Dark Seldarine

The Dark Seldarine was the drow pantheon of gods.

Overview
The Dark Seldarine, the pantheon of the drow, was led by Lolth, the Spider Queen. She dominated the drow race’s lives and urged them into heavy infighting. She was opposed to varying degrees by the rest of the pantheon.

Vhaeraun, her son, was among the opposers. He had the largest following on the surface and the second largest overall among the Dark Seldarine. Lolth considered him her real rival and enemy. The others were minor players. This might give off the impression, that the Dark Seldarine was characterized by this two-top battle, it wasn’t.

In truth, Lolth’s domination over the pantheon and the drow was to such an extent, that even information on the other gods wasn’t readily accessible to the drow. Vhaeraun’s existence and agenda was common knowledge among surface drow and in the Underdark where the Spider Queen wasn’t absolute, in other words, it was scarce where she was absolute. Eilistraee, Lolth’s daughter, was both on the surface and in the Underdark the stuff of wildly inaccurate and wrong legends. The majority of the rare few, who knew of Kiaransalee, believed her to be an undead madwoman who was a goddess only in her fantasies, while Selvetarm was practically forgotten. Only Ghaunadaur was capable of making his presence known or at least felt on some level by most drow.

Members
Between 1375 DR and 1379 DR, the drow pantheon downsized itself to a single deity, Lolth. Ghaunadaur left the Demonweb Pits, the others died. The dead members revived themselves over the course of the Second Sundering.

The pantheon consisted of:
 * Eilistraee : Goddess of beauty, dance, hunting, moonlight, song and swordwork.


 * Ghaunadaur :God of all things subterranean, jellies, oozes, outcasts, rebels, ropers and slimes.


 * Kiaransalee : Goddess of undead and vengeance.


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


 * Selvetarm : God of drow warriors.


 * Vhaeraun : God of drow males, evil activity on the surface, territory and thievery.

Dead Members
These members stayed dead or faded even after the Second Sundering:


 * Malyk : An aspect of Talos, who patronized wild magic, faded after Mystra couldn’t endure him infringing on her monopoly over magic.


 * 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. This had to do with the fact that the drow, needed for the existence for a drow pantheon, came into being only after Corellon's Descent, when the dark elves were cursed and turned into them 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—the elder, Vhaeraun, the younger [Eilistraee]] — 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 husband, the king of Threnody, for her experiment on undeath, she managed to raise an army of undead and exact revenge upon the inhabitants of her former world, rendering it lifeless, she fled from the Seldarine’s revenge into the Abyss, where she ascended to divinity as a demigodess.

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, and convinced them to attack Arvandor, in an attempt to overthrow Corellon. Ghaunadaur entered the fray on his own without being asked by anyone.

She had planned for the assault 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 tricked Eilistraee into dangerously injuring her own father, 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 seduce and subsume Lolth drove him to kill and steal the intelligence from his worshippers in a fit of rage, leading to a great loss of followers, and therefore of power.

Meanwhile, Eilistraee and Vhaeraun were active on Toril, home of, among others, the dark elves. With time, Vhaeraun gained a strong influence in southern Faerûn, becoming a major patron of the elves of Ilythiir, and the driving force behind their expansion of territory and and power. Ghaunadaur’s faith also set foot on Ilythiir and filled a similar but secondary role. Eilistraee strove against her brother'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 Kethryllia Amarillis intruded into the Demonweb to retrieve her lover. Kiaransalee helped her finding the direction towards and Lolth didn't interfere with the elf taking her lover back. By this point, Lolth already came up with the idea to regain her divinity and used her scrying magic on the elves to find out which world they came from, therefore learning about Toril. Her interest was immediately captured by the presence of dark elf 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 kingdom of Miyeritar was founded by political refugees from Aryvandaar. Eilistraee became a major patroness of the 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. Her activities poisoned the formerly peaceful relationships between Ilythiir and the newer elven realms. It lead to the casting of the First Sundering to create a dark elf-free piece of land, in -17,600 DR. The collateral damage caused the destruction of a great part of Ilythiir (including its capital, Atorrnash), and the death of many followers of Vhaeraun with it. The Masked Lord's influence ebbed with the loss of his worshipers, and his savage efforts were undermined by the ongoing conflict between him and Eilistraee, granting Lolth and Ghaunadaur the opportunity to fill the void.

The Crown Wars
The Crown Wars had deep consequences on the deities that would later form the Dark Seldarine. For example, the drow race came into existence, fulfilling the core requirement for the existence of something like a drow pantheon.

First Crown War
The series of conflict started as an Aryvandaari military campaign to conquer Miyeritar, which was quickly occupied, even tho many of its people continued resisting.

Second Crown War
The dark elves of Ilythiir decided to war against Aryvandaar's allies. Believing that Aryvandaar would soon invade Ilythiir, Geirildin Sethomiir (llythiir’s coronal) summoned and made pacts with Wendonai, a balor in Lolth's service, for power to defeat his enemies. The demon became the Spider Queen’s tool to corrupt the Ilythiiri. The nation’s aristocracy followed their royalty’s example and bought power from other fiendish patrons. By the Fourth Crown War, Ghaunadaur, Kiaransalee and Vhaeraun provided Ilythiir with similar power. 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.

