Weiley31
Legend
And heeeere comes the THICC Aevendrow Waifus/Husbandoes for everyone!
D&D 5E New Drow cultures coming in Starlight Enclave, the Lorendrow and the Aevendrow
Weiley31
Legend
I automatically assume that Lolth is the one that is the threat: If the rest of her followers learned about the existence of the Aevendrow, then she could trigger a means/way to wipe them. That way the existence of two separate splinter factions of Drow wouldn't cause anymore "schisms" amongst the Udadrow.
Another option, and highly unlikely, and yet, would be an interesting plot twist: Correllon Latherian himself. In my 5E games, I play his reaction to "Seladrine" Drow or non-Lolthsworn Drow as incredibly "lukewarm" or even to the point of like not paying attention to them at all, despite changing their ways. Mostly cuz Correllon still NEVER got over Arausheen's betrayal/attempted assassination on his life via having Gruumsh attacking him. As a result: Correllon is pretty much like "frack em" when asked about his attitude towards Drow in general. Perhaps Correllon in the new novels would rather see the Drow go extinct than to see anymore corrupted.
The possibility of this twist happening? Absolute zero but would still be kinda nutty/interesting.
Dire Bare
Legend
Again, I'm not an expert on ancient Realms lore, but . . . . ages ago there was a series of terrible wars, the Crown Wars, where all the elven kingdoms were fighting each other. At some point, the elven goddess Araushnee convinced many elves to turn against her consort, Corellon. Most of these elves were dark-skinned and lived in the south, but not all. Araushnee's followers lost the wars, and Corellon was so pissed, he banished Araushnee to the Abyss where she became the demon-spider Lolth. Her followers were likewise banished, driven away and persecuted by the light-skinned elves. All of the dark-skinned elves, whether they followed Araushnee or not, were banished. It became a thing about race, rather than completely about religion.
So, why did all three drow cultures go into hiding? They were hiding from persecution from their light-skinned cousins. This could also explain not only their remoteness, but the hidden nature of their cities. The aevendrow and lorendrow either never followed Lolth, or turned away from her worship. The udadrow followed Lolth, but were not yet evil . . . but after settling in the underdark and being exposed to the magical faezress energy, they became easily corruptible and began to worship Lolth, the much darker version of their former goddess, Araushnee.
EDIT: There is also this bit in the canon about how ALL of Araushnee's followers were cursed with dark-skin. Many already were dark-skinned, but more like the dark-skin of folks in the real world. This is when the drow became jet black of skin . . . later to be retconned a bit to have grey skin with varying shades from light gray to jet black. I choose to ignore this bit of lore, as it reflects some real-world mythology that's pretty racist.
In the six-volume novel series War of the Spider Queen, the story ends with the death of the good drow goddess Eilistraee and the curse of the drow is broken. Some of the drow who are not lost to evil lose their cursed skin-tone, and revert to the skin-tones of their ancestors, a more natural dark brown, or even light-skin in some cases. Like the original curse-of-dark-skin, this bit of lore is pretty awful, and I haven't seen it referenced ever again in novels or game products, thankfully. A perfect example of older lore the current D&D game designers feel free to ignore, as they should!
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Helpful NPC Thom
Adventurer
Hmm, can't say I'm a fan of the changes. The "ackshually, drow were good all along, and they were corrupted into evil drow by that nasty Lolth" is really, uh, not hitting for me. I'm a fan of dark eldar in Warhammer 40k, though, and I like matriarchal spider-worshipers who worship an evil goddess, but I grew up on "dark elves" from Everquest, who worship the god of hate, which is fantastically hokey. Do tell me how the whole, functioning society worships the deity of hate. That's it. "We hate everything and everyone, and we hate ourselves, too!" Absolute nonsense, as my organic chemistry professor used to say.
I kind of dig the idea of Aztec-inspired drow, though.
I kind of dig the idea of Aztec-inspired drow, though.
mrpopstar
Sparkly Dude
Great synopsis! I'm familiar with the Crown Wars.
They wiped all previous canon for 5th Edition, but Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes includes a story that holds on to the basics.
Dire Bare
Legend
They did not wipe out the previous canon. They are simply not beholden to it, and can change it as they see fit. In practice, this means that all of the old canon is still a part of the Realms lore . . . . except the problematic bits like the curse-of-dark-skin.Great synopsis! I'm familiar with the Crown Wars.
They wiped all previous canon for 5th Edition, but Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes includes a story that holds on to the basics.
mrpopstar
Sparkly Dude
I didn't mean to say they canned it, just that, as you say, the information we have now is reconsidered (like the curse you mention).
Scribe
Legend
Not much good as canon then.
AdmundfortGeographer
Getting lost in fantasy maps
Seems this would borrow from the Shadow Elves of Mystara.
Demetrios1453
Hero
I mean, the other option is a complete blank history, so a flexible canon as probably the best option overall. And anyway, as Napoleon said, "History is just the lies we've all agreed upon."
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