Hello everyone!
I’m new in the D&D universe and I’ve been dedicated to learn more about drow lore. Right now I’m looking for source material (book, comic) about Sshamath. Much of what I’ve found about this city so far is on the Forgotten Realms Wiki website or in Drizzt Do'Urden’s Guide to the Underdark. But I feel they only give an overview on how their society works :/
Having to think about it cuz I reached that point in one of my fics, but I don’t think Vhaeraun was always called The Masked Lord. Yes, yes, of course he wasn’t called that back when he was the little princeling of the Seldarine that Corellon liked to awkwardly ignore, but I mean back during the Crown Wars.
Vhaeraun was the dominate god worshipped by dark elves and all of Ilythiir, rivaled by only really Ghaunadaur (who, let’s be honest, probably didn’t give a shit). Lolth was not the powerhouse that she became until the fourth Crown War. If he wasn’t already the head of the very new Dark Seldarine, he was on track to be that pantheon’s head.
Until Lolth decided that he really didn’t need his kneecaps while fighting Aryvandaar.
The Masked Lord title likely came about when he and his followers had to start relying on subterfuge to survive the society Lolth built in the Underdark. (Not that they didn’t use such tactics before, but it became subterfuge or die.) All the time before, I’m willing to bet Vhaeraun had a very different title that he lost once Lolth cemented her status as the leader of the Dark Seldarine.
That title is likely forgotten by all except Vhaeraun himself.
“Monsters” tend to eat other creatures, often raw, but sentient races of the Underdark eat:
Fungi. Lots and lots of fungi.
Snails.
Slimes.
And lizards (worn-out or injured pack lizards, and all of the smaller varieties).
These things form the bulk of drow diets. Drow also, due to surface raids and trade, have access to other foodstuffs, but due to ongoing rarity these are “treats” (expensive). Most drow rear herds of pack lizards and farm “forests” of fungi in guarded caverns.
Thanks to the prevalence of fungi, a texture that can best be described as “rubbery to chewy” is prevalent in Underdark cuisine. Things that crunch are rarities.
Edible fungi cover a broad range of colours (though dun-browns to darker browns predominate, with purple being the next most popular—and never attempt to eat any fungi that look green) and shapes, from flaky spikes and “ledges” to shelf fungi, spears like asparagus, and various cap shapes with stalks, from tall and smooth to short and shaggy; literally just about everything.
These Underdark fungi offer flavours from salty or bitter and smoky to an almost vanilla-like sweetness; again, just about everything, including flavours that a blindfolded surface-dweller sampling them might mistake for roast beef or braised rothé.
Certain common fungi can be cooked to mush and then to an oil that thickens into a spreadable paste when taken off the heat, and this serves as a hummus-like “butter” (that can take on the flavour of herbs stirred into it, like garlic or dill into “real butter” derived from the milk of surface-dwelling creatures) when spread on other edibles. This is usually called “rarthree” by folk of the Underdark, regardless of species (though deep gnomes tend to shorten this to just “rarth” in casual speech).
The meat of the many edible lizards is often sliced into thin steaks and fried in rarthee, and tend to taste rather like real-world kangaroo meat; slightly gamier than boar or beef or rothé, but still striking the palate as “red meat” rather than fish or reptile. Pack lizards have the strongest taste, increasing with age and size, and Volo found it to be a curious cross between the fat of very well-marbled steaks, and bacon fat—without grease or the heaviness of fat.
Soups in the Underdark tend to all be thick enough to be called “stews” on the surface world, with diced chunks of meat or fungi, and almost all of them use simmered, reduced fungi as a base. “Superior” soups include the blood of slain edible creatures, which enriches the flavour and thins the texture.
Large root vegetables such as potatoes are almost unknown in Underdark cuisine, yet their blandness would cause them to be “shrug” curiosities, not highly prized novelties, if sampled.
There are very few “wild” deep rothé herds left in the Underdark; they’ve been captured and are now the carefully-farmed exclusive food larders of particular communities. So they’ve disappeared from “general Underdark” larders and tables.
