> [!infobox]+ Bane > > <div class="infobox-coat-of-arms"> > <div style="text-align: center; padding: 5px;"> > <div class="character-name-container"><div class="character-main-name">Bane</div><div class="character-epithet">the Strife Emperor</div></div> > </div> > </div> > <div style="text-align: center; padding: 0.2em;"> > <img src="BaneSymbol.png" alt="Bane" style="max-width: 250px; height: auto;" class="internal-image"> > </div> > <table class="infobox-table"> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Province</td><td class="infobox-data">God of War, Conquest and Tyranny</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Alignment</td><td class="infobox-data">Lawful Evil</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Symbol</td><td class="infobox-data">A black iron scourge of heavy chains</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Holy Day</td><td class="infobox-data"><em>None</em></td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Type</td><td class="infobox-data">Greater <a href="Deities.md" class="internal-link">Deity</a></td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Home Plane</td><td class="infobox-data">Sealed within Banehold, a fortress towering over the blood-soaked battlefields of <a href="Acheron.md" class="internal-link">Acheron</a>, since his banishment at <a href="Zur-Irqaz.md" class="internal-link">Zur-Irqaz</a> in the <a href="Dawn-War.md" class="internal-link">Dawn-War</a></td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Divine Champion</td><td class="infobox-data"><em>Not Known</em></td></tr> > </table> ### About Bane, the Strife Emperor, is the greater god of war, conquest and tyranny, and one of the [[Betrayer Gods]]. Blood-drenched armies of brutal warriors have long crushed their foes in his name, for to serve his will is to accept the call to conflict, seeking lesser peoples to break and subjugate. Goblinoid tribes worship the Strife Emperor as they strike out at the world to bend it beneath them, and Bane twists all living things to his iron will, forcing even nature itself to bow to his whims. Since his banishment at the end of the [[Dawn-War]], he has been sealed within Banehold, a bastion towering among the blood-soaked battlefields of [[Acheron]], where he plots his conquest of the planes. ### Depiction Bane is most often depicted as a brutish, ogre-like man clad from head to toe in jagged black armour. Heads dangle from his belt, and the shadows that obscure his helmeted face do not hide his burning yellow eyes. His holy symbol, a scourge of heavy black chains hanging from an iron haft, is carried by his shamans and worn by his warriors. ### Divine Domains Bane's clerics are most often granted powers of War, Order or Death. Among the goblinoid tribes that serve him, they are known as shamans. ### Holy Day Bane has no holy day. Like the followers of [[Gruumsh]], his goblinoid worshippers keep no calendar of worship. Instead, their shamans perform ceremonies whenever there is need of them, whether to call upon his strength, to seek divination, or to commune with the Strife Emperor himself. ### Commandments of Bane - Fear is your ally. Conquer your fear and inspire it in your foes. - Disorder and rebellion are to be punished severely. - Combat is the greatest gift, and perfecting your skills to master it is the greatest pursuit. ### Enemies of Bane The Strife Emperor's greatest enemy is [[Melora]], the Wild Mother. Bane grew his armies by corrupting noble creatures into monsters, and destroyed the wilds to fuel his terrible engines of conflict, bringing him into constant conflict with the goddess of nature. The two clashed many times during both the [[Age of Founding|Schism]] and the [[Dawn-War]], yet every one of their battles ended in stalemate. Bane also holds a deep hatred for [[Kord]], who defeated him in the [[Age of Founding|Schism]], and for [[Pelor]] and [[Moradin]], who broke his fortress at [[Zur-Irqaz]] and cast him into [[Acheron]]. ### History - #### The Age of Founding During the [[Age of Founding|Schism]], Bane joined the [[Betrayer Gods]] against the Pantheon, raising vast hordes of [[Goblins|goblinoids]] and corrupted beasts to wage war across [[Aeborhia]]. His campaigns against the wilds brought him again and again into battle with [[Melora]], though neither god could ever overcome the other. It was [[Kord]] who finally brought him down. In his greatest battle of the [[Age of Founding|Schism]], [[Kord]] and his warriors fought for days against the hordes of [[Goblins|goblinoids]] commanded by Bane, until the battle ended with a well-placed blow from [[Kord|Kord's]] mighty warhammer, banishing the Strife Emperor to the [[Abyss]]. - #### The Age of Arcanum Bane spent the [[Age of Arcanum]] imprisoned within the [[Abyss]], though the goblinoid tribes that had served him kept his worship alive. - #### The Dawn-War At the start of the [[Dawn-War]], Bane was released along with the other [[Betrayer Gods]], and once again raised his armies from the goblinoid tribes and the creatures he had twisted into monsters. Once more he clashed with [[Melora]] many times across the war, and once more their battles ended in stalemate. His end came at [[Zur-Irqaz]], the colossal mountain fortress of the [[Betrayer Gods]] in [[Vangrallag]]. [[Pelor]] and [[Moradin]] led an all-out assault on the fortress, one of the most devastating battles of the [[Dawn-War]], in which thousands of warriors, demons and many of [[Pelor|Pelor's]] [[Pelor's Swords|Swords]] fell before its walls. By its end, three of the [[Betrayer Gods]] were banished, Bane among them, cast into [[Acheron]]. It was [[Moradin]] who broke the Strife Emperor's armour, smashing his breastplate into a thousand pieces that scattered across [[Aeborhia|the world]], and leaving him open for [[Pelor]] to cast him into [[Acheron]]. Some scholars theorise that these shards of armour may each hold a piece of Bane's essence. Whispers surface from time to time of someone claiming to have found one, or of rulers turning a shard's dark power to their own ends, though none of these tales has ever been proven, and most are dismissed as little more than tavern hearsay. - #### Post Dawn-War Bane has remained sealed within [[Acheron]] since the [[Divergence]], but his worship endures among the goblinoid tribes of [[Aeborhia]]. ### Modern Worship of Bane The worship of Bane survives mostly among goblin, hobgoblin and bugbear tribes, whose shamans lead their ceremonies and whose warriors fight in his name. These tribes are found in the [[Vangrallag|Dead Lands]], the [[Wild Lands]] and [[Troistan]], and even some of the bugbear tribes of [[Klioslane]], known locally as yetis, worship the Strife Emperor. In the [[Bartoix Swamp]], where the goblinoid peoples once followed Bane, most now worship [[Erathis]] and [[Moradin]], aiming to build a civilisation founded on hard work. The private worship of the [[Betrayer Gods]] has never been outlawed there, however, and many, especially the older generations, still worship Bane within their own homes. It is shunned, but it still happens. ### Known Worshippers of Bane #### Champions *Not Known* #### Other Worshippers *Not Known*