Drow

Introduction

Few peoples in Faerûn carry as much history in as little space as the drow. They were elves once, surface-dwellers, long-lived and graceful until a war pulled their civilization apart at the seams and sent what was left of those who lost underground. What followed wasn't a decline, but an evolution. The drow took the Underdark and made it their own, raising cities lit by fungal lights and governed by webs of obligation and quiet violence. Drow society rewards cunning over strength and patience over valor, producing a people of extraordinary sophistication and extraordinary cruelty, with the rare and remarkable capacity to become something else entirely.

Race Information

Society

Drow society is a matriarchy of constant conflict, shaped by the doctrine of the Spider Queen; that only the strong survive, and that loyalty is merely weakness awaiting to be exploited. Grand noble houses can rise and fall within the blink of an eye, each one clawing at the others for dominance whilst professing undying loyalty to Lolth. Within a House, sisters plot against sisters, and a priestess who turns her back on her rivals for too long may one day find a knife in it. Males hold a precarious position within Drow society, denied the powers granted by Lolth to Her faithful, they are the warriors, the wizards, and the merchants, using their status and positions to buy as much time for themselves as possible, and as much power as they can. House Wizards are the exception to the males' lesser standing; their talents within the arcane makes them too valuable to discard though never too valuable to watch at all times.
But Lolth is not inevitable. She is a choice - one made so thoroughly and for so long that it has come to feel like fate. Yet after the civil war of Menzoberranzan, drow scattered across Faerûn. Across the moonlit forest clearings and remote surface cities. Through growing Underdark settlements that fly no banner to the Spider Queen and even other Drow cities. Into the quiet spaces between Her reach and Her wrath. In all of them there exist Drow who have sworn themselves to gods Lolth would wish gone, or to no god at all. They are proof that the drow people are larger than the designs of one goddess.

Regions

Menzoberranzan

The most well known of the Drow cities within Faerûn, a vast cavern illuminated by glowing fungi and the shimmering towers of the great houses. Every inch of its political landscape is contested by knife, by blood, and by family. To be born into the City of Spiders is to be born knowing that beauty and violence are one and the same.

Sschindylryn

Also known as the City of Portals, Sschindylryn is a land of traders and merchants that have forged it into one of the strongest in the Underdark. With economic stability and relative peace within the city, positions of power and influence have become filled with more and more males over the years. A city under Lolth’s influence in name alone, with The Lady of the Dead taking power as the dominant clergy.

Sschamath

A city composed of the arcane and spellcasters, the City of Dark Weavings has been a stronghold for wizardry for centuries, while the clergy of the Spider Queen have been moved down into roles of lesser importance. Sschamath is the most cosmopolitan Underdark city, a well-regarded trading partner with strong ties to all corners of the Underdark and even broaching upon the surface. Residents welcome all who come to trade, regardless of race, creed, or school of thought.

The Sword Mountains

Those Drow who frequent the surface tend to maintain hidden holds within the Sword Mountains, whether they be to; conduct raids, gather intelligence, or engage in trade. Postings to the surface are considered a punishment where a surface-dwelling drow is cut off from their House, its politics, and Lolth’s priesthood. Yet some come here, willingly or forced out, to make a new life for themselves and seek to integrate themselves into surface life.

The Lost Hills

Drow who frequent the Lost Hills are ones to visit the very edges of the Underdark, far from the reaches of Lolth and her clergy within Menzoberranzan. A species who exist as a powerful minority within the Underdark, and very far from that power within the Hills, forced to work with those that may not should they be closer to home. The Drow of this region enjoy a less strict and observed state of being; either forced here by some crime, commanded here by the powers above them, or fled here seeking life beyond the web. While a rare sight to see, Drow come here to disappear from what they know or earn something worth their return, but those Drow must rely on more than their name alone for it means little here.

Imberlur

Far removed from the northern-most reaches of the Underdark, beneath the Border Kingdoms, lies the city of Imberlur. A predominantly Eilistraeen city that places high value on perfecting one’s craft, the sharing of resources, and a sense of community. Never in a hurry and found to be frequently engaging in song and dance - the city's residents tried their hardest to maintain good relations with surface settlements, frequently engaging in trade and avoiding conflict where possible.

Appearance

The Elven Inheritance
The Drow are built much like their elven kin; tall, lean, and light on their feet in ways that reads less like elegance and more like something practiced. Their faces lean toward sharp, well-defined features that other races have historically found difficult to look away from. Their grace is real, but it is built from a people who grew up in tight tunnels and hostile politics, not one grown from a life upon the surface. Put a drow next to a wood elf and the family resemblance is there but past that, the similarities run out fast.

