Beltar

The Dark Mother

Beltar
Beltar, the Dark Mother, as depicted in Dragon #89 (1984).
General information
Portfolio:	Malice, Caves, Pits
Home:	Tarterian Depths of Carceri
Alignment:	Chaotic Evil (Chaotic Neutral tendencies)
Gender:	Female
Superior:	Lendor
Rules items
Domains:	Chaos, Earth, Evil, War

Beltar is the Suel goddess of Malice, Caves, and Pits. Her holy symbol is a set of opened fangs poised to bite.

Description

Though often depicted as a haglike human female, Beltar is known to also appear as a beholder, red dragon, or marilith. Beltar hates nearly everything, even other deities.

Relationships

Beltar was formerly a goddess of earth and mines, but was supplanted by other Suel gods (as well as nonhuman deities such as Moradin and Garl Glittergold, according to Complete Divine), until her only worshipers were nonhuman slaves. It is perhaps for this reason that Jascar is one of her greatest enemies.

Beltar will often take mates in her various forms, but few survive, as she eats them afterward, as well as any young born from such a union.

Realm

Beltar dwells on the plane of Carceri.

Worshippers

Beltar's followers are encouraged to mine and explore caverns for riches and foes to kill. Her worshipers are mostly savage humans and evil nonhumans, barbaric dwellers in vast subterranean caverns. She encourages her faithful to join together in great armies and ally themselves with beholders, demons, red dragons, liches, and other powerful creatures. Her followers are relentless explorers and raiders who take whatever they can find in the darkness and make it their own.

Beltar is worshipped in the Bone March, the Pomarj, Stonehold, and even in Erelhei-Cinlu. Some regard her marilith form as evidence that she is the Suloise snake-goddess worshipped in the Vale of the Lamia and the Isle of Serpents.

Clergy

Beltar's priests preach hatred of one's enemies, rather than fear. They are expected to take positions of leadership in their tribes, or to form their own. The priesthood makes examples of the weak-willed and traitors. They usually fight with their natural weapons, cesti, or spiked gauntlets. Devoted priests, within a year of their deaths, often rise from the grave as undead, often to return to their original tribes.

Rituals

Services to Beltar are usually held in caves or points of low ground, and often involve sacrifice of sentient beings.

Gallery

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Bibliography

• Brown, Anne. Player's Guide. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1998.

• Conforti, Steven, ed. Living Greyhawk Official Listing of Deities for Use in the Campaign, version 2.0. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2005. Available online:[1]

• Gygax, Gary. World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.

• Holian, Gary, Erik Mona, Sean K. Reynolds, and Frederick Weining. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000.

• Lakofka, Lenard. "Gods of the Suel Pantheon." Dragon #89. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1984.

• Niles, Douglas, and Carl Sargent. The City of Greyhawk. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1989.

• Noonan, David. Complete Divine. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2004.

• Reynolds, Sean K. The Scarlet Brotherhood. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1999.

• Reynolds, Sean K., and Chris Pramas. Slavers. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000.

• Sargent, Carl. From the Ashes. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1992.
• -----. Ivid the Undying. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, unpublished. Available online: [2]