Drow

Drow, also known as dark elves, deep elves, night elves, and the Dark Ones among orcs, were a dark-skinned sub-race of elves that predominantly lived in the Underdark. They were hated and feared due to their cruelty, though some non-evil and an even smaller number of good drow existed.

“Station: In all the world of the drow, there is no more important word. It is the calling of their—of our—religion, the incessant pulling of hungering heartstrings. Ambition overrides good sense and compassion is thrown away in its face, all in the name of Lloth, the Spider Queen.”

— Drizzt Do'Urden

Description

In many ways, the drow resembled other elves or eladrin. Their bodies were wiry and athletic, while their faces were chiseled and attractive, though they were shorter and thinner than other elven sub-races. Due to a process of selective breeding that lasted for several generations, the drow (especially nobles) looked attractive even in comparison to other elven subraces. Though their alluring appearance could be used for seduction, it was more often utilized to instill fear. According to the goblin Nojheim, the beauty standards of the surface races made them prone to turn a blind eye to the deeds of the drow, showing them greater leniency and acceptance.

Reports varied on the physical differences between the drow sexes. Some purported that females were generally bigger and stronger than males, while others claimed the males had superior strength. Both sexes varied in height from 4 feet and ​7 inches​ to ​5 feet and ​5 inches (140​ to ​170 centimeters), averaging at 5 feet (150 centimeters). Males weighed between 87​ to ​157 pounds (39​ to ​71.2 kilograms), averaging 109.5 pounds (49.67 kilograms), while females were a bit lighter, weighing between 82​ to ​152 pounds (37​ to ​68.9 kilograms) and averaging 104.5 pounds (47.4 kilograms).

Coloration

Drow skin tones ranged from dark grey, jet-black, and obsidian, (with various shades of blue), the albino drow known as the Szarkai being an exception. Drow had white, black, or purple teeth, while their gums, tongues, and throats could be red, pink, or purple.

Drow eyes could be of any color, with bright red being the most common. Pale shades that appeared nearly white of blue, lilac, pink, or silver were also frequent. Drow with green, brown, black, amber, or rose-hued eyes existed, but they were rare. Purple or blue eyes indicated surface elves and/or human ancestry. The color of a drow's eyes could also be indicative of their current mental or physical state; drow eyes reddened when they were angry, and turned yellow when they were sick, poisoned, or under some negative magical influence.

Hair

Drow hair could be stark white, pale yellow and, more rarely, silver or copper in color. It thinned and changed color with age, turning pale yellow for women, and silver or grey for men. Due to the Eilistraeen ritual of The Run, drow of other faiths would often say that silver hair was a sign of mental handicap.

Drow generally kept their hair long, and decorated it with pins and webbing made of precious metals. They were incapable of growing proper beards, but some males managed to grow long sideburns or even tufts of wispy hair on the cheek or chin.

Clothing

The majority of drow wore a piwafwi, a fire-resistant, protective cloak, footwear that functioned as boots of elvenkind, and a drow house insignia. The latter showed the House or merchant clan to which a drow belonged, be it as a member or servant. However, with the exception of the First House, insignias weren't openly displayed except when inside the House territory or the clan's base.

Noble drow wore clothes and equipment of superior quality (except, of course, when they didn't want to attract attention). For example, a noble's house insignia didn't just show house allegiance but also carried magic that could be used on command. Web chokers' were considered fashionable by drow priestesses, who also often used powdered Ormu, an Underdark-moss, as eye shadow.

Personality

Compared to other sentient beings, drow were notably intelligent, as having an analytical mindset and being observant at all times was needed to survive in their society. Intellect, along with force of personality, were mental traits that had been ruthlessly selected for in their socially darwinian civilization over several generations. However, a lifetime of being indoctrinated with Lolth's dogma, combined with their upbringing giving them limited contact with other beings, surroundings, and alternative ways of life, made them close-minded, and left them with little wordly experience.

The drow (fittingly for the dark perversions of the elves they were) were decadent and hedonistic beings with a love for what they considered beautiful and a desire to surround themselves with it, generally without paying attention to the cost of acquiring it. For example, they were often lecherous, with a tendency to take lovers at their leisure and discard them at their whim. However, the drow were able to (or at least tried to) hide some of their more heinous traits behind a veneer of sophistication.

Morality

The moral code of the average drow was informed by the teachings of Lolth. From birth, the drow were taught that they were superior to other races, and as such they believed themselves to be the ultimate beings. This mindset created an arrogance so strong that drow could be incapable of viewing other creatures as their equals, including members of their own kind; almost every drow believed themselves to be the epitome of their superior species. The treatment reserved for non-drow ran the entire gamut from pets, to slaves, to grudgingly respected partners if they proved themselves a military match for them, though never equals.

