Baele (BAIL, bay-EL (regional))

The Gruff, The Old Goat, Twisted One

Deal Spinner, Soul Stealer

Neutral Evil Goatkin Trickster God

Depicted as a sly goatkin with twisted horns and goatee, wearing well fitted maroon garb, with a brass amulet bearing his primary symbol, an inverted five pointed star within a circle.

The tales of this dark trickster are many, and confusing. Frequently blamed for all manner of ills by common folk, included in all manner of tales as a sort of defacto adversary, scapegoated for all manner of disappointments and disasters, it is unlikely that Baele is actually responsible for every ill act and outcome attributed to him. But, he's happy to accept all such attribution nonetheless, gleefully reveling in the power such belief in his power engenders, which fuels his divine potency.

In the earliest days of the world, Baele was regarded differently than he is now; the oldest lore casts him as a wily deity of a nomadic kin well able to adapt and carve out a robust existence in places other kin were disinterested in. As the confluence of the various peoples took form with the advent of civilization, Baele appears in some stories as an advisor to Leoric respected for his pragmatism and cleverness. Due to his skill at finding compromises and brokering agreements, he was known as the Deal Maker, the Accord Bringer, the Wayfinder.

But as the decades rolled by, the tales change to regard him as duplicitous, conniving, manipulative, and treacherous. Increasingly, his role in the stories morphs into one of opposition to the gods and peoples of the world. His deals poisonous, his bargains tainted, his schemes not to be trusted. No matter what benefit one seems to be getting from an agreement with Baele, in the end only he benefits. Eventually this further elaborated to the idea that one's very soul is quite often the price for making a deal with the Old Goat.

Always regarded as clever across the millenia, Baele increasingly came to also be thought of as being strongly magical, knowing many mystical tricks, and being the keeper of dark and esoteric secrets. After the events of Olyph's Folly saw the original god of magic Olyph go into decline, Baele (along with Th'sst) began to extend his portfolio into magic with the slant of being a source of forbidden arcane knowledge. Some of the priests of his small but resilient priesthood focus on this aspect of him and pursue the Arcana domain. Others focus upon his adversarial aspect and pursue the Death domain. But the most stereotypical of his priests are those who adhere to his aspect as a source of confusion and treachery, and pursue the Discord domain.

• Barbarians: Path of the Horn
• Clerics: Arcana (LE), Death (NE), Discord (CE)
• Paladins: Oathbreaker (LE / NE)
• Warlocks: The Old Goat patron (any evil)