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Originally posted by dazzlerdal

Well myrkuls place of birth and country of origin do not mean his church originated in those lands.
I've found no indication that the church of myrkul originated in murghom.

I've been sprinkling some myrkul hints into the old empires region as I develop it. Thus far I have him as the he is to murghom around -600DR, he is then exiled for his experimentation with imaskari magic (which might bring the wrath of Mulhorand on murghom) on a few tribes in raurin (there are perytons in cormyr that have a story linked to raurin and the dark gods).

Myrkul leaves and heads into thay, then onto raumathar and narfell. Meanwhile myrkuls kin (lesser cousins who formed his honour guard) are captured and twisted using the same imaskari magics that myrkul used (A kind of karmic retribution).
Now for me I have Al Hanar who escaped retribution and formed a military order that still serves Myrkul. Ak Chazar are now a type of cat headed fiend that has infiltrated a group of former imaskari portal masters in Durpar but are now primarily a trade organisation.

Myrkuls church however I think doesn't begin until the tsunami of jhaamdath. It is little more than a cult running a protection racket so that they won't reanimated the many corpses lying around.

Bhaal heads South to Calimshan to setup his assassin cults. Bane heads east to chessenta looking for more godkings to drain so he can become even more powerful. At this point they are still material bound demigod, not fully fledged gods. Gradually however, as they die or otherwise shed their mortal form, they ascend to become true gods.


At least that's what I'm working towards gradually.

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Originally posted by dazzlerdal

Well, given that there is no conquering force of death in the hordelands I don't see it having been created by myrkul.

I'm picturing myrkul as obsessed with magic, like many others throughout the millennia. Being raised in murghoms he was exposed to the magical might of Mulhorand and then imaskar (I'm imagining he followed the footsteps of set and tarnoth in his quest for knowledge).
After his experiments were discovered and he was exiled the nearest magically mighty empires are the fledgling nations of raumathar and narfell.

From there he could in theory have gone to the endless wastes but that region is not known for its magical might. It was ruled by imaskari a long time ago but it was mostly a slave protectorate. It's now a wasteland once more.

In narfell however I think he came across larloch who was ruling narfell from the shadows (I also have it as that's where he meets bane, but that's just my pet origin for bane). Larloch comes from Netheril and Netheril is magically mighty indeed so that is the next destination.

In Netheril they meet Bhaal and come up with their plan to achieve godhood by draining the power from semi divine beings (primordials, demigods, godkings, etc).

After Netheril falls they head to jhaamdath and at this point their partnership breaks apart.

Well that's where I'm headed with them anyway. They are scavengers of magical lore from all the regions of faerun, bringing it together to help their goal of becoming gods

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Originally posted by dazzlerdal

I'm afraid I'm somewhat a heretic on these boards when it comes to realmsian gods.

I follow a non god centric design wherein the god may take no active role in the realms unless called upon. He may manifest a magical effect if asked, he may send an Avatar if asked, but otherwise the gods do nothing in person. Direct communication is not allowed (talking to a multiphasic being of a higher ascension will blow a humans brain into tiny pieces), they can however send visions but it's a distorted jumble of sensory components and the receiver has no way of knowing who sent the vision.


So if myrkul wants to get worshippers among the tuigan (who revere beasts and ancestors and hate western religions, thinking them weak and cowardly). Then he has to send a vision to someone he think will understand and be capable of carrying out his wishes. Then that poor sod has to travel to the endless wastes and try not to get slaughtered, while convincing the tribal to worship myrkul (who will desecrate the bodies of their dead).

Success rate is as you can imagine, going to be low.

But I like chance and unintended consequences so myrkul might send the vision to a high priest who writes it down and misinterprets it and who is eventually driven mad by the nonsense visions. He flees into the wastes and undergoes lichdom and then dominates a number of the nearby tribals and sends them against caravans to gather more bodies and worshippers. It might not be what was originally intended (or maybe it was) but I prefer it when nothing goes to plan, because I find life is often like that in many ways.

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