Lolth

Lolth

Lolth (pronounced: /lɑːlθ/ lalth or: /loʊlθ/ lolth or: /ˈloʊɑːlθ/ LOALTH), or Lloth in Menzoberranzan, known as the Queen of Spiders or the Queen of the Demonweb Pits, is the most influential goddess of the drow, within the pantheon of the Dark Seldarine.
Lolth often drives the drow into heavy infighting under the pretense of culling the weak. Her real goals, however, are 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 plagues her followers' communities). In the long run, her influence has proven to be an obstacle in the growth and success of the drow, preventing them from unifying against common enemies or for a common cause.
Her sacred animals are arachnids - she considers them valuable enough to kill those who mistreated them.

Worshipers

Lolth's follower base is varied. It mainly consists of drow, but also includes aranea, chitine, draegloths, and deep dragons. She has even gained a few elven followers. She occasionally tries to gain more worshipers by assuming the aspect of Moander, a deity of rot.

Clerics

Lolth's clerics are almost exclusively female (although there are 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 favor of the Spider Queen and is ready to do anything in order to gain status in her goddess' eyes. Her clergy sacrifice the living and treasure for her glory. Their vestments are normally adorned with spider motifs. Her rituals require them to wear darker clothes- or none at all.

Orders

Militant Myrlochar

The Militant Myrlochar, sometimes known as the Order of Soul Spiders, is an elite fighting organization composed exclusively of male crusaders, and found in the dark elven cities where Lolth is worshiped and males are allowed entrance into her priesthood. They directly serve the reigning Matron Mothers of the city and are employed to kill their targets. They are usually used without pause until they are killed.

Handmaidens of the Spider Queen

The Handmaidens of the Spider Queen are an order of female crusaders. Also called the "Daughters of the Yochlol", they have no ties to specific cities, and are used when Lolth wants an entire city brought back into line. At least three times in recorded history, the Handmaidens of the Spider Queen have destroyed entire drow cities to prevent them from straying too far from Lolth. One of their usual tasks is to terrorize merchants who take Vhaeraun as their patron, as well as settlements run by the followers of Vhaeraun or Ghaunadaur's (or where those faiths are prominent).

Rites

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 honor you, Queen of Spiders, and beseech of you the strength to destroy my foes.

Relationships

Dark Seldarine

Lolth is the leader of the Dark Seldarine, but is opposed to varying degrees by all other members of it. She is the mother of both Eilistraee and Vhaeraun, along with Vandria, though the latter has never supported the acts of her mother or joined the Dark Seldarine.

Vhaeraun

On one hand, Lolth encourages her son's rivalry with her - it appeals to her love of chaos. On the other hand, her son's successes at swaying the drow to his cause of destroying her, her followers, and her version of society, have led her to consider him a threat. He has amassed the second largest following among drow overall (the largest on the surface), and is an ever expanding force, to the point that Lolth considers Vhaeraun her real enemy and rival.
The two have no common ground: Lolth promotes favoritism towards females, while Vhaeraun promotes gender equality; the Spider Queen wants surface elves to be sacrificed by her worshipers, while the Masked Lord urges his followers to cooperate with surface elves; Lolth orders her followers to keep drow society stagnant in every regard, while Vhaeraun attracts those who want change in their societal progress, economic growth, and territorial expansion; and Lolth wants to extinguish the drow race's desire to return to the surface, while Vhaeraun encourages settling the surface.
Vhaeraun's masked traitors, clerical spies Lolth had mistakenly believed members of her own clergy, were enough of a problem that she considers their discovery, and warning her clergy of their existence, worthy of her personal attention. Indeed, Lolth, who normally gives worshipers of other drow gods a second chance on being found out, typically makes an exception for Vhaeraun's followers, who are killed right away.

Other Enemies in the Dark Seldarine

The other members of the Dark Seldarine are generally of minor importance and Lolth's behavior towards them could be described as derisive. She considers her daughter Eilistraee to be an inconsequential fool, a moody girl who can be easily manipulated into serving her ends. The epithet used by Eilistraee's followers' to describe Lolth is "the Tyrant Poisoner". Ghaunadaur is a different matter. She fears the possibility that he may sway the drow towards his cause, but he does not care enough for drow matters to attract many of them.

Allies - Dark Seldarine

Kiaransalee and Selvetarm are her allies (the only ones in the drow pantheon), who act as her servants. The former has been forced into subservience due to the power gap between her and Lolth, but she gained a degree of freedom after she killed Orcus and took Thanatos, the demon lord's realm. The latter is Lolth's grandchild and her (self-appointed) champion. Selvetarm is practically enslaved to her, but is quite comfortable under her rule - enough to botch his chance at gaining freedom when his father, Vhaeraun, was about to kill Lolth. Her final ally is Vlaakith, who is her connection with the Astral Plane.

