Vhaeraun (vay-RAWN)

Vhaeraun, also called the Masked Lord, the Masked God of Night, The Shadow, and, less frequently, the Shadow Lord, the Masked Mage and the Lord of Shadow was the drow god of drow males, thievery, territory, shadow magic, spellfilchers, and evil activities on the surface, aimed to further drow goals, interests, and power there.

Vhaeraun was the son of Araushnee and Corellon Larethian. He held the unique view among drow that males and females were equally valuable and was primarily prayed to by those drow males who sought a better life than slavery under Lolth's matriarchy and who opposed it.

Personality

Vhaeraun was an arrogant (at times vain) god and shared the vindictive trait of all drow deities. His arrogance made him believe the drow to be above other races. He also urged every single drow to believe she or he was above other drow. His followers derived the idea of gender equality from this belief of his. He believed that all other races should be subjugated by the drow.

While he was willing to use underhandedness to reach his goals, he didn't tolerate the same being used against him or his people.

Despite these harsh traits, he was also willing to cooperate when it came to undermining and fighting his mother, Lolth, and tried to unite the other drow gods against her.

Vhaeraun was actively involved in the lives of his followers. Tzirik Jaelre went so far as to describe him as a caring god. Vhaeraun was indeed one who didn't distance himself from the concerns of his followers and answered their pleas about fifteen percent of the time, even in the form of sending divine servants in cases of real need. He also seemed to be protective of his followers and was seen providing protection to those in his vicinity when he could and the means to avert self-sacrifice to those working for him.

He and his followers shared a realistic understanding regarding his strength. He knew that he was too weak to fight his mother directly, so he worked against her in secretive ways, directed at increasing his and his people's power and decreasing that of his enemies, starting with passive resistance by teaching ideas that contradicted Lolth's dogma and moving to open action. The Masked Lord was unusual among deities for his readiness to enter the front line himself when the scale was right, meaning when the target was another god.

Like Kiaransalee, Lolth, and Zinzerena, Vhaeraun was prayed to on practically every world inhabited by drow—for example, on Oerth—and had a unique aspect for each world. These aspects were usually different from each other in slight ways, but the one from Toril drastically differed from the other aspects. To be precise, the other aspects were all of a neutral evil god, while the aspect from Toril was chaotic evil.

Worshipers

Vhaeraun had the largest drow following on the surface and the second largest overall. The church of Vhaeraun primarily consisted of drow and half-drow males who sought a better life than slavery under Lolth's matriarchy, and who opposed it. The promise of a gender-fair society in which empathy, cooperation, and growth was possible appealed to them.

Vhaeraun had the largest drow following on the surface and the second largest overall. The church of Vhaeraun primarily consisted of drow and half-drow males who sought a better life than slavery under Lolth's matriarchy, and who opposed it. The promise of a gender-fair society in which empathy, cooperation, and growth was possible appealed to them.

Divine Domains

Trickery, War

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Mental characteristics

Personal history

The Dawn Age

Vhaeraun was born as the son of Corellon Larethian and Lolth, as the elder twin brother of Eilistraee. About −30,000 DR, Lolth (at that time called Araushnee) tried to overthrow her husband as the head of the elven pantheon.

Vhaeraun was her confidant in this betrayal. He was unique in that he didn't feel attachment to membership in the Seldarine, suggesting the option of simply leaving the group, and he also didn't see inherent value in blood ties. What gave Araushnee the final nudge away from the Seldarine was a combination of realizing that she was alone, after understanding her son's capability to betray his father and his potential to murder her later to come out on top.

Eilistraee was intended to be the unknowing murderer of her father and the scapegoat for the betrayal. The plan involved Corellon's sheath, on which a curse was placed. Vhaeraun was the one who hid Corellon's sheath, so that Eilistraee would find it, which she did out of her known affection towards her father. The sheath was cursed to direct her arrows to the bearer, Corellon, and retrieving it and giving it back to him guaranteed that she would be in his vicinity when the battle ensued. Vhaeraun's other role was to imprison Sehanine Moonbow. She needed to be imprisoned because his mother Lolth conducted the very first step of the betrayal in plain sight of the moon goddess, thus revealing it to her. The moon goddess eventually managed to escape her prison, albeit at high cost to herself. During the war, Vhaeraun protected Araushnee. After the war, a trial was called, and Vhaeraun was one of those sent into exile from the Seldarine.

