Post/Author/DateTime	Post
StoneSinger 03-23-08, 02:17 AM	Just as a curiosity to see how much diversity there is among Drow, What are Drow like in your campaigns? And by "your" I mean everyone that uses them. How does the race as a whole vary from campaign to campaign, and if they do not vary, what makes your Drow PC differant? (Drizzt does not count as different) Ever want to tell someone about your awesome character but noone cares? Well I do, go right ahead (although the main focus of this is to see how they vary as a race from person to person, I will listen to the individual descriptions just as readily) And.................Go.
kwanzaabot 03-23-08, 04:15 AM	Ooh, fun topic. :D My Drow are completely different to anything i've seen. Forget the female-dominated society, forget the spiders, forget the evil (I really dislike using races the way they're intended, it's a thing I have. I'm in the process of making up a whole pantheon of Demon lords, which is much harder than I thought!) My Drow are no different to standard elves- in fact they ARE standard elves, basically. I mean, not stat-wise, but they're a part of regular elf society. My elves are a subspecies of **** Sapiens (as are Dwarves), except that they have some fey ancestry. This ancestry lead to mutations being commonplace among elves (allowing for anyone to be any kind of elf, without having to bother making individual nations and cities :P), and the drow mutation is one of the rarest ones, causing the newborn elf to be born with jet-black skin and a host of magical abilities that come quite naturally to them. Their appearance and powers cause the church to believe that dark elves are the chosen ones or avatars of my campaign's creator god, Draosadh, and the Drow are often taken from their families to be raised as agents of the church in the super-secret Holy City (sort of a Vatican-type place) beneath the elven capital of Propontis. The Pope (my elves are inspired heavily by the post-Christian Roman Empire) is a dark elf, as are his cardinals, monks and so forth. Regular elves (and the occasional human, depending on the country) do work within the church as well- usually in more public positions such as priests, assassins, exorcists etc, in contrast to the reclusive Drow. Most citizens have heard legends of dark elves, but few believe they're anything beyond that. Most player drow are ones that were raised in secret by their actual parents, hidden away from the church, which leads to the church hunting them down and either trying to kill or recruit them. Good times. :) Well, my writing's a little bit all over the place tonight, but hopefully you got this gist of it. :D
StoneSinger 03-23-08, 04:59 AM	I dare say that was one of the most unique versions of the Drow I have heard. I like the idea of mutations, explains why there are so many elven subraces. Things are like rabbits really....everywhere. Though to me an a lot of people Drow will always be that one step above the rest :P Can not wait to hear what everyone else has to say.
kwanzaabot 03-23-08, 05:04 AM	I dare say that was one of the most unique versions of the Drow I have heard. I like the idea of mutations, explains why there are so many elven subraces. Things are like rabbits really....everywhere. Though to me an a lot of people Drow will always be that one step above the rest :P Can not wait to hear what everyone else has to say. I blame the mutations on me reading too much (or just the right amount of) X-men. =P Glad you liked it, though.
Naderion 03-23-08, 07:16 AM	The basics are pretty much the common stuff. About 5,000 years ago, the dark elves, which have allways been known for their agressive expansions, overdid it a bit and tried to invade a high elven realm, which turned out to be a bit too much for them. Though no friends of the high elves, the neighboring wood elves the dark elf army and completely decimated them. Caught between the advancing wood elves and the sea, that seperated the high elf realm from the dark elf realm, they had no way to run except down. Of those who dared the deeprealm, most died and when the survivors reached some underground outposts of their homeland, they found their surface realm anhilated by other elves who took the opportunity to end the dark elf problem here and now. So the reamaining dark elves where forced to adopt to a permanent underground life. Founded by evil warlords and the most able warriors of their people, dark elven society is uncaring and cruel. A majority of their current cities are ruled by the priesteses of Lolth, but about half their cities are ruled by many other power groups. Common dark elves are very similar to normal elves, excpet their ability to see in complete darknes. The noble dark elves on the other hand, have evolved many magical abilites over countless generations of selective breeding within their class. Life for the commoners in the dark elven cities is harsh, but mostly tollerable. They are not known for compassion, but able to live in a mostly stable form of society. But the seperate society of the nobles is usually sheer madness. Plotting and backstabbing is their everyday trade and practically all of them are megalomaniacs and lunatics to a lesser or greater degree. Dark elves are rarely seen on the surface, except for raiding parties, but in some areas dark elves, that have never been part of the great dark elven empire, are still living in remote forests in a society quite similar to wood elves. But because of the bad reputation of their more numerous kin, they live very secluded and try their best to maintain good relations with their immediate neighbors and ignore the rest of the world. The underground dark elves are also well known for their specialized field of magic, which is necromancy. Most priests have some abilities to keep undead in check or to ward them off or hunt them, but the scientific arcane enegeneering of undead is the exclusive domain of dark elven wizards. There are extremely few necromancers on the surface world, and almost all of them have manged to get teched by dark elves.
