Drow

Drow, also known as dark elves, deep elves, night elves, or sometimes "The Ones Who Went Below" on the surface were a dark-skinned sub-race of elves that predominantly lived in the Underdark. They earned their reputation as evil people, with all justification, though some members with more neutral disposition did exist, as did an even smaller number of actually good members.

Description
In many ways, drow resembled eladrin and elves. Their bodies were wiry, athletic, and slender, while their faces were chiseled and attractive.

Height and Weight
Drow were shorter and thinner than other sub-races of elves. It was believed that females on average were bigger and stronger than males. The former claim did not hold water when numbers were taken into account. Both sexes varied in height between 4′7″ (140 cm) and 5′5″ (165 cm)&mdash;averaging 5′ (152 cm). Males weighed between 87 to 157 pounds (39-71 kg)&mdash;averaging 109.5 pounds (50 kg). Females were a bit lighter and weighed between 82 to 152 pounds (37-69 kg)&mdash;averaging 104.5 pounds (47 kg).

Coloration

 * Skin
 * Drow skin was dark grey to obsidian with a blue cast.


 * Hair
 * Generally, drow kept their hair long. It was stark white, pale yellow, silver or copper. The last two were rare hair colors. Drow believed silver hair to be a sign of a mentally handicapped person, a superstition. (see under "The Run" for the origin) Drow decorated their hair with pins and webbing made of precious metals.


 * Blonde hues in female drow hair indicated old age, while male drow hair silvered or greyed. Both sexes' hair thinned when they became old.


 * Beards
 * Drow were incapable of having beards, but some males managed to grow long sideburns or even tufts of wispy hair on the cheek or chin.


 * Eyes
 * Drow eyes could have any color. However, some commonalities existed. The usual eye color was a bright red. What was also common were paler eye colors such as blue, lilac, pink or silver &mdash;these pale eyes were often so pale that they appeared to be white &mdash; other rarer eye colors were green, brown, black, amber, or rose-hues. Having purple or blue eyes indicated that the particular drow had surface elves and/or humans in his or her ancestry.


 * It was possible to read some information out of the eye color of a drow. For example, drow eyes gained red hues when they were angry, and tended to gain yellow hues when they sick, poisoned, or under some negative magical influence.


 * Mouths
 * Characteristic about drow were their mouths. Their teeth were white, black or purple, while their gums, tongues, and throats were pink, red or purple.

Attractive Looks
Drow looked attractive even when compared to other elves and especially their nobles. This was due to selective breeding over several generations. Their alluring appearance, which could be used for seduction, was more likely used as a tool of fear. Meeting beauty standards of surface races was surmised to be the most important reason, that surface dwellers were prone to turn a blind eye on the drow race's deeds and allow inclusion in surface communities.

Intelligence
Drow were intelligent creatures even when compared to other sentient creatures. This was due to selective breeding over several generations.

However, their ability to reason was no different than other races' for it was usually limited through their upbringing in secluded socieities with little contact with the outside as well as by their indoctrination into Lolth's dogma that made new ideas hard to accept.

Reproduction
Drow had a reputation&mdash;even among themselves&mdash;to be more fertile than other elves. The claim was both right and wrong at the same time. The drow bodies' fertility was no different than that of other elves', but they owned a higher readiness to birth as many children as possible during their lives. For example, in the evil Lolthite society, female drow, who already had an active career under their belt, gave birth to about ten children before she lost the ability to birth more. Their constant strife kept their numbers low dropping their actual fertility rate to one that was comparable to dwarves.

Blood-Related Races
There were a number of races and creatures that were in some ways related to the drow.


 * Elves
 * Drow were a subrace of the elves. Their ancestors, the Ilythiiri, or dark elves, were an offshoot of the green elves, also called wild elves.


 * When different sub-races of elves intermarried, there was an equal chance for the child to inherit either of the parents' traits. The resulting child usually favored the drow parent over the other one and was more likely to parent a drow, when there was a chance for it. It was a trait the dark elves shared too.


 * Half-drow
 * The half-elf born from a drow-human coupling was a half-drow.


 * As a general rule, half-drow had no different abilities than other half-elves. Exceptions existed who gained some powers through their parentage. Regarding reproduction, like any other sort of half-elves, the "2-generation-rule" applied to half-drow too.


 * Szarkai
 * Szarkai were not a subrace of the drow but drow with pale skin. They were called albino-drows but they had no more weaknesses against the sun than normal drow. The genetic anomality was more often found among nobles than commoners.


 * Draegloth
 * Draegloths were a type of half-fiend that was born as a product of a ritualistic coupling between a drow and a glabrezu.


 * Draa'zekyl
 * Draa'zekyl, also called drow-dragon, was a type of half-shadow dragon drow that managed to split its heritage into two and thus gained the ability to switch their form between dragon- and drow-form.


 * Zekyl
 * Zekyl was a winged type of half-shadow dragon drow with a predisposition for the arts of a rogue.


 * Zar'ithra
 * Zar'ithra was a type of shadow draconic drow with a talent for sorcery.

Related Races by Transformation
Some races were not related to the drow because they were born from them but because they were transformed from drow.


 * Chwidencha
 * A chwidencha was a kind of creature that was created from those drow who failed one of Lolth's tests.


 * Drider
 * A drider was a kind of creature that was created from those drow who failed one of Lolth's tests. The test in question was the Test of Lolth.


 * Shunned
 * A shunned was a kind of creature that was created from those drow who failed Lolth. Only female drow were turned into shunned.


 * Vhaerath
 * A vhaerath was a type of drow petitioner of Vhaeraun.

Lifespan
Drow had lifespans far beyond those of humans and comparable with the rest of the elven race, although usually somewhat longer. Provided they did not meet a premature and violent end, they could live for centuries. Generally, a drow's natural lifespan was up to 750 years, and about 94% of natural deaths occurred before 800 years of age, but drow could live more than 1000 years, when they could afford a lifestyle that spared them hardships, like the ones enjoyed by matron mothers, though by that point, the drow in question was very withered by age. Lolth's magic could maintain a matron's life for literal thousands of years. This was considered a clear sign of favor from the goddess.


 * Aging Signs
 * Drow started to show signs of age when they were around 600 years of age. As mentioned above, such signs were thinning of hair as well the silvering or greying of the same, when male, or the hair gaining a blonde hue, when female.

Personality
Drow by reputation were almost entirely evil. The underlying standards of the drow race's morality were the teachings of Lolth. They were overall decadent but managed to hide it under a veneer of sophistication.

Drow were arrogant, ambitious, sadistic, treacherous, and hedonistic. From birth, drow were taught they were superior to other races and should crush those beneath them.

It was important to recognize that the drow race's evil wasn't of inherent nature. Unlike orcs, for example, who suffered from an inherent drive towards evil, elves like drow chose by themselves to turn their culture into what it became. Leading to a race of emotionally stunted people, with a tenuous grasp on sanity and scarred mentalities among which relatively undamaged minds were considered abnormal.

Goals
A drow's personal goal was about increasing one's station in life, to be more precise the power over others that an increase in station brought was what the drow desired. It was necessary to have a severe aggressive trait for resources were very scarce in the Underdark and so were chances for advancement within the society.

Rising through the ranks too quickly was dangerous for any drow. The usual reaction was the formation of temporary alliances among those who were wronged by the fast ascending drow to take that one down. Such alliances were often successful at pulling the newcomer down.

Anger
Drow were a violent race. Their preferred if not instinctive method for conflict resolution was violence. This urge was kept in check when the drow was looking for more opprtune time to strike.

Arrogance
Drow believed themselves to be the apex creature. They were arrogant to the point that they were incapable of viewing other creatures as their equal, this attitude extended to their own kind. Every single drow believed him or her to be best example of their superior species. This attitude was actually condoned by one of their gods, Vhaeraun, the god of arrogance. The drow's treatment of members of other races ran the entire gamut from pets, slave to grudgingly respected partners when they proved themselves a military match for them, though never equals. This went to the point that contracts with those they deemed "lesser races" were not viewed as binding. They were readily broken when the contract ceased being beneficial to the drow party. Other races learnt to anticipate betrayal and always had counters to the treachery prepared.

While most drow shared a hatred of all other races, especially surface races, the object of true hatred was the Seldarine and the surface elves, "Darthiir" in Drow, which meant also traitors. Their entire culture had the set goal of the surface elves' annihilation.

They believed all "lesser races" should be subjugated by them or driven to extinction should they represent a threat to the drow. This view resulted in an extreme thought process regarding other races. The drow race's first idea on making new encounters was to rage war to subjugate or eradicate the others. Prisoners of such violent activities were the source of slaves in their cities.

Cruelty
As a general rule, drow did not feel emotions like compassion or love, for it was dangerous to have emotions like kindness or compassion in their society, for those were easy to exploit. They were distrustful sadists with a constant readiness to backstab people, both in the figurative and actual sense.

Fear
Drow feared basically everyone and everything. They feared the potential loss of their station, the loss of Lolth's favor, the loss loyalty or outright rebellion of those under them, and the potential of punishment from those above them.

Hedonism
Drow were hedonists. They loved beautiful things, surrounded themselves with what they considered beautiful, and generally didn’t pay attention at how much it’d cost them. This also extended to their behavior. Drow generally believed they were entitled to do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted to do it.

They often partook of lavish revels, indulging in the most pleasurable of activities, including long nights of dinner and massages. Some drow were fond of dances, including the frenzied nedeirra competition or the illiyitrii, a formal dance sometimes involving costumes.

Trust
Drow were taught from an early age to be distrustful of others. Like in any other culture, drow culture expected one to advance at the expenses of others. Unlike other cultures, there were no rules for what the "expense of others" had to look like, acceptable forms included treachery and even outright murder.

While drow did understand the value of forging bonds, they didn’t see a value in the virtue of honesty. Forming bonds was thus a dangerous endeavor and mostly of temporary nature. Because any alliance or cordial relationship could end in treachery, drow went into engagements of this sort with the expectation for the worst. Alliances were generally formed when one considered the ally weak enough to be not too dangerous of a threat, be susceptible to blackmail or when cooperation was forced by the existence of a common enemy. Even formed alliances were under scrutiny for signs of treachery and often ended violently. In fact, simple inconvenience to maintain the bond was a reason to end their loyalty.

They were generally expecting attacks, including physical ones, and thus were rarely surprised when it happened, depriving the attacker of the moment of surprise.

Vengefulness
Drow were vengeful creatures. This was out of necessity. Not answering to slights with punishment was easily perceived as weakness by other drow who would see it as a reason to move against the perceived weak person. This was a lethal danger. Kiaransalee, their deity of vengeance, appealed to them because necessity of taking vengeance was frequent when a drow wanted to make something out of his or her life.

Good Drow
What was considered "good drow" counted 15% of the entire drow race. The majority of them would not qualify as "good" in any other society but theirs. They would qualify as chaotic neutral or lawful neutral people. As mentioned above, being soft in any way was lethal in drow society and therefore these people often died.

It was formerly believed that these "good drow" collectively worshipped Eilistraee, the actual breakdown was that the actually good drow did indeed worship the good deity, while the morally neutral drow's worship was divided between Ghaunadaur, Lolth, Selvetarm, and Vhaeraun.

Among the good drow, only truly exceptional were capable of freeing themselves from Lolth's society. The majority was found out, sacrificed to Lolth or managed to go out of the city but died in a ditch somewhere in the wilderness of the Underdark. None of these people managed to cause meaningful, lasting, or any change for the matter in drow society.