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; Kiaransalee and Lolth--or, arguably, Eilistraee--were on occasion confused with each other and portrayed as an undead spider with swords drawn. The drow gods were at times portrayed in poses that could lead to think to subordination: for example, in at least one depiction, small spiders representing each deity (some masked, some with skeletal features or melted faces, others singing praises) were all linked to a larger spider representing Lolth, in a manner resembling spiderlings that had just been hatched. However, all those were only the results of how some Ilythiiri interpreted the relationships among their deities, and the main gods of the nation (Lolth, Ghaunadaur, Vhaeraun and Kiaransalee) personally killed their priests for such depictions.

Dark Disaster
During the interim years between the third and fourth Crown War, the Dark Disaster struck Miyeritar in −10,500 DR. It was a magical cataclysm unleashed by Aryvandaar on their own territory, an accusation not based on evidence. Although many inhabitants had already left Miyeritar, the majority of those who stayed were killed by the cataclysm, many of the Dark Dancer's followers among them. In fact, Eilistraee lost most of her people during this event, which severely weakened the goddess' power. This downward trend continued until her church virtually collapsed when the transformation of the dark elves into drow kicked in, and with the rise of Lolth and Ghaundaur.

Fourth Crown War
Ilythiir accused Aryvandaar for the Dark Disaster. As a retaliatory assault, they laid waste on Shantel Othreier, by this point Aryvandaar’s territory. The remaining elven realms decided to curse all dark elves (including Eilistraee’s followers) by channeling the power of Corellon Larethian. The dark elves were turned into drow and violently exiled into the Underdark -- an event known as "Descent".

Post Crown Wars (-9000 DR to 1372 DR)
Lolth became the dominating deity of the Dark Seldarine. She turned drow society into an oppressive theocratic and matriarchal society, where males were less than second class citizens. Under the pretense to cull the weak and strengthen the overall power of the race, she forced the drow against each other in endless infighting. All towards the goal of hers and the drow’s vengeance against Corellon. In truth, this was all a scam. Lolth had so much fun at urging and seeing the drow fighting themselves, that she never put coherent efforts regarding the supposed goal, the aforementioned vengeance. To remain in power, she directed her clergy to mitigate and slow any kind of change and progress in drow society and worked towards extinguishing the drow’s desire to return to the surface.

Vhaeraun strove to counter his mother's influence and tyranny over the drow. His goal was to shatter the order Lolth was trying to impose on the drow, unite his people and then take back all that they had lost after the Crown Wars, including their place on the surface. He attracted especially male drow, due to his call for gender equality, those drow who wanted change and growth in their society, be it of societal, economic or territorial nature, and those drow living on the surface. While he couldn't challenge his mother directly, he acted in the shadows to disrupt the satus quo. The Masked Lord gained the second largest followers base among the drow gods, and largest on the surface, resulting in Lolth considering him her real enemy.

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 drow worshippers consisted of those, who grew tired of Lolth's tyranny, and sought out alternatives. He never really cared enough for matters outside of his own ambitions, including his own followers, and thus his follower base, and with it his influence, never really grew. However, his presence managed to prosper in cities torn by strife, or where the presence of the other drow gods was weak.

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).

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 an 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 gained 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, 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, for about a year. The goal was to transform herself into a greater deity and turn the Demonweb Pits into a realm independent from the Abyss. A side effect of this was that she stopped granting spells to her priestesses.

The other members of the Dark Seldarine were capable of taking advantage of this opening to increase their influence and numbers of followers. All in all, it was a time of great upheaval among the drow (see also here).

Lolth went into her comatose state without informing her clergy beforehand. The drow of Menzoberranzan sent an investigation team, led by Quenthel Baenre, to discover the cause and nature of Lolth's silence. After witnessing Ched Nasad’s fall and understanding that the loss of magic among Lolth’s priestesses wasn’t just a local problem in Menzoberranzan, the team went to Cormanthor to gain the cooperation of a priest of Vhaeraun to see what happened to their goddess. By this point, the group included Halisstra Melarn and Danifae Yauntyrr.

In Uktar 1372 DR Quenthel's company finally managed to gain the collaboration of Tzirik Jaelre, 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. Lolth was heavily injured, but Selvetarm came to defend her. Her grandson fought against her son and her life was saved.

Later, Lolth was about to awaken and called for her Chosen candidates, Quenthel Baenre, Halisstra Melarn and Danifae Yauntyrr. A priestess of hers was to come to her in the Demonweb Pits to become her Chosen, thus completing her transformation.

The Masked Lord made another attempt at his mother's life again. Banned from entering her realm, he offered to assassinate the yugoloth Inthracis's superior on confirmation of success (which would have lead to the promotion of the fiend) at killing Lolth's Chosen candidates.

