Given there is a limited amount of lore about sshamath, it is very difficult for me to answer that question. Sshamath-wise, the above is half-true.mireigi wrote:Considering how males are often mistreated by the females during sex, I'd say it could be a rather horrifying experience. Unless of course it's one of those cases where the male truly have something to offer and the female allow him to dominate her instead, to keep him loyal.ohboy007 wrote:edit: Thanks to Storm for pointing out Artemis was a sex toy passed around the various priestesses. Can't believe I couldn't remember that part. Such torture! Having to please hot female drow!
But that's a bit off-topic.
Can anyone, someone with sufficient knowledge on the topic (DM, veteran player, etc), preferably using the two examples I provided, confirm or deny, whether or not such scenarios are: a) server legal; and b) Sshamath legal?
First off, houses in Sshamath are all but meaningless. The traditional structure of power within the city has been overturned and instead of female dominated houses, the male dominated wizards run the show.
You can be of any house, but it matters little if you don't have any say in the School of Magic.
So how does that portray within the male-female relations?
Normally in a traditional drow city (which Sshamath is not), disrespecting the female would carry dire consequences to the male. The same rule still applies within the traditional groups, like House Sshamath, (I suspect that also in) Zau'afin, Xil'abben (excuse the spelling) and others... This is due Lolth being in the centre of their organisation and her view that females are dominant, makes the law within the house walls. The males still make for footstools if you like, their duties are limited to chores and couple-wise, they are subject to the female's whims.
But Sshamath is more than Lolthites. It consists of commoner (shebali) drow from Darkwoods (whose faith if various), and male houses (if you like). One should not expect that a wizard in power upon his return home, will curl his tail and become a servant of the angry female with a rolling pin, obeying her orders. A male who would disrespect a female in Sshamath would feel rather safe as there wouldn't be anyone to execute the same rules as in a traditional drow city. If one is a wizard, and would perish at a house argument with a female, there is enough divination magic to prove her guilt and have her suffer a penalty and anyone disobeying the sentence is welcome to become the new spell test subject for the wizards.
So to best answer your question I will need to back it up by a quote of drow of the underdark book:
Since the higher authority lies with the males in Sshamath, the same applies within the bed chamber. It is the females, wanting power and male wizards being the supply of it.Most of the trappings of love in drow society are better defined as either lust or politics. Drow seek to sate physical desires with whatever partners arouse their attentions; the culture does not, in any real way, associate sex or reproduction with love, or even necessarily with marriage. Drow seek to slake their lust with partners of lower status—so as not to imply that they have given in to a drow of higher station—and rarely with members of an enemy house or family, for fear of compromising their position. Beyond these limitations, however, anything goes.
Marriage is primarily a political or financial arrangement. Drow marry to formalize alliances, to combine family resources, or—in some cases—to cement their dominance over a weaker ally or companion. No stigma is attached to children born out of wedlock, but a child born of a marriage has a stronger claim to her parents’ wealth and power if something happens to the parents. Thus, some drow marry before procreating, to ensure that everything they have achieved remains in the family line.
Most drow marriages are monogamous, not due to moral or religious doctrine, but because few drow are willing to allow more than one other individual that close to them on a regular basis. A few drow marriages do involve multiple partners, however. These arrangements usually involve a single drow female taking numerous male partners, but other combinations are not unheard of. Although such an occurrence is rare indeed, some drow do fall in love with other drow—or, although it happens so rarely that it’s practically a myth, members of some other race. For the drow, who are accustomed to thinking only of their own good, the sudden urge to consider someone else’s well-being is a strange and frightening experience. Many drow react violently to love, seeking to destroy the object of their affections before they are further “corrupted” by the odd sensations. Those who don’t become violent usually make every effort to either impress or dominate the object of their affections, depending on their relative social standing. A drow in love with someone of a higher status seeks to increase her own authority, hoping her desired paramour will notice her and consider her worthy of an alliance, or at least of increased socialization. If the smitten drow is of higher status, she often seeks to acquire the object of her affection as a servant or slave, for even the most loving drow sees little difference between intimacy and possession. The rarest event in drow culture is when two drow share affection for one another equally. The number of loving partnerships throughout drow history can probably be counted on a single drow’s fingers, but they often become an almost unstoppable force in society. Two drow willing to combine efforts and resources to that great a degree, particularly if they have influence in different but synergistic areas of society, are potent indeed. However, because even the most loving drow can never fully trust one another—it just isn’t in their nature—these rare couples often fall apart under the weight of betrayal, or even suspicions of a betrayal that never actually occurred.
How would that work on the server in Sshamath?