#bg3 drow lore

🕷️ Alurlssrin And Ssinssrigg - in R. A. Salvatore’s The Legacy, it is stated that …there is no word in the drow language for love. The closest word (...) is ssinssrigg, but that is a term better equated with physical lust or selfish greed.

Ssinssrigg is another term that appears in one of Minthara’s lines, when the player character romances her, but does not have her high approval. She says then: What we share is no more than ssinssrigg, a passion that burns fierce, but has no foundation.

But... since according to drow lore, there is no word for “true” love in Drowic – and the closest term is ssinssrigg - where did alurlssrin come from?

🕷️ Drow Words For Love - alurlssrin was first mentioned by Ed Greenwood in his post (TheEdVerse, Twitter, Jan. 2023) about Eilistraee and drow words for love:

Eilistraee knows all the drow words for love, and the elvish ones, too. The Drow words are: alurlssrin = unselfish, deep love, raggath = act of love (lovemaking), lurraggath = act of love (sacrificial or noble deed), ssinssrigg = passion, lust, greed, longing, love.

(Among elvish words for love, apparently also known to Eilistraee, there is nor = love, essence of passion. It also appears in one of Minthara's lines, when she calls her lover ust-nor - thank you to @vspin for messaging me about this!)

It seems, then, that alurlssrin is a drow word that is known to Eilistraee and most likely to her followers...

...but Lolth-sworn drow – or at least Menzoberranyr drow – do not know / use it. 🤔 So how is it possible that Minthara, a (former) paladin of Lolth from Menzoberranzan, is familiar with it?

🕷️ Alurlssrin In Minthara's Vocabulary

I have a feeling that alurlssrin appears in Minthara’s lines simply because a drow word for deep, true love was needed for the dialogue. Still, I tried to come up with some more lore-adequate explanations:

🕷️ Some Very Old Word – perhaps in Menzoberranzan, alurlssrin is a half-forgotten archaism that is no longer regularly used, but an educated (or bookwormish) drow can still stumble across it in centuries-old books and figure out its meaning.

🕷️ Language Of Heretics – as a paladin of Lolth, it is possible that Minthara came to contact with Eilistraeans – or with their culture – at some point. She might be even trained to recognize this particular kind of “heresy”, learning symbols and words popularly used among the followers of Eilistraee... alurlssrin included.

🕷️ Not So Unknown Anymore – language tends to change over time, and between the quote from The Legacy and the events of Baldur’s Gate 3, there is a gap of over 130 years. Maybe during this time, alurlssrin term became less unknown in Menzoberranzan? Although considering its connection to Eilistraee and her cult, this may be the least likely explanation.

Regardless of everything, the fact that Minthara calls the bond between her and Tav alurlssrin is certainly meaningful. Typically, many drow like her might not be exactly (or at all) familiar with a sheer concept of deep, unselfish, lasting love...

There is also another script, known simply as Drow script, that has two versions: rounded and angular. This script looks a bit chaotic, as if somebody gathered letters into a jar and shook them before writing them down - I also like it:

Espruar font and High Drowic font are by Neale Davidson. Drow font is by Daniel U. Thibault.

🕷️ Paladin of Lolth - Minthara is not merely a priestess (a default profession for every noble female drow), but a paladin who took an oath to destroy the enemies of her goddess. This could be seen as a sign of profound devotion and possibly also Lolth's favour, which would give Minthara bonus status points.

🕷️ Leader - Minthara enjoys a considerable autonomy in decision making and is even entrusted with leadership: she deals with the Absolutists sent to Menzoberranzan and then leads drow troops to the surface, to find and destroy the cult. Such things also speak of her high social status.

🔹 Given her background, Minthara is the example of a drow who did not rise to the heights of Menzoberranzan society, but was already born there. She needed to meet her house's high expectations of her - and she managed to achieve that.

🔹 After becoming the True Soul and openly rejecting Lolth, Minthara would be seen in Menzoberranzan as a dobluth (an outcast) and an apostate. She would be most likely marked for death and killed on sight, although some Lolth priestess - from her own house or not - might also subject her to a more formal punishment. Like being tortured, ritually killed or changed into a drider.

🕷️ Word ust means "first" in drow language. It is one of canonical drowic words mentioned in Drow of the Underdark (for 2e).

🕷️ To translate "my" to drowic, it would be appropriate to use usst - "mine" or ussta - "my".

🕷️ Word nor is also curious. It does not appear in any drow language source (at least I did not find it anywhere), but it appears in Elven Dictionary by Steven Sypa. It is elven word, apparently... and it is translated as "passion" - well, close to "love", but not quite.

What a mess 😮‍💨

🕷️ I will leave alone the nor part, for convenience. I can even accept that it can be translated as "love" - or at least as something similar to it, since in a Lolth-sworn drow dictionary, there should be no real equivalent of the term "love".

Now, followers of Eilistraee have this awesome alurlssrin term ("unselfish, deep love"), but the majority of Lolth-sworn drow probably never heard of it.

