In the House of Waukeen

Dagestu Baenre stood at the entrance of the temple of Waukeen ready to greet the new acolytes. She was resplendent in her gold robe, but barefoot in the sanctity of the temple.

The young people who arrived were young. Dagestu was not good at guessing the ages of humans, but she supposed that most of them were 12 or 13 years of age and a few were as old as 16. They were chatting with excitement, perhaps hiding some anxiousness about leaving their families.

They were very finely dressed. Most of them were the children of merchants and bankers, with a few nobles and minor princes among them. Their parents were paying massive fees to have their offspring educated by the Church of Waukeen.

"Welcome to the House of Waukeen, my children," greeted Dagestu. "Take your shoes off here, please."

The children obediently removed their shoes and stepped onto the finely polished marble floors in stocking or bare feet.

"In the temple you will go barefoot. Not only is it a sacred place, but here we have some of the finest carpets in the world. Would our Church be so rich if we had to replace them every two years? One of the lessons you shall learn here is that luxury must always be matched with prudence. Both luxury and frugality are equally virtues of our goddess."

Dagestu remembered how her Aunt Triel had insisted on her family removing their shoes on her carpet. She cringed at the memory of watching Triel torture a Baenre cousin who had forgotten to remove her shoes in Triel's suite. That would not of course be happening to any of these young people.

"Here in this place you will assist us priests in our duties. You shall light candles, burn incense and sing hymns to the Lady of Coin. Yet you shall learn more than just the sacred rituals of Waukeen. You shall also learn about the mysteries of wealth and the riches of nations. You shall learn the secrets of trade, commerce and banking. Those of you who do not enter the priesthood after your studies will be well prepared for a life of commerce," said Dagestu.

Most of these lessons would not be taught by herself. The Church had enough money to hire an army of lecturers and tutors to educate the children in its care. It was enough that she supervised the more spiritual aspects of the curriculum.

The young students seemed nervous in the company of the Drow female. They had no doubt heard that there was a Drow serving Waukeen in Waterdeep, but this knowledge did not quite remove their anxiety. They had grown up with stories of the terrible atrocities and murderous ways of the Drow. Dagestu knew just how true all those stories were.

"You will have noticed that I am a Drow elf. I'm sure you have all grown up with stories of the evil of my people. Not all Drow serve the Spider Queen. I have turned from her worship and devoted my life to the Lady of Coin."

Dagestu hoped this would put them at ease a little. Those of them who were from Waterdeep were more likely to be familiar with her. She was a regular guest among the chattering classes of the city.

"There is much you can learn from the Drow," said Dagestu. "They are cunning and ruthless in pursuit of their ends. The greatest Drow houses of Menzoberranzan have accumulated great wealth. Yet they constantly squabble among each other and plot in secret. In that atmosphere of terror and paranoia, industry declines and trade is weak. The Drow hide like spiders in their underground city, when they might have flourished in trade or conquered through military might."

Dagestu continued.

"Many people talk about good and evil races. This is the kind of foolishness that is foreign to our Church. While all of you are human, there are those from all races who serve Waukeen. I am a Drow and I have met clerics of the goddess who are gnomes, dwarves, halflings and even elves. Prejudice is something to be altogether avoided."

Dagestu had faced some prejudice when she moved to the surface world. But her wealth had helped to buy friendship. She was rather liked by many in the city as an exotic figure from a strange and unknown realm.

"In the Church of Waukeen, we do not believe in good and evil. There is only wealth and poverty. There is no law, except the laws of profit and loss. Where it is profitable, we obey the laws of princes, where it is not profitable, we flout them in secret. Waukeen blesses both the lawful and the rogues."

"What about the poor?" asked a young girl from among the new acolytes. She was a little more plainly dressed than the others, but she had an intelligent look about her.

"The poor are sacred to Waukeen," replied Dagestu. "It is not the well who need a doctor, but the sick. The desire of the poor for wealth is an invocation of great power. All are welcome to the Church of Waukeen, rich and poor. We do not judge those who worship other gods either. We trade with them and work with them for mutual profit. The only infidels are the debtors and the only damned are the bankrupt."

"Who are the bankrupt?" asked the youngest of the students.

"You are fortunate to know nothing of such a thing. But you will learn more hereafter. The bankrupt are the greatest unfortunates of them all," said Dagestu.

The Drow priestess beckoned the children across the hallway.

"Come, the servants will show you to your dormitories," she said.


Dagestu loved nothing better than introducing new students to the mysteries of her goddess. She herself had been educated to serve two goddesses, both Lolth and Waukeen. She remembered well the education she had received under the Spider Queen in the priestly school of Arach-Tinilith. She remembered well the harsh discipline and the dull, dull lessons. Dagestu had been the brightest and best students at Arach-Tinilith, yet she had longed to teach proper lessons that were interesting and engaging. Perhaps if she had stayed in Menzoberranzan she might have been mistress of Arach-Tinilith, a status befitted to a Baenre princess like herself. Now she was mistress of a very different priestly school.