Dhaerrow - The Drow of the Underdark

[DM Leverage]

The Drow

The drow are a paradox among the races of the Dungeons & Dragons game. They are elves, but dark and cruel. They are infamous, known far and wide by players and characters alike, yet they are mysterious and subtle beings. Because everyone knows of the drow, they assume they understand the drow.

They could not be more wrong.

For all their infamy, for all their prominence as the most insidious of D&D villains, the drow remain largely unknown. Those who would claim to understand them and their ways have been misled by the foolish myths and deliberate propaganda of surface elves, by incomplete tales brought back by delving adventurers, or by cultural treatises specific to a particular world or setting, but not to the drow nation as a whole. Come, now, and see for the first time who the drow are, how they truly live - and why the surface-dwellers, grown complacent in their false and incomplete knowledge, would do well to fear them once more.




Society and Culture

It is one of the aforementioned paradoxes of the drow that their culture, while encouraging selfish ambition and advancement through deception and murder, is still one that focuses - almost in spite of itself - on the good of the community over the good of the individual. Drow society, as a whole, lacks any concept of personal worth. An individual’s abilities or accomplishments are not, in and of themselves, of any importance whatsoever. The culture does not reward skill for skill’s sake, or celebrate individual success or ability. It’s not that the drow choose to downplay these factors; rather, they literally have no notion that they should matter. It is as foreign an idea to them as judging a person’s worth based on shoe size would be to most surface-dwelling races.

The only true measure of importance in drow society is how thoroughly and effectively an individual can direct, shape, and change that society- in other words, by how much authority an individual has over other drow and the community’s needed resources. Although personal ability and accomplishment, or birth into a powerful bloodline, often leads to such control, it is the influence itself that determines a drow’s station and status.

Like many other sentient beings, the drow think in terms of dichotomies: If something is not good, it must be bad; if it is not strong, it must be weak. Thus, if a drow with authority over others is worthwhile, a drow with little or no authority is worthless. When nothing but status and influence determine individual value, and life itself is of no intrinsic worth, a weak drow is nothing but a commodity to be traded, abused, and eventually exhausted by those more powerful. Enslavement, torture, and even murder are not crimes, when the perpetrator is a drow of high stature and the victim is not. Drow do avoid randomly slaughtering others who offend them, but this is due to a concern that they might accidentally slay the relative, servant, or slave of someone more powerful, not out of any sense of the value of life.

This core belief in power has developed the drow culture as it exists today: a society in which every interaction is determined by a dominant/submissive hierarchy. A drow divides everyone—drow or otherwise—into only three categories: someone with more power, who must be appeased and placated (at least until she can be replaced); someone who is a useful tool to one’s own advancement, who must be exploited in all possible ways; and the weak, who are worthless except as labor or disposable troops. From a general giving orders to her soldiers to a shopkeeper bargaining with a customer, everything is about who holds the most power. Haggling, for instance, is all but unheard of. If a client is of higher station than a vendor, she pays what she chooses; if she is lower, she pays what the vendor demands or receives no goods. Only when it comes to trade with non-drow is bargaining an option, and even then vendors must take care, for fear of accidentally offending the slave of a powerful drow. A drow who refuses the orders of one with more power has earned whatever tortures that act brings down upon her, and can expect no pity or aid from by others.

The drow are experts in the application of pain and death; they are considered cruel by other races. This, too, is an outward sign of the beliefs at the heart of their cultural development. Pain caused to a superior or a rival is a necessary means to an end; pain caused to a subordinate is unimportant because the subordinate is unimportant. The drow are cruel, in part, because they literally see no difference between torturing an underling, whipping a horse, or even repairing an old garden tool. It cannot be stressed enough that societal authority is the only measure of worth the drow understand.

These philosophical underpinnings result in a culture of constant scheming, in which every member of a community is perpetually conspiring to gain greater power over her neighbors while struggling to keep others from gaining power over her. Paranoia is rampant, with every word and deed carefully examined to ensure that it does not contain a hidden danger. Although visitors certainly expect to find back-room deals and constant betrayals among the ruling castes of the drow, such as the priestesses of Lolth and the matriarchs of the great houses, they are often surprised to find them equally as prevalent among less powerful drow. A shopkeeper conspires to destroy a rival’s supply of goods, or frame him for some offense against Lolth. A soldier weakens another soldier’s armor with carefully applied acid, hoping that her death in battle will open a path to promotion. A favored servant conspires with slaves to poison the mistress of the house so that she can take over, only to later poison the slaves as well rather than provide the freedom she had promised. When every interaction is a challenge for dominance, no drow can afford to drop her guard or cease her constant plotting to get ahead.

