Church of Vhaeraun

The Church of Vhaeraun was an organization composed of the followers of the Vhaeraun, the drow god of thievery.

They mostly consisted of drow and half-drow who wanted to see their people freed from Lolth’s oppression, united while having at the same time place in power on the surface world. Many males wishing for better opportunities than the absolute subservience reserved to them among the followers of Lolth, were also drawn to Vhaeraun.

Organization
Normally, churches of polytheistic Toril were small in comparison to the worshiper number. For example, Shar had millions of worshipers, but her church was only 100.000 strong, because only that many people had her as their patron deity. Regarding Vhaeraun's church, one didn't make a grave mistake by claiming "worshiper number=church size".

Vhaeraun's clergy was almost entirely male. The gender ratio was 99:1 in favor of men. A priest of Vhaeraun introducing him- or herself as such was always doing so in the sense of "member of the clerical hierarchy" but not necessarily in the sense of "divine spellcaster of Vhaeraun". An entire fourth of the clergy consisted of thieves, who may or may not learned other skills. The breakdown of the rest was 55% specialty priests called darkmasks, 10% normal clerics, 7% clerics with thief training, 2% crusaders, and 1% specialty priests called masked traitors.

They had the highest percentage of non-divine spellcasters among drow churches. And they added bards and warlocks to it after the Spellplague.

Titles
Collectively the clergy was known as the Masked, novices Uncloaked and those past that stage Nightshadow.

A large number of special titles were also used but they weren’t in any kind of hierarchic order. Most common titles included Ascendant Darkness, Black Moon, Dark Mantle, Deep Rogue, Enveloping Night, Raven's Cow, Shadow Hunter, Silent Sable and Twilight's Herald, other titles made by high ranking priests existed, too. For example, Shadow Sorcerer in the city of Sshamath.

Composition
The church of Vhaeraun was loosely organized in largely autonomous cells, mainly due to persecution from the priestesses of Lolth who ruled over the majority of the drow race.

Despite aforementioned persecution it had the second largest following among the drow as a whole and the largest one among surface dwelling drow. His worshipers consisted mostly of elves (especially drow) and half-elves (especially half-drow), a few humans and a handful of draegloths.

Hierarchy
While Lolth-ruled cities (like Menzoberranzan or Undrek'Thoz ) and communities of faithful of Eilistraee (like the Promenade of the Dark Maiden ) were theocracies (their leadership was collectively part of the priesthood of their respective deities), Vhaeraunite organizations were different in at least three ways.

First, organizations affiliated with the Church of Vhaeraun fluctuated in how strictly and/or exclusively they followed the Masked Lord. For example, the Jaezred Chaulssin mandated to show any kind, if only token, reverence to Vhaeraun, while Clan Auzkovyn allowed worship of several deities (rare among drow organizations).

Second, the leaders were rarely also part of the priesthood, regardless of personal religiousness. An example was Mauzzkyl Jaezred, a sorcerer-assassin who led the Jaezred Chaulssin, who didn’t have qualms distancing his organization from the church of Vhaeraun, if he could evade frontally clashing with the church of Lolth. Another such example was the Dark Dagger. Its leader of the Skullport-cell was Malakuth Tabuirr, a rogue-fighter, devoted follower of Vhaeraun (enough to fund at least one temple), and the clerics of the Masked Lord who were part of the Dark Dagger answered to him.

Third, the followers of Vhaeraun were proponents of gender equality, and the distribution of power was more balanced among them than other drow groups. On the other hand, while in theory the distribution was egalitarian, in practice, the distribution was tilted in favor of male drow. There were at least three reasons out of which the first was that male drow outnumbered female ones and thus had more representation among the leadership. The second reason was revanchism, males gave in to grudges and kept females from the high positions. This caused a wide spectrum regarding gender equality, from the egalitarian Holldaybim to the particularly crass city of Chaulssin that killed its rare female zekyl offspring.

Attitudes
Members of the church weren’t necessarily evil but most were.

Their primary motivation was dissatisfaction at the limiting nature of drow society. The promise of a society in which having empathy, economic growth and territorial expansion was possible was the main attracting factor.
 * Motivation

Their modus operandi was similar to that of Mask’s followers, that was to cultivate a cultured and trustworthy front and not committing unnecessary crimes, to the point of their activities being so similar to one another, that the two faiths were confused on the surface among non-drow. The "building a trustworthy front"-modus operandi was further enhanced after a truce between their deity and Eilistraee was reached after the Second Sundering.
 * Modus Operandi

They weren’t very choosy about their methods to change it and stooped to underhandedness, though this had its limits, for example, visiting the Darkwatch, a site where one could gain an invigorating battle frenzy at the cost of madness, while actively sought out by followers of Cyric, it was something actively avoided by followers of Vhaeraun. They didn’t tolerate underhandedness from others against them.

They shared a cooperative mindset that made them suffer the least infighting among all evil drow groups.
 * Mind Set

This mind showed itself in the fact, that inside a given Vhaeraunite group, the followers generally didn’t fight against each other. Which didn’t mean that a shared faith translated into instant unconditional love towards each other.

They regularly interacted and traded with other groups, but aside from these, deeper organizational relationships were generally of temporary nature and stood and fell with mutual benefit and groups were expected to be ready to attack and be attacked when there was a reason, benefit included.

For example, it was considered normal and to be expected among Vhaeraunites in Cormanthor to kill trespassers regardless of religious affiliation, shared or not, but if a group gave a reason, like clarification that they had no desire to take one’s land, the landowners grew more permissive towards that particular group and given more reason, like a common external enemy, they banded together to a full alliance. All in all, they rarely fought each other and suffered from the least infighting among evil drow groups.

