Homeland - Chapter One

[kalinara]

So last time, we got a lot of setting information about Menzoberranzan and the Underdark. None of which is terribly surprising now, I'd reckon, but back in 1990, it probably was a pretty big deal.

Now, of course, it's time to get on with the story.



So we start the story with a dude named Dinin. He's riding a lizard mount. We're told that a surface dweller wouldn't have detected him. Of course denizens of the Underdark have infravision, so they WOULD detect him through heat signature. They can detect footsteps too, if they know to look for them. That's apparently why the lizards are popular mounts: they can climb and therefore travel in other paths than the obvious.

Even though we JUST learned about how Underdark folks have infravision, Salvatore seems to want to reinforce this idea with purple prose:

He had no light to guide him, but he needed none. He was a dark elf, a drow, an ebon-skinned cousin of those sylvan folk who danced under the stars on the world’s surface. To Dinin’s superior eyes, which translated subtle variations of heat into vivid and colorful images, the Underdark was far from a lightless place. Colors all across the spectrum swirled before him in the stone of the walls and the floor, heated by some distant fissure or hot stream. The heat of living things was the most distinctive, letting the dark elf view his enemies in details as intricate as any surface-dweller would find in brilliant daylight.

It's pretty prose at least?

Anyway, Dinin is up to something. We know this because he's alone, outside of the city. That's not normal. The Underdark is a scary place and even drow elves don't trek it solo. And thus we're told twice in three paragraphs that Dinin is trying to avoid detection.

It's not badly written by any means. Honestly, I think the descriptive and narrative quality's a step up from Icewind Dale, but I'm not really fond of the unnecessary repetition.

So Dinin is actually returning into the city through a lesser used entrance. It opens into "Tier Breche", which is the northern section of Menzoberranzan. The Academy is here, and only instructors of the Academy can pass this way without attracting attention. It actually sounds pretty swanky:

Dinin was always nervous when he came to this point. Of the hundred tunnels that opened off the main cavern of Menzoberranzan, this one was the best guarded. Beyond the archway, twin statues of gigantic spiders sat in quiet defense. If an enemy crossed through, the spiders would animate and attack, and alarms would be sounded throughout the Academy.

Dinin didn't come unprepared though. He reaches into his "piwafli" (fancy drow cloak) and pulls out an insignia: a spider wielding various weapons in each of its eight legs and emblazoned with the letters “DN,” for Daermon N’a’shezbaernon, the ancient and formal name of House Do’Urden.

Stylish. And that's a very familiar last name, isn't it?

The insignia has a few nifty dweomers, we're told, including the ability to control "pets" like the lizard.

We get some nice description of Menzoberranzan proper:

He moved to the side and paused, first to be certain that no one lurked nearby, and to admire the sweeping view of Menzoberranzan. No one, drow or other wise, had ever looked out from this spot without a sense of wonder at the drow city. Tier Breche was the highest point on the floor of the two-mile cavern, affording a panoramic view to the rest of Menzoberranzan. The cubby of the Academy was narrow, holding only the three structures that comprised the drow school: Arach-Tinilith, the spider-shaped school of Lolth; Sorcere, the gracefully curving, many-spired tower of wizardry; and Melee-Magthere, the somewhat plain pyramidal structure where male fighters learned their trade.

Beyond Tier Breche, through the ornate stalagmite columns that marked the entrance to the Academy, the cavern dropped away quickly and spread wide, going far beyond Dinin’s line of vision to either side and farther back than his keen eyes could possibly see. The colors of Menzoberranzan were threefold to the sensitive eyes of the drow. Heat patterns from various fissures and hot springs swirled about the entire cavern. Purple and red, bright yellow and subtle blue, crossed and merged, climbed the walls and stalagmite mounds, or ran off singularly in cutting lines against the backdrop of dim gray stone. More confined than these generalized and natural gradations of color in the infrared spectrum were the regions of intense magic, like the spiders Dinin had walked between, virtually glowing with energy. Finally there were the actual lights of the city, faerie fire and highlighted sculptures on the houses. The drow were proud of the beauty of their designs, and especially ornate columns or perfectly crafted gargoyles were almost always limned in permanent magical lights.

Even from this distance Dinin could make out House Baenre, First House of Menzoberranzan. It encompassed twenty stalagmite pillars and half again that number of gigantic stalactites. House Baenre had existed for five thousand years, since the founding of Menzoberranzan, and in that time the work to perfect the house’s art had never ceased. Practically every inch of the immense structure glowed in faerie fire, blue at the outlying towers and brilliant purple at the huge central dome.

The sharp light of candles, foreign to the Underdark, glared through some of the windows of the distant houses. Only clerics or wizards would light the fires, Dinin knew, as necessary pains in their world of scrolls and parchments.

