Erelhei-Cinlu

Erelhei-Cinlu is a large Drow city-state located in the Underdark, in the Vault of the Drow. It is the principal city of the drow, built after the wars between the light elves and dark, and uncounted centuries old.

History

House Eilservs was long the most powerful of Erelhei-Cinlu's noble houses, and long believed that the city should be ruled by a single queen of their house. When the other noble houses allied against the Eilservs to prevent this from happening, the Eilservs renounced the worship of the demon queen Lolth, turning instead to an Elder Elemental God. They then attempted to establish a puppet kingdom in the surface world dedicated to the worship of their new deity, hoping this would bring them enough power that their claims to supreme power in the Vault could no longer be denied. This scheme was thwarted by a band of adventurers.
The same adventuring party then entered the Vault itself and assaulted the Eilservs estates and the Great Fane of Lolth itself. In the aftermath the Eilservs were ruined, their wealth and power shattered, and vengeful priestesses of Lolth turned on them to exile what remained. Many fled to the lesser drow city of Angrimm, which was subsequently overrun by the ghouls of the White Kingdom.

Geography

Erelhei-Cinlu lies in a huge cavern, over six miles long and nearly as wide, beneath the Hellfurnaces known as the Vault (also known as the Vault of the Drow). A huge chunk of tumkeoite on the ceiling of the Vault gives the appearance of an alien moon, whilst much smaller deposits of other exotic minerals give one the impression of an starry night sky. Major bodies of water within the Vault include the Pitchy Flow, the Weeping Spring that flows north and west into it, and the Mere of Glooms in the midst of the Weeping Spring.
Much of the Vault is filled with forests of lichens, crystalline growths, and fungi. Merchant estates are scattered south of the city, as are fortresses for the male and female orders of warriors. The city itself is built on the southern bank of the Pitchy Flow in the northern corner of the Vault. A single structure, the Flying Bridge, connects Erelhei-Cinlu with the other side of the Pitchy Flow. Across the river is a plateau containing the estates of the noble houses, and a tunnel leading to the Great Fane of Lolth.
The city of Erelhei-Cinlu is surrounded by a 30-foot-tall wall of seamless polished basalt, interrupted by 40-foot square towers at regular intervals. On the shores of the river, the wall is 50 feet high and without towers; the river wall is the exclusive domain of female soldiers.
The buildings of Erelhei-Cinlu are alien and strangely disturbing to human eyes, its streets narrow and crooked.

Type

Large city