Are there any Drow in Birthright?

[AndrewTall]

Strictly actually Drow are in BR, as one, or at least their body, featured in Warlock of the Stonecrowns including her holy symbol of Lolth (P67) although its whole under-dark aspect didn't fit well into BR in my view and the dracolich on P34 was completely out of place in my view given cerilian dragon lore. Like the Monkey King in Sword of Roele some aspects of the module looked to have been bodged in from other settings...

In practice however as sidhe in BR are far less 'good' then elves in other settings drow are somewhat superfluous - if the 'good guys' are hunting humans for sport then what are the bad guys doing?

[Bryon]

A long time ago I started thinking about this and posted this
http://www.birthright.net/forums/sho...ighlight=bryon

[Sorontar]

A long time ago I started thinking about this and posted this
http://www.birthright.net/forums/sho...ighlight=bryon

I believe this was already been republished in the wiki: http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/ind...n_-_Dark_Elves

[Jaleela]

Ah, that's the article in the wiki I remember.

Strictly actually Drow are in BR, as one, or at least their body, featured in Warlock of the Stonecrowns including her holy symbol of Lolth (P67) although its whole under-dark aspect didn't fit well into BR in my view and the dracolich on P34 was completely out of place in my view given cerilian dragon lore. Like the Monkey King in Sword of Roele some aspects of the module looked to have been bodged in from other settings...

In case folks are wondering, as it took me a moment, Andrew mentions P67. This is not a page number, it's the encounter number. And indeed, the Warlock had a drow ally, who ended up dead, but her body, corroding maille, and her holy symbol of Lolth are still laying there...monsters are such messy house keepers.

In practice however as sidhe in BR are far less 'good' then elves in other settings drow are somewhat superfluous - if the 'good guys' are hunting humans for sport then what are the bad guys doing?

It depends. The drow aren't fans of their surface dwelling cousins (who's hunting whom?).

I agree about the Dracolich and the Monkey King, better suited for perhaps one one of the undiscovered continents of the world.

[Nameless One]

I wouldn't really give much thought to the adventure modules by Wolfgang Braur when considering what is Birthright canon and what is not. Those two modules were obviously written for Forgotten Realms or some other setting and recycled for Birthright when they failed to make it in their original setting.

[rjurikwinds]

I wouldn't really give much thought to the adventure modules by Wolfgang Braur when considering what is Birthright canon and what is not. Those two modules were obviously written for Forgotten Realms or some other setting and recycled for Birthright when they failed to make it in their original setting.

Personally the fact we have faeries in the shadow world who are in direct "opposition" to cerilian elves makes them drow replacements...

Drows could be placed in as a Faerie sub-race, and an under-dark placed deep below the surface of the shadow-world. That's the beauty of the shadow world; endless possibilities. Could even explain the Stonescrow adventure and Wolfgang Braur modules by saying those are underground cities and such that really reside inside the shadow realm...

[AndrewTall]

In case folks are wondering, as it took me a moment, Andrew mentions P67. This is not a page number, it's the encounter number.

Sorry Jaleela, I'm clearly going senile in my dotage.

It depends. The drow aren't fans of their surface dwelling cousins (who's hunting whom?).

The sidhe of rhuobhe, tuarheivel's gheallie sidhe etc are well on their way to such a split from their 'we hate humans slightly less' cousins from some readings - the under-dark or ancient forests are both equivalent 'no human dares walk here' sort of places for 'evil' to lurk, it depends on what you see as key to what makes the drow, drow.

[Sinister]

Years ago probably 2001 as I was ending my 5 year campaign, the PCs cleverly trapped Rhoubble in the shadow world and stole his bloodline (through bloodbank). The campaign ended there which was a real treat to the players. In about 2005 I had a chance to run for the players who had played in that campaign so I ran a one shot where Rhoubble basically started a new domain as a rule of drow in the shadow world, and then used some unwilling halflings to open a portal back to seek his vengence on the PCs.

Very Fun, Very Epic

[lmnoq]

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

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.

I always viewed that person in the province Sideath too be a Baelnoron. I would have to look which 2nd edition monster manual expansion the Baelnoron is from. A baelnoron is an elf that saught unlife to protect their family, clan, or kingdom. So the province in the PSo Tuarhievel or Sideath in the Gorgon's Crown might be occupied by a Baelnoron that saw no other way to stop the Gorgon than to become an undead creature. I always viewd a Baelnoron as a chaotic elf-lich.

As far as sub races of major demi-human races; I tend to view this as the creators of Birthright viewed the Goblins. I always enjoyed that goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears get lumped together in Birthright as common, elite, and large goblins: one shared race. So the variety of gnomes, dwarves, and elves could all be seen but just viewed as the same race amongst themselves.

The Birthright game is kinda the game of human tribes fighting for a continent that is not their own (if you want to look as the humans as the invaders). So of course the humans do not know as much about their foes as they know about themselves.

Why would dwarves or elves want to talk about whole sections of their society they look down on? Some people have speculated that the dwarves that the Gorgon control have to be evil dwarves; but from what I read they are conquered dwarves. That is not to say evil dwarves do not exist; maybe so deep down in the mountains that humans just have not seen them.

Same would go for dark elves. Why would elves, whom go to war and hunt humans, would tell humans about a sub race of elves banished from the light? One possibility could be that Azari did not call upon "drow" of Birthright because those dark elves had already gone over to say Lloth and Azari didn't want to war with that god too.

In the adventure, the Warlock of the Stonecrowns, there is a group of mercenary orog's that have a magic device like an instant fortress that has a basement. The orog's use the basement to access a place they call the Dark Path. The Dark Path connects all over Cerllia and is basically the Underdark of Birthright. I was so amazed by this adventure, if you have not looked at it recently: do yourself a favor and dig it out for a good read/adventure.

The basic Birthright game information is so packed with information it makes a person kinda feel like everything is known. But in the literature there are a lot of gaps, adventure hooks, and just plain speculation. Lots of stuff let up to the players and dungeon masters.

[Deathknyte]

Just to throw more fuel on the fire.

Drow are dominated by the clergy of their religion. In Birthright, the Elves had no concept of gods and had no idea of how to counter priestly magic. To me this would make a Lolth dominated elven society highly improbable, otherwise the surface elves would have had to face clerical magic from the Drow priesthood.

One way to get around this is if there is a small underground-dwelling society of renegade evil magic-using elves. They would not necessarily have to be using clerical magic either. Also, if the band is small enough and takes care to leave no survivors in an area where another race, or nation, will get the blame they can remain hidden for quite some time before people start getting the idea there is someone else besides their known enemies killing them.