Welcome to Menzoberranzan, the Drow City of Intrigue – Posts

Menzoberranzan — the City of Intrigue, the City of Spiders. This Underdark city-state is the most famous drow stronghold in the Forgotten Realms and is the ancestral home of the famed ranger Drizzt Do’Urden, who left it at a young age. Filled with fervent worshippers of the evil Spider Queen Lolth, Menzoberranzan is a metropolis of backstabbers, where families constantly plot against each other in an unceasing struggle to earn the favor of their goddess. The setting is prominently featured in the adventure Out of the Abyss.

For Dungeon Masters plotting to send their players into a ruthless environment of cutthroat danger, or for those simply curious to know more about Drizzt’s birthplace ahead of his most recent appearance in the video game Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, read on.

Menzoberranzan at a glance

First developed in 1990 by author R.A. Salvatore for The Dark Elf Trilogy, Menzoberranzan was heavily influenced by Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. Putting a fantasy spin on the Five Families of the New York Mafia, Salvatore designed a cruel society of drow families that are constantly trying to one-up each other.

Each family is led by a matron mother, since Menzoberranzan is a matriarchal society where men are regarded as inferior beings. The eight most powerful matron mothers collectively form the city’s government, known as the Ruling Council, and the back-and-forth struggle for dominance amongst both the matron mothers and the houses they represent defines Menzoberranzan.

It’s not uncommon for houses to wage war against each other in a mad effort to win the approval of Lolth, with stronger houses absorbing weaker ones or, occasionally, vice versa. For instance, the day that Drizzt was born into House Do’Urden was the same day that his family waged war on House DeVir. Successful obliteration of House DeVir rose House Do’Urden from the rank of the 10th most powerful house in Menzoberranzan to the ninth.

Physically, Menzoberranzan is located in the northern region of the Underdark, within a giant cavern illuminated by luminous fungi and a massive spire named Narbondel. This pillar acts as a clock and is lit each morning with a glow that slowly disappears, representing the passing of a single day.

The city’s population is large but not immense, housing approximately 20,000 drow residents as well as an unknown score of slaves, which are usually non-drow races like goblins or kobolds. Other Underdark races, such as duergar, illithids and svirfneblin, can be found within the city, but typically only as merchants within the trading quarters. Wealthy human traders might even be permitted, but any surface elves or half-elves will be taken and sacrificed to Lolth.

Above all else, veneration of the Spider Queen is paramount, and anyone who dares to worship another god or goddess is slain if they are a drow or exiled from the city if they are not. Even the act of harming a spider — creatures seen as bearing Lolth’s likeness — counts as desecration.

Menzoberranzan is, in other words, a racist metropolis glued together by religious fanaticism, oppressive leadership, and devilish scheming.

Factions, personages, and locations of Menzoberranzan

House Baenre

House Baenre is the longest-lasting house within Menzoberranzan, and has led the Ruling Council in some form nearly since the city’s founding.

• The current matron mother is Quenthel Baenre, a cunning woman and a devoted servant of the Spider Queen who will do anything to keep her family in power. Following her death at the hands of Drizzt, Quenthel was resurrected after loyally serving Lolth in the Abyss for four years.
• House Baenre has persisted throughout the generations thanks to its connections. Smaller houses are more than willing to bow before the status quo that Quenthel offers, and the matron mother’s brother, Gromph Baenre, is Menzoberranzan’s current archmage, the highest-ranking male wizard in the city. The two have a difficult relationship and have tried to kill each other numerous times, but their prominent positions undoubtedly assist House Baenre in consolidating power.

Quenthel and Gromph play a role within Out of the Abyss, which also serves as the most up-to-date glimpse of Menzoberranzan in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. More on the adventure below:

Tier Breche

Tier Breche is the Academy of Menzoberranzan. All members of drow noble houses attend this elite institution, choosing one of its three separate schools:

• Arach-Tinilith is the academy’s school for priestesses of Lolth. Lorded over by Quenthel herself, this is the most impressive of Tier Breche’s branches, and the greatest houses of Menzoberranzan are defined by their number of Arach-Tinilith graduates. Only female drow adamant in their devotion to the Spider Queen may study here, and upon leaving the school, they quickly ascend to the highest ranks of Menzoberranzan society.
• Melee-Magthere is the academy’s school for elite warriors. Drizzt studied here as a young adult. The school is well-known for its annual Grand Melee, where students are let loose in the labyrinthine caverns outside Menzoberranzan and tasked with defeating their comrades, battle royale-style. The last one standing is given the title of champion, and Drizzt’s father, Zaknafein Do’Urden, was the victor seven times running.
• Sorcere is the academy’s school for mages, led by Gromph. Excelling at Sorcere and becoming a house wizard is the highest position that most male drow can hope to obtain, and many Sorcere masters harbor resentful and combative attitudes toward their Arach-Tinilith female counterparts, who rank higher in the strict tiers of Menzoberranzan society despite their similar magical aptitude.

