Eilistraee
 | This article contains PROMOTIONS! Don't say we didn't warn you. |
| Eilistraee | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Alignment | Chaotic Good | |
| Divine Rank | Lesser God | |
| Pantheon | Dark Seldarine, Faerûn | |
| Portfolio | Beauty, Dance, Song, Freedom, Moonlight, Swordwork, the Hunt | |
| Domains | 3E: Chaos, Charm, Drow, Elf, Good, Moon, Portal 5E: Life, Light, Nature |
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| Home Plane | Great Wheel: Svartalfheim (Ysgard) World Tree: Arvandor, The Demonweb Pits (Abyss) |
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| Worshippers | mostly, but not exclusively: surface drow, goodly drow, elves, bards, hunters | |
| Favoured Weapon | Moonsword (bastard sword) | |
Eilistraee is the daughter of Corellon Larethian and Araushnee. She exclusively exists in the Forgotten Realms setting, the only good drow goddess, whose domains include: beauty, dance, song, moonlight, hunt, swordwork and, as of 5e D&D, freedom. The Dark Maiden, as she is called, has the main goal of freeing the drow from Lolth's cruelty and tyranny, helping them retake their future, thrive on the surface, their rightful home, and forge their own path after centuries of living blind to the world. She also strives to promote peace among all races, and to reunite the drow with their elven brothers and sisters. Therefore, she is the patroness of all dark elves who long for a life free from the strife imposed on them by Lolth, of artists, crafters, and hunters. She also looks favorably on outcasts, encouraging her followers to offer them shelter. Even though focused on drow, Eilistraee firmly believes in the possibility of redemption for individuals from all races, and gladly welcomes anyone willing to walk a path that revels in life and its celebration, and who wants to see all people living in harmony together. As a result, she is mostly followed by drow, but has worshippers among various races of any kind (the most common being elves, humans, half-elves and half-orcs).
Due to her choice of sharing the fate of her people, Eilistraee went through many hardships and much pain in her life, but she learned to turn the scars of her battles into flowers. Despite all her wounds, she never stopped seeing and healing the beauty in all things and souls—including what was broken or corrupted; she never stopped loving, dreaming, and smiling to life. The Dark Maiden can still find hope, and the strength to create and nurture, even in the darkest place, and she works to bring her warmth to those trapped in the cold of their night--especially her people.
That said, Eilistraee remains a generally melancholy goddess (in great part because of the suffering of her people, the drow), but she still tries her best to spread joy, show kindness, and make life flourish. She is a lover of peace and beauty, music and dance, and is happiest when seeing artists (especially bards, dancers, and musicians) composing and performing, craftsmen at their work, people doing acts of kindness, and lovers in tender moments. She herself enjoys helping people in need in various practical ways, even those who are not her followers or drow, if they act for good. Despite her kind heart, the Dark Maiden is also a free spirit with a moody and wild side to her personality. She has a fiery streak and is prone to wild action, especially in protection of her faithful when they are harmed.
Having shared the path and struggles of the drow, and having chosen to be one of them, Eilistraee is convinced that those who are still trapped in Lolth's web aren't monsters as many believe, but the result of lifelong abuse and neglect from those who should have loved them the most (as even maternal or paternal love are considered taboo and weakness by Lolth). She sees the part of them that was silenced by hatred and strife, their hidden beauty, and strives to nurture it. The Dark Maiden works to "redeem" the drow by showing them all that they've been missing on in life due to Lolth's oppression, and by taking the role of a nurturing mother. While they were taught that love and affection are weakness, Eilistraee loves them as they are--including vulnerabilities and wounds--and shows them the strength in compassion and caring for each other. While they were taught that an individual has no value except for the power and favor from Lolth that they detain, Eilistraee shows them that they matter as people. Lolth's society is governed by rigid roles and rules, and every drow is forced to constantly wear a mask and enegage in the perennial strife. Eilistraee, on the other hand, teaches them the freedom of expressing themselves, of casting off their chains, and experience that full, vivid joy that too many are denied. With her focus on beauty and freedom, Eilistraee lures the drow out of their prison (and, weirdly, comfort zone, due to Lolth's indoctrination), to embark on a journey to see and marvel at what life actually is, to open their eyes and make them understand that a different existence is not only possible, but that it leads to actual happiness and liberation.
