Mendira's Profile

Hi all,

So I'm making a short animated film based on some of my old adventures, and I kind of surprised myself with what one can do with good software and actually ZERO artistic talent.

Phaedra Iconic

You should be talking to your DM about this; it's just my personal opinion, but if he/she is lucky enough to have a roleplayer who even thinks about things like this, the least he could do is to work it into the story. From a literary point of view, I think the story should be about the PCs and always center around them, not the PCs having to struggle to find a way to fit into the game's arc. For example, how boring would a movie be if the main character for once WASN'T the "chosen one" and really was just a poor peasant farm boy?

That being said, I think your DM should take responsibility to accommodate your character idea, and there are lot's of things that he could do. Since in order for there to be a game, your character has to stay, he could marshal all of his powers to create credible reasons, hopefully having something to do with where the story is going.

I'm showing my age, but something that comes to mind is that Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner where multiple times he thinks he's caught a train out of a strange town that was idyllic but wirrdly deserted, but every time the train pulls in to the next town, it's actually the same town he just left. It turned out that he had been captured by aliens and was put into a kind of zoo created by them to simulate man in his natural habitat. The train went in a large circle.

OK, that's a bad re-telling of a really interesting episode, but my point is: You shouldn't have to do this all by yourself :)

Let us know what you come up with!

My thoughts are that the Gods exist not to have created anything, but they arise to explain reality as it is. They provide the "first cause" that allows an otherwise inscrutable world to make sense, and that is all a god really has to do: Without a fundamental agent of Chaos, how can a new mother understand how the world could take the life of her innocent infant, born frail? How can a father understand why his only son and heir remained on the battlefield, of a war in which neither had an interest? And it shouldn't be limited to just chaos: If there were no gods of Duty and other lofty things, how can it be believed that a Paladin would defend and ultimately fall, protecting the those that could not protect themselves and have no hope of repaying him? Why do all these things happen, when perhaps all other paths of reasoning say they shouldn't?

The gods exist and have such power because all the other universes in which they didn't... couldn't exist.

So I can totally buy the idea that Lolth really doesn't care about good or evil; her job is to make all the impossible things in the world that we already see that seems to defy all logic and we cannot fathom why it would be... to make sense. An innocent babe died, cheated out of 80 years after only a few days? Don't wrack your brain, it was Lolth. Or Loki. Or Set. Or whoever. Son died in a senseless war? Damn it, it was the will of Ares. I think that is how people would have to think in a world in which magic exists and is devoid of the Rational Inquiry of the Scientific Method.

Just my $.02

I'd just like to leave a general note expressing how much I appreciate all of the very, very good discussion from all the participants: AdventureHalz, crzyhawk, mephista, GiantOctopodes, you guys have broadened my horizons and educated me in many ways. Thank you. You guys alone have justified what I paid for D&D Beyond :)

Quote from AdventureHalz >>

You're welcome. My curiosity has pulled up a chair and my imagination has lit a few torches. Now, I must wait for the telling of this tale you eventually will tell.

My dearest Mendira, fruit of my womb, I am your mother and happily I suffered the Nine Pains for you. For 100 years I have watched you, steadfast and devout, become greater than your father ever was in life. For that you have your mother’s eternal love and freely I give you my name. My second regret is that I am not able to bestow the man you have forged with a man’s reward. The first is that I will never see the beautiful splendor of a world of iron curved into submission by the fires of your will. It is written... Farewell my beautiful son. Alone in the dark depths I wait to rest your head on my breast once again. May you claim in our name even this place.

Quote from AdventureHalz >>

Lolth has become more complex in the years since RA Salvatore started writing the Drizzt stories and out of necessity explored his origins in the drow capital of the Underdark. To know where Drizzt was headed he had to know where he came from, and in doing so discovered a paradox. The same paradox that cryzhawk points out: Lolth is an agent of chaos, not an agent of evil. She gets lumped into the philosophy of evil because of her methods and methodology and the dogma of her religion, which in recent years has taken on less of a spider metaphor and more of a contrast to Corellon. The ambiguity that's developed over the novels has put Lolth in a new light.

It's worth saying that Lolth's demands are direct. Her expectations are clear. Not so much with Correllon. He's flighty and amorphous. He is a role model without a mold. Purposefully. Correllon is a guide, whereas Lolth is a slave driver.