The Time of Dragons

During the Time of Dragons, the first elves came to Toril. They didn't know about the Seldarine and mostly strove to live in scattered tribes with one exception, the Ilythiiri. Among them, Vhaeraun became the mainstream deity. in the first elven state Ilythiir.

He, and to a lesser degree Ghaunadaur, helped their people to carefully but successfully expand their territory throughout southern Faerûn (at that time the name for the single continent on Toril) and power, to a level that kept them independent from the dragons. Eilistraee tried to stop Vhaeraun's evil machinations, for which he tried to kill her.

Throughout this time, he maintained thin ties with his mother. Without any evil intentions, the moon elf Kethryllia Amarillis drew Lolth to Toril in −24,400 DR; the Spider Queen then made inroads in the southern state of Ilythiir.

The First Flowering

Vhaeraun became the most popular deity in southern Ilythiir, as that nation spread throughout the south of the continent, with Vhaeraun as the driving force behind this development. This position of hegemony changed with the First Sundering in −17,600 DR.

Despite vastly different views, Ilythiir was originally on good footing with the other elven nations, but Lolth poisoned the relationships between dark elves and other subraces. Seldarine-following elves came up with the idea to create a dark elf-free piece of land for those weary of the difficulties on the continent. They used elven high magic, and while they succeeded at creating their island, Evermeet they damaged the continent, with accompanying casualties, among them many citizens of Ilythiir, as collateral damage. Among this collateral damage was a large part of the church of Vhaeraun. The Masked Lord's influence ebbed with the loss of his worshipers. According to Szorak Auzkovyn, Vhaeraun's salvage efforts were foiled by Eilistraee, through her favouring of female followers and excluding men from her clergy, thus causing a schism in the egalitarian church of Vhaeraun by seducing the women away to her. Lolth then became the hegemonic deity in Ilythiir, allowing her to start her machinations to corrupt and destroy all elves, which culminated in the Crown Wars.

The Crown Wars

Aryvandaar, a sun elf kingdom, had borderline genocidal intentions regarding the dark elves of Ilythiir at latest after the Dark Disaster. Geirildin Sethomiir, the coronal of Ilythiir, read even earlier those intentions in the actions of Aryvandaar. The coming battles were viewed and treated as battles for survival, so he made a pact with Lolth by proxy of Wendonai, around −11,500 DR, to gain the power needed to save his people. This act made Lolth the most important deity in Ilythiir.

Nobles of Ilythiir followed the example of their coronal and made their own pacts, and Vhaeraun, no longer the main deity, supported the dark elves of Ilythiir with servants and other support during the battles, alongside Ghaunadaur and Kiaransalee.

It is not very clear what kind of role Vhaeraun filled during the Crown Wars, though it was known that it was not one as a warmonger; that role fell to Lolth and Ghaunadaur.

The Ilythiiri, who were still refining their worship of the Dark Seldarine, used to portray their gods as spider deities, and high priests were killed by the offended gods for promoting this kind of iconography. Vhaeraun, for example, was depicted as a Masked Spider.

The Crown Wars destroyed most elven realms, including Ilythiir. By the end of this era, Vhaeraun and Lolth were enemies.

Vhaeraun and Eilistraee joined Lolth in forming the new drow pantheon. Other deities joined them later.

Age of Humanity

At some point, some centuries before the third century DR, Zandilar, a deity worshiped by the elves in the Yuirwood at that time, tried to seduce Vhaeraun. The background for this seduction attempt was that Lolth's followers had attacked the elves in the Yuirwood. The elves there trouble repelling any invaders, and thus Zandilar made habitual use of her seductiveness to get information and allies or to sway would be invaders away. Her target for seduction at that time was Vhaeraun. She tried to seduce the Masked Lord for information and/or assistance, but he imprisoned her instead, with the goal of stealing her power. Bast managed to create the opening for Zandilar to flee, and Zandilar let her saviour take the remnants of her power, so that Bast could protect the elves in her place. Vhaeraun's son Selvetarm was born just before the process of this merging, and he rejected his father out of personal uncertainty.

War of the Spider Queen

Silence of Lolth

In the Year of Wild Magic, 1372 DR, the goddess Lolth went into a state of hibernation, a period called the Silence of Lolth, with Selvetarm protecting her, as part of a plan to increase her power and separate her divine realm, the Demonweb Pits, from the Abyss. Vhaeraun gained influence through unfurling his plans during this opportunity. His followers took over power by both legal and violent means, and Vhaeraun himself gained power from being sought out as an alternative patron, for example, by draegloths.