unundindur 03-23-08, 11:11 AM	This is a topic I will come back to more fully when I post my drow city in the not-so-far future. Anyhow, in my homebrew world of Eiir the drow, are highly structured and extremely dangerous because of that. They favour the katana, and live in monastic societies that act as assassins to other powers. The drow play an important role as the shadows of all mayor courts, and live relatively independant of each other, except for a fierce communal loyalty. That is, a drow protects another drow against outside dangers at almost any cost, except if he is declared an outcast. And drow are not matriarcal. All in all the drow are heavily Rokugan inspired. When I play in Faerun though, I just have larger than usual percentage of followers of Vaeron, since I have never ever had a player who wnats to worship lolth (weird huh ;) ).
Lappy9000 03-23-08, 11:12 AM	Cliche? Perhaps ;) In my campaign, eves hail from the island continent of Eldor. Much to the elves' dismay, they discover that the island is sinking. The drow are the remnants of a group of elves who fled into underground caverns (at face value, doesn't seem like a good idea, but hey, it worked :P) to hopefully escape to a new land. Coming into contact with the goblin nations of Underdeep, the drow build their own empire, before the goblins, led by Varsiss, black dragon "Son of Tiamat," destroyed the elven and dwarven kingdoms in a thousand year war. When winds from Pandemonium blast the upper layer of the world and unite Overrealm with Underdeep, the high elves who recently arrived on the mainland, unite with their drow brothers to defeat the goblins. Now the drow, like most races of Underdeep are struggling to survive after the mass cataclysms of the past. They dwell on their last bastion on a colossal stalactmite on the cave celing of Underdeep. Yeah. EDIT: Oh, and the drow aren't evil, but you'd only really be able to play one in an Underdeep Campaign. I use the Lesser Drow instead of the ones in the Monster Manual. I hate having dozens of subraces, so only two common races, elves and orcs, have racial variants. There are elves and drow; as well as orcs and orküst (non-sucky half-orcs).
Shiftkitty 03-23-08, 08:26 PM	I have been slowly working a new world into my "Forever Game" mega-campaign. It started out as a shot at a third party campaign called War of the Burning Sky. The campaign and player's guide were free, so I snapped those up, but decided, along with some wild moves by my players, to run in a whole different direction. I'll get to the drow in a moment, but first let's establish that this planet has been slammed into by a meteor, which has wiped out life across the planet except in this one, small peninsula. Geographical accident has protected this peninsula, the inhabitants of which have never established contact with anyone else. There have been wars after wars with brief periods of peace, too brief for the long-lived elves. Orcs are the dominant culture. They are harsh taskmasters, but are not brutes. The surface elves have learned to live with this state of near constant warfare as the orcs expand their holdings, by guile or by force, into a solid empire. Indeed, in order to maintain the peace, whatever nations the orcs hadn't taken yet pay a form of appeasement money, which only lasts as long as the orc emperor doesn't get that crazy itch again. During one war period, about two hundred years ago, the drow came to the conclusion that "war=insanity". They used their natural elven ties to the planet to craft an underground retreat for themselves, free from war. They adapted themselves to life underground, turning their skin black to hide in the shadows, their eyes red to warn off the easily scared, and their hair white, a reminder of the purity of the reason for their retreat. When that war ended, they emerged back to the surface, but refused to say where they had hidden. Branded as cowards, even by their fellow elves, they left the surface for good. They agree to meet with surface dwellers only on peaceful business, such as trade. Do not expect to be taken to a city, though. All business is conducted in the Cave of Commerce. During the next war, the war came to them. The emperor's forces began blast-mining for rare and exotic minerals needed to power their war machine. The drow, believing that "if you want peace, prepare for war", proved quite capable of defending their subterranean domain, which had grown significantly since the first retreat. One of the other nations, hearing of the drow's victory over the orcs, sent agents to negotiate an alliance with the drow. The drow refused to get involved with the "Surface War", as they called it. The surface general decided he couldn't have an unpredictable element under his feet and sent in an invasion force. Again, the drow fought back savagely and victoriously. This time, the drow had prisoners, which they kept in prisons and used for community labor. They were treated well, and when the drow spies reported a period of peace, the prisoners were released from bondage with a spell cast upon them to make them forget where they had been taken. During the current war, prisoners of all nations have been captured while trying to secure the advantageous Underdark. They are all put to work during their time in captivity, but are treated well. The drow even allow the surface races a magical form of sunlight within their cells to keep their health up. A prisoner might even be favored by a noble family and taken from the prison, charmed into "reasonable obedience", and put to work in the noble's