Hi, so I am introducing drow into my campaign as one of the main forces of evil threatening the world - ya I know, totally lame and cliche. Well when you are DMing a group where 75% are new or novice players, what's old becomes new again! However, there is that 25% of old school grognards who knows whats up with drow, and it is to those, and other factors, that make me want to take the spider out of the drow.
I am thinking of replacing it with snakes. I foresee the yuan-ti as being their "above ground" masters or lords, or whatever, and the yuan-ti worship Demogorgon (who in my campaign is a shiny-black skinned humanoid with a draconic head)
So I want to combine these two elements: yuan ti overlords, Demogorgon worship into a new Drow look. The problem is that the spider influence goes pretty deep with the drow and I don't want to break anything. I believe the drow's innate powers and stat blocks shouldnt need to change, it is mostly the flair and fluff but I was curious if anyone else ever gave the drow a facelift and how it went...*
*I have the utmost respect for Gygax and his drow vision, and think they are a fine species as is, but only want to change things up for variety, not for some fault that isnt there.
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For what it's worth, I introduced the drow in my campaign as sickly-looking albino humanoids without any "elf" connection. These critters worshiped a horrible insect deity that looked like a cross between a scorpion and a beetle. . .and those were the only changes to make the drow seem very very different. It's surprising how much small cosmetic changes make a monster seem new and unusual. Like you, I wasn't interested in re-engineering all the rules concerning drow, but making them "like new" was a definite goal. Well worth it in the end, my players never even mentioned dark elves!
I usually use yuan-ti as overlords of the reptilian: lizardfolk, troglodytes, dinosaurs, medusas, lesser dragons, etc. Maybe give the drow some reptilian features, like scaly skin, horizontal pupil eyes, bald heads, etc.
Maybe have them wield "reptilian" weapons, like scimitars and whips and flint polearms. Maybe they ride lizards and snakes. Use poisons.
Both yuan-ti and drow have Darkness related powers and are Chaotic Evil. Use that somehow.
Have you considered cockroaches instead of lizards or spiders?
Ok so in my world the underdark is separate 'nodes' with little or no connections, and the lasrt battle was many thousands of years ago, and there are at least wo separate enclaves of drow. The known one is under city of yuanti and the snakes are their masters, both under demogorgon. I guess I could just mkae lolth under demo, but I want to mix it up anyhow, and have a culture clash of 2 drow.
So anyhow, the satge was set last week with an expedition sent to unlock the gate to the second drow vault, locked all these years. Little do the player's know! The party now has in their possession a powerful talisman of Demogorgon, meant to awe the drow into submission. I havent thought it out further than that but I need another drow culture and quick! Preferably with some demon lord intermediary with Demogorgon for added devilish politics!
How about gnolls and Yeenog or whatever. Also king of ghouls.
My campaign has gnoll pirate-priestesses of a b itch goddess of raiding.
Birds of Prey Drow
Drow wearing feathers in their hair and living amongst the trees of the Darkwood? Exiled for their dealings with Pazuzu and determined not to touch the filthy ground again?
Spell like abilities replaced with Ghost Sound, Obscuring Mist and Levitate and instead of darkvision the drow gets a superior low light vision (see 4x as far in bad illumination) and weapon proficiency changes to scimitars and shurikens (which they can use in lightning strikes during hit and run tactics). Oh, and light sensitivity goes away.
Any theme is possible, but for evil underground themes...
Earth elemental - Connected with the dao, rock devils and other evil earth outsiders. Being mortal enemies of dwarves and gnomes. Work with crystals and gems to get the image. Walls of hardened glass barely hide increadible wealth and deadence.
Aberrant - Drow wielding powerful psionics and grafting powers. Willingly serving horrors of the far realm that twisted them (Illithid, Aboleth, Beholder)(unlike the rebel duergar). Wild, mind crushing architecture and unspeakable horrors hiding under seemingly beautiful exterior.
Bat - cloaked and armed with superior hearing rather than darkvisioon these elves build their cities on cavern ceilings promissing only a deadly fall to those trying to attack from below.
Rat - Cursed by elven gods to live in squalor among the rodents. Living in holes and mazes. Being incredibly stealthy. Disease easily replaces poison.
Centipede - Not much you say? These critters are fast and pack vicious poison. Centipede themed armour is easy to imagine and architecture employing long winding tunels allowing Drow to use their favored pets to best effect is also underdarkish.
Darkness / Shadow - Even unaltered drow fit this theme well. Just remove the webs.
Worms - Yes, maggots, (un)death and decay are in perfect contrast to the light and life loving elves.
Enough themes?
I like considering the drow as evil fey who worship the Queen of Air and Darkness - kind of like second cousins to the Shadar-Kai.
Shar! Shar! Shar! ... squeee!
...
Did you hear that?!?
I have posted some of my personal take on the Drow here before ... but I'm blowed if I can find it right now. Which is a pain.
Bottom line, think evil dark elven, underground, Mughal India as your lead.
Divided between four seperate 'Queendoms', all Drow still share a pretty brutal and murderous matriarchal outlook, and certain cultural traits (see below), however only one of the Queendoms is Lolthian, the other three are Malressian (cave panther goddess cultists), artificier neutralish with secret links to the Aboleth, and the smallest realm is Kiaransaleen.
DROW CULTURAL SNIPPETS -
'The princesses are carefully ranked and ordered, are obsessed with protocol and the number of sacrficed slaves they receive in salute before the Queens. They delight in flamboyent assertions of ritual soveriegnty and extravagant contests for symbolic precedence.'
'Private palaces and public buildings project a vision of Drow society as unified, venerable, time honoured and heirarchical. Somtimes this is literal, such as the ?tower of ? Which houses ? Statues representing the x castes of Drow society.'
'Drow society depends far less on justice and good administration than on precedence, honours and minute distinctions of dress.'
Princess-Potentate
The Dominion Provinces ---- Semi-autonomous small powers that answer to one or other of the Four Queens. Have self-governance in most things, but cannot go to war without the consent of their queen.
Royal-Proconsul
The Lands of the Aquamarine Sun
'I've known warm lands of the surface world, but there the heat comes unquestionably from the sun. In Drowheim it is as if the air is warmed in some vast oven, for it touches every part of you the same. There is no hiding from it, no shade. It is as if the heat is collected in the very rocks, stored somehow, year after year and it is a heat that heals rather than scorches, invigorates rather than weakens.
Even the fine white cave dust that can be kicked up as one moves through the Land of the Four Queens seems heavy with spices, indeed it seems almost to carry the essense of Drowheim, like the light which transforms the way you see things, or the heat which feels like hands moving all over you. It is not possible, even momentarily, to be insensate in Drowheim, for the presents to each and every sense are so potent as to be almost compelling. No noise is restrained, no taste -in any sense- is mild. No smell is anything but pungent. No belief incredible, no notion too outlandish.'
Malressian cave-panthers are captured in pits or adamantite cages and within a month are trained to obey their keepers, being released to stalk and kill game and then to return after the kill, much like a hunting-hawk of the surface world. Malressians take their hunting-panthers very seriously, each noble keeps his pride-stables divided into eight grades, their rations of meat being set accordingly. They wear coats studded with jewels and specially crafted magic items of many types and are taken to the hunt sitting blindfold on beautiful carpets. Panthers of the highest grade are called Princess-Panthers are gifted with slaves to care for their every need and have a drum beaten before them in procession.
Drow hunting expeditions sometimes take the form of 'enclosure-hunting' where large numbers of Drow soldiers act as beaters, driving the game slowly towards a selected usually mid-sized cathedral cavern, where all exits are then secured by the troops and the hunting party enters and begins the killing. Though even this is organised in extremely strict rules of precedence; royalty present first enters alone with their immediate retinue and hunts for up to five days, then nobles are allowed access, then the priesthood and finally the troops themselves are granted entry and mop up. By the final stages this crowded sport becomes highly dangerous and on many occasions Drow use the confusion to settle private scores.
In Drow courts, from pot to plate food is distated for poison at three different stages, after which each dish is sealed with the seal of the master of the kitchens, whose seal likewise had to be on every bag containing bread-stalks, prickle-pears, curds, pickles, fresh ginger or limes in the long procession, accompanied by guards to the table.
Boatloads of ice call daily at many cities, in an unending convoy. As do caravans of sugars, melons, transparent sea-grapes from the Toa* and limes.
Every noble in a Drow court holds a military rank, even painters or poets, which is expressed and paid for in the number of Drow soldiers the noble is expected to muster when required for parade, hunt or war.
*The Toa =
THE TOA (Sah- 'White Sea')
An inter-linked series of rivers and large lakes spread across the Fourth and Fifth Deeps, connecting through great 'sea-falls' as well as sharply descending tunnels filled with rushing torrents, this body of water is known as the White Sea because of it's large lime and calcium deposits which bleach much of it's rocks and sea beds.
Although home to many different forms of strange life and beings, the Toa is best known for being the home of the Kuo-Toa (Sah- 'Sentinels of the White Sea') Sahuagin. These Sahuagin are perhaps the most feared of all the Sea Devils, the descendants of exiles from the oceans of the surface, they are led by Rozvankee 'The Strategist', creator of the Vargouilles and an ancient and infamous human lich.
The world of Ryad is like Earth in many ways, but appears to be cooler at it's heart and is possessed of vast underground regions capable of sustaining life much like the lands above ground. These huge, dark areas include great cathedral caverns filled with forests of giant fungi, glittering crystal studded passages, swift flowing rivers, gaping abysses, great tide-less underground seas and many more sights that dazzle the eye, chill the heart or stir a myriad of other emotions in the minds of those few brave surface dwellers who delve into these lands in the hope of exploration, loot, adventure or escape from the lands above. These subterranean lands are known as the Underdark and many knowledgeable and wise scholars believe that in the deepest caves and lands of this great below lurk the most powerful and inimical creatures alive...
