Vilik Strad
This massively fortified citadel on the eastern tip of the High Barrens, The has a long and malevolent history. Its hundred-foot-high walls are carved from smooth black basalt, but it is said to be the citadel’s heart that gives it its name as the Dark City. Vilik Strad is the only known major surface enclave of drow in Akados. The shadows of its high walls and the general miasma that hangs over the High Barrens, The shields them sufficiently from the sun to operate on the surface. Said to be an actual dark elf remnant of the Age of Strife, Vilik Strad has stood on this clifftop for as long as even the wild elves of the Green Realm can remember. It is entirely possible that it is the remains of one of the Doomspires from the time of the Gods’ War.
Vilik Strad is home to thousands of drow, but they are substantially outnumbered by a vast host of slave and servant races. Orcs, ogres, bugbears, gnolls, and giants are abundant in the city as are many other Under Realms’ races that the drow have recruited to their cause.
It is said (incorrectly) that the powerful sorcerers of Vilik Strad caused the sinking of the Foerdewaith fleet of the Third Great Crusade in 3173 I.R. It is also said by some that Vilik Strad sent the Singed Man who took over the Duchy of Kear and created so much carnage in western Foere.
The high walls of the city’s Overworks are heavily guarded by bands of ogres, giants, trolls, and bugbears, with entire towers set with reserve forces of hobgoblins. Its many gleaming, razor-like spires are said to bristle with weapons crafted from dark sorcery. A great central keep serves as the entrance to the Underworks and serves the needs of surface-dwelling dark elves who oversee the martial operations conducted above. These shadow dwellers wrap themselves in fine spider-silk robes and wear visors made from thin shards of dark violet crystal to protect their eyes even from bright moonlight.
History and People
The drow are believed to have held Vilik Strad for almost 15 millennia, reputedly having seized it from dwarves who had, in turn, wrested control of the fortress from its original serpentfolk builders that then ruled the Jungle of Shadows.
Once they became masters of Vilik Strad, sorcerers and priestesses of the dark elves (known as Matrons of Shadow) discovered the Underworks in the darkness below the citadel, where they found arcane machinery and learned secrets of the cosmos from denizens of the lower planes.
Slow to breed and slow to move, the dark elves consolidated their power. Pacts with demons and knowledge of sorcery allowed them to enslave many of the fierce tribes of the Under Realms. Their thousands of years within the Underworks and the city built atop them have granted the dark elves of Vilik Strad a greater resistance to daylight than other drow, so that they do not suffer as much from the ill effects of bright light.
To the west, they explored the deep dark of the Talanos Peninsula, building fortresses in the Jungle of Shadows with the purpose of expanding their empire from below to one that would rule the land above it as well. To the east, they built the Port of Ruin, as it has become known, with plans to seize islands throughout the Mouth of Akados.
Even as their influence spread in the realms below and across the Talanos Peninsula, the dark elves of Vilik Strad became aware of the arrival in the Green Realm nearby of groups of their Alfheim kin who were fleeing from wars in the east. As elves spread across the southwestern portion of Akados, the drow feared that it would not be long before these warped tree worshippers would find their way to the Jungle of Shadows. Deciding to act before their enemy was prepared, the dark elves sent an army of orcs, giants, hobgoblins, and gnolls to the very edge of the Jungle of Shadow with the intent of conquering the cities of Solis Alunaris and Suomen Gron in one fell swoop.
Their plan was shattered when the grey elves and wild elves of the Green Realm performed a mighty ritual in 52 I.R. that raised the Cinderhame Mountains and shattered the dark elven armies and turned the lush Jungle of Shadows to ash.
The drow were forced to retreat to Vilik Strad. There they have slowly rebuilt their strength and recently settled outposts in the Cinderhame Mountains themselves. They watch the Green Realm and bide their time before they have the might to move again against the forest and bring ruin to their hated alfar cousins.
Religion and Government
The drow consider themselves to be near equals of lesser demons and fiends, and as such they have created pacts and alliances with several demon lords and similar dark powers of far planes. They favor the Queen of Spiders above others, and despise Orcus, who in one incarnation is said to have shown disrespect to the Lady of Webs.
