#qilué veladorn

[banished-away]

starlight and shadows + textposts, because i think about this series a normal amount

[crowofjudgements-blog]

Soror mea, connexa per dolores

Halaena 🤝 Karlach:

Having awesome mom’s who tried everything in their power and life to protect their little girls only to be slain and forced to watch her suffer from the afterlife 🥰

While Karlach isn’t her love interest THIS TIME I literally yearn for the sweet embrace of the forbidden kiln over here 😔

Also introducing my main BG3 oc Halaena Daimos 💀

A Seldarine Underdark exile forced from her home after her contact with the Weave caused a significant explosion of arcane energy and killed a bunch of people. Now she’s a Wizard female drow in a world that despises her very essence, constantly torn between following her mother’s path to Eilistraee and personal choice or yielding to the will of Mystra (both goddesses directly play a huge role in Halaena’s life)

In other words, she’s just a girl and she did nothing wrong, your honour 😔

P.S. Daimos ain’t her last name, you’ll have to find Qilué to figure that out 😉

[lunastrophe]

Drow Lore 🕷️ Height and Weight

🕷️Drow height parameters differ slightly in various game editions, but on the average, adult drow height ranges between 4,5 and 5,5 feet (around 137 to 168 cm), and weight – between 85 and 130 pounds (around 39 to 59 kg).

🕷️Taller Females? - drow females are said to be typically taller, heavier and stronger than males, although sources are not always consistent on the details. According to some, such differences are minuscule and hard to notice on the average – and in some others, size differences between female and male drow are quite noticeable.

Also, to make things even more confusing, sometimes male drow are depicted as taller than females, not the other way around (*cursor hovering over BG3 icon*)

🕷️Possible Explanation - differences in height between female and male drow seem to be inspired by real-life spiders, since female arachnids of various species are often bigger, heavier and stronger than males. In the most extreme cases, male spiders can be tens of times smaller than their female counterparts and they can weigh one hundredth of their weight.

Drow females who worship Lolth – especially priestesses and other females from noble houses – may emulate spiders in their preferences, typically choosing males of smaller stature than them to be their consorts.

It is possible, then, that differences in height and strength between female and male drow are more common among nobles from Lolth-oriented societies, due to culturally induced selective breeding. It may not necessarily apply, though, to all drow societies.

🕷️When Male Is Bigger - drow priestesses of Lolth who openly favour taller and stronger males are apparently rare, at least in some heavily Lolth-oriented cities like Menzoberranzan. Mez'Barris Armgo, who took the largest and the strongest male drow in the city as her consort, was even being teased because of that:

Mez’Barris took all of that in stride, as well as the teasing she endured from the other priestesses, both here and out in the city. “How can you be with a man who is stronger than you?” most women asked, seeming sincerely aghast at the thought. “It isn’t natural! Are you sure that you don’t simply prefer the bed company of women?” Mez’Barris was sure. Yes, it was unusual, almost unheard of, for a drow woman to be attracted to a man so physically superior to her (…). She would take their barbs and simply smile, and never let them all know the power of her lover, and the thrill he could give to her (…). (R. A. Salvatore, Boundless)

🕷️Tall Drow > around 5,5 ft (168 cm)

In Menzoberranzan, Uthegentel Del'Armgo – standing near to 6 ft (183 cm) and weighing nearly 200 lbs (91 kg) – was considered one of the largest drow ever seen in the city. His unusual size, combined with his violent nature and superior battle skills, were sometimes making other drow suspect that he was not a pureblood drow.

Some other notable male drow warriors, like Dantrag Baenre, Andzrel Baenre or Ryld Argith, were also described as tall – Dantrag was especially tall, being closer to 6 ft than 5 ft (between 168 and 183 cm).

Among female drow who were considered exceptionally tall, there was Halisstra Melarn (almost 5,5 ft / 168 cm), Matron Mez'Barris Armgo, who was not only a priestess, but also a fierce warrior, and Briza Do'Urden, daughter of Matron Malice Do'Urden and Uthegentel.