Roleplaying Application: React to others based primarily on their perceived value to you. Your adventuring companions are vital to your survival, so you won’t want to alienate them. In other cases, though, react with anger when someone you perceive as inferior disagrees with or disobeys you. Judge all individuals by how much power they wield, and offer them respect accordingly. You do not revere life for its own sake, and are puzzled by those who speak about the inherent value or dignity of living beings. This doesn’t make you a wanton murderer; it simply means that you have no compunctions about killing if doing so is the most expedient or convenient means of handling a situation (and you feel you can get away with it with minimal repercussions).


Law, Tradition, and Government

Perhaps one of the strangest dichotomies of drow culture is that they are both heavily tradition-bound and highly innovative, a bizarre combination found rarely among the other races.

Drow innovation is, as with so much else in their lives, driven by the constant drive to achieve dominance over other drow. A creative battle plan, a brand-new spell, a shorter method of production for manufactured goods—none of these have any value to the drow in and of themselves. Creation for creation’s sake is yet another virtue foreign to their way of thinking. When such innovations are put to use to increase the creator’s station, however, then they have proven their worth.

Thus, the very same traditions that keep the drow at one another’s throats also encourage innovative thinking. The most powerful drow have lived for centuries, and as a race they have been competing with one another for millennia. They are far too wary, and too well prepared, for traditional schemes to work against them. A drow who seeks to get ahead must be creative in her approach—and they all seek to get ahead.

These traditions, although binding, are rarely codified into law. The drow are an innately chaotic people, both in terms of individual temperament and religious doctrine. They bow to tradition due to social pressure and the efforts of those in power, but they react poorly to formalization of those traditions. Most of these conventions, as they apply to governance, religion, gender roles, and other cultural mores, are discussed in the following sections.

The lack of formal codes of law in drow society also equates to a lack of formal law enforcement. A drow community has no watch or police force per se. Rather, each aspect or segment of the community is responsible for enforcing its own power as far as its authority extends. An offense against a major house is answered by members of that house. The Church of Lolth punishes those who transgress against the Queen of Spiders and her faith. Individual drow react to slights and offenses as their own abilities and status permit. If a lone drow or an institution lacks the capacity to strike back against someone who has wronged her or it, then that individual or institution is clearly not entitled to retribution - and that failure to retaliate might mark the wronged party as weak enough to be overthrown by rivals.

On rare occasions, a drow institution might request the aid of another organization in seeking justice or vengeance against an adversary. A priestess might ask that one of the houses send soldiers to deal with a troublemaker, rather than making use of her own resources. Alternatively, the reverse might happen, wherein a powerful drow in a community requests that the priesthood punish a wrongdoer. Such temporary agreements normally occur when an individual wishes to keep her own faction out of direct involvement in a conflict. For instance, if a member of House Eilservs insults or attacks a member of House Inlindl, and Inlindl responds in kind, the result could be a feud that envelops both houses in protracted conflict. If Inlindl wishes to avoid that result - likely, since it holds far less power than Eilservs - it might instead request that the Church of Lolth punish the transgressor. Doing so, of course, puts the house in debt to the priestesses, so it would take such an action only if the offense was dire.

Drow punishment, regardless of whose hands deliver the sentence, is brutal and effi cient. In some instances, the punishing force simply strips the transgressor of power and property. More frequently, the individual becomes a bound slave to the house or church. Torture and execution are common as well. The drow do not believe in imprisonment as a punishment in and of itself, nor do they believe in second chances.

Roleplaying Application: You find the notion of a communitywide police force or city guard a foreign one, as well as the notion that certain activities are “illegal.” You think in terms of whether a particular individual has the power to seek vengeance if you wrong him, and you often forget (at least at first) that a community itself might seek to punish you for
transgressions against a specific person.

Drow Alignment

The drow are a highly chaotic, individualistic people, a fact addressed multiple times throughout this chapter. They worship a deity who dwells in the Abyss and is a paragon of chaotic evil. Yet for all that, the Monster Manual gives drow alignment as “usually neutral evil.”

The truth is, the drow are at least somewhat cooperative with one another, almost in spite of their own nature. Their ambitions and desires require that their society remain at least somewhat stable. They employ few true laws, but they are tightly bound by traditions and codes, and even if they follow them primarily out of fear, they follow them nonetheless. It is ironic that a lone drow is likely to drift toward chaos, but that despite their rivalry with one another, the presence of multiple drow in a given community literally forces them into a level of cooperation beyond what truly chaotic individuals would maintain.

