Origin
Lolth was originally known as Araushnee and was the elven god of destiny, artisans and dark elfs. Eventually she started lusting for power and become more and more greedy, this is when she decided to betray her lover at the time Corellon. After a lengthy battle with allies gained and lost she was eventually defeated and banished into the abyss along with her children and cursed with the appearance of a spider demon – so that Corellon would never succumb to her beauty and forgive her.
It was here that she took the name Lolth and made her home in the 66th layer of the abyss. She eventually ran into a demon prince called Zanassu who had dominion over spiders at the time. Due to her new appearance Lolth decided it was only right that she would have that dominion for herself, so she tricked the deity Selvetarm into destroying the demon prince – and soon after she regained her divinity which she used to turn her layer of the abyss into the Demonweb Pits, a massive spider web to match her new persona.
Soon after she started a campaign to corrupt the elves, especially the dark elf who she had been leading in the past – in an attempt to increase her power. She eventually succeeded in turning the dark elf’s to darkness not long after they had just started to openly worship her, and they were then driven underground and became drow society as we know it.
She now rules over the majority of drow as the chaotic and evil deity of spiders and darkness.
Creation
Lolth was created by Gary Gygax, she was originally created for the Greyhawk setting but eventually appeared in the Forgotten Realms setting where she would soon become a member of the default pantheon of deities.
Powers and Abilities
As a deity Lolth has a huge set of powers that includes but are not limited to:
- Increased physical stats: Strength, Speed, Durability, Agility, Intelligence.
- Increased Senses: She can easily see in the dark and hear, smell and touch at a distance of 15 miles in up to 10 places at once.
- Immunities to: Mind affecting powers, Disease, Acid, Cold, Electricity, Poison, Certain types of magic.
- Spider-like Abilities: Create webs, Poisonous bite.
- Magic: Can cast nearly all spells in the Dungeons & Dragons universe and she also has heavy resistance to enemy spells. She can also easily teleport between planes.
- Divine Abilities: Such as size and appearance manipulation and the ability visit mortals in an avatar form. She can also hear or see anything within 15 miles of a worshipper, altar or anywhere hear name was spoken within the last hour. She will also sense anything that affects drow welfare instantly, and retain the feeling for 15 weeks.
- Knowledge: She has an extensive knowledge on a variety of subjects and can speak any language in existence.
Other Media
Television
Dungeons & Dragons
Lolth appears in the 1983 animated series called Dungeons & Dragons, in the episode titled “Hall Of Bones”, where she tricks the heroes into an ambush before being defeated.