Test of Lolth

The Test of Lolth was a rite of passage to which drow who reached a sufficient degree of power and were followers of Lolth were subjected to.

Society
Lolth urged her drow to work and fight against each other and she wanted to determine whether her followers were worthy&mdash;in this case, loyal and strong&mdash;enough to be supported by her. These two aspects were examined together in the Test of Lolth. Drow who grew to an exceptional degree of power were subjected to it.

Procedure
As mentioned above, the Test of Lolth existed to determine the loyalty and strength of a given drow. The strength part was fulfilled by the test being essentially a battle to the death between the test subject and another, slightly stronger person. The loyalty part was fulfilled by Lolth relaying a false message to the other combatant&mdash;someone close to the test subject such as a friend, family member, or ally&mdash;claiming that they would be chosen for the Spider Queen's favor if she or he would kill the test subject. If no suitable person existed, then a cleric of Lolth who was not particularly devout was chosen.

Result
There were several possible outcomes for this test and each had a different effect.
 * The subject won and killed the enemy
 * In this scenario, the test subject could take anything from the defeated foe's corpse and was empowered for a month.


 * The subject died
 * In this scenario, the test subject's soul was drained by Lolth.


 * Any other scenario
 * In any scenario where the subject did not win and/or kill the enemy, the test subject was turned into a drider.

The enemy could be rewarded with a similar power boost if she or he won, but it could also happen that the enemy suffered a loss of memory regarding the entire event, or Lolth might expose her or him for the murder, which usually resulted in their execution for open murder, or to be more precise being discovered for murder, which was a crime in drow society.