Drow Government and Rule

To say that the drow are governed by a matriarchal theocracy is both accurate and misleading. It is certainly true that the ruling members of drow society are the priestesses of Lolth and the matrons (and other matriarchs of the great houses), but calling them a “government” is a misnomer. Just as the drow are guided by tradition but have no formal law, they are overseen by these influential personages but have no formal government. A drow city has no duchess, reeve, or mayor; a drow nation has no empress or queen.

A drow community is governed, so to speak, through the unsteady cooperation of its three most powerful institutions. The Church of Lolth is the most influential faction among the drow. The priestesses of this church interpret and disseminate the will of Lolth, conduct rites and rituals to honor the dark goddess, and technically have the authority to demand anything in her name. If the drow were to have a formal government, it would be made up of these individuals. On a practical level, however, although the priestesses are indeed the social leaders of the drow, the church often lacks the power to take drastic action without the support of the great houses. Powerful matriarchs frequently hold power in both the church and a house- thus, what is self-interest for one must often be self-interest for the other. It is also important to understand that the church is not a monolithic entity, guided by a single voice or a single goal. It is made up of individual priestesses, all of whom are loyal to Lolth, but all of whom have the same drive to dominate the weak and advance their own cause as any other drow. Thus, although a drow priestess can bring substantial might to bear against a lone individual or small family who offends her, she cannot muster the resources of the church against an entire house, unless the house has blatantly and conspicuously turned against Lolth as a whole.

The houses of the drow hold the bulk of the community’s economic and military power in their hands. In some communities, a specific house might be a greater power even than the priestesses of Lolth, directing the activities of religious leaders with behind-the-scenes threats or open shows of force. The high priestess of a community might also be a highly ranked matriarch of a great house, using one to advance the schemes of the other. No single house has ever managed to rise to dominance across multiple drow cities, however, and few maintain a permanent position of authority even in individual communities. Each house is tied to the other houses in a complex web of treaties and conflicts, alliances and betrayals. Should one house become too powerful, others ally to bring it down (even while appearing, on the surface, to support them, playing both sides against the middle). Further, although the church usually lacks the power to single-handedly destroy a house, neither can a house afford to make an enemy of the church. Too much of the power in a community is held by Lolth’s priestesses, and a house that fails to work with those priestesses loses access to those channels of influence. Although such an occurrence is rare, the church can decree that a house has earned the disfavor of Lolth, essentially giving all other houses blanket permission and encouragement to openly turn against it. Some houses are strong enough to withstand even this sort of assault, which invariably leads to a dilution of the church’s position in the community. But more often, such a decree results in the house being weakened sufficiently for another to rise and take its place. When one adds to this already volatile mix the constant scheming of house members against one another, in the hope of gaining higher status within the house, it’s quite understandable that no single house has ever managed to hold widespread power for long.

The military is the fi nal drow institution that, in some communities, could be a governing body. Drow communities do not have standing armies, since this would require a formal government. Multiple smaller forces make up the larger soldiery of a drow city. These consist primarily of house-loyal militias, church soldiers, and independent mercenary companies. For the most part, then, the “military” is simply the enforcement arm of a house or the church. In some rare instances, however - particularly in communities engaged in a constant war with a hostile power - the military takes on an authority of its own. Its generals, under the guise of protecting the community, usurp authority from the matriarchs who normally hold it. The house soldiers become the dominant members of the house, or at least carry suffi cient authority that the matriarchs and matrons cannot ignore their input. The army might even come to guide the Church of Lolth, directing priestesses in the defense of the city and in attacks on the enemy. The generals of differing factions, such as rival houses or a house and the church, have been known to cooperate behind the scenes, artificially extending or even creating military crises to wrest supremacy from the houses and the priesthood.

It is worth noting that rank in a military unit is the only pathway male drow have to any position of authority, so they are the military officers most likely to attempt this sort of power grab.

Roleplaying Application: You assume that, with the exception of military rank, females hold all true positions of authority. When addressing a mixed group of nobles, priests, or similar powerful individuals, you instinctively direct your words and attention to any females present, and you are always startled when a social or political leader turns out to be male. You normally assume that any military force is, if not independent, loyal to a church or a bloodline; you’re certainly aware that other cultures have armies devoted to cities or nations, but it still strikes you as odd when you encounter it.