This was Menzoberranzan, the city of drow. Twenty thousand dark elves lived there, twenty thousand soldiers in the army of evil.

Long excerpt, sorry. But I liked this a lot more than the travelogue in the prelude.

So anyway, Dinin likes thinking about those twenty thousand soldiers, because some of them are going to die tonight.

There's a cool cultural note: There's a central pillar in the city called Narbondel, which serves as a timeclock. Basically, an Archmage lights the base at the end of a day, and then that heat starts to spread until the entire thing glows. Now it's cool and dark. That's a nice touch, really, since an underground city wouldn't have the usual ways to tell day from night.

It's midnight now. Which means it's time for Dinin to do whatever it is that he's meant to do.

And apparently he's meeting someone at Sorcere, the school of wizardry. And we get a lot of important notes in this conversation:

Dinin is apparently "Secondboy" of House Do'Urden, which seems to be a status title of some kind. Presumably, the second son. He's here on behalf of Malice Do'Urden, the Matron Mother of the House, which is the "Tenth House of Menzoberranzan."

The wizard or "Faceless One" is a conspirator. It's not clear if Faceless One is a general title for a wizard or just for this guy, as indeed, he apparently melted away his face in a magical experiment. Malice had promised him a salve if he assisted her in killing someone named Alton DeVir. (We're also told that "No pity found its way into Dinin's callous heart, but House Do'Urden needed the wizard. Just in case we were apt to mistake Dinin for his more famous relative.)

Apparently House Do'Urden and House DeVir are battling. And it occurs to me that "DeVir" is the surname of the drow Viconia in the computer game, Baldur's Gate. Small world. Alton is meant to die just as the battle commences.

In a nice bit, the wizard asks if the "doomed boy" should know the fate of his house before he dies. Dinin tells him "as the killing blow falls", and to let him die without hope.

Nice.

I actually mean that. It's very easy to go over the top with evil characters, and Salvatore's definitely been guilty of that in the past. Dinin's casual cruelty and lack of empathy come across as very matter of fact. This guy is not a supervillain in the making. He's just an evil dude carrying out his evil family's wishes.

So Dinin is off again, this time coming in through a different entrance into the city: specifically the produce sections where no drow families would see that he'd been outside the city limits.

This doesn't completely make sense to me, because no one saw him enter the north part of the city either. So why exit and re-enter again? But that's a small complaint.

As he travels, Dinin passes goblins and orcs, city slaves. There's also some bugbears, who hesitate before moving out of the way. Dinin takes this as an insult. We're given more sociological backstory: Of the twenty-thousand drow in the city, only a thousand are nobles. They're the children of sixty-seven recognized families of the city. Everyone else is a common soldier. Anyway, the bugbears had known he was a noble, but as he's not a member of the eight ruling houses, they didn't scamper out of the way immediately.

Dinin avenges this slight by calling down a globe of darkness, which even infravision can't see through, into their path. He's supposed to be avoiding attention (which he acknowledges to himself), but thinks the satisfaction is worth it.

Anyway, he's heading toward the mushroom grove that houses House DeVir, which is the Fourth House of Menzoberranzan. They normally outrank House Do'Urden, but apparently Matron Ginafae had fallen out of favor with the Spider Goddess, Lolth. Which means that now the lower ranks are free to strike against her. And since Ginafae is the last to know of Lolth's displeasure (which is Lolth's way), her House has not had much time to prepare.

Some cool description here too:

At the mushroom grove’s southern end, the impetuous drow found what he was looking for: a cluster of five huge floor-to-ceiling pillars that were hollowed into a network of chambers and connected with metal and stone parapets and bridges. Red-glowing gargoyles, the standard of the house, glared down from a hundred perches like silent sentries. This was House DeVir, Fourth House of Menzoberranzan.

A stockade of tall mushrooms ringed the place, every fifth one a shrieker, a sentient fungus named (and favored as guardians) for the shrill cries of alarm it emitted whenever a living being passed it by. Dinin kept a cautious distance, not wanting to set off one of the shriekers and knowing also that other, more deadly wards protected the fortress. Matron Malice would see to those.

Apparently the House has four hundred soldiers, but the ones that Dinin can see appear nervous and unsure.

In contrast to the weakened House DeVir:

Dinin’s smile spread even wider when he thought of his own house, which grew in power daily under the cunning guidance of Matron Malice. With all three of his sisters rapidly approaching the status of high priestess, his brother an accomplished wizard, and his uncle Zaknafein, the finest weapons master in all of Menzoberranzan, busily training the three hundred soldiers, House Do’Urden was a complete force. And, Matron Malice, unlike Ginafae, was in the Spider Queen’s full favor.

