Selvetarm

Selvetarm, known also as "the Spider that Waits" or "Lolth's Champion", is a fictional demigod in the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game. He is worshipped by few drow in the underdark, the place where his worshippers are most common are in 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 hate he has stored for his mistress Lolth. His home plane is the Demonweb Pits, in the 66th layer of the abyss. He is represented by a crossed sword and mace over a spider.

Selvetarm was born from the brief union between Vhaeraun and Zandilar the Dancer(a demipower worshipped by elves in Yuirwood), 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 by 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, his name was Zanassu. Around this time the spider demon Zanassu had been weakened by a conflict in prime and so Lolth tricked Selvetarm into destroying the abyssal lord and absorbing his divine power. She told him that a victory would win him favor in the eyes of Eilistraee, and so Selvetarm destroyed the Spider Demon, absorbing his essence. But all was not well, he also absorved enough of Zanassu's malevolence, which overcame Selvetarm's goodness. Lolth used this to her advantage and entrapped Selvetarm's will bounding it to her own evil one.

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.

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 manifest's himself in the realms, he prefers to send his avatar or just 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.