Gender Roles

The supremacy of the female is deeply ingrained in drow culture. Females are seen as stronger, smarter, and more emotionally controlled than males, and - above all - holier and more devoted to Lolth. Males, on the other hand, are viewed as spiritually, intellectually, and physically inferior, useful primarily for physical and skilled labor and breeding purposes. A male drow is seen as superior to a member of any other race, but inferior even to female drow of lower status.

This attitude comes from a variety of separate but related sources. The fi rst and most obvious is Lolth herself. The goddess has, over the course of drow mythology and history, taken multiple consorts, all of whom have been eventually discarded. Whether this is the cause of Lolth’s opinion of males or a symptom of it, Lolth believes that only females are worthwhile servants.

Much like the spiders they revere, drow females also hold power due to biological reasons. In many spider species, the females are far larger and stronger, and males often do not survive the mating process. Drow childbirth is a physically strenuous occasion (see the Pregnancy, Birth, and Childhood quote block), and though the drow feel little if any affection for their young, they understand the importance of continuing the family and house lines. Thus, the females, who are both essential to reproduction and capable of withstanding it, are clearly both stronger and more blessed than the males. Whether the drow think as they do because of their emulation of spiders is unclear and ultimately unimportant.

Finally and perhaps most important, females are already ascendant within drow society. Matriarchs and priestesses have enough trouble clinging to power in the face of other ambitious females; the last thing they want is to double the pool of potential rivals. Thus, the tradition of female dominance continues, in large part, at the behest of the females who are already dominant.

Male drow hold little if any power, but not all of them are mere property, even if many females see them as such. Some of the most skilled crafters, warriors, and arcane casters among the drow are male. In fact, the submissive status of males in drow society actually inspires many of them to excel. Male drow can lay claim to little authority, and they are constantly at risk of being discarded by their female leaders, so only those with skills and abilities that are not easily replaceable can be relatively confident of their positions.

Denied the right to formally influence society, male drow have become masters of finding subtle and nontraditional roads to power. Many become teachers of arcane magic or military strategy, attempting to form strong bonds with their students- particularly the females who might well hold power in the next generation. Others join the soldiers of a powerful house or the priestesses of Lolth, working their way up in the ranks. At the very least, these positions grant them some measure of authority, and if they are fortunate enough to be officers during wartime (or devious enough to start a well-timed war), that authority can grow to rival that of some matriarchs. And of course, some drow males attempt to seduce powerful females, using lust - and even the rare emotion of love - to influence drow leaders behind the scenes.

In the lower echelons of drow society, away from the movers and shakers, males and females hold similar roles. A member of either gender might be a household servant, a shopkeeper, a soldier, or an artist. The males tend more toward physical labor and the females toward skilled crafts - not because females are weaker, but because they often have more opportunities to choose their own path than males do - but this is only a tendency, not a societal constant.

Source : Dungeons and Dragons - Drow of the Underdark

[DM Leverage]

Drow Psychology

The drow are, to the last, a motivated and driven race. The perception that a drow’s individual worth is determined only by the influence she wields over society isn’t simply a cultural attitude; it’s a psychological one as well. A drow who holds no power is a failure in her own eyes, and this more than anything else drives her behavior. It is thus not merely external pressures that cause the drow to plot and scheme; it is an ingrained need that borders on instinct.

For the most part, drow are driven by a trinity of emotions that exist, to varying degrees, in every member of the race.

Pride: So far as each drow is concerned, she is a superior specimen of a superior race—or at least she should be. Drow who obtain power do so because they are worthy of it; those who lack authority find themselves resentfully chafing under the rule of others, their pride demanding that they blame everyone else for their failure. A drow never forgets either a victory or a slight.

Anger: Closely intertwined with their pride is a current of rage that runs through the entire drow population. They are a primal and instinctive people, quick to lash out at those who offend them. A drow grows wroth at a subordinate who fails or defies her, a superior for holding the power she herself craves, a foreigner for failing to offer unquestioned submission to the drow, an ally for imagined future betrayal, and even herself for not having accomplished more than she already has. Drow are quick to resort to violence, and revenge is one of their most potent motivators.

Fear: They are not often aware of it, and would be insulted if someone else were to suggest it, but the drow live every day of their lives in mortal terror. They fear their masters and priestesses, they fear the treachery of underlings, they fear displeasing their deity, they fear losing power and falling into disgrace. This fear engenders the paranoia and distrust that keep the drow from growing close, and the secrecy in which they orchestrate their schemes. For all their cruelty, all their power, the drow are bitterly fearful creatures, always afraid to lose what they have, yet driven to risk it all for just a little bit more.

