Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Threefists 10-20-07, 04:30 AM	Now, this has been bugging me for ages, and it's got up the nose of a lot of people I play with. During generations of living in a certain area, specificly within a enclosed or limited gene-pool, all forms of life will eventually take on unique characteristics based on their surroundings, the amount of food, water and air available and the ambient temperature and seasonal conditions. It's natural, such as fish that live in the watery areas of cave systems often have eyes that do not work and rely upon whiskers or their lateral lines to detect food and predators. So what the hell is up with the Drow? I will give you that they have a freaking Goddess/Tanari ruling them with a iron fist and likely doing funky stuff while they're in the womb (made in her image and all that jazz), but with dark skin in a totally lightless environment? I'd argue that Wood elves would have dark skin, as well as Wild Elves, given their constant outdoors lifestyles. I'll give you that they live in Temperate Forests for the most part, but look at the Pygmies! They live in a freaking Rainforest where the canopy blocks most of the sunlight, yet they naturally have coloured skin. The Valenar and Dark Sun races of Elves should technically have the colouration to match their environments, similar to the native american indians (Valenar) and the Arabic nations (Dark Sun) and no I'm not suggesting that either of these two denominations are represented by these two races. I am drawing parrallels between the regions in which both the RL and D&D races dwell. Sunlight also affects pigmentation, specificly the body darkens the outer dermis to protect the body from the heat and ultra-violet rays from the sun. This is why Albinos must take great care to apply sunscrean and full clothing when going outside or they will burn, sometimes to the 1st or 2nd degree stage, as their bodies cannot produce this effect. So we come again to divine/infernal intervention. The Drow had the same colouration on the surface world before being driven into the Underdark, but let's look at this for a moment through the D&D rules, specificly the visual powers of Darkvision. Darkvision: Everything appears in black and white. While I will admit that the dark colouration of the Drow gives them some camoflage against a tunnel while there is minimal light, consider that not every cave-system is made of dark rock. Go exploring in caves and you'll find that, depending upon the area you go to, the rock colouration could be anything from limestone-white to granite blue-grey to dull red and sometimes, yes, even pitch-black rock. Darkvision will pick up a Drow that's not hiding with the same ease as it would pick up a Dwarf or a Human. Even hiding, the Drow is going to have a similar chance to avoid non-detection as a Human or Dwarf. So this comes back full circle to the topic of why the Drow are still dark skinned despite dwelling in a lightless environment. We can argue Lolth is keeping them in her image, but would you really expend crap-loads of power just for that? Either it is something to do with the tie to her 'people' that keeps them looking like her, some divine binding or such-like, or it's a inherent genetic quirk, like people in one family are born with facial hair, and I don't mean just a mustache, but hair across all their face. In a non-magical environment, the Drow would have long ago developed bleach-white skins, and their hair would likewise be nearly colourless. Darkvision would be a must, and in the natural world there are creatures that can see in the dark, most commonly through tiny single-celled creatures that dwell within a organ, the Angler Fish being the most commonly know creature, to emit light in one form or another. It would not be far-fetched to assume such a organ could exist within the eyes of a Drow. Why are the Drow still dark-skinned after all those millenia underground? It just seems so ******* farcical for them to be dark-skinned. I can see Moon Elves, and Sun Elves to be fair, being naturally fair-skinned given that their societies dwell in cold-to-mildly-temperate locations, and again the connection between God/Race, but it just seems like somebody got lazy and said 'we'll make 'em black' because it would have been too hard to differentiate between Moon Elves and Drow. Just some ramblings...
The_Shaman 10-20-07, 05:03 AM	I think the usual explanation is magical. In FR, their dark skin and light blindness predates their descent and is a result of a magical curse, wrought by the high mages of the other elven races, iirc with the help of Corellon.
Radijs 10-20-07, 10:08 AM	If they started out black when they went down to the underdark there might be several explanations as to why they aren't all pale-skinned. 1. There's no natural selection. Dumbing the theory of evolution down the idea of animals taking on certain characteristics (like white rabbits in a snowy environment) comes from natural selection. A white rabbit is harder to spot and so its less likely to get caught and eaten then a dark-furred rabbit. So the white rabbit goes on to make more white-skinned rabbits. With the invention of civilisation & cities the process of natural selection dies down a bit as the usual traits required for breeding no longer apply. or 2. There's not enough time. For any drastical physiological change you need a lot of generations to see the effect of evolution. I don't know how for how many generations the drow have been in the underdark. But it will take many generations for anything to become apparent. Taking a unit of measurement from "The Science Of Discworld": 2000 years is roughly 40 grandfathers and I believe the book said you needed about 2000 grandfathers for a survival traits.
