A bedtime story told to drow children after Drizzt turned away from Lolth.
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Sleep quiet, my child, my little drow,
Your dreams invite tranquility now.
Cast in this cavern, stone walls so secure.
The web holds you tight through underdark night, and guardian spiders that tickle you feel.
With gossamer threads, weave our goddess’s seal.
The Spider Queen’s children.
And so too your kin, are here to remind you that you shall not sin.
They show you the scourge, the snake headed whip. They bite and they tear,
Until she hears your prayer.
There is no such blessing to the damned up above,
Those who’ve forsaken the Spider Queen’s love.
In their way lies weakness, and unceasing waste.
And if you would join them, then so be debased.
And when Hellfire Orb looks down on your shame, your soul is burned bare.
She knows you’re to blame.
You’ll live every running, you’ve no place to hide.
And huddled in fear, for there is no disguise.
The sun, it will burn you. The cold snow will freeze.
The hopelessness tumbles you down to your knees.
And when you are broken, to her you will pray,
But she will not hear you- You’ve thrown her away.
And you’ll find no companions to stand in our way
When we hunt you and find you and torment you for claim.
You’ve chosen the weaklings of the world up above,
Who speak empty words and know not Lolth’s love.
No love will save you from human deceit,
Nor from bearded, nor bearded dwarves, nor elvish conceit.
The Spider Queen shows us the one single way:
There is only the night, there is never the day.
For strength does not stretch through branch or through leaf.
It bleeds from the roots that secure us beneath.
Deep in our hearts, wrapped tight in Lolth’s web,
With venom we sting, her glory we sing.
So whisper your love of your matron, your mother
Who teaches the way to your sisters and brother.
Brother, I say, there can only be one.
For if there were two, there couldn’t be you.
Then that silken swaddle, that tickling wreath
Would instead be your death by the Spider Queens’ teeth.
Sleep sound in the darkness
Or burn in the light alone.
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Menzoberranzan’s principle law is the Way of Lolth. Its tenets are as follows:
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A collection of history books detailing the history of Menzoberranzan. Most sets are missing “The Sable Years”.
The Founding
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Five thousand years ago, the great drow city of Golothaer was busily destroying itself in a civil war. Drow houses faithful to the Spider Queen battled for supremacy against renegade factions aligned with the slime deity Ghaunadaur. As decades of death and destruction plunged the once-spectacular city into ruin, a proud and formidable priestess of Lolth named Menzoberra turned away from the fray, gathering seven families of wealth and station to found a new settlement loyal to the Way of Lolth.
Leaving the chaos of war-torn Golothaer, Menzoberra’s band set forth into the unknown, trusting to Lolth’s guidance. As Lolth’s chosen one, Menzoberra received dream-visions sent by the Spider Queen to guide the refugees’ progress through the Underdark. After wandering the Underdark for many years, the band of pilgrims suffered its first major setback in a bloody confrontation with the dwarves of the Black Axe Clan. The drow lost nearly half their number that day in the Cavern of Cloven Heads. Before his body faded mysteriously into the stone floor, the last dwarf to fall wished upon the drow invaders “the doom of many eyes.”
Menzoberra’s band eventually came to a huge vault filled with giant, edible mushrooms, overrun with swarms of spiders that bubbled up from the depths, and illuminated by the soft radiance of a myriad of prismatic lichens. A brief survey of the region found the ground choked with the bones of dwarves who had fallen prey to the cavern’s current tenant: an immense beholder whose body was as wide as the base of Golothaer’s largest tower. Finding themselves promptly engaged in a perilous confrontation with the gigantic beholder (called Many Eyes by local dwarves, the drow later learned) and its mind-slaved minions, the drow made preparations for a hasty retreat.
Suddenly, the drow were gifted by a rare visit from Lolth, who floated above the beleaguered band in the form of a beautiful female head whose tresses trailed away into long, dark arachnid legs. The Spider Queen told the drow that they were her chosen people, and this was the place she had chosen for them. If they were worthy of her, they would defeat Many Eyes and make this cavern their home.
Many drow perished fighting Many Eyes, but in the end they prevailed, and it was Menzoberra who delivered the killing blow. Left to stand with her at the baptism of their new home were the families named S’sril, Thaeyalla, Baenre, Masq’il’yr, Nasadra, Tucheth, and Uusralla. They made a home together in the beholder’s treasure-strewn lair, a large cave in the southern wall of the great vault. There they raised an altar to Lolth, which was rewarded by the appearance of a demonic yochlol. This handmaiden of Lolth told the survivors to call their home Menzoberranzan, in recognition of the priestess’s favor earned in the service of the Spider Queen.
All too soon, the same feuding that destroyed Golothaer, born of pride, cruelty, and bloodlust, surfaced within the drow of Menzoberranzan. A blood feud between House Thaeyalla and House Nasadra quickly threatened to destabilize the newly founded settlement. When Menzoberra sided with House Nasadra, the wizards of House Thaeyalla spent their own lives to fuel a ritual that rent the side cavern of the noble houses asunder. In a single cataclysmic strike, the explosion obliterated the houses of Thaeyalla, Masq’il’yr, Tucheth, and Uusralla, as well as Menzoberra herself.
