D&D 5E If you were to rename the Drow for a neutral setting, what would you name them? (thread 3/3)

[Hathorym]

In my world, they are called Star Elves.

Elf, Star
Once, they were considered to be the original masters of the arcane. In short, the Linurel were haughty and self important. During the Long Dark, however, their hubris was shattered by a curse of the Devourer who granted them overwhelming intelligence. It turned them to madness. Though the seed which caused the curse was eventually destroyed, there are residual effects. They are often absent-minded, easily distracted, and have been known to suffer from dementia, visions, or paranoia. Star Elves use the elf race entry in the Player's Handbook and the dark elf subrace.

 

[superstition]

It depends upon the meaning of neutral.

If neutral means objective then they would be called Subterranean elves and would not have dark skin and eyes because those adaptions are to compensate for strong UV light exposure (strong sunlight).

Depending upon how much UV there would be underground in their living spaces and how much ambient visible light there would be, their skin color, as a standard, could be anything from albino to very pale. Their eyes would also be anything from white and sightless to very pale. I would also suggest, if one wants to retain the idea of them being an evil race, that they be enslaved their deity (functionally evil society) rather than inherently evil. It may seem to be a small difference but it makes things more objective (since it's not really possible to have an inherently evil society).

Night elves would be surface dwellers. If they were to have dark skin and eyes it would be to give them camouflage. It's more reasonable for them to have dark skin and eyes than it is for the Drow. Their vision would likely be colorblind with a greater range of light and dark (e.g. darkvision).

 

[MichaelSomething]

What about Emo Elves or Goth Elves?

 

[TheCosmicKid]

If neutral means objective then they would be called Subterranean elves and would not have dark skin and eyes because those adaptions are to compensate for strong UV light exposure (strong sunlight).

Depending upon how much UV there would be underground in their living spaces and how much ambient visible light there would be, their skin color, as a standard, could be anything from albino to very pale. Their eyes would also be anything from white and sightless to very pale.

You're assuming the elvish subraces arose through an adaptive evolutionary process in response to certain specific laws of optical physics. That is very much an open question. In your home campaign, maybe they did. But in core D&D lore, they definitely didn't. And in Scandinavian mythology, they very definitely didn't.

And given that we're dealing with various fictional universes, I'm not sure how the concept of objectivity comes into the picture.

I would also suggest, if one wants to retain the idea of them being an evil race, that they be enslaved their deity (functionally evil society) rather than inherently evil. It may seem to be a small difference but it makes things more objective (since it's not really possible to have an inherently evil society).

This tracks with how they are usually depicted in D&D: Lolth is a really nasty piece of work who actively encourages the worst behavior in her followers, but individual drow (especially individual drow who happen to possess two magical scimitars and a figurine of wondrous power) are fully capable of being good.

And again you're using the word objective about fiction, and I still can't figure out why.