The Tome Of Drow Lore.pdf - RoseRed

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Favoured Class: Wizard
Predominant Alignment: Chaotic evil
Predominant Religion: The Dark Mother
House Devoren
The drow of House Devoren are the nomads of drow
culture. They have few permanent settlements of their
own, preferring to remain constantly on the move. The
wealthy and the Noble Houses of House Devoren also
move frequently, abandoning one drow city and moving
on to the next, as the winds of the House’s fortunes and
interests take them. Of all the Noble Houses of the drow,
the dark elves of House Devoren spend the least amount of
time and energy on the Sheathed War.
Background
House Devoren has its roots as a chaotic jumble of drow,
many of different Houses but most of no House at all,
fleeing from the Sundering in a leaderless rabble. The
shangu took no notice of them, but a zealous host of surface
elves dogged their steps for days as they stumbled and
staggered through the Underdeep. The elves finally
gave up their pursuit and returned to the surface, but
the drow never stopped moving.
The exhausted drow dragged themselves from place to
place throughout the Underdeep, seeking a location of
safety but unable to find it. The drow were weak and
demoralised, unrecognisable as the deadly warriors
and wizards they are today. Every path they trod in
the Underdeep led them not to a new home, but to the
lands of some other race. Defeated in battle after battle
they would have rather avoided, the drow trudged ever
onward.
In the beginning days of their travels, the drow who
would become House Devoren were united by their
bonds as a common people in the face of the enemies
who would destroy them. This unity was short-lived
however, as there were too few drow of too many
disparate Houses for any one faction to retain control.
As soon as one small group assumed leadership of the
larger body of drow, there would be another defeat
by another Underdeep race, or some other manner of
tragedy would come to pass and another faction would
seize on this as an opportunity to wrest control away
from the ruling faction.
The process repeated itself over and over, keeping the
drow rudderless and unguided in the brutal depths
of the Underdeep, losing more of their people with
every ill-advised confrontation with a new enemy.
The drow began to despair, certain they would be
slowly ground away to nothing. As yet another battle for
control between the dwindling numbers of noble drow
raged on in the aftermath of a military loss to the duergar,
a warrior named Marltea na’Devoren lost the last shred of
her patience. Taking up her sword and rallying the other
drow commoners to her side, she seized control of the drow
through sheer force of numbers. Many of the noble drow
were slain, the rest were taken captive. Turning the drow
about, Marltea marched them back to the duergar, where
she traded the surviving noble drow as slaves to the grey
dwarves in exchange for weapons and promises of peace.
Now proudly calling themselves House Devoren, the drow
continued their march through the Underdeep, but the
once-dear dream of finding a place to settle and master was
fading from their thoughts. It was in those days that they
first reunited with the drow of House Kolnahos, the first
meeting of two peoples of the drow scattered during the
Sundering. There was hope from some of the people of
House Devoren that House Kolnahos would welcome them
into their cities, but there was no such welcome offered.