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.... Another important thing before I say this next part;

Whereas in cities such as Menzoberranzan and Ched Nasad the Spider Queen is worshiped uniformly according to the Way of Lolth, in Guallidurth there is no consensus as to how the Dark Mother of All Drow is most appropriately venerated. Each Matron Mother represents one (or more, in some cases) sect, cult, or faction of the Spider Queen’s faithful.

It is implied in the text that the Matron mothers don't only control a single house within Guallidurth, but rather that each Matron mother leads an entire community in a very specific style of worship, and directly states that the majority of houses do not follow the way of Lolth outlined specifically within the Menzoberranzan box set^.

^ Which means that in Gaullidurth, there are... over 200 different ways of worshiping Lolth, as there are over 200 houses vying for power.

To me, those three earlier factors (entertainment, military, and trade) are the main ways that families and Matron mothers can gain power within Gaullidurth. I think that every cult and matron mother focuses on all three to some degree by nature of Matron mothers acting as a leader to a group/faction^, but inevitably some sects are known to prioritize some things over others.

^As in, an individual family might focus on entertainment, but the sect as a whole will inevitably have a family who focuses on trade, a family who focuses on entertainment, and a family who focuses on military. ) And the Matron Mother and her family will dictate what those families prioritize, how they prioritize, and lead the worship/determine laws that the families in that individual faction/cult will follow.

I could go on about this, and some day I do want to get all of my thoughts on how this theoretical system could function down and onto a page that I can point at.

Chapter two: Sabdra.

Remember. This is all important to contextualize the circumstances Enclave and Sabdra meet under. However for now we're talking strictly about Sabdra and her backstory.

Sabdra was not born in Guallidurth. Sabdra was born in (of course) everyone's favorite city Menzoberranzan. As a little reminder on what I have talked about her backstory before, since I think it's been a while since I've done so publically; She's based on the Widow of Arach-Tinilith 4e class, which is basically a Favored of Lolth class. A lot of her personality and flavoring of her character is built on the larger text of the class, and she was specifically designed to be (in a lot of ways) purposeful subversions of The Lolth Priestess. She comes from a lower-class background, she styles herself to be cute, her color pallet is atypical for a drow and hints to non-drow heritage. But. The nature of her birth was. Well....

From the time you were born, the Spider Queen held you in special favor, granting you great facility with divine magic. Perhaps she foresaw in you remarkable strength, wickedness, or cunning. [ ... ] Whatever the reason, Lolth marked your birth by sending a demonic spider to your side, and it has been your constant companion ever since.

Anyway. Given the nature of her birth, she was basically raised in Arach-Tinilith, and spent far longer than most studying within it's halls. Being as separated from both her blood family and mainstream Menzoberranzan society as she was, she was shaped to see the political infighting and larger scheming of the society for as childish and needless as it is. And, perhaps in ironic contrast to the intention of the priestesses who brought her into the school, started developing big ideas of her own about the proper way to worship Lolth (as, she believes Lolth is as bored of the nobilities circular scheming as she is.) Her original plan had been to shape her own house within Menzoberranzan. And when she underwent the Ceremony of Graduation, she took the fact that the impregnation stuck as Lolth's affirmation of her thoughts.

However, something went wrong with her pregnancy near the end of it which resulted in her being barren. Completely lost the child, and her ability to have children.

(Which, to be clear. The ceremony itself? Not a traumatic moment for her. She holds fascination in the otherworldly and the non-drow that their society exists around. However, the miscarriage? Yeah, she's deeply squeamish and uncomfortable with all things to do with Pregnancy. She's not disappointed she can't get pregnant anymore, because she would not want to be after all of that and I think did not ACTUALLY want to at the time.)

The Priestesses she grew up around took this as a sign of Lolth's disapproval or growing distaste of Sabdra (who had a reputation of being playful and spoiled). However (to their confusion) both the spiders and the Yocholol still defended her, which gave Sabdra the answer that SHE needed for why this happened; If she was going to gain power, it wasn't going to be through blood. It would have to be something she worked towards with only the tools Lolth had already granted her. And to do that, she could not take power in Menzo. Because the only way to take power in Menzo is through direct familial ties.

