Editing Loviatar (section)

==Publication History==
[[Ed Greenwood]] created Loviatar in his home games of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], confessing that she was inspired by the Finnish goddess of the same name, who was depicted in the original Deities & Demigods Cyclopedia. He even went so far as to make her explicitly the Finnish Loviatar seeking a renewed worshipper base elsewhere, although this aspect of her lore dropped off around the time of 3rd edition.

She first made her debut in the days of [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, as one of the deities featured in Ed Greenwood's article "Down-to-earth Divinity" in Dragon #54 (October 1981). Loviatar is introduced as the Maiden of Pain and Torture, goddess of pain, hurt, and patron of torturers, a lawful evil demigoddess from the plane of Gehenna. Loviatar is described as one of "The Dark Gods" of evil alignment: "Loviatar, [[Talona]], and [[Malar]] serve [[Bane]] through [[Bhaal]] (although Loviatar and Talona are rivals)." Loviatar is commonly worshipped by lawful evil magic-users, assassins, monks, and clerics, and characters employed as torturers.

Loviatar later officially appeared as one of the major deities for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set's "Cyclopedia of the Realms" booklet (1987), where she is described as a pale maiden in white armour who wields a wand-shaped dagger of ice, and is stated to be the same Loviatar as the one in Finnish legend.

When 2nd edition rolled along, Loviatar was fully cemented into place; she was there from the original hardback Forgotten Realms Adventures (1990), followed by the revised Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (1993) (where she appeared in the "Running the Realms" booklet), and in 1996's Faiths and Avatars. The 1996 and 1997 Faerun [[cleric]]-centered [[splatbooks]] "Warriors & Priests of the Realms" and "Prayers from the Faithful" further established her cult, whilst her interactions with the nonhuman deities of Faerun was covered in 1998's Demihuman Deities. 1996 was such a good year for her that she even made it into [[Planescape]], thanks to the [[splatbook]] "On Hallowed Ground".

When [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition]] rolled on, Loviatar remained solidly in place, debuting in the 3e FR Campaign Setting (2001) and receiving an expansion in Faiths & Pantheons the next year.

In [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]], like most of the more "generic" deities, Loviatar slipped in prestige. She wasn't demoted to Exarch status, instead being named a "God" level entity, but her only mentions are in the big table of Toril's deities in the 4e FR Campaign Setting and the fact she got her associated [[Cleric Domain]]s mentioned in the [[Dragon Magazine]] article applying that mechanic from [[Divine Power]] to the gods of the [[Forgotten Realms]] and [[Eberron]].

In [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]], she made her initial debut as part of a table of deities in the back of the [[Player's Handbook]], and received a basic writeup in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.