|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2013 7:07 am
Food The diet of the Underhollow is built on a luminous grain that is vaguely similar to wild rice, and may have evolved from it (or been formed by the goddess Kestali to resemble it, depending on your take) It is found growing wild along the shores and in swampy areas near the river at the center of the Underhollow, though in recent generations has come to be cultivated in constructed paddies. The rice also serves as the main source of flour and is used as the foundation for a variety of baked goods, and are combined with tuli-nut flour and powdered mushrooms to create a variety of textures from hearty, crusty loafs to the most delicate cakes and buns.
This is supplemented with various vegetables and fungi, some gathered wild from the Silverweald, others cultivated in gardens and on farms. Some common examples:Snakeroot: A root vegetable that resembles a parsnip or carrot, except that the flesh is dark purple and the top consists of a tuft of modified leaves, called traps, that snap shut on unsuspecting prey as large as a mouse. These traps are lined with poisonous thorns, and while the toxin has been bred out of domestic strains (causing only a mild allergic reaction in some), it is still quite dangerous to harvest in the wild. Gourmets insist that the flavor of the wild strain is preferable, however, and so a market still exists.Elgluth: Called whipvine in the common tongue, this plant is named for its fast growth which will send small whiplike tendrils up trellises (or anything nearby that is vaguely vertical) overnight. More than one farmer has left his tools in a field of whipvine only to find them covered up in the delicate vines come morning. All of this plant is edible, and the few inches of vine near the tip are particularly prized for salads. The luminous flowers are often candied, while thicker,older stalks can be split and boiled and are eaten as a starch. The sweet root-bulb is often mashed and made into pie flavored by the nectar of the plant's midge-traps.
Mushrooms: A wide variety of mushrooms and other fungus are cultivated and harvested from the Silverweald, and are prized by cooks throughout the Underhollow. Indeed, it's difficult to find any dish that doesn't contain at least some variety of fungus. The rarer species of wild mushroom are a delicacy and fetch a very high price at market, the rarest in private auctions. Many drow make their living searching only for these. Other, more common varieties are grown on farms, but are still favorites. The drow aren't picky about whether their fungus glows or not, but the glowing species are often used in spectacular culinary displays and to add to the visual appeal of dishes.
Wild mushroom hunters must be careful, however, as there are thousands of species of fungus growing in the Silverweald and a great many are poisonous; often the safe ones bear an uncanny resemblance to their more dangerous cousins.
Tuli-nut: The top of the plant is a bristle of black pitchers covered in luminous blue spots that are used to trap midges and other insects to feed the plant.Tuli-nuts are fertilized on the surface, but soon afterward the tough petals of the tuli-plant's flower close around the delicate inner parts and the whole works is thrust underground as far as the plant can get it. Once ripe, the nuts are harvested and are pressed for their mild-flavored oil, which is used for a variety of purposes from cooking to illumination.
Dairy is also available. Many families in the Artisan caste are able to keep a cow, goat, or deer for dairy purposes and noble families can keep whole herds. The low caste, however, seldom sees milk or butter on their tables. Many artisans make their living producing cheese, and due to the scarcity of suitable caves for aging, a couple of settlements in the Underhollow have grown up around nothing more than producing a particularly desirable cheese for the tables of the City of Embers' elite. Chickens are also a common sight, raised for both meat and eggs.
Meat is expensive and relatively difficult to obtain, so it is seldom bought except by the elite. Only the most affluent noble houses can afford meat on a daily basis. The middle castes (artisan, merchant, and most of the military and priesthood) can afford meat only once or twice a week. The lower castes are lucky if they see meat once a month. That is, unless they go out and hunt it themselves, or take the time to raise their own meat animals.
A few species of meat animals are kept domestically: Deer, chickens, goats, and cattle. Wild species are harvested from the Silverweald:
Deer: gourmets seem to believe the wild meat is far more flavorful. The deer of the Silverweald are different in appearance from their surface-dwelling cousins: they are built much the same, but their coats are usually dark in color and always come with a variety of luminous spots and stripes which seem to confuse predators.
Chikkiri: a ground-dwelling, long-eared, soft-furred creature with a long tufted tail that hops about on its hind legs. Named for the chittering sound it makes, it is prized for its meat and fur though it is also sometimes kept as a pet by those with the disposable income to feed it. Some attempts to farm it have been made, but none have proven successful as the stress of such conditions proves lethal for the delicate creatures.
Frogs: Are plentiful near the water. Their legs are delicious fried, but some species are poisonous. As a general rule, if it croaks and it glows, it isn't edible.Turtles: Not dissimilar to frogs, several species both bioluminescent and otherwise are found along the river. None are known to be toxic, and are often enjoyed in soup. Turtle eggs braised in wine with mushrooms is a rare delicacy.Fish: There are some startlingly large catfish in the river, all blind and pale, but tasty. More rarely albino trout can also be caught.Fowl: There are a number of species of birds that make their home in the Silverweald, which provides enough light to fly by if only just. Owls are common, but are generally not eaten as their flesh is gamy and tough. (they often serve as hunting birds, however.) Ducks, quail, pheasant, and a variety of large songbird often grace the tables of the nobility.
