Sorcerers Apprentice
Hero
It's not like this is a completely new design, the Drow in the 2nd ed. monster manual has light gray skin.
D&D 5E Tasha's Drow Art and the Future of Their Depictions in D&D
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DnD Warlord
Adventurer
Drow in my worlds have been more purple then black since 2e, so I don’t mind the change
Ruin Explorer
Legend
So my first thought is a big one:
WotC finally managed to get artists to follow a consistent direction re: Drow skin colour and appearance!?!?!?!?!?
For real?!?!?!?
That's what's truly astonishing here. That's what's mind-blowing. For like, 20 years, WotC have been trying to tell artists to draw Drow in various ways, and artists have not been listening. Some even had a quote from a WotC dude complaining about it (I can't find it but it was in a thread on the drow/orc/etc. changes a few months back). Apparently they somehow finally fixed that?
My second thought is, is this the most heroic Drow we've ever seen in one product? And they're in fairly diverse roles too, not just the usual Drow ones.
Third off, I think it's a smart change. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can all waffle about "WELL MAKING THEM NOT ALL EVIL IS JOB #1!!!", but like, duh, obviously, whatever. This is something semi-independent of that. This is a smart change for two reasons. Firstly, it makes them hella easier to draw, and easier to draw consistently. We'd previously seen artists using dark grey, purple, or in ye olde dayes, dark human skin tones to try and get around the fact that it's bloody hard to draw someone who is obsidian-coloured, especially if you don't want to look like a comic book. Plus, frankly, whilst I'd have gone for a different grey, it looks good. Secondly, it gives them more room to manuever on Drow, and helps signal that they're changing things here more broadly.
Sooner rather than later, I hope. Shadow Elves rocked.
I also would like to get rid of the "evil culture," but thanks to a certain extremely popular writer whose drow originated in the 2E era, they're sorta stuck with it. They can say it's just the Lolth drow who are evil, and I approve of that--all fantasy racism concerns aside, it makes the drow more interesting and varied--but the Drizzt stories are* firmly centered on the Lolth drow and Drizzt as the lone rebel against their wicked ways.
On top of that, as others have pointed out, it never made much sense for the subterranean elves to have dark skin rather than pale. And artists have been "cheating" on drow skin tone since the beginning, because it's really hard to make literal jet black skin look like anything but a silhouette, so we end up with gray skin anyway.
*Or at least they were, the last time I read any, which admittedly was many years ago.
On top of that, as others have pointed out, it never made much sense for the subterranean elves to have dark skin rather than pale. And artists have been "cheating" on drow skin tone since the beginning, because it's really hard to make literal jet black skin look like anything but a silhouette, so we end up with gray skin anyway.
At least they aren't foot-long spikes sticking out sideways.
*Or at least they were, the last time I read any, which admittedly was many years ago.
Laurefindel
Legend
Charcoal-black skinned drows was a messy subject and a hard one to defend, or at the very least, one that constantly needs defending. And as someone pointed out earlier, black drows brought their own set of issues (or at least modern sensibilities) for cosplay and LARP due to real-life parallels.
I really think this new artistic direction was deliberate and for good reasons. Absense of pigmentation does make sense for an underground-living race. Besides, like @Ruin Explorer said before, an actual clear and strong set of artistic guidelines can only do good, and truely black-skinned beings (not black human skin colour) is challenging to represent artistically.
That all being said, I miss the aesthetics of ebony-black skinned dark elves.
I really think this new artistic direction was deliberate and for good reasons. Absense of pigmentation does make sense for an underground-living race. Besides, like @Ruin Explorer said before, an actual clear and strong set of artistic guidelines can only do good, and truely black-skinned beings (not black human skin colour) is challenging to represent artistically.
That all being said, I miss the aesthetics of ebony-black skinned dark elves.
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
I am happy to have all the peoples available to play in my games have as wide a range of pigments and features as humans have. Something apparent both within and across different ethnic groups in the real world.
I am playing with the "elves are going away" trope in my current setting and thinking about having them have all gone underground in a return to a "fey under the hill" understanding of elves and just making them all be drow.
I am playing with the "elves are going away" trope in my current setting and thinking about having them have all gone underground in a return to a "fey under the hill" understanding of elves and just making them all be drow.
Sacrosanct
Legend
Anything is better than the clear African American depictions used back in the day like this (in)famous cover: Yeesh...
In my own game, this is how I describe them:
The history behind deep elves is still largely a mystery. Some believe they were surface elves that eons ago fled to the deep underground caverns for many rumored reasons, such as plague, or having made a pact with evil deities and were driven underground. Others think they were normal elves who were victims of dark and alien forces that evolved them into what they are now. And others believe they were just groups of elves who got lost or trapped deep underground and formed their new life there.
Regardless of their history, current deep elves make their homes in cities deep underground in huge caverns, most never seeing the surface world for their entire lives. Their cities are heavily influenced by magic and alien influences, and thus reflect that to any outsider visiting them. Due to their isolation and environment where they are surrounded by deadly creatures, many deep elves tend to be xenophobic and mistrusting of other ancestries.
Having generations live deep underground, deep elves have taken on several evolutionary traits. Their natural skin color ranges from porcelain white to a shades of blue or pale purple, and they have extra large almond shaped eyes and traditional elven ears to enhance their senses. Many who have encountered deep elves underground assume they have dark skin, almost black, because they have a natural ability to shift the pigment in their skin to reflect basic colors of the terrain around them, which being underground is almost always dark stone. This grants a bonus +2 to all stealth checks.
In my own game, this is how I describe them:
The history behind deep elves is still largely a mystery. Some believe they were surface elves that eons ago fled to the deep underground caverns for many rumored reasons, such as plague, or having made a pact with evil deities and were driven underground. Others think they were normal elves who were victims of dark and alien forces that evolved them into what they are now. And others believe they were just groups of elves who got lost or trapped deep underground and formed their new life there.
Regardless of their history, current deep elves make their homes in cities deep underground in huge caverns, most never seeing the surface world for their entire lives. Their cities are heavily influenced by magic and alien influences, and thus reflect that to any outsider visiting them. Due to their isolation and environment where they are surrounded by deadly creatures, many deep elves tend to be xenophobic and mistrusting of other ancestries.
Having generations live deep underground, deep elves have taken on several evolutionary traits. Their natural skin color ranges from porcelain white to a shades of blue or pale purple, and they have extra large almond shaped eyes and traditional elven ears to enhance their senses. Many who have encountered deep elves underground assume they have dark skin, almost black, because they have a natural ability to shift the pigment in their skin to reflect basic colors of the terrain around them, which being underground is almost always dark stone. This grants a bonus +2 to all stealth checks.
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