The Drow Queen of Glaley [Very NSFW]

[Coquette Blacquin]

"I've only heard the human side of the story -- do you have some time to tell me what it was like?"

[Estelle Emerison]

"I can take time enough for a story or two, though they'd be second hand, of course," Estelle answers with a soft, almost shy, smile.

[Coquette Blacquin]

"I'd appreciate it. My husband and I... have disagreements about our people's heritage, so I doubt he'd be as interested as I," she adds, by way of explaining. 

[Estelle Emerison]

Oh dear, that sounds... messy. Let's just move along for now, mmh? "Was there anything in particular you were interested in? Daily life, religion, slavery, art... courting rituals?" she finishes with a wicked grin.

[Coquette Blacquin]

She grins. "Let's start with daily life. I'm not interested in religious conversion or anything, but courting rituals could be fun as well."

[Estelle Emerison]

Estelle winks at Coquette. "Oh very interesting, at least the nice ones," she adds, the teasing note flattening out. "Right, day to day like. Hmm. Well, that very much depended on who you were," she begins slowly, thinking. "The handful of stories from my Grandmother about unimportant matters-- or rather, some important hidden meaning wrapped in a seemingly unimportant story but it serves the same in this conversation-- would be extremely different than the stories Toren told me about his father's life."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"Let's start with the males, then?"

[Estelle Emerison]

Nodding, Estelle hefts herself back onto her desk, feet swinging a few inches off the ground. "Well, Torval-- that would be his grandfather -- would start his day by checking himself over for parasites. He was a olemmel herder, you see. Ah, those are small mammals raised for their venom and droppings... which were also used as a toxin. He wasn't valuable enough to get housing so he slept with the olemmel for warmth and safety but the trade-off was the constant inflection of blood drinking parasites. Thankfully they were small so as long as he made sure not to let them build in number, they were only a minor danger." Estelle wrinkles her nose. "And a large factor in his diet."

[Coquette Blacquin]

Coquette blinks, frowning. "I had heard that insects were consumed for protein, but I did not think it was that sort of insect."

[Estelle Emerison]

Estelle blinks, then her eyes widen. "Ah. I'm sorry, I assumed-- Torval was male, as I mentioned, which means he was a slave. And one performing common labour at that, so... he wasn't fed. If he could not scavenge enough to eat, then he would starve. And stealing was greatly punished. Toren mentioned once that one of his grandfather's brothers-- well, half brothers I suppose-- was caught stealing a mouthful of the olemmenl's slop. As punishment, he was forced to cut off his left hand and bury it in the mushroom fields that were used to feed the olemmels. It was meant to be clever and poetic evidently."

[Coquette Blacquin]

Coquette's eyes widen. "But that's an awful way to treat your property! You can't get labor out of a beast half starved," she says, though the word she uses can apply to both slaves and animals. 

[Estelle Emerison]

"You assume it was about the labour," Estelle says softly, though there was a twitch in response to Coquette's first response. "There was no need for Torval to sleep with the olemmels in the first place. Or spend more than perhaps a half hour a day on their care; they're hardy creatures that can easily look after themselves. Especially given they were in a secure cavern and provided food. No, Torval's overseer simply wanted to make someone suffer more than he was, to lord the meager scraps of power and authority he had a second-tier overseer. Besides, if Torval had died, he could have simply gone to the flesh pen to pick another drudge." Her lips twist in disgust as she explains this. "It's a pointless, cruel and hateful system, Coquette. And worse, that's the point."

[Coquette Blacquin]

Coquette pouts. "And yet, they're undeniably the masters of the Underdark, the most prosperous and dangerous society known to mortals. So. Clearly it works."

[Estelle Emerison]

"Who on Aldis told you that tripe?" Estelle asks with a startled look. 

[Coquette Blacquin]

"Books."