Lolth

Lolth is the patron goddess of the drow race and drow society. She is responsible for the nature, customs, laws, and survival of most drow communities. The Spider Queen maintains her absolute rule over drow cities by means of her clergy, who tirelessly seek out and destroy all traces of dissent, disobedience, rival faiths, or sacrilege and who ruthlessly enforce the Way of Lolth. The Spider Queen foments unending chaos in drow society and sets the drow eternally at war with each other both for her own amusement and to prevent complacency, runaway pride from asserting itself, or the rise of other faiths. Lolth is also venerated by chitines, a small spider-like race that are castoffs of the drow.

Lolth is a cruel, capricious goddess, thought by many to be insane. She delights in setting her worshipers at each other's throats, so that the strongest, most devious and most cruel survive to serve her. Lolth roams the planes often, appearing in answer to the rituals of drow priests, and working whatever harm she can to the enemies of drow. The Spider Queen secretly wants to be worshiped by Humans and Elves of other races on the surface, and sometimes journeys among their communities, whispering of the power Lolth can bring. Lolth is malicious in her dealings and coldly vicious in a fight. She enjoys both personally dealing and causing death, destruction, and painful torture. Even more, Lolth enjoys corrupting Elves and Humans to her service. Lolth can be kind and render aid to those she fancies -- but she really cares only for herself; her favor and aid can never be relied on. The Spider Queen enjoys the company of and can converse with spiders of all sorts.

Lolth can appear as a giant black widow spider with crimson eyes, or she can change into the form of a human-sized, exquisitely beautiful female drow. In this form she often clothes herself entirely in clinging spiders, but sometimes wearing drow chain mail styled into artful dresses or tunics. She can also combine the two forms, appearing as a giant spider with a coldly beautiful female drow head. This is the form in which she is usually found in the Abyss, and it is thought to be her true form.

When summoned to the Prime Material Plane, Lolth likes to roam the UnderWorld, basking in the terrified worship of drow. She customarily takes any magical items they offer to her. Lolth rarely aids her worshipers directly, preferring to watch and enjoy their sufferings and struggles. If she wants someone to know that she is watching, Lolth causes a smirking pair of sensuous lips to appear on any spider present. The spider is always outlined in a flickering purple faerie fire. If no spider is present, Lolth creates a smiling, spider-shaped shadow of giant size. More rarely, Lolth acts directly. In such cases, her power may be seen as a flickering black, mauve-edged radiance around a person or object temporarily imbued with her power.

Lolth's laughter -- soft, cruel feminine chuckling -- is often heard by drow who have lost her favor or who have gone mad. It is also heard by foes of the drow, especially when beings of these sorts are alone and/or fleeing in the endless caverns and passages of the Underdark. Beings of less than 2 Hit Dice flee uncontrollably, as if affected by a fear spell, until they die, are knocked unconscious, or can hear her laughter no more.

Lolth's priests believe that fear is as strong as steel, while love and respect are soft, useless feelings that none can lean on. All drow who do not worship Lolth must be converted or destroyed. All weak and rebellious drow must be weeded out. All who impugn the faith must perish. Males or slaves of other races who act independently of Lolth's dictates (and those other priests) must be sacrificed to Lolth. Those of the faithful whose loyalty is weak must be eliminated. Children are to be raised as loyal worshipers of Lolth, and each family should produce at least one priest to serve the Spider Queen better than his or her parents. Arachnids of all sorts are to be revered, and anyone who mistreats or kills a spider must die.

Such are the commands of Lolth -- but the priest who follows them blindly is on a slippery path leading to swift death. Success in the service of Lolth lies with those who are attentive to the ever-changing, often contradictory will of Lolth. Lolth's capricious nature makes hard-and-fast rules few and uncertainty great. Of course, questioning Lolth's motives or wisdom is a sin. Aiding non-drow against drow is a great sin, as is ignoring the Spider Queen's commands in favor of love. Drow who lose the favor of Lolth are always given a single chance to redeem themselves. This is usually a dangerous or difficult mission, though Lolth may test certain individuals by setting no task at all and observing what they do. Those who willfully fail are destroyed. Lolth commands other worshipers to do this (in turn, testing them). Those who fail through mischance or poor planning or execution are usually transformed into driders. Lolth often plays favorites among her drow worshipers, but those who ride high one season are warned that Lolth can turn her dark face upon them without warning and undoubtedly will sometime soon.

Lolth enters the Prime Material Plane in avatar form or allows herself to be contacted only when it pleases her to do so. Otherwise, Lolth's servant yochlol are reached. Such contact rituals require the use of a brazier of burning oils, coals, or incense -- burned in a vessel fashioned of a valuable black material. The flames provide material that the magic transforms into an interplanar gate temporarily linking the 66th layer of the Abyss with the Prime Material Plane. Through this link, the yochlol appear, using flame material to fashion semblances of themselves. If called with sufficient force, a yochlol can emerge fully from its gate.

Note: Lolth originally appeared in this form in Demihuman Deities for the AD&D game from TSR. Their use here is for the purposes of providing context for the campaign only.