Maerimydra

Maerimydra is a large drow city located below the Dalelands in the Deep Wastes.

Defences

The city itself only has three main points of entrance from the rest of the Underdark. Each is guarded by enormous iron gates and barred by a metal bolt.

Industry & Trade

Maerimydra actively trades with duergar in the Underdark near Zhentil Keep. The drow are buying dwarven slaves from these duergar and using subterranean rivers that connect from the Moonsea to the Shadowdark beneath The Old Skull Tor to ferry them.

History

• Early History

Shortly after the founding of Maerimydra, a group of rebels staged a coup of the city. This uprising was stopped but not after many casualties. The bodies of the dead rebels were thrown into the large lake in the city, forever tinging it red and polluting it, this lake became known as the Lake of Blood.
In −2600 DR the Matron mothers of Maerimydra commissioned the building of the Twisted Tower as a beachhead in the Realms Above. Despite repeated attacks and attempts to stop them by the elves, the drow completed the Twisted Tower in −2549 DR and claimed the surrounding surface territory, which became known as the Land Under Shadow and as a base for Underdark-based slavery.
In −331 DR, the Land Under Shadow was freed by the forces of Cormanthor, which included the armies of Cormanthyr and Rystall Wood and a group of Eilistraee-worshiping drow. The latter were then given the permission to occupy the Twisted Tower, which they turned into a temple of the Dark Dancer (the Tower of the Dark Moon). Before retreating however, the drow of Maerimydra stole the Warblade from Lord Orym Hawksong and ferried it from the Twisted Tower to a secret vault beneath the Courtyard of Lolth.

• In the Wake of the Weeping War

By 714 DR, in the wake of the fall of Myth Drannor, Maerimydra reconquered the Land Under Shadow once more. During this period, Maerimydra expanded in other directions. Notably in 800 DR, a champion of the city defeated the nearby lich, Vournoth, to establish an well-patrolled campsite in Vournoth's Mire. This also laid the groundwork for the establishment of Szith Morcane in 804 DR. This expansion continued many years until 906 DR when the water wizard Ashaba led an army of dalesmen and cormytes to drive the drow out of the Twisted Tower.

• Interim Years

At some point around 1136 DR, the Jaezred Chaulssin, a group of vhaeraunite assassins with the goal of freeing the drow race from their slavery to Lolth, founded one of its major fosterages in Maerimydra.

Geography

Maerimydra is situated in the Middledark, roughly ten miles below the southern border of Mistledale. It resides in a cavern roughly three quarters of a mile from north to south and half a mile from east to west with many smaller caverns surrounding the city itself. Numerous plateaus separated the city, with the highest level being in the north-west corner.
Connections to the Surface
Winding away from the city are Underdark passages, some of which lead to the surface. There are noted connections to the surface that connect to Maerimydra; one within the Dordrien crypts in Daggerdale; one near the Elven Court in Cormanthor; one beneath Haptooth Hill in Battledale; and one that leads into the sewers of Zhentil Keep.

Type

Large city

Population

~11000

Characters in Location

• Matron Mother Jhaelarra Barri'und