Vhaeraunites seemed to have a rather lax attitude towards divine commandments. For example, Vhaeraun forbade his followers to associate with dwarves and gnomes, but they frequently violated it on a regular basis. Starting with trade, to incorporation into large scale plans, such as Nimor Imphraezl’s cooperation with Gracklstugh, a duergar city during their assault on Menzoberranzan, or even organizational association, as did the Dark Dagger in Skullport by accepting Ahmaergo “the Horned Dwarf“ as one of their superior in the Iron Ring. Another example was that, while clerics shouldn’t be able to wear armor made of metal, it didn’t prevent High Priests to do exactly that in their temples.

When Vhaeraun was killed, Eilistraee made at the same time the decision to accept Vhaeraunites, her enemies, into her church. The two groups' different conduct and modus operandi was a source of friction with orthodox eilistraeean, particularly the priestesses.
 * Friction due to Attitude Differences

Some Eilistraee’s priestesses had a sexist mind set. For example, the Promenade of the Dark Maiden had a tradition of barring every male follower from their communal chorus and considered their participation as something inherently wrong. Those who tried to enter the communal chorus suffered mental mobbing by the priestesses including under usage of military authority. However, Eilistraee never prevented males from taking part in the holy dances and songs. After becoming the Masked Lady, acceptance of male participation needed to be enforced top down after passive resistance started to occur.

Some Eilistraeean priestesses lived under the belief, that them being priestesses was a reason for subordination and not getting instant deference from the converts was also a reason for friction between them. As a general rule, however, the priestesses of Eilistraee cared not about hierarchy or subordination, as even suggestions coming from high priestesses were considered as sisterly advice.

An example regarding modus operandi would be the High Hunt ritual. The ritual consisted of followers of Eilistraee hunting game they considered dangerous, both of animal and sentient nature, believing Eilistraee chose the prey for them. Clerics of Eilistraee were mandated to be naked and armed only with a single sword and killed their prey in a frontal battle, as a show of trust to their deity protecting them. The former Vhaeraunites, did things differently. They employed magic to look for suitable prey by themselves, used additional protection, weaponry, including ranged ones or those allowing easy application of poison and even when hunting they hid, sneaked up and ambushed their prey instead of killing it in a frontal charge. Some Eilistraeeans saw in this behavior a sign of insubordination, while former Vhaeraunites saw in the orthodox followers’ behavior not only a sign of stupidity but a general lack of the ability to think for and by themselves, in short a sign of dependency to their goddess.

In the end, under Valdar Jaerle's lead, a faction of nightshadows botched Qilué Veladorn's plan to defend the Promenade of the Dark Maiden from the followers of Ghaunadaur, which led to destruction of the promenade, and even the sacrifice of some former nightshadows in the attempt to stop the freed avatar of Ghaunadaur.

Activities
Members and supporters of the church were varied, they were found in every social layer. Among the disenfranchised, common thieves merchants, consorts of priestesses and among the priestesses themselves.

They conducted active but also passive opposition, like promoting the idea that male drow were as valuable as female or inciting general disobedience and rebellion among them.

The active methods used by the followers of Vhaeraun to reach their goals were also varied, required a degree of subterfuge, and were generally directed at increasing the own or decreasing the enemies’ power based on real assets like official positions in politics, money, manpower or land by disrupting or changing the status quo in some way. Underhanded means of any kind were acceptable including rumor, intrigue, thievery, poison manufacture, murder, assassination, inciting riots, and so on.

They were often spies and, as followers of a god of thievery, thieves, from the common cutpurse to burglars, who broke into enemy temples, to all out raiders. Members of the priesthood helped thieves, provided healing and/or freed them from prison, if necessary by force.
 * Flare-up activity

They also acted as vigilantes, especially violence against male drow by female ones was avenged, and were also known for putting the blame committed murder on their enemies to cause dissent among their ranks.

More long-term plans revolved around gaining power. They manipulated trade, for example through opening individual trade channels and contacts, like the surface, to stockpile goods and causing a shortage of the same. They also opened opportunities to obtain power for others, like merchants, by killing those in power to fill the resulting void by the aforementioned commoners.
 * Long-term activity

They also tried to increase their range of influence. Apart from running their own cities, they built smaller settlements all over the Underdark, as well as on the surface, either by carving a niche (often of criminal nature) in existing cities or settling empty lands. Priests also cared for these surface settlements and strove to make them self-sustaining and encouraged contact with surface elves.

When they had the opportunity, Vhaeraunites took power in open fashion, either by placing themselves into official positions by legal means, or violent takeovers.

Out of all drow groups, they were most likely to cooperate with outsiders when the objective involved hurting the church of Lolth in some fashion.

Rituals
Vhaeraun's priests prayed for their spells at dusk, and whenever they accomplished something that made them closer to their goal. Apparently, it was a silent matter which consisted of meditating in shadows.

Their rituals were unique among the drow religions’. These rituals themselves didn’t involve putting the followers intentionally at lethal danger or causing the death, or even the sacrifice, of other sentient creatures.

Rituals on specific occasion
The most common ritual dedicated to Vhaeraun was the sacrifice of weapons and tools of defeated enemies, which was done by melting them into a bowl-shaped altar. While Vhaeraun appreciated the value of the sacrificed items, he considered diligence to be more important.

Another sacrificial ritual was held during nights of new moon. Followers of Vhaeraun, usually riding Underdark lizards, hunted a stag and then sacrificed its rack of antlers and still-beating heart to the Masked Lord. The ritual was considered a perversion of elven rituals, though it wasn't clear how so.

