Drow. In the human world the name often evokes a shudder and a quick gesture to ward away evil spirits, or a laugh and a dismissal as simply "black elves" by those adventurers who have never come across one. In elven tongues, they are referred to by several names: "tirl aukhbhet-ess," "tuer lothnil," and "duiss aszbhar" - all of which roughly translate to "The Accursed." To the elves, those long lived graceful beings who most embody all that is good in the world, the name brings a narrowing of eyes and a burning passion of hate - an expression most at odds with their normaly peaceful nature. To creatures of the underdark however, the name is synonymous with dark power, domination and death, and is respected and feared almost universally by all.
How the drow came into being, their split from their goodly surface cousins millenia ago, is not part of this story.
How they became the most feared race of the underdark, is also not part of this story.
That is all ancient history, and in a race as long-lived as the elves, both surface and drow, ancient history means legend in human terms, for during the average elf life-span, humans will live and die through over 20 generations! And although most humans can go their whole life without meeting a drow, the stories from those who did and survived, live on and grow, almost with a life of their own, till the black devils of the underdark are almost demon like in their powers. Those who think little of drow, are those who believe that the stories are exagerated beyond all belief, at least till they find the truth in their own meeting with the dark elves.
It is no wonder that the humans and other civilised races of Faerun know little of the drow and understand them less. Generally living in cities far below the surface world, in vast cave complexes that extend under virtually all of the known realms, the drow have society structure that would be alien to most. The Goddess Lloth, the Spider Queen
This story however is about one person. A bastard, born to a human woman out of rape. Rape by a drow.
His mother [Elaina Vajek] had been captured on a surface raid, and rather than simply raped and killed, was instead taken to the drow city of Haundrauth where she lived for many years as a personal slave to Rai Selaed, the first son, and weapons master of House Selaed. House Selaed was ranked 7th in the Game of Houses, and it's head, Mother Jalfina Selaed was an avid player, having raised her house over the last 5 centuries of her life from virtually unknown, to one of the most important Houses in Haundrauth. Although she would not admit it, much of her success had been through the skill of arms and strategy of her son Rai.
As Weapons Master, he controlled the "private army" that the house now commanded, and used it to both protect the House, and to lead occasional raids that the city mounted on the surface world. It was on one such raid that Elaina Vajek was taken as a slave. Normally, as a magic user, Elaina would not have been allowed to live, but Elaina had somehow managed to keep her skills hidden, and by very careful use of them, managed "influence" her captor, such that she became a "favoured and trusted slave", maybe even more. After a while, she became pregnant by Rai, and gave birth to a son, whom she named Deethan. He was a half-breed; half human and half drow. His mother, originally from Chult, was naturally dark skinned, and Deethan's skin was doubly so. At first glance, he could have easily passed for a true Drow, but his clear blue eyes, and black, rather than white hair, showed up his true parentage.
Normally, such children of slaves / half-breeds are killed, but because of her "influence" she managed to keep her child, and started to have him raised almost as if he were his father's true drow son. This was a secret to the female half of the household, and something which, as Deethan (called Daithan by his father) grew up, became harder and harder to keep. Elaina took to bleaching her son's hair to help him pass as a normal drow child, and to reduce the chance that his heritage be spotted. Luckily, most slaves were "beneath notice", and were taught not to look a drow in the eye, so the anomaly of his slightly lighter skin and the blue eyes managed to pass. Elaina also took it upon herself to start to teach the rudiments of magic to her son, and to teach him that the way of the drow was not how he should live his life. As time went on, she also began to subtly change the outlook of Rai as well, making him see a bit more of the world that the normal paranoid/power hungry drow viewpoint would allow him to see. She also taught Rai about the surface world, her family, her brother Erik, and her parents in Calisham. If ever he was to escape to the surface, he was to seek out Erik
It was during these years that other rival houses started to notice Rai's change of character, and, eventually it's source. In the usual machinations of the Game, this was seen as an opportunity to bring the downfall of House Selaed. When Deethan was only 15, the plots that had been simmering came to a head. Two rival houses; House Dalsolk and House Kreksalon, plotted to cause the serious embarrassment of House Selaed, by the public denouncement of Rai at a major event, the ritual annual "testing" of children who have just come of age. This expose would use Elaina and Deethan as rope with which to damn Rai.
