Requirements of the Noble Houses:
Being a Noble House is not all privilege and prestige, along with it come a number of obligations that the Ruling Council enforces strictly. Each of the below requirements is levelled against each house according to its declared ability to meet these obligations (it is very dangerous to lie to so many people who can use detect lie in addition to having so many other sources of information available to them). Declarations are made at a grueling meeting of all the matron mothers on the first day of the year. During this meeting they must declare the resources of their house and are then assigned their "duties" for the coming year. Occasionally ranks of houses are adjusted at this meeting based on the information given. This meeting is looked forward to by the rest of the city as it is a few days later that The Open Days begins.
1. Contribute to Patrols and Armies:
Though the latter has not happened in remembered history and may not have ever occurred, the former is a constant need. Menzoberranzan has no standing army nor even a mercenary or militia force that it can use to patrol the surrounding underdark and the city itself. While students from the Academy nearing the end of their training patrol the Bazaar the rest of the city's patrols are by forces provided by noble houses. Based on their declared strength, every noble house must contribute the equivalent of 1/10 of its drow and slave forces to patrols at any time. While these forces are presumed to come from the house's own forces, those houses with sufficient money (and need) instead hire mercenaries to fill their obligated positions.
Patrols are also the best way to gain experience and test new tactics so it is to every house's advantage to send troops (even slaves) on patrol. There are also assigned obligations for each house to send a certain number of noble fighters, wizards, and priestesses on patrols during the year. Again, this is an excellent time to gain much-needed experience though houses whose noble members are all relatively experienced (as decided by the matron mother) do not tend to send their noble scions on these patrols, instead sending adoptees. Houses may always send more troops on patrol than they are required to and many do so at times (especially when a valuable member of the house has to be part of the patrol).
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2. Declare # and Types of Nobles:
Each house must declare the number and composition of its roster of nobles. The roster only includes those who completed their training, whether at the Academy or who have attained at least 1st level before being adopted. The declaration must give the number of males and females (not including the matron mother), how many priestesses, how many high priestesses, how many wizards, and how many noble warriors.
Alchemists and bards are counted as wizards and assassins, thieves, bounty hunters, and bandits are counted as fighters (along with hunters, which are assumed) in this declaration while multi-classed priestesses are counted as priestesses and multi-classed fighters and wizards are counted as whichever they excel at most as determined by the matron mother.
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3. Declare # and Formations of Troops:
Each house must declare the numbers and organization of Drow and slave troops it has. Each formation is given separately though multiple units of the same type are considered one formation (so two groups of goblin archers that train separately and are in all respects separate units are still declared as one formation). Elite formations theoretically only refer to units whose members have all graduated from the Academy but there is nothing preventing a matron mother from deciding some of her troops are elite anyway.
Changing the declaration constantly for the same formation of troops from year to year can lead to intense scrutiny and questioning, however.
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4. Provide Instructors:
Each house must provide a number of instructors to the Academy. While usually seen of great benefit for magic-users and priestesses this does have its drawbacks since the instructors can only be absent for short spans during the year (there are excess instructors at each of the three schools so that instructors may also persue personal goals--the number of instructors is tightest at Melee Magthere). Thus while those houses required to usually send their own nobles as instructors to Sorcere and Arach-Tinilith there is no reason to send their most skilled warriors to Melee Magthere so instead they recruit a commoner fighter in the city and send her and then pay the school enough for her upkeep. The same can also be done with positions at Sorcere and is in some cases.
Houses may even request to send extra instructors to the schools and weaker houses whose wizards aren't powerful enough to be Masters of Sorcere and priestesses aren't powerful enough to be at Arach-Tinilith may trade obligations for Melee Magthere instructors with other houses able to provide the more prestigious positions (for instance, House Xorlarrin has so many Masters of Sorcere by trading away Melee Magthere positions). Since more instructors are needed at Melee Magthere and fewer are available than for either of the other schools, every noble house in the city is required to provide at least one instructor for Melee Magthere.