THE SIX DEEPS -
The Underdark stretches below all the lands of Ryad, a mass of caves, tunnels, underground rivers, crevasses, shafts, passages, dust-dry deserts of petrified stone and bubbling magma filled faults and rifts. In a vain attempt to map and understand this confusion surface dwellers have long settled upon a loose descriptive system to delineate certain regions, these are the 'Six Deeps', or six depth-levels. As a rule of thumb the deeper down one travels, the more dangerous the Underdark becomes, some races have come to dominate whole regions on one Deep, but may only have outposts or no contact at all with other Deeps above or below them.
THE FIRST DEEP-
The First Deep includes all those underground regions that extend down from the surface to about five thousand feet (1 mile). As such this Deep is inhabited by those races and creatures that, for whatever reason, have contact with the surface world. It also is travelled through by travellers from the surface or from deeper down, some surface civilisations and races have made tentative probings into the First Deep and ruins are dotted here and there. Notable occupants of the First Deep are the Dwarves of Rockheim, most of the cities of Rockheim being located at this level. The Dwarves of Clan Duergar also have outposts in the First Deep, though the moulder-dwarves' cities are generally located in the Second Deep. The Mindflayers of Bolandad have outposts near the surface, but travel using GodStones to the black pits of Qaggol in the Fifth Deep which is their true capital. The Klyss (Troglodytes) of the Aklyssin Pockets under the x and x Mountains and some Hobgoblin nations, such as the Wolverine Regency and the Kingdom of the Spear, are also to be found in this level.
THE SECOND DEEP-
The Second Deep extends down from five thousand feet (1 mile) to about fifteen thousand feet (3 miles).
THE THIRD DEEP-
The Third Deep extends down from fifteen thousand feet (3 miles) to about twenty five thousand feet (5 miles). The Derro dominate the Third Deep regions below the Median Sea and the Marthod Guilds.
THE FOURTH DEEP-
The Fourth Deep extends down from twenty five thousand feet (5 miles) to about thirty five thousand feet (7 miles). The Fourth Deep is where the main cities of Drowheim are to be found, five to seven miles below the surface realms of x.
THE FIFTH DEEP-
Few have ever ventured as far as the Fifth Deep and those that have rarely return, as such the extent and depth of the region is not certain. It is known that Quaggol, the dark capital of the Illithids lies in the Fifth Deep.
THE SIXTH DEEP-
Many hardened adventurers claim that inhabited regions deeper than the Illithid cities of the Fifth Deep are a myth, a horror story to scare newcomers from the surface. However perhaps known only to the Illithids there are hints of an ancient and vastly powerful race who dwell in the Sixth Deep and of a great, world-spanning, ocean of steamingly hot salt water known as the Sunless Sea.
'DEEPERS'
'Beneath shimmering hauberks and plates of enchanted mail, their shirts and breeches were of crudely tanned cave-strider hide and iron-tusker skin, and had many patches sewed on with sinews, were worn thin between patches, black from many camp fires, and greasy from many meals. They were threadbare and filthy, they smelled bad, and had paler skin than any spectre. Yet from their grimy bodies hung ancient items of power and gem studded magic weapons rested on their belts in faded hide sheaths. They gulped rather than ate the tripes of rothé and had forgotten the use of chairs. Words and phrases, mostly obscene, of aluari, derro, troglodyte and dengarl, came naturally to their tongues.'
- From the journal of Yalaeva Median, describing her deeper guides during the early exploration of the Trades-Under-Road.
The underdark is a strange and most unusual place and those humans who choose to live in it are often strange and unusual as well. Known as 'deepers' these hardy souls are adventurers, explorers, hunters, trappers, plunderers of ruins, and even include a few missionary priests in their number. They often live for years at a time below the ground without ever visiting the surface world, some developing a distaste for, or even fear of, the vast open spaces of the 'up'.
Usually loners, or travelling in largely silent small groups of friends, their senses honed to amazing levels, able to smell or hear the faintest changes in the atmosphere around them, some so sharp eyed as to be almost able to see in the dark like an elf, others practically blind yet able to move as lithely as cave panthers with only smell, touch and their hearing to guide them.
Most are lethal fighters, possessed of battle and hunt skills honed by years in the harshest enviroments known.
Their reasons for living such dangerous lives are many and varied, some are outlaws and outcasts fleeing the surface world, others simply men seeking the rumoured wealth of the lands below, some are driven by the bizarre need to explore places unknown to everyone else or learn secrets unguessed even by kings and queens up above. Usually they die, unseen and unmourned save perhaps amongst their own small, tight-knit community, their names forgotten or never known to the people of the world above, yet legends in the bars of Yalaeva's Delve and Union, or spoken of with respect about camp fires in caves far from anywhere.
Some Underdark Regions -
THE AMOEBIC SEA -
According to Drow sages this area was once part of the Toa, located in the high fourth deep, under the Derro realms beneath the Shining Peninsula, it was apparently cut off from the main part of the Toa by a great rock fall following the Planetshift. Now trapped, heated by volcanic vents and tidelessly still, it has become a great bubbling morass of oozing, fetid sludge, sometimes called the Stagnant Sea.
A perfect breeding ground for the many types of puddings, oozes and jellies native to the great below, the Amoebic Sea is the single largest concentration of such creatures in the entire world. Few deepers have ventured into the Sea caves and got out to tell the tale, but those who have, reported that often times the still sludge would surge and ripple, like the waves of the oceans of the surface world, as thousands of oozes would race towards food, others claim to have seen vast gelatinous cubes (perhaps made up of many smaller cubes) which moved through the sludge sea like great ships.
THE BLUE FATHOMS -
Located under Rockheim and stretching down from the First through the Third Deeps, this area was formed by frozen water cascading below the ground during the Planetshift. The subsequent Ice Age froze these waters into a giant vertical glacier, under enormous pressures which have given it it's deep blue colour. The upper parts of the Fathoms have been carved and tunnelled into by the Dwarves of Rockheim making the mighty ice-fortress of Dorfrast (D- 'Slow Mountain'). The lower levels remain out of Dwarven control and subject to dangerous melting and glacial movement.
THE CORAL DRIFTS -
Located in the Third Deep, before the cataclysmic 'Planetshift' these expansive caverns were once filled with the rippling deep waters of an underground sea, however the terrible seismic quakes and disturbances caused the sea to drain away (perhaps into the deeper waters of the Toa or the Sunless Sea) over the course of several decades. Now littered only with the eerie petrified sprays of dead undercoral reefs, the Drifts are very water sparse and travellers there must carry plenty of their own or perish of thirst.
Perhaps because of this inhospitable nature the Drifts are known to be home to fearful undead creatures and to hide the lairs of powerful and secretive undead lords.
THE DEMONWEB PITS -
Extending an uncertain depth into the Fifth Deep below the Menzoberanzen (okay I nicked the name ;-) ) region of Drowheim, this is the material lair of Lolth, the Spider-Demon Goddess of the most powerful Drow Queendom. Consisting of a dizzying array of web tunnels interconnecting with fractal complexity, the Pits are also home to a frightful number of Lolthian servitors, not least of which include Bebilith spider demons, Yochlol, and countless spiders mundane, magical, giant, small and demonic. Drow priestesses of Lolth visit on pilgrimages as they have for long centuries since first they came to Drowheim, venerating their demon-goddess and appeasing her with endless sacrifices to both her and her numberless brood.
Lolth herself first came here some time before the Planetshift, an exile from the Black Lodge and it is assumed she herself spun the webs which choke the shafts and tunnels, certainly she seems connected to the webs, able to sense movement with a omnipotency in the Pits that is all seeing and can control any and all of her creatures here with but a thought. She usually rests in a great mobile iron and adamantite stronghold shaped like a spider and known as the Golem-Palace, which crawls around the vast web at her whim.
THE MARBLE ARCHIPELAGO -
A beautiful string of atolls and cave islands dotted across the Falling Lakes of the Third Deep, below the Idri Forest that are powerfully saturated with shadow elemental matter. Once the domain of the Drow House of Z'hinrael, the Archipelago was conquered by the Lolthian drow around the year 122 PA, when the surviving members of House Z'hinrael shadow walked to safety in the far north. However the Z'hinrael did not leave their beloved homeland
undefended even after they fled, the Lolthians found that powerful shadow elementals of all types moved now about the caves, lakes and passages, striking down all they found, drawing on the powerful shadow elemental powers of the region.
The Lolthians left after a time, deeming it not worth the effort to cleanse the region of the shadow sentinels Z'hinrael had left behind and now the region stands empty save for the ruins of the Z'hinrael palaces and the shadow creatures left behind to defend them.
THE TUNNELS OF COLSEEATUS -
Stretching across the low Second Deep, this region is sometimes called the Layers of Lamentation. Made up of barren tunnels and small chambers through which are funnelled omnipresent 'under-winds' shrieking at great speed both up to the First Deep and down into the realms below (including parts of Drowheim). These winds create strange wailing moans as they whip through the narrow, often fluted tunnels, which mysteriously bear the marks of having apparently been hand chiselled, though such an undertaking would surely have taken an age. There are those who state the Drow deliberately crafted these tunnels as part defence and part ventilation system for Drowheim, but that may be pure myth.
Aman Colseeatus was a ancient human explorer from Armilon who first discovered the region. Nearly going mad from the constant chilling winds, lack of water or food and unending wailing cacophony, he made it out and warned against others venturing there. Still, deepers are curious, hardy folk and inevitably some adventurous souls still risk the Layers as a short cut to Drowheim. These travellers tell stories of powerful elven ghosts haunting some parts of the region (perhaps the Drow who may have created them), their moans mingling with the winds and carrying half heard whispers many miles along the tunnels.
Some claim one or more powerful demons dwell in the Tunnels and defend a jagged spike of stone named Howling Crag, or the Harmonica Rock, a jumbled pile of stones, boulders and apparently worked masonry. The Crag's top is a level platform about eight feet in diameter, the lower reaches are riddled with small burrows, some of which are dead ends, others connect. The wall of each of these burrows are covered with lost alphabets that supposedly spell out strange songs, liturgies and strings of numbers or formulae. The holes and tubes of the Crag create a noise worse than anywhere else in the Layers, but some say great secrets of the magic of sound are to be found there. Some even claim the Crag is the source of most of the under-winds and is some kind of gate to the Elemental Plane of Air.
