Editing Drow

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[[File:45308.jpg|400px|thumb|right|"Okay ladies, which one of you let their manslave out of the kitchen?"]]

'''Drow''', more commonly known as "Dark Elves", are a common reoccurring type of [[elf]], first introduced in [[Dungeons & Dragons]] as a matriarchal society of black-skinned and white-haired subterranean elves who are literally allergic to sunlight. Unlike real-life underground species that develop pale skin, drow have black skin due to the curse laid upon them when their demon-goddess [[Lolth]] turned them away from the other elven gods. They produce adamantine equipment (which falls apart in sunlight, yet is bad-ass underground), take slaves, are ruled by an abusive matriarchy that likes S&M, have magic resistance, really like spiders and hate most other elves.

In short, they'd be fucking cool, were it not for the fact that 90% of all player character Drow will be Chaotic Good and be Rebelling Against The Evils Of Their Race, thanks to the raging hard-on underages and other tryhards have for [[Drizzt]]. As a result, even though dark elf pr0n is A) common, B) totally acceptable given their canon behavior, and C) totally relevant when somebody asks for dark elf pictures (see B), people still get whiny on /tg/ at anything moderately crude. Sure, we're trying to hold back the tide of cancer, but where dark elves are concerned, it's totally good.

Designers have mooted plenty other visions of subterranean elf, sometimes superficially looking like drow, sometimes even ''called'' "drow", that bend the definition given above. Largely because of that anti-Drizzt constituency we mentioned. We'll get to those, below.

==History==
Drow were first mentioned in the second, 1978 hardback of the [[Monster Manual]] for [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, under "Elf". Here: "The 'Black Elves,' or drow, are only legend. They purportedly dwell deep beneath the surface in a strange subterranean realm. The drow are said to be as dark as faeries are bright and as evil as the latter are good. Tales picture them as weak fighters but strong magic-users." Contemporaneously they are fleshed out in ''[[Against the Giants|G3: Hall of the Fire Giant King]]''.

They truly sprang onto the world in the followup [[Drow Trilogy]] [[Adventure Path]] which, with its sequel [[Queen of the Demonweb Pits]], fleshed out the [[Underdark]], drow culture, and [[Lolth]]. They subsequently entered the [[Fiend Folio]], and Gygax himself gave them PC stats in ''Unearthed Arcana''.  (More on that in a minute.)

The already-popular villains exploded in popularity as a PC race following the release of the Drizzt novels to the point of parody, oversaturation, and backlash, though all three have died down with time and distance. 

I guess we can't go any further without talking about the controversy, can we? Alright, so a lot of the things in drow culture are supposed to be opposites of what other races see as normal: drow are matriarchal, consider clothing (besides underwear) to be a sign of weakness, adore spiders and hate puppies, and have their skin and hair colors inverted from humans. Oh, and they're also Evil! Yeah, put all these facts together at once and you don't even need to ask the [[SJW]]s what the accidental implications are. Things aren't helped by the internet's eternal love affair with simplifying things down into jokes, so it didn't take long before drow picked up the stereotype "darker-skinned elves are ruled by evil feminazis and have a savage, half-civilized culture of betrayal."

To tell you what you already know, there's some grains of truth to the unfortunate implications, but there's also more than a little bad-faith trolling at play, until people who didn't know anything about them but the memes took it seriously. First and foremost regarding their skin tone: drow are almost never described as having ''any'' human skin tones in any sources (originally their black skin was ''literal'' onyx in color, and in modern depictions they tend towards blatantly fantastical hues of grey, purple, or blue), and their facial features are usually drawn to resemble either Caucasian or Asiatic appearance rather than an African. With dark skin, light hair, and (sometimes) red eyes, the effect the artists were going for was ''photonegative'' rather than "person of color." Sadly this was lost on a lot of people, such as whoever drew the porny ''Queen of the Spiders'' cover (where their skin was an ashen dark tan ''a la'' South India), pretty much every Japanese artist (where they tend towards the coffee with latte end of the skin spectrum), and one particular writer who described drow hair as "curly."

Even the "evil" thing wasn't supposed to dominate drow culture. Drizzt was rocking the Good alignment as far back as 1988, then in 1991 [[Eilistraee]] was written in to show drow weren't inherently evil, the evil gods were just on top right now and the good ones were still clawing back territory.

As of the [[5e|present]], the drow have seemingly moved past the backlash to hit the most popular spot they've ever been in. They were introduced as a ''core'' PC race for the first time in 5e (albeit the only one at launch to have a built-in penalty), the second major adventure line for the edition took place in the Underdark and gave them a ton of focus (and was retconned to be a massive plot by their patron goddess to boot), and they tend to cameo in most other adventure lines or collections and get new monster versions added with each new Monster Manual equivalent.

