Orthae Qu'lith The World of Greyhawk & The World of Greyhawk Wiki The current year for our World of Greyhawk campaign is set during 579CY. Inspired By Gary Gygax

Orthae Qu'lith, the City of Spiders, is a smaller underground drow city-state "when compared to Erelhei-Cinlu" deep beneath the surface in the Underdark. Orthae Qu'lith is one of the lesser known drow cities beneath the Flanaess, being a relatively unknown city "even with it being as older city" located in a massive, natural Underoerth cavern "properly named the Underchasm" which is located beneath the Dim Forest.

It has a population of 25,000, "15,000 of those being Drow with most of the remaining 10,000 being slaves of different races & some being visitors to the city". It is one of the primary Drow dominanted cities that deals heavily in slaves from the surface, and many of the dealings have been with the slaver organizations on the surface.

The roof of "the Underchasm" rises over 1,000 feet above the floor. The massive cavern has powerful magic embedded into it to reduce echos from all the noise coming from the city itself. The city has a single massive gate located on each end of the gigantic chasm allowing entrance to the city by those who are not native to Orthae Qu'lith, and both the north & south gates are heavily guarded. These gates open into the front of the city, while the city proper is heavily fortified and guarded deep within the central section of the cavern.

Orthae Qu'lith is located in a huge rectangular-shaped underground chasm, some two miles long and a thousand feet high. The drow call the the Underchasm, Verldrin Araj or "Shadowed Vengenace". The city is mainly carved from a dark colored calcite and it is filled with blue, green, and violet faerie fire. Buildings were often covered with the city's main motif: "In the service of Lolth".

Notable Locations
• Shrine of Lolth
• Dark Domain
• Tier Breche

Districts
• Commons
• The Grove
• Westway
• Ugulur Veldrin
• Eastway

Orthae Qu'lith is mostly built on the floor of the Underchasm but above the natural bottom of its cavern and many large stuctures are built into the walls and ceiling of this massive underground chasm that house the drow noble houses which watch over the city from above. A total of around 40 drow houses exist in the city, eight of which are noble houses. Buildings of note in the city include guilds for female and male fighters as well as for wizards, and a grand temple of Lolth "Fane of Lolth" at its eastern end. In a typical drow fashion, Orthae Qu'lith is run on the basis of several competing houses led by matron mothers, including a local branch of the Drez`lyn family.

Though the majority of its citizens are drow, it also houses a number of members of other races at a given time who are allowed to stay in the Eastway District. Besides the presence of slaves . . . beholders, illithid, githyanki, aboleths and other non drow races have been known to visit the city at times.

The city is heated and illuminated by a large, 1,000-foot-tall rock column named Kyorlin Alva "the Watching Light". The Archmage of the city casts a fire spell at its base each night, creating a band of heat that slowly travels up the column, eventually dying out at the peak and then descending. This "lava-like" glow provides both heat and light to the city, and the rising and falling band of heat serves as a clock.

Ruling Houses
1) House Drez`lyn
2) House Vendrea
3) House Tier`Dal
4) House Mizzra
5) House Naezrym
6) House Kenafae
7) House Druu’zel
8) House Daelryn

Drow from Orthae Qu'lith tend to be very well equipped and well trained for the Underdark. It is perfectly ordinary for them to be equipped with adamantine weapons, shields and elven chain mail and field plate mail with great enhancement bonus.

The city has many different houses, all of which vie for power. As it is a matriarchal society, however, only female drow truly hold any real power, especially the high priestesses of Lolth from the ruling eight houses. Most of the ruling noble houses are built on higher elevations which allows them to be easier to defend in case of attack.

Officially, the city is under the rule of the Ruling Council of Eight, composed of the eight matron mothers of the first (and most powerful) eight houses which is governed by the ruling house of House Drez`lyn. For many centuries—as long as any living drow could remember—it has been under the indirect rule of House Drez`lyn which is governed by Matron Mother Yvonn Drez`lyn, also known as Matron Drez`lyn, perhaps the most powerful de facto ruler the city has ever seen. House Drez`lyn has been the First House of Orthae Qu'lith for centuries of uncontested power.

Although drow culture is matriarchal, a few male drow in the city hold "some" political power, including Kren Drez`lyn, the archmage of the city, and Bregan Tanor'Thar, leader of the mercenary band D'Aerthe Phaeril, which is often utilized by House Drez`lyn. Despite it being a lesser known city compared to other major drow cities within the Underdark, the ancient drow city of Orthae Qu'lith stays out of the business of other rival drow cities to conduct it's own affairs.

Over the many centuries, Orthae Qu'lith has gained the respect from other drow cities and is well respected "mostly, out of fear" from most other underdark cities in the region. It continues to conduct slave operations on the surface and it still has dealings with the slaver organizations to keep the slave population up.