Church of Vhaeraun

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

They mostly consisted in drow and half-drow who wanted to see their people freed from Lolth's oppression, and united in reclaiming their rightful place and dominance in 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.

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’ in that it read itself like a policy agenda and not a list of behaviours to please a deity. It clarified the organisation’s goal and purpose, the steps to take towards its fulfilment, and under whose leadership the work was done.

The church viewed itself as the successors of Ilythiir and took account of the fact that they (and by extension the entire elven race) fell from power, and made remedying to this their goal.

The steps towards that goal were to unite the drow and claim territory on the surface, which was called the Night Above. 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 it 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 organisations 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 worked to promote the idea of unity, and so on.

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

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

Their primary motivation was dissatisfaction at the limiting nature of their society and they weren’t choosy about their methods to change it, though they didn’t tolerate underhandedness from others against them. 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 the two faiths being confused with one another on the surface.

They shared a cooperative mindset that made them suffer the least infighting among all evil drow groups. This "cooperative mindset" didn’t translate itself into unconditional love towards each other. Inside a given vhaeraunite group, the followers generally didn’t fight against each other, and while they regularly interacted and traded with other groups, they did punish members of those groups if given reason. For example, it was normal for groups in Cormanthor to kill trespassers regardless of religious affiliation, shared or not, but if a group gave a reason, like lack of desire to take one’s land, they grew more permissive towards that particular group and given more reason, like a common external enemy, they banded together to a full alliance.

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

Activities
Members and supporters of the church were varied, they were found among the disenfranchised people, common thieves merchants, consorts of a priestess to the priestess herself.

The 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, the means included rumor, intrigue, thievery, poison manufacture, murder, assassination, inciting riots, and so on, though passive opposition like promoting the idea that male drow were as valuable as female ones was also common.

While spying was common, as followers of a god of thievery, they conducted thievery, from the common cutpurse to burglary, against enemy temples, to all out raids. Members of the priesthood helped thieves, providing healing or freeing them from prison, if necessary by force.

Priests also acted as vigilantes, especially violence against male drow was avenged. They were also known to put the blame for their murder on their enemies.

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.

They also tried to increase their range of influence. Apart from the major 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.

Vhaeraun’s followers were known for their usage of poison. They were known to manufacture and experiment with it and also paid well for new formulas.

Titles
Vhaeraun's clergy was almost entirely male. Collectively they were known as the Masked while novices were called the 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 nor with any kind of uniformity. 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 but self fashioned regional titles also existed like Shadow Sorcerer in the city of Sshamath.

Hierarchy
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.

Dead followers, known as Vhaerath, petitioners who have gained additional abilities in Stealth, could be called to aid by followers who knew the key for it.

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. 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 was Malakuth Tabuirr, a Rogue-Fighter, devoted follower of Vhaeraun (enough to fund at least one temple), and even 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 favour of male drow. There were at least two 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 that males gave in to grudges and kept females from the high positions. This caused a wide spectrum from the egalitarian Holldaybim to the particularly crass city of Chaulssin that killed its rare female half-dragon offspring.

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 Star 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.

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.

They had some means to communicate with their deity to share the spell, tactics and poison formulas, they invented. This wasn’t a one-way communication, for Vhaeraun distributed this knowledge with the entire clergy.

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.

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.

Vhaeraun was known to be unusually responsive for a deity. Having success at 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.

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.

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. Darkmasks were considered the elite and were the hands for special tasks. A masked traitor was a spy, a cleric who posed as a cleric of another deity but was in actuality a cleric of Vhaeraun, effectively fooling the deity whose church was spied upon. A skulker of Vhaeraun was a user of divine magic who wasn't necessarily part of the priesthood.

Regions
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 and had at least some presence in every community where drow were found. 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.

For example, the church was the biggest religious non-lolthite organization in the city of Guallidurth, snd 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.

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 was patriarchic and were specifically allied against Guallidurth.

There was another settlement in Ultoksamrin 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 tried to recruit surface elves to bolster the ranks against the matrons from Guallidurth, though with unknown success.

An organization called the Dark Dagger was active throughout the Sea of Fallen Stars, namely 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. The cells in Skullport and Calimshan were almost destroyed in a turf war called the Darkstalker Wars. Both cells regained their strength and importance under the leadership of Malakuth Tabuirr in Skullport and Masoj Naerth in Calimshan respectively. The cell in Skullport became the foremost smuggling organization and was also prominent enough as slavers to be part of the Iron Ring. They also undermined the efforts of House Thanor’Thal of Karsoluthiyl by raiding their caravans. Kesra Thanor’Thal, the priestess in charge, wasn’t aware that the Dark Dagger were behind these attacks. The Jaezred Chaulssin also maintained a minor fosterage in Skullport.

