Simple as that! This is a thread that is for the heck of it, given the vast majority of drow 'in the club' are of the DnD variety. So, this thread is dedicated to the minority who are not DnD.

This includes drow based-off of mythological dark elves, sidhe, or whatever, but strictly not DnD-based.

Any flames will be met with marshmallows.

So... Start talking!

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Nothing like a little wanton annihilation to brighten up your day!

Hello, Deathless here. *waves, peels oleander roasting spit*
I'm playing fast and [very] loose with various myths, most [but not all] of them European. My dark elves are "Trow" [welsh word derived from troll, also "throw" or "trowe"- but not to be confused with "drow/trow" :a small ship with a detachable mast.]

They come from a semi-arid-to-arid continent in the south "Anwnn" [alt. Annfyn- Underworld/un-world] Most of the population lives in sprawling white-washed adobe cities by the sea and the rest lead a nomadic hearding lifestyle[with occasional forays into banditry]
They are a matriarchal society, ruled by an iron-hard queen [called by the northern sidhe "The Queen of Air & Darkness"]
Dissent is punished quickly and often harshly. Over the centuries this has created a good deal of unrest and many of the poorer trow attempt to flee- either out into the desert [where they might be accepted by a passing tribe or simply a quick death] up north to Tir Tairngire [and deal with their ancient enimies the sidhe as best they can] or [rarely but the prefered option of late] through a World-gate into Earth. The queen's agents attempt to stop this- which leads[not surprisingly] to more unrest. The ones that leave sucessfully often atempt to adapt to the customs of their new home [Sometimes this makes for a rather spectacular failure.]

Trow are man-hight, and unlike their cousins the sidhe rarely reach the six foot mark. [the sidhe are almost uniformly taller] Most have dark skin ranging from cafe-au-lait to the colour of old bronze to coffee. Hair is often pale- white, platinum, pale blond. [Other colours occur but most come from a bottle.] Eye colour ranges greatly: yellow to red to purple to blue to green. Brown is considered a "human" colour and any child with it is suspected of doubtful parentage. [such children are often exposed.] Their birthrate is high compared to the sidhe but they have less Healers Thus loosing mother and/child is common.
Their style of dress changes with the area and climate but they have a love of fine cloth [trowish silks especially are sought after] and are said to do excelent embrodery and beadwork.
They are excellent warriors on horseback fighting with a lance, javelins or recurve bow. On foot a two-weapon combination is common. Of particular note: they have the ability to unconsiously "shut off" their pain receptors and can continue to fight even when bearing wounds that would cripple other men. Some sidhe theorize there is a history of Berzerks amoung the trow in the days before the ancient wars but no evidence of this has survived.

...I can't think of anything else to add off the top of my head. Flame on?

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Backing Evil in the New Millennium!

You might find this interesting, Deathless. [link]

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Honor those the dragons heed,
In thought and favor, word and deed,
Worlds are lost and worlds are saved,
By those dangers dragon-braved. ~Pern

Ah ha! Orkneyjar! Thats a great site! *pokes* Hey... they added new pictures... XD

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Backing Evil in the New Millennium!

Ok might as well throw my own chicken, or drow, into the ring.

Planet Earth is home to more humanoids than humans. One of the rarest races in the 21st century is elves, once a plentiful race that slowly became more and more scarce since around the 1700's. The dark elves of central and southern Africa are believed to be the oldest elven ethnicity.

Known in the elven language as the nie'vildirin(literally meaning Dark Elf), the dark elves are natives of southern and central Africa especially in the rainforest. The elves had taken advantage of their scenery, doing amazing crafts and architecture with the palm trees, vines, and other resources. The most storied dark elf city was Dir'Stelin, seen as a center of art and culture before it's slow demise starting in the 1600's until it was eventually abandoned by 1850.

