Drow
Drow or dark elves, are a subrace of elves that live beneath the surface of Holos in the Doom Caverns of the Underdark. According to legend, the drow once lived among the other elves and were citizens of the Temekanian Empire. At the end of the Mithril Era, they betrayed their kin to the demi-god Ozha-Ban and were banished during the Reckoning of Temekan for their false deity's blasphemous rituals against the Heavenly Council. For this treachery, the drow were marked with unnaturally shadowy skin and pale eyes and sent below to the dark places of the world where they continue to plot their return and retribution. Surface drow do exist but are exceptionally rare and often have cast aside their worship of the Doom Lich. Some still harbor resentment towards the other elves, and they are frequently mistrusted, yet these communities do strive towards integration and balance with the other races, even if it is only for their own survival.
Basic Information
Anatomy
All elves are characterized by their fey grace and fine features that make them seem decidedly ancient and arcane. Drow in particular are shorter and thinner than even their elven counterparts, likely owing to a life without sunlight. The drow's appearances have been altered by generations spent in the Doom Caverns and Shadowfell, with their hair turning translucent white and their skin ranging from charcoal to obsidian and jet. The drow are known for having pale reflections of their fey ancestry in their eyes of lilac, rose, scarlet, and cerulean. They too bear the tapered ears of the fey, though they are shorter and usually less adorned than their high and woodland elf counterparts.
Genetics and Reproduction
Because of their long life spans, elves have the longest gestation period of any mortal, clocking in at around five years. Much of that time, an elven fetus remains in the embryonic stage of development. The elven fetuses require certain conditions to be met in order to grow to the proper stages. This includes the mother consuming important herbs, resting under a clear night's sky, and getting regular exercise. All of these activities are things that would be easy for the elf's ancestor to do in the Feywild, but present challenges in the Material Plane. Elf mothers rarely miscarry, instead the embryos are able to go into a stasis, waiting until the right conditions are met in order to advance in their stage of embryonic development.
Additionally, elf women have far fewer eggs than other mortal races. The average number of elf children is two, with twins being common and with seven total offspring being the maximum. This further constrains population growth and ensures that every child born to an elven family has a great deal of pressure to continue the species.
Drow have found ways to circumvent much of their elven kin's issues with reproduction. The Unspoken gifted the drow knowledge of dark magic and rituals that can produce drow children as well as fouler offspring to help grow the hive-like clans and prepare them to take on the surface world.
Growth Rate & Stages
Among the elves, drow have the shortest lifespans, largely thanks to their brutish environment. Yet even still, dark elves are among the longest lived of the mortal races, regularly reaching 300 years old and some even living up to 500 years. The adolescent and subadult periods for elves is about twice as long as it is for humans, with elves reaching sexual maturity around age 30 and emotional maturity around age 50. Most communities of elves don't consider children to have achieved adulthood until age 40, upon which they are permitted to take spouses and leave the care of their parents.
Ecology and Habitats
On the Material Plane, drow primarily live in the dim caves and tunnels of the Underdark. In this hostile environment, drow have adapted their fey biology to better suit their subterranean home. The drow might have not chosen to live in the Underdark, but just the same they consider it their home, not a prison. They've lived away from sunlight for so long that they can't bear the touch of it on their flesh, and thus they prefer to visit the surface only at night. Even though they live underground, drow are much more than cave-dwellers. Their cities are as magnificent as anything built by surface elves, and their defenses are even more secure. Their most important sites are located inside immense, hollowed-out stalactites and stalagmites, with entrances well guarded.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Living in the Underdark presents challenges for gathering food. Fungus and mushrooms makes up the bulk of the drow diet, along with whatever subterranean creatures they can harvest or hunt. They regularly consume food and water tainted by Valdra's presence within the Underdark.
Additional Information
Social Structure
The principal organization in drow culture and society is the house, an extended clan that comprises many related families, plus a number of lesser families who have pledged loyalty to the house. A house's membership also includes some (potentially very large) number of indentured drow servants and slaves of other species. A house usually specializes in a business, a service , or a craft that supports by providing income. Houses are in constant competition with one another. They vie for money, for prestige, and, more than anything else, for power over others- the surest sign of Ozha-Ban's approval.