Everything the drow do stems from the interactions between these three emotions, bolstered by societal pressures. Even their fanatical devotion to Lolth is based on fear: fear of invoking the goddess’s anger should they abandon her, and fear of being cast adrift in the world without divine guidance.


Long-Term Planning

Drow have a shorter average life span than surface elves - due primarily to violence, rather than any innate biological cause—but they still live far longer than most other humanoid races. Thus, the drow often take a longer view of the world than humans or others. This attitude is manifested in drow plots and schemes, which often take decades or even centuries to unfold.

Whereas this long-term view of life manifests in surface elves as a seeming unwillingness to make decisions quickly or to understand urgency, the drow are just as busy and active as anyone else. Rather than acting slowly because they have more time, drow prefer to squeeze as much out of their extra years as possible. Where a surface elf might take ten times as long as a human on a given task, to ensure he gets it right, a drow instead works at a feverish pace, but might undertake ten tasks at once. This “hurry up and wait” mentality—rushing through numerous plans that might not come to fruition for years or longer—only adds to the highly emotional and easily frustrated nature of the drow psyche, but it also ensures that if one plan collapses, a wise drow has half a dozen more to fi ll in the gap.

All drow are schemers, but not all drow are effective schemers. Laying out a multiyear plot, having the foresight to anticipate relevant changes in the political landscape, and remaining patient enough to see the effort through all require mental and emotional control that many drow sorely lack. If a drow bursts into a rage at an inopportune moment, or fails to anticipate the machinations of her rivals, years of planning can be swept aside in an instant.


Dominant and Submissive Interaction

The drow view all interaction between individuals - not just members of their own society - as hierarchical. They have no ability to treat another person as an equal. Every communication between two or more people, regardless of its purpose, falls into a dominant and submissive pattern.

Unless a drow has reason to believe otherwise, she always assumes that she is the dominant individual in a discussion, and grows irritated if others do not behave accordingly. If she is speaking to someone who clearly holds higher status, she accepts the fact that she is, instead, in a submissive position, but instantly begins considering ways to eventually gain the upper hand.

This is not something drow choose to do; it’s simply how they think. The notion of a society of equals is a foreign one, and though drow who deal frequently with other races learn to accept that others do not believe as they do, they never entirely lose the urge to establish dominance in each and every interaction they enter into.

Part and parcel of this notion are the drow ideas of kindness and individual privacy - or, more accurately, their complete lack thereof. Drow are thoughtlessly and effortlessly cruel because they assign no value to their subordinates beyond how useful those individuals are. Similarly, the concept of privacy is ludicrous in their eyes. A drow who is not strong enough to keep her affairs secret deserves to be exposed and exploited.


Arachnid Veneration and Emulation

One of the greatest and strangest influences on drow psychology and culture stems from their religious beliefs. Most humanoid races have humanoid-form deities. When they seek to emulate the behavior and attitudes of their gods, either to gain the deity’s blessings or simply because they see it as the “right” way to act, they are not acting counter to their own physiological and biological natures.


Not so with the drow. They are a humanoid, mammalian race with all the associated needs, urges, and instincts, yet they revere the spider, a creature of mindless predation. They are a community that seeks to become a swarm. They are an innately emotional people who revere a creature of no emotion at all. (And all this doesn’t even touch on the fact that they worship a deity whose physical likeness they cannot begin to emulate.)

This conflict of desires shapes much of the drow psyche. It is at least partly responsible for the culture’s sole measure of self-worth through power and authority, and is responsible too for much of the society’s inherent violence. Their fear of their goddess, their shame at being unable to fully live up to her demands, their anger at the world around them—all of it can, at least in part, be traced to their deep-seated veneration of a deity they cannot emulate and cannot truly please. It is not too much of a stretch to suggest that, due to the conflict of their religious beliefs with their own physical and mental nature, every member of drow society is at least a little insane.


Instinctive or Cultural?

One question of drow psychology that never occurs to the drow themselves, but is of great interest to outside scholars, is whether all these attitudes are ingrained and instinctual, or whether they are a product of culture and upbringing. Many believe that, due to the influence of Lolth and countless generations of violence and scheming, drow attitudes are now entirely innate. Take a drow infant to the surface and raise her among kind humans or elves, they say, and she would still grow into a calculating, violent manipulator.

