Lilith, Holy Mother of Darkness

Lilith originally was an oracle, gifted with second sight, who served the First Titan, the ruler of the Giants. She had already been worshiping Shilen when the latter was still a goddess of water, and she stayed faithful to her idol even after Shilen was banished from the heavens by Einhasad. Like many others, Lilith thought that it had been Gran Kain who was at fault, having seduced his own daughter, and that Einhasad should have taken revenge on her husband instead of the young goddess.

The way Shilen reacted to her banishment, creating the Underworld as her own power base, taking on the forces of heaven and remaining true to herself even in defeat, all that appealed a lot to Lilith and made her worship Shilen even more fervently. When the Giants, who nominally were devout followers of Einhasad and Gran Kain, started getting disenchanted with the gods, Lilith used her position as state oracle to confirm them in their view of the gods as a decadent clan of antisocial and subintelligent creatures. In subtle ways, some say under direct orders from Shilen, she encouraged the Giants' war plans, hoping that they could destroy the gods and Shilen be avenged.

Things turned out differently. The Giants suffered a total defeat, and when Einhasad brought down her husband's Hammer of Despair on their capital city, Lilith perished together with countless other Giants. But her faithfulness to Shilen was rewarded. During the rule of Emperor Shunaiman, she was reborn as Shilen's ninth daughter and given immortal life, her name being deleted from the list of the dead by Shilen herself. Completely loyal to Shilen and equipped with a new, powerful body she does everything to hasten her return.

It was Lilith who in the early years of the Elmoreden Empire guided the Children of Shilen in the construction of their underground temples, later called "Catacombs", and whole cities under the earth, the so-called "Necropoli", which served both as a safe place to live and as military strongholds. The worshipers of Shilen believe that the Necropoli are located in places that are precisely in the middle between this life and the next life and that for this reason they will not die when they are killed there. The Necropoli were built in a style that was derived from the construction style used widely for temples and official buildings in the early years of the Elmoreden Empire. As can be seen from the irregular layout with standardized rooms connected by labyrinthine corridors, the Necropoli were constructed over a longer period of time, with new rooms being added again and again. Although the Necropoli were built by devout followers of Shilen, they do not contain any statues or frescoes of the goddess. In this respect Lilith was still under the influence of the old Giant culture, where the direct depiction of religious matters was frowned upon. Instead, a great number of statues showing guard soldiers were put up, which served as magical protectors of the underground cities.

After a series of increasingly frequent conflicts with the ruling classes of the Empire, which had eventually led to a full-scale war, Lilith, together with her great opponent Anakim, was sealed up by Emperor Shunaiman in the Disciple's Necropolis, in the far north-east of Aden Territory. This does not prevent her from working indefatigably for Shilen's return though. Secretly instigating conflicts between the Human nations as well as between Humans and Elves she produces a great number of dead warriors, experienced soldiers whom she resurrects to serve in her undead army, the so-called "Lilim", waiting to march forth as soon as Shilen has broken through the Forbidden Gateway.

Among Shilen's followers, Lilith is known as the Holy Mother of Darkness, i.e. she is not only the Commander in Chief of the Lilim army but also their spiritual leader, acting as Shilen's spokeswoman while the goddess can not yet leave the Underworld. In a way she is still acting as an oracle, like in her previous life with the Giants. But unlike those days, there are now quite a number of people who have no respect at all for her, even trying to kill her. That is not so easy, however. Lilith is a very strong Demon who uses Dark-backed attacks on anybody who tries to challenge her, rooting them to the ground so that she, together with her Agents and Escorts, can easily finish them off. Lilith and her Agents resist Dark attacks, while her Escorts can not be pierced by Dagger and Rapier. Lilith's Agents are using a toxin of grade 8 that slowly reduces the life force of anybody affected by it. Therefore adventurers would be well advised to bring a Cardinal who has mastered the ability to cleanse his comrades from such noxious influences.

In spite of all these obstacles, adventurers do occasionally succeed in killing Lilith. On such occasions they may obtain a rather good weapon from the armory of the Lilim, like for example a Draconic Bow or a Forgotten Blade. But as has been pointed out above, Shilen has given her daughter immortal life, and 16~24 hours after she has been killed, Lilith will be up again to see to her duties as commander of the Lilim army.

Sources:

[1] NCWest Official

[2] Jute's Bestiary

[3] Toushijing

[4] The Secret History of the Elmoreden Empire