Sacrificing Sacred Cows

A ROLPUNK'd take on an invading goddess breaking into a world populated with the pantheon of The Book of the Righteous.


Goddess of Darkness, Trickery, Chaos, and Destruction
Lolth
(the Dark Stranger, the Queen of the Demonweb Pits, the Mistress of Lies, the Lady of Shadows)

Alignment
Lolth is Chaotic Evil

Representations
Lolth favors the guise of a lithe elf woman dressed in a gossamer gown woven from the silk of spiders. Her long, silvery hair cascades down her back and frames a face of exquisite beauty. This appearance is a deception.

Lolth’s true form captures her corrupted and darkened nature. In reality, Lolth is a massive spider, a black widow with dripping fangs and eight chitinous legs that support her body, which is bloated on devoured souls.

The symbol of her worshipers is an eight-sided compass rose with an elongated North and South. This is a relatively new symbol and only the Canaraketh instantly recognize the symbol as a sign of a hated enemy.

Purpose
Lolth is a capricious goddess. She subverts and manipulates those in her service, expending them without thought. Her cruelty is legendary. She feasts on the misfortune and misery of her subjects, propagating betrayal and deceit.

She patterns her life and the lives of her worshipers on a regimen of chaotic acts and the veneration of spiders. The way that new-born spider clusters tear each other apart to survive especially appeals to her. She promotes this by encouraging her worshipers to kill their rivals, thus ensuring that they are the strongest of her broodlings.

Her love of chaos often makes her appear mad but the wise see her as a calculating individual who is always several steps ahead of those who believe that they can anticipate her. She is cruel and domineering, forcing her will upon her followers and her enemies, a will which instructs the strong to crush the weak in the most torturous way imaginable.

Lolth has made her domain in the sixty-sixth layer of the Abyss, a terrible realm known as the Demonweb. In this interminable black void, webs stretch in an elaborate network that supports ruined cities and relics stolen from other worlds. The webs change constantly, shifting as Lolth spins new threads and destroys old ones.

The Demonweb Pits yawn below, and it is there that Lolth holds court and hatches her hideous plans. The Demonweb Pits boast a number of portals that link the Abyss to other planes. Using these gateways, Lolth extends her influence across the cosmos, conquering unsuspecting communities with demonic armies or subverting them into her service.

The Church
The cluster, as the church is called, was brought through the void and into the world by a half-elvish druid and a band of gnolls. Since that time the Lolthites have spread their word of fear, domination and cruelty through the known lands with a specific agenda to slay as many Canaraketh, and the Faithful as possible. The rest of the darker races can either convert to Lolth's will, or be destroyed.

Much of her faith is carried in the hearts and minds of gnolls, orcs and trolls and other races who rule with a combination of fear, deception, shadow, lies and have a huge appetite for death and destruction.

Church Description
Lolth’s church promotes the superiority of the Lady of Shadows herself above all other beings. It is responsible for the perpetuation of the rumors and fear that the followers of Canarak hold for her and her followers. Even Lolth’s most devout clerics both fear and hate her, worshiping her only for the power she grants. Her clerics act as the silent rulers, police force, judges, juries and executions within the church. Their cruelty serves are designed to keep the rest of the Lolthites wrapped up in a web of fear and darkness and unlikely to convert after being accepted into the church.

Aid from the Lady of Shadows usually comes after a long length of suffering and struggle. She prefers to have her broodlings to strive to manipulate those around them, and to be feared. Treachery and cruelty are rewarded within her clusters, non compliance to the will of the Lady of Shadows or the broodling within her clusters are dealt with in the most painful of manners.

Lolthite Broodlings practice monthly sacrifices of not only elves, but also gnolls, orcs and trolls on the nights of the full moon. Afterwards, the broodlings raise the dead and reanimate the lifeless bodies only to set them loose upon the world. Other ceremonies take place in secluded areas, primarily underground away from the surface dwellers and other worshipers of the Mistress of Lies.

The Order of Soul Spiders
The Order of Soul Spiders is an elite military order composed solely of male broodlings of various races, although they are primarily gnolls. These holy soldiers are agents of uncontrolled destruction, tirelessly hunting any creature designated as their quarry or who interferes with their pursuit and wreaking havoc until recalled, which rarely happens, or destroyed, their most common fate.

Handmaidens of the Spider Queen
The Handmaidens of the Spider Queen is an order of female broodlings with no permanent ties to any individual cluster. Also known as the Daughters of the Yochlol, the Handmaidens serve as instruments of Lolth's will in times when the Spider Queen needs to bring an entire city under her control. When not assembled into an army of chaos and vengeance, the Handmaidens work in small companies scattered throughout the land harassing merchants and trade caravans that look to other deities for protection and conduct hit-and-run raids on cities ruled by the Great Church.

Church Doctrine
Fear is as strong as steel.

Weed out the weak and the rebellious.

Destroy the impugners of the faith.

Revere the dark.

Revere arachnids of all kinds. Those that kill them must die.


Preferred Weapon
Poisoned Daggers

Holy Orders
Broodlings may choose two of the following domains: chaos, evil, darkness, destruction, or trickery.

Cleric Alignments
Most broodlings and most Lolthites are chaotic evil. They revel in spreading terror and fear in any way they can.

Spell Preparation Time
Broodlings prepare their spells before dawn, when it is always darkest.