Drow

Drow Elves are a rather interesting subrace of the elves. While they are considered elves, drow appear to be more hated and discriminated against due to their nature and past.

Traits
Drow are typically shorter yet stronger than normal elves; adopting a similar framework to that of a human, aside from retaining a slimmer build. This is due to their physically-intense culture, and the confined conditions they first lived in. Drow's skin is notably rougher than any other races' aside from that of an orc's or a dravar's. After being exposed to Phenium's venom during the ritual of the Matriarch arachnid, drow show high levels of resistance towards poisons; only the most potent of the sorts being able to make them ill. Also - like dwarves and orcs- drow are immune to many diseases. Due to them originally being shunned by humans and elves, the drow are not really charismatic, and tend to remain stern and serious unless they are with people they value dearly, or can trust with their life. Such racial segregation has also allowed drow to formulate hatred, and thus they are often seen to perfom wicked and villainous deeds due to their moral conceptions being blurred, and their feudal state in Elwien that resulted in the deaths of many elves being a supported system of executive dominance over the race's captured territory. Drow tend to have very little shame, as whilst in the Third Age clothing is used by almost every drow, very few of the drow that reside in the cave of Ilya choose to only wear clothing if it is armour, as in the First and Second ages no materials to make clothing from was really available from within the cave, aside from those who were in favour of the Matriarch, who would be given ceremonial gowns of spider-silk woven by Phenium herself.

Beginning
In the First Age of Asmalur, many moons ago, there was a family of warrior Elves known as the Zautari. The Zautari consisted of a mother name Ilya, her husband, Au'qur, and her two daughters named Mur'ina, and Avarii. When it came to the family's capabilities in combat, Ilya was unrivalled in skill, ruthlessness, and strength. Au'qur, however, turned to gambling and drinking uncopious amounts of alcohol to pass the days by once his two daughters had reached a stage of adolesence. Debts piled up amidst the family, and so Ilya did what she could to provide for her daughters by resorting to taking on contracts to slay many beasts who were causing death and disarray in fiefs. On her first contract, she killed the undead. On her second contract, she rid farmer's fields of viscous and deadly birds of prey which had been rumoured to sweep away young Elves. For her third contract, however, she was asked to form a band of fighters with four men, and rid a mine of arachnids which reportedly were killing miners as they lurked in the deep shadows of the caves. Upon arriving, however, the group were faced with not many typically-sized arachnids for the world of Arkadell, but an even larger behemoth of a spider, eyeing all of them before catching the four men in a web, casting them to ridges of the cave after they were sealed in cocoons. Ilya ran for her life, panting as she reached her home, however with the coming days drawing near; would it be her home for much longer?

A wife of one of the monster hunters had a theory. A theory that Ilya led her comrades to their death purposefully, as if she was a witch that commanded the arachnid that sealed them. It was plausible to say the least, and so the Zautari family were branded as witches of the dark arts; Au'qur being the exeption as he had ran away upon hearing the theory, despite whole-heartedly believing that Ilya and his daughters were not in fact witches at all. Ilya and her daughters were banished into the lair of the afformentioned arachnid, and the entrance was sealed: never to be reopenned again.

Ilya and her daughters could do nothing but sob for two days continuously, until they brought themselves around to timidly delve deeper into the cave in search for a spring they had kept hearing the trickles of. Ilya, holding both her daughter's hands, approached the spring, before halting upon seeing the large arachnid that had inflicted this grief upon her approach the spring itself. It halted, slowly turning to Ilya, and to her amazement, it spoke. The behemoth of a spider seemed to understand Ilya's grief; and introduced itself as "Phenium", the last female spider of her stature. Phenium offered Ilya and her daughters a chance. Ilya and her daughters would be promised to survive their hardships without much grievances, however, they must promise to spread the name of Phenium, commending her as a Goddess to be remembered throughout all the future ages to come, and to give her more years to live through a special ritual only the Matriarch Arachnid of Phenium's ancestors could perform. Ilya accepted without haste, in fear for her and her children's lives, and upon doing so was embraced by Phenium, before being bitten. Ilya looked down, her lucious brown locks now turning silver, and her pristine pale skin turning a slate grey. She screamed at Phenium as she was pinned down by her gigantic, cumbersome legs as the same proceeded to be done to her two children. Phenium then scuttered over to four cocoons, cutting them down from their resting points as four men, also of grey skin and white hair, struggled through the webs that had once consumed them.