The most holy ritual of the faith was called the Masked Lord’s Embrace and was held on Midwinter Night. Using their innate drow ability to conjure magical darkness, the participants surrounded themselves with a curtain of shadow, in order to block any eventual distraction. Vhaeraun's magic sustained the darkness, making it last up to a whole day (rather than its usual duration), and his followers spent that time meditating about new ways to further the goals of their faith, and to form new plans, while levitating in the darkness.

Communication with the deity
Clerics of Vhaeraun could communicate with their deity to share spells, tactics and poison formulas, they invented with him. This wasn’t a one-way communication, for Vhaeraun distributed this knowledge with the entire clergy.

Calling help
Vhaeraun was known to be unusually responsive for a deity. Having success at a ritual to call his avatar or having a minion of the deity sent for help was comparatively easy for a Vhaeraunite cleric, provided the proper ritual was conducted in a situation of real need.

"Real need" didn’t seem to equate life or death situations. Instances in which shadows were used as messengers to contact a large number of followers spread in a wide area were known.

Tactics
As followers of an evil deity, clerics of Vhaeraun were able to rebuke undead and to convert their spell energy into inflict spells.

They were expected to have an aptitude for trickery. They drummed up the dissatisfaction of drow, namely of the disenfranchised males, towards rebellion and disobedience.

Symbols
The holy symbol of Vhaeraun was a black blue-lensed mask. Combined with similar modus operandi, the symbol was confused with Mask's on the surface. Some Vhaeraunites on the surface used this similarity to recruit humans and half-elves for their cause.

The favored colors of the church was black. If given a choice between two things which are the same but for the color, Vhaeraunites usually picked the black one. At least some clerics took the superstition with the black color too far and wore apaches of black even in disguise, tipping off their enemies and blowing up their own cover.
 * Color

Other symbols, they looked out for were specific gems, for they believed they could read divine favor or disfavor out of these gems. The specific gems were agni mani, black opal, black sapphire, hematite, black marble, obsidian, black onyx and black pearl.
 * Gems

They believed that the (illusory) appearance and/or behavior of black cats, ravens or dead spiders could be an attempt by Vhaeraun to tell them something. These animals were also kept as glorified pets in richer communities or were served as food in poorer ones. While not real animals, the same was concluded from an air or earth mephit, shadow, shadow dragon or yeth hound that appeared and helped a follower from danger.
 * Animals

Like any other church on Toril, followers could buy themselves free for transgressions against their deity. With increasing severity an increasing amount of valuables and/or an increasingly long-term assignment for the church. Like any other church, they also had special forms of gross transgressions, that caused the deity to personally deliver punishment to the offender.
 * Taboos

Unsurprisingly for a group that considered their deity as their leader, clerics were forbidden from impersonating the deity under whose employment they were. In the case of offending this, the deity himself cursed the offender. In the case of Tellik Melarn, this was done by turning his disguise as Vhaeraun’s avatar permanent, practically a death sentence in the Lolth-ruled city of Ched Nasad.

Base of Operation
Prior to the Spellplague, the church of Vhaeraun was a growing organization among the drow. Most of the drow on the surface followed Vhaeraun and they built smaller settlements throughout the Underdark, had at least some presence in every community where drow were found and had cities run by their own. After the Spellplague, the church was one of the two more or less functional religious opposition groups in drow society with Ghaunadaur’s followers being the other one.

On the surface
As mentioned before, most drow on the surface followed Vhaeraun. They were found in the Forest of Lethyr, the Frozen Forest, the Lurkwood, the Forest of Mir, the Rawlinswood, the Trollbark Forest, Winterswood and in the High Forest, where the Dragon's Hoard was active. Clerics founded and supported new settlements, and those followers in the Underdark who couldn't bear the pressure of being found out, or those who were actually found out, tried to flee to the surface, among others, to such a community.

After the fall of Myth Drannor in 714 DR, surface elves started to feel a psychological compulsion to abandon their lands for Evermeet. They had problems to stand up against human expansion, following this compulsion, their land became abandoned. Repopulating these lands was a part of the church’s strategy. For example, Vhaeraunites were found in Cormanthor, where 90% of its elven population left for Evermeet. While all groups wanted first and foremost a steady life, the ultimate goals varied. The biggest surface drow group of House Jaelre tried to unearth and understand old elven magic and found their own permanent settlement, while Clan Auzkovyn tried to carve out a nomadic live. Their success at settling and keeping the lands in the face of humans was one of the reasons elves on Evermeet considered coming back.

When the armies of Myth Drannor came from Evermeet a not small number of followers converted to Eilistraee to evade the violence at the hand of the elves.

An organization called the Dark Dagger was active throughout the area around the Sea of Fallen Stars, in Skullport, Turmish, Vilhon Reach and less prominently in Amn and Calimshan and grew in power. Their goal was to take over the control of the criminal milieu there.
 * Sea of Fallen Stars

Escapees from Guallidurth founded cities in the Forest of Mir and in the cavern of Ultoksamrin in Deep Shanatar. The Forest of Mir held three cities, Dallnothax, Holldaybim and Iskasshyoll. All three were built the same way, a large cavern as the main body and a few buildings on the surface, all three were further connected via tunnels with each other. Holldaybim had an egalitarian rulership while the other two were patriarchic and were specifically allied against Guallidurth.
 * Forest of Mir

In the Underdark
As mentioned before, the church of Vhaeraun was a growing religious organization among the drow in the Underdark as well as the second biggest one. They built smaller settlements throughout the Underdark and had at least some presence in every community where drow were found, as well as their own cities.

