Drow are a younger race, descended from the Dark Elves. They are the most numerous and dominant race of the Underdark. When the Dark Elves took up residence in the Underdark, a great sickness decimated their numbers. They were transformed into their current form by the powerful rituals undertaken by Lolth, with the aid of Satuun, to ‘cure the sickness’. Every Drow house can trace its lineage back to one of the original 13 Clans, although a house may be several branches removed from the original house.
Family
All Drow houses are matriarchal in nature and led by an Il'haress, and all show a deference to that style of leadership. However, Drow society is also strongly rooted in strength and skill rather than blood. Whilst your family and clan may be respected you do not earn any special treatment solely on account of your heritage. The Underdark that they make their home in is a harsh and brutal place, where kill or be killed is a part of daily life. This has the side effect of allowing anyone, noble born or not, to achieve greatness, a fact that is true even for male Drow.
Faith
Faith is a focal point of Drow society, with worship of Lolth being engrained in children as early as possible.
In every aspect of daily life within the Underdark, faith and worship of Lolth permeates everything it touches.
Education
Education varies amongst the Drow. Most Drow households put a heavy emphasis on Incantation and Theology, due to the nature of their heritage.
More advanced education tends to be limited to those of noble families, with information regarding the greater world and history pre-Lolth is extremely limited.
Makeup Advice
As of the latest version of the Rules (v4) the use of block black or brown makeup is not allowed within Lorien Trust events. This change has a significant impact on the look of Drow, whose makeup was traditionally a solid black base with white hair.
As this change is very new, our players are still experimenting with what makeup and effects are going to work best for them to use within a live role-playing environment. Currently our players are experimenting with a mixture of black, blue and grey colours in various patterns, blends and shades. We hope to update this section soon.
Playing Notes
The Drow of the Tarantulas were largely inspired by works by R.A. Salvatore and TSR, however over the past twenty years the Drow of the Lorien Trust have evolved into their own style and theme.
The majority of Drow are matriarchal, however all promote strength above all else. Not necessarily physical strength, but the ability to survive and succeed takes precedence over lineage. This makes most Drow opportunistic, however the prevalence of capital punishment applied to outsiders make most Drow true to their word.
In dealing with other races, most Drow are distrustful and will rely on others only begrudgingly, especially outsiders. Conversely this makes any friendship with Drow a powerful thing indeed. Despite Drow being a younger race, most carry the arrogance of being an elder race, and are dismissive of younger or “lesser” races.
Creating Drow names can be tricky (and we always advise avoiding common names from fiction!), to help with this many of our players use online name generators. One such regularly used name generator can be found at https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/dark-elf-names.php
Whilst within the Lorien Trust characters do not have a gender, the idea of Drow society being Matriarchal is a very long tradition still held by the faction’s players today. Please note that whilst this roleplay aspect is still true amongst Drow characters, we would like to reassure all our players that the application of Faction Ranks, Positions, Rituals, and Training is in no way determined by your own or your characters gender.
