Caladore

D'Arden, D'Amelle, Baelefur, Banelle, Asvordelle,

They understand classical Elvish and have their own dialect known as High-Caladre which is unintelligible to other Elves.

A proud people, the Caladore believe their view of the world supersedes that of their weaker cousins in Esverde and represents freedom from the rigid ideals of the High Elves of Rusolte.

The Caldore value martial perfection, and thus their greatest warriors are elevated into legend and myth. There is no code of honor in combat, victory is all that matters regardless of the cost. These values originate from their deity, The Dark Lady, an enigmatic and abstract goddess of Combat, Personal Mastery, and Independence.   Reverence of the Dark Lady is seared into a Caladore as soon as they are born, literally burned into their flesh via a branding on the inside of their left thigh. This mark claims the Elfling as the property of the Dark Lady and seals their fate as a servant to her demands.

Males are forbidden to look directly at the face of a female and must avert their gaze to the maid's feet while addressing her in any way, but they may speak freely with other males. The only exception among males lies with the Prime Consort of a House, who may address other members of society without restriction (however they must observe the normal rules when addressing other Matrons). Maidens speak freely to all except house Matrons, and must also gaze upon the Matron's feet while addressing her. Maidens who fail to observe the courtesies to their Matrons are typically beaten and chastised before the entire house. House Matrons must greet each other with a short, slow nod of their head, while gazing directly into the eyes of the other Matron. Matron's who fail this ritual are typically seen as giving an intentional slight.   Males who fail to observe the proper courtesies to females are summarily executed or sent to the spider pits for conversion to a Drider.

Women typically dress in translucent, flowing gowns spun from silks cultivated from spiders. The dresses are exquisite and display elegant sweeping patterns and designs that evoke images of waves of moonlight and the stars. Iconography of the spider is prevalent in the designs of these dresses and often is cut into the designs of the clothing, creating sultry and evocative imagery while accentuating the curves and body features of the wearer, all meant to seduce and titillate. Their armors take a more practical approach, covering their bodies but retaining much of the spider iconography of the Dark Lady.   Men dress in simple clothes unless gifted more elaborate trappings from their masters. Their armors are simple, utilitarian, and usually display the markings of their house in addition to the spider iconography.

The influence of the Dark Lady is prevalent, as her symbol of the Spider and webs are found in almost everything. Spires are topped with eight leg-like protrusions pointing upward, and the bulbous figure of the spider can be seen embedded over buildings and temples.   Any work of art produced typically features a prominent female body engaged with a spider in some way, either revering the spider, in deference to it, or engaged in sexual activity with it. If a male is depicted, he is usually shown as being beaten or slain by a woman or eaten by a spider.   No depiction of the Dark Lady is permitted in any shape or form.

Every female birth is a cause for celebration in a house. Within days, a tournament is held of potential consorts (consisting of young boys no older than 15), who must fight to the death for the honor of being taken in by the house as a potential future mate. Venerations to the Dark Lady are offered and the house typically acquires a blood sacrifice to offer her (most often a humanoid. Elves and Orcs are prized offerings, followed by other humanoids). The greater the blood sacrifice, the greater the child's fortunes will be.   Males have no special rites and are immediately turned over to a house wet-nurse if the matron does not wish to care directly for the child.

Upon reaching young adulthood, females become eligible to earn the title of "Housemaiden" through the Rites of the Lady: The Test of Combat, The Test of Power, and the Test of Faith. In the Test of Combat, the hopeful female is placed unarmed in an arena with 5 male drow soldiers. The males are given one instruction: Do what you want to her without any consequences. The female is to kill her attackers or be violated and disgraced. The Second Test requires the initiate to cast three essential spells: Darkness, Command, and Detect Thoughts. While seemingly simple, this part of the test requires the initiate to capture an enemy agent (either a rival house member or a surface dweller) and uncover their secrets. The final test requires the initiate to make a sacrifice to the Dark Lady. This sacrifice may only come in three forms: The life of a favored family member or consort (most initiates choose a consort to slay), the souls of ten non-Caladore Elves (another popular option), or through the souls of one hundred non-elven civilized humanoids (dwarves, humans, saurians, orcs, etc. - Elven souls may be counted as ten souls in this total). Once begun, the initiate is given 100 years to complete the trials or be exiled and the trials MUST be initiated before the age of 300 or the female faces execution.   Males are expected to join the Dark Rangers at the age of 115. Males who serve as house consorts (who cook, clean, guard the house, etc.) do so only through an exemption granted by their House Matrons. Since the Dark Rangers represent the will of the Dark Lady's anger, each new soldier is required to accomplish the following by their fifth year of service: Capture 100 slaves for the labor pits (Dwarves, Humans, and Orcs are highly prized and count for 10 slaves each), capture a surface elven female for assignment in the breeding houses (Caladore genetics are dominant among elves and they maintain their numbers solely through forced means), and slay 100 humanoid enemies in the name of the Dark Lady (Dwarves, Humans, and Orcs each count as 5 tallies for this purpose). Soldiers who fail these tasks are usually sent to the Spider Pits for conversion into a Drider.