Bregan D’aerthe

Bregan D’aerthe is an outlier in Menzoberranzan — a society of outcasts that defies all rules yet somehow manages to prosper.

• Bregan D’aerthe’s success can be attributed to Jarlaxle Baenre, the group’s roguish founder and perhaps the second-most famous drow in Forgotten Realms lore, after Drizzt. Secretly a first-born of House Baenre, Jarlaxle was set to be sacrificed to Lolth as a baby until the Spider Queen magically protected him to serve as an agent of chaos. When he grew older, however, Jarlaxle rejected Lolth’s blessings in favor of another side — his own. Jarlaxle appears in select fifth-edition adventures. 
• Composed largely of mercenaries and the low-ranking drow who have no hope of rising in society via Menzoberranzan’s traditional paths, Bregan D’aerthe is an organization that carries out illicit activities, including espionage, smuggling, assassination, and other assorted wetwork. The faction thrives in the conspiracies that define Menzoberranzan, and Jarlaxle often finds himself employed by rival houses keen on secretly destroying each other. Quenthel and House Baenre have begrudgingly relied upon Bregan D’aerthe on more than one occasion. The varied alliances that Jarlaxle holds — including with non-drow on the surface world — constitute perhaps the biggest unspoken secret in Menzoberranzan.

Menzoberranzan adventuring hooks

Adventures set in Menzoberranzan are perfect for a group of evil D&D characters, easily offering a heavy dose of political machinations a la Game of Thrones. For other possibilities, try the following suggestions:

• Menzoberranzan features two districts that are relatively diverse — the Bazaar, where traders are allowed to set up shop, and the Braeryn, a destitute area populated by escaped slaves and fugitive drow. Both areas offer intriguing prospects for a campaign, possibly where the player characters are either merchants attempting to make some coin in the toughest market of the Underdark, or refugees hiding out amidst the city’s worst. While Menzoberranzan might not welcome surface elves, a campaign set in these districts would be the perfect excuse to play uncommon races such as bugbears and hobgoblins, featured in Volo’s Guide to Monsters.
• Playing as a group of Bregan D’aerthe troops, with Jarlaxle acting as a quest-giver, is an excellent way to start a Menzoberranzan campaign that begins in the city and then stretches out into the Underdark. Creative Dungeon Masters could even start with the chapter on Menzoberranzan in Out of the Abyss and weave an alternate tale that tells the story of elite Bregan D’aerthe spies trying to carry out missions in the wake of the events that occur in the adventure.
• Recently, lore in the Forgotten Realms has been tweaked to introduce other drow communities free of Lolth’s corrupting influence. The drow of Menzoberranzan are now officially known as Udadrow, and two other societies — the frosty northern city of Callidae and the jungle enclave of Saekolath — are home to the Aevendrow and Lorendrow, respectively. It remains to be seen how future D&D products will develop these new ancestries, but both are a far cry from their cruel Underdark counterparts. A campaign full of Aevendrow or Lorendrow players venturing into the terrifying territory of the Udadrow is certainly one that piques the imagination!

Players and Dungeon Masters seeking more information on Menzoberranzan may want to peruse older D&D products or explore the city’s entry in Fandom’s Forgotten Realms community. Both will provide further insight into this dark metropolis, where poisoned drow crossbow bolts lurk around every corner, and stepping on an arachnid just might lead to the end of your existence. Whatever resource you use, just be wary — Lolth is watching, and the Spider Queen sees all!

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Jeremy Blum (@PixelGrotto) is a journalist, gaming blogger, comic book aficionado, and fan of all forms of storytelling who rolled his first polyhedral dice while living in Hong Kong in 2017. Since then, he’s never looked back and loves roleplaying games for the chance to tell the tales that have been swirling in his head since childhood.