Drow

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This article refers to the fictional elven race from Dungeons & Dragons. For the "drow" of Scottish folklore and other examples of dark elves and black elves from mythology, folklore, and fantasy fiction, see Dark elf.
Dungeons & Dragons creature
Drow
Alignment Evil
Type Humanoid
Subtype Elf
Source books
First appearance Monster Manual (1977)
Mythological origins Dark elf
Image Wizards.com image

The drow (pronounced either /draʊ/, rhymes with "now", or /droʊ/, rhymes with "throw") or dark elves are a generally evil, dark-skinned subrace of elves in Dungeons & Dragons fantasy.

Contents

[edit] Ecology

[edit] Environment

After the great war amongst the elves, the drow were forced underground in what is now known as the Underdark, a vast system of caverns and tunnels spanning much of the continent. The drow have since built cities across the Underdark, becoming one of the most powerful races therein.

The drow have adapted to seeing better in the darkness than in the light, and they rarely, if ever, venture up to the surface, for their eyes are sensitive to the light, and their powerfully magical adamantite weapons, armor, and various other items disintegrate on contact with sunlight.

[edit] Typical physical characteristics

Drow are characterized by white or silver hair, obsidian black skin, and red (or rarely gray, violet, or yellow) eyes, as well as innate spell powers and spell resistance. This is balanced by their weakness in daylight. Also, drow weapons and armor (usually made of adamantite or another metal unique to the Underdark) slowly lose their magical properties if exposed to the sun. In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition, adamantite disintegrates upon exposure to sunlight unless specifically treated. Drow also employ the unusual hand crossbow, firing small, though very lethal, darts. Half-drow are the result of crossbreeding between another race and a drow, and share characteristics of both. (The term "half-drow" usually refers to one who is half drow and half human.)

Drow characters are extremely intelligent, charismatic and dextrous, but share surface elves' comparative frailty and slight frames. Drow males are commonly wizards or fighters. Females are almost always clerics and almost never wizards.

[edit] Alignment

As a race, drow are usually evil. Exceptions exist, the most notable being Drizzt Do'Urden and Liriel Baenre, but these are highly unusual. Originally, drow were chaotic evil in alignment. Beginning with 3rd edition D&D, drow are usually neutral evil. There have been encounters with chaotic good drow, but these are distrusted as much as their brethern outside of Underdark.

[edit] Society

Drow society is primarily matriarchal, with priestesses of their evil spider goddess Lolth (Lloth in the drow tongue) in the highest seats of power. Males are considered inferior to female within drow society, and while some males may be respected if they are powerful wizards (notably exemplified by Gromph Baenre), they are never allowed to rule. The drow sometimes use their dark arts to turn human slaves into living sculptures.

There are exceptions to this, being that some cities worship other drow gods (like Vhaeraun or Eilistraee), and thus, their hierarchy changes or reverses the roles of males and females.

The drow hate surface elves, but wage war with almost any surface and other subterranean races, such as mind flayers, svirfneblin, duergar, kuo-toa, dwarves, and orcs for spoils and territory.

[edit] Drow in various campaign settings

[edit] Drow in Eberron

Inhabiting the jungles and underdark in the continental isle of Xen'drik, the drow in Eberron have a much more tribalistic culture than their other Dungeons & Dragons counterparts. They are not an offshoot of the elven race like in many other worlds but rather a separate, if similar, race. Instead of the spider goddess Lolth most tribes worship a male scorpion deity known as Vulkoor, though exceptions are not uncommon. It is believed that Vulkoor is actually one of the forms of the Mockery. The tribes are often xenophobic, and the social structure varies from tribe to tribe. It is known that the drow mastered elemental binding before gnomes did, and that there is a subgroup called the umbragen, or shadow elves, who worship the Mockery in the form of a scorpion god and Khyber or the Umbra, the Consuming Shadow, for whom the umbragen are named; the umbragen dwell underground beneath Xen'drik and are noted for producing many warlocks and soulknives.

Drow in Eberron run the gamut from almost feral in nature to being fully civilized and on par with the cultural level of Khorvaire, varying from tribe to tribe.

[edit] Drow in the Forgotten Realms

In the Forgotten Realms, the dark elves were once ancient tribes of Ilythiir. They were transformed into drow by the Seldarine and were cast down and driven underground by the light-skinned elves because of the Ilythiirian's savagery during the Crown Wars. The drow had fallen under the influence of Araushnee, who was transformed into Lolth and was cast down into the Demonweb Pits along with her son Vhaeraun by the elven god Corellon Larethian because of Lolth's and Vhaeraun's attempt to take control of the elven pantheon (which included Araushnee's seduction of Corellon Larethian). The largest drow civilization is the subterreanean city of Sshamath. However, Menzoberranzan is featured most prominently in the novels.

Drow may also worship Ghaunadaur, Kiaransalee, Selvetarm or Vhaeraun. A special case is Eilistraee, the only drow goddess who is chaotic good instead of chaotic evil; she wants the drow to return to the light.