So this gives us a time frame. We know one Do'Urden, but he's not a wizard or a high priestess. So either he's a commoner (unlikely) or...for some reason, he doesn't count.

Yet.

--

We shift scenes to a gathering of the other members of House Do'Urden:

Halfway across the city, beyond the silver-glowing balcony and the arched doorway twenty feet up the cavern’s west wall, sat the principals of House Do’Urden, gathered to outline the final plans of the night’s work. On the raised dais at the back of the small audience chamber sat venerable Matron Malice, her belly swollen in the final hours of pregnancy. Flanking her in their places of honor were her three daughters, Maya, Vierna, and the eldest, Briza, a newly ordained high priestess of Lolth. Maya and Vierna appeared as younger versions of their mother, slender and deceptively small, though possessing great strength. Briza, though, hardly carried the family resemblance. She was big—huge by drow standards—and rounded in the shoulders and hips. Those who knew Briza well figured that her size was merely a circumstance of her temperament; a smaller body could not have contained the anger and brutal streak of House Do’Urden’s newest high priestess.

Also present is Malice's husband, Rizzen, referred to as "the present patron of the family". That gives us a pretty clear idea of the significance, or lack thereof, of that particular role. And indeed, Briza's pretty quick to put him in his place when he tries to make a contribution.

They're waiting on info from Dinin, but it's not clear that's going to matter much, as Malice is about to give birth. She's going to have another son: a fresh sacrifice to Lolth.

We also meet Zaknafein, a former patron of the house who is now their weapons master. That appears to be a far more significant title, but I'm interested in the fact that someone can be an ex-patron. This seems like the sort of society more apt to result in widowhood than divorce, if a Matron gets bored of her husband. Also present is Nalfein, the oldest son.

Both Zaknafein and Nalfein appear pleased at the thought of a sacrifice. We're given some elaboration for Nalfein: as the eldest boy, he's already in competition with Dinin and doesn't need any others.

Rizzen appears particularly weak and diffident:

Rizzen shifted uncomfortably. “Matron Malice,” he dared to speak, “you know well the difficulties of birthing. Might the pain distract you—”

“You dare to question the matron mother?” Briza started sharply, reaching for the snake-headed whip so comfortably strapped—and writhing—on her belt. Matron Malice stopped her with an outstretched hand.

“Attend to the fighting,” the matron said to Rizzen. “Let the females of the house see to the important matters of this battle.”

Rizzen shifted again and dropped his gaze.

Poor guy. I think I feel sorry for him.

--

So anyway, back to Dinin. He's heading back to House Do'Urden, and we get some nice description of that too:

Dinin came to the magically wrought fence that connected the keep within the city’s west wall with the two small stalagmite towers of House Do’Urden, and which formed the courtyard to the compound. The fence was adamantine, the hardest metal in all the world, and adorning it were a hundred weapon-wielding spider carvings, each ensorcelled with deadly glyphs and wards. The mighty gate of House Do’Urden was the envy of many a drow house, but so soon after viewing the spectacular houses in the mushroom grove, Dinin could only find disappointment when looking upon his own abode. The compound was plain and somewhat bare, as was the section of wall, with the notable exception of the mithral-and-adamantine balcony running along the second level, by the arched doorway reserved for the nobility of the family. Each baluster of that balcony sported a thousand carvings, all of which blended into a single piece of art.

House Do’Urden, unlike the great majority of the houses in Menzoberranzan, did not stand free within groves of stalactites and stalagmites. The bulk of the structure was within a cave, and while this setup was indisputably defensible, Dinin found himself wishing that his family could show a bit more grandeur.

An interesting note is that there are no stairs up to the balcony where the others are meeting. This is apparently a precautionary measure. Drow nobles have the innate ability to levitate. Their slaves don't. (...I presume drow commoners would though. But maybe they're not inclined to revolt?) I guess they serve their own drinks in their planning sessions.

Quips aside, I like that Salvatore seems to be trying to incorporate the various drow racial abilities into their society and culture. That said, I don't recall seeing Drizzt levitate. Maybe he lost the ability when he came to the surface?

We get some more lovely description:

He rushed through the archway and down the house’s main central corridor, which was dimly lit in the soft hues of faerie fire, allowing for sight in the normal light spectrum but not bright enough to defeat the use of infravision. The ornate brass door at the corridor’s end marked the secondboy’s destination, and he paused before it to allow his eyes to shift back to the infrared spectrum. Unlike the corridor, the room beyond the door had no light source. It was the audience hall of the high priestesses, the anteroom to House Do’Urden’s grand chapel. The drow clerical rooms, in accord with the dark rites of the Spider Queen, were not places of light.

