Drow Magic

Overview

The Dark Elves of Crystal are among the most innately magical of races. They have not fallen to the same fate of thinned blood that their Elven cousins on the surface and various other dimensions have (perhaps due to their fanatical assumption of racial superiority), and as such, their magical traditions remain strong. All Dark Elves are born with certain innate magical abilities, such as the ability to conjure will-o-wisp style lights and globes of darkness, and those of noble blood develop more advanced abilities (such as levitation) as they age. Because of this, all Dark Elves receive at least some training in magic, no matter what their profession.

Magic practiced by the Dark Elves generally falls into two over-categories: Faer Orthae, or Divine magic, and Faer Sui'Aerl, or Arcane magic. The difference lies in the source of the mana. Faer Orthae is magic granted by the gods, and Faer Sui'Aerl involves the direct manipulation of mana. Oddly, the practices seem to fall along gender lines: Drow females, who make up the vast majority of clerics, rarely have the talent for Arcane magic. Conversely, because Drow males are barred from the priesthood of every Drow deity except Vhaeraun, in societies where priestesses hold all the political power, the path of a mage is the only real way for a Drow male to gain any kind of prestige.

Faer Orthae

Faer Orthae, or Divine magic, is the magic practiced by Drow clerics. Priestesses (or Vhaeraunic priests) in good standing with their deity of choice receive the ability to cast spells. Methods vary from priesthood to priesthood; Sindralian magic tends to involve a lot of blood sacrifice, while Eilistraeen priestesses sing their spells. Each priesthood also has their own signature spells and abilities which reflect the deity's sphere of influence. Priestesses of Kiaransalee, for example, are known for their uncanny ability to create sentient undead, while Vhaeraunic priests are deft at manipulating shadows.

The most deadly example of Faer Orthae is Ilhar Velve, the "Birth Dagger". This horrific spell, granted only to high priestesses in the highest favor of Sindrai'el, involves channelling the pain of childbirth into a death curse of terrible power. It is a tremendously difficult spell, requiring the high priestess to be the strongest of will and power in order to control the flow of dark energy, and more than one foolhardy Ara'yathri has died in the undertaking. The lifeforce of the fetus is almost always consumed in the casting of the spell; it would take a soul of tremendous spiritual resilience to survive being touched by such powerful dark energy. Every few generations, however, a child survives. Such children are seen as particularly blessed by the Spider Queen, touched by the very hand of Sindrai'el, and typically enjoy supernatural intelligence, uncanny magical powers, etc. Lady Ambika was born from the Ilhar Velve that Zhandura the Merciless used to destroy an entire High Elven kingdom in antiquity. The only known child of Ilhar Velve in modern times is Kariza de'Camyras, who was born from the ritual that Matron Ilivarra de'Camyras used to destroy a rival house.

Faer Sui'Aerl

Faer Sui'Aerl, Arcane magic, is referred to as simply "the Art". It is magic along the lines of most systems in the Web, involving the direct manipulation of mana by use of spells and various formulae, to achieve a desired result. It is, for all intents and purposes, much the same as Elven magic, though life in the Underground has introduced quite a number of quirks and interesting adaptations. There are hundreds upon thousands of Drow spells, used for everything from sculpting homes to destroying enemies to enchanting decanters of wine.

The schools of arcane Drow magic are:

• Abjuration - Protection, Warding, and Banishing Magic

• Alteration - Magic that affects physical changes in people and things

• Divination - Locating and Revelation Magic

• Enchantment - Imbuing and Charm Magic

• Phantasm - Illusion Magic

• Evocation - Most attack magic falls under this category

• Summoning - Summoning Magic

• Elemental (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Shadow) - not to be confused with Mana Elementalist Magic

• Dimension - Magic that effects the fabric of reality, or accesses extradimensional spaces

Most Drow mages are generalists, not specializing in any particular school, though the cities of Chaulssin and Maerimydra are peculiar exceptions. The former has a high concentration of Shadow Mages, and the latter is ruled by a council of specialist wizards.

Methodology

The Drow are masters in creating new and unusual ways of working magic, whether divine or arcane, and their methods are far too numerous to mention in full. Dark Elves practice alchemy, are master artificers, and have created thousands of glyphs and complex symbols for use in their spells. One unique method of spellcasting involves the use of the peculiar radiation found throughout the Upper Underground, known to the Drow as faerzress. How this radiation is created is a mystery; attempts to create it artificially have always met with abject failure. However, it is a power-booster of sorts, a form of corrupted mana that can be used to imbue objects with quasi-magical properties.