house, a peaceful form of slavery. The agreement is that when the War Above ends, the slaves will all be released to where they had first been captured. Still recalling their surface elf brothers, all surface elves are returned to their homelands or whereever they may request (within reason). The drow have something to worry about with the War Above, however. The orcish empire has been wildly successful in it's expansionistic pursuits, and the elven nation seems to be the last free nation standing against the orcish forces. The drow aren't sure they can hold off a concentrated invasion from above. They may have to return to the surface and take up arms in order to presevre their own way of life. To preserve their peace, they must wage war like never before seen. I've kept the matriarchal structure and the spider theme, but it's based on the idea that a spider sits peacefully until something brings itself to her web. Then there is no escape. Queen Ulstra is a wise monarch and believes that the constant warfare above is proof that there are no gods, or that if there are, they are ruthless and evil and not worth worshipping. Every drow is expected to know how to use weapons, and as such wizards are not barred from more flexible armors like chain-mail. There is no spell failure because they train in it until it's a second skin. They shape the magical energies around the armor so regularly until they can do it almost without thinking. They are not barred from using any one-handed weapon, but may not take the two-weapon fighting feat. The quarter staff and the sling staff are the only two-handed weapons they may use. There is a clergy, in spite of the queen's atheistic leanings. They are more like a monastery, dedicated to the practice of preserving the Peace Below (qv. the War Above). They double as the judicial arm of the society and see to the treatment of captives to ensure that nobody's enslavement is unnecessarily cruel or harsh. While an arcanist may study ancient manuscripts and exotic diagrams for his or her magic, the Peacekeepers draw their magic from within, relying on their discipline to channel the powers of their philosophy of peace. They may only cast spells in the interest of peace. For example, they can't just call down a pillar of fire to remove an inconvenience from their path, but they can call down a pillar of fire to destroy a perceived threat. I haven't hashed out all of the details, because this game has pretty much just started, but I thought it a different take on the drow.
StoneSinger 03-24-08, 01:19 AM	I really did not expect to get any posts as extensive as these, but it is great to have so much original material to read over. Surprised Drey did not work into Shiftkitty's campaign, she is the only one I know that ever uses them. This might sound odd, but I always thought Shadar-Kai made pretty good Drow :P Anyways, keep up the Drow forum-posting mojo! :D
SolenVlos 03-24-08, 11:23 AM	In my campaigns, drow are attacked on sight, and usually attack others on sight. there are no good drows. drows are much more rogues and assassins than clerics and wizards.
Lappy9000 03-24-08, 12:45 PM	I'll get to the drow in a moment, but first let's establish that this planet has been slammed into by a meteor, which has wiped out life across the planet except in this one, small peninsula. Neat idea, Shiftkitty. In my campaign world, the winds from Pandemonium (mentioned above) created a great rift which eroded the layers of earth dividing the above and under worlds. The general populace assumes that this rift is the great crag to the north of the continent. While this was created by the winds, the real rift is about half of the world; leaving only about 1 1/2 continents on the top surface, where the campaign takes place and effectively eliminatine whole empires. The world where my campaign takes place is almost shaped like an applecore, with massive chunks of earth missing from the center where ocean waters eternally cascade into the central valley. So, you can actually sail off the world if you're not careful. Anyway, how are you handling not having humans as the dominant species? In mine, gnomes are the city-builders. Humans exist, but they never got a foothold on continental affairs. EDIT: Sorry StoneSinger, I'm not trying to rail-road your thread of-topic :(
Shiftkitty 03-24-08, 03:31 PM	I really did not expect to get any posts as extensive as these, but it is great to have so much original material to read over. Surprised Drey did not work into Shiftkitty's campaign, she is the only one I know that ever uses them. This might sound odd, but I always thought Shadar-Kai made pretty good Drow :P Anyways, keep up the Drow forum-posting mojo! :D Well, this campaign HAS just started, and the drow have yet to get involved in the War Above. Imagine captured drow being transformed into drey through eeeevil experiments, then released to finally conquer the Peace Below. Lappy9000-Basically, the orcs have a militaristic society which has served them well. They control all of the workings with a clearly defined heirarchy, even breaking up the races. Orcs, of course, are at the top of the heap. Most other goblinoids are second-class citizens, limited in their rights and freedoms. Because of their usefulness, humans fall into this stratum. Demihumans are third class and lower. An orc may not attack an elf on sight, but that elf better watch his step. Halflings, gnomes, dwarves, are all considered resources to be exploited. They have fewer rights than the goblinoids and humans, and almost no freedoms. Outside the borders of the