Who?

(Portfolio courtesy of Citadel of the Masked Lord, http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/drowasylum/index.html )
Vhaeraun
[Vay-RAWN]
In the midst of darkness he stood, a well-muscled and graceful drow male, so different from all others. Handsome and slim with hair and eyes that changed with his moods, red when angered or bothered, gold when victory was acknowledged, blue with delight and amusement, and last green when curious interested or puzzled over something. Odd for a drow male for not one part of him was armored, all except for that long flowing black cape that hold a unique gift itself and the jet black long sword strapped to his side, Nightshadow. Who is he? And why was he standing before the symbol of a black half-mask? Why you ask for he owns that symbol, he is the god of thievery Vhaeraun.
Having many names such as, The Masked Lord, The Masked God of Night, The Shadow or Vhaerun. The deity of thievery and the furthering of drow interests to the surface realm only to those who are faithful to him. The only deity that is opposed by the way that Lloth's followers, mainly her priestesses treat the men as lowly, that they are nothing but mere pawns in their twisted games of treachery. He believed that men were equallly skilled and valuable as the female race. Both working together with the races of elves topside to further advance themselves under one race of beings.
A vain and haughty god this one is, but does he not have that right? A verbal warning, do not anger him for he is legendary of his grudges and how long he could hold them for he has a sharp mind never forgetting the faces of those that decepted him. Willing to accept treachery and underhanded means only if it helps him destroy his one main enemy Lloth, if directed towards one of his deciples then he shall consider it a grave sin that he will exact swift punishment

Activities of a Vhaeraun Follower
Within Vhaeraun's priesthood is nearly exclusively male and practices passive opposition to Lolth's priests. They are also active in the Night Above, and some preach of heresy of the unity of elven races and their need to work together for dominion. They specialize in intrigue, trickery, and treachery and dormost disobedience and rebellion among males in drow communities where Lolth's reign is supreme. Often Vhaeraun's priests will disguise their allegiance for certain reasons.
Contact and marriages with other elven races are encouraged. Half-drow usually breed true back into the drow race; The Masked Lord sees this as a practice of raising drow numbers in the surface realm. Every priest works to establish some sort of permanent drow seelement on the Night Above. Either support that settlement's needs personally or make is self-supporting. Poison use, manufacture, and experimentation is also common. Especially effective spells, poisons, and tactics devised by a priest are to be shared with Vhaeraun and then all his clergy.

Dogma
The shadows of Vhaeraun must cast off the tyranny of Lolth and forcibly reclaim their birthright and rightful place in the surface realm. The existing drow matriarchies must be smashed, and the warring practices of the twisted Spider Queen done away with so that the drow are welded into a united people, not a squablling gaggle of backstabbers that exist in Houses, clans and aims. Vhaeraun will lead his followers into a society where the Ilythiiri once again reign supreme over the other, lesser races, and there is eqality between male and female.
Priests of Vhaeraun must encourage, lead or aid bands of drow and allied chaotic evil creatures in thievery and istigate plots, intrigues and events to continually increase drow influence and real power in the surface realms. They must manipulate trade, creatures, and intrigues to lessen the power of and frustrate the plans of Lolth priests and continually foment rebellion or disobedience among drow males. Drow thieves in need must be aided, even if females, healed, bailed out of prison or jails, or forcibly rescued. Cruelities against drow men must be avenged.

Vhaeraun's Clergy
Most within his priesthood are males, with a few exceptions to that rule. A few of his followers are fallen from grace priestesses of Lloth, now intent to help his cause to bring down the Spider Queen. His clergy are known simply as The Masked, due to his symbol of the half black mask. Novices of Vhaeraun are simply known as the Uncloaked, as all the other members of the clergy are known as Nightshadow, as a tribue to the Masked Lord's black longsword same.
The titles that the Masked Lord's priests carry varies from temple to temple, but typical names such as Ascendant Darkness, Black Moon, Dark Mantle, Deep Rogue, Enveloping Night, Raven's Caw, Shadow Hunter, Silent Sable, and Twilight's Herald, but those of a higher rank have unique individual titles. Specialty priests are known as darkmasks, and those priests of Lloth that had turned against her are knowned as masked traitors. Within the Masked one's clergy are: priests (55%), thieves (25 %, even included nonpriests), clerics (10%), cleric/theives (7%), crusaders (2%), and masked traitors (1%). ((... I'm still trying to figure out the difference between priests and clerics too.))
Vhaeraun prefers to appear before his loyal followers in the shape of an avatar, but only when a certain magical ritual of summoning is performed, for he forbids his priets from using spells to summon any other than him or his creations. If the ritual is not performed, he will not send his avatar but in it's place a fleeting black shadow, hiding a favored being with the face similiar to the half mask. That favored one will possess true sight and power to strike creatures with their magical weapons. Ironically, this being will never favor the same being more than once per day.
No priest of the Masked Lord is permitted to wear any sort of armor except leather armor, and dark garb. His clergy are allowed to favor daggers, short swords, and long swords, but they must always use poisons. Typically they prepare several varieties of widely varying onset times, methods of application, and strengths before embarking on a dangerous undertaking.
Those of this clergy often outfit themselves in half-masks, loose silk shirts, form-fitting pants and leather boots all of which are jet black. They are never without at least one black edged blade someplace on their person. Preists of Vhaeraun need only to be within a mile of their holy symbol to use the Masked Lord's spells. The holy symbol needs not to be on their person or brandished in spellcasting or dealing with the undead.
If you manage to displease this god, he extract his vengence with impunity. He will often send a legion of dark creatures: black cats, ravens, or dead spiders to mock Lloth's worship of arachnids. Sometimes these can also show his favor as well.
Sometimes Vhaeraun also acts through the appearance or presence of elments (air, smoke, and earth), shadow dragons, shadow fiends, hell hounds, and undead shadows.
All Priests of Vhaeraun may not cast any spell from the sphere of summonings or the school of summonings that do not directly involve creatures under his sphere of influence without requesting his favor. Spells are strictly of the evokation and illusion schools, however, are permitted.

Holy Days/Important Ceremonies
The most important attacks, negotiations, and other activities of the clergy mostly occurs during the night. Priests of Vhaeraun utter prayers to the Masked God of the Night whenever they wish to further his aims. They often offer wealth and weapons of those they destroyed (enemies of the drow, or regalia from Lloth's priestesses). Those weapons are then melted in black, bowl shaped altars. Offerings of magic and wealth are made on a regular basis. The more valuable, the more Vhaeraun is pleased. He favors daily diligence more than rare huge hauls.
Midwinter Night: this is known among the Masked Lord's clergy as the Masked Lord's Embrace. This is the most sacred time of the year for followers of Vhaeraun. This annual holy day is celebrated by the Masked Lord's followers with daylong introspective rituals of total sensory deprivation. Each worshipper is expected to cloak himself in a region of magical darkness and levitate at the middle of the effect for a full 24 hours while contemplating Vhaeraun's teachings. All followers of the Masked Lord who wish to perform this ritual are granted the ability to employ both spell-like effects on this day, with the necessary extended duration, by a special boon from Vhaeraun.
Up above on the surface, nights of the new moon are considered sacred to the followers of the Masked Lord. Such occassions are observed with midnight stag hunts that range over miles of shadowy woodlands. Packs of the Masked Lord's worshippers, mounted atop their chosen rides of lizards {brought up from the Underdark, of course} run down a noble hart and then sacrifice the creature's rack of antlers and still-beating heart to their god in dark rites that pervert the ancient ways of the surface elves.