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I think the Drow are better people as all those who let themself be dominated by Leftists, which teach that they are always lesser than others. Structures that do not protect their own against outsiders are repulsive and deserve to be destroyed.
The reason why the Drow have black skin, red eyes, and white hair is because Lolth used the Balor named Wendonai to corrupt the wombs of the Dark Elves of the Ilythiiri. Wendonai was a Balor with red eyes, black skin, and white hair.
The Lore hasn’t been very uniform between the novels and the source books. It seems that Miyeritari Drow didn’t always have Red Eyes but the Ilithyrii Drow did. Plus there was the whole retcon of Infravision into Darkvision.
Isn't that from the Lisa Smedman novels that all got retconned away? The things that woman was allowed to get away with doing to drow lore was atrocious, the editors must have been asleep at the wheel.
I think I really prefer that explanation. Makes sense that a Balor under Lolth would have traits similar to her, given how Demons and their realms bend around the master of that realm. And why would the other Elves want the Drow to look more like Lolth? Seems like that would just promote them to worship her more.
You forgot to mention that Eilistraee is not evil. She wants to save all the drows from Loths web and show them the wonders of the world above! Thank you for the video! ♥
The first and true evil of the Crown Wars was the Sun Elves of Arvyandaar first trying to annex and when that failed, they committed the atrocity of genocide against the peaceful dark elven nation and center of High Elven Magic on Faerûn, Miyeritaar. The sun elves called forth the Killing Storm, causing it to rain deadly acid and lightning down on Miyeritaar for a month, murdering hundreds of thousands of dark elves. The dark elves of Ilythiir were outraged and what they did was in retaliation for the destruction of their peaceful sisters and brothers.
And it was the sun elves of arvandar that chose to embrace the cursed demonic bloodline, and spawn the feyrie clan of sun elves. How quickly, and how far the once ' high elves' have fallen is a cautionary tale of ambition gone mad..
Also Lilith's church destroys Houses that get TOO backstab happy for drow society to function. 'Drow are superior' eh? They aren't alone in that 'superior species' club ironically. Mind flayers, Aboleth, beholders, Orcs, Kobolds, it's a long list. Oh and dragons, but no one argues them on that point.
And Drow are a part of a few who actualy have means to prove it. For example: never fight a drow 1v1 unless you are very-very tough, or you are going to be wrecked. Drow are the best melee fighters in the realms and it gets worse in Underdark.
@@BIGESTblade yeah but you have to remember all fire are trained to fight and if your fighting one in the underdark they've got a great advantage. A better way thing to say is that does are one of the most nimble of fighters and all possess magic to some degree
More drow and underdark, please. I rarely include them in my adventures, but I like all the little details to make them and their society really come alive. Good stuff. Thank you.
I'm going to play the exactly same idea for my next character. But i'm having some problems with his backstory. Can you tell me what inspirations did you find for yours? What was its backstory? Maybe i can find some inspiration with you.
@@marcelocefas5083 I had a similar Idea. His background would be of a typical male drow wizard, being forced by his house into apprenticeship at the wizard academy of his city, Melee Magtherede iirc. (I decided that he would be from house Mizzrym of Menzoberanzan for the familiarity with deception tactics that would be useful later). That's where he studied the Art as well as learned a bit of common (needed that to study manuscripts from aboveground). His reason for wanting to escape is obviously his ambition (males do not amount to much in drow society), means of escape would come from an assassination attempted on him during a conjuration ritual. An assasin would stab him in his arm during the ritual, messing it up, causing him to inadvertedly be teleported topside as well as badly damaging one of his arms. He would continue to survive disguising himself by wrapping all but his damaged arm in bandages to try to pass off as an elven wizard who had all his body badly disfigured in a manner similar to his arm. For alignment and personality I guess the selfish ambitious True neutral/NE would work, and I guess he should not start as a lvl 1. There are some finer details left to work out, but tnat's the basics of it
They're a mortal race like any other. They're not born evil and they always have a choice to take a different path. The most obvious example is Drizzt Do'Urden but his popularity is such that the whole good drow rejecting everything his people stand for to take the goodly path has been done to death and even to this day suffers pushback when people trying to play such characters. Honestly, as much as she was a rich spoiled teenager, Liriel Baenre is a better template to base a character on. At least she was happy being a drow. Making a chaotic neutral character is a good starting point, not too far off the drow standard of neutral evil. Always out for number one doesn't necessarily preclude working with some loyalty to a party. Drow are nothing if not confident in their own superiority, so as long as the party isn't regularly taking on suicide missions, it wouldn't be hard to play them as deciding that sticking with the party is the better long term strategy for gain.
