Wendonai

Wendonai is a balor lord who, in -11500 was tasked by Lolth to seduce the Sethomiir clan, rulers of the Ilythiiri into her worship and grant them evil magics. He succeeded and was probably the greatest (but by no means the only) influence on the fall of the dark elves.

After the "Descent", Wendonai continued his work, acting as advisor, tutor and sometimes consort to the most powerful drow Matron Mothers. He tried to claim a little power for himself by leading a sucessful drow and duergar attack against the Elven Court in -4400 DR called the Dark Court Slaughter. Wendonai's efforts at personal growth over the next two millenia earned Lolth's ire as she had no intention to let the drow return to the surface. Lolth withdrew her favour of the demon in -2549 DR and the Matrons followed suit.

Wendonai then allied himself with Eltab, serving as The Hidden Layer's emissary to Faerûn for several centuries. In -623 DR though he was summoned by a Nar Demonbinder but was soon banished by an incredibly powerful cleric of Horus-Re for 2000 years. Those years were spent in 1377 DR and after two millenia of planning, set into motion his revenge against Mulhorand.

During the War of the Spider Queen Lolth needed his services once more. He took possession of the Crescent Blade and lent it the strength it had lost after Halisstra Melarn broke the blade in the Demonweb Pits. Disguised as the blade of Eilistraee he hoped to get to her most trusted priestess Lady Qilué Veladorn. When Lolth sent the Lady Penitent back to Faerûn she tricked the worshippers of Eilistraee to search for the repaired blade in the Demonweb Pits. Qilué sent Cavatina Xarann and it was she who wielded the Crescent Blade against the demigod Selvetarm and killed him with the help of the balor within. After that the blade and so the demon came to Lady Veladorn. Wendonai began with his work of corrupting the priestess. He tricked her to believe that she could kill Lolth with his help and he tried to posess her body but she resisted this for quite some time.

Meanwhile Lolth gave the Lady Penitent to Wendonai and he sent her once more to Faerûn to bring him Cavatina Xarann. Cavatina resisted the demon and killed his body in the Abyss. But he wasn’t dead yet, his soul was still in the Crescent Blade. When Cavatina learned of this and where the blade was, she tried to talk with Qilué but the priestess trapped her because she had her own plans. She wanted to lure the demon into her body and drive him out with silverfire. With the final death of Wendonai she hoped to free all drow of the mark of Wendonai.

Qilué teleported to the only place where she thought the demon could be bound. The royal court of ancient Ilythiir where coronal Geirildin Sethomiir summoned Wendonai for the first time. Her sister Laeral Silverhand helped her but she did not want to kill Qilué so she magically stopped time for the corrupted Qilué and went to search for someone who knew about how to kill demons. When she was away the Lady Penitent found the frozen priestess and took her to an ancient temple nearby. There she got hold of the Crescent Blade and tried to kill Qilué with it but Eilistraee took possession of Qilué's body and became mortal. Eilistraee wanted to talk sense into the Lady Penitent and free her from the clutches of Lolth. But Wendonai acted swiftly and tricked her into believing that it was Lolth disguised as Eilistraee. Furiously the Lady Penitent killed the goddess, and therefore she had done what Lolth and Wendonai planned all along for her. When she was killed herself shortly thereafter it left only Wendonai as the one-and-only Champion of Lolth. In truth this was exactly his goal from the very beginning.