Others

Seldarine

Lolth is an enemy of the Seldarine, especially of Corellon Larethian, her former husband, Sehanine Moonbow, for the part she played in foiling her scheme to overthrow Corellon, and Fenmarel Mestarine, who was her partner in adultery but ultimately did not join her betrayal. While her hatred runs deep, she does not actually put any significant effort into acting on it, preferring to keep the drow engaged in deep infighting, rather than united against those whom she considered her enemies.

Other Enemies

She once helped Gruumsh attempt to kill Corellon Larethian, but after he failed, they became enemies. She was also the enemy of a long list of Underdark deities.

Other Allies

Lolth occasionally forms alliances with Loviatar and Malar.

History

Dawn Age

Lolth was formerly Araushnee, the lesser elven goddess of destiny and artisans. She was Corellon Larethian's consort, and the main goddess of the dark elves. They had twins together, the elder Vhaeraun, the younger Eilistraee.

War of the Seldarine

At some point, Araushnee grew ambitious and started to plot against Corellon. During her first attempt, she aided Gruumsh in trying to kill her husband by imbuing 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 Sehanine Moonbow's interference 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 Sehanine's sight could reach her.
Later, Araushnee agitated Malar into attacking the wounded Corellon, after she witnessed the Beastlord killing the orc god Herne on Faerûn, but even that failed, as the elven lord managed to chase his aggressor away.
Araushnee's next move was to gather a host of gods on hostile footing with the Seldarine, forming an army to assault Arvandor and overthrow Corellon. 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 Corellon, 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 Corellon while turning her daughter into a scapegoat.
Before the attack by the anti-Seldarine faction was ready, Sehanine 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 son Vaheraun. Together, they also made sure that Eilistraee would find and deliver the scabbard to Corellon, and that she would be in his vicinity during the battle.
Once the battle started, the Weaver's plan almost went as she expected, supported even further by Ghaunadaur's entrance. When an ogre god charged Corellon, who had been immobilized by the Elder Eye, 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 Corellon 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 Sehanine's intervention, as the Lady of Dreams had managed to break out from Vhaeraun's prison, albeit at immense cost to herself. Sehanine, Aerdrie Faenya, and Hanali Celanil joined into the triune goddess Angharradh, and used their combined magic to save Corellon's life.
When the elven lord awakened, a trial was called in, Vhaeraun and Eilistraee became members in exile of the Seldarine--in the case of Eilistraee willingly, as she had foreseen that the dark elves would need her light and hope in the future - while Araushnee was made into a tanar'ri and sentenced to banishment. Furious with her defeat, she made one last attempt at her lover's life, turning into a spider monster and attacking him. Despite all, the Protector still loved her and could not find the will to finish her off, letting her escape instead.

Aftermath

After her exile, Araushnee took the name "Lolth“. She conquered the 66th layer of the Abyss, the Demonweb Pits, for herself. Lolth was initially opposed by Kiaransalee, an elven goddess whom she swiftly subjugated, and Ghaunadaur, with whom she had a longer conflict. That Which Lurks tried to subsume her, but failed, and in his rage robbed his followers of their intellect. It also downsized his follower base and his power with it, thus allowing Lolth to emerge victorious.
After securing control over her layer, she plotted to exact vengeance against Corellon. Being unable to directly strike at him, she planned to be worshiped as a goddess by the elves, bringing misery to them and therefore to their "father". When the moon elf Kethryllia Amarillis came to retrieve her lover in the Abyss during a battle for the city of Sharlarion, Lolth became interested in the world the elf came from, Toril. She sensed the presence of Vhaeraun, at that time the major deity in Ilythiir, and her attention was drawn there. Her fascination grew as she witnessed the Ilythiiri - at the time under Ka'Narlist - preparing for war when Kethryllia had unknowingly revealed their position to them. Lolth admired the old mage's craftiness and he became her first worshiper and consort.
Ilythiir, the southern empire, was much to her liking, as it was richer and more cosmopolitan, but mainly because of the fierceness of its people, of their ambitions, and of their ability to act on those.

First Flowering

Originally, Ilythiir and the other elven nations were not on openly hostile footing but Lolth poisoned this relationship by causing wars and strife. This led the elves to decide to create a dark elf-free piece of land. They caused the First Sundering, which split a region of the continent from the mainland in order to create an island out of it, a process which caused countless victims, a large part of the church of Vhaeraun among them. Vhaeraun's efforts to remedy this were undermined by the ongoing conflict between him and Eilistraee, granting Lolth and Ghaunadaur the opportunity to fill the void. The Spider Queen then started her machinations that would eventually lead to the Crown Wars.