As mentioned before, most drow on the surface followed Vhaeraun and they were found in the Forest of Lethyr, the Frozen Forest, the Lurkwood, the Rawlinswood, the Trollbark Forest, Winterswood and in the High Forest, where the Dragon's Hoard was active.

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. The cosmopolitan city had three groups which consisted of followers of Vhaeraun. The first one was the official church of Vhaeraun under Pharaun Lhalabar. They were situated in the Tower of the Masked Mage. Religion and divine magic wasn’t viewed well in the city and this applied to Vhaeraun’s faith as well, thus the church did primarily consist of spellfilchers, rogues and spellcasters who used shadow magic rather than clerics. Still, when Lolth’s priesthood lost their powers during the Silence of Lolth, Vhaeraun’s clerics took the official positions formerly held by Lolth’s clergy. After Vhaeraun was killed, some most followers converted to Shar and killed those followers of the tower who turned to Eilistraee, the one who killed their former god. The second 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. The Sharrans displayed their faith in visible ways and having them under surveillance as a fellow member in the rulership was a debated matter. The third group was the Jaezred Chaulssin, who maintained a minor fosterage in Sshamath.

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 the aforementioned minor holdings in Skullport and Sshamath, they had a major presence in Ched Nasad, Dusklyngh, Eryndlyn, Jhachlkhyn, Karsoluthiyl, Maerimydra and Sschindylryn.

The Jaezred Chaulssin weren’t the only one active in Ched Nasad. The church kept a secret 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 against either Deepingdale or Ched Nasad. More importantly, it opened a reliable Underdark-surface trade channel for food and water for Ched Nasad and drow goods on the surface. 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.

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 factions into cooperation. During the Silence of Lolth, Jaezred Chaulssin fosterage under Tomphael Arkenrret managed to urge the two factions into an alliance that completely destroyed Lolth’s influence in the city. While Eryndlyn got destroyed in the Spellplague when the cavern changed into a Spellcave, the assassins’ fosterage seemed to have survived.

In Dusklyngh, Jhachlkhyn and Karsoluthiyl, the Jaezred Chaulssin managed to shift the power balance in favour of the merchant class from Lolth’s matriarchy. Jhachlkhyn was then practically ruled by the assassins.

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. It probably consisted of urging the city’s archmage into allying and destroying the matriarchy of the city. The chaos allowed Kiaransalee’s followers to take over.

After the fall of Myth Drannor in 714 DR, surface elves started to feel a psychological compulsion to abandon their land for Evermeet. 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 settlement, while Clan Auzkovyn tried to carve out a nomadic live.

In the city of Menzoberranzan existed a growing church. Due to the virtual non-existence of other organised faith, 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. The group proved to be resilient, it survived the death of its deity.

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 favoured colours of the church was black. If given a choice between two things which are the same but for the colour, vhaeraunites usually picked the black one. Other symbols, they looked out for were specific gems, for they believed they could read divine favour or disfavour out of these gems. The specific gems were agni mani, black opal, black sapphire, hematite, black marble, obsidian, black onyx and black pearl Specific (dead) animals were also considered potents from the deity. They believed that the appearance, even illusory, or behaviour of black cats, ravens or dead spiders could be an attempt by Vhaeraun to tell them something.

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
A cleric of Vhaeraun didn't need to carry around a holy symbol to cast spells, once attuned to it. 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, though they had a number of favoured weapons, daggers, short swords and long swords, though "favoured" wasn't as valued as "useful".

Clerics also used poison of different varieties, both in kind and toxicity, in fact the use of poison was the entire church's weapon of choice.

Notable followers of Vhaeraun

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

Relationships
Priests of Vhaeraun encouraged contact and marriage with other elven races, so the various elven races could stand together and advance as a whole. The followers of the Masked Lord abandoned their racial hatred against their fair kin. , but the 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.

Vhaeraun 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).

The worshipers of the Masked Lord didn't hesitate to forcibly reclaim their place in the Night Above, sometimes dealing 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, which was consolidated by the truce between the Dark Dancer and the Masked Lord after their return, in the 1480s DR. Furthermore, it 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.

Appearances

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


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