Vhaeraun

Vhaeraun (Vay-rawn), also called the Masked Lord, the Masked God of Night, The Shadow, less frequently, the Masked Mage and the Lord of Shadow was the drow god of drow males, thievery, territory, shadow magic, spellfilchers and evil activities on the surface, aimed to further drow goals, interests and power there.

Vhaeraun was the son of Araushnee and Corellon Larethian. He held the unique view among drow that males and females were equally valuable, and was primarily prayed to by those drow males who sought a better life than slavery under Lolth’s matriarchy, and that opposed it.

Description
As an avatar, Vhaeraun appeared either as a normal male drow or as a handsome male drow, with a slim, graceful, and toned physique with a height of 16ft. (4.88 meters).

He never used armor, but always wore a black (or purple ) mask, and a long cloak of the same hue. His eyes and/or hair could change color to reflect his emotions (red for anger, gold for triumph, blue for amusement, green for puzzlement and curiosity).

When he appeared to Inthracis in 1373 DR, he was missing a hand, though it seemed that he came into contact with some kind of regeneration later, so he could hold two weapons in each hand.

Personality
Vhaeraun was a proud (at times vain) and vindictive drow. While he was willing to use underhandedness to reach his goals, he didn't tolerate the same being used against him, or his people.

Despite these harsh traits, he was also willing to cooperate, when it came to undermining and fighting his mother, Lolth, and tried to unite the other drow gods against her.

Vhaeraun was actively involved in the lives of his followers. Tzirik Jaelre described him as a caring god and was indeed one who didn't distance himself from the concerns of his followers and answered their pleas about 15% of the time, even in the form of servants in the case of real need. He also seemed to be protective of his followers and was seen providing protection to those in his vicinity when he could, and provided the means to avert self-sacrifice while working for him.

He and his followers shared a realistic understanding, regarding his strength. He knew, that he was too weak to fight his mother frontally. So he worked against her in secretive ways directed at increasing his and his people’s power and decreasing those of his enemies. Starting with passive resistance by teaching ideas that contradicted Lolth’s dogma to open action. The Masked Lord was unusual among deities for his readiness to enter the front line himself when the scale was right, meaning when the target was a god.

Activities
Vhaeraun laid out his goals in his 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. "

Vhaeraun’s goal was to put the Ilythiiri, or drow, back into the position of power they once held. He detested to see his people wither because of the pointless infighting and division that Lolth promoted. His plan towards his goal was thus, undoing the Spider Queen, her idea of "society", replacing it with one where the drow would be united, and both genders treated with equality. He saw that as the only way to lead the drow to reclaim their power and place on the surface, called the Night Above, to rule over all the others. Elves represented an exception, as it was Vhaeraun's belief that all the Tel'Quessir needed to work together for common progress.

The Masked Lord taught subtle opposition against the priestesses of Lolth and their ideals. He incited his followers to rebel and sow rebellion --especially among male drow--against the Spider Queen’s matriarchy by any means available, going as far as to personally teach methods and skills of resistance.

He promoted the same kind of activities on the surface. He taught his followers to increase drow power and influence based on real assets, by trade and association with other creatures, but also by criminal means, for example thievery. These kind of activities on the surface were so similar to Mask’s, whose consisted of creating a trustworthy front and not committing unnecessary crimes in the face of other means, that the two deities were confused with each other among non-drow there. After the Second Sundering, Vhaeraun’s modus operandi emphasized the "good citizens" part more strongly than before.

The Shadow also gathered any particularly effective poisons, spells, and tactics devised by his clerics, in order to share such tools with the rest  and also trained the otherwise defenseless in his skills of a rogue.

Manifestations
Vhaeraun had a number of ways to manifest his powers. Apart from his own avatar or his minions’ direct help, he could empower and inform his people.

Manifestations - Calling
Vhaeraun was capable of creating avatars, and preferred to appear in his avatar form (see Description) when possible. A ritual needed to be completed for such an event, but even when said ritual was completed, the avatar appeared only one in five times.

