Drow

The Drow are a subrace of elves native to the Underdark, where they live in a strict, matriarchal society devoted to Lolth, the Demon Lady of Spiders.

Origin
During the Second Era, the Demon Lady of Spiders, Lolth, began gaining a cult following among many of Somara's elves, who founded the Cult of the Spider Queen. In 2e4486, she commanded her followers to overthrow the Elven societies currently in place and install a new, worldwide government utterly devoted to her worship. A series of uprisings took place all across the world, in an event known as the Day of Hatching, resulting in the deaths of millions of elves.

While most of the gods were slow to react to this event, Velia charged a group of her followers (an organization that would later become the Order of the Flaming Sword) led by Alaean Dawnpyre to quell this rebellion (an event recognized in modern times as the First Ardent Crusade). Dawnpyre's group was successful, and slaughtered the followers of Lolth wholesale. They declared victory on day that from then-on would be known as the Cleansing Dawn, in the year 2e4489, a mere three years after the uprisings had begun.

In the aftermath of the conflict, Lolth's followers were no longer welcome on the surface world, and any who dared openly worship their patron were often subject to public execution. With no safe haven left, the followers of Lolth were led undergound to the Underdark, where they could carve out a life in the brutal, unforgiving, subterranean world.

Through years of living there, they began to change, adapting to their new climate, until their appearance drifted farther and farther away from that of the surface elves, and they became their own subrace - the drow.

Physical Description
Like other elves, drow tend to be lean and athletic, with an otherworldly grace about them. On average, they are shorter and thinner than their surface counterparts, owing to adaptations to life underground. Their skin was usually dark gray, jet black, or obsidian in color, and their stark white hair tended to turn silver or gray with age.

Drow eyes are most commonly red, through shades of lavender, blue, purple, and amber are also not unheard of. Their eyes granted them darkvision, which usually manifested as the ability to see in the infrared spectrum.

Drow females are usually slightly bigger and stronger than male drow.

Personality and Behavior
The majority of drow are evil, largely as the result of the society they are brought up in. They tend to be arrogant, ambitious, sadistic, treacherous, and hedonistic, believing themselves superior to all other races.

Drow society will punish crimes committed against other drow if there are witnesses or sufficient evidence, but most drow will look the other way for crimes that one attempts to hide. As a result, the drow are trained to use whatever means they can to accomplish their goals, so long as they are not caught. This fosters a sense of cunning and ambition not often found in other races.

For the drow, weakness can often make one a target. Especially in a society where lying, cheating, and backstabbing to get one's way is silently encouraged, this makes most drow masters at masking their emotions. Showing forgiveness, compassion, or love in public can often result in a dagger in one's back, after all. This also fosters a sense of paranoia and mistrust about the drow. For them, it's difficult to trust anyone, and alliances they form typically last only as long as both parties' interests align.

Drow also believe themselves to be superior to all other races, and, as a result, consider them expendable. Most members of other races are afforded no legal protection in some drow cities, and slavery is very common in these places. In fact, drow will often conduct raids on surface settlements for the sole purpose of capturing to slaves to work for them.

In following with Lolth's commands, drow society is matriarchal in nature. Men are considered subordinate to women, and only women are allowed to rule drow Houses.

Drow Society
Drow society is organized into Houses, which are typically family-run enclaves that wield political power in a region. A drow city typically has one or more houses, and they end up in a strict hierarchy for control of a city.

The House Matriarch is served most closely by her house’s Priestesses of Lolth (which are usually includes her daughters). The drow usually recognize children that have been “chosen” by Lolth at a very young age and send them to the company of other priestesses to be trained. Usually, having birthmarks or experiences with spiders at a young age is often seen as a sign from the demoness. However, what exactly constitutes being “chosen” by Lolth is not entirely agreed upon, and Lolth herself has never clarified. This allows Matrons to push their own daughters into training as they choose, to keep power within a family.

