#house do'urden

[alpaca-clouds]

So, which Drow House kidnapped Halsin?

Fuck it. This morning @adelar-plays posted this excerpt of the dialogue you can have with Halsin about his time as, well, a sex slave to the drow. tl;dr: If you play as a drow with a noble background in the game, you get some extra dialogue options and through it learn that the House Halsin had been captured by was not just destroyed, but is looked upon very poorly by other drow. Badly enough that working for any surviving members might get you into trouble.

And my very first thought about it was: Wait, was he captured by House Oblodra? (Aka: Araj's House?) Sure, Araj does not react to him or he to Araj (Or does he? Has anyone tried?), but Araj's dialogue does imply that she was fairly young when House Oblodra fell.

However, there are other options of course. Let me go through them all.

Now, what we know: Halsin is about 350 years old. This happened when he was a "young druid" (though your guess is as good as mine what he might consider "young"). And it definitely happened before the Shadowcurse was cast. So at the very least he escaped the Underdark more than a hundred years ago.

So, the drow house in question must have fallen between about 300 and 100 years ago. That much is fairly certain. So, between ca. 1190 and 1390DR.

Before I go into the list of possible Houses, let me quickly go into what the houses are:

The drow are a matriarchal people, and usually group themselves into Houses. The most apt comparison for those Houses - at least among the drow of Menzoberrazan - is basically mafia families, that are usually organized around one matriarch. Most of the Houses have their own little army, and just tons, and tons of slaves. (Look, in Menzo there is about 5 slaves for every drow living there. Most slaves are goblins or minotaurs, but there are also other races.) The Houses are in constant rivalry with each other to become the most influencial House of the city. And if you as a drow do not belong to a House, you are basically worthless.

So, which Houses were disbanded in the timeframe?

House Celofraie got destroyed in a conflict with House Agrach Dyrr in 1367 DR. We do not know the reason, but it was probably simply a rivalry between the Houses. The same goes for House Mlin'thobbyn and House Syr'thaerl.

House Do'Urden is one that we know a lot about, duh, because Drizzt is such an important character for the lore. The House was originally very important, but lost the favor of Lolth after Drizzt saved a normal elven kid on the surface. This led to the destruction of the House in 1338 DR.

House Elec'thil got destroyed at some point between 1327 and 1367 DR. The exact reason was never given.

House Bron'tej got destroyed in 1227 after a conflict with House Barrison Del'Armgo.

House Kenafin and House Horlbar were disbanded in 1383 DR, though the members of both Houses together formed the new House of Melarn.

House Srune'Lett nearly started a drow civil war and got subsequently destroyed in 1372 DR.

House Tuin'Tarl got destroyed in 1383 DR, after trying to attack House Kenafin and House Horlbar. In a revenge attack, obviously.

House Teken'duis had a rivalry with House Freth. When trying to assassinate their leaders, they failed - and in return the family fell into shame and was susequently executed by the ruling council of the city. This was in 1319DR.

House DeVir formed an alliance with some gnomes in an attempt to overthrow one of the other houses. Because Lolth hates everything not-drow, they lost the favor of Lolth. House Do'Urden took advantage of this and destroyed the House in 1297.

House Oblodra, as we all knew, allied with some illithids. Now mind you, this was seen as somewhat okay for about 2000 years, allowing some members of the house to develop psionic magic. Until some members of the members of the house got about the same idea that Gortash and Durge had: "Hey, if we use magic on the tadpoles and put them into people's brains, we can mind control them and take over the city." Which went about as well as it went for Gort and Durge, ending with the destruction of the House and Exile of all members in 1358DR. It should be noted that this is the one house, where Lolth took an active role in their distruction, sending demons to destroy them.

So, based on this information and the dialogue that was shared...

Again, I will disregard the entire "when I was young", because your guess is as good as mine to what Halsin considers "young". But the other information given there is more interesting: The fact that if you associated with the House, you might lose the favor of other drow/might actually get into trouble.

Because to me that tells me that the House in question was not destroyed in a rivalry. So we can disregard pretty much all of the Houses that were destroyed in a simple conflict with another House of the city without any further information given. It makes me assume that the House in question has lost the favor of Lolth, making them outcasts among the other Lolth-alligned drow.

That leaves the potential candidates of:

House Do'Urden

House DeVir

House Oblodra

With the vague possibility that it could also be Teken'duis. With them it is not quite clear whether they still have the favor of Lolth or not.