my drow character kills indiscriminately but not casually. As in she is willing to take the life of anything, even a child, but would not go out her way to do so nor does she enjoy or dread such task. My duty is to my family, and as a woman I must be strong and if I’m the only women around then I will lead. I’m having a lot of fun playing a drow. Doesn’t mean my other party member isn’t in the middle of betraying me because he won’t just blindly follow orders. I’d put her at LE leaning more towards lawful
Well one of the main reasons as well, is that I just find it hard to give a drow a reason to be on the surface. Like how do I roleplay that? Then give them further reason to party up with non-drow characters. I appreciate your responses
@@sonic-bb The easiest way to justify a drow on the surface is to make them a follower of either Eilistraee or Vhaeraun, depending on whether you want to lean good or evil. They both wish for drow to recolonize the surface. Eilistraee is much more willing to work with non-drow than Vhaeraun but both will do what is necessary to further their goals. If you don't want to go the religious route then your drow could have crossed someone sufficiently powerful that nowhere in the Underdark is safe and so they decided to lie low on the surface for a few decades. If they are on the surface then they'll need allies to buffer them from the reputation their race has. Some of that is going to depend on the rest of the party. Shady ne'er-do-wells would require a different motivation than if they're all paladins. Hell, it could just be plain old wanderlust.
@@kuro_neko5863 ooo ur second suggestion is interesting. I might just do that. With the wanderlust, I try not to do that. Because then it's really easy to fall into making another drizzt character that route. Just because they would have to be special to even have the want to go to the surface. But supposedly 95% of drow are evil and don't care for the surface. So idk, I just find it hard to come up with an excuse for them to be up there without basically creating drizzt. But ur second suggestion is actually a really good one
New to D&D because of BG3!!! I cannot get enough of the Forgotten Realms lore. I don't just love Baldur's Gate but it's made me love this wider universe I had no idea existed outside of the name - Dungeons and Dragons.
In early editions Drow hair color (mostly white but sometimes blond, grey, silver, or very rarely copper) and more so eye color (mostly red but grey, green, brown, black, amber, and rose are common, and blue and purple are possible but rare) had some variation but skin color was always uniformly described as jet-black. This was retconned for the stupidest of reasons, the artists they had on staff complained about difficulty in drawing detail with pure black skin. Even after this allowance the manuals still say most drow are jet-black. That drow get depicted in art so often with purpleish skin tone is contamination from WoW, and dark grey skin because fan artists have the same trouble the staff artists did with detail on jet-black skin.
@@somerandommen Drow are far more badass than the druchii copies, and far better written and more interesting. Druchii were written to be as “evil as possible” which beats the purpose and just made them lack nuance bc they’re just brain rot evil
You failed to mention Eilistraee. I know she's usually in the Forgotten Realms and she's not evil. The drow who worship her has forsaken the typical drow evil ways and they foster love, friendship and all that so there's a chance for drow who don't want to live in oppressive Lolthite societies
@heath hertter Followers of Eilistraee have tunnels, a portal network, and a couple orders of priest(esse)s and paladins with the goal of finding drow in need or who may be convinced to leave, and aid them to do that. Eilistraee herself is known to show safe paths, scare aggressors and the likes (even though her power is mostly on the surface), so the drow who try to leave may find help (even though, given that Eilistraee doesn't have that big of numbers, other drow, like Drizzt, might not be that lucky).
Granted, this video was made 4 years ago. However, a recent Drizzt book, "The Starlight Enclave," by RA Salvatore significantly altered the Drow lore in the Forgotten Realms. This book separates the drow into 3 different cultures (it's not stated if they're subraces). With the Udadrow being the typical lolth following drow thaf everyone know and think of. They're centered in Menzobarranzan and the area that surrounds it. Then there's the Lorendrow that live further south in a higher part of the Underdark. They're kinda the wood elves of the drow. Then there's the mysterious and reclusive Aevendrow that inhabit a hidden magical city in the far north called Callidea. Apparently, Callidea is so old and well hidden that no one knew it existed until about 2 years before the events in Baldur's Gate 3 when it was rediscovered by Jarlaxel Baenre. The Aevendrow apparently broke away from Lolth's followers and are more like normal elves in their culture albeit with some war-like tendencies.
I've been trying to get into D&D lore recently, but don't have the money to buy the D&D nooks containing it. Your videos help me learn the interesting lore of D&D. Thanks.
You're welcome! Happy to help. And honestly if you are looking for more information but you're on a budget I'd suggest the Forgotten Realms Wiki. It's a wealth of summaries from the source material. forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
I'm really curious about how the Dark Elves would have evolved if the Descent never happened and they never became Drow. Like what was their society like? There's lots of information about how other Elven subraces' societies operate, but very little about early Dark Elf culture.
I started bg3 a month or so ago and first chose drow as my characters race. Ive never played dnd or anything before so my only reasons for this were they looked cool and were sneaky
In my world the Drow is a secret sect that worship Lolth. The dark skin is painted on in the low levels. The permanate change is a sign of Lolth's favor in higher ranks. The Drow can be anywhere in any elf community. So any elf might secretly be a Drow agent.
It would be interesting an analyses of the "monsters" that are Drow or associate with Drow. Like what slaves do they have, there relation with Illithid, Dwarf and Duerga. How do they survive and make wars?
I would like to see a video of drow that do not follow the typical evil allignment maybe a good or at the very least a chaotic good drow. Thats what I play. Its very controversial and i like it that way
I plan a drow fighter who is a former soldier or gaurd to a house matriarch and she banished him for refusing to kill the main matriarch, who was trying to lead a fight against something attacking the drow city
Oooh I need the lolth video so much! A player on my campaign is a drow and Lolth follower so I wanted her to have some sort of communication with her but I don't know Lolth seeks for. Does she care about power? Money? Pacts? Suffering? Or maybe she just wants people to betray one another?
