Tome of Drow Lore, The

The drow. The dark elves. Banished to the Underdeep millennia ago by their surface cousins, they plot and scheme and struggle for survival. Beautiful and wicked, brilliant and deadly, they are the knife in the dark, the threat in the deeps.

Since the drow were introduced to the roleplaying world some 25 years ago, they have become favorites of Games Masters and terrible foes to uncounted parties of Player Characters. Sadly, they have also become overused and oversimplified. There is no mystery to them anymore. Players know exactly what to expect from an encounter with drow, and exactly how to cope with it. Games Masters find themselves saddled with innumerable clichés and presumptions about the drow, making one raiding party just like any other, one drow city just like all the others.

That is where this book comes in.

The philosophy behind The Tome of Drow Lore is that the race of the drow is as complex and vibrant as any race on the surface of the world, and is dedicated to the drow, in all their varied, wicked splendor. In the millennia since the drow were forced underground in the Great Betrayal, and dispersed throughout the Underdeep in the Sundering, the intense pressures of life beneath the surface have caused them to change dramatically. For years, the drow have been thought of as a sophisticated and cruel race, governed by an even crueler spider-worshipping matriarchy with absolute power over every drow. The truth is not so simple, and arrogant adventurers who set out beneath the surface of the world, certain they know the full measure of the drow, will find themselves quite unpleasantly surprised.

Within The Tome of Drow Lore, Games Masters will find information on a variety of drow cultures, religions, societies, Houses and, yes, sub-races. In addition, there are new drow spells, feats, new twists on old skills and drow equipment, be it magical, alchemical or mundane.

For those interested primarily in the ‘classical’ spider-worshipping drow, they are certainly in here, as no book on drow would be complete without them. They are not the sum total of the drow, however. Scattered throughout the Underdeep, the dark elves have adapted to and been altered by their strange and hostile environment. Centuries spent in isolation from one another gave rise to a variety of cultures and beliefs. While one drow city may be totally devoted to the Dark Mother, in the traditional perception of the drow, another may be dominated by worship of Mu’Ushket, or perhaps, with power concentrated in the hands of a single noble House, it is a much more secular society. Games Masters interested in putting an entirely new spin on the drow may forsake their usual culture altogether. Perhaps the intense pressures of the violent and barren Underdeep have caused all drow to regress to a savage, brutal race like the Kanahraun, or perhaps a large underground sea is home to tens of thousands of Sulzthul, all other drow having been slowly exterminated by the many powerful enemies of the world beneath the surface.

The Tome of Drow Lore may be used as a stand-alone product, or it may be used in conjunction with The Quintessential Drow and Sheoloth – City of the Drow. As with any good roleplaying book, The Tome of Drow Lore is here to assist, not instruct. Games Masters should feel free to take what they like from these pages and ignore the rest.