The Tome Of Drow Lore.pdf - RoseRed

122
Engineering
The Pol’Tah are capable engineers, if not remarkable. Quite
simply, there is less need of engineering and construction
skills among the deep drow than there is among the other
races of the drow. Indeed, there is less need than among
most races of the Underdeep.
One reason for this is the centralised location of the
Pol’Tah. Few of their number have ever left the vicinity of
Drez Khelim, and few of those have ever returned. Thus,
the deep drow have remained concentrated over the many
millennia in the series of caverns they first colonised.
Drez Khelim has been built and rebuilt literally dozens of
times over the years, and now there is little room left for
expansion.
The second reason lies with the purple worms kept by
the Pol’Tah. Natural tunnellers and diggers, the purple
worms of the deep drow do most of the work for their drow
masters. A great deal of the engineering work done by the
Pol’Tah involves cleaning out and seeing to the stability of
tunnels dug through the rock by their worms.
Entertainment
Music, dance and displays of skill summarise the
entertainments popular with the Pol’Tah.
The music of the deep drow has a unique sound that
seems alien to those of other races, characterised by a
deep, pounding, insistent beat hammered out on enormous
drums and complemented by an array of wind and string
instruments. The music is terribly complex, sometimes
even atonal to outside ears; but then, the Pol’Tah consider
what little music they have heard performed by other drow
to be simplistic and repetitive.
Dance seems at first like an odd passion for a blind race
to have but the tremorsense of the deep drow enables
them to enjoy it on two levels simultaneously, both in the
movement of the dancers and in the rhythm of the dancers’
feet as they hit the ground. The combination of the thunder
of the drums and the pounding of hundreds of feet in these
warlike dances are enough to make the cavern walls shake
and the air tremble.
It is in displays of skill, however, that the deep drow
place their greatest enthusiasm. Athletics and combat are
considered much the same thing by the deep drow, and make
up the majority of skill demonstrations. Also extremely
popular are competitions between smiths, judged on speed
and craftsmanship. The Pol’Tah revere the profession of the
smith, both because of the much-needed items he produces
and for the glowing heat of the forge, whose white-hot
fires are one of the only things in Drez Khelim that will
still register on the atrophied sight of the deep drow. The
Pol’Tah consider the forge as symbolic and representative
of the bright form of the Light in the Deep itself.
Most beloved of all the displays of skill are the exhibitions of
the wormriders. Watching the riders direct these gargantuan
and colossal beasts as they move with terrible speed and
precision in and out of walls of solid rock, dancing around
one another in the midst of a great cavern, is a thrill to the
senses of the Pol’Tah and a sight that would likely terrify
an outsider into catatonia, were it possible to see it at all
through the dense fog of the deep drow homeland.
Another favourite entertainment of the Pol’Tah is the duel.
Though most often a killing in Drez Khelim is done quickly
and quietly, sometimes a pair of drow will chose to settle
their scores in public. Any deep drow may challenge any
other to a duel, which always takes place in an open area
of the city so that as many Pol’Tah as possible may crowd
about and enjoy the show.
Family
The Pol’Tah have no single family structure. Each of the
four clans has its own unique approach, each significantly
different from the other three. The Vurprell practice the
structure most familiar to outsiders, consisting of a single
mated male and female and their offspring. Among the
Pillafan, each female may have up to four husbands, while
the Ugtholn are at the other end of the spectrum, allowing up
to three wives for each male. Strangest are the Szekhtohn,
who organise their families in larger groups, consisting of
three males and three females each -- the males each have
three wives, the females each have three husbands. The
children of these families are considered the offspring of
all six adults, but the terms ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ are not
sufficient to cover all the relationships. The Szekhtohn
have multiple terms and concepts delineating the degree
of blood relation between these ‘siblings’, which have
extremely complex rules and are terribly confusing to an
outsider trying to grasp the idea.
How these differing customs got started is unknown, but is
likely the end result of some joke on the part of Vermthizzl.
There has been tension in the past between the clans over
their marriage practices, but most clans are content to
do things their way and let other clans do as they see fit.
However, it does explain why there is so little intermarriage
between the clans of the Pol’Tah.
Prostitution and illegitimate births are somewhat less
common among the deep drow than among their cousins
closer to the surface, but are by no means rare. Such births
are not considered a stigma per se in Pol’Tah society,