Dark Seldarine

The Dark Seldarine was the drow pantheon of gods.

Members
The pantheon consisted of:
 * Eilistraee : Goddess of beauty, dance, hunting, moonlight, song and swordwork. After being supposedly killed by the Lady Penitent (Halisstra Melarn) in 1379 DR, Eilistraee managed to return to life during the event known as the Second Sundering  in Flamerule 1489 DR.   The Dark Maiden was one of the deities with whom the returned Mystra was sharing the Weave after the Second Sundering.


 * Ghaunadaur :God of oozes, all things subterranean, jellies, oozes, outcasts, rebels, ropers and slimes. Left the Demonweb Pits (and presumably the drow pantheon itself) in 1379 DR.


 * Kiaransalee : Goddess of undead and vengeance. Faded from existence when her name was deleted from the minds of all Torilians in 1377 DR, by a High Magic spell cast by Q'arlynd Melarn. Her name came back to her followers' memory during the Second Sundering, and she was thus restored to life.


 * Lolth (formerly Araushnee) : Goddess of assassins, chaos, darkness, drow, evil and spiders.


 * Selvetarm : God of drow warriors. Killed by a follower of Eilistraee in 1375 DR, but restored to life during the Second Sundering.


 * Vhaeraun : God of drow males, evil activity on the surface, territory and thievery. Supposedly killed by Eilistraee in 1375 DR. He too, like his sister, managed to return to life during the Second Sundering, and was fully restored in Flamerule 1489 DR.


 * Zinzerena : The original goddess of assassins and chaos. Her position was absorbed by Lolth during the Time of Troubles.

History
The Dark Seldarine was rather young as a pantheon, and it came into being only after Corellon's Descent, when the dark elves were cursed and turned into drow in -10,000 DR.

The Dawn Age
Originally, Lolth (at the time known as Araushnee) and the twin deities born from her and Corellon Larethian--Eilistraee and Vhaeraun--were dark elven gods and part of the Seldarine, residing in Arvandor.

Ghaunadaur was a very ancient deity, according to Lolth far older than Ao, 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 consort, the king of Threnody, for her experiment on undeath, she fled with a group of loyal followers to continue with her research elsewhere. Eventually, Kiaransalee managed to raise an army of undead and exact revenge upon the inhabitants of her former world, rendering it lifeless, and to find home in the Abyss, where she ascended to divinity as a demipower.

War of the Seldarine
In -30,000 DR, Araushnee, with the help of her son Vhaeraun, gathered a host of evil deities opposed to the Seldarine (including Ghaunadaur), and convinced them to attack Arvandor, in an attempt to overthrow Corellon. She had planned for the assult to ultimately fail, as her actual goal was for his consort to be killed during the battle and to replace him as Coronal of Arvandor. She was almost successful in tricking Eilistraee into slaying her own father with a stray arrow, 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.

Aftermath
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 of 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 destroy Lolth drove him to steal the intelligence from all the oozes that worshiped him in a fit of rage, leading to a great loss of followers, and therefore of power.

Meanwhile, Eilistraee and Vhaeraun chose to wander on Toril, home of the dark elves (and of many other elven people, later). With time, Vhaeraun gained a strong influence in the southern Faerun, becoming the main patron of the drow of Ilythiir, challenged only by Ghaunadaur. Eilistraee strove against his and Elder Eye's corruption of the Ilythiiri, but in the end it was to no avail, and she only gained small groups of dark elven followers in the region.

After her banishment, Lolth's attention started to turn towards Toril only when the moon elf archmage Kethryllia Amarillis (founder of the house that brought her name) intruded into the Demonweb, reminding the Spider Queen of a way to regain more of her divinity and exact vengeance on Corellon by corrupting his children. In fact, during a battle in defense of her city--Sharlarion--Kethryllia and her lover catched the Spider Queen's attention as they chased a demon through a portal to the Abyss. Lolth didn't interfere with the couple: instead, she used scrying magic on them to find out which world they came from, therefore learning about the Tel'Quessir of Toril. Her interest was immediately captured by the presence of dark elves followers of Vhaeraun, and she was delighted by the ambition and ruthlessness in the hearts of the Ilythiiri, deciding to spread her taint among them and to use them as the instruments of her vengeance.

The First Flowering
During this age the green and dark elven kingodm of Miyeritar was founded by political refugees from Aryvandaar, Eilistraee become a major patroness of the people of this nation, which would later grow into one of the greatest centers of magic and art of Faerun.

