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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 8494104">I think it probably depends on the setting. I mostly ran Ravenloft, but did read the Forgotten Realms Books and the Dragonlance books (and play in campaigns set in those settings). The drow concept in my opinion was a culture being shaped by the system. You see that very strongly if you read the dark elf trilogy. I liked the first three books in the Icewind Dale Trilogy and the Dark Elf trilogy when they came out. I read the dark elf trilogy again about 7 years ago, and the mechanics of AD&D 2E (? pretty sure it was 2E, know some of the Salvatore stuff crossed the threshold of 1E to 2E), shaped so much of it. Everything from how Drizzt is told by an NPC that he is a ranger (that scene really stood out reading it years later), but the dark elf culture essentially looked like a thought experiment to me, of Salvatore trying to take the description of Neutral Evil and make a society based on it that made some kind of sense. It felt very star trek to me in a way. I will say, nothing about the culture came across as being savage. It was presented as a pretty sophisticated culture, just based on an evil ideology. They are worth reading if you want a sense of what was going on at that time in the hobby. I would say you probably want to keep in mind this was just after the satanic panic too, so it is interesting in that there is a surprising of 'metal' vibe to it. Not sure how different it might have been if the Satanic Panic hadn't just happened (I imagine it could have gotten  bit darker).</blockquote>

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