The Drow: "The Empire of the Shadows Below" -Various Scholars

“The drow are to that dark and remote world what the high elves to ours. Strong, powerful, beautiful beings possessed of great magic and a refined culture. But unlike high elves they have little to no compassion for other weaker races, which they view as mere chattel to be enslaved or slaughtered at a whim. Their greatest delight is the torture and ritual sacrifices of captives to their dark gods.

They have many cities and outposts throughout the under reaches, most notably they control a great portion of the Still Sea, a vast freshwater lake which teams with bizarre parodies of surface dwelling fish and sea creatures. Blind pale things with too many or too few limbs, great serpents with powerful venomous bites, and shoals of glowing jellies which drift through the water with an ethereal grace which belies their deadly touch.

In the center of this sea there rises a collection of natural limestone pillars and carved into the living rock is the city of S’chora. It and the coastal cities of Num’t and R’livir comprise the heart of the Empire of Shadows.

Their society is matriarchal, with the Empress and her female relatives comprising the core of their ruling caste.Men may hold position within the military, merchant guilds, and as artisans and many do acquire great wealth and prestige in this way. However they cannot possess a title or lands on their own and must be bound as a mate to a woman of high station to advance beyond certain positions.

Those of low caste often have more egalitarian relations between males and females, though this is largely due to a lack of privileges or laws protecting the poor regardless of gender than any conscious effort to be fair.

Religion: They have many gods which they serve, but the most worshipped are the Spider Queen and the Pale Bat, known as L’lith and S’kur. Males can be priests of S’kur, but only females are allowed to serve as the clergy of L’lith. Their religion revolves largely around blood sacrifices, usually of slaves. Over arching themes in their scripture and ceremonies make reference to the "Powers of the Dark". It is assumed that they mean their gods by this, although their language is foriegn even to elves and what few examples we possess are difficult to translate even by magic means. They seem to have a concept of various shades of darkness, and even colours.