Drow (Dark Elves)

Black skinned cousins of the elves

Drow, also known as dark elves or night elves, were a dark-skinned sub-race of elves that predominantly lived in the Underdark. They earned their reputation as evil people, with all justification, though some members with more neutral disposition did exist, as did an even smaller number of actually good members. On the surface, the drow were sometimes referred to as "The Ones Who Went Below".

Attractive Looks

Drow looked attractive, especially their nobles. This wasn't a coincidence but the result of selective breeding over several generations. Their alluring appearance, which could be used for seduction, was more likely used as a tool of fear. Meeting beauty standards of surface races was surmised to be the most important reason, that surface dwellers were prone to turn a blind eye on the drow race's deeds and allow inclusion in surface communities.

Lifespan

Drow had lifespans far beyond those of humans and comparable with the rest of the elven race, although usually somewhat longer. This was, of course, presuming the drow didn't meet a premature and violent end, as many often did, but those that survived the trials of their society and the horrors of the Underdark could live for centuries. Generally, a drow's natural lifespan was up to 750 years, and about 94% of natural deaths occurred before 800 years of age. Signs of age were seen past their 600 year of life, and drow could live more than 1000 years, when they could afford a lifestyle that spared them hardships, like the ones enjoyed by matron mothers, though by that point, the drow in question was very withered by age. Lolth's magic could maintain a matron's life for literal thousands of years. This was a clear sign of favor from the goddess.

Personality

Drow by reputation were almost entirely evil-aligned with very few exceptions.
Drow were arrogant, ambitious, sadistic, treacherous, and hedonistic. From birth, drow were taught they were superior to other races and should crush those beneath them.
It was important to recognize that the drow race's evil wasn't of inherent nature. Unlike orcs, for example, who suffered from an inherent drive towards evil, elves like drow chose by themselves to turn their culture into what it became. Leading to a race of emotionally stunted people, with a tenuous grasp on sanity and scarred mentalities among which relatively undamaged minds were considered abnormal. Luckily for them, them meeting the surface's beauty standards gave them a comparatively easy time to be accepted into communities there.

Arrogance

Drow believed themselves to be the apex creature. Their treatment towards members of other races ran the entire gamut from pets, slave to grudgingly respected partners when they proved themselves a military match for them, though never equals in their minds. This went to the point that contracts with those they deemed "lesser races" were not viewed as binding. They were readily broken when the contract ceased being beneficial to the drow party. Other races learnt to anticipate betrayal and always had counters to the treachery prepared.
While most drow shared a hatred of all other races, especially surface races, the object of true hatred was the Seldarine and the surface elves, "Darthiir" in Drow. It was the only thing that united them as a species, leading them to yearn for a return to the surface that would defeat the surface elves.

Cruelty

As a general rule, drow didn’t feel emotions like compassion or love. They were distrustful sadists with a constant readiness to backstab people, both in the figurative and actual sense. Children who showed kindness or love were brutally punished, so as to beat the instinct for cruelty into them.

Hedonism

Drow were hedonists. They loved beautiful things, surrounded themselves with what they considered beautiful, and generally didn’t pay attention at how much it’d cost them. This also extended to their behavior. Drow generally believed they were entitled to do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted to do it.
They often partook of lavish revels, indulging in the most pleasurable of activities, including long nights of dinner and massages. Some drow were fond of dances, including the frenzied nedeirra competition or the illiyitrii, a formal dance sometimes involving costumes.

Trust

Drow were taught from an early age to be distrustful of others. Like in any other culture, drow culture expected one to advance at the expenses of others. Unlike other cultures, there were no rules for what the "expense of others" had to look like, acceptable forms included treachery and even outright murder.
While drow did understand the value of forging bonds, they didn’t see a value in the virtue of honesty. Forming bonds was thus a dangerous endeavor and mostly of temporary nature. Because any alliance or cordial relationship could end in treachery, drow went into engagements of this sort with the expectation for the worst. Alliances were generally formed when one considered the ally weak enough to be not too dangerous of a threat, be susceptible to blackmail or when cooperation was forced by the existence of a common enemy. Even formed alliances were under scrutiny for signs of treachery and often ended violently. In fact, simple inconvenience to maintain the bond was a reason to end their loyalty.
They were generally expecting attacks, including physical ones, and thus were rarely surprised when it happened, depriving the attacker of the moment of surprise.
Even drow who escaped the cruelties of the Underdark found it more difficult to form long-term friendships than most races did.

