The Tome Of Drow Lore.pdf - RoseRed

Even then, the slave trade was the dominant force
of the economy of House Kolnahos, who were
seeking new markets for their wares, as well as new
lands in which they could find sentient beings to
be enslaved. It quickly became clear the travels
of House Devoren had given them vastly superior
knowledge of the Underdeep to any possessed by
House Kolnahos. Promising payments of wealth
and goods, the slave traders asked House Devoren
to guide their slave caravans.
That single offer set the drow of House Devoren
on the path they still follow today. Other than the
Noble House of Devoren, who make their homes
in the cities of other drow, the dark elves of House
Devoren are constantly on the move, acting as
traders, guides and explorers in the trackless depths
of the Underdeep.
Culture
The drow of House Devoren are nomads, most of
whom spend their lives travelling with their long
trading caravans across the Underdeep through
secret paths only they know.
The society of House Devoren is divided into three
tiers of drow. There are the Nobles, who oversee
the House’s trading network and are the descendants
of Marltea na’Devoren. The Nobles are the most
settled of any members of House Devoren, though
even they rarely remain in any single place for as long as a
century. The Nobles travel from city to city to broker new
trade deals and organise new opportunities for their clan.
Once the opportunities and trade demands are gone, the
Nobles move on to another city and new challenges.
The Traders comprise a second tier of House Devoren
society and are certainly the largest of the three. These are
the drow that drive, guard and guide the immense trading
caravans of House Devoren, or who hire themselves out
as guides and guards to the caravans of other Houses.
Those Traders who serve as guards often do double duty
as raiders, using their great knowledge of the Underdeep to
ambush the caravans of other races, or even other drow.
The third tier is potentially the most honoured of the drow
of House Devoren. They are the Explorers, dark elves who
devote themselves to learning and mastering the hidden
pathways of the Underdeep. It is the Explorers, for example,
who first discovered the existence of the Pol’Tah.
The fact that House Devoren has its roots as a band
of commoners who overthrew the nobles among them to
seize control has not made House Devoren popular among
the rulers of other Houses of the drow. Were it not for
House Devoren’s matchless knowledge of the Underdeep
and the fact that their trading network is second only to that
of House Pelshothe, the other Noble Houses might have
little or nothing to do with the nomadic drow, but those
things make such a stance economically foolish.
House Devoren, for its part, has little respect for the other
Houses of the drow, believing them too sedentary and staid.
Though they are notoriously free-spirited even for drow,
the trials of a nomadic lifestyle in a place as perilous as
the Underdeep have made the drow of House Devoren hard
and dangerous, a people who find the other drow Houses
soft and weak, too concerned with foolish pursuits. They
also have little respect for the property of others and the
arrival of a large number of House Devoren drow in the
area is often quickly followed by a crime spree.
Rangers and rogues are the most common character classes
in House Devoren, with wizards being the least common,
though still not a true rarity. There are no druids in House
Devoren, as the nomadic drow do not see the Underdeep
as a place to respect and understand, though they have a
57