Count Nerindil Van Seraph 10-20-07, 10:37 AM	Well, in Eberron, they were imbued with the essence of shadow by their giant masters. And what lurks in the shadows? That's right! Chocolate! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA) Makes perfect sense.
Requiem_XIII 10-20-07, 10:47 AM	My personal opinion on the matter is that its entirely magical. Their hair went white, their eyes went red, and their skin turned blue-black because they are magically infused with dark magic. But yeah, I always wondered why they weren't blind, infravision-using albino people too.
Qube 10-20-07, 12:59 PM	natural selection: elves are frail. darkskinned elves are more difficult to see in an almost lightless environment. call it camouflage
Radijs 10-20-07, 01:27 PM	Except that in a lightless environment predators do not rely on eyesight to hunt their prey leaving the issue of skin colour moot.
1 ton ghost 10-20-07, 01:57 PM	Except that in a lightless environment predators do not rely on eyesight to hunt their prey leaving the issue of skin colour moot. good point, they could be neon and it wouldn't matter. in darkvision everything is B/W. yeah, from a scientific viewpoint, they should be washed out, pale as can be and nearly hairless if given enough time. look at the crawlers in "The Descent"; these are basically underdark humans that have adapted to their environment. feral, blindsighted (echolocation anyway), carnivorous. the blackened skin and all is basically just a brand to ID them to other elves. not so much punitive, more of a safety measure to others like the color schemes on venomous snakes. black like their heart i guess is not too melodramatic an allusion... but, like w/ all fantasy jargon and the unexplained, "uh...it's magic."
TiwazTyrsfist 10-20-07, 05:28 PM	Note one, The drow are not the color of chocolate. They are not dark brown, like humans of african descent. Drow are the color of coal, of the empty between stars. They are, in fact, Black. And not black in an african american way, but rather in a mix it with white and you get gray sort of way. The reason for this is that the drow, like the light elves, are decended from old norse and saxon mythos. The Elves are the Alfs, from Alfhiem, one of the nine planes on Yggdrasil the world tree. They are the embodyment of nature, light, etc. The Drow are the Svartalfs, litterally Dark Elves, From Svartalfhiem or Nidavellar, where the roots of the world tree are. The Svartalfs were the dark reflection of the Alfs. Where the Alfs were carefree and wild, the Svartalfs were serious and stoic. Where the Alfs were light and gay, the Svartalfs were dark and cynical. In some myths they were the dwarves, but in others they appeared like elves, but with night black skin. And that was the source myth for the first dark elves in D&D. In Forgotten realms these Dark Evil Elves were renamed Drow, and given a new background, but retained most of the personality traits and physical characteristics of the classic Svartalfs.
Jaxgaret 10-20-07, 07:17 PM	Note one, The drow are not the color of chocolate. They are not dark brown, like humans of african descent. Drow are the color of coal, of the empty between stars. They are, in fact, Black. And not black in an african american way, but rather in a mix it with white and you get gray sort of way. The reason for this is that the drow, like the light elves, are decended from old norse and saxon mythos. The Elves are the Alfs, from Alfhiem, one of the nine planes on Yggdrasil the world tree. They are the embodyment of nature, light, etc. The Drow are the Svartalfs, litterally Dark Elves, From Svartalfhiem or Nidavellar, where the roots of the world tree are. The Svartalfs were the dark reflection of the Alfs. Where the Alfs were carefree and wild, the Svartalfs were serious and stoic. Where the Alfs were light and gay, the Svartalfs were dark and cynical. In some myths they were the dwarves, but in others they appeared like elves, but with night black skin. And that was the source myth for the first dark elves in D&D. In Forgotten realms these Dark Evil Elves were renamed Drow, and given a new background, but retained most of the personality traits and physical characteristics of the classic Svartalfs. I couldn't agree with you more, Tiwaz :) Joking aside, that was some nice info on the origins of Elven mythology.
Finfreeze 10-20-07, 07:31 PM	The Elves are the Alfs, from Alfhiem So...+1 racial bonus on attack rolls and +4 dodge bonus vs. housecats?
