#Nobody asked and yet I was possessed by autism/nerdery to dig out three sourcebooks and a pdf

[y-rhywbeth2]

It's older tabletop lore.

Bhaal's original alignment was actually Lawful Evil (1e, 2e, 3.5e, I don't think it came up in 4e) which would've applied to BG1+2, as a second edition product. Still sulking slightly about the change, LE patron god of assassins and murder for fun, faith and profit set him apart from his successor who was the CE god of strife, chaos and murder for murder.

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The priesthoods of the realms have ceremonial dress and dress codes they adhere to and rules about what they can or cannot wear in their time off. Banite dress code varies by source and comes in multi-paragraphs so I'm not even going to type that out, but red and black is common. Red and purple is possible however. His sacred colours are given as black, red and "vile green".

"Purple has been a choice for Bhaalites in BG3 only."

"Priestly Vestments: Regardless of rank or gender, all Bhaalyn wore full ceremonial robes of deep purple or of black with violet streaks of random size, shape, and placement." - Faiths and Avatars

When Cyric replaced Bhaal those who converted switched to Cyric, whose sacred colours are also black and purple, so they've been wearing that since his death:

"Priestly Vestments: Priests of Cyric dress in black or dark purple robes, with or without hoods, trimmed in silver." - Faiths and Avatars

"Also, when has money ever been a thing for Bhaal?" To Bhaal personally? He does prefer blood. However: "Bhaal also encouraged the pursuit of personal wealth and hobbies" [Faiths and Avatars] though he does insist on murder above all ogther interests. Myrkul has been described as vain and concerned about his appearances/reputation, and Bane's a raging egotist, so I wouldn't be surprised if Bhaal is also concerned about his temples having lots of gilt and being made to look good. The glamourised image of the dashing assassin and hitmen and vigilantes that makes murder appeal to potential worshippers and etc.

Faiths and Avatars also notes that Bhaalists avoid harming the nobility, that the high priests have the job of "spending much of their time planning the proper strategies of manipulating nearby rulers, inhabitants, and organizations into deeds and behavior that the Bhaalyn desired," and Elminster's Forgotten Realms basically repeats that they'd still be power grabbing and obsessing over money as a church post-Time of Troubles and adds that they infiltrate and try to control law enforcement. Notable in Murder in Baldur's Gate, Bhaal moves to corrupt the leaders of three institutions; the nobility/government, the thieves guild and the Flaming Fist, through which to sow bloodshed and hate. Those are the organisations his priests aim to meddle with in order to achieve maximum widespread death and murder. (The Shadow Thieves of Amn were also originally a Bhaalist organisation before switching to Cyric). They're supposed to aim for more than mindless sewer-dwelling murderhobos (stuff like Sarevok's scheme, playing politics and economics and getting your friends into high places).

…though I am going to say I think, personally, that the Chosen do resemble their own deities.

Durge/the Urges, as portrayed in canon, is representative of Bhaal's actual personality (murder, vanity and ego and death everywhere). Orin seems more in line with traditional doctrine, and it's causing friction between them.

Gortash is in line with the description of Banites in Elminster's Forgotten Realms, where they play evil advisor and crime lord in the aim to bring the world into brutal law and order (all subservient to Bane, who hates chaos. Bane used to like strife and setting his followers to murder each other and then he got killed and now that's Cyric's job so he's a little stricter about it nowadays).

The fact that Bane resembles Durge more and Gortash resembles Bhaal more in their own twisted ways if the game would actually follow the etablished/old Forgotten Realms lore on the dead three.

Bhaal = neutral evil, crime lord, loves extortion, loves money and people giving him money. Threatens the other two and mortals all the time. Quite chill when he's not amassing armies or smth. All his kills have purpose.

Bane = utter chaotic mess who can't go 5 minutes without fucking with someone. Tried to seduce Kelemvor as a mortal (?!?), decided to sacrifice his assasins. Alongside all others. Including Bhaals. The later was not fking happy about it. Bane just has a thing for killing a lot of people indiscriminately.

Also the fact that Gortash has a purple Netherstone despite Banes colours being black, red and green and Durge who had the red one despite purple being the colour of Bhaalists robes.

Idk what I'm getting at but perfect SIL for each other's patron?