The Crusade of Spiders

Introduction
The Crusade of Spiders is a holy war being waged by the drow of the underdark against all other intelligent creatures beneath the earth's surface. The crusade was declared by Harachtech Do'urden after she lead the conquest of the dwarven city of Ironhold. The drow have proven remarkably united in their quest and they pursue the 'cleansing' of the underdark with a fanatical zeal exceeding any observed before.

The Sundering
The first objective of the drow army was to cleanse the upperdark and collapse as many passages to the surface as possible. To accomplish this the drow first targeted the largest upperdark power in Ambar: the dwarves and their clanholds. After 20 years of bloody war--known to the dwarves as 'The Sundering'--the great dwarven kingdoms have been whittled down to naught and the once glorious clans have been rendered exiles by a merciless, xenocidal, and untied drow. The dwarves are left to gradually pick up the pieces of their shattered race upon the alien world of the surface.

The View From Above
The Crusade of Spiders has been met with a mixed reception from the surface powers. On one hand the turmoil below has dredged up many strange beasts and peoples that make the dwarves seem like your little sister in comparison; on the other hand the drow have sealed up the major passages to the underdark whenever they can and have made it clear that they have no interest in the peoples above--indeed, drow attacks on surface communities have all but disappeared with the notable exception of those who have come to the aid of the dwarves. The main sticking point seem to be the deep mines that some races will carve into the earth. The exact depth that is permissible is not clear but the drow have been shockingly accepting up until this point. Indeed, after some initial, vigorous forays they have even conceded much of the caves that twist through The Spine of the World. In fact, since The Sundering of the dwarves the drow have been remarkably quiet...