Beshaba (be-SHAH-ba)

Beshaba, or Lady Doom as she was also known, was the chaotic evil intermediate deity of accidents, bad luck, misfortune, and random mischief and a member of Thor’s pantheon. She demanded worship to keep her bad luck at bay. Her aim in life was to destroy her sister Tymora, or Lady Luck. She also delighted in cursing others, often causing seafarers to lose their navigational instincts.
History
Beshaba came into being when the deity Tyche split during the Dawn Cataclysm, a separate disaster relating to the machinations of Lathander. Tyche was infected with a taint of the dark god Moander and was forced to split into two parts by her friend Selûne. Those two parts, Tymora and Beshaba, sprang out fully formed and immediately fought.
Relationships
Beshaba, who is said to have gotten Tyche’s looks where Tymora got her love, is considered to be attractive to many male deities and some have been devoured by her lustful passions. She rejected advances from Talos, among other hopefuls. Mortals who perceived the Maid of Misfortune were often destroyed by their lust or driven to maddened loyalty.
Beshaba was the twin sister and sworn enemy of Tymora, whom she sought to destroy.
She was Thor’s lover.
Worshipers
Beshaba was revered more out of fear than out of religious faith. Her doctrine stated that bad luck befell everybody and the only way to avoid it was by worshiping her. She was renowned for being spiteful and malevolent, and her priests manipulated common folk into revering and providing for them by acting mysteriously and playing on morbid fears. Her clerics offered an entreaty for their spells and made sacrifices of alcoholic beverages such as burning brandy or wine. There were two festivals in the calendar of Beshaba followers at Midsummer and Shieldmeet. Both were celebrated by revelry and indulgence in food and drink. Red Wizards of Thay were known to erect shrines to Beshaba near their ritual chambers to ward off bad luck.
Orders
Doommasters
The best known order of specialty priests were the Doommasters, universally feared for the way they reveled in the infliction of misfortune on others.
Black Fingers
Only by Beshaba’s favor, some evil male clerics, thieves, and fighters of Beshaba could join the secret order of the Black Fingers. They acted as assassins dedicated to their goddess’s name.
Wormlucks
In order to spread Beshaba’s influence and counter the church of Tymora, the Wormlucks (or Priests of Bad Fortune) were created, serving as a focus for calamities, which occurred wherever they went, often affecting them as well. Their style of dress was distinctive, forced upon them by the orthodox clergy to avoid confusion with the orthodox clergy and for high visibility. They wore bright red robes worn over armor and white hair wigs, which had to be obvious and usually ill-fitting, to honor Beshaba’s own locks.

Earning and Losing Piety

You increase your piety score to Beshaba when you expand the god’s influence in the world in a concrete way through acts such as these:

• Thanking Beshaba for averting a disaster
• Making sure the goddess is ceremonially invited to a function, ritual or event

Your piety score to Beshaba decreases if you diminish Beshaba’s influence in the world or contradict her ideals through acts such as these:

• Worshipping or calling on the aid of Tymora, Lady of Luck
• Forgetting to invite Beshaba to an event or ceremony
• Not offering sacrifice to Beshaba for staying her hand when things are well