So, yeah. It could obviously also have been a not before named House in the city. But if it is among one of the Houses in question, it should be one of those three (or four).

Make of that what you want. One way or another, there is a chance that either Drizzt, Viconia, or Araj might have met him - even if they do not remember him necessarily. Given that to them he might have just been "another slave".

Bonus:

Since we know that he was with the House for 3 years, before he escaped in the chaos of the House being destroyed, we can also calculate Halsin's age at the time.

If he had been a prisoner of House Do'Urden, he would have been around 190 to 200 years at the time. Had he been a prisoner of House DeVir, he would have been between 150 and 160 years. And had he been a prisoner of House Oblodra, he would have been 210 to 220 years old. (Just rough estimates, as I do not assume he is exactly 350 years old.)

[defnotjarlaxle]

Rizzen Do'Urden

The other, less popular, dad of House Do'Urden.

I wanted to see him living a happier life so i drew it~

[bramblepatch]

Do you ever think about how Dinin, Vierna, and Maya probably all had Briza as their weanmother? I think Briza and Nalfein are both old enough to have been handed over to an aunt or possibly cousin before Malice took over and aggressively pruned the family tree, but by the time any of the younger ones came along Briza was the only junior priestess in the House.

And like, we're generally pretty clear that Vierna is a big part of why Drizzt turned out as psychologically intact as he did. Being raised by Briza must have done a number on the other three. It's amazing Vierna was as capable of compassion as she was.

[theladyregret]

So I recently just noticed something in Homeland that has me realizing some things concerning how the Do’Urden family has been functioning and the timeline thereof.

So, it’s stated that Nalfein is Rizzen’s son...but also Nalfein was born before Malice became the Matron Mother...because they say when Malice’s mother died and she ascended to Matron that Briza and Nalfein became nobles. It’s also not stated exactly which was born first and that it’s possible Nalfein could have been her first child.

...but it’s also stated that Zaknafein became Malice’s patron...and both of the children he fathered are younger then Briza and Nalfein.

What this means is that Malice was involved seriously with Rizzen longer then Zaknafein. He wasn’t just Zak’s replacement. She was involved with Rizzen enough to have a son that he fathered before she became the Matron Mother, then when she became Matron she made Zak her patron...but then later traded out Zak for Rizzen again...even though she easily could have just picked someone new.

She was less then 100 when she became Matron and over 500 when she died which means she spent more then 400 years with the guy...and while I can get why she’d continue to want to periodically be with Zak on the side, even outside of any emotional attachments(god forbid). Zak is a skilled fighter and any offspring he had would be likely to inherit something from that. Same reason why Malice slept with Uthegentel. Good genetics.

But Rizzen was always described as being good looking but otherwise common with no notable special skills.

This implies some things and also...makes what ultimately happened to him later even worse then it already was.

[lawful-evil-novelist]

Maya, after three people threw jars of flaming oil on top of Drizzt: I’m prepping a protection from fire spell.

Nalfein: Or Drizzt could shoot his bow at the trolls, from a distance, to avoid getting hit.

Drizzt: I was given the sword that kills trolls I am going to use the sword that kills trolls.

[maritimelass]

An overused joke but one that would not leave my brain.

[1071png]

finished the second book in 2 days 😔 I think Im hooked

[aldanil]

The House Do’Urden, the way I imagine them in my head

I hadn’t place to draw Zak and Rizzen ):

Tumblr ruined the pixels again

[mascula-sappho]

Drizzt and Cattie-brie and Zaknafein meeting Maedhros and Fingon would be an absolute trip:

1. The drow would be absolutely shocked and SHOOK that Maedhros and Fingon are married and to no other. Basically it isn't a case of homophobia but "they let YOU OWN each other?????"

2. Maedhros would meet Cattie-brie once and immediately become very fond of her and acquiesce to any of her demands because she reminds him so strongly of his mother Nerdanel.

3. Zaknafein and Maedhros outdoing each other with dark humor, nihilism and sarcasm almost as if it's a competition (it probably is)

4. Drizzt is put out by Fingon because "for one who is so old and has killed so many, he sure acts younger than his years".

5. Cattie-brie and Fingon are best friends and love doing stupid ill advised shit together much to the chagrin of their Quiet Brooding Worrywart Husbands.

