Sheoloth - City of the Drow

This great and powerful city of the drow is built around an ancient shaft, at the base of which is a great cauldron of molten lava. Tunnels connect natural caverns to the main shaft and to drow-carved chambers. Near the upper end of the shaft lies the site of the original elven fortress, and the stark white fortress raised by the elves still stands guard, albeit cloaked in shadowy webs and surrounded on all sides by the silken homes and shops of the drow. Known as the Glory Crypt, this fallen fortress reminds the drow of their victory over their hated foes, while reminding them of the eternal danger lurking in the lands of the sky.

On the level below the Glory Crypt crouches the Blood Tithe. This commercial centre contains one of the greatest markets in the known worlds. The drow have created a thriving economy within Sheoloth and are careful to nurture it as best they can. Though separated from the Foreign Ward, the Blood Tithe still manages to see a great deal of goods from outside Sheoloth as a result of trade agreements the drow have forged with their foreign guests. In these winding streets and shadowed doorways, virtually anything can be purchased provided the buyer is willing to pay the price. The drow have slave traders here, as well as houses of pleasure and pain, drug dens, and more common goods such as food and wine are also available. Over the cries of the peddlers, one can hear the screams of tortured servants and the shouts of gladiatorial slaves attempting to convince potential buyers of their prowess.

If one follows a passage away from the Blood Tithe, the businesses give way to the homes of affluent commoners. Most of the homes crowded on the winding streets in this area of the city belong to merchants and traders who choose to dwell away from their business, yet remain close enough to deal with any problems or late-night customers should the need arise. The whole area is known as Silver Streets and its residents work hard to maintain the image of their neighbourhood by adorning their gates and walkways with hammered silver plates and flowing silver sculptures.

The Vault of Tombs is below, but connected by winding passages to, both the Blood Tithe and the Silver Streets and serves as the only banking area in the entire city. Promissory notes and letters of credit are issued from the banks here, where one may also inter the bones of the recently (or long since passed) dead. The Vault promises to keep all goods and bodies kept here safe, far from the hands of thieves or prying necromancers, out of sight until the items in storage are needed. Records of the accounts here are kept in a ridiculously complex code that is incomprehensible to most. While the church of the Dark Mother has keys to the codes used here, they rarely go to the effort to decode any records and take the information they are provided at face value.

Easily accessed from within the Vault of, the Haedistika is the dark underbelly of Sheoloth. In a city renowned for the evil it presents to visitors, Haedistika is the darkest and least-discussed area. The drow come here to forget themselves, to indulge in passions and satiate hungers they are fearful to acknowledge, much less analyze. The businesses found in this confusing warren of tunnels and pocket caverns cater only to the most perverse of drow needs and make a very tidy profit in the process. Outsiders who find their way here do not last long and are normally destroyed, spending their last hours as torture victims of the drow.