It was relatively easy to convince him to send one of his servitors for help, provided the proper rituals were conducted in situations of real need. "Real need" didn’t seem to necessarily equate life or death situations. Instances in which shadows were used as messengers to contact a large number of followers in a wide area were known.

Manifestations - Tangible Effects
Apart from direct help, Vhaeraun had some means by which he could provide his followers with tangible help.

Empowerment
When Vhaeraun wanted to directly help and individual, who didn’t conduct the ritual to call his avatar, he could send a black shadow. It acted as a half-mask for a chosen individual for about one minute.

During that time, the recipient received a blessing in the form of minor healing, the true seeing spell, ability to wound creatures immune to mundane weapons, moving silently, while under the pass without trace spell, and success at keeping one’s footing under all circumstances. A single creature could only be blessed like this once per day.

Intimidation
Another manifestation consisted of a floating insubstantial half-mask, made of shadow. It could pass through any obstacle, magical or not and including divine boundaries, to reach the enemy of his people. The mask then (twice per appearance) laughed mockingly and chillingly, inducing terror in those who heard it, as though with the fear spell.

Interview
Vhaeraun could see into other people's minds, he used this ability to discern compatibility with his philosophy. Once a person with the proper mind set was found, a shadowy black face mask appeared before the individual. Via telepathy, an one-on-one inducement talk was conducted. If such a private meeting was discovered, the mask used a number spells to kill the intruders. After proving that his cause was based on power and had chances to succeed, the mask left to come back later for another talk.

Manifestations - Information
Vhaeraun had a number of minor manifestations, that required less expenditure of power from him and were thus far more common. These were generally directed at giving his followers information instead of a power boosts. The general and interpretation heavy nature of these caused it to be misinterpreted from time to time.

Color
Vhaeraun’s favored color was black. This didn’t just mean that he liked black things. He could change the color of things into his favored color to make choices for his followers easier.

Animals
Another minor manifestation was the, real or illusory, appearance of animals. He could cause black cats, ravens and/or dead spiders to appear and make them act in some specific ways.

Gems
He could also let his favor (or displeasure) be known, by making his followers stumble on or change the quality of specific gemstones. These were agni mani, black opals, black sapphires, hematite, black marble, obsidian, black onyx, black pearls, black-hued jasper, chalcedony, crown of silver, horn coral, jet, ravenar, and samarskite.

Unique
Vhaeraun could create unique forms of manifestations to relay information like a half-mask made of shadow, flitting shadows or a region of impenetrable darkness. Receiving such a manifestation was sometimes considered a reason to improve one’s standing in a group, as well as to lay down suspicion against each other and cooperate.

Others
Apart from a deity’s standard creations of sudden smells, noises, lights, auras and visions and possession of people, Vhaeraun could also share concrete information with several people through shared dreams.

Relationships
Vhaeraun was the son of Corellon Larethian and Lolth, the elder twin brother of Eilistraee, and the father of Selvetarm. He opposed and was opposed by all of his family members.

Relationships - Seldarine
The relationship between him and the Seldarine, which he was formerly part of, were bad, in fact all members of the Seldarine considered him their enemy.

Corellon Larethian
After Vhaeraun’s betrayal during the War of the Seldarine, Corellon Larethian practically cut his son off with a shilling and exiled him.

He gave up on the idea of turning his son Vhaeraun to abandon his ways. He vowed kill him, if he ever tried to hurt his sister, which was an empty threat, for the Masked Lord did threaten the Dark Maiden’s life, without known action against him on Corellon’s part.

Interestingly the one type of magic, that Protector considered too corrupt for elves and thus suitable for drow, the usage of the Shadow Weave, was the niche Vhaeraun filled in his role as the patron of shadow magic.

Others
Vhaeraun hated Sehanine Moonbow for escaping his prison during the War of the Seldarine. The fact that Sehanine and Selune were one and the same person made the relationship interesting. Selune (or Sehanine) and Shar were according to the Dark Moon heresy the same goddess, a not completely baseless claim for both deities supported those clerics of their who promoted this idea, and with it were Vhaeraun's ally.

Furthermore the elven pantheon counted Shevarash among their numbers. He was a deity who dedicated his life to hunt down drow, in particular, Vhaeraun and Lolth.

