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1Drow
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3When the primal elves chose to take the forms of mortals, they were one people split by conflicting loyalty to gods who reviled each other. The schism led to a conflict that ended with Lolth retreating to the Abyss and her adherents exiled to the Underdark. This banishment enabled the victors to once again live in peace on Arvandor but did nothing to heal the rift.
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5The vanquished elves weren’t seen or heard from again for centuries. Throughout that age of residing in the darkness, absorbing the unhealthy emanations of the Underdark, subsisting on its tainted water and food, and always beseeching their god for guidance and following her poisonous dictates, Lolth’s worshipers gradually transformed into the drow: the cruel, predatory, and wicked offshoot of the elf race.
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7Reflections of Lolth
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9From the time they’re old enough to understand, drow are taught that they’re superior to all other creatures, for they remain steadfast in their devotion to Lolth despite the hardships of their existence. Any creature that isn’t a drow is useful only as a sacrifice to Lolth, as a slave, or as fodder for the giant spiders that the drow train to patrol their cities and tunnels.
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11Among these other, lesser forms of life, the elves that live in sunlight are especially despised because they are descended from the primal elves who betrayed Lolth so long ago. First they accepted Lolth’s offer of mortality in return for destiny, but then they turned against her in a pathetic effort to win back Corellon’s favor. Drow view the elves of the surface world as cowardly children who defy their parents when they’re not around but cower in the corner when their parents return, terrified of having their bad behavior found out.
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13Reverence for Lolth touches every aspect of drow life. All dark elves constantly watch for signs of her favor. Any incident or physical feature can be interpreted as such a sign, and priestesses are quick to attach meanings to obscure omens that benefit their own interests.
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15All this effort to please Lolth is a wise precaution. Though she resides in the Abyss, the Spider Queen isn’t a distant god. She sometimes tests her most faithful by drawing their spirits to her in the Demonweb to undergo her judgment. Followers never know when or if they are to be tested. One who claims to have undergone the test and passed it is rewarded with respect and elevated status. Even someone who successfully lies about having taken the test can earn the respect of their peers, since perpetrating this falsehood is a way of proving one’s worth to Lolth. Lying and conniving can’t save those who fail the test, however, because the evidence of such an outcome is immediately obvious — a drow whose spirit has failed its test in the Demonweb Pits becomes transformed into a drider.
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17When Lolth is well served, she rewards her faithful with favors. When she is defied, she visits the Underdark in one of her forms and takes a direct hand in punishing the malefactor in a manner that discourages anyone who might be contemplating a similar kind of disobedience. Perhaps making an example of malcontents in this way is simply an aspect of how Lolth’s cruel personality works. It also might be evidence of a lesson that she learned all too well from the way Corellon reacted to her betrayal of him: the smallest flame of resistance must be snuffed out before it grows into a conflagration.
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19The so-called descent of the drow isn’t one moment in history, but the result of conflict between godly powers in an era that has become myth to mortals. My investigations indicate it occurred in different worlds of the Material Plane at different times. I have even discovered one world, Krynn, where it has yet to come to pass.
20Society of Blood and Poison
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22The principal organization in drow culture and society is the house, an extended clan that comprises many related families, plus a number of lesser families who have pledged loyalty to the house. A house’s membership also includes some (potentially very large) number of indentured drow servants and slaves of other species. A house usually specializes in a business, a service, or a craft that supports by providing income.
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24Houses are in constant competition with one another. They vie for money, for prestige, and, more than anything else, for power over others — the surest sign of Lolth’s approval.
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26No tactic is outside the rules in this ongoing conflict. Raids against another house’s outlying property (farming caverns, trade caravans, or hunting parties) are commonplace. Rumors about disloyalty, conspiracies with surface elves, or heresy against Lolth are circulated so frequently that no one knows what to be sure of. Assassinations, both by blade and by the use of special drow poisons, are a constant threat. Bodyguards and food tasters are as necessary to the survival of a high-ranking drow as air and water. Squabbles within a house also occur from time to time as relatives jockey for position. It’s a rare occurrence, though far from unknown, for drow to assassinate their own parents or siblings if that’s what it takes to create a path for advancement.
