drow and spider writs / lore

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Azaria
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drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Azaria » Mon Apr 23, 2018 7:43 am

are the spider writs basicly off limits for drow ?

and what to do if a spider boss in a certain ud forrest does attack ur drow?


since a lolthite drow cant harm spiders (i think)

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Maladus
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Maladus » Mon Apr 23, 2018 7:47 am

In the past I've rationalized it by saying that Lolth is sending me to purge a group of spiders that have stopped listening to her commands.

If that spider in a certain UD forest attacks, you can play it off like Lolth is testing you to see if you are strong enough in her will to continue.

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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Gods_Kill_People » Mon Apr 23, 2018 7:49 am

Also...not every drow follows Lolth!

Rebel4ever
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Rebel4ever » Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:18 am

I don't do them...if a spider attacks me i think of it as OOC game mechanics. If a boss is a spider kill it and just don't RP you having killed it.
Infact almost all the grinding i do is OOC aswell...playing the game for experience shouldn't really be in your roleplay all that much. Ive wiped out a orc tribe on my character but i don't roleplay i massacred orcs on mass... its rather silly to have everyone having massacred everything in sight.

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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Gods_Kill_People » Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:25 am

Rebel4ever wrote:
Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:18 am
I don't do them...if a spider attacks me i think of it as OOC game mechanics. If a boss is a spider kill it and just don't RP you having killed it.
Infact almost all the grinding i do is OOC aswell...playing the game for experience shouldn't really be in your roleplay all that much. Ive wiped out a orc tribe on my character but i don't roleplay i massacred orcs on mass... its rather silly to have everyone having massacred everything in sight.
Thats really not something to encourage, everything you do is IC, there is NO OOC in game. If your char goes out to kill pirates to train...thats IC not OOC, Sorry but everything in this game is roleplayed. Your not really allowed to ignore IC events and such.

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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Rebel4ever » Mon Apr 23, 2018 10:52 am


Thats really not something to encourage, everything you do is IC, there is NO OOC in game. If your char goes out to kill pirates to train...thats IC not OOC, Sorry but everything in this game is roleplayed. Your not really allowed to ignore IC events and such.
That makes no sense..you realise that every single person would have massacred the local bandits. There would have to have been millions of them...not to mention killing the same boss multiple times. Game mechanics are really not roleplay..unless you only kill things once, never loot the same chest and roleplay a godlike being at latter levels. I try to tone down things like that and keep my character from becoming something so powerful its silly. Roleplaying it when it happens is one thing...but i make my character forget shes killed the same orc 15 times. So everyone roleplaying they have done the same thing is an issue if you keep everything in character and never forget.

Killing a spider is NOT an event but a game mechanic... So far as i know spiders don't attack drow without cause, having read all the books its only when Lloth sends them they seem to do so. The drow don't seem to have issues with wild spiders and they can talk to spiders IRC. If you were to RP it correctly...the drow would have to kill anyone who did that writ, they take this quite seriously.

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Rigela
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Rigela » Mon Apr 23, 2018 11:16 am

In a certain forest, there are also other certain creatures Lolth has a view on. I always rationalised it as all in that place are tainted and need be purged to not spread the madness, etc. Something could probably apply to other places if you wanted, but might be harder to appease people with with no drider in immediate vicinity.

Otherwise I just avoided those writs and try to be careful to not go to places with spider spawns where summons or auto attacks might end up seeing them smooshed.
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Void » Mon Apr 23, 2018 11:45 am