For example, the church was the biggest religious non-lolthite organization in the city of Guallidurth, and were regularly (without success) hunted. . After the Spellplague, internal strife caused Guallidurth’s formerly 80.000 strong drow population to be downsized by at least 80%. It wasn’t known how the Vhaeraunites in the city fared.
 * Guallidurth

In Ultoksamrin existed a settlement, that grew around the Vault of Cloaked Midnight, also called the cathedral city because half of the cave was occupied by a temple to Vhaeraun. Ultoksamrin’s leader, Vokkrzyr Rualfren tried to recruit surface elves to bolster the ranks against the matrons from Guallidurth, though with unknown success.
 * Ultoksamrin

A rare legal following was in Sshamath, where Vhaeraun, under the alias the Masked Mage or the Lord of Shadow, was primarily prayed to in his role as the drow patron of shadow magic and spellfilchers. First, there was the official church of Vhaeraun under Pharaun Lhalabar. They were situated in the Tower of the Masked Mage. Another group was the School of the Shadow Weave. Under the leadership of Nurissa Vyllshan, they worked as a cloak for the church of Vhaeraun to be accepted as a full School and with it as full members of the city’s ruling body.
 * Sshamath

In the city of Menzoberranzan existed a growing church. Due to the virtual non-existence of other organized faiths, it was considered not a but the enemy by the church of Lolth and hunted as such. In fact, the city’s common law included ones directed against the church by name. There was a portal, originally an invasion route toward the city of Nar'Vheen, through which members fled towards Cormanthor. The group proved to be resilient, it survived the death of its deity.
 * Menzoberranzan

The Jaezred Chaulssin, an assassins’ guild from Chaul'mur'ssin, a Vhaeraunite city on the Plane of Shadow, ruled the city of Chaulssin where they were based. Apart from minor holdings in Skullport and Sshamath, they had a major presence in Ched Nasad, Dusklyngh, Eryndlyn, Jhachalkhyn, Karsoluthiyl, Maerimydra and Sschindylryn.
 * Jaezred Chaulssin

The Jaezred Chaulssin weren’t the only one active in Ched Nasad. The church kept a secret portal, called the Ched Nasad portal and keyed it to a male divine caster. The portal was connected two was to the Dalelands to their fellow followers and allowed flexible allocation of resources and trade for surface goods. The Vhaeraunites in Ched Nasad were working at creating a food and water shortage in the city to weaken their enemies, so they could be taken down. The Jaezred Chaulssin under Zammzt Everharn caused the destruction of the city during the Silence of Lolth. It was done through an engineered slave uprising as well as large scale confusion that made hindered the city officials to effectively deal with their problems. After the city was rebuilt, the assassins obtained special influence in the rule of the city.
 * Ched Nasad

Eryndlyn was a city whose rule was divided in a ratio of 2:1:1 in lolthites, ghaunadans and Vhaeraunites,. During the Time of Troubles an avatar of Selvetarm wreaked havoc against non-Lolthites which forced the two other factions into cooperation, that allowed them to drive the avatar away. During the Silence of Lolth, the Jaezred Chaulssin fosterage under Tomphael Arkenrret managed to urge the two factions into an alliance that completely destroyed Lolth’s influence in the city. Eryndlyn got destroyed in the Spellplague when the cavern changed into a spellcave, though its citizens mostly left before it happened, the assassins’ fosterage survived.
 * Eryndlyn

Maerimydra had a small cult Kâras was a part of and the Jaezred Chaulssin fosterage under Vesz’zt Auvryana. The assassins’ plot there was known to have backfired in that it allowed Kiaransalee’s followers to take the city. It probably consisted of urging the city’s archmage into organizing the destruction of the city’s matriarchy. The chaos allowed Kiaransalee’s followers to take over.
 * Maerimydra

In Dusklyngh, Jhachalkhyn and Karsoluthiyl, the Jaezred Chaulssin managed to shift the power balance in favor of the merchant class from Lolth’s matriarchy. Jhachalkhyn was then practically ruled by the assassins under Xorthaul Barriath.
 * Other

Temples
Temples to Vhaeraun were built both on and under the surface. On the surface, shrines were built in shallow woodland caves, usually where little light shone through the trees. As a general rule, it was inside a Vhaeraunite settlement or in the vicinity of one. In the Underdark, deep natural amphitheater were the site for temples. They were hidden through multiple darkness spells, which looked like patch of black stone to darkvision. Interestingly, the Underdark temples were usually built with a "starry sky", actually beljurils placed into high ceilings to look like stars.

Known temples included:


 * Vault of Cloaked Midnight: a temple in Ultoksamrin, around which a settlement grew
 * Hall of Midnight Bloodshed: a dummy temple to avert attacks against the Vault of Cloaked Midnight
 * Onyx Labyrinth: another dummy temple for the Vault of Cloaked Midnight
 * Tower of the Masked Mage: a temple in Sshamath

Dress
A cleric of Vhaeraun's regalia consisted of a half-mask that could also double as a holy symbol, form-fitting pants, silk shirts and leather boots, all in their favoured colour black. They also constantly had at least one black-edged dagger on their person, all at least in theory. As a general rule, members of the church had to hide their allegiances and it also seemed that some priests used other dress codes for their regalia. Masked traitors whose cover blew up kept the regalia of the church they spied upon, when they thought it to be beneficial to them.

Armor and weapons
Once attuned to it, a cleric of Vhaeraun didn't need to carry around a holy symbol to cast spells. They could, but they just needed to be in a one mile radius of it. The holy symbol was a mask that could be used as a mundane one.

Clerics of Vhaeraun shouldn’t be able to wear metal armor but there were those who did anyway. Regarding weaponry, they used whatever was considered practical for a given task, while they had a number of favored weapons, daggers, short swords and long swords, "favored" wasn't as valued as "useful".

Clerics also used poison of different varieties, both in kind and toxicity. Vhaeraun’s followers in general made extensive use of poison. They were manufactured and experimented with it and also paid well for new ones.