🕷️Small Drow < around 5 ft (153 cm)

At least two drow matron mothers were considered short even by drow standards: Triel Baenre (less than 5 ft / 153 cm) and K'yorl Odran, who looked not only small, but also physically weak and unremarkable.

Iljrene Ahbruyn, priestess of Eilistraee and friend of Qilué Veladorn, was described as „tiny” and could be easily mistaken for a little girl.

For more of my drow lore ramblings, feel free to check my pinned post 🕷️

[kurczakmarty]

Shout out to Leah putting up with me texting about Eilistraee for like few hours last night UFNDK I was reading on her chosen, Qilué Veladorn, and man!!! She was awesome, definitely an inspiration for Eliseris. I’ll drop some of my fave parts on her descriptions.

[margridarnauds]

Whichever OCs you'd like to answer for - 38, 45, & 49 for the ask game?

Thanks! Symryvvin Sisters, let's go.

38. What do they admire in others? What talents do they wish they had?

Kitrye admires faith and loyalty, especially under duress. She deeply admires Isobel and her faith in Selune, genuinely being awed and touched to see Isobel's continued defense of the Last Light Inn. (Part of why she has little tolerance for Drizzt is that she feels like he doesn't do Eilistraee enough credit, and THAT irritates her.) She also respects Liriel Baenre and Qilué Veladorn and defers to them when it comes to matters of faith. She admires confidence and intelligence, especially since she often finds herself lacking basic knowledge about the world aboveground despite having lived there for over a century and a half at this point. Part of what draws her to Raphael is how confident he is, how easily he seems to do things, and how intelligent he is. (As well as physical attraction. Because of course.) Courage, especially the courage to do what is right in the face of condemnation. She proudly stood with the Githyanki against Vlaakith, stood with the Gnomes against Nere, and helped Shadowheart rebel against Shar and, in one future arc, assists Zariel in her final redemption.

One embarassment for Kitrye is that, despite being devoted to Eilistraee, she has often been poor study with regards to music and dance. She doesn't often dance in groups, even when she's around Eilistraaen settlements, and she has tried, on and off, to pick up the lyre for years. (She finally learned, having been inspired by Alfira.) She wishes that she could blend into a room like Mallathalra. Her entire life has been marked by her appearance, and there's a certin brutal irony to the fact that the paladin, the one who is most outwardly helpful, is shunned by society, while Malla, as an albino Drow who can therefore pass as an albino Elf (while Kitrye actually IS half-Elf) is allowed to mingle freely with Baldur's Gate's elites. (Meanwhile, Malla envies Kitrye for her blood ties to House Symryvvin, while Malla was an urchin adopted by the family. No one wins in Drow society.)

Malla admires a cool head and pragmatism, but can also find herself respecting a rebel. She is formally neutral evil, but, like many Drow, there's a sense of chaos in her evil. She, like her sister, appreciates elegance and style, but in a different way -- while Kitrye likes fashion and luxury, Malla likes cool efficiency. Rather than a flashy entrance, she prefers a swift dagger to the heart. While she is loyal to Lolth in name, she is not attracted to blind faith, but rather to understanding where the balance of power lies at any point and acting accordingly. She was attracted to Minthara before she even knew her because of the stories that she had heard of the powerful Drow woman, and meeting her in person only confirmed them. There are few people she truly admires, fewer outside of House Symryvvin, but she does respect Minthara for her intelligence and her pragmatism and Lae'zel for her military prowess (and, admittedly, for the few times that they slept together), even if the blind devotion that the latter displays towards Vlaakith is offputting to her. (She is gradually starting to realize that, by allowing Lae'zel to kill Voss, she created a monster, turning her into a zealot. Woopsie.)

45. How do other people see them? Is it similar to how they see themselves?

Kitrye is seen as this sort of....unimpeachable, purely heroic figure, albeit one with a silver tongue. The sort of friend who you tell all your woes to and, five years down the line, you realize that you literally don't even know a single fact about their personal life. A paladin and a cleric, she helped every single person she could on her quest, even in the face of the racism that she experienced as a half-Drow, never letting it openly crack her...while she sat on top of a truly massive, twisting pile of childhood traumas, insecurities, and weaknesses, which she kept well concealed beneath her shining armor.