Furthermore, even these drow who escaped the cruelties of the Underdark found it more difficult to form long-term friendships than most races did and had to constantly be on the lookout for pursuers who might kill them.

Combat
Drow had a number of abilities

Physical Abilities
Drow were more agile and alluring than most humanoid races. This was not a coincidence but the result of selective breeding over several generations

Like all elves, drow required no sleep but instead entered a meditative trance throughout which they retained full awareness of their surroundings. This state was half-again more efficient than the way in which most races gained rest.

Senses

 * Sight
 * Drow eyes were heat-sensitive. They had infravision to a range of 120′ (36.58 m) and learned to discern information from heat patterns and shades. Cold was grey and in order of warmth heat was seen in blue, purple, red, and warm yellow. Stealth training of the drow included hiding in tune with these heat patterns much like hiding in tune with shadow.


 * They also had darkvision to the same range. What they did not own was the low-light vision owned by other elves.


 * Hearing
 * A drow's hearing was very good. this trait of theirs was developed over necessity. In the Underdark, the sense of hearing was paramount in foreseeing rock shifts, collapses and other hazards and was also the primary means by which necessary water was found; the dripping of it was timed to discern its location.


 * Smell
 * A drow's sense of smell was bad compared to its other senses and was about human level. The reason for it was that the environment they lived in was one that continuously dulled it. The natural Underdark environment with its damp rock-smell and fungi-riddled air made developing strong olfactory senses difficult and the city environment of the drow's own making in the form of exposure to strong incenses and their own as well as the slaves' body scents all helped to worsen their sense of smell.


 * Stone Sense
 * The drow race's specialty was to sculpt stone (see here). This went to the point that about 70% of the drow had an intuitive feel about how fortifications or waterworks were constructed and worked, but also how to circumvent those and how the control over such things were found. The dangerous matter about it was that this intuitive knowledge was also applied on non-drow-made things.


 * Drow were generally capable of identifying metal and rock. They could be given a piece of Underdark-metal or cut or worn gem and they could identify what kind of alloy or gem it was.


 * When a drow found a metal or gem vein, the drow gained the intuitive knowledge that concerned the direction, richness&mdash;, and the dimensions of said vein.


 * They could also distinguish between drowcraft items and those which were not if they could hold it.


 * Touch
 * Drow had long slender fingers and acute tactile senses, so much so that they could read subtle markings in the stone like someone would read braille. It was used to leave secret messages.

Magical Abilities
Drow owned a number of inborn unique abilities.

Resistance against magic
Drow had a tremendous resistance against magic. During infancy, this resistance fluctuated between almost non-existent and youth-level, which stabilized when they grew up to be youths. It increased again when they grew into full adults and could be trained even further.

The fluctuations of the drow infants' resistance against magic was a lethal danger for the child, which was why an alchemical potion called potion of magic resistance was invented to stabilize it.

Even when this magic resistance was overcome, drow could handle magical attacks quite well and had a better chance at coming out of magical attacks unscathed than other races, this applied especially to their strong wills.

Lolthtouched Abilities
The most distinctive feature of drow was what was called Lolthtouched powers. It was the product of Lolth's blessing over the drow. It manifested itself in the abilities cloud of darkness, which enshrouded the drow in darkness that was impossible for anyone but the caster to see through, and darkfire, which made creatures an easier target, encasing them in something that looked like purple fire, though causing no harm. Using these two abilities tired a drow slightly, and they seemed to be charged from the same source, and only more experienced and well-trained drow could cast both abilities separately.

Through training, drow could manifest another ability called webs of darkness that both slowed and impeded a foe, while also making it more difficult for them to see. Those who became curseborns could unlock even more power including improvement of the aforementioned cloud of darkness and darkfire. Other ways to improved these abilities included training to cast the cloud of darkness faster in response to harm or turn the darkfire into a flickering protective shroud that made the beneficiary harder to hit. More mundane methods included slipping in the cover of darkness or learning to hit the target of darkfire not just more accurately but harder like the drow wanderers did.

Lolth's touch gave her a hold over an individual drow and it was only possible by becoming and mastering the art of a redeemed drow to lift it with Corellon's help.

Base Powers
Drow owned a number of abilities called base powers. The name "base power" came from the fact that these abilities could be cast without any schooling but simple practice. They were a bit different from person to person. These differences could come from different reasons; genetics, personal talent, divine favor, etc.. Drow magical abilities were somehow tied to faerzress, the radiation of the Underdark, and the intensity of it in the place a drow was born varied it too.

These powers could temporarily vary in the same person depending on the personal (mental and physical) health situation, aging effects, degree of training, and so on. A dying drow could double the effectiveness of the own innate powers and more by super-charging these with her or his own life force.

All these powers were usable once every day and once employed, could be ended and moved around at the drow's whim. They could also downsize their abilities as they wanted.


 * Dancing Lights
 * Drow owned the ability to naturally cast dancing lights.  Unlike the normal spell, the drow's innate dancing lights could create more light balls and gave them better control in range than normal with increasing strength of the drow in question.


 * Apart from its obvious use as a light source, it was used to divert attention, shock others with the sudden appearance of a glowing figure, or shock them with the sudden appearance of will-o'-wisp-like light balls. Teaming up with actual will-o'-wisps to make this more effective was also known, however this was viewed as corrupt behavior.


 * Darkness
 * Drow owned the ability to naturally cast darkness  that blocked normal sight as well as was impervious to infravision. Unlike the normal spell, the drow's innate darkness could create a globe that grew in radius with increasing strength of the drow in question.


 * Apart from its obvious use to cancel others' light sources, this ability was an integral part of drow combat. While the ability itself couldn't cause damage, it was used to limit sight or otherwise hamper enemies. Creative uses revolved around the fact that darkness looked like black stone when looked at with darkvision. For example, drow could be hiding behind the "black stone" and ambush enemies out of it or the "black stone" could turn out to be a covered-up pitfall. An entire branch of martial arts of the drow concerned itself with the use of darkness, the kyone veldrin style.


 * Drow could further enhance their darkness to cast it more often, but they could also learn to deepen it so that a daylight spell could not cancel it any more.


 * Faerie Fire
 * Drow owned the ability to naturally cast faerie fire.  Unlike the normal spell, the drow's innate faerie fire could create a glowing field that grew by 10 feet with increasing strength of the drow in question.


 * Apart from its obvious use, it was used to force enemies to pay attention or divert it. The color changing property of the spell was exploited as handy color signals to convey information over long distances.


 * Faerie fire could come in blue, green, or violet color. A drow could change these colors but always manifested one certain color when they were casting this spell without setting a specific color.


 * As mentioned above, innate drow powers were affected by faerzress. According to Seldszar Elpragh, a drow's faerie fire worked by a drow channeling faerzress.

Mature Powers
Once reaching a sufficient degree of power, drow gained a number of abilities called mature powers. These powers were detect magic, know alignment, and levitate.

From a certain degree of power onwards, particularly intelligent drow had such control over their powers that they could maintain two inborn abilities or one inborn ability and one normal spell simultaneously. For example, they could levitate while casting darkness.

Priestly Powers
Members of the clergy of a drow deity gained other powers through divine favor. These powers always included clairvoyance, detect lie, dispel magic, and suggestion. Depending on divine favor a cleric could gain additional powers like casting detect undead, ESP, albeit only against drow within 20 ft. (6.1 m), and invisibility to undead but also additional uses of their abilities.

Noble Powers
The observation was that some drow were born with more abilities, like those of getting an idea about a person's mental inclination, as detect good, detecting magic, as detect magic, and to levitate. Holders of these abilities formed the noble class of drow society. These abilities seemed to be a dominant trait.

Nobles also could additionally use their base and mature powers once per decade of their lives instead of once per day. Nobles had a chance to cast their inborn abilities in the presence of light contrary to commoners. However, they could only deploy one of their abilities even when they could normally do otherwise.

Learned Abilities
Drow had a reputation to be good clerics, fighters, rogues, and wizards.

Cleric
Clerical magic was the territory of drow women. This clear division was due to the favoritism of Lolth towards female drow.

Drow clerics were special among elven clerics. Elven clerics' bodies could only handle a certain amount of magical strength, which limited their growth. Drow clerics' limits was determined by the favor of the god they served. They could theoretically grow infinitely strong. In practice, there was a certain limit at which point the god in question either killed or elevated the drow to demigod status.

Martial and Stealthy Abilities
Male drow became strong fighters. Drow fighters often tied their powers to Lolth for an easier life in the form of becoming blackguards and/or divine champions. The latter route was technically open for male drow but actually becoming divine champions bought them the ire of the priestesses and with it death.

They had a fascination with stealth and subtlety, despite this bard magic wasn’t very common but it was appreciated, and schools that trained them alongside those for rogues did exist. Rangers were valued scouts.

This fascination with stealth had an interesting effect, while normally a known assassin was the equivalent of one with bad skill, drow society's fascination was one which made the existence of (in)famous assassin schools that doubled as assassins' guilds possible. Another route for rogues was to tie their powers to Lolth and become divine seekers.

Martial Art
Drow favored fast weapons like rapiers, and would choose hand crossbows when possible, to deliver their poisons from a distance. Drow had a number of combat styles, they taught among their own:


 * Bautha z'hin: was a gang up style that was used to surround a single enemy with superior numbers, favored by rogues, clerics of Eilistraee and Vhaeraun.


 * Draa velve: was a two-sword style, mastering it was only possible for those with talent and luxury to enjoy formal education. It was used by Drizzt Do'Urden.


 * Jivvin golhyrr: was a style used to force enemies into humiliating positions, was favored by priestesses of Lolth.


 * Kyone veldrin: was style, that made use of the darkness ability.


 * Kyorlin plynn: was a style to capture opponents alive, was favored by conservative fighters and priestesses of Lolth but for completely different reasons.


 * Luth alur: was a ranged combat style.


 * Orb alur: was about striking many opponents with one strike, users were valued and partial to special privileges.


 * Phindar streeaka: wasn't a style at all, but a catch-all term for mindless violence used for battle, was "used" by drow berserkers and followers of Ghaunadaur.


 * Sargh'elgg: was about making use of the drow race's natural agility and focused on the use of one single light weapon, the only style open for the poor who lacked education options, used by clerics of Kiaransalee, Lolth and Vhaeraun.


 * Ust sreen: was about reacting fast at the opening of combat.


 * Z'har thalack: was the style for the cavalry.


 * Z'ress a'thalak: put emphasis on physical strength over accuracy. Favored by followers of Selvetarm.

Psionic Abilities
Drow owned no inherent psionic abilities but psionic schools, especially for the arts of psions and psychic warriors existed in some cities.

Wizard
Out of all drow, the most dangerous were their wizards. Arcane magic was the province of drow men. This was due to drow women’s inferior compatibility with arcane magic.

Drow wizards were special among elven wizards. Elven bodies could only handle a certain amount of magical strength, which limited their growth. Drow wizards had no such limit. They could theoretically grow infinitely strong and were only limited by their chances to study and train new magical knowledge and technology. Drow who were somehow confined in their cities had a harder time to become exceedingly strong. Drow wizards with the desire for more magic ventured out as adventurers.

Male wizards in particular were often exiles due to persecution by the priestesses or other Houses. The wizards were often merchants or employees of such. They were the ones who provided the means of protection and disguise for those who dealt with the denizens of the surface.