Meanwhile, one of the candidates, Halisstra Melarn, a former member of the investigation team since the fall of Ched Nasad, converted to Eilistraee. The Dark Maiden chose her new priestess to kill Lolth with an artifact known as the Crescent Blade. Halisstra was sent on the Demonweb Pits with two fellow priestesses of the Dark Maiden, but once there they met defeat at the hands of Quenthel’s and Danifae’s group, and one of the dark dancers was slain in the battle. Halisstra became convinced that the Dark Maiden betrayed her, so she killed her other fellow and converted back to Lolth.

Inthracis failed too, and Lolth was able to chose Danifae Yauntyrr as her Yorthae, completing her transformation. Quenthel was sent back to Toril, and Halisstra was turned into the Lady Penitent, Lolth’s Chosen, charged with killing Corellon’s, Eilistraee’s, and Vhaeraun’s followers as a punishment for her former heresy. The Crescent Blade was left broken 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.

In 1375 DR, Eilistraee and Lolth decided to play a game of divine sava with the fate of the drow being at stake. Selvetarm joined the game as the Spider Queen's champion, ordering his Judicators to initiate a series of attacks against the shrines and temples of Eilistraee. Vhaeraun also meddled in the game, as he and his followers hatched a plan to kill Lolth. The Masked Lord was meant to kill his sister in order to gain her portfolio and to unite their two churches, thus increasing the his power to a level that would have allowed him to kill his mother.

Lolth’s Lady Penitent, Halisstra Melarn, informed Qilué Veladorn (leader of the Church of Eilistraee) and Cavatina Xarann (a Darksong Knight) about the whereabouts of the Crescent Blade. Cavatina was dispatched to the Demonweb Pits to retrieve the sword, which she found intact (it had been possessed by Wendonai).

Meanwhile, Selvetarm 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 bested the assailants, while Cavatina Xarann killed the demigod himself (with the help of the Lady Penitent) in the Demonweb Pits. This would later cause Selvetarm’s church to be almost completely absorbed by Lolth’s, as she had planned.

On the same date, Vhaeraun managed to enter his sister Eilistraee's realm to assassinate her. His attempt failed, and Eilistraee emerged from the battle changed: she became known as "the Masked Lady", holding both the Dark Maiden's and the Masked Lord's portfolios. Some of Vhaeraun’s followers joined Eilistraee, others joined other gods like Shar, others refused to have anything to do with Eilistraee, others stayed with their old faith or never became aware that their god died (they later formed the skulkers of Vhaeraun).

In 1377 DR Kiaransalee joined the gamble, too. Her followers initiated hostile activities against Eilistraee's, and also worked to augment the faerzress in the Underdark, which interferred with divination and teleportation magic. To counter this, Q'arlynd Melarn and his students (apparently ) erased Kiaransalee’s name from every living being’s memory, thus killing her. After an assault against the Acropolis of Thanatos (Kiaransalee's main temple), Qilué Veladorn, who had taken hold of the Wendonai-tainted Crescent Blade, struggling against the Balor's infuence, ordered the death of the surviving clerics of the Revenancer in the Acropolis.

In 1378 DR, Ghaunadaur started to actively involve himself into the power play between deities. In 1379 DR, his followers tried to free their god’s avatar in the Promenade of the Dark Maiden. Qilué tried to lead the invaders into a trap, but a group of former followers of Vhaeraun intentinally botched her plan, and the followers of Ghaunadaur succeeded at their liberation attempt. Naxil, another priest of the Masked Lady, managed to imprison the avatar, but the Promenade fell. Using the portal network of the temple, Ghaunadaur’s followers inflicted heavy losses to the church of Eilistraee.

Halisstra Melarn tried to be a worshipped as a demigoddess, but failed and was only--if at all--worshipped as a servant of Lolth. Under Lolth’s orders, she killed a large number of Eilistraee’s followers. In 1379 DR Eilistraee, while inhabiting the body of Qilué Veladorn, tried to free Halisstra from her torment and convince her to kill the Spider Queen. However, Wendonai successfully nudged Halisstra into slaying Qilué alongside the Masked Lady.

Meanwhile, Q'arlynd Melarn conducted an elven high magic ritual (with the help of the Dark Maiden), which he meant to transform all the drow who worshiped the goddess or who were not of Ilythiiri descent, into dark elves. However, the spell managed to turn only hundreds among the followers of Dark Dancer (who, as a lesser power, had at least a few thousands of worshippers ), and the non-Ilythiiri drow (albeit without their consent). Corellon Larethian took their souls under his protection, allowing them into Arvandor.

Later, Lolth tried to destroy Ghaunadaur but misjudged the extent of his powers. He successfully left the Demonweb Pits and founded his new realm in the Deep Caverns.

Post-Spellplague
After the Spellplague occurred, only Ghaunadaur’s followers and the remnants of the church of Vhaeraun, collectively called the skulkers of Vhaeraun remained to oppose Lolth.

The Spider Queen tried to become the goddess of magic from 1480 DR, but she ended up failing with the return of Mystra.

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)  in Flamerule 1489 DR.   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. The Dark Maiden was also one of the deities with whom the returned Mystra was sharing the Weave after the Second Sundering.


 * 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.