Others contend, however, that the drow are not unlike abused children. They perpetuate a cycle of viciousness and cruelty because it is all they know, because they are both learning from example and lashing out at an unkind world in anger and resentment. If that cycle could be broken, they argue, if a population of drow could be raised away from the influence of Lolth and the culture as it currently exists, they could grow to be very different individuals.

This is, perhaps understandably, the minority opinion among those who study the drow, and in any event it seems unlikely to be tested anytime soon.

Source: Dungeons and Dragons - Drow of the Underdark

[DM Leverage]

Religion

If drow life and culture are driven by a single force, it must be their faith. The drow are pantheistic in only the loosest sense of the word. Humans worship a variety of deities equally. Elves revere Corellon Larethian above all others, but their religion is replete with other deities that are nearly as important. But for the drow, there is only Lolth.

This comes as a surprise to many scholars, who believe the drow pantheon to consist of multiple deities. This is particularly true in the Forgotten Realms setting, where entities such as Ghaunadaur and Vhaeraun appear in drow religious practice. But these deities, no matter how strongly an individual drow might revere them, are secondary at best, barely visible in the shadow of the Spider Queen. The drow honor them, but they do not consider them true gods and do not worship any of them with the same devotion—or fear them half as deeply—as they do Lolth. It is she, and she alone, who stands as the heart of drow religion.

Religious practice is not a voluntary activity among the drow. Because the priestesses rule drow society (to the extent that any one institution can be said to do so), they ruthlessly enforce the worship of Lolth, demanding participation in her rites and often punishing failure to take part by making the transgressor their next sacrifice. The priestesses rarely find themselves forced to take such steps, however. Worship of Lolth is so heavily ingrained in the culture that most drow participate willingly, out of a mixture of reverence and terror for their goddess.


Rites and Rituals of Lolth

As should be expected from so violent a society and so rapacious a deity, the holy rites of Lolth are brutal and bloody affairs. Living sacrifice is a central tenet of all but the most minor of rituals. The drow worship not out of love, but out of fear, and their faith demands that their fear be spread to others. Lolth watches, Lolth tests - and above all, Lolth consumes.

Prayers

Prayers to Lolth are always uttered in Elven. Undercommon is fine for normal conversation, but devotions to the goddess are not to be sullied with words adopted from other races.

The drow frequently pray before entering into a dangerous situation, beginning an endeavor, or simply preparing for a day’s work. They do not, however, ask Lolth’s aid in the coming trials, or seek her blessing on a task. Requesting help is a sign of weakness, insulting to the goddess, and just begging to be stricken with some horrifi c malady or misfortune. Instead, prayers to Lolth are requests to be tested, so that the petitioner can display her strength and skill, or promises that the day’s successes will be achieved in Lolth’s name and devoted to her glory. “Elliya Lolthu,” Elven for “Test me, Lolth,” is among the most common phrases uttered in drow prayer.

Minor Rites

An individual drow might perform a minor rite when she is celebrating a personal victory, and seeks to offer Lolth her due. More than a simple prayer, these rites usually involve some form of symbolic sacrifi e, such as poured wine, burnt riches, or a small amount of the petitioner’s own spilled blood. Such rites require an icon, idol, or symbol of Lolth, before which they are performed. They include the recitation of long prayers asking Lolth to accept the offered gifts and to provide even greater challenges in the days to come.

Unlike prayers, which are often uttered in public, and major rites, which are large affairs, minor rites are personal activities. They rarely involve more than one drow, and never more than a handful.

Major Rites

The drow conduct two types of major rites to Lolth, both of which involve the participation of multiple individuals and blood sacrifice to the goddess. The first is a religious ceremony, in which drow gather to pay homage to their dark queen. Priestesses lead the ceremony with prayers and chants, normally within a temple of Lolth or before a great altar or idol. At least one sacrifice - normally of a captive or slave, but occasionally of a drow citizen - occurs at this time, blood spilled to feed the Spider Queen.

The second is a contest between priestesses or, more rarely, other powerful drow, designed to prove worthiness in the eyes of Lolth. Most of these events include direct combat and competition, either in melee or spellcasting, but others involve tests of knowledge and ritual, or even the acquisition of specific goals. The winner proves her worth and gains additional magic, higher position in the priesthood, and similar prizes. The losers, assuming they survive, are often demoted, maimed, or transformed by Lolth’s anger into driders or other horrific creatures.

The drow conduct major rites to celebrate communitywide events and victories, whenever a priestess seeks advancement to a high office, and at regular intervals for no purpose other than the veneration of Lolth.


