Drow in Orben

The origins of Drow are mysterious, but the first Drow is said to be Urgath, Queen-Mother of Deleran, the Elven emperor of Aer Arnad over two thousand years ago. Urgath was driven into hiding when her son was deposed, and it was said that in this way she discovered the Underdark, and made a pact with Lolth. All Drow are said to be her descendants, being warped and twisted by the evil queen and the infernal influence of the god she chose to worship. Lolth has since secured the loyalty of the Drow by propagating the idea that Corellon Larethian, the god of the surface Elves who fears the superiority of the Drow (according to Lolth), was instrumental in their exile and conspires with all the other gods to repress them, and every misfortune and foiled ambition is ascribed to this imagined conspiracy to deny them their true place as the rulers of the world. This has produced Drow that are not only bitter and resentful, but feel entitled to claim everything and everyone in front of them. Thus, Drow are feared and hated all over Orben, even among their own race.

 

Although Drow tend to prefer working from the shadows and behind the scenes, their mark can easily be found on nearly every invasion into Dwarven or surface lands by the armies of the Underdark, and every unholy war or alliance between the Darkling peoples.

 

Drow Society and Culture

Drow are known for being arrogant, ambitious, sadistic, treacherous and hedonistic. From birth, Drow are taught that they are superior to other races and should crush all other people, even other Drow, beneath them. Children who resist and show kindness or love are brutally punished, so as to beat the instinct for cruelty into them. Failing this "solution," murder, abandonment, and exile are considered perfectly viable alternatives; few Drow will tolerate anything considered "weakness." As one can imagine, this has led to a race of emotionally stunted people, with a tenuous grasp on sanity and scarred mentalities among which relatively undamaged minds are considered abnormal.

Not all Drow become a part of the violent mainstream culture that most of the race are forced to endure. Those few who escape the life of the Underdark might break away entirely from their dark past, while some fortunate Drow are actually born and raised outside of the world below. Some Drow find a hint of virtue within themselves in spite of all the terrors they witness, or perhaps because of them. Others turn late to better ways, either out of guilt or out of the simple fact they are no longer obliged to do so; yet others become dangerously insane, broken by the horrors that have mangled their psyches.

Most Drow, however, live in chaotic, violent city-states formed in huge caverns in the Underdark that are usually at war with one another. These so-called “city-states“ are badly organized, and particularly discordant, often merely clusters of Drow in the Underdark where the most powerful family groups taking the best lands and resources for themselves and commoners and slaves are left to live off of the scraps. These acquisitive families form a “city's" "nobility." Normally, a noble House is ruled by a priest of Lolth who has had one or more daughters, and is then called a Matron Mother. Although the constant infighting among all Drow ensures that power changes hands often, the top few families ruled by Matron Mothers usually remain stable. These "top few" cement their base of power with standing armies of Drow soldiers, priests, and wizards. Noble armies also often include segregated, entirely Non-drow contingents of  slaves, usually Bugbears, Ogres, and Minotaurs.

Above even the noble families are temple-priests of Lolth, who tend to the shrines which serve as city-centers, and set forth all religious dogma for the city to follow, for in addition to being matriarchal, Drow cities are intensely theocratic. Lolth’s dogma recognizes female Drow as far more valuable than males; in fact to Lolth, males are often considered worthless. Some male clerics of Lolth do exist, but they are barred from ever possessing strong clerical powers. Because of this they serve in low-ranking positions under lethal risks, as it is considered acceptable for female priests to kill them with little provocation. This is what gives female Drow practically all power in their theocratic society, and prevents them from being sacrificed as often as males (keeping their relative numbers higher, and ensuring that they must compete with one another for the few remaining males in order to breed).

Males who hope to find any place of power in society have few routes of personal advancement, and often resort to ends as treacherous as their female counterparts, even if only to win a coveted place as the mate of a powerful Matron Mother. Even in the military, female priests formally hold the highest ranks. In practice however, male commanders lead, as the priests commonly hide away while using threats and magical domination to ensure their orders are followed. Some male Drow who demonstrate enough martial ability may be deemed valuable to the degree that they are above "expendable," even if it is only in the capacity of an especially good "tool." Arcane magic is an even more singular route to power for male Drow, though it is a route allowed only to those few who can escape notice long enough to master the arcane arts—again, to the point of being "useful."

This toxic dynamic between Drow men and women ensures that trust can almost never exist between sexes. As one might imagine, Drow marriages are loveless affairs, dominated by their female half who conducts them only by necessity, and never with any real affection.

Drow view other races anywhere from potential slaves to vermin requiring extermination. While they feel a general revulsion against all other surface races for their supposed "weakness," all ill-will is outstripped by what they feel towards surface Elves, out of whom High elves hold an even more special position of loathing. Due to their beliefs about Corellon Larethian exiling them to the Underdark, traditional Drow culture calls for blind hatred towards his Elven people, to the point of exterminating them at every opportunity. Although most Drow believe this, many have become so used to life in the Underdark that they have no interest in the surface lands or the more socially cooperative lifestyles that are denied to them.

Drow are capable of holding some respect towards certain races that can repel their military aggression, while suffering nearly to the same degree of social cruelty that Drow do, like Duergar or the Illithids, but none is considered an equal.

This view is principle among those resulting in their extreme views toward other races. Any new settlement the Drow encounter they will attempt to wipe out or subjugate entirely. Prisoners of such violent activities usually become slaves. All unskilled labor in Drow cities is carried out by slaves, and so the slave trade is a reliable business. These unfortunate souls aren’t only captured and forced into menial work, but also bred and experimented upon, hearkening back to Queen Urgath's own practices before she became the mother of the Drow.

 

Drow in Mhirdrun

The people of Mhirdrun already tend to hate Elves. Imagine a race of Elves who, on top of being Elves, are also renowned for being utterly evil and depraved, in addition to being extremely manipulative, corrupt, and perverse, far beyond the realm of even the worst High-Elves who ever crushed human towns beneath a pall of unrelenting despair. Those would be Drow. You can imagine the rest.