Lolth kept working to spread her influence among the dark elves of Ilythiir, competing with Vhaeraun and Ghaunadaur. However, in -17,600 DR the First Sundering caused the destruction of great part of Ilythiir (including its capitol, Atorrnash), and the death of many followers of Vhaeraun with it. The Masked Lord's influence ebbed with the loss of his worshipers, and this--in addition to the conflict between him and Eilistraee--granted Lolth and Ghaunadaur the opportunity to fill the void.

The Ilythiiri, who were still refining their worship of the Dark Seldarine, used to portray their gods as spider deities. Vhaeraun, for example, was depicted as a Masked Spider, while other deities were even portrayed in poses that could lead to think to subservience (like it happened for Eilistraee, who was sometimes depicted as singing praises to Lolth ),or confused with each other (like Eilistraee and Kiaransalee on occasion as an undead spider with a sword). However, all those were only the results of how some Ilythiiri interpreted the relationships among their deities, and the main gods worshiped in Ilythiir (Vhaeraun, Lolth, Ghaunadaur and Kiaransalee) personally killed their followers for such depictions.

The Crown Wars
The Crown Wars had deep consequences on the deities that would later form the Dark Seldarine. The series of conflict started as an Aryvandaari military campaign to conquer Miyeritar, which was quickly occupied by the invaders, even tho its people continued resisting.

Shortly after the invasion of Miyearitar, the dark elves of Ilythiir decided to move war against Aryvandaar's allies, and it was during this time that Lolth's grip on the Ilythiiri tightened. Geirildin Sethomiir (llythiir’s coronal), asking for power to defeat his enemies, summoned and made pacts with Wendonai, a balor in Lolth's service, who would become her tool to corrupt the Ilythiiri. The nation’s aristocracy followed their royalty’s example and bought power from other fiendish patrons sent to them by Lolth, Ghaunadaur, Kiaransalee and Vhaeraun. The demonic counselors soon changed the nature of the war: the Ilythiiri nobles and warriors started to enjoy slaugther and violence, and their former purpose of avenging Miyearitar began to look less and less believable after centuries of massacres.

In −10,500 DR, the Aryvandaari campaign in Miyearitar culminated with the Dark Disaster—a magical cataclysm unleashed by the invading elves that killed the majority of the Miyeritari green and dark elves. Eilistraee lost most of her people during this tragedy, which severely weakened the goddess' power.

The Ilythiiri retaliated wildly, laying waste on the Shantel Othreier with savage violence, an act that united all the remaining elven realms against them. In -10,000 DR the elven High Mages that gathered at the Elven Court cursed all dark elves (including Eilistraee's followers, although that was supposedly a collateral effect) by channeling the power of the Seldarine. The dark elves were turned into drow and violently exiled in the Underdark by the combined might of the elven forces--an event known as "Descent". . After the Descent, Eilistraee, Vhaeraun, Kiaransalee and Ghaunandaur could not rival Lolth's power, and the Spider Queen became the major deity of the dark elves. Following this event, Lolth and Ghaunadaur started to persecute worshipers of rival deities, something that particularly impacted the Dark Maiden (whose people had already been decimated), further marginalizing her influence for millennia.

Post Crown Wars (-9000 DR to 1372 DR)
After the descent of the drow, Lolth began to turn the drow into the instruments of her vengeance against Corellon, leading them to the Underdark, turning them against each other in endless infighting, and demanding utter submission. Under her tyranny, they were forced to live in an oppressive theocratic and matriarchal society, where males were less than second class citizens.

Vhaeraun strove to contrast her mother's influence and tyranny over the drow. He worked to shatter the order that she was trying to impose on them, and to make his people united again and bring gender equality back to the drow, so that they could take back all that they had lost after the Crown Wars and reclaim their rightful place in the Night Above. He couldn't challenge his mother directly, so he acted in the shadows, uniting dissatisfied and disenfranchised drow from any social layer under his banner (but especially males, due to the discrimination that they suffered), to disrupt the status quo. This gained him the second largest followers base among the drow gods, and presence in many important drow settlements (like Eryndlyn, Maerimydra , Menzoberranzan or Sshamath ), as well as the largest drow presence on the surface (mainly in the Forest of Mir and in Cormanthor ).

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 near collapse of her church, it was only in the centuries after Dalereckoning that her faith regained a degree of prominence in Faerûn.

Ghaunadaur's worship ebbed too until the Age of Humanity, when more drow started to grew tired of Lolth's tyranny, and sought other deities, Ghaunadaur among them. He managed to prosper in cities torn by strife, or where the presence of the other drow gods was weak (like Eryndlyn, due to the conflict between the churches of Lolth and Vhaeraun, or in Llurth Dreir).