Relationships - Dark Seldarine
The relationship between him and the rest of the Dark Seldarine weren’t good, particularly the one with Lolth was completely hostile. One of Vhaeraun’s goals was it to unite the rest of the drow powers against the Spider Queen, such cooperation was difficult due to the vastly different views each deity shared, though he did succeed at forming an alliance with Kiaransalee and later with Eilistraee and cooperation with both Ghaunadaur and Selvetarm to a lesser extent (see below)

Lolth
Vhaeraun’s and Lolth’s relationship started as mother and son. Vhaeraun shared her trait of ambition and became her confident in her betrayal against her husband. At latest after the Descent, the two were complete enemies. Vhaeraun calling for the destruction of the society she stood for,

On one hand, she encouraged her son’s rivalry with her, for it appealed to her love of chaos. On the other hand, her son having actual success at swaying the drow to his cause of destroying her, her supporters and beneficiaries, and her version of society was a real source of fear for her. Lolth viewed him as her real rival and enemy leading to her incorporating specific tenets against her son’s followers.

Mother and son had little to no common ground.

Lolth promoted favoritism towards females, Vhaeraun promoted gender equality, the Spider Queen urged surface elves as sacrifice from her worshippers, the Masked Lord urged his followers to cooperate with surface elves, Lolth tried to keep drow society stagnant in every regard, Vhaeraun attracted those who wanted change in the societal progress, economic growth, territorial expansion, etc. Lolth wanted to extinguish the drow race’s desire to return to the surface, Vhaeraun called for settling the surface,  and so on. These differences made the idea of Lolth’s forces and those from the surface to work together against Vhaeraun’s into something not completely impossible.

Eilistraee
A slur to describe him among the followers of Eilistraee was the Sly Savage.

Vhaeraun’s relationship with his sister Eilistraee was one, that underwent big changes. Before the Second Sundering, he used to hate his sister Eilistraee, both for having been the favored child of Corellon Larethian, and for hindering his efforts to bring the Ilythiiri under him, thus opening the way for Lolth and Ghaunadaur to rise to prominence, nonetheless he tried to bring her alongside the other drow gods on his side against Lolth. Eilistraee on the other hand was sad about her brother's evil ways but also held a - possibly one-sided due to the Masked Lord's willingness to work with her - divine grudge against him and her divine champions chose - among others - him as a particular enemy to oppose. After 1489 DR, they became allies, though this didn’t necessarily extend to their followers. How the alliance between the traitor of the Seldarine and an ally of the same affected their respective relationships with the elven pantheon wasn’t known. They shared a few characteristics. Both wanted their people on the surface, Eilistraee in harmony with others, Vhaeraun by building power structures that allowed his followers to rule over others.

Ghaunadaur
He was opposed to Ghaunadaur, they used to guide the elves of Ilythiir together, during their time there, though it wasn't clear whether they were on amicable terms. If Ka'Narlist was taken as a measure, followers of Ghaunadaur considered Vhaeraun an upstart who wasn't attractive to those who were looking for life force as a power source. There was also an overlap in their follower base. A meaningful part of Ghaunadaur’s followers were philosophically closer to Vhaeraun than Ghaunadaur and followed him only because they didn’t know about the god of thievery or his agenda. Followers of Ghaunadaur and Vhaeraun seemed to work together based on individual projects. As examples, followers of the two worked together to destroy the Lolth-worshippers in Eryndlyn, the Ghaunadan fey'ri House Dlardrageth and the Vhaeraunite drow House Jaelre worked together to protect themselves from the Army of Myth Drannor, and even after Vhaeraun's death, Vhaeraunites and Ghaunadans successfully worked together to destroy the Promenade of the Dark Maiden but there were also capable of living side by side like in Holldaybim.

Kiaransalee
Vhaeraun was allied with Kiaransalee, though she was also allied with Lolth. The difference between these two relationship was, that the former was a willing alliance to get rid of Lolth's dominance, while the latter took the form of forced subservience to the Spider Queen.