At some point of their life, all drow come to know Eilistraee--be it through the visions, dreams, and emotions showing a different kind of life that she often sends to all drow (especially when they're near the surface), or by receiving her help in some way. Some drow don't understand her, other reject her, but many secretly long to her and to what she has to offer, even though few actually do something about it on their own, due to how difficult it is to escape Lolth's clutches, and how much risk is involved in even merely attempting it (which is why the followers of Eilistraee often organize expeditions to help the drow actually make that choice, or infiltrate drow settlements to find dark elves who are unhappy with their life and offer them a different path).
The Dark Maiden does her best to help her "children" in various practical ways, nurturing, protecting and teaching them about the surface world that is their forgotten home. For example, she often scares off aggressors, sends visions warning of danger, or leads a stag within the reach of a hungry drow. She provides dancing beams of moonlight that move about guiding those who are lost in the dark and leading them to safety, or to lighten childbirths. She is also known to often appear when her children need confort and her visible support in difficult moments (or to welcome a new drow to "join her dance"). It usually happens through her own moonlight, or as a protecting, shadowy, tall female dark elf that dances with the drow.
Even then, Eilistraee tries to leave the drow free to choose; she is subtle and delicate when offering her help, and careful to never impose herself or to forcefully intervene in people's choices. She wishes for her children to find their own path, and to see with their own eyes what life has to offer.
Appearance
Eilistraee appears as a drow woman of glowing beauty. She is tall and lithe (even 9 feet/2,7 meters tall in her avatar form), with long, graceful limbs and a glossy, obsidian-dark skin. Her face is not unlike that of her mother, with smooth and delicately sculpted features and shape, but her hair is ankle-length, of a glowing silvery hue, and her eyes large, with irises of the same color that hold a shifting hint of blue (like moonstones). She usually appears unclad, cloaked only by her hair and silvery radiances that were ever-moving about her body (many say that this makes her fanservice, but there are also reasons for her nudity). Her voice is soft, warm, and carries a sweet musicality within itself. Mortals are instinctively drawn to it, but such attraction doesn't cloud their minds, nor is of magical origin: it is as simple as the sound of a beautiful song, or of a parent's lullaby. Overall, Eilistraee's appearance inspires utter awe and astonishment, as well as emotions so deep to move mortals to tears. Those who contemplate her often feel as if they found the "answer to that question which every soul feels, but no words can frame", but upon her leaving, they often experience a feeling of deep loss, or even desolation, though only for a brief time.
History
When, during her youth, a host of evil deities assaulted Arvandor (her home), Araushnee's treachery almost made Eilistraee slay her own father. Even though she was cleared from any guilt, Eilistraee chose to share her mother's exile, because she had foreseen that the drow would need her light and help in the dark times to come. After her exile, the Dark Maiden wandered Toril, the same world that the elves--including the dark elves that she wanted to watch over--had chosen as their home. For centuries, she fought Vhaeraun's (her brother) and Ghaunadaur's corruption of the drow in southern Faerun, but in the end she wasn't powerful enough to prevent their rise. Eilistraee and her people would found a flourishing center of arts and magic in Miyeritar, but the following centuries would inflict blow after blow to them. During the Crown Wars, she could only mitigate the growing control Lolth, Vhaeraun, and Ghaunadaur had over the dark elves of the south, and the Dark Disaster – a magical cataclysm unleashed by the elves of Aryvandaar – caused the death of the majority of her people in Miyeritar, leading her to lose everything she had worked for, and bringing her to a near powerless state.
Eilistraee found an unlikely protégé in her nephew-god, Selvetarm. He was the son of Vhaeraun and Zandilar the Dancer, but had spurned both his parents and walked alone for centuries, neither good nor evil. Finally, he was befriended by his aunt Eilistraee, and the two grew very close to each other. Selvetarm came to admire her goodness and appreciate her teachings, and the goddess hoped that he could become an exemplar that would aid her in healing the rift between the drow and the Seldarine/the elves. However, said hope and friendship ended when Lolth tricked Selvetarm into slaying Zanassu (a demon lord whom Lolth considered her rival, as he claimed to have power over spiders), by promising him that doing so would gain him the appreciation of the Dark Maiden. But Selvetarm was overwhelmed by the demonic essence and he fell wholly to evil, ending up as Lolth's champion. Spiteful Lolth did this to prevent her daughter gaining an ally among the Dark Seldarine.
