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The Temple of the Spider Widow (Dark Elven Nation)

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WarderDragon

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Originally Posted December 9th, 1998.

The Temple of the Spider Widow
Rivven who worship the Spider Goddess
In the very heart of Sheol lies the Temple of the Ice Widow. Founded by the human Rivven who managed to escape the slavery of the Dark Elven Drow, here they have erected a testament to the evil goddess they have come to worship. And here, in Sheol, a !!!!!!! offspring of the sacred Drow religion has arisen, one where both Rivven and Drow worship side by side. A religion which centers around the worship of the sacred Ice Spiders of the North. A religion which one day intends to tear down the Eight Virtues of Britannia and replace them with the Order of the Spider.

The Temple of the Ice Widow is presided over by a Rivven High Priestess, the first slave to escape Drow captivity. But her authority is shared by a representative of the Drow from Ilythiiria, the city of the Dark Elven Nation. The two hate and fear each other, and are constantly seeking to gain power over the other.

The Temple is divided into Three Orders: the Order of the Widow, the Order of Venom, and the Order of the Daemon.

The Order of the Widow is made up of women only. Priestesses who mate with their chosen male and then slay him in the name of the Ice Widow. These priestesses are first consecrated through sacred rituals, then they are sent out to find and bring their offering back to the Temple.

The Order of Venom is made up of both men and women, Rivven and Drow, who form the warrior caste of the Temple. It is they who accompany the Widow Priestesses, helping them to bring their offering back to Sheol. And it is they who defend the Temple with their blades, renowned for the deadly poison that is so often smeared upon them.

The Order of the Daemon is made up of those mages who worship the Ice Widow. Using their magic, they serve by protecting the Temple and sending the Minions of the Abyss out to battle in the name of the Ice Widow.

If you are interested in worshipping at Temple of the Ice Widow, post in the Sheol forum and a Priest or Priestess will contact you. If you wish to learn more about Rivven and the history of the Dark Elven Nation, you may go here.

From: Malice, The Black Widow
Date: 12/9/98
Time: 6:30:33 PM
Remote Name: 156.153.255.178


Comments
Vendui',

The three Orders bring to bear three key elements of Lolth's essence.

Daemon Order: The goddess is of Chaos and Evil. Her home realm is the abyss where dwell many daemons. The Daemon Order has an alliance or pact with daemons of the abyss. Magery is the skill, but bringing forth abyssal allies is the preference. This Order will often appease daemons by sacrificing victims to them as reward for service. They defend the temple or city calling forth abyssal aid and even take the form of daemons. I know one blacksmith who is a Daemon High Priest, taking the form of a daemon to harness the abyssal fires while working ingots into exceptional arms and armor.

Daemon Order Advancement: Acolyte (called Inccubus by some) - Declare your Order and bring a head from a victim and lay it before an altar. The kill must be made while polymorphed into daemon form. Summoning skill must be high enough to polymorph into a daemon. These acolytes further the chaos and evil element for the goddess and maintain relations with abyssal allies with frequent summonings. Daemon Priest: Master the daemons by journeying to Hythloth and slaying one. Return with its loot and have a tailor make a demonskin coat. Slay eight enemies with daemon allies. Daemon High Priest: Slay the Lord of the Abyss, demonstrating your mastery over daemonkind. Skin him and make a daemon coat (with a tailor's help).

Venom Order: The Black Widow is the symbol of the Spider Queen. Its venom is rich. The Venom Order is skilled in alchemy and/or poisoning. They provide poison to blades for warriors of Sheol (you may have to utter a Praise Lolth! to get one though, heheh). As you know, deadly poison is a great pvp tool (about 250gp per vial cost for gm alchemist to produce, plus poisoning skill plays a huge part of it sinking into your foes veins). This group not only provides venom to warriors, but also may unleash the fury of the goddess as assassins. Their advancement comes from both skill achievement and results (heads taken using venom during the fight). They don't assassinate for political reasons between rival factions in a city (unless one supports the Temple and the other doesn't, but it kind of crosses the line into politics to do that). Enemies of Sheol, they are prime targets for assassins. We'd likely set up a vendor in the Temple for folks to buy poison to give to Venoms to poison blades with (it gets damn expensive to give away deadlies and greaters). Typically, eight assassinations are needed to advance up from Acolyte to Priest plus making gm in alchemy or poisoning. High Priest would be gm alchemist and poisoning and has to have taken 8 heads for the glory of the goddess (placing them on the altar).

Widow Order: We need spiders for a spider temple. Taming skill of 60 gets this and one may add Widow (if female, Tarantula if male) to one's title upon taming a spider. Taming them and bringing them to the temple is a great honor and pleases the goddess. Favored guards are given spiders as pets. Taming 8 spiders and bringing them to the Temple of the Ice Widow advances one from Acolyte to Widow Priest. High Priest takes taming more serious and must tame an ice dragon and bring it to the temple. This beast serves as a future step for advancement if more tamers get into this Order (developing a group of Dragon Lords for the city who rose through the Widow Order and moved on out of temple service to manage the Dragon Caves (kind of like Dyvim Tvar in the Elric of Melnibone' series). Ice dragons kick !!! too! This can evolve into other things similar to the Dragon Lords if folks end up wanting more than this basic outline.

Now, the three orders can be set up to advance any number of other ways, but this might make a good fit for the slaves to have to "assassinate" folks in the name of the Dark Queen. We need spiders, being evil and of chaos we need to show the link with the abyss, poisoning is a key trait of spiders. It all kind of fits together as the Spider Goddess package. Pretty simple, after a hard day of brawling at the Sheol tavern, you toss your black robe on to go get some head (heheh, bad joke sorry).


The Deaemon Queen of Spiders will no doubt rejoice at the evil of Sheol.
 
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