Selvetarm
He was opposed by his son Selvetarm. For example, when the draegloths started to convert to Vhaeraun during the Silence of Lolth, Selvetarm took some in with the intention of handing them over to his grandmother when she awoke again. Even though Selvetarm hated his grandmother to whom he was practically enslaved, he still fought against his father during the Silence of Lolth as Vhaeraun sought to destroy Lolth in her weakened state thus botching his chance for freedom. Vhaeraun had a very low opinion about Selvetarm’s intelligence but the aforementioned submissive trait of his son was what angered him. It seemed that his position as patron of male drow was contended by the more comformist Selvetarm after the Second Sundering. At some point in time, though the two managed to set aside their differences enough for radical Selvetargtlin and Vhaeraunnites to cooperate enough, that being raised by Selvetargtlin wasn't something to bat an eye.

Relationship - Enemies
A large number of Underdark deities were also his enemies. They included the duergar deities Laduguer and Deep Duerra, the derro deities Diirinka and Diinkarazan, the beholder deities Great Mother and Gzemnid, the mind flayer deities Ilsensine and Maanzecorian, the aboleth progenitor Blood Queen, the ixzan deity Ilxendren, the kuo-toa deity Blibdoolpoolp, the myconid deity Psilofyr and the troglodyte deity Laogzed. Though this could be more due to the fact that in the Underdark, societies organized and identified themselves first through their racial identities and tended to enslave others who weren't of the same to make the generation and distribution of the (extremely) scarce resources easier, than due to personal grudges.

Other enemies of his were Sharess and the halfling deity Cyrrollalee. Vhaeraun's enmity with Cyrrollalee was rooted in their portfolios. The halfling goddess was the deity of homes and Vhaeraun was the god of thievery and thus an intruder into a home. His enmity with Sharess had a more specific background. (see here)

Relationships - Allies
Vhaeraun enjoyed a working relationship with Mask, Shar, and Talona. Vhaeraun was the drow patron of shadow magic and Shar was the owner of the Shadow Weave. They worked together in projects that concerned this magic like the School of the Shadow Weave which had both followers of Vhaeraun and Shar among them. When Vhaeraun died, Shar was also one of the prime choices to convert to. The relationship with Mask was interesting in that while Mask was interested in absorbing him to compensate his loss of power to Cyric, there were also Vhaeraun's followers who used the resemblance in the two gods' symbols and methods to recruit followers among humans and half-elves.

Relationships - Followers
Drow deities in general had a weird relationship with their followers. Followers were referred to in terms of belonging to one or the other deity like possessions, which seemed to be meant in the literal sense for Lolth, Eilistraee and Kiaransalee were all mentally capable of using their followers’ fate as a wager in their game; while Vhaeraun meddled in this game, he didn’t wager his followers like the others, which wasn’t necessary an indicator of a different stance. They also had dogmas, that generally concerned itself with describing how to live a life that pleased them, whereas Vhaeraun’s was unique in that his was used to outline the goal of his organization and the steps towards it. He considered himself the leader of this endeavour. The relationship between him and his followers was based on a deal, the followers' obedience in exchange for divine support, whereas piety was at best of secondary concern. His followers joined him for different reasons, from actually agreeing to his philosophy to more personal reasons like the desire for change or freedom to completely personal reasons like the desire for revenge, simple madness or because they thought, that Vhaeraun's support was a tool strong enough for the follower's social advancement to justify the risk of exposure, He primarily valued his followers by their action, what was excluded from evaluation were their intentions, private desires and thoughts including rebellious ones. He was capable of punishing his followers for bad performance, a good track record wasn’t considered an excuse for it, and also for transgressions, like impersonating him, even in ways, that virtually meant their death, as it happened to Tellik Melarn, and to hold people in high standing for their actions, despite their rebellious thoughts against him.

