#Lol'eth

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Ancardian Pantheon Series

Lol'eth

Lol’eth is the Goddess of Death, Decay, and the Spirit itself, and so commands a very powerful niche among the Divines as well as acting as a psychopomp for Ancardia’s world. She is sometimes referred to as Lol-Eth (Hobgoblins), Lolth (Ancient Stone Giant as well as Trolls), the Queen of Spiders (Koboldi), Demonhunter (Gnolls and Orcs) and other euphemisms and differing forms of her name.

    She is frequently mischaracterized on the Surface by those with no experience or knowledge of true Night God worship, and peculiar misconceptions include the idea she is a domineering and cruel Goddess who enforces her worship amongst the Draulfyn people by imposing a brutal and matriarchal hierarchy, where oligarchs are encouraged to mistreat the lower classes, undertake bizarre rituals involving blood, sex, and torture, and even capture slaves (despite slavery in general being fully outlawed by the Draulfyn collective communes and cities as early as the 6th Age). The obsessive fixation on a particularly sadistic form of sex and the insistence that Dark Elves who follow Lol’eth are highly misandrist and ruled exclusively by women are likely connected, and indeed come very much from ancient Surface-dwellers’ projection and revulsion upon seeing women in Dark Elven leadership and military positions (and incorrect—the idea that Dark Elves are even matriarchal rather than equal-opportunity seems to arise from the awareness of the very feminine Lol’eth as their primary Deity, and from witnessing some women or assumed women casually occupying positions of importance among them).

Lol’eth is said to be the sister of Dhamsar and Thurigyl, and has a particular closeness to each of those two. She can take the form of a colossal spider of a black and indigo hue, though sometimes adopts a slightly smaller version of this incarnation which has a somewhat more humanoid centaur-like torso (though with very obvious spider-like features still very much present). Offerings amongst the various cultures who worship her tend to include either bones or seeds depending on the purpose for the offering, and the bone effigies and type of seed varies by culture and region. Her symbols are the scythe, the web of thread and bones, and the spider.

Final deity! And yes, this Goddess is essentially "Llolth, but as a good entity" since I like to rehabilitate the "Always Evil" malarky present in normal DnD. Of course prejudice exists and so do false beliefs about Gods more popular among the people in question--the bonkers ideas for how Dark Elf civilization and culture work contribute to some wack-a-doodle ideas about Lol'eth that reflect the skeevy, pulp-fiction-y origins. Doesn't mean she can't be seriously intimidating! She's essentially a Battle Grandma.

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Glossary of Ancardia's Divines--Rå

The Rå are the most numerous of incarnations loyal to the God Thurigyl, and they are bound the natural corridors of change, safeguarding the thresholds of life and living things, and of death and spirits, and commonly the liaisons between the domains of Thurigyl's two siblings, Dhamsar and Lol'eth, Justice and Death. Individual Rå do vary in accordance to their shifting environments, but they commonly exude energies associated with shadows, loam, twilight hours, and other transitional natural phenomena. 

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Werespider

One of the more frightening forms of Werebeast, the Werespider comes about when the afflicted is one most closely devoted to the Goddess Lol'eth, whose domain is over Death, Decay, and the Soul, and who acts as a special psychopomp in the world of Ancardia. As a result of this, known victims of the Were-Curse who become a Werespider are overwhelmingly Dark Elves, though it is not unheard of for Gnolls, Hobgoblins, Goblins, and the occasional Ratling to be transfixed into this form.

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Next is the second in the Night Sphere of Divines: Vagraki, the Goddess of Secrets, Dreams, and Darkness. By extension, also oversees the dark depths of places. She is among the most widely-appreciated Deity of the Underground cultures (second only to Lol'eth and Esthrax, depending on which culture) with a particularly large following amongst the Murruk Trolls. Dark Elves, Orcs, Kobolds, Gnomes and Gnolls are also particularly reverent of her. She is also not a huge fan of taking a single form as an avatar--always cryptic and nebulous, most of the time she will at least have a vague bipedal shape clad in a dark hood and cloak, and often there are kraken-like arms, worm-like tendrils in an ever-changing mass, or some other tentacle-ish feature present. Her primary symbols are the black opal and the octopus/squid, though Trolls often use a geometric talisman as her symbol as well.

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���Abyssal Assist”

It's Vunoc Kil'shol--showing that while he is a rather squishy cleric, he always has an easy line to some darknessy-themed direct aid! In this case, the rather considerable brawn (and many leg) offered to those who follow the teachings of Lol'eth (thematically-removed Lolth, basically, in my Ancardia setting. I.e., most deity worth calling deity aren't hideous evil narcissists, including the "scary" or "dark" ones. XD) Some good traditional ink practice, using ballpoint only.  Nothing better to utilize ink on than a Dark Elf and his four summoned Shadow-Centipedes.