Phenium offered them to Ilya as husbands for herself and her daughters, wedding the chosen three together unceremonially, whilst the other became the first offering to Phenium: the now self-proclaimed Goddess of Ambiguity. Ilya trained the men in combat, as well as her daughters; however she soon realized that men would prove to be the better warriors due to their superior physical conditions. The men would also be asked to perform duties such as mining; which was not only used to gather materials for forging weaponry and armour to defend themselves from other beasts that lurked in the depths of the caverns, but also to carve homes out of the stone. Two-hundred years passed, and Phenium could no longer assist the now bustling underground society anymore from the depths of the caves, and in the form of an old, senile arachnid. As she grew older and older, she began to forget about her agreement with Ilya, who was now considered to be a Queen in her own right, and attempted to take her life. Ilya fought with great strength and willpower; besting Phenium before slaying her once and for all. Following this, Ilya realized that despite her work to make a new world in the cavern, there was still danger ahead of them all. It was declared that all of Ilya's people would have to become skilled in the art of combat, and focus less on other labour-intensive occupations such as mining, and building. Those who failed to follow this would be shunned. It was not long after this that Ilya found how rash and abusive men could be when given power, and so she acted fast; solidifying a matriarchal society that would last throughout the generations of her people.

And so it did. After Ilya's death, her daughters picked up where she had left off, and after them, their daughters. Men were simply used as protectors of the more important women, and their most loyal workers.

The Light
Throughout the course of the Second Age, Ilya's people who had dubbed themselves as "Drow" had been creating small peek holes to spy on the outer world, and the elves of Elwien. Messages from what they classed as their neighbours- the spiders of the cave- proved to be useful in monitoring what was happening in Tel'Ithanni. "Spider calling" is an art native to the drow; allowing them to speak to the arachnids who were believed to be workers of the Goddess of Ambiguity, and the Goddess of the Blade, whom was Ilya. Following the Elven defeat of 1425 in the Great War, the drow took this as their opportunity to leave the cavern and expand. With weak contingencies of guards, and no way of efficiently reporting losses to Tel'Ithanni due to it being on lockdown in fear of a counter-attack led by the Kingdom of Kaza, the drow laid waste to their lighter bretheren; capturing a small portion of south-east Elwien and the fiefs that it held. The drow could finally become civilised to an extent: they aquired clothes for the first time, the minority of them that could be classed as feral began to abide by social norms. However, most of all, an age of feudalism was ahead of the drow. Houses of families began to claim fiefs, and push further into the mainland of Elwien, trying to capture small fiefs without Tel'Ithanni hearing of them; and they proved to be successful for the most part.

Finally, when the Third Age brought about an extent of globalisation, the drow met traders of many races. Dwarves, humans, even a minority of dravar docked to see the beauty of the elves, however, those who docked on the south-east coast would be shocked at what they found. Humans, rash as they are in nature, were horrified by the Drow, thinking of them as abominations of elves that could have possibly been cast down by Sorthen himself. The dravar failed to see the beauty of the drow they see in elves, however due to their small numbers, the drow were often able to make tough yet light armour out of their scales. For drow, the darker the dravar scale, the fiercer the warrior you are seen as, and so fine warriors would often have an undercoat of purple, blue, or black dravar scales as opposed to chainmail in their suits of armour. Dwarves were not so quick to judge the drow, and went on to study their heritage sites such as the Cave of Ilya. They simply laughed at the poor stonework of the drow, yet they offered to share their knowledge of architecture with them; constructing dwarven buildings that were built to last amidst their fiefs, and even in a new area they chiseled into the Cave of Ilya. No orcs ever arrived in Elwien to encounter the drow, however, after the drow started to sail their own vessels, orcs took a liking to the drow due to their disdain for elves, the feudalism they had established what was similar to their numerous clans, and their chaotic nature. It is not unheard of for female drow to have relationships with male orcs due to their excellence in combat, however, the orc would have to go through the same process as any drow man would.

Current Times
Currently, the drow of Elwien are wary of war breaking out against each other's Houses led by rivaling Matriarchs as it has in the past; whilst trying to stifle the arousal of Tel'Ithanni's Royal Guards, who have already swept the lands of many Drow Houses. Due to the constant elimination of families, there are now larger Houses that have amassed armies of drow mercenaries or members of defeated Houses: meaning the military standstill has more tension than ever before.

Marriage
While drow live under a matriarchy, it is still expected of the male to propose to the female; however, he must first prove himself. The drow male is expected to show a display of his skill in combat to the woman, whether this is in battle, or a duel. Once the woman sees/hears of this, she will usually make her recognition of the man notable, usually by introducing herself to him. Once this is done, if the man sees himself capable of defending his possible future partner, he must display his affection to the woman by proposing, however it is usually not as direct as it sounds. If a man just flat-out proposes, the woman may think he is not willing nor capable to defend her, or obey her, and that he just sees her as an item. If the man is rejected, the woman is known to typically tell her family that she had rejected the man, and might even tell her male relatives to beat the male if his attempt at a proposal was pathetic. The most common proposal method for drow is for the male to bring the female heads of beasts or her adversaries; an example being the multiple proposals after 1425 that utilized the heads of elven guards and wardens, which in turn caused the baby-booms of the next seven years in drow history. Another, much more rare method is known as "taming". If a woman is known as a great combatant, she will often only accept a male who is stronger than herself. To show this, a man may have to assault the woman, making his intentions to fight her clear. If the man wins, then it is a very rare occurance for him to be rejected. However, a reason why taming is not commonly used is that if the woman wins, she bears the right to take her lover's life.

