Drow vs Skaven

[Werebat]

Imagine a world where the Drow of D&D are in competition with Warhammer's Skaven for domination of the Underdark.

Which race has the advantage, and why?

Drow have very long lifespans, and probably have more high level heroes amongst their kind (simply by virtue of living so long). But Skaven will always have the numbers advantage, and this will be amplified by the long lifespans (and presumably low birth rates) of the Drow.

Personally, my money's on the Skaven, who have a similar backstabbing, conniving culture, but can actually get away with the high mortality rate associated with such a culture by virtue of breeding like... Well, rats.

 

[Raith5]

Skaven all the way!

 

[Werebat]

True, the warpstone "technology" could help (or hinder!) their efforts...

 

[Celebrim]

I think this is one of those "What alignment is Batman?" questions, where the real answer is, "Which Batman do you mean? Because what it means to be The Batman has evolved and been presented in strikingly different and sometimes contradictory ways by different authors. The Batman of one era isn't necessarily given the same motivations as the Batman of another era."

In the same way, you might want to ask, "Whose Drow do you mean?" Quite often the way Drow have been presented is as ultimate bad guys to the extent of being DM pets that aren't even allowed to have weaknesses or to lose. Are we talking about a gritty simulation oriented Drow that has to somehow survive in a harsh environment where food is likely scarce, or all we talking the Drow that seem to solely exist by rule of cool and have abundant numbers and very abundant high level characters by narrative necessity? And, it's worth noting that in every version of the Drow, one of the changes that Loth has wrought on her followers is that they don't have the long life expectancy and low birth rates we associate with other elves. They live a long time compared to humans, but not compared to elves, and apparently breed in much greater numbers (sufficient to grow their population while simultaneously being extremely harsh to their own offspring). The idea presumably is to be more like spiders, with numerous offspring but only the strongest survive.

Personally, my own inclinations on how to answer this are shaped by my personal tastes. I also can see no way to objectively answer this, as we are each going to have are own Drow. The closest I can give to an answer is, "Within the context of Warhammer Fantasy, which is the greater and more feared - the Skavan or the Dark Elves?" Which ever is the victor there, would presumably be the victor in a D&D inspired setting as well. However, complicating that answer is that in Warhammer, the Skavan are the 'Drow' of the setting, and in D&D the Drow are the 'Skaven' of the setting. In both cases, it's implied that if the race ever got its act together and stopped fighting itself, that they could conquer the setting.

 

[religon]

I would say Skaven. Skaven are both an open threat... marshaling large field armies... and a secretive threat to other cultures in Warhammer. While my Drow familiarity ends with 1st Ed. AD&D modules and the early Forgotten Realms campaign, the Drow seem to operate subversively and never openly.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

If the Forgotten Realms novels are any guide, drow... because drow are always "better than thou". They're like jerk elves. Oh wait, they are jerk elves.

More seriously, skaven have psychological weaknesses. So do drow, but in skaven they're worse, and more predictable. Which isn't to say that skaven aren't intelligent or dangerous or backstabby (in some ways they're worse than drow that way).

 

[Arcshot]

Skaven.
There is just too many of them.
They have clans specialized in combat, magic, war-machines, giant monsters, assassination, disease.
They have weapons of mass destruction, which will blow up in their faces sometimes, but still, there is just too many of them to blow up themselves into extinction anyway.
They can sneak into your room. They can hide in your cellar. They can steal one of your shoes and make you look silly wearing only one. They can use the sewers and appear behind you when you are taking a dump. They are everywhere.
They kill the Great Necromancer.
Beat that.

 

[Werebat]

Skaven.
There is just too many of them.
They have clans specialized in combat, magic, war-machines, giant monsters, assassination, disease.
They have weapons of mass destruction, which will blow up in their faces sometimes, but still, there is just too many of them to blow up themselves into extinction anyway.
They can sneak into your room. They can hide in your cellar. They can steal one of your shoes and make you look silly wearing only one. They can use the sewers and appear behind you when you are taking a dump. They are everywhere.
They kill the Great Necromancer.
Beat that.

It's true. They also run-scurry fast-fast and score much-many touchdowns.