Alignment of Worshippers:
Any evil. Usually chaotically or neutrally evil. Lawful worshipers are present but are
exceedingly rare. Non evil worshipers are also present but, again, highly rare. The very nature of Lolth’s faith is an anathema to those who are unprepared to lie, trick and betray their way through life, so non-evil worshipers either remain at the bottom of the social pile, or are eventually driven to evil in order to survive.

Drow make up the majority of Lolth’s faithful, building vast temples to her in the underdark and populating them with great numbers of her exclusively female clerics. Beyond the drow, she has few worshipers. Some grimlocks and underdark dwelling goblins worship her as a mighty destroyer who must be appeased lest she obliterate them all. Also, some debased tribes of aranea also worship her as their creator and patron. Many of these take the form of drow when in humanoid form, and some drow clerics view these as being blessed by Lolth. Beyond them, Lolth’s worshipers are usually lone individuals who pray to Lolth for the strength to destroy their enemies.

History and Relationships:
In prehistory, Lolth was known by another name now lost to history, and was the consort of Corellon Larethian, and together they created the elven people and spread them across the world. It is said that Corellon gave them his skill at arms, magic and art, while the being that would become Lolth gave them her beauty, pride, and some say, ambition.

What happened next varies from telling to telling. Surface elves maintain that when she saw that the world was not populated by elves alone, but also humans, dwarfs, gnomes, halflings, orcs, hobgoblins and many other peoples, she first fell into a terrible despair, as these creatures existence was making ugly the land she had intended her elves to make beautiful. Then she moved to provoke war against the other races, spreading hatred, intolerance and evil amongst her people and sparking bloody wars. When Corellon discovered this, his rage was immense. Confronting his consort, he first took her beauty, cursing her with the form of a foul spider. Then, he took her truename, so that she couldn’t use it to regain her full form, and gave her instead the name ‘Lolth’ a mix of the Abyssal and Cestrial word for betrayer, and using the power of this new name, bound her to the Abyss, and then went and drove her followers into the underdark.

The drow version is obviously different. In their telling, when the elves were created and spread across the world, the other races in their jealousy formed a conspiracy to drag them low. Distracting Corellon with false declarations of community and friendship, the other gods had their followers infiltrate elven lands and undermine the people. Seeing through the deception, she who would become Lolth tried to save her people from this menace, but Corellon had been enchanted and seduced by his foes and turned on his consort and her followers and cast them out. Retreating to the Abyss, she guided her followers into the underdark, so that the isolation from others will allow them to maintain their purity and avoid the weakness of their corrupted fellows.

Whatever happened, since that day, Lolth’s hatred, bitterness and fear of betrayal have matured into full blown paranoia. As such, in her dealings with other beings there are only two categories they can fall into: Loyal and submissive servant, or eternal enemy. Her chaotic and unpredictable nature means that alliances with others are often prematurely ended when Lolth turns on them due to what she takes to be potential betrayal. The only beings who are prepared to ally with her on a regular basis are ones like the demon prince Graz’zt, whose twisted and conniving thinking mirrors Lolth’s own (but not so such an extreme extent), and Tharizdun, as Lolth is one of the few beings crazy enough to ally with him on a regular basis. Most others have been betrayed to often to risk it but for the briefest of moments.

Teachings:
There is no central text or writing through which the faith is built. In each temple the rites, laws and traditions are, and have always been, what the current head priestess says that are and were. When she loses her position (a usually fatal event) her successor may change the prevailing orthodoxy to one that she likes better. And it will have always have been like that. In fact, one commonly employed tactic employed by head priestesses to deal with powerful threats against their position is to quietly adjust some aspect of worship, and then declare the rivals heretics for failing to adhere to the ancient traditions. Assuming it works, the ensuring holy war/massacre should remove the rivals, unless of course the head priestess had underestimated her support and finds herself the heretic. The right to decide what is traditional and what isn’t is one of the perks of power.

However, there are some core values to Lolth’s faith that all agree on. The central tenet is that through weakness, was the surface lost to the false elves. As such her followers must strive to become ever stronger, both as individuals and as a race. This has resulted in the drow developing a society fuelled by hyperactive ambition, with worshipers constantly driving themselves up the social ladder, and when they get to the top conducting grandiose schemes and plots in order to honour and impress Lolth, who is known to appreciate ambition in all forms.

Lolth is constantly testing her faithful, trying to find even the slightest hint of weakness that her many perceived enemies might exploit. If any individual should be unfortunate enough to fail any of these tests, Lolth’s wrath is terrible, either destroying the unfortunate outright, or transforming them into pitiful Driders. Many clerics often perform dangerous and vile deeds in order to strengthen themselves and increase their power. These can range from dangerous experiments in alchemy, taking on magical or martial studies or utilising summoned demons and extracting power from their forms. In extreme cases, some brave, desperate or reckless clerics have been known to copulate with summoned fiends in the hope of being impregnated and producing a powerful half-fiendish child. Through acts like these the vile Draegloth was spawned, as well as many other abominations best left unrecorded.

