[Wizards] Novel Submissions Chat Dec. 7th

[Ian Sturrock]

I'm reasonably sure that "drow" is a Shetland islands variant of "trow", i.e. a malevolent & supernatural creature. It's etymologically related to "troll".

Of course if your "drow" have black skin, white hair, and a spider-worshipping religion, they're clearly WotC's drow; but the name itself isn't a D&D invention.

 

[takyris]

Well, sure. Just like "beholder" is a real world meaning "The person looking at something". But if I make a group of evil priests called The Beholders of Narkon, WotC is going to be a little worried, if I just call them The Beholders, WotC is going to be genuinely concerned, and if I make The Beholder-priests lose their bodies so that they're just heads that float around shooting eye-beams at people, they're gonna call foul.