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

[MGibster]

Okay, I'm sorry if the name is a bit vague. In case you hadn't noticed, the art for depicting drow in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is very different in a significant way from all other 5e art of Drow. Take a look and see if you can spot the difference. For reference, I will start with some Drow art from the PHB, MM, and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.

Ha! They're taking a page from Games Workshop when it comes to changing their lore. Instead of making an announcement about changes, GW just starts ignoring what was written in the past, makes minor changes with little fanfare, and then pretend they never made any changes. I am not bothered in the least about the changes to the Drow as it won't change how they're used in any of my campaigns. They'll just have a bit more variety to their skin color.

 

[Alzrius]

Did Gary ever have the idea that drow started looking differently before they turned evil? It seems the intent may have been:

1) They always looked like that
2) They didn't all worship Lolth.

I know this wasn't directed at me, but I'd say point #2 is pretty well established, since D3 Vault of the Drow (affiliate link) is about a civil war in Erelhei-Cinlu between drow who worship Lolth and drow who worship the Elder Elemental God.

 

[Rob Kuntz]

Did Gary ever have the idea that drow started looking differently before they turned evil? It seems the intent may have been:

1) They always looked like that
2) They didn't all worship Lolth.

I can't say for sure, but in following the logic and alliances of the underworld, i.e., from Norse, English, Celtic and Germanic literature, many of these evil elves allied with demons or other creatures such as the giants of Norse myth. So I found the giant part in the G-D-Q and the Lolth bit consistent w/Norse myth as well. The idea of elves looking differently before being evil would suggest a fall or split with the light elves and they appear to be different manifestations and not related in mythological texts.

 

[Rob Kuntz]

I know this wasn't directed at me, but I'd say point #2 is pretty well established, since D3 Vault of the Drow (affiliate link) is about a civil war in Erelhei-Cinlu between drow who worship Lolth and drow who worship the Elder Elemental God.

Well yes, I didn't see that as a question; it's bourn out in the series that Eclavdra (House Eilservs) is opposed to Lolth as you note.

 

[Dire Bare]

That was due to a communication error with Caldwell, same reason a drow appears on the cover of Alfheim in a setting without drow.

That dark-skinned elf on the Alfheim cover inspired elven reverse-albinism in my campaign back in high school. The rare elf, surface or shadow, was born with jet-black skin and a strong talent for magic!

 

[Maxperson]

I was just about to post that. According to the FR wiki, it's 5E. The 3E depiction mostly shows armor and not enough skin to tell color.

There are several pics of tan to dark tan dwarves in the 3e book Races of Stone.

 

[Zardnaar]

There are several pics of tan to dark tan dwarves in the 3e book Races of Stone.

I have 3E era dark skinned Gold Dwarf minis.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I agree with @doctorbadwolf here, this is a bit of a stretch. They're not making the Drow culture be good, they're letting them be more diverse culturally. They're showing that Drow don't have to be the evil, Lolth-worshipping, spider-loving elves of previous editions (granted, most previous editions had multiple exceptions to this. 4e specifically made Drizzt be the only good drow, which is a very strange and bad change, IMO). From what we've seen, they're not making Drow be good, they're letting them be good, and also lightening up their skin to get rid of the connection between dark-skin and being evil. Drow can still be evil, they can just also be good, and are including more examples of good ones as we have plentiful examples of bad ones in the art of 5e.

If they were to have their skin color change to be white and also make all of the drow be good, that would be one thing, but that's not what they're doing. Go look at the OP, and you'll see that this is true. In the second image of the Tasha's Drow, there is a very clearly bad/antagonistic Drow that is fighting Vi atop of a Lightning Rail.

It's not "Dark equals bad" and "Light equals good", it's "Dark doesn't mean bad" and "Light doesn't mean good". I also am assuming that they'll leave Deep Gnomes with dark skin, which are a pretty neutral/good-ish race with pretty dark skin.

Quick note: 4e didn’t make Drizzt the only good Drow. 4e explicitly had good Drow and surface dwelling drow.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

They have internal wars and feuds and don’t like each otherbut they’re all evil pricks.

Fun fact: I know this was meant to target the Drows specifically, but if you read about the Crown Wars in FR, being evil pricks is mostly what the entire elven race is all about.

I mean, having so much civil wars in a short time that your entire species is on the brink of annihilations, worshipping a mercurial god who punishes those who disagree with its vision (which tends to change radically pretty quickly) and need the 3 main goddesses of its pantheon to merge into a single being to please it (I know, its a little more complicated than that, but still).

In perspective, the orcs look like the good guys

 

[Azzy]

I think in the Forggoten Realms at least, the non-drow ancestors of the drow (ie, the ones who were cursed) were actually brown-skinned. So they really only had a hair colour change. Eberron drow are completely different, and Mystara and Dragonlance don't have drow, so it would be Greyhawk with the "skin colour change" explanation, but I'm not sure if that was ever in anything Gygax wrote.

I don't recall anything in the Greyhawk materials that I've read that even touched on the subject of whether drow had a "skin colour change".

A lot of drow lore that is assumed as default actually comes from the FR or from non-setting-specific books like the Complete Book of Elves and Monster Mythology.