Tlin’arran
The Drow City of Tlin’arran lies in the Middledark deep beneath the Straits of Despair in the western Indertsa Sea. It is a small and not particularly wealthy city that has over the last few centuries lost several encounters with other denizens of the underdark. Only its relative remoteness from other more powerful Drow Cities has kept it from being conquered or absorbed. It continual martial loses has led to a shortage of Drow and the drastic decision was made to use Half-Drow as warriors to fill the ranks. The City is ruled by the House of Quavambra which has proved to be much better at crushing its internal enemies keeping the reins of power than in dealing with exterior threats and challenges. Belarthara is the Valsharess, Queen, of the City, and has been so throughout the period of decline; only her ruthlessness and fear inspiring presence keeps her on the throne.
Languages
Drow speak Undercommon and various dialects of Elven that, while clearly of the same root language, are different in accent, tone, and nuance from surface Elven. However they will often confusingly use both Undercommon and their Elven dialect interchangeably in the same sentence if they feel that one language conveys the proper nuance or emphasis better than the other. The result is that the Drow frequently speak a pidgin combination of the two tongues. Drow rarely, if ever, speak Elven with surface dwellers and will converse with them using Undercommon.
Drow Sign Language was a silent hand code used to communicate in the Underdark. Unlike other languages that must be heard to be comprehended, Drow Sign must be seen to gather meaning. It was commonly known by Drow, who found it particularly useful on patrols and in other instances when silence was expedient. It is a very expressive language that is capable of conveying tone and emotions. The hand motions are are exceedingly close to those that make up the fundamental basis of arcane somatic components with surface dwellers often confusing the language's motions as spell conjurations
