Drow Religious Views

Revised Jan. 2026

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Relations With The Spider Queen

How Lolth Views Her Children

Lolth isn't the only deity available to the drow and never has been, but she's always acted like it. She hates sharing her dark elves with anyone else, so she keeps them busy fighting for their lives. What seems like insanity and fickleness is actually a bid to keep them from straying. As long as she remains their patron, she claims their souls after death as surely as she dominates their mortal lives. Whether they live or die, she gains power, and she blesses their fertility so there are always more. This is also why her clergy suppress information about other deities when they can and taint it when they can't. When those efforts aren't enough, they root out hidden temples and make examples of secret clerics they find. Worshipers of Kiaransalee and Selvetarm are exceptions only because they are subservient to Lolth and have never posed a credible threat to her, as far as she's concerned. They are as caught in her web as the drow who follow her.

The trouble is, other deities can be discovered in more than tomes and songs. Every time drow venture away from their cities, they might discover what other gods have to offer. Encountering camaraderie and mercy for the first time may not bring disgust; those living out other faiths can make all the difference. Dreams and omens aren't just the province of those blessed with divine magic, either: any drow's hidden fears and longings could bring them on. In short, it may be difficult to convert drow who have been reared in Lolthian settlements, but it isn't impossible.

How The Faithful Regard Lolth

At best, Lolth's faithful regard her with awe and try to live up to her example. Like her, they trap victims in webs of lies, play with them on their own terms, and take everything they want. They strike hard and fast when they must and revel in cruelty but are often painfully reminded of their place. They must appease those with superior power so they aren't destroyed before they can gain enough power to challenge them. And they never expect to best the Spider Queen in anything. Only the worst happens to those who try.

At worst, they dread Lolth's demands and threats and resent how much of their lives are wasted fighting their own kin. At the same time, many are addicted to the power they gain from living in the society she fosters. For all their loathing, they can't reject the goddess who encourages them to act out their violent fantasies whenever they can get away with it. Others feel trapped and, seeing no way out, aim to endure as best they can. Many drow vacillate between these extremes: when they feel like they're winning the game, they revere her and when they feel like they're losing, they despise her. But they would rather go on to the next challenge than seek gods who would coddle them.

It's no wonder so many of her followers seem as unhinged as Lolth herself.

How The Traitors Regard Lolth

Whether they're evil or not, drow who reject Lolth regard her with disgust, regret, and rage. Seeing the world outside of her influence reveals her for the grasping goddess she is: just one divine being among many, not the most powerful or feared or even very successful, considering the scope of her boasts. Chaotic drow resent all the freedoms they were forced to give up while lawful drow lament how inefficient everything was under her guidance. Good drow lament fighting and losing comrades they would rather have loved and supported, along with all the victims they couldn't save; evil drow may be glad to finally serve their own whims instead of hers. Neutral drow begrudge all the ways they were deprived of what they needed and put in danger for no good reason. In any case, whenever they abandon her faith, Lolth returns their hatred tenfold.

Drow raised in other faiths rarely view the Spider Queen favorably and although she dislikes them in return, Lolth will always seize a chance to tempt them to her side.

Relations With Other Dark Seldarine

Eilistraee

Lolth and her daughter have been at odds for a very long time. When Lolth was banished from the Seldarine, Eilistraee insisted on being exiled, as well, but not because she was guilty of betraying the pantheon or wanted to serve her mother's will. She has offered a shining beacon of goodness to the drow even as Lolth has poisoned them against her. Many drow mock her kindness, but some reach out to her in secret from Lolthian enclaves. Outcasts are more likely to take up her faith; for many of these unfortunates, she is the main reason they find their way to safety. Eilistraee may loathe what Lolth's faithful do but she understands how duped they are. Whenever possible, Eilistraee tempers her anger with pity and offers hope for redemption.

Kiaransalee

Kiaransalee is a demigod associated with vengeance and the undead. Drow necromancers are the most likely to worship her but her cults have always been small, since she prefers the undead to the living. Kiaransalee doesn't like being in servitude to Lolth but has never garnered the power she would need to strike against the Spider Queen. Drow are most likely to turn to her for what she can offer them as one of the few accepted alternatives to Lolth. So long as they're devoted to her key interests, she may deign to notice them.

Selvatarm

As her grandson, Selvetarm serves Lolth willingly and takes his duty seriously, even if he doesn't like her or anyone else. More than once, he's taken his grandmother's side over his father Vhaeraun's, even when his loyalty has been to his detriment. Some drow think he's just a useful fool, but Lolth approves of his bloodlust and he serves as her champion of war. As such, a number of drow fighters worship him; traditionally, most have been male. The more drow just want to do battle and ignore the rest, the more likely they are to follow Selvetarm. Since many aranea follow him, they are another way drow might learn of him. For his part, Selvetarm accepts their worship as a general accepts soldiers: they are useful to him but ultimately, they all answer to a higher power.

Vhaeraun

Vhaeraun was once Lolth's favorite child, which made her push him into fighting her so he would build real strength. But watching her divide the drow and keep them from progressing soured his feelings for his mother. Then he developed views and wiles she had little patience for and began to sway others to his side. Out of all the other deities, Vhaeraun has won the most drow hearts away from Lolth, and it isn't difficult to see why. He sees drow as superior to other mortal beings and fosters that view in his followers. He also rejects anything that would keep them apart: the supremacy of one gender over another and the sequestering of drow below the surface. He teaches that together, they are unstoppable and can seize their birthright, ruling above and below as equals.

But his faith has been one of deception and subtle resistance rather than direct opposition. While this has kept him from even greater popularity, direct war against Lolth's faithful would lead to the kinds of deaths Vhaeraun wants to avoid. He has also been the target of more misinformation campaigns than any other enemy of Lolth, so drow who would otherwise embrace the Masked Lord often refrain. Recently, word has spread that Vhaeraun has been fully subjugated by his mother. His worship is openly permitted in Lolthian settlements for the first time but has taken the form of male drow praying for better conditions instead of working to dismantle how Lolthian society is run. Many are skeptical of this about-face - and they probably should be. Vhaeraun isn't a god of trickery for nothing.

Ties To Other Gods

Some turn to non-drow deities when they leave the Spider Queen's faith. This is more common for those on the surface but can occur in others. Of these converts, most avoid following deities who ascended from non-drow stock. They often eschew masculine gods, as well, but in a realm with so many faiths, a number of options remain. These are some of the most likely:

• Beshaba, goddess of mischief and misfortune, appeals to drow who are used to fearing their goddess.

• Through their experiences with pain and torture, drow can discover the call of Loviatar, the Maiden of Pain.

• Malar is associated with Lolth and represents a vicious impulse that many drow might identify with, even if they aren't lycanthropes.

• A drow who values knowledge above all else might worship Oghma and be well received, regardless of alignment.

• Shar can easily appeal to drow on many fronts, starting with her ties to darkness and ending with her taste for intrigue.

• Drow are no strangers to the powers of disease and poison, so Talona may appeal to them more than you'd expect.

• Leira has called drow for a long time but they have kept their worship of her secret.

• With his ties to trickery and shadows, Mask is reminiscent of Vhaeraun and he's appeared as a drow before, as well.

• Talos calls to all with an appetite for destruction and the fury of a natural disaster, drow included.