Lolth's Portfolio Began and Ended With Spiders
First edition gave Lolth one portfolio, and the word was "spiders." The latest entry tracked by the Forgotten Realms wiki gives her one portfolio again, and the word is still "spiders." Between those two entries, the Realms turned her into a fallen elven goddess, an intermediate deity with six portfolios, a greater deity with a plane of her own, and briefly a would-be goddess of magic. This post covers how she rose and how she ended up back where she started.
The Demon at the End of the Module
Lolth started out in Greyhawk as the final boss of an adventure. Gary Gygax created her for a run of modules that began with giants. In G3, Hall of the Fire Giant King (1978), the party finds a scroll in the king's council room promising "powerful help from the Drow," signed by Eclavdra. In D1, Descent into the Depths of the Earth, a golden spider pin on a drow priestess carries the runes "Lolth, Death Queen Mother." D3, Vault of the Drow, describes the city of Erelhei-Cinlu and ends at the Egg of Lolth, where the party fights the demoness herself. Q1, Queen of the Demonweb Pits (1980), follows her through an astral gate to her Abyssal realm for a final confrontation.
Even her divinity was uncertain from the start. Deities & Demigods (1980) treated her as a deity. The Fiend Folio (1981) reprinted her statistics under the heading "Demon." First edition ranks her a lesser deity whose portfolio is spiders and whose worshipers are drow.
Greyhawk's Drow Did Not Need Her
Greyhawk's drow are not the matriarchy most players picture. Wikipedia's summary of the setting says rank in Erelhei-Cinlu rests on experience and proven ability, not gender. Males can hold authority over females, and matriarchy is not a directive from Lolth. Most drow of the Vault hold no rank at all and live idle, degenerate lives.
Her hold on them is also loose. In Vault of the Drow, House Eilserv, led by Eclavdra, turns from Lolth to the Elder Elemental God after the other noble houses ally against them. So in the setting where she was created, Lolth is a demon queen one great house has already abandoned.
Araushnee
Ed Greenwood's The Drow of the Underdark (1991) brought Lolth into the Forgotten Realms. The Forgotten Realms wiki tells her past this way. Before she is Lolth, she is Araushnee, a lesser elven goddess of destiny and artisans. She is consort to Corellon Larethian and rules the Seldarine with him and Sehanine Moonbow. She bears Corellon the twins Vhaeraun and Eilistraee, and a third child, Vandria.
Corellon gives her almost anything she asks. What she wants is power that can only be taken. First she enchants the scabbard Corellon made for his sword so the blade will shatter in his fight with Gruumsh. She works at night, though, under Sehanine's moon, and Sehanine sees it. Next she goads Malar into attacking the wounded Corellon, and that fails too. Then she gathers an army of gods hostile to the Seldarine, organized so badly that she expects it to lose. The army is a cover. In the battle, Eilistraee fires arrows to save her father, and the cursed scabbard pulls them into his chest. Afterward Araushnee offers him a healing draught that is really a poison Eilistraee brewed for hunting. Sehanine breaks out of the prison Vhaeraun built for her, then joins Aerdrie Faenya and Hanali Celanil as the triune goddess Angharradh to save Corellon.
His sentence: "you are declared tanar'ri." She loses all but a sliver of her divinity, becomes a giant spider, and is banished to the Abyss.
The texts do not agree on who falls with her. The Forgotten Realms wiki has both twins leave the Seldarine, Eilistraee willingly. Wikipedia's summary of The Drow of the Underdark casts Vhaeraun down beside his mother and includes Araushnee's seduction of Corellon. The Complete Book of Elves tells a different version, the Elfwar, in which Lolth exploits dissent among the elves and her followers take the name Drow. The wiki admits that not even Corellon or Sehanine can say when her betrayal began.
The Climb
In the Abyss, Araushnee takes the name Lolth and conquers the 66th layer, the Demonweb Pits. She subjugates the elven goddess Kiaransalee. Ghaunadaur tries to absorb her, fails, and in his rage strips his own followers of their intellect, which shrinks his power and hands Lolth the win. Her first mortal worshiper and consort is Ka'Narlist of Ilythiir. In the Second Crown War, Ilythiir's coronal summons Wendonai, a balor in her service, and the taint spreads through the noble bloodlines. In the Fourth Crown War, the elves call on the Seldarine to curse the dark elves into drow and drive them underground. Lolth gathers the survivors into Telantiwar, the first drow city, which then destroys itself through infighting.
Her game statistics grew along with the story. Second edition made her an intermediate deity with six portfolios: assassins, chaos, darkness, drow, evil, and spiders. The Realms explains two of them through murder. During the Time of Troubles, Lolth spreads word of Zinzerena, a goddess from another world. When Zinzerena reaches Toril, Lolth kills her and takes chaos and assassination. Third edition kept her intermediate and gave her twelve domains.
Silence and Supremacy
In 1372 DR, Lolth goes silent and stops granting spells. This is the setup of the War of the Spider Queen novels (2002 to 2005). Vhaeraun tries to assassinate her, and Selvetarm saves her. In 1373 DR she wakes and calls three candidates: Danifae Yauntyrr, Quenthel Baenre, and Halisstra Melarn. Danifae becomes part of the goddess, and Halisstra becomes her Lady Penitent. Lolth comes out of it a greater deity, and the Demonweb Pits become a separate plane.
Fourth edition printed her as a greater deity, but it also printed her twice. Wizards' D&D Compendium and Character Builder recorded the core Lolth and the Realms Lolth as separate entities, with different appearance, dogma, and personality. Meanwhile the Realms Lolth was winning. Between 1375 and 1379 DR, Vhaeraun supposedly dies, Selvetarm dies, Kiaransalee disappears, and Eilistraee apparently dies alongside Qilué Veladorn. Her one failure is an attempt to kill Ghaunadaur.
The Unraveling
The losses began at her peak. Some time before 1479 DR she tries to build a Demon Weave and replace Mystra. The wiki says she only leeches Mystra's remaining strands, and Chosen of Mystra secretly keep her construct from collapsing until Mystra returns.
The Second Sundering then revives the dead Dark Seldarine. Eilistraee and Vhaeraun come back as allies. Zinzerena escapes and takes back assassination. Chaos goes to Malyk, drow god of rebellion and wild magic. Not every source shows Lolth weakened: Mordenkainen claims the returned Vhaeraun became subservient to her.
The real-world changes cut deeper. December 2021 errata to the Player's Handbook separated drow from Lolth, and Jeremy Crawford said drow are united by the Underdark, "not by worship of Lolth." Menzoberranzan's culture became the Unadrow, alongside the Lorendrow and Aevendrow, who reject her. Fifth edition lists her as a lesser deity, and the revised entry gives her one portfolio: spiders.
Using Lolth at the Table
Run the Silence as a regional crisis. For one season, Lolth's priestesses get no spells. Male wizards, Vhaeraun's masked traitors, and rival houses all test how far they can push. Leave it ambiguous whether she is dead, dreaming, or testing them.
Bring back what she stole. Put a Zinzerena or Malyk cult inside a Lolthite city. They are taking back assassination and chaos one murder at a time, and the matron mothers cannot admit their goddess lost those portfolios.
Leave a strand of her Weave behind. The party finds a leftover piece of the Demon Weave still drawing on Mystra's strands, kept stable by a Chosen of Mystra she never knew about. Cutting it hurts her, but it could also set off the cataclysm the strands were holding back.
The next post covers her daughter: how Eilistraee apparently died and came back as her brother's ally.