Message #100077

[D'Espana]

The Underdark. A continent under a continent, unbeknown by the majority of the upper world and feared by the few that have heard the legends about it. Legends about dreadful creatures, which come out at night and ravage villages and towns, leaving no survivors behind them. Legends about mythological beings, long disappeared from the surface of the world, which custody huge treasures from forgotten times. Legends about heroic (or mad) adventurers that found an entrance and ventured in this misterious place, only to never be seen or heard of again.

What lies in this cursed land, where the only sound you want to hear is the echo of the water dropping from the stalactites? What rests in this place that the light of the sun has never nor will ever touch? Does it even hold any life at all? Is it possible for something to grow or prosper in this most hostile environment?

The answer is - yes. Miles under the continent, this gargantuan cavernous system spreads for leagues, always silent, always immutable yet changing. Collapses are not uncommon, and the air itself can be an added trouble, since it can grow stale and even poisonous, when not outright flammable or explosive due to trapped gases. Though the weather is always reasonably mild, water is extremely cold, posing hypothermia risk to those who remain in it for too long... and do not suffer other "accidents" while taking a bath. Here and there, solitary beings can be found, as well as herds of creatures unseen by most mortals. However, you would do well in avoiding contact with anything or anyone, as in the Underdark, pretty much everything can kill you or wants to eat your flesh. Even the rare plants (or so they seem) are venomous to the extreme, making from this land a barren place where life is scarce and expert in the art of hiding and ambushing.

Even rarer, little nooks of civilization can be found, composed by one of the few intelligent races that have made from the Underdark their home. The corrupted Duergars, or gray dwarves, compete with the deep gnomes, also known as Svirfneblin, for the rich veins of ore available to the miners. The Illithids or mind flayers inhabit caverns with their own kin, protecting the Super Brain that binds them together and only worried of enslaving other races, which will serve either as slaves or the next meal of their masters, which find in brains their source of food. Amongst the less civilized creatures, Goblins, Kobolds or Quaggoth live in tribal societies, trying to profit from any chance they have to survive meanwhile they try to avoid being detected by the superior races. On the other extreme, extremely intelligent entities, such as Aboleths, Cloakers or even Dragons live on their own, very often looking after their possessions with ultimate zeal and determination.

And then, there are the Drows. This elven sub-race was expelled from the surface by their elven cousins an eternity ago, and have adapted extremely well to their life in the Underdark. Dark skin, extremely pale hair and red or pale eyes make up their appearance, with compact and slender bodies granting them stealth, agility and speed as their defining physical characteristics. They use infravision as their main resource to see, though they can change to standard light spectrum at will. They have both exceptional magic abilities and great resistance to it, and can become fearsome warriors or mages because of that. They can live several centuries, some reaching as much as a thousand years old, though very few die of old age, being by far the violent death by other species or their own the first and foremost cause.

Psychologically speaking, drows are completely and absolutely corrupted. They are evil, treacherous, arrogant, narcissistic, sadistic and above all: cruel. This attitude is enforced on the newborns by the adult females, as in this matriarchal society they are the uncontested leaders of their people, relegating males to powerless position unless they exceed at some sort of combat or they become the chosen puppet of the first female of their House (and being all of them only ceremonial positions). It is also heavily indoctrinated the cult of Lolth, the spider goddess and most worshipped drow deity.

When (if) a Drow becomes finally an adult, he is a merciless machine of death and destruction, complementing his tough training with his innate abilities, which range from creating globes of magical darkness and faerie fires to levitating, depending on their social position and that of their House, which means pretty much the same in this alien world. However, their society does not see favorably open hostilities and infighting, and instead rewards the less obvious techniques such as "my dagger has ended in your back, I still wonder how" or "it was not me, but that terrible creature we were fighting a minute ago. Poor guy, I'm sorry". Even the different Houses exterminate each other as the primary way of advancing in the global rigid hierarchy, sometimes being successful and achieving their goal, sometimes failing and thus being eradicated to preserve the "morale" of the society. Drow Justice at his maximum exponent.

Torture and slavery are commonplace, especially for members of other races which happen to be captured in one of the many raids Drows perform to obtain goods, luxuries or "preemptively striking an enemy that may attack them afterwards". Their own race is regarded as superior to all the rest, something that when added to all the rest makes them one of the most hated and feared species of the Underdark, perhaps even in the whole world. These raids take them from time to time to visit the surface and slaughter brutally some Wood Elves, their most detested enemies, as vengeance for exiling them now so much time ago.

The Drows live and thrive under these conditions, mastering the regions they own with ruthless and brutal efficiency. But still, not everyone is keen on following this order. Bregan D'aerthe, a secret organization composed exclusively by rogue males disenchanted by the general situation, has become the first source of information and paid works of all kind, being essentially so important for the intrigues of the high society that their unusual and otherwise heretical presence has been tolerated, at least for the time being. Also, a number of Drows that have retained and hidden their decency and moral values from the eyes of the rest have started the absolutely forbidden cult of Eilistraee, also known as "The Dark Maiden" and goddess of all the Drows that abhor from the practices of their kin and want to break free from the evil that lies in the soul of their own race.

So many factions confronted for the ultimate consecution of their goals... So much distrust and hatred... Will you be able to navigate the sea of intrigue and conspiracies, or will you sink and drown in this chaotic Drow world? You are invited to discover the answer...