Relationships - Mortals
Vhaeraun trained the otherwise defenseless in his skills of a rogue and was seen providing protection to his followers in his vicinity when he could, and when his followers were to conduct magic, that would kill them, he gave means to avert self-sacrifice (the divine spell soultheft) while working for him. These may sound like the actions of a kind person, he wasn’t one. For example, the aforementioned means to avert self-sacrifice consisted of burning other people’s souls instead those of his followers. His goal was to lead the drow back to their former position of power and saw a general need for advancement for elves, and encouraged cooperation including intermarrying. The goal included the subjugation of other races. Despite this, cooperation with other races was possible. He had an unexplained dislike against dwarves and gnomes and forbid his followers to associate with these, but they did it anyway (see here)

Worshipers
Main article: Church of Vhaeraun

Vhaeraun had the largest drow following on the surface and the second largest overall. The church of Vhaeraun primarily consisted of male drow and half-drow males who sought a better life than slavery under Lolth’s matriarchy, and that opposed it. The promise of a gender fair society in which empathy, cooperation and growth was possible appealed to them.

Servitors
The Masked Lord was personally served by his petitioners, the souls of his dead followers, on his realm Ellaniath. Some petitioners were turned into vhaeraths, petitioners who gained additional abilities in stealth and retained their skills in life, who were frequently dispatched to Toril to do their god’s bidding. Other servitor creatures weregehreleths (farastu, kelubar, and shator); mephits (air, smoke, and earth), shadow dragons, shadow fiends, shadows, yeth hounds. Petitioners who distinguished themselves in life through great service were turned by the Masked Lord into some type of his servitor creatures. Vhaeraun once forbade his priests to use spells to summon any servant creatures, as he expected them to only perform rituals to summon his avatar. This rule was substantially relaxed and it became in fact easy to convince him to send one of his servitors for help, provided the proper ritual was conducted. He also provided his followers access to his servitors for their summon monster and planar ally spells. The vhaeraths were an exception, calling them required the knowledge outlined in the Obsul Ssussun.

Divine Realm
Vhaeraun’s home realm was called Ellaniath, the whereabouts of which were unknown as the Masked Lord wiped the memories of any visitor.

Symbol
Vhaeraun's symbol was a black half-mask. Variations consisted of two black lenses forming a mask. There was also a slight variation of this symbol, which consisted of a black mask with two blue lenses. Its similarity with Mask's symbol combined with the two the two gods' similarities of their methods allowed Vhaeraun's followers to recruit humans and half-elves who initially mistook the symbol for the human god of thieves.

The Dawn Age
Vhaeraun was born as son of Corellon Larethian and Lolth, as the elder twin brother of Eilistraee. About -30.000 DR, Lolth (at that time called Araushnee) tried to overthrow her husband as the head of the elven pantheon.

Vhaeraun was her confident in this betrayal. He was unique in that he didn’t feel attachment to membership in the Seldarine, easily suggesting to just leave the group and also didn’t see inherent value in blood ties. Realizing that she was alone, after understanding her son’s capability to betray his father and his potential to murder her later to come out on top, was what gave Araushnee the final nudge away from the Seldarine. He hid Corellon’s sheath, so Eilistraee could find it, which she did out of the known affection towards her father. She was intended to be the unknowing murderer of her father and the scapegoat for the betrayal. The sheath was cursed to direct her arrows to the bearer - Corellon - and retrieving and giving it back to him guaranteed her a position in his vicinity in the ensuring battle. His other role was to imprison Sehanine Moonbow. She needed to be imprisoned because his mother conducted the very first step of the betrayal in plain sight of the moon goddess, thus revealing it to her. The moon goddess eventually managed to escape her prison, albeit at high cost to herself. During the war, he protected Araushnee. After the war, a trial was called in. Vhaeraun became a member in exile of the Seldarine.

The Time of Dragons
During the Time of Dragons, the first elves came to Toril. They didn’t know about the Seldarine and mostly strove to live in scattered tribes with one exception, the ilythiiri. Among them, Vhaeraun became the mainstream deity. in the first elven state Ilythiir. He, and to a lesser degree Ghaunadaur, helped their people to carefully but successfully expand their territory throughout southern Faerun (at that time the name for the single continent on Toril), and power, to a level that kept them independent from the dragons. Eilistraee tried to stop Vhaeraun’s evil machinations, and he tried to kill her. He maintained thin ties with his mother. Without any bad intentions, the moon elf Kethryllia Amarillis drew Lolth to Toril in -24400 DR, the Spider Queen then made inroads in the southern state of Ilythiir.

