D&D 5E New Drow cultures coming in Starlight Enclave, the Lorendrow and the Aevendrow

[Mercurius]

As I understand it, I think their problem is that drow are already a subrace of elves, so these other drow are just new elven subraces arbitrarily being called drow with the "real" drow being unchanged.

Of course, 5E has been kind of all over the place with the race mechanics in the last year or so. You've got the original stats for different races, new subraces, alternative stats for some races, the customization rules from Tasha's, and lineages in Van Richten's Guide that effectively can serve as either a race on their own or as a modifier to an existing race. It's possible that they could decide to make a new drow race that has udadrow as just one of several subrace options, or lineage options, or whatever.

Charlaquin has expressed an issue with the idea of drow being "an inherently evil race," which I don't think is true. I'm not talking about the issue of subraces, which is kind of separate, if adjacent.

As for the new variants on drow, ultimately I don't care all that much, but it does seem like WotC is kind of flailing about races in general, and not doing a very good job of it. I'll reserve judgement until I see more, but just the names are pretty lame. I think, also, the end result will be that of dilution, that the word "drow" will end up being kind of meaningless. Drow are a specific offshoot of elves from the Greyhawk setting that have been made core; maybe part of the issue is just that: why not keep classic drow in Greyhawk, and then offer setting-specific variations on the archetype of "dark elf" (ala Dragonlance, where there are no drow and "dark elf" means something different)?

If I had a line to the WotC designers, I'd suggest simplifying core races and then offering setting-specific variants as examples of how DMs can vary them (e.g. FR's sun and moon elves, the "-nestis" of Dragonlance, etc). Meaning, keep the variants to the specific worlds. DMs can use them at their discretion, use the variations of the world they're running, or make their own.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

That's not how D&D works. Perhaps, it should be, but it isn't.

Subraces don't match perfectly to cultures, they are an inconsistent mix of "species" and cultural traits. But, IMO, they are mostly culturally based. What's the difference between a high elf and a wood elf? Mostly, it's culture.

So, in my game at least, an elf born of high elf parents but raised in dwarven society would be an elf with a dwarven culture, but would not be a high elf. However, he might be interested in his high elven heritage and embrace it later in life . . . .

The difference is genetic, its more then cultural.

 

[Zardnaar]

Did people the no or expect WotC are gonna retcon the Lolthite Drow away? Sweet summer child lol.

Drow have been watered down every edition this is just more of the same.

 

[grimslade]

Did people the no or expect WotC are gonna retcon the Lolthite Drow away? Sweet summer child lol.

Drow have been watered down every edititiin this is just more of the same.

Added complexity is watered down? I always thought the moustache twirling evil black skinned dominatrix spider elves were pretty simplistic. (Eclavdra doesn't like anyone to mention her moustache.) Part of this comes from Bob Salvatore's favorite Mary Dru being the lone shining beacon of goodness in the depths of the Underdark as unique as his purple contacts. Subsequent books like Homeland and Elaine Cunningham's novels have broadened the perspective of the various drow. Zaknafein Do'urden was not a good man, but he was a complex reaction to the evil matriarchal culture he lived in. Jarlaxle and Liriel Baenre expanded the view of drow cultural experience.
Now we have more examples of surface dark elves divorced from the weaving intrigues of Lloth. I don't know that they will need to have sunlight sensitivity removed. The deep forest canopy can be quite dim. They may just reject both Lloth and the Seldarine. Lots of storytelling options.

 

[ECMO3]

Dungeons & Dragons Sets Up Big Changes to the Drow

Dungeons & Dragons seems to be poised to make major changes to one of its iconic creatures, likely [...]

www.google.com

Traditional Underdark Lolthian drow are now called Unudrow, Lorendrow are a southern surface eco Drow civilization, and the Aevendrow the Northern Seldarine Goodly surface Starlight Elves (this will create confusion with Star Elves).

I will point out these aren't the only Drow cultures in FR, there are Maztican Drow who worship Maztican Gods and Drow in Zakhara who worship Zakharan Gods (like almost everyone in Zakhara does), both groups are from previous editions and likely don't feature in RA Salvatore's novel Starlight Enclave.

Not going to lie, I'm very intrigued by this.

Keep an eye out for a Drow UA IMHO, they will likely want different stats for these new Drow cultures, Sunlight Sensitivity makes no sense for the Surface Dwelling Lorendrow and the Aevendrow.