During this period Kiaransalee managed to acquire some freedom from Lolth, by killing 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) in order to save both herself and her son. Selvetarm walked alone for centuries, after having spurned both his parents, until he was found and befriended by his aunt Eilistraee, to whom her 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 in the late 3rd century after Dalereckoning, 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.

Time of Troubles
During the Time of Troubles, Lolth appeared in Menzoberranzan for a short time. Some actions during her time on Toril involved spreading rumors about the existence of a goddess from another world called Zinzerena. Lolth also took the aspect of Moander, the dead god of corruption and decay in the attempt to gain further followers on the surface.

Selvetarm appeared in Eryndlyn during the Time of Troubles. He wreaked havoc there, but was driven away by the combined efforts of the followers of Ghaunadaur and Vhaeraun there. It got him his major, albeit small, follower base on Toril.

After the Time of Troubles
Zinzerena, the Hunted, whose rumor of existence was spread by Lolth, actually appeared on Toril. She was killed by Lolth as part of an experiment to understand how the distribution and absorption of divine power worked. Lolth gaibed Zinzerena's portfolios in the process.

Another entry into the options for worship among drow was Malyk. He was a drow lich who rose to godhood as the patron of wild magic after the Time of Troubles, at least in the imagination of his drow worshippers. In truth, Malyk was an aspect of Talos. He was quite popular among the arcane spellcasters of the drow, so much that Lolth thought it necessary to provide these spellcasters spells to keep herself attractive to them in the face of Malyk. This ceased when the new Mystra (Midnight), after the Time of Troubles, stopped Talos from infringing her monopoly over magic.

The 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. For about one year, she stopped granting spells to her followers and became effectively inactive, causing great upeheaval among the drow (see also here)      and leading a considerable amount of her followers to seek alternatives in the other deities of the Dark Seldarine. Eilistraee, Vhaeraun, Ghaunadaur and Kiaransalee gained followers and influence, even to the point of gaining prominence and/or nearly destroying the Lolthite presence in some settlements--for example, like the Churches of Vhaeraun and of Ghaunadaur did in Eryndlyn , or like the Church of Kiaransalee did in Maerimydra ).

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, disfavor). . After being unsuccessful at finding answers in Ched Nasad and witnessing the city's fall at the hands of the Jaezred Chaulssin, hoping that another deity could directly see what had happened to the Spider Queen, the group of drow (which by the time included the refugee Halisstra Melarn and her servant Danifae Yauntyrr) began searching for priests of Vhaeraun.

In Uktar 1372 DR Quenthel's company finally managed to gain the collaboration of a cleric of the Masked Lord who could lead them to the Demonweb Pits with the help of his god. However, they were betrayed by their Vhaeraunite guide, who summoned his deity as part of a plan to attack the defenseless Lolth. Selvetarm appeared to battle Vhaeraun but both fell off the web and plummeted into the darkness below.

The Masked Lord would attempt at her mother's life again later. Banned from entering her realm, he offered to assassinate the yugoloth Inthracis's superior (which would have led to his promotion), while in exchange the fiend would have killed Lolth's Chosen, Danifae Yauntyrr, whom she needed for her rebirth. Meanwhile, the Dark Maiden chose a recently converted Halisstra to wield the artifact known as the Crescent Blade, which could be used to kill Lolth before her awakening.

Halisstra went on a mission to the Demonweb Pits for that purpose, leading two fellow priestesses of the Dark Maiden. There she was however met and defeated by Quenthel Baenre and her group (who had found a way into the Demonweb pits too), an event that led Halisstra to betray Eilistraee and convert back to Lolth. Inthracis wasn't successful either, and in 1373 DR the Spider Queen finally awakened as a greater deity by absorbing Danifae. The goddess proceeded to punish Halisstra's former heresy by turning her into the Lady Penitent, whose duty was to hunt those drow who tried to turn to other faiths. The Crescent Blade was left broken, lying in the Demonweb Pits.

After the Silence
Even after Lolth emerged from her Silence, the deities of the Dark Seldarine continued battling for supremacy over the drow or, in Eilistraee's and Vhaeraun's case, to free them from Lolth's renewed grasp. Eilistraee and Lolth finally elected to play a divine game of sava in 1375 DR, with the future of the drow being at stake. At the same time Vhaeraun plotted against his sister, working to devise a method to slay her and take her portfolio to unify his and her followers against Lolth. As a result, his worshipers planned to cast a High Magic spell to allow Vhaeraun to enter his sister's realm and assassinate her. However, that kind of magic was very taxing, and would have required the sacrifice of the souls of the casters. Because of that, the followers of the Masked Lord started to kill various priestesses of Eilistraee and collect their souls in their masks (a technique which they called "soultheft"), in order to use them as a fuel for the ritual.