The First Flowering
Vhaeraun’s became the most popular deity in the southern Ilythiir. The nation spread throughout the south of the continent with Vhaeraun as the driving force behind this development. This position of hegemony changed with the First Sundering in -17.600 DR. Despite vastly different views, Ilythiir was originally on good footing with the other elven nations. But Lolth poisoned the relationships between dark elves and other subraces. Seldarine-following elves came up with the idea to create a dark elf-free piece of land for those weary of the difficulties on the continent. They used elven high magic, and while they succeeded at creating their island, Evermeet, they destroyed the continent, with accompanying casualties, among them many citizens of Ilythiir, as collateral damage. Among this collateral damage was a large part of the church of Vhaeraun. The Masked Lord's influence ebbed with the loss of these and with his salvage efforts being foiled by Eilistraee, Lolth became the hegemonic deity in Ilythiir, allowing her to start her machinations to corrupt and destroy all elves which culminated in the Crown Wars.

The Crown Wars
Vhaeraun, no longer the main deity, did his part in providing aid in the form of his magic, servants and other support to the dark elves of Ilythiir during the Fourth Crown War. The Ilythiiri, who were still refining their worship of the Dark Seldarine, used to portray their gods as spider deities and high priests were killed for promoting these kind of iconography by the offended gods. Vhaeraun, for example, was depicted as a Masked Spider. The Crown Wars destroyed most elven realms, among others Ilythiir, at latest at this point, Vhaeraun and Lolth were enemies. (see Vhaeraun#Lolth|here]]

Age of Humanity
At some point, some centuries before the 3rd century DR, Zandilar, a deity worshipped by the elves in the Yuirwood at that time, tried to seduce Vhaeraun. The background for this seduction attempt was that Lolth’s followers attacked the elves in the Yuirwood. The elves there had general problems to repel any invaders and thus Zandilar made habitual use of her seductiveness to get information and allies or to sway would be invaders away, her target for seduction at that time was Vhaeraun. She tried to seduce the Masked Lord for information and/or assistance but was imprisoned in turn with the goal of stealing her power. Bast managed to create the opening for Zandilar to flee and she let her savior take the remnants of her power, so Bast could protect the elves in her place. Selvetarm was born just before the process of this merging as Vhaeraun's son and rejected his father out of personal uncertainty.

War of the Spider Queen - 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, with Selvetarm protecting her, as part of a plan to increase her power and separate her divine realm, the Demonweb Pits, from the Abyss. Vhaeraun gained influence through unfurling plans during this opportunity, his followers took over power by both legal and violent means and by being sought out as an alternative, for example by draegloths.

In the same year, the drow of Menzoberranzan, through Triel Baenre, sent a group of powerful adventurers led by Quenthel Baenre to discover the cause of Lolth's silence (or, as was then suspected, disfavor). During Uktar, Quenthel's company finally managed to gain the collaboration of a cleric of Vhaeraun, Tzirik Jaelre, who could lead them to the Demonweb Pits with the help of his god. However, they were betrayed by their Vhaeraunite guide, who summoned the Masked Lord as part of a plan to attack the defenseless Lolth. After grievously wounding her, Selvetarm appeared to battle Vhaeraun but both fell off the web and plummeted into the darkness below. This battle caused a lot of damage to the fabric of the multiverse. Among others, it caused the danger of a part of the Nine Hells to seep into Toril. Another attempt at Lolth’s life was made through a bargain Vhaeraun made with the yugoloth Inthracis, he couldn’t act personally because of Lolth’s ban against divine creatures to enter her realm. The bargain consisted of the yugoloth and his army killing the potential candidates for the position of Lolth’s Chosen, the vital component for her successful rebirth in exchange for Vhaeraun assassinating Inthracis’ superior, thus enabling the yugoloth’s promotion, as payment on confirmation of success. The attempt 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, Vhaeraun meddled with this game, though without wagering his life and those of his followers. 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, via a spell called soultheft which they were taught, in order to use them as a fuel for the ritual. On Nightal 20 of the Year of Risen Elfkin, 1375 DR, Vhaeraun managed to enter his sister Eilistraee's realm and attempted to assassinate her. The Dark Maiden was warned by Qilue 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. Eilistraee was changed: she became a deity known as "the Masked Lady", holding both the Dark Maiden's and the Masked Lord's portfolios. Vhaeraun’s influence on Eilistraee was pervasive. Apart from cosmetic changes like his sister starting to wear clothes that hid her features, she experienced also a change in morale. Her Chosen spreading lies for propaganda’s sake, engaging in bribery or ordering assassinations to ensure the silence of those who knew the truth, became acceptable to her. Furthermore, she didn’t seem to have full control over Vhaeraun’s powers. Starting with petitioners actually being capable of rejecting her, formerly Vhaeraun’s clerics, even those who actively worked against her, still received spells, albeit barring their strongest, to inability to detect the betrayal of former clerics of Vhaeraun, she accepted as hers, who joined forces with Ghaunadaur’s, who then doomed the Promenade of the Dark Maiden. 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 and others never became aware that their god died, they later formed the skulkers of Vhaeraun.