orcs' empire, there is considerably more freedom, with most races working together with the usual cultural bumps and scrapes. The elves are a slight exception. Their current king has an aggressive streak and just a touch of xenophobia. He'd rather other races didn't come into his lands, and his policies make it slightly uncomfortable for those who do so. Border towns are the only places where foreigners can feel fairly at ease. Within the orc borders, the orcs are basically "they who must be obeyed". Tax collectors may put up a big show of bullydom, it feeds their egos after all, but most people would pay their taxes even without the show of force. What keeps most non-orc races in the country is that they are living on ancestral lands that, over the ages, have been conquered by the orcs during their waves of war and strategic peace. Most of their cultural practices are left intact as long as they don't involve resisting orcish rule. Because the number one priority is the military, which requires a lot of material, it's a merchant's paradise as long as there is no urgent need for whatever the merchant supplies, in which case the government will simply commandeer it and pay later. If you're not still in business by war's end, you don't collect unless the emperor is victorious or otherwise feeling generous. I made one other racial tweak, and that was with the gnolls. Rather than being filthy savages, they are a bit more peaceful, being nomadic rangers and druids. They will not enter unnatural environs, such as cities or even buildings. They wear only natural materials, such as leather or wood, for armor and shields, and weapons are of the neolithic variety, such as bows and arrows, spears, and clubs. (Tips are made of stone, of course.) While they try to avoid fighting, they will escort refugees through harsh regions to safety and will provide healing for anyone who needs it. Because of this, neither side in the war really bothers the gnolls if they can help it. They are not above taking in orphaned children or foundlings of any race. While the drow may very well face a full on war if the orcs win and are able to make a concentrated effort on the Underdark, the odds are that the gnolls will be left alone... for awhile. The drow can expect no help from other subterranean races. They regard the elves as invaders of their homelands and competitors for scarce resources, and they are not as peace-bent as the drow.
Krusk 03-24-08, 06:03 PM	Well my players haven't discovered any of the underdark yet, in the game I'm running right now. The way it works in my game is almost like an entirly diffrent world, with few passages to the surface. They are on an island continent right now, and the only entrance is heavily gaurded (by both surface dwellers and underground dwellers) in a dwarven city the players have not gone near yet. If they do eventually go there, The drow in this game are fairly standard from core, with the exception of being increadibly LE aligned. Lolth, has also been demoted to demi-god/demon of some form for this setting, and doesn't play such a huge role in the world outside of drow affairs. She does inhabit their largest city, and rules it personally. Her personality had to be changed greatly to become LE. The drow in this game are actually the biggest society in the underdark, and equivilent to the humans of the world above in that they have plenty of cities and territory. I am debating on the skin color of the drow actually though, as they are increadibly rare above ground, and usually killed on sight, none of the Pcs have encountered one yet, and I am still ok to change it. I recently saw Time Machine again and really think the leader of the morlocks looks like what I imagine drow to look like way more than how they are depicted in the books (without the crazy external spine). In this game the enemy of the drow is not the elves as normal, although they do not get along well, but the dwarves who found the only known entrance to the undersdark while mining near their city. So the dwarves spend a good ammount of resources dealing with the drow, and vice versa, while the rest of the surface may be totally unaware of the underdark (Except the elves, who live with a 70/15 ratio with humans. last 4 is halfling, and 1 is other. The elves just ignore the problem, and really are a part of human society entirly, so they do nothing about it.) Duerger in this setting have been relegated to the role of dwarves that many years ago were stolen from the mining company who discovered the underdark, forced to breed, and made into slaves by the drow. They are almost entirly subserviant to the drow through years and years of conditioning, and basically serve as the grunts for the drow armies. This serves to further push the dwarves and drow to war. -i guess they aren't so standard as i thought.
garoka 03-24-08, 08:24 PM	My friend makes me curse him so he can fail the whole dridder quest thingy Does anybody have problems like that
Talon_ 03-24-08, 09:29 PM	I actually just finished a whole Underdark [NOT forgotten realms] campaign with Drow and Duergar. My Drow were mostly rapier-wielding warriors and staff-bearing female clerics of Lolth. The Drow queen, a high preist of Lolth killed three members of the party with her domain spells [death] and almost killed the other three. They are cold, canniving killers, only sticking together, because they all knew that the queen would hunt them down and kill them. They never rebelled, because everyone hated each other. EVERYONE. I don't even know how they had kids, sperm bank probably. It was crazy.
