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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8264327" data-attributes="member: 6801845">While I don't agree with the basic premise, I do handle drow differently than the default lore.My world is loosely based on Norse mythology, and in that mythology drow come from Svartleheim (or Svartalfheim depending on how you anglicize it).  But the "being cursed by Corellon" never really worked for me, even if I did steal a lot of non-human gods and lore from FR and Greyhawk.So in my mythology, elves were one of the first humanoids created, as other humanoids were created many elves felt a bit superior and that they were better and more perfect.  A faction of the elves took it further, that with their obvious superiority meant that their rightful place was to rule over the "lesser" races.They were rejected by the other elves.  Bitter and angry, they sought out a new realm to call home.  They found Svartleheim, home of Lollth, matched the darkness of their souls and claimed it for their own.  Since then there has been a feedback loop, the new home radiating a dark magic ensuring their bitterness and hatred while that bitterness and hatred shapes the realm.Eventually this affected the very color of their skin turning the drow a dark gray.  With time, the drow became more aligned with Lollth and other evil gods.  To this day drow live in Svartleheim and constantly feel the the pull of their home rarely spending significant time in Midgard other than to cause misery and chaos.  It is incredibly rare for a drow to spend more than a few weeks away from their home plane of existence.However there was a group that managed to break away, a splinter group rejected the darkness, rejected the hatred.  They became Gray Elves.  Gray elves still feel the pull of anger and chaos shaping their emotions but they work hard to suppress them and live a life based on logic and reason.  Living in Midgard, their skin color slowly faded over time to be barely noticeable.  The transformation can go both ways.  A gray elf that foregoes logic can become drow once more, a drow that rejects their upbringing will seek out other gray elves.  Over decades, the skin color will change.  The skin color change also affects duergar and svirfeneblin that also reside in Svartleheim.Admittedly all of this is derivative from Star Trek and Romulans vs Vulcans, but I started using the gray elves first who traditionally have a very lawful and ordered structure to their society.As a side note, Svartleheim is my stand-in for the underdark.  It's a separate plane of existence that is most easily accessed deep underground.</blockquote>

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