Fighting Styles
Clerics were generally proficient in the bautha z'hin and/or the sargh'elgg style, both drawing advantage of a drow's heightened dexterity.

Magic Items
If the Dark Dagger in Skullport and the drow in Cormanthor were a measure, Vhaeraunites were able to organize an infrastructure that allowed them to equip their armed forces with standardized mundane and magical equipment as well as to train them in a standardized manner.

All the Dark Dagger, the drow in Cormanthor and the Jaezred Chaulssin primarily used magical equipment that were usable by everyone without distinction and which heightened their mundane base abilities. Tools that made a stealthy rogue stealthier, an assassin’s deadly attack deadlier, a weapon to strike more accurate and harder, etc..

Spells
The church of Vhaeraun stole access to a few spells from Lolth’s clergy. Among others, conceal item and also got access to darkfire by virtue of following a drow deity. Clerics had access to the chaos, drow, evil, travel and trickery domain. After the Second Sundering, they gained access to the new trickery domain.

The entire clergy gained additional magical powers like the ability to cast clairvoyance, detect lie, dispel magic, suggestion and others. These abilities increased in strength, variety and frequency as a reward from their deity for for their services.

Several magical abilities and spells were under the exclusive use of the church of Vhaeraun. As a general rule, they fulfilled at least one of three different uses, namely aiding in stealth, protection or substitution of resources.


 * Blessing of Vhaeraun
 * increased one’s abilities as a thief


 * Dark embrace
 * substituted a holy symbol and could be used to rapidly cast and deliver a spell a certain distance


 * Deceive prying
 * fed falsified information to someone who used mental intrusion as a means


 * Elf disguise
 * changed elven features of an elf into that of another kind of elf, for example a moon elf into a sun elf, a sun elf into a drow, etc.


 * Grace of the Masked Lord
 * used to protect and recover from harm from a trap


 * Guise of the faithful
 * created an acoustic, visual and tactile disguise


 * Noxious step
 * short range teleportation designed to be a last ditch escape


 * Skulker's venom
 * coated the weapon with poison


 * Soul charge
 * used a part of someone’s soul to fuel a charged magic item


 * Soultheft
 * used an entire soul to fuel magic item, it was a way to sidestep the danger of death from casting elven high magic


 * Vhaeraun's nightshield
 * spell to protect one from harmful effects, with special protection against magic missile spell


 * Weapon of the deity
 * the Vhaeraunite version turned a short sword into a shocking weapon with increasing enhancement depending on the caster’s strength

Vhaeraun once forbade his followers to call anything but his avatar, a rule that was substantially relaxed by 1372 DR. As mentioned above, he became —for a deity— easy to convince to send one of his minions. Air and earth mephits, shadows, shadow dragons and yeth hounds were the Vhaeraunites’ additional choices for summon monster and planar ally spells, clerics who read the Obsul Ssussun had the additional option to call a vhaerath.

Dogma
"The shadows of the Masked Lord must cast off the tyranny of the Spider Queen and forcibly reclaim their birthright and rightful place in the Night Above. The existing drow matriarchy must be smashed, and the warring practices of twisted Lolth done away with, so that the drow are welded into a united people, not a squabbling gaggle of rival Houses, clans and aims. Vhaeraun will lead his followers into a society where drow once again reign supreme over the other, lesser races, and there is equality between males and females." The church’s dogma markedly differed from other drow churches’. It read itself like a policy agenda and not like a list of behaviors to please a deity. It clarified the organization’s goal and purpose, the steps to take towards its fulfillment, and under whose leadership the work was done.

Goal
The church viewed itself as the successors of Ilythiir and was unique among elven organizations. Their goal was unique, because, while drow culture resented their past, for it forced them to accept how much they lost, the church of Vhaeraun took account of the fact that they (and by extension the entire elven race) fell from power. Regarding elves as a whole, they were unique, because, while elves mostly gave up on the idea to regain their strength in the face of human expansion, followers of Vhaeraun made remedying to their loss their goal.

Steps
The steps towards that goal were to unite the drow and claim territory on the surface, which was called the Night Above, and use it as their base of operation to take over the Underdark.

They saw an existential problem in the drow race’s tradition of infighting, which resulted in intentionally hindering each others' growth, being unable to share into each others' joy, preventing cooperation for communal growth in power and resulting in physical confinement of their people's reach of influence inside their cities and caverns but never beyond.

The Church of Vhaeraun tried to solve this problem by eliminating what they deemed to be the cause of said problem: the major drow deity Lolth--who promoted strife among drow--and her supporters, Lolth's matriarchy and priestesses.

Groups and organizations of the church generally revolved around one of these steps, for example the Jaezred Chaulssin focused on the destruction of Lolth’s matriarchy,, the followers in Cormanthor worked on settling the surface, those of Guallidurth were dissatisfied with their people’s lack of unity, and so on.

The church also promoted the--in drow society rare--idea of gender equality.

Orders

 * Clan Auzkovyn
 * Clan Auzkovyn was a group of drow who were driven out of the High Forest by wood elves who tried to found a state there too. In 1372 DR, they were the second largest group of drow in Cormanthor.


 * Dark Dagger
 * The Dark Dagger was a criminal group. They infiltrated the criminal milieu of the regions around the Sea of Fallen Stars with the goal to eventually take control of them.


 * Dragon's Hoard
 * The Dragon's Hoard was a merchant band led by Nisstyre of Ched Nasad that formed a small community in the High Forest. The band was involved in the slave trade in Skullport, and were almost completely obliterated in 1361 DR by a group of Eilistraeean followers led by Qilué Veladorn.


 * House Jaelre
 * House Jaelre was the biggest drow group on the surface, in 1372 DR. Their goal was to found a permanent home for themselves in Cormanthor. Towards that end, they tried to learn and take over old elven magic.