Radijs 10-20-07, 07:50 PM	Gay in that context means merry and fun-loving, not homosexual. Sorry to bear bad news.
Guardian1 10-20-07, 08:22 PM	I'm not intending my two cents on this subject to be rascist, but the way I always saw it is that it represents the evil in their souls. Sort of an weird, indirect Portrait of Dorian Gray thing. After all, in D&D, black is generally considered to be the color of evil, so a race of evil elves? Dark skin to match a dark heart.
Jaxgaret 10-20-07, 11:20 PM	Gay in that context means merry and fun-loving, not homosexual. Sorry to bear bad news. REALLY??? I NEVER KNEW THAT KTHXBYE!!!1!!1!!! Oh, wait, yes I did. :) As I stated in that post, it was a joke. Not that I need to state such a thing, but for the record, I have plenty of homosexual and non-homosexual friends alike. It's all good by me. And if Elves happen to be gay... there's nothing wrong with that ;) Helps explain the low reproduction rate anyways...
Mr_Arcane 10-21-07, 01:41 AM	From what I understand, Drow have different stories behind thier race depending on the setting. In Forgotten Realms, they stick with the tired and true story of Lolth's followers being branded with thier obvious skin color for all to recognize them as traiters and thier banishment to the Underdark for thier alligence to the Spider Queen. In Eberron, the Drow were a slave race for the giants of Xen'Drik way back when and did not leave the land when the other elves left. Their skin color was (from what I can recall) from the giants magical experimenting with thier race. In a homebrew setting, this can vary wildly. One can go the natural selection route and say that if they did indeed live underground, they are blind and have pure white skin and hair. You should modify the race accoridngly. This could be like Blindsense, or Blind Fight, modifying Light Sensetivity, and changing racial stats around a bit. If you still want to keep the dark skin trait, make them like the Aboriginies. A sun light filled enviroment with little to no tree shade can create skin filled with melenoma, the pigment that colors skin. If you want to keep the "deitific exodus" sort of story you might have some sort of branding on the race's bodies (Spiders on the back with legs wraping around the front might keep in line with the spider worshipers.). This wastes the deities divine energies less than colloring every newborn black as the night. Just as a little reminder as to whom they owe thier alligence. You seriously could create just as many Drow varients as there are Elf varients depending on what the DM wants or the campiagn setting calls for. If you don't feel like creating varients, then save yourself time and effort and stick with already created material. This is the beauty of the mechanics fo D&D, you can create anything you want, or modify its flavor. Nothing is written in Underdark stone
Operation_Shoestring 10-21-07, 06:01 AM	Note one, The drow are not the color of chocolate. They are not dark brown, like humans of african descent. Drow are the color of coal, of the empty between stars. They are, in fact, Black. And not black in an african american way, but rather in a mix it with white and you get gray sort of way. The reason for this is that the drow, like the light elves, are decended from old norse and saxon mythos. The Elves are the Alfs, from Alfhiem, one of the nine planes on Yggdrasil the world tree. They are the embodyment of nature, light, etc. The Drow are the Svartalfs, litterally Dark Elves, From Svartalfhiem or Nidavellar, where the roots of the world tree are. The Svartalfs were the dark reflection of the Alfs. Where the Alfs were carefree and wild, the Svartalfs were serious and stoic. Where the Alfs were light and gay, the Svartalfs were dark and cynical. In some myths they were the dwarves, but in others they appeared like elves, but with night black skin. And that was the source myth for the first dark elves in D&D. In Forgotten realms these Dark Evil Elves were renamed Drow, and given a new background, but retained most of the personality traits and physical characteristics of the classic Svartalfs. The word Drow comes from Celtic myth, not Norse. It refer's to the rivals of the Tuatha De Danaan, who were the template for many Fairy and Elf stories. The Tuatha were sorta elfish, and are closely related to a later mythos of the Sidlhe, who were divided into the Seelie and Unseelie courts, which basically are "light" and "dark" elves respectively. The (moon/surface) Elf vs (dark) Elf thing is pretty much based off the Sidlhe, and due to the similarity between the Tuatha and the Sidlhe, the dark elves were named Drow after the Tuatha's old enemies. The deep-gnomes, or svartnebilung, are straight out of Norse, however.