In-universe, the drow backstory mostly boils down to them being victims of the bitter breakup between [[Corellon]] and [[Lolth]]. Basically, when the two gods started fighting, this led to a great [[elf]] civil war as elves chose to follow either one god or the other. When Lolth's side lost, she and her followers were all kicked out of the realms controlled by the [[Seldarine]], and that extended to her elf followers, who fled into the [[Underdark]] to avoid further retribution. There, they stewed over their defeat and fully turned to the dark powers in hopes of rebuilding and one day launching a massive counterattack to destroy those who had driven them from the surface - old-school drow were implied to worship all manner of unsavory deities and [[Demon Prince]]s, but due to the [[Forgotten Realms]], and in particular the [[Drizzt]] novels, Lolth eventually became the defacto henotheistic patron goddess of all drow.

==Woodrot on the Family Tree==
The drow don't exactly get on well with other races, but they are still elves, so the family tree can produce some rather odd branches.

Famously, drow are often transformed by [[Lolth]] into half-drow, half-spider [[centaur]] creatures traditionally known as [[drider]]s. In several editions, they also created the [[chitine]]s, a race of humanoid spiders.

An incredibly rare mutation amongst the drow are the '''Szarki''', meaning "Ghost Spiders" - drow afflicted with albinism. First appearing in the form of a prominent antagonist character in the original [[Maztica]] novels, who was transformed into a [[drider]] at their end, the szarki were fleshed out in 3.5's ''Drow of the Underdark''. They are mechanically identical to drow, but their albinism allows them to pass themselves off as elves, so they are coddled and trained as elite infiltrators.

A common "sacred rite" for drow priestesses of [[Lolth]] is to bang a powerful [[demon]] known as a [[glabrezu]]. The resultant [[Half-Fiend]] offspring is known as a [[Draegloth]].

In AD&D, drow also had a unique [[Half-Dragon]] offshoot race that was half [[Deep Dragon]], known simply as the "Drow-Dragon". In 3e, this idea was tweaked and replaced with a race of drow-dragons born of [[Shadow Dragon]] lineage, called ''Zekyl''. These in turn gave rise to a race called the ''draa'zekyl'', who could shapeshift between purely drow and purely draconic forms.

Much like how [[Duergar]] have the long-forgotten "good but still [[Underdark]]-dwelling" counterpart of Grey Dwarves, so too do Drow have such a counterpart race: the [[Rockseer Elf]]. [[Mystara]] has its own unique elf race that takes the drow's niche, the [[Shadow Elf]].

==Drow vs. Tieflings: "Evil is Sexy!"==
During the 80s and 90s, drow rose to incredible popularity amongst D&D fans. Whilst their players were often derided as [[Mary Sue]]s and snowflakes, this didn't stop them from becoming loved and adored by many D&D players - drow were D&D's ''original'' "sexy bad (boys/girls)" race, and they profited from it by catapaulting into prominence. As the 2000s came along, things seemed even sweeter for them; from the flurry of splatbooks about them in 3rd edition, drow went on to truly benefit from 4th edition, which simultaneously freed them of the scourge of [[Level Adjustment]] and came up with [[Nentir Vale|a base setting]] that made their status as spooky [[Underdark]] dwellers work ''for'' them, by making it official that the average village would '''not''' greet a drow adventurer with torch-wielding mobs, simply because the average surface-dweller has no idea what a drow ''is''. It seemed like the dark star of the drow would rise ever higher...

But the mid-2000s also brought something the drow had never faced before: a challenger for their niche as "D&D's sexy bad guys". There had been other playable monstrous races in the past (to put it mildly), but none of them had ever really challenged the drow as embodying the "exil is cool and/or sexy" trope before. [[Orc]]s (and [[Half-Orc]]s)? Please; normies didn't even know that orc [[monstergirl]]s could be a ''thing'' until the [[Warcraft]] movie! [[Shadar-Kai]]? They weren't even ''playable'' when they debuted! But 4th edition finally gave them a real legitimate challenger:

[[Tiefling]]s.

The idea that tieflings could be "sexy bad guys" thanks to their [[fiend]]ish heritage wasn't ''entirely'' new - DiTerlizzi's illustration made that pretty damn obvious. But tieflings, being watered-down [[cambion]]s, lacked that association with inherent evil (and defensive pre-retaliation from all other races) which the drow had earned. They also lacked the stigma of being associated with [[Drizzt do'Urden]] and his annoying fanboys. And to make matters worse 4e both made tieflings a core race in the [[PLayer's Handbook]] (Drow were stuck in the [[Forgotten Realms]] Player's Guide, a 4e [[splatbook]]) ''and'' it actively promoted the tiefling for Bad Boy roleplayers, to the point that the Wizards Presents: Races & Classes design guide even notes that 4e tieflings were created to give the antihero/cool dark character players a race to gravitate towards.

The result was that many drow fans jumped ship to become tiefling fans instead.

