D&D General Drow in early D&D

[Tonguez]

wait it was a war between elf blonds and elves with jet black hair, that was the moral difference?

Czenobog in American Gods gives a speech about how he was called the black god due to his black hair and associated with evil while his brother Belobog has blonde hair is the white god associated with good - Gaiman uses it masterfully to discuss the nature of good, evil, duality and racism.

But importantly it exemplified the deeper roots of brunette v blonde symbolism in European folklore which Yaarel has so insightfully expanded on

 

[Mind of tempest]

Czenobog in American Gods gives a speech about how he was called the black god due to his black hair and associated with evil while his brother Belobog has blonde hair is the white god associated with good - Gaiman uses it masterfully to discuss the nature of good, evil, duality and racism.

But importantly it exemplified the deeper roots of brunette v blonde symbolism in European folklore which Yaarel has so insightfully expanded on

that seems super alien as hair colours does not seem to have to do with any of the stereotypes listed.

 

[Sithlord]

Tell that to every drow PC ever created by a 13 year old at the table/ RA Salvatore

I tell that to them every game and rejoice at their tears. Bwahahahah!!! And then I have the villagers riot at them with pitchforks and torches as they flee the village attempting to escape with their lives! Bwahahaha!!!

but seriously in the era we played and still do. Just being a frown is a death sentence on the surface world because their raids are that brutal.

 

[Hriston]

What the heck is a "Grey Elf"?

In Chainmail, fairies is given as a variant for the elves troop-type. In the Monster Manual, fairies (now spelled “faerie”) are given the name gray elf.

 

[Hriston]

Correction to the above post (I didn't have my MM earlier):

In the Monster Manual, faeries are a subset of gray elves with "pale golden hair and violet eyes" as opposed to the "silver hair and amber eyes" that other gray elves have.

Gray elves are more intelligent, generally better armored, and longer lived than most elves, and those with a 19 Intelligence (or higher) can attain name-level as wizards. They live in isolation from other peoples in the high meadowlands.

Due to the name faerie, I would say that kindred of gray elves originates, in more recent history, from the Feywild, while the more usual type of grey elf shares with it a common ancestry but remained in the Prime Material.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What the heck is a "Grey Elf"?

 

[Scott Christian]

funny as it may seem now, back in the days of the Elfquest comic I was surprised to see Elfs with beards, that was enough to signal that these elfs were different (never mind them being 4ft tall and riding wolves through the snow!).

View attachment 137674

What a fantastic graphic novel. I think I read those 4 books like 200 times in middle school. The first book, I still say, has a pretty fantastic and enduring plot line.

 

[Scott Christian]

Since this is my era, I can add a bit. When Unearthed Arcana came out 1985, drow had become badass. They were no longer weak fighters as already noted. They were stronger than any other elf, except when sylvan (wood) elves and grugach (wild elves) have VERY high strength (18:90 or higher). They could be unlimited level druids, and same for clerics if female (male clerics were very weak). This reversed with magic-user: male drow were the best M-Us among all elves, though only slightly better than grey elves, and female M-Us were not quite as weak as male clerics. Like all elves, they were unlimited as thieves and had decent level limits for both rangers and assassins. Interestingly, drow got no assassin bonuses, which would have thematic for the era.

Yeah. I remember the drow having like 85% magic resistance or some other crazy thing. And they all had +2 or +3 weapons and armor, that of course, when exposed to sunlight, decayed and were suddenly no good.

 

[Yaarel]

Elves who think they are Corelleon's gift to the world AND Elven kind itself. High and mighty to an extreme

In 5E/Forgotten Realms, those are the Sun Elves(High Elf sub race.)

In my experience, I never go the vibe that Grey Elf et al were arrogant. Mainly they were reclusive.

Maybe the Forgotten Realms made Sun Elf explicitly pretentious and arrogant, but I didnt play FR. And even for the Sun Elf, they came across as trying to reunify the Elves, and this sense were highly tolerant of the diversity.

 

[Azzy]

In my experience, I never go the vibe that Grey Elf et al were arrogant. Mainly they were reclusive.

Yup, I never felt that grey elves were particularly arrogant based on what little lore is written about them. In Greyhawk, the County (later, Kingdom) of Sunndi is predominately human with a significant population of grey elves, dwarves, and gnomes) and ruled by a grey elf. The populace is viewed as unified with narry a hint of elven arrogance.