Prelude 

The Underdark. No name in the Realms inspires such fear, such mystery as this, the lightless world below the surface. Home to a myriad of creatures that see in another side of light, monsters and others creatures, good and evil, large and small. 

Of all the monstrous creatures, one stands out, the drow. Dark elves, that banded together under the overseeing goddess Lloth, Spider Queen of Chaos, they build the greatest cities of the Underdark, learn the greatest sides of magic and wizardry. 

Menzoberranzan is but one of the smaller cities in the whole of Lloth's world of deceit and ambition, home to only twenty thousand dark elves, twenty thousand slaves to the Spider Queen. Blind and devoted to her every whim, their only thought her double-edged favor. 

There is no such thing as 'love' in this world, only ambition. Everything they do is to gain favor in Lloth's eyes. Empathy and such are weaknesses, therefore are suppressed and destroyed. 
The children of the drow, innocent, pure, are quickly tarnished in this dark society. Sometimes parts of their purity are missed in the relentless hammering of false precepts by the Masters of the Academy in the children's schooling. 

To their own demise, for the children would sooner or later slip up. Become exposed, for the deadly punishment of drow 'justice', death or torture, or the life as a 'drider', the largest punishment for the drow elves, transformation into a half-drow, half-spider. Such is the life in this place. 

Those who manage to retain their hearts against the corruption around them grow bitter, suicides happen in which the victim takes as much care as possible to get rid of his body, such that it would not be resurrected by the evil priestesses, for their torture. This then, is the drow world. Enter it, and judge it for yourself.