Kae'Yoss
First Post
Who left the cage door to the Wizards boards open? Rabid FR-fans are hijacking our threads and turning them into arguments about Realms minutiae 
Anyway, to get back on topic (there was one, really): "What's up with Lolth" ?
The stuff that happened so far (Spoiler heavy)
Spider Kissers (sorry, I mean clerics of Lolth - Vhaeraunite's shining through again) woke up one day to find that Lolth has gone silent. No more new spells for them. For a while, they could keep it secret by using what they got sparingly and supplementing that with magic items, but it was found out, and it resulted in slave rebellions, male rebellions, rebellions of other drow churges, and attacks from other races. A couple of cities were overrun or destroyed (Ched Nasad is the most prominent city that's turned into ash). A party of "Heroes" was sent out from Menzoberranzan to investigate things - first about other cities, as they didn't know whether it was limited to one city. First, they found the fane of Lolth, at the heart of Layer 66 on the Abyss, locked. After Vhaeraun tried to get in by force and was held in check by Selvetarm (dunno how that could happen, by all means Vhaeraun should have been able to dispatch his son with ease), they traveled some more and finally found out about the relocation of Lolth's divine realm to its own plane, and were told things by new handmaiden creatures of lolth (and sent into the new location, but their walking through the portal was the last you read about them). At the end of book 5 in the series, clerics got their spells again, but Lolth answered differently than before, instead of with a voice, she answers with primal thoughts. Oh, and one priestess of Eilistraee is on her way to kill Lolth, armed with a weapon that, with the proper strike, could fell even a god with a single blow (sounded very much like a vorpal sword)
In every book, Bob Salvatore wrote an intro, where the continued things inside Lolth's "delivery room" were recounted:, She lay eggs by the million. The eggs hatched, a wild frenzy ensued as they started to eat each other to become more powerful. First, the weakest died. Then, the stongest died as others ganged up on them - Lolth doesn't want survival of the strongest, but survival of the smartest. Don't show off and give others clues.
So the fact is that Lolth was absent (not dead or something) and has now just returned, and changed, but you don't know anything much about the change really.
Some speculations about it:
- She's a greater goddess now. Wouldn't be the only power shift, as Kiaransalee is now minor goddess because of the Silence-induced influx of worshippers. (Other deities will have changes, and they will be detailed in a RPG product, but what changes, and what product, hasn't been reveiled yet).
- She changes her alignment/outlook. While some speak about NE because MM drow are NE, everything in the books speaks against it. There, the fact that she's a goddess of Chaos is stressed several times. So I think that she might even become CN (with a brutal streak), as her new voice she speaks to clerics with is "primal and pure emotion" instead of a real voice.
- She doesn't get out alive. It might still be that Eilistraee's plan succeeds and Lolth will be killed by a mortal, in a moment of weakness. Or maybe some other deity, probably Vhaeraun, will hear about the new Demonweb Pits, sneak in, and slay her.
Anyway, to get back on topic (there was one, really): "What's up with Lolth" ?
The stuff that happened so far (Spoiler heavy)
Spider Kissers (sorry, I mean clerics of Lolth - Vhaeraunite's shining through again) woke up one day to find that Lolth has gone silent. No more new spells for them. For a while, they could keep it secret by using what they got sparingly and supplementing that with magic items, but it was found out, and it resulted in slave rebellions, male rebellions, rebellions of other drow churges, and attacks from other races. A couple of cities were overrun or destroyed (Ched Nasad is the most prominent city that's turned into ash). A party of "Heroes" was sent out from Menzoberranzan to investigate things - first about other cities, as they didn't know whether it was limited to one city. First, they found the fane of Lolth, at the heart of Layer 66 on the Abyss, locked. After Vhaeraun tried to get in by force and was held in check by Selvetarm (dunno how that could happen, by all means Vhaeraun should have been able to dispatch his son with ease), they traveled some more and finally found out about the relocation of Lolth's divine realm to its own plane, and were told things by new handmaiden creatures of lolth (and sent into the new location, but their walking through the portal was the last you read about them). At the end of book 5 in the series, clerics got their spells again, but Lolth answered differently than before, instead of with a voice, she answers with primal thoughts. Oh, and one priestess of Eilistraee is on her way to kill Lolth, armed with a weapon that, with the proper strike, could fell even a god with a single blow (sounded very much like a vorpal sword)
In every book, Bob Salvatore wrote an intro, where the continued things inside Lolth's "delivery room" were recounted:, She lay eggs by the million. The eggs hatched, a wild frenzy ensued as they started to eat each other to become more powerful. First, the weakest died. Then, the stongest died as others ganged up on them - Lolth doesn't want survival of the strongest, but survival of the smartest. Don't show off and give others clues.
So the fact is that Lolth was absent (not dead or something) and has now just returned, and changed, but you don't know anything much about the change really.
Some speculations about it:
- She's a greater goddess now. Wouldn't be the only power shift, as Kiaransalee is now minor goddess because of the Silence-induced influx of worshippers. (Other deities will have changes, and they will be detailed in a RPG product, but what changes, and what product, hasn't been reveiled yet).
- She changes her alignment/outlook. While some speak about NE because MM drow are NE, everything in the books speaks against it. There, the fact that she's a goddess of Chaos is stressed several times. So I think that she might even become CN (with a brutal streak), as her new voice she speaks to clerics with is "primal and pure emotion" instead of a real voice.
- She doesn't get out alive. It might still be that Eilistraee's plan succeeds and Lolth will be killed by a mortal, in a moment of weakness. Or maybe some other deity, probably Vhaeraun, will hear about the new Demonweb Pits, sneak in, and slay her.