Post-Spellplague
Vhaeraun's death was a huge setback for the church, but it didn't kill his faith completely. Some drow who didn't believe his demise still worshipped him, and their prayers were actually answered. In fact, during that time, his followers (including lay worshipers) gained some divine abilities (like that of producing poison, of disguising their appearance, or small range teleportation), which allowed them to complete dangerous tasks to further their cause, and safely escape afterwards. They were called Skulkers of Vhaeraun, and mostly consisted of disgruntled drow males, but also included a few females. Speculations were that the entity answering their prayers could be identified as the remnants of Vhaeraun himself, or possibly another god masquerading as the Masked Lord. Some believed that the fervor and faith of the followers were the source of their new powers.

The Second Sundering
Vhaeraun managed to return to life during the event known as the Second Sundering. (see note 1) , in Flamerule, 1489 DR. . Vhaeraun and Eilistraee were separate entities again, but after the time spent as the Masked Lady, they reached a reciprocal understanding, and the enmity between them was no more. Both siblings made their return be known, manifesting through their avatars to their followers, who enthusiastically spread the word.

Abilities
(see lesser deity and his domains for more information on abilities of deities) Vhaeraun was a lesser deity. He granted spells to his divine spellcasters, and gave his clerics access to the abilities and spells of the chaos, drow, evil, travel and trickery domains. Apart from other abilities, he was also capable of casting the spells of these domains as often as he wanted and also to use the abilities of these for a certain number of times at his discretion. After the Second Sundering, he granted the new trickery domain to his clerics. He had all abilities of a lesser deity, but owned number of abilities unique to him or was unusually skilled in a number of abilities.

Senses
(see lesser deity and his domains for more information on abilities of deities) Vhaeraun had sensing abilities, including the portfolio and remote sense abilities. The former allowed him to sense events that concerned his portfolios, the latter to center his senses around his followers, sites and objects dedicated to him or places where his name or title was spoken. He could also look into people’s minds. He combined all theses abilities to be constantly on the look out for dissidents, rebels and generally dissatisfied people with potential to work for him against the Spider Queen in Lolth-ruled cities, where he had already at least some worshippers working against his mother like Menzoberranzan, Tlethtyrr or Waerglarn. Once someone was deemed compatible, the individual was approached by a manifestation of Vhaeraun or sent clerics of his to have an one-on-one inducement interview.

Communication
(see lesser deity and his domains for more information on abilities of deities) Vhaeraun could speak and read any language, including nonverbal languages, but had a preference for High Drow, and could create a telepathic link with people, follower or not, who lingered within proximity - scale was counted in miles - to a site dedicated to him. This link could be maintained for as long as Vhaeraun wished. He regularly exchanged information with his clerics. Collecting strategy descriptions, poison formulas and magical knowledge from these clerics to spread them among the others of his faith.