To herself, she sees herself as pretty much always being half-finished. She has spent what amounts to her adult life as a Drow on the run, constantly looking behind her back for the other boot to fall. She's rarely truly happy, almost never at peace, to the point where, along with many other Drow, she actually physically CANNOT enter her trance and has to sleep instead (and her dreams are often filled with nightmares, courtesy of Lolth), while being forced to smile through micro and macro aggressions because if she snaps, the blame will be put on her, using her tongue to get out of difficult situations and de-escalate combat before it begins. She walks apart from both the surface dwellers and the Drow, with the only one to truly understand her being Raphael. When she eventually joins him, it's seen as a massive betrayal by most, since it's a betrayal of her heroic ideals, but in reality, it's a betrayal of a version of herself that never really existed, or that, when she did exist, was a front that Kitrye put up because she thought it was the right thing. In reality, it's her choosing the one person, next to Malla, who really loved her, and the ONLY person, at all, who understood her. Her companions...I think that they thought they were her friends, but for a variety of reasons, some of them Kitrye's fault, some of them not, they really...weren't. She was by their side more than they were ever by hers. And it wasn't entirely their fault, since she never learned to ASK for anything, she was accustomed to the silence, but...I do think there might have come a time when they forgot that she was a person *too*.

After she turns to Raphael finally, I don't think the world can come to terms with the great hero of Faerún willingly choosing to be consort to a devil. It's too sickening a thought. I've thought that there might be multiple stories spread about her over the years -- that she made a deal with Raphael in order to defeat the Netherbrain, that he abducted her, that the REAL hero of Faerún died and the devil's consort is someone else who coincidentally has the same name/a false image of the real hero, intended to mock her/a decoy, etc. In the same way as they couldn't believe that the great hero Balduran was a mindflayer. If they do believe it, it's treated as a betrayal, a fall to darkness for a great hero, who defeated one of the greatest evils the Sword Coast had ever seen but allowed herself to be seduced by a devil. (Meanwhile...the truth is somewhere in-between. She's neither totally GONE from what she used to be, but nor is she a quivering captive in Raphael's realm, she did choose him, and she did make the only decision that she felt like she could make, even if it was a thoroughly selfish one.)

Speaking of which...God, Malla. She sees herself as being brutal, efficient, and uncaring. She does what she needs to do, and she has lived her life according to the principles of the Drow, minimizing every weakness so that they can't be used against her. She is loyal to Lolth, but not out of love like Kitrye with Eilistraee, but out of fear, knowing that one wrong move and she will be sacrificed or turned into a drider. She's the embodiment of that one Animorphs line about ruthlessness: "It’s about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end. It’s about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it.”

The truth is, she is far softer than she believes. She loves her sister and repeatedly refuses to kill her or even let her die when it would have been convenient. She adores Minthara, even though she's betrayed Lolth and so could bring Lolth's wrath upon her. She has a noted soft spot for street urchins, seeing a bit of herself in them, and she protects the gnomes, who she views as valuable assets after being rather accidentally named as their savior. She's often seen, by people who know her true nature as opposed to the front she puts on for her infiltration schemes, as coldhearted, brutal, and proud to the point of murder; Kitrye simultaneously loves and is terrified by her sister, and that is the image that Malla sells of herself. In reality, though, there is a soft spot buried down in there, even if she will likely deny it until the day she dies.

49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them?

Kitrye -- Phalar Aluve. Her sword is her most important item, an extension of herself and her bond with Eilistraee. Its presence in her life is often calming to her, she will often listen to its song by the firelight, or call down its shriek upon her enemies. When she breaks her oath, she actually refuses to wield it for a time, substituting it for another weapon, and her accepting the sword back is the sign that she's finally back in the game.

