Lolth, known as the Queen of Spiders or the Queen of the Demonweb Pits, is the most affluent goddess of the Drow, the sole leader of the Dark Seldarine. She is also known as the Weaver of Fate, Mistress of Deceit, Queen of Shadows, the Treacherous One and the Conjurer of Lies.
She is the goddess of the Drow, Fate, Spiders, Deceit, Shadows, Treachery and Lies.
She drove the Drow into heavy infighting under the pretence of culling the weak, while her real goals were to hold absolute control over the dark elves, prevent the rise of alternative faiths or ideas, and avoid complacency (even though she finds amusement in the strife that plagued her followers communities).
However, in the long run her influence proves to be an obstacle in the growth and success of the Drow, preventing them from unifying against common enemies or for a common cause.
Church of Lolth
Worshippers
Her follower base is vary varied. It mainly consists of Drow and Drider, but also includes Arachne, Chitins, Draegloths and Deep Dragons.
Temples and Priests
Lolth's temples are located in every major Drow cities and shrines to her litter the major paths through the Underdark. They usually sport a heavily spider themed designed.
Lolth’s clerics are almost exclusively female (although there were a few males). They represent the rulers of most Lolthite communities, and strictly follow the Spider Queen's will, forcing the drow into extreme subservience to their deity, and into the constant state of conflict that dominates their lives.
Each priestess strives for the favour of the Spider Queen and is ready to anything in order to gain status in her goddess' eyes. Their vestments are normally adorned with spider motifs. Her rituals require them to wear darker clothes or no clothing at all. Her clergy sacrifices the living and treasure for her glory.
Realm
Lolth dwells in her divine realm of the Demonweb Pits, a demonic realm formed entirely of a single great fractal web, where she is served by legions of powerful mystical slaves. Lolth's residence in this realm is a mobile iron spider-shaped stronghold. The Demonweb Pits are located on the 66th layer of The Abyss.
The Demonweb Pits have started to grow, as Lolth grows in power, slowly separating from The Abyss and becoming its own plane.
Divine Domains
Arcana - Trickery - War
Holy Books and Codes
The Web Of Lies
The Web of Lies is an intriguing book, written in an ancient form of Abyssal and Dark Elvish, includes Lolth’s underlying philosophies and ideals. The tome is, in many ways, a recipe book for murder, assassination, revenge, manipulation, and corruption. It includes advice and tactics for defeating your enemies and clawing your way to the highest levels of power.
At the same time, The Web of Lies is filled with contradictions and incomplete passages. It is all but impossible for even the most devout follower of Lolth’s way to observe every dictate without contravening or outright breaking some other commandment. It is no understatement that half the book contradicts the other half; the challenge is determining where all the contradictions lie and what they actually mean. Even the most ancient drow clerics find hidden lessons within the book’s pages, even after centuries of reading it.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
An ornate black spider hanging down
Tenets of Faith
- It is better to be loved than feared, but you may certainly try to be both.
- Misdirection, slander, and shadowed steps have more function than direct conflict.
- Death to the elves who live under the sun. Death to all their allies!
Like all religions, the worship of Lolth involves a number of rituals and rites. Many of them include sacrifice. As an example, what follows is a secret sacrificial prayer in Abyssal known only to high priestesses:
Great Goddess, Mother of the Dark, grant me the blood of my enemies for drink and their living hearts for meat. Grant me the screams of their young for song, grant me the helplessness of their males for my satisfaction, grant me the wealth of their houses for my bed. By this unworthy sacrifice I honour you, Queen of Spiders, and beseech of you the strength to destroy my foes.
Personal History
The Age Before Ages
Lolth was formerly
Araushnee, the lesser elven goddess of fate, intimacy, motherhood and artisans. She was Arvanos consort, and the main goddess of the dark elves.
She believed that the Elves were the perfect manifestation of the world, the truest inheritors - even against the Titans and the Dragons.
She thought that the strands of fate seemed meaningless in contention to her children, her beloved ones - in comparison to the other mortal races.
She had convinced Arvanos to take a mortal form and emulate his form to the Elves, so that may take shape and form, to be perfect and beautiful just like he. It took some convincing, but eventually he gave way to his beloved and did so. She interlinked their fates between her home and the Prime Material, able to live twin lives alongside her and Arvanos, and reside in peace within the living world of Aetheus.