Lolth
The Queen of Spiders, Queen of the Demonweb Pits, Weaver of the Labyrinthine Webs, The Hunted, The Mother of Lusts, The Dark Mother, Lady of Spiders, World-Weaver, The Outcast, Great Spider of the Black-Lodge, The Allseeing One, The Flesh-Carver, Mistress of Darkness.
Lolth is the paramount goddess of the Drow and for millenia her religion has dominated the culture and society of the dark elves. Much of the generally selfish and cruel nature and character of most Drow stems from Lolth. Unlike all the other Drow deities, Lolth is a physical entity, an exiled Black-Lodge demoness of godlike power, who ages past merged herself with that of a great spider, and who exists on Ryad (living deep below Menzoberanzen in the Demonweb Pits).
Lolth usually appears either as a giant black widow spider with crimson eyes, or in the form of a exquisitely beautiful female Drow. In this form she often clothes herself entirely in clinging spiders, but sometimes wears Drow chain mail styled into artful dresses and tunics. She can also combine the two forms, appearing as a giant spider with a coldly beautiful female Drow head, or an eight limbed spider-Drow hybrid (as picture left).
Lolth is a cruel, capricious demon-goddess thought by many to be insane, a belief perhaps supported by the fact that she has been barred from ever returning to the Black-Lodge by the greater demonic powers therein. She seems to delight in setting even her worshippers at each other's throats, perhaps so that only the strongest, most devious and most cruel survive to serve her. She is known to roam the Underdark oftentimes, sometimes appearing in answer to the rituals of Drow priests, and working whatever harm she can to the enemies of the Drow. The Spider Queen secretly wants to be worshipped by humans and elves of other races on the surface Realms, and sometimes journeys among their communities whispering of the power of Lolth can bring. She is malicious in her dealings and coldly vicious in a fight and enjoys both personally dealing and causing death, destruction, and painful torture. Even more, Lolth enjoys corrupting elves and humans to her service. Her favour and aid can never be relied or trusted. The Spider Queen enjoys the company of and can converse with spiders of all sorts.
Lolthian Beliefs-
Excerpts from the Elamshim (Al- The Will of Lolth) -
Jal Khaless Zhah Waela - All trust is foolish.
Oloth zhah tuth abbil lueth ogglin - Darkness is both friend and enemy.
Xun izil dos phuul quarthen, lueth dro - Do as you are ordered, and live.
Lolth tlu malla; jal ultrinnan zhah xundus - Lolth be praised; all victory is (her) doing.
Lil alurl velve zhah lil velkyn uss - The best knife is the unseen one.
Lil waela lueth waela ragar brorna lueth wund nind, kyorlin elghinn - The foolish and unwary find surprises and among them, waiting death.
Khaless nau uss mzild taga dosstan - Trust no one more than yourself.
Nindyn vel'uss kyorl nind ratha thalra elghinn dal lil alust - Those who watch their backs meet death from the front.
L'alurl abbil zhah dosstan - The best trusted friend is yourself.
Khal wun dossta belaern - Trust in your wealth.
Jala cahallin xal tlu elg'cahlin - Any food may be poison.
Sargh lueth kyona phuul dro'xundus - Strength at arms and wariness are survival.
L'elamshin d'lil Ilythiiri zhah ulu har'luth jal - The destiny of the Drow is to conquer all.
L'elend zhah alurl - The traditional is best.
Jiv'elgg lueth jiv'undus phuul jivvin - Torture and pain are fun.
Zhaunil dal Waerr'ess - (Gain) knowledge from deceit.
Ulu z'hin maglust dal qu'ellar lueth valsharess zhah ulu z'hin wund lil phalar - To walk apart from House and Queen is to walk into the grave.
Kyorl jal bauth, kyone, lueth lil quarval-sharess xal balbau dos lil belbol del elendar dro - Watch all about, warily, and the Goddess may give you the gift of continued life.
Vel'uss zhaun alur taga lil quarval-sharess? - Who knows better than the Goddess?
From the above quotes taken from the Elamshim (Al- The Will of Lolth), the Lolthian primary holy book, it can be easily deduced that the paranoiac spirit of the Spider-Demoness has infected the creed of those who worship her. Lolthianism is a creed for the utterly selfish, the strong and the deceitful. The needs, wishes and desires of others are to be regarded as worthless and unimportant, unless they serve the ends of the Lolthian in question. Lolth is herself an outcast, despite her great strength and power, and a fearful undertone runs through the Will of Lolth; everyone is seen as a potential enemy, secretly plotting your downfall, even your seeming friends, or family members, and Lolthian regions of Drowheim are seething pits of plots and schemes, where few dare to totally trust anyone else, no matter how close they might be.
Lolth's vain lusts for personal power and more worshippers have ensured that her 'church' preaches Drow supremacy over all other races, through Lolthianism. Other Drow religions are regarded as 'sub-sects' to be tolerated and used, at best, or in the case of the cults of Zinzerena and Eilistraee heresies to be ruthlessly hunted out and crushed. All non-Drow races are portrayed as enemies, who plot openly or secretly against the Drow and must thus be attacked, defeated, slain or enslaved before they get the chance to do the same to the Drow.
In short Lolthianism is a poisonous, somewhat self-destructively paranoid religion, which is utterly inimical to peaceful coexistence with almost all other religions and peoples. It has ensured for centuries large parts of Drowheim have been the sinks of deceit, religious mass-murder and slavery they remain. But because of it's inherent paranoia has retained a stranglehold of power over most of the Drow that seems still impossible to break.
Lolth's Demonic Servants -
In addition to the swarms of spiders and arachnid monsters that Lolth can call on at will, she is also served by several specific demons and demon types, these include as follows;
Inluli (Al- Little Serpent)-
Inluli is said to be Lolth's pet albino cave-viper and is thus regarded as a demigod itself by Lolthians. Lolthian lore states that Inluli also acts as Lolth's spy, messenger, and as a seducer of those Drow maidens Lolth herself personally desires. Inluli seems to exist and be as real and physical as Lolth herself and may well be a powerful Black Lodge demon like Lolth. Though usually appearing as a small relatively harmless seeming white snake, Inluli has on rare occasions transformed into a great worm-like horror of enormous size and strength. Like his mistress he lairs in the Demonweb Pits.
The Yochlol (Al- Handmaids of Lolth)-
When Lolth first revealed herself to Arabania (first leader of the Drow), the Spider Goddess was attended by eight beautiful handmaids; the Yochlol (Al- Handmaids of Lolth) as they became known, or Laelwanren (Al- The Eight Servants). The Yochlol can appear either as misty columns of gas which materialise pseudopods as required, in which form they are noticeable only by their foul smelling aura and the misty smudge they make in the air, or they can take the form of beautiful Drow, a form they are so adept at wearing they cannot be detected even by magic to being actually other than Drow.
The Yochlol are very powerful demons in their own rights who act as Lolth's personal attendants, heralds, agents and on occasion executioners and assassins.
It is said by the Drow that one of the Eight Handmaidens became apostate to Lolth, sometime after the Drow came to worship the Queen of Spiders, and is now an outlaw adrift in the world, who perhaps schemes against her former queen, it is not known which of the Eight this would be however save perhaps by the Lolthian hierarchy.
The names of the Yochlol are known widely and they are worshipped themselves by Lolthians as demigods of the faith of Lolth, they are as follows;
Do'Urda - Weapon-Mistress, Lolth's Sword, Blade-Cloud, The First of the Eight.
De'Vireen - Tearing Mist, Feaster, Raging Spirit, The Tracking Spider, The Second of the Eight.
Fey-Brandhia - Horned Maiden, The Gift Bringer, Teacher of Skills, Ill-News, The Third of the Eight.
Hlaundiira - Whirling Pillar, Madness-Maker, Bringer of Torments, The Fourth of the Eight.
Freth - Everhater, Malice Maiden, Schemer, Jealous of All, The Fifth of the Eight.
Hun'etta - Sharp Dart, Archer, Striking Bolt, Blur in the Dark, The Sixth of the Eight.
Noquarii - The Dancing Demoness, Spinning Seduction, Dual-Sexed, The Seventh of the Eight.
Maerret - Lolth's Spy, The Watching Mist, The Lonely Handmaid, The Eighth of the Eight.
GM Note - Though they are similar in appearance to the Yochlol of the MMII (and other books) the Yochlol in Ryad are much, much, more powerful. Basically their stats should be 'epic' level.
The Bebilith (Al- Creepers of the Pits)-
Below the Yochlol in Lolth's infernal structure of demons and demonic-hybrids that serve her are the Bebilith (Al- Creepers of the Pits), or the 'barbed horrors' as they are sometimes known. These are the descendants of a great demon that mixed it's essence with a giant arachnid of some kind many millennia ago, they are fearsome arachnid beasts with darkly mottled chitinous bodies, their forelegs ending in wicked barbs and their fanged maws dripping poisonous goo, so strong is their demonic nature they seem to warp the very air around them and can open a dimensional gate back to the Demonweb Pits at will, sometimes pulling victims down with them. They lair in the Demonweb Pits, but are utterly under the sway of Lolth and are dispatched by her on missions of slaughter and murder across the Underdark.
It is not known exactly how many of this dangerous breed exist in the Pits, though Lolthian lore states there are certainly several thousand. When Drow and other knowledgeable Underdark dwellers encounter a Bebilith beyond the Demonweb they give it a wide berth and it usually will ignore them, intent upon whatever mission the Queen of Spiders has sent it upon, this is not always the case though and the Bebilith will sometimes devour the unfortunate travellers or drag them down to the Pits to an unknown fate.
Draegloth (Al- Lolth-Touched)-
The graduation rites of Lolthian clerics from the Arach-Tinilith temple-academy of Menzoberanzen are marked by particularly horrific depravities and acts of perversion, perhaps as a final test of the worthiness of the graduating acolyte. The central part of the graduation rites involves the summoning of a Bebilith from the Demonweb Pits, which is impelled to couple with the graduating acolyte, while Lolthian spells and hymns are sung over the terrible scene. The end result of this ceremony, on rare occasions (perhaps once or twice a decade), is the birth of a cambionic child to the new priestess, the Drow name these cambions 'Draegloth' (Al- Lolth-Touched).