6. Sparring becomes a bloodsport very quickly but Zaknafein and Drizzt are happy to have worthy opponents that can actually match them.

7. The first time Maedhros sees Briennelle-Zaharina he starts crying inexplicably. That's how Zaknafein finds out about his crimes: "I am responsible for the death of half elves such as this".

8. They get too drunk and start telling stories of their murders. Cattie-brie turns pale and leaves the room. Bruenor is passed out on the couch.

9. Zaknafein is MAD at Fëanor for "sacrificing such a good and noble son to such a vain cause". Maedhros secretly appreciates this. Zaknafein knows anyway.

10. All the elves sympathizing with each other over "did YOUR noble house screw you over TOO??"

[wineredsea]

drizzt really is living through the most agonizing situations anyone could imagine and I am here screaming and kicking my feet over house baenre

[ircnwrought]

every time i boot up bg3 i get closer to adding my drow durge here

[serenaberngraves]

“in which we meet a halfling”

Chapters: 13/? || Words: 23,438 || In Progress

[lunastrophe]

BG3 Drow Lore 🕷️Minthara's Age and Name Meaning

🕷️Year Of Birth - Minthara was born before 1297 DR. In one of her lines, she mentions that she remembers a scandalous event from the past – when Viconia DeVir, a noble female drow and a daughter of the fourth house of Menzoberranzan, disgraced her family:

Two hundred years ago, she disgraced her family - the DeVirs - by refusing to obey a divine order from Lolth. It was quite the scandal, and I was young enough that it left an impression on me.

House DeVir fell out of favour with Lolth because of Viconia's transgression and ultimately, in 1297 DR, they were attacked and destroyed by House Do'Urden. During this time, Minthara was likely in the first decade(s) of her life, since by drow standards, she was still young and impressionable.

It would mean that she was born at least several years earlier, likely between 1270 DR and 1290 DR.

🕷️Age In BG3 - during the events of Baldur's Gate 3, Minthara is over two hundred years old, but probably less than two hundred and thirty.

🕷️Name Meaning - Minthara's name means „minor / second rune” or something similar, being composed of female prefix Min- („lesser, minor, second”) and female suffix -thara („glyph, marker, rune”). The name was probably given to her by her mother shortly after birth, according to drow custom.

We do not know if the meaning of Minthara's name was important in any way to her mother. Sometimes drow names seem to be connected to the child's future profession, ambitions or fate, but in many cases, there is no such connection and a name is just a name. For example, the eldest daughter of Matron Mother Yvonnel Baenre was named Triel, which means simply „wing” or „bat”.

🔹If Minthara's name meaning is not accidental, it could imply that she is her mother's second daughter (but at the same time, the eldest living daughter).

Noble drow females typically value their eldest daughters the most, from early years grooming them to become their successors. Who knows - maybe in this case, the first daughter did not survive, ending up being assassinated by enemies, or simply failing to meet her mother's expectations. Then Minthara would be „the second try” kind of a child – her mother's second chance to raise a worthy successor, to strengthen her position in the family and in the society.

🔹It might explain why Minthara's mother considered her so special and important: I have been told that I am special since my mother first held me in her arms. The burden of expectation.

Normally, drow children are not considered overly special by their mothers. The usual exception is the eldest daughter, expected to take her mother's place in the society one day.

In the next post - thoughts about Minthy's childhood, family and the identity of her mother 🙂

For more of my drow lore ramblings, feel free to check my pinned post 🕷️

[lawful-evil-novelist]

A general question you can read into however you like but who do you think knows the password to Nalfein's study in the house compound?

[everybodyloveshippos]

drizzt: its house do'urden....but it doesnt really feel like home do'urden, you know what i mean?

dinin: you have to stop saying shit like that or something bad is gonna happen to both of us

[mintharabaenrelore]

Fun fact: when you first meet Minthara, she is fighting with two maces, so I believe she has the same fighting style as Drizzt Do'Urden: draa velve.

"As the name "two sword" suggested, the style was based around fighting with two weapons, one in each hand. What made this style special was the simultaneous use of each of these weapons for both offense and defense, that is, to attack and to parry, using each weapon like a shield."- Forgotten Realms Wiki

This style is very difficult to learn, and both training and natural talent is required. Apart from Drizzt himself, there were only a few per drow city who practiced it.

If Minthara's fighting style is draa velve, it suggests that she is ambidexterous and worked with the house weapon master.