Lolth cares about power, but she also delights in seeing her own followers suffer and be afflicted by constant strife. She can favor them one moment, then throw them away like broken toys the next, for no other reason that she tires of them. Lolth cares nothing for the development of her followers--in fact their life, expression, beliefs are characterize by an extremely oppressive censorship: even suggesting that there are different ways to live, or mentioning the name of other deities--especially Eilistraee or Vhaeraun (Lolth's 2 kids)--will get you marked as an apostate and likely killed. The reason is that Lolth wants the drow to be absorbed in continual strife and conflict to gain her favor, and for them to be brainwashed and blind to the greater world, so that they won't see how miserable their lives are, and will continue being her puppets (it's what tryants generally do). Extremely few people would worship Lolth unless forced to (or brainwashed/tricked into doing that).
Tommaso Sammarco So if she betrayed one of the highpriestess from the underdark and managed to escape the underdark, does that mean Lolth has tagged her as an apostate? Even if she still worships her? Then maybe I could make Lolth send her minions to kill her. My aracnophobe player will be very happy.
She might very well be. I don't think she would be tagged as an apostate, but given that Lolth does what she does simply for the lulz... However, it's more likely for the High Priestess (or her house) to summon Lolth's minions and send them to hunt the PC.
You're welcome! It's not really complicated, Lolth just toys with her followers. Lets assume that the priestess and her house sent minions against the character. Lolth might endorse the high priestess at first, then suddenly turn her back on her cleric and favor the character, because she wasn't pleased with how her own priestess let herself be deceived like that. The PC might very well be subject to the same treatment in future, tho.
I've long held the view that the name of the race is pronounced Drow as in row row row your boat gently down the stream. As opposed to the more nasal way of saying it that so many people do, Drow as in, OW ow ow, I stubbed my toe on the end table again. Perhaps it is just me...
My favorite race in FR and I have 3 in AL. It would be awesome if you could do a in-depth video on the deities and a couple famous Drow cities and little more of their culture 👍🏼👍🏼💯
She is, in many ways, the jam-band / festival goddess. I get the sense that she takes joy very seriously...sort of like how a musicology professor can be deadly serious about a silly Ska tune. My half-human / half-drow Bard character is a follower of Elistraee. He's a little more laid back because of his human dad but his momma is a priestess of Elistraee, so he's pretty serious about giving people a good time.
Hells yeah brother. The war on Mithril Hall during the Time of Troubles (I think?) has SCADS of political intrigue in Menzoberranzan, including Braehan D’aerthe’s role in the city. I’m talking about the 4 part story arc that finishes with Passage to Dawn. I know I’m probly mixing a couple things up here but if not, that should give you more of what you’re looking for.
One thing that's never made much sense: If.. - Spiders are sacred to the Drow as a symbol of Lolth - Lolth in her physical form has the body of a spider ....Then why are the Driders considered so horribly cursed and cast out of society when they've been transformed into an aspect of the goddess?
I think the big shame with becoming a drider is that you are so useless and weak to Drow society that Lolth _pities_ you and has to waste her powers to give you a much stronger form. The shame comes from being given a stronger form due to your own patheticness as a Drow when you're supposed to be the best.
Lolth herself was cursed to have that body by Corellon. A drow who is so transformed is Lolth at the moment of her fall, not Lolth the Spider Queen. Plus Driders are made incapable of reproduction which is a big deal for a society focused about extending your family line.
Ok here is an idea for a DnD campaign. A kingdom of Drow are close to their neighboring kingdom, which is entirely populated by humans. The Drow want to conquer the human kingdom and enslave them, and fill their life with abuse. The Drow however would not dare because the city is protected by an Ancient Copper Dragon. And if they attacked the human kingdom the Copper Dragon would just eat all of their spiders. In order to get rid of the Copper Dragon they sent in some Drow disguised as humans to infiltrate the human kingdom and influence the humans to get offended by the dragon's jokes.
I wish I could find a decent reading order list for forgotten realms. Read all the drizzt. I have almost all the FR books on digits but everything I find online doesn't give a good reading order.
Lore question: where are the houseless (by choice or not) drow stand in society? In a 3.5, I played a male drow monk that serves monastery of lolth and his house name stripped.
Three questions 1. Will we have a Deities of the Drow? Please? 2. Where do you find the pictures of the “priest of ___” 3. What is the story with Krynn?
Planning a drow fighter who was a gaurd or a soldier for a matriarch but she found his lack of hatred to the other houses as a sign of weakness, and cast him out when he refused to attack the city's matriarch while she was on a military campaign or something, mainly thinking someome or something else was attacking thevdrow city and his matriarch wanted to use it to her advantage
So we just going to ignore the fact that the gold elves started the Civil War that started the crown Wars because they didn't want to worship their deity
I love how modern Wizards of the Coast/game developers in general are TERRIFIED of portraying the Drow - ANY of them - as black-skinned (even though they have been described as "ebon" and "obsidian" since their conception); consequently, we end up with a lot of "dark" elves that look like Skeeter and Smurfs.