In that same year, the drow of Menzoberranzan, through Triel Baenre, sent a group of powerful adventurers, led by Quenthel Baenre, to discover the cause of Lolth's silence (or, as was then suspected, disfavour). During Uktar, Quenthel's company finally managed to gain the collaboration of a cleric of Vhaeraun, Tzirik Jaelre, who could lead them to the Demonweb Pits with the help of his god. However, they were betrayed by their Vhaeraunite guide, who summoned the Masked Lord as part of a plan to attack the defenceless Lolth. After Vhaeraun grievously wounded her, Selvetarm appeared to battle Vhaeraun, but both fell off the web and plummeted into the darkness below. This battle caused significant damage to the fabric of the multiverse. Among other things, it caused a part of the Nine Hells to seep into Toril. Tzirik tried to create another gate but, luckily for Lolth, failed because Pharaun Mizzrym managed to cast a sending spell across the planes—something that didn't always work—and managed to order Jeggred Baenre to kill the Vhaeraunite priest.

Another attempt at Lolth's life was made through a bargain Vhaeraun made with the yugoloth Inthracis. He couldn't act personally because of Lolth's ban against divine creatures entering her realm. The bargain consisted of the yugoloth and his army killing the potential candidates for the position of Lolth's Chosen, the vital component for her successful rebirth. In exchange, Vhaeraun was to assassinate Inthracis' superior, Kexxon, the Oinoloth, thus enabling the yugoloth's promotion, as payment on confirmation of success. The attempt, however, failed.

After the Silence

After the Silence of Lolth, Eilistraee and Lolth started a divine game of sava over the destiny of the drow, Vhaeraun meddled with this game, though without wagering his life and those of his followers. Nevertheless, he and his followers did plot another attempt against Lolth's life to end her reign. The idea was to open a gate between Ellaniath, Vhaeraun’s realm, and Eilistraee's portion of Arvandor, using elven high magic, so that the god could pass through and assassinate his sister. Then, the surface drow would be united under a single banner, increasing the number of Vhaeraun's followers and giving him the necessary power boost to kill his mother.

However, such magic was very taxing and would have required the sacrifice of the souls of the casters. Because of this, the followers of the Masked Lord started to kill various priestesses of Eilistraee and collect their souls in their masks, using a spell called soultheft, to use the souls as a fuel for the ritual.

On Nightal 20 of the Year of Risen Elfkin, 1375 DR, Vhaeraun managed to enter his sister Eilistraee's realm and attempted to assassinate her. The plan failed because of the machinations of Lolth, as conducted by Halisstra Melarn. She captured Malvag, the organizer of the undertaking and led Cavatina Xarann to him so he'd be killed and the soul in the mask freed by her. Halisstra then raised Malvag, so he could continue his undertaking. The church of Eilistraee had a program to revive every dead priestess because they were otherwise too small in number. Thus, the priestess whose soul was captured was revived; she conveyed her information, and The Dark Maiden was warned by Qilue Veladorn. With the warning, his secure success chance as an assassin was forfeit, and he lost the fight. No mortal actually witnessed the battle that ensued, so what happened remains largely unknown. However, Eilistraee emerged from the battle alive, suggesting that Vhaeraun had failed and perished at the hand of his sister. Eilistraee was changed after the event; she now held both her brother's and her own portfolios, and gained the title of "Masked Lady".

The influence that Vhaeraun's portfolios had on Eilistraee manifested through outward changes, like her starting to wear clothes that hid her features, but also through a change in morale in her church. Her Chosen began spreading lies for propaganda's sake; engaging in bribery or ordering assassinations to ensure the silence of those who knew the truth became acceptable to her. Eilistraee didn't have control over Vhaeraun's followers, and didn't seem to be fully capable of using his powers. To begin with, Vhaeraun's petitioners were capable of rejecting her. His former clerics, even those who had actively worked against Eilistraee, were still able to receive spells, though not their strongest ones. She also seemed unable to detect the betrayal of former clerics of Vhaeraun, whom she accepted as hers, when they joined forces with Ghaunadaur's to bring the doom of the Promenade of the Dark Maiden.

