Beltar (BEL-tar), the Deep Mother, Lady of UnderWearth, Font of Nether Light, The Black Serpent, Mistress Malice, Mother of Darkness, The Pit Goddess. Beltar is one of the early Great Elder Powers contacted by the Sorcerer Kings in their quest for knowledge and power. Like her contemporary Tharizdun, she is more a force than actual personification. Though she is listed as a Lesser Power, that is only based on her ability to influence Wearth currently.

Beltar has one big difference from most other Elder Powers, she is able to spawn. She creates new aspects of herself to match her supplicants. The spider Demon Lolth is said to be an offspring of the Deep Goddess, as is the chitonous Blibdoolpoolp and the Blood Goddess of the aboleth. She is also known as Lirabyth to the trolls, Faluzure to the dragons, and as the Great Mother to the beholder races. As one of the strongest of the Elder Powers it took the combined strength of most of the good Powers to banish her from Wearth, and then it was only partly successful.

Mine and explore caves in pursuit of foes and riches. Fear is not acceptable in the face of adversity, and only hatred is allowed for those who stand in your way.

Beltar is the keeper of dark alien secrets and is a rival to Wee Jas. The cult of Beltar spread after her banishment, from humans to other evil and cave-loving races. Beltaric temples today keep great tomes of forbidden knowledge passed down from Beltar herself. These copies of copies of copies are the sacred texts of her worship.

Clerics of Beltar are angry and bitter people. They flee to the bosom of the Power of the depths because they have grudge against all that is good. They tend to do a lot of skulking and plotting against their enemies, and this emotion is released during the cathartic rites of Beltane.

Clerics of Beltar wear gray or black and harsh bright purple and green garments, depending upon the occasion. At the lower levels their holy symbols are made from real animals, the higher in the clergy the better the material used. Their ceremonies are always held under ground, actually the deeper in the earth the better.