Menzoberranzan
isn't the only city of udadrow in the underdark . . . . but it's the only one that most casual D&D fans would have ever heard about. Plus (to my knowledge), all other "known" drow cities or settlements are expansions of the evil, underdark-dwelling,
udadrow culture that venerates Lolth . . . or some other evil deity like Ghaunadar, Vhaerun, or Kiaransalee. Ched Nasad, specifically, was destroyed in a war with Menzoberranzan many novels ago . . .
So . . . WotC could have:
- Taken an existing drow settlement and retconned it to not-quite-so-evil . . . but the canon police would be cranky, and drow culture would still lack diversity.
- Give all drow more nuance, less all-evil-all-the-time and more mortal folk caught up in a dysfunctional and oppressive society . . . which they've actually been doing (slowly and inconsistently) for decades now. But we'd still be left with all drow come from an evil society, which itself is problematic.
- Add additional drow cultures to the world . . . and why do that if they are just like our existing drow, but not-evil? WotC chose to add some variety to drow culture with our glacier drow (aevendrow) and jungle drow (lorendrow).
Salvatore has presented the
aevendrow culture (so far) as pretty
goody-two shoes, in opposition to the chaos of Lolth. But it's not hard to tweak ever so slightly for more nuance, not unlike how the Menzoberranzan drow have been tweaked over the years to be less
auto-evil. I think the
aevendrow, as described, are an easy and fun add to my campaign, with minor tweaks making them less
all-good much like the
udodrow are less all-evil.
One of the reasons why Salvatore has given us such a utopian drow society, is to present an alternative to our heroes within the story. In the background of the last two novels, roughly half of the houses of Menzoberranzan have rejected Lolth, and the city is about to be torn apart in a bloody civil war, with the
Lolth-sworn loyalists likely to come out on top. Part of the motivation of our heroes is to find ways to lessen the conflict and loss of life, and ensure that the
Lolth-apostates win the day, saving the
udadrow people from continued suffering under Lolth's tyranny. Jarlaxle, Zaknafein, and Drizzt aren't convinced this is likely, and the discovery of another drow culture not under Lolth's sway gives them an example, and hope, that Menzoberranzan can be saved. Part of what has kept Menzoberranzan under Lolth's thrall for so long is the belief that there is no other viable path, you live or die by Lolth's rules, love them or hate them. Jarlaxle in particular is moved to tears, to displays of emotion that surprise his long-time companions . . . . he's coming out of this a changed man, even moreso than his slow evolution over the past 30 or so Salvatore novels. Again, yes, it's a bit heavy-handed in places, but . . . I'm digging the direction the story is going, and the new-and-improved lore of the Realms.