Kitrye is sentimental, especially given her upbringing -- she often keeps items from questlines tied to certain characters. For example, she refuses to part with Lenore's ring from the arcane tower, even though she has no need of it. She also maintains an archive in her chest in camp of all the books, memoirs, diary entries, and scraps of paper that she comes across in her quest, as a way of trying to remember the people who died on the road to finishing her quest.

Malla - So, in her game, I came across an owlbear plushie and I toyed with selling it, but I thought it would be much funnier if Malla canonically had an owlbear plushie that she carries around with her everywhere. Unlike Kitrye, she is not sentimental at all, a combination of her upbringing as a Drow and her training as a Ranger. She can't allow herself to establish roots, and so she doesn't. She maintains a relatively small inventory and chest in camp, the contents mainly consisting of active quest items, things that she intends to sell off, and things that she can't sell off, her inventory packed with her collection of poisons and specialized arrows. She will sometimes keep papers that she feels contain important information, especially about the Drow, but other than that? Every scrap of paper takes up space.

[themagentadragon]

Rylaenvol Ssikseoulen

"Are we sure he's not a bard?"

Ryl is a traveler. He has travelled through planes, through spaces and through time. He has been many places, and has many places yet to go, all in his quest to gain the power he needs to defeat Lolth and free his people from her web. He is an artist, a crafter, a rogue, an alchemist, a chef, a freedom fighter, a barbarian, a musician, a murderer, a skirmisher, a friend, an ally of Ilmater, Eilistraee's partisan, an enemy of Lolth. He is many things. He is not a bard.

(Art by Lilithblack)

Name: Rylaenvol Ssikseoulen ('Sunstone')

Titles: The Dark Maiden’s Partisan

Aliases: Rylaenvol Daugirin, Moonshadow, The Painted Drow, The Scourged God, The Fool, Interloper, Trespasser

Home: Northwest Faerun

Former Home(s): Garethbalt, Underdark, Ethos, Bladur’s Gate, Waterdeep, Mithral Hall

Sex: Male

Race: Drow (Quasi-deity/Quasi-power)

Patron Deity: Eilistraee (Formerly Lolth)

Born: 1289 DR (Equivalent) (Tenth son of Issarezz Daugirin)

Spouse(s): Jeanne Renaud, Trelasarra Zuind

Sibling(s): Arraneth Daugirin (deceased), Akwaer Daugirin (deceased), Angjhul Daugirin, Quewune Daugirin, Amtsama Daugirin (deceased), Seven Unknown Brothers (all deceased), Several Unknown Sisters (some deceased)

Child(ren): Iejirvethivuthavaecaesin (Jiji), Rhydar, Gabrielle, Nymli, Kalon, Talvra, Nounrae, Klaris, Qilué Veladorn (Reincarnated)

Alignment: Neutral Good (Chaotic Tendencies) (Formerly Neutral Evil)

Class: Skirmisher 20 (Rogue Scout 8, Barbarian Totem Warrior 6, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer 3 (Elena), Fighter 1, Ranger 1, Monk 1)

Worlds Visited: Ethos (homeworld), Abeir-Toril (Forgotten Realms), Nirn (Elder Scrolls), Thedas (Dragon Age), The Continent (Witcher), The World (Pokemon)

(Art by Notesz)