They were under general suspicion to be dissatisfied with drow society and having a desire to change it. Thus, they were abducted to undergo the Test, once they reached a certain degree of power.

The most sought after familiar was an azmyth, but watchspiders and hunting spiders were held in high regard too. Drow also liked to choose fiendish, to be more precise abyssal, familiars. Nevertheless, it was common for drow wizards to have a snake, spitting crawler, pedipalp, solifugid, or other spiders like the hairy spider as a familiar. Another possible familiar was the night hunter, though that was rare, which was also kept as an aggressive pet despite its intelligence.

Strength and Weaknesses

 * Mimicry
 * The whole drow race had a natural aptitude for audible mimicry. They could rather easily mimic the sound and tone of a different person in a believable manner. They were better at it when the language to mimic was in a language they were exposed to very often.


 * Poison
 * Drow had a high tolerance against poison. This had two reasons. First, drow were exposed to poisons over countless generations and as the generations passed, built up a resistance against it. Second, drow put some individual effort to strengthen their tolerance as part of their training. This was done by intaking ever bigger doses of drow sleep poison and the venom of spiders. The result was a general high tolerance for poison especially for drow sleep poison and spider venom. Their tolerance against other poisons was slightly lower in decreasing order were other sleep poisons, drugs, the venom of insects, and injected poisons. Interestingly, drow had no special resistance against poisons delivered by contact or poisonous gases.


 * Sunlight
 * Drow had a weakness against sunlight. Under sunlight, they gradually lost their base and mature powers as well as their defenses against magic. Added to this came a general discomfort that hampered their ability to use these magic powers though nobles could circumvent it a bit. It took a drow about ten years of training to get used to the sunlight and use the own infravision and normal vision simultaneously. Initial exposure to sunlight was dangerous for a drow. They got heavy sunburns. Even after getting used to the sunlight, drow had a strong tendency to cover their skin and head.

Culture/Society
Drow lived in city-states with an aristocracy within a theocratic, matriarchal, and militaristic society.

Purpose
Drow society had nominally two purposes. Each was called "the First Part of the Destiny of the People" and the Second Part of it respectively. The former was about forcing all other races of the Underdark into subservience. The latter was about driving the entire elven population save the drow into extinction. Their infighting prevented them from achieving the First Part despite them having the power to destroy cultures like those of the disir, the jermlaine, or the kuo-toa, if they could reach unity. In fact, it was all a scam of Lolth. She enjoyed the infighting of the drow, which prevented them from achieving the first goal, and did not put any cohesive effort into achieving the goal of the annihilation of the elves.

On personal level, drow tried to gain and maintain the favor of Lolth's well as amass material goods like wealth and slaves as well as powers inside their society in which the concept of inherent value of life did not exist.

City-States
Drow lived in city-states in the Underdark. Their living places had several criteria to meet like the caverns were huge, a lot of iron, adamantite, and gems were to be found, strong magnetic force, and faerzress needed to be plentiful.

Drow had trade relationships but were mostly at war with one another. While called "city-states", drow did not form states. In fact they weren’t cities but more clusters of drow, with the most powerful family groups taking the best lands and resources for themselves, who then formed the "city’s" nobility. These cities were ruled by the most powerful of the families (or houses), and although the power of the many families changed often, the top few usually remained stable. Desperation, oppression, and poverty were the general rule in such a city. The second power group inside a given drow city were the merchant clans. All were organized in houses with the leaders of these houses holding the power in a given drow community.

These noble Houses were in close physical vicinity to each other and within the strongest family's territory was usually a public temple to Lolth. Commoners lived either in caves or walled houses with cellars. The houses were most often made of adobe-like substances. A good indicator of the residents' power was the grandeur of the house; the bigger the more powerful.

These cities had farm land, where slaves worked to get meat and crops. As a rule of thumb, half to two-third of a given drow settlement’s population consisted of slaves or non-drow without rights. The borders and landmarks of a given city-state as well as the working places for slaves outside of the city were marked with continual faerie fire.

When faced with over population, drow ate their elders to combat the problem.

Lighting within these cities was both done with magic and mundane means with the former being far more common.

These cities were in a trade relationship with each other but were also often at war.

Defenses
The gates of a city as well as important buildings were usually protected with jade spiders as guardians.

Drow chose places with strong faerzress for their cities. According to Qilué Veladorn, drow had a mental compulsion to be near the radiation and were drawn to it.

It provided them with protection from magical spying via divination and also made it difficult, or even dangerous, to teleport into their cities Furthermore, the faerzress allowed them cheap and easy creation of magic items called drowcraft items, as well as other ways to use the radiation for defensive purposes. This had the effect that their settlements were of stationary nature and therefore relatively easy to locate and attack.

Drow often used shriekers, a type of fungi that preferred faerzress plenty places, to alarm them of incoming danger.

Faerzress had the unique capability to cause mutations in creatures. For example, a flying roper could be born in a faerzress-plenty environment. If the product of such mutations was powerful, drow tried to avoid fighting it themselves and tried to contain it in a certain area so that would-be-intruders had to fight them instead. If the creature looked spider-like, the drow's reaction to them was to praise it as the work of Lolth and sometimes fed it with their captives or intruders they lured into that monster's lair.

Power Groups within a City
There were two power groups within a drow city; the noble houses and the merchant clans.

Noble Houses
Drow were ruled by their aristocracy. They were family groups who had the violence to take the best lands. Normally, a noble House was ruled by a priestess of Lolth called Matron Mother. Such houses were founded by powerful drow individuals with special powers, who gave their traits to their offspring (see under Noble Powers) Nobles also augmented or substituted these abilities further with magic items.

Nobles were not only fighting each other, but also within a given family, where it was actually expected. The standard drow city paralyzed its own growth through infighting. The rankings of minor houses shifted on a daily basis, but the top few were more or less stable. Within a family, noble drow parents viewed their children as vehicles for their own advancement, including sacrificing them for some potential gain, noble drow children stayed with their family because they were the one thing that kept them safe from the violence that didn’t originate from the family and as adults because a family proved a good tool for societal advancement.

Noble drow families were groups who primarily banded together for mutual protection and not out of affection. The head of a noble House was a matron mother, a powerful priestess of Lolth. Below her were the female members, also priestesses. They were ranked according to age. Below them were the male officers. Below them were the male members of the House, who were also ranked according to age. It was very possible that a male member of the family was also a officer in the family.

The priestesses held no authority until after puberty and the male members never held any authority unless they managed to hold a officer title like weapon master, House wizard, or patron&mdash; the term for the matron's consort. Under these members were the war-leaders who were under the command of the weapon master and House mages who were subservient to the House wizard. These were the family members.

Below them were the other servants and the slaves. None of the ranks held by male drow or non-blood-related members had any job security. All it took was the matron's whim to change these positions. The matron's position usually changed through murder of the current matron by the eldest daughter. This usually marked a new direction for the House. For example, the destruction of it because the murder of a matron was also a sign of disfavor from Lolth.

Nobles took the best lands and resources for themselves, and the rest of the population was forced to care for themselves. Priestesses were bad rulers who tossed their cities into a haphazard organization. Not only did their infighting paralyze the growth of their own cities but they actively undermined opportunities and chances for any form of growth, in order to ensure that those below them didn't gain power and with it the option to turn away from Lolth.

Merchant Clans
The success of the merchant clans was not only important for the drow race's success but bare survival. Their connections with the outside world was what kept the noble houses alive. Contrary to noble houses, merchant clans were run by male drow because female drow considered interacting with outsiders not only too demeaning but also too dangerous for them.

The organization structure of a merchant clan varied but some general statements could be made. They were run by a council, called "inner ring", of male wizards. Male drow had no inhibition when it came to interaction with other races including from the surface. They knew that they had no chance of advancement within their society. In fact, many of the "second ring", as the managers of a merchant clan were called, were non-drow. The lowest ranking, almost exclusively non-drow, "assets" were the menial labor force and military force of a merchant clan. Merchant clans and noble Houses fought outside of a drow city in open fashion.

In drow society, merchants with particulary rich experience and wordly mind set were the only ones who were capable of forming genuine trust and friendships with the so called lesser races like mind flayers or duergars.

Justice
Drow cities were ruled by the priestesses. Drow priestesses saw their meaning of life in pleasing a goddess. They hoped to gain the favor of their goddess and enforced by violence others into compliance with their goddess' dogma, it resulted into a society where "might makes right" was the only "law".

The priestesses fulfilled the function of judges and other judicial functions, this may sound bizarre or even idiotic given the aforementioned lawless state of drow society. In practice, something that was called "laws" did exist in drow society. Priestesses saw it as their right to arrest and punish people in ways she made up on the spot for some offense, when they got caught. Concepts such as presumption of innocence didn't exist and not good lawyers and defense but believable clarification by the suspected criminals about their connections, which could lead to retribution against the punishing priestess was the basis of lessened or no punishment.

When nobles warred against each other, the attacking side had to eradicate the entire enemy family within one single attack. If even one member of the defending family survived, that member could apply for "justice". This led to the entire city killing the attacking family for its attack. Trying to prevent an open war through sabotage and similar action led to the two parties being forced into open war by the ruling body of the city. This was the reason why drow society was in a perpetual state of very small-scale battle of underhandedness instead of a series of bloody frontal battles.

Gender Roles
Lolth’s dogma mandated to recognize female drow as more valuable than male ones, in fact they were considered worthless. This gave female drow practically all power in the theocratic society of drow, and they were also less likely to be sacrificed than males. Males who hoped to find any place of power in society often resorted to ends as treacherous as the women that ruled the drow, hoping to perhaps win a coveted place as the mate of a powerful matron mother.

Arcane magic was a route for power for male drow, though it was a route allowed only to a few. While they were still socially inferior to every female drow, they weren’t in real danger of being killed by a priestess, while even accomplished male war commanders were in danger of being executed for perceived insults. Male drow in general tried currying favors with female ones to advance their station by attaching themselves to them, including gaining high official positions or consorts to them.

It would be easy to imagine that drow females, by comparison, had it much easier, but this was an illusion, and their prestigious position within society came at a high cost. In fact, the teachings of Lolth and the drive to gain more power over others made competition between female drow, particularly those who belonged to powerful houses, violently competitive in a way that males did not have to cope with. Matters were even worse for those who sought power through venues outside of Lolth's church, where the females had to compete not only with one another but with resentful and oppressed males.

Male clerics did exist. In Lolth-dominated cities, they were the targets of their female fellows and Lolth barred them from strong powers. They served in low-ranking positions under lethal risks. While they could even become divine disciples, becoming this, made it acceptable for priestesses to kill them.
 * Male Clergy

The faith of Ghaunadaur didn't have a gender barriers. Vhaeraun's faith had a gender barrier that made it harder for women to become his clerics. Eilistraee accepted clergy of all genders and races (but before the 1370s DR) her clerics had used to be only female, because, due to the goddess' nature, "One could not truly feel the Divine Dance of Eilistraee PROPERLY except as a female". However, during the 1370s DR, Eilistraee started working towards opening up to male priesthood: for a time, males still had a harder time becoming clerics (see also here), but after the Second Sundering, Eilistraee's clergy could be accessed by people of any gender with equal ease.

Courting and Love
Courting was the domain of female drow in drow society, trying to initiate a relationship was a reason for execution by torture and then sacrifice for a male drow. The standards applied for selection purpose by the females were reminiscent to those of selection of breeding animals.

Furthermore once a relationship started, the male partner was in no way an equal partner. He had no say in how long a relationship should last or whether it should even start. The woman on the other hand could switch between partners as she desired.