Spices (with the exception of salt which, being a mineral, is exceptionally easy to come by) are a rarity in the Underhollow, and with few exceptions are available only to the nobility in any meaningful quantity.
Those available to all include:
Honey mushroom, which lends a subtle heat and sweetness to dishes. It is most often used in desserts.
Goldfern, the brilliant yellow and slightly metallic-looking spores of which are collected once a year in great quantity. It can be used as a dye, but imparts a wonderful flavor and distinctive yellow color to food as well.Cinnabar puffball, which releases distinctive rusty-red spores that cause severe burning and irritation to the eyes and mucous membranes. The spores are added in small quantities to add heat to dishes, and enthusiasts compete to develop more and more concentrated preparations of the spores, and to breed varieties that offer more intense heat. The flesh of the mushroom is also edible, and quite mild.
Rarer spices include:Ssinjin: It is seldom discussed where this seasoning comes from, but it is nevertheless highly prized and astoundingly expensive. It imparts a delicate, exotic and sweet flavor not dissimilar to vanilla. It does, however, come from the back end of a particularly loathsome species of newt called an e’triet, which with it’s wrinkly, loose, and disgustingly mottled brown-and-green skin resembles the droppings of some large herbivore more than a living animal. It smells awful and tastes worse, but the glands it uses to entice a mate produce a grease that is used in fine perfumes as well as to produce ssinjin.Blue Iivoyla: More precious than gold due to it’s rarity and faint hallucinogenic properties, blue iivoyla is incredibly hard to procure. It comes from a rare flower found in the deepest parts of the Silverweald and imparts a licorice-like flavor to dishes and drinks as well as a strange blue shimmer. In small doses, it produces a pleasant tingling and sense of weightlessness, in large doses it induces full-blown visions of impossible geometries and indescribable colors.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 8:38 am
Clothing
The fashion of the Underhollow is characterized by flowing lines, long sleeves, bright colors paired with a highly contrasting neutral (often black) and embroidered embellishments. The more expensive the garment, the better the fabric, the brighter the dyes and more elaborate the embellishments. The aesthetic is founded on tunics of varying lengths as well as dresses, robes and cassocks for the priests.
Clothing is made from a variety of fibers. The luminous silk of cave worms is used for religious vestments and the clothing of the nobility (there are even efforts underway to breed worms that glow with various colors, though none have yet been successful)
More common silk from a particular species of caterpillar from the Silverweald is used, also mostly by the nobility but occasionally especially important garments (such as wedding vestments or funeral garb) will be made from it for the middle classes as well.
Less expensive fabrics are made from a variety of plant fibers. Artisans have worked out how to derive different types of fiber from the bark of certain species of tree, the leaves of certain shrubs, even seed pods and some of the more robust and fibrous species of shelf mushroom. Alone or in blends, these provide plenty of variety to keep the weavers and spinners busy.
Dyes come from a variety of plant and animal sources, everything from rare insect carapaces to flowers, sap, even minerals drawn from the earth in some cases. Purple and blue are pigments fairly easy to come by, there are lots of things in the Silverweald that give up those colors pretty readily. Yellows (other than the kind produced by goldfern) and reds are harder to accomplish.
Green is nearly impossible to find or make.
The drow of the Underhollow have good access to advanced magic, so depending on how much money a given drow has to throw at the problem, armor could be made from nearly anything. Stone, bone, wood from the Silverweald, leaves from the Silverweald, all enchanted to be far tougher than such materials would usually warrant. Metal would be expensive, but possible to acquire from the Dvergar, and therefore a major status symbol. The rank-and-file that require armor for their line of work usually wear unenchanted leather armor as the most protection for their money.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 8:45 am
Alcohol
Cigrizza- The most base and common of alcohols, found mostly in the slums but occasionally espoused as a sort of family tradition by those whose families have risen above the low castes. It is made from the fermented remains of crushed and charred pieces of a shelf mushroom called devil’s saddle, and has a watery, white texture and a flavor akin to moldy bread. It is most assuredly an acquired taste.
Jhinavael- A wine, made from elgluth berries. Can be sweet or dry, and various ingredients may be added to alter or enhance the flavor. Many families make their own, but the elite buy from fancy wineries that age their product for decades, if not centuries. Particularly old and high-quality vintages can be astoundingly expensive.