==(A)D&D==
===First Edition===
There never were Drow in the BXCMI line. This line did spin up some underworld elves incompatible with surface elves - the Shadow Elves, the Schattenalfen - but those were Aztec or post-Aztec. Shadow Elves farm spiders in, like, one city only. LEAVE THEM ALONE!!

Where Drow did exist, starting at Greyhawk, Gygax (at first) restricted them to the role of monsters, due to their in-game lore. Both [[Drizzt Do'Urden]] (in Icewind Vale, not Greyhawk ... and arguably not Forgotten Realms at first, either) and [[Viconia de'Vir]] were exceptions, with backstories to explain why they're on the surface instead of down in the Underdark.

That said, Gygax wasn't entirely ignorant to his audience. PC stats for drow elves appeared, alongside the other [[Underdark]] [[Demihuman]]s ([[duergar]] and [[svirfneblin]]) in the original [[Unearthed Arcana]] for AD&D 1e. They were still quite strong, but nerfed from their appearance in the Drow Trilogy for instance knocking out that spell-resistance. They were also less powerful than their 2e incarnations:
::No ability score penalties or modifiers.
::Sunlight Sensitivity: -2 penalty to Dexterity and "to hit" rolls and enemies gain a +2 bonus to saves vs. drow attacks when both the drow and their opponent are in bright light. If the dark elf is in shadow and the opponent is brightly lit, this changes to a -1 to hit penalty/+1 save bonus instead.
::Unlike drow NPCs, drow PCs do ''not'' have 50% magic resistance. They cannot regain this trait without a Wish spell.
::Drow do not gain the weapon bonuses of normal elves, but instead are ambidextrous.
::Drow have Infravision 12'.
::Drow females have movement rate 15', whilst males have movement rate 12'.
::Drow have the Stealth and Detect Secret Doors abilities of [[elves]], and the Stonecunning ability of [[dwarves]].
::Drow have access to the spell-like abilities of Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire and Darkness 5' Radius. They gain access to Detect Magic, Know Alignment and Levitate at 4th level, with female drow also gaining Clairvoyance, Detect Lie, Dispel Magic and Suggestion at that level. All spell-like abilities are usable 1/day.
::Available classes: [[Cleric]], Warrior ([[Fighter]], [[Ranger]], [[Cavalier]]), [[Rogue]] (Thief, [[Acrobat]], [[Assassin]]), [[Wizard|Magic-User]].
::Class levels for Drow Males: [[Cleric]] 7, [[Fighter]] 10, Magic-User 18, [[Thief]]/[[Acrobat]] Unlimited, [[Assassin]] 12, [[Ranger]] 14
::Class levels for Drow Females: [[Cleric]] Unlimited, [[Fighter]] 12, Magic-User 11, [[Thief]]/[[Acrobat]] Unlimited, [[Assassin]] 12, [[Ranger]] 14

Naturally, when 2e rolled along, [[The Complete Book of]] [[Elves]] [[splatbook]] also provided new rules for playable Drow and holy ''fuck'' were they powerful... IF you were playing in the Underdark.

+2 Dex, +1 Int, -1 Constitution, -2 Charisma for initial ability score modifiers, and with racial maximums of 18, 20, 17, 19, 18 and 16 for Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma respectively. They have a bunch of spell-like abilities, all usable once per day; Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire, and Darkness by default, with Levitate, Know Alignment and Detect Magic gained at level 4. Drow [[Cleric]]s get even more, in the form of Clairvoyance, Detect Lie, Suggestion and Dispel Magic. Also, they ''start'' with Magic Resistance 50% and increase it by +2% per level, to a max of 80%, and get a +2 bonus on all saves involving magic.

So, what's the drawback? Aside from the sensitivity to light (-2 penalty to Dexterity and Attack Rolls, enemies are +2 bonus to saves vs. drow spells), they also lose their powers if they spend more than two weeks outside of the Underdark, losing 10% Magic Resistance and one spell-like ability each day. If they go back to the Underdark, they get their powers back if they spend 1 day for each week they spent on the surface. Also, they get a -4 penalty to Reaction rolls against other elves, and increase their experience costs by +20%.

===3rd edition===
3E managed to make it almost a whole year before caving in and making the Drow a full and proper player character race in the 2001 ''Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting''. They had the usual elf boni and flaws, plus: +2 Int, +2 Cha; Darkvision 120' instead of elf-normal lowlight vision; Spell resistance of 11 + character level; +2 to will saves against spells; the ability to cast dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire as spell-like abilities 1/day; proficiencies with hand crossbow, rapier, and shortsword instead of elf-normal; sudden bright sunlight will blind a drow for 1 round; and the drow will be dazzled until they leave the bright light.  Male drow have [[wizard]] as their favored class, female drow have [[cleric]] (of [[Lolth]]) as favored class.

The larger array of spell-like abilities they had in AD&D, such as Levitation, are retconned in this edition as being exclusive to drow nobility only. That's not to say mechanics to let a PC have access to these powers were completely unavailable.