Early in the morning of Testing Day, Elaina and Deethan were kidnapped, Deethan’s natural hair colour was restored, and he was imprisoned within a magical egg. Later that day, at the public event, House Selaed were presenting the 5 youngsters from within the household who had come of age that year. Once these children had been presented, Sonial Kreksalon, the high priestess in charge of the proceedings, shocked the gathering, by asking "Are there any OTHER children of blood Selaed who should be tested at this time?" Jalfina Selaed responded in a frosty "No!", whilst Rai looked on impassively from a few paces back. Suddenly, Rakeen Dalsolk stepped forward, and with a flourish, released Deethan from the magical egg. "What about this HALFBREED your son Rai has been keeping with his HUMAN concubine?!"
Jalfina's jaw dropped, one of the few occasions in her long life that she had been truly shocked! Rai's face hardened. Politically, this was a turning point for the House. The only way out, was for Rai to draw his sword, and kill Deethan there and then. Rai drew his sword, stepped towards Deethan, who stood there defiantly, with his lower lip bleeding in the effort to stop himself from curling into a ball with fear. Rai leant forward, and grasped Deethan's chin, forcing his head to look up at him, pretending to examine him theatrically, as if to double check his lineage. Without his lips moving, Rai spoke quickly to Deethan.
"Daithan my son, I did not know love till I met your mother, and I am very proud of you. If you can escape from here, do so. I pray you will forgive me for your mother. When all goes dark, grab my broach; if you will it to, it will allow you to see, then run like the wind and don't look back." As he finished speaking, he drew his sword back, took a look around, until he focused on Rakeen Dalsolk. He smiled, then all went dark.
Deethan snatched his hand at where he had been staring , and pulled the broach, yanking the entire cloak with it. "Godspeed my son" came a whisper before a swirl of air and a swoosh of a scimitar, followed by a scream that had to be Rakeen. Clutching the broach and the cloak to him, Deethan willed himself to be able to see. Suddenly he could see, as though through a filter. Confusion reigned, with the various nobles with their body guards clustered into tight groups, blades out. The exit beckoned, and Deethan broke into a run, jumping over blades aimed at his passage, and breaking out of the building. The darkness Rai had cast was huge! He had heard from some of the other kids that age and experience allowed one to make larger globes of darkness, but that one could channel one's own life force into it to increase the size even further. Despite his father's words, he risked a glance back. Rai danced a graceful dance of swords, surrounded by eight other drow warriors, who in the darkness felt their way more cautiously, for fear of harming their colleagues. A moment later, the darkness disappeared, as one of the priestess finally managed to dispel it.
Deethan ducked out of the doorway, and fled the city, keeping to the shadows and climbing over rooftops, stopping only to steal some food. Eventually he made it to the city gates, and donning the piwafwi cloak with it's prominent Insignia of House Selaed, utilised the one spell that his mother had managed to teach him, Alter Self. Appearing for all the world as if he was Rai Selaed himself. The drow on duty there nodded respectfully as he passed, his reputation as a Weapons Master protecting him despite the lack of swords.
Once beyond the gates and out of sight, Deethan broke into a run and felt for the subtle drow way markers similar to those that the other drow children had often played with when playing Spider Hunt, the drow version of Hide & Seek. These would hopefully help lead him to the surface. Apparently it took only 1 day to reach Haundrauth from the surface. In the end, It took him 4 weeks of wandering around in the under-dark to find his way to the surface. Sometimes running from horrors that lurked in the darkness, sometimes hiding from drow patrols, possibly searching from him, sometimes licking at a minor trickle of water on the rock in a desperate thirst, and sometimes eating foul tasting fungi and small crawling creatures in hunger. Eventually smelling fresh air, and crawling out into narrow ravine, where starlight filtered down from behind clouds
The air smelt so clean compared to the stink of the under-ground and a wetness could be felt in the air; this must be what his mother called rain! As the wind changed, he suddenly smelt himself, and a small stream beckoned him. As he stripped off to wash in the icy stream, he paused to look at the bloodstone ring his mother had given to him, and silent tears mingled with the rain, as he remembered his mother's advice to him: "If you ever escape, make your way to Neverwinter, and look up my brother, your uncle Erik. Show him this and say 'Salharil shwon d ekal emnass'. It is an old saying in our parent’s native tongue. It means 'Thank you mother for my gift'. I was given this by our mother when we left Chult so many years ago. He has one like it too."