Meanwhile, working on the Spider Queen's side, Selvetarm ordered his Judicators to initiate a series of attacks against the shrines and temples of Eilistraee. Selvetarm also tried to strike at the heart of his aunt's forces, as his followers attacked the Promenade of the Dark Maiden. However, his attempts ultimately failed: on Nightal 20 of the Year of Risen Elfkin, 1375 DR, the defenders of the Promenade (led by Qilué Veladorn, leader of the Church of Eilistraee) bested the assailants, while Cavatina Xarann, a Darksong Knight who had been sent on a mission in the Demonweb Pits to retrieve the Crescent Blade, killed the demigod himself (with the help of the Lady Penitent) using the above-mentioned sword, which she had recovered almost intact.

On the same date, Vhaeraun managed to enter his sister Eilistraee's realm to attempt to assassinate her. No mortal actually witnessed the battle that ensued, so what happened remained largely unknown. However, Eilistraee emerged from the battle alive, suggesting that Vhaeraun had failed and perished at the hand of his sister. After the event, Eilistraee was changed: she became a deity known as "the Masked Lady", holding both the Dark Maiden's and the Masked Lord's portfolios, and causing both their followers to cooperate, albeit uneasily.

In 1377 DR Kiaransalee joined the game of sava, and her followers tried and alter the Underdark's natural faerzress magic to affect the ability for Drow to use teleportation or divination magic. After being assaulted by the forces of Kiaransalee, the followers of the Masked Lady retaliated by sieging the Acropolis of Thanatos and killing Kiaransalee's high priestesses. At the same time, Q'arlynd Melarn (Halisstra's brother, who had turned to the faith of Eilistraee) directed an Elven High Magic ritual (that he could perform because of a Kiira which he had found in the ruins of Miyeritar) to remove Kiaransalee's name from the memory of all Torilians, leading to the death of the goddess.

Between 1377 DR and 1379 DR, Ghaunadaur joined the conflict between Lolth and Eilistraee, focusing his attention on the latter (who, through her chosen, had previously banished The Elder Eye's avatar from Toril ). As a result, his cultists attacked the Promenade in an attempt to destroy the prison—guarded by the followers of Eilistraee—that prevented their god from creeping into Toril. The attempt failed, but the inhabitants of the temple suffered heavy losses.

Lolth also attempted to destroy Ghaunadaur, but he proved to be much more powerful than she had thought. However, Ghaunadaur ultimately chose to leave the Demonweb, and created his new divine realm in the Deep Caverns.

Later, in Flamerule 1379 DR, Halisstra Melarn killed Qilué Veladorn, whose body was being inhabited by the Masked Lady (supposedly killing the goddess as well), while under the influence of Lolth's champion Wendonai.

Meanwhile, another High Magic ritual performed by Q'arlynd Melarn transformed those drow not tainted by Wendonai's blood and hundreds among the followers of Eilistraee (who had taken great losses) back into their original dark elven form, and Corellon Larethian permitted the souls of Eilistraee's faithful and the newly transformed dark elves to enter Arvandor.

The Second Sundering
During the 1480s DR, the Overgod Ao separated the twin worlds Abeir and Toril once again and rewrote the Tablets of Fate (an artifact which contained the name of every deity of the pantheon and their portfolio), in an event known as the Second Sundering. Because of that, many deities of Toril who were considered dead or lost managed to return to life, and after about a century of total supremacy, Lolth was forced to assist to the renewal of the Dark Seldarine:


 * Eilistraee and Vhaeraun managed to return to life in Flamerule 1489 DR, as separate entities, with the same power and portfolio that they had before 1375 DR (see note 3; after her return, despite Q'arlynd's ritual, the Dark Dancer was still a drow goddess and most of her followers drow) After the time spent as the Masked Lady, they reached a reciprocal understanding, respect and even friendship: despite having very different ideals and modus operandi, all conflicts between the two siblings were no more (although their followers still skirmished often). Both deities personally let their return be known, manifesting through their avatars to their followers, who enthusiastically spread the word. Eilistraee, in particular, was seen dancing and speaking to mortals in many places, especially along the Sword Coast. Waterdeep was one of the spots where the Dark Dancer was witnessed, as she danced in the moonlight, near the walls of the city, up the road to Amphail.


 * Kiaransalee and Selvetarm were also restored to life during the Second Sundering. Kiaransalee's return was possible as her name hadn't been fully erased by Q'arlynd's ritual: it was still remembered and invoked in necromantic rituals as of the 1480s DR.