They had an article on their culture in [[Dragon Magazine]] #298 that really emphasized the darker side of drow culture. Want a sample? According to this lore, drow don't die out because, despite their tendency to murder and torture each other, they're as fertile as [[orc]]s, with females normally conceiving twins and triplets. They normally only birth a single baby, though, because the strongest usually kills and absorbs the others in the womb; these prenatal struggles actually produce orgasms more intense than anything a drow female might feel elsewhere. This sensation, ''chad-zak'', is explicitly called out as the main reason why drow women are willing to get pregnant at all, considering the selfish power-hungry bitches they generally are.

[[Eberron]] has a drow sub-race called the Umbragen, who possess strange, mystical powers connecting to the darkness. Mechanically, this is represented by replacing their spell saving throw bonus with a + 2 racial bonus to Hide & Move Silently checks, swapping their weapon proficiencies for longbow, shortbow, longsword & rapier, and making their [[Favored Class]] into [[warlock]], plus a racial-restricted set of variant abilities for [[soulknife]] and a bevy of racial feats. All of this appears in [[Dragon Magazine]] #330.

===4th edition===
The 4E Monster Manual had some explicit monsters-as-races in the back, and the Drow were one of them, although they got an identical repost in the 4e [[Forgotten Realms]] Player's Guide alongside the [[Genasi]] -- fittingly, since FR basically created the idea of Drow PCs.

For Drow, +2 Dex and +2 Cha or +2 Wis, Darkvision, +2 Intimidate, +2 Stealth, Fey Origin, Trance, and one racial encounter power (Llothtouched) that could be used as a minor action for one of two effects that last until the drow's next turn: a close-burst-1 darkness spell the drow can see through, or a faerie-fire spell that gives combat advantage against the target.

Drow had a couple of [[Dragon Magazine]] articles available to them. Issue #367 featured the article "Children of Darkness", a setting-neutral (in that it was equally applicable to both the [[Nentir Vale]] and the [[Forgotten Realms]]) guide to drow with new racial feats, a racial [[Paragon Path]] (the Curseborn) and a racial [[Epic Destiny]] (the Redeemed Drow). Ironically, it brought back the idea of drow having greater racial magic without touching upon the old mechanics; a paragon level racial feat called Highborn Drow gave the drow a third effect to their Lolthtouched racial power; Webs of Darkness creates blinding webbing of solidified shadow that ensnare all enemies in a close blast 3. This was then followed by issue #413, which abounded in new racial themes for drow; the Bregan D'Aerthe Mercenary, the Elderboy, the Melee-Magthere Champion, the Sorcere Adept, the House Priestess, the Widow of Arach-Tinilith, the Ooze Master, the Secret Apostate, and the Skulker of Vhaeraun.

===5th edition===
Drow are '''finally''' an outright core PC racial option in the Player's Handbook, as an elven subrace.  The usual elf advantages, along with +1 Cha, 120' darkvision, automatic knowing some spells: the 'dancing lights' cantrip at 1st, the 'faerie fire' 1/day at 3rd level, and 'darkness' 1/day at 5th level.  Automatic weapon proficiencies are hand-crossbows, rapiers and shortswords.  They are also the ''only'' core race to receive an explicit ''penalty'' in the core book: if the drow or the drow's target are in direct sunlight, the drow has disadvantage on attack rolls and perception rolls.  It's not as crippling as it sounds in practice, but it ''is'' annoying as hell. Better hope you fight indoors a lot, and/or play them in an adventure designed around spelunking or limited sun exposure, like ''Out of the Abyss'' or ''Curse of Strahd''.  

Xanathar's Guide gave them a boost with a new racial feat; Drow High Magic. Reflecting the "noble drow" spell-like abilities of AD&D, this feat grants a drow the ability to cast Detect Magic at will and both Levitate and Dispel Magic once per long rest without a spell slot.

==Pathfinder==
[[File:Drow B1.png|right|300px]]
Pathfinder ditches the [[Lolth]] aspect and instead makes Drow aligned to assorted [[Demon Prince]]s instead. They got playable templates for the first time in their Bestiary entry, and updated versions thereof in the Advanced Races Guide. Pathfinder goes back to really, really freaking old Drow lore by stating that there's two kinds of Drow; normal Drow, and Noble Drow, who're even tougher and nastier, with a lot more magical powers. These were handled as separate races in the Bestiary, but ARG instead changed it to a Drow race with a bunch of racial feats to simulate Noble Drow abilities, which is arguably more balanced.

