Drow

The **drow** live on the continent of Xen'drik. They are dark-skinned and have white hair. They believe that *they* truly preserve the dignity and valor of the elf race, and not the elves that went to Aerenal. They created an alliance with huge scorpions to attack their fallen masters. They are the most civilized people on Xen'drik, which many drow believe gives them right to the ruins of the giants, and the spellcrafts that giants learned from the dragons. They live in the ancient ruins with vaults of magical treasures. The main cultural group of Drow are worshipers of Vulkoor. The Sulatar and Umbragen are significant cultural groups as well. There are many other subgroups of drow, but, as the continent of Xen'drik is only partly explored, most cultural groups of drow have yet to be encountered.

## Lands

Throughout Xen'Drik the tribes and clans of Drow dwell in the underground realm of Khyber as well as in the Giant ruins and the wilderness above. The drow's biggest cities are underground.

## Settlements

Drow rarely live in the same places for a long period of time. The only time that they *do* stay is normally in a large tribe, and still they do not stay long. Usually this is just long enough to obtain the magical items in that area. The only exception to this rule seems to be the peculiar Sulatar.

## Beliefs

The main cultural group of drow worship a scorpion god named Vulkoor . Vulkoor is often represented as a gigantic scorpion, or as a hybrid with the head, arms, and torso of a strong male drow and the lower body of a scorpion. Many drow believe that Vulkoor and the Mockery are one and the same. They also revere scorpions, considering other arachnids to be lesser servitors of Vulkoor. drow ritually scar themselves using scorpion venom, leaving white tattoos on their black skin.

## Sulatar

A more advanced tribe of drow, the Sulatar seem to be masters of elemental binding and may have even been the source of Zilargo's knowledge. This form of magic dates back to the Age of Giants. In fact, the name Sulatar means "fire binders" in the language of the Giants. And the best warriors within this society use weapons and other items that are enhanced with fire. Sometimes the items are made powerful by elemental binding, but it is also done with other sorts of fire magic. Their weapons and armor often have fire art on them. The most interesting aspect of their weapons and armor is that it is made of a form of mithril that looks a lot like bronze.

Sulatar drow do not believe in the practices of their Vulkorian brethren. Instead they have stayed loyal to the teachings of their giant masters. Believing that in staying true to their ancient masters' teachings that one day they will be allowed to enter the promised lands of fire. Many scholars believe this promised land to be the plane of fire, Fernia. After they go to their fire promise land, they expect to gain immortality and power. And the power will be used to take over the world. They don't really believe in a god though. Instead they worship "The Promise of Fire." This "promise" has a neutral evil alignment and not surprisingly it offers the domains of Fire, Destruction, and Evil to its religious leaders. This religion has the two-handed sword as its favored weapon. One interesting religious belief they have is that if they have tattoos of fire, they will be granted divine protection. This, however, is a superstition (a superstition is a false supernatural belief) since the tattoos don't provide any protection.

The Obsidian City is the only known location of the Sulatar. It is located hundreds of miles south of Stormreach in the jungle. However, since the Sulatar stay in hiding, it is difficult to determine how many of this group of drow exist or even where they mostly reside. There is some modest evidence that most of them live in southern Xen'drik. The reason for the evidence being so modest is their isolationist culture. They will not interact with other societies until their time of conquest comes. The one exception to their isolationism is that they are at war with the children of Vulkoor. The children of Vulkoor hate the Sulatar for the loyalty they demonstated to the Giants forty thousand years ago. The Sulatar hate the children of Vulkoor for their disloyalty and savagery.

These people are universally taught to use the short sword and the hand crossbow and they are capable of controling bound fire elementals just as though they were members of a dragon marked house. Their capabilities with fire elementals is derived both from training and from their genetics.

## Umbragen

When the dragons devastated Xen'drik , the ancestors of the Umbragen fled into the depths of Khyber. They persisted under Xen'drik for a long time against many horrible monsters. Eventually they reached their current home, which is under the Ring of Storms.

In a desperate struggle to survive, these drow established a spiritual bond with a dark force known as the Umbra. The Umbra is a dark type of magic that the Umbragen learned from Qabalrin lore. The Qabalrin resided in the Ring of Storms before they were destroyed by a giant dragonshard. The Umbragen have been using the magic Umbra for a very long time now. They have been using it against many dangerous monsters and have gained more power over time as they bound themselves to the magic of the Umbra.

However, in the recent decades a daelkyr lord, Belashyrra, has created an army in the depths below Xen'drik. The Umbragen have been fighting a losing battle with the army of Belashyrra ever since. The army includes beholders, mind flayers, and other sorts of aberrations. Since even the Umbragen see that they are overmatched, they have sent many **drow** out from underground in order to find a weapon that will turn the tide in their war.

## References

***Secrets of Xen'drik***.
Keith Baker, Jason Bulmahn, and Amber Scott (2006). Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 0-7869-3916-8.

***City of Stormreach***.
Keith Baker, Nicolas Logue, James "Grim" Desborough, C.A. Suleiman (2008). Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 0-7869-4803-5.

Races of Eberron