Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

H OLES I N LOLT H'S WEB

Lolth is far from omniscient, despite what her priestesses

say. There are drow who live without bending to the tyr-

anny of

her worship. Communities of renegades who

dispute Lolth's primacy often raise another of

the Dark

Seldarine up as

their patron. Although this amounts to ex-

changing one evil oppressor for another, any escape from

Lolth's web can feel like freedom.

The Acropolis ofThanatos, erected

in the ruins of a

drow city wiped out by plague in the Underdark

of FaerOn,

was home to a drow settlement of a few thousan

d ruled

by necromancer clerics of Kiaransalee. It existed

for a few

decades before worshipers of Lolth and worshipers of

Eil-

istraee teamed up to eliminate its leaders.

never portrayed unmasked, and partly because anonym

• 
  

ity is a wise precaution

when one challenges the social

structure of the drow in even

a small way.

To quash any challenge to the matriarchy that Vhaer-

aun might inspire in his followers, some drow commu-

nities

preach that he wears a mask to hide the terrible

scars from the wounds inflicted

on him by Lolth as pun-

ishment for his arrogance. His silence

, too, is part of his

punishment, for his tongue was removed

for questioning

Lolth's orders.

Worshipers of Vhaeraun who believe this

dogma sometimes

ritually scar and silence themselves

as signs of their

devotion, and then serve as voiceless,

masked bodyguards for the matrons of their

house.

ZINZERENA

As the patron of assassination,

illusions, and lies,

Zinzerena personifies cruelty, stealth, misdirection, and

survival by any means necessary. In some ways, Malyk

is her reflection, and in many interpretations of the

age-old stories, the two gods are

siblings or lovers. But

Zinzerena is more palatable to female

drow than Malyk,

and she condones the study of arcane

magic.

The litu

rgy of Zinzerena is passed on in the form of

folk tales, for

her faith has no place among the lead-

ership of drow

society. Her tales usually describe her

hiding and waiting until her foes are weakened

or lax

in their attention before she attacks. Those who

respect

or revere Zinzerena are almost always of modest

social

status, or worse. Even

the most prestigious of noble

estates, where a high priestess

reigns supreme, might

have a number of her followers among the commoners

who work as servants and staff. Only the most capri-

cious of nobles would enter her priesthood, though

some have done so. Inevitably

, when such traitors are

discovered, they are cast out from

their houses. Ironi-

cally, these maverick nobles often

become leading fig-

ures

in Zinzerena's cult, for they are the best educated

and most

politically experienced of her followers. Her

adherents

come from a wide range of occupations, in-

cluding common thieves, laborers, guides,

physicians,

poets, and nearly any other profession. What

they all

share is a rebellious spirit and a desire for change.

In some stories,

Zinzerena is Lolth's daughter, who

was spir ited away and

hidden from her by iJlusions.

In other tales, she begins

life as a mortal elf who uses

glamors to trick her way into the company of the gods.

Regardless, Zinzerena always has some element of

illusion magic about her, and

she uses it and other de-

CH1\PTE

R 2 I ELVES

ceptions to get the better of more powerful opponents.

Deceit and taking advantage

of others' weaknesse s are

recurring

themes in the tales of her exploits. The only

figure

in the Dark Seldarine immune to Zinzerena's de-

ceptions is Lolth, although even the

Queen of Spiders is

sometimes

tricked when Zinzerena shifts blame for her

actions onto

others.

Not many female drow devote their lives to

the study

of magic, beca

use it's held to be a low-status avocation

more suited to males. Most females who pursue

it seri-

ously do so in secret. Even rumors that a drow matron

practices arcane magic

, if they aren't quashed, can sab-

otage her standing in society. Yet there's no denying

that

knowledge of arcane magic could be a great boon to

an

ambitious female. Zinz

erena's worshipers encourage

this pursuit and offer tutelage and tools in exchange for

a candidate's alliance with Zinzerena's secret cult.

EILISTRAEE

Most

drow know nothing of Eilistraee. Matron mothers

of the most

powerful houses closely guard the scrolls

that chronicle her existence. They retain

them for the

sake of remaining aware of the enemy they

describe: a

drow god who would spirit away all of Lolth's

worship-

ers to the sur face world.

The matron mothe

rs warn those who go to the surface

on raids to retreat

if they can s ee the moon-practical

advice, it would seem. But an equally important reason

is that Eilistraee is known to work her wiles under the

light of the moon, so that

drow are more susceptible to

her lure at such times. The

matrons also direct the raid-

ers to flee back underground

if any of their number hear

music they find appealing, such

as a parent's lullaby

or the chorus of a rousing song carried

on the mind,

because

Eilistraee's call to drow who would be free of

Lolth's web

is often delivered within dulcet tunes that

aren't of

otherworldly origin.

Eilistraee is a god of moonlight, song, dance,

and,

most important, the rejection of the evil ways

of Loi th.

Drow who feel

like outsiders in their society, who react

with disgust to the evils

perpetrated by their kind, who

come to the surface

and fall in love with the stars- these

are the ones who might be pleased to hear Eilistraee's

call. If they respond to it by going to the surface and

staying there, Eilistraee offers no guarantee of their

safety and no promise of acceptance

in the world above.

But she opens her followers'

hearts to the wonder of the

nature in the night, and he r songs

and signs can show a

drow

how to persevere in that alien environment.

The

scrolls that the matron mothers guard so closely

attest

that Eilistraee turned against Lolth but knew

better than to seek solace among the Se

ldarine. Her po-

sition among the other drow gods remains

uncertain, as

is the fate of

the souls of those who turn to her worship.

Drow who are

beloved by Eilistraee sometimes appear

to vanish when they die

, as the body dissolves into pale

light and leaves no

clue to where the soul has gone.

VULKOOR

Drow of the world of Eberron

worship a scorpion-god

named Vulkoor, which is their world

's equivalent of

Lolth.

Vulkoor is often portrayed or envisioned as a

giant

scorpion or as a hybrid creature with the head,