D&D General Drow as in Cow or Drow as in Snow: Where did the Dark Elves Come From?
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AnotherGuy
Hero
No, he has taken some self-imposed time off, its in the pineapple express thread.
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
On the origins of the Drow, it's never been confirmed as far as I know, but I think Edgar Rice Burroughs also should be cited. Specifically A Fighting Man of Mars, which introduces the spider-haunted kingdom of Ghasta. Ghasta has a cruel and mad ruler, makes fabric out of spidersilk. Torture and enslavement is rife. There are even paintings of a spider with a woman's head.
AnotherGuy
Hero
The problem I had with the Keith Parkinson's art was the drow did not look elf enough (they were much too human for me, nothing alien about them) and they were lighter skinned than I had imagined drow to be.
As a kid I wasn't too concerned with the rest, like you said comics represented women the same way, nevermind your normal trade magazines and it was the age of supermodels (at least when I finally saw this module).
EDIT: That is a neat fact about the OG spiderwoman, a librarian you say, didn't know. Need to do some googling.
As a kid I wasn't too concerned with the rest, like you said comics represented women the same way, nevermind your normal trade magazines and it was the age of supermodels (at least when I finally saw this module).
EDIT: That is a neat fact about the OG spiderwoman, a librarian you say, didn't know. Need to do some googling.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
"This art is not more problematic than examples from comics" is setting a pretty low bar.
And I say that with the deepest love for comics.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
The association of Spiders with women isnt inherently bad as it also brings in the role of Weaving - of webs, textiles and stories - and also the ethos of perserverence and hardwork. Spider symbolism isnt just Black Widows, even if thats become the 'modern' focus as weaving lost status and stories have played up the horror.
Being a product of 70s USA though you do admititedly get that horror titalation as a key factor. Gygax then doubles down on that with the S&M fetishism of the Whip weilding Dominatrix in black leather, which ties in to 70s occultism with its Sexy High Priestesses - thus crafting Drow as a Dominatrix led Theocracy dedicated to the Black Widow. Really the DnD Drow fits in to the same fantasy of "sexy evil-lite antihero' that gives us sexy Vampire and PC Tieflings
The black coding is problematic but I've always explained it as drow develop a sleek chitinous layer over their otherwise pale skins
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Kurotowa
Legend
Incomplete Enchanter is notable for two things. One is the protagonists taking a scientific approach to magic and thereby attaining great mystical might. The other is being a pioneer in thinly disguised self-insert fanfic via the "all our stories are real somewhere in the multiverse" scenario.
It's been a few decades since I read them, and I really suspect they'd show their age if I were to pick them up again. But they're definitely very influential in a lot of ways.
Voadam
Legend
As for the pronunciation we had one guy who liked to say dro starting in his 20s after going off for college and work, despite gaming with a party of drow with us for years as a kid and teenager while the rest of us said drow. I think he got used to other groups saying it differently and then reading drow novels with that pronunciation in his head.
To accommodate him in our reunion online campaign where drow were big in his PC’s backstory I came up with dro being drow who had more demon blood in them and considered themselves superior to common drow. So half fiend and fiendish and dark elf tiefling. I think Goodman Games had a similar concept in their Complete Guide to Drow and I used their stat block for one in my game.
To accommodate him in our reunion online campaign where drow were big in his PC’s backstory I came up with dro being drow who had more demon blood in them and considered themselves superior to common drow. So half fiend and fiendish and dark elf tiefling. I think Goodman Games had a similar concept in their Complete Guide to Drow and I used their stat block for one in my game.
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