Also, war with all other gods and their followers, especially those of the Seldarine is a major part of Lolth’s faith. As far as Lolth is concerned, the Seldarine forfeited any right to control the destiny of the elven people, and that those elves that remained on the surface have become debased and impure through their tolerance and intermixing with lesser species, and are not true elves anymore. Her clerics take great joy in attacking Seldarine temples, desecrating the relics and enslaving the clergy. Of these, Corellon’s temples are a favourite target, for he is seen as the weakling who was tricked into handing over the elven people’s destiny to lesser beings. But Lolthian clerics take a particular joy in striking against the faithful of Sehanine Moonbow, who is Corellon’s current consort. In drow legends, she is portrayed as a vile seductress who, out of jealousy over Lolth’s position as Corellon’s consort and her legendry beauty, aids the enemies of elven kind by turning him against Lolth. (Some tales have this done with magical aid from another god like Boccob or Wee Jas) Other gods and their followers also come under attack, for they have stolen and dare to use riches, lands and magics that are stolen from their true owners.

All this has one goal. Eventually after all the testing, back stabbing, plotting and fighting, all weakness will have been purged from the ranks of the drow. At the same time, those on the surface will have been weakened by their own decadence and impurity, and will fall easily to Lolth’s might. And once all the humans, dwarves, orcs and all the other surface races, especially the elven traitors who remained on the surface have been enslaved, they can start to repay their debt through an eternity of bondage to the true elven race, with rightful domination finally returned to them.

Interaction with Outsiders:
The main form of communication that Lolth’s faithful has with those who are not her worshipers tends to be restricted to either battle cries, or mockery over defeated foes who have been captured and destined for slavery or sacrifice. Clerics of other gods are often sacrificed on holy days of their faith, as an added insult to the usurper gods.

The faithful will brook no worship other than that of Lolth in their presence. However, in order to further some plan, some clerics may ally themselves with the worshipers of another god. These will invariably be those of evil deities such as Vecna or Tharizdun, or demon princes such as Graz’zt. But these are tenuous at best, and often end with one double crossing the other, usually the Lolthians.

Variant Sects:
Given the chaotic nature of the church, no two temples are quite alike in all but the most basic respects. However there are some small groups with more extreme differences from the others.

Located in various hidden retreats across the underdark, the rare non-evil worshipers of Lolth have banded together for protection and comfort. These practice a less extreme form of their goddess’ teachings, and while they still strive to strengthen themselves against their many foes, they do not engage in the rampart back stabbing of the majority, believing that cooperation can be as strong as paranoid individualism. These often serve as underdark guides and believe that the right to survive belongs to anyone strong enough, not just Lolth’s faithful. Indeed, anyone who can survive the many perils of the underdark deserves his continued existence. These few are mistrusted by all (due mainly as their nature as drow), and hunted down by the other clerics of Lolth, who view their beliefs as a dangerous perversion of their beliefs that could jeopardise their whole future with the taint of weakness. The constant harshness of their life takes its toll, and more than a few have either turned to evil, or abandoned Lolth for a more benign god, such as Fharlanghn or Olidammara.

Of a more deadly nature, is a sect of Lolth that has formed in recent years. While its teachings do not differ from the norm in most respects, what sets it apart is the nature of its adherents: They’re all surface elves! Located in the Duchy of Ulek, this group, which is made up of High and Sylvan Elves openly worship the Seldarine but secretly gather together for midnight ceremonies in praise of Lolth. Their leader, Amra Starshadow (NE female high elf cleric 12) has her followers engaged in a secret war against the humans of the Duchy with the goal of driving them of the land. Given the small number of worshipers in the cult, progress has been slow, but Starshadow intends to expand her cult, and could soon become a major menace.

Adventuring Clergy:
The path of the adventurer is one that a surprisingly large number of Lolth’s clerics take. Unlike adventuring clergy of other evil gods, Lolth’s clerics don’t bother to hide their faith, as most people are going to be hostile towards a drow regardless of her profession. These adventurers are usually junior and inexperienced clerics, who go out for a few years to improve their magical abilities, gather up some treasure with which to help fund their first steps up on the social ladder, and to practice skills necessary for later life, such as stabbing in the back those who are no longer useful to them.

Those who adventure tend to either form their own band of drow adventurers and lead them into the wilds of the underdark, or attach themselves to groups of surface adventurers who need a guide for the underdark and don’t mind putting up with a drow.

After a period of adventuring, most clerics return to their cities and start to work on improving their standing in the church hierarchy. However, some find that the life of adventure suits them, and decide not to return to their homes. These clerics can end up commanding vast companies consisting of drow, derro and even exceptionally immoral humans, dwarves and elves. These survive as both well armed brigands and raiders, or as mercenaries in the armies of more powerful beings. One notable example is the group commanded by Nedylene Vrinn (CE female drow cleric 14/ranger 3) whose sixty strong company is employed used as night raiders and intelligence gatherers by the armies of Luz currently within the Duchy of Tenh.