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Centuries ago, the marked elves of the Forgotten Realms found a Gate far beneath the surface of their world, in their Underdark. The Gate was one of the thousands that lead to the Sister Worlds; it was a remnant of the Sister Worlds War, when troops were moved in circumlocutious methods, through other worlds and realms.
The gate led to a surface world completely unlike their own, where even the stars were different. The Gate was utilized for several years, before a mysterious earthquake destroyed the complex mechanism and spellweave of the Realmside Gate. Trapped on Gaeleth, the drow were forced to explore their new home, unable to return home because of Gaeleth's Shield. The drow on Gaeleth changed, especially in the crucible of the Storm Wars. Their main faction, located in the heart of the Sandra Mountains, was forced into slavery and servitude by the legions of Nathel. General Orcen Roreth, head of Nathel's armies, remarked, "They are a strong race. Excellent fighters." Nathel forced many of the drow into crossbreeding programs, anticipating a victory in the war, and the continued need for troops and warriors, aftewards. The drow priests and clerics, without power once the Gate collapsed, were helpless before General Roreth. It's mages put up some resistance, but when Nathel's prize archon Nabrol personally intervened, the resistance ended. Forced into servitude as front-line warriors, breeding machines, and toys for General Roreth, the drow were on the path to extinction. Roreth's plans and Nabrol's intervention were cut short, when the war began to turn against Nathel. Then Nathel was slain by Giran Howel, and Nabrol assumed his place amongst the Gaelican pantheon. Not much later, Roreth himself died. Control of the drow went to Simon Luminar, antipaladin. General Luminar began using the remaining drow as scourges, hunting down the gnomes in genocide -- and using the drow warriors up, in the process. Something in the Heavansbane Mountains altered Luminar, forcing him to revert to the side of the north. Whatever the cause, Luminar, with the aid of the Sebre Druids, began to round up and save the remaining drow. As the war drug on under Nabrol's chaotic control, Luminar joined the service of the new god Arpelos, and subsequently leapt into the future. Luminar would go on to prove instrumental in killing Nathel after his ressurection, five hundred years later. The drow responsibility fell to the Sebre Druids, and to Avard Karatikan. Avard and the Sebre Druids managed to secure the majority of the drow in the surface city of Tyven, located in the southern portion of the Banoc Forest, near the Tamineth Ocean. Some fraction of the drow returned to the Sandra Mountains, to see if the Gate would ever reopen -- they had no way of knowing that the Gate was closed, forever. A smaller fraction of the drow never escaped Nabrolian control. The majority of the half-bred drow were retained on the continent of Nabrol, which never fell to the north, even after the Storm Wars were concluded. Those drow were treated as less than slaves. Knowledge of this was hidden from the drow not in Nabrol, by order of Avard himself, lest they begin a crusade to rescue their kin before the Storm Wars could be contained. Avard and his key officials died at Rhythis with the formation of Lake Kyriath, and the knowledge of the Nabrolian drow was wiped out.
When the Storm Wars had ended, the Cleansings began. Priests and clerics began killing wizards and sorcerors, misinterpretting the maligned orders of their deities, and the workings of the mages to escape the Shield. The Tyven drow, strong in magic, were among the first to be wiped out in a surprise attack by former allies. Though officially 'fair and lawful', the trials of the mages and wizards were anything but, and many innocent drow mages were put to the death. In the aftermath of the Cleansing, Tyven withdrew from interaction with much of the world, building deep into the bedrock beneath themselves. There was some interaction between the Tyven drow, and the local Banoc elves; the Banoc elves offered supplies and aid, in exchange for lost tales of their homeworld. The drow of the Sandras soon found themselves fighting the Nabrolian allied dwarves, pasty white dwarves that lived for blood and battle. The wars continued through the centuries, further dwindling the numbers of the evil drow, though they continued to breed as quickly as possible. Long lived, their females often died in child birth without the care of clerics and priests, and the struggle continued, with many turning to the following of Samis. The Nabrolian drow continued to dwindle down to nothing. Some still exist in dank, forgotten tunnels of the Nabrolian citadels, but the majority of those surviving on that continent were destroyed when the Nabrolian Detonation wiped out most of that continent. Not much later, the Kiriath Detonation created the Sea of Kiriath. The Tyven drow were nearly wiped out when Lord Elistan, a death knight, and former colonel under Luminar, returned. Raised