Yaldana, Jewel in the Twilight

Yaldana—known more commonly to scholars on the surface by its epithet—is the capital of drow civilization. The city itself is alive: a place where ecology is inseparable from architecture, and where the buildings reflect the isolationist tendencies of their inhabitants. This holds true for many facets of Yaldana's cityscape: alleyways which narrow and rearrange themselves in the face of surface-dwellers, carnivorous plants hewn from emerald, and doors made of crystalline flowers that refuse to open for outsiders. The drow view their relationship to the local flora as equal parts symbiotic and sacred; because of this, they are an entirely carnivorous society.

Given the commonplace nature of murder in drow society, Yaldana is a den of insects in a constant state of political upheaval. The city's most notorious faction is the Blooming Blade, a group of assassins devoted to the mantis god Kisurrum. They are the city's ward against stagnation; they feed the neverending cycle of change and consumption in the Underdark through ritual murder, skittering in darkness just the same as their deity. Despite the city's isolationist nature, they sometimes outsource their services to outsiders for a steep price— although, once their work is done, their contractors often find monetary debt to be the least of their concerns.

Other than contract killers, Yaldana's main exports are its crystalline flowers—which do not function for outsiders, but are still considered a luxury resource by those on the surface—and its soil— which is uniquely receptive to magic, and thus excellent for growing crops out of season. What little contact the city has with the surface is often brief and impersonal.