D&D 5E Drow-Non Lolthite

[Zardnaar]

No I'm not talking about renegades I'm talking about different worlds.

I'm running an ancient Egypt themed game with a B4 The Lost City vibe for the Drow.

The city will be a mystery of the ancients location with a few Drow and Yuan Ti in the run down city. It's not really functional in the traditional sense. The Drow are more remnants or refugees.

I'm thinking a scorpion God or demon kinda like Eberron. No matriarchal house structure, no infighting as such there's not enough left and every Drow is sacred.

Any pyramids will be more Mayan than Egyptian style.

Another option is a Dark Faerie wonderland with outer planar connections to the faerie realm which Midgard has.

 

[MarkB]

Given the setting, maybe you'd be better served borrowing from Eberron's Aereni Elves than their Drow. Their form of ancestor veneration through undeath could work well for an Egyptian themed culture.

 

[Mecheon]

Eh, plenty of stuff to muck about with Drow. Not necessarily evil but they're going to be tough. I'd also keep houses as a thing (Probably even matriarchal) but, due to low numbers, no real infighting. Drow houses basically being their last link to their ancient history

Scorpions is definitely an option given Scarrow exist

I tend to also give drow alchemy as a bit of a thing

 

[Zardnaar]

Given the setting, maybe you'd be better served borrowing from Eberron's Aereni Elves than their Drow. Their form of ancestor veneration through undeath could work well for an Egyptian themed culture.

I have looked at Eberron Drow but mixing them with the Elves is not a bad idea.

They have to be someone disguised with a completely different ascetic.

There's probably not going to be many on Midgard they're refugees I'm thinking of a long list branch, single house a few survivors in the ancient ruins of their betters.

King Scorpion and ancient shrine to Egyptian style art but with Dragon headed gods.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Curve ball, but I read the Mighty Thor comic and the Dark Elves in it actually have a very strange "swamp theme." In it Svatleheim is a huge bog, so is filled with crazy things like plant mammoths, and seer-crones. This is the best image I could find, but it's a much more creepy corrupt Feywild theme. Very Unseelie.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In my homebrew, and that of my buddy, Drow are nocturnal desert nomads who worship a scorpion god that is more neutral, with some renegade elements worshiping an evil spider goddess.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Y'know how Marvel likes doing whacked alternate-worlds? Like, all the superheroes are zombies, kinda things?

I read the title as "Non-Drow Lothite" and immediately flashed on an all-divine-D&D-classes alternate marvel universe, where Peter Parker is a Paladin of Vengeance dedicated to Lolth.

 

[MarkB]

Y'know how Marvel likes doing whacked alternate-worlds? Like, all the superheroes are zombies, kinda things?

I read the title as "Non-Drow Lothite" and immediately flashed on an all-divine-D&D-classes alternate marvel universe, where Peter Parker is a Paladin of Vengeance dedicated to Lolth.

Welcome to the Driderverse.

 

[Zardnaar]

In my homebrew, and that of my buddy, Drow are nocturnal desert nomads who worship a scorpion god that is more neutral, with some renegade elements worshiping an evil spider goddess.

Afaik Lolth doesn't exist on Midgard. There's a side paragraph saying most got eaten and the few that are left are refugees.

 

[Yaarel]

Afaik Lolth doesn't exist on Midgard. There's a side paragraph saying most got eaten and the few that are left are refugees.

For me, the dark elves are personifications of bedrock and mud. So, I tend to go with earthy flavor.

Dark elves in Egypt? Assuming these Drow have black skin, maybe make them personifications of the black Nile river soil. They might also be personifications of death, the womblike blackness between life in this world and the rebirth in the afterlife.

Associating with Norse dark elves, there is also a tradition of shapechange into animals. Maybe, nocturnally, the Drow have their humanoid form, but diaurnally, each elf has a different alternate form as some animal associating with the Nile (ibis, panther, crocodile, etcetera), so as to avert the harmful effects of sunlight.