Where do the Cintri Drow of Halura and Mulhorand fit into all of this?

 

[ECMO3]

Perhaps, but they still live on the surface and Sunlight sensitivity still doesn't make sense them even if its relatively shady in their cities, I mean from the art at least the Jungle city seems to get a fair amount of sunlight still.

The specifics on sunlight sensitivity are when you or the target are in "direct sunlight". That is not the same as a fair amount of sunlight. Under a jungle canopy most areas will not be in direct sunlight, a few would be, but most would not. Even in a surface city like Waterdeep or Luskan anything in a shadow cast by a building would not be in direct sunlight.

There are surface animals in the real world that do not do good in sunlight. Racoons are one of them, some types of bats that live in forested areas are another.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Added complexity is watered down? I always thought the moustache twirling evil black skinned dominatrix spider elves were pretty simplistic. (Eclavdra doesn't like anyone to mention her moustache.) Part of this comes from Bob Salvatore's favorite Mary Dru being the lone shining beacon of goodness in the depths of the Underdark as unique as his purple contacts. Subsequent books like Homeland and Elaine Cunningham's novels have broadened the perspective of the various drow. Zaknafein Do'urden was not a good man, but he was a complex reaction to the evil matriarchal culture he lived in. Jarlaxle and Liriel Baenre expanded the view of drow cultural experience.
Now we have more examples of surface dark elves divorced from the weaving intrigues of Lloth. I don't know that they will need to have sunlight sensitivity removed. The deep forest canopy can be quite dim. They may just reject both Lloth and the Seldarine. Lots of storytelling options.

They are remnants of the Ilythiir, I guess.

 

[Azzy]

I'm pretty ambivalent about this. Good that they are making drow more culturally diverse (albeit in a rather hamfisted way, it seems), but I've never cared for the Forgotten Realms lore on drow and how it oozed out of the FR into setting-generic stuff.

I have my own head-canon of drow and elven lore since 2e with some non-demon worshipping drow societies. I've even had a culture of "snow elves" (arctic drow), so I'm side-eyeing these new "Aevendrow".

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Or Exandria, which has non-Evil Drow by default.

There actually were evil, Lolth-worshiping drow mentioned in the Tal'Dorei sourcebook. It's just that in Exandria the kind of Lolthite society portrayed in Forgotten Realms material is completely unsustainable because the various horrors of the Underdark will take advantage of the chaos to bring it to ruin. It's stated that the largest Lolthite drow city, Ruhn-Shak, is on the edge of destruction, and that many of the inhabitants are fleeing for certain locations on the surface. That was also 20 years before the designated year in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, so by now Ruhn-Shak could be an abandoned ruin.

Honestly, Lolth has been punked so many times in Exandria's history that I don't get why she's even still around. Most of the drow have turned from her, and she spent most of the epic war between gods impaled on a cliff and unable to do anything. Whereas in the Forgotten Realms she turns drow into driders as a curse, in Exandria drow followers of Lolth desperately try to find her divine blood to make themselves into driders so they maybe won't get killed-off by all the other, much worse things in the Underdark. She's probably the most pathetic of the gods in the setting.

 

[Zardnaar]

There actually were evil, Lolth-worshiping drow mentioned in the Tal'Dorei sourcebook. It's just that in Exandria the kind of Lolthite society portrayed in Forgotten Realms material is completely unsustainable because the various horrors of the Underdark will take advantage of the chaos to bring it to ruin. It's stated that the largest Lolthite drow city, Ruhn-Shak, is on the edge of destruction, and that many of the inhabitants are fleeing for certain locations on the surface. That was also 20 years before the designated year in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, so by now Ruhn-Shak could be an abandoned ruin.

Honestly, Lolth has been punked so many times in Exandria's history that I don't get why she's even still around. Most of the drow have turned from her, and she spent most of the epic war between gods impaled on a cliff and unable to do anything. Whereas in the Forgotten Realms she turns drow into driders as a curse, in Exandria drow followers of Lolth desperately try to find her divine blood to make themselves into driders so they maybe won't get killed-off by all the other, much worse things in the Underdark. She's probably the most pathetic of the gods in the setting.

Easiest way to fix the Drow would be killing or sidelining Lolth.

WotSQ pt 2 and she's killed off or reduced back to a demon queen.