When he felt he was prepared, Dinin pushed straight through the door, shoving past the two shocked female guards without hesitation and moving boldly to stand before his mother. All three of the family daughters narrowed their eyes at their brash and pretentious brother. To enter without permission! he knew they were thinking. Would that it was he who was to be sacrificed this night!

I think I like Dinin. That said, he can only go so far:

As much as he enjoyed testing the limitations of his inferior station as a male, Dinin could not ignore the threatening dances of Vierna, Maya, and Briza. Being female, they were bigger and stronger than Dinin and had trained all their lives in the use of wicked drow clerical powers and weapons. Dinin watched as enchanted extensions of the clerics, the dreaded snake-headed whips on his sisters’ belts, began writhing in anticipation of the punishment they would exact. The handles were adamantine and ordinary enough, but the whips’ lengths and multiple heads were living serpents. Briza’s whip, in particular, a wicked six-headed device, danced and squirmed, tying itself into knots around the belt that held it. Briza was always the quickest to punish.

Matron Malice, however, seemed pleased by Dinin’s swagger. The secondboy knew his place well enough by her measure and he followed her commands fearlessly and without question.

So Dinin reports in. And okay, "Faceless One" is an individual sobriquet, not a general title. Too bad, it's got style. Anyway, he's agreed to the contract. But apparently, Dinin's whole "rub it in" instruction is a personal alteration of Malice's plan, based on his own "lust for added cruelty".

So now, there's some sort of ritual:

The four drow males moved to kneel before the matron and her daughters: Rizzen to Malice, Zaknafein to Briza, Nalfein to Maya, and Dinin to Vierna. The clerics chanted in unison, placing one hand delicately upon the forehead of their respective soldier, tuning in to his passions.

“You know your places,” Matron Malice said when the ceremony was completed. She grimaced through the pain of another contraction. “Let our work begin.”

-

Now we shift scenes to Zaknafein and Briza, who are watching as the soldiers prepare. Apparently, Rizzen, Nalfein and Dinin each lead a brigade. Dinin's, the initial strike force (including a hundred goblin slaves) is gone already.

Briza is busy gloating. This is an ambitious play. Do'Urden is only "a tenth house" (I'm not sure if that means there are other Houses at that rank) and no one would expect them to move against a much more powerful House. This will get them attention even from House Baenre, which is the top dog House of the city.

Zaknafein would actually like to stab her in the back, we're told, but good sense keeps him from actually doing it. And we get a look at his own status in this set up:

“Have you the articles?” Briza inquired, showing Zak considerably more respect than she had when Matron Malice sat protectively at her side. Zak was only a male, a commoner allowed to don the family name as his own because he sometimes served Matron Malice in a husbandly manner and had once been the patron of the house. Still, Briza feared to anger him. Zak was the weapons master of House Do’Urden, a tall and muscular male, stronger than most females, and those who had witnessed his fighting wrath considered him among the finest warriors of either sex in all of Menzoberranzan. Besides Briza and her mother, both high priestesses of the Spider Queen, Zaknafein, with his unrivaled swordsmanship, was House Do’Urden’s trump.

Officially in the source books, drow females are bigger than drow males. And Salvatore pays some lip service to that with Dinin. That said, he also fairly quickly established that Malice, Vierna and Maya are slender and deceptively small. Zaknafein is tall and muscular, stronger than most females. Now obviously, it could be that Zaknafein being tall for a male drow is still shorter or the same height as Malice, who is small for a female drow, but it doesn't really sound that way.

Maybe Salvatore has a reason for giving them a more conventional height dynamic (with taller man, smaller woman) but I find it annoying nonetheless.

Anyway, Zaknafein isn't leading a brigade, because he has his own assignment. He's being sent to go and murder all of the clerics of House DeVir. He likes this because apparently "[n]othing gave the weapons master more pleasure than killing drow elves, particularly clerics of Lolth.

And in fact, we're told as he's carried off by Briza's air elemental to carry out his duty, he'd be just as happy to kill clerics of House Do'Urden as well.

I think Zaknafein might have a few issues. But we'll have to wait for next chapter to learn more.

So this wasn't a bad first chapter. The tone and voice are strong. We've got a lot of new characters thrown at us, but Salvatore wisely keeps our attention on three specific members: Dinin, Briza and Zaknafein.

He does tend toward repetition though. It's not Roberson's level of repeat conversations. But I feel like there were a number of incidents where I went "...you literally just said that". The infravision section was the most obvious, but there were others. It's not egregious yet, but more than once in a chapter is not a great sign.

Finally, we haven't seen Drizzt himself yet. Or have we?

This IS an origin story after all.

Comments

[copperfyre]

I'm definitely into all this fun Drow politics and family scheming stuff!