Baphomet

Baphomet rules the 600th layer of the Abyss known as the Ivory Labyrinth, an endless maze that twists and winds through the Abyss filled with countless deadly traps, perils, and hidden secrets. Baphomet is known by many names, including the Father of Darkness, Hashut. He is known as a grim and malignant being, worshiped for his savagery and bestial nature. He is often associated with tyranny, greed, fire and hatred as well.

The form he most often takes is that of a twelve foot tall humanoid demon with the head of a fiendish bull. His frame is lumbering and bulky, with powerful corded muscles covered in thick, matted black hair. Hoofed feet and a bovine tail complete his bestial visage.

Baphomet's primary goal is the destruction of his hated foe, Yeenoghu, the Demon Prince of Gnolls. It is this purpose that drives Baphomet to grow his power in the mortal realm, that he may use that power and influence against Yeenoghu. Were Baphomet to succeed in defeating his hated foe, he would likely turn his eyes to the world intending to reduce it to a place of brutal savagery and tyranny.

Hashut, the Father of Darkness
Many Duergar of the east and south lands of Damasia worship a dark god they know as Hashut, the Father of Darkness, who is often represented as a great blazing bull wreathed in smoke and shadow. In truth, Hashut is actually an aspect of the Demon Prince of Beasts, Baphomet.

Hashut is closely associated with tyranny, greed, fire, and hatred, and it is a being whose gift of power comes at a terrible price. As with much of their origins, just how the dwarves came to seal their pact with Hashut remains shrounded in the dark times of the Great Cataclysm, and in truth the Duergar themselves may have only a dim and warped understanding of how they became bound up with their nightmarish god. The twisted runic cartouches that adorn their fire-temples do however speak of the abandonment of the Dwarves of Urik Modan by their Ancestor Gods during the Great Cataclysm, their finding of salvation and succour with their new god and the thirst of Hashut for sacrifice and subjugation in return for his patronage. Over the centuries, in return for flesh and blood, homage and devotion, Hashut has gifted the Duergar with malign secrets and powerful sorcery that fused with their mastery of industry and forgecraft to create many daemon-fused machineries and monstrous engines of way, dominion over the fires of the earth and arcane and malevolent lore that has brutalised their sanity and souls. The pact between the Duergar and their dark god has only deepened over time and grown to the point where the tendrils of Hashut's malevolence and the duergars' own bitter souls have become as one.

Common Sobriquets: Baphomet, Baal, Hashut