Rylaenvol spent a little over two hundred years as the elderboy and slavemaster of House Daugirin, in the city of Garethbalt. He and many other Lolthite drow lived under the Dragon Spine Mountains committing atrocities to each other and to the people of the country of Drakos in the realm of Redspace. He served Lolth willingly and faithfully, murdering, torturing, raiding and enslaving many creatures of both the surface and the underdark. He knew his place and submitted himself to the whims of the matriarchy, doing all he could to please them, and by extension, please Lolth. Despite his loyalty Ryl never held Lolth's favor, for reasons he did not understand, and ultimately, never learned. He knew it was his destiny to die one day in service to his House and his Goddess and that day came when a powerful House accused House Daugirin of an attempted assassination, after one of the slaves they had purchased from the Houser had disobeyed orders and tried to kill the Matron Mother, grounds to destroy the weaker House Daugirin on. Knowing the maneuver to be one made as a precaution, to keep House Daugarin from amassing more power than they had already and threatening the other House's position, Ryl submitted himself for judgment, and offered to pay for the crimes in their entirety. He offered himself as a sacrifice to Lolth. He was executed through use of a Whip of Fangs, and shortly before his death, felt rage at the unfairness of it all. He was brought back to life through means he isn't fully aware of, knowing that it was part divine intervention and part the intervention of his mother. He was scarred, body and spirit, and the longer he lived the more he understood that the world around him was a terrible, violent and bloody lie. Knowing that he was still unlikely to survive the underdark, he planned to make a break for the surface to die there instead, all for the sake of granting his slaves the freedom he had taken from them. After a harrowing journey, Ryl did not find death on the surface, but was instead given a second chance at life, one he took whole-heartedly with a desire to change and to do good with this new life, beginning anew under the light of the sun.

(Art by S0nkur0) Ryl found his chance in the office of Drakos' Spymaster, a szarkai drow also escaped from the underdark. What Ryl did not know was that the mission, 'stop the slave trade between Drakos and Lithic' was as much of of a wild goose chase as the spymaster could send him on. Ryl found himself kidnapped onto a slaver's ship, which was attacked by a kraken just off the shores of Rassic, and shipwrecked with the other survivors on the beaches south of Lithic. Ryl joined with the group after some rocky introductions, and together they made their way north. Ryl learned about a surface world even more different than the one that had felt so foreign to him before. Here was a world of brightly colored birds, dinosaurs, plants and people. The more Ryl was immersed in this world of color, the more he came to love it and the people in it. He learned to trust others, and through that, heal himself from a past that he had not realized had been as almost as scarring on him as it had been on others. Lithic, he had found, was a place of rich culture, lead and inhabited by goblinoids and other 'monsterous' races. Including drow. Drow who walked the surface, who lived under the sun and lived among people, as people themselves. He found in these people no sense of belonging, but he did find hope. Still burdened by guilt he worked wherever he could to help those around him, be they his friends or complete strangers. Small tasks led to larger jobs, until one day they were tasked with finding out what had happened to the empress of Lithic who had gone missing years ago. Ryl found himself back in the underdark, an underdark removed by an entire ocean from the one he had known, and one devoid of Lolth and seemingly of life. His party tracked down and found the empress, cursed into the form of a medusa and guarded by a diseased troll. Thus rescued, the empress was returned to her throne, her curse broken, and she asked of them what boon they may wish from her and her husband. Ryl looked to his friends, who encouraged him, and asked that the empress abolish slavery from Lithic. It was done, his impossible job was complete, but his desire to help kept him in Lithic with the others, to participate in the finalization of the war that had stagnated between Lithic and an empire run by Yuan-ti, suspected to have been behind the empresses' disappearance and confinement in order to gain the upper hand. Though Ryl felt that war was not their business, his friends wished to make a final push against ending the evils of the land, and Ryl, knowing the Yuan-ti practiced slavery as well, could not sit by. After an arduous battle, the lord of the Yuan-ti, steps away from ascending to godhood, was slain. His presence and the presence of his divinity began to make Ryl question. He had heard various stories of mortal becoming dieties, and here before him was one such mortal. If a creature as vile as this emperor who killed and sacrificed others, might Ryl be able to, in order to save the drow from Lolth. In this he knew he had an ally: Eilistraee, a goddess wishing to free the drow from Lolth's web, one he had become familiar with through the surface-walking drow. In this, Ryl had another ally, Fal'el, a son of Lolth sealed away in his temple, whom Ryl and his friends had previously freed. With this goal now in mind, Ryl began making his preparations to do what he could to reach Lolth's level, and bring the Spider Queen Down.