sapient 10-21-07, 12:00 PM	Take a pick of any of the offered explanations in this thread to use in-game, if it bothers you. Of course, the most usual explanation - out of game - is simply "because it was a cool idea, or at least seemed so at the time". And not everyone bothers about making up a suitable after-the-fact explanation. So whenever there's something that doesn't immediately make sense, think about it from that perspective - somebody thought that this should be a cool thing about this race (or whatever) and maybe you can get into the same mindset. "If I had developed this thing, I would have explained it with..." And think about what other principles you use in your campaign-world to make exceptions from real world science. That can be useful: ... 1. There's no natural selection. ... Or maybe there is, but it works as the most primitive notions of evolution thought - that the Giraffe got its long neck from reaching for leaves. (So Drow evolved darker skin because they hide in dark places a lot.) Or it works along the lines Aristotle thought, about realizing potentials and innate principles. Drow live in the dark, so as they develop they do so by better expressing the idea of darkness. Such explanations can be generalized and save you the trouble of inventing a new exception every time.
PhaedrusXY 10-21-07, 12:11 PM	We're talking about D&D here, not an Evolutionary Biology class. The two should be mutually exclusive in most cases, IMO, because in D&D things were certainly made by "Intelligent Design". I like Sapient's idea of having evolution in the game, but having it work differently. The first one he describes was an alternative early theory of evolution put forth by Lamarck.
Radijs 10-21-07, 04:21 PM	I don't like Intelligent Design because its a load of bonk. But you're still right. There's no need for evolution or anything. Because the gods did make the world and there's day to day evidence of their existance through the powers that clerics wield etc.
lord_xarallon 10-21-07, 05:26 PM	Because then they look more evil...
Return of the Flumph 10-21-07, 05:43 PM	This might not click with certain published settings, but here is the explanation I use in my homebrew. Before their exhile in the underdark, the drow were a nocturnal elven subrace. Thus, they evolved black skin to make them better hunters, as its hard to see a black creature during the night. The other elven races are either diurnal, or not as focused on hunting and stealth, and thus never turned black like the drow did. Since they were banished to the underdark, the drow have had no reason to lose their pigmentation, and their long lifespans and low premature mortality rate means that it will be a long time before genetic drift kicks in and turns them albino.
The_Shaman 10-22-07, 09:05 AM	Note one, The drow are not the color of chocolate. They are not dark brown, like humans of african descent. Drow are the color of coal, of the empty between stars. They are, in fact, Black. And not black in an african american way, but rather in a mix it with white and you get gray sort of way. Actually, I thought they were a bit of indigo-black. You know, like a properly ripened aubergine. Good point, anyway.
Jaxgaret 10-22-07, 12:08 PM	Actually, I thought they were a bit of indigo-black. You know, like a properly ripened aubergine. Good point, anyway. No, Drow are black. They are commonly drawn with a purple tint for artistic purposes - if you do a google search for it, you'll find that artists drawing Drow take it upon themselves to add a purplish tint to them, because they can make better artwork with a larger palette than simply black and more black - it allows them to use shadowing and whatever the heck other techniques artists utilize when they draw.
Devil Gnasher 10-22-07, 01:01 PM	Drow are supposed to be reminescent of black widow spiders. Hence the charcoal-black skin, silvery-white hair and glowing red eyes. It could even be said that female drow cook and eat the men whom they have sex with. Renegade female drow might cook for and eat along with their male lovers afterwards instead.
Bull-of-the-Pit 10-22-07, 02:49 PM	In our HB, the equivalent of the drow are sometimes called "crystal elves" or "glass elves." They have clear flesh and bones, and translucent, silvery organs, their tendons and larger muscles also have a silvery sheen. Their skin in mostly clear, but a little 'frosted' (i.e.: they're not 'invisible'). As if Giger (the guy who created the aliens in "Alien") had designed them out of glass and chrome (though they are flesh and blood...clear blood, that is). A coat of thick make-up, and they'd look very much like any other elf, just with an even slighter build. They replace spiders as their cultural focus with crystals. At festivals they drink potions that cause their blood to glow brightly in different colors, and then dance complicated, interweaving dances with dozens of participants. ...still evil, though...or at least very, very arrogant and dismissive of other cultures.