According to 3.5 lore from a few books it was also either a dwarven god or a raptoran god that defeated lolth. So yeah. Nice, D&D lore is now officially like the bible... its all just divine storytelling.
Hey Jorphdan - Love all the content - Did you see the announcement of the first official MTG Crossover that is coming out later this year? I know its a ways out, but I would honestly LOVE it if you'd go through that MTG content once its actually out with your level of depth and comedy.
Yeah I saw! Oh man covering MTG seems like a whole new channel. I don't know if I'll get into it but I have hopes of covering other campaign settings like Eberron and Dark Sun in the future.
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I think the Drow are better people as all those who let themself be dominated by Leftists, which teach that they are always lesser than others.
Structures that do not protect their own against outsiders are repulsive and deserve to be destroyed.
Why are the Drow so evil?
They just do it for the Lolth.
Colin12475 boo bad pun
Yeah pretty much
This is the best explanation.
The reason why the Drow have black skin, red eyes, and white hair is because Lolth used the Balor named Wendonai to corrupt the wombs of the Dark Elves of the Ilythiiri. Wendonai was a Balor with red eyes, black skin, and white hair.
Bob Bob that’s lore from the novels.
The Lore hasn’t been very uniform between the novels and the source books. It seems that Miyeritari Drow didn’t always have Red Eyes but the Ilithyrii Drow did. Plus there was the whole retcon of Infravision into Darkvision.
Isn't that from the Lisa Smedman novels that all got retconned away? The things that woman was allowed to get away with doing to drow lore was atrocious, the editors must have been asleep at the wheel.
I think I really prefer that explanation.
Makes sense that a Balor under Lolth would have traits similar to her, given how Demons and their realms bend around the master of that realm.
And why would the other Elves want the Drow to look more like Lolth? Seems like that would just promote them to worship her more.
@@kuro_neko5863 there is no wheel in 3rd, only tree
You forgot to mention that Eilistraee is not evil. She wants to save all the drows from Loths web and show them the wonders of the world above! Thank you for the video! ♥
Darn that's actually really cool
You nailed it!
The first and true evil of the Crown Wars was the Sun Elves of Arvyandaar first trying to annex and when that failed, they committed the atrocity of genocide against the peaceful dark elven nation and center of High Elven Magic on Faerûn, Miyeritaar. The sun elves called forth the Killing Storm, causing it to rain deadly acid and lightning down on Miyeritaar for a month, murdering hundreds of thousands of dark elves.
The dark elves of Ilythiir were outraged and what they did was in retaliation for the destruction of their peaceful sisters and brothers.
Indeed! *cough* dark disaster *cough* ^^
On top of that, the (*very* few) remaining Miyeritari, who were victims and followers of Eilistraee, were cursed and exiled too.
Tommaso Sammarco
_May they forever dance in moonlight and joyous song._
:'(
And it was the sun elves of arvandar that chose to embrace the cursed demonic bloodline, and spawn the feyrie clan of sun elves. How quickly, and how far the once ' high elves' have fallen is a cautionary tale of ambition gone mad..
Damn! those sun elves!!(｀_´メ)
Also Lilith's church destroys Houses that get TOO backstab happy for drow society to function.
'Drow are superior' eh? They aren't alone in that 'superior species' club ironically. Mind flayers, Aboleth, beholders, Orcs, Kobolds, it's a long list. Oh and dragons, but no one argues them on that point.
And Drow are a part of a few who actualy have means to prove it. For example: never fight a drow 1v1 unless you are very-very tough, or you are going to be wrecked. Drow are the best melee fighters in the realms and it gets worse in Underdark.
@@BIGESTblade yeah but you have to remember all fire are trained to fight and if your fighting one in the underdark they've got a great advantage. A better way thing to say is that does are one of the most nimble of fighters and all possess magic to some degree
@@atomicash2475 English isn't your first language I assume?
More drow and underdark, please. I rarely include them in my adventures, but I like all the little details to make them and their society really come alive.
Good stuff. Thank you.
Read Homeland and Exile by R.A. Salvatore. It'll tell you a lot of what you need to know.
My new character is going to be a drow necromancer, I can't wait!
And great video! Thank you so much for the info!
I'm going to play the exactly same idea for my next character. But i'm having some problems with his backstory. Can you tell me what inspirations did you find for yours? What was its backstory? Maybe i can find some inspiration with you.
