Lore Question: Drow in Neverwinter?

cristiel2014

I'll apologize from the start for being a total nerd!

The question on my mind; however, is what are Drow doing in Neverwinter, along with all these other races? In Dungeons and Dragons / Forgotten Realms lore, Drow are some of the most hated races in all of Faerun - even the goodly ones. With that said, how is it they are not ran out of the city?

Maybe something to do with the city being rebuilt and people not being so quick to judge? >.>

Sorry if this question comes off as annoying.

enderlin50

Hmm I don't know the actual answer. I can put a semi-logical spin to it though. The Drow won't be around for 2 months our time which usually in game time that could be up to a year or so(random guess). So maybe the exclusive Menzo Drow the HoTN get come into Neverwinter and prove the Drow can be used for the greater good. Once worth is proven the "vanilla Drow" start to populate the city.

wardenm

enderlin50 wrote: »

Hmm I don't know the actual answer. I can put a semi-logical spin to it though. The Drow won't be around for 2 months our time which usually in game time that could be up to a year or so(random guess). So maybe the exclusive Menzo Drow the HoTN get come into Neverwinter and prove the Drow can be used for the greater good. Once worth is proven the "vanilla Drow" start to populate the city.

There's a couple answers actually. First the mercenary group Bregan D'aerthe is heavily active in Luskan, and with the financial opportunities as well as salvaging presented by the rebuilding efforts, it's entirely concievable that they've expanded south. Also, the drow goddess of good drow sacraficed herself in 4e to remove the curse from 20 percent of the race, turning them back to dark elves and under the care of Corelleon. Finally, during the War of the Spider Queen civil unrest spread throughout the Underdark, even destroying whole cities, vastly increasing the number of outcasts, refugees, and dissidents, many of whom fled to the surface.

kaerthus

In very recent lore (Salvatore novels), drow are now quite active in the region, so are shades, tieflings and so on.

gillrmn

Neverwinter is being reconstructed. It does not have any residents as of now - only new settlers. At this time even if an orc walks inside the bar, not many people would care.

Also drow have increasingly being coming out and new drow (free of lolth) are not always that evil (they are like damaged goods, some of them are twisted from all that drow-child abuse they got, some of them are good).

xhatch

I have a related Drow lore question so I'll throw it in here.

I'm trying to come up with a background story for my character & I've done some research on Menzoberranzan. Within the city there are 4 Academies, one of which is Melee Magthere, the School of fighters. Any details I found on this state that male Drow are sent there, however I plan to play a Female Guardian Fighter, so I was thinking that a possible story element for the character could be that she "tom-boy'd" her way into the school (if it is male only), but at some point during her training it was discovered she was a female & that is the reason she was exiled from Moenzoberranzan.

So my question is basically, is it set Drow lore that the fighters academy in Menzoberranzan was Male students only?
Thanks!

valadil

I don't believe the school is officially Male only, but in Moenzoberranzan Male's are a lower cast then Female's, and the fighter school is the lowest of the four schools. That's not to say that females couldn't go to the school, but its more likely that their family would just hire them a full time battle master to teach them, instead of sending them to live/work with a "lower" cast

FYI this is my take away from reading the older Drizzt books, before the changeover to 4E happened /shrug

crstirizlxxvii

wardenm wrote: »

There's a couple answers actually. First the mercenary group Bregan D'aerthe is heavily active in Luskan, and with the financial opportunities as well as salvaging presented by the rebuilding efforts, it's entirely concievable that they've expanded south. Also, the drow goddess of good drow sacraficed herself in 4e to remove the curse from 20 percent of the race, turning them back to dark elves and under the care of Corelleon. Finally, during the War of the Spider Queen civil unrest spread throughout the Underdark, even destroying whole cities, vastly increasing the number of outcasts, refugees, and dissidents, many of whom fled to the surface.

This pretty much sums it up. To add just a bit, House Xorlarrin, along with the support of House Baenre, have taken Gauntlgrym and are in the process of converting it into another Drow city. The way I understood it from the novels, Gauntlgrym is pretty much under Mount Hotenow, which is pretty close to Neverwinter. The release of the primordial in Gauntlgrym is what caused Mount Hotenow to erupt, which, in turn, caused the near destruction of Neverwinter.

gillrmn

There are drow females who have learnt the arts of martial fighting in the novels. However, they keep it hidden from their matrons(family head) as it is frowned upon. {Although they would know from their spies, but they would prefer not to confront to let 'the child live in illusion' or will keep this secret for a 'better bargain' later.}

enderlin50

kaerthus wrote: »

In very recent lore (Salvatore novels), drow are now quite active in the region, so are shades, tieflings and so on.