Perhaps due to the specific hymns and spells of the ritual Draegloth always grow to appear the same; that is six feet tall males, with dark skin, some Drowic features (pointed elf like ears for example), a knotted mane of pale white hair, are four armed, two of which arms end in large powerful claws, the other two ending in almost delicate normal sized hands which Draegloth often use expertly for spell casting. Their faces have a bestial cast, slightly elongated, somewhat resembling a dog's muzzle and their mouths are full of vicious fangs.
Lolthians regard Draegloths as a special blessing from Lolth, a sign of the Spider Queen's favour having fallen upon the priestess-mother of the cambion. Draegloths often go on to become clerics of Lolth themselves, or magic users and live lives of luxury, being showered with the gifts and protection by the Lolthian church. Draegloth seem to be driven by wild lusts and hungers and are terrifyingly murderous if crossed. Strangely the offspring of a Draegloth and a Drow maid is always an apparently normal Drow of either sex and though such children are regarded as making excellent Lolthian priests and priestesses in future life, there seems to be nothing special in their genetic makeup.
Lolthian Clerics-
Lolthian Yathrin are usually, though not always, female Drow. Some male Drow achieve low ranking status as priestly acolytes, regarded as fit to serve the priestesses who have passed the Lolthtanchwi (Al- The Punishments of Lolth), the trials which Lolthian Yathrin must go through to become full fledged priests or priestesses (usually when the Yathrin in question is between 6th and 9th level). Very few males survive the Lolthtanchwi and thus typically end up as driders.
Lolthian Yathrin are either drawn from established Yathrin caste familial sept of the Lolthian realms, or are Drow infants who are selected by the Lolthian priestesses and Drada Veldrinn as being suitable for priestly training and are either simply openly seized by church agents, or are covertly kidnapped and taken to the Arach-Tinilith temple-academy where they endure harsh training and instruction for upwards of a decade.
Within the Lolthian church there are three broad 'sub-castes', these are as follows;
The Orbbvloss (Al- Spider Blooded) -
The Orbbvloss are the typical Lolthian priests and priestesses. They make up the bulk of the temple-priesthood and most of the church hierarchy. Orbbvloss are responsible for carrying out the day to day Lolthian rituals, overseeing the Lolthian temples, running the Arach-Tinilith at Menzoberanzen, where they train the acolytes, overseeing the Lolthtanchwi and are holders of many secrets pertaining to Drowheim's past, the nature of Lolth, the Demonweb Pits and the Underdark in general. Orbbvloss regalia varies from place to place, some wear revealing robes, while others wear adamantite chainmail corselets of the finest quadruple-links, but all heavily use spider and spiderweb emblems heavily and for important ceremonies and occasions wear ornate orbdrin (Al- Spider masks), many have giant spider bodyguards and are experts in spider control and various crafts of arachnomancy, including divination from the behaviour of spiders and by the reading of the entrails of living driders.
The Qu'inlulen (Al- Brood of Inluli) -
Sometimes called the Sept of the Serpent, or 'the Snakes in Silk', these Lolthian priestes and priestesses worship Lolth's aspect as the Mother of Lusts and take Inluli, Lolth's snake-demon lieutenant, as their patron deity and in a similar way as Inluli is said to serve Lolth, they act as the Lolthian church's courtiers and envoys to the various Drow courts. They are also notorious, even in debauched Drowheim, as enchanters and seductresses, well versed in all the many forms of glamour and enchantment.
They encourage orgiastic rites and ceremonies across the Lolthian realms, teach young Drow the ways of Lolthian society and subtly foster libidinous behaviour in other (non-Lolthian) Drow realms to which they are deputed as envoys. Also they are charged with the punishment of male Drow who offend females, or who breach the caste system.
Qu'inlulen usually wear elaborate serpent-decorated masks, snake arm-bracers and carry serpent-headed rods and whips. Like other Lolthian priests and priestesses they wear either revealing robes or fine chainmail, though Qu'inlulen tend to go for more revealing and overtly sexual costumes as a rule.
The Elg'caldaharen (Al- 'Scorpions' - Literally 'Daughters of Poison') -
In Drow folklore the scorpion is viewed as 'the spider that lost it's way', the insect is believed to be an arachnid that offered up some of it's strength, limbs and web spinning ability to Lolth in exchange for becoming better armoured and possessed of deadlier venom and a longer reach. The third sub-caste of Loltian priesthood take the scorpion as their totem and name. Dubbed 'Scorpion-Priestesses', 'Poison-Maidens', or 'Assassins of Lolth' the members of this sub-caste are the executioners of the Lolthian church. Charged with the open ritual killing of criminals, sacrificial slaves and captives of war, and the covert assassination of those the church wishes dead but for whatever reason cannot strike down openly.
Like the scorpion of Drow myth Elg'caldaharen priestesses are given powerful arms and armour by the church, but are regarded as 'lesser' priestesses and are relatively low ranked and under the orders of the other Lolthian priestly sub-castes.
Elg'caldaharen typically wear armour somewhere bearing the emblem of a scorpion, deaths-heads are also commonly used to decorate their regalia and at official ceremonies they tend to wear skull-masks.
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From this thread, which has many other cool ideas, from many creative minds.
Drow in service to demon-lords *other* than Lolth;
Baphomet – all female Drow cult, the ‘Mothers’ have interbred with Minotaur males for many generations, and give birth to Drow females, Minotaur males and, rarely, Drow males that are treated as slaves or destroyed at birth. Over centuries, the female Drow children have begun to show aspects of Minotaur heritage (increased Constitution and an increasingly ‘Tiefling’ appearance, including vestigial horns, furred forearms and lower legs, and, rarely, hooves instead of feet). Their Minotaur sons have also grown darker in coloration, and often have red eyes and a surprising cunning, but otherwise are typical for their race, despite their parentage. ‘Mothers’ spend most of their lives pregnant, willingly, and are considered to rule their extended families, with each ‘warrior-son’ or daughter of breeding age adding to their powerbase. (Naturally, daughters of breeding age don’t relish being sub-ordinate to their own mother, and begin grooming their own warrior-sons for the day when they become the new ‘Mother.’)
Sadly, Demogorgon and Yeenoghu won't be appearing.
Demogorgon – dwelling in jungles and swamps, the Drow in service to Demogorgon are savages and bestial. Preferring weapons that can be used to capture prey, such as nets, snares and whips, these savages prefer to bring captives back to their communities, where they hold bloody celebrations, which the prisoners would not survive, even if they were not promptly eaten at the end of the ‘festivities.’ From an early age, these Drow file their teeth, and love nothing more than to end a prisoner’s life with a vicious bite attack.
Drow in service to Demogorgon are most commonly Barbarians, but Adepts, Sorcerers, Druids and Rangers are also common paths taken, with every community having one Bard, who serves as storyteller and shaman, setting new and bloodier goals for the faithful. With mud and blood-caked dreadlocks decorated with feathers, fangs and other body parts taken from local wildlife, the shaman exhorts his followers into greater acts of excess, until the entire tribe collapses in exhaustion, bellies full with the flesh of their prisoners.
Drow children raised in such an environment are driven away from their mothers soon after learning how to walk, and are a constant menace, even to unwary adults, as they band together and take whatever they can to survive. Exactly how they are recognized as adults is unclear, but at a certain point they begin to move among the adults, usually after some display of force or naked aggression that garners a grim form of respect among their peers. Male and female Drow in these communities appear to be equal in physical capabilities, and they do not have any difference in status, despite their otherwise predatory nature. A female is as likely as a male to viciously assault another Drow, and the males of these tribes who do not regard a female as being an equal threat are unlikely to survive to maturity.
The communities of these Demogorgon-worshipping Drow are either built in underground warrens or ancient stone ruins (for those living in the jungles) or stilt communities, floating barges or homes constructed high in the trees (for those living in swamps). The jungle-dwellers always are accompanied by baboons, who are considered sacred animals, and not to be slain (although they are not treated well, by any means, and often are driven off or tormented with beatings). Warriors often paint their faces with red and blue lines, resembling the facial coloration of a mandrill.
Swamp-dwellers are more likely to have an affinity for a unique breed of octopus that lives in the brackish swamps they inhabit, and scarify themselves in patterns of grayish-blue dots and swirls, administered through use of octopus venom, and requiring many days to create (and recover from) for the simplest patterns (and years, for the more intricate designs). The jungle-dwellers make less use of whips (although they do use snares and nets), and are known to use a form of gourd as weapon, a rotten fruit that is left to ripen in the high branches until it is ready to burst, then gently carried until it is ready to use as a malodorous projectile, so vile that it can momentarily incapacitate and sicken some creatures, particularly those with keen senses of smell.
Yeenoghu – The ornately-masked Drow who serve Yeenoghu are thought to be a small sect, perhaps numbering only in the dozens. Rarely is more than one seen, and they travel among communities of Gnolls, inciting them into more violent and organized depravity than normal. Many of these Drow use necromantic magics to keep their unreliable charges at bay, and only male Drow are ever seen in this capacity, as it is theorized that Gnoll matriarchs will slay any female Drow who attempts to influence their pack-leader status… Gnolls are often content to raise their own herds (or, more commonly, lay claim to specific territories, and ‘harvest’ from ‘their’ herds as hunger demands), but tribes under the ‘guidance’ of these nocturnal advisors are more prone to raid human settlements and engage in more brutish activities.
Grazz't worshippers would look little different than typical Drow, but be more focused on seduction, temptation and arcane magic, with less of a spider fixation and a special relationship with Lamia and Succubi (instead of Driders, a Drow-Lamia hybrid might be the 'cursed outcasts,' as they are no longer sexually capable, a great punishment to the carnal followers of Grazz't!). Kotschtchie worshippers would come out of the mountains of the frozen north during moonless nights and leave nothing in their wake but blood on the snow and burning villages, as if they watched 30 Days of Night and said, 'hell yes!'
Zinzerena
Princess of Outcasts, The Rebel, Wielder of the Draped Sword, The Forgotten Foe, The Queen of Assassins, The Unbound Slave, The Overturner, The Mistress of Many Faces, Venom-Queen, Breaker of Spiders.
