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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
You know, I always DID wonder why the drow were dark-skinned while they lived in caves... I guess it's good for camouflage...
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Sure. Evolution takes way, way longer than a couple thousand years though. I mean, the first human cities date back to 3500 bce. In five and a half thousand years, we haven't evolved as a species at all. So why should Drow, who are much longer-lived, evolve faster?
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Agreed, but as I understand it, albinism isn't a mutation but a lack of melanin caused by the inheritance of recessive genes.
This discussion is getting quite complicated...
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Weeeow! Cool! Jag älskar stilen i den här! Dom där.. flygfäna.. ehm, malarna? - så sötaaaaa!!! 
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I seem to recall that the Shadow Elves of original D&D (not to be confused by others of the same name in computer games...) were like this.
Large ears, slightly higher pitch to their voices, shorter than average elves (lack of protein rich foods I suppose) and very very pale.
Either way: Very well done picture!
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Håller med mina klasskompisar om albino-saken.
Hon ser riktigt bra ut med ljus hy och röda ögon
Krabban var jättesöt!
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I agree whole heartedly, and that would also add to there fear of the sun. DO to there light skin they would burn easly, and the noise would be devistating to there sensitive hearing. As for blind, that would depend on there ability to create a light system on there own or not.
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Utan kunskap om Drows så kan jag bara säga hur snygg den var.
Bra exempel på varför du är bland dom bästa i klassen
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I love the colouring of her hair! 
About the albino-thing I agree with you, but I think that dark skin still looks cool - it's such a nice contrast.
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Such hard to decide between dark skin (to blend in with the dark) or white/transparent (because she's not really that much in the sun 
Either way works for me. ^___^ I agree on the ears, big ears = Good
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i agree ^^
but artistic license and imagination dictate that your drow can look however you want them to look ^^
lovely pic, btw, i don't think anyone commented on that yet ^^
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I actually agree on this
(Looks pretty by the way)
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You know, I've had the same, fleeting thought before.
And I LOVE her eyes. Pretty eyes.
...you know what would be interesting to see? Your current Drow charcters like this.
...okay, so maybe I just want more pretty blind-red-eyes >_>
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Your realistic drow here is pretty good. I'd imagine the skin would be a little closer to transparent, rather than just pale.
Even big ears couldn't save them from bumping into things, unless they have echo-location like bats. So I imagine they have very poor vision, illuminated by dim glowing fungus or some such Underdark thing.
Or maybe they move slowly, carefully, and gracefully? Never in a rush. With a keen spatial memory?
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I tried to make the skin transparent by showing some veins, but it looked just awful (due to my failings as an artist, not unsoundess of concept).
Drow are supposed to have good dark vision, assuming they aren't blind, but they still ought to need some light, however dim. So in my comic they have magic orb lamps. But no fire, anything that uses oxygen is bad.
Echo-location sounds very convenient, they might have sonar with ears like these.
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The drow as I know it did a shitload of war(pardon my french) when they were up top. They kept picking fights with folks and the other elves were tired of fighting wars, so they finally banished them.
So i figure, they spend thousands of years out on the battlefeild getting these rich, dark tans, and now they're suddenly shoved underground. Being the darwinist society they tend to be, they bred the best fighters in their circumstance, and probably kept the dark skin as best they could for aesthetic purposes.
Thus the red eyes and dark skin.
Yeah, the skin would probably get more pallid as time went on, it wouldn't be nearly as rich a color, but I don't think they'd ever get to the point of being purely albino. Maybe if they had more human lifespans...mutation happens faster then. >.>;;
Plus there's evolution versus technology. Look how much humans have evolved in 2000 years. I mean, granted, elves aren't fond of technology, but are they so repulsed by it they would choose the death of their species until somebody's genes finally got it right?
....Maybe.
I'm talking an awful lot here. I think it's the crab.
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Dark skin a better camoflague in darkness I suppose, but then why the snow white hair?
It wouldn't surprise me if the Drow have some form of technology for genetic manipulation, though I haven't thought about it much. How else would they have altered Drel?
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..Actually, I figured dark skin they would clamor to keep as best they could just for traditional purposes. The snow white hair is just losing pigment over the genetic cycles/years.
Anyway, I'm not bashing your albino or anything. I realized after I wrote that huge tangent that it could be taken offensively, and I mean no offense.
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ZOMG! thats precisely what i thought when making my "dark" elves for my comic. so instead of going for the traditional drow look. i made them white skin, white hair, blind, bigger ears and with antennae (cause it seemed like the thing to do 
your picture looks so cute though! i love albinos ^_^
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Wow, antennae even! That's a useful sensor at short range. It would be cool too if they could transmit communications with them.
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ooooh yea. good idea! and being blind and all they'd probably have every other sense being really really good. ^_^
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I know close to nothing about drows, I've seen them in some artworks, but I know nothing of their origin and history. The only thing that I can say in this case is that I don't think a blind creature could make itself such clean cut clothes and especially tie those laces like that 
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I know close to nothing about the Drow either, which is fun, it allows me to alter their society to my story-telling needs.
Okay, yes, her clothes look a bit too tidy. While sketching this piece I didn't think of her as blind, that part only came to me when the colouring heightened her vapid expression.
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Oh, I see 
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I have also thought about such things, I almost tend to think that the person who made the drow recieved the idea from a african tribe who lies underground druing the day to escape the heat and then hunt at night.
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Really? That's very interesting. What's the tribe called?
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no clue, I learnt about them in elementary school.
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