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Do you Drow?

I'll start this with the standard realm of fantasy drow. The nasty, backstabbing, spider loving and rather unfortunately dark skinned matriarchal society. So, if you use them, do you keep to this or do you change them up a bit? Or a lot? Seeing as this is also a world building thread I'll throw in my version to see the thoughts on it.

Eld's drow are, put mildly, slightly juvenile pranksters as the first. Granted, in the past, their 'pranks' have started wars. They often fight with the dwarves that live underground, the dwarves trying to drive them back above ground. Though their backstabbing ways drove them underground in the first place and the fact there is a saying (often said by them) that there's 'always a drow' in the background of the world's goings on. Which holds some water. They extended their reach beyond assassins and creating many of the world's monsters with their often questionable alchemy to business prospects and actual banana republics. At the current time, they hold the largest business interests in the lands and hold most the trade lines.

They still worship Lolth, though she's became more a trickster goddess and the wealth and decadence has turned her a bit lazy and usually lounging in Paradise City's palace in her own personal wing. Usually to the annoyance of the Matriarch(s) at the time. They have both a court and a knighthood known as the Court of Peaches, which is often violent, though nowhere that deadly. They have a tendency to turn the impossible simply improbable and then making it possible. Which is why Paradise City exists. They wanted beach front property in a giant cavern. So, they summoned a stone from the sun and built a city of beaches and orchards and manage to live in decadence deep beneath the earth. They've repeated the process in all their underground cities and towns and have control of the underground roads, for the most part.

Dress style is best put as...tacky and brightly colored, when they don't simply paint clothes on or not wear any at all. The entire Court of Peaches is known for the obvious peach colors, along with orange and pink. They are brightly colored at all times, even if it looks like they dressed blindly. When they bother to dress. Among other things, they primarily get along with the green skinned races better then their other elf kin and are perfectly fine with getting more wood elves killed on the simple premise that if they don't do it, the wood elves will do to themselves anyways. They still also have the assassins, though not as traditional as most, the highest known as The Grand Jester. Due to them liking harlequins and clowns.

They have also weaponized peaches and mangos as bombs. The latter of which can kill dragons by exploding their heads. Started as a prank, of course. So, that about sums them up. A bit long, but I've been working on them a while now. Wanted to subvert them a bit.
 

WooHooMan

Auror
As far as I'm concern, I can't do Drow better than the Dunmer in Elder Scrolls. So, I don't even try.

I like that your drow feel a little more like mythological elves as fairy-like tricksters rather than the Tolkien-type elves.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
I think the drow are wholly a dungeons and dragons creation so i would not touch them unless i was playing.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I think the drow are wholly a dungeons and dragons creation so i would not touch them unless i was playing.

They aren't. They're in Norse mythology and perhaps found elsewhere, though apparently there is some argument about the distinction between dark elves, black elves, and dwarves.

I am fairly certain Gygax introduced them into D&D and he said he got them from mythology--not sure what source.
 
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pmmg

Myth Weaver
Just doing some hasty research, while their are similar creatures, it does seem mr gygax created the drow.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Just doing some hasty research, while their are similar creatures, it does seem mr gygax created the drow.

Only in the form they are in D&D, just like he created other creatures in the form they exist in D&D but that have a basis in mythology or novels. He didn't make them up as a general idea, and said as much. I don't know where he got the name--some say from "trow," which are creatures that also live underground (I don't really see the resemblance). But the idea of havin dark elves didn't start with D&D. I guess you can quibble over using the name, but the creatures as a concept didn't start there. Gygax said he got the word out of an old dictionary as a term for some kind of elf, but I've never seen the source material.

upshot: I wouldn't use copies of D&D drow but apart from that I don't have a problem with them.
 

DeathtoTrite

Troubadour
As far as I'm concern, I can't do Drow better than the Dunmer in Elder Scrolls. So, I don't even try.

