The Great Mothers
Drow rulers of Mori'tarna
The Great Mothers is the name used to call both Mother of Moonlight and Mother of Shadows in Mori'tarna. As the Prophet and the Sword of their goddess, these two leaders of Moondancer and Shadowblade Houses have become the face of The Children and highly respected entities in Silver Shore Island.
The Origin
We know very little from the rise of the Great Mothers beyond the myths about The Moondancers & the Shadowblades, but with the Faith of Children of The Dancer the pact between the house of prophets, the Moondancers, and house of sorcerers, the Shadowblades, brought peace and prosperity to drow of Mori'tarna.
As the llothian drow culture promotes inheritely destructive and chaotic system of power, the drow of Mori'tarna would avoid this fate by establishing Great Matron Council of Silver Shore, consisting of Matron Council of Zaetron Derraz and Matron Council of Netehdrez, and the houses of the Great Mothers would function as the last word. This combination of democracy and more traditional rulership was to brign more balance to the society, while bringing with it some familiar elements to make transition easier for the drow matrons.
Having two ruling mothers instead of one was also deliberate choice to keep this once fragile balance. They represent little bit different values for their people; Mother of Shadows being more of a military leader and protector were Mother of Moonlight is more of a spiritual leader and a teacher. But they also balance each other out, by having the ultimate power in their seperate cities. Children of the families are raised together when possible, and teached to consider one another as siblings. Once in awhile the two great families also marry members from the other family, to also keep some blood relation. These practices have come so expected that the whole ruling system in Mori'tarna has become very stable.The Role of the Great Mothers
The role of The Great Mothers is akin to one of a queen or king in a constitutional monarchy. While both of Great Mothers have their specific duties, there are duties they share. These duties consist of things like:
- monitoring the matron councils on their respective cities
- work as the ultimate authority in difficult conflict situations
- protecting their people
- hearing the people and their grievances
They are also capable of voting on issues, having more power votes than the rest of the Matron council. This power should be used with great responsibility, and matrons of the Council can outvote the Great Mothers on a given topic, yet it is very challenging. Most of the time, the position is more like one of the overseer, but when required, Great Mothers are capable of taking the role of a dictator.
Mantle of Motherhood
As a remnant from Llothian times, The Children have kept elements of the female supremacy in their culture. Prominency and severity of the effects of this belief vary through times and from person to person, but females, and most importantly, mothers carry the highest respects of their society. For The Children, one of the biggest reasons for this reverence is the ability of the females to give birth to children and bring life.
As such, the word "Mother" has a connotation of the most prestigious title, used in most formal cases and strictly from those who have reared children. Matron of a great house can be called Mother of the house, but if the matron is currently childless, word Mistress is used instead.
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