could you make a page on house fey-branche drow hairstyles?
Drow hairstyles part 3: house fey-branche
The noble ladies of this house favor twists and braids in various styles, often adorned with spider pins and beads or pearls. The priestess’ of this house enjoyed doing their hair in elegant styles that displayed their houses wealth.
I have just discovered that in Forgotten Realms there’s multiple markings of years (like in Star Wars but worse) and that it varies from place to place. I only found this out because I went huh what does DR stand for.
So now I’m sort of tempted to make up my own year mapping with my drow city… this will be very confusing because I use DR pretty religiously. But this also means I will have to come up with some more y’know worldbuilding stuff. Like history and all that jazz. Which honestly I should have been doing to begin with but idk I got really wrapped up in the geography of the area the city is in and like where everything is.
I need to get bonked with the world building lore writing ultra creativity hyperfixation mallet. I need to lock in.
posting this here to collect it with the other Obedience things, but @exeiguess come get your Mythen Thaelas info, as copied from my original d&d notes!
Mythen Thaelas is a drow city situated in a cavern in the Northdark, at the Middledark depth. The cavern itself is about a thousand feet high and two miles wide, and if any of these facts sound familiar it's definitely not because i was cribbing notes from the Menzoberranzan wiki page.
The city is divided into districts, as pictured in my lovely map below:
Qu'ellor'harl (the place where the Houses look down) is the heart of the city, atop a raised rocky plateau. It's where the Arcanum is, in a giant rocky pillar at the centre of the cavern. It's also where all the High Houses live, and is the wealthiest part of the city.
I have details for all the other districts that i am more than happy to ramble about in another post if anyone is interested. for Obedience readers: Draix'ress is where Ashenivir's family live, and the mine they own is accessed through Tragdendeep. Chataurvvin is the fungal forest where the miscreants have Ashenivir's pre-graduation picnic, and Kuttragarten is where Dirius and Fellanistra get married.
fun features!
Stalagmite houses, decorations limned in purple, emerald, and amber faerie fire enchantments, magical floating rock staircases like stepping stones but in the air, delicate stone bridges
An enchantment in the cavern floor reduces echoes
Time is tracked by fungal luminescence - the cavern is lined with a fungus that grows bright and fades over a period equivalent to a day. The light has a faint blue cast, and is about as bright at its height as an overcast day.
High glow (noon), the brightest point, is treated by residents as a "siesta" for it is slightly too bright to be comfortable for darkvision. Businesses close and work ceases for 2-3 hours until the fungal light drops to a more comfortable level.
Even at "night" the cavern is filled with a dim glow due to the faez'ress
Entrance passageways - seven, gated and guarded, the Underdark is ever-perilous
Built on a site of strong faez'ress, meaning it has a natural protection against scrying and teleporting. The faezress is also key in the strength of their spell component production.
a brief and incomplete history
The Matron Mothers have always been the rulers - originally a group of like-minded drow who worshipped Eilistraee and sought to make a refuge in the Underdark for those like them. They followed Eilistraee's path to this place and knew to found it there.
Early in the city's history, a group of Lolthites raided the city trying to get back those that fled their original Lolthite enclaves, and that which had been "stolen" from them: aka the slaves they freed and the daughters/sons that ran away. The Matron Mothers overcame the assault with help from drow wizards whomst they had previously thought little of, thus pre-empting the rise of magical prominence in the city and beginning the city's alliance/dual worship/exoneration of Mystra & Eilistraee.
Three centuries ago, House Zaundar, under the direction of Matron Viconia Zaundar, established a public library program, resulting in widespread literacy in the city.
organisations and government and stuff
There are three main organisations in the city, plus a cult: The High Council, The Assembly of Mysteries, and the Kuttra'ih'aras. The cult is a minor cult of Zuggtmoy, who flare up now and again like a recurring infection.
The High Council are the Matron mothers who make all the major decisions, as represented by one Matron from each of the eight ruling houses.
Said houses are:
House Eilist'tra - the main ruling house, and Keszriin's family.
House Zaundar - where Viconia Zaundar is from, notable historians and chroniclers
House Maendirath - produce a lot of warriors (this is the house the High Priestess at the Dancing Haven is from, hence Ashenivir's reaction to her name!)
House Hyliir - notable artificers
House T'sonri - those guys! one of them is currently the Archmage, and they produce a lot of very talented wizards
House Olonrae - the Druid House
House Do'tyl - mostly traders, have something of a monopoly on surface trade
House Teken'sek - they've got psionicists in the bloodline, but mostly are known for producing diplomats and negotiators
The Assembly of Mysteries is the Archmages council. There are seven masters and the Archmage, one representing each school of magic, and they work in tandem with the High Council to make decisions. They also, obviously, run the Arcanum.
Kuttra'ih'aras (mushroom protectors) are the druidic circle of the city, almost entirely Circle of Spores based. They're referred to as Grovekeepers, and are responsible for maintaining the city's internal food supplies. They deal in fungi and the undead - if you visit Kuttragarten, you'll likely run into undead fungal servants helping maintain the forest.
special exports
because i like to make Fancy Things
Thaelean Garnets - a deep, bloodred garnet whose structure make it particularly capable of harnessing arcane energies
Darkstar Sapphires - deep blue sapphires with white or silver starburst patterns. Uniquely useful in lightning-based magics.
Kuttra Amber or Mushroom Amber - comes from a particularly enormous fungus, like tree amber but typically with purplish veins in the bright orange stone. This is another very common export, as a lot gets produced.
[ID - a purple decorative divider]
throwing the obedience taglist on here for funsies: @foxboyclit @belovedviolence @thegreatobsesso
- Fairly village-esque, has a Duchess who oversees infrastructure & town developments, but is otherwise very niche. Most people in the town know each other very well, and newcomers are quickly spread through the grapevine.
Funky Features:
- The Dark Sun - a large coagulation of light kept together with the passive magic of everyone in town. It provides light, not enough to make life miserable for the Drow, but enough to allow sight for newcomers. Aranor sells the Ritual Daggers that bind each Drow to the Dark Sun, which are prized above most other valuables. You’ll never guess what the Sun is made of~
- City under a City: Törlien is beneath and slightly to the south of a High Elf City on the surface. This has caused tension for years, but only recently have the High Elves begun claiming more and more of the land above Törlien as their own.
Drow city from sometime last summer. It’s also a page from my scrapped comic, but thought it worked well enough on its own. I had never drawn this detailed of a cityscape before so considering that, I’m quite happy with it.
Hey look, I colored @drowtales ‘s lines! I love coloring more than doing lines, so any chance I get to color someone else’s art is a good one. It’s Dalshen, an overly enthusiastic and maybe too reckless drow paladin!
In the background I put Xyrdea, capital to Remyra, my homebrew drow city/nation for a dnd game I’m running!
To see more information from developing my game, sketches and screenshots go to my Vasdorl Fanpage! @Vicious Vasdorl
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
YES! THAT’S RIGHT!! I’VE JUST FINISHED! THE LAST BACKGROUND!!!
I’m so happy! Not only because I don’t have to do any more graphics, but because I’m sooo proud of it too ♥ ♥ ♥ This one was really hard, it was last because I was afraid of even starting working on it, buuut... I had to. It took me a few days, but I did it :D
Now I have to render all animations, add sounds and music and it’s done! ^.^
You can find me on: (@Luupetitek)
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House Melarn, often regarded as one of the most fanatical house. The noble ladies of this house flaunt their wealth through their elegant braids and hairstyles, often adorned with hairpins and gems.