When the drow man was desired by more than one female, the women were in competition to one another over the man, who normally wasn’t safe from damage. A sign to clarify for a female drow in this situation that she lost interest in the rivalry was to skin the male one and drop the corpse before the room of the other rival. Killing the male drow was the usual way in which a relationship ended. In non-Lolthite culture and among commoners, matters weren't that extreme. The concept of marriage existed but it was not for eternity&mdash;at longest for a decade or so but with possible renewal. One exception were the merchant clans. Even there, marriage was not for eternity but marrying someone from a merchant clan meant signing up for that merchant clan for life. Trying to leave was a viewed as a reason to get killed.

The secret of a working long term relationship between drow was not love but tangible reasons like a history of fathering many female offspring and the likes. The best normal romantic relationship between two drow was similar to the one between a spoiled brat and her well trained obedient dog with the owner having all right to put the dog down for any reason.

Military
In drow society, priestesses were formally the military leaders. In practice male commanders led the military forces because the priestesses commonly hid away in the face of danger while resorting to the use of corporal threats and magical domination to ensure their loyalty.

When a military squad was led by a male drow it was either a streeakh, a suicide squad, or a dobluth, a group of outcasts. Patrols were outfitted with protection from earth and stone against cave-ins, while surface raiders or underground snaek attackers used an orb of duo-dimension to allow stealthy attacks.

Internal Wars
Drow nobles fought each other. These civil wars had some rules. A house that did not manage to completely destroy another house in one single assault, meaning succesfully killing every family member, all other houses combined their forces to destroy the assaulter.

Prolonged covert warfare between two houses, by for example sending assassins against each other, was not exactly forbidden. However, it was only tolerated for a time counted in years. After that, a drow city's ruling council forced the two houses to go to open war where above rule was applied.

War against external Threats
The drow lived in the Underdark. This made war work out in a different manner than on the surface. Such warfare contained the digging out tunnels to flank enemies, cause cave-ins, change the flow of magma, and so on and this kind of warfare, with the enlistment of slaves and allies, could dragon on for years. Furthermore, the cramped space of the Underdark made it hard or ineffectual to amass giant armies and therefore patrols were the usual standard for warring.

Added to this came the drow trait of infighting. In war situations, this trait showed itself in drow maneuvering each other so that their internal enemies were the ones to have losses or at least carry the responsibility for losses. They were literally incapable of forming a united front against their enemies-

While the exact equipment and size of drow warbands varied from place to place, it was possible to make some general assumptions about the composition for some typical traits existed.


 * Patrols
 * A patrol of the drow usually consisted of seven to a dozen soldiers under a commander who might have up to three bodyguards and apprentices or acolytes. Less than a third of these patrols had one to eight non-drow like bugbears, goblins, or orcs as allied forces. A mind flayer was never a part of the patrol, when they were found they were merely escorted by the patrol.


 * These patrols were the field of trained personal. Only up to half a dozen drow of normal training, while the rest were elites. These people were usually equipped with short swords, daggers, up to three javelins and an atlatl to help them throw it further, a hand crossbow with ten poisoned darts, and a buckler for protection.


 * Leading these patrols was normally a male drow's field and were more powerful warriors or clerics with fighter training than the others. They were usually equipped with a hand crossbow, javelins with an atlatl, and with at least a +3 mace to clarify their claim as authority holders.


 * Leading a larger patrol was normally a female drow's field and normally had one or two lieutenants who were powerful warriors.


 * While this was merely a very good rule of thumb, a patrol that was not mixed but all-male or all-female denoted that tension between the sexes in their city was reaching a critical point.


 * To protect them from cave-ins, drow patrols were generally provided with a scroll of protection from earth and stone.


 * Elite patrol
 * An elite patrol was usually led by a female cleric with female bodyguards and the "acolytes" were also female clerics from the same church.


 * These patrols were special for they had another cleric with healing duties. This cleric doubled as a spy for the church of Lolth.


 * Pincer
 * Pincer was the name given to a collection of several patrols (two to four) under one leadership, usually some kind of spellcaster. This leader was called either an overleader or battlecaptain and had up to four lieutenants called webmasters.


 * Higher than the battlecaptains in the chain of command was the battle-lord or warmistress who had an entire patrol force as his or her bodyguard and carrier of magic items.


 * Wartime
 * During wartime, the patrols doubled their numbers of poisoned darts and every warrior was equipped with up to three potions of healing in steel vials that did not rust.


 * Tactics
 * Drow tactics usually did not revolve around laying sieges but harrying strikes and wasa often noted for being aggressive if not outright impatient. One way to defeat them was to taunt them long enough so that they made an idiotic mistake.


 * Drow as a general rule were proponents of ambush tactics that took advantage of existing dangers like loose rocks. They had a knack for responding to their enemies' actions and use of traps and other tools to make combat easier for them was common.


 * When a drow died in battle, that one was reanimated as a zombie. The reason for this was to prevent the corpse from getting plundered and to provide the wounded and heavily damaged corpses with a means for locomotion. These undead were also used as a shock troops.


 * House Armies
 * The Houses owned a standing army of drow soldiers, priestesses, and wizards. What was special about these armies was the existence of contingents consisting solely of non-drow slaves, usually bugbears, ogres, and minotaurs.

Childcare
Drow killed children who were born with physical deficiencies. This had to do with their obsession with physical beauty, which often flaunted.

Noble drow were generally raised by elder siblings and private caretakers but not by their parents whom they only rarely saw, resulting into thin bonds between parents and children. Merchant clans and commoners considered raising their children as the entire family's duty. The latter did this because they lacked the resources to hire tutors and the like.

As mentioned above, the drow had to compete for limited resources both in physical and societal nature. The traits drow tried to instill in their children were tenacity, cruelty, ambition, self-reliance, and independence. Traits like kindness or compassion were dangerous in their society for their potential for exploitation. So, children who showed such weakness were punished. The punishment ranged from beatings to neglect like not giving them food. The supposed logic behind this abusive treatment was that it prepared the children for their certainly cruel lives and at the very least spared them an even crueler end as adults should they die in the process of these punishments. Drow children learned cruelty and bloodthirst both as a survival mechanism and as a defensive mechanism to escape punishment. As a general rule, these lessons were successful in the sense that they stuck with a drow for his or her entire life.

Commoner
Most members of drow society lived in perpetual desperation and poverty under oppression. Noble drow valued commoner drow more than slaves and commonly sacrificed them only when a slave wasn’t at hand.

The common way to rise up in society for commoners was to become the consort of a noble. These bonds were generally of temporary nature due to the noble getting tired with the individual, the commoner causing some kind of accident or being used as a figure of the noble. The outcome was either a painful death or expulsion - usually the former. However, the commoner in question obtained the noble's last name for the time he or she was married to.

A rarer way was to become skilled enough in a certain area and get adopted into a noble family for that skill. Zaknafein Do'Urden was such an example. From time to time, artists were adopted in noble families for their skill.

Talented individuals could have a chance to enter one of the magic schools and others learned normal craft or entered military training.

An interesting thing about commoners was, that they had a higher chance to live a long life than nobles resulting into families who had many living generations of members. This was because, unlike nobles, there was not much to gain from killing an elder and the elders were a valuable source of historical and general knowledge with realistic accessibility.

Artisans
Drow loved beautiful things and demand for such things, especially weapons, was high.

Good artisans were highly sought after by the noble houses. If these noble houses did not produce good artists on their own, they acquired this talent from the outside. This was done by adoption into the family (a rare occurrence), simple hiring, but also forceful coercion. About a fifth of the entire drow race was capable of complicated works, while about half of them could create goods that could be enchanted or turned into drowcraft items by letting them absorb faerzress. Despite a tenth of their entire population being capable artisans, there was a great shortage of such talents. Both nobles and merchant clans, tried to have at least six on their pay roll, when it came to the demand after artists who had an innovative bent, the demand was especially high. Such talent existed in about 0.1-0.4% of those artists who produced goods of high equality that could be enchanted. Overall, drow artisans were among the most intrigant and paranoid among the entire race. They used tricky devices like building items in clothing or body weapons like gas-powered needle-throwers, extensile mechanical hands, and other items like wire-saws to break out of cages and prisons but also to be used against people.

Relationships
As mentioned before, drow expected betrayal from each other and acted according to it.

The drow view on other races ran the entire gamut from potential slaves or the target of extermination as vermin. While drow were capable of holding some respect towards races that were capable of repelling their military aggression, none was considered an equal.


 * Beholders
 * Beholders were often sought out by the drow as allies for the extra protection these aberrations could provide their communities with.


 * Deep Dragons
 * Deep dragons were often sought out by the drow as allies for the extra protection these dragons could provide their communities with.


 * Demons
 * A rampaging demon who was all claws and fangs were feared by the drow. On the other hand, drow felt no anxiety towards them due to Lolth being a denizen of the Abyss.

For example, drow regularly formed contracts with called demons. These contracts benefited both the drow and the demons forming such contracts and were usually fulfilled without any problems to the two parties. Having a demon as a guest on an event increased the prestige of this event and that of the host.
 * Driders
 * Drow feared driders, physically changed drow who failed Lolth, and confined or drove them out of their cities.


 * Duergars
 * Duergars were one of the races the drow allied with the most frequently. They also bought weapons from them.


 * Dwarves
 * Drow and dwarves had a lot in common. They desired the same resources, had a comparable effective birth rate, and both were quite wealthy as a whole. This frequently led to the Underdark equivalent of an open war between the two races.


 * Elves
 * Drow hated surface elves. The hatred was mutual. It went to the point that for an elf tolerating an objectively good drow whose objective goodness could be objectively proven by magic was a very high bar.


 * The hatred the drow felt towards surface elves, out of whom moon and sun elves held an even more special position of hatred, reached levels far surpassing that felt against other races such as dwarves or humans. Traditional drow culture called for blind hatred towards them. which was based on the idea, that they were unjustly cursed by the Seldarine, especially by Corellon Larethian. Although many drow thought this way, some had become so used to life in the Underdark that they would prefer to make the best of this realm and had no interest in the surface.


 * Humans
 * Humans were one of the drow's traditional enemies.


 * Kuo-toa
 * One of the more peaceful relationships drow used to maintain was the one between them and kuo-toa. They were friendly to the point that not only close trade relationships but actual mixed communities were not an unusual thing. The reason for this was not clear. The drow viewed the kuo-toa as inferior creatures and this relationship as allies stopped at some point around 1372 DR.


 * Illithids
 * Mind flayers were one of the races the drow allied with the most frequently. They also bought their services to read the minds of enemies.


 * Night Hunters
 * Night hunters were used as aggressive pets but also as familiars.


 * Svirfneblin
 * Drow found killing deep gnomes a fun activity. The deep gnomes hated the drow the most. Under no circumstances did the deep gnomes ally with drow.

Reputation
As a general rule, the common populace of Toril's surface knew very little tangible about the drow. To the average person, the drow were such a distant problem that they could be counted more myth than reality. As a rule of thumb, only 5% of surface inhabitants had the superficial knowledge that the drow were "inhabitants of the Underdark who conducted raids on the surface", not including elves and eladrin who had more closer historical connections. This made it easier for individual drow to enter surface communities without meeting hostilities as long as said drow did not do or say something that could catch attention. The reason for this was that people who had real knowledge about the drow might come to cleanse their community of the threat the drow represented.