I think you're onto something. Once you figure out why your character's mother is no longer narrow-minded about her worldview as a drow, you'll have a better understanding about her motivation, and ultimately the role she will play for your character. Keep chipping away at it.

Happy adventuring!

Quote from crzyhawk >>

Lolth gives some very interesting options because she's a goddess of chaos.  Nothing you do is every /truly/ out of her character because going against the grain and breaking rules is what she's all about.  Perhaps your character sees the life the surface elves have, and see the strength and power that comes from unity and trust.  In exploring this, originally as a source of strength, her views change, and perhaps she converts to the worship of Eilistraee http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Eilistraee

Without spoiling too much, in later books, some drow speculate that Drizzt is actually favored by Lolth.  In one book, Lolth tries to get Drizzt to worship her in return for some help he needs.  He denies her, and she helps him anyway.  Drizzt amuses her and causes precious chaos among her drow.  He's completely beyond her grasp, and given the slavish loyalty most drow have towards her, this denial of her is, for lack of a better word, interesting to her.  He sort of plays hard to get with her, and she pursues him because we all want what we can't have, even as a Goddess.

I've currently got a half-drow divine soul sorcerer, who's divine spark comes from Lolth.  He can't stand Lolth.  He worships Selune, who gives him no power.  he chose Selune, for a similar reason to what you mentioned in your previous post.  When he came out of the underdark for the first time, it was on the night of a full moon.  He was so awed by such an alien (to him) sight, that he fell in love with the moon so to speak, and worships her. 

Lolth kind of torments him with the power that she grants.  For example, one of his cantrips is Infestation.  Instead of fleas and mites, she grants him spiders.  Instead of being able to summon a sword or whatever with spiritual weapon, he gets stuck with a whip of fangs and whips enemies with the symbol of Lolth-ite priestess authority.  She also speaks to him in his dreams, which annoys him to no end. 

I view the relationship similar to that between The Lady and Croaker from the Black Company series of books.  He's way beneath her, but caught her attention and he amuses her with his discomfort at her presence in his life.  I really, really want to play the character, but I am saving him for the right campaign and situation.

Quote from AdventureHalz >>

 

Quote from Mendira >>

 

Quote from AdventureHalz >>

First question I have is why a moon elf? What's the motivation/attraction? If you're going for a spiritual connection, then what's the pull toward the moon? And why the moon? Why not the stars? The Underdark, to quote RA Salvatore, is a starless night. Is your character's mother rebellious? Is she drawn to its phases? Just the new moon? Because the new moon is dark, unseen? There's a mystical connection there...

Happy adventuring!

 

Sorry for the late reply... I lost my own topic :)

AdventureHalz, excellent points, all.

All these things are to explain why she begins to want different things for her son that Drow society probably isn't going to afford him. It leads up to a her making a choice like in O. Henry's  "The Gift of the Magi".

If you haven't read it, it's a story about a couple poor in money but rich in love for each other. For christmas, the husband secretly sells his watch to buy his wife some expensive combs, and his wife secretly cuts off and sells her beautiful long hair to by her husband a gold chain for his watch.

Initially the new moon was just tactics; she chose the two darkest nights of every 59 nights. But then she realized that the cycles of this celestial body seems to have something to do with the cycles within her own body and the miracle of creation that she's called up to do. That's the first incongruency with what she's been taught that she sees; why are surface elves blessed with this orb in the night sky, while Drow are not, if it's so important to procreation?

I haven't gotten to A Starless Night in the series yet, but that did occur to me: the first time I saw the Milky Way camping, and outside of the city where I live, I was dumbstruck and I understood why all cultures were obsessed with it before Galileo ruined it by surmising what the stars were :) There is no doubt in my mind that the first thing a Drow on the surface would be struck by is the Milky Way, how preternaturally beautiful it is, and wonder why the surface elves get this gift from the gods and we do not.

These are just two small things that lead her to think (as small thoughts often do) about the larger question about the place Drow occupy in the world, and the life her son is going to have, if she doesn't do something grave.

Thanks so much for your points... they've made me think.

