Drow (Dungeons & Dragons)


 * This article refers to the fictional elven race from Dungeons & Dragons. For the "drow" of Scottish folklore and other examples of dark elves and black elves from mythology, folklore, and fantasy fiction, see Dark elf.

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

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

The drow have adapted to seeing better in the darkness than in the light, and they rarely, if ever, venture up to the surface, for their eyes are sensitive to the light. In earlier editions of the game, the magic weapons, armor, and various other items of the drow would disintegrate on contact with sunlight.

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

Drow males are commonly wizards or fighters. Females are almost always clerics and almost never wizards.

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

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

Drow society is based upon violence, murder, cunning, and the philosophy that only the strong survive (though in Drow tongue, a quirk of the language creates a reversal of cause-and-effect; more correctly, it can be translated as "those who survive are strong"). Hence, most Drow plot endlessly to murder or otherwise incapacitate their rivals and enemy Drow using deceit and betrayal. Drow, particularly in higher positions, are constantly wary of assassins and the like. Their society, as a whole, is seemingly nonviable. The only reason they do not murder themselves to extinction is by the will of Lolth, working primarily through her clergy. Lolth does not tolerate any Drow that threaten to bring down her society, and the clergy make certain that perpetrators cease their destructive actions by either threatening or killing them, depending on her mood.

There are exceptions to the rule, of course. Some communities of drow worship other gods (like Vhaeraun or Eilistraee), and thus, their hierarchy changes, reverses the roles of males and females, or (such as in the case of Eilastree) even approaching something like a workable, progressive society.

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

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

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

Drow in the Forgotten Realms
In the Forgotten Realms, the dark elves were once ancient tribes of Ilythiir. They were transformed into drow by the Seldarine and were cast down and driven underground by the light-skinned elves because of the Ilythiirian's savagery during the Crown Wars. The drow had fallen under the influence of Araushnee, who was transformed into Lolth and was cast down into the Demonweb Pits along with her son Vhaeraun by the elven god Corellon Larethian because of Lolth's and Vhaeraun's attempt to take control of the elven pantheon (which included Araushnee's seduction of Corellon Larethian). The largest drow civilization is the subterranean city of Llurth Dreier (population 400,000). However, Menzoberranzan is featured most prominently in the novels.

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

Amongst the most infamous of drow are the members of House Baenre, whilst Abeir-Toril is also home to some famous benevolent drow including Drizzt Do'Urden and his deceased father Zaknafein (both of House Do' Urden), Liriel Baenre (formerly of Menzoberranzan's aforementioned House Baenre), and Qilué of the Seven Sisters. The drow Jarlaxle is also well-known, as he is one of the few males in Menzoberranzan to obtain a position of great power. He is the founder and former leader of the mercenary band Bregan D'aerthe. These characters are from The Dark Elf Trilogy (1990 – 1991), a series of books by R. A. Salvatore (except for Liriel Baenre and Qilue). The six drow in the War of the Spider Queen series have also gained some renown since the novels have been published. The drow also have a long-standing, mutual racial hatred with the gloamings, a rare race found in the pages of the Underdark supplement.

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

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

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

Drow in other campaign settings
Different campaign settings portray drow in various ways.

In the Dragonlance setting, dark elves are not a distinct race; rather, "dark elves" are elves who have been cast out by the other elves for various crimes, such as worship of the evil deities. Dalamar, a student of Raistlin Majere, is the most notable of Krynn's dark elves. However, over the years dark-skinned drow elves have accidentally appeared in a few Dragonlance modules and novels. Similar mistakes have occurred with other standard AD&D races, such as orcs and lycanthropes, that are not part of the Dragonlance setting. Some theories say that these rare drow may have accidentally been sent there during a plane shifting spell or related magic, a misfire as like as not that is corrected before the respective timelines are tampered with too drastically.

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

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

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

A supplement book about the drow was produced by Green Ronin Publishing called Plot & Poison: A Guidebook to the Drow in 2002 and is based on the d20 System. It introduces several drow subtypes including aquatic drow and vulpdrax (or winged drow) plus fleshes out drow life, such as how they treat slaves of the various fantasy types like elves and humans. Wizards of the Coast, seeing the heavy sales of the GRP supplement, released their own supplement book called Drow of the Underdark in May 2007.