Young priestesses that are in training undergo a brutal regimen. They are subjected to extremely rigorous academic and physical standards that they must reach. The young priestesses are taken from their family and placed into the nearest enclave, where the current priestesses act as their instructors. The priestesses are known to be exceptionally cruel to the acolytes, forcing them to undergo verbal and physical abuse in an attempt to weed out the weak. Acolytes who are caught breaking the rules or determined weak by the head priestesses are often pitted against each other in combat, exiled, or even killed, depending on how badly they fail. While the exact methods and standards for training are well-kept secrets that often vary from enclave, it is known that once an acolyte comes of age, Lolth tests her in some way that is different for every priestess. An acolyte who fails her test undergoes a horrific transformation into a drider, and is exiled from drow society. Lolth prohibits her followers from killing driders, meaning that most are cursed to live as a cruel mockery of nature to remind them of their failure, which is seen as a fate worse than death.

After the priestesses, a matron is attended to by her dutchesses, who act as her highest attendants, and serve various different roles. A matron’s dutchess is a female drow who is chosen for the role as a child, and is a great honor for a family to have a daughter chosen in this way. A dutchess is sworn to put her matron’s life ahead of her own, and is forbidden from having a partner or children. Should a dutchess betray her matron by breaking those rules, she is executed dishonorably, as a drow slave would be.

After the dutchesses, she has three positions usually filled by males: the Weapons Master, the Wizard, and the Patron. The Weapons master heads her personal military, the wizard acts as her magical consort, and uses his magic as she wills. The Patron is typically a male servant that works to attend to her personal needs. Though being a Patron may seem like slavery to outsiders, the position is actually very coveted, and seen as very honorable among the drow. Among most houses, there are many rumors surrounding Matrons and Patrons as being romantically involved, but they are never confirmed. Patrons typically come and go depending on how a Matron feels about them, but they ever only have one at a time.

Other positions include the Inquisitor, a female priestess that seeks out those who threaten the hierarchy or seek to harm a priestess or matron. An inquisitor is specially trained in torture and information extraction.

Most houses have a single family ruling them, and the name of the House is typically reflected by this. A house expands its influence by absorbing weaker families into their house. Most drow aspire to one day either control a house or have one of their offspring rule one. As such, they are usually eager to curry favor with a house in an attempt to gain power and a chance at the seat of power. This often means that families will readily volunteer children to be groomed for positions of power in a matron’s court. The houses in a city typically exist in a strict hierarchy, with the house at the top at the top effectively ruling the city. Whenever a house is destroyed, its assets are typically seized by the other houses, and the next house in line fills its power role in the city.

When a Matron dies, her eldest daughter typically is given control over the house, unless the Matron wishes otherwise. The Matron-to-be is typically called the Chosen. However, any other daughter of the Matron may challenge the Chosen for the seat of power. If this occurs, the two will engage in a duel in an arena. Generally, this duel has no set format, and the daughters will typically reach an agreement on the terms. If they cannot agree, custom dictates that the next highest-ranking member of the deceased-matron’s court acts as an arbitrator.

The one constant these duels have is that they are either to submission, or death, whichever comes first. Often, Chosen will successfully defend their claim will either execute their sister anyway, or give them a horrible punishment for their attempted usurpment, making challenges a rare occurrence in drow society.

If a matron dies, and does not have any daughters to succeed her, then her dutchesses form a council to decide on a replacement from the constituent families. This often causes a house to change its name. When a new family rises to power, they typically change the name and crest of the house to their own.

When a new matron ascends, she is technically able to replace all the staff around her as she chooses. This is only usually done when a new family takes over the house. Most matrons will keep her mother’s dutchesses, weapons master, and wizard, but change the patron. However, priestesses are different. Most new matrons will offer her sister priestesses a choice: swear fealty to her, be exiled, or be executed. If they choose to swear fealty, she often provides them with a very difficult task to prove their dedication to her.

Drow Adventurers
There are many reasons why a drow may leave the Underdark to go on an adventure. They may become disillusioned with their harsh life, and leave to seek a better one elsewhere. They may have been exiled from their city, and seek a way to gain power or profit once again. Or, they may be on a mission for their house, to bring back a powerful artifact or eliminate a powerful foe. Whatever the reason, the drow will be subject fear and mistrust among the races of the surface, and will often find themselves unwelcome at every turn.

Most drow are proficient fighters of any type. A significant amount of rogues are also often found among the drow, owing to their society's emphasis on stealth and subterfuge.

Male magic-users are almost exclusively wizards, and female magic users are almost exclusively clerics of Lolth. Occasionally, paladins of Lolth will swear Oaths of Heresy or Inquisition.