by Demik Coruth, Elistan swore service to Coruth, if only he could finish his mission in life -- grind the drow to black dust. Undead zaratans and krakens helped bring in armies of skeletal warriors, and as each drow fell beneath the onslaught of Elistan's fist, Demik forced the body to reanimate against its kin. The slaughter was horrendous. The white stones of the city of Tyven were red with blood, and few escaped. Some fled into the nearby Banoc Forest, where creations of Demik's father, Charliss, awaited them. Others tried to flee to the sea, where undead sharks and ghost ships awaited. A few escaped in the labrynthine corridors beneath Tyven, that had been designed against another Cleansing. Most died. The princess of the Tyven drow, daughter to King Rizz'Chkt, had been in training to mercenaries in Kur Maeth, when Elistan attacked. She and her drow honor guard were quickly captured by slavers. Princess Genea finally escaped to Rakore, where she runs The Blue Tyven bar and inn at Mount Rilan. From there, she influences Rakoran politics on the side, and runs a secret network of Lul's spies. The majority of the Tyven drow had worshipped Agincoth, K'Tath, and Rahne, before Elistan arrived. With Elistan's crushing blow, the majority of the drow were scattered to the wind. Few and far between, the drow that remain have a dim outlook on the world. The evil that they had been before the Storm Wars was pale in comparison to the evil of Nathel, Nabrol, and Elistan. Their supposed allies had first killed their mages in the Cleansing, and then failed to aid them when Elistan attacked. Embittered, many drow have withdrawn, further lessening the numbers of the drow. Some few, like Princess Genea, have gone on, to make the best of a bad situation. Using the extensive libraries and resources of Lul, she seeks to reunite the drow. Through deft political maneuvering, and the gift of her mrizton (gem of her house), she secured the title of Duchess in the kingdom of Rakore, and a large set of valleys in the mountains. Some view Genea as a sell-out, to give up her mrizton, while other drow view her as a savior. Reactions vary, among the few drow that have been found. Unknown to all the drow, the dwarven King of Rakore, Feldspar Graniteshoulders, has kept the mrizton in a secret vault. Knowing only dwarven honor tempered by human interaction, King Graniteshoulders will give the mrizton back to Princess Genea, the moment the drow people earn it, and are ready for it. As the hunt for the lost drow continues, the mrizton continues to glow in the vault. Drow continue to die in the Sandras, and in Nabrol. Some few wander the lands, lost, out for blood, or searching more of their kindred. The other races and nations are indifferent. To most humans, nonhumans are nonhumans, regardless of skin color or ancestory. Among the other demihumans, only the gnomes might have believed the amount of devestation, or sympathized with the drow, but the gnomes are long gone. The other elves do not understand the drow. Their dark skin marks them as apart, but the mark means nothing to the Gaelican elves. Many of the stories of the drow first arose from their ferocious attacks on Karatikan forces, under Nathel's rule. The black mark is the mark of dried blood, among many of the nations. The Sebre Druids are long since diminished in power, isolating themselves from the rest of the world, and the drow's suffering. But they perservere. Some have gone on to become great mercenaries. Others have sought out, and found the rare traces of magery on Gaeleth. And some have found the Ghost. In the broken library of Lul and Agincoth, in the ruins of Tyven, the librarian waits. For those drow that return to her, she offers what magic she can. Insubstantial, she cannot tend the books, and so they decay further still, until the next drow mage returns to her. Kithshindra's ghost, and the library, stand at the center of the banshees' rage. Their deaths at the hands of Elistan was the final straw; the banshees kill anyone and anything that enters Tyven. Commanding some few shades and shadows that were left behind by Elistan's attack, the banshees guard Tyven from all looters -- and the few drow that would try to find those last vestiges of a form of magic long-since lost. "I've waited a long time, for one of us, to return. I've waited a long time to tell my story," Kithshindra said in a soft, distant voice. Outside, the banshees wailed futilely, unable to cross the deitific threshold of the doubly sanctified temple to Lul and Agincoth. "Aid me. Help me tend to some of the books, the scrolls. And I have a gift for you, when we are done." |
The drow in the Sandra Mountains occasionally came across an escaped drow from Nabrol. However, their return to the worship of their evil goddess required sacrifice, and the half-breeds and 'unclean' that escaped Nabrol were slain. The drow in the Banoc Forest spurned contact with their evil brethren in the Sandras. They joined sides with the Karatikan forces, and served as able warriors, assassins, and mages during the Storm Wars.