 * Jaezred Chaulssin
 * The Jaezred Chaulssin was an assassins’ guild. Their goal was to rid the drow of the tyrannical rule of Lolth and her priestesses. They believed that drow society was so far beyond help that the society needed to be destroyed from the ground to be rebuilt.


 * School of Shadow Weave
 * The School of the Shadow Weave was a school in Sshamath that concerned itself with the Shadow Weave. They tried to get into the city’s ruling body by legal means.

Classes
Apart from divine casters, the church’s members generally consisted of assassins, bards, rogues and warlocks. . Due to Vhaeraun being the drow patron of shadow magic and spellfilchers, members were also spellfilchers or spellcasters who used the Shadow Weave.

Clerics had a habit of learning the skills of an assassin, divine seeker, rogue or shadowdancer. There were a number of special positions among the church.

Darkmask
Darkmasks were considered the elite and were the hands for special tasks.

Masked Traitor
A masked traitor was a type of a traitor priest, or more often traitor priestess for the majority was female. A traitor priestess was a cleric who posed as a cleric of another deity while in truth working for another one (usually Vhaeraun) effectively fooling the deity whose church was spied upon. Unlike other traitor priestesses of other deities, Vhaeraun's got special attention and power.

The church of Lolth sent their clerics into enemy churches as spies, but there was no known successful instance sent into Vhaeraun’s, despite its attractiveness for Lolth’s clergy.

This had to do with how double spies worked. Double spies, who were trained as such, had to convincingly pretend their false allegiance, which mandated them to immerse themselves in their enemies’ philosophies and practices, in this case Vhaeraun’s. The idea of one their own being capable of doing all this while at the same time remaining loyal to Lolth was considered too inconceivable for it to become more than a thought.

Skulker of Vhaeraun
A skulker of Vhaeraun was a user of divine magic who wasn’t necessarily part of the priesthood and who was still active in the post-Spellplague era.

Church of Lolth
The most important enmity was with the church of Lolth. Defeating that one was one of the vhaeraunites’ goals.

The church of Vhaeraun was considered the real rival by the church of Lolth. The major difference between these two, apart from their respective view on gender equality, was their respective stance towards progress. The observation was, that when drow gained tangible power, they also became more independent from Lolth. It was the reason why the Spider Queen and her clergy systematically extinguished or slowed change in their society, this led to stagnation in every aspect of drow society, major reasons for joining the church of Vhaeraun was the demand for societal, economic and territorial progress and expansion. The church of Vhaeraun received thus special treatment from the church of Lolth. Following another deity than Lolth was a crime in drow cities but, one was normally given a second chance on being found out, with the exception of the members the church of Vhaeraun who were immediately killed.

Church of Eilistraee
One relationship that underwent profound change in relative little time was the one to the church of Eilistraee. Vhaeraunites dealt in activities like slavery, or thievery (the Dark Dagger and the Dragon's Hoard were examples of this). This could lead to conflicts with the followers of Eilistraee (especially frequent in the area of the Promenade ), generally benevolent drow who strove to build their place in the surface world (much like the Vhaeraunites), but also to live in peace with the surface folk. This showed in Qilué Veladorn, the youngest of the Seven Sisters and high priestess of Eilistraee, who worked to convert worshipers of evil drow deities, particularly of Vhaeraun (whose Dark Dagger and Dragon's Hoard were very active near her temple of the Promenade), to the faith of her goddess.

When Eilistraee became the Masked Lady, many of such conflicts ceased in favor of an uneasy cooperation. (see Friction due to Attitude Differences) After the Dark Dancer and the Masked Lord returned to life, in the 1480s DR, despite their choice to not fight each other anymore, their followers returned to skirmish often. However, avoiding conflicts was made easier by the subtle change in Vhaeraun's modus operandi: his followers were in fact then encouraged to behave as "good citizens", when it proved profitable and helped their relationship with other surface dwellers, and to practice shadier deeds with as much subtley and secrecy as possible.

Church of Ghaunadaur
Technically, Vhaeraun and Ghaunadaur were enemies. Though their churches seemed to work quite well together when they somehow had the occasion.

Philosophically, they were quite close to each other. People with a mind set that was more compatible with Vhaeraun’s agenda but followed Ghaunadaur, because they didn’t know about the Masked Lord, constituted a meaningful part of Ghaunadaur’s follower base.

During the time of Ilythiir, the two churches worked together for the territorial expansion of that state. Later examples included the Vhaeraunite city of Holldaybim in the Forest of Mir, that harbored a temple to Ghaunadaur. In Eryndlyn, they were enemies, but eventually worked together to destroy Lolth’s forces. When Vhaeraun died, ex-clerics of him, who were included under Eilistraee and became her clerics, joined forces with Ghaunadaur’s to destroy the Promenade of the Dark Maiden.

Other Racial Pantheons
Vhaeraun had a long list of enemies (see Vhaeraun), which included the Dark Seldarine, the Seldarine and practically every deity with a presence in the Underdark.

The other enemies seemed to be treated more like hypothetical enemies than actual ones. For example, like most drow, their most frequent partners in terms of trade were duergars and mind flayers, despite them being the ones with whom they most often clashed in the Underdark. Vhaeraun actually forbade his followers to associate with gnomes and dwarves, though at times they did it anyway, and it seemed that no punitive measure existed for violating this, neither on individual nor on organizational level (see Attitudes).

Elves
Their stance towards elves was more complex. On one hand, priests of Vhaeraun encouraged contact and marriage with other elven races, so the various elven races could stand together common advancement.