ADHadh 10-22-07, 03:38 PM	No, Drow are black. They are commonly drawn with a purple tint for artistic purposes - if you do a google search for it, you'll find that artists drawing Drow take it upon themselves to add a purplish tint to them, because they can make better artwork with a larger palette than simply black and more black - it allows them to use shadowing and whatever the heck other techniques artists utilize when they draw. Using "simply black and more black" would be pointless - your typical Ivory Black is a very flat colour. You can get a better shade of black by mixing blues with browns and greens only. Mixing black with Paris Blue or some shade of violet gives you a very magical effect - so those colours are usually visible in lighter areas. :twocents:
Jaxgaret 10-22-07, 04:11 PM	Using "simply black and more black" would be pointless - your typical Ivory Black is a very flat colour. You can get a better shade of black by mixing blues with browns and greens only. Mixing black with Paris Blue or some shade of violet gives you a very magical effect - so those colours are usually visible in lighter areas. :twocents: There you go! Thank you for clarifying, demonstrating, and exemplifying my point, ADHadh. :)
Mojo_Rat 10-22-07, 04:49 PM	Some settings portray evil elvers or 'dark elves' being pale skinned. Rolemaster did this along with the riftwar saga I believe. Ive noticed a tendancy in younger playrs to automatically assume any evil elves in a setting are drow or would look like drow. Where as Drow are really something that should be unique to D&D. Far as i know the black skin thing is usually tied up in their creation and betryral and cast off from the surface world mythos. As somone mentioned specific to FR it being a curse from the surface elves aide dby corellion lorethian. In the recent 'drow of the underdark book' One of the PrC's has a curse that does the reverse to surface elves.
Lord QZip 10-22-07, 04:52 PM	Except that in a lightless environment predators do not rely on eyesight to hunt their prey leaving the issue of skin colour moot. Except DRAGONS! Mmm... crunchy Drow crackers... Mmm... Joking aside, (since Dragon's have ways of seeing in the dark anyway...) you could have Drow being the only things populating their caves that pose any real threat to them, however, other stuff (like other HUMANOIDS, bears, and the like) go into the caves on occasion that wouldn't have Darkvision (except bears have really good scent... dang, so much for them...) and happen to be ****** off at the Drow making camoflague important again. You could also say that Drow biology is so different that they actually are getting lighter very slowly, but will never be white because of how their skin pigmentation works (I'm sure that's somehow biologically possible even if I doubt it happens on earth). Thus, they used to be pitch black and now they're charcoal black (a step up woohoo!). I don't like "Well it's magic, man!" explanations either. Seems like a cop out, but I can usually come up with something I do like.
Fuzzly 10-22-07, 05:18 PM	You can't always provide ecological answers using our knowledge of our universe for ecological questions in the D&D universe. The way things work are fundamentally different. It just doesn't work. But, since I am supposed to be a Biology major, let me throw some possible explanations. Long generation time. Elves aren't considered "mature" until much, much later than most creatures. Their evolution is thereby slowed, because they just don't have as many children/generations. Changes to their genetic code would happen much more slowly than any other creature we know. It pays to be black. Any drow who is easier to see than the others gets killed. Because other races still use their eyes, it doesn't pay to lose your pigment. Pigment is a cost to the individual. It takes energy/resources to color your skin. Now, in our underground systems, most predators don't use their eyes, so the prey doesn't need to spend their resources on camoflauge. However, in D&D, most of the Drow's enemies use their eyes, so it pays to keep your coloration. Being underground does not select directly for skin coloration. It is an indirect selection for the cost/benefit ratio of the predators not having eyes.