No tactic is outside the rules in this ongoing conflict. Raids against another house's outlying property (farming caverns, trade caravans, or hunting parties) are commonplace. Rumors about disloyalty, conspiracies with surface elves, or heresy against Ozha-Ban are circulated so frequently that no one knows what to be sure of. Assassinations, both by blade and by the use of special drow poisons, are a constant threat. Bodyguards and food tasters are as necessary to the survival of a high-ranking drow as air and water. Squabbles within a house also occur from time to time as relatives jockey for position. It 's a rare occurrence, though far from unknown, for drow to assassinate their own parents or siblings if that's what it takes to create a path for advancement.
Females are the top figures in drow society. At the head of each house is someone who is a shrewd business operator, a skilled tactician, a high priestess of Lolth, and probably also a merciless assassin with blood on her hands. Unlike with many other races, female drow are typically taller and more robust than males. To rise to the top echelons of power, a female must first become a priestess of Ozha-Ban. Then, to ascend to the status of high priestess, she must take advantage of powerful connections or craft special alliances. The path to ultimate power in drow society is never direct and is always paved with death.
A male drow can advance in standing as a combatant, a consort, or both. Physical beauty and fitness are highly prized in male drow, and those who are especially favored in this regard can earn protection and gifts from their matrons. A few males can attain high status in their society, especially those who serve as mages, but they never overshadow the females of their houses. Even the most intelligent, strong-willed, and devious male will never be more than a second-class citizen in any drow city or house. That situation will never change as long as Ozha-Ban's preference towards his female subjects remains.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Drow have remarkable sensory abilities thanks to their fey heritage and their adaptation to the shadowy realms they call home. They are fully proficient in Perception and can see in darkness up to 120 ft. However, this advanced darkvision does not come without cost; drow are particularly sensitive to UV radiation and have disadvantage when engaging in sight-reliant activity in direct sunlight. Not even sleep impedes a dark elf's perception abilities, as they require only four hours of sleep per day in order to remain rested.
Civilization and Culture
Culture and Cultural Heritage
From the time they're old enough to understand, drow are taught that they're superior to all other creatures, for they remain steadfast in their devotion to Ozha-Ban despite the hardships of their existence. Any creature that isn't a drow is useful only as a sacrifice to Ozha-Ban as a slave or as fodder for the giant spiders that the drow train to patrol their cities and tunnels. Reverence for Ozha-Ban touches every aspect of drow life. All dark elves constantly watch for signs of his favor. Any incident or physical feature can be interpreted as such a sign, and priestesses are quick to attach meanings to obscure omens that benefit their own interests.
All this effort to please Ozha-Ban is a wise precaution. Though he resides in the Doom Caverns, the Doom Lich isn't a distant god. He sometimes tests his most faithful by drawing their spirits to his in the Demonweb to undergo his judgment. Followers never know when or if they are to be tested. One who claims to have undergone the test and passed it is rewarded with respect and elevated status. Even someone who successfully lies about having taken the test can earn the respect of their peers, since perpetrating this falsehood is a way of proving one's worth to Ozha-Ban. Lying and conniving can't save those who fail the test, however, because the evidence of such an outcome is immediately obvious- a drow whose spirit has failed its test in the Demonweb Pits becomes transformed into a drider, a haunting hybrid comprised of a drow and a giant spider.
History
The drow trace their ancestry back to the Mithril Era, when they along with many other elves, lived in the first great mortal civilization, the Great House of Temekan. However, an aasimar mage named Ozha-Ban soon began gathering followers after he discovered an old workshop of the goddess Myurdin in the Valley of Dusk. He unlocked many ancient secrets, including revivification and even true immortality. The ancestors of the drow were in awe of Ozha-Ban's power and pledged themselves to him. Over the next few decades they grew in number, sacrificing all those who did not join them to Ozha-Ban's dark rituals. When Ozha-Ban tried to pry apart the secrets of divinity itself, the gods of the Heavenly Council ravaged Old Temekan in the what became known as the Reckoning. Many of the drow's ancestors died, but those that survived were protected by Ozha-Ban's spells and fled deep underground. The Heavenly Council banished them from the surface world and marked them with the unnatural skin and hair of the drow we see today. Yet the newly ascended Ozha-Ban stood by his most loyal followers and granted them divine favor. Now, deep within the crust of Holos, the drow continue to work to gain godhood with the help with their patron, the Doom Lich himself.
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