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This Villain was proposed and approved by Villains Wiki's Pure Evil Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this villain from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a futile "heroic" attempt of redemption) and the user will have high chances of being | ||
| “ | Death to all who oppose Cyric. Bow down before his supreme power, and yield to him the blood of those that do not believe in his supremacy...[S]lay those that are weak, of good persuasion, or false prophets....[C]lergy of other faiths...are false prophets and forces who oppose the One True Way. Bring death to those that oppose Cyric's church...only Cyric is the true authority and all other authority must be subverted...[K]eep all folk afraid, uneasy, and in constant strife... | „ |
| ~ Dogma of Cyric |
| “ | It all depends on me, you see. Nothing is certain until I have beheld it and set it in place, until I have placed myself above it or below, before it or after...I am the One, the All, the Face Behind the Mask. I am the Everything. | „ |
| ~ Cyric |
Cyric (pronounced: /ˈsɪərɪk/ SEER-ik), whose titles included the Lord of Three Crowns, the Mad God, and the Prince of Lies, is one of the main antagonists and evil deities in Dungeons & Dragons mythos, particularly in Forgotten Realms segment.
Formerly a mortal child slave turned thief and one of the protagonists of the Avatar series of novels, Cyric rose to his power in the aftermath of the Time of Troubles, when the three prime gods of evil died, raised to godhood for his evil by Lord Ao in order to replace them. He was recognized in Faerûn by his symbol: a white jawless skull on a black or purple sunburst.
He was a greater power, who ruled supreme in his divine realm, the Supreme Throne in Pandemonium. He was the monomaniacal deity of strife and lies, as well as the direct cause of Spellplague as his own downfall afterwards.
Appearance[]
Cyric has assumed many guises since his ascension: a bloody wraith, a cloud of poisonous smoke, or a sudden gloom containing the phantom images of whirling human skulls and the intent gaze of two black eyes. However, his true form is believed to be that of a slim man with blazing dark eyes, reddish brown hair and chalk-white skin.
But after a decade of godhood, Cyric's looks began to more reflect the horrific nature of his character. His face became more vicious and went so gaunt it resembled a skull and the skin wrapped around his tightly wound cords of muscle turned red. Cyric's eyes appeared as small flames within his skull, his teeth turned crooked and yellowed, and his fingers were stripped of flesh until only bone remained. With some effort, Cyric could hide this appearance with use of illusion magic when making appearances in the Realms.
Personality[]
Cyric was petty, self-centered, smug, sadistic, misanthropic to a fault, and enjoyed manipulating individuals into ruining or ending their own lives. He was closely associated with murder, conflict, lies, intrigue and illusions.
As a mortal adventurer Cyric started out as a cynical anti-hero who just wanted to have a free life with no masters before developing an hunger for power and violence that led to his descent into villainy. He used to be infatuated with Midnight, Mystra's successor, but then it became jealous hatred when he saw her sleeping with Kelemvor.
After his ascension to godhood, his psychothic tendencies were amplified aJ hundredfold and enjoyed inflicting eternal torment to his prisoners, including perpetually burning alive those who failed to write the Cyrinishad. He considers himself superior to the other gods and his priests promote his faith as the One True Way.
When he interacts with mortals, Cyric is condescending, snarky and wisecracking, while being prone to mood swings and discussing courses of action with himself in obvious insanity. He believes himself to be master of all and often underestimates his enemies because he doesn't understand why they won't instantly bow before him. He was aptly described by a now dead observer as a babbling madman who nonetheless remains dangerously vengeful and capable.
Biography[]
Before the Gods War, before his ascension into Godhood, Cyric was originally a former slave and opportunistic thief from Zhentil Keep, who had witnessed the death of goddess Mystra at the hand of Helm, which sparked his hunger for power that lead to his eventual ascension.
Cyric also learned about the Tablets of Fate stolen by Bane, the Black Hand, and Myrkul, the Lord of Bones (death). After joining with the mage Midnight (Mystra's avatar), the fighter Kelemvor and the cleric Adon, Cyric took part in slaying down both Bhaal and Myrkul. Later, he would take their place as the God of Murder and the Dead, respectively, after betraying his companions and seemingly kill Kelemvor with Godsbane. Mask, the God of thieves and intrigue, kept Kelemvor's soul hidden inside Godsbane, waiting for the right moment to strike back at Cyric.