HCL 10-22-07, 05:28 PM	Well in elder scrolls the dark elves live near a giant volcano that spits ash all over so they have blended in with the black background. /Their goddess got mad at them take your pick
Jaxgaret 10-22-07, 06:57 PM	I've already explained this once before on these boards, and for all my google-fu I can't find it (I blame the switch to gleemax.com. Stupid switches.), but I'll run it down really quick here. The reason for why human beings' skins are variably colored the way they are is because of sunlight. Read this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color#Melanin_and_genes)* for the explanation for why. Now, since Drow are not Human, and have a different physiology, there is no reason to assume that their skin pigmentation is due to the same source as ours. It could be biological, it could be magic, it could be anything. But to link Drow skin color to Human skin color in any way is just nonscientific and a pointless endeavor, especially considering that they don't actually exist. * If you don't feel like clicking on the link, here is the text of it: Dark skin protects against those skin cancers that are caused by mutations in skin cells induced by ultraviolet light. Light-skinned persons have about a tenfold greater risk of dying from skin cancer under equal sun conditions. Furthermore, dark skin prevents UV-A radiation from destroying the essential B vitamin folate. Folate is needed for the synthesis of DNA in dividing cells and too low levels of folate in pregnant women are associated with birth defects. While dark skin protects vitamin B, it can lead to a vitamin D deficiency. The advantage of light skin is that it does not block sunlight as effectively, leading to increased production of vitamin D3, necessary for calcium absorption and bone growth. The lighter skin of women may result from the higher calcium needs of women during pregnancy and lactation. The evolution of the different skin tones is thought to have occurred as follows: the haired ancestors of humans, like modern great apes, had light skin under their hair. Once the hair was lost, they evolved dark skin, needed to prevent low folate levels since they lived in sun-rich Africa. (The skin cancer connection is probably of secondary importance, since skin cancer usually kills only after the reproductive age and therefore does not exert much evolutionary pressure.) When humans migrated to less sun-intensive regions in the north, low vitamin D3 levels became a problem and light skin color re-emerged. Dark-skinned people who live in less sun-intensive regions often lack vitamin D3, one reason for the fortification of milk with vitamin D in some countries.
Bauglir 10-22-07, 08:14 PM	Yes, this is correct. Once a dark-skinned group leaves the sunny area, as long as they get plenty of Vitamin D, however, there is no evolutionary pressure to change skin color, and so the Drow (likely intelligent to figure that such and such food was necessary to their immediate survival) have no reason to have changed. Assuming, of course, that what we know applies to D&D. I'm of the opinion that Lolth did it, myself.
FrostWolf 10-22-07, 09:30 PM	I recommend reading their descriptions from older monster manuals, then tell med why ther ae "dark skinned."
Jaxgaret 10-22-07, 10:06 PM	Yes, this is correct. Once a dark-skinned group leaves the sunny area, as long as they get plenty of Vitamin D, however, there is no evolutionary pressure to change skin color, and so the Drow (likely intelligent to figure that such and such food was necessary to their immediate survival) have no reason to have changed. No D&D campaign setting that I know of would be advanced scientifically enough in the field of biology to know what Vitamin D is, or its equivalent in Drow, if it even exists. Perhaps Eberron, but I doubt it. Assuming, of course, that what we know applies to D&D. I'm of the opinion that Lolth did it, myself. It's probable that Elves' racial skin color follows completely different evolutionary or non-evolutionary lines - such as by magic, which is the D&D explanation, via Lolth's curse, as you stated - than Humans'.
Angel Black 10-22-07, 10:06 PM	A. The Drow Color cames from a misunderstanding, when Wizards ask an artist to make a "Dark Elf". B. The Drow Color is a gift of the Spider queen to make them look more like, well, a spider. C. Elfs are black, Higher Elves are the Michael Jackson offspring. D. Drows are oversized smurfs E. Any other choice.
ADHadh 10-23-07, 07:57 AM	D. Drows are oversized smurfs That'd make them blue and live in mushrooms. Besides Smurfs are over-patriarchal, with only one or two females existing. There you go! Thank you for clarifying, demonstrating, and exemplifying my point, ADHadh. :) You're welcome. Are that kind of things supposed to be sblock-sigged?
Erato 10-23-07, 12:21 PM	No D&D campaign setting that I know of would be advanced scientifically enough in the field of biology to know what Vitamin D is, or its equivalent in Drow, if it even exists. Perhaps Eberron, but I doubt it. But they could notice that people eating certain foods were less likely to get certain illnesses. This happened long before the discovery of vitamins in the real world, and with divination spells, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out if you needed a certain type of food to stay healthy. Besides, vitamin D is mainly found in fish, which I believe constitutes a significant part of drow diet, so it's not unlikely that they don't actually feel the effect of less D vitamin, especially not since many of those who survive long enough to feel the long-time effect, will have access to healing magic. It's probable that Elves' racial skin color follows completely different evolutionary or non-evolutionary lines - such as by magic, which is the D&D explanation, via Lolth's curse, as you stated - than Humans'. I agree that elven skin don't necessarily follow the same laws as humans. Drow are just normal elves (pale skin, dark hair, green eyes) turned around (black skin, white hair, red eyes) to mark their difference.