@@marcelocefas5083 I had a similar Idea. His background would be of a typical male drow wizard, being forced by his house into apprenticeship at the wizard academy of his city, Melee Magtherede iirc. (I decided that he would be from house Mizzrym of Menzoberanzan for the familiarity with deception tactics that would be useful later). That's where he studied the Art as well as learned a bit of common (needed that to study manuscripts from aboveground). His reason for wanting to escape is obviously his ambition (males do not amount to much in drow society), means of escape would come from an assassination attempted on him during a conjuration ritual. An assasin would stab him in his arm during the ritual, messing it up, causing him to inadvertedly be teleported topside as well as badly damaging one of his arms. He would continue to survive disguising himself by wrapping all but his damaged arm in bandages to try to pass off as an elven wizard who had all his body badly disfigured in a manner similar to his arm. For alignment and personality I guess the selfish ambitious True neutral/NE would work, and I guess he should not start as a lvl 1. There are some finer details left to work out, but tnat's the basics of it
3.5 mexromancers are food
Their background makes it so hard for me to imagine Playing them in a party with friends
They're a mortal race like any other. They're not born evil and they always have a choice to take a different path. The most obvious example is Drizzt Do'Urden but his popularity is such that the whole good drow rejecting everything his people stand for to take the goodly path has been done to death and even to this day suffers pushback when people trying to play such characters. Honestly, as much as she was a rich spoiled teenager, Liriel Baenre is a better template to base a character on. At least she was happy being a drow.
Making a chaotic neutral character is a good starting point, not too far off the drow standard of neutral evil. Always out for number one doesn't necessarily preclude working with some loyalty to a party. Drow are nothing if not confident in their own superiority, so as long as the party isn't regularly taking on suicide missions, it wouldn't be hard to play them as deciding that sticking with the party is the better long term strategy for gain.
my drow character kills indiscriminately but not casually. As in she is willing to take the life of anything, even a child, but would not go out her way to do so nor does she enjoy or dread such task. My duty is to my family, and as a woman I must be strong and if I’m the only women around then I will lead. I’m having a lot of fun playing a drow. Doesn’t mean my other party member isn’t in the middle of betraying me because he won’t just blindly follow orders. I’d put her at LE leaning more towards lawful
Well one of the main reasons as well, is that I just find it hard to give a drow a reason to be on the surface. Like how do I roleplay that?
Then give them further reason to party up with non-drow characters.
I appreciate your responses
@@sonic-bb The easiest way to justify a drow on the surface is to make them a follower of either Eilistraee or Vhaeraun, depending on whether you want to lean good or evil. They both wish for drow to recolonize the surface. Eilistraee is much more willing to work with non-drow than Vhaeraun but both will do what is necessary to further their goals. If you don't want to go the religious route then your drow could have crossed someone sufficiently powerful that nowhere in the Underdark is safe and so they decided to lie low on the surface for a few decades. If they are on the surface then they'll need allies to buffer them from the reputation their race has. Some of that is going to depend on the rest of the party. Shady ne'er-do-wells would require a different motivation than if they're all paladins. Hell, it could just be plain old wanderlust.
@@kuro_neko5863 ooo ur second suggestion is interesting.
I might just do that.
With the wanderlust, I try not to do that. Because then it's really easy to fall into making another drizzt character that route.
Just because they would have to be special to even have the want to go to the surface. But supposedly 95% of drow are evil and don't care for the surface. So idk, I just find it hard to come up with an excuse for them to be up there without basically creating drizzt. But ur second suggestion is actually a really good one
I love the Ilythiiri! I have been running a FR campaign for ten years based on a Drow House!
New to D&D because of BG3!!! I cannot get enough of the Forgotten Realms lore. I don't just love Baldur's Gate but it's made me love this wider universe I had no idea existed outside of the name - Dungeons and Dragons.
In early editions Drow hair color (mostly white but sometimes blond, grey, silver, or very rarely copper) and more so eye color (mostly red but grey, green, brown, black, amber, and rose are common, and blue and purple are possible but rare) had some variation but skin color was always uniformly described as jet-black. This was retconned for the stupidest of reasons, the artists they had on staff complained about difficulty in drawing detail with pure black skin. Even after this allowance the manuals still say most drow are jet-black. That drow get depicted in art so often with purpleish skin tone is contamination from WoW, and dark grey skin because fan artists have the same trouble the staff artists did with detail on jet-black skin.
…Night Elf wasn’t debut until Warcraft 3
this race of elves is so badass
They're actually cool. Most DnD elf races are kinda lame.
They're unfathomably mid in comparison to the Druchii/Drukhari in Warhammer
@@somerandommen Drow are far more badass than the druchii copies, and far better written and more interesting. Druchii were written to be as “evil as possible” which beats the purpose and just made them lack nuance bc they’re just brain rot evil
@@Winskl9010 The words of someone who knows nothing about Warhammer lore, lol
A video about the goddess Eilistraee and her worshipers would be great.
You failed to mention Eilistraee. I know she's usually in the Forgotten Realms and she's not evil. The drow who worship her has forsaken the typical drow evil ways and they foster love, friendship and all that so there's a chance for drow who don't want to live in oppressive Lolthite societies
He said that he will do a video on the drow gods for the next week.
_"May the Song touch your Heart and bring you Joy."_
*~Dark Lady Rilae'ar'an*
If they are brave enough to face the wilds of the under-dark, and strong enough to reach the surface.
@heath hertter Followers of Eilistraee have tunnels, a portal network, and a couple orders of priest(esse)s and paladins with the goal of finding drow in need or who may be convinced to leave, and aid them to do that. Eilistraee herself is known to show safe paths, scare aggressors and the likes (even though her power is mostly on the surface), so the drow who try to leave may find help (even though, given that Eilistraee doesn't have that big of numbers, other drow, like Drizzt, might not be that lucky).