Though, Aruashnee sensed doubt in Arvanos' heart - he did not desire to be a father, he was not taking pride in his creation, nor paying attention to it. He was much more content in re-aligning the universe and procuring greater magics. He seemed to falter away his love for her, and in her heart, grew doubt.
She had hoped with the birth of their daughter, Eilistraee that he would feel content - but his heart ever changed to different ambitions, ploys and pursuits, seeking the next great thrill and conundrum. He worked on his grand project, the Nexus, more than his concerns of the elves in the mortal realm.
They warred together against the Giants, eliminating their great kingdom of Ostoria, and taking homage in their great plane in the lands of Arvandor, in Arborea.
War Of The Seldarine
At some point, Araushnee grew ambitious and started to plot against Arvanos. She believed that Arvanos would eventually leave her and her immortal children, and she would be alone. During her first attempt, she aided Lorkhan in trying to kill her husband by imbuing him into mortal form, convincing him that he should emulate the elves in their physical form. She imbued the scabbard that he had crafted for his sword with magic that would cause the weapon to shatter during the fight. However, this plan failed due to Shelúne's interfering with it: she knew that Araushnee had tampered with the scabbard, because the Weaver had conducted this very first step of her betrayal during the night, when Shelúne's sight could reach her.
Araushnee’s next move was gather a host of gods on hostile footing with the Seldarine, forming an army to assault Arborea and overthrow Arvanos. The army itself was so badly organized, that she was confident that they would fail. Her true plan was to give the cursed scabbard back to Arvanos, as during the battle that would later unfold, the item would cause arrows shot by Eilistraee to hit his chest instead. According to Lolth's plan, that would have killed Arvanos while turning her daughter into a scapegoat.
Before the attack by the anti-Seldarine faction was ready, Shelúne confronted Araushnee about her betrayal (as mentioned above, she knew Araushnee to be a traitor), but Araushnee struck first and imprisoned her with the help of her Drow. Together, they also made sure that Eilistraee would find and deliver the scabbard to Arvanos, and that she would be in his vicinity during the battle.
Once the battle started, the Weaver's plan almost went as she expected. When an ogre god charged Arvanos, who had been immobilized, Eilistraee swiftly fired a few arrows to save her father, but the scabbard drew the projectiles towards the Protector instead, nearly slaying him. Despite all, the anti-Seldarine army lost and retreated as expected, and after the battle Araushnee tried to finish Arvanos with a dose of poison crafted by Eilistraee to aid her followers in the hunt, pretending it to be water from Elysium with healing qualities gathered by her daughter.
However her plan ultimately failed due to Shelúne's intervention, as the Lady of Dreams had managed to break out from Lolth's prison, albeit at immense cost to herself.
When the elven lord awakened, a trial was called in, Eilistraee became a willing member in exile of the Seldarine-- in the case of Eilistraee willingly, as she had foreseen that the dark elves would have needed her light and hope in the future -- while Araushnee was made into a tanar’ri (Demon) and sentenced to banishment. Furious for her defeat, she attempted one last time at her lover's life, by turning into a spider monster and attacking him. Despite all, the Protector still loved her and couldn't bring to finish her off, letting her escape.
Distraught by the betrayal of the elves - he left the Astral Sea and wandered beyond the veil; abandoning his children and sires... to which, his immortal purview over them faltered, and the elves began to feel the ebbing woes and weal of life and death. Though he had instilled the connection Lolth had once made to their lands in Bytopia, he had also sealed their home off - forever leaving its halls empty, entrusting his children to fate, and to change their destinies at their whim - and to break through the purviews of their mother's strings of fate.
There, the Raven Queen came for her children, and took them away from her when the time was nigh. Lolth grew furious, and oversaw the purview of fate.
Queen Of The Demonweb Pits
After her exile, Araushnee took the name "Lolth“. She conquered the 66th layer of the Abyss, the Demonweb Pits, for herself.
After securing control over her layer, she plotted to exact vengeance against Arvanos. Being unable to directly strike at him, she planned to be worshipped as a goddess by the elves, bringing misery to them -- and therefore to their "father".
Upon her release during the Cataclysm, she attempted to fight off once more against Arvanos - but was greatly diminished by his power. Lorkhan had impaled her with lightning bolts across a great cliff, whilst he decimated her armies with his storms and rage. And banished her once more to the Demonweb Pits of the Abyss.
Physical Description