Zinzerena is a Drow Goddess of rebellion and opposition to the religion of Lolthianism and the established order in most of the Lands of the Four Queens. She is worshipped by the dissidents, slaves and outcasts of Drow society and her cult is hated by those of all the other Drow faiths, excepting the Eilistraeen who see the Zinzereen as possible allies against the rulers of Drowheim and the Lolthians.
Zinzerena is typically depicted in two main aspects as 'The Rebel'; a cloaked and masked Drow rogue, carrying a shortsword half covered by the draped sleeve of her cloak in one hand, representing her hidden menace towards her foes, and a crop in the other, with which she is said to strike down the oppressors of the Drow people (meaning the Lolthians). Or as a defiant seeming, beautiful and sensuous, eight armed Drow maiden wearing the belt of a bound courtesan and being restrained by chains or serpentine tendrils, this image of her is said to represent the slavery which she escaped as a mortal Drow and to which she is sworn to bring down.
Zinzereen Beliefs-
'Raise yourself up by bringing our enemies down. Don't reveal your strength, or your true purpose, until our enemies are helpless. Never strike until you have the advantage in a given situation, remember the only 'fair' fight is the one you win. Once the trap is sprung, then you may gloat before the kill...the legs of the spider are made to be broken.'
A coded message found by Drada-Veldrinn ('Second Shadow' - Lolthian secret police) agents on a dead Zinzereen.
The primary tenets of the Cult of Zinzerena are that widespread change is urgently need to bring true peace, order, stability and prosperity to Drowheim. The first and most important part of this change is the tearing down of the religion of Lolth, the slaying of the Great Demoness herself and the complete extirpation of her hated priests and priestesses. Secondary to this primary goal of the faith is a restructuring of Drow society aimed at bringing down the caste system, or at the least a strong softening of the differences between the higher caste Drow and their social inferiors and possibly even a mass freeing of all the slaves in Drowheim. Beyond these broad, highly difficult (some might say impossible) religious aims, Zinzereen also believe in the subtle removing of particularly evil, hated, or unjust Drow nobles and leaders, by assassination. Though many Zinzereen are thus good natured and brave souls, dedicated to freeing the tormented, enslaved masses of Drowheim, a good few conversely are assassins bent upon settling personal vendettas by the murder of those nobles or Drow officials who outcaste them. The cult of Zinzerena is dominated by female Drow, but professes to believe in more freedoms and equalities for male Drow, though this may simply be a shrewd recruiting tactic aimed at drawing disgruntled male Drow into the faith and not a genuine reflection of the beliefs of the female high-priestesses.
Naturally their aims and methods make Zinzereen hated and somewhat feared by most Drow of the upper castes and the cult is constantly hunted by the Drada-Veldrinn and agents of individual nobles and septs.
The Cult of Zinzerena usually uses the covering of one's sword with a fold of cloak, while making one of several discreet hand signals as a code of recognition. Holy symbols are rare, as they would give away the cleric's allegiance were they to be searched, but typically portray the eight armed goddess on the face of a small circular bronze amulet.
Zinzereen Clerics and Cultists-
Though, according to Zinzereen mythology the Rebel-Goddess was born and lived as a mortal in the Third Deep Drow city of Erelhei-Cinlu and several cells of Zinzereen are active in that high gate-city, the Cult is actually based secretly in the Queendom of Rilauven where, though far from being an accepted creed officially, the religiously uninterested artificers of House Gelbalf studiously ignore noticing them...to the fury of the Lolthians of Menzoberanzen. Beyond the borders of Rilauven Zinzereen have to move very carefully and in relatively small groups, setting up secret 'inlulyath' (Al- Little Temples) in private rooms and run down buildings, or meeting in out of the way fungal forests or caves.
Most Zinzereen come from the lower castes and draw on a strong seam of support from normal Drow who often idolise Zinzereen as defenders of the commoners and enemies of tyrannical nobles. Naturally unable to live openly as Zinzereen clerics members of the cult work as anything from simple rogues, to labourers, cavern guides, physicians, poets, prostitutes, or nearly any other profession. A small minority of Zinzereen are from the Sargtlin caste, tending to be male warriors who cannot see the possibility of advancement to high rank under the present matriarchal dominance of Drowheim and hopefully join the Zinzereen believing the cult's professed intent to offer equality to males after the defeat of the Lolthians. Though only the most bohemian and unusual C'rinti tend to join the cult, some do, driven either by personal hatred for the Lolthians or a genuine desire to see change and freedom come to Drowheim, if caught they face becoming outcast and then facing the most savage and inventive tortures the followers of the Spider Queen can devise. Nobles who have been outcast and made Dobluth for other reasons often join the cult and go on to become it's greatest leaders thanks to their education, hunt skills and political experience in the Drow courts and palaces.
(Clerics of Zinzerena are often dual classed, usually Cleric-Thieves, or Cleric-Fighters. Zinzereen clerics tend towards the spheres of illusion, assassination and healing).
The Ultrinnen'Xuilebba-
One important task dedicated to those Zinzereen who are poets, players and artists is the perpetuation of the outlawed folk-saga known as the Ultrinnen'Xuilebba (Al- The Numberless Victories). This is the very long cycle of folk-tales telling of Zinzerena, 'while she lived as a mortal'; according to the stories, (which take the form of stirring, exciting and seditious allegories, aimed at giving commoners hope and belief that they too might one day triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds), Zinzerena was born a Shebali in Erelhei-Cinlu, she showed great magical talent and was smuggled away, by her mother, from the eyes of the Lolthian clerics who sought out such talented commoner children to be trained to possibly become a Lolthian priestess or member of the Drada-Veldrinn later in life. Studying alone, while in hiding, growing up Zinzerena is said to have taken to assassinating notably evil C'rinti in order to acquire the wealth necessary become a full fledged magician.
In her early assassinations she notably used lethal spider-venoms against her uniformly Lolthian victims, but as she grew in power she is said to have ceased using lethal poisons and taken to paralysing her victims. This enabled her to taunt, and occasionally in the tales, torture or mutilate her victims and leave them to allow them to remember what had been done to them, though they never saw her face as she either wore a hood, or being a mistress of disguise wore another's visage. Many of the tales are simple tales of Zinzerena cleverly stalking and slaying, or mutilating one of her legion of foes, typically the villain represents a specific Drow type; i.e. a noble maid who murders her servants or an arrogant Sargtlin who rapes Shebali maids. Many of the tales focus on the theme of waiting while one's enemies battle each other, then at the right moment striking victoriously from out of the shadows and slaying them all.
Zinzereen in dark alleys circulate pamphlets with parts of the Ultrinnen'Xuilebba written out and decorated with beautiful illustrations showing the assassin-goddesses exploits and grotesque faced Lolthian priestesses being slain. Many sing the long songs in the hovels of the Shebali and Dobluth. Others whisper the tales to Drow children on street corners, fleeing only if spotted by curious adult Drow. Ultimately, no matter how hard the Drow authorities and Lolthian church tries to stamp out the stories of the Ultrinnen'Xuilebba there is always another copy of the text, another poet or player singing it's tales of freedom and rebellion to the masses.
A Zinzereen's view of...-
Lolthians - These are the leeches that drain the blood of the Drow. They grow fat upon the suffering and hardships of the masses of our people. They foment unrest, injustice and strife at the behest of a demon-queen so utterly evil it was even exiled from the Black Lodge! They are our greatest foes and by their constant persecution of ourselves and our people (the normal Drow), prove they are our eternal enemies, we cannot rest till they are all driven from the courts and palaces, until their temples and shrines are rubble and dust and until Lolth is dead herself.
Kiaransaleen - Undeath is the ultimate slavery and indignity and we oppose it wherever we find it. The Haundrauthi are lapdogs of the Lolthians and are as evil in our eyes as the spider-worshippers. They encourage the mass importation of foreign slaves into Drowheim with no thought as to the inherent dangers in doing so. The common people suffer in the frozen city more than anywhere else in Drowheim, their lives meaning less than nothing to the cruel Kiaransaleen nobles and priestesses of that cold place. One day, when Lolth is overthrown we will warm Haundrauth with cleansing torches and the fires of justice.
Malressians - Though they are professed allies of the Lolthians the followers of the Panther Goddess may one day be cleansed of their evil heirarchs and the pure religion of freedom and the hunt, which it once was, may be found again. For now they are our enemies and deadly foes. Our control over the assassin septs is threatened by their influence and they are deadly seekers of our 'temples', seeming to regard pogroms against us and our supporters as just another form of the hunt. Neither as evil, nor as wickedly intelligent and sly as the Lolthians, Malressians are vain and can be easily tricked by flattery and pandering to their usually quite enormous egos.
The Keepers of the Ssuutinil - The secret religion of Alfmyr guards a secret even our wisest are unclear about. They are very strong sorcerors and wielders of a power based upon that unknown energy source that lights our lands and warms the very rocks and waters of the entire region. We know too little about these powerful wizard-clerics and besides have no quarrel with them, so should only use the Queendom of Alfmyr to hide within and avoid arousing the enmity of House Porador.
The Eilistraeen - On occasion the priestesses of this very secretive cult, which has some common ground with our own, have allied themselves to us for short periods of time and purchased the services of our assassins. They too hate the Lolthians and the enemy of our enemy is likely to be our friend. They are few in number now however and tend to be as proud and haughty as Menzoberanzeni ladies of quality. Also their orgiastic rites and bizarre, depraved seeming, secret mysteries seem too Lolthian to many. Male members of our cult often dislike the overt matriarchal aims of the followers of the Dark Maiden and resent the assumption of most Eilistraeen we have befriended that male Zinzereen will jump when given peremptory orders by an Eilistraeen.
The Keptoloee - These fawning sybarites are below our contempt, they gorge themselves and drink gallons of spirits while their servants starve, they hate the despotism of the Lolthians yet deliberately support it in order to benefit from it. Many of our members and supporters have been sniffed out and denounced by Keptoloee eager to earn favour at court down the years and though they can be useful sources of court gossip and secrets we should avoid all contact with them as they are utterly untrustworthy and self-serving.
