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

[Dire Bare]

Subraces are not the same as cultures. If a high elf is raised by Dwarves in Dwarven culture its subrace is still Hifh Elf, but it culture is Dwarven. Race/Subrace most have either a biological or metaphysical difference no matter what culture they are raisedcm in.

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 . . . .

 

[Dire Bare]

I still use the 4E concept of the Underdark being spread throughout the Material Plane, Feywild, and Shadowfell, and I'd been wondering what Feywild drow would be like. Maybe I can use one of these for the Feywild Underdark drow.

One of the world-building elements of 4E that I loved! It made the underdark more weird and otherworldly, and in an odd way, more sensical.

 

[Dire Bare]

Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest that I had a problem with the addition of new elf subraces per se. I just don’t see how this addresses the issues with drow any more than a new subrace of... I don’t know, volcano elves would. Just because you put drow in their name doesn’t mean you’ve actually done anything to change the subrace of elves formerly known only as drow, now known as Unudrow.

If I read you correctly, you feel these two new drow cultures do not fix the drow problem D&D has at all.

Whereas I feel they fix it a little bit, but certainly not completely. A step in the right direction.

We're not so far apart.

 

[Mercurius]

None of this has changed with the introduction of these new subraces. If you think all of this is is fine now, then you mustn’t have thought there was a problem with drow in the first place.

That doesn't answer my question. I'll say it again: Drow are not an inherently evil race. They exist within an evil culture, which isn't inherent but learned. I think a lot of the "problem" people have is with confusing the two. If you switch that within your thinking, is there still a problem?

 

[Hexmage-EN]

That doesn't answer my question. I'll say it again: Drow are not an inherently evil race. They exist within an evil culture, which isn't inherent but learned. I think a lot of the "problem" people have is with confusing the two. If you switch that within your thinking, is there still a problem?

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.

 

[Don Durito]

Drow are a really pulpy decadent series of villains.

I'm not really sure you can say they are a culture and not a race. The very concept of decadence is a big part of what the Drow are and that is inherently racial.

I think if you are making the Drow a culture and not a race then you are someone deconstructing them in a way that doesn't make a lot of sense. They are not a realistic or believable culture. (If they were a culture they would be a culture viewed through a heaviliy racialised lens.)

In a way the Drow are inherently problematic. Probably the best that could be done is to at least not give them black skin.

 

[Parmandur]

So instead of making drow culture more varied, they’re making more elf subraces? :/

I actually get the opposite impression: instead of more subraces, this is a way to provide non-Lolth-cebtric characters using the PHB option.

 

[Charlaquin]

I actually get the opposite impression: instead of more subraces, this is a way to provide non-Lolth-cebtric characters using the PHB option.

Could be. I guess we’ll have to see how they end up working in the actual game.

 

[Parmandur]

I wager these new drow groups will be handled similar to Eberron: no stat changes, but cultural notes

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

 

[Parmandur]

Could be. I guess we’ll have to see how they end up working in the actual game.

So far, these seem to be novel related, not game per se. My impression is that it's WotC Vining off of Mercer's take on Drow.