Servants of Lolth

The drow’s priesthood is unusual - perhaps even unique - because it is not inherently any more faithful or zealous in its worship than the rest of the population. Almost all drow venerate Lolth, for they understand the consequences of failing to do so. The Church of Lolth is less a haven for the society’s devout and more a reliable path to power. Short of working one’s way up through the ranks of a powerful house, the priesthood is the surest means of advancement in drow society. And although the priesthood rarely accepts drow of low station, it does so with more frequency than the houses do.

That said, the drow understand that the life of a priestess is not one of ease. The church not only conducts Lolth’s rites and rituals, it serves as the glue that holds together a society of scheming and bickering houses. Its members must be strong and merciless, and - perhaps hardest of all - must moderate their own schemes to consider the needs of the church as a whole. This doesn’t mean that drow priestesses do not plan to achieve their own ambitions at the expense of others; in fact, the priesthood is filled with more political infighting and secret deals than in any three houses put together. The priestesses understand, however, that although Lolth favors drow who advance their own power, she also wishes the race as a whole to thrive, and a priestess whose personal schemes threaten to weaken the community swiftly finds herself falling out of favor with both the goddess and her church.

Becoming a Priestess

To become a priestess of Lolth, a female drow must meet two specific requirements. (Male drow are never accepted into the priesthood, and can at best hope to be a favored servant of a priestess.) First, she must show an aptitude for divine magic. Among the drow, every priest must be a cleric or other divine caster, such as a favored soul, even if she has only a few levels in the appropriate
class.

Second, a would-be-priestess must subject herself to the first of many Tests of
Lolth. Many lay drow face these trials at various points, but priestesses endure them on a relatively regular basis. Strictly speaking, these tests are between the individual and Lolth, and outside interference is forbidden. On a practical level, however, drow priestesses are rarely accepting of new competition (unless the newcomer is somehow indebted or subservient to them, of course) and might provide new initiates with a bit of extra challenge. Poisoning and sabotage are not uncommon, and as long as the priestesses’ meddling goes undetected, Lolth seems not to object. Of course, a priestess who is caught sabotaging a newcomer, or whose efforts fail to prevent the new initiate from succeeding, often suffers her own trials and punishment at Lolth’s hands - or the hands of rival priestesses looking to tear down an experienced enemy as a younger one takes her place.

Once one has become a priestess, the hard work is far from over. Advancement requires constant effort to prove loyalty to Lolth, to exercise control over other drow, and to take advantage of the other priestesses’ weaknesses. The best route to promotion among the priesthood is to open up a position by discrediting or assassinating someone of higher rank. Combined with the requirements of surviving regular Tests of Lolth, this climate of backstabbing makes the life span of a priestess relatively short for all but the most clever and powerful of drow. Thus, the Church of Lolth remains relatively low in membership, but those few drow priestesses who survive more than a few years are truly potent and merciless individuals.

One very important distinction exists among the drow, one that visitors often fail to notice or to comprehend. Although a priestess of Lolth must be a cleric (or other divine caster), not all divine casters are officially priestesses. A drow might be fully devoted to her goddess, and even have levels as a cleric, without formally joining the church. The ability to cast divine spells indicates that a drow has Lolth’s favor, but it doesn’t inherently grant her any authority beyond what she can take for herself. She does not speak for the church and cannot count on the authority of the priesthood to support her actions.

Daughters of Demons

One exception exists to the rule that all drow priestesses must be divine spellcasters. Lolth resides in the Abyss, and many of her favored servants and minions are demons. If the powers of a drow warlock stem from bargains with (or descent from) Lolth-associated demons, she is considered blessed by the Spider Queen. If these individuals meet all the other priesthood requirements, can hold status even though they are technically arcane spellcasters

Hierarchy of the Priesthood

A strict formal hierarchy would be antithetical to the chaotic mentality of the drow. The Church of Lolth lacks layers of ranks and official designations, and those titles that do exist often vary from community to community. Three titles are common among the drow, though even these are far from universal.

An elder, experienced, or powerful priestess is often called Reverend Mother.

A priestess of moderate age, experience, or power is often titled Reverend Daughter.

All others are simply called Priestess, or sometimes addressed with the honorific Revered, as in “Revered Thezildra, I seek an audience.”