Pigment & Features
Drow skin sits somewhere on a spectrum that runs from a near-black to a dark, muted lavender-grey tone. The deeper shades are the most common; the lighter end occasionally gets a drow mistaken for a Moon Elf at a distance, which tends to be more trouble than it's worth, for both of them. Hair comes in white almost universally at birth and doesn't stay that way, women's hair drifts toward a pale, washed-out gold over time, while men go silver or a cool, pale grey. It happens gradually enough that most drow don't notice until someone points it out.

The Eyes of the Drow
Red is the colour people expect, and red is usually what they get, a bright, vivid shade that holds up well in low light and has a long history of unnerving surface races on first contact. Beyond that, Drow eyes range throughout the colour spectrum, ranging from pale blue, lilac, pink, and silver, none of which are unusual enough to attract comment in most drow cities, to green, brown, black, amber, or rose-tinted irises do exist but are uncommon enough that they tend to get remarked on. Blue or purple eyes sit in a separate category entirely, those shades usually point to somewhere in the family tree where a surface elf or human got involved, which is the kind of ancestry that means different things in different drow communities. Eyes the colour of bright silver have come to signal that one has left Lolth’s web, found most frequently among the followers of the Dark Lady. But more colours exist beyond the ones mentioned, the Underdark is a large place and what may be common in one place, may not be so in another.

Faith

Lolth - The Spider Queen

Goddess of spiders, chaos, and ambition. She reigns as the head of the Dark Seldarine and the state religion of Menzoberranzan, though the recent civil war has somewhat loosened her grip upon the city, yet cities remain still loyal to her. Her priestesses act as the ruling class, and her edicts define the laws of cities, the ethics and actions of war, and governs the Drow’s morality. To accept Lolth into one’s life, is to accept that the truest teacher is suffering and that the weak exist to elevate the strong.

Vhaeraun - The Masked Lord

God of thieves, arrogance, and drow males who seek all that is denied to them by Lolth and her clergy. The Masked Lord’s faithful believe that their people deserve dominion over the surface and hold that right to rule like a dagger cloaked in shadow. A god that has grown more prominent as of recent events, worshiping him in secret is now no longer required within certain cities in the Underdark.

Selvetarm - The Spider That Waits

God of warriors, battle prowess, and slaughter. Selvetarm’s followers are consistently found to be the militant arm of Lolth’s church, having little impact within wider drow society outside of that. The Spider That Waits is bound to the will of Lolth, and his followers seem to be content with their position bound to the priestess’ as their Lord is to his grandmother.

Kiaransalee - The Lady of the Dead

Goddess of undeath, vengeance, and necromancy. She is the only drow deity who was mortal within living memory. Once a queen, enslaved and destroyed, she then returned as vengeance and fury. Those of her faithful believe that no wrong goes unanswered and no name of an enemy is ever forgotten; necromancers, record keepers, and those who have been wronged call to Her as their Lady. She will do anything to see the web Lolth has woven loosened, including allying with surface gods.

Zinzerena - The Princess of Outcasts

Goddess of illusions, deception, and assassination. She remains infamous for stealing a fraction of his sponsor's power as she ascended to divinity, cementing herself as the goddess of deception. Her church has no temples, and no symbols but one. The sword draped in cloth. Found in every aspect of drow society; from the poorest of servants, to those in nearly every occupation, even some of the noble class found their way into the Princess of Outcast’s circles. To follow Zinzerena is to believe that you never need to be stronger than your enemy. You only need to be somewhere else when they look for you.

Eilistraee - The Dark Maiden

Goddess of freedom, moonlight, hunting, and beauty. She embodies the hope of redemption for drow who seek a different life. Her faithful are rare within the Underdark, and hunted even more so. The largest and most organized community of those free from Lolth’s designs, they are no nation but scattered congregations, wandering bands, and sanctuaries hidden away. Their most sacred temple is the Promenade of the Dark Maiden located within Waterdeep, a haven for those that dance under the moonlight. Each of their decisions to follow the Dark Maiden is an act of defiance against Lolth’s web, united by an ideology that views their people’s exile as a wound to be healed, and not a war to be won.

