At a Glance

The Gods in the World

On the slopes above the Mediterranean, cedar, cloud and sea are never far apart. Sailors pray before launching from Tyre. Farmers watch the mountains for the first welcome rains. In Sidon a healer washes blood from a basin before invoking Eshmun. In an upland sanctuary, a storm-priest sees a black cloud gather against the wind and knows his god is angry.

These gods are not a single court with identical worship everywhere. The bronze-age tablets of Ugarit preserve El’s assembly and the exploits of Baal, Anat and their rivals. Later Phoenician cities raise particular patrons to the centre of their civic lives: the Lady of Byblos, Eshmun of Sidon, Melqart of Tyre. Far to the west, the Punic traditions of Carthage exalt Tanit and Baal Hammon. Their shrines, servants and alliances remain distinct even where old divine names and titles overlap.

The gods themselves remember all these ages. Their mortal temples rise, burn, change hands and rise again. A broken statue does not mean its divine patron is powerless; nor does a busy shrine guarantee that the patron will grant every petition.

El’s Council and the Storm King

El, the venerable father and ruler of the divine assembly, exercises authority through judgement, seniority and counsel. Athirat, called Asherah in later traditions, is his great consort and a powerful intercessor in her own right. Their court at the cosmic riverheads is not Baal’s mountain palace.

Baal-Hadad is the storm-bearer, the thunderous rider of the clouds and defender of rain-fed life. Anat fights for him with uncompromising courage. Astarte commands her own traditions of divine power, war and royal presence; she is not a second name for Anat, Athirat or Mesopotamian Ishtar. Kothar-wa-Khasis, divine craftsman, forges the weapons that let Baal defeat Yam, the overwhelming sea-power. Mot is Death, whom even the storm king must face.

The most famous stories give a campaign more than a war between good and evil. El recognises powers that Baal will defy; the sea can be an enemy and a road to livelihood; rain saves farmers but can wreck a ship; Death is a dreadful opponent without being merely a wandering fiend. Divine alliances are personal, old and dangerous to break.

What Happened in the Baal Cycle?

Yam demanded Baal’s submission from the divine assembly. Kothar equipped Baal with weapons, and Baal overcame the sea. A palace of cedar and precious materials was then built for him on Mount Zaphon. Later, his contest with Mot brought death, mourning and the eventual restoration of his place among the gods. Anat’s violent loyalty and Shapash’s mediation are essential to the struggle. The surviving tablets have gaps: the campaign does not pretend that every detail has one indisputable ancient answer.

The Divine Family

The Elder Court

• El — Father of the Gods: the elder sovereign of the divine assembly; a god of counsel, creation and supreme authority. His audience is rarer and more consequential than a storm-god’s intervention.
• Athirat / Asherah — Great Lady and Mother of the Gods: El’s consort, a formidable diplomat and mediator whose support can change a divine succession.
• Shahar — The Opening Dawn: the young god who opens the eastern gate and marks the hour when the first light reveals hidden enemies and safe roads.
• Shalim — The Returning Dusk: guardian of the westward threshold, evening watchfires and the last safe passage before the dark.

The Storm Court

• Baal-Hadad — Rider on the Clouds: lord of storms, thunder, rain and the high seat of Zaphon. The name Baal is a title meaning “lord”; it does not automatically identify every deity called Baal with this particular god.
• Anat — Unyielding Warrior: violent defender and ally of Baal; martial ferocity makes her a dangerous patron even to her friends. Meet Anat, explore her adventures and divine powers.
• Astarte / Ashtart — Queenly Power: goddess of war and sexuality with important Phoenician cults, particularly at Sidon and Tyre. Her distinct identity survives later comparisons with other goddesses.
• Kothar-wa-Khasis — The Skilled and Wise: smith, engineer and architect of divine works, maker of Baal’s striking weapons and palace.
• Pidray — The Healing Shower: a rain-bearing daughter of Baal whose gentle waters restore the wounded and wash poison from the soil.
• Tallay — Lady of the Dew: guardian of cool mist, the dew that hides early travellers and the sheltered hours before sunrise.
• Arsay — Daughter of the Earth: a power of fertile soil, roots and renewed growth whose protection is felt in fields as well as gardens.

