Day of Graduation

The Ceremony of Graduation was a rite for drow graduates of the Academy of Menzoberranzan in the early 14 century DR.

Activities
When the students of the Academy completed their studies, males would don ceremonial robes and gather on benches placed against the walls of the hall of Arach-Tinilith. They sat in silence while priestesses of Lolth sat in a circle around a large lit brazier.

The priestesses began chanting and the matron mistress of Arach-Tinilith called forth the best female student who would graduate that year. While the priestesses continued the chant, the matron mistress coaxed a vivid red smoke from the brazier, which was a potent narcotic that warped the senses, affecting both males and females alike. The female student stripped naked and, at the behest of the matron mistress, made an invocation on the brazier that would bring forth a powerful fiend from the Lower Planes, likely a glabrezu.

After that, priestesses selected males from the benches and invited them to lie with them, leading to a sexual orgy amidst the shroud of red smoke pouring from the flames. It is unclear what took place between the fiend and the summoning student, but this may one of the occasions where draegloths were conceived, begetting half-demon, half-drow offspring, like Triel Baenre's son, Jeggred.

If a male refused the advances of a high priestess, he would risk her wrath, punishable by death. The only concession that could be granted was privacy; a couple could look for a more private place instead of the smoke-shrouded hall.