Drow in other media
The Baldur's Gate series of computer games features drow as enemies and NPCs, as well as part of the game being set in the drow city of Ust Nautha. The drow cleric of Shar, Viconia, features in Baldur's Gate, and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn as a party member and, in the second game, a possible romantic interest. In the Baldur's Gate series expansion, her alignment can be changed from neutral evil to true neutral if she is in a romance with a PC. The Eilistraee-worshipping drow male Solaufein plays a minor role in the second game, but his role can be expanded into a romance with a mod. Drizzt Do'Urden has a cameo in both Baldur's Gate and Shadows of Amn, Jarlaxle Baenre has a cameo in Shadows of Amn, and they and the male dark elves Maznafein and Jalynfein also appear in the 1994 IBM-PC CD game Menzoberranzan.

In Icewind Dale, a drow named Nym steals dwarven weapons and artifacts and sells them to the goblin and orc armies attacking the elven fortress, the Shattered Hand. Since the armies are armed with dwarven weapons, the elf leader Larrel assumes the dwarves betrayed them, and ends the alliance between the two. Thus, Nym is single-handedly responsible for the fall of both the dwarves and the elves in the Dale. Nym can be found in the Svirfneblin village in the tunnels of Lower Dorn's Deep, where he will sell a number of magical artifacts and weapons to the player. Nym also appears in Icewind Dale II, where he appears to be in league with the Legion of the Chimera.

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

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

In the Hungarian role-playing game M.A.G.U.S., "obsidian-elves" appear as a deadly and evil race, which are similar to the drow. These lonely predators live in deep caves and hunt passionately almost everything, searching for challenge and danger. They are vile and ruthless to the core, but usually leave humans alone, letting them pass unharmed in their caves, as these dark elves don't accept mortal beings as worthy prey.

Creative origins
The drow, as they appear in fantasy fiction and games, were created by Gary Gygax, who stated that "Drow are mentioned in Keightley's The Fairy Mythology, as I recall (it might have been The Secret Commonwealth--neither book is before me, and it is not all that important anyway), and as Dark Elves of evil nature, they served as an ideal basis for the creation of a unique new mythos designed especially for the AD&D game." ("Books Are Books, Games Are Games" in Dragon Magazine, Nov. 1979, #31. This establishes Gygax's source for the term as Thomas Keightley's The Fairy Mythology, Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries (1828; aka The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and Other Little People). They were first mentioned in the Dungeons & Dragons game in the 1st Edition 1977 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual under "Elf", where it is stated that "The 'Black Elves,' or drow, are only legend." They made their first statistical appearance in G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (later G1-2-3 Against the Giants) (1978) by Gary Gygax. The story continued in modules D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth, D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, D3 Vault of the Drow, and Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits each of which expanded on drow culture. The first D&D manual that the drow appeared in was the original Fiend Folio.

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

In the June 2007 D&D Podcast, Wizards of the Coast officially sets the pronunciation of "drow" in D&D as ". . . rhymes with 'cow', not with 'throw'. "

Novels
Elaine Cunningham
 * Starlight and Shadows

Gary Gygax
 * Artifact of Evil
 * Come Endless Darkness
 * Dance of Demons
 * Sea of Death

R.A. Salvatore
 * The Dark Elf Trilogy
 * The Icewind Dale Trilogy
 * Legacy of the Drow
 * Paths of Darkness
 * The Hunter's Blades Trilogy

Lisa Smedman
 * Sacrifice of the Widow

Assorted authors
 * War of the Spider Queen
 * Overseen by R.A. Salvatore
 * The Shattered Land and The Gates of Night by Keith Baker.

Video games

 * Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
 * Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II
 * Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
 * Eye of the Beholder
 * Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
 * Forgotten Realms: Menzoberranzan
 * Icewind Dale
 * Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark
 * Neverwinter Nights II
 * Pools of Darkness
 * Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes (As "Dark Elves", although not entirely synonymous with Drow)
 * Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders (As "Dark Elves", although not entirely synonymous with Drow)
 * Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach
 * Champions of Norrath (As "Dark Elves", although not entirely synonymous with Drow)
 * Champions: Return to Arms (As "Dark Elves", although not entirely synonymous with Drow)
 * Defense of the Ancients (As Traxex, the Drow Ranger)
 * ''Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor
 * ''EverQuest
 * ''EverQuest II