House Dey'orl
"5th House of Nyrthanguul..."
House Dey'orl is the "5th House of Nyrthanguul," the massive drow city of The Underdark, situated just below The Blight mountains. Ruled by the highly ambitious matron mother Seratia Dey'orl, the "House of Wicked Blades" is the fastest rising star in recent Nyrthanguul history. Dey'orl earned its alternate name from its cadre of feared, militarized assassins, The Wicked Blades, all equipped with special, serrated scimitars imbued with dark paralysis magic (courtesy of the House 1st Male, Nykal Mehendar).
Matron Seratia's direct family consists of three daughters, the eldest of which is her immediate successor, the drow priestess of Lolth, Valassa Dey'orl. Her other two daughters, Teffa (middle) and Nessa (youngest), seem to have but a fraction of the ambition witnessed in Valassa. In fact, so unaligned with the family ways was young Teffa, that she fled the Underdark (and dropped her family name) in favor of the surface world, where she now lives as a druid. She has had no contact with her family since departing. Her loss doesn't seem to be mourned, save by her younger sister, Nessa, who always looked up to Teffa's willful independence.
Part of this may be due to the fact that Teffa is only half-drow, and was never truly accepted by her mother and grandmother. Before succeeding her own mother, Seratia traveled to (and spent a good deal of time in) the surface realm. Though she refuses to talk about this time in her life, when she was allegedly acting as an emissary of House Dey'orl in Angleport, one thing is clear... she came back pregnant, and with a half-human child. Matron Symbal even personally traveled to the surface to retrieve Seratia, returning her to Nyrthanguul and her "house responsibilities." She was also sworn to never speak of her "top world adventure."
Teffa and Nessa entertain the belief that perhaps their mother was having second thoughts about her future as heir to the House Dey'orl. Whether or not this was the case, it certainly isn't any longer, as Seratia is fully engrossed in the subterfuge and general Machiavellian machinations of "normal" drow society. If anything, she returned far more ruthless than before she left. All that's known for certain is it would take more than a knife twisting in her gut to get her to reveal the details of her time above ground, not to mention the father of her child.
Structure
House Dey'orl is ruled by Matron Mother Seratia Dey'orl, whose rule is absolute. She is assisted in this by her three daughters. From eldest to youngest: Valassa, Teffa, and Nessa. Valassa, a priestess of Lolth, is next in line of succession and looks down on her two younger sisters. Teffa and Nessa are closer to each other, but recently Teffa fled from Nyrthanguul to the surface, and hasn't been seen since. Nessa is currently being groomed for the priesthood, and attends the College of Arachnida in the noble quarter of the drow city.
The "1st Male" of House Dey'orl, also the consort of Seratia, is the drow sorcerer, Nykal.
Public Agenda
House Dey'orl has one solitary goal, about which every house member is in single minded pursuit of... "1st House." Having risen quickly from 12th House to 5th (within a mere 15 years), Dey'orl shows no signs of stopping (or even slowing) its ascent.
Assets
The house consists of 200 nobles; 6,000 drow "regulars;" 1,000 "Wicked Blades;" 2,000 mixed servants (drow, drider, non-drow) and 5,000 slaves (mostly human, the prime choice of Dey'orl). Beyond this, Matron Seratia likes to keep at least two demons (straight from the Abyss) in her immediate court. These creatures serve as her personal guard, along with her "1st Male" Nykal Mehendar.
History
Nyrthanguul is the largest drow city in the "Northdark," and as such, each house position is hotly contested on an ongoing basis. House Dey'orl was founded in 876 A.W., more than a thousand years after to settling of the city proper. For most of its life, Dey'orl was a lesser house, ruled by a succession of less ambitious matron mothers. It almost seemd like the family was content with their low station. This endured for some five hundred years, until Matron Mother Thorn came to power. Thorn made sweeping changes to the house infrastructure and actively "campaigned" for better positioning amongst the rival houses. Through means both ruthless and cutthroat, Thorn largely achieved her goal, and within short time, Dey'orl rose to "12th House" before she was succeeded by Seratia's mother, Matron Symbal. Symbal carried forth with her mother's work, managing in her day to get her house to 8th place. After her untimely passing (rumor is she was poisoned by her own daughter, Seratia), Seratia took charge and quickly advanced Dey'orl to "5th House," where it currently stands.
"Dey'orl enemies are both few and dead..."
Matron Mother Seratia
"1st Daughter" Valassa
"1st Male" Nykal
Founding Date
876 A.W.
Type
Family
Capital
Alternative Names
House of Wicked Blades
Demonym
"Blades"
Power Structure
Autonomous area
Economic System
Mixed economy
Parent Organization
Subsidiary Organizations
Location
Controlled Territories
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments