The Spider Movement, not to be confused with Black Spider, was a political movement of many drow houses of the Elvish Empire. It consisted primarily of the worship of spiders and, later, of the demon lord Lolth. The movement later resulted in the creation of the Black Spider.

History

Background

The Elvish Empire was a federal state spanning over most of Oshmondu. It was subdivided into many houses, most of which were exclusively one elven subrace. Although not very unified, there was no difference between the dark elves and the other five main subraces.

Origins

Around 4'380 b. OW, the young Sizza Maer'Duth - heiress of House Maer'Duth - had a border dispute with wood elves on Bao-Mou, where she had been leading a deforestation operation of an area claimed by House Buurma'nal. She settled the difference by fighting it out, but losing the skirmish when the wood elven militia attacked her slaves, killing many before they could be driven off. Using a special spider poison she had discovered, the angry Sizza tortured six captured wood elves to death and declared that spiders would now "lead the way to drow epiphany, away from light elven domination". The concept of "light elves" - all non-drow elves - being separate from "dark elves" was born.

The main argument of Sizza's philosophy was that drow were unique in having black skin while most other elves were light-skinned. It was very successful and a number of drow houses rallied by Maer'Duth's side in what they saw as a fashionable cultural revolution.

The Movement

After her mother's mysterious disappearance, Sizza Maer'Duth became matron mother and officially founded the Spider Movement. The other five most important drow houses lined up with her doctrine. Worship of spiders was taken up everywhere, and the "Arachnid Clergy" became a full church separate from the elven pantheon Silmarilus.

Initially, the Spider Movement found widespread support both from dark and light elves. Many saw nothing wrong with a cultural revolution, and a whole subrace engaging in one was novel and interesting. The empire's ruling council even openly supported Maer'Duth. There was some controversy about the Arachnid Clergy, however; betraying the Silmarilus gods, notably Meanillaue, the drow patron, wasn't acceptable to many light elves.

But things degenerated as Sizza and the whole movement grew more radical. Everything the drow did started to revolve around spiders and darker things. Sizza started doing week-long rituals involving spiders, torture and self-abuse. The council tried to push the movement back in the right direction, but failed. Eventually, in one of her rituals, Sizza was contacted by Lolth, a then relatively obscure demon queen. After she was gifted with Lolth's corrupting powers, she proclaimed the demon Queen of Spiders, and demon-worship spread among the adherents of the Spider Movement. What had started as a drow pride movement had resulted in an unified front of fanatics.

Holy Involvement

The drow had a patron in the Silmarilus: Meanillaue, the goddess of night and beauty. She was the calm and beautiful aspect of elven nature. Initially, she embraced and encouraged her people to engage in the Spider Movement. But when they started to forfeit her and engage in dark rituals, she was abhorred and looked for the help of the other gods. They did or could not help her, and she found herself unwilling to directly steer the wills of her children. But then, when she saw that the movement had gone too far and started torturing and killing innocents, she couldn't intervene: the Arachnid Clergy had been gifted powers by Lolth and were shielded against direct holy intervention.

The demon queen Lolth was important in steering the direction the movement took. Although Sizza already engaged in evil ceremonies before the demon's intervention, the Spider Movement turned far worse under Lolth's influence. Not only did the Queen of Spiders make sure almost all drow ignored the pleas of their goddess, but she also gifted them with clerical magic of true destructive power and also pushed the movement into darker realms including demon summoning and truly perverse rituals. After Lolth had come, there was no turning around for the drow.