StoneSinger 03-24-08, 10:08 PM	Some pretty creative ideas, some pretty standard, but that is all okay. I liked the idea of Lawful Drow, I always wondered what a Drow society ran by Judicators would be like. I have also seen campaigns where Drow were spiderlike, fangs, little white hairs on their forearms and what not, longer limbs etc.. Blue Drow...purple Drow.....deepwyrm Drow..... God so many possibilities. Keep up the good work.:D
petin 03-26-08, 12:22 AM	My drow are aquatic savages that attack ships. In fact, the ocean between the land masses is called the "word" (drow backwards) by the elves due to their ill-understanding of the old style elvish. They became aquatic by the divine act of the flooding of the Underdark, and in a quick response to this act, another divine act magically mutated the most faithful ones to become aquatic beings. The Underdark has lost its water in the coming centuries, but the drow stay what they are.
StoneSinger 03-26-08, 12:32 AM	Wow. I did not expect that one. You get 5 points for surprising me (hard to do) Well....Kudos.
deadkoo 03-26-08, 02:15 PM	Well.. I just joined a campaign(about 2 months ago...) where the Drow were actually the good guys.. Basically, the drow had never really split from the other elves, but had decided to move underground in order to defend a portal that led from teh abyss to the plane... Basically they are the exact opposite of normal.. I however, decided to play a drow there, and decided that "even a good race has a few quirky ones.." I am one of the few murderous and CE drow running around trying to break the shackles that teh drow society has placed upon me... thought about naming him Tz'Zird due to the way it worked out.. but figured that would be a bit retarded..
Lappy9000 03-26-08, 03:03 PM	thought about naming him Tz'Zird due to the way it worked out.. but figured that would be a bit retarded.. I'm not sure whether to give you a high-five or punch you in the face.... :P
Shiftkitty 03-26-08, 03:10 PM	I'm not sure I'd describe murderously Chaotic Evil as "quirky"...::)
StoneSinger 03-26-08, 10:18 PM	Charles Manson...thats one quirky guy alright.:D Im down with Drow being good in some campaigns, as long as there not all duel wielding rangers with scimitars.
Shiftkitty 03-26-08, 10:53 PM	Well, one of my players has a two-weapon albino drow fighter, but he's no Drizzt. He was based off of Mock Duck, leader of the Hip Sing Tong of old Chinatown in San Francisco. This guy packed two pistols, and when there was a shoot out he'd close his eyes and start spinning, shooting wildly. Bormuk Baenre, however, is a little more disciplined, preferring an acrobatic tumble into the thick of things and coming up as a "whirling dervish of death", as another player described him.
StoneSinger 03-27-08, 12:28 AM	I wonder why you never see people wanting to be the other Drow characters besides Drizzt. I mean like...Dhairn the Drow Judicator of Selvetarm, Uthegental of Barrison Del'Armgo (trident guy with peircings and war paint, HUGE drow), Jarlaxle, Ryld Argith, the list of cool Drow goes on and on. But I can not argue too much, considering I am a Drizzt fan. Though Uthegental is the most bad-a** Drow.:D
unundindur 03-27-08, 02:02 AM	I have only twice encountered people who wnated to play drizzters, and those were both in my teens. Nowadays, when people want to play drow it is either as a male superscheming wizard or a super intelligent assassin (myself). What I find interresting is that none like the matriarcal structure, mostly because it seems inlogical that the males don't make a serious (successful) revolt.