Once a male and female drow are married, they are often known to have children fairly early on in the marriage; allowing them to fully develop fondness for each other during the woman's pregnancy. Drow will very rarely break up, as if one drow would like to end a marriage or relationship and the other bewedded does not feel mutual about the situation, then the drow who wants to break up will have to fight their husband/wife for their right to independence.

Occupations and Jobs
1=Inadequate

2=Adequate

3=Good

4=Excellent

Warrior: 4

Drow make excellent warriors. This is due to fighting being a core part of drow upbringing, the teachings of Ilya, and drow warrior culture.

Thief/Rogue: 4

Stronger and stealthier than normal elves due to their experiences in the First and Second ages, yet retaining their agility, drow are masters of the shadows.

Fisherman: 4

Although discouraged, drow are often known as excellent fishermen. This is due to their rigorous fishing in caverns as the only source of protein.

Miner: 3

Drow make good miners. Drow mining techniques date back to the First Age, however, drow mining teams lack in coordination with each other, meaning that they are slower miners compared to races like dwarves.

Blacksmith: 3

Drow make good blacksmiths. Drow forging is very much unique, as their armour and weaponry often looks hellish due to the materials found in the cave of Ilya, however, they prove to be incredibly efficient, and suprisingly light.

Enchanter: 3

Drow make good enchanters. This is due to their knowledge of dark rituals performed by Phenium which have been utilized into creating wicked weapons, tools, and armour.

Architect: 2

Drow make adequate architects. This is due to a small number of drow knowing how to construct dwarven architecture, however apart from that, drow building is very inefficient and basic.

Hunter: 2

Although drow have the desired architype for hunting, hunting has never been rich in their history, and was only really adopted on a larger scale in the Third Age; whilst fishing remained at an all-time high.

Alchemist/Brewer: 2

Drow have a limited knowledge of brewing and alchemy due to the lack of vegetation in the cave of Ilya. However, one thing drows can brew with extreme efficiency is poison. This is due to the amount of toxins available from the arachnids of the caverns.

Scholar: 2

Drow only collected information of what was happening currently. Their segregation and confinement has limited their knowledge to books that were imported in the Third Age.

Doctor/surgeon: 1

Drow have an extremely limited knowledge of medicine.

Cook/Chef: 1

Drow have a very small knowledge of cooking: often being related to orcs in culinary skills.

Woodcutter/Carpenter: 1

Drow have a next to no knowledge of efficient woodcutting, or how to use wood in architecture.

Magic Efficiency
OVERALL EFFICIENCY: 2

Although drow recognize the true power of magic, they are often brought up to be a warrior, and not encourage the learning of the arcane arts.

Chaotic: 4

Drow are excellent students in the school of chaotic magic, due to their typically chaotic nature to start with, as well as their eagerness to utilize it.

Deceptive: 3

Drow are good students in the school of deceptive magic due to it's favourability towards those who may live in the conditions the drow first did.

Conjuration: 2

Although the powers of conjuration could be useful to drow, they are nowhere near as favoured as chaotic and deceptive magic, and so it is generally disregarded.

Restoration: 1

Although it would prove to be useful in combat, it would mean the drow would have to stop fighting for a moment: a prospect your average drow would frown upon due to the risks it also bears. At any rate, restoration would only really be used to tend to ill women of families.

Natural: 0/1

Drow have only had an ages worth of experiencing the beauty of nature, and therefore would have extreme difficulty in harnessing it. Many drow who go on to be a mage in hoping to learn under the school of nature often find themselves completely unable of being taught the spells.

Religion
The most commonly worshipped dieties in drow culture are Phenium- the Goddess of Ambiguity, and Ilya- the Goddess of the Blade. Phenium is believed to allow the drow to act with subterfuge, and remain seperate from their hated Elven cousins, while Ilya is believed to retain stability amongst drow as a race, and, if the time comes; her spirit will supposedly ascend from her crypt in the Cave of Ilya, and rain havoc upon those who try to exterminate her beloved people. As for Elven Gods, the drow do not follow any of them: believing that if Astire did truly exist, they would have half of Elwien, and if Iljika existed, then nature would have been kinder to them in the First Age. As for Ilwitho'ole, the drow have not experienced life at sea to it's full extent, and so for the time being she remains distant from drow religion. In the Third Age, some drow even found themselves worshipping Sorthen, however this is a very rare occurance.

Why Asmalur?
Drow may choose to come to Asmalur in small numbers for multiple reasons; the main one being to escape the wrath of the Elven Empire. After fiefs were taken due to the opportunity the Great War provided the drow with, many Houses were found to be involved, and eventually met the wrath of the Royal Guard. Battered and bloodied, many fled to the neighbouring continent of Galvanor due to it's vast islands, as they would be untraceable there, however not all had that liberty, and so a very small number of drow have been seen to roam the lands of Asmalur in the past. However, other reasons include- and are not limited to- being rejected from marriage in a harsh manner, wanting to explore outside of Elwien as a pioneer for the drow of sorts, or fleeing from rival Houses who have been conquering their House's fiefs.