Zehir

"Keep your acts obfuscated and secret. The night is your greatest ally."

Zehir, the Cloaked Serpent is a god of poisons, assassins, and darkness. He is the creator of snakes and yuan-ti (serpenfolk). Most of his worshipers were annihilated during the Calamity, and those who survived are in self-induced stasis or hunted by the followers of the Spider Queen and the Crawling King.

Zehir is one of the Betrayer Gods who, during the Founding, wished to join the Primordials in destroying the mortal races on Exandria. The Betrayer Gods were all banished to prison-like planes, though it's unclear to which plane Zehir was banished at that time. Before the Calamity, Zehir and the other Betrayer Gods each forged one of the Arms of the Betrayers, sentient weapons using the life force of greater fiends. Zehir's weapon was the Lash of Shadows, a whip with five serpent heads, within which is the life force of a marilith called Sizlifeth. Just before the Calamity, followers of Zehir slaughtered the people in the Vault of Shumas and locked it off.[16] Similarly, seers of a serpentfolk empire foresaw the Calamity; to survive its dangers, the empire created a magical stasis field under their capital city of Vos'sykriss (now Visa Isle) where its strongest people waited to one day emerge and rebuild their empire;[17] the ancient serpentkin worship Zehir above all others. During the Calamity, Zehir ambushed and killed many of Melora's followers near one of her shrines in the Lushgut Forest. Melora's anguished scream altered the forest, making it tortuous and thorny.[18] Most of his following was culled during the Calamity.

Artifacts

Before the Calamity, Zehir and the other Betrayer Gods each forged one of the Arms of the Betrayers, sentient weapons using the life force of greater fiends. Zehir's weapon was the Lash of Shadows, is a whip with five serpent heads, within which is the life force of a marilith called Sizlifeth.