Composition of churches
See also: Dark Seldarine

Drow were elves. This did not mean that they worshiped the elven pantheon that was a limited localized occurence in Waterdeep. They worshiped a group of gods called the Dark Seldarine, the name was pure mockery of the original.

Elves worshiped their gods in the following way: choose one from their pantheon and worship that one above others. This took many forms, sun elves worshiped all of their gods equally but still put an emphasis on chosen members as patrons, moon elves chose one and kept the rest in lower esteem, while winged elves chose one and paid only lip service to the rest, and so on. The drow were no exception, their way was just much more extreme. They chose one of their pantheon and dedicated themselves to that one, practically forgetting about the rest. Unlike in other faiths like that of Bane, Cyric, or Shar, which had millions of worshipers, but churches counting 135.000, 250.000, 100.000 each. In the drow's case, when one made the equation "worshiper number=church size", one did not make too big a mistake. The only exception was the faith of Eilistraee. That deity's worshipers' worship was similar to that of surface elves'.

That said, exceptions like praying to Vhaeraun, the god of thieves, when embarking on raids being normal existed, but these were exceptions. Dedicating oneself to more than one deity also existed but these were freak cases.

Breakdown of the Worship
The vast majority of drow worshipped Lolth, the majority of drow on the surface followed Vhaeraun. The latter was also the prime choice for those drow who wanted to look for a means for freedom from the tyranny of Lolth. The other deities were of minor note but clearly existent. For example, while also a choice for drow seeking freedom from slavery to Lolth like Vhaeraun, Ghaunadaur didn’t manage to increase the number of his followers due to not caring enough for matters on Toril, while other deities were in a subservient position to the Spider Queen like Kiaransalee or Selvetarm.

As mentioned before, while good drow were an extreme rarity, they existed, the majority of these worshipped Eilistraee  or other deities of other pantheons.

Though religion played a large part in drow society, the caste system and other seemingly lawful aspects of the culture clashed with Lolth's intent and directives as a chaotic evil goddess. As a result, much of the tension between the clergy of Lolth and more secular drow came from this very different perspective.

Customs
Drow had a number of customs, gestures, and rituals. For example, it was custom among drow to kill all children with physical deficiencies; a commonly accepted gesture was dropping a knee and held weapons as a sign of surrender. There were a lot of rituals starting with a graduation ceremony for the graduates of the mage, priest, and warrior schools, but also others like:
 * The Blooding
 * was a coming of age ritual that constituted of killing a dangerous or sentient surface creature.


 * The Running
 * was an annual ritual where the drow went out to commit a massacre against a surface community. It was only held where the surface was easily accessible.


 * The Test
 * was a rite of passage for drow wizards who reached a certain degree of strength.


 * The Test of Lolth
 * was a rite of passage for any Lolthite drow who reached a certain degree of strength.

Languages
When drow spoke, they were quite eloquent and their speech was musical. This was a common trait among elves. Barring the most primitive, drow were generally literate.


 * Deep Drow
 * Most drow knew only two languages for they usually stayed in their cities and therefore exposure to other languages and the need to learn those was limited. One of the two languages was a spoken everyday language commonly called "Deep Drow", but also "Low Drow" or "Drowic", was one similar in structure to Common and Undercommon with a lot of borrowed words from other languages like orcish, dwarven, human languages, and other Underdark races, put simply it was an elven dialect.


 * Drow Sign language
 * The other commonly known language was the Drow Sign language, which could convey information as well as any spoken language within sight range of 120 ft (36 m) between those proficient in it and had no written form. The language was actually not part of drow compulsory education, but drow had an easy time learning it.


 * High Drow
 * High Drow was an archaic dialect, which priestesses of Lolth learned to speak without fear of others understanding them. It was not only spoken but conveyed information by certain gestures too.

Drow adventurers, outcasts, and slave-traders learned more languages, as did their warriors.


 * Undercommon
 * It was quite common for drow to be proficient in this trade language.


 * Other languages
 * Drow warriors had a tendency to learn the languages of creatures that lived physically close to the drow like Abyssal, Common, Draconic, and Goblin as well as those languages that were spoken on the nearest surface area.

Names
Drow names often have double letters and were designed to be pleasant to the ear.


 * First names
 * They believed that having first names that were similar to one of their gods was a guarantee for misfortune, when it came to names resembling their own patron, it was considered blasphemy.


 * Nobles had a strong tendency to not choose names that were similar in sound to the common tongue of Deep Drow.


 * Last names
 * The last names of drow did not start with a "L"-sound that was similar to "Lolth" or one of its varieties like "Lloth", "Loethe", etc.. This was reserved for the avatar of Lolth. Holding a last name in general meant that the person in question was either born into a noble family or held a rank and role like weapon master inside a household. for others calling themselves with a surname was forbidden.

Variant cultures
Not all drow became a part of the violent mainstream culture that most of the race were forced to endure. Those few who escaped the life of the Underdark might break away entirely from their dark past, while some fortunate drow were actually born and raised outside of the world below. Some drow found a hint of virtue within themselves in spite of all the terrors they witnessed, or perhaps because of it. Others turned late to better ways, either out of guilt or out of the simple fact they were no longer obliged to do so. Yet others were dangerously insane, broken by the horrors that shook their psyches.

The drow who did choose to live on the surface did not form any kind of organized society and instead lived as hermits and outcasts. They would interact with other societies when they needed to, but not through choice.

Economy
Drow had craftsmen, farmers and so on like any other culture and they engaged life and business mostly in the same manner as in any other culture. Unlike other cultures, these businesses had to face an additional economic risk, that doubled as the society’s chronic economic liability of the worst sort, the priestesses of Lolth. The concept of give and take, of buying and paying, did exist in drow culture, priestesses were just exempt from this duty in practice. They just took stuff and did it from time to time so often until a business went bankrupt. The destitute owners or craftsman were then forced into a contract of adhesion and were that point onwards practically slaves.

Drow society in general didn’t have an unemployment or homeless issue, those who fell in either or both categories were killed. As a general rule, drow signed up into one of their cities’ military because the risk of a violent death there was lower than as an unemployed homeless, the big demand for soldiers, no matter the level of skill, allowed such course of action.

The reason, why the priestesses were an economic risk on the macro level, was that they purposefully undermined opportunities and chances for any form of growth, in order to ensure that those below them didn't gain power and with it the option to turn away from Lolth.

Slavery
Slavery played a large part in drow society, and drow households usually had two or more slaves for each member. All unskilled labor in drow cities was carried out by slaves, this caused the slave trade to become a booming business. Slaves were not only captured but also bred. Some slaves were also bought from humans from Calimshan, Thay, and the Plain of Horses. Others sellers were orcs from the North.

Drow slavery was special in that it did not view slaves as something valuable. To them, it was easy and cheap to find replacement should one got hurt or died. This attitude led to cruel treatment of the slaves.

Slaves in general were not allowed to look into the eyes of a drow. They were also not allowed to carry weapons without permission, which normally happened when the slave was in some kind of gladiatorial environment.


 * Bugbears
 * Bugbears were common slavestock in drow cities.


 * Demons
 * Having demonic slaves was a prestigious affair for the drow. It served both as a demonstration of a house's power and tool for intimidation towards its enemies.


 * Dwarves
 * Dwarves were one of the most desired slaves of the drow.


 * Elves
 * Elves were not one of but the most desired slaves of the drow.


 * Giants
 * Giants like trolls were not considered good slaves in general due to their large bodies and strength. However, ogres were common slaves.


 * Goblins
 * Goblins were one of the races from which the drow commonly acquired their slaves.


 * Hobgoblins
 * Hobgoblins were one of the races from which the drow commonly acquired their slaves.


 * Humans
 * Humans were valuable and treasured slaves, unless the ones in question owned combat abilities, either mundane or magical, in which case they were viewed as dangerous. Especially the crafters among them were valued but they could not survive long in the Underdark environment under such cruel masters.


 * Kobolds
 * Kobolds were not considered good slaves due to their agility and independence.


 * Jermlaine
 * Jermlaine were not considered good slaves due to their agility and independence.


 * Orc
 * Orcs were one of the races from which the drow commonly acquired their slaves.


 * Sinisters
 * Sinisters were sometimes magically enslaved by the drow to serve as a kind of early warning mechanism with their telepathic abilities. Their other abilities to cause a hold person effect or protective abilities and offensive abilities made them desired bodyguards for drow spellcasters of particular cowardice.

A drow in such servitude was usually either a debtor or noble whose ransom nobody paid, who were captured in battle. In some cities, such people were executed instead of enslaved.

Surface Raids
Surface raids were vital for the economy of the drow. The reason for this was the aforementioned fact that their economy was built upon slavery and those slaves they considered the best were surface dwellers.

Hence, these raids, no matter the size, had the primary objective to capture people and loot only as a secondary one.

Such raids had two categories, the big rare ones that constituted hundreds of members that sacked entire cities and the far more frequent small ones. The latter ones started with scouting, then striking at the objective, either by open bloodshed or by silently sneaking inside and then kidnapping the potential slaves. Sometimes, these modi were combined. One drow group caught the attention of the residents, for example through arson, while another force fulfilled the actual objective of kidnapping people while undisturbed. Those small raids were usually one-night affairs. This was due to the drow race's weakness against sunlight.

To take advantage of even the smallest cracks that constituted an opening to the surface, 'orbs of duo-dimension were used by these surface raid troops.

Drow usually prayed to their god of surface raids and thievery when they launched raids.

Crafts
The drow's technological level regarding craftwork was at least the equal of and in certain areas surpassed that of humans, it was far inferior to that of dwarves. The reason for this was the drow race's collective short-sightedness. They generally relied on magic and slavery to get things done and put an emphasis on beauty over steadiness. Added to this came their tendency to kill the artisans, the ones with the know-how, when their work collapsed, only to do something similar again with the same problems. Overall, the drow race's strength did not lie in being skilled artisans and engineers, which they were to some degrees, but in their ability to oversee slaves and to be jack-of-all-trades.


 * Architecture
 * Drow architecture put an emphasis on beauty. However, drow cities tended to provide a chaotic and messy sight because they did not care to have a uniform architecture style. Still, their architecture had one common motif, that of spider webs in passages and layouts of buildings, and was considered something to marvel at and more wealthy holdings got faerie fire decoration and those of particular beauty received highlights with the continual faerie fire spell. Crucial architecture was often supported by magic instead of mundane methods and therefore collapsed when the magic somehow wore off. Manpower provided by slavery cleaned the resulting mess, only for the drow to use magic like stone shape and only the barest minimum of handiwork for reconstruction, therefore causing the instability problem to persist. Nevertheless, when it came to shaping and hollowing out stalactites, stalagmites, and cave columns, the best architects for such endeavors were the drow. Their architects were also known for their designs for stone bridges, balconies, and buttresses as well as their intricate spiral tunnels. Suspension bridges were the norm, for those could withstand earthquakes. Cave fishers were trained for the purpose of slinging their lines.


 * Commoners lived either in walled houses with cellars or in small caves.


 * In some cities, clay was used by the poor in a similar fashion to Kara-Tur and the Shaar to create dwellings. The same technology was used by the rich to create temporary furniture and sculptures, which was then decorated with gems, glowing fungi, etc. for their parties.


 * Medicine
 * It was common for injured drow to make use of a prothesis. Drow craftsmanship in artificial limbs was advanced and commonly available. They were made from adamantine and worked as good as the original limbs. They could also be weaponized and exchanging parts with specialized tools for a specific occasions was possible. For example, exchanging a hand with a claw or sword for combat was possible. Non-injured drow used from time to time similar technology for their body-extensions like toe-claws to kick-stab people.


