The Dead Three's First Rise to Divinity?

GenderNihilismGirdle

We don't know the exact year Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul first became deities, but we do know a few facts.

1. In -359 DR (Year of Boiling Moats), they were still obtaining the needed ingredients to steel themselves to steal themselves some Jergal essence.
2. In -357 DR (Year of Sycophants), they were still doing their mortal adventurer thing.
3. In -88 DR (Year of Hostile Halls), Lands of Intrigue notes that a young noble of Clan Fyrson was charged with worshiping Bane and Myrkul.
4. Jergal was the Netherese God of Death and Netheril fell in -339 DR (Year of Sundered Webs).

So sometime between -357 DR and -88 DR, they split Jergal's essence among them...but when? No Realmslore to date establishes this.

But I took a peek at the years intervening, and a couple year titles stood out to me even though no events are mentioned. The poll options for my guesses are below!

GenderNihilismGirdle

Pretty overwhelming votes in the direction of -191 DR to -190 DR!

I wonder if someone would be able to prod ol' Ed Greenwood to write something from before the time of Elminster and tell us the story of what happened between -359 DR and -191 DR...we know the knucklebones story that caps it all off, but how did they get there?

I'd read that if it was a single novel, but I'd love it if it was a series. Some of the authors involved in the War of the Spider Queen series would be great for that, especially whoever wrote Extinction and Annihilation.

Moradin

@Irennan, you might shed some light here.

Kamigoroshi

No idea. Then again, I never had any interest in the dead three.

Jergal was the best god of the dead, god of murder and god of tyranny hands down! (Well with the exception of Greyhawk's Nerull that is, but he ain't worshipped in the Forgotten Realms.) A damn shame he degenerated into nothing but a mere secretary and babysitter for Kelemvor. Never liked that dude! >_>

GenderNihilismGirdle

Technically Hextor is the Greyhawk God of Tyranny, not Nerull.

Personally I like Jergal as a degenerated secretary of Myrkul better than as a degenerated secretary of Kelemvor (and technically he's always been a degenerated secretary since Ed Greenwood first thought of the Gods of the setting, it's only the history and lore of the realms that has him as anything else, you'd have to play a Netheril-era campaign to have him in full form and apparently by then he was quite bored with the job), but I like Kelemvor spanking Cyric like he did too much to hate on Kelemvor entirely. I just prefer the aesthetics of Jergal's bug-eyed blank face impassively serving Myrkul's half skeleton/half-rot cruelty to Jergal impassively serving impassive ol' Kelemvor.

Moradin

I did a bit of research on Candlekeep and found something interesting. Not the answer to your query, but something that narrows down the research by a few years.
I'm referring to this topic: http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=18348
In this thread, two replies by Demzer on page 1 are of particular interest. One reads as follows:

The Dark Three probably started their Lost Gods binding (not slaying) rampage with Borem in -359, then Maram in -357, then probably Tyranthraxus ([...] "less than a year later" so around -356 DR), then Haask AND Hargut [...] in -350 DR and finally against Canmod the Unseen, date unknown [...]

A second source for the events mentioned above can be found here: http://dnd.eizzn.com/page/45
From this, it seems likely they did not rise before -350 DR and that would exclude the Year of the Lost Regalia.

GenderNihilismGirdle

Wow, thanks for the research on that, very useful @Moradin and now once again your username has me picturing a particular scenario involving the Dwarven deity, a montage of Moradin visiting Candlekeep in secret and rifling through tomes trying to find hints of the mortal lives of the Dead Three.

Moradin

GenderNihilismGirdle said:

Wow, thanks for the research on that, very useful @Moradin and now once again your username has me picturing a particular scenario involving the Dwarven deity, a montage of Moradin visiting Candlekeep in secret and rifling through tomes trying to find hints of the mortal lives of the Dead Three.

"Bartender! BARTENDER! BRING ME ANOTHER BEER! NO, NO! BRING ME TWO!", called the Soulforger. Silence fell in the dimly lit reading hall.
Not even 20 years of age, the little monk that replied showed more guts than all his seniors combined. Very calmly, he approached the All-Father and looking him straight in the eyes, he said: "SIR! You'll excuse my insolence, but this is a library, not a bar; and we are book-keepers, not bartenders!". "Apologies, my good monk...", replied the Dwarffather, "didn't mean no disrespect... it's just, all this reading makes me eyes water and me throat dry... now, about those beers?".
And so it was that the greatest library in the Realms came to be known as Tankardkeep among the stout folk.