Vesca- Another form of wine, much rarer than jhinavael. It is made from the nectar gathered by a particular species of ant in the Silverweald. Certain members of the swarm store the nectar in their bellies, which are gathered by keepers which cultivate the swarms after a fashion; they are allowed to roam the Silverweald at will (indeed, containing them has proven to be an impossible challenge) but the keepers maintain careful records of the location of nests within their territories, and take great care to ensure the swarms have plenty of food (as the extra is stored as the nectar they collect)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 11:14 am
Architecture
As with most things in the Underhollow, the quality of the architecture of one's home depends a great deal one one's caste, but it also depends on whether one lives in the City of Embers or outside it.
The City of Embers
Low caste drow live as they can, tucked away out of sight in tunnels below the city or in little hovels in run-down neighborhoods. Construction is mostly of stone, but there is always a place for a fire and places to sleep, though the fire is likely to be small and dedicated sleeping-spaces may be outnumbered by the population of the home.
If a low-caste drow is very fortunate indeed, they are servants to one of the noble families of the City of Embers, and will have quarters within their estates to call home. These are usually very plain but well cared for, and are much better than the drafty and dubious shelters of the slums.
Infantry, the military equivalent of the low caste, dwell in regimented barracks that were erected in the time of the Goblin Wars. The architecture is old, but elegant, and the fact that the stones were hewn and carved by their own predecessors is a source of great pride for these soldiers. The barracks are kept scrupulously clean as a matter of discipline and inspected daily for even the smallest thread out of place.
The novices, or the religious equivalent of the low caste, live in small cells carved into the rock below the temple they serve. These are small, but comfortable quarters that afford privacy and quiet (for prayers and meditations), and they eat in a common area at predetermined mealtimes. In most cases, the cells are scrupulously utilitarian and spartan, as the novice's attention ought to be on matters of the soul rather than matters of the body (according to most traditions, though exceptions do exist). However, as they conduct their duties around the temple, these lowly devotees are surrounded by the glory and splendor of the houses of the Gods.
Middle-caste drow live in sturdy stone houses that line the streets of the City of Embers. Often these double as their places of business, with living quarters either on the second story or in the basement (if there isn't a second story,), with the ground floor serving as the shop front or working space. Most homes do have basements, which if they are not used as living quarters are usually storage. The architecture at this level of income is much more elegant than the utterly utilitarian homes of the low caste, with graceful archways and carven embellishments added to whatever degree the owner of the building could afford when it was built. These drow take great pride in their accomplishments, and their home is a prominent place to display how far they have come.
The clergy that occupy this tier have slightly larger cells that can fit a desk and might include a private study with bookshelves for religious tomes. The decor is still minimal, but they are usually afforded solidly built furniture and softer sheets, and might include small carvings of religious iconography to break up the monotony of the space. They eat in the common areas with the novices.
Officers, the military equivalent of middle-caste drow, might have their own rooms within the barracks or might have leave to own a home in town, in which case it will be similar to the living quarters of non-military drow of similar means. If their spouse is a civilian and has a trade of his own, it will have a similar layout. But it is often the case that the officer is the sole breadwinner, and thus the entire space is devoted to living quarters for her family.
Nobility, be they high priests, politicians, or generals in the army, occupy the final tier. They dwell in the most sumptuous manors surrounded by delicately graceful carved stone that is richly embellished and sleekly polished and often gilded or silvered by dvergar artisans. Some noble homes are even made from stone imported from elsewhere in the deep reaches, a rare commodity indeed. In the case of the clergy and military, these homes are often part of a larger complex (in the case of priests, the temple, or in the general's case, the military quarter), but are no less glorious. At this level of income, great care and enjoyment is taken in making the buildings as beautiful as possible, which to a drow of the City of Embers means emulating the fluid lick of flame in carven stone, and the flow of light in hammered metal. There are braziers, torches, and sconces placed all over to highlight various architectural features and to make the light dance. They may even have bits of glowing wood from the Silverweald incorporated into furniture or decor, but they must be careful to do so respectfully as this wood is held to be sacred.
The wealthy (including the more affluent middle caste) enjoy the art of mosaics as well, using tiles and chips of stone to create lovely works of art in floors or on walls.
The Silverweald
Outside the City itself, things are a little different.
Space is at less of a premium, so even the poorest woodsman can afford enough space for his family. Out here, construction is mostly of stone and brick, with roofing formed of thatch unless the home is simply carved into the side of a stalactite or the ground. Homes tend to be built in small groups, often ecompassing several generations of one or more families. These occasionally grow into towns, but they may only last a century or two before the vagaries of the economy force the occupants to pick up and move.
Artisans and merchants sometimes choose to live near the source of the goods their trades require rather than in the City of Embers itself, so several permanent settlements have sprung up out in the Silverweald. In places like this, populated by artists and drow with the disposable income to pay them, the architecture can become downright whimsical.
This is especially true among those of noble birth or great wealth who make their homes outside the City of Embers. In the town of Burrow, for example, which holds the quarry that supplies most of the stone for the City of Embers, the mayor's traditional estate home is elegantly carved to resemble a stylized catfish.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