 * Mining
 * Drow did not own the same insight and connection to stone dwarves or gnomes enjoyed. Added to this came their distaste for dirty work. Combined with their still-existing desire for pure subterranean resources that were won through mining, the drow method of mining was to first let other races like duergars or dwarves build their mines and then take them over by force. In the case of deep gnomes, they fled in the face of such attacks, but dwarvenkind stayed and fought leading to year-long wars over these resources, wich could well have an effect on the surface on the form of shortage of goods made by dwarves and increased demand and prices for food, weapons, and other goods of war.


 * Another drow method of mining was to use dig spells. In this case, dwarves assaulted the drow under the pretense of "liberating treasure".


 * Stoneworks
 * A specialty of the drow was their ability to cut and shape stone. The results were smooth-flowing walls (magic was also used), gates, put simply fortification buildings. Another field where this ability was applied to was the construction of waterworks (see below).


 * Waterworks
 * One part about drow craftmanship that received universal acclaim was their skill at constructing waterworks. The act of collecting and diverting water for their purposes, be it for dietary or industrial needs and for waste disposal, was done by pipes fitted with shut-off valves and these systems were outfitted with side-channels and pumps. The pipes were intricately curved and bored through solid rocks, their valves were big, hollow stone spheres closely fitted into a basin, which both had both inlet and outlet channels or holes, and were attached to a lever. Said lever was big and counterweighted, when it was turned, It worked by lining up the inlet and outlet channels and holes of the valve and basin so that water came through. The flow was regulated by turning the valve, by opening a sliding panel, which filled the hollow valve and allowed access to the water via side-channels it was diverted to. The aforementioned pumps had two varieties, one corkscrew-type worked by water pressure and one piston type worked by slave-work. These were not entirely wonders of the mundane though for constant application of magic was needed to make the water seals perfectly work.


 * Armors and Weapons
 * Weapons and armors of the drow were made of a substance called adamantine, an alloy of adamantite, and then turned into drowcraft items. These items could not withstand sunlight, but were cheap and easy to make. It used to be that every drow warrior down to the lowest level was equipped with a chain mail that was treated that way and most had also a drowcraft buckler with them. However, at some point around 1372 DR, these items fell out of favor and drow started to wear mithral armor when it was affordable, but would always wear non-restrictive armors that would not hamper their natural dexterity.


 * Famous weapons included the bolts of power, death lance, whip of fangs, drow mission blade, hand spinneret, queen's scourge. A famous armor was the death armor, that obtained legendary status in the Underdark.


 * Drow created some weapons with the expressed purpose to fight their own kind in the form of flash globes and light pellets.


 * Poison
 * Poisons and toxins were favored by the drow, especially a powerful drow knockout poison made from a slippery black fungus growing in certain Underdark caverns, but other poisons could be made from purple worms, scorpions, and spiders. Another poison, actually a drug, was ziran, highly addictive the tablet temporarily augmented the agility of their users. The most popular poison on the drow hand crossbow was the aforementioned drow knockout poison that put the target to sleep. Other poisons included the calling, eyeburn paste, and skullrot. A weapon to enhance poison like virulent weapons were also of drow make.


 * Naturally, drow had some counter measures against poison like the ring of antivenom.


 * Art
 * Artwork and craftwork of the drow often had spider motifs. Houses had curtains that was put on to emulate spider webs. A noble house of the drow had exclusive sculpture artisans as they had their exclusive gemcutters. The material out of which drow crafted their garments, furniture, and beautiful decorative goods were metal, cloth, and other stuff.


 * One art form unique to the drow was the use of continual faerie fire to create murals or highlight temples.


 * Gems
 * As a general rule, drow had a preference for smooth or cabochon cuts over faceted ones and black ones over those of other colors&mdash;blue and red hues were also preferred. Those of silver hues were used as contrast when said contrast could not be provided by metal settings. Gems were usually worked in rings, wristlets, gorgets, belts, pendants, or collars. Drow of average wealth wore banded agate, blue quartz, crown of silver, eye agate, hematite, malachite, obsidian, jasper, moonstone, onyx, rock crystal, smoky quartz, zircon, aquamarine, garnet, jade, jet, pearl, spinel, and tourmaline, while nobles, powerful wizards, officers, and priestesses wore other, more prized stones. When it came to the priestesses, the amount, rarity, and variety they wore was on a higher level than the others did. Prized gems included amethyst, beljuril, black opal, black sapphire, diamond, emerald, fire opal, jacinth, opal, oriental amethyst, orl, ravenar, red tear, ruby, sapphire, star ruby, star sapphire, water opal, and zendalure.


 * Other gems were usually currency for trade with non-drow.


 * Storage technology
 * A field of technology in which the drow were particularly good at was the one that concerned itself with storing and moving goods. This went from designing trade-containers to harnesses for beasts of burden and mounts. The reason for this was that drow demand for goods from afar was very high. This started with goods found in the Underdark like crabs or fish, which their patrols carried so-called "wet basins" made of clay to bring such food back to their cities, to fruits and other surface-only goods, which they obtained by means of trade and raid.


 * Magic items made by drow that helped transportation of both people and goods were for example the driftdisc, floatchest, and the walking chest.

Dress
The majority of drow wore a piwafwi, a fire-resistant protective cloak, boots that worked in a similar fashion to boots of elvenkind, and a drow house insignia. The latter showed to which noble House or merchant clan the drow in question was attached to&mdash; be it as a member or servant of that House or clan. 

An insignia was, with the exception of the First House's, not openly displayed but usually only inside or on their power bases.

Noble drow wore in clothes and equipment of superior quality compared to those of commoners, except of course when they wanted to be incognito. An example for superior quality was that the house insignia of a noble did not just show house allegiance but also carried magic, which could be used on command.

A web choker was considered fashionable by drow priestesses.

Magic
Magic of the drow was on par with the one found on the surface.


 * Spells
 * There were a number of spells that were associated with the drow. This did not necessarily mean that they were all developed by drow. While they were known for their ability to develop spells, and some spells known on the surface were independently developed by the drow, fact was that drow stole quite a lot of magical know-how from the surface by means of kidnapping during their raids.


 * Path magic
 * Practicioners of path magic organized them to what was variously called the Path of the Drow, Lolth's Road, or the Spider Road. It was considered a lost path, i.e. generally unknown to other races.


 * Drow runes
 * Drow had an aptitude for runes, which were elegant and always limned in black paste, ink, or inlay. The richest and most powerful of their race used them to defend their houses and treasures. When they were enchanted, they were done so with a glyph of warding spell or their runecasters created unique ones for locations of importance. There were a total of three categories of runes and glyphs. The aforementioned house defense glyphs, the way-marker runes. and the sacred glyphs, the former to guard places with drow traffic but no permanent population, the latter were special runes for sacred sites of Lolth.


 * Magic items
 * Drow were avid inventors of magic items. There were a number of items that were associated with the drow. This did not necessarily mean that they were all developed by drow. Drow were known for stealing magic item and magical know-how like that of the creation of magic item by means of kidnapping during their surface raids. Some were self-made, others were stolen, and other items were based on magic from before the Descent.


 * Their paranoia made them create magic items that were only usable by drow.


 * The drow loved magical items of all kinds and all powerful families gave some enchanted items to those who served them. The piwafwi was a particularly special drow item, although drow house insignias were also important to the drow houses and granted special powers, sometimes levitation. Many drow items were crafted in such a way that they could only be used by the drow.


 * Scrolls
 * Drow priestesses and wizards often created magical scrolls. This was done to provide their minions an edge during their patrols. Overall, drow used scrolls more often than surface races and were also known to create unique ones.

Animals
Drow generally didn't keep animals as pets, as animals could not fully comprehend their dependence on their owners. Instead, many drow took a favored slave as a personal servant or thrall, and treated these people as little more than pets.

Domesticated Animals
Drow liked to eat animals that were still living because they believed the meat had a better flavor. Drow domesticated a number of animals for their purposes.


 * Cavvekans
 * Cavvekans' senses were superior to the drow's with the exception of sight. While they were quite happy to live near drow communities their rarity made it rare for them to be pets and were used as guard and hunting animals instead. However, this was quite rare.


 * Lizards
 * Subterranean lizards were one of the type of animals domesticated by the drow. Pack lizards were used as beasts of burden, while riding lizards were used as steeds, the latter only by notable people like particularly good warriors or nobles but also by mercenaries. They could climb and walk on walls without leaving obvious heat prints that could be read.


 * The spitting crawler was often used as familiars by drow wizards and was a favorite among them.


 * Dire Bats
 * Dire bat fights were organised like chicken or dog fights on the surface and were the object of gambling by the drow.


 * Another rarer use was as steeds. Using them in this way was dangerous and commoners, including children, were the usual victims to be forced into such flights as riders. Such flights were used to scout and harry the enemies with poisoned darts. Training for the bat consisted of learning how to be reigned with bit and bridle, while the rider primarily had to learn how not to fall.


 * Rothé
 * Another domesticated animal was the rothé, to be more precise the deep rothé, which was a common food source and were also trained as beasts of burden for merchants or animals used for agriculture like ploughing or hauling.


 * Shriekers
 * To be precise, shriekers were not animals but fungi, but they were kept like pets nevertheless by particularly weird drow communities that worshiped demons instead of a divine figure.


 * They were used like a warning system for certain areas within their houses, because of their ability to recognize certain types of creatures and emitting sounds on perceiving them.


 * There was a plethora of varieties of them and each variety gave off different sounds, the drow chose different sounds for different sorts of information. They could also be eaten and this happened to those too unruly or big.


 * Eating them while still alive was the preferred method of some drow for it allowed them to simulate the shrieking of a tortured surface elf.


 * Spiders
 * The animal most associated with the drow was the spider, since it was the symbol of the deity Lolth. Spiders roamed the streets in drow cities, acting as pest controllers, and larger ones were used to guard houses or as mounts for transportation. These spiders were often specially bred for the purpose and were more intelligent than their regular counterparts, especially the sword spider, which was specifically brought to the Underdark from the surface. Sword spiders were often commanded by priestesses of Lolth. A drow city was not full of spiders because of the faith. Drow simply had an affinity for them and they came of their own accords to the drow. This led communities to be abundant with spiders despite holding up other faiths than Lolth.


 * In drow society, it was forbidden to hurt spiders by Lolth's dogma and it was punished with death accompanied by torture.


 * The task a spider was assigned to depended on its size. Very small ones were kept by children in lairs made of metal and glass as pets, those who were big enough to kill mice served as familiars, those of dog-size were temple guards, and sometimes revitalized by binding a spider-demon in the case an old one died, while those of horse-size were steeds.


 * Despite the tabu of killing a spider, some drow families ate spiders in the belief they did make a show out of their devotion to the Spider Queen.

Pets
Drow generally didn't keep animals as pets, as animals could not fully comprehend their dependence on their owners. Instead, many drow took a favored slave as a personal servant or thrall, and treated these people as little more than pets.


 * Bats
 * Bats were kept by the drow. It was one of the normal pets kept by the drow. No matter whether of the carnivore or herbivore varieties, drow were fond of them. A bat that ate fruits was only affordable for rich drow with the necessary connections to the surface, while carnivorous varieties were limited to those that ate insects and the likes except spiders. Varieties that ate spiders were driven into extinction by Lolth-following communities.