(Art by SerenaVerdeArt)

Shortly after becoming a quasi-power, Ryl was kidnapped and taken by mindflayers from his home of Redspace and transported onto their Nataloid, where he was infected with a specially-engineered illithid tadpole. Either the forced removal from his home plane, the tadpole's insertion, or a combined effect of both, caused Ryl to lose nearly all of his memories, and severely weakened him physically. The Nataloid made its way back to Realmspace where it was set upon by gith warriors riding red dragons. The ship was pursued through the planes, before being severely damaged while travelling through Avernus, and finally returned to the material plane and crash-landed east of Baldur's Gate. Ryl and other survivors of the crash banded together through the mutual desire to remove the tadpoles that they had been infected with, ineviteably crossing paths with The Absolute, lead by equally infected 'True Souls' under the service of a goddess figure, seemingly responsible for mindflayers' actions. With so many affected by the machinations of the Absolute, Ryl set aside his own dilemma time and time again to lend aid to those in need. His constant rebuttal against the tadpole and refusal to use its power, culminated into an attempt by the aberration to seize control of Ryl's body. Ryl responded by threatening to kill himself, and it by extension. The tadpole was quelled by the sincerity of the threat, and the two forged an uneasy pact after. Ryl's mind was his, the tadpole's its own. If one lived, the other lived, if one died, the other died. This caused Ryl to form an unusual bond with the tadpole, one that, once he and the others had the opportunity to have the tadpoles removed, cause Ryl to decide to allow the aberration to live with him until a time that they found a way for it to live freely. After the defeat of the powers behind the Cult of the Absolute, a victory that almost came at the cost of Ryl's life, Ryl travelled with one of his companions to Waterdeep, to see about crafting a spell to safely send him back to Redspace. To help fund this research Ryl opted to join a group of adventurers operating out of Trollskull Manor unaware that he would soon be entangled in the events that would be known as 'The Dragon Heist' of Waterdeep. Ryl was scouted by Bregan D'aerth almost immediately after his arrival, and was soon given an invitation to join the drow mercenary band, lured by the ideal of its leader to turn Luskan into a safe haven for drow on the surface to escape from Lolth and live peacefully. Ryl was not certain he could trust the Lord of Luskan, but was able to determine that whatever his ulterior motives, the dream of creating a city for drow on the surface was real. Ryl worked to pursue the interested of Bregan D'aerth where it fit his morals, up to reluctantly turning against his friends after the discovery of the Vault of Dragons, in order to secure it for Bregan D'aerth, an act of betrayal that ultimately resulted in failure. Ryl was rescued and nursed back to health, but the dream of a surface drow city and the guilt of his failure haunted him. Eventually Ryl concocted a plan to travel back in time by a few years to give Bregan D'aerth the secrets of the Vault before the Trollskull adventurers would ever find it. Using the funds he had been gathering to send him home, and requesting his companion's aid, with additional backing from Bregan D'aerth, Ryl was successfully sent back in time, but something had gone wrong. Instead of five years back, Ryl had been transported over a century back, into the middle of the 14th century. At a loss, Ryl followed rumors north until he arrived at Ten Towns, seeking out a ranger said to be a kind-hearted drow. But on the road Ryl was passed by a member of Bregan D'aerth who did not recognize him, and should not have been alive in the era he was in. Worried about what this meant for the people in the town ahead, Ryl pursued the assassin, unaware that he was about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime.

(Baldur's Gate 3 © Larian Studios)

[sageadvicednd]

What was unique about Qilué Veladorn’s singing sword and did it have a name? @TheEdVerse What was unique about Qilué Veladorn's singing sword and did it have a name? Need it for a game.

[drivingbear-blog1]

Thierriadin Xa: uncertainty and forgiveness

From Iskandr Tirielthin, ed., A Thousand Darks Before the Dawn: Points and Arcs in Elven History, Huzuz: Al-Bidir Sal’ah, 1926 DR.

