Ba'Ashim

Ba'Ashim is an ancient religious sect of Phoenician mystics who worshipped the abyssal god Uru-Shakar, the "Hunger Beneath." They built a towering stone citadel above a subterranean chamber where they performed blood sacrifices that formed a black gemstone known as Azhakar’s Eye. They believed the stone was a living fragment of Uru-Shakar's body, a living hunger that granted power in exchange for life. When the Ba’ashim were slaughtered by the Assyrians, their temple was abandoned, the tunnels sealed, and the stone left to slumber.

Centuries later, in 1104 AD, the Crusaders stormed Acre and claimed it for Christendom. Among them was Sir Arnault de Brienne, a pious and ruthless knight of the First Crusade. When construction began on theHospitaller Commandery of Saint Jean d'Acre they unearthed the Ba’ashim tunnels. Arnault, seeking relics of power, led a party into the depths and found Azhakar’s Eye still pulsing with unnatural life. The whispers began at once. Over weeks, they hollowed him out, filling him with insatiable hunger. His armor blackened, shifting like living metal, its surface etched with writhing symbols of the Ba’ashim. The men who followed him into the tunnels never returned, save for a single squire who clawed his own eyes out, raving that Ser Arnault had been eaten from within.

Horrified, the Hospitallers tried to destroy the cursed knight, but no wound could slay him. In desperation, they sealed him in the deepest chamber of the ruins, locking Azhakar’s Eye with him. They collapsed the tunnels, built the commandery above, and erased all records of what lay beneath. But even today, beneath the streets of modern Acre, the buried knight waits in the dark, his armor twisting and shifting, his hollow form bound in eternal vigilance—guarding the gemstone, or perhaps, waiting to be freed.

Mention in Books

From SLAY 3: Easy Kill: The sect was Ba’ashim, not Bah-Bah-Blacksheep,” Billy said. “Kula Shaker is some old band. The gem was called Uru-Shakar, which means the Hunger Beneath, which must be where you got Hungry Boy, because that’s not even close to Azukaier’s Eye, which is the name of the gemstone.” He put a hand to his ear, mimicked an old person who couldn’t hear all that well. “What’s that? The Azukaier’s Eye, the gemstone made out of filament from human sacrifices?” He put his hand down. “Yeah, I’d say that sounds important enough to remember.”