The Lady Penitent

The Lady Penitent trilogy is a Forgotten Realms series by Lisa Smedman, That takes place after the events of War of the Spider Queen. Several fairly large realm-changing events take place during this series, ranging from the use of Elven High Magic on the drow race to the death of several deities. It ranges from the year 1372 DR to 1379 DR.

Summary
The Lady Penitent trilogy is largely based around Halisstra Melarn, one of the main characters from the War of the Spider Queen series. It also introduces several other sideline characters into the foreground that were mentioned or featured in the War of the Spider Queen series into the mainstream, such as Halisstra's younger brother Q'arlynd Melarn, the goddess Eilistraee and a few others.

The prologue and epilogue of each of the books in the series are used to portray the body of each of the books as a Sava game mainly between the two goddesses Eilistraee and Lolth for control of the drow race, with interference from other gods of the drow pantheon from beginning to end. From Sacrifice of the Widow up until Ascendancy of the Last three major deaths take place in the drow pantheon. It begins with Eilistraee killing Vhaeraun and absorbing his portfolio and ends with the goddess being decapitated by Halisstra Melarn, servant of Lolth.

Throughout the series, drow casters began to lose the ability to cast divinations, teleport and use other abilities within these two schools of magic. Upon learning that this condition is tied to the Faerzress, wizards from the city of Sshamath, led by Q’arlynd Melarn, combine forces with clerics of Eilistraee from The Promenade to discover the source of the disturbances. Through use of a Selu'Kiira that holds the combined knowledge of the ancestors of his house, Q'arlynd discovers that when the Elves of Ilythiir (dark elves) were cast down from the surface and turned into Dhaerow (drow), a ritual of Elven High Magic was performed to bind their souls with faerzress. This process not only made the faerzress an innate part of the race but also stripped from them their desire to be removed from the Underdark.

The Lady Penitent

 * 1) Sacrifice of the Widow (February 2007)
 * 2) Storm of the Dead (August 2007)
 * 3) Ascendancy of the Last (June 2008)