> [!infobox|right] > #### Bezantur, City of a Thousand Temples > ![[5E_BEZANTUR.png]] > > ##### Location Information > | | | > |---|---| > |![[ICON - bookmark-etch-solid-full.svg]] **Type**: | Metropolis,<br>Port City | > |![[ICON - chess-rook-piece-sharp-solid-full.svg]] **Location**: |[[Thay]] | > |![[ICON - question-solid-full.svg]] **Status**: | Active | > |![[ICON - hourglass-duotone-solid-full.svg]] **Founded**: | Ancient DR | > |![[ICON - hourglass-duotone-solid-full.svg]] **Age**: | Ancient | > > #### Governance > | | | > |---|---| > |![[ICON - eclipse-solid-full.svg]] **Leadership**: | Red Wizard Influence | > |![[ICON - sparkle-solid-full.svg]] **Realm**: | [[Thay]] | > |![[ICON - sparkles-solid-full.svg]] **Forces**: | [[Red Wizards]],<br>Temple Factions | > |![[ICON - person-limbs-wide-solid-full.svg]] **Population**: | ~136,800 | <a href="https://dioctionary.net/THE+DIOCTIONARY/HOME/Home" class="dioctionary-ribbon-2"> HOME </a> <div class="dioctionary-ribbon">A Brief History</div> - [[Bezantur]], feared and admired in equal measure as the _City of a Thousand Temples_ and the _Citadel of Thieves_, stands upon the southern coast of [[Thay]] as one of the most dangerous and spiritually fractured cities in all the Unapproachable East. Massive black walls loom above crowded streets and sprawling slums while the harbor churns endlessly with merchant vessels, smugglers, pirates, and foreign traders bringing wealth into the city through both legal commerce and shadowed corruption. Beneath the authority of the Red Wizards, Bezantur became a place where religion survived not through purity or hope, but through fear, bargaining, and desperation, allowing temples dedicated to gods shunned elsewhere in Faerûn to flourish openly among the city’s maze-like streets. None embody this atmosphere more fully than the infamous Temple of [[Beshaba]], a sprawling and deliberately disorienting sanctuary dedicated to the Lady of Misfortune herself. Hidden among neighboring temples devoted to other evil gods and goddesses, the Temple of Beshaba appears outwardly as a chaotic cluster of mismatched structures, but within it becomes a labyrinth of dead ends, hidden passages, traps, and twisting stairwells navigable only by the [[Doommaster]]s who dwell there. While mastered by Doommaster [[Hargrim Theos]], the temple grew notorious throughout Bezantur not because its worshipers sought blessings, but because the city feared the consequences of failing to appease them. Commonfolk, merchants, and even Red Wizards made offerings to [[Beshaba]] not out of devotion, but terror, believing the Doommasters delighted in spreading misfortune upon those who ignored their Lady. Within Bezantur itself, Beshaba’s influence became inseparable from the city’s identity: a place where fortune was temporary, betrayal inevitable, and disaster lingered like smoke in every alleyway.