Free Brothers

The Free Brothers are an organisation of runaway male drow in the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign. Their aim is liberation, but their methods are violence and terror; not every male drow belongs to them.¹

Rumoured alliance

In Gromkar, a dwarven captain told Sarah and Ephorus that the drow prisoner Hançer was an important member of the Free Brothers, and that the brothers were rumoured to be working with the great drow houses. He sent the two into prison in disguise to win Hançer's trust and learn whether the alliance was real, and whether an attack on Gromkar was planned.^{1 2}

Whether the brothers truly made common cause with the houses is not known. The two returned with word that the forces of a drow house were advancing through the tunnels and that its matron would come with the attack, and that Hançer meant to strike at her.³

Hançer's account

In the prison Hançer said that he would go on fighting the drow women once free, and that his true aim was to free as many drow as he could.^{4 5}

He spoke of an escape from below that had begun together with others, after which roads and bargains could part, and claimed that people were waiting outside to help a breakout, with places to hide.^{6 7}

He wanted to free Sarah from the man he took for her master, and made it his condition that she be free to choose her own road. Ephorus, for his part, reflected that the drow lead their slaves to war beside them, so that broken chains could give their enemies an army.^{8 9 10}

Drow and slavery

Imperial histories record that the prisoners of war brought to the surface after the Empire's campaign into the Underdark were sold as slaves. Imperial law forbids slavery only for imperial citizens, and slavery is most common among the drow.¹¹