Other races - The worst mistake ever made by our race was dealing with other races. When we arrived in the caves that became Drowheim we should have slaughtered Lolth and her demonic brood and sealed ourselves in. The Drow need no outside help to make Drowheim a paradise for all of our blood, indeed foreign ideas and slaves bring nothing but danger in the long term to our homelands. We do not hate outsiders, but likewise we wish nothing to do with them and will send most of them from our lands when we defeat the Lolthians. Our surface elf cousins have proven many times they hate us, perhaps with some cause, and are a dangerously powerful enemy of our race, as such we should seek to prevent them ever finding Drowheim, hence all surface elven slaves in Drowheim should either be adopted into Drow septs and 'made Drow' or allowed to die here of old age, but never freed to tell others where our lands lie. The Derro know much of Black Lodge lore and may hold clues and secrets valuable in defeating Lolth and her demonic servants, as such we have made several, thus far unsuccessful, attempts to bargain with them.
The Zinzereen Assassin-Septs -
For centuries the Cult of Zinzerena has been quietly taking over one Drow assassin-sept after another. These familial septs exist across the Lands of the Four Queens and are typically of Shebali caste, usually based outside of the cities, they typically present an open image of being average rural septs (such as fungi-farming, dough-stalk raising or ant-honey making families) to the world, yet secretly are centres of martial-lore and training. Their members, of both sexes, being highly skilled and dedicated killers by the time they reach adulthood. These assassin families sell their services as assassins, prospective clients never actually getting to know the name of the sept as they must request the service through 'elghinn'abban' (Al- Agents of Death), middle-men who operate in Drow cities semi-openly.
At least a quarter of these rural assassin-septs are now controlled by the Zinzereen and their members are used to slay the enemies of the cult, many of the actual assassins not even being aware of the fact.
Notable Zinzereen assassin-septs-
Sept Zautor of the Queendom of Menzoberanzen - The Bal'lannen (Al- The Faithful) - These amazingly dedicated and fearless assassins are now totally committed to the faith of Zinzerena and pride themselves on emulating their goddesses exploits by selling their services (as well as carrying out cult missions of course) to those who want enemies maimed, terrified or humiliated, rather than actually slain. Bal'lannen assassins see themselves as slayers of their victim's future and are very proud of their proven ability to penetrate the strongest defences to reach their targe and then get out again. Their weapon of choice is a long bladed adamantite dagger with the cloth of a red cloak wound about it's hilt and this is always left at the scene of one of their jobs, usually next to a maimed or mutilated victim.
Kiaransalee
The Pitiless Dowager, The Avenging Lady, Queen of the Dead, Mistress of Vengeance, The Revenancer, The Beringed Maiden, The Deathgoddess, Grave-Render, Lady of Pain, Mistress of Sorrow, The Mourning Maiden.
Kiaransalee is portrayed in Drow mythology as the divine sponsor of the slave trade and the patron goddess of vengeance and necromancy. She is called upon by those seeking retribution, the dark arts, or power over others through necromancy. Kiaransalee is also regarded as 'The Mourning Maiden' and her priests and priestesses oversee the regular Drow 'mourning festivals', where historic Drow defeats are lamented.
Kiaransalee is portrayed as a sinuous Drow female wearing only silver jewellery and a black silk veil. She has long sharp fingernails and her touch is said to be able to kill mortals with a deathly chill. Sometimes she is depicted carrying 'the Flail of Tears' in her left hand and a whip named the Scourge of Despair (or 'the Whip of Countless Afflictions') in her right. Othertimes she only carries a curved bladed dagger known as Inthuul Xukuth (Al- Cold Heart). In some particularly gruesome images she is depicted nude under an open fronted cloak made entirely of severed right hands. In Drow mythology Kiaransalee is said to rule the Drow 'hell', a frigid necropolis of ice, thin air, and with a black, sky-like roof known as the Belly of Death, here she is said to brood and scheme, waited upon by the tortured souls of those who breach the many codes of Drow society.
Based in the Domain-Province of Haundrauth in the Fifth Deep, the lowest of all the Drow realms, followers of the Lady of the Dead tend to be sadistic, callous, bitter, twisted, and consumed by thoughts of vengeance. Many Kiaransaleen descend into madness, but usually retain their twisted cunning and clear recollection of every slight or insult done to them---real or imagined. The cult of the Revenancer are swift to anger, and scheme dark revenges against all who have earned their enmity.
Kiaransaleen Beliefs-
Forgive neither a slight, nor a debt.
Vengeance is the goddess's most beautiful gift, it allows you to regain your dignity and know you are master over your adversaries.
Payment must always be collected, whether in treasure or in vengeance.
Do not settle with 'an eye for an eye' take both their eyes and their tongue.
Life is the greatest crime and perpetual slavery the fittest punishment.
Look inward into what gives suffering to your soul, this will allow you to have knowledge of the pain that your enemies feel. With careful study, you shall realize that suffering is unique to each person and that with the gift of misery, you shall conquer. Those who grasp Kiaransalee's teachings shall grow, those who do not shall fall prey to the same teachings, for, those who do not understand the words of Kiaransalee are ignorant of the wisdom of life.
These ideals of suffering are the strength behind vengeance, for true Vengeance, you must find that which causes the most pain in your adversary. You must nurture this suffering to pure anguish and misery.
Let there be no freedom for the enslaved, even in death.
The more one learns, the more one must suffer for the knowledge.
Death comes for all; when it comes for you, take your slaves and your treasure with you to the grave for the riches of the grave are the dowry of the goddess and will spare you service in the Frigid Halls.
Excerpts from Zhaunil d'lil Phalar (Al- Wisdom of the Tomb), the Kiaransaleen main holy book.
The religion of Kiaransalee grew out of the Drow traditions of massed public mourning ceremonies to commemorate the defeat of Arabania by Ilsundal, marking the new year in the Drow 'web-calendar' and the mid-year memorial festival mourning Arabania's daughter, Empress Mavraemis' disastrous defeat by the Illithids. Both these festivals were and are overseen by Kiaransaleen clerics who lead the Drow people in great parades and gatherings, weeping and lamenting the past great defeats of the Drow and praying for the easefull rest of the fallen Drow.
These mourning rituals led into a belief by the Kiaransaleen in defending Drow dead and eventually to the study of necromantic magics. The mourning of past defeats also fostered a deep need for vengeance in the Drow psyche and Kiaransaleen preach a creed of vendetta, believing that no slight, no matter how trivial, should go unpunished.
Kiaransaleen originally began to foster slaving as a way to fund the extravagant mourning festivals, but soon came to view slavery as a holy state of divine punishment upon the enemies of the Drow (both internal and external) and now dominate the control of the slave routes down from the Slavelord Domains (high in a mountain range of the surface world) to Drowheim, as well as the slaving trade within Drowheim.
Slaves are not even allowed freedom in death by Kiaransaleen, who are miserly gathers of wealth (believing the richness of grave goods saves one from enduring the frigid Drow hell in the afterlife), and Kiaransaleen owned slaves can expect to be raised as half-dead when they die, which many do frequently from overwork.
Interestingly the Kiaransaleen have long harboured a grudge against the religion and person of Lolth and her demonic cohorts. Despite sometimes paying obeisance to the Spider Queen and Menzoberanzen, the Kiaransaleen Haundrauthi plot secretly against the Lolthians, believing that Lolth and her demonic servants corrupt the purity of Drow society and hold the Drow back from fulfilling their destiny to dominate and defeat their old foes on the surface and elsewhere in the Underdark. From this simmering ill feeling has grown a specific hatred of demons amongst Kiaransaleen who are now expert demon-fighters who use many of their undead slaves specifically to slay demons.
Unlike the somewhat declining religion of Lolthianism the faith of Kiaransalee is growing in power and though still not nearly as strong as Lolthianism, may one day rise to openly depose the Lolthians and attempt to seize all Drowheim.
Drow Society-
Few surface dwellers know the truth about the Drow and their society. Legends whispered over tankards in inns and taverns tell of huge nightmare-inducing underground cities, strong magic and an effete, proud culture far beyond those of the surface elves.
It is said that Drow society is run by females and that the Drow worship spiders of all sizes and kinds. They are said to be cruel, treacherous slavers and murderous war mongers...the truth encapsulates these rumours but is altogether more startling and complex.
Station, Caste and Rank-
Drow society depends far less on justice and good administration than on precedence, honours and minute distinctions of dress.
From a report submitted to the Elven King.
Drow society is strongly matriarchal, with females holding nearly all positions of power and responsibility in government, the military, the home and religion. Males are restricted through long tradition to minor and mid level roles in the military, menial domestic, slave-control jobs and occasionally in the study of magic or architectural work. Long conditioned to consider this situation the norm, Drow males are typically subservient to Drow females instinctively, higher caste males often deferring to lower caste females out of sheer habit. Lower caste males often sullenly resent their effective slavery, but few would ever dare attempt to buck the system, higher caste males enjoy pampered lives of spoiled ease as a rule and seem content, more or less, with that role.
There are exceptions to this anti-male system naturally, for example some male Drow soldiers are so skilled and successful they reach command ranks, despite all the obstacles and prejudices facing them, a few male Drow priests complete the Tests of Lolth and become full fledged priests of the Spider Queen and some exceptional male Drow are regarded as having a gift for learning and lore and become court sages and advisors. Only beyond the heartlands of Drowheim in the Fourth Deep do many male Drow find chances to excel and advance; in the Slavelord Domains of the high x mountains of the surface world, though this is regarded as a posting few Drow ever return unharmed from...the Drow often being permanently blinded by the sunlight.
Male Drow who flee the strict controls on them, or the harsh 'justice' of their mistresses after committing some crime or slight become Dobluth (Al- Outcasts) and often rove the border regions of the Lands of the Four Queens in lawless bands, raiding the various Dominion-Provinces and preying upon other Underdark travellers and races; these groups include Streeakhen (Al- Reckless Ones), suicidally brave and fearless outlaws who have nothing left to loose and deliberately seek out the hardest targets perhaps hoping for death in battle, sometimes they are recruited by Drow noblewomen to act as 'cats-paws' in some court plot or other.