Tommaso Sammarco my point is that that drow followers of ellistrae tend to be deadly opponents and ought not to be trifled with.
just finished soujourn today, got through all 3 books in a matter of days. they're so good
Lol it all goes downhill after that.
I guess a good way to describe Drow society is an organized state of chaos.
Think Crime Families with religion that works and magic. It’s a brutal place.
This was a very well thought out and narrated video about the drow. Well done!
Thank you!
Granted, this video was made 4 years ago. However, a recent Drizzt book, "The Starlight Enclave," by RA Salvatore significantly altered the Drow lore in the Forgotten Realms. This book separates the drow into 3 different cultures (it's not stated if they're subraces). With the Udadrow being the typical lolth following drow thaf everyone know and think of. They're centered in Menzobarranzan and the area that surrounds it. Then there's the Lorendrow that live further south in a higher part of the Underdark. They're kinda the wood elves of the drow. Then there's the mysterious and reclusive Aevendrow that inhabit a hidden magical city in the far north called Callidea. Apparently, Callidea is so old and well hidden that no one knew it existed until about 2 years before the events in Baldur's Gate 3 when it was rediscovered by Jarlaxel Baenre. The Aevendrow apparently broke away from Lolth's followers and are more like normal elves in their culture albeit with some war-like tendencies.
They are such a peculiar race! Everything with them has a second side. Even their goddess isn't so bad as she looks at first.
Anyone else read the drizzt books
Yup if I'm a bearded gnome
Great books, actualky read icewind dale whike in jail and been hooked ever since.
@@timfondiggle2582 Thats where i read them all 🤣🤣
Great series I read it in seventh grade
Read the graphic novels.
I have always wanted a grimdark version of the forgotten realms setting.
quick clear and fucking concise, exactly what i want from a lore video. thank you very informative
I didn't know a lot of that information so thank you for the video!
I've been trying to get into D&D lore recently, but don't have the money to buy the D&D nooks containing it. Your videos help me learn the interesting lore of D&D. Thanks.
You're welcome! Happy to help. And honestly if you are looking for more information but you're on a budget I'd suggest the Forgotten Realms Wiki. It's a wealth of summaries from the source material.
forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
Jorphdan Oh cool didn't know there was one.
The Lore began in 1970's and retconing (changing of historical events) is not uncommon.
Don't tell anyone, but all of the D&D books are free for download on thetrove.net
It wasn't the Illythiri that caused teh Dark disaster of Myeritar (dark and wood elves). It was the Vyshaan (sun elf) kingdom mages
I feel like the drow got the short end off the stick.
I'm really curious about how the Dark Elves would have evolved if the Descent never happened and they never became Drow. Like what was their society like? There's lots of information about how other Elven subraces' societies operate, but very little about early Dark Elf culture.
Seems like it’s the main elf gods fault for creating the drow.
I started bg3 a month or so ago and first chose drow as my characters race. Ive never played dnd or anything before so my only reasons for this were they looked cool and were sneaky
In my world the Drow is a secret sect that worship Lolth. The dark skin is painted on in the low levels. The permanate change is a sign of Lolth's favor in higher ranks. The Drow can be anywhere in any elf community. So any elf might secretly be a Drow agent.
It would be interesting an analyses of the "monsters" that are Drow or associate with Drow. Like what slaves do they have, there relation with Illithid, Dwarf and Duerga. How do they survive and make wars?
I would like to see a video of drow that do not follow the typical evil allignment maybe a good or at the very least a chaotic good drow. Thats what I play. Its very controversial and i like it that way
I plan a drow fighter who is a former soldier or gaurd to a house matriarch and she banished him for refusing to kill the main matriarch, who was trying to lead a fight against something attacking the drow city
Such an underrated channel
Great vid as always :) Just curious, what's your take on the LeShay and their reputation as a Fey creator race?
Seems interesting. I'll have to do some more research cause I didn't know about them till just now :)
AJ Pickett 👀👀 whatcha planning there bud?
I've been thinking a lot about the feywild lately.
Love the LeShay, would love to see more lore and videos about them
I love elf history ! I have been learning to read and speak elf.
Oooh I need the lolth video so much! A player on my campaign is a drow and Lolth follower so I wanted her to have some sort of communication with her but I don't know Lolth seeks for.
Does she care about power? Money? Pacts? Suffering? Or maybe she just wants people to betray one another?
Lolth cares about power, but she also delights in seeing her own followers suffer and be afflicted by constant strife. She can favor them one moment, then throw them away like broken toys the next, for no other reason that she tires of them. Lolth cares nothing for the development of her followers--in fact their life, expression, beliefs are characterize by an extremely oppressive censorship: even suggesting that there are different ways to live, or mentioning the name of other deities--especially Eilistraee or Vhaeraun (Lolth's 2 kids)--will get you marked as an apostate and likely killed. The reason is that Lolth wants the drow to be absorbed in continual strife and conflict to gain her favor, and for them to be brainwashed and blind to the greater world, so that they won't see how miserable their lives are, and will continue being her puppets (it's what tryants generally do). Extremely few people would worship Lolth unless forced to (or brainwashed/tricked into doing that).
