Rethinking the Drow

I actually quite like the drow, both as a concept and also as depicted by R.A. Salvatore for the Forgotten Realms. The books clearly aren't high art, and certainly can't be considered 'literature', but they're fun, entertaining dross.

However, the drow suffer from a number of problems. The first of these is nothing really to do with me, but is a distinct problem for WotC: they're a black-skinned matriarchal race of psychopaths with a definite psycho-sexual/bondage element to their depiction. Given that WotC would really like to license Drizzt for a film, this is a distinct problem.

(If I were WotC, then, I would be strongly considering a redesign, probably along the lines of the dark elves from "Thor: The Dark World" - give them a mix of skin tones and a propensity to wear masks, especially while on the surface. And while they should remain matriarchal, they should probably lose the bondage gear.)

But the problem that does affect me is that the drow suffer from a serious case of Villain Decay (warning: TV Tropes can be addictive). Like the Borg, when they first appeared they were cool and mysterious, and indeed somewhat scary (perhaps), but over time we've seen the more and more, and learned more and more about them, and now they're just not scary at all.

And so it's time for a rethink.

It's perhaps worth noting that Eberron has already had a rethink of the drow - in that setting they're (mostly) surface-dwelling primitives with a scorpion fetish, who live in Xen'drik. Which is okay, I guess, but doesn't do what I want - Eberron's drow are aimed at making it easier for them to be used as player characters, not villains. Since I have no use for drow PCs, this is irrelevant to me.

What I'm Going to Keep

I intend to keep the basic concept of the drow as twisted and evil elves, who were once the same as their kin but who fell from grace somehow and were exiled. I intend to keep also their place as Underdark dwellers - they were exiled from the surface world, and indeed have been cursed the sunlight hurts them.

I will also be keeping the matriarchal nature of the drow, solely because all my elves are matriarchal - they're ruled over by a queen who is specially selected, bred, and indeed fed for the role (like bees).

What I'll be Changing

The whole spider-theme will be gone. Lolth, if she exists at all, will simply be one of several demons (note: not deities) that the drow might follow.

Any concept of a drow city, or of them maintaining slaves, will be gone. The simple logistics of feeding a fixed population of any size are pretty nonsensical - the drow don't have the space for any significant amount of farming, nor do they really feel like a race with any significant population of farmers amongst them!

Instead, the drow will be made up of very small, semi-nomadic groups who eke out a fairly desperate existence in the dark places of the world.

Combatting Villain Decay

I plan to combat the Villain Decay faced by the drow in three ways:

- Firstly, drow encounters should be very rare and very mysterious. They're a shadowy force that comes out of nowhere, strikes hard, and then disappears leaving the enemy reeling.

- Secondly, I plan to never use the 'stock' drow. Instead, drow bands should almost always be made up of named and unique individuals - instead of "6 drow", you get six individual drow with their own quirks. (This is workable solely because of their tiny numbers - you never get a typical drow because those six individuals don't need to represent a drow population - they are a drow population.)

- Thirdly, drow encounters should always carry a heavy risk. Ideally, every encounter with the drow should result in the death of a 'named' character - a PC or a significant NPC the players care about. Since that's not something that's easily guaranteed, I'll be adding one more quirk: due to the radiations that drow weapons and armour bathe in in the Underdark, they weapons carry an additional curse: anyone killed using a drow weapon (except in sunlight) cannot be raised. More powerful magic, such as resurrection, will still work, but something in the construction of the weapon will corrupt the corpse, rendering it beyond the power of that weakest life-restoring magic.

There's a little more... but I can't really post it here. After all, if the issue is that familiarity breeds contempt...

(I do notice that I'm going to have to post something about elves. Oh, the horror...)