I remember Shadovar being a location to be from. Is that hint of Shades being a future playable race?

xhatch

gillrmn wrote: »

There are drow females who have learnt the arts of martial fighting in the novels. However, they keep it hidden from their matrons(family head) as it is frowned upon. {Although they would know from their spies, but they would prefer not to confront to let 'the child live in illusion' or will keep this secret for a 'better bargain' later.}

Ah, perhaps I could say that my character's Matron found out about her attempts to enter Melee Magthere for training & the outcome of it all was her being exiled from Menzoberranzan. That seems like it would fit the established lore.

gillrmn

xhatch wrote: »

Ah, perhaps I could say that my character's Matron found out about her attempts to enter Melee Magthere for training & the outcome of it all was her being exiled from Menzoberranzan. That seems like it would fit the established lore.

In my opinion, it would be more apt if the character ran away instead of Family head exiling her. Family head are known to be cruel and cold - killing off their own children often (like spiders are said to). You can spice the bio by saying that while she ran away, the people of clan have sent assassins to hunt her down and the character often encounters them.

wardenm

xhatch wrote: »

Ah, perhaps I could say that my character's Matron found out about her attempts to enter Melee Magthere for training & the outcome of it all was her being exiled from Menzoberranzan. That seems like it would fit the established lore.

You could also simply have her farther down the bloodline. The less closely related to the Matron mother of a particular noble house, the less likely they are to care. Not to mention that all drow are not necessarily from a noble house, either. She could just as easily be the child of a merchant/well to do commoner.

xhatch

gillrmn wrote: »

In my opinion, it would be more apt if the character ran away instead of Family head exiling her. Family head are known to be cruel and cold - killing off their own children often (like spiders are said to). You can spice the bio by saying that while she ran away, the people of clan have sent assassins to hunt her down and the character often encounters them.

Yes, I like that idea. Perhaps she escaped an attempt to kill her after it was discovered she tried to enter Melee Magthere. I think I could still word it as "exile" since while she wasn't told "return here and you'll be killed", rather "we're trying to kill you so you have to leave", I think it still could be phrased as "exile". Especially if the character was trying to brush over the details of why she left Menzoberranzan in the 1st place to someone new, not having to go into the facts she was on the run etc.. she could just say "I was exiled"

As for the assassins, that gives me some good foundry ideas!

kotli

The one thing I want to know is how long have large numbers of Drow been top side?

The thing is The HotN renegades are not Drow but Dark Elves.

xhatch

I'd also like to know what the lore says about the age of a Drow. What is considered an average age for a Drow that would be actively adventuring?

@Kotli: Is that a fact that the HOTN Renegades are infact "Dark Elves" & not "Drow"? And if that is the case, what is the difference?

gillrmn

xhatch wrote: »

I'd also like to know what the lore says about the age of a Drow. What is considered an average age for a Drow that would be actively adventuring?

@Kotli: Is that a fact that the HOTN Renegades are infact "Dark Elves" & not "Drow"? And if that is the case, what is the difference?

Drow live as long as elves if they live their natural lives. However most are killed quite early in their lives. But otherwise (if they are not killed or poisoned) they are known to cross 200 years easily without their skills getting dull.

~~~~

Dark elves have different hair and eyes(black, not-red eyes). The ones who worshiped Eilistraee or those who did not have the demon blood in them (very few) were turned back to dark elves. They are very few in number.

wardenm

xhatch wrote: »

I'd also like to know what the lore says about the age of a Drow. What is considered an average age for a Drow that would be actively adventuring?

@Kotli: Is that a fact that the HOTN Renegades are infact "Dark Elves" & not "Drow"? And if that is the case, what is the difference?

According to the Forgotten Realms wiki, http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Drow, Drow lifespans are usually around 500 or so years, though 900 isn't unheard of. That seems relatively consistent with the various books and other sources. Drow tend to live just a tad longer than other elves, but due to all the infighting rarely live to see that long.

As to the difference between Dark Elves and Drow, the Drow goddess Elistraee sacrificed herself so as to cleanse approximately 20% of the Drow of the curse, making them once more able to stand the sunlight without ill effect. This was limited to current worshipers at the time and those who had the blood of a particular demon running through them. More info can be found on the wiki and various novels. Physiologically, Dark Elves tend towards lighter colored skin tones, like tans and browns, than blacks and purples like the Drow. Their hair, rather than being snow white, is also occasionally platinum blonde. While it is not specifically stated that the Menzo Renegade skin is dark elves, many people speculate that the variants in skin and hair make it such. Honestly, you could play it either way, as a regional variant or as an actual Dark Elf. Until the race is released we won't know for sure just how much variation we have when choosing such options in character creation. Faerie Fire has been a racial ability of the drow for ages, and is not particular to the Dark Elves. Though cleansed, not all dark elves fled to the surface, either. Hope that helps!

xhatch

Thanks for the information guys!