It took Deethan a further 2 days to leave the cave entrance, particularly when the sun came up during the day. For all his mother’s descriptions and explanations, he still could not believe what he saw. There was no solid roof above him, just emptiness, and once he came out of the gorge, he could see for miles. How on earth would he find his uncle? Luckily, from his mother’s descriptions, he knew that he should head for something called "the Sea", which would always be in the direction the sun set. Once he had reached that, Neverwinter was bound to be either north or south from there, and someone should be able to tell him which!
Wrapping his father’s piwafwi around him, as the sun set on the 2nd day, he loped out from ravine, down a gentle sloping hill, towards the fading red glow on the horizon. Later that night, slipping easily through the darkness that he felt more at home in, he spotted a building of some sort, looking a little run down, but from the warmth he could see with his drow bred eyesight, obviously occupied.
All the windows on the ground floor had been boarded up, although apparently from the inside, but he could hear the murmuring of voices inside. His stomach rumbled, and he realised that he hadn't eaten for 3 days now. His last meal was slugs, pulled from where they were feeding on mold on a cavern’s wall. The thought that they might offer him food flitted across his mind, but charity was an alien word in the world of the drow, and despite his mother’s words, he somehow felt that it was unlikely. Silently he climbed onto the roof, seeking some entry. Perhaps he might be able to find something to eat in a back room. A skylight offered a lucky entry, and Deethan found himself in a loft of some sorts. Picking his way quietly towards a hatch, Deethan spotted a rusty looking dagger, and since he was unarmed, picked it up. As he lifted the hatch slightly, he squinted against the sudden light. Below him, was an ugly looking human, standing in a short passageway between what looked like a kitchen and a front room. He was talking in a rapid voice to an elderly woman,
"Mother, you shouldn't have paid them, and we should have got out of here days ago."
"But this is our home"
"I know that!, and I will defend it as long as we are here! But it IS only bricks and mortar, and when they come back!"
"They won't!"
"They will demand more, until we have nothing left, and then they will kill us, likely as not eat us as well! I know these people, and they are not honourable. You have taught me the meaning of that, I certainly didn't learn it from them! They have no sense of right and wrong. Believe me mother."
There was a moment’s silence, suddenly broken by a loud banging at the main door of the house. The young man jerked around, and his hand reached for the handle of a wood axe that was leaning against the door frame. "I told you!" he hissed!
"No don’t do it Keld". The old woman reached out a hand to stop him, but he moved into the front room, out of Deethan’s sight, the she followed. The loud banging stopped. "OPEN UP, or we burn yer to ground", came a rasping shout in broken common from outside.
"WE HAVE NOTHING MORE TO GIVE, SO GO AWAY!" Keld responded. There was the sound of movement from outside, and then suddenly, the door splintered and burst off it’s hinges. A lot of shouting in a guttural tongue followed, and by leaning close to the hatch, Deethan could see Keld, holding at bay several very ugly looking tusked humanoids, who were struggling to attack him over the remains of the door and a small tree trunk they had obviously used as a battering ram. His mother, slumped against the inner door frame behind Keld, watching in horror as he battled with the ugly buggers, whom Deethan would later learn were Orcs.
Suddenly, Deethan’s sensitive ears heard another noise from the direction of the kitchen, and unnoticed because of the fighting in the front room, another orc had managed to lever some of the boarding off, and was coming in through the back door. A few moments later, as he passed beneath Deethan, intent on attacking Keld or his mother from behind, Deethan dropped silently down on to the orc’s back, driving the rusty dagger deep. A squeal of pain erupted from the orc’s surprised mouth, as he fell heavily, dead before he hit the floor. The combat in the front room suddenly stopped, as the orcs stared past Keld and then suddenly turned and fled, screaming something in their own tongue. Keld whipped around, holding his bloodied axe in front of him, himself bleeding from a few minor wounds. "What the!" He exclaimed
His eyes took in the blooded rusty knife in the dead orc’s back, who had obviously been about to attack his mother. He lifted his eyes to the dark skinned figure standing there, took in the ragged clothes under the dark shifting cloak, the blue eyes and the black hair framing a gaunt hungry face, and the axe lowered.
"I don’t know who, or exactly what you are, but I think I need to thank y..." he broke off, and suddenly dropped his axe, kneeling in front of his mother, whose head was lolled against the wall, her face deathly pale. "Mother!, MOTHER!" Keld began to weep for his mother, who, despite not being touched, had died from the shock.
