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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 1955835" data-attributes="member: 2020">I haven't been doing as much plotting as is ascribed to me.  I did create the TEC Pact.  You know now (and probably knew then) why I created it.  A very simple and logical reason, really.  I had a 50 to 100 page megapost to manage.  Everytime even the most minor of changes had to be made to it, I had to find that place in the long post, and change it.  It wasn't hard work, but it was time consuming, busy work as it were.  I also spent\a great deal of effort and time trying to aid the IR after the crisis (which I'm not going to discuss.)  Getting momentum going again has been arduous work.  (My thanks and appreciation to my fellow players who fought hard for the IR.)    I took a power that had a crucial disadvantage:  the drow live in isolated cities all over Oerik.  That is their conception.  Historically, the drow have relied upon the depth of their cities underground to protect them.  Regular (traditional) armies cannot touch drow cities.  Regular armies don't even try.  And traditionally, more elite forces had more pressing issues on their hands, than to deal with the drow.  Another thing protecting the drow has been their long apathy.  They don't wish to return to the surface.  They don't really wish to start major wars against the surface - if they do, they are too divided amongst themselves to do it.  The occasional raid by drow on surface people breeds hatred and fear, but not mass retaliation.  A remarkable exception is the classic GDQ series of 1st edition modules, in which the Giant Troubles plaguing Geoff and Sterich cause the governments there to send adventurers (elite and epic forces) against the giants, then the drow, then against Lolth herself.  But this is the IR, and here things work differently.  Were I Kalanyr, I could easily wipe out the 4 drow cities below me by concentrating my elite and epic forces on them.  I could talk my allies into destroying the drow cities under their lands.  Ultimately, seeing the drow weakened, the Underdark races would attack them, in cohorts with evil surface powers.  All that adamantite and mithril is worth a few lives, for the greedy powers who want them!  Take the drow city of Menzoberranzan, over on Toril.  Luruar, working in concert with Waterdeep and the Lord's Alliance, plus Cormyr, could wipe it out easily.  And this would be the logical thing for Queen Alustriel to do.  But of course if that happens you ruin a perfectly good part of the setting, so it isn't going to happen in official Canon.  Now Eclavdra understands all this, and she is forcing her people to understand all this as well.  It's sorta a The Drow Must Grow Up affair.  They must - now that Lolth and the others are gone - face reality.  The drow THINK they understand reality, and they THINK they have reality mastered.  They THINK they are the toughest girls and guys around.  But the reality is that the REAL REALITY is much more horrific and threatening than the drow ever dared to imagine, or fear.  So yeah, Eclavdra is forcing her people to the Great City.  Eclavdra is unusual for a drow.  She has greater self-discipline than her fellow drow, by far.  And that makes all the difference.  Also, it could be said that Eclavdra is a rather lofty and nobleminded drow, tending heavily towards goodness.  (chuckles)  You don't believe me?  Eclavdra isn't noble and goodhearted?  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Consider this.  If Eclavdra had all the elves captured and under her control, she would forcibly convert them to the worship of Lolth, then see them enslaved to drow who appreciated their potential enough not to kill them.  Ultimately, she would see that many elves made the transition to full members of drow society.  99% of the drow would simply see all the elves killed.  Preferably, in the slowest and most painful way possible even by theoretical drow capabilities of torture.  So yeah, Eclavdra is a nice girl.  Really!  Aren't you glad that you have such a noble, lofty, good drow leader to deal with, instead of your typical drow?  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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