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

[wellis]

“The spider-inspired ‘udadrow’ expression of the drow elves that D&D fans currently know is based on Lolth’s influence over a pocket of elves who became isolationist, cutting themselves off from the rest of drow culture,” explains Franchise Creative Director Jeremy Jarvis. “There are whole societies of drow that did not follow Lolth into the Underdark. Two such groups are the ‘aevendrow’ and the ‘lorendrow’, or the starlight elves and the greenshadow elves respectively.”

"The rest of drow culture." Where the hell were these specific subraces/factions/cultures of drow in earlier editions?

Seriously, I can understand why people are annoyed with this hamfisted insertion.

Wouldn't it have been better for writers to focus on drow cities that weren't so tightly firmly under Lolth's thumb, like cities outside of Menzoberranzan?

 

[Dire Bare]

"The rest of drow culture." Where the hell were these specific subraces/factions/cultures of drow in earlier editions?

Seriously, I can understand why people are annoyed with this hamfisted insertion.

Wouldn't it have been better for writers to focus on drow cities that weren't so tightly firmly under Lolth's thumb, like cities outside of Menzoberranzan?

All drow cultures portrayed in D&D so far have the same problem as the culture of Menzoberranzan. They are depicted as evil and depraved.

WotC could have retconned any or all of these cultures to not be so intrinsically evil . . . and (if done well) I would have liked to see that . . . but then we'd have cranky fans bitching about the retcons.

Instead, they decided to invent some new elements to D&D lore. I fail to see why this is a bad thing. We have two new, secretive, drow cultures in remote parts of the world. Where the "hell" were they in previous editions? Right where they are now, but unknown to the rest of Faerun. What, secret, lost cultures in a fantasy setting breaks your immersion?

Bring it on WotC! I'm eager to see how Salvatore and the rest of the D&D team bring these new elements into D&D lore. I welcome these new additions. No guarantee they'll be developed well, of course . . . but I'm willing to give it a shot.

 

[Marandahir]

"The rest of drow culture." Where the hell were these specific subraces/factions/cultures of drow in earlier editions?

Seriously, I can understand why people are annoyed with this hamfisted insertion.

Wouldn't it have been better for writers to focus on drow cities that weren't so tightly firmly under Lolth's thumb, like cities outside of Menzoberranzan?

Is everything in D&D beholden to past editions? We're exploring cities outside of Menzoberranzan that aren't so tightly under Lolth's thumb. In fact, they're so not tightly under her thumb that they have entirely different cultures. Why is that a bad thing?

 

[wellis]

All drow cultures portrayed in D&D so far have the same problem as the culture of Menzoberranzan. They are depicted as evil and depraved

Yeah but there were nuances from what I read in the FR wiki. Like one of them had equality of sorts if you were also a wizard, even non-drow wizards, because the wizards had couped the Lolth priesthood.

Just seems more interesting than "here are these sudden new drow cultures we never ever gave hints about before and all those Lolthite drows we've been talking about through 4 or so editions are actually an isolated, potentially small subfaction."

Just doesn't seem well handled I guess.

 

[Scribe]

Is everything in D&D beholden to past editions?

With a consistent world and canon?

Yes, that would be the ideal.

 

[Marandahir]

Yeah but there were nuances from what I read in the FR wiki. Like one of them had equality of sorts if you were also a wizard, even non-drow wizards, because the wizards had couped the Lolth priesthood.

Just seems more interesting than "here are these sudden new drow cultures we never ever gave hints about before and all those Lolthite drows we've been talking about through 4 or so editions are actually an isolated, potentially small subfaction."

Just doesn't seem well handled I guess.

I don't see why they can't explore all of the above?

Like, sure, explore the Drow that worship a slime-mold demon god. Explore the Drow that worship Lolth. Explore the Drow that are essentially Night Elves from Warcraft. And explore the Drow that are essentially Eberron Drow but in the Realms. It's all Drow, but it's different cultures.

With a consistent world and canon?

Yes, that would be the ideal.

When centuries pass, should the world map look identical and should everything be exactly as it was as if no time had changed? The Realms are an evolving place, and new secrets are discovered every year too.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I know with FR, the continent has been covered so much it turns off not insignificant numbers of D&D players and DMs such that when it’s revealed “Guess what, there’s a lost civilization of Drow or two”, we’re dumbfounded.

I love the trope of lost, hidden civilizations. I’m glad FR is finding places for some.

 

[Dire Bare]

Yeah but there were nuances from what I read in the FR wiki. Like one of them had equality of sorts if you were also a wizard, even non-drow wizards, because the wizards had couped the Lolth priesthood.

Just seems more interesting than "here are these sudden new drow cultures we never ever gave hints about before and all those Lolthite drows we've been talking about through 4 or so editions are actually an isolated, potentially small subfaction."

Just doesn't seem well handled I guess.

Certainly, in the decades that Salvatore and other writers have been exploring the drow, drow culture has become more varied and nuanced. Individual drow are now, not themselves intrinsically evil, but simply people raised in an evil and depraved culture. There are a lot of interesting, nuanced drow characters in the Realms other than Drizzt. I highly recommend the six-part "War of the Spider Queen" series, which centers completely on drow characters and culture.

But nonetheless, all existing drow cultures are depicted as evil. This is a problem. One solution, is to retcon some or all of them to be not really all-evil-all-the-time . . . . and again, I think that could have been done and done well. But it would have required WotC to retcon existing lore, which (I would assume) they are leery of doing after the fan blowback during 4th Edition. So, instead, they chose to create two new "lost" drow cultures that are not evil.

Again, I fail to see why this is a bad thing.

It's not the only choice they had, but it's a fair choice to make creatively.

 

[Weiley31]

"The rest of drow culture." Where the hell were these specific subraces/factions/cultures of drow in earlier editions?

They rolled so high on the Stealth check that the ENTIRE world didn't know of their existence until now.

 

[Marandahir]

They rolled so high on the Stealth check that the ENTIRE world didn't know of their existence until now.

Did anyone on Toril know about the Dragonborn or Genasi of Abeir before the Spellplague? Sometimes the world can intervene on a culture's behalf and make that stealth check a take-20.