 * Calling them back from flight was done with the drow's innate ability to invoke faerie fire, despite bats being fully well capable of navigating subterranean terrain by themselves.


 * Bigger varieties were kept in an entire room, which slaves cleaned up to prevent it from smelling, while smaller ones were kept in cages.


 * Drow were capable of forming genuine affection to their pet bats and therefore these pets were often killed. The reasons ranging from teaching children how bad affection was to simple cruelty of relatives or rivals.


 * Slaves
 * Rich children were given, easy to replace, physically small creatures with perceived low intelligence like goblins or kobolds as pets. The common causes of death of these were either tortured to death by the children after losing interest in them or due to neglect after the children forgot about them.


 * Snakes
 * Drow had a fondness for both the constrictor and venomous varieties of snakes. Torturers used the latter's venom to make their sessions more painful, while the former were often the pets of priestesses in training that were fed flesh carved from living slaves. Venomous snakes were a favorite among Lolth, because they were venomous like spiders. Favored ones that died while protecting a temple to Lolth were used as ingredients for a whip of fangs.


 * Spiders
 * The animal most associated with the drow was the spider, since it was the symbol of the deity Lolth. Spiders roamed the streets in drow cities, acting as pest controllers, and larger ones were used to guard houses or as mounts for transportation. These spiders were often specially bred for the purpose and were more intelligent than their regular counterparts, especially the sword spider, which was specifically brought to the Underdark from the surface. Sword spiders were often commanded by priestesses of Lolth. A drow city was not full of spiders because of the faith though. Drow simply had an affinity with them and they came of their own accord to them. This led communities to be abundant with spiders despite these communities holding other faiths than Lolth.

Other types of working creatures included riding lizards, bats, and cavvekans, and also spider-like outsiders such as bebiliths, myrlochar, and retrievers. They also used molds, fungi ioe shriekers and oozes for traps of sanitation.

Drow View on History
The drow view on history did not accommodate the concept of accuracy. Every faction of the drow, be it religious or otherwise, told lies and fabrications about their own history to serve their own ends.

For example, when a masked traitor, a specialty priest of Vhaeraun who served as spy in his mother's church, was found out, drow took pains to prevent any information about the traitor against Lolth to be available or remembered. Such traitors were literally extinguished from historical records and drow pretended like that person never existed in the first place. This method actually worked and by four generations the fabrication was accepted as "fact".

View on their Historical Heritage
The drow descended from the dark elves of Ilythiir, the first and one of the most powerful elven nations. One might imagine that the drow would constantly boast about this heritage, but the truth was that the drow did not like being reminded of their historic origins for it also reminded them of the fact that they fell very deep from their position of power. An exception was the church of Vhaeraun whose goal was to restore the Ilythiiri to their former position of power.

The drow did not try to forget their origins because their hatred against elves and the justification to kill them was also based on history. The exact history will be expanded below. In short, the drow race's ancestors fought a war called the Fourth Crown War against other elves and used the powers granted by Ghaunadaur, Kiaransalee, Lolth, and Vhaeraun in these wars. They were very successful and the drow took this success of their ancestors as evidence that they were indeed a superior race to other elves. The other elves prayed for salvation and this was granted to them in the form of the dark elves' transformation into drow and with it the race was driven into the Underdark and with it into the hardships they had to endure there. The drow believed that they were punished for being too successful and used this as their justification for feeling entitled to exact vengeance on the other elves and their gods for it.

The Beginning
According to the drow and elves of Toril, the first connection between Lolth and the drow, at that time dark elves, started with Corellon Larethian decreeing that Araushnee, his wife and later known as Lolth, should call the fate of the dark elves her own. However, unsatisfied with her position, counting on the help of her son (Vhaeraun), and devising a plan to frame her daughter (Eilistraee) for her actions, Araushnee would attempt to overthrow Corellon, starting what was known as the War of the Seldarine. The conflict ended with Araushnee being banished into the Abyss and her name changing into Lolth: from there, it would take her millennia in order to regain influence on the drow. Vhaeraun was exiled from Arvandor, and he would deeply shape the future of the dark elves, while Eilistraee chose exile to bring her light to the drow in the time of need.

The wizard Mordenkainen recorded a different version of this story. The elves who later became drow chose Lolth on their own. Elves were an accidental product who emerged from the blood that Corellon lost in a fight against Gruumsh. Like Corellon, the first elves had shapechanging powers, and, with them, freedom. The Protector took some favorites, who were made deities: among them, Lolth was the most privileged. She saw that other races made something out of their lives, and made the argument that the elves should do the same by casting off their shapechanging powers in exchange of a fixed form, that would allow them to gain dominion over everything. Every single elf agreed and chose a fixed form, but Corellon was revolted by their decision and railed against Lolth. The god was stopped with the argument that nobody of his blood should be attacked, and, while he was thinking about it, Lolth used the opportunity to attempt to murder him. Realizing the extent of Lolth's betrayal, many elves intervened to stop her, but some remained loyal to the Spider Queen: the latter became the dark elves, and Lolth became a demon lord of the Abyss.

Time of Dragons
The first elves came to Toril around –27,000 DR. They came in three racially distinct immigration waves and the dark elves, or tribe Ilythiiri, came as part of the second wave and were the most succesful.

By this point, some elves forgot about Corellon, the dark elves were among them. In fact, they forgot about the fact that something like an elven pantheon existed. They worshiped fey gods instead. In fact, the whole reason why elves managed to come to Toril at all was that the fey opened gates with the declared goal toToril erode the power of the dragons who ruled the world at the time. The dark elves differed from the other elves, they wanted to found a nation and negotiated with the dragons and gained a piece of land and founded Ilythiir.

The era at that time was called the Time of Dragons because the dragons were the hegemons of the world. During those times, dragons acted like tyrants who viewed other races as something inferior to them and even the metallic dragons could not be called good during those times.

In this environment, the Ilythiiri picked up the faith of Vhaeraun, the god of territory, and made it their main faith. Under the careful leadership of the church of Vhaeraun, Ilythiir grew in territory and power and manged to keep its independence and the dragons at bay. It became a basstion of elven civilization but not of good. For example, the nation institutionalized slavery.

The faith of Ghaunadaur, the god of oozes, was also picked up to a lesser extent and fulfilled a role that was smaller but similar to the church of Vhaeraun's. An even smaller faith was that of Eilistraee, the goddess of dance. Her church opposed the evil machinations of her brother's church.

Ilythiir was founded by dark elves. At lates by –25,400 DR, it was a polyethnic nation, to be precise a dark elf-moon elf-nation. According to Ka'Narlist, the proportion of dark elves was increasing due to their traits' genetic dominance.

The moon elf Kethryllia Amarillis, a devout follower of Corellon Larethian, drew Lolth’s interest to Toril in –24,400 DR, which led to the subsequent introduction of her faith in Ilythiir. This was the first contact between Lolth and the dark elves.

First Flowering
After the Time of Dragons, a period of time called the First Flowering, the golden time of the elves started.

After the Time of Dragons, several elven states were founded. Ilythiir expanded its territory over the east and south and the relationships between the dark elves and the newer states were of peaceful nature. The influence of the church of Lolth changed this over time. By –20,000 DR, the first skirmishes between Orishaar, a moon elf nation, and Ilythiir started.
 * First Flowering - Ilythiir

The Seldarine-following elves came up with the idea to create a dark elf-free haven. They decided to ignore historical warnings and cast the First Sundering in –17,600 DR, the intervention of their gods managed to drop the scope of collateral damage to "ripping apart the continent" of Faerûn. These casualties destroyed most of the church of Vhaeraun's membership.

Vhaeraun's salvage efforts to bring Ilythiir's citizens into his church were undermined by the church of Eilistraee. According to Szorak Auzkovyn, what Eilistraee did was to start expelling males and favoring females thus breaking the unity of her brother's church through making herself more attractive to Vhaeruan's female followers. This granted Lolth and Ghaunadaur the opportunity to rise to prominence in Ilythiir and Eilistraee's influence among the Ilythiiri diminished with the rise of the spider and ooze deity.

Around –17,500 DR, Eiellûr, Syòrpiir, and Thearnytaar, three different wild elf-realms, started to discuss whether they should unify. Ilythiir poisoned the three nations' relationship by assassinating their leaders and framing their heirs for the assassinations. It caused the War of Three Leaves between –17,100 DR and –16,800 DR. By the end of this war, the Ilythiiri reached their goal and the three nations remained seperate and so hostile to each other that they skirmished each other. However, their hand in the matter was by this point uncovered and the three nations also skirmished with Ilythiir.

Miyeritar was a dark elf-wood elf realm founded by those who did not agree with the sun elves from Aryvandaar in –18,800 DR, located what was later known as the High Moor and Misty Forest. Eilistraee's faith took a strong hold there. The dark elven followers of Eilistraee supported and wanted a part in the casting of the First Sundering but weren't seen as equals by the others, especially by sun elves, and the other subraces joined in barring them from the casting the magic. Miyeritar would grow into a flourishing center of art and magic, reaching its peak in –13,900 DR over a renaissance period.
 * First Flowering - Miyeritar

Crown Wars
The Crown Wars were a series of wars between elven nations and resulted in the end of the golden time of the elves.

The basis for the First Crown War was laid during the First Flowering era, in –14,700 DR, when Aryvandaar found out that the rulers of the sun elves, the Vyshaan and Miyeritar's rulers, the Olrythii, were in fact blood relatives. Using this as their bases, they tried to peacecfully annex Miyeritar. The Miyeritari wanted nothing of it. By –13,200 DR, skirmishes and trade interferences, startd by the sun elves, between these nations became commonplace.
 * First Crown War - Miyeritar

The conflict degenerated into a violent invasion of Aryvandaar against the weaker nation in –12,000 DR, which ended with Miyeritar's defeat in –11,800 DR, even though resistance movements persisted, which were quelled by –11,300 DR. Aryvandaar had occupied the entirety of Miyeritar, and the nation was no more.

Illefarn, a moon elf-wild elf nation, declared neutrality regarding the conflict but accepted refugees from Miyeritar. However, while it wasn't clear whether these happened during the actual war or during the resistance movements, factions from Illefarn joined forces with Aryvandaar to subjugate Miyeritar and factions in Miyeritar accepted aid from those from Ilythiir under the pretense of "dark elf kinship".

The Second Crown War started before the first ended in –11,700 DR. It was kickstarted by Ilythiir, which was enraged over the occupation of Miyeritar that was the only other place dark elves existed. The Ilythiiri started retaliatory attacks against Aryvandaar's allies, starting with Orishaar, an ally and major trade partner of Aryvandaar, then Syòrpiir. Ilythiiri military made extensive use of fire to fight Syòrpiir after excluding them from their allies.
 * Second Crown War - Ilythiir

At some point around –11,500 DR, Aryvandaar started what Ilythiir's leadership believed to be a genocidal campaign against Ilythiir's citizens. In their plight, Geirildin Sethomiir, llythiir’s coronal, made a decision. He summoned Wendonai, a balor under Lolth’s employment, and bought power from the demon and with it from Lolth. The nation’s nobility followed their royalty’s example and bought power from other fiendish patrons. Until the Fourth Crown War, apart from Lolth, Ghaunadaur, Kiaransalee, and Vhaeraun provided the dark elves similar help in the form of magic and servants, Eilistraee didn't.

The arrangement proved itself effective. Apart from surviving, Ilythiir had enough power to launch attacks against Aryvandaar’s supporters. By –11,450 DR, Thearnytaar and Eiellûr, who allied themselves and invaded Ilythiir with help from Keltomir and Shantel Othreier.

