Selvetarm
| Game background | |
|---|---|
| Title(s) |
The Spider that Waits, Lolth's Champion |
| Home plane |
Abyss, Demonweb Pits |
| Power level | Demi |
| Alignment | Chaotic Evil |
| Portfolio | Battle Prowess, Bloodlust |
| Superior | Lolth |
| Design details | |
Selvetarm, known also as The Spider that Waits or Lolth's Champion, is a fictional demigod in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
He is worshipped by few drow in the Underdark. The place where his worshippers are most common is the city of Eryndlyn. He is the patron of unequaled battle prowess and bloodlust. He cares only for battle and destruction everywhere, and he has a great hatred for all things living, although that is nothing compared to the hatred he has for his mistress Lolth.
Overview
Selvetarm is a Chaotic Evil Demigod. His home plane is the Demonweb Pits, which in normal Dungeons & Dragons cosmology is the 66th layer of the Abyss, but in the revised D&D 3e Forgotten Realms cosmology is a plane to itself. His symbol is a crossed sword and mace over a spider, and his Third Edition D&D domains are Chaos, Drow, Evil, Spider, and War.
Worshippers
The church of Selvetarm usually acts over the manifestation of soul spiders, and also common spiders. He manifests his pleasure by the discovery of stones, dried bark or webstone, and his anger by making pieces of weapon or armor break upon contact. All of the Selvertargtlin are trained in the sword in addition to the clerical skills. Although the church is mostly males, a handful of females worship Lolth's Champion.
In the Forgotten Realms setting there is a worshipper above Selvetarm's regular clerics known as a Judicator, who is revered and feared as a master of the blade as well as for his (for they are exclusively male) clerical and/or arcane powers. Only one, known as Dhairn, has ever been mentioned, and he met his end at the hands of the Chosen of both Eilistraee and Mystra, Qilue Veladorn.
Manifestations
When sending his avatar, the spider that waits appears as a large spider some of the time with the head of a drow male. He is known to wield a sword and mace in his front arms, and he can call upon the spells of all spheres.
The spider that waits rarely manifests himself in the realms, he prefers to either send his avatar or simply ignore the petitions of his supplicants, although he will manifest when his avatar is busy elsewhere. On those rare occasions, he manifests himself as a tiny sphere of utter darkness.
History
Selvetarm was born from the brief union between Vhaeraun and Zandilar the Dancer (a demipower worshipped by elves in Yuirwood and later absorbed by Bast who would become Sharess), which was part of an elaborate plan to help Zandilar's followers against the attacks of Lolth's.
Selvetarm was alone for a time, until he was befriended by Eilistraee who showed him the ways of good, but all this would be shortlived as a result of the trickery of Lolth. The Spider Queen was enraged by the existence of a demonic lesser lord of the Abyss, who professed himself as having power over spiders, and whose name was Zanassu. Around this time the spider demon Zanassu had been weakened by a conflict in the Prime Material Plane, and so Lolth tricked Selvetarm into destroying the Abyssal lord and absorbing his divine power, under the false pretences of winning Eilistraee's gratitude. But in his actions Selvetarm also absorbed enough of Zanassu's malevolence to overcome his acquired goodness. Lolth used this to her advantage and entrapped Selvetarm's will, binding her grandson to her service.
Relationships
Selvetarm is allied only with Lolth (grudgingly), and Garagos due to the similarity of their personalities and portfolios. He fiercely opposes his father Vhaeraun's machinations.
In Lisa Smedman's Sacrifice of the Widow (Wizards of the Coast, 2007), Selvatarm was slain by Cavatina, a mortal follower of Eilistraee wielding the Crescent Blade.
References
- Boyd, Eric L. Demihuman Deities (TSR, 1998).
- Boyd, Eric L, and Erik Mona. Faiths and Pantheons (Wizards of the Coast, 2002).