Culture

Not all drow became a part of the violent mainstream culture that most of the race were forced to endure. Those few who escaped the life of the Underdark might break away entirely from their dark past, while some fortunate drow were actually born and raised outside of the world below. Some drow found a hint of virtue within themselves in spite of all the terrors they witnessed, or perhaps because of it. Others turned late to better ways, either out of guilt or out of the simple fact they were no longer obliged to do so. Yet others were dangerously insane, broken by the horrors that shook their psyches.
The drow who did choose to live on the surface did not form any kind of organized society and instead lived as hermits and outcasts. They would interact with other societies when they needed to, but not through choice.

Religion

The vast majority of drow worshipped Lolth, the majority of drow on the surface followed Vhaeraun. The latter was also the prime choice for those drow who wanted to look for a means for freedom from the tyranny of Lolth. The other deities were of minor note but clearly existent. For example, while also a choice for drow seeking freedom from slavery to Lolth like Vhaeraun, Ghaunadaur didn’t manage to increase the number of his followers due to not caring enough for matters on Gloriana, while other deities were in a subservient position to the Spider Queen like Kiaransalee or Selvetarm.
As mentioned before, while good drow were an extreme rarity, they existed, the majority of these worshipped Eilistraee or other deities of other pantheons.
Though religion played a large part in drow society, the caste system and other seemingly lawful aspects of the culture clashed with Lolth's intent and directives as a chaotic evil goddess. As a result, much of the tension between the clergy of Lolth and more secular drow came from this very different perspective.

Basic Information

Biological Traits

They were shorter than many other sub-races of elves. It was believed that females on average were bigger and stronger than males. The former claim did not hold water when numbers were taken into account, though. Drow varied in height from 4′7″ (1.39 m) to 5′5″ (1.65 m), and both sexes averaged at 5′ (1.52m). Men weighed somewhere from 87 to 157 pounds (39.46-71.21 kg)— averaging 109.5 pounds (49.67kg), while women were a bit lighter varying between 82 to 152 pounds (37.19-68.95 kg)— averaging 104.5 pounds (47.4kg).

Genetics and Reproduction

Drow had a reputation - even among themselves - to be more fertile than other elves, their bodies' actual fertility was no different than other elves', but they owned a higher readiness to birth as many children as possible during their lives. For example, in the evil Lolthite society, female drow, who already had an active career under their belt, gave birth to about ten children before she lost the ability to birth more. Their constant strife kept their numbers low.
An interesting thing about birth was that, when different subraces of elves intermarried, there was an equal chance for the child to inherit either of the parents' traits. The resulting child had usually both a psychological quirk to favor the drow parent over the other one and a genetic quirk to be more likely to parent a drow, when there was a chance for it. It was a trait the dark elves shared too.
They were also capable of parenting half-drow with humans. This parentage gave these half-elves no different powers than other half-elves as a general rule, exceptions existed who did gain some powers through their parentage. Regarding reproduction, like any other sort of half-elves, the "2-generation-rule" applied to half-drow too.

Additional Information

Facial characteristics

Characteristic about drow were their mouths. Their teeth had a natural coloration of white, black or purple and their gums, tongues, and throats were pink, red or purple.

Average Intelligence

Drow were intelligent creatures even when compared to other sentient creatures. This was not a coincidence but the result of selective breeding over several generations.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Drow had skin of dark grey to obsidian color and white or yellow hair. Rare hair colors included copper and silver, the latter believed to be a sign of a mentally handicapped person (a superstition spawned by the celebration known as "the Run", held by the followers of Eilistraee, in which they dye their hair silver before traveling on the surface in the attempt to create friendships with Humans and elves).
Female drow with blonde hues indicated the drow in question was of an older age. Elder male drow had naturally silvering or greying hair. Both sexes' hair thinned with advancing age, meaning 600 or more years. This hair was carefully groomed, cared for by most drow, and worn long with jewelry and other accessories decorating it. Like all elves, drow were incapable of growing beards, though many males were fond of long sideburns.
Drow eyes were usually bright red, but some had different colored like green, brown or black, but they had often much paler eyes such as blue, lilac, pink or silver - these pale eyes were often so pale that they appeared to be white -  in fact, their eye color could be of practically any color. Purple or blue meant that the particular drow had some surface elven blood in his or her veins.

Drow (Dark Elf)

Ability Score Increase +1 Cha

Size Medium

Speed 30ft.

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You have all features from the Elf race, as well as the following:
Superior Darkvision. Your darkvision has a radius of 120 feet.
Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
Drow Magic. You know the dancing lights cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the faerie fire spell once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can also cast the darkness spell once per day. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Drow Weapon Training. You have proficiency with rapiers, shortswords, and hand crossbows.