Some of Vhaeraun's followers joined Eilistraee; others refused to have anything to do with Eilistraee and joined gods like Shar; still others stayed with their old faith and/or never became aware that their god died, later forming the Skulkers of Vhaeraun.

Post-Spellplague

Vhaeraun's death was a huge setback for the church, but it didn't kill his faith completely. Some drow who didn't believe his demise still worshiped him, and their prayers were actually answered. In fact, during that time, his followers (including lay worshipers) gained some divine abilities, (like that of producing poison, of disguising their appearance, or of small range teleportation,) which allowed them to complete dangerous tasks to further their cause and safely escape afterwards. They were called Skulkers of Vhaeraun and mostly consisted of disgruntled drow males but also included a few females. Speculations were that the entity answering their prayers could be identified as the remnants of Vhaeraun himself or possibly another god masquerading as the Masked Lord. Some believed that the fervour and faith of the followers were the source of their new powers.

The Second Sundering

Vhaeraun managed to return to life and made the drow Phalar his Chosen at some point before 1486 DR. Vhaeraun made his return known to his followers, who then spread the information. His church fully recovered as one when the Second Sundering was over. Lolth gave him a divine realm in the Demonweb Pits. Furthermore, praying to Vhaeraun in order to improve one's lot in life became an acceptable practice in main stream Lolthite drow society. Something that was formerly a clear violation of the Way of Lolth.

Vhaeraun and Eilistraee were separate entities again, both holding their portfolios and titles of old, as well as their enmity.

The wizard Mordenkainen claimed that, after the Second Sundering, Vhaeraun had dramatically steered away from his previous stance of rebellion against Lolth's system, and instead assumed a position of subservience to the Spider Queen, even coming to embody the ideal of drow male according to the Lolthite matriarchy: "swift, silent, obedient". According to Mordenkainen, Vhaeraun's faith even became tolerable in Lolth-controlled cities.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Vhaeraun was the son of Corellon Larethian and Lolth, the elder twin brother of Eilistraee. He was the father of Selvetarm. He opposed and was opposed by all of his family members.

Seldarine

The relationship between him and the Seldarine, of which he was formerly a part, were poor; in fact all members of the Seldarine considered him their enemy.

Corellon Larethian

After his son Vhaeraun's betrayal during the War of the Seldarine, Corellon practically cut his son off and exiled him.

Corellon gave up on the idea of trying to turn his son Vhaeraun to abandon his ways. He vowed to kill Vhaeraun if he ever tried to hurt his sister. Nevertheless, the Masked Lord did threaten the Dark Maiden's life, without known action against him on Corellon's part.

Interestingly, the one type of magic that the Protector considered too corrupt for elves and thus suitable for drow, the usage of the Shadow Weave, was the niche Vhaeraun filled in his role as the patron of shadow magic.

Sehanine Moonbow

Vhaeraun hated Sehanine Moonbow for escaping his prison during the War of the Seldarine.

Shevarash

Shevarash dedicated his life to killing drow. Vhaeraun was his primary target, alongside Lolth. It was unclear why the Black Archer viewed the Masked Lord as a primary enemy, since Vhaeraun also wanted to get rid of the Spider Queen.

Dark Seldarine

The relationship between him and the rest of the Dark Seldarine was not good; his relationship with Lolth was completely hostile. One of Vhaeraun's goals was it to unite the rest of the drow powers against the Spider Queen. Such cooperation was difficult, because of the vastly different views each deity shared, though he did succeed at forming an alliance with Kiaransalee with cooperation with both Ghaunadaur and Selvetarm to a lesser extent.

Lolth

Vhaeraun and Lolth's relationship started as mother and son. Vhaeraun shared her trait of ambition and became her confidant in her betrayal against her husband. At latest after the Descent, the two were complete enemies, Vhaeraun calling for the destruction of the society for which she stood.

Vhaeraun was Lolth's favourite child and she encouraged her son's rivalry with her, for it appealed to her love of chaos. On the other hand, her son having actual success at swaying the drow to his cause of destroying her, her supporters and beneficiaries, and her version of society was a real source of fear for her. Lolth viewed him as her true rival and enemy, leading to her incorporating specific tenets against her son's followers.

Mother and son had little to no common ground. Lolth promoted favouritism towards females; Vhaeraun promoted gender equality. The Spider Queen demanded surface elves as sacrifices from her worshipers; the Masked Lord urged his followers to cooperate with surface elves. Lolth tried to keep drow society stagnant in every regard; Vhaeraun attracted those who wanted change in societal progress, economic growth, territorial expansion, etc. Lolth wanted to extinguish the drow race's desire to return to the surface; Vhaeraun called for settling the surface. These differences made the idea of Lolth's forces and those from the surface working together against Vhaeraun's into something not completely impossible.