Followers of the Masked Lord abandoned their racial hatred against their fair kin and considered the hatred on the elves’s side maniacal, even so their attitude towards the elves varied. Some groups of Vhaeraunites still fought them, although not because of dogmatic hatred (like House Jaelre with the Eldreth Veluuthra over the Elven Court), others accepted surface elves as members when they shared their temperament (as did Clan Auzkovyn), others even conducted actual recruitment campaigns, like the drow in Ultoksamrin. The only group of elves with whom they had a meaningful relationship which wasn’t always violent was with the Eldreth Veluuthra. As mentioned above, they fought each other if given reason but also had close enough ties, that caused the terrorists to have now and then internal discussions about accepting drow clerics into their group, even if only to counter their chronic lack of healing magic.

Surface Races
The elves’ hatred was also a problem in their dealings with others. Those who were on good terms with elves and saw their hatred against drow, due to the elven race’s good reputation coupled with the drow race’s bad reputation, became automatically their enemies, while humans who were neutral towards elves like those from Sembia considered them stable enough to become partners.

Though what shouldn’t be forgotten was that Vhaeraunites practiced slavery. Their slaves were generally every kind of humanoids whom they didn’t send into battle for danger of desertion. Other allies of theirs came in the form of mephits and shadow dragons.

Time of Dragons
Elves came to Toril around -27000 DR, these first elves didn’t worship the Seldarine, they couldn’t because they didn’t know that the elven pantheon existed at all. Among the first elves, those of the Ilythiiri tribe differed from all others in that they had higher ambitions than living in small tribes, they founded the first elven state Ilythiir, and the faith of Vhaeraun became the main religion there.

According to Eilistraee, the Ilythiiri dark elves who followed her brother valued and ruthlessly sought power above anything else, practiced slavery, and also attacked her followers. Ilythiir was indeed a nation with institutionalized slavery and which prized might, but the church of Vhaeraun at that time didn’t seem to have acted like rabid warmongers but followed a more careful but still aggressive approach to increase their power and succeeded at increasing their territory from what little was originally negotiated from the dragons, as well power. Ilythiir was in a special position to not fear dragons.

That said, the Ilythiiri society was characterized by the existence of conflicting faiths (Vhaeraun and Ghaunadaur, with a minority of followers of Eilistraee, ) and there were examples pointing to the fact that, while the faith of the Masked Lord was dominant, supporting the rival deity wasn't necessarily an unbeatable obstacle on the path to success (although that doesn't mean that followers of rival gods didn't clash). An example was Ka'Narlist, a follower of Ghaunadaur, who managed to advance to a position like one of the leaders of Attornash, Ilythiir’s capitol, be respected and also openly talk about his faith as well as voice disapproval and insults about the major faith to foreign diplomats whom he met for the first time.

First Flowering
After the Time of Dragons, a lot of things happened. The moon elf Kethryllia drew Lolth’s interest to Toril, the subsequent introduction of her faith in Ilythiir and growing political friction between Ilythiir and newer elven realms that escalated to skirmishes but for the church of Vhaeraun little changed until the Seldarine and their followers cast the Ever’Sakkatien with the First Sundering as a side effect. It was a ritual to create a dark elf-free land (followers of Eilistraee included), Evermeet. The ritual succeeded, the island was born, and the continent literally sundered in several pieces with corresponding casualties as collateral damage. Ilythiir suffered many deaths and destruction, among others its capitol. The church of Vhaeraun lost so many followers that they couldn’t keep their hegemonic position. Their efforts to salvage it were thwarted by the followers of Eilistraee, leaving the field open to Lolth’s and Ghaunadaur’s faith. Lolth’s dominance began and with it her machinations that culminated into the Crown Wars.

Crown Wars
The church of Vhaeraun fought in the Fourth Crown War on Ilythiir's side. They received aid in the form of magic, servants and other support.

During the Crown Wars, the dark elves of Ilythiir, 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,, but--as far as it is known--he was never depicted in poses that could lead to think to subservience (like it happened for Eilistraee, who was sometimes depicted as singing praises to Lolth ), nor was he confused with another deity, like Eilistraee and Kiaransalee on occasion as an undead spider with a sword. However, all those depictions were only the results of how some Ilythiiri interpreted the relationships among their deities, and the main gods of Ilythiir (Vhaeraun, Lolth, Ghaunadaur and Kiaransalee) personally killed their followers for such depictions.

After the Descent
It wasn’t very clear, what exactly the church did during the time between the Descent and the 14th century DR but at the very least, they were widespread and organized enough to be considered strong enough to protect the Yuirwood, though they didn’t become actually the forest’s protectors.

By the time of the 14th century DR, the church of Vhaeraun was a growing organization. They grew to become the biggest drow faction on the surface and the second biggest among the drow as a whole. They were considered the real rival by Lolth’s church, so much so that the church of Lolth included special tenets against the church of Vhaeraun by name.

War of the Spider Queen - Silence of Lolth
The Silence of Lolth was a golden opportunity for the followers to make large scale changes in drow society. They shifted the balance of power from Lolth’s theocratic matriarchy in favor of secular power holders and/or evened the distribution thereof between the genders. In some cities, they actually broke the power of the matriarchy or took over their positions. This all culminated in an assassination attempt against the comatose Lolth. The plan was to trick a follower of Lolth into guiding the priest Tzirik Jaelre to the body of the goddess and then call the Masked Lord to kill his mother, it failed.

War of the Spider Queen - After the Silence
After the Silence of Lolth, Eilistraee and Lolth started a divine game of sava over the destiny of the drow, with Vhaeraun himself stealthily joining the game. He and his followers plotted another attempt against Lolth’s life to end her reign. The idea was to open a gate between Ellaniath, Vhaeraun’s realm, and Eilistraee’s portion of Arvandor, via elven high magic, for the god to walk through and assassinate his sister, so the surface drow could be united under a single banner, thus increasing the number of Vhaeraun’s followers and giving him the necessary power boost to kill his mother.

