#cause enchanting stones to protect your nonDrow party members from underdark emanations is a thing you have to do in that game

[theladyregret]

The markings thing is just lazy the way they did it. There are plenty of better ways they could have gone about it and as it currently seems, it takes away far more then it actually adds for sure.

The thing is...I don’t like the canonical implications of separation of races into RL equivalent ethnic groups that so many fantasy worlds like to do, is what I was saying. It needs to change...but WoTC is bad at this I guess, so I choose to change it myself, because it’s inherently part of the problem to do that kind of thing and I believed that long before it became “a thing” people were talking about. The official D&D rules have always just been guidelines to me and I have always tweaked and changed whatever I wanted when I wanted to. When you say “this fantasy race is the equivalent to such and such real life ethnic group” not only does that lead to a lot of the racial controversy we have currently, and why people tend to equate Elf with White and Drow with Black, but it also overly simplifies that race and what they could be allowed to be as a whole. It’s also just lazy world building and honestly I kind of blame Warcraft for this being so common for people to do now cause they were the worst with it.

When I say all races should have the ability to be ethnically variant just like humans that doesn’t necessarily mean their variations would be the exact same for every race I just didn’t feel like going into detail on it because that wasn’t the point. Saying only humans can have these dramatic variations based on world location and other races only get their base line features regardless and that applies to the entire world is?...well...boring. Also unlikely?

And when I talk about including science I mean literally just normal evolution and not magical changes, because while yes, Drow being elves and inherently magical might adapt in different ways, or maybe faster...other Underdark races that are not elves also have the darker skin tone and tendency for red eyes and pale hair. So, to me, this is not an inherently Drow thing. This is an evolved adaptation to exposure to Faezress energy...similar to how melanin is an evolved adaptation to UV Light exposure, but since Faerzress is not UV light...this adaptation doesn’t actually protect against UV light...just like Melanin would not protect against long term exposure to Faerzress radiation. The rest is pretty common weakening of traits meant for the surface in a race that now lives completely underground and has for long enough no one really recalls how they got there accurately which is a very long time in elf, dwarf, or gnome terms. The body no longer has as much use for melanin so...pale hair, less eye pigment, Infrared vision(5e took it away but I think that’s dumb and I think Underdark races should keep it, so for me they do. Everyone else can have darkvision lol), shorter stature. I know they used to also have a sort of internal compass but I think that was also removed but...I mean, makes sense to me. Why not?

So basically I think if Drow existed in a cave system that didn’t have Faerzress, like just any real life cave, they’d actually have extremely pale skin as they’d have adapted away from needing melanin.

Now in terms of the eyes...I doubt they’re completely albinistic because albinism in the eyes does more then just remove color and increase light sensitivity. Drow certainly aren’t all functionally blind but also...how do elf genetics work? Maybe they’re like cats and their genes for skin, hair, and eye color are completely separate things heh WHO KNOWS

I've seen you make commets concerning Drow skin color here and also in the authors notes of your fics. Could you go into it more? I find it a lot more interesting then what a lot of people insist on doing. Also how do you balance it with in game racial lore or do you just dismiss it completely?

God, I love asks like these.

I'm pretty sure I've already gone into it somewhere on my blog but it was in response to an angry ask so likely something people would skip over because...drama. Which is of course totally valid but I'm glad I get to go into it again in response to a nice ask instead.

I'll start with the lore question which honestly isn't very complicated in it's solution. You can choose whatever lore you like for your preference and you really don't have to change anything. All you have to do is sweep it into the nice neat corner of "creationist myth" or "religious propaganda". That is to say that these things are not meant to be historically accurate or factual retellings. Hell, they could just be outright lies depending. Even goodly folk and religions with goodly deities can have these things and followers who take it as fact and it doesn't make them bad people necessarily. Ignorant maybe? Bad...it depends on how they go about it once being faced with the truth.

So when lore says "Drow have dark skin to show everyone else that they are evil and they were banished to the depths of the Underdark as a punishment" that is just something someone decided was true...but really isn't, but people certainly may believe it is. Just as the Drow are taught that they were forced underground by the evil surface races and that Lloth is their sole protector and they are the only goodly people in the world. It's not true...but some of them certainly believe that it is.

The key is to remove the idea of black and white in terms of what is good and what is evil and whether both can exist within every race regardless of stereotyping. No race is inherently one thing or the other regardless of cultural norms or upbringing. Every race is capable of evil and good. Period. Anything that says otherwise is a myth people may have been taught and may believe is true even though it isn't.

As for the skin tone thing. I have always been a big promoter of the fact that magic existing in a world does not mean science does not. So...even if it is a fantasy world with magic...genetics still exist. Evolution and adaptation still exists. Not everything is just magic. I'm also completely against the idea of locking races that aren't human into set ethnicities. Every race should be capable of having varied ethnic features based on where they are native to and I don't mean subraces either. So...if humans in a certain area have certain ethnic features like darker skin and hair, hair texture, certain facial features...that should equally apply to all other races that also come from that area in addition to their racial features. So a gold elf can have dark skin, darker hair, broader or narrower facial features because they come from a warmer region...and still be gold elves. Same for a wood elf, or an orc, or a halfling, or a gnome etc

Applying this to Drow is a bit different only because the Underdark is a fantasy construction but largely they can have the same differing in ethnic features but also...it's always been my belief that their dark skin tone (which tends to be more purple or blue toned rather then orange) is the result of an adaptation to the Faerzress radiation. This also explains why other Underdark races also have this adaptation...even the goodly races. And why do they have white or extremely pale hair in contrast to their skin? Because the adaptation that makes their skin dark is not the same as melanin and is not designed to protect against UV light but a completely different type of energy. As a result their hair doesn't have melanin and likely their skin would be sensitive to sunlight similarly to how people with low or no melanin would despite being so dark. If a Drow has darker colored hair...or red hair, this could either be a left over recessive gene or a gene mutation. Still possible just not common.

This can also explain why red eyes are so common as well because low or no melanin levels can make eyes appear pale blue, pink, red, or pale purple as well as not being able to filter glare from light well (among other things but I'm not going into all of that here). Humans don't typically have red eyes with albinism but you can bend those rules for the fact they're elves and not humans. Just like with the hair color it's also just as possible for some of them to inherit a recessive gene that puts more melanin in their eyes giving them an unexpected color or higher tolerance to light. (this could explain Drizzt's eye color certainly but I actually think that's a whole different thing which I have also talked about before in another post and won't go into here)

So yeah, this is generally how I feel about the whole thing and have for a very long time...and honestly...solves a lot of recent issues people have with it all, I think anyway.