So Where Are All The Women?

Awhile back I was running with Suppply (Level 10 Paladin) through the Searing Heights.  Searing Heights is a challenging explorer area at level (around the level 6 zone or so) found in the Marketplace, not far from the Twelve Enclave entrance.  The Searing Heights is primarily known for two factions: the Blood Tide Pirates and the Sulatar Drow Tribe.  The landscape is marked with one primary point of interest, the huge volcano that serves as the primary base of operations for the Sulatar Tribe.  I actually wondered about this specific volcano a while back here.

As I was taking Suppply through the adventure area, I realized something about the Sulatar Drow.  There doesn’t appear to be any female drow among them.  The whole encampment at the base of the mountain, within the mountain, and along the mountain is composed of male drow warriors, rangers, clerics, and wizards.  This trend extends to the wandering and scouting drow parties.  I’m not entirely sure why this is the case.  There are female drow characters in almost every other area in which they appear that I can think of.  There are women drow warriors in the Red Fens and among the Vulkoorim.  And there are certainly drow women among the drow of the Underdark.  So where are the drow women of the Sulatar Tribe in the Searing Heights?

Suppply coming across some male drow in the Sulatar encampment in Searing Heights.

Thinking about this logically, I wondered if the woman warriors are currently under some type of pilgrimage or if they are conducting some type of warrior-type right of passage.  These particular drow are definitely war-like and it makes me wonder if the different genders are required to undergo a different set of trials to become full fledge warriors within the Sulatar society.  I’m wondering if they have to purify their spirits in some fashion that has required them to leave the encampment in the Searing Heights under the watchful eyes of the male warriors.  I’m thinking that the female drow warriors and magic users have to be purified by some type of holy ritual that involves some sort of commitment to fire, lava, or some other type of flame.  In any case, it doesn’t seem like a very promising situation but I wonder if it allows the female drow warriors to gain some type of prestige over their male counterparts.

Coming across yet more male drow warriors in the Searing Heights.

In any case, it is definitely a little odd.  I wonder if we will ever really find out where they currently are.  What does everybody else think?

Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting in the Searing Heights!!