On Marpenoth 15, 1358 DR, Cyric successfully ascended to godhood and killed Leira, the original Princess of Lies. After the demise of the original three gods of prime evil, Cyric managed to take over their titles, making himself the God of Deception, Murder, Strife, the Dead (a title he later lost to Kelemvor) and Intrigue (when he temporarily killed Mask alongside Shar).
After that, Cyric proceeded to prove his cruelty by murdering and oppressing other gods. He sent his servants to steal faithful worshipers from the afterlife to torture in his realm and instituted cruel punishments on the dead.
The Church of Cyric itself was utterly reviled all over Toril because of their pledged to spread strife and work murder everywhere in order to make folk believe in and fear Cyric. It supported tyrants and indulged in intrigue in such a way that the world wouldn't be overrun by wars, thus falling under the sway of Tempus.
Cyric also released Kezef the Chaos Hound to hunt down the soul of his former companion turned enemy Kelemvor and created a book called the Cyrinishad, a magical tome that proclaimed him the One True Deity and brainwashed anyone who read it.
This last plot ultimately failed, but not before the book was written and read by both Mask and Cyric, which cost Mask most of his power and drove Cyric insane. He was then dethroned by Kelemvor, who took Cyric's place ad a more benevolent god of the dead. After that Cyric drove Adon to insanity and suicide and had his mortal champion, Malik El Sami, recover the Cyrinishad and help his patron retain his divinity.
In 1385 DR, Cyric worked with Shar and managed to murder Mystra, the Goddess of Magic, in order to bring death and destruction upon the world. Mystra's death eventually sparked the Spellplague.
In retaliation for his murder of Mystra, Lathander, Tyr and Sune trapped Cyric in the Supreme Throne for 1000 years. After the Spellplague started, Cyric's immense following diminished.
Powers & Abilities[]
Cyric's evil grin.
As a Rogue, Cyric is devilishly cunning and skilled in moving silently and taking his enemies by surprise. He is also a proficient archer and swordsman.
For at least a decade, Cyric was among the most powerful deities among the gods of Toril, having taken on at least partial portfolios of five different deities. He drew much of his own power from the constant in-fighting between the various sects and cells of his cult.
Cyric was entirely immune to the effects of illusion, charm, fear-inducing, or other emotion-altering magic, and was served by hordes of undead and fiendish denizens. He was a master of illusion spells. He could inflict madness upon others with his mere touch and induce nightmares to sleeping mortals. He could grow to giant size and teleport at will. He could shape-shift to impersonate other gods to deceive their followers. He often appeared as an avatar that resembled his mortal form, but could choose any form he wished, at times preferring those of a terrible spider, or the visage of a skull. Cyric's divine powers were amplified while on Pandemonium, the plane of both Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Evil. For a brief time, Cyric was stripped of any and all magical powers by Mystra, when she refused to grant him access to the Weave.
In his early years as a god, Cyric wielded the sentient, bloodsucking sword Godsbane, which he used to kill Bhaal. Godsbane was actually a portion of the god Mask he used to spy on and manipulate Cyric.
After getting overthrown by Kelemvor, Cyric gained a new enchanted sword called Razor's Edge, that emits painful screams and inflicts extra damage to individuals of lawful alignments.
Quotes[]
| “ | If I can destroy the love of gods, then I can certainly fill the lives of Faerûn's mortals with strife and discord. | „ |
| ~ Cyric |
| “ | Didn't you hear Ao? There was no crime. Leira died because I willed it. Any of you could be next. That's my place in the Balance: To weed out the weak from this pathetic pantheon. | „ |
| ~ Cyric to the other gods |
| “ | If you lavish godhood on the pretenders that chained you here, then you're right. I'm no god. I'm very much more than that. | „ |
| ~ Cyric to Kezef, the Chaos Hound |
| “ | I have little desire to see yet another godling who might be a possible opponent. If you even have any power worth noting. | „ |
| ~ Cyric to Gorion's Ward in Baldur's Gate 2 |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Cyric is often considered by fans to be the Forgotten Realms equivalent of Joker or Yuuki Terumi, being a misanthropic psychopath with pale skin and a twisted sense of humor who loves to torture his enemies both physically and psychologically.
External Links[]
- Cyric at the Pure Evil Wiki.
- https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Cyric at the Forgotten Realms Wiki.
- https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Cyric at the Baldur's Gate Wiki.
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Recruitable Party Members Gods Demons Devils The Iron Throne The Shinning Crusade Bhaalists & Bhaalspawns Dark Alliance Cult of the Absolute The Sharrans Shadow Druids Vampires Others | ||
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