Then there are the notorious Bregan d'Aerth (Al- Money Killers), bands of mercenary outlaws who guard the most dangerous borders of the lands of the Drow in exchange for pay, they are known to supplement their income by banditry and as acting as drivers and beaters in Drow hunts, often therein dying under the claws or fangs of the Underdark beasts they herd into caverns to be hunted by uncaring nobles.
Few but the insanely brave would dare risk the warm waters of the Toa, the White Sea of the Fourth and Fifth Deeps, yet here too male Drow warriors venture to escape female domination, Op'elgen (Al- Pirates) operate in small fleets of Llarharventhen (Al- Three-Cutters) catamarans and based from sea caves or islands raid coastal Drow seafarms and fishing settlements and even hunt the outlying communities of the dreaded Kuo-Toa Sahuagin, harvesting the valuable sahu-ambergris to sell to Drow merchants.
Caste and social station are the most important things in the world of the Drow. Ascension to greater personal power and wealth are the goals of most Drow, though few indeed ever exceed the caste they are born into. Every Drow is born into a family of a given caste, or social rank, the hierarchy of these castes is roughly as follows, from the bottom of the society to the top;
Dobluth - (Al- Untouchables) - Pariahs. These are those in Drow society who are regarded as the lowest, most worthless scum. Some are racially Drow, though only the dregs of the race; the slum dwellers and beggars, the lame and mentally ill, the thieves and bandits. Any Drow of a caste higher than Commoner can kill or injure a Dobluth without fear of any legal response, in fact Sargtlin and C'rinti are actively encouraged to round up and slaughter Dobluth every now and then in great 'Pariah Hunts' known as Elgulthen (Al- Scourgings), this is seen by Drow rulers as beneficial to their society by both honing the hunt-skills of their warriors and weeding out the damaged 'seed' from the race. Some Elgulthen are 'urban-hunts', where Drow warriors and nobles turn entire towns and cities into 'hunt-enclosures', soldiers sealing the streets and alleys off and any who are found by the hunters outside are slain as Dobluth.
Rothe - (Al- Cattle) - Slaves. Within this broad bracket are many different sub-castes and types of slaves, however ultimately a slave is simply a commodity to most Drow, a living 'thing' they own and can do with as they please. Woe betide any Drow owned slave who dares to talk without being spoken to directly, who raises their eyes to their owner, who commits an error publicly, or is guilty of any one of a hundred petty infractions that have earned slaves death by sacrifice down the centuries in Drowheim.
Naturally slaves belong to someone, so Drow who kill or harm someone else's slaves must pay appropriate recompense immediately to the owner or face a legal action. Most slaves are branded somewhere on their bodies with the glyph of their owner's sept. Drow breed some specialist slaves, often training them from birth, these specialist-slaves types vary but include Troglodyte trackers, Chitine spider-handlers, Quaggoth labourers and pit-fighters, human cooks, surface elf sex-slaves, translators, Kuo-Toan torturers and many others.
Many bored Drow dandies, or cruel Drow noble maids invent infinitely spiteful 'games' to play with their slaves, one common such game at present is to breed two captive surface elves together, use magic to produce twins and then raise the twins to adulthood separately, each unaware of the others existence until the day the Drow introduce them and impel them to fight to the death in a pit-fight. Occasionally a slave will try to escape, they are almost never successful for long, aside from the fact Drowheim lies in the Fourth Deep, one of the harshest places to flee through in the world, the Drow enjoy nothing better than 'slave-hunting' and gleefully careen after the runaways behind expert trackers and bounty-hunters.
Shebali - Commoners. This caste comprises about thirty percent of Drow society, these are the Drow spider herders, the silk-weavers, the domestics, the skilled labourers, the riverboatmen, the fungi-farmers, the fruit-pickers and planters and those who do all the other relatively lowly, yet essential jobs of Drow society. Contrary to surface myth, they are not slaves, they are paid and do have rights...up to a point, a Shebali answers to the same noble-familial sept that his sept have always answered to and can be executed at the order of a C'rinti of that 'ruling sept', but they are protected under Drow law and cause must be shown theoretically, though in practise noble caste members can kill their own commoners if they choose and rarely will face trial. This isn't to suggest Shebali live easy or painless lives, higher caste Drow typically despise them as grubbers in the dirt and little better than slaves...when they deign to notice them at all. Higher caste Drow tend to believe Shebali should be neither seen, nor heard and 'uppity' commoners will often find they are posted to the worst jobs, or outcast and made Dobluth.
Noamuth - (Al- Wanderers) - Merchants. The merchants are a growing power in Drowheim, only having become important in relatively recent times as more contact has occurred between the Drow and other races and as such contact grows, so does the wealth and thereby power of the merchant families. Noamuth are specifically those largely ex-Shebali trader families that trade and transport large amounts of good and that find and maintain trade routes in and beyond the Lands of the Four Queens. They vary in organisation, some having an 'inner ring' of experienced members, some being headed by a matriarch (like a Matron-Mother), some even being headed by a male patriarch. Most are becoming slowly more familial in structure and ruled by hereditary members of the core 'family', many are easily as rich as most C'rinti familial septs and they are beginning to become a 'second-nobility' in parts of Drowheim, despite the deep displeasure this brings to the established noble lines who are forced by the very usefulness of the Noamuth (who provide Drowheim with it's luxuries and slaves) to swallow their pride. Feuds between the Noamuth families is rife and in areas far from the central regions of Drowheim quiet, yet bloody little trade-wars are waged, with slave-soldiers and mercenaries fighting it out for control of some trade route or commodity.
Sargtlin - (Al- One confident in arms) - Warriors. Comprising perhaps forty percent of the Drow population the Sargtlin septs are the backbone of the Four Queendoms, traditionalist and staunchly loyal (theoretically at least) to their noble rulers. Each sept has it's own, often ancient, lineage and customs, is headed by a Matron-Mother (like the noble septs) and often maintain secret battle-skills and 'martial crafts' which they guard fervently. Some Sargtlin families send their lower ranking youths to join one of the Akhthalacken (Al- Battle-bands), these fighter-societies are maintained by each of the Four Queendoms and several Princess-Potentates and are used to train and organise large numbers of Sargtlin warriors into effective regiments of soldiers, who are loyal to their patron-queen or princess, as opposed to the bulk of the Sargtlin whose loyalty tends to be spread between their own sept, their noble superiors and then lastly their ruler. Either comprising all male or all female memberships, each Akhthalack is based away from Drow centres of civilisation and is a rigorous centre of military discipline and training, when raised for the hunt and battle, where they form the strong core of each queens army, each Akhthalacken (which typically number some two to three hundred warriors) array in distinctive colours and uniforms, fly prized standards and are fuelled by both a love of their ruler and a strong esprit-de-corps.
Notable Menzoberanzeni Akhthalacken are Akh'Ultinnanche'el (Al- Band of the Conquering City), Akh'Kulggenlol (Al- Band of the Shield of Lolth), Akh'Og'elend (Al- Band of the Heretic) -named for it's founding member a outcast Kiaransaleen priestess- and Akh'Valsharenchath (Al- Band of the Imperial Fire).
The Malressian Queen of Balthys maintains the highly respected all-female Akhthalacken of the Sable Puma, the Black Paw and the Shadow Cat, each of which include many Malressian skinwalkers amongst their ranks.
Yathrin - Priests.
C'rinti - (Al- Palace-Born) - Nobles.
The princesses are carefully ranked and ordered, are obsessed with protocol and the number of sacrficed slaves they receive in salute before the Queens. They delight in flamboyent assertions of ritual sovereignty and extravagant contests for symbolic precedence.
Every noble in a Drow court holds a military rank, even painters or poets, which is expressed and paid for in the number of Drow soldiers the noble is expected to muster when required for parade, hunt or war.
The Hunt-
The Drow have a deep love of hunting and practise many different forms of hunting for sport, pleasure and more practical reasons.
spiders of many different types, though Lolthians tend to prefer hunting with crossbows, javelins and melee weapons, seeing hunting as war-training and a way of proving one's own strength and skill.
Some Drow hunts are small private affairs ranging across and beyond the Lands of the Four Queens, while some take the form of 'enclosure-hunts' where large numbers of Drow soldiers act as beaters, driving the game slowly towards a selected usually mid-sized cathedral cavern, where all exits are then secured by the troops and the hunting party enters and begins the killing. Though even this is organised in extremely strict rules of precedence; royalty present first enters alone with their immediate retinue and hunts for up to five days, then nobles are allowed access, then the priesthood and finally the troops themselves are granted entry and mop up. By the final stages this crowded sport becomes highly dangerous and on many occasions Drow use the confusion to settle private scores.
Hope there's some stuff you might like and want to use there. Sorry if I've flooded the thread a bit, got carried away. :-)
Wow a lot to read here, will hopefully report back with my own campaign variation as it solidifies...
Ok, here is my initial tentative plan for the drow.
Ten thousand years ago the young world was rocked by the Kinship Wars, in which the jealousy of one elf tribe was inflamed by the pride of another, and so began the centuries-long war known as the Kinship or Kinslayer wars. It was at this time that the elven nations split into 5 distinct groups: The high, grey and wood elves united against the star and moon elves.
In one of the worst atrocities, the moon elves were nearly annihilated, with all of the females but the matriarch and her three daughters being slain as they attempted to flee from the Elf lord and his Grey elf host. The moon elf matriarch, Chanali, had control over a great world-forging artifact, and used this weapon to escape with her surviving tribe into the bowels of the world. A final battle was fought on the sight where they escaped underground, and a divinely sealed portal was placed to seal them in forever.
The fallen angel Pazuzu, who until then had been a demi-god of the night sky and of night-hunting creatures was forced into exile with Chanali and the moon elves who worshiped her. Pazuzu lost her divinity when she fled underground, and was forced to accept her new station as a demon lord against her will.