As one might expect, this atmosphere of utter condescension meant that most drow generally felt entitled to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted to do it. If a drow was not where they believed they should be, their pride demanded they blame someone else (sometimes everyone else) for their incorrect position. They were also taught that they should crush those beneath them, for cruelty was seen as a method of self-validation. If someone could not defend themselves, as the logic went, they deserved to have cruelty inflicted on them, which would prove the superiority of the drow performing the torment. They were a vengeful people by necessity, as not answering to slights with punishment was easily perceived as weakness by other drow, and was essentially the same as inviting exploitation, abuse, or even death.

Most drow sought to rise in rank, desiring the power over others that a higher station would provide. Ironically for a race that put such a focus on individual merit, personal achievement and ability carried so little weight in their minds they had almost no notion of its worth. Military genius, battle prowess, magical capability, the ability to create, and all other skills had no intrinsic value to the dark elves. The idea of passion for one's career, and of an activity having worth in and of itself was alien; abilities and resources, whether obtained by training or granted by birth, only mattered insofar as it increased a drow's ability to advance in station, thus granting them more power over others.

Given the scarcity of resources in the Underdark and the limited chances for advancement within their society, most drow had to be aggressively competitive. They had a propensity for violence, which was their favorite, even instinctive, form of conflict resolution, and they managed to fight this urge when waiting for a more propitious time to strike.

Mistrust

As a general rule, drow living within a Lolthite society couldn't afford to show emotions like compassion or love, for they were easy to exploit and drow often preferred emotional cruelty over causing physical harm. The strife they constantly endured led them to be paranoid, with a fear of everyone and everything, from the potential loss of personal position, Lolth's favor, the loyalty (or even the threat of outright rebellion) of their inferiors, to punishment by their own superiors' hands.

The end result of being raised in this environment was that the drow were untrusting sadists with a constant readiness to stab others in the back, both in the figurative and literal sense. They were an emotionally stunted people with a tenuous grasp on sanity (a trait they placed less importance on than cunning and deviousness) and scarred minds, among which relatively undamaged individuals were considered abnormal. Most were incapable of trusting other creatures, no matter their race, and were taught from an early age not to do so, as they were expected to advance at the expenses of others by any means, including treachery and even outright murder (although not overtly). Even in moments of safety or relaxation, they were always alert and constantly expecting attacks of any kind, and were rarely surprised when such attacks did come.

While the drow understood the advantage of forging bonds with others, they did not see the value in honesty. Forming relations with others was therefore a dangerous endeavor, and mostly temporary, since any alliance or cordial relationship could end in treachery. Drow normally went into engagements of this sort expecting the worst, and alliances were always under scrutiny for signs of treachery, often ending violently. They were generally formed when the supposed ally was susceptible to blackmail, considered weak enough to not be a serious threat, or when cooperation was forced by the existence of a common enemy. In fact, the mere inconvenience of maintaining the bond could be a reason to end it.

Alignment

For a race so chaotic in a society focused on individual advancement at the expense of others, the majority of drow strangely leant towards being neutral evil in alignment. The drow were, in many way, contradictory in outlook, cooperating to some degree almost in spite of their very nature. They simultaneously encouraged personal ambition and innovative problem solving (creativity being needed to get ahead of the older elites) while paradoxically placing the good of the many over the good of the individual and reinforcing staunch traditionalism.

To achieve their individual desires required their society to retain at least some level of stability, and they were held tightly to tradition even if that code wasn't actually codified into law. In fact, the drow responded poorly to social norms being turned into written rules, obeying them primarily out of fear and social pressure (but obeying them nonetheless). This lead to the phenomenon where a lone drow would drift towards chaos, whereas a drow community would be forced to work together against one another, setting up rules to stabilize the power each individual wanted for themselves and allowing for cooperation beyond what chaos could typically create.

Good Drow

Unlike creatures such as orcs, drow had no innate inclination towards evil, with their morality having been colored by their society. "Good drow" made up about 15% of the entire race, although most of them weren't actually of the good alignment, being merely chaotic neutral or lawful neutral. Within Lolthite societies, even drow with a disposition towards what was considered good generally had problems developing a strong personal sense of morality. They generally behaved the same way as evil drow due to social pressure, as being soft in any way was lethal in drow society and often resulted in the death of such drow.

Only truly exceptional "good drow", such as Drizzt Do'Urden, were capable of freeing themselves from a Lolthite society. The majority were found out and sacrificed to Lolth, and those who managed to leave their settlements would often die in the dangerous wilderness of the Underdark. Furthermore, even those who escaped the cruelties of the Underdark found it more difficult to form long-term friendships than most races did and had to constantly be on the lookout for pursuers who could kill them.

This article uses material from the “Drow” article on the Forgotten Realms wiki at Fandom and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.