House Gallaer (Gall-i-air)

Culture

Mind over matter can almost be seen as a literal statement to the Drow of House Gallaer. Their families almost all have incredibly strong psionic potential, and ones mastery over psionics is one of the many ways to distinguish royalty from a serf or slave. It is said many noble duels are fought not with blade or shot, but with psionic might as both try to overpower their opponents mind and claw at their very sanity. Psionic power is incredibly powerful, and incredibly dangerous for it can drive some mad. As such, while not all Drow of Hosue Gallaer but certainly a fair amount are seen as being mentally unhinged and all the more dangerous. They are fanatical with their devotion to psionic might, however they have seemingly been able to retain their control over their will, as those Illithids they intermingle with have proven incredibly loyal and unable to mind control them. Their current Matron Mother Baltana Gallaer has made sure that their bonds with the Illithids are as strong as the hardest Underdark metals.
House Gallaer is considered radical and extreme for its fanaticism to psionic might, only barely being tolerated by other Great Houses due to its deep roots in the merchant families of the Drow. This coupled with the very secretive nature of House Gallaer, lead to many seeking to send in spies and assassins' to investigate what dark secrets the house might hide, but as of now, nothing has been discovered. Many dead ends, leading to no where, and even more dead spies and assassins'.
Due to the nature of the deal with the house, Illithids willing to bend the knee can expect to be treated well by House Gallaer, albeit they will most likely be hidden away behind many locked rooms to hide them from other houses and the surface races. However for Illithids this is hardly a problem, and since they are fed captive slaves, they find that the Drow can be an "agreeable" people. Many Illithids also serve as elite assassins' for the House, and are even sent into other cities to sabotage and sow discord amongst other houses and even the surface governments, hoping to one day usurp them.

History

Being the third oldest Great House, House Gallaer has a long and storied history for the Drow people. Rising from some of the wealthiest mercantile families of the Underdark, it was a bloody road to the path of Great House, but House Gallaer would butcher, bribe, assassinate, and destory any who tried to stand before their path to ascension. After securing their status as a Great House, they spread their webs of control among the merchant families, and before long most merchants one could find on the streets had ties to this wealthy house. However a new course would be opened for this house after one single event.
During what was supposed to be a bloody but fairly routine raid by Illithids seeking to capture Drow test subjects, House Gallaer managed to kidnap 5 Mind Flayers and torture them. Before long they managed to gain the location of the Illithid colony and sent a team of elite Drow Hussars to assassinate the Illithid command structure. However, once arriving there, they found that much of the colony was already ravaged and destroyed, the Elder Brain long dead. However, one Illithid Elder Concord was alive, and knowing it had few ways of getting out of this situation alive, and having obtained its free will, offered to parlay with the Matron Mother. The hussars eventually agreed and before long, deep behind closed doors of some of the deepest chambers of the house's fortress, the Elder Concord and the Matron Mother met. None know exactly what happened, as the official story is the hussars killed the foolish Illithid as he tries to propose the deal to parlay.
Unofficially, it was agreed upon that should the Matron Mother protect the Illithid and find more of his kin (only a small amount of course) then the Illithids would intermingle with the Drow and teach them the ways of psionic powers. So it was that the Drow of House Gallaer would intermingle, learn, and even breed with the Illithids to tap into the undiscovered world of psionic might. Soon many rumors would float about of the once average merchants being able to obliterate their enemies with their minds, and while such rumors floated for ages, no one ever came close to discovering the truth, or at least never openly admitted to knowing.
With the Cataclysm thankfully for House Gallaer, many of tis secrets were buried, however many more were scattered out in the open. So while this house has once again integrated itself with surface dweller merchant guilds and families, it also now seeks to make sure all of its secrets remain buried or hidden away. Illithids have proved harder to hide on the surface then they did in the Underdark, but they still manage to house loyal Illithids behind many locked doors, siring new offspring and retaining their psionic mastery.

"Obey our Will"

Type

Geopolitical, Great house