So began the descent into the madness of the underworld and the evolution of the Cursed Drow. The matriarch Chanali had only 3 daughters, and each of them were soon betrothed to surviving heroes of the war. These three daughters went on to form the three houses of the Cursed Drow: Amensu, Crisosi, and Ellenduende. However, the children of these three matriarchs would be the last young born to the Cursed Drow, and their numbers stayed small. For millennia the matriarch has fought and experimented in ways to overturn the curse that befell her family. She has rigorously tried to return to the surface world and her tribe has fought and explored every inch of their subterranean world. Pazuzu has used her powers to seek demonic aid for her drow, but it has not allowed her or the drow the means of escape from their prison.
Working together with the aid of Succubus Pazuzu was able to summon, Chanali and Pazuzu have experimented with cross-bred fiendish drow to help grow the tribe, but the results are always less than hoped for. Then 100 years ago, Pazuzu found a way to impregnate Chanali one last time with a fertile daughter. It cost Chanali her life, but she gave birth to Hanali Pazuul, the first female born of the Cursed drow in two thousand years. The troubles were not over however, for Hanali was unable to find a mate within her tribe. She tried, even to the point of risking her own spirit in an effort to mate with a male, but the curse still held. It was at this time that exploring her palace, she found a long lost magic mirror. With this mirror she met Dagon Iron-crown and discovered a means to ending the curse. They fell in love, and kept secret the fact, since his tribe, the Star Elves had gained much success as the strong arm of the serpentine Yuanti whom they served.
In the Kinship wars, the world was in turmoil, gods rose and fell. While the moon elves were being destroyed, the star elves, under the rulership of the arch-devil Geryon the Serpent, made a great pilgrimage across the land to come at last to the ancient evil city of the Yuanti, where they were welcomed, and given a home in the vast underground labyrinth beneath the city. These drow gave up their independence and pledged eternal service to Geryon, lieutenant of Demogorgon, in return for wealth and power. They were then given their desires and made slaves to the wealth and power of the yuanti overlords.
Now, behind the scenes and with the aid of the fallen angel Pazuzu, Hanali Pazuul attempts to end the curse and bring her family to power and to the surface by sparking a war that will shake the foundations of the world and the heavens. Using Dagon, she has instigated the yuanti to seek out her lost tribe and rescue the Cursed Drow, claiming the artifact of old she possesses will give victory to Demogorgon in his war with Orcus.
The group not mentioned in this tale is the side of light, who is aware of the plan of Hanali Pazuul, and also of the artifact. It will be the character’s job to get to Hanali first, and to convince her that victory lies with them. They must then rescue Dagon Iron-crown from the clutches of the yuanti and bring an end to the curse, while defeating Demogorgon in his bid to use the yuanti as one arm in his goal to take oer the world.
Game-wise the two tribes of drow will be very different. The Cursed Drow, or Moon Elves will have a fiendish influence of succubus and be very arcane and archaic, cut off for many thousands of years. They live in a microcosm environment, but have found no way to reach the surface.
The star elves, or Serpentine Drow, will have a serpent connection, due both to Geryon and the yuanti connection. Powerful wizards of yuanti/drow mix are one feature. They will have psionic or mental powers to charm and hypnotize.
It is my belief that the drow are an aberration that was never meant to happen, and so when I include them, I try to have very specific reasons why they exist. I wouldn’t bother coming up with a complicated reason for bugbears or most other monsters, but I take a Tolkienesque view of elves, and like the Kinslaying of the Silmarillion, it is important to remember that actual people and events is what lead to the drow downfall. In other words they were once normal elves corrupted by malevolence. I think this is important to keeping the drow believable instead of some generic “underground elf.”
SO I try to use the elven strengths: pride, courage, unwavering will, as the causes that lead to the inevitable sundering of the elves. In the beginning the world was made for the elves, seen as perfect mortals fashioned by loving deities in their image, but what the deities didn’t realize was that rigid elven virtue is itself a vice. They become too proud, too powerful, too envious and so the wars happen. It is this tragedy of elvenkind that I find stirring and want to include in my campaigns. And though it’s just a first draft, I am really digging the Romeo/Juliet side of this campaign. I might build on that somehow.
(Incidentally, it is humanity with all its degradation and vice that is seen as the improvement on elves, as it is these very vices that give men an ability to adapt that elves sorely lack.)
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It is my belief that the drow are an aberration that was never meant to happen, and so when I include them, I try to have very specific reasons why they exist.
I had a version for the Forgotten Realms where the original elven pantheon consisted of a chaotic neutral wild-maned male named Corellon, with bright yellow hair and fiery passions, and a lawful neutral dark-haired pale-skinned goddess of destiny, crafts and arcane matters named Araushalnee. Together, they became parents to the other elven dieties, Hanali, Solonor, etc. (with lineages being confused, as some tales had Labelas being a brother of Corellon, or even an *older* brother, and others portrayed Deep and perhaps Rillifane as brothers as well, with some referring to Aerdrie as a pre-elven Aarokocra goddess!).
Corellon dragged the pale lady out of her studies and introspection, and she likewise cooled his sometimes dangerous and wild exuberance.
But she was the goddess of elven destiny, who saw the future as thousands upon thousands of interwoven strands of fate, spinning off of her loom into infinity. Somewhere far in the future, she would become something else entirely, and that fate was written, and self-fulfilling. The creature whom she would become reached back along those threads of twisted destiny and moved them precisely, to mislead the innocent she had once been into misreading the portents. Her teachings became twisted by these false readings, and she began to instruct her priests that the humans and other 'lesser races' would be the death of the elven people, mistaking the strands of elven destiny hidden from her sight as having been snuffed out by the ever-increasing strands of *human* destinies. (The strands she lost site of? Fittingly, the strands of fate representing those who would later be called Drow.)
And so pograms against nearby human communities began, starting ever so best-intentioned, to 'guide them' into better ways of agriculture, to 'protect them' from savagery, and to 'instruct them' in the ways of the living world and it's magics. Naturally, some humans made 'improper use' of these teachings, and others rejected their iron-handed 'patrons,' leading to ever yet more excuses for the hard-liners to weed out the troublemakers 'for the good of the humans.'
Centuries passed, and wild-hearted Corellon knew only that his wife was growing strange and distant, as the false whispers of her inevitable future self had caused her to think him kind-hearted, and hopelessly naive, as much needing her 'protection' as the simple humans, whom she bore no ill-will, she thought to herself, only needed to mold into proper elven ways, like a tree gently shaped to grow in a specific direction.
Eventually the division between elf and man spread into open conflict, and the elves themselves fell into near civil war over the excesses that occured under the banner of 'protecting our civilization.' If not for the elven internal dissension, humanity might well be extinct (shades of the Minbari/Earth war strictly intentional). The war was stage on the living world and in the realm of the gods, as the goddess had twisted several of her children to her side, while others had chosen to turn to their father's side. Corellon himself grew increasingly good, losing his neutrality as his own nature struggled against the dark deeds of his wife.
The fight was brutal. Brother against sister, arrows streaking through the heavens to bloody divine flesh, terrible magical workings causing untold devastation. Still, for all the dark power she had gained from the whispers in the dark, Corellon was the stronger, and with his children, threw back her attempt to seize control of all elven destiny, and reweave the souls of all elvendom in her own dark reflection.
In that final moment, Corellon recognized a spark of the goddess he had loved in the hate-filled eyes of the wounded creature before him, and, against all reason, reached out and pulled the woman he loved from the twisting body of what she had become, into his own body, the only vessel strong enough to hold the last remnants of the soul of a dying god. All that remained was Lolth, more demon than god, and her bewildered children (for the most part) followed her into exile, while Corellon's other children stared in wonder at their father, whose hair had changed colors to a dark red, whose frame had grown slighter, and who now had mismatched eyes, one as dark as their mothers, one the bright sky-blue of their fathers. Corellon became not only the god of war and passion, but also of magic and craft, absorbing all that he loved from the goddess he had pledged himself to, and becoming the more androgynous figure of modern tellings.
As for Lolth, she dreams dark dreams of the day when she will rise again, ensnaring Corellon in an unbreakable web, and devour him in turn, taking back everything that he took from her, and more.
The basic story could be retained, good vs. evil, lovers at war (with genders swapped, for variety, with Calistria being the bitter survivor of betrayal at the hands of a husband who is now a Demon Lord of trickery and lies), betrayal and an elvendom split into Fey surface elves and Unseelie underworld-dwellers.
Nice story you've got there. The thing I am looking forward to is that nothing is yet resolved, the characters have the ability, in fact the need, to alter the course of events, and it might even be p9ossible to bring one of the tribes of drow (Chanali's drow) over to the side of good, due to Pazuzu being made a demon against her will.
I am really excited about this, and hope my players will be too. They have just met their first drow, led by a yuanti, and tonite will discover on them a letter to the long lost 'moon elves' which should spark an attempt to reach them before the other drow do, and so to win their loyalty with promises of freedom, and or the union of Hanali and Dagon Ironcrown, or perhaps something else, but it will lead to some drow underdark goodness, some yuanti espionage, and this is the best part - There is a secret entrance to the moon elve's domains in the palace of a city recently taken over by Strahd himself! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!
It is my belief that the drow are an aberration that was never meant to happen, and so when I include them, I try to have very specific reasons why they exist. I wouldn’t bother coming up with a complicated reason for bugbears or most other monsters, but I take a Tolkienesque view of elves, and like the Kinslaying of the Silmarillion, it is important to remember that actual people and events is what lead to the drow downfall. In other words they were once normal elves corrupted by malevolence. I think this is important to keeping the drow believable instead of some generic “underground elf.”
SO I try to use the elven strengths: pride, courage, unwavering will, as the causes that lead to the inevitable sundering of the elves. In the beginning the world was made for the elves, seen as perfect mortals fashioned by loving deities in their image, but what the deities didn’t realize was that rigid elven virtue is itself a vice. They become too proud, too powerful, too envious and so the wars happen. It is this tragedy of elvenkind that I find stirring and want to include in my campaigns. And though it’s just a first draft, I am really digging the Romeo/Juliet side of this campaign. I might build on that somehow.
(Incidentally, it is humanity with all its degradation and vice that is seen as the improvement on elves, as it is these very vices that give men an ability to adapt that elves sorely lack.)
Good ideas - you might want to look at Blood & Shadows. It's a different world, but there's a ton of cultural info and history that I think would mesh well with where you're going.