However, that kind of magic was very taxing, and would have required the sacrifice of the souls of the casters. Because of that, the followers of the Masked Lord started to kill various priestesses of Eilistraee and collect their souls in their masks (a spell called soultheft), in order to use them as a fuel for the ritual.

On Nightal 20 of the Year of Risen Elfkin, 1375 DR, the ritual succeeded, Vhaeraun managed to enter his sister Eilistraee's realm and attempted to assassinate her. The Dark Maiden was warned by Qilué Veladorn. No mortal actually witnessed the battle that ensued, so what happened remained largely unknown. However, Eilistraee emerged from the battle alive, suggesting that Vhaeraun had failed and perished at the hand of his sister.

War of the Spider Queen - Under Eilistraee
After Vhaeraun died, the followers did several different things. Some converted to Eilistraee, out of a desire to have a hold over any kind of power or because she was the only thing that remained of Vhaeraun, others to Shar and others simply stayed with their old faith, out of denial or being not aware of their god’s death.

Eilistraee took the portfolio of her brother and this had an effect on her followers. Eilistraee’s clerics became more violent and the former Vhaeraunites kinder. For example, it didn’t take half a year, until fabricating the truth for propaganda’s sake and assassinating or bribing those who knew the truth with high positions became an acceptable course of action for Qilué Veladorn and the general Promenade of the Dark Maiden’s leadership. During the same timeframe, formerly Vhaeraunite clerics were exposed to new allies they didn’t even consider before, such as deep gnomes, and learned to respect them, albeit when provided a reason like contribution to a task. Within the Promenade, the two groups lived separated from each other, celebrating different rituals, and the former Vhaeraunites retained their title of Nightshadows. Inside of the temple they had to endure the priestesses’ sexist and elitist mind set and cases of bullying, even under usage of military authority. This kind of behavior extended at least once to a dangerous mission in the form of sabotage, as former Vhaeraunites were withheld the password to go to their own home base, though without the knowledge of the commander of the mission.

In 1379 DR, after the Masked Lady was supposedly killed by Halisstra Melarn. Before the death of the Masked Lady, Eilistree’s followers were killed en masse by Halisstra and by followers of Ghaunadaur’s followers who managed to attack them via the portal network of the Promenade, its successful conquest was made possible by some of the former clerics of Vhaeraun who successfully purported to serve Eilistraee. Meanwhile, in an attempt to cut losses, a High Magic ritual performed by Q'arlynd Melarn transformed hundreds among the drow who were of “pure“-Miyeritar-descent, or who were followers of Eilistraee (including the former Vhaeraunite converts) into dark elves, though neither with their consent nor with informing them about it beforehand. Corellon Larethian thus permitted the souls of those among Eilistraee's faithful who were transformed into dark elves to enter Arvandor.

At least some of those who converted to Shar made it their goal to kill those of their former faith who turned to Eilistraee.

Those who held on Vhaeraun, even those hadn't converted to the Masked Lady, weren’t completely deprived of their spells (although they lost their most powerful magic). At least some tried to infiltrate and take over the Promenade under the (wrong) assumption that Vhaeraun was masquerading as Eilistraee to get additional followers.

Post-Spellplague
The church of Vhaeraun survived the death of its deity. Its followers at that time were mostly drow who prayed to Vhaeraun because they were either in the unknown or denial about his death. The prayers of these skulkers of Vhaeraun were answered, divine spellcasters regained their magic and lay-worshippers also got access to minor divine magic which they used to continue their work with.

Post Second Sundering
Vhaeraun and Eilistraee managed to return to life as separate entities during the event known as the Second Sundering. They returned in Flamerule 1489 DR, with the same power and portfolio that they had before 1375 DR. After the time spent as the Masked Lady, despite having very different ideals and modus operandi, the two siblings reached a truce, 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. They both had a functional following, mostly made up of drow.

Notable followers of Vhaeraun
See here for additional followers

Clerics

 * Tzirik Jaelre, high priest of House Jaelre (1372 DR).
 * Xorthaul Barriath, Patron Father and head priest of the Jaezred Chaulssin (1373 DR).
 * Shakti Hunzrin, traitor-priestess of Lolth and Vhaeraun (1361 DR).
 * Henge, drow priest in the Dragon's Hoard in 1361 DR.
 * Vokkrzyr Rualfren, leader of the drow clans in Ultoksamrin (1372 DR)

Lay-Worshipper

 * Nisstyre, leader of the Dragon's Hoard (1361 DR).
 * Malakuth Tabuirr, leader of the Dark Dagger (1372 DR)
 * Mauzzkyl Jaezred, leader of the Jaezred Chaulssin
 * Amryyr Yauntyrr, courier and scholar of the Dark Dagger (1372 DR)
 * Alak Abaeir, an assassin in the service of the church of Vhaeraun

Others

 * Phalar, the Chosen of Vhaeraun
 * Aliinzir Gi'Leera, one of several proxies of Vhaeraun, member of the Revolutionary League

Proxies
Vhaeraun had several proxies. They all worked secretly against Lolth and thus their existence and identities, with the notable exception of Aliinzir's, was a secret. They were all male with the power of true seeing, cat's grace, thievery and to strike creatures hit only by magical weapons and others. For example, Aliinzir had immunity to light and could meld into shadow.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Condemnation
 * Resurrection
 * Sacrifice of the Widow
 * Sacrifice of the Widow


 * Sourcebooks
 * Demihuman Deities
 * Faiths and Pantheons
 * On Hallowed Ground
 * On Hallowed Ground