Crown Wars

For Lolth, the Crown Wars were an opportunity to gain control over the dark elves and at the same time exact vengeance against the Seldarine, as those conflicts destroyed the majority of the elven nations.
Lolth's church grew in prominence during the Second Crown War. At that time, Aryvandaar, the sun elf nation, had begun a military campaign against the dark elves of Miyeritar (which would later culminate in the genocidal Dark Disaster). Both to avenge their Miyearitari cousins, and in fear that Aryvandaar could similarly lay waste on Ilythiir, the Ilythiiri joined the conflict against the elven empire. The Ilythiiri coronal summoned Wendonai, a balor in service of Lolth, and bought power from it. Lolth swiftly acted, using this golden opportunity to get the dark elves under her control.
Other noble families of Ilythiir followed their royalty's example, summoning further demonic allies sent by Vhaeraun, Kiaransalee and Ghaunadaur, which gained them influence as well, but not as much as Lolth was acquiring with Wendonai tainting the noble bloodlines of the nation.
At that time, the Ilythiiri were still refining their worship. They knew that Lolth was a spider deity, and that the other five gods and goddesses, who would later become known as the Dark Seldarine, (with the exception of Selvetarm, who was not born yet) were in some kind of relationship. They did not however understand the relationships among them. The Ilythiiri thus experimented with the iconography of these gods, depicting them as spider deities too. These efforts to put the drow deities in this relation in each other were considered so offensive by the depicted, that Lolth, Vhaeraun, Ghaundaur and Kiaransalee killed their high priests for it.
During the Fourth Crown War, the elves' wish for divine salvation, the worship of Lolth who was starting to spread among the Ilythiiri, and the taint of Wendonai which had corrupted their leaders, caused the elves to gather at the Elven Court and summon the power of the Seldarine to curse the dark elves and turn them into drow (even innocent ones and the followers of Eilistraee, who had already been exterminated by the Aryvandaari). The combined forces of the remaining elven nations then violently chased the newly formed race underground.

Era of Upheaval

Once in the Underdark, the drow lived in a borderline animal state. With Eilistraee's power nearly collapsed due to the loss of so many of her people, and with Vhaeraun's, Kiaransalee's and Ghaunadaur's power being unable to compete with Lolth's, she became the main drow deity. She gathered them together and urged them into the foundation of their first city, Telantiwar. It later destroyed itself through infighting, causing the drow to spread throughout the Underdark.
A thorn in her side was a demon lord called Zanassu, who claimed dominion over spiders. Lolth got rid of him by using Selvetarm, her grandchild who was born from Vhaeraun and Zandilar when the Spider Queen's followers attacked the Yuirwood. Lolth convinced Selvetarm that killing the demon would have made Eilistraee - whom had befriended him, and whom he had come to admire - proud, so he fought and defeated Zanassu, but ended up absorbing his power and being bound to Lolth's will in the process. Lolth thus solved two problems: one of her rivals was gone, and her daughter was prevented from getting an ally.

Time of Troubles

During the Time of Troubles, apart from appearing in Menzoberranzan and assuming the aspect of Moander to attract more surface elves, humans, and half-elves, Lolth spread information on Zinzerena, a goddess from another world. When she appeared on Toril, Lolth killed her, gaining the portfolios of chaos and assassination, and learning how the distribution and absorption of divine energy worked under Ao's new rules.

War of the Spider Queen

The War of the Spider Queen was a period during which Lolth transformed herself into a greater deity, turned the Demonweb Pits into an independent plane, and then defeated her rivals.

Silence of Lolth

In 1372 DR, Lolth suddenly became silent, starting an event know as "Silence of Lolth". She became completely inactive and no longer granted spells or communed with her followers. Vhaeraun took advantage of the situation and tried to assassinate his mother. She was seriously injured, but later saved by Selvetarm.
When she finally awoke in 1373 DR, she called for three candidates to become her Chosen and finalize her transformation: Danifae Yauntyrr, Quenthel Baenre, and Halisstra Melarn. The first two came on their own to the Demonweb Pits, the last one was sent by Eilistraee to kill Lolth. However, in the Demonweb Pits, after being defeated by the other two, Halisstra converted back to Lolth. Out of the three, Danifae was chosen to become part of the Spider Queen, Quenthel was sent back home, and Halisstra was made Lolth's Lady Penitent, her Chosen, whose duty was to hunt and kill followers of Eilistraee and Vhaeraun.

