Drow

This entry has multiple meanings for a single term.

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DROW as Dark Elf:

History of the drow <= 'cause i'm lazy
The Underdark
Underdark
Gor-gornoth  (I, [Linn Scarlett], placed the links here)
Drider
Images from Drow submissions



http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG103.jpg



http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/rof_gallery/49723.jpg
These two images Courtest/Copyright of Wizards of the Coast/Dungeons & Dragons
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/


Personality:
Drow are extremely intelligent, ambitious, charismatic and dexterous. As a race they are usually evil, though there are exeptions like the famed Drizzt Do'Urden.
Most Drow are knowledge hungry beings and will go to great lengths to extract mystic knowledge. This trait making up for powerfull wizards and mages.

Appearance:
The Drow are characterzied by white hair, which can vary between all tones of gray. White-copper and white-silver hair are also spotted every now and again, but usually indicates foreign blood.
The main chunk of Drow has red eyes, which stems from their abilitie to use heat vision. Other colors sometimes appear, but again, most indicate foreign blood. The red shade can be everything from flashlight to almost purple red. Though purple itself is usually an indication of blindness. Blue, green and brown mostly appear in childern with human or high elven parents.

Looking at their body, the Drow have the same frail and slender bodies of all other elven races. Though most of them sport slender but corded muscles and various scars.
The average Drow stands about 1.65m (4'2"?). With 1.75m (4'6"?) being extremely long and 1.55m (3'10"?) being rather short. So they are slightly shorter than Surface Elves, which can probably be related to the fact that they live underground.

Relations with Other Races:
These are pretty bad and when we say bad we mean *really* bad.
The Drow loath about everything that is not a Drow and all Drow that are not themselves. So practically everybody.
They especially hate Surface Elves, because those were the ones that banned them to the Underdark, and the Humans that were the allies of the Elves back then. The latter are mostly take as slaves when found, for other Elves make their way quickly to the sacrificial altar.
Their relations with their closest kin such as the Shur and the Kanahraun are frail at best. For the fullblooded Drow see these often mixed breeds as lesser and more primitive offspring.

Society and Leadership:
Due to the worship of the demon queen Lloth being wide spread most Drow cities and settlements are matriarchal with Lloth's clericy holding the reigns of power. A good example of one such a settlement is Menzoberranzan.
Though there are a few cities that have shed the enslavement of Lloth and taken on other gods. Either from the Llothian Pantheon (Lloth, Vhaeraun, Eilestraee etc) or the Dark Seldarine (Lloth, Thraud, Belishtim, Ydrilla etc).
One of these cities is Gor-gornoth. It has taken on the worship of the warrior god Thraud and has now a male monarch on the throne. Though just like the old First Matron: the First Patron rules supreme.
Drow cities rarely make it to democracies or equality. They mostly get trapped in the hate-spiral, shifting from matriarchal to patriarchal and back.

Language and Names:
The Drow languages is usually known as 'Drow' or 'Drowic' and called 'Ilythiirian' by the Drow themselves. As they call themselves the Ilythiiri, which was the original name of the tribe that was driven from the Surface by the Surface Elves.
Drow favor long heavy vowel names or short and powerfull names. Short names are more found amongst commoners as the nobility finds some sort of 'nobleness' in long flowing names. Also, the nobility often sports a second name -before- their House name. While the commoners usually only have their own name followed by the name of their House, Faction or Clan.

A few examples of Drow names are:
(I will use names from my own Drow)

- Lucieus Sandora Idrill : A noble, with a sinister sounding first name and a second name followed by his House name.
- Zammzt Sinssoroth : A commoner with a short first name and the long name of the Sinssoroth Clan, part of the Crimelords of Gor-gornoth.
- Morriganna Evta Idrill : A noble woman (and the last First Matron of Gor-gornoth) with a long first name, a second name and her House name.
- Meldor Istorra Idrill : A noble (current Monarch) and though his name is short it has a certain air of nobility. He also has a second name followed by his House name.
- Zekanthar Avtek Morandi : A noble with a long combined first name, a second name and his House name.

Note: Lucieus and Morriganna are corruptions of existing human names (Morgan and Lusius/lucifer). Both Zammzt, Meldor and Zekanthar are inate Drow names, I combined those from words out of the Drow language itself. The second names are mostly names I created from head, using drow-like-sounding sounds.

If you want more details on the language in specific I suggest you visit the Drowic Classroom, which is part of the Elftown Academy.

DROW TRAITS
Drow are Medium-sized for the sake of combat and move-action purposes, which means that they occupy roughly a 5-foot cubic space, with a reach beyond that of around 5 feet, affecting a space about fifteen feet wide in diameter.

Drow can move approx. 30 feet every move-action round, though in wiki terms, this is up for creative liberties.

Drow have several favored classes depending on the sexe of the person. For females the favored class is obviously that of the cleric, though in patriarchal cities many also follow the path of the mages.
For males the favored class are wizard and warrior in matriarchal cities, with the wizard class the Path Master and Dark Weaver being favored. The Path Master for his abilitie to govern more than 2 houses of magic and the Dark Weaver for guiding the black ceremonies.
Though in patriarchal cities the favored class is mostly that of the warrior prestige classes (such as duelists).

See also:
Here are some Drow related pages

- the Shur, a Half-demonic subrace of the Drow
- the Drider, outcasts of society (not really a subrace)
- the Vupdrax (may be a different term for the Shur)
- the Kanahraun, a more primitive subbrance of the Drow
- the Lorgreln
- the Pol'Tah
- the Sulzthul
- Spiderlings

Sources used:
The Vault of the Drow, The Complete Guide to the Drow, The Tome of Drow Lore, Races of Renown: Plot & Poison, The Monster Manual I and III, Sheoloth: City of Drow, The Drow Wars books, Lords of Darkness, The Underdark, Fiend Folio and The Quintessential Drow.
(Yes I combined pieces out of all these DnD books and what I remembered from reading them)

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DROW as Stone Monster:

A stone monster of the Fomori, similar to the Scandinvavian troll. See also, Draugr.

-A Wizard Abroad by Diane Duane



The Drow is a corruption of the Norse Draugr, an mound dwelling creature. The old Norse believed that should a person come to death (and they were burried in mounds as was custom around those days) he would live on in his grave. Able to come out of the mound and dwell amongst the living at will. These spirits are usually benigh, but can be quite malicious should you harras their mound or go in to find their treasure.

(source: http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/trows/draugr.htm )

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