Amongst the most infamous of drow are the members of House Baenre, whilst Abeir-Toril is also home to some famous benevolent drow including Drizzt Do'Urden and his deceased father Zaknafein, Liriel Baenre (formerly of Menzoberranzan's aforementioned House Baenre), and Qilué of the Seven Sisters. The drow Jarlaxle is also well-known, as he is one of the few males in Menzoberranzan to obtain a position of great power. He is the founder and former leader of the mercenary band Bregan D'aerthe, although he has since relinquished his band to Kimmuriel Oblodra in search of treasure and adventure on the surface world with his new companion Artemis Entreri. These characters are from The Dark Elf Trilogy (1990 – 1991), a series of books by R. A. Salvatore. The six drow in the War of the Spider Queen series have also gained some renown since the novels have been published.

[edit] Drow in Greyhawk

In the world of Greyhawk, the drow were driven underground by their surface-dwelling relatives because of ideological differences. There they eventually adapted to their surroundings, especially by attracting the attention of the goddess Lolth, Queen of Spiders. The center of drow civilization is the subterreanean city Erelhei-Cinlu, and its surrounding Vault, commonly called the Vault of the Drow.

Known drow of Greyhawk include Clannair Blackshadow, Derken Gale, Jawal Severnain, and Landis Bree of Greyhawk City; Eclavdra of House Eilserv; and Edralve of the Slave Lords.

Some drow, especially of the House of Eilserv, worship a nameless Elder Elemental God (said to have ties to Tharizdun) instead of Lolth.

[edit] Drow in other campaign settings

Different campaign settings portray drow in various ways.

In the Dragonlance setting, dark elves are not a distinct race; rather, "dark elves" are elves who have been cast out by the other elves for various crimes, such as worship of the evil deities. Dalamar, a student of Raistlin Majere, is the most notable of Krynn's dark elves. However, over the years dark-skinned drow elves have accidentally appeared in a few Dragonlance modules and novels. Similar mistakes have occurred with other standard AD&D races, such as orcs and lycanthropes, that are not part of the Dragonlance setting.

In the Mystara / "Known World" setting, shadow elves are a race of subterranean elves who have been mutated via magic.

In Mongoose Publishing's Drow War trilogy, the drow are recast as lawful evil villains and likened to the Nazis. The author of the series has stated that this was a deliberate reaction to the prevalence of renegade, non-evil drow characters.

Drow appear as a playable race in Urban Arcana, which is a d20 Modern setting based on Dungeons & Dragons. They are shown as very fashionable, often setting new trends. The symbol for most drow is a spider, and they often take the mage or acolyte classes.

[edit] Drow in other media

The Baldur's Gate series of computer games features drow as enemies and NPCs, as well as part of the game being set in the fictional drow city of Ust'Natha. The drow cleric of Shar, Viconia, features in Baldur's Gate, and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn as a party member and, in the second game, a possible romantic interest. The Eilistraee-worshipping drow male Solaufein plays a minor role in the second game, but his role can be expanded into a romance with a mod. Jarlaxle, Drizzt Do'Urden, and the male elves Maznafein and Jalynfein also appear in the 1994 IBM-PC CD game Menzoberranzan.

In Icewind Dale, a drow named Nym steals dwarven weapons and artifacts and sells them to the goblin and orc armies attacking the elven fortress, the Shattered Hand. Since the armies are armed with dwarven weapons, the elf leader Larrel assumes the dwarves betrayed them, and thus shattered the previous alliance between the two. Thus, Nym is single-handedly responsible for the fall of both the dwarves and the elves in the Dale.

The original campaign and first expansion of Neverwinter Nights do not deal much with the drow but the second expansion, Hordes of the Underdark, does so extensively. Neverwinter Nights 2 continues to expand upon them in their story, as well as allowing drow and other Underdark races as playable characters.

Drow also appear in Atari's Demon Stone. Zhai, the half drow and another appearance of Drizzt Do'Urden.

[edit] Creative origins

The drow, as they appear in fantasy fiction and games, were created by Gary Gygax, and appeared in the 1979 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module, Hall of the Fire Giant King. They were first mentioned in the Dungeons & Dragons game in the 1st Edition 1977 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual under "Elf." They made their first statistical appearance in G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (later G1-2-3 Against the Giants) (1978) by Gary Gygax. The story continued in modules D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth, D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, D3 Vault of the Drow, and Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits each of which expanded on drow culture. The first D&D manual that the drow appeared in was the original Fiend Folio.

Etymologically, "drow" is probably derived from the Shetland Isles Drow. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1970) states: "Drow, n., [scot.] A tiny elf which lived in caves and forged magical metal work." The word's origin is identical to the origin of the word "troll," which goes back further to the Scottish Gaelic word spelled "trow." The original Scottish Gaelic word is pronounced "dtrow" with a soft "dt" sound, and the original pronunciation sounds similar to "troll." The word is also found in Cornish and Welsh, with slight pronunciation differences. The race itself seems based on another dark elf, specifically the Dökkálfar of Norse mythology.

[edit] List of works in which drow play a major role

[edit] Novels

Elaine Cunningham

Gary Gygax

  • Artifact of Evil
  • Come Endless Darkness
  • Dance of Demons
  • Sea of Death

R.A. Salvatore

Assorted authors

[edit] Video games

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links


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