Tommaso Sammarco So if she betrayed one of the highpriestess from the underdark and managed to escape the underdark, does that mean Lolth has tagged her as an apostate? Even if she still worships her? Then maybe I could make Lolth send her minions to kill her. My aracnophobe player will be very happy.
She might very well be. I don't think she would be tagged as an apostate, but given that Lolth does what she does simply for the lulz... However, it's more likely for the High Priestess (or her house) to summon Lolth's minions and send them to hunt the PC.
I see... humm that seems complicated as a motivation fuel.
Thanks a lot for the response!!
You're welcome! It's not really complicated, Lolth just toys with her followers. Lets assume that the priestess and her house sent minions against the character. Lolth might endorse the high priestess at first, then suddenly turn her back on her cleric and favor the character, because she wasn't pleased with how her own priestess let herself be deceived like that. The PC might very well be subject to the same treatment in future, tho.
This was a really good description of their society
Thanks!
Hey bud. Glad that i finally found your channel. Good stuff ! Question tho, where did you get that Faerun map of the underdark?
I think it's from 4th edition, but you can google Faerun Underdark Map and find it online!
Thanks for making this!
Im going to make a male drow swashbuckler her escaped becoming a drider and also escaped the underdark
Love it! Happy Gaming!
I've long held the view that the name of the race is pronounced Drow as in row row row your boat gently down the stream. As opposed to the more nasal way of saying it that so many people do, Drow as in, OW ow ow, I stubbed my toe on the end table again. Perhaps it is just me...
If you under water you drown. If you underdark you drow.
I always read it like crow though.
Same, drow, like crow but with a D, sounds better to me.
@Lamodrick Foster and the creator of the GIF pronounces it Jif, like the peanut butter brand, and he is wrong as well... imho.
Drow are fucking badasses
This is great my DM is literally taking us into the Underdark next session. Thanks!
That's why these drow love spiders..Who's playing Neverwinter?
The dark elves of Dragonlance are banished individuals.
Man, this takes me back!
My favorite race in FR and I have 3 in AL. It would be awesome if you could do a in-depth video on the deities and a couple famous Drow cities and little more of their culture 👍🏼👍🏼💯
She is, in many ways, the jam-band / festival goddess.
I get the sense that she takes joy very seriously...sort of like how a musicology professor can be deadly serious about a silly Ska tune.
My half-human / half-drow Bard character is a follower of Elistraee. He's a little more laid back because of his human dad but his momma is a priestess of Elistraee, so he's pretty serious about giving people a good time.
I was wondering how like Elder Scrolls they would be because I heard something about the Dunmer being based on Drow. Is that true?
Is the any other books except Homeland and Exile that talk about the hierarchy of the drow Houses? That was really interesting to me when I read them.
Hells yeah brother. The war on Mithril Hall during the Time of Troubles (I think?) has SCADS of political intrigue in Menzoberranzan, including Braehan D’aerthe’s role in the city. I’m talking about the 4 part story arc that finishes with Passage to Dawn. I know I’m probly mixing a couple things up here but if not, that should give you more of what you’re looking for.
@@jburt779 Ooooo!!! Thank U!
@3:10 misspelled godly as goldy(which is appropriate for corellon)
Dang it! Good catch XD
fun fact i am named after the great house Daermon Na'Shezbaeron
@Lamodrick Foster house daermon nashezbaeron is a great house it is my house. My name is Dayveenna Silver Shard De Daermon nashezbaeron.
@Lamodrick Foster it is not from the books. She is me in forgotten realms..D aveena has a great love for Drizzt Do urden.
One thing that's never made much sense:
If..
- Spiders are sacred to the Drow as a symbol of Lolth
- Lolth in her physical form has the body of a spider
....Then why are the Driders considered so horribly cursed and cast out of society when they've been transformed into an aspect of the goddess?
Unfortunately there is a lot about the drow that doesn't make any sense if you pay attention.
I think the big shame with becoming a drider is that you are so useless and weak to Drow society that Lolth _pities_ you and has to waste her powers to give you a much stronger form. The shame comes from being given a stronger form due to your own patheticness as a Drow when you're supposed to be the best.
She has to make you stronger to survive, and nobody should have to help you in Drow societies.
Lolth herself was cursed to have that body by Corellon. A drow who is so transformed is Lolth at the moment of her fall, not Lolth the Spider Queen. Plus Driders are made incapable of reproduction which is a big deal for a society focused about extending your family line.
Ok here is an idea for a DnD campaign.
A kingdom of Drow are close to their neighboring kingdom, which is entirely populated by humans. The Drow want to conquer the human kingdom and enslave them, and fill their life with abuse.
The Drow however would not dare because the city is protected by an Ancient Copper Dragon. And if they attacked the human kingdom the Copper Dragon would just eat all of their spiders.
In order to get rid of the Copper Dragon they sent in some Drow disguised as humans to infiltrate the human kingdom and influence the humans to get offended by the dragon's jokes.