 

Love the poetry here.... Although, honestly, I doubt most drow would view the Milky Way as a road to enlightenment or guiding torches toward actualization considering their deeply rooted hatred for Correllon and the ongoing war apparatus Lolth demands that her followers dutifully and submissively maintain. Unless, you're going for an outside patron deity who has in some way plucked the heartstrings of your drow mother's spirit rather like a lyre, strumming webs Lolth intended to be puppet strings. She is disturbed and intrigued by the differences she is beginning to notice, sounds and feelings that lead her to cast her eyes skyward, toward those distant lamps flickering in a dome without limits, unlike the caverns of the Underdark, oppressive, within reach with a simple levitation spell.

Quote from crzyhawk >>

 

Quote from Mendira >>

crzyhawk, how did you know about a specific house in the Cormanthor woods? Is there some source material I can read? Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Sorry I didn't reply to this sooner, I just noticed it.  I'm a bit of a drow fanboi, so I hoovered that stuff all up.  I believe Clan Auzkovyn was first mentioned in the war of the spider queen series.  House Jaelre popped up earlier than that, I want to say maybe in one of the daughter of the drow series?  I've come across them when looking up other stuff in Google, so they kind of stayed in my mind.  Anyhow here are some FR wiki links for them:

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Clan_Auzkovyn

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/House_Jaelre

 

Another idea for your story could be refugees from Maerimydra ( http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Maerimydra ) or from Szith Morcane ( http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Szith_Morcane )

Quote from AdventureHalz >>

First question I have is why a moon elf? What's the motivation/attraction? If you're going for a spiritual connection, then what's the pull toward the moon? And why the moon? Why not the stars? The Underdark, to quote RA Salvatore, is a starless night. Is your character's mother rebellious? Is she drawn to its phases? Just the new moon? Because the new moon is dark, unseen? There's a mystical connection there...

Happy adventuring!

I play at work, where there's no internet connection that we're allowed to use to play (the sites are blocked), and so an offline version would be invaluable. I bought the $360+ package and can't use it to actually play.

crzyhawk, how did you know about a specific house in the Cormanthor woods? Is there some source material I can read? Thanks for the suggestion.

I think it would only cause problems if the evil character is evil to a cartoonishly absolute degree. I usually play a Lawful Evil Drow Cleric or something similar. It's pretty easy to invent reasons why I can operate within the context of a cooperative party. Just invent a reason why an exception is made for the party. And anyway, a bit of unpredictability or intrigue, or just a bit of doubt about a character's trustworthiness is the stuff interesting stories are made of.

Quote from Mephista >>

As for what cities? That's going to depend on your setting. Menzoberranzan is the most famed of drow cities, thanks to a certain drow ranger novel series, set in the Forgotten Realms Sword Coast area, and they have a rather wide reach; its also kind of the Ur-Example that most drow cities fall under, so you generally can't go wrong assuming its something like that. Click here for a list of all known cities in the Forgotten Realms. If your setting is in a different world, such as Eberron or Mystara, then things are going to be rather different in those places. 

If you want more help, we'll need a bit more detail about when and where this game takes place.

Quote from Mephista >>

 Both drow and wood elf mothers? Who's the father, or is this a magic thing? Well, curiosity aside...

Drow aren't always stuck in the Underdark save for the occasional raid.  There's a notable chunk of them that are followers of Eilistraee that live in elf enclaves on the surface. There's a number of secret organizations that work on the surface as well, such as Bregan D'aerthe, and are often linked to the god Vhaeraun.  These organizations are everything from distinct from the drow city-states, and do their own thing, to being a kind of trade organization for the drow cities.  

Drow, as a rule, tend to favor stealth and trickery, primarily due to both their racist reputation as well as their sunlight sensitivity. Culturally, they tend to be cruel, but that's more a matter of upbringing than something innate. There are even some drow that spend decades on the surface in disguise as a normal elf - and the reverse as well, high/wood elf spies in drow cities of the Underdark. Easily, one of these spies could have had a fling as part of their cover and became the mask.  Its very unlikely for a devout follower of Lolth to be attached to a surface elf, or have a kid with them, as "Devout" in this case would call for the child's sacrifice. But then, the majority of high noble drow tend to be the Lolth spider kisser fanatics, and stay in the cities, while there are more secular drow, or followers of other gods, that do other things in lower castes.