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28Cities without Sunlight
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30The drow might have not chosen to live in the Under­dark, but just the same they consider it their home, not a prison. Just as the sea elves adapted to their aquatic realm, the drow have long been accustomed to the harsh conditions of life in the Underdark. They’ve lived away from sunlight for so long that they can’t bear the touch of it on their flesh, and thus they prefer to visit the surface only at night.
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32Even though they live underground, drow are much more than cave-dwellers. Their cities are as magnificent as anything built by surface elves, and their defenses are even more secure. Their most important sites are located inside immense, hollowed-out stalactites and stalagmites, with entrances well guarded.
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34DRIDERS: LOWEST OF THE LOW
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36Much confusion and misinformation exists about driders among non-drow, but all dark elves know exactly what driders are: failures. They have either fared badly in Lolth’s test or displeased her in some other way. 
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38Once its transformation has taken hold, a newly created drider is shunned by its house and exiled from the community, with nothing but a few meager supplies and its knowledge of the Underdark to protect it. Drow congregate to throw stones at the still-dazed creature and drive it into the tunnels beyond the city’s environs. If it’s unlucky, it’s attacked by a roper, a carrion crawler, or another drider. If it’s lucky, the new drider finds a safe place to hide while its wounds heal. 
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40So begins a drider’s life in exile. Another widespread misunderstanding about driders is that they serve the drow as pickets, elite troops, or even suicide squads. They do none of those things. They are despised outcasts who live on the fringes of drow territory. Even though drow revile driders, they don’t kill them, because a drider’s punishment is to live a long life in wretchedness. Killing one would cut short Lolth’s judgment and possibly earn the same sentence for the perpetrator. 
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42Driders that survive for a long time can become accomplished hunters and navigators in the Underdark. Nothing will reopen the doors of drow society to them, but sometimes a drider can find a place in another community. Someone who needs a guide through the Underdark might not find a better one than a centuries-old drider that has faced every hazard those tunnels hold.
43Rule of Matriarchs
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45Females are the top figures in drow society. At the head of each house is someone who is a shrewd business operator, a skilled tactician, a high priestess of Lolth, and probably also a merciless assassin with blood on her hands. Unlike with many other races, female drow are typically taller and more robust than males.
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47To rise to the top echelons of power, a female must first become a priestess of Lolth. Then, to ascend to the status of high priestess, she must take advantage of powerful connections or craft special alliances. The path to ultimate power in drow society is never direct and is always paved with death.
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49A male drow can advance in standing as a combatant, a consort, or both. Physical beauty and fitness are highly prized in male drow, and those who are especially favored in this regard can earn protection and gifts from their matrons. A few males can attain high status in their society, especially those who serve as mages, but they never overshadow the females of their houses. Even the most intelligent, strong-willed, and devious male will never be more than a second-class citizen in any drow city or house. That situation will never change as long as Lolth reigns as their queen.
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53Nocturnal Raiders
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55If the drow kept to themselves in their subterranean cities and fortresses, few other creatures would care. The dark elves could indulge their evil practices until their caverns were heaped with corpses and awash in blood. Even the surface elves might be content to overlook their hatred for their kin and leave the drow alone, as long as they never had to lay eyes on the drow or view the results of their efforts.
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57But drow society is predicated on a foundation of terror and slavery, and the most desirable slaves live on the world’s surface: humans, dwarves, and best of all, other elves. To the dark elves, raiding the surface for captives and treasure isn’t just a cultural and military tradition, but also an economic necessity.
