D&D 5E Tasha's Drow Art and the Future of Their Depictions in D&D

[Laurefindel]

Doesn't really make things better, what with racial politics being what they've been for the last millennia and parallels with the "Curse of Ham" and all that.

It doesn't make things better politically (if anything it makes it worse), but it does explain it better from an evolutionary/Darwinian perspective. The argument is that there isn't enough time for the physiology of Drow to evolve otherwise. Not that it has ever stopped D&D designers to come with all sorts of things however.

 

[Krachek]

On a artistic point of view, rendering a character with a skin pure black is a difficult task,
so it’s not a wonder if artist add tone of blue or grey in the drow skin.

To take a step into a political or social point of view is advertising until people start yelling at each other.

 

[Vaalingrade]

This is why we can't have nice things.

Charcoal drow were never a nice thing.

 

[The Glen]

How long before they appropriate the Shadow Elves, from Mystara, I wonder?

Surprised they haven't been borged into the Realms like the Tortles, Aransas, Lupin et al. Whenever you take another settings creation you almost always lose the nuance that made it special. Shadow elves lived underground not because they were cursed or cast out but because they were fleeing an apocalypse. The drow had coal black skin because they were cursed not because of any environmental changes. Granted it's really difficult to draw anything when your primary color is coal black. Changing it for artistic reasons does have Merit. But don't just take another race because they have one thing similar and decides if that's going to be part of your setting. Dark Elves are sadistic and twisted slavers with a few exceptions. Shadow elves are a deeply religious people but incredibly naive and misled by the people that lead them. If the shadow elves found a home on the surface they could live in they would move there immediately.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Didn't they change the orcs to grey skin also?

It's been that way since the beginning of 5e, but it seems that they're leaning even more into this decision with recent books. Here are some examples.

The last example is the Rune Knight from TCoE, which has significantly less bulk than the other examples and paler blue-gray skin.

 

[Scribe]

Charcoal drow were never a nice thing.

Way to snip out the context of a hypothetical where someone NOW just takes offense at their 'near whiteness'.

Gotta love forums.

 

[RobJN]

If the shadow elves found a home on the surface they could live in they would move there immediately.

They tried that, and it didn't turn out too well for them

 

[John R Davis]

Judge: Tell me Mr. Biko why do they call you black? You look more chocolate brown to me?
Steve Biko: I don’t know your honor, why do they call you white? You look pink.


Let's just let every humanoid species be represented with as much diversity as humans.

Absolutely. In the real world next to no one has black skin or white skin. Shades of brown ( or red as that the primary colour).
The new gray skin looks fine, but there features look too playful and nice. The vast majority of drow are stern and cruel

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I am good with the new art direction, but I hate this argument for it.

The pale skin is reasonable for a world with Darwinian evolution for a species that's been in an unlit environment for a time on the evolutionary timescale. Which makes it a poor rationale in a world of created species and histories on the order of 10K years.

Additionally, if they were dark skinned through evolution and not the incredibly problematic curse, evolution in a fantasy world would almost definitely work differently from the real world. As @Oofta mentioned, darkvision would change the evolution of skin color significantly, as dark gray/black skin could be advantageous for a race to hide and match the stone of the Underdark.

However, Drow aren't dark skinned because of evolution, and even the reasoning that I provide that could justify evolving darker skin underground might not have any bearing on what would really happen in a fantasy world.

 

[Oofta]

As a sidebar, according to an article (which I sadly can't find right now) the reason drow have black skin is because the idea originated with Norse mythology. But in that mythology, their skin color wasn't specified it was their hearts that were black as coal. Supposedly Gygax just misunderstood, the artists needed some way for the hair to be visible so they went with white and here we are.