Dark Elves



Drow, also known as Dark Elves or Night Elves, were a dark-skinned sub-race of elves that predominantly lived in the Underdark. They earned their reputation as evil people, with all justification, though some members with more neutral disposition did exist, as did an even smaller number of actually good members. On the surface, the drow were sometimes referred to as "The Ones Who Went Below".

Description

In many ways, Drow resembled Eladrin.

Height and Weight

They were shorter than many other sub-races of elves. It was believed that females on average were bigger and stronger than males. The former claim did not hold water when numbers were taken into account, though. Drow varied in height from 4′7″ (1.39 m) to 5′5″ (1.65 m), and both sexes averaged at 5′ (1.52m). Men weighed somewhere from 87 to 157 pounds (39.46-71.21 kg)— averaging 109.5 pounds (49.67kg), while women were a bit lighter varying between 82 to 152 pounds (37.19-68.95 kg)— averaging 104.5 pounds (47.4kg).

Overall, drow had similar builds to elves.

Coloration

Drow had skin of dark grey to obsidiancolor and white or yellow hair. Rare hair colors included copper and silver, the latter believed to be a sign of a mentally handicapped person (a superstition spawned by the celebration known as "the Run", held by the followers of Eilistraee, in which they dye their hair silver before traveling on the surface in the attempt to create friendships with Humans and elves).

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Female drow with blonde hues indicated the drow in question was of an older age. Elder male drow had naturally silvering or greying hair. Both sexes' hair thinned with advancing age, meaning 600 or more years. This hair was carefully groomed, cared for by most drow, and worn long with jewelry and other accessories decorating it. Like all elves, drow were incapable of growing beards, though many males were fond of long sideburns.

Drow eyes were usually bright red, but some had different colored like green, brown or black, but they had often much paler eyes such as blue, lilac, pink or silver - these pale eyes were often so pale that they appeared to be white -  in fact, their eye color could be of practically any color. Purple or blue meant that the particular drow had some surface elven blood in his or her veins.

Characteristic about drow were their mouths. Their teeth had a natural coloration of white, black or purple and their gums, tongues, and throats were pink, red or purple.

Attractive Looks

Drow looked attractive, especially their nobles. This wasn't a coincidence but the result of selective breeding over several generations. Their alluring appearance, which could be used for seduction, was more likely used as a tool of fear. Meeting beauty standards of surface races was surmised to be the most important reason, that surface dwellers were prone to turn a blind eye on the drow race's deeds and allow inclusion in surface communities.

Intelligence

Drow were intelligent creatures even when compared to other sentient creatures. This was not a coincidence but the result of selective breeding over several generations

Reproduction

Drow had a reputation - even among themselves - to be more fertile than other elves, their bodies' actual fertility was no different than other elves', but they owned a higher readiness to birth as many children as possible during their lives. For example, in the evil Lolthite society, female drow, who already had an active career under their belt, gave birth to about ten children before she lost the ability to birth more. Their constant strife kept their numbers low.

An interesting thing about birth was that, when different subraces of elves intermarried, there was an equal chance for the child to inherit either of the parents' traits. The resulting child had usually both a psychological quirk to favor the drow parent over the other one and a genetic quirk to be more likely to parent a drow, when there was a chance for it. It was a trait the dark elves shared too.

They were also capable of parenting half-drow with humans. This parentage gave these half-elves no different powers than other half-elves as a general rule, exceptions existed who did gain some powers through their parentage.

Regarding reproduction, like any other sort of half-elves, the "2-generation-rule" applied to half-drow too.

Lifespan

Drow had lifespans far beyond those of humans and comparable with the rest of the elven race, although usually somewhat longer. This was, of course, presuming the drow didn't meet a premature and violent end, as many often did, but those that survived the trials of their society and the horrors of the Underdark could live for centuries.

Generally, a drow's natural lifespan was up to 750 years, and about 94% of natural deaths occurred before 800 years of age. Signs of age were seen past their 600 year of life, and drow could live more than 1000 years, when they could afford a lifestyle that spared them hardships, like the ones enjoyed by matron mothers, though by that point, the drow in question was very withered by age. Lolth's magic could maintain a matron's life for literal thousands of years. This was a clear sign of favor from the goddess.