Lolth

Lolth (LOLTH) is the goddess of the drow race and drow society. She is responsible for the nature, customs, laws, and survival of most drow communities. The Spider Queen maintains her absolute rule over drow cities by means of her clergy, who tirelessly seek out and destroy all traces of dissent, disobedience, rival faiths, or sacrilege and who ruthlessly enforce the Way of Lolth. The Spider Queen foments unending chaos in drow society and sets the drow eternally at war with each other both for her own amusement and to prevent complacency, runaway pride from asserting itself, or the rise of other faiths. Lolth is also venerated by chitines, a small spiderlike race that are castoffs of the drow.

As Araushnee, Lolth was once a lesser power of the Seldarine and the consort of Corellon Larethian. She was the patron of artisans, the goddess of elven destiny, and-later, by Corellon's decree - the keeper of those elves who shared her darkly beautiful features. The Weaver of Destiny bore Corellon twin godlings - Vhaeraun and Eilistraee - before she turned against her lover and betrayed him. First, she aided Gruumsh One-Eye, chief among the orcish gods, in one of his perennial battles with the Creator of the Elves, and then she set Malar on the trail of the weakened Corellon after observing the Beastlord defeat Herne on Faerun. When these plots failed as a result of Corellon's skill at arms and Sehanine's interference, Araushnee raised a host of hostile powers - the anti-Seldarine - to assault Arvandor. Despite the treachery of Araushnee, and to a lesser extent, Vhaeraun, the assault failed and the perfidy of Corellon's consort and son were revealed. By order of the Council of the Seldarine, Araushnee was transformed into a spider-shaped tanar'ri and banished to the Abyss.

As an Abyssal Lord, Araushnee assumed the name Lolth and conquered a considerable portion of that foul plane, driving off Ghaunadaur and subjugating Kiaransalee in the process. The Spider Queen then turned her attentions toward corrupting the mortal children of the Seldarine and reclaiming her divinity. Lolth's attentions were drawn once again to Abeir-Toril by the intrusion of the moon elven heroine Kethryllia Amarillis into her domain, and the Spider Queen immediately began to cultivate followers among the most cruel and corrupt of Corellon's children in Faerun. Lolth's machinations among the elves culminated in the Crown Wars, and eventually, the descent of the drow into the Underdark, but by that time she had enmeshed most of the dark-skinned Ilythiiri, now drow, in her webs and engendered the death of countless elves and the destruction of much of elven civilization in Faerun.

In the centuries since the Crown Wars, Lolth's followers have continued to spread throughout the Underdark, from Dusklyngh to T'lindhet and from Guallidurth to now-fallen V'elddrinnsshar. While other powers contest her rule, the Spider Queen's dominion over the dark elves continues to expand, albeit more slowly than before. Lolth's followers have been occupied with the conquest of the Underdark and the destruction of the faerie elves of the surface, and the Spider Queen has never ceased in her efforts to destroy the elven sanctuary of Evermeet.

Since the Time of Troubles, Lolth has assumed additional aspects as two of her many stratagems to increase the ranks of her faithful and thus her own personal power. In the drow city of Menzoberranzan, in the Underdark beneath the North where Lolth - or Lloth, as she is known there - appeared during the Time of Troubles, the Spider Queen has allowed rumors to spread of a new demipower of chaos and assassins, Zinzerena the Hunted. While Zinzerena was once a legendary drow assassin and later an emerging demipower of a world other than Abeir-Toril, the Spider Queen recently slew Zinzerena - or at least banished her influence from the Realms - and assumed her aspect

as a test to see if additional divine aspects increased or decreased the total (albeit fragmented) divine power available. In the Lands of Light, Lolth has long found that the deeply imbued racial antipathy of the surface elves toward the Spider Queen interferes with her attempts to seduce otherwise eminently corruptible individuals. With the death of Moander, always a more comprehensible (and tempting) force of evil to the nature-loving surface elves than the Spider Queen, Lolth has assumed the Darkbringer's aspect and portfolio of rotting death, decay, and corruption and revived its cult in a bid to add elven, half-elven, and human worshipers to the ranks of her faithful.