Consider the Drow

What do you think of dark elves, the drow? Are they the scary adversaries that frighten the pants off your players or just dungeon fodder? Do more drow enter your games as Chaotic Good rangers out to right the wrongs of the world? Or are they grotesque monsters, lurking in shadows, ready to swoop in for a kill?

One of my favorite past times is looking up old myths and monsters on the internets. As snoring as that may sound, it’s interesting to see what people believed in “yon good ol’ days”. Did you know that another name for drow is trow? Or that they lived in earthen mounds called knowes? To me that sounds way more sinister than if they lived far, far underground. We only fear what might be lurking around the next corner. So, unless I am far underground, earthen mounds make it much easier to introduce drow into a campaign. What if knowes are the drow equivalent of hunting camps?

There’s something that made these creatures scary and believable to those who first thought up the legends. Some essence that we as GM’s can tap to reinvent dark elves and make them the polar opposite of the “goodly elf”.

Trow Male Concept
Ghoulish Trow, the very opposite of their surface dwelling cousins.

So what do you think about the drow? Do you think they need a fresh look? Want to re-write dark elves with me and make them the worst of the worst?