Bane the Lord of Darkness | Forgotten Realms Lore | The Dungeoncast Ep.362

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

2:18 BAALdur's Gate 3!? Of course, it was in front of our faces the whole time!

[@esstee0605]

"unforgiving wrath when aroused" I didn't know I had so much in common with Bane!

[@epiccthulu]

8:46 Actually Bane is worshipped by Thay ever since the Mighty Lich Szass Tam became Lich King of Thay and established a nobility of undeath. This is the state of Thay the last time it was in a novel

[@tylerford5720]

Where does that leave Myrkul in their eyes?

[@epiccthulu]

@@tylerford5720 During the Haunted Lands trilogy of novels, Szass Tam killed the other leaders of Thay and conspired with an Atropal to create an of super undead so Szass Tam could unmake the land. During the last novel, Szass Tam sat as lich king and bargained with Bane for power in exchange of only allowing his church to rule in Thay. So the truth is, they all serve Bane by default. Myrkul on the other hand is still a mask used by Cyric the mad.

[@Walupof]

Im surprised his son’s name wasn’t darkness. After all, he was reborn in Darkness, some might even say molded by it

[@religionintherealms]

Thanks again to William and Brian for inviting me on to talk about another member of the Dead/Dark Three.

[@Thedungeoncast]

Any time!

[@stephenclements6158]

You did good! Gave great commentary.

[@mistergoats4380]

I was wondering what would break first - your spirit…or your body.

[@stancal9249]

I love the idea that Bane is so powerful because he plays both sides of his divine portfolio. Undeniably, he is the patron god of oppressors and conquerors, drawing strength from those who call upon him to subjugate others. But, by the same token, he is also the god of strife and is heralded by those who would break their chains and overthrow chaos to impose their own order and forment their own conquest of their oppressors, if only for them to then become just as bad tyrants themselves as those they deposed. It kind of plays into the idea of The Dead Three where they all try to big brain meme their way into having the dominant portfolio. Bhaal knows that with the power of murder, he can usurp and depose all who stand in his way, even gods. Myrkul knows that all things must die, even gods, and the power of the dead is power over all. Bane knows that strife and conflict plague all beings, even gods, and the power over that strife will see him draw power from all beings in creation.

[@cameronpearce5943]

Always love seeing Ben, love that guy

[@esstee0605]

BEN!!! Hell yeah, glad you're back man.

[@DeathDiceDungeons]

I absolutely love using Bane and his underlings in Undermountain as much as possible. Thank you for this.

[@stancal9249]

I know it's way too late to change course, but it would've been rad to have baernaloths in for spooktober. When a balor tortures, it is because doing so brings them joy. When a pit fiend tortures, it is because doing so furthers a grander plot or scheme. When a baernaloth tortures, it is because doing so makes them better at torturing others.

[@darnell1391]

I've always had my conquest paladin as a worshiper of asmodeus but bane may be a better option

[@Idontgiveaduck]

Thank you very much for limiting BG3 spoliers because it could have gotten spolier heavy easily. I have been trying to explain the Dead Three to a friend before they begin BG3 and this is a great intro to Bane's lore. Another fantastic lore episode 👏

[@mattcasselberry1542]

Fzoul was also know for making his signature pasta

[@alexmacdonald1998]

Bane stayed because Bane Cares. Bane, Moreover than Good Ole Asmo, wants a world in which stability and security are a reality for all. Bane recognized that most people are venal, weak fools who would either fail utterly in their duty to protect society or ruin it through sheer incompetence. Bane knows that the only way a better future could ever be built is through hard work and was rational enough to realize that the best way to make this happen was to force others to do it. Bane teaches us that kindness and compassion are the province of self deluded hypocrites whose comfort is nonetheless bought by the suffering of others through the actions of other, stronger beings.

[@chrisb4997]

Man if the wanted to make sure there was no confusion between different versions of Bane they should have named the new one Obane

[@epiccthulu]

47:40 they are both the same gods! Lathander had to revert to his old title during the spellplague. This is covered by several novels

[@religionintherealms]

I think it's up to speculation. The novel the Reaver which takes place during the Second Sundering does present a character who has the understanding that Lathander and Amanautor are the same entity. Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide presents Amaunator and Lathander separately. Though perhaps you could infer that these are the same god presenting two aspects receiving worship in their own way down on Faerun. It's... a confusing topic but an interesting one. I defer more often than not to the sourcebooks personally. I don't want to criticize the novels (the sourcebooks certainly aren't perfect either). I have just seen that several things mentioned in the novels are not mentioned in sourcebooks. I have to wonder if a blind eye is being turned towards them. Like it probably would be a great thing to mention that Mask is Shar's son. Or that Luthic was being aided by Grumbar against Gruumsh. Frankly, I think this is just a byproduct of too many people working creatively in the same setting and things either don't get communicated or when they are communicated, things are misconstrued.