We can assume, for example, that drow language is partially rooted in elven - and nor is an archaic word that somehow survived in drowic despite its elven origin. There, a plausible explanation.

🕷️ But with ust, things are not that simple. Seems like Minthara's ust-nor should be either translated as "first love" (...how romantic!), or written with one "s" more: usst-nor - "my love".

Whew - drow love language can be complicated at times...

🕷️ Thirst For Blood - drider needs to consume blood of a warm-blooded creature at least once every four days because after this time, lack of sustenance begins to affect him: hungry drider grows physically weaker with every passing day and can ultimately die.

It is not really known if driders, besides feeding on blood, consume also bodies of their prey. It is also not known if they can eat and digest regular food - provided they have access to it.

🕷️ Hunting - driders often use traps and ambush their targets. They like to hunt near places that attract warm-blooded creatures seeking food and water (fungal forests, subterranean lakes), near abandoned ruins, or occasionally even around underground settlements or routes.

Sometimes, instead of hunting, driders lure prey into their lairs, attracting attention of an unfortunate passerby with dancing lights spell or other simple trick. Some more powerful driders do not even need to hunt often, enjoying more or less secure access to food (see the quote).

🕷️ Table Manners - driders normally try not to damage their future meal too much. Ruining the prey's body (and its tasty blood) with burning or corrosive spells, for example - or making the wounded prey bleed profusely all over the ground - would be a terrible waste, after all.

Driders also do not like to eat in a hurry. They prefer to weaken and / or immobilize their prey first, and then drain blood at leisure. Some descriptions suggest that driders who are able to spin webs sometimes cocoon corpses of their victims and then hang them in their lairs to consume them later.

Drider's teeth after trasformation become sharp to help deliver venomous bites and drain blood from their prey.

Summary:

🔹 make sure your drider gets a good quality, warm-blooded prey (or an adequate amount of warm blood) at least once every four days,

🔹 before offering your drider a regular food, remember to make sure first that he can safely eat it,

🔹 allow your drider to enjoy his meal at his own pace, preferably in a comfortable, secluded and quiet place,

🔹 if your drider wants to provide for himself, you can help him find a suitable lair surrounded with good hunting grounds and...

🔹 ...important! - discuss boundaries as early as possible, because no one wants their companions or camp followers accidentally ending up as a drider's meal,

🔹 all right, Dark Urge, maybe you want - but remember that you still need at least some of them...

🕷️ Uthegentel Del'Armgo: Elgg-hor - Elgg-hor can be translated as "Destroyer" (elgg – “kill, slay, destroy”). This nickname, along with a few others, was given to Uthegentel of House Barrison Del’Armgo, one of the greatest warriors and weapon masters in the history of Menzoberranzan and one of the largest drow ever seen in the Underdark. In battle he was fearless, seemingly immune to pain and most mortal wounds, and few drow ever fought with so much reckless ferocity. It was said that he appreciated carnage so much that sometimes he was literally ripping his opponents to pieces, tearing them limb by limb.

Uthegentel’s unusually large appearance, ungodly strength and savage nature were making others suspect that he was not a full-blooded drow, or even more than a mortal – although nobody could tell for sure who (or what) could be mixed into his ancestry.

🕷️ Vendes Baenre: Duk-Tak - Duk-Tak means literally "Unholy Executioner" and it was a nickname of the fourth daughter of House Baenre. Vendes was small of stature, but she was known to be incredibly volatile, vicious and sadistic, enjoying the art of torture. Whenever her mother needed to punish someone, Vendes was more than eager to take care of it, being “…brilliant at her cruel craft, finding every sensitive area on the hapless prisoner.”

Vendes was especially known of wielding seven-headed whip of fangs that could transform the skin of her victims, changing them into ebony statues. She was making use of it to punish lower ranking drow of her house, or even would-be priestesses of the Academy who were seen – or only suspected of – deviating from the Way of Lolth. Statues created as a result of such punishment were put on display for all to see.

🕷️ Elgg-hor and Duk-Tak in Minthara's Memories - Minthara certainly remembers both Uthegentel Del’Armgo and Vendes Baenre – since they were still alive around 14th century DR.

She was probably seeing Vendes especially often since Duk-Tak was her relative – maybe even her aunt. She definitely saw some of her famous statues and probably witnessed how they were made. Who knows - maybe the two of them were even working together at some point, since Vendes liked to punish heretics and apostates among the future priestesses, and Minthara’s oath was also connected to punishing those who turn from Lolth?

It is hard to tell if Vendes was among Minthara’s favourite relatives, being highly unstable and volatile – but Minthara might still admire her wicked efficiency and skills. Maybe she could even see some kind of symmetry between Vendes and Orin (and now I wonder if it could influence her perception of the latter somehow...).

🔹 So... yeah, both elgg-hor and duk-tak seem adequate enough as drow names for a murder incarnate. But originally, they were not used as names connected uniquely to the Slayer - or to Lord of Murder and his progeny in general.