To be fair, the population statistics are denoted by three distinct categories. It begs the question, what does Isolated Population mean?
Free Population - with 0 humans
Isolated Population - with 1% humans
Slave Population - with 803 humans
The "Free" population, without having any breakdown in Types, and read in contrast to "slaves" coming next—free vs. slaves—I read it as the Isolated Population and the Free Population are actually the same. But it IS written out in the book kinda weird.
i would imagine free population are normal drow while isolated population is drow that are in servitude, because even drow that are essentially slaves have a higher status than goblin slaves and such are therefore are probably listed differently, its not uncommon for houses wars to render the survivors of a loss into servitude of the victor
Isolated in this case just means, the population broken down into individual categories. The free population is 12k, collectively. Isolated (that is, divided down into its components) you have 98% drow, 1% humans, and the others.
Tarina — The Witch of Darkhold, a dealer in spirits and black magic
I have not looked into it a lot myself as UD stuff is minimal in lore vs surface of FR and even other settings.
That aside, It would make sense that there may be some small colonies of humans in some places of the UD as "survivors" of sorts or even servants to Drow and other UD races as their over lords of sorts in the metropolitan area.
But to me? deep Imaskrari is basically a UD human on riods.
Regardless, if this was permitted, I am unsure how much the RP dynamic would change upon the server and feel it wouldn't have any negative impact in the short term as far as I can see even long term, give how some of the UD population is already a minority and feels predominantly Drow as far as what little I have seen thus far.
After years of trying to give others a chance to prove to me they can shape up here, I have run out of patience. The numbers of nwn2 overall dropping in the past few years have told me the path others truly want to take. Actions speak louder than words.
I'm basically just here to point out that in S'shamath specifically, only drow can become citizens and live in the city proper, excluding half drow, but non-drow may become residents and usually live in the Darkwoods. It'll be an interesting challenge for humans that want to become major politicians. I've also seen it done on other servers where humans in the underdark are saves or exiles who wouldn't be allowed in surface settlements because of one crime or another.
A human might be a released slave, exclusive to wizards because all slaves must be released the moment they learn a wizardry cantrip and cast it. They're not saved from indentured servitude, though
I won't even get into PC slavery other than thats not permitted because it's such a can of worms that some servers make a rule that the moment there's any romantic interest between a slave and owner, the slave must be released.
Now I'm done info dumping about the possible origins. I'll leave with this question: should a human who lives among drow be allowed to loot and/or be among the surface population normally once all is said and done?
I know why we stopped letting people loot the entire server. A big part of me wants it to come back, but really if you want to play a human in the UD then part of that would be accepting you cant go to the surface and loot gain xp etc. Just like everyone else.
Honestly, i don't feel that banning some race from any side is good.
If someone wants to play UD dwarf or surface drow, it's their right. Though, it simply means they consent to "hardcore mode" since they picked something that is meant to be killed/enslaved on first sight.
So, it's like "Wanna play UD human, sure, just don't complain about drow being jerks to you" and so on.
The few times I have seen humans on the Underdark, it reminds me of how easy is to actually cross between realms. A simple invis potion and somehow knowing the road is enough. Somethinf that is supposed to be super dangerous just becomes trivial and loses a lot of flavor.
Having no darkvision is simply a death sentence, but it doesnt matter if the way is trivial and CR of areas is too low.
I dislike the Underdark because of how dark it is, I cannot imagine a human living there, you get sense deprivation and fo crazy.
There have been some delicious recipes floating around Sshamath regarding the best ways to eat humans. Apparently cooked human has become quite the delicacy among the foodies of sshamath this season. Sounds gross?
Have you tried the human fois gras?
It's to die for...
There have been some delicious recipes floating around Sshamath regarding the best ways to eat humans. Apparently cooked human has become quite the delicacy among the foodies of sshamath this season.
So they added Soylent-Green to the menu eh.
"To understand magic one must first understand magic."
Agathion Benedictus: Holy Priest. Retired for now. Tiax Rules-All: Gnomish madman. Retired permanently. Exordius Vrass: Cleric/Mage. Currently active.
Mielikki, in the Nexus, actually sells torches and you can buy one before choosing your realm. Moreover, since the kobold map (River Rift) North-East from Varalla's Passage actually contains a barrel with torches because the map used to be much closer to surface, and before the blinding effects from darkness really kicked in.
As for the actual PvE content in the Underdark, you generally want to have as high AC as possible, so these human characters might want to replace their torches for items that emanate light, or provide Darkvision feat, ASAP, which means that there would be higher market for such items.
And finally, you have to consider the setting itself: S'shamath is ruled by Wizards, so think of Thay with drow flair instead of the city you may known as Menzoberranzan. So, while humans are inferior to drow, a human can still master the arcane arts as a wizard and thus bolster the arcane might of S'shamath under its service. Not to mention that since S'shamath is know to be a place where one can purchase all things magical, the face of a human wizard could very well help to conduct trade with outsiders as the drow must bear the burden of their racial reputation. Thus, in a similar vein, half-drow wizards could be used to potray how the city of S'shamath is not like any other drow city, and hence, be seen as more reliable trade partner than any other city found in the Underdark. After all, a wizard does not truly care who came up with a particular spell, only of the fact whether or not it is scribed into his spellbook, and the same premise applies to magical artifacts of any kind. Thus the brief lives of humans and half-drow can be tolerated, these lives can serve the interests of the Conclave of Wizards -- and Darkwoods district does have its ways to keep the unnecessary human population within clear minority.