Azaria wrote:
Mon Apr 23, 2018 7:43 am
are the spider writs basicly off limits for drow ?
No. They(drow) even eat them.
One constant in the life of any drow is the ubiquity of
spiders and other arachnids. This is not merely an aspect of
art and architecture, but an actual fact: Swarms of real arachnids,
both normal-sized and monstrous, dwell within every
drow community. They hang from roofs, scuttle across roads,
build webs in common rooms, and adorn walls like decorations.
Though this situation would highly disturb most other
individuals, the drow are absolutely comfortable with it and
don’t give this state of affairs much thought. It is as natural to
them as grass is to surface elves. The drow suffer surprisingly
few bites—perhaps through the grace of Lolth—even though
many of these arachnids are venomous and irritable. A drow
who is bitten usually assumes she is either being punished
for some minor infraction or being tested. The drow have no
particular taboo against killing spiders, but they don’t make
a habit of doing so for no apparent reason.
In fact, despite (or perhaps because of) their reverence for
these arachnids, spiders make up a regular portion of the
drow diet. They are rarely the main course, but are instead
consumed as a symbolic portion of the meal, usually at the
beginning—almost the equivalent of asking Lolth’s grace.
From "Drow of the Underadark"
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Azaria
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Azaria » Mon Apr 23, 2018 12:24 pm

thank you for the replies!

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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Rebel4ever » Mon Apr 23, 2018 1:06 pm

No. They(drow) even eat them.
Lloth dogma...
Lolth teaches her children that fear is strength, while love and respect are weakness. She demands that those drow who will not worship her must be converted or slain. She seeks to kill the weak and reward the strong. Disobedient males and non-drow must be sacrificed to Lolth. Spiders are a holy animal in Lolth's faith, and killing a spider is a cardinal sin. Lolth is so chaotic, however, that her commands are ever-changing and often contradictory, so that those who seek to follow them blindly may meet with destruction.


Sab1
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Sab1 » Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:01 pm

Also remember with drow the main rule is don't get caught. If you happen to kill a few spiders and no one is around to see then it never happened.

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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Void » Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:09 pm

Rebel4ever wrote:
Mon Apr 23, 2018 1:06 pm
No. They(drow) even eat them.
Lloth dogma...
There's more than one god in drow pantheon.

For example, Ghaunadaur, Kiaransalee, Selvetarm, Vhaeraun. They do not exactly revere spiders.

The passage I quoted comes from "Drow of Underdark" for 3.5e. page 27. It is official material by WoTC

Another thing worth keeping in mind is that even if killing a spider is a sin, that does not mean you can't eat a spider that is already dead.
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flower
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by flower » Mon Apr 23, 2018 4:47 pm

In Faerun, noone ever lives exactly up to dogma regardless who it is.

DM Always This Late
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by DM Always This Late » Mon Apr 23, 2018 5:20 pm

You can whack some spiders as a Lolthite, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Lolthite temple learns of it and whacks you back if they so choose- or perhaps Lolth herself intervenes? We have created IC consequences against Lolthite Drow casually killing spiders.

So I mean, do what you want. Just be ready to accept the consequences of your actions
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by DM Always This Late » Mon Apr 23, 2018 5:27 pm

Rebel4ever wrote:
Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:18 am
I don't do them...if a spider attacks me i think of it as OOC game mechanics. If a boss is a spider kill it and just don't RP you having killed it.
Infact almost all the grinding i do is OOC aswell...playing the game for experience shouldn't really be in your roleplay all that much. Ive wiped out a orc tribe on my character but i don't roleplay i massacred orcs on mass... its rather silly to have everyone having massacred everything in sight.
Also - to this one specifically, Grinding is not OOC, perhaps 'some' aspects of it could be considered that but this is an RP Server- a whole server, not just RP in cities, or just RP when it's convenient . I mean there are -some- exceptions you have to make because of limitations within reason, like killing a tribe of orcs, I think on one hand you could say that - sure, if you're strong enough to do so then by all means. But you know the mobs respawn so you have to work in some... Imagination- that Arelith is larger of course then our IG world presents I would assume there are more orcs around 'around' in portions of the forest that are just not represent by the playable world.

Either way, I would not encourage the idea of viewing grinding as an OOC event. Though I get it sometimes, it's cool just to chill and grind out some XP so i'm not going to slam that- I would just discourage viewing all leveling as an OOC act.
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BegoneThoth
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by BegoneThoth » Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:58 pm

flower wrote:
Mon Apr 23, 2018 4:47 pm
In Faerun, noone ever lives exactly up to dogma regardless who it is.