Araushnee and Corellon were once consorts and the foremost deities in the elven pantheon, the Seldarine. Something went wrong between them — so the story goes — and eventually Araushnee, finding few allies among the Seldarine, conspired with powers from the demon realms to organize an army to invade Arvandor, the celestial home of the elven pantheon. They had one goal: to kill Corellon. Eilistraee, the free-spirited, kind-hearted daughter of Araushnee and Corellon — and herself deity of the hunt, dance, freedom, moonlight, and swordwork — knew nothing of these plans. During the battle, Eilistraee — a skilled archer — defended Arvandor, firing arrows at the demonic invaders. But Araushnee’s allies had cursed the scabbard of Corellon’s sword to draw arrows to itself; Eilistraee’s arrows, uncharacteristically, flew wide of their marks, finding their way instead to her father’s chest, wounding him grieviously.

The invaders were nonetheless repelled, and Corellon survived his wounds. Araushnee was exiled to the demon realms, where she took a new name: Lloth. Lloth accepted the ruthlessness of the demon realms, and eventually embraced it, establishing a new dominion as the deity of spiders. At the same time, the dark elves — the drow — who had worshipped Araushnee were exiled from the surface world into the Underdark. They went on worshipping Araushnee in her new form, Lloth, and their society turned brutal. They executed worshippers of other deities and enslaved the other creatures of the Underdark. Lloth encouraged murderous competition for power and status among their noble houses, and they sacrificed their third sons to her in an effort to gain her favor in their deadly games.

In Arvandor, the curse on Corellon’s scabbard was discovered, and Eilistraee was exonerated. She could have stayed in Arvandor, but chose instead to follow her mother into exile, saying, ‘The drow will need a light in the long darkness.’

This, anyway, is the story told to all novices beginning study of the long and intricate history of the elven pantheons. But as Thierriadin Xa writes in this short excerpt from the Way of Eilistraee, much remains unknown about the events leading to the invasion of Arvandor. What happened between Araushnee and Corellon so many thousand ages ago? It may be that no mortal will ever know. One could say that it occurred so long ago that it cannot possibly matter any longer: whatever happened happened, and things are as they are. Yet for followers of Eilistraee this uncertainty about what happened ‘before’ is a pillar of religious practice. This ‘not knowing’ is the stepping stone to refraining from judgment, and therefore a key to seeking understanding and forgiveness in their quest to bring peace to the mortal realms. Xa writes (Way of Eilistraee, Vol. VII):

All this we know: Araushnee’s conspiracies against the Seldarine, against Corellon and against her own daughter; her expulsion from Arvandor and her transformation into Lloth; the descent of the drow into the Underdark and the gradual but inexorable conversion of most of them to the worship of Lloth; their fear, in their isolation in the vast darkness, and their slow but inexorable conversion to militarism; their quest for security, which became inevitably a quest for power; their delight in the ability to exercise their power over others, which manifested so often as simple delight in cruelty; the deadly intolerance of Lloth’s clerics for even the acknowledgment of other gods, which they called heresy. All this is beyond doubt. Even those who never lived under Lloth’s yoke do not question the accounts of those who escaped to the surface. Yet we remember always that we do not know everything. Why did Araushnee conspire with the demons against Arvandor, and especially against Corellon? The answer that she was simply always hungry for power, though in some ways consistent with later history, has never been truly satisfactory. Every relationship is its own universe, and the gods, unlike the primordials, are as complex and contradictory as any mortal — and at times just as passionate and imperfect. However good and just Corellon may have always been to the other gods, and to his subjects, we may never know what truly transpired between him and Araushnee. This uncertainty must temper our understanding of Lloth’s evil. We know that malice never springs from itself but always from history — that a heart bears scars only because it once bore wounds. It is this knowledge that allows us to say we are reluctant to believe either in pure evil or in pure goodness, and finally to say that no mortal is beyond forgiveness. As Eilistraee herself is said to have once told Veladorn Qilué, we all have complicated relationships with our parents.

[sageadvicednd]

Qilué Veladorn have been a undying warlock patron for a young drow?

http://www.sageadvice.eu/2017/01/24/qilue-veladorn-have-been-a-undying-warlock-patron-for-a-young-drow/