Being a Noble House is not all privilege and prestige, along with it come a number of obligations that the Ruling Council enforces strictly. Each of the below requirements is levelled against each house according to its declared ability to meet these obligations (it is very dangerous to lie to so many people who can use detect lie in addition to having so many other sources of information available to them). Declarations are made at a grueling meeting of all the matron mothers on the first day of the year. During this meeting they must declare the resources of their house and are then assigned their "duties" for the coming year. Occasionally ranks of houses are adjusted at this meeting based on the information given. This meeting is looked forward to by the rest of the city as it is a few days later that The Open Days begins.
1. Contribute to Patrols and Armies:
Though the latter has not happened in remembered history and may not have ever occurred, the former is a constant need. Menzoberranzan has no standing army nor even a mercenary or militia force that it can use to patrol the surrounding underdark and the city itself. While students from the Academy nearing the end of their training patrol the Bazaar the rest of the city's patrols are by forces provided by noble houses. Based on their declared strength, every noble house must contribute the equivalent of 1/10 of its drow and slave forces to patrols at any time. While these forces are presumed to come from the house's own forces, those houses with sufficient money (and need) instead hire mercenaries to fill their obligated positions.
Patrols are also the best way to gain experience and test new tactics so it is to every house's advantage to send troops (even slaves) on patrol. There are also assigned obligations for each house to send a certain number of noble fighters, wizards, and priestesses on patrols during the year. Again, this is an excellent time to gain much-needed experience though houses whose noble members are all relatively experienced (as decided by the matron mother) do not tend to send their noble scions on these patrols, instead sending adoptees. Houses may always send more troops on patrol than they are required to and many do so at times (especially when a valuable member of the house has to be part of the patrol).
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2. Declare # and Types of Nobles:
Each house must declare the number and composition of its roster of nobles. The roster only includes those who completed their training, whether at the Academy or who have attained at least 1st level before being adopted. The declaration must give the number of males and females (not including the matron mother), how many priestesses, how many high priestesses, how many wizards, and how many noble warriors.
Alchemists and bards are counted as wizards and assassins, thieves, bounty hunters, and bandits are counted as fighters (along with hunters, which are assumed) in this declaration while multi-classed priestesses are counted as priestesses and multi-classed fighters and wizards are counted as whichever they excel at most as determined by the matron mother.
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3. Declare # and Formations of Troops:
Each house must declare the numbers and organization of Drow and slave troops it has. Each formation is given separately though multiple units of the same type are considered one formation (so two groups of goblin archers that train separately and are in all respects separate units are still declared as one formation). Elite formations theoretically only refer to units whose members have all graduated from the Academy but there is nothing preventing a matron mother from deciding some of her troops are elite anyway.
Changing the declaration constantly for the same formation of troops from year to year can lead to intense scrutiny and questioning, however.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Provide Instructors:
Each house must provide a number of instructors to the Academy. While usually seen of great benefit for magic-users and priestesses this does have its drawbacks since the instructors can only be absent for short spans during the year (there are excess instructors at each of the three schools so that instructors may also persue personal goals--the number of instructors is tightest at Melee Magthere). Thus while those houses required to usually send their own nobles as instructors to Sorcere and Arach-Tinilith there is no reason to send their most skilled warriors to Melee Magthere so instead they recruit a commoner fighter in the city and send her and then pay the school enough for her upkeep. The same can also be done with positions at Sorcere and is in some cases.
Houses may even request to send extra instructors to the schools and weaker houses whose wizards aren't powerful enough to be Masters of Sorcere and priestesses aren't powerful enough to be at Arach-Tinilith may trade obligations for Melee Magthere instructors with other houses able to provide the more prestigious positions (for instance, House Xorlarrin has so many Masters of Sorcere by trading away Melee Magthere positions). Since more instructors are needed at Melee Magthere and fewer are available than for either of the other schools, every noble house in the city is required to provide at least one instructor for Melee Magthere.