Drow

Black-skinned and white-haired subterranean elves who are allergic to sunlight. They produce adamantine equipment(Which falls apart in sunlight, yet is bad-ass underground), take slaves, are ruled by a matriarchy, have magic resistance and hate normal elves.

90% of all player character Drow will be Chaotic Good and be Rebelling Against The Evils Of Their Race, thanks to the raging hard-on underages have on Drizzt.

Unified Setting Description

Drow are a northern race, possibly related to the elves in distant ancestry. This doesn't concern them in the least as they are busy building a collection of city-states filled with highly competitive individuals. They primarily inhabit the area called Zirnitraog, a collection of islands large and small East of Londerfell.

Politics

The Drow Republic is a bustling, confusing place to many outsiders. Every individual, family, business and city-state seems to have their own agenda and plans which they pursue in direct opposition to the schemes of every other individual, family, business and city-state. The land itself is also varied, containing the empty and barren tundra of the north and the booming, cosmopolitan trading ports of the south.

The independent city-states are each ruled by a House, usually a council of the most powerful factions in town. In other cases it is a democratically elected body, a collection of hereditary nobles or other arrangement. The most powerful Houses (called Great Houses) have influence, if not complete control, over a wide area.

Note: The term city-state refers to the domain controlled by a House. However in the northern reaches there are few cities worth the name and the scattered villages and trading posts serve only as meeting points for the mostly nomadic Drow living there. The term city-state will continue to be used for simplicity, even in reference to the northern "barbarians."

The government of the Drow Republic is the Great Council of Houses (sarcastically called the Council of Great Houses due to their influence). This is a meeting of all Houses to decide on matters affecting the Drow. The Republic requires almost unanimous assent to make a decision and there is little the Houses will agree upon outside of war or an urgent foreign policy matter. The Republic mostly serves as a place for the Great Houses to jockey for power and influence against each other, but it has been known to take quick and decisive action in the past (notably during the rise of Sergal Empress Rain).

There are currently six Great Houses.

• Rugiewit

• Chernogbog

• Peklenc

• Ozwiena

• Ziwia

• Zorya

Assassins

Drow assassins are considered the best in the world. This is true. The reason is that Drow prefer to crush their rivals politically, economically, stylistically or legally. (Drow lawyers are considered the second-best in the world. Debate rages over the #1 slot.) To use an assassin is an admission of failure, which is why such hits are always untraceable. For a rival to be linked to the actual death of an enemy would be a fashion and legal disaster. Hence Drow assassins are masters of seemingly accidental and natural-causes deaths.

Rumors that any particular House specializes in or condones assassination is base slander and the foolish prattle of old women.