone that desecrated her temples or attacked her higher ranking clerics. Occasionally she would simply sic them on those traveling at night.

Hecate had no allies among the various deities, with the exception of Persephone who she often visited in Hades. She was respected by Apollo and the other powers of the Olympian pantheon would sometimes come to her for advice, but they wouldn't associate with her any more than necessary. She almost always had a gift for the deities that visited her.

She was one of the Lower Planes deities that had strategic alliances with Asmodeus, lord of the Nine Hells.

History

Hecate was born to a pair of greater titans.[note 5] Some believed these greater titans were known as Crius and Eurybia, while others claimed her parentage lied with ones named Asterie and Perses.

She had some unclear history of dealings with the Norse deity known as Loki.

Over the years she was served faithfully by a mortal, human sorceress named Circe. After many years of faithful service they came to a mutual agreement that she deserved a raise in power, thus she promoted Circe to the full status of a proxy.

In approximately 1357 DR,[note 6] Hecate grew infatuated with the deity Enki, but at the time he was in a relationship with the Faerûnian deity Lliira. Unwilling to let this get in her way, she cursed Lliira so that she could return no man's love and imprisoned her in a "Pleasure Palace" called Zannibar on an unnamed world. Hecate eventually lost the feelings she felt for Enki, but neglected to remove the curse she had placed upon Lliira.

Later that same year she sent her jester out to the World Serpent Inn to acquire some suitable adventurers to obtain her a hound from the Wild Hunt, wanting to crossbreed it with her hell hounds. As the adventurers were guided through the planes by the jester and got caught up in other transactions they learned of Lliira's fate. They went on to free the goddess from her imprisonment, offering the captured hound to Hecate in return for her removing the curse.

Hecate

Intermediate deity

Basic Information

Titles

Dread Goddess of Night
Goddess of the Crossways
Goddess of the Dark of the Moon
Goddess of Magic
The Lady of the Night

Pantheons

Olympian

Attributes

Alignment

Chaotic Evil

Symbol

A setting moon

Realm

Nine Hells of Baator/Minauros/Aeaea

Portfolio

Abundance, Magic, Moons, Undead

Favored Weapon

Dagger

Following

Worshippers

Assassins
Hunters
Rogues
Sorcerers
Wizards

Alignments

LE, NE, CE

Domains

Artifice (-)
Darkness (Moon, Night)
Magic (Arcane)
Travel (Exploration)

Favored Aspects

Animals/Plants

Hell hounds

Colors

Blue-white