Maldin said:
I'd be really curious to hear from Mouseferatu exactly what his instructions were on the matter from WotC.
Well, I didn't work on the Erelhei-Cinlu chapter, so I won't be of much help there. I wrote Chapter One (culture and society), and a few of the feats/alternate class features.
As for instructions? There weren't a lot of those; we had a lot of free reign to design the book as we saw fit (subject to approval from above, of course). It
was mandated from on high that we focus on Lolth as the primary drow religion, treating the other gods more as demigods or the equivalents of "saints." I know some people object, but honestly, I'm okay with that. Because drow culture is so completely focused on Lolth, and because the society couldn't exist without Lolth's direct interference, it makes sense to me to focus on her.
Beyond that, my mandates when designing their society were twofold: I had to make them at least somewhat compatible with what came before, but I was also told that I didn't need to
restrict myself to what came before. (This was particularly true of R.A. Salvatore's material, which--while the best known drow material--is Forgotten Realms-specific, and therefore not binding, or always even appropriate, for a core book.) I tried to mix the best and most interesting of what already existed with some cool new angles, and some new insight into the culture and how it functions. (I also tried to explain some of the age-old cliches, like why
do most drow dress like rejects from a Frederick's of Hollywood catalog?
) I leave it up to you to decide if I succeeded at all, but that's basically the point from which I started.
At least in my section, I certainly
could have mentioned Greyhawk-specific places/individuals. It's just that, with the exception of some details of the religion/creation myths, it never came up.
I always meant to get around to that one of these days. When I do, I'll post links.
