Queen of the Drow, The Spider Goddess, Queen of the Demonweb Pits
Intermediate Deity
Symbol: Black spider with the head of a drow female
Home Plane: The Abyss
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: Drow, spiders, evil, darkness
Worshippers: Drow
Cleric Alignments: CE, CN, NE
Domains: Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Trickery
Favoured Weapon: Whip
Relics: Robe of ebonsilk, rod of the recluse
Lolth (lohlth) appears as either a tall, beautiful female drow or as a black spider with a female drow’s head. She maintains a ruthless, tyrannical reign over the drow, ruling through a combination of fear and the promise of power.
It was Lolth who first spread evil among the elves, and it was she who led the drow to break away from the rest of elven society and to dwell underground. Drow scoff at any attempt to suggest that they were banished from the surface. Nevertheless, Lolth has sworn vengeance against Corellon Larethian and his people.
Lolth constantly turns one drow against another. She claims to do this to cull out the weak and to make the race strong, but she is a cruel and capricious deity who enjoys watching others suffer. She is careful to prevent open or widespread strife among the drow. She does not tolerate campaigns of harassment or attrition among groups of drow, but she does sanction well-planned, swift and overwhelming attacks.
Lolth expects her people to be shrewd, calculating and aware of the dangers and opportunities around them. She has no use for sentiment, weakness or love. She expects her people to rule the entire Underdark (the realm beneath the surface of the earth), eliminating foes that are weak enough to be destroyed and biding their time before attacking other opponents. She also expects them to eventually invade and conquer the surface, not to colonize it but to defeat Corellon Larethian and the surface elves.
Lolth rules her people through her clerics, who are exclusively female and organized into noble houses made up of clerics related by blood. The oldest clerics rule the house, with younger clerics following in order by age. Each house also includes non-cleric drow related by blood or marriage. The clerics serve as absolute rulers in Lolth’s name. They are the leaders, police, juries and executioners of drow society.
Nearly every drow home has at least a small shrine to Lolth, even if it is just a spider statue or modest altar. Larger temples to Lolth are usually laid out in the shape of a spider. They serve as meeting places, sacrificial sites and centres of entertainment for high-ranking drow.
More so than any other deity, Lolth delights in perpetual tests of her exclusively female clerics, pitting them against each other. Every cleric of Lolth knows that the path to promotion lies by stabbing ones’ superior in the back, and every cleric is likewise alert that her underlings are plotting to do the same to her.
Lolth has set her worshippers the task of conquering the vast network of underground caverns — and killing surface elves, of course. Typical quests include attacking a rival drow community, raiding a mind flayer lair for its magic, and building an artifact that turns surface elves into spiders.
Prayers to Lolth, always made in Elvish, frequently feature the phrase, “Elliya Lolthu”, which means “Test me, Lolth”.
Lolth’s temples among the drow generally dominate (in every sense of the word) the communities that surround them. These temples are extraordinarily defended by capable and clever spider-worshippers, but also serve as storehouses of dark lore and powerful magic.
Lolth uses a number of competitive rites to identify particularly worthy followers. Those who succeed in her rites — which involve competitive spellcasting or all-out combat — get access to more powerful magic. Those who fail are demoted, killed or turned into driders.
A bebilith with 18 HD is a common herald for Lolth. Allies are succubus demons, bebilith demons and marilith demons.
Source: Deities and Demigods (Page 81), Complete Divine (Page 114)