Was thinking of the size of the gates with access to the water. If they were of a skinnier, incovenient size there could be a whole transportation guild in the city with the proper sized wagons that would fit through them. Normal wagons bringing trade into the city would have to subcontract with the local guild to hire wagons that would fit through these gates. Would also make them easier to guard and, if breached, limit the amount that could come through them at a time.
A tribal society which lives on the harsh Northern Plains consider it dishonourable to slay an enemy without looking it full in the face. Any missile weapon is treated with derision and contempt, while rangers and other archers are denied entrance to the tribal villages.
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Lifeforms (Intelligent Species) (Underground)
I like the translucent skin thing and would use it more. My take is the same as the albino creatures that live completely in the dark, there is no need for durable skin for protection from the sun so they don't have it. Perhaps that being in the sun can actually injure their insides. Their skin burns within minutes being exposed to the sun and if they stay too long in direct sunlight then their innards start getting the effects. Any type of covering will fix this though. I see them dressing like people in the middle east when coming above ground. Full draping clothes and wrapped head to cover everything.
Being entirely underground I also seem them perhaps being slouched. Honestly, I pictured a translucent gollum but larger. Scurrying more then anything. Even their gothic purpley cities would probably still conform to the caves natural creations. In that case their buildings would not all be on a single level either, wherever a natural opening or opportunity exists to create a dwelling then that is where it is made. So buildings would be at numerous different levels and at all types of angles depending on the cave. I just don't see everything on a single plane, it should be multileveled and ordered in an organic way, not a methodically.
Continuing on this train of thought then the creatures would be a more scurring race that an upward standing one. They would be constantly crawling and climbing up walls or improvised staircases to get to whichever oddly built building or dwelling. Their law and ordered lifestyle strike a complete oppositve with the way their cities are developed.
The setup of the cities might have a great seperation as well (following my above logic of course) and different cave systems might house different 'castes' or 'guilds' or 'families' or whatever. Their structure might predestine a birth to fill a certain need. Not necessarily on who their mother or father is but on what openings are predicted when the birthed comes to age. So they expect a slot to open in the harvesters, so the next birth is marked as a harvester.
With a structure and limited availability of food it may be that at a certain age when a drow becomes innefficient they are ritually killed. Not an evil thing, an expected thing. The elderly don't want to depend on anybody and to feed a unproductive member of society is against the laws so they turn their body over to the 'whatever.' They kill themselves or are sacrificed, fed to the mold to create food for a decade or just dissappear into a river or something.
Starting to ramble now. Not sure how far offbase I went but maybe I struck an idea nerve. Go to Comment