Sshamath Sshamath or the City of Dark Weavings is a Drow city located in the Gauth Grottoes below the Far Hills . It has contacts in the Zhentarim citadel of Darkhold . History . Sshamath was established in - 4973 DR by the Lolth - worshiping drow house Sshamath . It was a standard drow city for nearly 2000 years . Then , in - 2867 DR it was discovered that the city ' s local " faerzress " was fluctuating badly . Five years later it was gone and the city was greatly weakened . Around three centuries previously , the Matron Mother s of the city had given birth to an unusually large number of male children . This contributed to a large increase in the number of wizard s , and a decrease in the number of priestesses . Thanks to the lack of nearby threats , the house wizards set about plundering the ruins of lost civilizations , such as Netheril and Oghrann . They took and duplicated every magical item that they could find , using them to instigate a very short civil war that killed all of the house matriarchs and replaced them with wizards . Thereafter , practitioners of the art reigned supreme . In 1379 DR , Q ' arlynd Melarn was accepted into the Conclave with the School of Ancient Arcana . That same year , after the High Magic ritual that transformed those drow not tainted by Wendonai ' s blood and the followers of Eilistraee into their original dark elven forms , Seldszar , Master of the College of Divination , revealed that the College of Ancient Arcana and the College of Divination would be relocated to the surface City of Hope , which was ruled by the sharn . Today . Sorcerers , bards , and divine spellcasters are treated as secondary citizens because magic that is earned through work is much more respected than magic that comes naturally or from deference to another . The city is now ruled over by the Conclave of Sshamath , an composed of one representative from each of the 8 schools of magical specialization , one who does not specialize , and one who is elected from among the more esoteric arcane practitioners ( Elemental Savant s , Deep Diviner s , etc ) . The conclave rarely meets , preferring communication via spells . Nurissa Vyllshan wants to get users of the Shadow Weave accepted as an official school and thus eligible for a conclave seat . Unfortunately for her and her followers this would lessen the power of the already established members ( which , obviously they want to avoid ) and the majority of Shadow Weave users get their power from the worship of Shar which is frowned upon by other wizards . Still , some would prefer that the practioners of shadow magic operated with conclave support than if they went underground . The city itself is a major trading center for all things magical . You can find nearly anything a wizard could possibly want in the Dark Weavings Bazaar and if you can ' t , it can be found for you . For an extra ( large ) fee it can be brought to you by adventurers ( usually non - drow ) . Slavery is also treated differently here than in other drow cities . Races considered capable of wizardry such as humans , elves , svirfneblin and deep imaskari are never kept as slaves by citizens , however visitors to the city are allowed to bring their slaves . Creatures who demonstrate an aptitude for wizardry are considered free in the eyes of Sshamath law and are allowed to live in a ghetto that is prevented from getting too big by the conclave . At the bottom of the great cave lies the Dark Weaving Bazar , the marketplace of Sshamath . In hundreds of tents and small shops in stalagmites the visitor can buy almost everything . If he / she does not find what he is looking for , he can hire someone to find it for him , and even humans will go for the item in the World Above . Important sites . In the center of the bazaar lies the slave market . In most places such a market would consist of many tents and cages but in a city full of wizards it is housed in one building . Magical glyphs an each side try to encourage passants to buy one or more slaves . The slaves are held in magical clearstones , where they are magically shrunk to get into the fist sized cubes and can be easily stored in the shelves .