Wow...make me not wanting to be a Drow. I was actually gonna do Drow Druid but....yea maybe moon elf?
Sounds like Lolth set up drow society to be a bit of a crab-bucket
I wish I could find a decent reading order list for forgotten realms. Read all the drizzt. I have almost all the FR books on digits but everything I find online doesn't give a good reading order.
I kinda want to create a drow just for backstary "f this sht i'm out".
Lore question: where are the houseless (by choice or not) drow stand in society?
In a 3.5, I played a male drow monk that serves monastery of lolth and his house name stripped.
Very low, most of them join Jarlaxles organization. That is if they're useful to him.
Drizzt's my favorite Drow.
Three questions
1. Will we have a Deities of the Drow? Please?
2. Where do you find the pictures of the “priest of ___”
3. What is the story with Krynn?
1. Working on it now
2. Priest of pictures are from "Demihuman Deities" and "Faiths & Avatars" both from AD&D
3. I'm not sure ;)
Planning a drow fighter who was a gaurd or a soldier for a matriarch but she found his lack of hatred to the other houses as a sign of weakness, and cast him out when he refused to attack the city's matriarch while she was on a military campaign or something, mainly thinking someome or something else was attacking thevdrow city and his matriarch wanted to use it to her advantage
So we just going to ignore the fact that the gold elves started the Civil War that started the crown Wars because they didn't want to worship their deity
For a second I thought I was watching a vid about Silmarillion.
I love the drow
Got to watch out for those 'goldy' powers. 3:14
Yep 😅
It would be great if Salvatore resurrected Phauraun and Cadderly
Drizzt DoUrden is my idol
@Lamodrick Foster no lol
One Underdark race you didn't mention last week is the Kuo-Toa. Could we get a video on them at some point?
Pretty sure I did talk about the Kuo-Toa in my previous video. Were you referring to something else?
0:40 that is Raistlin Majere a human mage not a Drow or Ilythiiri high mage.
no drows in dragonlance
I like the Zekyl, but they havent made their appearance in 5e yet.
I love how modern Wizards of the Coast/game developers in general are TERRIFIED of portraying the Drow - ANY of them - as black-skinned (even though they have been described as "ebon" and "obsidian" since their conception); consequently, we end up with a lot of "dark" elves that look like Skeeter and Smurfs.
Do you have any plans on doing a video on the Northlander Isles? Ruathym, The Purple Rocks, Tuern, Gundarlan... I think they are pretty interesting
I'll add it to my list of potential topics!
all such Naysayers are Vice - none of the Elves move towards the Nameless. Faerûn is supercedent over the Darkness.
Jorph Dan
I actually played as a Drow druid Folkhero who is accidentally heroic
I wonder how much of this is gonna get errata'd once TaCoE comes out...
A good entertainer can make 30 minutes feel like 15, but excellent entertainers can make 15 feel like 30. Great video :)
Thanks! :D
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY TO SHORT, I MEAN 6 MINUTES REALLY?!
The rules and rituals can be messed up
Perphaps the true Drow were the enemies we made along the way.
According to 3.5 lore from a few books it was also either a dwarven god or a raptoran god that defeated lolth. So yeah. Nice, D&D lore is now officially like the bible... its all just divine storytelling.
Hey Jorphdan - Love all the content - Did you see the announcement of the first official MTG Crossover that is coming out later this year? I know its a ways out, but I would honestly LOVE it if you'd go through that MTG content once its actually out with your level of depth and comedy.
Yeah I saw! Oh man covering MTG seems like a whole new channel. I don't know if I'll get into it but I have hopes of covering other campaign settings like Eberron and Dark Sun in the future.
Nifty summary
hey jorphdan, I was wondering if you could do a video on the dragons and the types?
Hello, very nice video. Could you provide us with the reference for the illustrations you used ? Most of them are really great !
His voice sounds a lot like Mathew Ferguson.
How is Raistlin connected to this? 0:44
I like the Drizzt books, but Tolkien elves are better.
Was wondering if there is a Time line that Heilights the Forgotten Realms Novels?
I think this is what you might be looking for :)
www.alltimelines.com/forgotten-realms/
i love the map at 3:35. could you gimme the source?
if you search underdark map you can find it.
www.realmshelps.net/faerun/underdark/geography.shtml
It was in the 3.5 book Underdark.
thanks, I didn't find that colour scheme when i googled it.
Love you!
funny - - for 25years my friends and i pronounced it like grow, throw, and row
While for 40 years, my group and many others around here say like "Prow".
It's Drow..like D then Row...like row a boat.
I believe Wizards of the Coast says Drow like cow. But you can pronounce it however you want 😀
@@Jorphdan Eliminster told me. 😁
@elliotvernon7971 Tomato/Tamato
What about the moon worshipping drow
Huh they're crazy similar to dunmer in elder scrolls lore. So which lore is older, im guessing this one, the dnd lore?
Get ready for an update.
Drow are spoopy
Why include a pic of Raistlin Magere from Dragonlance in this video?
My art options are limited.
didn't house baern fall after the events of siege of darkness?