The Tome Of Drow Lore.pdf - RoseRed

power, from Fifth (the lowest) to First (ranking just below
the Cabal in influence and power). The five founders of the
Cabal are still known as the Circle. Each Tier of the Cabal
has a limited number of total positions, as determined and
sometimes altered by the Circle, but as with the number of
the Circle and the number of Tiers, the number of positions
in any given Tier is always a number divisible by five.
Currently, the First Tier has 10 positions, the Second Tier
has 15, the Third Tier a total of 20 and the Fourth Tier is
made up of 25 mages. The sole exception is the Fifth Tier,
which has no set number to limit its membership.
The Cabal was founded on the principle that the right to
rule the drow should fall to the strong, not the wealthy or
the faithful and it is through strength in magic that members
of the Cabal advance from one Tier to the next. Whenever
a member of one Tier feels ready to move up to the next, he
must do two things. First, he must discover the identity of
a member of the higher Tier, which is no small feat as the
Cabal keeps the identities of its members concealed from
those of lower Tiers. Second, upon discovering the identity
of the mage, he must defeat him in a magical duel.
There is no requirement that such duels end in the death of
one of the combatants, but it is exceedingly rare that both
survive. If the challenger prevails, he is elevated to the next
Tier and the defeated defender (if he lives) is relegated down
one Tier. However, the Circle prizes strength and despises
weakness, so much so that a member of the Cabal who is
defeated by a challenger will almost certainly be seen as a
weakness in the organisation as a whole, a weakness that
cannot be tolerated. Unless the disgraced mage is able to
do something very quickly to prove his continued worth to
the organisation, it is likely he will have survived the duel
only to find himself murdered on orders of the Circle.
Technically, these duels of ascension should involve a
challenge, an acceptance of that challenge and a stating of
the time and place of the duel. In practice, this is rarely
the case. In the past, the Circle has turned a blind eye to
the breaking of these rules, as they believe any member of
the Cabal should be ready at all times to defend himself.
However, after several relatively recent, highly visible
duels of ascension, particularly one only a few years ago
in which two archmages battling for a position on the First
Tier obliterated half the drow city of Leer’atz, the Circle is
urging its followers to be more circumspect.
Place in Drow Society
The Cabal has no place in drow society. The organisation,
its rulers and its members are considered enemies of nearly
every drow culture. After the tremendous destruction in
Leer’atz, many of the Noble Houses placed bounties on the
heads of every member of the Cabal, not out of sympathy
for the mangled city, but out of concern the same thing
might happen in their own domains.
The cult of Ydrillia in particular is aligned against the
Cabal, eagerly hunting and killing any members it can find.
The idea of a group of powerful mages who have turned
their backs on She of the Veil is terrifying to the priesthood
of Ydrillia, who fear that if it is not stopped, it may result in
even more mages turning from the cult.
Dark Fey
More nomadic even than House Devoren, the loose
association of drow known collectively as the Dark Fey
wander the Underdeep unconstrained by any sense of
civilisation, turning away from drow society to embrace
the ancient roots of their race.
Background
The Dark Fey are the true free spirits of the drow, dark
elves who have abandoned the culture of their people and
sought instead a return to the faerie roots of the drow.
Unburdened and unbounded by society and civilisation,
they have embraced chaos and disorder.
There are those who argue the Dark Fey have always been
present, part and parcel of the drow and a throwback to
their fey heritage. Others argue the Dark Fey are a more
recent development. Many believe they are not what they
seem to be at all, but instead are an aspect of the Darkling
Sky (see page 85), determined to lure dark elves away from
proper worship of the drow pantheon.
One reason there is so much confusion about the Dark
Fey is because of the very nature of its people. They are
predisposed to tricks, lies and deceit, with just enough truth
thrown in to make it impossible to know when one of them
is speaking honestly. They are not fond of speaking to
other drow, let alone educating them and every drow who
has attempted to learn the truth about the Dark Fey has
come away with a radically different story. Even the name
is something imposed on them from without, as the Dark
Fey are not the sort to allow themselves to be categorised
together in a single group.
In fact, the Dark Fey were ‘founded’ in the years following
the Sundering. Years of endless privation, misery and fear
drove some of the drow utterly mad. While many of these
insane drow were used as sacrifices to the gods, others
wandered off into the Underdeep. Very few of these drow
survived any significant length of time in the trackless
Underdeep, but some endured through the perils. There
was one, a male drow with no name he ever gave, who
would wander into drow cities from time to time, speaking
83