Jaheira's age

Remove all ads!

The Tethyr Civil War as in 1346.

That's twenty six years ago game time. I don't think Jaheira's age is mentioned at the time of the war, other than that she was 'quite young.' Conceivably she could be anywhere from newborn to 10-12.

So she is anywhere between 26 and 38.

 

Aerie herself states in one of the cat fights that she is probably older than Jaheira. As for Viconia, House DeVir fell approximately 75-100 years ago game time depending on which FR timeline you use. Viconia was a priestess, or at least an accolyte when her house fell. She's also been married four times. I make her age at 120-200. Still quite young for an elf.

 

It's not the numerical age that matters, it's how you behave.

Aerie makes herself look like an early teenager, but a big part of it is the fact that she's lead an isolated life so far. She matures a LOT during the game, though.
Viconia is definitely a teenager with the whole emo-kid goth rebellion thing going that she's shoving down the <CHARNAME>'s throat.
Jaheira ain't no teenager but a bossy, bitter old hag. At least on the outside, but she too has a soft spot after you tickle her with armor-piercing ammo for long enough.

 

Drow age faster than surface elves, remember. Also Drow don't marry as such, they pick a male to serve them for a time and dismiss him when they get bored. Which could be weeks!

 

Iirc, 200 years is already middle aged for a Drow.

 

I guess the saying "age doesn't matter" comes in handy here.

 

nior,

That still sound rather picky to me.

How about this instead?

"Any bipedal accepted, from chicken to ladder."

 

Judging by her picture she has to be at least fourteen. Aerie has got to be almost twelve. At least Viconia looks to be in her twenties (early). Whatever that comes to in elf years or dog years or some such is close enough.

 

Liriel Baenre was forty when she began formal Schooling as a priestess in Elaine Cunningham's novels. This apparently corresponded to early - mid adolescence.

Viconia relates the tale of her four husbands in her romance dialogues in Throne Of Bhaal. True, Drow marriage wasn't a 'til death do them part' thing, at least not for the females.

 

Considering the Drow way of life, 'til death do us apart' may actually end up being the most common cause of breakups in Drow societies.

 

Do you, Viconia, take this lowly male to have and to hold, from this day forward, keeping yourself only unto him, until such time as he angers you and you set fire to him?

Viconia: I do.

Don't laugh if you haven't played her romance through TOB.

 

Just a point, but shouldn't drow societies start feeling a population shortage?

It takes about half a century to get the kids into high school and people are getting killed off on what may average out to be a nightly rate. Even if you have drow of both genders riding any and all beings they can to boost birthrates that still may not keep up with a deathrate motivated by schemes, local theology (Lolth seems to go for a high deathrate), and-depending on the specific drow-mood.

The society may even require something of a shotgun attempt to make sure families have enough young to last over time but it doesn't seem like every drow or drow family goes for this.

 

Drow don't have families, they have Houses. The young are not raised by their parents, but by the younger priestesses, often an older sister who will see her young sibling not as a cherished addition to the clan, but as a rival to be kept in place.

It is a matriarchal society. Women have no trouble conceiving, it is death for a male to refuse a female. Of course it can also be death to accept. I guess that's your point. Typically the women have lots of children. They have to. The third born male is always sacrificed to Lloth. That leaves two sons and probably a few daughters, as Drow strive for female offspring.

Despite this, like surface elves, they can not compete with Humans or Orcs in numbers. They rely on advanced training in arms and magic, and the blessings of Lloth.

Consider that the males spend ten years in fighter school before they are allowed to go on their first raid. That's ten years of boot camp. If they ever united they would be an unstoppable force. Not likely to happen.

 

Plus, most of their sacrifices are slaves.

 

Interesting thoughts except there are a few counterpoints.

Even if most sacrifices aren't drow there still are a good number that are (3rd sons and so on). Plus Lolth doesn't mind when drow kill each other in methods that don't involve sacrifice. The whole bit about letting the strong rise to the top ignores that all the weak whose bodies line their path to the top could have added something but cannot any more.

Drow may be quick and impressive when they strike. But, due to what is likely to be a big imbalance in numbers, they also (if a major war started) run a real risk of overextending themselves.

Also if you take the real world Spartans as a similar society you can see how some of their weaknesses may play out.

Spartans were very capable fighters. They also had a high death rate (both killing off the weak and not caring much if their own died in some manner-often battle rather than sacrifice), slavery, and mutliple years worth of training (which was also harsh and started when children were young).

The Spartans beat Athens eventually.... only to be defeated by Thebes.

The Spartans repeatedly invaded Thebes and as a result the defenders of Thebes got a lot of experience fighting back. Thus those fighting against a drow invasion would likely suffer a big body count (at least initially), but start learning how to fight back even better.

I'm not sure if the warriors of Thebes ever got as good at fighting as the Spartans but they got good enough at fighting back that it mattered. Then a really big battle came along during one of the multiple invasions and.... Thebes won. By this time they had gotten competent at fighting and showed up at the battle with numbers that may have exceeded 5 to 1. Maybe I'm wrong and maybe it was even close to 3 to 1. In any case they had the right combination of numbers and ability that they wiped out 1/3 of the entire Spartan army. As the Spartans had some territory to defend and spread out over this basically was a body blow that they couldn't recover from during the war.

The prospect of fighting against drow can be pretty scary for other groups. But the other groups are actually large enough that they could take some hits (as a society) from the drow and then come back when the drow couldn't. At that point they may be finding out just how fast a drow can run.

The drow may be able to attack and grab territory, but a sustained war may grind them down to the point where they themselves get crushed.

Also even if one group really was taken down the others may get disturbed enough that they unite and just bury the drow.

While drow may be able to bribe, force, or actually convince some to help them in some massive invasion their general xenophobia would work against this and most alliances they could put together would probably still be outnumbered by its enemies.

You do have a good point about drow women being able to conceive whenever they feel like, though I wonder if this may be necessary for drow society to continue as is rather than an advantage in a massive or drawn out war (it is already being tapped as a possibility).

Orcs would be the most likely to bury the drow in numbers (provided they get scared enough to the point they get organized) and humans could likely do the same but they would also be the ones likely to learn the quickest how to become advanced in magic and arms themselves and thus provide both numbers and a competent foe.


Anyway that is an attempt at some strategic thinking about the situation.

I hope I didn't pull everyone too far off topic.

 

Plus [CHARNAME] kicked their ass.

 

[CHARNAME] Kicks every one's ass. Personally I found the fight with the handmaiden and the Yochol (From Viconia's Romance) too easy to be credible. Viconia could have taken them herself. And the idea of a small party wiping out every Drow in Ust Natha is laughable, but so is the idea of walking into a Red's lair (Firkraag) and mopping the floor with him.

In short, [CHARNAME] is successful because like Bugs Bunny, his adversaries are morons.

 

Good writeup, pplr.

- This is madness!
- No, this is UST NATHA! *kicks the emissary into a well*

Cracked me up pretty good.

 

Humans fighting in the Underdark suffer a huge disadvantage: Without magical aid they can not see, and Drow have the innate ability to neutralize any magical light. Elves have it a little better, having good darkvision (not as good as Drow, but servicable), and suffer no ill effects in darkness.

Conversely Drow are great night fighters on the surface, but both they and their equipment suck once the sun comes up. Drow Magic and Magic Items quickly lose their potency in sunlight.

Thus both sides tend to raid each other's territory, but avoid a large pitched battle.