The explosion transformed the former side cavern into the great plateau that came to be known as Qu’ellarz’orl. By some miracle, the great central pillar of the main cavern survived the explosion, keeping the entire vault from collapsing. The drow called it Narbondel for its strength. The bitter Nasadra survivors sought to proclaim their rule over the other remaining drow, but the tattered priestesses of House S’sril defied them. The other surviving house was Baenre, which was powerful enough to decide the issue either way. In the end, House Baenre sided with S’sril. To prevent further bloodshed, it was proposed that House Nasadra would travel on to found another city devoted to the glory of Lolth.
Lolth appeared directly, and firmly blessed the wisdom and forbearance of House Baenre. The Spider Queen then laid down the Way of Lolth, the basic laws under which both cities would live. She also decreed that the two cities must remain amicable to each other without fail, or both would face her wrath. House Nasadra left Menzoberranzan that night, and went on to found the drow city of Ched Nasad decades later.
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The Sable Years
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In the Year of the Singing Skull (1297 DR), an infant named Drizzt was born to House Do’Urden, marking the beginning of its end. Destined to be sacrificed to Lolth as the third-born male of his family, the young drow survived only through a series of fortuitous events.
As an adolescent, Drizzt brought great favor to House Do’Urden through his accolades at the Academy. Yet by the time he graduated from Tier Breche in the Year of the Adder (1327 DR), it had become increasingly noticeable that the young warrior did not possess a drow’s love of treachery and intrigue. Early the following year, Drizzt fled Menzoberranzan for the wilds of the Underdark. With only the magical panther Guenhwyvar as a companion, Drizzt endured ten years of exile in the Dark Dominion that stretched out beyond the city. Unable to slay Drizzt and reclaim Lolth’s favor, House Do’Urden was later destroyed by House Baenre in the Year of the Prince (1357 DR).
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The Time of Troubles
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The Year of Shadows (1358 DR) witnessed the gods being cast out of their planar dominions and forced to walk Faerûn as mortals. During the four-month period in which this tumultuous event took place, all priests lost access to their divine spells, while arcane spellcasters suffered through the unpredictable effects of wild magic. To the great advantage of practitioners of psionic power, such as House Oblodra, the mind magic of the Invisible Art remained unaffected by the magical chaos. Even more fantastic, the avatar of Lolth appeared in Menzoberranzan during the later weeks of the crisis. The presence of Lolth within the City of Spiders was kept secret by House Baenre, and during her brief stay, the Queen of Spiders made her displeasure with House Oblodra known to Matron Yvonnel Baenre. When the crisis finally abated, Matron Yvonnel used her Lolth-granted abilities to summon an elder evil to drag House Oblodra down into the Clawrift and into oblivion.
Exuberant with the favor of Lolth, Matron Yvonnel Baenre turned her sights on the dwarven delve of Mithral Hall. In a single stroke, she sought to slay the renegade Drizzt Do’Urden and secure for House Baenre the valuable mithral mines held by Clan Battlehammer. Unfortunately for Yvonnel, her hubris ultimately failed her, leading to her own demise and the loss of six thousand troops.
For a brief time after the death of Yvonnel, Menzoberranzan’s history is marked by the rise of Triel Baenre as matron mother of the First House of Menzoberranzan. With House Baenre’s position called into question by the defeat at Mithral Hall, Triel had her hands full trying to solidify her position as matron mother. Her early reign was marked by mounting unrest throughout the city as rival houses sought to test the inexperienced matron.
In the Year of the Unstrung Harp (1371 DR), Triel made a desperate gamble to secure the support of the Ruling Council and strengthen her hold on the reins of power. She launched an attack on the deep gnomes of Blingdenstone, in revenge for the assistance they had given to Mithral Hall. Through the casting of great magic rituals, the drow conjured a horde of demons and loosed it upon the svirfneblin city. In the span of a few hours, the horde eradicated the city’s population.
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The War of the Spider Queen
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In the summer of 1372 DR, Lolth inexplicably fell silent, cutting off the flow of divine magic to her priestesses. The Jaezred Chaulssin took advantage of the situation to launch attacks on drow ruled cities throughout the Northdark. By year’s end, Menzoberranzan was besieged: the Jaezred Chaulssin secured an alliance with House Agrach Dyrr and brought a large duergar army from Gracklstugh to the city, bolstered by Kaanyr Vhok’s Scourged Legion.
The following year, Lolth’s Silence ended and the drow broke the siege of the City of Spiders. The Jaezred Chaulssin quickly moved to cement their control over the ruins of Ched Nasad.
Soon after the end of Lolth’s silence, Lolth and Eilistraee played a cosmic match of sava to determine the destiny of the drow. While the competition played out, Lolth’s new champion, the Lady Penitent, returned to Faerûn to destroy the last hope of the drow race. As the followers of Eilistraee fell one by one to the Lady Penitent’s wrath, Lolth turned her attention to the other gods of the drow pantheon.
The Reckoning began as Eilistraee killed Vhaeraun, and it ended with the Dark Maiden, in the mortal body of her Chosen, being decapitated by the Lady Penitent. After Eilistraee’s fall in 1379 DR, only the ancient entity Ghaunadaur remained to challenge Lolth for supremacy among the deities of the drow. The Spider Queen attempted to destroy Ghaunadaur, but That Which Lurks proved to be a stronger foe than Lolth suspected.
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The Spellplague