Eilistraee

Eilistraee is the patron of non-evil drow and those who wish to return to the surface and is the only non-evil deity of the Dark Seldarine. Eilistraee chose a hard and thankless path, but her ultimate goal is the salvation of her people. It has been a hard road for the Dancer in the Moonlight and still the drow sometimes seem to be a lost cause.

### History

When Eilistraee was the young princess of the Seldarine her mother Aurashnee was constantly plotting against her father Corellon Larethian, to the point of murderous obsession. When Arvandor was invaded by evil forces, a glamour was placed upon Eilistraee's eyes to encourage her to kill her father. This glamour failed as did all other schemes to destroy Corellon and Eilistraee was cleared of any suspicion in the crimes of Lolth, but when her mother was cast into exile with her followers she decided to join them and remain a light for the drow who had lost their way.

Eilistraee decided to collect followers among surface elves over time, since her efforts to drive the drow exiles away from Ghaunadaur, Vhaeraun, and her mother all seemed to be in vain. The centuries to follow brought only pain and death for her followers until she made an unlikely ally.

Selvetarm, the young son of Vhaeraun and Zandilar chose a new path for himself and eventually befriended his aunt Eilistraee. It seemed that she finally had a protege and a friend among the pantheon until he was manipulated by Lolth to destroy the Demon Lord Zanassu. The influence of the demon was too much for Selvetarm, who became the corrupted guardian of Lolth.

Eilistraee was sent back to square one until the Silence (the period where Lolth ceased answering prayers for a full year in an attempt to separate the Demonweb Pits from the Abyss. During this period, Eilistraee guided a group of priestesses from the church of Lolth who were sympathetic to her cause to the Demonweb Pits and gave them the Crescent Blade, which was to be used to slay Lolth once and for all. Upon getting into the goddess's realm the priestesses lost their faith and betrayed one another, leaving Lolth with the head priestess who was punished for betraying her, even if it was momentarily. The Crescent Blade was then shattered and still remains in the lair of the Spider Queen.

Lolth, at the end of her period of rest, challenged Eilistraee to a game of sava to decide the fate of the drow, which the younger goddess reluctantly accepted as potentially her only opportunity to free her people. Meanwhile, Vhaeraun had been plotting to assassinate Eilistraee through the use of a High Magic spell that could allow him to infiltrate her realm directly, but required plenty of souls from her followers which he and Selvetarm began collecting. Upon learning of the plot, her followers were able to warn her but not stop the plot entirely. Her champion returned to the Demonweb Pits and seized the Crescent Blade (which had been corrupted by Wendonai) and used the sword to cut down Selvetarm. Meanwhile, Vhaeraun led his assault on the promenade of Eilistraee and was equally unsuccessful, with Eilistraee slaying him and absorbing his portfolio, becoming the Masked Lady.

The Masked Lady was more powerful and had more followers (albeit begrudgingly) but still had an enemy in Kiaransalee who used her magic on the faerzress of the Underdark in order to convince the drow to return further underground. This was intolerable to Eilistraee so she had her clergy conduct a ritual of High Magic to erase the knowledge of Kiaransalee from the minds of everyone, which was so successful that Kiaransalee lost her own mind and was driven into exile, her temples all destroyed.

Eilistraee knew that if the faerzress could be weaponized against the drow once it could be done again, and now fully understood the link that Lolth had drawn between it and the drow and the influence it had over them. In the interest of destroying this link, great power would be needed, and so the corrupted Crescent Blade was once again taken up by a champion of Eilistraee who attempted to take the demon's essence inside of herself to then purge it with Mystra's silver fire. The influence of the demon proved to be too much and the champion was nearly lost to darkness along with a portion of her followers who became tainted by demon blood. Ghaunadaur, recognizing an opportunity to strike, lashed out with his followers against the followers of Eilistraee in an attempt to destroy a runed prison that prevented his incursion into the material plane. The attack was unsuccessful but she suffered heavy losses.

Recognizing that the time was now or never, the ritual proceeded and the link between the faerzress and the drow was severed and the demon-corrupted were returned to their normal forms. The next step was to summon Wendonai and destroy him, but it proved to be too challenging. Eilistraee put herself inside of the body of her champion and doubled down on attacks against the demon but he convinced her followers that she was actually Lolth in disguise and they killed their goddess while he escaped. Those who were still faithful among the drow after this event, who had been purged of corruption, were allowed by Corellon to travel outside of Eilistraee's realm in Arvandor and see all that the plane had to offer from then on. Despite their failure in killing Wendonai, they did succeed in stealing the vestige of Selvetarm, and the Crescent Blade was purified by the goddess's sacrifice.

In the next century the followers of Eilistraee worked tirelessly to resurrect Eilistraee, but when they did accidentally returned Vhaeraun as well. Eilistraee lost some of her influence over his portfolio and he decided to lay low for a while. Eilistraee is currently amassing followers once again, hoping for a restoration of Selvetarm and the destruction of Wendonai once and for all.

### Relationships

Eilistraee is superficially allied with the good elven gods, but can not rely on their support due to the political implications of stepping outside of the boundaries of one's court. She is also allied with Mystra, Selune, Lurue, Mielikki, Haela Brightaxe, Callarduran Smoothhands, and all of the good deities of the Underdark.

Her enemies are Kiaransalee (somewhat less since she lost her memory), Vhaeraun, Ghaunadaur, Lolth, Deep Duerra, Laduguer, Blibdoolpoolp, the Blood Queen, Diinkarazan, Diirinka, the Great Mother, Gzemnid, Ilsensine, Ilxendren, Laogzed, and formerly Maanzecorian. She is also an enemy of Malar.