White-skinned Drow

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And, memory serving, that was back when they worshiped the elder elemental eye, wasn't it?

Pre-Lolth. Tentacle rods and the like.

Yeah, Eclavdra and company worshipped the Elder Elemental God, but with D1, it was clear that worship of Lolth was the mainstream faith of the drow. In D3, it was explicitly stated that Eclavdra, et al., were heretics rebelling against the Vault's power structure. (Which made Q1 sort of a dopey finale, really, since Lolth had nothing to do with the giant invasion.)

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

As white is the new black, it makes perfect sense for drow to be even more evil by being whiter than white.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I don't believe Gygax nor anyone else involved in the creation of drow were racist or making the association deliberately, but, gee, isn't it interesting that the drow were cursed by the gods with black skin just like Ham's son Canaan and his descendants were supposed by white supremacists to have been cursed by God?

That's a good enough reason for me to eschew the traditional origin story for drow, personally, not that I'm very interested in running games set in Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms.

 

[Aaron L]

Black, jet black, is associated with fear and evil because people are naturally afraid of the dark and what lives there. It can eat you. No light = dark. There's bad things there in the dark, thats where the grues live!

My drow are jet black with white hair and red eyes. Just like light elves are snowy white and have green eyes and black hair.


Human people, however, are natural creatures and have skin tones corresponding to what would be best to the natural environment they developed in.


And they drink a lot of beer.

 

[Plane Sailing]

In my campaigns Drow have always had bone-white skin, silvery black hair and their eyes are pools of solid black, picking up the most light possible in their underground lairs. I've always gone with the 'cave fish' model of drow, and was surprised the first time I noticed something saying that they were jet black in colour... and promptly rejected that in favour of my chosen design for them

 

[Plane Sailing]

I've deleted about 8-9 posts in this thread and made a couple of other little edits too.

Please ensure that we don't go near real-world issues in this discussion, thanks.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Drow are extremely pallid over this way too. They have (thin) hair of peculiar hues, and their eyes are entirely black.

Other than that, I have made a number of rules changes, but I can still plug 'n play with them. . . um, I can use whatever stuff from wherever concerning Drow, simply ignoring the artwork. . . or at least photoshopping it I guess.

I like Drow - I always have - but I too made them a tad different to suit my GMing tastes, as of years ago.

 

[Ryngard]

Is this a racial thing?

Seriously though, I don't see the need to change it. Why can't they be different? It adds some flavor.

 

[GravyFingerz]

White skinned drow, eh?

Paging Drowbane. Paging Drowbane.

 

[Umbran]

I had no idea people were so adamant about keeping their Drow dark-skinned. Why, I have no idea: I certainly think it was a silly, pointless cosmetic element.

Well, to many it is a very pointed cosmetic element - the interior difference is denoted by the exterior difference, and thematically, that's important. Even if you're making them bone white, you're makign them look different - exactly how they're different isn't meaningful. And if you aren't going for a thematic difference, why not just keep it simple and use a normal evil elf?

In my campaign, I've sort of mixed elves and Tad Williams sithi - Roughy 5 centuries ago, there was a great conflict, and some of the elves came to dispair. They made a bargain with the evil assaulting powers, and to prove thier new loyalty, they slew their good elven brethren, and bathed in their blood.

They'd been tricked, of course. Fey could not spill the blood of other fey without grave consequences - the elven races have now lost their immortality, and the ritual marked the skins of the despairing ones, turning them jet black. The marking is passed to children, though there are ways that such a second-generation drow can cleanse themselves of the taint, though immortality is now beyond their reach...