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i_read_what2021-09-19 11:30 pm
kalinara) wrote in i_read_what2021-09-19 11:30 pm
Homeland - Chapter Five
So last time, we got a peek at Drow politics. And let's be honest, Matron Malice, Zaknafein, Dinin, basically all the drow we've met so far are more interesting protagonists than Drizzt is.
...so next chapter is about Drizzt, of course!
Actually, our next chapter is about Vierna, Drizzt's sister, but it's about her caring for Drizzt, so it counts. I rather like the intro paragraph here:
For five long years Vierna devoted almost every waking moment to the care of baby Drizzt. In drow society, this was not so much a nurturing time as an indoctrinating time. The child had to learn basic motor and language skills, as did children of all the intelligent races, but a drow elf also had to be grilled on the precepts that bound the chaotic society together.
Now, Drizzt is a male and drow society is matriarchal. So Vierna apparently spends hour after hour reminding him that he's inferior. Honestly, you'd think if female supremacy were so pervasive in the society, she wouldn't need to keep reminding him, but that's nitpicking on my part and I admit it.
Anyway, Vierna's job gets a little easier once Drizzt is old enough to follow commands. She's teaching him the silent code (made of face, hand and body movements) and other skills. She's also making him clean the domed chapel which can hold the entire family with a hundred seats to spare.
We're given a timeline for Drizzt's upbringing (something Vierna is paying attention to as she wants to go back to her studies. She's a little afraid her younger sister will make high priestess before her) - Vierna will be raising Drizzt to about age ten, when he'll be appointed "page prince" and will serve the household equally.
So now we have a new lesson today. Vierna orders Drizzt to clean a statue of a naked female drow (not sure why we needed to know that she wasn't clothed) that's twenty feet up. There's no obvious ways up, of course, because drow can levitate.
“Will yourself up to the gargoyle,” Vierna explained.
Drizzt’s small face crinkled in confusion.
“You are a noble of House Do’Urden!” Vierna shouted at him. “Or at least you will one day earn that distinction. In your neck-purse you possess the emblem of the house, an item of considerable magic.” Vierna still wasn’t certain if Drizzt was ready for such a task; levitation was a high manifestation of innate drow magic, certainly more difficult that limning objects in faerie fire or summoning globes of darkness. The Do’Urden emblem heightened these innate powers of drow elves, magic that usually emerged as a drow matured. Whereas most drow nobles could summon the magical energy to levitate once every day or so, the nobles of House Do’Urden, with their insignia tool, could do so repeatedly.
We're told that Vierna would normally have tried this on a male child younger than ten, but Drizzt shows a lot of promise. Of fucking course he does.
Does he succeed?
Drizzt looked up at the female carving, then lined his feet just out in front of the thing’s angled and delicate face. He put a hand to his collar, trying to attune himself to the emblem. He had sensed before that the magic coin possessed some type of power, but it was only a raw sensation, a child’s intuition. Now that Drizzt had some focus and confirmation to his suspicions, he clearly felt the vibrations of magical energy.
A series of deep breaths cleared distracting thoughts from the young drow’s mind. He blocked out the other sights of the room; all he saw was the statue, the destination. He felt himself grow lighter, his heels went up, and he was on one toe, though he felt no weight upon it. Drizzt looked over at Vierna, his smile wide in amazement … then he tumbled to a heap.
Of course he does!
Actually, I shouldn't mock. I really like this bit. Drizzt is precocious but not irritating, and he's not flawless about it either. So anyway, Vierna yells at him for falling and reaches for his whip. Drizzt gets the point and tries again.
It takes a while but Drizzt is stubborn and keeps trying. (At one point she flinches, when he levitates and falls from ten feet up. She wonders if he's hurt, but he just tries again.) Eventually older sister Briza shows up, noting that Drizzt is young for this. She recommends Vierna whip him for "inspiration" but Vierna asserts her privilege: Drizzt is hers to rear.
Briza accuses her of insolence, but Vierna notes that Matron Malice will see how Briza is interfering in Vierna's ordered tasks. Briza backs down, but notes that Vierna is too yielding for this task.
When she leaves, Vierna notices Drizzt tiring and snaps that it's enough. Drizzt snaps back that he'll do it. Vierna likes the determination but not the tone and decides that maybe Briza is right about a few things. We shift scene with the knowledge that Drizzt will be "inspired" pretty soon.