[@epiccthulu]

@@religionintherealms My fondness for the novels lends me to a different theory, aspects of the lore were made more “setting/adventure agnostic” when they made their way from novel to sourcebook. I was deep into a mountain of Forgotten Realms book before I realized there was a tabletop game and I have distinct memories of reading sourcebooks and watching lore videos wondering why the meat of Forgotten Realms lore, like the gods having secret roles, was missing x.x

[@religionintherealms]

@@epiccthulu It is a deep, complicated and wonderful mess all at the same time.

[@tylerford5720]

@@religionintherealmswhich really lets DM tells their own story! Perfect theology complication for a tabletop world

[@benjaminsmall8446]

Good job getting 50 thousand subs guys you deserve it best d and d channel out there

[@joshchandler13]

I had so much fun DMing and getting to play Fzoul as an NPC in the early 90s 🤘🏼🍻

[@joshchandler13]

And Manshoon! Fzoul is more fun to role play.

[@chancelor3235]

Would love to have an episode, hopefully with Diggy, about the differences between Asmodeus and Bane. In my mind they seem to overlap a lot and would love to hear how I could differentiate them more in my campaign.

[@religionintherealms]

You are right in saying Bane and Asmodeus have a good degree of overlap. This has a lot to do with both being Lawful Evil powers. One difference might be how Bane and Asmo achieve their ends. Asmodeus would prefer to do so primarily by the pen: contracts and deals. Bane would prefer to do so by the sword: battle and intimidation. Both would recognize there is a time to use one over the other. Asmo has all his devils to use along with his cults. We didn't touch on the creatures Bane's faith make use of but he's got a whole variety of them: banelar nagas, banedead, banelichs (starting to see a pattern here lol), beholders (Bane had strong ties with the Zhentarim), and black dragons.

[@daveyhamlen6989]

Just caught up with all 363 episodes after just under a year listening and DMing. Such an excellent show for getting ideas to take into your games. And of course, prime dick jokes. Don't fart in the underdark.

[@babymordred121]

Another great one! As cool as the Dark Three mythos is, though, I'll admit that I've always preferred the flavor of Greyhawk's Hextor in the role of the god of tyranny. He has a cool "evil twin" vibe with his good brother, Heironeous, that seems to reflect the all-consuming nature of a paladin's oath vs. a blackguard's villainy. Plus, Hextor is just a wildly metal name. ;)

[@CowMustard]

Please do a waterdeep city episode, love yalls take on everything, and i wanna dm a city campaign in a month or two

[@LockerRoomChatter]

Love this type of content guys!!

[@sirgideonofnir6840]

Ben, the god of "I won't get into it" on everything I wanted more details on lol guess I got to check out his channel.

[@religionintherealms]

That would be appreciated, but I am happy to answer any questions you had here as well.

[@GreyfauxxGaming]

So Bane birthed Invader Zimm, that tracks.

[@mikeziter501]

Ben and bane! Whoo!

[@JoshuaNelson-r8g]

4e Bane existed during the Dawn War which predates Forgotten Realms Bane. That's why they're different.

[@sweetrollqueen5136]

Helm was the favorite child XD

[@stoneharvey1017]

I have a Lawful good character who worships Bane, one of the funnest characters I've ever run.

[@erikcarlson6374]

The Avatar Saga is a great novel series about the Time of Troubles starring Bane and Fzoul as villainous side characters. Fun read if you have the time!

[@seanu4963]

You should do a give away with some cool goodies from your listeners. Not sure how that could work but would be cool to win custom dice or art made by people more skilled than I. Thanks for the content!

[@weslooos]

whit not listning and all the sunderings... AO EO.. the over god sounds a lot like Hasbro

[@mistergoats4380]

Bane?

[@jahnukainen_8912]

Indeed, Bane.

[@joshchandler13]

If The Empire from Star Wars had a god, it might be Bane.

[@prodbysharki4244]

Shout out to Demogorgon

[@redemption101caleb]

I really appreciate that mtg made him a sexy twunk.

[@SpidermanandhisAmazingFriends]

There's nothing about this description of beIN that stops me from doing my impression of DC's bane using him

[@stephenclements6158]

Interesting take on Bane's selling points for the non-evil. I didn't know about that, thank you. Bane, as with the rest of the FR, got ruined for me with the incessant rewritings, retcons, and revivals that took all dramatic weight out of momentous events. If death has no lasting effect, it's not impressive. As for what he's doing now, I like y'all's theories, but I also suggest the following that could go together: 1. There is something in FR that he wants and can't get if he backs out. 2. Like Jergal, he's bored and gave up power to feel real challenge again, to spice things up. 3. If the other gods are now at arms length from the realms, that means he can try to finally take thek out of the realms entirely, because they can't directly stop him anymore. Thanks for making a tired character interesting for a while!

[@shamusfarmer]

Like all of my ex-girlfriends this all boils down to struggle and sadness...

[@maggintons]

AO is that minecraft server administrator who goes AWOL for months before porting the server to a much newer Minecraft edition with no warning.

[@thetyrantofsyracuse]

Was here, October 27, 2023.