Moradin 03-27-08, 02:39 AM	In my game world, drow were mass-exterminated millennia ago by a grudging alliance between duergar and hill dwarves and the only survivors were pulled to the Demonweb Pits where Lolth cries herself to sleep every night. So in my campaigns they pretty much don't exist except in the Abyss. So, I guess if I decided to ever put them into the Material Plane, they'd be outsiders. But I doubt I will, so we'll just go with nonexistent. *Shrug*
Shiftkitty 03-27-08, 11:21 AM	I think it's because Drizzt is the most developed, story-wise. I prefer Gromph, but a few others I've talked to like Pharaun. I had to create my own backstory for Gromph and even wrote a couple of short stories regarding his early years. Stealing heavily from a bit of fan-fic elsewhere, I've found a way to keep Dantrag alive (and Gromph still wisely keeps him away from Uthegental), and created a few others to occupy Gromph's otherwise unseen world. I borrowed Amandrucul from "Fane of the Drow" to be Gromph's partner in crime for his schemes, and it feels so refreshing to Gromph and Amandrucul to know that they are the ones manipulating the priestess Destra Darkweb (also from FotD), instead of the other way around.
krunk stonesinger 03-27-08, 12:32 PM	@Stonesinger: Does the quote I bend my legs! mean anything to you?
StoneSinger 03-27-08, 01:31 PM	Right..... What?
Shiftkitty 03-27-08, 03:04 PM	Hey, wait. Are you two related, or is one the evil twin?:D
Artifact 03-27-08, 03:45 PM	Here's some backround on how I've presented drow in my homebrew setting and campaign. My intention here was to develop a sub-culture, not a sub-race, of elves. When an elf embraces evil, elven society moves quickly to punish the guilty. The elven respect for life does not permit them to execute these individuals. Instead those elves deemed dangerous are cast out and named dark elves. An elf that is accused of evil acts is brought before a council of her peers, where the elf may present a case. If the council unanimously votes the elf guilty, then her crimes are presented before the Seldarine and the elf is given a chance to repent. If she does not sincerely and honestly repent, then she is declared a dark elf, and her name is stricken from the hearts of the elves, and no elf is permitted to speak her name. Only through forgiveness can a dark elf be welcomed once again into the realms of the elven people, but redemption can often prove to be a difficult and dangerous trial. Most do not survive the struggle, though on rare occasions it is the very act of self-sacrifice that redeems the dark elf. Appearance: Physically, dark elves appear no different than other elves. Except as noted here, dark elves use the description for elves in the Player’s Handbook. They are a subculture, not a subrace of elf. Depending on their religious beliefs, dark elves can typically be categorized into two groups: The Drow Many elves that turn to evil have been corrupted through servitude to a demonic deity known as the Dark Queen. These elves are known as drow, a low elven word meaning “under” or “beneath”; some elves even translate this literally, to mean “contempt”. True to their name, the drow are a subversive group living with elven society. They attempt to pass themselves off as typical elves whenever possible. Drow meet in shadows and make secret plans, relying on subterfuge and cunning to accomplish their unholy work. Drow are not above using terrorism against other elves. Their ultimate goal is to restore their Dark Queen to her “rightful” place among the Seldarine. Drow who are caught in evil acts are named dark elves and exiled from elven society. The Faithless Not all dark elves are evil, although most are. More than anything else, belief in their gods unites the elves as a people. There are rare individuals who, for whatever reason, lose faith in the Seldarine. These elves might continue to exist in elven society normally, were it not for the unbearable personal shame and conflict within their hearts, which hinders healthy interaction with other elves. It is no surprise then that most such elves choose to live in voluntary exile. They roam the world alone, knowing they will never again see their home or people again. The Dark Queen, like her servants, is an outcast; she was once a member of the Seldarine. The drow, her servants, are a subversive group living within elven society, whose ultimate goal is to restore the Dark Queen to her rightful place among the Seldarine. The Dark Faith, as it is sometimes called, is one of betrayal and revenge. Unlike typical elven society, females do not rule among the drow. Here, the sexes are more equal, with as many males attaining leadership roles as females. The faith has a webbed hierarchy, with cells connected by a single linking thread. A cell could be an individual or a small group. Drow know only other operatives with whom they have direct contact. The drow are evil elves that have been corrupted through servitude to the Dark Queen. Drow is a Low Elven word meaning “under” or “beneath”; some elves even translate this literally, to mean “contempt”. They are a subversive group living within elven society. Drow look no different from any other elf and attempt to pass themselves off as typical elves whenever possible. They meet in shadows and make secret plans, relying on subterfuge and cunning to accomplish their unholy work. Drow are not above using acts of terror against other elves. Their ultimate goal is to restore their Dark Queen to her “rightful” place among the Seldarine. Due to their subversive nature, drow typically don’t wear any form of unique clothing, carry