Deethan spoke for the first time in nearly 2 weeks. "I may have scared off those things by my sudden appearance, but I can’t imagine anyone being scared of just me. They will think about it, and then they'll be back. We shouldn't stay here.. I only came here because I haven’t eaten for days."
Keld looked up. "I think you might be right. I only wish I’d been able to persuade mother to go before". Picking up his mother, he laid her on the table in the front room, and said over his shoulder. Look in the kitchen, collect as much food as you can carry. There is a bag there on the hook. We'll leave in 2 minutes.
As Deethan collected food, stopping only to remove the rusty dagger from the orc’s back, Keld took a lantern and started to pour oil all over his mother’s body, and around the furniture in the room. Finally, collecting a couple of blankets, a coat and the axe, he joined Deethan at the now open kitchen door. Hurling the lantern onto the floor, a fire quickly started, and Keld and Deethan slipped into the night, away from the light and the warmth of the blaze.
Over the next two weeks, Deethan and Keld travelled together, telling each other of their different backgrounds. Keld was tall for his age, nearly a head taller than Deethan, and through several years of chopping wood, had become quite strong, certainly compared with other boys his age. Keld’s mother had been raped by Orcs nearly 14 years ago, and he was not pure human stock, as evidenced by some of his facial features. His nose was splayed, almost like a pigs, and his lower jaw was pronounced.
As their friendship grew, they discussed their future. Deethan told of his promise to his mother to look up his uncle, and of his own desire to learn more of the mystical arts. Keld spoke of his goal to learn to fight properly, and use a proper weapon, not a woodsman’s axe! Keld expressed his strong feelings about the unfairness of the world, of how the powerful treat the weak with contempt, and how if he was more powerful, he would teach them a lesson or two!!
Eventually, the pair found their way to 'civilisation', and found the coast. Deethan took to wearing his hair long, to cover his ears, and to most people, he appeared as if a normal human, a long way from Chult. His eyesight had finally acclimatised to normal daylight, but on particularly bright days, he still found himself squinting slightly, and by the they reached Neverwinter, people hardly stared at the unusual duo at all.
The search for Deethan’s uncle Erik was surprisingly short. He owned a small property in a busy section of the town, surrounded by various craft and curio shops, he owned a small business where he practiced minor magic for payment. He sold spells and potions devised by himself to members of the public, at a price that must have only just covered his costs, and he was a well known and liked member of the community. His initial reaction to Deethan was one of mistrust, but upon hearing his sister’s words through Deethan’s voice, and seeing her ring, he hugged him to him, and wept tears for his lost sister.
In the 3 years that followed, Erik began to teach Deethan the basics of magic, building on the grounding that Elaina had given him. Deethan also spent some time working part time for Erik’s close friend and neighbour, Johnsoon the locksmith. For a while, Keld stayed with them, doing odd jobs, until on Harvest Feast Day, he won a wrestling competition, and as a prize, won a place at the Academy, a large establishment owned by the Iron Gauntlet Mercenary company. There he started to learn how to fight, both on the practice field with weapons, and off the practice field with fists, as he became the target of racial prejudice. Often Keld would come and visit Deethan, and the two of them would spend their spare time together, soon becoming best friends.
It was during this time, that they came to notice some of the in-equalities in this 'Civilised' town. The town officials, often spouting how much good they were providing for everyone, lived in luxury, whilst the poor of the town were often working hard just to earn enough to eat. One specific day was a turning point for the pair. Whilst near the docks one day, a rich merchant’s carriage was pushing through the crowd, the driver cracking his whip over the heads of the crowd to try and get them to move more quickly. The merchant’s guards shoved people aside with the butts of long pole arms to keep them clear of the carriage, whilst the merchant sat in his luxurious interior, virtually ignoring the crowd about him. As Keld was pushed aside, he turned to the guard, cursing and starting to raising his fist, but Deethan grabbed his arm, hissing "it’s not worth it!", and the guard laughed as he moved on.
"That sort ought to be taught a lesson!"
"Not just the guard Keld, the guy in the carriage!"
"Yeah, but what can we do against a guy with that sort of protection, without being hung for murder that is!"
"I have an idea, we need to hurt him where it hurts him most - his pocket! Come on, let’s find out where the rich sod lives."
Keld and Deethan followed the carriage at a distance, until it entered the gates of a well-to-do house in a 'respectable' part of town. "Hmmm... I suggest we come back tonight and pay this rich SOB a visit" says Keld.
On to Chapter One - where Deethan does a bit of "Breaking and Entering"