D&D General Drow as in Cow or Drow as in Snow: Where did the Dark Elves Come From?

[Clint_L]

On the pronunciation of drow, I go with the cow pronunciation. One thing I've learned from years of going to cons is that there are a million different pronunciations of all the different made-up words (and unfortunately, sometimes not made-up ones) of D&D.

When we were kids, my buddy Steve and I got into a furious argument over the pronunciation of "pseudo-dragon," which he pronounced as "SWADE-oh-dragon" on the grounds that it was basically spelled the same as his suede shoes. Which is, honestly, a sensible extrapolation.

English, man.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the drow are cool. They are super loosely based on myths, but the version we have is almost completely a unique D&D-thing.

But how I would interpret them (and same goes for many other "evil" species,) is that whilst the general idea of the lore is true, the version we get is the one written by their enemies. It is the patriarchal humans and racist surface elves who tell the stories of drow being evil. An sure, they can be not-nice, like everybody, but they're no more evil than those who deride them and perhaps even less so.

Yeah, I think that's roughly where 5.5 has landed on them, which makes them playable as PCs -- they can't all be outliers to their society, people! -- while still having a clear antagonistic relationship with surface nations.

 

[Voadam]

On the pronunciation of drow, I go with the cow pronunciation. One thing I've learned from years of going to cons is that there are a million different pronunciations of all the different made-up words (and unfortunately, sometimes not made-up ones) of D&D. But I am increasingly fond of Poul Anderson's take (which is pretty much the exact opposite of Tolkien):

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I am an arachnophobe. I try to minimize the spider thing with drow, but it's really hard to get away from in pre-written adventures. Like, what is it with fantasy games and spiders - they're omnipresent. I positively hate the spiders in Dark Souls 2.

I always wince when druids wildshape into giant spiders.

I have plenty of modules so I don’t bring up drow oriented ones in games he is in.

Any spiders get turned into cave bunnies. He did this in his games and I adopted it in my games with him after I discovered the arachnophobia issue where even saying the word spider made him uncomfortable.

 

[Dire Bare]

When we were kids, my buddy Steve and I got into a furious argument over the pronunciation of "pseudo-dragon," which he pronounced as "SWADE-oh-dragon" on the grounds that it was basically spelled the same as his suede shoes. Which is, honestly, a sensible extrapolation.

English, man.

The Suede Dragon is a completely different beast . . . a very fancy dragon!

 

[smetzger]

<sarcasm>
biggest problem with Drow is that they should never have let anyone but Erol Otus draw them
</sarcasm>

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

When we were kids, my buddy Steve and I got into a furious argument over the pronunciation of "pseudo-dragon," which he pronounced as "SWADE-oh-dragon" on the grounds that it was basically spelled the same as his suede shoes. Which is, honestly, a sensible extrapolation.

English, man.

D&D really needed a pronunciation guide in each book back then. What were kids supposed to do when presented with words like Pseudodragon, Svirfneblin, Blibdoolpoolp, and of course, Ixitxachitl?

I have plenty of modules so I don’t bring up drow oriented ones in games he is in.

Any spiders get turned into cave bunnies. He did this in his games and I adopted it in my games with him after I discovered the arachnophobia issue where even saying the word spider made him uncomfortable.

I generally go with cave lizards for replacements. Though in some adventures, like Out of the Abyss, it becomes really hard to avoid having some spiders.

 

[pedr]

English, man.

Plus random Irish, naturally. What teenager knows how to pronounce shillelagh?? Not this one in the 90s, that's for sure. I only recently spent the time trying to figure out how to say geas.

 

[Mannahnin]

Plus random Irish, naturally. What teenager knows how to pronounce shillelagh?? Not this one in the 90s, that's for sure. I only recently spent the time trying to figure out how to say geas.

And even those are variable by dialect over a comparatively small island nation. My mother teaches a Northern dialect, and I know geas as "gaysh", but I know it's not the only correct way.

 

[Jaiken]

The only thing that bothers me with Drow is their sunlight sensitivity, though that can be easily changed to not exist.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The only thing they bothers me with Drow is their sunlight sensitivity, though that can be easily changed to not exist.

In fact, it has been.