[Design] Drow

Darque

Chaotic Lord of Dragonia
Joined
Oct 15, 2004
Messages
1,147
Location
Illinois
This thread will be used to discuss the Drow

Spoiler History :
Long before the Kalagori and Wildarrow Elves went their separate ways, there was an even more prominent rift among the Elves. This rift pitted Drow against Kalagori and the dispute went far beyond the philosphical differences that drove the Wildarrow Elves across an entire continent.

From time immemorial there has been a legend among the Elves, a legend of the spilling of a lover's blood. The guilty party was not banished from the kingdom as would have been the case for any other crime committed amongst Elves. Instead, there was a manhunt and a guilty verdict without trial. Soon, two Elves were dead. One alledgedly at the hands of her lover. The second at the end of a mob's rope. The memory of the Elves is a long one, and nobody holds a grudge longer than members of the Elven Race. This grudge would not be forgotten by either side. No Elf knows for certain which side was wrong and which side was wronged. In any event, all members of the Drow were held accountable for the many failings of justice in this case and before they too could be punished, they fled the Elven Homeland.

Shunned by most races, the Drow retreated deep underground. From that point, the Drow had no dealings with the races that dwealt on the surface. Perhaps it was simply xenophobia, but the bad blood again revealed itself during the Great War. At one point during the war, someone was preying specifically on the Kalagori Elves--not the Elven Military, but its citizens. Though nothing could be pinned on them in the wartime tribunals of 316 BR, several Drow were arrested and executed as spies and assassins.

After the war, the Drow again went into complete seclusion. They did not reappear for some time. It was recorded by Osterland Skalds that in 289 AR, a race of ashen-skinned, black-eyed Elves emerged from underground and began to colonize the Skyridge Mountains surrounding Osterland. Oster's history also records that Osger decided to do nothing about these subterranean Elves as there seemed to be worse enemies to keep at bay. In the summer of 446 AR However, while Osterland's warriors were away on their usual plundering raids down the Isendorven coast, the relatively unguarded Oster city of Nasvik was attacked by the Dark Elves. The Drow did not occupy the city though it would have been relatively easy to annex it into their own growing kingdom, instead they simply looted the city of food, most of the precious goods, and a few citizens as slaves. Upon their return, the Oster raiders were furious at the cowardly attack by the Drow and they soon began a march into the mountains seeking revenge. However, the mountain passes slowed the advance of the Oster forces. This slow advance gave the Drow plenty of time to brace for the coming attack. The Dark Elf Queen Z'viir sought aid from her hill-dwelling, evil neighbors, the Black Orcs. The Drow-Orc alliance easily resisted the Oster attack.

During the period from 400 AR to approximately 1100 AR, the Drow and Oster fought land disputes with neither nation making any significant gains. However, in the year 1118 AR Osterland won a significant victory when Dark Queen Zakrenod (who had ascended the throne in1026 AR) was defeated in battle and slain with her troops. A succession of weak queens in Esemsenphis led to a period of stagnation for Drow expansion. In the year 2746 AR, the string of weak queens ended with the assassination of the reigning monarch. This vacancy was filled by Gulriel X'viir, granddaughter of an earlier Dark Queen. Accusations of the assassination were made against a lowly Drow male, Elgul Nazamroth but the he was acquited of the crime by the new Queen. Rumors ran rampant when Nazamroth began a rapid climb in power toward the position of Archmage. In 2751 AR, expansion was began anew when Teidroi Kezrel, half-brother of Zakrenod and a captain in the Order of Soul Spiders, led his Driders and Reapers to victory against the Osterland City of Bodovagen. This time, the Drow held onto the city as spoils of war, and proceeded to kill every citizen.

In time, the reasons for the Drow conquest of Bodovagen became clear. In 2968 AR Archmage Elgul Nazamroth was sent to Osterland as an envoy with a peace offering. Unknown to the people of Osterland, Nazamroth's peace offering, indeed the initial Drow conquest of Bodovagen was really nothing more than a plot against their arch-enemy, the Kalagori Elves. The Drow offered to return the former Oster city to its fatherland in return for Osterland's support against the High Elves. For Osterland this deal was very agreeable as it returned their city as well as giving them a reason to make a few extra, and very profitable stops on their voyages of pillage.


In the mod, the Drow are mortal enamies with the other elven races. Due to this, they are very likely to start a war with each other.
 
this is very well written the only question i have is what does the drow fortress look like is it more of a tower system or more carved into the side of the mountain(that might be to dwarfish)
 
I have several ideas for the drow if you have ever read The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore the drow live in a subbteranean world known as the Underdark. They have a class system based on houses that are based on family's so...the houses would rage war on one another to gain power and depending if Lloth(drow goddes) favored them she might aid/protect one house from destroying another. I thought it would be interesting to have a social civic based on the house system or maybe a special mark for a unit.

Another interesting part of the Drow society was that they would have armies of drow and then have slave armies of goblins,bugbears,gnolls,etc.
That would be a nice alternative to industrial slaves of course they should have a morale decrease of somekind because they are enslaved.
 
this is very well written the only question i have is what does the drow fortress look like is it more of a tower system or more carved into the side of the mountain(that might be to dwarfish)
We have not created a model for the Drow fortress yet. If you would like to create a concept drawing, feel free to do so. Just remember that this would be a surface city. Also, a new drow cityset is in the works. Hopefully woodelf and winddelay will finish it soon...
 
I have several ideas for the drow if you have ever read The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore the drow live in a subbteranean world known as the Underdark. They have a class system based on houses that are based on family's so...the houses would rage war on one another to gain power and depending if Lloth(drow goddes) favored them she might aid/protect one house from destroying another. I thought it would be interesting to have a social civic based on the house system or maybe a special mark for a unit.

Another interesting part of the Drow society was that they would have armies of drow and then have slave armies of goblins,bugbears,gnolls,etc.
That would be a nice alternative to industrial slaves of course they should have a morale decrease of somekind because they are enslaved.

Good idea with the house system and special marks to indicate the house of the drow unit. As for civics, I do not want to change them at this point, so we would apply these ideas within the current civis, but make the features specific to the Drow.

With the slave militia, this could make the slavery scripts I will soon be writing more interesting: If the civ is drow, and the units are not elven, dwarven or human, then the slave unit created would be a militia slave. If the unit is elven, dwarven or human, then the slave unit would be a worker slave. As with the normal slave script (to be coded) this would only be applicable if the slavery civic is active.
 
Sounds great, I was also thinking with the religious system you could fall in and out of favor of a god depending on what actions you take which would be almost a parralel to your good and evil system. That way if you followed Lloths religion and you commited various deeds for hear or started wars for her than you should be rewarded. If you were to do very little to appease your god and/or gods you might be punished or maybe even asked protection from another god.
 
An action could be declaring war on a nation that worships another deity or the possibility to be an extremist and start a holy war. Maybe a good god could grant a quest to convert five cities to that religion. Possible rewars could be gold rewards, special units, unit upgrades etc.
 
Heh, sorry... I keep forgetting.

Here's an overview of the basic buildings, based on original designs by woodelf. I'll start piecing the set together. Some things need more scaling, and I'll add more details as I go.

Spoiler :
 
I have a pretty cool Gothic House I made a month or so ago that might be a decent palace for now. It's not textured though. New concept drawings would always be welcome.

win - I think we need 3-4 crystals in the city set. That looks awesome!
 
Here's a pretty good early Drow set. Sorry it took so long... :rolleyes: It was a very long week.




It still has a few problems... I'll try to sort them out. Otherwise it looks great. I uploaded to the svn.
 
Top Bottom