So she leaves Menzoberranzan.

Chapter Three. "You share a natural hunger to feast upon those weaker than yourselves."

Sabdra spends a while acting as a proper crusader for Lolth, however riding in the ranks of that was never her long term goal. It was just a means to an end to get to where she wanted to be. In that time, she learned a lot of skills that would keep her functional in the wilderness, and that she could find allies within quite a few different underdark races (Of course, if one knows where to look. (:)

Sabdra chooses Gaullidurth for two reasons. The first is that it is very, very far away from the city she was born in. She hates the city she was born in and the nobility of it.

But the second is that the nature of it would not only allow her to worship as she pleases, but gain power in ways that she otherwise would not have been able to in Menzoberranzan. She doesn't need an immediate bloodline to create a powerful family in Gaullidurth, she can bring in people from other families and craft her own faction there (Something that wouldn't be hard to do, given her reputation.) There is supposed to be a bit of irony in this choice. The impression that I'm hoping to accomplish is that Menzoberranzan was, despite its smaller size, a bigger pond of power. Because power is so centralized to the people that have it, it's harder to break into power within the established system.

Gaullidurth is, despite the larger population, the smaller pond. Because there are so many people desperate for power, and many of THOSE people would be quite happy to side with a self proclaimed chosen of Lolth. It is not hard for Sabdra to gain a following in a Quite literal cult.

Now. Something to note about Sabdra is that she holds no interest in anyone that already has shown themselves to be powerful innerpersonally. They are convenient tools and a means to an end, but not people she wants to humor socially. Her innerpersonal interest is in the outcasts of drow society. It is in the third son, the runaways, the driders, the daughter who refuses to kill her mother to take power. And she likes them, because they are the ones she knows she can maintain absolute control over once she grooms them into a position of power. They have no one else to turn to but her. People with power can return to their families or turn against her, but the ambitious outcast first daughter of a lower ranking military family who has taken on the positions generally associated with men within their society? Ooh baby. She narrows RIGHT in on that.

So. To finally get around on answering what this question was actually about, in comparatively and comically short fashion.

Technical answer:

Sabdra and Enclave meet because Enclave's family is one of the ones Sabdra Convinces into her faction as Matron Mother. She originally works with Enclave's mother, who agrees to send her eldest daughter to operate the military branch of Sabdra's faction (as Enclaves family was a military one, and that's something Enclave is sincerely skilled in) on the side of the City Sabdra is interested in, while Enclaves mother functions where she already was.

Honest answer:

Sabdra and Enclave meet because Enclave catches her attention. Sabdra is endeared by Enclave, and Sabdra Wants Her. Sabdra always gets what she wants. It's not hard for Sabdra to ""keep"" Enclave, because Enclave is enamored and fascinated by her basically immediately in return (be it how she speaks to her, what she promises Enclave, what she shows her, how she holds herself) and Sabdra finds it easy to manipulate Enclave's feelings.

x Muse list: all pictures are automatically fitted to the available box and will have a black and white filter - also in the code each picture is linked to a character box, so make sure the "#" is the same as the id="" so it works properly. !! Note: if the character boxes (except for the first one) are not properly overlapping the first and the pictures in the list get cut by your screen's border then change the "width" value in ".muse-list" with a higher number until you see everything as it is in my preview, I tested it myself but for some reason Tumblr likes to ruin it :p

x Information over the main picture can be whatever you want, technically you can write more than one line but doing so will enlarge that box and also the others.

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Ori isn't difficult to romance in a traditional sense. She's very kind and open to people. It's just that she's carrying around a lot of trauma from her Lolthite mistress, and that makes the act of trusting scary. She projects optimism on the surface, but has to consciously work to do so and not just fall into despair. If some things look a little contradictory on this chart, it's because she's just chock full of conflicting feelings :3

I didn't know what a love aura was meant to be, so I just messed around with some colors on CSP until I had something I liked.

The song is Like Real People Do by Hozier. It was that or Autoclave by The Mountain Goats.

I don't know flower symbology, but I thought a night-blooming moonflower would make sense.