The Reckoning

In 1375 DR, Lolth and Eilistraee elected to play a game of sava with the future of the drow at stake. Lolth's strategy involved the employment of only two powerful servants of hers: Halisstra Melarn and Wendonai. Vhaeraun, her son, came up with a new plan to kill her. He wanted to assassinate his sister and unite their churches to increase his power and become strong enough to kill his mother. Halisstra Melarn managed to get her hands on Malvag, the organizer of Vhaeraun's plot. Lolth ordered her Chosen to ensure his survival, and she went as far as reviving him after he was killed by Cavatina Xarann, a priestess of Eilistraee, to ensure that Vhaeraun would have a chance at attacking his sister. When Lolth's children clashed, Eilistraee emerged victorious, and Vhaeraun supposedly died.
Meanwhile, Lolth's Chosen, Halisstra, was sent to the Church of Eilistraee to inform them of the whereabouts of the Crescent Blade (which Wendonai had made into a vessel for himself), and to lead Cavatina Xarann to the Demonweb Pits. There, the priestess killed Selvetarm with the Crescent Blade. This event later caused his church to be completely absorbed into Lolth's: the Spider Queen claimed that Selvetarm's loss was part of her plan, and Eilistraee too was led to believe it.
When Cavatina returned from the Demonweb, Qilué Veladorn took possession of the Wendonai-possessed Crescent Blade. Qilué recognized an evil presence in the weapon and planned to banish it, but the demon successfully convinced her to not act on it, for it would have destroyed the blade. Wendonai also let himself seemingly be killed by Cavatina, which put the balor above suspicion of other followers of Eilistraee. He would remain at Qilué's side for the next few years, although the High Priestess of Eilistraee also started to hatch a plan to actually kill the balor by taking him into herself and using her Silver Fire to destroy him.
Meanwhile, Kiaransalee joined the game in 1377 DR. The ensuing battle between Eilistraee and the Revenancer resolved in favor of the Dark Maiden: the forces of Eilistraee successfully assaulted the Acropolis of Thanatos, Kiaransalee's main temple, and a ritual cast by Q'arlynd Melarn nearly erased her name from the minds of all living beings on Toril, leading to the goddess' disappearance. At the same time, Qilué kept fighting against with Wendonai's influence, and his presence could be felt when the Dark Sister ordered the death of the defenseless clerics of the Revenancer in the Acropolis after that goddess' death.
Ghaunadaur joined the conflict in 1378 DR, planning to attack Eilistraee in order to free his avatar trapped under her temple of the Promenade. Qilué agreed to a risky plan to protect the temple from the followers of Ghaunadaur: it failed (intentionally botched by former Vhaeraunites) and the temple was lost. Through its portal network, the slime god's followers managed to kill many members of the church of Eilistraee. Lolth also unleashed Halisstra on her daughter's worshipers, inflicting great losses that culminated in the following year. In fact, in 1379 DR, Eilistraee - while inhabiting the body of Qilué Veladorn - tried to free Halisstra from Lolth's clutches and convince her to kill the Spider Queen. However, Wendonai successfully nudged Halisstra into slaying Qilué alongside the Masked Lady. Lolth then abandoned Halisstra after she fulfilled her purpose for which she was turned into a Chosen.
During the Reckoning, Lolth miscalculated twice. The first time was Q'arlynd Melarn's success at casting a second elven high magic spell, which he had been preparing with Qilué Veladorn. The intent was to turn all drow of the church of Eilistraee into dark elves, but only few hundreds of the few thousands worshipers of Eilistraee (which she had as a lesser deity) were changed. Corellon took their souls under his protection into Arvandor (even though Eilistraee's realm, which continued existing, already was in Arvandor, and so were the souls of her followers within it. Corellon's servant Solars claimed that, with this act, all the willing drow had been saved, while the unwilling were cast down as a necessary sacrifice. The second miscalculation was Ghaunadaur. After getting rid of Eilistraee, Lolth tried to kill the ooze god, but he proved to be stronger than expected.

Post-Spellplague

In the following century, Lolth enjoyed a position of supremacy among the drow. She suffered opposition from the Jaezred Chaulssin, the skulkers of Vhaeraun - the term used to describe those members of the church of Vhaeraun who retained divine magic despite their god's death - and the followers of Ghaunadaur. The latter group, however, was a dying force, at least among drow, for Lolth had successfully extinguished the knowledge about that god.
At some point in the years leading up to 1479 DR, Lolth ordered her servants to begin collecting blue fire items and relics important to Mystra. Her ultimate goal is to become the new goddess of magic, but she ended up failing with the return of Mystra.

Post-Sundering

Since the event known as the Second Sundering, Lolth is no longer unrivaled as the goddess of the drow (even if she still retains her position of dominance), for the dead members of the Dark Seldarine have been revived. A further disadvantage for the Spider Queen is that, after their return, Eilistraee and Vhaeraun reached a truce and even reciprocal friendship (although their followers still skirmish often).