RP Guide

Elves (Surface)

The relationship between drow and their surface cousins is the oldest wound in elven history, and neither side has fully decided what to do with it. Surface elves; moon elves, sun elves, and wood elves, regard the drow with a complicated mixture of revulsion and grief, the way a family regards a member who did something unforgivable and has kept on living with it. The drow, for their part, tend to return the sentiment with contempt, having spent thousands of years being told they are lesser than their surface kin and punished for the lie they were told. Encounters between the two are rarely violent by default, but they are almost never comfortable. With the extremes of both sides wishing to see the other exterminated, while the rest simply wishing exist.

Humans

Being the race drow encounter most frequently on the surface, and the dynamic is a rather straightforward one on the surface, and far more complicated underneath. Most humans fear drow on sight, the reputation of their horrors preceding them by centuries and respond with suspicion, hostility, or a kind of nervous deference that is simply better mannered hostility. What drow often find, however, is that a human is almost always willing to revise their opinion given sufficient evidence. A drow who saves a human’s life, trades fairly, or simply keeps their word long enough tends to find human attitudes shift faster than those of other races. That adaptability does cut both ways as humans are quick to also fall back into their fear when things go wrong.

Dwarves

Sharing the Underdark the way two families share a fence; aware of each other, rarely speaking, and occasionally coming to blows over who owns what runs beneath their feet. Centuries of territorial conflict, raiding, and outright war have left the dwarves with a deep institutional hostility toward the drow that does not easily go away. A dwarf who has never personally encountered a drow still knows, from clan history and hearthside stories, exactly what to think of them. This is one of the harder prejudices for a surface-dwelling drow to navigate, because it is not rooted in fear so much as memory. And dwarves have very long memories.

Halflings

Drow do not think about halflings very much, which is exactly what halflings prefer. As a people, halflings have no real presence within the Underdark, no territorial ambitions that bring them into the drow’s sphere of influence, and no institutional history of conflict with them. Surface-dwelling drow encounter them on occasion within cities and along trade routes, usually without incident, providing the drow is polite. The halfling talent for being unremarkable in a crowd is, from a drow perspective, either a survival mechanism worth respecting or evidence of a people with nothing worth noticing. Drow who have spent enough time on the surface tend toward the former, and those who haven’t the latter.

Gnomes & Svirfneblin

Rock Gnomes and their surface kin earn a mild, grudging curiosity from most drow - their inventiveness is real, their magical aptitude is genuine, and drow culture has enough respect for craft to acknowledge both. The relationship rarely develops past that because gnomes are difficult to intimidate into cooperation and unpleasant to deal with when offended. Svirfneblin are a different matter entirely. They have made their home in the Underdark through centuries of quiet stubbornness, and drow who grew up near their settlements know them as neighbours in the truest sense; not allies, not subjects but a people who have been in the same tunnels long enough that a certain reluctant familiarity has developed. It does not make them trusted. It makes them known, which to a drow may be as good as you may get.

Orcs

Orcs and drow have a long and mutually contemptuous history, complicated by the fact that their territorial ambitions frequently overlap in the Upperdark and the mountains that pass over it. Drow consider orcs to be blunt instruments; powerful but predictable, too loud for proper tunnel work, and too undisciplined for anything that requires patience. Orcs regard drow as treacherous and cowardly, which from an orcish tactical philosophy is not entirely wrong. Open conflict between the two tends to favour the drow in the long run; direct engagements favour the orcs. Both sides know that and plan accordingly, which produces a cold, functional avoidance punctuated by raids that neither formally acknowledges.

Goblins

The Drow regards goblins the way a craftsman regards a cheap tool; useful in the right situation, replaceable when broken, and not worth thinking about beyond that. Goblin tribes close to drow settlements are almost always pressed into slavery as laborers, fodder, or early-warning systems for anything that may threaten a drow’s city. The goblins know this arrangement and maintain it, because the alternative is far worse. What occasionally surprises the surface races is that the relationship is not purely extractive, a goblin tribe under drow protection is a goblin tribe that survives. The drow are not kind masters, but they are consistent ones, and in the Underdark consistency is survival.

Hobgoblins

Of the goblinoid races, hobgoblins come closest to earning genuine respect from the drow, and the drow find that irritating. Hobgoblin military discipline is real, their organization is reliable, and their capacity for long-term strategic thinking puts them in a different capacity from their kin. Drow do not trust them, but they do take them seriously, which in drow terms is a meaningful distinction. Alliances between the two groups do exist and occasionally hold, built on mutual recognition that the other party is dangerous enough to be worth dealing with rather than simply dominating.