any item, or bear any physical mark to identify themselves. There are several code signals they use to recognize one another however. One common signal is for a drow to spread the fingers on each hand apart, then touch the fingers of each hand together, creating an image of a spider. The counter-signal is for the other drow to clasp his hands together, fingers entwined, palms down, then turn them up, signifying the inevitable ascending of the Dark Queen and her followers. THE BASICS The Dark Queen is a chaotic evil deity and drow clerics may be chaotic neutral, chaotic evil, or neutral evil alignment. While her followers may be any of these alignments, most drow clerics are neutral evil. The portfolio of the faith is evil, darkness, betrayal, and spiders. Drow clerics may choose their domains from Chaos, Destruction, Evil, and Trickery. The favored weapon of a drow cleric is a dagger, a weapon which can be hid easily and which symbolizes the secretive nature of the faith. Due to the clandestine nature of the faith, drow clerics only wear clerical vestments when there is no chance of being observed by outsiders. In private ceremonies, they favor long, concealing black robes, often embroidered with silver (or sometimes red) thread in spider-web designs. The symbol of the Dark Queen is a black spider. Drow operatives often leave spider images as reminders of their continued presence in elven society. Drow abhor images of the moon, which is the symbol of the Seldarine; they typically deface such imagery whenever possible, sometimes ‘corrupting’ the moon by covering it with blood. HOLY TEXTS Keeping the faith secret is all encompassing, thus few texts are available. The following text has significant status within the faith however. Teachings of Lloth: Written by a venerable Seldarine cleric who was supposedly retreating to Arvanaith. On the fateful journey, he received a vision from a powerful handmaiden of the Dark Queen. The story is told of Solaris and Selene, two aspects of the Champion, progenitor of the other gods and creator of the elven race. Solaris and Selene were aspects of a single being, yet opposite each other in significant ways: One male, one female, one bright, the other dark. During the Crown Wars, an ancient war that sundered the fey races, Solaris and Selene were torn apart, becoming separate entities. The story describes how the other gods betrayed their Dark Queen in favor of their Bright Lord and how she as part of her very nature, embraced such betrayal. It goes on to tell of how the Dark Queen will inevitably regain her place among the Seldarine. The elven cleric who received the vision eventually abandoned his faith in the Seldarine and joined the Dark Queen. In time, he even made his way back to the mortal realm, becoming the first widely recognized grand patriarch of the Dark Faith. Drow often secretly leave this book with potential converts in an effort to ‘spread the word’ of the Dark Queen. Sometimes it is even left openly as a counter-point to the Seldarine Bible. "The spider taketh hold with her hands and is in royal palaces." --Excerpt from Teachings of Lloth. A CLERIC’S ROLE The Dark Queen expects her followers to be shrewd, calculating and aware of the dangers and opportunities around them. Drow clerics are the epitome of this philosophy, seeing it as their duty to learn as much about their current communities as they can, which makes them better clandestine operatives. Drow clerics live within regular society. They work to make a living just like any other elf. There is no special education required to become a cleric; all that is required is a desire and willingness to follow the edicts of the Dark Queen. Drow seldom retain any ties to former friends or family and this is especially true for clerics. The daily tasks of a drow cleric change based on the needs of the cell. One day, he might be called upon to officiate a ceremony inducting new members into the faith, while the next he could be required to disguise himself as a minstrel, infiltrate and covertly ‘disrupt’, a wedding between two important nobles. Drow clerics pray only at night, their prayers taking the form of whispered chants that fill the darkness. RELATIONS WITH OTHER RELIGIONS The Dark Queen is of course, a bitter enemy of the Seldarine. She stands in opposition to all good faiths however, and drow can be found operating anywhere the Dark Queen’s interests might be served; attempting to destabilize church hierarchies, and seeking to undermine the faith of their followers. APHORISMS The everyday sayings and adages of the faithful tell a great deal about their beliefs and morals. We are all flesh for the Dark Queen*. There is an implicit understanding among the drow that their Dark Queen will return to her rightful place among the Seldarine. That which was sundered will be whole again. Just as life is followed by death, the Dark Queen’s return is inevitable, unstoppable. Until that time however, they exist at Lloth's whim, unafraid of this eternal truth and willing to embrace it. The face any hazard with steely resolve, knowing that no danger can be remotely as terrifying as the face of the Dark Queen. (*) Check out “FLESH FOR LOLTH: The Secret Life of Dark Elves” by Robin D. Laws (presented in Dragon Magazine #298) for the excellent article which introduces this idea. I don't know how or where, but there was a nugget of an idea once posted on these boards which mentioned drow as "terrorists" (or at least a subversive group of elves); I liked the idea and ran with it. ;)
StoneSinger 03-27-08, 03:55 PM	Related? Probably not. Evil twin? Only one can be evil?
