Baphomet

Civilization is weakness and savagery is strength in the credo of Baphomet. the Horned King and the Prince of Beasts. He rules over minotaurs and others with savage hearts. He is worshiped by those who want to break the confines of civility and unleash their bestial natures, for Baphomet envisions world without restraint, where creatures live out their most savage. desires.

Cults devoted to Baphomet use mazes and complex knots as their emblems, creating secret places to indulge themselves, including labyrinths of the sort their master favors. Bloodstained crowns and weapons of iron and brass decorate their profane altars.

Over time, Baphomet's cultists become tainted by his influence, gaining bloodshot eyes and coarse. thickening hair. Small horns eventually sprout from the forehead. In time. a devoted cultist might transform entirely into a minotaur—considered the greatest gift of the Prince of Beasts.

Baphomet himself appears as a great, black-furred minotaur, 20 feet tall with six iron horns. An infernal light burns in his red eyes. Although filled with bestial bloodlust, there lies within a cruel and cunning intellect devoted to subverting all of civilization.

Baphomet wields a great glaive called Heartcleaver. He sometimes casts this deadly weapon aside so that he can charge his enemies and gore them with his horns, trampling them into the earth and rending them with his teeth like a beast.

Divine Domains

Nature, War

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Twisted circular maze.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

Baphomet is served by fiendish and half-fiend minotaurs, many of them possessing levels in barbarian, cleric, or ranger. His ability to cast awaken once per day ensures he always has a powerful ally such as an intelligent dire bear, dire tiger, dinosaur, or similar minion at hand. Baphomet is also served by bulezau and goristro demons.

A growing number of humanoid cultists have taken to his worship in poor rural areas. Desperate commoners sometimes turn to beast-cults organized by evil rangers who claim to venerate a nature deity who promises vengeance to those who have been wronged by the local government. These rangers call themselves the Temple of Redemption (or simply “Redeemers”). Rituals involving the decapitation of prize bulls are an important part of the Redeemer faith. It is said that those who listen at the mouth of a sacrificed bull can sometimes hear whispers of advice on how best to punish those who oppress the common folk. These whispers are, of course, the doubtful advice of Baphomet himself.

Baphomet has a complex relationship with Pale Night. The two demon lords share control over the same Abyssal layer, although Pale Night’s influence doesn’t truly extend beyond the vast plateau on which her castle is located. The two demons have never joined forces to accomplish a goal, but any attempt to lay siege to one of their holdings in the Endless Maze might result in the other coming to his or her aid.

Baphomet regards several other demon lords with particular hatred, especially Graz’zt (who imprisoned Baphomet for some time recently) and Yeenoghu (with whom Baphomet has been at war for eons).

Baphomet’s driving goal is the destruction of his hated foe Yeenoghu. Neither demon lord remembers the genesis of this mutual hatred, but most of Baphomet’s actions on the Material Plane are tied in some way to his war efforts against the Demon Prince of Gnolls, be it the harvesting of fresh souls to fuel his Abyssal holdings to the acquisition of potent magic items to be transported into the hands of his most powerful agents and generals.

Clerics of Baphomet have access to the domains of Nature and War. His symbol is that of a twisted circular maze awash in blood.

Divine Classification

Demon Lord