I like that your drow feel a little more like mythological elves as fairy-like tricksters rather than the Tolkien-type elves.

Ha! Dunmer are by far my favorite race lore-wise in TES.

Personally, Drow are too DnD for me. And just kind of a boring, goth version of a race I already find bland.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
The Drow can be roughly compared to the Dock-Alfar of Norse mythology.

That said...

Decades ago, I wrote (and completed!) a short story featuring a Drow in dire straits in the 'Forgotten Realms' under-dark. I started on a sequel to that story before having 'issues.'
 
Ha! Dunmer are by far my favorite race lore-wise in TES.

Personally, Drow are too DnD for me. And just kind of a boring, goth version of a race I already find bland.

Which is why I figured I could ask about it. Started off with Pathfinder versions as a basis and decided not to go the D&D route and figured just how much I could change. Though it more came about because two of the drow characters were rather juvenile tricksters among the scouting group and it just transferred to the entire race. Or a good portion of it. They aren't the Dunmar, which are pretty neat. I kind of cheered a little when the Argonians took their home though.
 

WooHooMan

Auror
They aren't. They're in Norse mythology and perhaps found elsewhere, though apparently there is some argument about the distinction between dark elves, black elves, and dwarves.

I am fairly certain Gygax introduced them into D&D and he said he got them from mythology--not sure what source.

The only thing he took from the dökkálfar was that they are a counterpart to the "light elves" and that they live underground. In Norse mythology; black elves, dark elves and dwarves are all the same thing.
I don't think you're giving Gygax enough credit. If he called them something other than "dark elves" or "drows", there would be no debate that they are his creation.
Next you're going to say Tolkien didn't invent Orcs because their name comes from the word "orcus" and they're based on ogres.

Ha! Dunmer are by far my favorite race lore-wise in TES.

Personally, Drow are too DnD for me. And just kind of a boring, goth version of a race I already find bland.

I think that's the trick: there's nothing really goth-y, game-y or even traditionally elf-like about Dunmer. They're mostly based on ancient Israelites with a dash of Mongol and living on Tatooine. So they almost feel like a human culture that's just alien enough.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
The only thing he took from the dökkálfar was that they are a counterpart to the "light elves" and that they live underground. In Norse mythology; black elves, dark elves and dwarves are all the same thing.
I don't think you're giving Gygax enough credit. If he called them something other than "dark elves" or "drows", there would be no debate that they are his creation.

Next you're going to say Tolkien didn't invent Orcs because their name comes from the word "orcus" and they're based on ogres.

You may have miss post #6, where I said quite specifically that he created them in the form they appear in D&D.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
I think the drow are wholly a dungeons and dragons creation so i would not touch them unless i was playing.

A lot of D&D stuff is available for use. There's a list of off-limits races. Mindflayers is on it, but drow are not.
 

ApaCisare

Scribe
I used the name Drow for one my races but they don't share much with the typical idea of Drow found in D&D for example.
They cover a wide geographic area and range from a dark tanned to white in complexion (white like snow or paper, not like most Caucasians). They also have unnatural, for a human, eye colour, gold, silver, red, etc. Hair colour is often the same, ranging from stark white at birth to silver and a type of deep purple or blue, though more normal hair colours are common as well.
Their height varies in much the same way as that of humans, they are not dwarfs normally.
Culturally they vary from Caucasus cultures to Germanic, Celtic and Slavic in the north.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
I mess with all races I use, creating many new ones, so while I would never have them like the Drow, a dark-elf-like species could certainly exist. My elf-like species itself has a Machiavellian twist with a rigid caste and honor system, amongst other traits.
 
My WIP features a race of dark-skinned people who live underground, but they do not call themselves Drow or acknowledge any kindred with elves. They are tall and slender on average, but don't have pointy ears. They act more like Vulcans than humans, but this isn't a Star Trek universe, so there's no mention of Vulcans in the WIP.
 
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