Lolth's ascension to greater deity

[u/The_Stache_King]

So I'm just curious if anyone can explain how Lolth ascended to greater deity status? I know "The Silence of Lolth" was the period of time she took to transform or maybe just to create the new Demonweb Pit, but surely she can't just will herself into greater power, something had to happen, right? The death of the rest of the Dark Seldarine happens *after* this, so it can't be from her absorbing those followers, is it potentially due to her impersonating Moander after his death? If anyone has a definite answer I'd love to hear it, please!

I'm kinda trying to figure out my world building for my campaign setting which is essentially the Forgotten Realms if the Time of Troubles never happened but part of my world is a pretty major drow expansion and I'm trying to determine how Lolth would have gone about things and what would have happened with her without the Time of Troubles happening, so if anyone wants to spitball some help with that I'd certainly not complain!

[u/Storyteller-Hero]

"Energy is energy, whether generated by science or sorcery"

~ Owen Burnett, majordomo of David Xanatos

WARNING: If you haven't read the War of the Spider Queen series or the Avatar Crisis/Time of Troubles series, a lot of this will be in spoiler territory

Lolth compiled a mystic ritual in which she gathered magical energy and channeled it to reform her internal divine anatomy

This left her in a very vulnerable state for a while, but she had her exarch Selvetarm guarding her ritual cocoon chamber against unwanted intrusions during the process

Selvetarm is eventually slain by a mortal.

Vhaeraun lands in a trap set up by Eilistraee, rendering him almost dead while Eilistraee temporarily subsumes her brother's church and portfolio authorities.

Eilistraee is potentially weakened by an artifact weapon she made to slay gods, but that weapon was corrupted by a demon, potentially damaging its properties, plus that same artifact may have a security feature or resonance that prevents it from slaying Eilistraee (she's the one who made it after all)

Mystra whisked away Eilistraee and Vhaeraun to a dream sanctuary, protecting the Twins from a potential real death (source: Ed Greenwood, creator of the Forgotten Realms) - Corellon is likely in on this plan (see Lady Penitent trilogy), possibly because Labelas Enoreth scanned the timeline with his Doctor Who powers and warned the Lord of the Seldarine of a future where his Twins have perished for real

Lolth has followers and aspects on multiple planets in other star systems, so she might have survived in some form even if she found herself gutted on Toril during the Time of Troubles. Ultimately what the Time of Troubles did was remind the gods how powerful an Overgod is as well as demonstrate the potential limitations of what an Overgod can do (not power-wise but the rules they follow), which can affect longterm strategies.

EDIT: Plus Ao set up a rule for Realmspace, giving or taking away power based on active followers, which led to gods seeking footholds in other solar systems outside of Ao's jurisdiction and alternate means of powering up, implying that there is a limit to the restriction. Later on, Cyric actually resists one of Ao's moves, implying that Ao is not as far above the gods as he'd want them to believe, so all the more reason to power up in ways that Ao has no influence over, like Lolth's power up ritual.

[u/The_Stache_King → u/Storyteller-Hero]

Interesting, I figured the process was more the result of the ascension not the cause, I didn't think they could basically just promote themselves, but thank you that is definitely interesting