Fluff-wise, they're tied into the weird sf-bent of the [[Golarion]] setting, being the descendants of elves who refused to flee the planet in the face of a catastrophe, and turned to demon worship to survive.  First-generation drow are actually the result of elves who've broken really bad physically and psychologically transforming into dark elves.  Natural-born drow aren't actually innately evil, but their culture, which engages in the traditional practices of slavery, human sacrifice, etc., with the lovely addition of [[fleshcrafting]], is so hideously corrupt that almost all of them end up bad anyway.  They aren't matriarchal like classic drow either.  Just assholes.  Their [[drider]]s are... well, see that page.

===Drow===
* Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con
* Size: Medium
* Speed: 30 feet
* Darkvision 120 feet
* Drow Immunities: Drow are immune to Magic Sleep Effects and get a +2 racial bonus to saves vs. Enchantments.
* Keen Senses: +2 Racial Bonus on Perception checks.
* Spell Resistance: 6 + class level
* Spell-Like Abilities: Dancing Lights, Darkness and Faerie Fire, each 1/day.
* Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds a drow for 1 minute and leaves them dazzled on all subsequent rounds until they get out of the light.
* Poison Use: Drow don't risk poisoning themselves when they apply poison to weapons, etc.
* Weapon Familiarity: Free proficiency in Hand Crossbow, Rapier and Shortsword.

===Noble Drow===
* Ability Score Modifiers: +4 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +2 Cha, -2 Con
* Size: Medium
* Speed: 30 feet
* Darkvision 120 feet
* Drow Immunities: Drow are immune to Magic Sleep Effects and get a +2 racial bonus to saves vs. Enchantments.
* Keen Senses: +2 Racial Bonus on Perception checks.
* Spell Resistance: 11 + character level
* Spell-Like Abilities: 
** Constant: Detect Magic
** At-Will: Dancing Lights, Deeper Darkness, Faerie Fire, Feather Fall, Levitate
** 1/Day: Divine Favor, Dispel Magic, Suggestion
* Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds a drow for 1 minute and leaves them dazzled on all subsequent rounds until they get out of the light.
* Poison Use: Drow don't risk poisoning themselves when they apply poison to weapons, etc.
* Weapon Familiarity: Free proficiency in Hand Crossbow, Rapier and Shortsword.

{{Pathfinder-Races}}
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==Starfinder==
[[File:Drow SF 2.png|left|200px]]
[[File:Drow SF 1.png|right|200px]]
{{topquote|I should've listened to my cousin Gaila. He said to me, 'Quark, I've got one word for you: Weapons. No one ever went broke selling weapons.'|Deep Space Nine}}
With Alien Archive 1, the Drow are back.  While they're still socially divided into normals and nobles, the stat difference is gone.  They're still assholes, they're still into slavery and puppy-kicking cruelty, but now they've diversified into the wholesome and socially conscious industry of interstellar arms trafficking.  Drow society is matriarchal again, although men can Han Solo their way to riches by smuggling guns.   

===Drow===
* Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con
* Size and Type: Medium humanoid with elf subtype
* Darkvision 60 feet
* Drow Immunities: Drow are immune to Magic Sleep Effects and get a +2 racial bonus to saves vs. Enchantment spells and effects.
* Keen Senses: +2 Racial Bonus on Perception checks.
* Light Blindness: A drow exposed to bright light is blinded for 1 round and dazzled as long as they remain in areas of bright light.
* Drow Magic: Dancing Lights, Detect Magic; In addition drow count as having the Minor Psychic Power feat for the purpose of meeting prerequisites, and if a drow takes the Psychic Power feat, they can add the drow's limning light supernatural ability to the list of spell-like abilities they have available.

{{Starfinder-Races}}

== Eberron ==
Drow in [[Eberron]] have unique fluff. Like all elves, drow were formerly slaves to Xen'drik's [[Giant]] Empire, but they remained when the now light skinned elves having split and left their native land of Xen'drik for Aerenal 38,000 years ago. By culture ''they'' are the original and "normal" elves are the offshoot. Most of them live in the jungle or ruins of giant civilization on Xen'drik instead of underground, they speak Giant instead of Undercommon, and they aren't associated with spiders, with the largest group of drow preferring Scorpions instead. 

There are a handful of known types of drow, with each tribe being of one of these types, but the published material explicitly states more exist beyond the known areas. The Qualtiar are nomadic tribes that love scorpions. The Sulatar are giant loyalist who have really ancient magic and are obsessed with fire. The Hantar'kul or "Blood Hunters" believe they are destined to rule Xen'drik and seek to remove the foreigners, who they see as the biggest obstacle to their rule. The Umbragen avoided the dragon by settling underground and selling their soul to a dark power known as "Umbra". The Umbragen are fighting, and losing, a battle with a daelkyr lord's army and seek weapons to aid in that fight, as they are too prideful to ask for help. 

