I've created help files for Ched Nasad which I will post here, perhaps someone with more authority than I will see fit to look over them and determine whether they're acceptable or need any editing before being included. Each separate entry begins with a $ just to keep easier track of them... they follow the same order as the alphabetical list located in the first entry.
$Ched Nasad
Ched Nasad is the second city of Lloth, second only in her eyes to Menzoberranzan.
While neither is the largest in terms of population or pure military power, both
come the closest to Lloth's ideal of a Drow community dedicated to her worship. The
city has a population of some 100,000 souls, with 30,000 Drow and the remainder
slaves and non-citizens of ignoble race. A ruling council of the twelve most
powerful noble houses directs the affairs of the city and maintains a tense peace
throughout the city of Shimmering Webs. The First House, Nasadra, controls the city
with a totality the Baenre would envy.
(A) History of Ched Nasad
(B) Environment of Ched Nasad
(C) House Nasadra
(D) House Aleanrahel
(E) House Auryvndar
(F) The White Spider Company
(G) The Company of the Flickering Flame
(H) The Fellowship of the Seventh Sceptre
(I) The Arcanist Conservatory
(J) The Weaverspinner Academy
(K) The Disciples of Phelthong
(L) The Summoned Shadow
(M) The Dangling Tower
(N) The Temple of Lloth in Ched Nasad
$History of Ched Nasad
Ched Nasad was founded by exiles from Menzoberranzan after a divisive war between
House Nasadra and House S'sril of Menzoberranzan. A truce was brokered by House
Baenre that suggested that House Nasadra should found a new city devoted to Lloth.
The Spider Queen herself appeared in avatar form and blessed the wisdom of House
Baenre; then decreed the laws of the new city and an everlasting pact of friendship
between the two cities. The Drow wandered for decades before the avatar of Lloth
led them to the grotto where the city was built.
$Environment of Ched Nasad
Set in a mile-high cavern in the middle reaches of the Underdark, Ched Nasad is
easily the most wonderous of the Drow cities in terms of architecture. The
entire city is evidence of the divine guidance of Lloth and as such, tends to be
far more grandiose than many other Drow cities where practicalities tend to limit
construction. When the refugee Drow led by House Nasadra came upon the grotto,
a veritable forest of life in Underdark terms, with cool running water and vast
fungus forests clinging to the walls, they knew they had not been foolish to place
their trust for so long in the wisdom of Lloth.
The avatar of the blessed Spider Queen leapt across the walls, spinning her vast
shimmering web between the walls of the cavern, drawing strands of silk the width
of streets in the great chasm. When she was complete, a great fire overtook the
strands and consumed them. When it eventually died down, the one silk-strands had
become calcified, as hard as stone, and now glowed with a soft radiance of faerie
fire.
The dwellings and fortresses of Ched Nasad are mostly created of the web-like
structure of the city itself, appearing as great clusters of eggs in a coccoon.
Other buildings are carved into the side of the chasm itself, or most rarely,
built like normal structures on top of the calcified webbing itself. The lower
levels of the city are reserved for the slaves and lower classes, while social
status rises the higher one goes in the city, until one reaches the pinnacle of
the city, where the vast Temple of Lloth is located, along with the House
Nasadra compound and the city's more exclusive and expensive shoppes.
$House Nasadra
House Nasadra is the founding house of Ched Nasad and has maintained it's position
as leader of the city for several thousand years. The House is unmatched in power
and prestige, and completely dominates the council of matrons which enact the will
of Lloth on behalf of the city. Aunrae Nasadra succeeded her rgandmother as the
Matron of House Nasadra in 689 DR, while her twin brother Ildibane occupies the
position of Archmage of Ched Nasad. Their compound is on the first level of the
city and occupies an immense area.
$House Aleanrahel
House Aleanrahel is the second house of Ched Nasad. Their Matron, Jyslin Aleanrahel,
is recognized as one of the most powerful priestesses of Lloth in the city, and is
a member of the ruling council of matrons. Their compound is located on one of the
higher levels of Ched Nasad, though it is separated by a great gulf from their
rivals, House Auvryndar.
$House Auvryndar
House Auvryndar is the third house of Ched Nasad, though they openly seek the
position of their immediate superiors, House Aleanrahel. Their matron, Shyntlara
Auvryndar, is afflicted with vampirism and only due to her great service to the
Spider Queen do her enemies not strike against her out of fear. They occupy a
position near the heights of the city, across a great chasm from their enemies
among the Aleanrahel.
$The White Spider Company
The White Spider Company is a powerful mercenary guild located in the city of
Ched Nasad. They are experts in mounted fighting and reknown for their training
of the most powerful and noble Drow lizard riders in the city. They maintain a
compound in the mid-lower reaches of the city where they may raise their lizard
mounts in relative seclusion from the bustle of the higher levels.
