Dark Seldarine Pantheon

The Dark Seldarine is the Drow pantheon of gods, fractured from the Seldarine Pantheon during the Reaving of the Seldarine Gods.

Organization

The Dark Seldarine, the pantheon of the Drow, is "led" by Lolth, the Spider Queen, in the sense that she is the most powerful and widely worshiped Drow deity. She dominates the Drow race's lives and urges them into heavy infighting. She is opposed to varying degrees by the rest of the pantheon and does not share her power with other gods; in Lolth-worshiping city states like Menzoberranzan the reign of her priesthood is absolute. Vhaeraun, her son, is among the opposers. He has the largest following on the surface and the second largest overall among the Dark Seldarine. Lolth consideres him her real rival and enemy. The others are minor players to her eyes. In truth, the Dark Seldarine are a pantheon only in a loose sense as most Drow gods do not allow their followers to give any reverence to other deities; rather, they are simply a collection of gods, some related to each other and some not, whose followers are primarily Drow, and thus they are bitter rivals as they clash over the hearts and minds of the Drow. Lolth's domination over the majority of Drow is to such an extent that even information on the other gods is not readily accessible to them. Vhaeraun's existence and agenda is only common knowledge among surface Drow and in those parts of The Underdark where the Spider Queen's power is not absolute. Eilistraee, Lolth's daughter and the only benevolent Drow deity, is both on the surface and in The Underdark the subject of wildly inaccurate and wrong legends. Most of the rare few who know of Kiaransalee believed her to be an Undead madwoman who is a goddess only in her fantasies, while Selvetarm is practically forgotten. Only Ghaunadaur is capable of making his presence known or at least felt on some level by most Drow.

History

The Dark Seldarine came into being during the Reaving of the Seldarine in the Era of First Flowering.

Era of the Dawn Powers

Originally, Lolth (at the time known as Araushnee) and the twin deities born from her and Corellon Larethian (the elder, Vhaeraun, the younger Eilistraee) were dark elven gods and part of the Seldarine, residing in Arvandor. Ghaunadaur was a very ancient deity, according to Lolth, rumored to have emerged from the primordial ooze itself. In that age, it was worshiped by slimes and other crawling creatures, many of which had an alien intelligence. Kiaransalee was a dark elven Lich from the world of Threnody. After being banished by her husband, the king of Threnody, for her experiments on undeath, she managed to raise an army of Undead and exact revenge upon the inhabitants of her former world, rendering it lifeless. She fled from the Seldarine's revenge into the Abyss, where she ascended to divinity as a demigodess. As with the rest of the Seldarine Pantheon at the time, the Dark Seldarine were unknown powers in Astora, with no known worshippers. When the Elves were brought into the world from the Feywild in an attempt to provide a counter-balance to the power of the Giantkin and Draconic empires, the seldarine gods adopted the newcomers as their own, taking their form and making great leaps in power and influence within the realm.

Era of First Flowering

As their elven followers multiplied and expanded their power across Astora, so to did the power of the Seldarine Pantheon expand. Araushnee, not content with her place in the pantheon, orchestrated an attempt to overthrow Corellon Larethian, aided by her son Vhaeraun and a host of other evil deities opposed to the Seldarine. She had planned for the assault to ultimately fail, as her actual goal was for Corellon Larethian's consort to be killed during the battle and to replace him as Coronal of Arvandor. She tricked Eilistraee into dangerously injuring her own father, but the Weaver's conspiracy was ultimately thwarted by Sehanine Moonbow, and Corellon's life was saved. After her betrayal was revealed, Araushnee was banished by Corellon and turned into a tanar'ri, while Vhaeraun was simply exiled. Even though she was cleared from all guilt, Eilistraee chose to share her mother's and brother's punishment, because she knew that the Drow would need her light in the times to come. Araushnee took the name of Lolth, and made the 66th Layer of the Abyss, the Demonweb Pits, her new home. She had to struggle to gain control over the layer, fighting the power of both Ghaunadaur and Kiaransalee, but neither of them were able to prevent Lolth from reaching supremacy. Kiaransalee was subdued by the Spider Queen, reduced to an unwilling vassal. Ghaunadaur, on the other hand, became the author of his own defeat, as his failure to seduce and subsume Lolth drove him to kill and steal the intelligence from his worshipers in a fit of rage, leading to a great loss of followers, and therefore of power. Meanwhile, Eilistraee and Vhaeraun remained active on Astora, each gaining a small following amonst the dark elves of Aethel Loren