While the campaign setting says "sahuagin and drow are not ideal races for player characters", they actually make more sense than most campaign settings. In Eberron, most drow aren't crazy religious cultists and come into conflict with heroes because they are simply territorial people that believe that, as they were servants of the giant empire when it fell, the remains of giant civilization belong to them and all the "archaeologists" from the north are robbers. Typical NPC Drow are still typically evil though. ''City of Stormreach'' states that "a few drow exiles have found their way to the city, and others have chosen to abandon their old ways and settle among humanity", "drow who don’t subscribe to their race’s ruthless ways come to the city to escape the cruel life of the wilds" and that Drow often come to the city to trade. This seems to have been a fairly decent number, as the demographics of Stormreach state Drow, Goblinoids, Giants and other monsters combine to make 5% of the 11,650 population, so there are ''hundreds'' of Drow that aren't actively hostile to humanity. Further ''Secrets of Xen'drik'' explicitly states that Drow tribes beyond the known ones are likely out there past the "charted" parts of the continent, so there may be non-hostile tribes of drow out there.

== Exandria ==
Like in many other settings, the drow of Exandria delved into the Underdark at the command of the goddess Lolth. Unfortunately for these dark elves, though, the Underdark of Exandria is apparently quite a bit more dangerous. The types of civilizations the drow might live in beneath the surface of other settings seem to be constantly beset by aberrations and other monsters to a overwhelming degree. As a result, Lolth is actually becoming increasingly unpopular with the drow race, who turn to alternative gods. Most prominently is an entity called the Luxon worshiped by the people of the Kryn Dynasty of the continent of Wildemount. Because the Luxon reincarnates those who die into newborns within a certain range regardless of the baby's race, it's led to a situation where a goblin could have been a drow noble in a past life, or vice versa. Though some drow still remain loyal to the Spider Queen, things have gotten so dire for Lolth that most of her faithful in Wildemount are goblinoids, with the drow head matron mother in the continent of Wildemount reduced to hiding out in a goblinoid fortress.

==Half-Drow==
You may be curious; given that the [[drow]] are still [[elves]], even if they are evil slave-taking bastards, can they [[Half-Elf|interbreed with humans]] too? Well, ironically, D&D never really gave that angle much attention - even though Gygax probably would have agreed if you'd pointed it out that half-drow would make far more believable PC options than pure-blooded drow, being neither as overpowered as old-school drow were nor able to advance in the drow's twisted society and thus less likely to drink the kool-aid & be evil themselves. So, for the most part, half-drow have been ignored throughout D&D's history.

The very first mention of the idea was as "half-casts" (''sic'') in D3 for AD&D 1e; leaving unspoken if these be drow/human or - more likely just from the dating-pool - drow/elf, or even drow/bugbear. The half-drow are subsequently expanded in that edition's [[Unearthed Arcana]]. They're (human) [[half-elves]], but with the drow's sunlight vulnerability trait slapped on top (in short, whilst exposed to sunlight, you suffer -2 dexterity and a -2 penalty on your to-hit rolls, and your foes get a +2 bonus to their saving throws against your attacks - this decreases to a -1 to hit penalty and a +1 save bonus if you're in shadow but your victim is in direct sunlight). Not exactly the kind of thing to make people interested.

The half-drow seemed destined to be forgotten... and then came [[Ed Greenwood]], who, amongst his many ''other'' [[Magical Realm|"inspirations" from his belief in the Free Love movements of the 60s]] that he slipped into the [[Forgotten Realms]], found the drow to particularly tickle his fancy. So, after coming up with things like [[Eilistraee]], naturally, he needed a place to put in half-drow. Enter Dambrath, a region in the "Shining South" that he decided to make ruled over by the Cintri; a race of half-drow descended from the ancient drow conquest of Dambrath under the reign of a particularly foolish human king... well, alright, technically, the Cintri are a melting pot of half-drow and [[half-elf]] bloodlines, since they descend as much from the half-elf [[cleric]]s of [[Loviatar]] who helped the drow conquer the place - after all, Loviatar is basically the Realm's goddess of evil BDSM and femdom, so she's got that in common with [[Lolth]], to the point that Lolth even lets Loviatar's faith be the state religion of Dambrath - but they're still mixed human and drow bloodlines, so it counts. So yes, basically a [[Magical Realm]] of femdom fantasies where any male might be a slave to a drow on the surface and still roleplay. Later editions had the humans [[HFY|rise up and slaughter the domineering knife ear bitches]] because let's face it, even to a submissive hornyposter a realistic medieval stasis setting slavery would ''not'' be a pleasant one unless he is a beautiful hunk a.k.a Reality Ensues.

Ironically, despite the Cintri, no 2e version of the half-drow statblock ever debuted, not even in the Shining South [[splatbook]] that introduced Dambrath to the Realms' fanbase. But it did mean that half-drow made it into 3rd edition in a [[Forgotten Realms]] [[splatbook]] - [[Races of X |Races of Faerun]], to be precise. Of course, like their 1e counterparts, they were not particularly well-differentiated mechanically from their half-elf roots; a 3e half-drow is, officially, a [[half-elf]] with Darkvision 60 feet and replacing Elf Blood with Drow Blood, so they're treated as Drow for race-targeting stuff instead of [[Elf]]. 

