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  1. #1
    Senior Member Delazar's Avatar
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    Are there any Drow in Birthright?

    I seem to remember reading that Dark Elves do not exist in Cerilia... is this correct?

    If they "officially" didn't exist, would you think it "weird" to use them anyhow?

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    It is correct that they officially do not exist in Birthright. There is no Underdark so there are no underground-dwelling elves.

    However, there are profoundly evil elves in service of Rhuobhe Manslayer and a nation of mysterious xenophobic elves probably somehow tied to Shadow World in Vosgaard. It would be easier to use those in your plots than to develop a whole new Underdark under Cerilia.

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    Site Moderator Sorontar's Avatar
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    Drow don't exist as such in Aebrynis. Elves are treated as a generic type - the Sidhelien . However each Sidhe community can be thought of as having differant cultures, even if genetically they are alike.

    As to unofficial variations, that is up to the DM. Some have spoken on this forum about treating some of the elves who remained with Azrai as Drow. It may be thought that the faerie in the Shadow World as being a type of elf, or maybe a pre-elf or proto-elf. If that is so, then perhaps the Unseelie Court is inhabited by drow. Or maybe there is a separate race that exist in the Shadow World that may be regarded as proto-elves.

    Another approach is to treat the faerie as the Shadow half of the original elf and the Cerilian elf is the Light half. Therefore, each Cerilian elf will have a Shadow counterpart at some time. Perhaps the Shadow elf could be drow in your campaign.

    Sorontar
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    Senior Member Delazar's Avatar
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    no Underdark? omg... I've been using Duergars a lot in my campaigns... -_-

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    At 06:08 AM 10/1/2011, Delazar wrote:

    >no Underdark? omg... I`ve been using Duergars a lot in my campaigns... -_-

    Well... no. No Birthright drow, duergar, svirfneblin or illithid
    civilizations.

    There is a character in the PSo Tuarhievel that is very similar in
    appearance to a drow, but I wouldn`t want to read too much into that
    as far as the existence of the Underdark itself is concerned.

    Including an Underdark in BR as it appears in other D&D products
    seems awkward to me. That said, I think there are ways of
    incorporating some Underdark ideas into BR. There are, for example,
    large underground civilizations amongst the dwarves, goblins and
    orogs. Elements that come from the Underdark could be used when
    exploring such places. The dwarven nations that have a more neutral
    or evil inclination could have characteristics in common with the duergar.

    Some races that are standard in other campaign settings do sometimes
    exist in pockets in BR. There are sahuagin who are (possibly) living
    under the protection of the Kraken. There are tribes of "lizard men"
    spawned by the Hydra. Such populations are small, but their
    existence does illustrate how one might want to use other D&D races
    in BR. That is, give them something that is specific to the setting
    itself, an awnsheghlien master being the most obvious, and tweaking
    the racial characteristics and culture a bit to fit that difference.

    It`s easy to see clans of "duergar" living in isolation as a
    seperatist culture deep below Mur Kilad. Gnomes are contentious in
    BR, but if they were called svirfneblin (or something more Gaelic)
    and characterized more like perverted halflings escaped from the
    Shadow World, endlessly and madly digging for some darkness deeper
    than the shadows themselves (that is, even more scarred and demented
    by that background than are BR halflings) then I don`t think anyone
    would mind that.

    The thing to do, though, is to give them some sort of theme that is
    related directly to those of the BR theme. Do they exist at the
    domain level with bloodlines, regents, provinces and holdings? Do
    they have an awnshegh host? Is their existence the product of some
    particular extension of the BR setting like the Land`s Choice, ley
    lines, the Shadow World, or something other inspiration that comes
    from the setting itself.

    Hope that helps,
    Gary

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    Senior Member Delazar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sorontar View Post
    Another approach is to treat the faerie as the Shadow half of the original elf and the Cerilian elf is the Light half. Therefore, each Cerilian elf will have a Shadow counterpart at some time. Perhaps the Shadow elf could be drow in your campaign.

    Sorontar
    I like this idea a lot.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Delazar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Birthright-L View Post
    The thing to do, though, is to give them some sort of theme that is
    related directly to those of the BR theme. Do they exist at the
    domain level with bloodlines, regents, provinces and holdings? Do
    they have an awnshegh host? Is their existence the product of some
    particular extension of the BR setting like the Land`s Choice, ley
    lines, the Shadow World, or something other inspiration that comes
    from the setting itself.

    Hope that helps,
    Gary
    I'm cannibalizing all my Dungeon mags for scenarios, to give my players some "adventuring" action in between Realm Actions and Mass Battles. So I guess for me the way to go would be something like what you suggest. For example, having "THE Drow (an awnshegh)", and having him create/corrupt elves to become similar to him. The fact that no one in Cerilia knows about them would be even better, they'd be the first to come into contact with a "lost civilization".

    Man, I really thougth Duergar existed in Cerilia...

    On a related note, where do I find the list of what does/doesn't exist in the Birthright setting? I think there's a short list in the main rulebook, but I never thougth that would be exhaustive.

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    Site Moderator Sorontar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Delazar View Post
    On a related note, where do I find the list of what does/doesn't exist in the Birthright setting? I think there's a short list in the main rulebook, but I never thougth that would be exhaustive.
    Have a look at chapter 9 of the BRCS. Much of it can be found in the BR wiki:
    http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/ind...nine/Creatures

    While the BRCS may be for 3.0/3.5, I'm sure it will give a good idea of how to interpret any creature, intelligent or not, with respect to whether it would fit into Birthright.

    Sorontar
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  9. #9
    Senior Member Delazar's Avatar
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    Mh, seems Dungeon mags are probably not the best source for scenarios, since the Underdark features pretty heavily in them.

    Maybe I have to start looking into other RPGs scenarios, like MERP...

  10. #10
    Senior Member Jaleela's Avatar
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    Are you sure there's no "underdark"?

    I thought it was mentioned in "Warlock of the Stone Crowns" that is to say the mapped part that is part of the dark road in the Five Peaks; There's even a mysterious crystal city mentioned in the module.

    There are similar places in the "Sword and the Crown"; possibly equivalent to "the land of below" (Orog vaults pg. 30; Kal Antherak the orog city pg 36; the land below pp. 40-41) in the Sea Mist Mountains. Not specifically mentioned by name, but there are large underground areas.

    The black skinned human woman that appears in the PSoTuarhieval is Tara, the Black Princess, Prince Raesene's wife (see Blood Enemies in the back with the Ersheglien and other creatures).


    I introduced Drow into the campaign; someone wrote up the "Awnsidhelien" in the wiki (not canon - but interesting), but had their rift exist well before Deismaar. They don't exist in large numbers. It's up to each DM to decide if they want to add them. I don't think they unbalance the campaign if you keep in line with the rest of the cultures.

    Tuar Annwn in Tribes of the Heartless Waste might be a good place. This realm exists simulateously in both Cerilia and the Shadow world. Check the wiki for a description of the elves. They're not Drow, they are wasted and gaunt -- perhaps vampiric in nature. Maybe like the white spiders of the shadow world, they are Albino Drow with different powers than are traditionally accepted. The Monster manuals don't cover them that well, at least I found their description ...disappointing.

    Just an idea.
    Last edited by Jaleela; 10-02-2011 at 09:16 PM.
    d'estre bons et leaulx amis et vrais ensemble et de servir l'un 'autre envers et contre tous

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