I would say plenty di actually.
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Durvayas » Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:36 pm

My drow, even my lolthite drow, view the no killing spiders thing as a rule set in place specifically to test her children, the drow.

Spiders are also Lolth's children. Since she doesn't mind her children killing eachother when it is nescessary, and delights in their survival of the fittest machinations, I've always played it off as her challenging the drow to deal with spiders however nescessary, just don't get caught.

Canonically lolth doesn't want her children fighting in the open. If no one saw it, it didnt happen. This is so deeply ingrained into drow culture that when a drow house attacks another, they shroud the area in darkness(in the books and lore; Arelith has never really adapted this practice, though back in the days of udos, you could be killed for fighting in the streets. You had to be clever and were encouraged to kill eachother behind closed doors or outside the city. Ganks didn't happen in the street much. Classier times)

But my drow tend to view the spiders thing as an extension of those rules. Don't get caught.
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Ork » Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:42 pm

Rebel4ever wrote:
Mon Apr 23, 2018 1:06 pm
No. They(drow) even eat them.
Lloth dogma...
Spiders are a holy animal in Lolth's faith, and killing a spider is a cardinal sin. Lolth is so chaotic, however, that her commands are ever-changing and often contradictory, so that those who seek to follow them blindly may meet with destruction.
Aren't dogma's great?

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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Rebel4ever » Mon Apr 23, 2018 11:51 pm

Aren't dogma's great?
You realise its just because shes super chaotic right? dogma's of deities usually never change.

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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Ebonstar » Mon Apr 23, 2018 11:53 pm

some spiders are heretics just like some drow are heretics are purged.

this goes with the spiders went wild and didnt listen to Lolth anymore. and some are indeed tests
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flower
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by flower » Tue Apr 24, 2018 2:14 am

BegoneThoth wrote:
Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:58 pm
flower wrote:
Mon Apr 23, 2018 4:47 pm
In Faerun, noone ever lives exactly up to dogma regardless who it is.

I would say plenty di actually.
Common folk? Not that much. Almost all dogmas are impossible to follow for common folk across Faerun. Be it for basic nature of being like greed, being selfish, hypocrycy, up to being poor and forced to make daily compromises to survive (and not die from hunger).

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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Iceborn » Tue Apr 24, 2018 3:02 am

Dogma: A principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.

Look, drow culture may not make an ounce of sense, but I'd say if you take a dogma, no matter how convoluted, I'd say you are kinda expected to follow it. -How- you follow it and how you justify it, that's something you can argue all you want ICly.
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Cortex » Tue Apr 24, 2018 6:18 am

I must live in a drow region because spiders are god damn everywhere. To the point I recognise them from location/shape.
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Rebel4ever
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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by Rebel4ever » Tue Apr 24, 2018 9:05 am


Common folk? Not that much. Almost all dogmas are impossible to follow for common folk across Faerun. Be it for basic nature of being like greed, being selfish, hypocrycy, up to being poor and forced to make daily compromises to survive (and not die from hunger).
Not true in the least. Firstly I imagine most poor people like in real life are the most pious people of all...they have nothing else. The poor take their religion very seriously even in real life. Its not like real life religion where one must be whiter than white...to follow a god.

Not every god cares what you do to survive...some actively encourage it...like a poor person who has to steal..could follow Mask. Some gods even work is a form of worship.

Farmers in the main could easily live up to Chauntea.
Smiths could easily live up to Gond.
Merchants to Waukeen.
Sadists and Masochists - Loviatar.
Nutcases - Cyric
Tyrmora - Anyone who will take risks?
Dogma: A principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.

Look, drow culture may not make an ounce of sense, but I'd say if you take a dogma, no matter how convoluted, I'd say you are kinda expected to follow it. -How- you follow it and how you justify it, that's something you can argue all you want ICly.
I agree. This is pretty much the case, most aren't all that difficult to follow...when it comes to Lloth she is a different matter altogether from most gods.

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Re: drow and spider writs / lore

Post by MoreThanThree » Tue Apr 24, 2018 5:07 pm

It's like when a Drow's spider gets sick so she has to shoot Lassie.
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