Dark elves are slightly taller than other elven ethnicities, standing around 5'8" to 5'10". They have pure black skin (think dark chocolate) with light, wavy brown hair and brown eyes with a reddish tinge. Like other elves they are naturally slender and lithe. Male elves can grow facial hair, though it is very fine and a full beard would take close to a year to grow. They "shave" by gently rubbing a pumice stone against their skin (it's more like exfoliating than shaving.)

Dark elves tend to have a more arrogant bent than their cousins in other parts of the world. At best it is a slight air of superiority while at worst it can lead to sadism, though this and other things considered "evil" are seem as barbaric and not fitting a proper elf. They are highly intelligent with a penchant for philosophy, art, crafting, and discourse. Dark elves, like most elves, abide by their own series of spiritual and magical philosophies connected with nature, alchemy, what have you. They have no formal religion and most have seen no use for it. Out of all the human religions, most dark elves can be found practicing voodoo. Islamic influence on central Africa has also brought many dark elves into the faith and there is also a small but growing number of Christian dark elves as well.

Most dark elves still live in Africa, many of whom are tribal or more oriented to the wild while many have settled in human cities. Within the past 50 years, more have settled into Europe and more have been seen in Canada and the United States. No dark elves were brought to the US through the African slave trade, though many dark elf leaders did aid European slave traders in capturing humans. It is a fact of history that causes embarrassment to many dark elves and many will live and work in the African-American community out of a personal need for recompense.

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"By the power of all that is evil I command you to awaken and make me a sandwich!"
Pickles, Metalocalypse

Can't believe I completely forgot about this thread! Seriously!

ANYWAYS...

I really like how you're using the mythology that the idea of them first came from. Not enough people do that.

I am curious though to more on their history. What are some of the other major events? Obviously the world-gate was a major one, but what about first contact with humans? Or other races for that matter?

Also, why not share about some of your own characters of said race?

I'll be posting info on mine later today, so you might see another of these things in your inbox, and I apologize in advance if I am double-posting.

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Nothing like a little wanton annihilation to brighten up your day!

I like. Especially given the far more 'modern' setting you have 'em in. I also like how you worked in what could be seen as evolutionary, especially given an interesting parallel with primitive humans, like 'Lucy.' Maybe the dark elves were truly the first elves and others evolved from them?

Maybe I'm reading into it too much though. It is quite refreshing to see a more modern setting with these guys.

Christian dark elves

Be afraid... Be very afraid... However, with the religion aspect you've included, you could have some very interesting results with this for Cress d'Wiles.

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Nothing like a little wanton annihilation to brighten up your day!

You know, you can't call dark elves outside of D&D drow. Drow are a specific race, copyrighted by D&D, while "dark elf" is a general concept that anyone can use. Drow are the dark elves that were created for D&D, so all drow are dark elves, but not all dark elves are drow.

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Fan of Record of Lodoss War? Come join my club! *rolw-club
_{Click here to see me naked!}

Actually... No. They aren't.

First of all, the drow that show up in DnD are far from original. True, some of the ideas and concepts that they do use are 'original' but others aren't.

[link]

"Drow (pronounced either /draʊ/, rhymes with "now", or /droʊ/, rhymes with "throw") is a mythical elf-like creature in Scottish folklore which lived in caves and forged magical metal work."

Later on in the piece it states:

"The race itself seems based on another dark elf, specifically the Dökkálfar of Norse mythology." I have studied Norse mythology extensively, and the Dökkálfar are sometimes depicted virtually identically to the DnD drow.

Case-and-point in this next bit:

[link]

Note that there are two links under see also, one specifically to the DnD variety, and one to the piece above.

"The original Svartalfar [Drow, Dark Elves, whatever the heck you want to call them] worked the forges on the lowest level of the world tree. Their roles and countenance vary throughout Germanic folklore but are sometimes mentioned with Black or Dark skin as a result of working at the forge."

Therefore, they are not an exclusive DnD race. Dark elves are all drow and drow are all dark elves, regardless of skin tone, hair color or traits. They all stem from Norse Mythology.

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Nothing like a little wanton annihilation to brighten up your day!