Kiaransalee
| Kiaransalee | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Aliases | Lady of the Dead, the Revenancer, the Vengeful Banshee | |
| Alignment | Chaotic Evil | |
| Divine Rank | Lesser Deity, formerly Demigod, sporadically Dead God | |
| Pantheon | Dark Seldarine | |
| Portfolio | Undeath, Vengence | |
| Domains | Chaos, Drow, Evil, Retribution, Undeath | |
| Home Plane | Demonweb Pits (Abyss) | |
| Worshippers | Drow, Necromancers, Undead | |
| Favoured Weapon | Cold Heart (dagger) | |
A lesser deity amongst the Drow branch of the Seldarine, Kiaransalee is also known as The Lady of the Dead, The Revenancer and The Vengeful Banshee for her dominion over the powers of undeath and vengeance. Cruel and twisted, her sanity is dubious but her capacity to hold a grudge is the stuff of legend.
Kiaransalee has the dubious honor of having died and come back to life more often than any other deity in the Dark Seldarine (each of them came back at least once in at least one of the worlds where they are worshipped).
Kiaransalee might, just might, be the avatar for a certain someone in early 1990s TSR. This one was the weapon which that version of TSR used to get rid of Orcus. She took over his base Thanatos, 113th in the Abyssal count; and promptly did a back-deletion of all mention of her predecessor. Planescape worked to undo LorraKiaransalee's damage and restore Orcus to his home, although sparing Kiaransalee's life.
She was introduced for Forgotten Realms, as a not-wholly-loyal demigod under Lloth/Lolth.
Dogma[edit | edit source]
"Death comes to all and cruel vengeance will be exacted on those who waste their lives on the petty concerns of this existence. True power comes only from the unquestioning servitude of the once-dead, mastery over death, and the eventual earned stature of one of the ever-living in death. Hunt, slay and animate those who scorn the Revenancer's power, and answer any slight a thousandfold, so that all may know the coming power of Kiaransalee."
Kiaransali[edit | edit source]
Kiaransali is an alternate version of Kiaransalee worshipped on the world of Oerth, as some sort of unity-measure between Greyhawk and Faerun fandom from 3.x on up.
There she has become more mainstream and sane, as well as adopting a new responsibility for the portfolio of slavery, which has expanded her worship to include slavers. This version has a new title, The Pitiless Dowager, a slightly different holy symbol - a female drow hand with three silver rings on each finger and one silver ring on her thumb, surrounded by a silver spiderweb - and her own very distinct dogma:
"Forgive neither a slight, nor a debt; remember that payment must always be collected, whether in treasure or in vengeance. Life is the greatest crime, and perpetual slavery the fittest punishment. Let there be no freedom for the enslaved, even in death. Death comes for all; when it comes for you, take your slaves and your treasure with you to the grave. The riches of the grave are the dowry of the mistress."
Kiaransali is depicted as a sinuous female drow clad only in black silk veils and silver jewelry. A nod is hinted to her Faerunian counterpart in her 3e depiction, which claims that she has changed from the original form to this newer form in relatively recent times. Kiaransali's clerics are typically slavers and are known for being both meticulous to the point of paranoia about record keeping and highly miserly. However, when they offer a payment, they will never shortchange, as to do so is blasphemous in their eyes of their goddess. Slaves to the clerics of Kiaransali are typically worked to death, reanimated, and then put back to work, whilst non-indentured servants are treated as much like slaves as the cleric can get away with, complete with reducing or withholding their pay at the slightest offense.
This Oerthian version of the goddess is detailed in the article "Vault of the Drow" in volume 14 of the Living Greyhawk Journal, which first appeared in print for Dragon Magazine #298. Because of how early into 3e's lifespan this was, sadly, there are no real suggestions for making her Domains differ to that of her Faerunian counterpart, although it would certainly be fair to give her clerics access to the Bindings domain seen in the hands of The Lawgiver from Ravenloft.