$The Company of the Flickering Flame
The Company of the Flickering Flame is a powerful mercenary guild located in the
city of Ched Nasad. As opposed to most Drow warriors, the Flickering Flame focuses
on brute strength and close combat, rather than the traditional Drow styles which
concentrate on finess and attack by surprise. Along with these precepts, the
Flickering Flame maintains an almost un-Drowlike devotion to honorable combat
between equals which has actually served them well in their economic dealings.
Flickering Flame mercenaries are looked upon as far less likely to betray their
masters and are much sought after, and the company maintains a large training area
in the higher levels of the city in accordance with their high status.
$The Fellowship of the Seventh Sceptre
The Fellowship of the Seventh Sceptre is a powerful mercenary guild located in the
city of Ched Nasad. The Seventh Sceptre is acknowledged to be the most powerful of
the mercenary guilds within the city. Their style of combat focuses on the Drow
traditions and they are equally at home wielding two deadly blades against their
enemies or striking them from the shadows with their poisonous crossbow bolts.
They maintain a compound in the upper-middle reaches of the city, near enough to
cater to their primary clients among the nobility, but freely able to act with
impugnity among the lower classes of Drow and foreigners in the lower levels of
the city.
$The Arcanist Conservatory
The Arcanist Conservatory is an elite organization of male mages located in the
city of Ched Nasad. Banded together to find common cause among the male Drow mages
of the city, the Arcanist Conservatory is known for the depth of it's studies and
the power it wields within the common and even noble hierarchy of the city. Noble
Drow often send their promising children to study with the Arcanists, while for a
commoner male, achieving a position within it would often be seen as the pinnacle
of a lifelong effort to knowledge and study. Their vast adamantine pyramidal
structure is a prominent landmark in Ched Nasad, located in the middle levels.
$The Weaverspinner Academy
The Weaverspinner Academy is the pre-eminent (and only since the suspicious
destruction of their previous rivals) Illusionist guild in the city of Ched Nasad.
Located in the middle reaches of the city, the guild is relatively inviting for
a Drow institution, perhaps partly due to their view that appearance is often
nothing more than an illusion and it is unwise to judge too harshly on such
trivial differences. Yet still they are a guild of the Drow and their skills are
widely sought in the city for both their artistic merits and skill in faerie fire
and the creation of pleasing three-dimensional illusions and their ability to
allow other Drow to infiltrate the most secret places of their rivals to deal to
them deadly blows.
$The Disciples of Phelthong
The Disciples of Phelthong are the most mysterious guild in all of Ched Nasad.
Dedicated to the art of Necromancy, almost nothing is known to outsiders of their
activities other than the fact that they account for an immense proportion of the
slaves brought into the city. Their services are available for purchase, but they
do not even respond to requests for a meeting from any but the twelve greatest
houses... and even then many among those ranks can not afford their asking prices.
Most mysterious of all, their compound is open to all who would risk entering.
Those who have entered claim that nothing but the austere male Drow in their
bright green robes is even visible, though the feeling of oppression that comes
of being surrounded by a mass of living creatures in inaudible torment.
$The Summoned Shadow
The Summoned Shadow is a relatively new guild within the city, representing the
majority of practitioners of the art of Conjuration within Ched Nasad. These male
Drow make the majority of their income conjuring up creatures to sell as slaves
at the thirsty markets of the city, while their higher members are well-trained
in the art of summoning the greatest of demons and otherworldly beings in concert
with the Priestesses of Lloth. Their compound is located beneath the 8th level of
the city from the chasm floor, clinging to the bottom of the great web boulevards.
$The Dangling Tower
The Dangling tower is the most prominent Invoker guild not only in Ched Nasad, but
within the entire northwest of the Underdark... rivalled only by the Drow city of
Sshamanth. Located among a number of stalactites hanging from the roof of the
great chasm and accessible only by those who can fly or those who can catch a
driftdisc to the heights of Ched Nasad, due more to the city's desire to segregate
the dangerous experimentations of the Dangling Tower from the more fragile areas
of the city than anything else. The invokers of the Dangling Tower are among the
most feared Drow in the city; their combat prowess and near invulnerability to all
but the most severe forms of damage in the face of even the most well-trained of
adversaries makes them a powerful force indeed.
$The Temple of Lloth in Ched Nasad
The Temple of Lloth in Ched Nasad is the pinnacle of Drow architecture and devotion
wrapped into the grandest creation in Ched Nasad. With a massive pinnacle rising
more than one hundred feet into the sky, twisted and warped, but glowing black and
shimmering with the polish and care of thousands of years. Priestesses from
throughout the dominions of the Drow and indeed, all places where Lloth is given
worship come here to study her ways under the tutelage of many of the greatest and
most powerful of her clergywomen. Every Priestess in the city must serve within the
temple for a period of at least sixty years before being recognized among her peers
as worthy of the title of a devotee of the Spider Queen. But not only do they train
in the ways of Lloth, but the other intellectual subjects necessary for a Priestess
of the Spider Queen who has been raised to rule over her people must know; magic,
warfare, philosophy, anatomy and governance. The Temple is located at the central
height of Ched Nasad, as the only position suitable to it's glory.