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Dracomortis 03-18-07, 08:23 PM

Broodmother Goddess of Spiders, Matron of Webs, The Eighth Queen Intermediate Deity Symbol: A perfectly symmetrical spider web Home Plane: Arborea Alignment: Neutral Portfolio: Spiders, arcane magic Worshipers: Driders, nidlings, renegade drow Cleric Alignments: CN, LN, N, NE, NG Domains: Balance, Law, Magic, Spider Favored Weapon: Dagger Broodmother is the goddess of spiders and spider kin such as driders and nidlings, having helped sire many of them herself. Although her worshipers cover a wide variety of alignments, Broodmother encompasses all of them equally, stressing balance between all things in order to survive. In a similar fashion, she simultaneously possesses the form of every variety of spider, often shifting freely between them. Some speculate that the change is completely random and beyond her control, but in fact each variety of spider corresponds to a specific emotion that can change with the slightest shift in mood. Broodmother was the eighth child of Lolth, the others being Arumach the Webking, Shisune the Eternal Widow, Grethonar the Grand Hunter, Kullao the Dark Lurker, Halia the Forsaken Maiden, Dilias the Prince of Spiders, and Olothia the Silken-Clad, all members of the drow pantheon. Deeply disturbed by her siblings’ constant wars and secret plots against each other, Broodmother eventually left the pantheon and began attracting her own following of mortals. Her worshippers seek to avoid needless conflict whenever possible, preaching tolerance of others and their beliefs. Although they tend toward neutrality, some levitate towards one alignment or another and seek to convert others, believing that if everyone held the same views there would be no conflict. The most notable difference about Broodmother’s clergy is that it contains no clerics. Having sat on the drow pantheon for centuries, she has seen first-hand the corruption that divine energy can have on mortals, and maintains the conclusion that it should rest solely with deities and higher beings. She isn’t outright hostile towards divine practitioners, but she looks down upon them as overambitious and reckless individuals who do not truly understand the power they are wielding. Most of her worshippers are arachnemancers, but monks and other neutral martial classes are common as well. Although clerics may choose to worship her, such individuals are extremely rare and they derive their spells from their beliefs rather than directly from Broodmother. Despite the wide variety of beliefs and concepts that Broodmother’s worshipers believe her to represent, she teaches eight main ideals, each of which is represented by a specific species of spider: repentance, reflection, courage, beauty, wisdom, patience, determination, and adaptation, which are represented by the black widow, the brown recluse, the tarantula, the orb web spider, the trapdoor spider, the funnel web spider, the barn spider, and the crab spider, respectively. Broodmother gave the spiders one leg for each of these ideals, so that they may always hold themselves aloft on the strength of these ideals and remind the world around them of what they stand for.