Sschindylryn

Sschindylryn was a drow city in the Middledark of the Deep Wastes in the Underdark. It was a strong trading power in the Underdark but a minor military one, at best.

Location
The city was situated miles below the kingdom of Cormyr, beneath the King's Forest, though maps placed it beneath the Eastern Plains.

It stood on the shore of the underground Lake Thalmiir, or rather near a lake named Daerbraun deeper underground that Lake Thalmiir drained into.

History
The city was once very war-like, using their portals to raid other Underdark settlements and cities. At some point in its history, Sschindylryn lost a war against Menzoberranzan. The defeat caused an almost complete demilitarization of the city. What followed was a time of rebuilding the city as a mercantile power. Toward that end, the city's spellcasters specialized in magic of divination and such that allowed easier travel.

Society
Sschindylryn enjoyed, for a Lolth-dominated city, rare political and social stability that resulted from the ruling priestesses' inability to follow Lolth's philosophy of strife. It also had economic stability and power that the male-dominated merchant class built through surprisingly peaceful means.

However, Lolth was a goddess who enforced and enjoyed internal strife. Prior to the Silence of Lolth, the ruling priestesses started to fear that their city's stability would cost them Lolth's favor. Their solution was to start plotting and killing each other. The priestesses' inability to get their houses involved as well led to them murdering each other more less personally, thus preventing casualties from spilling outside of the priesthood. Due to the priesthood's near-self-destruction, the male merchants, mages, and soldiers moved into positions of power and leadership of the city, while the priestesses ruled in name only. After losing their effective power over the city, some priestesses converted to Kiaransalee and dead priestesses rose again as revenants to get vengeance on other priestesses, which escalated their conflict further. The ruling males did not love Kiaransalee's clergy but their efforts against them were lackluster.

Inhabitants
Around 1136 DR, Sschindylryn was infiltrated by the Jaezred Chaulssin. They took over a minor noble house and installed a fosterage. The leader of this fosterage in 1372 DR was Patron Father Ilphtrin Imphraezl.

Description
The layout in Annihilation (5th book in the War of the Spider Queen series) says that Sschindylryn is contained in a pyramid shaped cavern having three sides each two miles long with the tip two miles high. In the outer edges of the cavern great trenches or moats have been dug around the city with several expanses of stone at various intervals around the city centre crossing between the two areas. Slave quarters exist on the other side of these bridges away from the city itself.

The entire city scales up toward the city's center which is a giant ziggurat (a mountain of buildings and other structures). Many of the buildings are constructed from stone and brick (unusual for a drow city) and are fairly close together. They rest on stepped tiers, starting at the bottom of the cavern and climbing towards the ziggurat and continuing up. Sschindylryn's center (the ziggurat) is split into 9 levels and rises to a height of perhaps 2200 feet or a mile and a half.

Levels 1-3 are the Gate Houses. Accounting for approximately a third of the ziggurat's height, these levels house most of Sschindylryn's thousands of gates. And other than the city's many gates, there is no discernible way in or out of the great cavern.

Levels 4-6 are the Trade Levels which is the site of most, if not all, of the city's trade.

Levels 7-9 are home to the city's High Houses, or nobles.

At the pinnacle of the ziggurat sits the temple of Lolth.

The city is built on a kuo-toan ruin, both above and below the water, and even the new architecture retains a piscine style.

Features
Sschindylryn's Gate in Menzoberranzan (source - WotC web site): Sschindylryn's Gate is a portal to Oerth that was discovered by scouts from the city of Sschindylryn. Sschindylryn is a drow city under Cormyr known for its use of portals to explore and conquer other parts of the Underdark. During a battle with Menzoberranzan, the portal was damaged, and none from the western city know how to operate it or to where it leads.

Appearances

 * Dungeons & Dragons Online: Menace of the Underdark