The hierarchy of their empire is matrilineal, with noble born queens heading the government and the high priesthood of their demonic faith. The current ruler is Queen Arabella Nightweave, leader of the House of Nightweave. Arabella is thought to be around 200 years old and a high priestess of the Queen of Spiders. The House of Nightweave is one of the oldest and most feared families of dark elves in the Under Realms and is recognized among the inner and outer planes. Some whisper that Arabella may actually be an avatar of the Queen of Spiders herself, though this may be a rumor spread by her house to ensure obedience from other families in Vilik Strad.
Loving intrigue and trusting no one, Queen Nightweave sets the members of her court against each other, encouraging sabotage and even murder in efforts to prove their worth to her. Subversive civil wars have often been manipulated for the amusement of the queen. While preventing the accumulation of enough power by any of her courtiers to threaten the ascendency of House Nightweave, these types of machinations go a long way to explaining why it has taken the dark elves so long to grow in sufficient strength to again pose a threat to their neighbors.
The priestesses of the dark elves, known as the Matrons of Shadow, also hold many of the important administrative positions in the city. The matron known as the Sister of Jewels runs mining operations deep below the peninsula; the Sister of Slaves sees to the collection, imprisonment and training of slaves; the Sister of Death supervises the training of assassins; and the Sister of War commands the armies and directs the martial training of males and females. The Matrons of Shadow are assisted by a sorcerer caste of males.
Trade and Commerce
The drow of Vilik Strad are enormously wealthy, owing to hordes of soldier slaves, demonic pacts, and deposits of jewels and rare minerals mined from deep beneath the Talanos Peninsula. As a result, much of the actual economy of the dark elves is based on favor. He or she who has the favor of the most powerful demon, most unscrupulous efreet, or highest-ranking sorcerer shines most brightly in the avaricious eyes of Her Majesty Arabella.
Such things as gold, silver, and jewels therefore are a commodity among the wealthy, and are used primarily to pay for their personal armies and to entreat with demonic beings or dragons who might have an appetite for such treasure.
Loyalty and Diplomacy
The dark elves of Vilik Strad owe no loyalty to anyone save their patron demon lords and their queen. And even those loyalties are not complete. The Dark City keeps a fortified embassy in Braktu to keep an eye on the followers of Orcus and allows a surface embassy of Braktu in the Upper Works. These embassies are purely a charade and barely disguise the enmity the two groups have toward one another.
Military
The military strength of Vilik Strad is organized in cadres of humanoid warriors who are ruled by their own chieftains, but subservient to a regimented core of dark elf task masters.
Hordes of goblin and kobold warrior slaves with spears and light bows are often sent forward into any attack, followed by cadres of more disciplined troops.
The cadres are typically divided into numbers of 500 to 1,000 hobgoblins, orcs, or gnolls, who bring a subchief per 25, a chief for every 500, and a major war chief for every thousand. In this mix are typically shamans and sorcerers working in support of the main hosts. Above these are shock troops of 100 to 200 bugbears set with whips and chains to ensure that the orcs and goblin hosts do not run and to keep the gnolls from eating the cowards.
When the dark elves venture forth in war themselves, they are typically organized into companies of 50 to 100 warriors wielding deadly weapons and wearing lightweight finely-tooled armor, with one or more sorcerers and Matrons of Shadow to provide magical aid. When the cause of battle calls for it, the matrons may bring forth bound demons ranging from vrocks to hezrou, or perhaps swarms of dretches.
Within the city proper (both the Overworks and the Underworks), dark elf troops predominate, with the queen herself maintaining a royal guard of 10,000 shock troops, 100 sorcerers, and 100 priestesses of the Lady of Webs, including subservient demons alleged to include nalfeshnee and glabrezu among their numbers.
Major Threats
The dark elves in truth have little to fear, save perhaps an invasion from the inner planes through an unmapped planar gate in the Underworks or the accidental release of some undiscovered arcane threat of the legendary serpentfolk from the depths below the city. Braktu is watched closely, but not thought of as a great risk. On the other hand, while the elves of the Green Realm do not have any intention of invading the Talanos Peninsula, the drow continue to perceive their distant cousins as some sort of existential threat, and plot and plan in the darkness of the citadel to end that threat forever.
Capital
Vilik Strad, The Dark City
Type
Capital
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