Kiaransalee
[Kee-uh-RAN-sa-lee]

Lady of the Dead, The Revenancer, The Vengeful Banshee
Goddess of the Undead and Vengeance

Kiaransalee is the drow deity of both vengeance and the undead. She is called upon by those seeking retribution, the dark arts, or to prolong life. Although the Lady of the Dead has historically demonstrated relatively little interest in the lands of Faerun or the Underdark beneath them, the recent rise to prominence of the Cult of the Goat's Head in Vaasa under the leadership of Zhengyi the Witch-King renewed her interest in the Realms and fueled the emergence of the Vengeful Banshee's cult as a power in the north central Underdark.
The Lady of the Dead is cruel, twisted, and consumed by thoughts of vengeance. Kiaransalee descended into madness long ago, but she retains her twisted cunning and clear recollection of every slgiht or insult done to her---real or imagined. The Revenancer is powerfully chaotic and swift to anger, and she schemes dark revenges against all who have wronged her. Kiaransalee prefers the mindless company of the undead, whom she can manipulate at will, to sentient beings capable of independent thought. She prefers to solve problems herself rather than trust someone else to do justice to her vision.

Kiaransalee's ascension as a dark goddess of evil predates even the banishment of Araushnee from the Seldarine, but the Lady of the Dead has long been an unwilling vassal of the Queen of Spiders, capable of only small acts of rebellion (such as assisting the elven heroine Kethryllia in rescuing her beloved from Lolth's demesne). Kiaransalee was once mortal, a powerful dark elven necromancer-queen on a world known as Threnody. The Revenancer was named drow and banished by her husband, the king of Threnody, for her unholy expiraments on the once-living. Kiaransalee fed with a small group of followers who she then transformed into undead servitors to ensure their loyalty. The Lady of the Dead continued her unholy experiaments in secret for centuries before raising an army of undead to exact her vengeance. In the wake of the Revenancer's army, Threnody was a dead world, and the architect of its destruction fled with her unthinking servants into the Abyss---where she eventually assumed a measure of divine power herself---to escape the wrath of the Seldarine.
Only in recent memory has Kiaransalee achieved a measure of independence from the Spider Queen, a result of a successful attack on a rival power long resident in the Abyss. Not too many years ago, Kiaransalee wrested Thanatos, a cold plane of ice, tin air, and a black, moonlit sky known as the Belly of Death, from Orcus, the former Abyssal lord of the undead, in revenge for some long-forgotten slight. Although she lacked the power to eliminate the very memory of Orcus from the minds of the multiverse after killing the Prince of the Undead, Kiaransalee magically erased the name of the late Abyssal lord wherever and however it had been recorded. With her foe slain and his corpse adrift in the Astral Plane, the Lady of the Dead slew all the servants and proxies of Orcus (save one, whom she accepted into her own service) and hid the legendary Wand of Orcus where none could ever find it---or so she thought. Recent events suggest that Orcus returned, at least for a time, as an undead god who called himself Tenebrous. It is unknown, even to Kiaransalee, whether the Prince of the Undead has successfully transformed himself into an undead god, has been destroyed forever, or simply waits for another opportunity to return to (un)life. Regardless of the truth, Kiaransalee is convinced that her former foe will eventually return, and thus the Lady of the Dead is consumed with renewed efforts to find and eliminate every last trace of both Orcus/Tenebrous.
The Lady of the Dead has long chafed under Lolth's suzerainty, and only the Spider Queen's overwhelming strength has kept Kiaransalee's long-planned vengeance in check. Consumed as she is with the unknown fate of Tenebrous, Kiaransalee has little interest in interacting with other powers. Nevertheless, her activities on Faerun have earned the Lady of the Dead the enmity of Dumathoin, Kelemvor, and Jergal and the possibility of an alliance wiht both Hoar and Velsharoon.

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