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- Society
- Family
- Marriage
- Females
- Males
- Children
- Armed forces
- Slaves & Servants
- Drugs & drug addiction
- Opposite Gender
- Slaves
- The Katana
- Armor
- Enchantments
- Dramatis Personae
Drow society is centered around the strength of the family. A powerful family
is a prominent family. The actual size of the family is unimportant only the
power the family welds matters.
The most powerful family is The Goddess herself. She is known to take lovers
upon occasion but these are short-lived affairs at best and never produce
offspring.
For the individual ones family status matters only as concerns what she can get
away with. A sufficiently powerful family could attack and destroy a less
powerful neighbor with near impunity.
To protect themselves many lesser families inter-marry. So long as the couple
live the 2 families are affiliated and will support each other.
A family is a group bound by the authority of the Matriarch. It's members need
not be (and quite often are not) related to each other. Quite often a family
will grow because a soft hearted male will bring home a discarded child and
sponsor it into the family.
Drow are wed for life which much to the sorrow of the male's is not necessarily
very long. The Female's rule is absolute. She may kill or cast out any member
of the family she finds offensive. She is responsible for the actions of all
lesser family members in her direct line (immediate family).
Marriages many political arrangements and the life of the male becomes
important enough that his spouse will be forbidden to kill him. She may however
injure him as she sees fit.
Traditionally the female kills her first partner. Thus many male's are careful
to try to find out if his partner is virginal. Even then many females kill
during the ecstasy of intercourse or for the lack thereof.
Gang rape of known virginal females is a fairly common defense technique among
young males.
Females are the preferred gender. They bring life and are favored by the
Goddess. Her freedom of action is limited only by her Matriarch and the will of
the Goddess. So long as neither care she is free to do what she will.
Females have very slow reproductive cycle. This will allow her to bear children
throughout her adult life but only one at a time and with a long interval in
between.
Males are definitely the second class citizen. Often relegated to tending
children and taking care of menial jobs when there are insufficient children to
do the work.
His life is often expendable. He is expected to defend his mate in battle and
die in her stead as necessary.
His Matriarch may marry him off without any concern for his feelings on the
matter and he'd best thank her for the privilege.
A males revenge is to see his spouse carry his children to term. Thus although
it's risky males tend to be very willing to mate.
As male's are also very potent magicians they are constantly researching better
spells to control the female. Occasionally this is successful. Often it ends
with the male's head decorating a stick.
Children have minimal rights. They are considered parasites during pregnancy
and females often attempt to terminate the little monsters. Often females will
be attended by relatives who's duty it is to prevent the destruction of the
growth.
During labor the mother is often restrained with a neck strap that is designed
to gently asphyxiate her if she struggles excessively this also prevents the
death of the father and child and conceivably the attending males as well.
Drow have no official military. Normally what happens is a Matriarch or the
Goddess assigns a specific female/Matriarch a task to accomplish. She then
takes Lesser females and any males at her disposal and sets to accomplishing
her assigned task.
Most drow are available for duty and the number of males available actually
exceeds that of the female's due to the high mortality rate among female
infants & toddlers.
Slaves are what provide Drow society with the inertia to continue. Captured
enemies, persons purchased with favors, and those bred to duty even drow that
have fallen on hard times provide society with slaves needed to perform tasks
to lowly for even the lowly free male to preform.
Drug addiction is the sign of the slave. Any person found to be a drug addict
is immediately sent to work as a slave (Purify food spells are quite common).
Drugs are used to control slaves. The drugs used are very addictive and
withdraw ends with death.
Prestige, Reputation, Power, and the Symbols that represent them.
This topic deals primarily with one thing. The ability to control ones own
destiny. The stronger the Ones reputation the less likely others are to
interfere with your dealings.
The symbols of this power over one's self are the katana, Armor, Enchantments
on these items, Slaves, & the opposite gender.
Generally it is a poor idea for a female to marry significantly outside her
peer group. Marrying down reflects poorly on one's family while marrying too
far up reduces her status. She becomes controlled by his power not the other
way around.
Males on the other hand seek to marry well below their station. For to marry
into a poor enough family means security and that security means power over
one's mate.
Slaves represent a family's fiscal might. A powerful family with many slaves
warrants an amount of respect and marriages by lesser families become desirable.
A symbol of personal achievement. Carrying a Katana shows the world that the
bearer has made a name for himself. Maybe not much of one but she has preformed
significant acts.
Generally as a person succeeds the trappings of success follow. Armor is such a
trapping. The more Expensive and decorative the better.
Ultimately authorized enchantments are the ultimate expression of success on a
personal level. Authorized Enchantments means that the Deity herself is pleased
with a young woman's or occasionally a young man's success.
(in this case woman and man refer to female & male drow)
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