The next day, we're told Drizzt levitated the full twenty feet his first attempt and is polishing the statue. He does NOT look back and smile, which disappoints Vierna a little. She can also see the "inspiring" scars on his back. It makes Vierna thoughtful:
Vierna understood the gain in beating a child, particularly a male child. Few drow males ever raised a weapon against a female, unless under the order of some other female. “How much do we lose?” Vierna wondered aloud. “What more could one such as Drizzt become?”
When she heard the words spoken aloud, Vierna quickly brushed the blasphemous thoughts from her mind. She aspired to become a high priestess of the Spider Queen, Lolth the Merciless. Such thoughts were not in accord with the rules of her station. She cast an angry glare on her little brother, transferring her guilt, and again took out her instrument of punishment.
She would have to whip Drizzt again this day, for the sacrilegious thoughts he had inspired within her.
The relationship continues, we're told, for five years. Drizzt gets his lessons, and the most compelling ones (aside from female supremacy) is hatred toward surface elves. And whenever he's whipped, we're told he cries out for the death of a "faerie". The chapter ends here.
--
So this bit is interesting. Obviously we have an abusive dynamic, but it's one with some complicated layers. We're dealing with an institutionalized system of abuse, not just a single family. Vierna teaches Drizzt what she has been taught. She is brutal, because that's the only way she knows to be.
But there are hints here that Vierna, like Zaknafein in the earlier chapter, may be more than what Drow society has made her. She has some awareness and doubt. She even has some empathy for Drizzt. She's still an abusive monster, but there's a sense that maybe if she were removed from this environment and shown another way, maybe there's something that could be salvaged about her.
There is a downside with this series being written after Icewind Dale, because the Drizzt in that series shows no sign of having been raised with any kind of female supremacy. It certainly doesn't seem to impact his interaction with Catti-brie or Alustriel. (I'm not saying Drizzt has to be submissive or anything, but I feel like a Drizzt raised in this society would have more of an awareness about the power dynamics with these women.)
I'm fairly certain that the drow were established as matriarchal prior to the writing of Icewind Dale, but to be fair, I don't know how much Salvatore had planned about his backstory yet. I can't really blame the man for not incorporating a dynamic that he hadn't thought about yet.
...so next chapter is about Drizzt, of course!
Actually, our next chapter is about Vierna, Drizzt's sister, but it's about her caring for Drizzt, so it counts. I rather like the intro paragraph here:
For five long years Vierna devoted almost every waking moment to the care of baby Drizzt. In drow society, this was not so much a nurturing time as an indoctrinating time. The child had to learn basic motor and language skills, as did children of all the intelligent races, but a drow elf also had to be grilled on the precepts that bound the chaotic society together.
Now, Drizzt is a male and drow society is matriarchal. So Vierna apparently spends hour after hour reminding him that he's inferior. Honestly, you'd think if female supremacy were so pervasive in the society, she wouldn't need to keep reminding him, but that's nitpicking on my part and I admit it.
Anyway, Vierna's job gets a little easier once Drizzt is old enough to follow commands. She's teaching him the silent code (made of face, hand and body movements) and other skills. She's also making him clean the domed chapel which can hold the entire family with a hundred seats to spare.
We're given a timeline for Drizzt's upbringing (something Vierna is paying attention to as she wants to go back to her studies. She's a little afraid her younger sister will make high priestess before her) - Vierna will be raising Drizzt to about age ten, when he'll be appointed "page prince" and will serve the household equally.
So now we have a new lesson today. Vierna orders Drizzt to clean a statue of a naked female drow (not sure why we needed to know that she wasn't clothed) that's twenty feet up. There's no obvious ways up, of course, because drow can levitate.
“Will yourself up to the gargoyle,” Vierna explained.
Drizzt’s small face crinkled in confusion.
“You are a noble of House Do’Urden!” Vierna shouted at him. “Or at least you will one day earn that distinction. In your neck-purse you possess the emblem of the house, an item of considerable magic.” Vierna still wasn’t certain if Drizzt was ready for such a task; levitation was a high manifestation of innate drow magic, certainly more difficult that limning objects in faerie fire or summoning globes of darkness. The Do’Urden emblem heightened these innate powers of drow elves, magic that usually emerged as a drow matured. Whereas most drow nobles could summon the magical energy to levitate once every day or so, the nobles of House Do’Urden, with their insignia tool, could do so repeatedly.
