User:Moviesign/Menzoberranzan

Menzoberranzan, the City of Spiders, was a large underground drow city-state in the Upper Northdark. Menzoberranzan was possibly the most well known drow city in Faerûn. It was the home of Drizzt Do'Urden, and many of his early adventures dealt with the political intrigue and characters of the city.

Geography
It was located in the Upper Northdark, about 3.2km (2 miles) below the Surbrin Valley, between the Moonwood and the Frost Hills. It was quite close to Mithral Hall and was connected through tunnels to that settlement. Other tunnels led to the surface, namely in the Moonwood and on the western edge of the High Forest. Drygully Tunnel was a tunnel leading from the Underdark near Menzoberranzan to the surface.
 * Surface

The deep gnome city Blingdenstone was located about 45 miles to the west of Menzoberranzan. Ched Nasad was some distance to the southwest on the other side of Araumycos, a journey of several tendays from Menzoberranzan. The path through Ammarindar was the quickest journey between Menzoberranzan and Ched Nasad, but it was less traveled because of the danger that lurked there.
 * Underdark

Structure
Menzoberranzan was located in a huge arrowhead-shaped cavern, some two miles wide and a thousand feet high. The city was mainly carved from calcite and it was filled with blue, green, and violet faerie fire. Buildings with often covered with the city's main motif: the spider, in honor of Lolth. The roof of Menzoberranzan was covered in paths. Some homes were 1,000 feet above the floor. Ceiling houses had to have great magic to prevent them from falling, and many were empty.

An enchantment in the city cavern reduced echos from all the noise.

There were a fixed number of buildings in Menzoberrazan, meaning that the poorer areas were extremely crowded. Noble houses, once destroyed or abandoned, were not permitted to be reoccupied, meaning that there were a number of abandoned compounds both on the surface and roof of the city cavern.

The city had around a hundred gates, all guarded. These gates led into the myriad tunnels surrounding the city (collectively called the Bauthwaf)

Inhabitants
In 1370 DR, there were approximately 20,000 drow in the city, with 1,000 of them considered nobles of the 60-70 noble houses. Slaves included bugbears, goblins, ogres, ogrillons, orcs, minotaurs, quaggoths, trolls, and kobolds. According to Liriel Baenre in 1361 DR, human slaves were rare in Menzoberranzan, but not unheard of.

In 1372, the city had 32,000 inhabitants — approximately one-third drow and the rest humanoid slaves, namely orcs, kobolds, gnolls, humans, and the occasional illithid.

As many 1,200 visitors might have been in the city at one time, including beholders, deep dragons, illithids, naga, and fiends.