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Aeonna — What Drow ought to look like
Published: 2007-08-30 18:03:44 +0000 UTC; Views: 14720; Favourites: 152; Downloads: 176
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Description
To my mind, it would be logical if the Drow were all albino, as many cave-dwelling creatures are.In this picture I have also given the Drow girl large, bat-like ears as I assumed that her hearing would need to be excellent in such dark surroundings. She may even be blind. I postulate this with the assumption that the Drow, after thousands of years in the Underdark, cut off from the Surface, would adapt to their environment.
Further comment: Thank you for some great discussions on this subject! Some of the comments contained points so important that they ought to be mentioned here.
1) Talking of evolution in this context in misleading, as the process takes a lot longer than the few thousand years I mentioned. This becomes even more true if one assumes that the Drow have a longer life-span and reach maturity later than Humans.
2) A self-contained world COMPLETELY without sunlight is not orthodox D&D, whichever version of the rules one looks at. I know this and I only discuss the make-up of life without sunlight because it is an amusing theoretical dilemma.
3) There are several different versions of the D&D world. In one early version, the Drow were in fact pale and in another, dark only refers to their moral alignment.
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Comments: 178
No problem! I'm glad it's useful.
The idea of them being sealed off is an interesting one. It could lead to all sorts of plot in a scenario. Great idea.
Sounds good to me. After all, history is only important if people remember, right? I mean, even the Drow would probably change or forget the exact details.
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Exactly! Interestingly, the re-telling of history can also lead to seperate versions assigning blame differently. This is a concept I have played around with a lot. What is actually true becomes less important, as it is what the groups believe that will affect their actions.
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Brilliant! The whole 'thought that counts' thing. After all, it may be that they would only be conerned with the bitter feelings, not the facts.
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Very nice concept! I really like the colour scheme you use. She seems to glow somehow. 
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Thanks! A glow was exactly what I was going for. ^^
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lmao This is an interesting conversation. I'm creating a Drow character for D&D and I'll be honest I never put any thought into their skin color. But it is an interesting argument. It would make sense for them to be albino if you take into consideration the fact that most cave dwelling creatures are blind and albino. I have to say though that I think I agree with Wolf~charm, and say that it is most likely to set them apart as well as to serve as camoflage. And although Drow are different from Dark Elves, as far as in the D&D lore Drow are not nice beings. They are dark in more than their skin and are raised to be cruel and to kill without mercy, even amongst themselves. Although a few Drow are known to rebell against this and escape the underground, the general idea is that they are evil and moany don't like them, so the dark skin, white hair and unnatural eyes help to get this idea across when you first look at them. IDK but if I saw an albino or pale skinned elf I wouldn't assume they were bad, but maybe in the end that would make them all the more deadly...lol...
Anyway, thanks again for the interesting topic and I love the art, it's very beautifully done.
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I'm not sure darkness is a universal symbol for evil, it may be limited to Western culture. After all, white is a symbol for death in some Asian countries. Or if darkness denotes evil to all humanity then it could somehow be connected with a fear of the night-time.
In the case of RPG characters I guess you have to play by pre-set rules though... I really bend the D&D rules a lot in my story. My Drow aren't even that evil, just a bit irascible and self-serving – they don't even worship demons.
Thank you for your contribution to the discussion!
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Yea, you're right, black isn't entirely a Universal symbol for evil, but I do agree with the fear of darkness being a connection. It probably is mostly a Western concept the idea that black is a sinister color.
Rules are great to keep things fair but bending them occasionally isn't so bad. The Drow I'm working on is following a similar path. I like the idea of them rebelling against the evil of their kind and having that conflict between how they were raised and what they feel is right. I don't believe I will have my Drow following any diety, let alone any of the evil ones...she will probably be unaligned. I think there shouldnt be any limitations on your imagination in such a game, the descriptions are just for a guideline, so appearance, personality or background shouldnt be limited to what is "typical". Anyway that's my 2 cents...hehe
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what does fantasy has to do with realistic proportions/builds? a wrong place to seek the "truth" imo
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Hah, of course fantasy operate on the "truth". The nice thing about fantasy is just that; nothing you say can be "wrong" as such. The point is that although it incorporates magical and imagined elements it could follow an internal logic. The first to accept in this case is that the drow exist, from that one can speculate about the circumstances of their existence.
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then you can start a discussion why orcs are green
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Yes!
