Drow

Arachnea traveled throughout the many tunnels and caverns, seeking the perfect place to give birth to her children. Her children would conquer the caverns, travel the tunnels, and claim each piece of rock as their own by birthright. She tumbled into the largest of caverns and smiled. This was it. Auvryund, blood of the spider’s kiss. How fitting she thought as she remembered the tiny drop of blood she tasted from the female. She remembered how it traveled and flowed through her arachnid body. Even now as she stood in Auvryund, the blood was attaching itself to each and every one of her unborn children.

As she continued her exploration she noted a small dark tunnel that branched off. This tunnel was her first, one that had changed with time. The deeper she traveled, her body shivered. Not with fear but with the sense of darkness and foreboding. She knew at all costs she must protect her unborn children. The smells reached her first; it was an unbearable stench of death and decay. She advanced anyway. There before her stood the most gruesome sight. Tall buildings made of grimy marble but exquisite nevertheless. She knew then that she had found her builders. Spinning her silky web she ensnared all those who got too close and pulled them back through the tunnels into Auvryund.

The two creatures communicated together quite easily, their language almost the same. She instructed them in what she wanted and was a harsh task mistress. She weakened as each day passed. To keep the Dark Elves working she dared not show that she was slowly fading away. She worked them harder without rest and watched as her beloved temple came to be. The rest would be for her children to finish. As the last marble stone was put into place for her throne she smiled. Without blinking she spun her web, gathered the slaves, and pulled them back through the tunnel in which they’d come. She sealed the entrance with her web, knowing that it would take them time to break through if they dared, by then her children would be born and she would be nothing but a memory.

Arachnea grew tired. She had labored long and hard, creating the very world where all her children would reside. They would not be small spiders but a shadow of her new self. Each and every one of her children would possess her will, inheriting very little from the small drop of blood from Aeonleece. She rested by her egg sack watching it fill with life, her children moving within, and she smiled. As the days and weeks passed, Arachnea rested more frequently only moving when necessary. Then it came. The egg sack burst open, thousands of her children burst upon the world she had created for them.

The Birth of the Drow

In the sacred temple, built by the enslaved Dark Elves, is where it all began for them. Her waning strength only enough to watch as each of her children stood and gained the strength that was hers in passing. She watched as they scurried off to explore until all but two remained. She motioned them closer. With barely a whisper she instructed them in their duties. “You both will aspire to great things. You will become Matrons of our people. In this holy place of Auvryund, you will be united and stand together.

At the end of each group of 4 tunnels is a large cavern. There you shall each build a city of your own. The first is to be called Torani and the second to be called Zauep. Go forth past the great web and gather the slaves who shall build your cities. Once they have done their duty, guide them back to the tunnels and free them.” She had become grotesque in the few moments it took to explain this to her chosen ones. She moved forward and stood before them. She pointed to her right at the female with the light lavender eyes and spoke, her voice barely a whisper, “You shall be called Rauvini’Lird, Matron of House Torani.” She then pointed to her left to the female with the dark lavender eyes and spoke again, her voice barely echoing about the cavern, “You shall be called Nathjss’Thara, Matron of House Zauep.”

It was done. She slowly backed away from her children disappearing into the shadows with her last words echoing faintly throughout the temple, “Go forth my children and honor me.”