Bugbears

Bugbears occupy a more interesting position than their goblin kin; large enough to be genuinely useful in a fight and independent enough to require actual management. Drow who employ bugbears tend to do so as enforcers and heavy labour, and treat them with the minimal additional respect that physical capability demands. Bugbears, for their part, serve drow employers when the pay is sufficient and the leash is loose enough. They do not forget a slight, which the smarter drow houses account for. The ones that don’t occasionally find their hired muscle have developed opinions about the chain of command.

Kobolds

Numerous enough to be a fixture of Underdark life and clever enough to be occasionally useful, kobolds are generally absorbed into drow operations or removed from them depending on what sits beneath their warrens. Drow have found, practically speaking, that a kobold given a purpose outworks one given only a reason to be afraid, a quirk of the species they have exploited with no real interest in why. A kobold warren with any credible claim to draconic patronage gets a markedly different reception, not out of respect for the kobolds, no, but out of a concerning assessment of what angering their patron could cost. The kobolds mistake this caution for something it isn’t. Drow do not bother to correct them.

Illithid

The relationship between drow and mind flayers is one of the Underdark’s oldest and carefully maintained cold wars. Both races are ancient, both are intelligent, and both have built civilizations in the dark that regard most other life as a resource. What keeps them from open conflict is mutual deterrence and a shared interest in the Underdark’s stability, an illithid colony that destroys a drow city destabilises trade and patrol routes that benefit everyone, and vice versa. Individual drow regard illithids with a revulsion they rarely admit to, rooted in the particular horror of the creatures that treat the mind as something to eat. The illithid regard drow as useful, shortsighed, and adequately complex to be interesting. Neither are entirely wrong.

Other Drow

Perhaps the most fraught relationship of all. A drow encountering another drow outside of their house structure has no default framework for trust; they share a culture, a language, and a set of survival instincts, all of which tells them that the drow across from them is probably running an angle. Drow from the same city regard each other as known quantities with known dangers. Drow from other cities or different religious traditions are unpredictable in ways that are genuinely more unsettling than dealing with a surface race. A drow who has left the Spider Queen’s web may be welcomed in by some, and regarded by orthodox drow the way a deserter is regarded by soldiers, not just with contempt, but with something close to a personal offence.

Characteristics

Kit Items

Darkvision
smolears1
elfears smallmk1
elfears smallmk2
Elvish Ear A [R]
Elvish Ear A [L]
Elvish Ear B [R]
Elvish Ear B [L]
Elvish Ear A [R][ToT]
Elvish Ear A [L][ToT]
Elvish Ear B [R][ToT]
Elvish Ear B [L][ToT]
Elvish Ear C [R][ToT]
Elvish Ear C [L][ToT]
Elvish Ear D [R][ToT]
Elvish Ear D [L][ToT]
Elvish Ear E [R][ToT]
Elvish Ear E [L][ToT]
Elvish Ear C [R]
Elvish Ear C [L]
Elvish Ear D [R]
Elvish Ear D [L]
Elvish Ear E [R]
Elvish Ear E [L]
Elven Ears (Small) [A]
Elven Ears II (Small) [A]
(T) Small Elf Ear (Left)
(T) Small Elf Ear (Right)
(T) Medium Elf Ear (Left)
(T) Medium Elf Ear (Right)
(JCACC) Elf Ears 1 Left
(JCACC) Elf Ears 1 Right
(JCACC) Elf Ears 2 Left
(JCACC) Elf Ears 2 Right
(JCACC) Elf Ears 3 Left
(JCACC) Elf Ears 3 Right
(JCACC) Large Elf Ears 1 Left
(JCACC) Large Elf Ears 1 Right
(JCACC) Pointed Ears 1 Left
(JCACC) Pointed Ears 1 Right
(JCACC) Pointed Ears 2 Left
(JCACC) Pointed Ears 2 Right
(JCACC) Stretched Ears 1 Left
(JCACC) Stretched ears 1 Right
Elf Right
Elf Left

Height:
140 - 170 cm Lifespan:
750 Years Starting Language(s):
Common, Elvish, Undercommon Suggested Alignment:
Any Evil Racial Tension(s):
Elves, Most Races

Stats

Ability Scores:
Choice of +1 Dexterity OR Intelligence

Saving Throws:
Choice of +1 to Intelligence OR Wisdom

Damage Resistance:
None

Skills:
+2 Perception, +2 Intimidation (Charisma), +2 Knowledge: Arcana