Funerals are reserved only for those slain in battle. To die from old age is seen as a dishonor and many elder Matrons will embark on one final certain-death raid against surfacers in order to achieve their glorious end.   Males and those who die from means other than battle are stripped and thrown into the spider pens or slave pits as food.

Any Caladore addressed by the name of "Drow" will fly into an immediate violent rage.  They consider the term extremely offensive and as a challenge of their racial honor.

The Caladore believe that the Dark Lady is their salvation and savior. In the ancient days, the Caladore were the primary targets of Goblin raids, and they found themselves helpless as the women of their communities were constantly captured and ravaged by rampaging Goblin tribes. Caladore priests state that the Dark Lady was a beautiful mother of three beautiful daughters, who watched in horror as her children were taken from her and dragged away to a fate worse than death. Her prayers to the elven gods went unheeded, and one day she entreated to any power who would grant her the means to recover her children. An unknown power answered her. Gifted with new abilities, (the most significant of which was dominion over arachnids) she single-handedly tracked down the Goblin tribe responsible and slaughtered them. She found her daughters alive, but pregnant with Goblin children. She paid no heed to this, as her plans had now worked perfectly. She secreted her daughters home in the darkness of night, and not long after they gave birth to ten goblin children, three from each of her two youngest daughters, and four from her eldest. Without hesitation, the Dark Lady placed the infants upon an altar to the being who had granted her powers and slit their throats in a ritual to summon her patron. When the being manifested, eager to feast upon the hearts of his sacrifice, the Lady and her Daughters overpowered the being and cut out its heart, which they each took a turn feasting upon. This act allowed the Dark Lady to keep her powers permanently and ascend as a Goddess, while her daughters all gained a significant measure of power themselves. From these three daughters were begun the three major houses of the Caladore: House Anissea, House Sonali, and House Jalisse.   The three houses were responsible for teaching the rest of the Caladore the tenets of Martial Perfection, Enhanced Mastery of Magic, and Faith in the Dark Lady. Empowered and emboldened by their new philosophies, the Caladore quickly rose as a valuable resource in the Elven conflicts of the ancient times, eventually becoming favored among Elven society before their fall.

To the Caladore, the natural female form, honed to perfection through trial and suffering is the pinnacle of beauty. Matrons and maidens make no efforts to hide their bodies in a manner ironically similar to their Sylvan cousins.   Males are chosen as consorts based upon tests of agility, magical aptitude, and strategic cunning. Females are dominant in society and are considered attractive to look upon by other sentient races.   Males have no choice in who their mate is and thus no beauty ideal officially exists, however they have been demonstrated to prefer females with slim frames, long legs, and wide hips with full formed buttocks. In terms of facial features, they've been observed to be drawn to women with larger eyes, long hair, pointed chins, and full lips.

A female dominated society, the matrons and their maids are the sole decision makers of each house, while males are expected to be subservient to every demand placed upon them by a female. Even the lowliest of maidens wields authority over most of the males of a household, save for the matron's prime consort.   Typically, the highest honors that can be conferred upon a male are House Captain and Prime Consort (usually these roles overlap). Through military success, males may also earn commanding roles in the military, though they are still subservient to the orders of Matrons and may never give a direct command to a female regardless of rank.

Matrons select their consorts based upon their own criteria (mostly martial and physical attributes) and give permission to their house maidens to select their own mates once they have passed their Rites of the Lady.    Males are not allowed to speak to females unless absolutely necessary and are forbidden from initiating relationships, let alone intimacy, under pain of death.

Males are expected to be subservient in every way to their matron or maiden. Insubordination is punishable by anything including death or beatings, whichever is preferred by his master.