The Sundering of the Drow

Long ago, when Danatha'nir still flourished and the elves were at the height of their glory, explorers would venture forth to see what won- ders they could find in the outside world. One such explorer found a great valley that came to be known as the Elven Valley, but that story is told elsewhere. Our concern is with a young elf who decided to ex- plore a cave she had found in eastern Danatha'nir. She wound her way deep into the ground, until she found herself in a vast cavern. At the far end of the cavern, she discovered a great slab of stone that looked like some sort of altar.

Suddenly, her lantern seemed to be struck from her hand and extingui- shed. She turned to flee back toward the tunnel by which she had entered the cavern, but found herself entangled in the silky strands of a great spider web. Trapped, unable to move, she sensed the pre- sence of someone or something approaching her from behind. A soft voice whispered to her, promising secrets known to no other elf, mys- teries never before revealed, if only the elven maiden would bow down and worship the being who spoke. This struck a chord in the young elf, for she was one who had an overwhelming passion for knowledge, and little regard for anything else. She submitted and, once freed from the web, bowed down to worship her new goddess: Lloth. She re- turned to the surface as the new high priestess of Lloth. She had been changed by the experience; her hair had become snowy white, and her skin dark, to match the darkness that had found its way into her heart.

She went among her fellow elves, preaching the message of Lloth, a message of survival of the strong and death to the weak. Though most elves heard her words with disgust and loathing, she did find other kindred spirits, elves who had little concern for life and happiness, and only wanted the elven nation to rule over all. The priestess took each new convert to the altar in the cavern, to bow before their new goddess and be changed as the priestess had been to mark their dedica- tion to the cause of Lloth. Eventually, the drow (as they now called themselves, derived from the elven word for chosen) began to build dwellings in the cavern, and established a city apart from the other elves, a city they named Xymerria.

Centuries passed, and the drow proved more fertile than their surface cousins, confirming in their own minds their natural superiority. Tensions between the two branches of the elven race grew steadily, un- til one day an event occurred that forever separated the two. Exactly what caused it depends on whom you ask. The drow maintain that the elves intended an attack on Xymerria, and they decided to attack first. Elves declare that no such act was intended, and that the drow attack was without provocation. For whatever cause, the drow swarmed forth from their underground city and attacked the elven city of Os- sinsham, razing it to the ground and slaughtering every elf they could catch in a massacre so terrible that the region has been known ever since as Miden'nir, the Bloody Forest.

The elves retreated to the western part of the forest, and set up new borders to ward against their dark cousins. Eventually, the Forsaken Lands spread over Danatha'nir and formed a more formidable boundary between the two races. The drow continued to expand their subterra- nean kingdom, eventually establishing other cities deep beneath the earth. Time has not softened the hatred between drow and elf; rather it has fanned the flames of hatred into a fierce flame that may some- day destroy both races.