Movements
(see lesser deity and his domains for more information on abilities of deities) Vhaeraun owned a large number of abilities, among others to levitate, that helped him to move around (see his domains, and lesser deity). Out of all his movement abilities, teleportation seemed come most naturally to him. He was shown casually teleporting around walking distance during his business negotiation with Inthracis. For all these movement abilities, he had his limits. For example, he couldn’t ignore Lolth’s ban during the Silence of Lolth on entering her place and needed outside help to do so.

Base Abilities - Utility
(see lesser deity and his domains for more information on abilities of deities) He had the ability to turn his body parts incorporeal and touch corporeal things inside a corporeal container while remaining incorporeal. For example, he could grab inside a body and crush its internal organs. He was also capable of creating gates to other places and once used it to dump Sehanine Moonbow away after changing the cage with her inside into portable size.

Stealth Abilities
(see lesser deity and his domains for more information on abilities of deities) Apart from always moving as though under pass without trace, Vhaeraun owned a number of abilities to fool the mundane senses of others.(see lesser deity and his domains for more information) Becoming invisible seem to be particularly easy for him and turning invisible through melding into shadow was a part of his fighting style. What made his abilities at stealth truly special, though wasn’t the kind but his skills at it. An entire branch of his church consisted of clerical double spies. This was possible because of his aforementioned skill. It was such, that Lolth, who was more powerful than him, couldn’t compete with him on the field of stealth and trickery, resulting into an entire per cent of Vhaeraun’s clergy to be masked traitors, in other words, clerics of whom Lolth believed they were under her employment.

Base Abilities - Offensive
(see lesser deity and his domains for more information on abilities of deities) Vhaeraun could change his, alongside his equipments’, size and fought as a warrior and as an assassin with two weapons, a longsword, Nightshadow, in one hand, a short sword, Shadowflash, in the other, and owned the other abilities of a lesser deity. His martial fighting style was of mostly defensive nature and consisted of riposting while primarily dodging and evading enemy blows, parrying only when he had no other choice. His prowess in an open frontal fight wasn’t that of a war god. He fought once Selvetarm, the drow demigod of battle prowess, and was driven away, effectively losing against his son.

Base Abilities - Defensive
(see lesser deity for more information) Some deities had additional immunities than those owned due to being a deity, he owned these, in his case against all kind of illusions and being charmed. While immunities of deities were generally useless against a divine creature of higher status, when it came down to the immunity against illusions, it was useless against any deity, the one against being charmed was under no such restrictions.

Magical Abilities
Vhaeraun was thought to be unable to cast spells by himself but was shown making extensive use of spells. He was able to duplicate any divine or arcane spell his followers within 180 feet (ca. 55m) and cast them while fighting physically at the same time. His aura allowed him to strike fascination or fear and also bolster or crush the resolve of people. He was capable of generating heat, both in the form of magma but also by converting blasts of shadowstuff into fire, the latter being hot enough to cause agony to deities. He was able to create avatars, duplicates with the same learned but less divine power than the original, and as a lesser deity, could create up to five duplicates, who looked like the original. He often sent his avatar whenever an adequate summoning ritual was performed by his priests.

Possessions
Vhaeraun could wield any magic item provided by his followers, as long as they could be used by evil individuals. In battle, he wielded two swords: Nightshadow and Shadowflash. The former was a black longsword of quickness, which he could make appear out of nowhere in his hands as well as turn invisible in the darkness, and allowed Vhaeraun to magically twist the shape of any blade held by his enemies, to strike with maximum force and accuracy its wielders, every few seconds. Shadowflash was a short sword made of silver that could emit a flash of eerie light, capable of blinding those who looked at it. He also carried a dagger with himself, though that one’s properties were unknown. The Masked Lord's cloak was able to absorb seven spells of any level each day, including magic that could affect a whole area (therefore protecting both the deity and those who stood near him), and could make the wearer transparent to those who looked through it. If stolen, or when the avatar of its owner was destroyed, the cloak would melt into nothing.

Appearances

 * Novels:
 * Evermeet: Island of Elves
 * Daughter of the Drow
 * Condemnation
 * Resurrection
 * Sacrifice of the Widow


 * Sourcebooks:
 * Demihuman Deities
 * Lords of Darkness
 * Faiths and Pantheons
 * On Hallowed Ground