Empire Ever Dark

The Everdark is an Evil polity of the Drow located in the north-east corner of Calernia. Though treated as a single nation, the drow have no unified central rule and are instead splintered into quarreling tribes.

General Information

The physical location of the Everdark means little information about the polity passes down to humans. To the west of this nation lies the Chain of Hunger and to the south the Kingdom of the Dead along with the Golden Bloom.

The drow live in a mountainous region and their cities seem to be dug deep inside, accessible only through tunnels. This would make them immune to scrying which doesn’t work underground. They're capable of messing with the tunnels to obscure the location of their cities. Anaxares stated that they inhabit the ruins of an empire - it's uncertain if this refers to their own nation which has declined in power or if another race has inhabited the Everdark prior to the drow.

The Drow farm lichen, mushrooms, potato like plants, and fish. They also trap creatures in crabtrap like devices.

Their records indicate the drow are not particularly advanced - using iron instead of steel weapons instead of sixty years ago.

Black notes that they’ve fought against the dwarves on occasion but also points out that the information is not reliable. His skepticism may seem warranted, as the Kingdom Under is the most powerful polity on Calernia while the Everdark is generally dismissed as rather weak, but the dwarves themselves confirm that they have fought seven wars, of which the drow won two.

History

The original Empire Ever Dark was controlled by the Twilight Sages, who feared death and used magic to lengthen their own life spans. Due to a long-standing conflict with the Kingdom Under they entered into a bargain with the Gods Below that let them "mortgage" the lives of yet unborn drow for power, but it was not enough to win. Even worse, as the losses mounted the number of drow per future generation sank, raising the debt. Eventually the sisters Komena and Andronike managed to renegotiate the deal, after sacrificing every single Twilight Sage except for Andronike herself, resulting in the Tenets of Night and the Gloom.

The sisters, known collectively as Sve Noc, ruled the Everdark for many centuries, but in practice seem to have acted more as priestesses than as monarchs. The Tenets of Night promoted strength and ruthlessness, while arts, sciences and non-vital crafts declined. A geographical hierarchy developed, centered on the capital Holy Tvarigu, where everybody strived to move closer to the centrum. What little contact was had with the outside world came in the form of raids by warbands, mostly formed of exiles and thus the weakest of the weak.

Catherine Foundling visited the Everdark just as the Kingdom Under overcame the effects of the Gloom and began an invasion, planning to massacre the drow entirely. She managed to broker a deal whereby the dwarves let the drow go and the drow instead settled on the surface, fighting The Dead King. This reborn Empire Ever Dark is currently establishing itself in Duskwood, in what is known as the Great Exodus.

Known Cities of the Everdark

In the Inner Ring

• Holy Tvarigu was the center of the Everdark, the seat of Sve Noc as it once was of the Twilight Sages. All of it was brought up to the surface in the Exodus.

• Great Noglof, controlled by General Vesena the Spear-Biter, was practically one big military camp and home to what Catherine calls "the last field army of the ancient Empire Ever Dark".

• Great Perun was known to Akua as one of the great cities of the original Empire Ever Dark. Among others, it was home to the Zapohar sigil, of which Ivah was once a rylleh.

In the Outer Rings

• Great Lotow

• Great Mokosh was the home of the Sukkla sigil, which made the obsidian "feathers" necessary for traversing the Gloom.

• Great Strycht

The Drow Exodus Cabal

Radigast, the Guest, the First General

Kurosiv, The All-Knowing, the Second General

Moren, the Bleakwomb, the Third General

Ishabog, The Adversary, the Fourth General

Radhoste, The Dreamer, the Sixth General

Vesena, The Spear-Biter, the Seventh General

Ysengral, The Cradle of Steel, the Eight General

Jutren, the Tenth General

Rumena, The Tomb-Maker, the General of the Southern Expedition

Radosa, The Hushing Dread