What have you done to Drow in your world?

[CruelSummerLord]

I completely play up the BDSM aspect of the Drow, and not in the suburban-housewife-who-buys-a-pair-of-furry-handcuffs way. I mean in the De Sade way, using slaves as mounts, furniture, and toilets. I base their society on a FemDom version of the Sodality of the Friends of Crime from De Sade's "Juliette", and model the behavior of Drow females after Juliette herself. There is nothing laudable or desirable in Drow society, except that they commit the most unspeakable acts with an attention to a perverted sense of grace and beauty. They have absolutely no sense of personal limits, except what can be imposed on them by those stronger than themselves. They don't just worship the Demon Queen of Spiders (who is NOT a Goddess), but all kinds of different Demons; whichever ones serve their purposes at the moment. They are as faithless to the Demons as they are to everything else. Naturally, they are not available as a PC race, and I would worry about any player who wanted to use one as a PC.

This pretty much sums up most of the daily behavior of my drow, too, save for the priestesses of Lolth. They only differ on the faithlessness part, but indulge in everything else, something Lolth entirely approves of.

 

[Lidgar]

In Sul, Drow tend to be militaristic and evil to the core - their alignment is strongly NE versus CE. The noble houses are like sprawling plantations with hundreds of slaves. They make packs with Devils, Demodands, and Demons alike. Lolth is but one of many demon lords and devils they serve - although most cities gravitate towards the worship of maybe two or three of these (competition being stiff). They are fiercely devoted to the social standing of their individual families - in this way they are almost lawful. They will act is sporadic, self-indulging ways, especially when induce by the abundance of narcotics in their society, thereby exhibiting their chaotic side. They fight a perpetual war with the illithid and drider kingdoms - for driders are their own race, and in many ways act more like "traditional" drow do. They are an outsider race, coming from Hades, and have close ties to the material plane and plane of shadow. Not a PC race, although I once had a party temporarily run some drow so they could get a different viewpoint on a plot line.

 

[Presto2112]

Banned them, mostly.

Same thing here, except replace "mostly" with "completely".

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Have never used them much but when I do I keep them as close to original concept as possible. I do play up the twisted aesthete thing though. Similar to what Clavis desribed, with a litle less De Sade. Have never read any De Sade.

 

[snarfoogle]

An ancient high elven king punished the people who would become the drow for crimes against their kind by being forcing into elf-shaped tunnels that led deep into the earth. The tunnels warped and twisted, forcing the elves' bodies to reshape and warp or be unable to move forward.

Were you inspired by horror manga "The Enigma of Amigara Fault" or did you and Junji Ito come up with the same plot device seperately?

I'm not sure which is scarier, a DM who uses comics like that as inspiration or one who came up with such a brutal thought themselves!

 

[Graybeard]

Drow are banned from my hoomebrew campaign world. I do have evil Elves but they are not Drow. There is nothing physically to distinguish regular Elves form Evil ones. It helps keep the PCs on their toes.

 

[Aeric]

IMC, there are no drow. Then again, my elves are the cruel and arrogant masters of a crumbling, decadent empire (think Melnibone), so there's no need for an evil race of elves. The regular elves have pretty much got it covered.

 

[The Green Adam]

Unseelie...not necessarily evil

The Elves of My Campaign World are the end result of Faerie nobles trapped on this plane and adapted to living here. The Drow are the evolution of Dark Sidhe who tricked their way into being included in the explorations of the Mortal Realms. In addition, it was a botched prank/political coup of their invention that trapped the Elves on MCW in the first place.

The so-called 'Light Elves' drove their dark bretheren into the shadows, caves and underground. This made the Unseelie Dark Elves even more hateful of their Bright Folk cousins. Their leader, Drowl, founded the underworld city of Lolthrin and Drowlindel and his followers became known as The Drow.

Drow have beautiful though severe features, skin ranging from pitch black to an ashen grey, white, grey or silver hair and red, violet or yellow eyes. Very often, the Drow retain more features that remain close to their faeries origins such as eyes that are all or mostly iris, pointy teeth or claw-like nails (especially females). In the 'third series' of MCW, Half-Drows were starting to appear after centuries of reconciliation between the various Elven nations.

I should also note that the Drow are only one of two 'evil' Elven peoples, the other being a powerfully magical and arrogant nation of pale skinned, self-righteous conquerors.

AD

 

[Five Eyes]

IMC, there are no drow. Then again, my elves are the cruel and arrogant masters of a crumbling, decadent empire (think Melnibone), so there's no need for an evil race of elves. The regular elves have pretty much got it covered.

On a similar note, as with many people's games, elves in the setting in which I'm currently running a game are primarily "bad sorts" - not strictly evil, but cultural and military imperialists who claim a divine mandate that permits their rule over everything they survey - justified as a reuslt of "natural superiority." In order to play up their role, however, Angalan elves do display considerable talents - they're more like the problematic "perfect at everything" sort of elf that receive frequent complaints, as they aren't slow learners and so reach a high level of acumen (albeit little practical field experience, for most) in anything that they pursue with dedication. They're not a PC race option.

With that in mind, the Drow in this setting are merely a grouping inside the greater Elf race, being a specific set of families that have a standing duty to the empire as a whole as "enforcers of the peace" - they are generally regional law enforcement and mid-level governmental officers, overseeing the direction and maintenance of subjugated peoples.

Their racial traits are the result of specialized training and magical shaping (SR and save bonuses are ritually acquired as protection - their coloring is a side effect). They aren't underground much, so no darkvision or light sensitivity, and their favored class is universally Ranger (favored enemy of whatever group they're policing). They're still feared, but that's because they're grim and represent authority and punishment, and because that aura of awe and terror is actively cultivated by them, as a PR measure.

 

[Sound of Azure]

Were you inspired by horror manga "The Enigma of Amigara Fault" or did you and Junji Ito come up with the same plot device seperately?

I'm not sure which is scarier, a DM who uses comics like that as inspiration or one who came up with such a brutal thought themselves!

Dang, I'm busted! I'd like to run a game based on ideas from Umuzaki as well (the mosquito baby part, especially), but i'm not sure if my players would go for it at this stage.