Are they green?
Maybe they should be purple?!
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I have a bastardization of drow in a story of mine. They are draconic-like beings that were once mountain dwellers with dark skin (as they had to adapt to seering sunny conditions)...as they were labeled demons and driven underground they evolved...becoming pale and their wings shrinking to gliders, their tails smaller and their skin thicker to deal with the extreme cold of the underground. I understand where you're coming from on this. I agree...but we can't drop our original falvored drow. XD
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Sounds interesting! I'd like to see a picture of these beings some time.
I actually researched the temperature of the underground for the Underdark in my story, which is supposed to be quite deep. According to NASA it is quite hot just a few miles below, not due to the proximity to the Earth's core so much as the decomposition of radioactive materia.
I guess their skin might as likely have thickened to deal with that! Anyway, I've come to question this information now because I believe hollow spaces will differ in temperature from compact rock.
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Well, I was pretty sure you'd have to go quite deep to get to the heat. Then again, as generations past maybe they could have worked their way down.
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Caves are fascinating! Unfortunately I've lost the original URL where I found the information but I still have a note about it:
"Temperature underground increases by 25 degrees Celsius per kilometre of depth. For comparison, the ocean is mostly 5 km deep (not including pits)"
I think this place is called the lithosphere. For your story, it could be interesting to read something about the Hollow Earth theory on Wikipedia. Jules Verne wrote a book science fiction book about it.
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Hy! I featured this amazing picture in my journal Children Of Moon .
I hope you appreciated it, and if you don't like, send me a note for remove your work from my journal!
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I don't mind at all ^^
Thank you.
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this looks awesome! definetly how an elf that lived underground for centuries should look... though untill reading your story i never realised that Drow lived underground lol. oh and iv always heard dark elves were like normal elves that were a little more... evil... and i dont like wen ppl think dark elves and drow are the same thing. i love the moth things btw!
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Wasn't I clear enough about how the Drow live underground? That was very sloppy on my part >.<
I've heard the same about dark elves. I think that is the convention.
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no no, i only found out when reading your comic! before that i assumed they lived above ground like most elf sub speicies. (note i read your comic BEFORE seeing this pic)
also yer... dark=evil... not skin colour. very annoying as i rp as a dark elf and when ppl see the pic of him they go WTF lol.
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Ah okay. I was worried for a minute there ^^
The version of drow living underground is inspired by/taken from the Baldur's Gate series.
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You know, I have contemplated the illogic of D&D drow myself before, and I admire your efforts at improvement. (Your example Drow is also very pretty! ^^)
Strangely enough, my own Wikipedia romps seemed to indicate that the original "dark elves" of mythology were actually quite vampiric in coloring, with a corpselike skin tone: The "dark" referred to their hair! >.<
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Thanks!
I'm confused as the whether dark elves and drow are the same thing at all. I've also heard that "dark" refers to their alignment, not anything visual, but as with all fantasy there are no hard facts unless you want to call on Tolkien as the true foundation.
What I've read of early folk lore elves are tiny and mischievous. Which country's mythology was it you read about?
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I believe, originally, that Dark Elves were separate from Drows. They were called Dark Elves simply because their skin and hair were a dark brown. It had nothing to do with alignment. Though, it probably depends on the source that you look at. I'm sure some things would say differently.
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I don't really think that authors were thinking about what made sense when they first created the drow xDD
They were probably just trying to get an elf that was LITERALLY the opposite of their surface cousins, like think of Arwen from LoTR... she'd pale skinned, dark haired and blue-eyed... the dark elves are opposite.
So it's a literary thing, not a make sense thing xP
Nice picture by the way, its FAR superior to anything I could do x3
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That's a good point, the drow look like the photo negative of an elf @.@
Imposing logic on fantasy is a hobby of mine though; I love trying to make sense of things!
As for the art level; don't sweat it, your art is better than anything I did at your age.
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I like this idea. ^_^ I think the reason black skin might work, though, is that it may be a form of camoflage. Even after drow were banished underground, they still carried out raids against the surface, and dark coloring would have served them well to hide in shadows from light-seeing creatures.
In humans we normally associate dark skin pigmentation with protection from the sun's rays, which drow obviously wouldn't need. Of course, all human skin is really just a variation on brown(barring albinism), no matter how dark it gets. Drow are BLACK. Although they have dark skin, I'd be willing to bet that it's because they have a different kind of pigmentation than humans: they could very well sunburn as badly as someone with albinism. That's my theory, at least.