Lolthite drow cities who control those herds do indeed roast and thin-slice-and-fry deep rothé meat as a staple of their cuisine.
As for surface-world sweets: sweetness is in short supply in the Underdark. Household honey has been a traditional target of drow night surface raiding parties. The sheer sweetness of sugary confections (such as real-world chocolates) would be a dumbfounding revelation. There’d be delight among drow or other Underdark creatures (illithids in particular!)…and a murderous need to possess all supplies of it.”
Do we know when the dark dagger was founded. Their history on the wiki starts with being attacked by assassins during the darkstalker wars in 1359 but says nothing of them before then
I always forget how many nondrow live in menzobarranzan and I’m always surprised when I realize that in some places in the city they outnumber drow.
The composition and lay out of menzobarranzan fascinates me, and I wonder if each section of the city shapes the attitudes and behaviors of the drow who live there. Are you more or less likely to buy into drow superiority if you’ve lived in a neighborhood with more non drow? Does every drow align themselves with the noble houses of the area, or do they back a richer commoner’s house in hopes for favors when they gain influence.
Okay…clearly the city is dangerous (shocking, I know) but all I can think about is a drow parent/ older sibling holding a younger child’s hand to lead them through a crowd and that just little bit cute.
Midwinter Night, known to Vhaeraun’s followers as the Masked Lord’s Embrace, is the most sacred time of the year to the followers of the Masked Lord. This annual holy day is celebrated by the Masked Lord’s followers with daylong introspective rituals of total sensory deprivation. Each worshiper is expected to cloak himself in a region of magical darkness and levitate at the middle of the effect for a full 24 hours while contemplating Vhaeraun’s teachings and dreaming up schemes to advance the Masked Lord’s goals in the coming year. All followers of Vhaeraun who wish to perform this ritual are granted the ability to employ both spell-like effects on this day, with the necessary extended duration, by a special boon of the Masked Lord. (Demihuman Deities, 1998)
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Anyone know of any drow lore that’s pre-Descent? Like, the culture of Ilythiir and such? I know there’s a timeline of the Crown Wars and that Lolth was gaining prominence among Ilythiir’s nobility via Wendonai but generally haven’t seen more into the nitty gritty.
I’m not expecting too much as emphasis is going to be on contemporary drow culture, but even knowing where to look would be fantastic! <3
Dec. 12 Edit: I got my stuff answered! Go check out mystxmomo’s doc on Vhaeraun!
“Most drow wear a magical, shielding cloak, called a “piwafwi.” Under its collar, most drow wear a neck-purse. In it, noble drow carry their house insignia. Commoners will carry a black metal medallion denoting the house they serve, or the merchant clan they belong to. In the streets of a drow city, house insignia are usually displayed openly (as cloak pins or sewn-on cloak or tunic adornments) only by the members and servants of the “First House” (most dominant family) of the city. Insignia of lesser houses can be seen on the walls or gates of their strongholds, and are often worn openly inside such strongholds. The house insignia of nobles take the form of distinctive sculpted images, often equipped for use as brooches. All carry several magical powers-minor abilities known in detail only to members of the House.” — The Drow of the Underdark
I imagine Galathil still has a brooch with the insignia of their birth family; House Vandree, although of course, they don’t know what is it or what it represents, even less so any magical powers it carries, having no memories of their early years in the Underdark besides very blurry colors and smells. Their piwafwi and old clothes being long damaged by the sun, that’s the only item they kept from their past.
Khaless, the drow word for trust, is also the name of a game played above one of the city’s three large rifts.
In preparation for the game, a globe of darkness is hung in the open air above the drop point, and thearea is also enchanted with a magical silence. The challenging drow levitate themselves and are pushed into this dark and quiet globe by the referees, using long catch poles called kheal. The rules a re simple:
the first drow to come out of the darkened area,either by floating down and calling for a pole, or by hanging beyond the duration of her levitation abilities (thus falling to her death) loses. A drow willingly coming out of the globe does not automatically lose, however. If the challenging drow, oblivious to the other’s surrender while among the darkness and silence, remains in the area too long and falls, the survivor wins.
