This came in the mail yesterday, I'm going to the library

It's a lot of fun.

If you haven't already read Homeland by R.A. Salvatore, I'd recommend also picking it up at the library. It's the first of the Dark Elf Trilogy, and it really dives deep into the worship of Lolth, and though it takes place in a different drow city than the one in this module, it might help inspire you and give you a better feel for the cruelty of the underdark.

>>48670132
I'll check it out, thanks.

Going to look online now for examples of Drow cruelty.

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>>48670190

Here's some examples from Dragon Magazine, including the infamous portion that explains why drow, in such a murderous and self-serving society, still reproduce at above-replacement rate. Its on page 3 of this PDF.

>>48670633
I'd like to take this moment to point out that this is not canon in any actual game world that I know of. And is cringy as Hell besides.

The answer to why drow reproduce at above-replacement rate are threefold and obvious.

1) Lolth wills it.

2) A drow mother who doesn't have children is an easy target. Children are an army and staff you get to shape from birth. Yes, they might stab you in the back, but only if you're complacent, and even then probably only the females since the males don't benefit from it.

3) Just like among humans, the natural drow response to children dying is to have more children. We see this all over the place in Africa.

>>48670190
Something that isn't in any official drow lore but which makes 100% sense is a thing I'm going to expound upon in my next post. I'll need the extra space.

>>48670705
>this is not canon in any actual game world that I know of.

I would like to point out that Dragon Magazine is 100% official D&D content. It even says so on the cover. All claims that Dragon Magazine is "not canon" are people making a judgement saying "I don't like it and/or don't want to read it, and thus will not use it in my games."

The default setting of 3.5 is Greyhawk, and therefore that article describes Drow in Oerth. Likely in Forgotten Realms as well, since Toril drow are exactly the same as Oerth drow.

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This is the next post to which I previously alluded.

1/2

The thing about drow stories is that we've only ever seen things from the perspective of drow nobles, which makes them look like a bunch of Mafia crime families competing with each othr. This is intentional - R.A. Salvatore based his Drow Houses on the mafia. But I think it's also limited. We never see what life is like for the drow commoner. And after thinking it over, I've reached a conclusion.

Drow society is North Korea.

Seriously consider drow culture for a minute.

1) The drow tell a story about how in ages past they fought a war with the surface elves and then chose to live underground, leaving the horrible surface and the burning sun to the elves.
2) The war is still going on and the drow could totally win it if push came to shove.
3) Lolth created everything; she is the only goddess and could easily defeat everything that came her way.
4) All other races are subdrow scum.
5) Glorious raids are occasionally made on the surface where the drow show off how powerful they are to the surface world, which then cowers in fear.

That's pretty much just a reflavored version of Nork propaganda about how the Korean War went down and is "still going on", as far as they're concerned. The DMZ is replaced by the mile or two of rock between the forests and the Underdark; Dear Leader is replaced by Lolth; Juche is replaced by the Will of Lolth; the vast militarization of North Korea is exactly represented by the Noble Houses, that exist pretty much exclusively as a war caste - the first use of a priestess to a drow House isn't as a resource or a source of spiritualism, but as a weapon that can be directed against other Houses. It's all exactly there in all its real-life 1984 glory, just underground and with dark elves.

The thing that defines modern North Korea, though, is the food situation. North Korea doesn't have enough, partially due to geography, but mostly due to the ineptitude of the Nork leadership

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>>48670805
2/2

The Underdark has been flavored as basically being a room-temperature desert in Realms lore. Water is in short supply; cities form around oases, and your access to water is something you fight for and defend at all costs. But there just isn't enough water to support huge populations...but the drow have those anyway.

Menzoberranzan, for example, is in a cavern only a few miles wide, and all of their food supposedly comes from only a small subsection of that cavern, the area referred to as Donigarten. Yet the population of the city is 20,000 drow and thousands more slaves of various races, according to the most recent source (Out of the Abyss). There is no way that that area produces sufficient food to feed that many beings, and certain vital nutrients and vitamins will be lacking simply due to the limited types of food available (mostly mushrooms, lichen, and insects, one imagines, with the nobility able to access rothé meat - there's no way the herd of rothé on that island is large enough to be available to the common drow).

Drow are generally described as being shorter than surface elves, but why? They live in vast caverns, not cramped tunnels, and indeed most tunnels in the Underdark seem to be perfectly able to accommodate an elf-sized individual. Nature would not select for shorter drow under those circumstances, and drow aren't left to the wiles of nature anyway - they went underground when they were already technologically advanced.

But what *does* cause shortness is a lack of nutrients in one's diet as one is growing up. We see this in North Korea: the average soldier the Norks station at the DMZ is actually *six inches* shorter than his South Korean counterpart, due to the horribly insufficient diet that the Norks suffer.

Drow would be the same way. Things like scurvy due to a lack of vitamin C, would be widespread.

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>>48670878
3/2 I can't count.

Basically, as near as I can determine, if you're a member of one of the Eight Great Houses, you eat well and live well, albeit constantly fighting for your life against the other Houses. If you're in one of the lesser Houses, you're...okay; you can afford access to the best food from Donigarten and probably even occasionally have some rothé meat.

But every other drow? The commoners? They're malnourished and undereducated, and what education they do receive is couched in propaganda. They live off of lichen paste, mushrooms, and insects. They've never tasted real meat like rothé in their lives and their diet is severely lacking in most other nutrients.

And the worst part of all of this, just to bring us back to North Korea? The Great Houses ENFORCE this. It is their desire to keep the common drow starving and stupid while telling them stories about how it's all the surface elves' fault. It makes them easier to control and manipulate. It ensures that fex urbis lex orbis never comes to pass and keeps them dependent on the noble houses. Add in a culture that encourages and supports backstabbing and betrayal of one another, a culture in which reporting your "friend" for subversive activities stands a chance of letting you maybe have some sweet rothé meat for once in your life, or at least put you in the good books of the ruling class? The result is obvious.

Drow are North Korea, it explains perfectly everything about them, up to and including their batshit insanity. Any campaign featuring them should take this into account; they will only benefit.

>>48670633
Is that one where the Drow have orgasms from their children fighting in the womb?

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>>48670805 >>48670878 >>48670962
For great justice.