Drow Nobility

About one out of every 20 drow is gifted with special powers from birth—the overwhelming majority of these exceptional drow are female, and as a result, drow society tends to be matriarchal in nature. These special births are engineered and encouraged among the ruling caste, and are far more likely to occur when the mother is of noble heritage. Strangely, the status of the father seems not to increase or decrease the chances of a child being born a drow noble. Common drow children born to nobles are usually put to death—sacrificed to one of the many demon gods to whom the drow offer worship. It is rare for a drow noble to be born to common parents, but those who are usually murder their parents or family before they come of age in order to hide the truth of their base upbringing and to ease the processes of joining one of their society's noble houses. Drow nobles are more powerful than the majority of their kin, and as such they quickly rise to power within their houses. Advancement through the hierarchy of a drow noble house is usually accomplished through a combination of assassination, seduction, and treachery, leading most drow in power to be overly paranoid.