Bhaal, God of Murder

 

I choose death...I can destroy your kingdom Bane, by murdering your subjects, and I can starve your kingdom, Myrkul by staying my hand. -Bhaal, Lord of Murder

  Bhaal is the widely feared god of violence and ritualistic murder. Few gods were more violent and had more malicious intents than him.

Bhaal has three avatar forms: the Slayer, the Ravager, and Kazgoroth. The Slayer resembles a male, humanoid corpse with a feral face and ivory skin inset with deep lacerations that flow with black ichor; he preferers to assume it when in urban areas. The Ravager meanwhile was a 30 feet (9.1 meters) monster with a twisted, grimacing face that features a flowing beard and mane, 7 feet (2.1 meters) horns and eyes full of the flames of Gehenna ; he assumed that form when visiting the rural regions of Toril. Kazgoroth form was simply a shape-shifting monstrosity.
In some extreme cases, Bhaal's mortal Bhaalspawn children could actually turn into creatures said to be one of the listed avatars after Bhaal himself was banished behind the divine gate, but these incarnations were even more monstrous and inhuman in shape, acting as little more than powerful killing machines. While powerful, they were weaker than a true god's avatars.
Worshipers

The clergy of Bhaal in Ethrea were known as Bhaalists or Bhaalyn, the latter being used more commonly in the lands east of todays Vangard. Together they were a disorderly network of local hierarchies, with the urban and rural branches maintaining distant relations from one another. Collectively, they believed that murder was both a duty to their god and a game for their enjoyment. Each cleric of Bhaal was expected to perform at least one murder every tenday, in the darkest moment in the dead of night.
Despite most throughout the Realms being terrified of him, especially those of the Falch Isles, the exact nature of what the Lord of Murder had power over was contested among sages and scholars, In his most generous incarnation, he was viewed as a figure that might have taken strength in violently punishing murderers and warmongers. Challengers of this notion insisted that he judged whether a murder was righteous or not. Yet another ideal was propagated by the Bhaalspawn, his half-mortal children who had been spawned on Mitra, who insisted that he simply wanted more murder.
After the erection of the divine gate, Bhaal formed the realm of Gehenna out of the remaining chaos mass, together with other mindlike deities such as Bane, Iuz, Cyric, Falnaghen and Ruls.