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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Irennan" data-source="post: 6866742" data-attributes="member: 6778119">Eilistraee and Vhaeraun actually fit very well in the Realms. If you read the wiki pages, you'll find out that they haven't been just ''tacked on'', as they are fully part of the history of the elves and the drow in the setting, which is far different from that in GH (and is far more nuanced than it is there--the ''drow vs elves'' matter is definitely not black and white in the Realms). They are children of Lolth and Corellon (when Lolth was a dark elven deity of fate named Araushnee, before her banishment),  and they wandered among the dark elves of Toril before Lolth's worship was even practiced there (it was a chain of events, that ironically heavily involved the elves, that drew Lolth's attention to Toril and made her prominent). Both Eilistraee and Vhaeraun have a well defined role and place in the Realms, they actually have a deep relationship with the drow, and are iconic to the realmsian version of this race.''But they have been added to make Drizzt clones''... well, first off their concept and goals are far different from Drizzt (Vhaeraun is even evil aligned), secondly they have been part of Ed Greenwood's vision of the drow in his world even <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilistraee#Publication_history" target="_blank">before</a> TSR asked him to introduce new drow deities. Followers of Eilistraee and Vhaeraun are also known to not just be, as you put it, elves in disguise--even the followers of the Dark Maiden are nuanced, as while they try to respect the teachings of their goddess, they are still very much ''drow'', and many are proud of what they are (and Eilistraee also stands for freedom of expression and choice, she doesn't want to impose a change to the drow: she wants them to be at peace with other races, sure, but she actually helps them to find their own path in life, instead of being forced into a mold by Lolth). Besides, think about it: to my knowledge, the first time that the *realmsian* drow were explored as a race/culture was with ''The Drow of the Underdark'' in 2e, which already included the whole drow pantheon.Also, in FR it doesn't make sense for the drow to be entirely evil, specifically because of their history. They can normally choose, and it is very far fetched for an intelligent race with free choice to be all the same, and wholly accept the really crappy life that Lolth imposes them. In short, drow aren't the same in all settings. Eilistraee and Vhaeraun don't exist in GH, for example, and Lolth doesn't exist in Eberron. It's the reason why multiple settings exist.On a side note, FR has a group of orcs, called Ondonti, that are worshipers of Eldath, and are actually pacifist farmers.</blockquote>

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