And, yes, I believe I have spent way too much time thinking about this. XD
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That's true, the drow might not have the same skin type as humans. That's the trouble with fantasy, if something doesn't make sense one still has to admit that it's made up so it works on it's own logic.
Don't worry, I've given this far too much thought too @.@ .
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In the recently released Drow of the underdark book they had discriptors of albino drow who looked like that.
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There is such a book? I want it!
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She's really interesting looking. I see the logic behind your reasoning. The whole look of the drow is a little odd to me as well. I definitely prefer your design!
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Very pretty. I like the softness and gentleness of the picture, and the butterflies (or moths?) as well. And the facial expression of the Drow girl is so pretty and innocent...
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Thank Wikipedia for all my understanding of Language Evolution.
According to Scottish folklore cited in Wikipedia, Drow was a corruption of Trow which in turn came from Trolls. They were smiths, so maybe the "darkness" came from soot as they forged metalworks.
This is, again, borrowed from the Norse Mythology of the Scandinavians and are grouped together with Dwarves. Of course, there are also the Ancestral Spirits which are called Dark Elves and function in folklore similar to that of Guardian Spirits.
The common vision of dark-skin elves with evil intent comes mainly from D&D depictions.
But I think that in adaptation, yours is fairly accurate when taking common sense into account. Although if you take into account Metalworking in such society (which this gal certainly would not have been exposed to) your average Drow would be rather lean and a bit on a darker side. Maybe a nice light tan?
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Thank you for taking the time to explain this!
I live in Scandinavia and I've heard plenty of stories about trolls. In some of these the trolls die if exposed to sunlight, which could be a stronger version of the drow's sensitivity.
Baldur's Gate has been my main contact with the fantasy world (I have read almost no books in the genre) so I've come to look upon D&D as the standard. A standard which I don't stay true to however.
One of my reasons for making the girl in the picture so pale was so I could try to get a "Rembrandt" luminous skin effect. Didn't turn out quite that way...
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Great job on anatomy and shading. I think she's very cute, and that you managed to make her look blind very well through her expression.
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Thank you! I was going for the starey blind expression, it's nice to hear it worked.
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I don't know how old is your pic, or if that had already by told, but I give my two cents^_^
Drow are a cursed race born in the Forgotten Realms [a D&D play] setting.
They were elves. Normal elves. A little darker skinned, but otherwised normal.
When Lolth, which is a godness and at that time was the mate of the Elven God Corellon Larethian, tried to kill Corellon to become a more powerful deity, the drow, at that time called "Illithiiri" followed her.
They lost
So, they vere *cursed* to stay underground and they skin had been made as dark as their soul, their hairs had been made as white as bone, their eyes as red as blood.
That is why Drow looks "weird"^_^ It is a god curse ^_^ Of course, many people don't know the "drow's history"^^
Drow eyes also see very well. They see warm, like snake, and use that underground, where there is no light ^_^
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It's poetic to think of the changes in appearence as a curse, and in a fantasy world that makes sense, but my idea with this picture was to approach these diffenences from a practial point of view.
It's very interesting to hear about the official history of the Drow, I only had a vague idea before you enlightened me. However in my webcomic I am going to adapt their origins to suit the story purposes.
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oh, of course 
good luck with your comic^_^
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I read all of the comments here and I just had to bring this up, not sure if it's right or not but I've all ways thought that "darkvision" was more of a form of infrared then a form of actualy seing light like low-light vision is...could be wrong but thats how I've always thought about it, sense it's always been described as seeing outlines to me.
PS: love the comic and I've only been reading it of 2 days, took me a hole night to read all the way up till now and it was worth it.
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As you say, the drow have infrared vision in most RPGs but in the context of this picture one can wonder where that ability came from. It's so far out.
I believe, though I could be wrong, that infrared "light" (/radition) originates from the sun. The question is how much will ever reach the Underdark?
In my comic, which is unrelated to this image, the drow will instead have dark vision a bit like cats'.
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I remember years ago when a cartoon out of Japan had dark elves with - get this - dark skin. The concept rather amused my role playing friends at the time, as to them "dark" with respect to elves meant evil. It had nothing to do with the color of the skin.
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Easy mistake to make I suppose. The language barrier is enough of a problem without metaphors (dark=evil).
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