The Tome Of Drow Lore.pdf - RoseRed

Drow are less dimorphic than surface elves, with males and
female reaching roughly equal height and weight. Again,
this is subject to deviation among different Houses of the
drow. There are several Houses and cultures where worship
of the Dark Mother is prominent, in which the females are
remarkably larger and stronger than the males and often
more intelligent as well.
Drow hair is most commonly white, though subtle hints
of a pastel colour like violet or yellow are not uncommon.
The hair is usually coarser than that of the surface elves
and, if unchecked and uncut, will grow into a wild mane.
Drow eyes are almost always a bright crimson, a result of
their enhanced vision.
The fine features and large, almond-shaped eyes of the
surface elves are still present in the drow, as are the slight,
almost delicate-looking frames. Like their cousins, the
drow are gifted with a remarkably efficient musculature,
making their slender bodies as strong as that of a human of
considerably greater mass.
Internally, drow seem to differ from surface elves little if at
all, aside from the structure of their eyes. The darkvision
that the drow possess is the result of a far more complex
retina than is found in surface elves. Packed with additional
receptors, the eyes of a drow reflect light in such a way that
the eyes seem to almost glow when a light source is nearby,
much like the eyes of a cat. Unfortunately their enhanced
vision, the result of drow adaptation to the lightless depths
in which they dwell, has rendered them largely incapable
of returning to the sunlit lands above during the day simply
because their sensitive eyes cannot cope with the intensity
of the light. Even moonlight can be painfully bright for a
drow.
There does not seem to be any physiological explanation
for the innate spell abilities the drow are capable of, nor
any physical reason for the spell resistance that makes them
so dangerous to mages. The drow have researched this
more thoroughly than any race in the world and many have
concluded that these special abilities setting them apart
from the surface elves must be a gift from those gods that
came to the aid of the dark elves when they first ventured
underground. Others point to the strange flows and odd
phenomena of magic in the Underdeep for an explanation of
the supernatural blessings that the drow possess, claiming
that they have spent so long in this environment that the
magic has suffused into the drow and changed them. Some
look to the fey roots of their people for the answer, and
assert that the drow are simply closer to their fey nature
than the weak surface elves.
Drow Psychology
It is difficult to describe the disparate motivations of a race
as old and varied as the drow in just a few short words.
They are a race of strong-willed individuals, ambitious and
dangerous, each with his own agenda, his own thoughts,
fears, loves and ambitions. Still, there are a number of
traits which most drow share.
Evil and the Drow
While the culture and society of the drow seem undeniably
wicked to an outside observer, most drow do not consider
themselves evil. Rather, they see the surface races,
particularly other elves, as weak, while they are strong.
They have been hardened in the kiln of the Underdeep for
millennia, a trial which has made them able to survive in
the hostile world they inhabit. They have become as they
are in order to endure; they have survived where others
would not. Even acts that would horrify an outsider are
not commonly viewed as evil among the drow. Slavery,
torture, sacrifice, all are performed on non-drow, or upon
drow who have done something which in the eyes of their
fellows merits such treatment. ‘Let those who would
judge us spend an age of the world in the Underdeep first’
sums up the drow’s dismissive thoughts of the opinions of
outsiders.
There are, of course, drow who not only acknowledge their
evil, but also revel in it. Sadly for the race as a whole,
these individuals are often the ones holding the reins of
power, particularly in cities dominated by worship of the
Dark Mother, or in the bone-strewn caverns of the feral and
necromantic Kanahraun.
However, the drow are no more genetically predisposed
towards evil than are humans or surface elves. Rather, it
is something imposed on the individual from the outside,
from the gods they came to worship during their first
sojourn beneath the surface, from the brutality required to
survive and thrive in the Underdeep, and from the paranoia,
suspicion and xenophobia that pervade their culture.
The Threats of the Underdeep
The drow are not alone in the Underdeep. The depths of
the world hold races far more alien and far more malevolent
than even the most vile and debased worshipper of the
Dark Mother. The first meetings with creatures such as
shangu and aboleth went poorly for the drow, who spent
generations hiding in caverns and skulking through caves,
ever hoping to avoid another such meeting until their
strength was greater.
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