Lolth and Ghaunadaur kept gaining great influence among the dark elves, until the Seldarine and the elven court cursed and exiled all of them (including Eilistraee's followers). Once again, Eilistraee chose to share the path of her people, but in her powerless state she could not rival Lolth as deity of the dark elves, and the Spider Queen led them in the Underdark. After this event, Lolth's and Ghaunadaur's persecution of worshipers of rival deities further marginalized the influence of the Lady of the Dance for millennia. Since after the descent of the drow, Eilistraee has tried her best to be a mother goddess to her people and to bring them the hope of a new life: she fights to lead them back to the lands of light, helping them to flourish and prosper in harmony with all other races, free from Lolth's tyranny. Hers is an uphill battle, however, as her power is little and she is opposed by all the gods of the Dark Seldarine. Multiple times the Dark Maiden and her followers managed to rebuild and gain some prominence, and many times they fell; despite all this, Eilistraee kept starting over and never stopped fighting for her people. In the 1300s DR, their efforts were rewarded with substantial gainings and progresses in their cause.
Eventually, the Dark Maiden chose to put her own life at risk in a battle to free the drow from Lolth once and for all. She was left alone to face the deities of the Dark Seldarine one by one, as neither Corellon nor the Seldarine did anything to help her. Her father only intervened when one of her wizard followers performed a ritual that removed Corellon's curse from a small number of drow of pure Miyeritari descent and a narrow portion of her followers (a few hundreds of the few thousands followers Eilistraee has as a Lesser Goddess), changing their appearance into dusky skinned elves. Corellon decided that the transformed drow were worthy of entering his portion of Arvandor, and allowed their souls in--even though they had already access to Eilistraee's realm in Arvandor. In the end, the Dark Maiden was defeated and (apparently) killed--even though, as suggested by Ed Greenwood, thanks to the help of Mystra, the hit that took her down only made her lose her divinity, forcing her to lay low and recover for a century or so. Either way, it lasted only for about 100 years, until the Second Sundering (circa 1480s DR/5e D&D), when Eilistraee returned to her people. Both the goddess and her followers are currently still drow, as most of them weren't changed by the above-mentioned spell, nor has changing their skin ever been Eilistraee's goal, or on her to-do list (if anything, it contradicts her choice of being one of them). Note that the transformed drow were completely ignored and, as of 5e, have been retconned by Wizards of the Coast for all practical purposes.
Tenets
The followers of Eilistraee operate according to these tenets:
- On helping others
Aid and protect all folks in need, of any race, weak and strong, kind or rude, promoting harmony and acceptance among all races. Lend your help to all those who fight for good whenever there are ways to do so. When not fighting evil, be always kind—even to those who show rudeness—and aid others in acts of kindness.
Strangers are your friends. Hungry travelers are to be fed and the homeless are to be given shelter—under your own roof if needed--. When traveling and while adventuring, feed, help and protect all those in need met along the way as a prayer and offering to the goddess. Patrol the lands about, especially in cold winters, so that all those who are lost, hurt, or bitten by the cold can be given appropriate cures and shelter.
- On promoting joy, arts, and beauty
Bring happiness and merriment everywhere you go, lifting people's hearts with kindness, gaiety, songs, jests, and revelry. Nurture and create beauty, promote and practice music and dance, learn new songs and dances and how to play, craft and repair musical instruments. Pass this learning on whenever possible and use it to bring joy to friends and strangers alike. Feasts should always be joyful events and food eaten with the accompaniment of music, save for sad occasions. Practice swordwork, learning new techniques with the blade.
- On Drow
Encourage drow to return to the surface world whenever and wherever there are ways to do so. Work to promote peace with other races, helping the drow to forge their own place in the world and become part of its rightful, nonevil inhabitants. Aid all dark elves who are in danger or in need of help. If they are in combat, the fighting must be ended as soon as possible, with as little bloodshed as possible. All drow met, when not working evil on others, are to be given the message of Eilistraee:
A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow.
- On food
Learn how to best cook food and game, and gather new recipes and spices whenever there is the chance to do so. Try to feed yourself by your own gardening and hunting skills and assist hunters when possible. If food is aplenty, part of it is to be set aside and given to all those in need (especially outcasts and individuals of other races)--try to always carry some food for this purpose--. Give any remaining food to the priestesses of the Dark Maiden, as they will do the same and none shall go hungry.
- On conflict
Repay violence with swift violence, quickly removing dangers and threats, so that the fewest may be hurt. When fighting evil, the bodies of the fallen enemies are to be burned as an offering to the goddess, unless they happen to be edible and nonsentient and hungry people are near. When faithful, friends and allies fall in battle, priestesses of the Dark Maiden must comfort and soothe those who are mourning the loss, and provide a funeral song and burial.
