I'm about to DM a party through Monte Cook's The Harrowing (from an old 3.0 Dungeon adventure), which involves the machinations of Lolth's daughter Laveth to claim the Demonweb as her own.
I'd like to make her followers members of one of the Drow houses of Erelhei-Cinlu. I feel like the apostate houses (Eilserves, etc.) that broke away to follow the Elder Elemental God aren't a good fit for her, but was wondering which of the supposedly-Lolth-loyal houses might throw their lot in with Laveth.
I'd like to make her followers members of one of the Drow houses of Erelhei-Cinlu. I ... was wondering which of the supposedly-Lolth-loyal houses might throw their lot in with Laveth.
Well, depending on if you have preferences as to the timeline, for when this is being set, there's plenty of options. You know how Erelhei-Cin'lu is ... there's always houses rising and falling.
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But, it also depends on how Laveth's plan unfolds (I haven't seen the module).
I mean, there's politics, warriors, necromancy, slaves, etc. Each house has it's own thing. I mean, if you want, I can give you a rundown of each house's specialty, or each of the houses and who took their place when they fell, or whatever. I have collected a fair amount of stuff about houses, including depictions of their symbols, their ranks, etc.
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But, I think that I would suggest "the upstart house Xaniqos, the youngest and most impetuous of the ruling houses". This house rose to power by exterminating the remnants of House Everhate after the Priestess Wars. They are, perhaps, not the biggest threat, or the most dangerous, but they are a scheming lot, and they have their hands in almost everything ... also, "Lady Thandysha is a brash and energetic rulerwhose excesses in the worship of Lolth .... are already legendary." _________________ Owner and Lead Admin: https://greyhawkonline.com<div>Editor-in-Chief of the Oerth Journal: https://greyhawkonline.com/oerthjournal</div><div>Visit my professional art gallery: https://wkristophnolen.daportfolio.com</div>
My campaign's set in late CY595. What year did the Priestess Wars take place?
What's your source for the quotes? Drow of the Underdark? or the Dragon article?
Living Greyhawk Journal #14, published as part of Dragon #298, was set in Reaping of 592 CY and said the civil war in the Vault of the Drow was "roughly seven years ago" (page 85). So it must have happened in 585 CY.
The timeline goes like this:
584 CY: Geoff falls to orcs and giants in Harvester of 584 CY (Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, page 49). Sterich fell in 584 as well (LGG, 107).
585 CY: Both houses Tormtor and Kilsek claim preeminence among the drow of Erelhei-Cinlu. With Kilsek citing their long loyalty to Lolth as justification for their supremacy, Tormtor renounces Lolth and announces that Kiaransalee, goddess of vengeance and undeath, is their patron. Civil war begins with Everhate and Aleval joining with Tormtor and Despana, Norquar, and Godeep asserting loyalty to Lolth and joining Kilsek's side. The githyanki side with the rebels, so illithids step in to support the Lolth loyalists. The conflict is "brief, yet bloody," ending with Lolth herself intervening to end the war "at the cost of her surface holdings." Sterich was retaken from the giants in a long and brutal campaign from 585-588 CY (The Adventure Begins, page 35). The war to retake Geoff began in 588 CY, just after the victory in Sterich (ibid.).
586 CY: House Kilsek, after a year in exile roaming the Underdark, is approached by an illithid priest called Ohlcaig, who had been their ally during the war. Ohlcaig arranges for their transport across several planes of existence, and within a few months they're on the other side of Oerth, where they found the city of Kalan-G'eld in the Sundered Empire region of Western Oerik. Soon after, the god Stratis is killed, igniting the Godwar in Sundered Empire for the next five years. (Dragon #298, pages 88-93).
592 CY:: The "present day" in Living Greyhawk Journal #14/Dragon #298. House Everhate still exists at this point, but it lost nearly everything in its estate during the war and had only declined further since then.
In 3rd edition's Drow of the Underdark, page 193, a new house was introduced: House Xaniqos, which rose to power by exterminating the last remnants of House Everhate. This must have happened some time after 592 CY, but we don't know exactly when. Because Drow of the Underdark was published in May 2007, we can assume the "present day" is 597 CY, so Xaniqos must have rose to power sometime between 592 and 597. In 595 CY, Xaniqos is likely very new but quite likely in power already.
Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss mentions Laveth on pages 123-124, calling her the daughter of Lolth and "a handsome male drow wizard." Laveth's "ruthless ambition" is mentioned, as is the Harrowing. It says she has a "few lower-echelon drow leaders on her side."
I agree that Xaniqos seems a promising choice for Laveth to recruit from, since as one of the newest of Erelhei-Cinlu's houses (along with Shi'quos) it probably qualifies as lower-echelon. We're also told that House Xaniqos is currently engaged in many different activities and schemes, but their weakness is their ambition. Houses Norquar and Godeep are both described as traditionalist and probably wouldn't take the risk of siding with Lolth's rebellious daughter (Noquar was replaced with the necromantic house of Shi'quos sometime after 592 anyway). The matriarch of House Despana took control only after the war and is described as "unusually brutal, almost crude by drow standards, but very effective on the field of battle." If not House Xaniqos, then, House Despana seems the most likely to side with Laveth.
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