Baalzephon (Dungeons & Dragons)

D&D Deity
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caption=
name=Baalzephon
title=
home=Nine Hells
power=Archdevil
alignment=Lawful Evil
portfolio=
domains=
alias=Baalzy
super=Dispater

Baalzephon is a fictional devil in the "Dungeons & Dragons" roleplaying game.

Baalzephon is one of the Dark Eight, the pit fiend generals of the Blood War. He is the former prime minister of Dispater.

Baalzephon in "Greyhawk"

In the "World of Greyhawk" campaign setting, Baalzephon has strong links to the Great Kingdom and the House of Naelax. His involvement with the House of Naelax dates from around the 440s CY, when Ivenzen, the father of Overking Ivid I made contact with Baalzephon, and made a deal with him. It was he who instructed Ivenzen in the manufacture of the Malachite Throne and helped the House of Naelax attain power in exchange for expelling all demons from Aerdi lands and binding Ivenzen and his heirs and descendent souls to him for a period of 888 years.

Just prior to the Greyhawk Wars, Baalzephon masqueraded as a minor god, "Baalzy," ostensibly a deity of wealth, power and prosperity. By 578 CY, Baalzephon's new faith had become one of only two tolerated religions in the Great Kingdom under Ivid V (the other one being the worship of Hextor), and was instituted as the official state religion of the Great Kingdom.

According to the unpublished "Ivid the Undying", Baalzephon also had a hand in the creation of the animus undead through the intervention of his pit fiends and their cooperation with clerics of Hextor, as well as the use of a special artifact, the "Casket of Abyssal Bone" created by Baalzephon himself.

Creative origins

The name Baal-zephon means "lord of the north [side] " in Hebrew.

References

*Gygax, Gary. "From the Sorcerer's Scroll: New Denizens of Devildom." "Dragon" #75 (TSR, 1983).
**Gygax, Gary. "Monster Manual II" (TSR, 1983).
*Laws, Robin D., and Robert J. Schwalb. "" (Wizards of the Coast, 2006).
*Pramas, Chris. "Guide to Hell" (TSR, 1999). ISBN 0-7869-1431-9
*Sargent, Carl. " [http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads Ivid the Undying] " (TSR, unpublished).