Drow

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This post is getting really long and I'm getting confused

I think they are simply black and this is for whatever reason, be it something like the other elves put a curse on them beacause they were so evil and so they could always be distinguished and treated poorly,

Just my 2 (3 maybe) cents,

Cheers, Void

 

Actually, it is not exposure to sunlight, but to the Ultraviolet spectrum of sunlight that stimulates the melanocytes in our skin to produce more melanin (as in tanning beds and UV light A or B). And if I remember correctly, the underdark is full of UV sources, hence Ultravision works here (seem to remember this from the old Vault of the Drow module). Scientists rejoice!! there is a plausible explanation for drow pigmentation after all. :^)

Lysendor

 

Ahh not my point excactly. But one question. UV light is easily blocked by almost anything, even a piece of paper. What would you consider "Full of sources" to be?

 

As far as I know, they used infravision, not ultravision. But that was changed with third edition. Infravision was replaced with low-light vision and darkvision. Low-light is for surface dwelling races able to see under night-time conditions as if it was daylight, or something close to that. Darkvision is what underground dwelling races like dwarves and drow use. Someone using it, views the world in a greyscale-like manner, like the vision the beasts in "Pitch Black" have, with a few minor differences.

 

Well, Drow do have Infravision in 1st and 2nd edition. However, the Vault is unusual:

"When properly viewed, the radiation from certain unique minerals give the visual impression of a starry heaven, while near the zenith of this black stone bowl (the Vault) is a huge mass of 'turnkeoite'-which in its slow decay to lacofcite sheds a lurid gleam, a ghostly plum colored light to human eyes, but with ultravision a wholly different sight.

The small "star" nodes glow in radiant hues of mauve, lake, violet, puce, lilac, and deep blue. The large "moon" of turnkeoite casts beams of shimmering amethyst which touch the crystalline formations with colors unknown to any other visual experience. THe lichens seem to glow in rose madder and pale damson, the fungi growths in golden and red ochres, vermillions, russets, citron, and aquamarine shades. (Elsewhere, the river and other water courses sheen a deep velvety purple with reflected highlights from the radiant gleams overhead vying with streaks and whorls of old silver wher the liquid laps the stony banks or surges against the ebon piles of the jetties and bridge of the elfin city). The rock walls of the Vault appear hazy and insubstantial in the wine colored light, more like mist than solid walls. The place is indead a dark faerie land."

Love that EGG prose. Anyway, the drow have ultravision 'glasses' to give to special guests, but apparently they don't need them. So the implication is that originally the drow were considered to have ultravision as well (don't have the old FF handy). However, their superior infravision is almost always more significant outside of the Vault.

Aloha
Vormaerin

 

hmm... i think a drow is black with white hair.....

 

The drow were originally a surface dwelling race of elves called the Ilythiiri. They became drow when lloth, who was originally Araushnee, turned on Corellon Larethian and was cast into the abyss. Her followers, the dark elves, were cursed and driven into the underdark by their surface cousins. They were black to begin with, and stayed that way, whether by the will of thier goddess or for more practical reasons is never explained, at least not in anything I've ever read. Perhaps it's just because the idea of evil elves with black skin and white hair is quite cool? This is, after all, a fantasy world we are talking about.

 

Do drow have chalk-white hair (as in old-man color hair), or is their hair white-blond. I remember Viccy having practically blond hair.

 

Chalk white, I hope
A blond-haired dark elf just wouldn't seem quite that intimidating...

 

ok i have my answer, can this thread be closed now?