We're told that Vierna would normally have tried this on a male child younger than ten, but Drizzt shows a lot of promise. Of fucking course he does.
Does he succeed?
Drizzt looked up at the female carving, then lined his feet just out in front of the thing’s angled and delicate face. He put a hand to his collar, trying to attune himself to the emblem. He had sensed before that the magic coin possessed some type of power, but it was only a raw sensation, a child’s intuition. Now that Drizzt had some focus and confirmation to his suspicions, he clearly felt the vibrations of magical energy.
A series of deep breaths cleared distracting thoughts from the young drow’s mind. He blocked out the other sights of the room; all he saw was the statue, the destination. He felt himself grow lighter, his heels went up, and he was on one toe, though he felt no weight upon it. Drizzt looked over at Vierna, his smile wide in amazement … then he tumbled to a heap.
Of course he does!
Actually, I shouldn't mock. I really like this bit. Drizzt is precocious but not irritating, and he's not flawless about it either. So anyway, Vierna yells at him for falling and reaches for his whip. Drizzt gets the point and tries again.
It takes a while but Drizzt is stubborn and keeps trying. (At one point she flinches, when he levitates and falls from ten feet up. She wonders if he's hurt, but he just tries again.) Eventually older sister Briza shows up, noting that Drizzt is young for this. She recommends Vierna whip him for "inspiration" but Vierna asserts her privilege: Drizzt is hers to rear.
Briza accuses her of insolence, but Vierna notes that Matron Malice will see how Briza is interfering in Vierna's ordered tasks. Briza backs down, but notes that Vierna is too yielding for this task.
When she leaves, Vierna notices Drizzt tiring and snaps that it's enough. Drizzt snaps back that he'll do it. Vierna likes the determination but not the tone and decides that maybe Briza is right about a few things. We shift scene with the knowledge that Drizzt will be "inspired" pretty soon.
The next day, we're told Drizzt levitated the full twenty feet his first attempt and is polishing the statue. He does NOT look back and smile, which disappoints Vierna a little. She can also see the "inspiring" scars on his back. It makes Vierna thoughtful:
Vierna understood the gain in beating a child, particularly a male child. Few drow males ever raised a weapon against a female, unless under the order of some other female. “How much do we lose?” Vierna wondered aloud. “What more could one such as Drizzt become?”
When she heard the words spoken aloud, Vierna quickly brushed the blasphemous thoughts from her mind. She aspired to become a high priestess of the Spider Queen, Lolth the Merciless. Such thoughts were not in accord with the rules of her station. She cast an angry glare on her little brother, transferring her guilt, and again took out her instrument of punishment.
She would have to whip Drizzt again this day, for the sacrilegious thoughts he had inspired within her.
The relationship continues, we're told, for five years. Drizzt gets his lessons, and the most compelling ones (aside from female supremacy) is hatred toward surface elves. And whenever he's whipped, we're told he cries out for the death of a "faerie". The chapter ends here.
--
So this bit is interesting. Obviously we have an abusive dynamic, but it's one with some complicated layers. We're dealing with an institutionalized system of abuse, not just a single family. Vierna teaches Drizzt what she has been taught. She is brutal, because that's the only way she knows to be.
But there are hints here that Vierna, like Zaknafein in the earlier chapter, may be more than what Drow society has made her. She has some awareness and doubt. She even has some empathy for Drizzt. She's still an abusive monster, but there's a sense that maybe if she were removed from this environment and shown another way, maybe there's something that could be salvaged about her.
There is a downside with this series being written after Icewind Dale, because the Drizzt in that series shows no sign of having been raised with any kind of female supremacy. It certainly doesn't seem to impact his interaction with Catti-brie or Alustriel. (I'm not saying Drizzt has to be submissive or anything, but I feel like a Drizzt raised in this society would have more of an awareness about the power dynamics with these women.)
I'm fairly certain that the drow were established as matriarchal prior to the writing of Icewind Dale, but to be fair, I don't know how much Salvatore had planned about his backstory yet. I can't really blame the man for not incorporating a dynamic that he hadn't thought about yet.