I mean, I'm not an Eilistraee lover, obviously, but even I could see the value in Eilistraee, both from a role-playing perspective and a story-telling perspective. WotCs decision to kill her off is, well, stupid. I don't have any other word for it. I am not sure anyone at WotC really thought this through with regards to people who actually play drow PCs - unless their thought was "we don't really want people playing drow PCs anymore". Of course, if that was the case, why make drow a PC playable race in the upcoming Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book? Perhaps they were tired of the "good drow" cliche started by Drizzt - but then - kill off Drizzt, not Eilistraee. Eilistraee made sense in the Realms; her church made sense. No racial group like the drow is ever going to be 100% anything, be it good, evil, whatever. So there are going to be those who seek redemption, or at least a "good" life - and Eilistraee was the goddess of those people.
Anyway, I know I am preaching to the choir here so I will stop - I just wanted to express something we Lolthians are not particularly known for, which is my deep sympathy at the loss. It sucks, and I am sorry for you all - and frankly, I am a little sorry for me too because my world is just that much less interesting without Eilistraee in it. I whole-heartedly commend those who are going to ignore 4th ed. and go on with 3rd ed.
Though I do agree with Vendrin - include the War of the Spider Queen, but just have it end there - Lolth's new face/avatar has been chosen, Ched Nasad has fallen, and .. thats it. No need to go on with the ridiculousness that is the Lady Penitent books.
You know, years ago in ALFA my PC (a Lolthian priestess) was ... um ... well ... not Lolthian. She took a temporary (7 year) leave of absence from the Spider Goddess to be a follower of Eilistraee. During that time, she came to live at the Promenade.
Well, we had one great DM running the Promenade at the time but he left. Then a new DM came in, and suddenly Qilue was acting strangely, the promenade's defenses were not being maintained, etc. And this all culminated in an invasion of the promenade, not by followers of Ghaunadaur, but by followers of Selvetarm. Most of the Promenade's citizens and protectors and priestesses died, but three of us PCs managed to live and to defend to the last. The battle described in Ascendancy reminds me a great deal of that battle - and the point of this is that we, the PCs, thought that such a battle, and such a weak version of Qilue that made all these mistakes was so out of character for the Promenade and for Qilue (the Qilue we knew from earlier books) that we players up and left. It was just too far outside the bounds of faerun's "reality" - we played through it; we had to. But after words, we up and left the promenade (which is one of the things that led my PC to returning to Lolth).
Point being - it sucks when DMs and authors mangle established settings and milieus and characters to get their own personal agendas out; in this case, the "personal" agenda is actually WotC's business plan, but whatever. Its a situation where the in-character plot is being dictated not by what would happen in the world between those people and those gods, but by some executives at WotC and Hasbro and their marketing departments.
Anyway, as I said, it sucks and I feel for you all.
I hope you will have the common courtesy not too mention this to my fellow priestesses - I would have to deny it and sacrifice you to Lolth of course.
Ciao.
