#even though the oathbreaker knight isn't necessarily evil himself

[trappedinafantasy37]

Meh, I’m kinda torn on this myself. I do agree that Lolth hasn’t truly abandoned Minthara, especially since she’s a Baenre. I think Minthara only believes Lolth completely abandoned her because Lolth ignored her in Moonrise when she was on the verge of death and was praying for Lolth to help her. Now, Lolth actually does give all drow who disappoint her a second chance to regain her favor which would include Minthara. Lolth may be hateful and vindictive but, despite popular belief, she isn’t beyond reason nor is she stupid. Lolth is still a god and she has reason to want to keep as many clerics and paladins as she can. But the means of regaining that favor usually involve doing some pretty messed up things and often involves killing a lover.

Not to mention, if Lolth truly did completely abandon Minthara, she would have instantly devoured her the moment Minthara returned to the Underdark in her default ending, or worse. But Lolth absolutely LOVES chaos and she loves it more than she hates those who defy or betray her. And Minthara intends to bring a shit load of chaos when she returns (it's also the reason why I disagree with Minthara being placed as Lawful Evil, she is more Neutral/Chaotic Evil if anything). Especially since Minthara’s chaos involves waging war against the Baenre house which will shake shit up for the entirety of Menzoberranzan and Lolth is going to feed off all of that. Now the Baenre’s are her favorite, but Minthara is also a Baenre. She will most likely just reclaim the house for herself after killing her mother. If Minthara succeeds at what she wants to accomplish, I imagine it would be enough to regain Lolth's favor. It's only a matter of whether or not Minthara actually cares to receive that favor again, which I don't think she cares to.

However, I also think it is much more plausible that Minthara is a canon oathbreaker, but not by choosing. By swearing an oath to the Absolute, her oath with Lolth did indeed break, even if she did not choose to break it. But, that doesn’t really matter. When she leaves the Absolute, her oath with the Absolute also breaks. By this point, Minthara is an oathbreaker twice over. But, she does not swear a new oath to Lolth and has no intentions to. Her time with the Absolute has given her a newfound perspective of the gods and realizes that she wants nothing to do with them and would rather be free of them. If she is going to follow anyone's word she'd rather it be her own.

Instead, Minthara swears a godless oath to destroy the Absolute, which is why she isn’t an oathbreaker by the time she joins camp. However, she does have a line of dialogue in which she says she is unsure if her oath will still stand once the Absolute business is done and over with. Minthara's dialogue does directly state that if you do dominate the Elder Brain, she will swear an Oath of Conquest. But if the Elder Brain isn't destroyed, well, the path diverges a bit and it is a bit unknown as to what becomes of her oath. If she remains in BG with her romance partner, most likely she will keep her Oath of Vengeance. But, her intentions with the Underdark and her house kind of implies both Oath of Vengeance and Oath of Conquest.

Sorry for the rant. You have no idea how much time I had to spent researching Lolth and her relationships with clerics/paladins when I was writing my fanfic.

*WHEEEZE* wait... wait wait... WAIT. HOLD UP WAIT!!!! SO IF A PALADIN'S OATH BEING BROKEN MEANS THEIR DEITY HAS LEFT AND ABANDONED THEM AND THATS WHY THEY FEEL EMPTY, DOES THIS MEAN... WITH A STILL IN PLACE OATH..... *HEAVY BREATHING ON MY KNEES* DOES ... DOES THIS MEAN... LOLTH.... IS STILL WITH MINTHARA... AND HAS NOT ABANDONED HER COMPLETELY LIKE SHE THINKS????