The Crown Wars

As war spread through the elven empires, Vhaeraun gained a much stronger influence in Aethel Loren, tempting many with the promise of power to defend their lands from invaders. Ghaunadaur's faith also Set foot on Aethel Loren and filled a similar but secondary role. Eilistraee strove against her brother's corruption of the Aethel Lori, but in the end it was to no avail, and she maintained only small groups of dark elven followers in the region. After her banishment, Lolth's attention started to turn towards Astora only when the moon elf Kethryllia Amarillis intruded into the Demonweb to retrieve her lover. Kiaransalee helped her find her direction and Lolth did not interfere with the elf taking her lover back. By this point, Lolth had already come up with the idea to regain her divinity and used her scrying magic on the elves to find out which world they came from, therefore learning about Astora. Her interest was immediately captured by the presence of dark elf followers of Vhaeraun, and she was delighted by the hatred and ruthlessness developing in the hearts of the Aethel Lori, deciding to spread her taint among them and to use them as the instruments of her vengeance. When Aethel Loren was finally defeated and its inhabitants cursed by the Quessir Mythal, Vhaeraun's influence amongst them greatly diminished, as he had led them to their own doom. It was then that the Drow turned to Lolth, and her influence amongst them grew to eclipse both Vhaeraun and Eilistraee.

Post-Crown Wars

Lolth became the dominating deity of the Dark Seldarine. She turned Drow society into an oppressive theocratic and matriarchal society, where males were less than second class citizens. Under the pretense to cull the weak and strengthen the overall power of the race, she forced the Drow against each other in endless infighting. All towards the goal of hers and the Drow's vengeance against Corellon Larethian. In truth, this was all a scam. Lolth had so much fun at urging and seeing the Drow fighting themselves, that she never put coherent efforts regarding the supposed goal, the aforementioned vengeance. To remain in power, she directed her clergy to mitigate and slow any kind of change and progress in Drow society and worked towards extinguishing the Drow's desire to return to the surface. Vhaeraun strove to counter his mother's influence and tyranny over the Drow. His goal was to shatter the order Lolth was trying to impose on the Drow, unite his people and then take back all that they had lost after The Crown Wars, including their place on the surface. He attracted especially male Drow, due to his call for gender equality, those Drow who wanted change and growth in their society, be it of societal, economic or territorial nature, and those few Drow still living on the surface. While he could not challenge his mother directly, he acted in the shadows to disrupt the satus quo. The Masked Lord gained the second largest followers base among the Drow gods, and largest on the surface, resulting in Lolth considering him her real enemy. Eilistraee tried to be a mother goddess to her people and bring them the hope of a new life. She fought to lead them back to the lands of light too, and helped the Drow rediscover the love, kindness and joy that were taken from them. She wanted them to flourish and prosper in harmony with other races, free from Lolth's tyranny and the strife that dominated their lives. Hers was an uphill battle, but despite the many hardships and setbacks, Eilistraee never gave up fighting for her people. Eilistraee's ideals were very different from the kind of mindset that the Drow became used to under Lolth, and few were the ones who heeded the call of her song. In fact, after the fall of the Drow, it was only in the last few centuries that her faith began to regain a degree of prominence in Astora. Ghaunadaur's Drow worshipers consisted of those who grew tired of Lolth's tyranny, and sought out alternatives. He never cared much for matters outside of his own ambitions, including his own followers, and thus his follower base, and with it his influence, never really grew. However, his presence managed to prosper in cities torn by strife, or where the presence of the other Drow gods was weak. During this period Kiaransalee managed to acquire some freedom from Lolth by slaying Orcus and taking the cold plane of Thanatos from him. She worked to erase all mentions and recording of his name, to redirect his followers to her worship, but she still remained a little known power, even among the Drow themselves. The birth of Selvetarm
Selvetarm, son of Vhaeraun and Zandilar the Dancer (an elven goddess worshiped by the Elves of the Yuirwood), became part of the Dark Seldarine long after The Crown Wars. Seeing her people attacked by Lolth's minions, Zandilar sought out Vhaeraun and tried to seduce him, in order to gain his help against the Spider Queen. The Masked Lord however betrayed and imprisoned the elven goddess, who in turn would later manage to escape thanks to the help of Bast, a Mulhorandi demigoddess, but not before having conceived Selvetarm. Zandilar gave birth to Selvetarm shortly after having gained her freedom, and after having merged with Bast (forming Sharess). Selvetarm walked alone for centuries, after having spurned both his parents, until he was found and befriended by his aunt, Eilistraee, to whom he grew very close. Selvetarm came to admire her goodness and appreciate her teachings, and the goddess hoped that, by teaching him her ways and redeeming him, he could become an exemplar that would Aid her in healing the rift between the dark elves and the Seldarine. However, said hope and friendship ended when Lolth tricked Selvetarm into slaying Zanassu (a demon lord whom Lolth considered her rival, as he claimed to have power over spiders), by promising him that doing so would gain him the appreciation of the Dark Maiden. Selvetarm killed the demon, but was overwhelmed by the demonic essence and he fell wholly to evil, ending up as Lolth's champion. Spiteful Lolth did this to prevent her daughter gaining an ally among the Dark Seldarine.