According to the wizard Mordenkainen, this changed after the Second Sundering. He claimed that Vhaeraun had assumed a position of subservience to the Spider Queen.

Eilistraee

Vhaeraun hated his sister Eilistraee, and the two were on hostile terms. Vhaeraun's hatred against Eilistraee originated both from his sister having been the favoured child of Corellon Larethian and from her hindering his efforts to bring the Ilythiiri under him, (as that conflict opened the way for Lolth and Ghaunadaur to rise to prominence.) Nonetheless, he tried to bring her alongside the other drow gods on his side against Lolth. Eilistraee, on the other hand, mourned her brother's selfishness and cruelty. The Dark Maiden opposed her brother's ruthless ways, and she wished to lead the drow along the path of light. Her divine champions generally chose the evil deities of the Dark Seldarine as enemies to oppose, and that led some of them to focus their efforts against the followers of Vhaeraun. Their enmity continued after the Second Sundering.

They shared a few characteristics. Both wanted their people on the surface—Eilistraee, in harmony with others, Vhaeraun, by building power structures that allowed his followers to rule over others.

A slur to describe him among the followers of Eilistraee was the Sly Savage.

Ghaunadaur

He was opposed to Ghaunadaur. The two gods used to guide the elves of Ilythiir together, during their time there, though it was not clear whether they were on amicable terms. If Ka'Narlist was taken as a measure, followers of Ghaunadaur considered Vhaeraun an upstart who was not attractive to those who were looking for life force as a power source. There was also an overlap in their follower base. A meaningful part of Ghaunadaur's followers were philosophically closer to Vhaeraun than Ghaunadaur and followed the latter only because they didn't know about the god of thievery or his agenda. Followers of Ghaunadaur and Vhaeraun seemed to work together based on individual projects. As examples, followers of the two worked together to destroy the Lolth-worshipers in Eryndlyn. The Ghaunadan fey'ri House Dlardrageth and the Vhaeraunite drow House Jaelre worked together to protect themselves from the Army of Myth Drannor, and even after Vhaeraun's death, a faction of Vhaeraunites and Ghaunadans successfully worked together to destroy the Promenade of the Dark Maiden. They were even capable of living side by side, like in Holldaybim.

Kiaransalee

Vhaeraun was allied with Kiaransalee, though she was also allied with Lolth. The difference between these two relationships was that the former was a willing alliance to get rid of Lolth's dominance, while the latter took the form of forced subservience to the Spider Queen and included an enmity.

Selvetarm

Vhaeraun was opposed by his son Selvetarm. For example, when the draegloths started to convert to Vhaeraun during the Silence of Lolth, Selvetarm took some in with the intention of handing them over to his grandmother when she awoke again. Even though Selvetarm hated his grandmother, to whom he was practically enslaved, he still fought against his father during the Silence of Lolth, as Vhaeraun sought to destroy Lolth in her weakened state, thus botching his chance for freedom. Vhaeraun had a very low opinion about Selvetarm's intelligence, but the submissive trait of his son was what angered him most. It seemed that his position as patron of male drow was contended by the more conformist Selvetarm after the Second Sundering. At some point in time, though, the two managed to set aside their differences enough for radical Selvetargtlin and Vhaeraunites to cooperate, such that being raised by Selvetargtlin was not something to bat an eye at.

It was heavily suspected that the reason why the attack on the Promenade of the Dark Maiden and Vhaeraun's assassination attempt on the Dark Maiden were on the same day was because the two gods were in league with each other.

Family Ties

Relationships

Vhaeraun

spouse

Towards Zandilar

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Zandilar

spouse

Towards Vhaeraun

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Divine Classification

Lesser deity

Religions

• Dark Seldarine

Alignment

Chaotic Evil

Honorary & Occupational Titles

The Masked Lord
The Masked God of Night
The Shadow
The Masked Mage
The Lord of Shadow
Shadow Lord

Parents

Lolth

Corellon Larethian

Spouses

Zandilar (spouse)

Siblings

Children

• Selvetarm

Died
Nightal 20, 1375 DR
Returned to life at some point before 1486 DR