Sea, Death, Sun and Moon

• Yam / Nahar — Sea and River: sovereign of untamed waters and Baal’s mighty adversary. His authority extends through Ossa, rather than being a disguise for Poseidon.
• Mot — Death: the devouring power of mortality, drought and the grave. His dominion reaches into Abaddon; he is not the same being as a daemon lord or Hades.
• Shapash / Shapshu — Lamp of the Gods: sun goddess and divine witness, who travels and mediates where others cannot.
• Yarikh / Yarih — Moon God: power of the night sky, months and lunar time, whose lore includes his marriage to Nikkal.
• Resheph — Burning and Plague: a deadly god associated with warfare, disease and destructive force; his protection is feared almost as much as his anger.
• Dagan / Dagon — Great God of the Region: prominent at Ugarit and in neighbouring traditions, with Baal called his son in some texts. Treat the familiar ‘fish god’ image as a later folk etymology, not a securely attested original identity.
• Athtar — Ambitious Divine Rival: the figure whose attempt to occupy Baal’s exalted throne is remembered in the storm-cycle tradition.
• Nikkal — Goddess Linked with the Moon: wife of Yarikh in Ugaritic tradition and a figure in the ritual and marriage poetry of the ancient Near East.

The Phoenician Cities

• Baalat Gebal — Lady of Byblos: the city’s venerable patroness and protector of its sacred continuity.
• Melqart — King of the City: the great god of Tyre, tied to the city’s sovereignty, maritime power and its wider overseas religious connections. His identification with Heracles in Greek accounts does not make him literally the same god in this campaign.
• Eshmun — Healer of Sidon: god of restoration, healing shrines and recovered bodies; approached by the injured and those who care for them.
• Baal Shamem — Lord of the Heavens: an important Phoenician heavenly title and deity, not automatically another personal name of Baal-Hadad in every cult.

The Western Phoenician and Punic Traditions

• Tanit / Tinnit — Great Lady of Carthage: a major Punic goddess associated with protection and civic cult, recognised by her distinctive symbol. Her western prominence is not retroactively imposed on bronze-age Ugarit.
• Baal Hammon — Great God of the Punic West: principal power at Carthage alongside Tanit. He has his own cult history; the meanings of his name and exact relationships to other Baals require care.

Their Homes Beyond the World

Arborea is the principal home plane of the Canaanite and Phoenician divine family. Its first layer, the Olympian Glades, contains several independent divine courts. The storm-crowned Mount Zaphon is Baal-Hadad’s throne and the pantheon’s ceremonial meeting place, not a single palace where every god lives. The mountain is a sovereign Levantine realm within the infinite plane, never an Olympian province.

These locations describe the present divine geography of the campaign. Ancient Ugaritic poems establish the gods and their relationships, but the arrangement of their halls within Arborea is part of this world’s wider cosmology. The earthly holy places of Ugarit, Byblos, Sidon, Tyre and Carthage remain accessible through pilgrimage, ritual and exceptional crossings; an ordinary climb or sea voyage does not automatically reach a divine estate.

Shapash walks the sun-road between these courts and the lands of Death. Yam remains master of his own waters rather than subject to Poseidon. Melqart, Eshmun and the great city goddesses maintain distinct homes, not satellite rooms in Baal’s palace.

Where Mortals Encounter Them

Ugarit and the Cedar Mountains

Ancient sanctuaries stand among ruined streets near the northern coast. Buried tablets preserve the accounts of storms, divine messengers and the lost royal house. Nearby high places are watched by priests who know when Baal’s weather is ordinary rain and when it is a royal command.

Byblos — The Lady’s Harbour

Baalat Gebal’s sanctuary is a place for sea travellers, families and those who carry memories between distant ports. Its sacred history predates any single dynasty; offerings and prayers from strangers are treated with care.

Sidon — The House of Healing

Eshmun’s priests tend the sick, wounded sailors and people whom ordinary medicine has failed. Their cures are neither a free marketplace nor a simple bargain: healers must decide whom to save when a tide of casualties reaches the temple steps.