Eberron, likewise, states half-drow exist, typically results of trysts in Stormreach, but doesn't actually do anything with them or give them stats. The implication is that Half-Drow exist but are exceptionally rare and with the drow population that interacts peacefully with humans being the mere hundreds their rarity likely ''is'' exceptional. Still, Eberron works on the idea that player characters are ''supposed'' to be exceptional in general, and playing one isn't off limits.

A more mechanically invested version of the 3e half-drow didn't come to be until towards the end of the edition's lifespan, when the 3e version of the [[splatbook]] "Drow of the Underdark". It states "Half-drow have the standard racial traits of half-elves given in the Player’s Handbook, except that their favored class is the class in which they have the most levels. In addition, rather than elf blood, they have drow blood. Since drow is a subrace of elf, the net effect is that they have elf blood as well. The specification of drow blood means that for all special abilities and effects particular to a drow, a half-drow is considered a drow."

Additionally, both properly half-Drow characters AND half-elf characters with only a little bit of Drow heritage, like the Drow equivalent of a Tiefling or Aasimar, could take the following feat during character-creation:

::'''''DROW LEGACY'''''
::The drow blood in your veins runs true and grants you some abilities from that heritage.
::'''Prerequisite:''' Half-elf with drow ancestry.
::'''Benefit:''' You have a +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities. You have darkvision out to 60 feet. You receive Exotic Weapon Proficiency (hand crossbow), as well as, Undercommon and the drow dialect of Elven as automatic languages.
::If you have an Intelligence score of 13 or higher, you also gain the following spell-like abilities, each usable once per day: dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire. Your caster level equals your class level.
::'''Special:''' Taking this feat also causes you to have light sensitivity: You are dazzled (–1 circumstance penalty on attack rolls, saves, and checks) in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

In Pathfinder, half-drow are represented by alternate racial traits for stock half-elves. Half-Elves can trade their superior multiclassing ability for darkvision, which is strictly better if that character isn't multiclassing anyways, or low-light vision for darkvision and light blindness. They can trade their bonus feat and multiclassing bonuses for dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire as spell like abilities, which absolutely isn't worth it. Finally they can trade their bonus feat for proficiency in hand crossbow, rapier, and shortsword, which ''also'' isn't worth it since anyone who would bother with those weapons is already proficient with those weapons or is playing half-elf in the first place to get the bonus feat.

Perhaps the best the poor half-drow have ever had it has been in 5th edition, where a half-elf can trade their two free skill proficiencies for the drow's racial spell-like abilities; it's not much, but at least it's something to represent drow ancestry, and it's decently beefy compared to the AD&D and Races of Faerun depictions. Once again, it was a [[Forgotten Realms]] sourcebook that brought them out of the darkness - the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

Drow-elf crossbreeds are given the briefest of mentions in the original Vault of the Drow as part of an encounter with "rakes" (think outcast punks) in the (under)city [[Erelhei-Cinlu]]. They have never been statted in any form, but are probably close enough to half-drow to use that template. Still, there's possibilities here for a creative DM.

==See also==
Dark Elves exist in [[Ptolus]] as NPC characters. They worship a [[Galchutt]] named [[Gorgoth-Lol]], which means "totez not Lolth LOL" in the elvish tongue. 

* [[Seldarine]] - The gods of the [[Elf]] and [[Drow]] pantheons.

* [[Drizzt|Drizzt Do'Urden]] - A... [[skub|polarizing character]], but still the most famous and iconic drow hero in ''D&D''.

* [[Viconia de'Vir]] - A [[cleric]] of Shar in the ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' games, and a good example of a "PC-friendly" drow who ''isn't'' a chaotic good Drizzt clone. Also [[Bioware]]'s first "sexy, mildly-evil-but-mostly-misunderstood lady love interest" character, setting the template for all those that followed. (Looking at you, Bastila, Morrigan, Isabela, Jack...) Had an incredibly complex, tragic and deep story in the sequel involving brotherly love and sacrifice. Her template may have set off a series of dominoes resulting in the next entry...

* [[Drowtales]]: When an admittedly-skilled bunch of [[drawfag|artists]] with the mental maturity of a blighted potato make a webcomic series financed by sponsor-avatar insertion, porn requests, and (the worst) ''plot dictation'', and slather copious amounts of [[Skub]] onto it. Said artists also have an axe against humanity/BDSM lesbian fetish to grind. ''Mostly'' the latter.

* [[Unified Setting/Drow]] - Arctic merchant vikings who ride giant lobsters, but still have black skin and white hair.

* [[Sandwich Stoutaxe]]: 1d4chan's take on the heroic Drow, she was abandoned by her family and raised by a Dwarf. So named because said dwarf found her in a basket that he thought was full of sandwiches.