Two or more d row can play khaless (it gets really wild when a dozen or more go up into the globe!), with even younger drow invited to play and given levitation spells by the house mages. (Of course, these ignorant young drow have no idea how long the wizard’s spell might last.) Winners are accorded a vacation of pleasure (slaves or drow of lesser station of their choice included) in the luxuries of the first family’s house; losers (if they survive) must spend a month cleaning the kobold caverns. Of course, there is often no winner.
The game was first practiced by members of House Oblodra, but the popularly insane sport has spread throughout the city in recent decades. Some male nobles even use khaless to settle grievances in, something akin to a duel.
From Elminster’s Forgotten Realms: Drow Cuisine
Well mostly Orbloren wine, and then a few words on other drinks, and then another small shread of the rest in the most general overview
Okay, this brings up a question I’ve had in regards to forgotten realms religious lore…what happens to drow souls?
Like I know that those who fail lolth and lose her favor are tortured in the demon webs of the abyss.
And I know that it’s at least theorized that priestess who please Lolth get transformed into Yochlol and serve Lolth for all eternity (I think).
Eilistreea takes her faithful to her realm and I believe its the same for Vhearaun
But what happens to like a merchant in menzobarranzan that lives their whole life there, faithful to Lolth but is by no means special. Or let’s say that a drow lived in the surface, worshiped the Seldarine until the day they died, what then? Because I know that usually elves will go to Arvandor for a bit of rest before their next incarnation. Do drow reincarnate and simply don’t have access to the memories because of they’re cut off from their reverie? There’s supposedly a fixed number of elven souls, is it same for drow?
Side by side Elven and Drow perspective: Love and Marriage.
Despite the obvious bias against the drow perspective on love, I think their attitudes are more similar than they seem at first glance.
There’s obviously the more liberal views on sex, as well as both societies having no stigma against children born out of wedlock, but I think it goes a little deeper…
One could say that the Elven need for freedom and independence is just the Drow’s mistrust and fear of weakness painted in a more positive light. Both of these groups find the idea of love and commitment daunting. Elves because they fear that needing someone and being needed by them will chain them down and limit their individuality, Drow because to need someone else is to be weak and to open oneself up to betrayal.
Drow handle their fears by limiting the closeness with their romantic partners, keeping them at an arms length and never fully trusting their doubts and fears (weaknesses) to them, lest they be used against them. All trust is foolishness, after all, and physical intimacy seems the lesser of two evils. I think this is also why a drow will seek out a partner of lesser station, because then that drow will have the barrier of social standing between the two of them.
Elves however, handle their fears a little differently. I find it interesting that the snippet says elves are more likely to get into long term committed relationships with shorter lived races. It’s safer. An elf can be free to love and be loved without worrying about spending their whole life with this person. They get 50(ish) blissful years and maybe a half elf or two out of the experience. Even when they do end up in a long term relationship with another elf, marriage is still a little too daunting (which makes complete sense given what elven marriages entail).
(I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m being dismissive. This isn’t meant as criticism, it’s meant as commentary on the lore.)
TLDR: the drow are just as capable of love as the elves, lore books are biased, both of these views on love make perfect sense for the society they live in, and whoever said the drow don’t have a word for “selfless love” is on my list.
I fell down another biological fantasy rabbit hole and realized another reason why a Drow living on the surface might need to avoid sun exposure outside of just their eyes.
Given that they’re a subterranean species with no natural exposure to UV light it’s extremely likely they have a very good natural ability to absorb vitamin d from their environment. This would also be a good reason for them to have diets that include insects which typically absorb this vitamin from eating soil.
Upon going to the surface however they’d be absorbing it easily from more sources than they’re used to, especially if they continue to eat mushrooms which will also gain vitamin d from sun exposure.
So…add in the sun which they have no natural protection from…and they’d be highly susceptible to sun sickness (which is where the body literally has an allergic reaction to UV light) but also vitamin d toxicity.
More nonalignment related reasons to keep your surface Drow covered up during the day.
