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

[Voadam]

Are the Tasha's drow pictures by the same or different artists?

The broad and round face of the mushroom crossbow guy (particularly the nose) struck me as one of the least typically elven drow faces I've seen in WotC art, I wonder if that is deliberate and he is supposed to be half-elven.

 

[Steampunkette]

I think it's really messed up that in the "You can be good drow, too, see?" artwork all of the good drow are pale-skinned to the point of being almost white.

Making the visual change happen right as they make it explicit that no race is wholly evil? It's very blatant "Dark = Evil, Light = Good" imagery.

As to the "Albinism makes more sense, anyhow" brigade: Drow didn't "Evolve" to be obsidian skinned. It's an ancient curse from Correllon which was laid upon Lolth and all who followed her, as well as Eilistraee.

Feel free to have albino elves in your games and settings, of course. Or Stone-Grey or anything in between. Should probably also make them Blind, honestly, if they evolved as cave-dwellers... But the default setting for 5e is FR and alllll of it's baggage! We can't ignore that when looking at new art from WoTC in a core rulebook.

Also worth noting: Even if a hundred different artists submitted work for the book, the Art Department had total editorial purview over what gets used. So this whole "Since drow can be good let's make them not black in our artwork, anymore" angle is something that hit a -lot- of desks and was approved by a whole bunch of people before release.

 

[Umbran]

Blame Pathfinder. Or anime. Whichever you prefer. I for one like this stylistic choice as it helps to better differentiate elves from humans and half-elves.

You want the root of that, you'll probably find it in Elfquest. Wendy and Richard Pini, 1978.

Spoiler: Yes, those ears

 

[Umbran]

For the purpose of melatonin, you're absolutely right. But for prey and predator purposes, it could exist

Only when there is light. D&D has magical darkvision to be a basis for pigmentation, but the real world does not.

 

[Ancalagon]

IMO, the main problem with the drow is that they are boring.

You want cool underground elves? Check this out!

OSR: The Drow, Part 1

Drow: The “Black Elves,” or drow, are only legend. They purportedly dwell deep beneath the surface in a strange subterranean realm. The d...

coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com

OSR: The Drow, Part 2

Continued from Part 1 . (On watching a Komodo dragon eat a live chicken). The three of us were sitting ashen faced as if we had just wi...

coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Based on his hair and that skullcap, he's even got male pattern baldness!

All drow art should be based on "geriatric Drizzt with sideburns and hoop earrings".

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Feel free to have albino elves in your games and settings, of course. Or Stone-Grey or anything in between. Should probably also make them Blind, honestly, if they evolved as cave-dwellers... But the default setting for 5e is FR and alllll of it's baggage! We can't ignore that when looking at new art from WoTC in a core rulebook.

I can.
I`ve become very good at ignoring the stupid ballast that D&D is carrying around because some yokel said "let`s curse the cellar fairies with dark skin" back in the day. I`ve had decades of experience of ignoring my memories of the Chronomancer cover, so ignoring insensitive naughty word from days of yore is child`s play.

Of course, posting in this thread means I actually DON`t ignore it, but logic schmogic.

 

[Laurefindel]

My second impression is: Why must all artists depict drow the same way? Isn't a major aspect of art (and D&D, for that matter) to come up with your own version of something? To make it your own, whether you're an artist or DM or player?

Artists have depicted dark elves in alllllll kinds of ways for a while now. A quick pinterest search shows this.

But until recently, dark elves in D&D, specifically, were the drows; evil looking, underground dwelling, black skin, white hair, matriarchal, spider-worshiping elves. So artists auditing for D&D art, or commissioned for D&D art, represented drows according to these artistic guidelines. This monolithic artistic representation was coherent with D&D's monolithic description of the drows. It looks like there was a recent and deliberate shift in this paradigm, so you should expect more variety from now on.

Nevertheless, D&D will always keep some kind of guidelines in their artistic direction. At least I hope they do. The trick is always to set the proper range in variance. For example, I'm not sure I'd be cool with something like dark elves having anywhere from 1 to 5 eyes, because diversity! 1-5 eyes dark elves can be cool, but let it be setting-specific. Exaggerated example is exaggerated, but it illustrates what I mean.

FWIW, I would have preffered that dark elves had kept their black skin, and evil Lolth-worshiping matriarchal drows were made a setting-specific drow nation among a few others, and were given a more neutral description in "core" D&D PHB and following supplements.

 

[cmad1977]

Based on his hair and that skullcap, he's even got male pattern baldness!

His hairline is absolutely losing it’s battle with his forehead.

 

[Voadam]

For example, I'm not sure I'd be cool with something like dark elves having anywhere from 1 to 5 eyes, because diversity! 1-5 eyes dark elves can be cool, but let it be setting-specific. Exaggerated example is exaggerated, but it illustrates what I mean.