Zinzerena

Zinzerena was the drow goddess of chaos and assassins. She lost her portfolio to Lolth after being killed during the Time of Troubles, but managed to return as the drow goddess of lies, assassins, and illusion after the Second Sundering.

Description
Zinzerena appeared as a cloaked and masked drow rogue in height.

Personality
Reports of Zinzerena's character varied over time between true malevolence, mere amorality, or some combination of the two. While she did teach her followers the value of being cruel, she was an advocate of survival by any means necessary.

Powers
As a mortal, Zinzerena was said to be an illusionist and assassin of unmatched skill, and as a deity was still adept in the arts of illusion and roguery, moving with astounding agility.

Possessions
Zinzerena possessed an enchanted shortsword magically imbued with a paralyzing venom, the level of enchantment, strength of the poison, and its duration (between 5-25 minutes) randomly fluctuating every minute. She also owned a cloak with powers of protection and displacement, which similarly varied in potency. Her black-handled crop, which she used to stun her victims, was a potent artifact with the powers of a wand of wonder.

Relationships
Zinzerena was a master deceiver in the mythology in the drow, with no member of the pantheon totally immune to her duplicity. Even Lolth, despite being otherwise impervious to her manipulation, was sometimes tricked when she shifted the blame for her deeds onto others.

Zinzerena's sponsor to divinity was Lolth's consort Keptolo, who Zinzerena deceived and used as a tool in many stories regarding the Dark Seldarine. The Eager Consort hated Zinzerena for stealing a fraction of his power in a ruse and remained her bitter enemy, with her being the only drow deity he openly despised.

Worshipers
Zinzerena was completely adored by drow who sought to throw off the oppression of the matron mothers. Those who revered or simply respected her were almost always of modest or lower social status, her clerics and adherents ranging in profession from common rogues, laborers, guides, physicians, poets, courtesans, to almost any other occupation. Though much more common in decadent drow cities, they could be found almost anywhere, even in the most prestigious noble estates where high priestesses ruled, since even they drew their servants and staff from the commoner population.

Even the nobility of drow society could sometimes be found in the priesthood of Zinzerena, though only the most bohemian or fickle of nobles would dare to enter. Inevitably, when they were discovered, they would be cast out of their houses as class traitors, but ironically this could further empower Zinzerena's clergy. Such maverick nobles often became the greatest leaders of her cult, for they were the most well-educated and politically experienced of her followers. Regardless of their position, there was something that all Zinzerena's followers had in common — a rebellious spirit and a desire for change.

Most clerics of Zinzerena were also trained as fighters or rogues, but Zinzerena also condoned the study of arcane magic. Not many female drow dedicated themselves to such a practice despite the undeniable boon it could provide for the ambitious, for in their society it was seen as a low-class vocation for males. Even rumors that a matron was practicing arcane magic could sabotage their societal standing if left unchallenged, so most females who pursued the path did so in secret. Zinzerena's followers encouraged the pursuit, offering tutelage and implements in exchange for a candidate cooperation with the cult.

Dogma
According to the teachings of Zinzerena, one was to raise themselves up by bringing others down. As patron of assassins and chaos, she taught the importance of stealth and misdirection, as well as doing whatever it took to get by. Her followers were not to reveal true feelings, nor their strength, until the one they planned to use them on was helpless, only striking when they had the advantage. Humiliation was also in her portfolio and cruelty was part of her creed, with her adherents encouraged to make time to gloat before the kill as "the legs of the spider are made to be broken".

History
Zinzerena was born on a world other than Toril, and had a known presence in the Underdark of Oerth (but not the surface) for a time. Stories told of her mortal exploits saw many drow view her as a hero to the point that some revered her as a goddess in her own right, their belief eventually allowing her to asecnd to godhood. The Oerthan deity Keptolo helped sponsor her apotheosis, after which she stole a fraction of her benefactor's power, earning his enmity. Before she could properly establish a worshiper base, a divine realm on the planes, and otherwise fully transcend her mortality however, Zinzerena found herself pursued by several members of the drow pantheon for her refusal to play by the rules.

Trapped on the Material Plane, Zinzerena eventually she came to the city of Menzoberranzan on Toril where, in the wake of the Time of Troubles of 1358 DR, Lolth found and slew her (or at least banished her influence from the Realms), subsuming the Princess of the Outcasts as one of her aspects in order to attract the worship of drow who would otherwise rebel against her. This was partially as a test to see if multiple aspects would increase or decrease her own divine power, and some suspected that much of the chaos taking place that around the time attributed to Zinzerena was really Lolth's doing.

Post Second Sundering, Zinerena managed to return from Lolth's culling of the drow pantheon. Though she lost her previous influence over chaos, that instead going to Malyk, she reclaimed the assassination part of her portfolio and reemerged with added power over lies and illusion.

Rumors & Legends
Her mother hid her from the priestesses of Lolth by faking her death when she showed a natural aptitude for illusions. She taught herself magic over several decades after acquiring several spellbooks and settled into the life of an assassin. She proved to be an exemplary assassin and gained a great reputation over many centuries, as she was never caught and her victims never survived.

Tales of Zinzerena's exploits were many, and often tailored so that the events occurred in the locality where the tale was being told.

One tale told of how she obtained her magical cloak and sword. While contracted to assassinate a beholder, it was attacked by a slaad. She waited until the battle between them was over and the slaad defeated before killing the weakened beholder and taking the sword and cloak that the slaad had brought with it to the fight.

A second, more famous tale, presented Zinzerena as an entity much older than she actually was. Having been contracted to murder the matron of a drow house by the matron's younger sister, she studied her target for days before making her move. Once she had infiltrated the house, she was betrayed by her employer who, with her sister, wished to start their own guild of assassins but felt that they had to destroy their most powerful competition first. Once she had been torn apart by web golems, her remains mysteriously disappeared. The tale said that the day after this event, drow discovered their magical abilities of darkness and faerie fire.

Interpretations of the legends suggested that Malyk and Zinzerena were either lovers or siblings.