* [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition races]]

==Official Art Gallery==
<gallery>
Queen of the Spiders.jpg|Looks like a trashy 80's Manowar album but OK.
Drow MM 2e.png
Spiderbound Drow Warrior.jpg
Drow mistress and her man slave.jpeg|Drow gender relations in a nutshell
Drow Adventurer vs Carrion Crawlers.jpg
3e Drow Demon-Binder (Marilith).jpg
4e Drow Demon-Binder (Marilith).jpg
4e Drow Priestess.jpg
Drow of the Underdark 3e Cover.jpg
3e Drow Warleader.jpg
Drow Priestesses (DotU).jpg
Starfinder Drow.jpg
Bathing Drow Noble.png
Drow Prosthetic (DotU).jpg
Drizzt by Todd Lockwood.jpg|did I mention the [[Drizzt|Mary Sues]] yet?
Drow scouts by jonhodgson.jpg|[[Meme|Welcome to the jungle]], where you can play a Drow however you want
Xendrik Drow.jpg|Xen'drik's drows like to tattoo themselves with scorpion venom.
Drow FF 1e.jpg
Drow 3e.jpg
Drow and slaves MTF 5e.webp
Drow ARG 1.png
Drow ARG 2.png
Drow ARG 3.png
</gallery>

==Fanart==
<gallery>
drow_blackface.jpg|not racist; or at least not THAT kind of racist
Drows_in_SPEEES.jpg|in the skin darkness of the future, there is only Mary Sues. A.k.A [[Drowtales]]: How to be a mangaka-faggot with cognitive dissonance.
Yafgc drow matriarchy advantages.png|drow men have [[Rule 34|a place]] in their matriarchy
Throne of the Drow.jpg
The Scarlet Tarantula (Drow Monk).jpg
TgplaysDrow.png|In surface world, adventurers are always looking for a party. In matriarchal Underdark, matron makes a party out of you!
</gallery>

==Monstergirls==
{{Monstergirls}}
[[Image:MGE Dark Elf.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The Dark Elf maiden is an alluring creature, if in a different way to her light-skinned cousin.]]

Given that female elves are practically canon [[monstergirls]] in [[Dungeons & Dragons]] to begin with (where do you think [[Half-Elves]] come from? Human women pouncing on cute elven men? Pah!), and that the drow are both female led ''and'' have a long tradition of cheesecake/pin-up tier femdom-heavy artwork for their females - there's a reason drow are often mocked on nu-/tg/ as a culture made up of cheesy BDSM pin-up art - it should be no surprise that drow feature in works of erotica just as frequently as their surface cousins. Indeed, the talk of D&D sessions everywhere must have had since the late 90's, inevitably, sexualized Drow raids owing to Greenwood's [[Magical Realm]]. Often called "Dark Elves", their skin tone ranges from the actual drow onyx/blue/purple to more dusky brown colors, which leads to the nickname "chocolate elves" being used for erotic female drow characters.

Given the heavy BDSM themes in actual drow society, it should be no surprise that drow monstergirls are usually portrayed as dominatrixes in the same way. Asian hentai artists, however, like to subvert the idea by portraying them as submissives instead of dominatrixes; chocolate elf slaves and maids are as old as [[Elf slave, wat do?]] threads. Might have something to do with [[/pol/|dark skin being considered inferior in Asian cultures]].

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Dark Elves have willingly embraced [[succubus]]ization, unlike their Light Elf kindred. This has turned them into a perverse culture of dominatrixes, who take human men as their sexual slaves. They were some of the setting's earliest [[skub]] when it was confirmed that they actually do practice incest, with young dark elves being taught the arts of sexual dominance, bondage and sado-masochism by using their fathers as their subs, yeesh.

==MonsterGirl Gallery==
<gallery>
File:CestreeandDrow.jpg
File:Dark elf.jpg
File:Fertile Drow Sorceress.jpg
File:Chocolate elf.jpg|Because chocobutt best butt.
File:Dominantchocobutt.png|Finally manga delivers canon dark elves
File:Dark elf vs High elf.jpg
File:Pink Haired Drow.png
File:Dark Elf Butt.jpg
File:Dark Elf Matriarch.jpg
File:Drow and Broken Mirror.jpg
File:Drow Cleric.jpg
File:Drow Duelist.jpg
File:Dark Elf Sorceress.jpg
File:Drow Fantasy Armor.jpg
File:Drow Harpist.jpg
File:Drow Queen Valsharess Fanart.jpg
File:Drow Matron Mother.jpeg
File:Drow Sorceress.jpg
File:Drow Sorceress 2.jpg
File:Drow Vampiress.jpg
File:Drow Violinist.jpg
File:Drow Swordsinger.jpg
File:Skimpily Clad Drow Sorceress.png
File:Shortstack Dark Elf.png|This height is canon in [[Dungeons & Dragons|D&D]]

</gallery>