- On possessions
Wealth should be used to buy food, swords, armor and musical instruments and to assist the work of the goddess. When helping others, take as price no more than a single tool or favor that can be used to serve the goddess' will.
Eilistraee and her church detest slavery and actively fight it whenever possible. Followers of the Dark Maiden are therefore forbidden from taking slaves, and prisoners of war (mostly Lolth-worshipping drow or untrusted individuals who have acquired too much knowledge and that are held for some time to make sure that such knowledge isn't used against the followers of Eilistraee) are usually made work for food and shelter, but they aren't owned and can't be commanded by anyone (only supervisors assigned by the decision-makers among the Dark Dancer’s worshippers can give them orders, in selected cases).
Worshippers
The followers of Eilistraee mostly consist of surface drow, and of those drow who hope to escape the Underdark and Lolth's evil, taking back their place in the surface world. However, in line with her ideals, Eilistraee welcomes beings of all races who share the desire of seeing all races living in harmony, without pointless discrimination or wars, and work towards that goal.
Eilistraee's clergy is mainly, but not exclusively, composed of elven or drow women (uually skilled dancers, musicians and diplomats), whose duty is to make sure that the drow communities entrusted to them thrive in the surface world and establish friendly relationship with other races. They are protectors, healers, and teachers--of survival skills as well as arts--and take care of the physical and emotional well-being of their people. Most Eilistraeen communities form around shrines or temples, and are led by the clergy. Therefore, they are often a goodly matriarchy (when in positions of leadership, males often take the role of advisors and decision makers in certain areas of expertise. Lay men and lay women have the same roles). For a time, male drow had to spend some time as women through a ritual known as Changedance to become clerics. This is no longer needed in the current time, and male clerics (and therefore possibly leaders) are becoming more numerous.
Daily Doings
The priest(esse)s of Eilistraee encourage the drow to return to the surface, and reach to them whether they are fugitives, raiders, or inhabitants of the Underdark. They show that a different kind of life, far from Lolth, is possible, and assist the drow in making this choice by giving them aid, food, acceptance, and safe places to live. They even lead missions underground (or infiltrate within Lolthite settlements) with that purpose in mind.
As the Dark Maiden's teachings require, her clerics actively work to promote harmony between drow and other races, so that their people could be accepted and live in peace. This includes lending their swords to fight against evil, helping others, and providing food and healed to assist people of any race in need. Offering their arts and performance is often a helpful tool in establishing relationships.
The church also acts through envoys, diplomats and emissaries living near (or sometimes within) other races' settlements. They usually approach individuals who would more likely accept a drow presence in their settlement and work to gain their alliance by explaining their cause and offering something beneficial in exchange for sponsorship (it could be their art, magic, exotic goods, or help). They then use this sponsorship as a basis to integrate within the community.
Besides their work towards their main goal, the faithful of Eilistraee are known to nurture beauty, music, and arts, and to spread kindness, joy, and hope whenever they see ways to do so (and it's appropriate). The clerics have to be skilled at playing (and repairing) at least one instrument; to be adequate singers; to be fit, graceful dancers; and to teach their art to others. They constantly gather and share songs and musical knowledge, and acquire training in the use of the sword when they can.
Finally, the church of Eilistraee, especially near the Promenade of the Dark Maiden, is known for their efforts against slavers of all kinds, actively fighting organizations dedicated to the practice and offering shelter to slaves.
Rituals
The worshippers of Eilistraee practice many rituals, but the iconic form of worship is a nude dance (usualyl solitary, but sometimes in group) in a moonlit glade (or, lacking that, using any source of light--often a candle), in which they let out all the emotions of the day in a wordless message for the goddess to listen. Some say that this created as fanservice, but it can also have a fitting function. The life in a Lolthite society is based on constructs, falsehood, deceit; conflict is constant and trust and spontaneity are taboos. A nude dance in which the drow let out all their emotions is the act of laying down the mask and feeling free to just be themselves and embrace life. Furthermore, in a society of perpetual conflict, where trust is taboo, vulnerability must be hidden. To be free to dance in the nude with others (or while invoking a goddess) is to be free to show one own's vulnerability—it means that vulnerability is sometimes acceptable, forming a bond of trust, and being accepted as a whole. All of this is surely helpful to "heal" a drow who escapes the abuse of Lolth and her society.