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59Some raids are major operations that involve hundreds of warriors, mages, priestesses, and giant spiders, a large enough force to overwhelm a community. The invaders would sweep through the town in the dark of night, shackle the best potential slaves into long trains of chattel, kill everyone who resisted, burn everything to the ground, and set their sights on the next town in line.
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61Most of the dark elves’ raids, however, are small, stealthy, one-night missions. The drow scout their targets in advance, then strike on a night when the moon is new or its light is obscured by thick clouds. They might kill indiscriminately to spread terror, while at other times they slip into a village, knock out their targets with poison, and spirit their captives away without even waking the neighborhood dogs. Sometimes a raid uses both tactics; one squad sets fires or sets off alarms to focus the defenders’ attention on one area, as another team strikes at the real target on the other side of town.
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63Loot is a secondary goal on almost all raids; taking prisoners is the primary objective. Some of the dark elves’ victims become slaves, some end up as food for giant spiders or other monsters that the drow have trained to serve them, and some are laid out across blood-stained altars and sacrificed to Lolth.
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65The drow know how vulnerable they are during daylight, so they typically plan raids that can be executed within the span of a single night. As a rule, that means their target must be no more than a few hours’ march — eight to twelve miles is typical — from an entrance to the Underdark. Ideally, they’ll have more than one return path mapped out; if an escape route is blocked, they can switch to another and get safely home.
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67Once the raiders get inside their escape tunnel, they’re usually safe. Opposing forces seldom pursue the drow below ground for good reason — beyond the light lies unmapped enemy territory where everything they meet is likely to be hostile. In special circumstances, such as if one of the raiders’ captives is a royal heir or the scion of a wealthy family, adventurers might be hired to mount a rescue mission. Otherwise, it’s rare for any rescuers to follow the kidnappers’ trail deep into the deadly darkness without becoming victims themselves.
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69Slaves and Status
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71The drow are known and feared throughout the world for their practice of slavery, but those who have visited their cities report that slaves aren’t as prevalent as the dark elves’ reputation would suggest. In general, only powerful houses hold significant numbers of slaves, and the slaves of a house are never more numerous than its population of drow.
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73Slaves are often kept as signs of status as much as for their intrinsic worth as laborers. When they are put to work, they are also put on display, doing jobs that enable everyone on the street or in an audience chamber to see that their drow master owns and subjugates powerful enemies. As such, the creatures are commonly used as litter bearers, banner carriers, servers, and footstools.
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75Slaves without appreciable value as status symbols are used for strenuous or dangerous jobs such as tending farms, hauling cargo, or hollowing out giant stalagmites and stalactites to make new dwelling spaces. When they become too weak or dispirited to work, they might be staked out as bait during a hunt, fed to the spiders, or sacrificed to Lolth (and then fed to the spiders).
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77Although all slaves are at the bottom of the dark elves’ social hierarchy, the lowest-ranking drow are considered little better than slaves themselves. A weak house that doesn’t ally itself with a protector will be preyed on and victimized into extinction. If it does swear allegiance to a more powerful house, it avoids being persecuted by other houses but becomes effectively a clan of indentured servants. Only the most exceptional females in such a clan have any chance of rising above their low station, and those who do advance end up hurting rather than helping their families because they are adopted into the more prestigious house, leaving their original house even weaker than before.
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79The Dark Seldarine
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81Lolth demands the lion’s share of worship from the drow, according to her wishes and by the command of her priestesses. The Spider Queen isn’t, however, the only entity venerated by drow. They revere a host of divine entities, which they refer to as the Dark Seldarine in mockery of the surface elves’ deities. The Dark Seldarine are mighty, immortal beings, survivors from the original group of primal elves who revolted against Corellon to remain at Lolth’s side.
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83The Drow Deities table lists the members of the Dark Seldarine. For each god, the table notes alignment, province (the god’s main areas of interest and responsibility), suggested domains for clerics who serve the god, and a common symbol of the god. The gods in the table are described below.
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85Drow Deities (The Dark Seldarine)