• Long ago, the elves were one race, but the capricious nature of the gods caused them to be divided into two new races: those called the high elves and those called the low elves. The high elves were, in many ways, considered superior to their cousins. It wasn’t long before they had established their great city as one of the most prominent centers of learning on the continent while the low elves retreated into the wilderness, living in clans and hunting for their food.

    But the threat of famine, drought, war, and disease caused many low elves to beg their cousins for protection time and again. Of these, many stayed on as farmers, craftsmen, and laborers and the high elves were grateful to be spared of the work themselves. But like humans, not all elves are so good and pure of heart and there were many nobles who exploited their villagers, who, in the long years of living in relative safety, had forgotten how to survive on their own in the wilds.

    In one small village, a rebellion began and the movement spread like wildfire before the high elves realized what was happening. Armies were sent out to subdue the low elves; villages were put to the torch, men, women, and children were slaughtered until the earth was soaked in blood and the low elves were forced to give ground. Many began to flee into the mountains to escape certain death. The high elves pressed on, forcing the survivors to take shelter in caves where the rock helped protect them from both physical and magical weapons.

    Angry though the high elves were, they as a race are not given to cruelty so they did not have the heart to seal up the refugees and make the caves their tombs, but their sense of justice demanded some form of punishment for those who had betrayed them. They gathered every mage and cleric they had, prayed to their gods, and fashioned a curse that would damn the traitors and their children for all time.

    Never again would they freely walk in the sunlight - their eyes would crave only darkness.
    Their skin would be black - so that all who saw them would know of the treachery that lies in their hearts.
    Their eyes would be red like blood - so that they would never forget how their actions had caused their kin to be slaughtered
    Their hair would be white - so that they would remember their fall from grace

    The other races would come to avoid them, to fear and shun them, and so their betrayal would never be forgotten.

    The curse was released, but the gods, who have their own sense of justice, granted these low elves a gift of magic almost equal to that of the high elves. But the high elves were unaware of this and returned home to continue on with their lives, content with what they had accomplished. And those unlucky elves who found themselves changed by the curse became the drow, creatures of darkness hated and feared by those who walked the path of light.

    The drow, confined underground, worked to establish a new way of living. With so many men lost in the rebellion, women were forced to run their households and handle all family decisions. The men that remained were carefully guarded and looked upon as priceless possessions with little say in matters of importance. Eventually they would to be considered inferior and women would rule their houses as powerful matrons. A matriarchal society was born.

    The city of Chul’Adeth was established first. Centuries later, a group of younger people with radical ideas left the city and made a dangerous overland journey to the west, where they built a second, smaller city: Chul’Azal. Contact between the two cities has been infrequent throughout the centuries since each disapproves of the other, but never have they fought each other.