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Message: <blockquote data-quote="William Ronald" data-source="post: 2622029" data-attributes="member: 426">Hello, Edena:Welcome back, Edena!  Once again, a good use of humor to show how one can take something seen in one light and reinterpret it.  A race that patterned its behavior after actual spiders might be a bit more reluctant than Gygax's drow to go all out in combat.  Indeed, it might give DMs the idea to have a drow city that follows this pattern -- and is beset by drow following demon worshippers --- particularly a demon goddess whose behavior is a mockery of spider behavior.  This could lead to an adventure where the PCs are saving one group of drow from another --  as the drow males are not very effective in defense of the city.  Such drow might be willing to accept help from others, and might be very willing to accept receipt of foodstuffs (to supplement the nutrition of their young) and other items from friendly surface dwellers.Gygax, I believe, used the image of the spider to create Lolth. Spiders do have an alien appearance to humans, and can be frightening to us.  (The Shadows on Babylon 5 do have a frightening appearance, and their deeds were even more frightening.)  So, I think Gygax was working with pulp imagery.  Possibly this thread will inspire some DMs to think of different ways to use drow in their campaigns, and have several diverse drow cultures.  Turjan, Edena is a he, not a she.  However, I think he is showing how we can use the natural world to tweak a D&D stereotype.  Imagine what a party of adventurers in the Realms would do if they found a drow city that acted in the fashion Edena described, but followed another deity associated with spiders.  (Spiders, by the way, are  a popular figure in African myth.  Also, Athena was sometimes associated with spiders courtesy of her transforming the woman Arachne into a spider.)DogMoon_2003:  The Narn of the Babylon 5 Universe are marsupials, although their appearance is superficially reptilian.</blockquote>

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