Tyre — The King’s Island

Melqart’s presence is felt among mariners, shipwrights and defenders of the harbour. Astarte’s worshippers hold their own places of influence. Storm, trade, civic pride and divine competition meet in the same narrow channels.

Carthage and the Western Shores

Ruined and hidden Punic sanctuaries preserve the signs of Tanit and Baal Hammon, while island shrines and travelling families carry western traditions across the Mediterranean. The world’s present worshippers are not reduced to ancient ruins: gods and memories continue to draw living people to these places.

Adventures Under the Cedar and Storm

The Window of Zaphon

Ugarit and Mount Zaphon. A mountain priest named Aribaal reports that lightning is striking every vessel carrying cedar south, although the coast is desperate for ship repairs. A hidden passage beneath an abandoned Ugaritic shrine leads toward Kothar’s old builders’ stair; inside, a stolen bronze fitting from the storm palace’s window draws Yam’s sea-winds into Baal’s mountain realm. The party can return the fitting to Kothar, offer it to Yam in exchange for safe passage, or destroy it and endure both gods’ displeasure. The fate of the cedar fleet—and the sailors aboard—depends on their choice.

Seven Beds at the Spring

Sidon. Eshmun’s sacred water heals six dying children, but a seventh patient worsens each time it is drawn. A healer named Abdimilk asks the party to investigate an upstream shrine where Resheph’s bronze votive has been concealed among offerings to Eshmun. Removing the object eases the affliction but risks unleashing a disease-spirit contained within it. They can carry it into the deserted hills, seek Resheph’s terms, or persuade Eshmun’s priests to contain the danger while continuing treatment; each course affects the temple and its patients.

The Last Ship from Tyre

Tyre and the open Mediterranean. A cedar-built merchant ship returns after thirty years with its sails intact and every sailor asleep. Its captain’s daughter, now an elderly woman, says the crew carried an offering to Melqart when Yam claimed the vessel. Astarte’s oracle offers to wake them, but Yam demands the bronze figurehead that protected the ship through the lost years. Keeping it may preserve Tyre’s fleet against a coming storm; surrendering it frees the sleepers at once. The party has one night to negotiate, investigate why the voyage was interrupted, and choose whose protection the coast most urgently needs.

Clerics, Divine Magic and Encounters

Worshippers serve different divine powers for different purposes. A rain priest of Baal is not a healer of Eshmun, and a votary of Anat need not embrace the rites of Athirat. Clerics, oracles, priests, navigators, craftsmen and temple healers should reflect their own cult’s traditions, not a single interchangeable priesthood. Divine symbols and spells belong to the individual deity pages.

Game statistics for divine manifestations, named servants and major relics are handled on each deity’s entry, with separate rules for D&D 2024, D&D 2014, Pathfinder First Edition and D&D 3.5e. The gods remain active powers outside a combat encounter; no single Challenge Rating defines every religious or planar interaction.

Languages follow the people involved: Phoenician, related local Northwest Semitic languages, Ugaritic in older sacred writings, and other learned languages where travel and scholarship justify them. There is no universal spoken Common.

Rules references: Cleric · Domains · Control Weather · Plane Shift · Zone of Truth

Explore the Wider Divine World

Gods and Pantheons · Mesopotamian Pantheon · Hadad / Baal-Hadad · Astarte · Arborea and Mount Zaphon · Abaddon.

Mythology and Sources

The Ugaritic Baal Cycle (KTU 1.1–1.6) is the principal source for Baal, El, Anat, Athirat, Yam, Mot and Kothar. Phoenician and Punic religious evidence comes chiefly from inscriptions, archaeology and later observers; their city traditions should not be treated as though all details were contained in the Ugaritic poems.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art — The Gods and Goddesses of Canaan.
• Virtual Museum of Syria — The Baal Cycle, Tablet Four.
• The Metropolitan Museum Journal — Phoenician Inscriptions of the Cesnola Collection.
• Mark S. Smith and Wayne T. Pitard, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, vols. I–II (Scholarly commentary).
• Michael D. Coogan and Mark S. Smith, Stories from Ancient Canaan (translations and introduction).