Spoiler: Queen Under the Mountain
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A book from a drow author, the excerpt you read discusses the cultural changes that came with the shift in drow society from demon worship to their current Lloth free ideals, and why the maternal society endured - much change was driven by matrons who had learnt to listen to their people. The keeping of half of them downtrodden was part of a cycle that, once broken, left a huge vacuum of authority and misdirected power to be made use of. Were it not for an adaptable queen, the monarchical system would likely have fallen. Instead, she was the first to lean into taking the battle to their previous lord by reaching out to other nations for help.

Seems rather patriotic.


Spoiler: The Fall of Humanity
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A rather droll and dense book, focusing heavily on studies of architecture and the cultural significance they continue to carry. The halfling author goes on to tie in the surprisingly few ruins that remain with their speculated once uses, and sets up for further in the book where he plans to discuss the changes from region to region in buildings that served similar purposes, the texts tied to those buildings, and how the differences therein may indicate the mentalities of those who experienced the collapse of an empire.

Dense, and perhaps a little opinionated.

You do note that the author mentions potential magical simplicity, based off the marks that may indicate that the buildings were raised via solely manual means.