The Tome Of Drow Lore.pdf - RoseRed

ut there is sometimes difficulty in finding a place for
the illegitimate child, particularly when the infant is the
offspring of two clans. In such cases, the child will likely
become a servant to a wealthy family, or failing that,
eventually enter prostitution as well.
The most fundamental difference between the deep drow
and normal drow is the position prostitution holds in society.
The Pol’Tah do not attach to it the prestige often ascribed
to the profession of courtesan in other drow cultures. Like
other drow, however, the deep drow breed very slowly,
and prostitution plays an important role in maintaining the
population.
Food
The diet of the Pol’Tah, as with most drow and indeed most
races in the Underdeep, consists largely of fungus, grown in
caverns, cellars, tunnels and small chambers in and around
Drez Khelim. Additionally, the deep drow keep and herd
several beasts native to this area of the Underdeep, which
they use for food and a source of hides.
The most common of these beasts is the hulurn, a toughskinned,
nearly hairless animal that stands about three feet
high and feeds on mushrooms. The hulurn is the primary
herd beast of the deep drow for several reasons. It is a docile
beast, making herding them a simple task. The tanned
hide makes useful armour as well as being suitable for the
crafting of many leather goods. The meat of the beast dries
easily and when still fresh it is firm and tangy, providing
a respite, however minor, from the usual bland fare of
mushrooms. Lastly and most importantly, the hulurn gives
milk. Similar in taste and texture to the milk of a goat, it is
used by the Pol’Tah to make butter and cheeses.
Fish, a standard food for most drow, is noticeably absent
from the tables of the deep drow. The streams, rivers
and pools at the bottom of the Underdeep are tinged with
sulphur, in levels perfectly safe for drow but intolerable for
fish.
Government
The government of the Pol’Tah is a strange balancing act
between the secular and the religious, though the scales
more often tip towards the religious, making the deep drow
a sort of borderline theocracy.
The secular government of the Pol’Tah is composed of
a fairly lean bureaucracy which is, sadly, headed by an
inefficient organisation called the Wreculth, or Highclan.
Made up of four individuals, specifically the head of each
of the four clans of the deep drow, the Wreculth is charged
with overseeing almost every aspect of Pol’Tah government.
Directly beneath them are ministers devoted to certain
elements of the deep drow society, such as the Warmaster,
who oversees the military, and the Wormkeeper, who is
responsible for the care of the Pol’Tah’s purple worms.
The Wreculth’s greatest failing is that each member has
an equal voice, and in a group of just four members, the
council often finds itself in deadlock, taking weeks or
months to decide what should be a relatively simple issue.
This where the cult of Vermthizzl enters the picture and
where it eclipses the secular government of the Pol’Tah.
Made up of clergy hailing from all four clans, the church of
Vermthizzl casts itself as an impartial entity, one which is
able to make an objective decision on matters facing the city.
Headed by a single priest or priestess, the cult acts quickly
and decisively, effectively taking over for the Wreculth in
the event of a deadlock. In the past, the church would often
foster such deadlocks merely to prove themselves more
capable than the Wreculth at managing the government.
Now, the cult merely announces its preferences, expecting
the Wreculth to accede to its wishes, which is usually the
case.
Magic
Though the Pol’Tah have lost their sight, they have not lost
of the affinity for magic common to the drow, and Drez
Khelim is home to a number of skilled spellcasters of both
the arcane and divine disciplines.
Unknown to outsiders, who believe that just because a race
is blind it cannot have access to the written word, there
are a number of powerful wizards among the deep drow.
These wizards use spellbooks, and research tomes as well,
with a cryptic language of lines and curves engraved on
thin pages of beaten metal. Though more time-consuming
to create than a traditional book of ink on paper, it is equally
effective.
Another fatal assumption of outsiders is the belief that
the blind deep drow cannot target their spells. Using
the acute tremorsense developed in millennia spent in
the choking mist of the pitch-black tunnels around Drez
Khelim, however, the Pol’Tah can hurl spells with perfect
accuracy at any target within the range of their impressive
tremorsense.
There are some areas in magic where tremorsense simply
cannot replace sight, such as scrying spells. These spells
are useless to the deep drow as they are incapable of seeing
any image displayed in the scrying device.
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