CaptainPicard 03-28-08, 09:55 PM	I haven't actually run this version yet, but I plan to at a later date. Basically, the Drow backstory is the same as they are in Faerun. Big war, exile, so on. By 200 years ago, the Drow were exactly the way they are in their classic crazy-*****ocratic form. 195 years ago, due to several effects of adopting that societal model, the Drow realized certain important lessons, like "Maybe we, as a race that lives for centuries with only a handful of children, should not murder half our population annually", "Living in constant mortal dread with no hope for a better future leads to stress problems", and "Nobody likes us". After the Drow had managed to in-fight each other down to about 10% of their original population, they did indeed realize that since nobody else likes them, they might as well get along. Plus, at that point most of the old Drow cities lay abandoned, so almost anyone could go find some abandoned house to claim as their own. Distance did good things to their relations. Unfortunately, the Dwarves and certain subsections of the Elven and Human populations realized that the Drow, who had been very annoying with their incessant surface raids over the past few decades, were now defenseless, and decided to push them over the edge. A Human Sorcerer who sympathized with the Drow decided to inform them of how royally screwed they were. At this point, the Drow were divided in three. There were those who fled to the surface, those who fled deeper into the Underdark, and those who decided that Lolth would defend them for all time and decided to stay and fight. Darwin kicked in on the last group, leaving the new surface Drow, and what quickly became an offshoot known as Deep Drow. Lolth would have died from lack of worship, but it turns out that Sorcerer had actually manipulated the whole invasion on his own to get Lolth as his personal Goddess, as she would have no worshippers other than his people. He's the villain of this campaign, but that's a side note. The Drow who fled to the surface learned the "Nobody likes us" lesson again and were driven out of all civilized lands to starve and freeze to death or make a living in terrible conditions. Their numbers dwindled even more over the next century and a half. However, while the Dwarves and the Elves would never really forget what the Drow are or forgive them for ages (and a century is a short time for those races), the Humans, being a very short-lived and adaptable race, became the first to tolerate Drow living in their lands, as no living humans had any memory or even first-hand accounts of Drow violence. The Drow, for their part, were limited to those who were not fanatics (as those died when the armies descended on their near-abandoned cities), and furthermore had no pride as a race anymore. Drow children born in this time even less so. Modern Drow often consider themselves extinct, and most have no problem with interbreeding into Human populations and simply thinking they are "weird lookin' Elves". While Humans in general are still somewhat apprehensive around them, the influx of Drow did lead to a stark rise in the therapist industry, as any surviving Drow had a plethora of stress and self-worth disorders. So I guess the Human therapists like them. The Deep Drow evolved in a much different direction. As even in the Underdark they were unpopular, they had no choice but to travel to the deepest, darkest corners of the world, where things that even the Aboleths don't know about dwell. Many of them died in this process, either due to stumbling across Mind Flayers, the aforementioned Aboleths, or other even more unspeakable horrors. Those that survived founded small, highly-isolated communities deeper into the crust of the Earth than any Humanoid species any but the most learned sages would know of, near thermal vents and fungal growths around them. While the Deep Drow are far too recent of an innovation to have changed into their own subrace (many of them were adults during the original exodus), they live in extremely hot environments, and as a result are likely to respond very poorly to cold environments due to simple acclimatization. Deep Drow are extremely isolated, having no contact with any other species that are even remotely relateable for almost two centuries. If encountered by adventurers that are exploring these deep regions, they will be both very curious, and very afraid, happy to once again have contact with outsiders, but terrified at the prospect that perhaps they are still being hunted. Deep Drow and the surface Drow many know of do not know each other exist. When those fleeing the Drow cities split ways, each side believed the other's plans were suicidal. The Deep Drow believe the others would have been massacred by the surface races, and the surface Drow believe the Deep Drow would have been devoured by the horrors of the Underdark.
StoneSinger 03-29-08, 02:27 AM	From proud and evil, to apathetic refugees.
nova head 03-29-08, 07:25 PM	No not twins, the name Stonesinger is the fake family name of House Ke'star, or well, 'fake' is not the correct word, 'surface name' would be more fitting the situation. If he knew the quote then he would know the story behind the name. (Its just funny he has the name and likes drow, was most likely a quincedence.)
StoneSinger 03-30-08, 01:39 AM	Actually I took my name from a Dwarf character named Jungor Stonesinger. But now I would like to know more about these Drow :P