Despite their iconic ritual, unlike many seem to believe, the followers of Eilistraee are not nudists. They wear the most practical garb for a given occasion and armor in battle.
Song and music have important roles among the Eilistraeen drow; not only arts and celebration are tools to show the drow a different kind of life, they're a powerful mean of self-expression, and mark the rhythm of the daily life in their communities. Music is also the conduit of the iconic form of Eilistraeen magic, known as Spellsong. Be it solitary or in group, this song can produce magical effects of various kinds (mostly healing and protective magic, including raising the dead). A particular kind of Spellsong is the Moonsong, a sweet melody reminiscent of the sound of the wind, capable of conjuring a soft curtain of moonlight. The casters can dance within it to enter in tune with Eilistraee's magic and hear the songs of distant lands--the music that surrounds a given place (or the people who live there) when it's lit by the moon. Once the song of the place chosen as the destination, or of its people, is heard, the caster follows it to be transported there along beams of moonlight. The Moonsong can be celebrated as a chorus, a melody that constantly changes around a main tune led by a senior priest(ess). The magic of the chorus creates beams of moonlight, whose intensity grows with the emotion of the singers. If such radiance meets with real moonlight, any creature or item that the priest(esse)s are touching or carrying while singing an be transported along a path of moonlight to any place where the moon is shining. These two spells are often used by the clerics of Eilistraee to travel for their missions.
Dance holds the same importance as music, as well as a similar role. Unlike music, however, the art of dance is used by an order of priest(esse)s of Eilistraee (the Sword Dancers, the most numerous one) to craft a unique combat style resembling that of their goddess. It focuses on evading attacks and spells, rather than on offense, and combines grace and acrobatic skills with the mastery of the blade. Another defining trait is the use of the Dancing Swords, blades that can fight on their own and that the specialized clerics of Eilistraee have learned to use defensively (by letting them dance around their body to deflect attacks when their elusive movements aren't enough).
Another unique ritual is the Run, celebrated at least once per year. The participants use particular boiled leaves and berries to make their hair silvery, and those who aren't drow use natural pigments to paint their bodies black. They then venture on a journey through the surface world, relying on their music, kindness, and skills with the sword to not be hunted and killed for being drow. The goalis to go where they are strangers, reaching communities of elves and other races to bring them food, beauty, and help of various kinds--not to preach their faith, but simply out of the good of their heart and to show (together with their day-to-day activities) that the drow could be rightful non-evil inhabitants of Faerûn. Clerics also use this time to learn and/or teach new songs, music, recipes, and sword techniques. The Run usually lasts a month or a month and a half, but it can go on for as long as a season or even a year, depending on the situation.
Followers who don't die in battle and reach death of old age, are blessed by Eilistraee with the ritual of the Last Dance. When their moment is nearing, Eilistraee's faithful hear the goddess sing to them by night, calling them to her. When the song feels right, they simply start to dance unclad under the moonlit sky. The goddess comes and sings to her follower, and as the aged worshipper dances, they gradually gains the strength and energy of youth, looking younger and younger. Their hair glows with the same radiance as the Dark Maiden's, and they slowly fade away as the dance goes on. In the end, only a silvery radiance can be seen and two voices, the goddess and her faithful, are heard, raised together in a melancholy, tender song.
Vandria Gilmadrith
| Vandria Gilmadrith | ||
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| Alignment | Lawful Neutral | |
| Divine Rank | Intermediate Goddess | |
| Pantheon | Seldarine | |
| Portfolio | War, Justice, Vigilance, Decision, Grief | |
| Domains | 3E: Law, Protection, War 5E: Grave, War |
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| Home Plane | Arvandor | |
| Worshippers | Lawful Elves | |
| Favoured Weapon | Longbow | |
Meanwhile back in "Core" D&D, in something similar to a "What if?" Scenario, we have Vandria. Who is also the daughter of Corellon and Araushnee. Though in this case the story does not have his daughter shoot him through the heart with a cursed arrow.
So we get to see what the daughter would have turned out like if she was raised by Corellon instead, and bizarrely she turns out unlike any other Elven god in the Pantheon: Vandria is LAWFUL, but not only that but an entire rank category higher than Eilistraee too.
Vandria Gilmadrith is the goddess of guardians in Elven communities. Her servants participate strongly with the town militias, and they have strongholds hidden all over the place. They also act as arbitrators as diplomats because they are likely to be the most even handed amongst elves.