In most cases, when the drow speak of rank in the Church of Lolth, or a priestess talks about promotion, what they’re referring to is a simple measurement of authority and seniority. An underling doesn’t assassinate her superior to obtain a particular title; she does so to ascend one step higher on the ladder of power. In this regard, the church is no different from the rest of drow society - a priestess’s power is as potent as her ability to force others to acknowledge that power.

Duties of the Clergy

Anyone who has read this far and still expects drow priestesses to counsel the faithful in times of emotional turmoil or crises of faith has clearly not been paying attention. Lolth’s church is not a sanctuary for other drow in times of trouble, but a home for her primary minions and enforcers.

The duties of Lolth’s priestesses are twofold. One, they are responsible for leading the drow in the rituals demanded by the Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Although any cleric of Lolth can lead others in prayer or minor rites, only a true priestess can lead a community as a whole, or conduct the formal sacrifices Lolth demands.

Their second purpose, closely related to the first, is enforcing the worship of Lolth and
Lolth’s dictates. Priestesses have the authority to demand attendance at Lolth’s rites and to levy punishment on those who fail to participate or otherwise act against the Spider Queen’s interests. The drow rarely sacrifice one of their own, normally choosing slaves or prisoners instead, but Lolth prefers the taste of drow to all others, and when the church finds an excuse to offer up a drow as punishment, it is quick to jump on it.

Beyond this, Lolth’s priestesses have no strict duties. Some perform various social ceremonies such as marriages, but this is usually done as a favor (eventually requiring repayment, of course) to another powerful drow. They often serve as leaders in times of confl ict, crisis, or war, but such roles are filled equally often by house matrons. Priestesses, when not conducting rites to their Queen, are engaged in the same sorts of
schemes as all other drow—they simply have the advantage of divine mandate, or at least of powerful allies and resources, when doing so.

Lolth

The Spider Queen, Queen of the Demonweb Pits, Flesh-Carver, Weaver of Webs
Intermediate Deity

Symbol: The head of a female drow with spider’s legs
Home Plane: The Demonweb Pits, 66th layer of the Abyss
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Worshipers: Drow
Cleric Alignments: CE, CN, NE
Domains: Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Trickery, Drow, Spiders
Favored Weapon: Whip

Lolth is the single true deity of the drow; she is their guide and ruling power. The elves and other surface races believe that she was Corellon Larethian’s original consort, cast out of the pantheon when she turned to evil. The drow, and Lolth herself, teach a much different version; see History and Folklore, below. In either case, it was Lolth who first spread evil among the elves, and who led the drow away from the rest of the elves thousands of years ago. Now she focuses on breeding and conflict among the drow to make the race ever more powerful, and on using them to conquer the vast cavern-realms beneath the surface of the earth. Lolth relishes the chance to test her followers by pitting them against each other, culling the weak from the strong.

Lolth appears as either a tall, beautiful female drow, or a massive black spider with a
female drow’s head.

Cleric Training

Beyond the requirements and Tests of Lolth discussed above, clerics and priestesses of Lolth undergo no formal training. Lolth requires these tests of her priestesses frequently.

Quests

Lolth has set her worshipers to the task of conquering the vast network of caverns in the underground realm, as well as killing surface elves. Typical quests include attacking a rival drow community, raiding a mind flayer lair for its magic, and building an artifact that turns surface-dwelling elves into spiders.

Prayers

The precise nature of prayers to Lolth is discussed above. Clerics and priestesses often pray before undertaking even mundane daily activities, dedicating everything they do to their queen.

Temples

Lolth’s temples dominate (in every sense of the word) the communities that surround them. They are large, imposing edifices, intended to make all who enter feel small and humbled—a sensation that truly strong drow are expected to resist. These temples are defended by clever and capable priestesses, soldiers, and minions of Lolth, and frequently by hordes of arachnids as well. They often serve as storehouses of dark lore and powerful magic as well as places of ritual.

Rites

The specific details of rites and rituals to Lolth are discussed above. Although any cleric can conduct these rites for small or family groups, only a formal priestess has the authority to demand attendance of a community. (Or at least, only a priestess officially has such authority. As with all else among the drow, if a single individual has the power to force participation, then she has the right to force participation.)

Heralds and Allies

Lolth’s most common herald is a bebilith demon with 18 Hit Dice. Her allies are succubus demons, bebilith demons, and marilith demons. In the Forgotten Realms setting, this group also includes the hideous yochlols.

Lolth manifests an aspect of herself (essentially an avatar representing only a tiny portion of her true power) with relative frequency, often attending major rites or rituals directly and feeding upon the sacrifices.

Source: Dungeons and Dragons - Drow of the Underdark