Elves are a storied and longstanding fantasy race across books, movies, and games. They often can be a bit arrogant, but they are always incredibly beautiful. There are also Dark Elves – a sub-species with darker skin than, more often than not, is made to be evil. For Dungeons & Dragons, this species is the Drow.
They were first given stats in the first Fiend Folio in 1981 then made a playable race in 1985 in the Unearthed Arcana. R.A. Salvatore created what might be the most famous Drow named Drizzt Do’Urden in 1988. While lore on the species has been updated over the decades, many players refer to Drow of the Underdark from 2007 as the main source of information.
The recent success of the early access game Baldur’s Gate 3 has brought the Drow back into the public eye. The series Critical Role also turned many new players onto the problematic race. Here’s everything fans don’t know about Drow in Dungeons & Dragons.
10 Lolth, Their Creator, Married Then Betrayed The Main Elven Deity
Lolth is like the story of a woman (Eve) committing the Original Sin from Christianity on steroids. Before her betrayal, Lolth was the consort of the main Elven God Corellon. She even bore him twins. Then she turned around and backstabbed him because she wanted more power for herself.
As a result of her failed coup, Lolth and her followers (the Dark Elves known as the Ilythiir) were cast out into the Underdark. The Ilythiir then became known forever as the Drow and worshipped Lolth. She is painted as an infinitely selfish, meddling, cruel, and hedonistic goddess.
9 She Destroyed A Demon Spider Lord For Control
The Underdark was full of fun aberrations like Aboleths and Beholders, but Zanassu, a minor Demon Lord with dominion over spiders, really got on Lolth’s nerves. Therefore, she used one of her grandchildren to take him out and then took over Zanassu’s throne as the Spider Queen.
It is there that the Drow made their home with Lolth overseeing all. She was also able to become a Greater Deity, establish a church, and create an entire plane of existence out of the demon web pits.
The Underdark includes three main areas: the Upperdark, the Middledark, and the Lowerdark. The Drow generally live in the middle area with ruins of ancient civilizations including the Illithid.
8 How Lolth Diminished The Drow Pantheon Females
Clerics in the Church of Lolth operate as juries, judges, and executioners. This is an extension of Lolth’s own approach to being a deity. After all, she was already a lesser deity in Elven culture before she betrayed Corellon. As she furthered her seat of power over the Drow, she silenced any would-be rivals for godhood.
This includes Kiaransalee, aka the Drow Revenancer or Vengeful Banshee. The Lady of the Dead oversaw the arcane and necromantic arts, as well as death. Another goddess named Zinzerena was the original goddess of chaos and assassins. Lolth assumed her role and subjugated Kiaransalee to ensure her supremacy in the Drow pantheon.
One of the only threats to Lolth’s supreme command is her daughter and Chaotic Good Drow Eilistraee. The Dark Maiden and daughter of Corellon finds herself wanting to cure her own sorrow by nurturing beauty. She fought against her own brother’s corrupted Ilythiir and eventually died.
Eilistraee was resurrected during the Second Sundering, but the Spider Queen and her church actively suppress any knowledge of her.
7 Drow Physiology And Society
Drow are the “Dark Elves” who remained faithful to Lolth after her betrayal of Corellon. They usually have silver, grey, or white hair with pale, purplish skin. Their bodies are thin and lithe like their fellow Elves with an average height of five feet. They have generally high wisdom and intelligence stats despite their evil tendencies.
Other races in D&D view the Drow as evil due to the fact that most merely serve the whims of Lolth. In fact, most Drow will have an Evil alignment with a smaller section falling under Neutral instead. There are a tiny amount of Drow who have a Good alignment.
Drow society actively encourages adultery, betrayal, and backstabbing in the name of gaining more power or influence. They are very pompous, arrogant, and cruel while their society uses dark magic, takes slaves, and is extremely hedonistic. Anyone from Drow society may favor fine art, narcotics, slaves, extreme lounging, etc.
6 Favoring Cruelty And Distrust In A Utilitarian Society
Despite the focus on betrayal and distrust, their society continues to flourish due to a focus on group efforts. A sole Drow’s accomplishments are essentially meaningless in comparison to achievements made by their people as a whole.
It is difficult to say that Drow prioritize the happiness of their society-at-large, but that’s effectively what it is. In this case, “happiness” means complete and utter dominance over others. However, this intuitive tendency to put the needs of the many over the few might explain Chaotic Good Drow and Eilistraee.
5 The Mafia Meets Real Housewives
Being a matriarchal society, the Drow turn to powerful women in their communities for leadership. Individual houses relating to bloodlines often compete for power in society. Matron Mothers head these, pulling the strings and piling up bodies as they do.
They are often Lolth Priestesses and each house can govern an entire industry, community, or district in a city. No laws are in place to maintain their power; other Drow just don’t challenge them because it would be a death sentence to do so.
A single house will sometimes grow too powerful, so Lolth will have other people take them down a peg. Again, the Drow exist to serve Lolth and nothing more.
4 Males In Drow Society
As mentioned, the matriarchal society of the Drow has a tyrannical and female spider lunatic for a leader. Her church is cruel, predominantly female, and she looks down on males. As such, men in Drow society are treated as lesser citizens. They don’t own property and they must marry into powerful households to gain power.
Lolth’s own son Vhaeraun, the god of thievery, deception, and shadow magic, is considered a low-key god of male Drow equality. He still loyally serves his mother and no Drow would openly worship him for it would mean death.
3 Drow Mages, Warriors, And Clerics
Given the society’s focus on deception and quieter methods of murder, the Drow’s military tactics follow suit. They prefer ambushes to frontal assaults and their warriors operate with high stealth. They also favor offensive measures over defensive measures.
Drow warriors tend to be male and can have up to 71 hit points. They often lead surface missions to capture slaves with a particular focus on Elves. Their weapons tend to be hand crossbows and rapier-like swords or daggers. Drow treat most of their weapons in paralytic poisons and favor lizard mounts, as well.
Clerics are almost always women and do not focus on magic. Males, if they can’t be warriors, will often become wizards just to avoid being stuck as a shopkeeper or consort. The species’ innate spellcasting abilities lend them things like Dancing Lights and Faerie Fire.
2 Mind Flayers Have A Hands-Off Rule With Drow
Most D&D fans know how dangerous and powerful the Illithids are. Mind Flayers possess some of the most incredible psionic abilities in the entire game, but they don’t seem to attack the Drow overtly since they actually fear their military might.
As such, the Drow and Mind Flayers have a tenuous “live and let live” agreement. This, however, does not stop Mind Flayers outside the main Drow stronghold from taking rogue teams as slaves. They fear war with the Drow or Lolth but not an individual or small group.
1 Albino Drow As Elven Spies And Driders
Though rare, sometimes an albino Drow will be born and look very much like a regular albino Elf. Known as Szarkai, they will typically be used to infiltrate and spy on Elven societies. The natural aversion to light that Drow possess didn’t matter since albinos had that regardless of race. They could even form a sleeper cell for an ambush.
Driders, on the other hand, were unlucky Drow who failed the Test of Lolth. These Drow were considered weak and transformed into aberrations known as Driders. Though they retained their memories, a sense of hatred and shame consumed them. They fled their homes in shame to hunt and battle until death freed them from their curse.
NEXT: D&D: Everything You Didn’t Know About Tieflings