By –11,400 DR, Eiellûr was destroyed not only by fire like Syòrpiir but also through treachery. In an act of appeasement, wild elves joined forces with the Ilythiiri to destroy their nation. These wild elves were given the land of the Misty Vale, a jungle that was not just untamed but dangerous because of living products of Ilythiiri magical experiments that were let loose there. The jungle became a hiding spot for those elves who managed to escape Ilythiir's slave farms. Those who survived the war were enslaved. Due to the genetic dominance of the dark elves, these slaves' descendants were by one or two generations all dark elves.

By –11,200 DR, Thearnytaar was destroyed. The Ilythiiri used enslaved monsters and undead to accomplish it. Keltomir became scared of what the Ilythiiri were capable of and equipped themselves for war. The two nations started to skirmish along their eastern and southern borders.

During this time, peace with other nations was not really possible due to the adherents of Ghaunadaur and Lolth acting like warmongers. In fact, even internal peace in Ilythiir was not fully achievable for the Ghaunadans fought constantly internal wars against other faiths. Ilythiir’s course of action earned the dark elves the title dhaerow, traitor in elven, though it was not clear to what. This term, dhaerow, became "drow", the word later commonly used to describe the descendants of the dark elves.

During these days, the Ilythiiri were refining their worship of their gods. The early Ilythiiri temples were often decorated with grossly wrong depictions of the Dark Seldarine, portraying them as spider deities subservient to Lolth. For example, in one of such temples, Eilistraee, goddess of song, was depicted as spider singing praises to Lolth; Ghaunadaur, god of slime, as a spider with an oozy face; Kiaransalee, goddess of undeath, as an undead spider, and Vhaeraun, whose titles included the Masked Lord, as a masked spider. With the exception of Eilistraee, it was known for sure that the offended gods killed their high priests who depicted them in such a way.

The Third Crown War was a war between Aryvandaar and Shantel Othreier between –10,900 DR and –10,600 DR. 100 years after the war ended, the Dark Disaster struck Miyeritar, destroying the part that became the High Moor and killing the citizens there.
 * Dark Disaster - Miyeritar

Miyeritar had already been annexed by Aryvandaar at that time, and many citizens of Miyeritar had already fled towards Illefarn beforehand for safety, although countless innocent lives were lost to the cataclysm. The culprit was Aryvandaar. However, they did it without leaving any evidence that could be found. According to the spirits in House Melarn's lorestone, Aryvandaar's intentions regarding the dark elves were of practically genocidial nature and caused the killing storm towards that end.

The victors were the one to write history, and the Vyshaan therefore pointed at the high mages sympathizers of Miyeritar as the real culprits, accusing them of having tried to harness corrupt magic for resistance sake, accidentally destroying their country in the process. Reality was that such elven high mages fell mostly months before victim to an assassination campaign of the sun elves. Kraanfhaor's Door was the last remnant of Miyeritar.

Among those who remained in Miyeritar was a large part of the church of Eilistraee. The Dark Disaster killed them, and that, alongside the rise of Lolth and Ghaundadur, caused Eilistraee's influence to virtually collapse for millennia.

Ilythiir was enraged and correctly accused Aryvandaar of the Dark Disaster and the Fourth Crown War started as a retaliatory assault on Aryvandaar.

As mentioned above, the Fourth Crown War started as a retaliatory assault on Aryvandaar in –10,450 DR. While the scope was not clear, survivors from Miyeritar joined forces with Ilythiir. By –10,100 DR, they destroyed Shantel Othreier, by that point conquered by Aryvandaar, with enslaved dragons. They were so successful that the elves started to pray towards their gods for the destruction of Ilythiir, the prayers were answered.
 * Fourth Crown War - Ilythiir

Corellon Larethian's magic, channeled through his clerics, turned all dark elves into drow. According to Wendonai, Corellon agreed to letting his magic channel by the clerics because he considred the dark elves too dangerous. By that point some dark elves had modified their bodies, and were thus not changed. The entire subrace of dark elves was turned into drow, including the survivors from Miyeritar. Elves believed it was done as collateral damage due to the elves not properly understanding elven high magic. In truth, it was all Aryvandaar's plan. The ritual itself had at its goal to tie the dark elves of Ilythiir and Miyeritar with faerzress without discrimination. This created a mental compulsion within the dark elves to enter the Underdark and remain there. Corellon's curse caused two things. First, the forceful modification of the dark elves' bodies into that of drow's and with it a weakness against sunlight.

The drow then were forced to leave the surface into the Underdark, the event was called the "Descent of the drow". After the "Descent", drow lived for a time as nomads and scavengers, more precisely like animals. Through the call of Lolth, they managed to gather themselves and founded in –9,600 DR the cities Telantiwar and Guallidurth. It proved a blessing for Keltomir for the drow attacked Aryvandaar and prevented them from conquering that nation.

Founding Time
The drow in Telantiwar also seized the gold dwarf cavern of Bhaerynden for themselves around –9,000 DR. The drow there, then began fighting amongst themselves, resulting in a great magical explosion that destroyed this large cavern, forming the Great Rift.

Survivors left and spread around the Underdark. They founded most of the cities in which the drow lived, such as Sshamath, founded beneath the Far Hills in -4973 DR, Menzoberranzan, founded in -3917 DR, and Ched Nasad, founded in -3843 DR.

Some drow cities like T'lindhet or Maerimydra managed to gain a foothold on the surface, much to the chagrin of the Spider Queen who didn’t want the drow to even want to return to the surface.

When the elves started to abandon their lands in the face of human expansion, over the course of their Retreat, to never return and left for Evermeet. Drow, especially those who followed Vhaeraun, started to repopulate these lands. Their success at settling and keeping these lands was one of the reasons elves of Evermeet considered a return to the continent.

The followers of Eilistraee started a slow process of recovery, in which their influence would ebb and flow over the course of millennia. Their efforts provided a meaningful result in -331 DR, when the Lolthite drow of the Twisted Tower of Ashaba were defeated by the combined forces of Cormanthyr, Rystal Wood, and of the followers of Eilistraee from Cormanthor. The structure, renamed "Tower of the Dark Moon", was left under the protection of the followers of the Dark Dancer and became Eilistraee's greatest temple in the Realms, the symbol of a new hope. However, that only lasted a few centuries, as the community fell once again to the Lolthite drow in 190 DR (and with time became known again by its original name, the Twisted Tower of Ashaba).

Later, starting since 1355 DR, the church of Eilistraee gained renewed stability with the foundation of the Promenade of the Dark Maiden (led by Qilué Veladorn, chosen of Eilistraee and Mystra), the most important center of worship of the Dark Dancer.

War of the Spider Queen - Silence of Lolth
In the Year of Wild Magic, 1372 DR, the goddess Lolth went into a state of hibernation, a period called the Silence of Lolth. She stopped granting spells to her followers and became effectively inactive.

While it only lasted for one year, a lot happened during that time. To name a few examples, in Sshamath, Lolth’s clergy was demoted and the ones of Ghaunadaur and Vhaeraun took the official clerical positions, in Eryndlyn, the church of Vhaeraun and of Ghaunadaur joined forces and destroyed the Lolth’s matriarchy in their city, in cities like Dusklyngh, Jhachalkhyn and Karsoluthiyl the assassins of the Jaezred Chaulssin shifted through a series of assassinations the power balance in favor of secular power holders like merchants, and some cities like Maerimydra, suffered complete breakdowns.

War of the Spider Queen - After the Silence
After the Silence of Lolth, Eilistraee and Lolth started a divine game of sava with the destiny of the drow as the wager. Between the years 1375 DR to 1378 DR, Eilistraee and her followers successfully killed Lolth’s rival deities, Selvetarm, Vhaeraun and Kiaransalee. Eilistraee herself was apparently killed by Halisstra Melarn while inhabiting the body of Qilué Veladorn after the goddess failed at abetting Halisstra in murder against Lolth. In 1379 DR, Ghaunadaur left the drow pantheon.

Meanwhile, in 1379 DR, a High Magic ritual performed by Q'arlynd Melarn with the help of Eilistraee, transformed those drow not tainted by Wendonai's blood and a few hundreds among Eilistraee's worshippers (who had taken great losses), into their original dark elven form (although without their consent), and Corellon Larethian permitted the souls of the newly transformed dark elves to enter Arvandor.

This was how Lolth became the unopposed deity in drow society, albeit only for a century.

Post-Spellplague era
While drow were primarily ruled by the church of Lolth, small scale opposition movements in the form of the skulkers of Vhaeraun or the followers of Ghaunadaur did exist.

Post-Second Sundering era
Over the course of the Second Sundering, all the drow deities who had died before the Spellplague returned to life, thus causing a renaissance of their cults. Despite Q'arlynd's spell, Eilistraee and most of her followers were still drow after their re-emergence (see here).

Homelands
The vast majority of drow lived in the Underdark, to which they were driven following the Crown Wars. Here, drow city-states were spread throughout the world, bastions of evil and demonic dealings sanctioned by the Spider Queen. Of all the Underdark races, drow were the most feared, owing to their widespread presence and immense power. The most famous Underdark bastion of all was Menzoberranzan, one of the dark centers of Lolth's worship.


 * Known drow cities
 * Menzoberranzan
 * Chaulssin
 * Ched Nasad
 * Dyon G'ennivalz
 * Eryndlyn
 * Maerimydra
 * Sschindylryn
 * Sshamath
 * Ust Natha
 * Ust Natha

Not all drow dwelt in the Underdark, however. While most of the race that fled the dark civilization they were born into died trying to reach the surface world, others escapeed the dark recesses of the earth to see daylight. Most drow that didn't live in the Underdark dwelt within the lands of the Dragon Coast or the East Rift. Drow who headed for the Dragon Coast typically were less apologetic about their past and simply sought a place away from Lolth's corruption where few questions were asked and skill was the only quality that mattered. Many of those who dwelled in the East Rift were refugees of the catastrophe wrought on the neighboring regions of the Underdark by the Spellplague and the draining of the Sea of Fallen Stars.

Notable Members

 * Drizzt Do'Urden
 * Zaknafein Do'Urden
 * Jalynfein
 * Solaufein
 * Tos'un Armgo
 * Liriel Baenre
 * Jarlaxle
 * Qilué Veladorn
 * Viconia DeVir

Drow-run organizations

 * Dark Dagger was a group active around the Sea of Fallen Stars. They tried to infiltrate and eventually take over the criminal milieu there.


 * Horizon Syndicate was merchant conglomerate thatorganized trade between Underdark.communities and surface ones.


 * Jaezred Chaulssin was an assassins' guild which made its objective to restructure drow society and free the drow from Lolth's tyranny. They believed that drow society was so far beyond help that only crushing it could allow restructuring.

Organizations with strong drow membership

 * Affiliated merchants of the Underdark was a protection racket that targeted merchants in the Underdark and demanded money for protection from harm that originated from them. It was also run by the drow Sofra by 1372 DR.


 * Guild of Underdark guides was, as the name suggested, a group of guides in the Underdark. Neutral and good drow with no interest in the surface made up a meaningful part of the membership.


 * Underdark anarchists' fellowship was on the front a protest movement against general Underdark society. Its true objective was the abolishment of slavery in the Underdark. An important part of its membership were chaotic and evil drow who used the organization as a platform for protest against the establishment.

Connections
Drow Drow Drow