Men call them "Drow," Dwarves name them "Drûlka," and surface elves refer to them as "Dro-vhar" or "Drotharum." The Dark-Elves are an evil and highly intelligent race which dwells in the Underdark.
Appearance
The Dark-Elves have white hair, jet black skin, and either gold, purple, or red eyes.
Physically, the Drow are very similar to surface elves, with strong, lithe bodies and sharp angular features. But their skin coloring and their evil ways easily set them apart from other elvish races.
Culture
As a whole, Dark-Elves are sadistic, treacherous, and destructive. They view themselves as the rightful heirs to Corwyn, and still remember the great surface empire which they controlled thousands of years ago.
Dark-Elves still feel the sting from what they perceive as an injustice of being driven from their surface homes and under the ground.
The Drow hate all other subterranean races, but their greatest vitriol is targeted at the species of surface elves. Most Drow only wish to make war upon other elves and destroy them, and view all other races merely with contempt, and will tolerate them only as necessary for trade or as temporary military allies.
Even among their own kind, Dark-Elves are cruel and suspicious. There is little room for love and friendship in their society. They may value alliances with other family members or acquaintances, but most Drow do not trust anyone.
Dark-Elves only forge alliances when they know they are more powerful than their 'ally,' usually possess blackmail worthy knowledge on them, or share a common enemy that overrides their mutual hatred. Even then, the Dark-Elves keep their eyes open for the slightest hint of treachery. Their motto may as well be "Do onto others before they can do onto you."
Society
The single, most important aspect of Drow society is the Matriarchy. Dark-elven dogma has long mandated recognizing female Drow as more valuable than males. In fact, to most Drow females males are considered essentially worthless.
This social structure gives female Drow practically unlimited power in their strongly theocratic society. Males who hope to find any place of power in Drow society often resort to treachery to claw their way up in its strongly matriarchal culture, hoping to win a coveted place as the mate of a powerful matron mother.
The rigid matriarchal structure of Drow society means that careers in either Arcane magic or the Drow Military are the only routes of advancement for males. While still socially inferior to female Drow, male military officers and battle-mages are not usually in danger of being killed on a whim by a powerful female. However, even accomplished male military commanders can be executed for even a perceived insult to any high-ranking female aristocrat or priestess.
It would be easy to conclude that by comparison, Drow females have it much easier than males. But this is an illusion— the prestigious position of females within Drow society comes at a very high cost. In fact, the teachings of Lolth and the unrelenting drive to gain more power has made competition between female Drow, particularly those who belong to powerful houses, vicious in a way that males never have to contend with. Female Drow ruthlessly compete against one another in every aspect of society, whether its politics or religion.
Society
The vast majority of Drow live in huge underground city-states ruled by an aristocratic, theocratic, matriarchal, and militaristic society. Most Drow city-states maintain trade relationships with each other and with neighboring civilizations. However, at any given time, at least two major city-states are at war against one another.
All Drow city-states have a similar hierarchical structure, with the most powerful families taking the best lands and resources for themselves. These, so called, "Great Houses" are extremely powerful and make up the aristocracy of every Drow city. Within every city, there is a strict pecking order of these noble families within Drow society.
Today, every Drow city-state is ruled by its most powerful family. Over the centuries, the relative power of many noble dark-elf families has often changed, but a handful of families have remained relatively stable. For lower ranking Drow, and other races, desperation, oppression and poverty, are the general rule. To make things worse, most dark-elf cities are paralyzed because of constant infighting among their squabbling noble houses.
Within the city limits, the various Great Houses are often located in close physical vicinity to each other, and are often situated close to a city's largest temple to Lolth. Drow cities tend to provide a chaotic and messy sight because there is no uniform architecture style, and little in the way of organization.
Dark-Elven architecture is considered both marvelous and exotic, with all important structures eerily lit with the purple glow of magical faerie fire. All Drow cities have surrounding farm lands, where hosts of slaves toil endlessly to harvest both meat and specially-grown fungal crops. As a rule of thumb, half to two-thirds of any given settlement’s population consists of slaves or non-Drow who have no rights at all within Dark-Elf society.
Religion
Most Dark-Elves worship Lolth; the "Spider-Queen," the deity of their religion, and the Spider is their holiest and most revered symbol. Since Dark-elf society is matriarchal, all high-ranking clerics of the Spider-Queen are female and are members of a elite order called the "Zhinza."
Religion has always been of the utmost importance to the Dark-Elves. In fact, their culture has actually evolved into a twisted theocracy. As a result, all major Drow city-states are essentially ruled by that city's high priestess. These Drow priestesses fanatically devote their own lives to pleasing Lolth, and achieving her sacred goals, and are usually from the highest ranking great House within the particular city.
To gain the favor of their goddess, Drow priestesses enforce compliance with their zealous religious dogma through sheer terror and violence. This tradition has resulted in a dark-elf society where "might makes right" is the only respected law.
The High-priestess of a given city-state often fulfills the function of its most senior judicial magistrate. This may seem bizarre, given the largely lawless state of Drow society. In practice, something akin to a legal system does in fact exist within Drow culture. Priestesses see it as their divine right to arrest and punish others in ways for even petty offenses. Justice is usually harsh and meted out on the spot.
Despite the overwhelming matriarchal nature of dark-elf society, Male clerics do exist, but only in lower levels of power and authority. However, in most Drow cities, they remain targets of their female counterparts. While male Drow clerics can become high-ranking divine disciples of Lolth, it is still widely acceptable for female clerics to kill them on a whim.
History
The history of the Dark-Elves stretches back thousands of years to the First Age, when the Elder-Elves sailed across the Wyn Myr from the Unknown Lands, and landed upon the Continent of Corwyn.
Eventually the elves established an advanced, highly-cultured civilization named Ectharë; which stretched across the entire continent. For much of the First and Second Ages, Ectharë was ruled by a line of noble rulers from the House of Alessarë.
It came to pass that King Starion sat upon the Eternal Throne. One of his senior court advisors was a beautiful Elven priestess named Lorynäe Anarivon. Many Elven sages believe Lorynäe was Starion's mistress and greatly desired to be his wife, but Starion spurned her.
Other scholars theorize she only wanted the elven Throne for herself, and may have been influenced by dark spirits, or even demonic forces. In any event, Starion was betrayed by Lorynäe and her followers in the year 537/2. In an elaborate plot, she murdered Starion and attempted to usurp the Eternal Throne.
What followed was complete chaos, with elves slaying each other in masse on the streets of Elutheria; the elven capital. The loyalist faction of Elves was led by Starion's son; Ismelian, who was a fierce warrior bent on revenge upon Lorynäe and all her followers.
Despite Ismelian's leadership, the rebellion was largely successful in the early years; for the rebels had long planned their attacks from the eastern elvish city of Saravôsh; which became the capitol of Drotharë; the surface empire of the Dark-Elves.
For a thousand years, the elven civil war, or War of Wrath, raged between the two factions, and much of the continent was laid waste. The beautiful elven cities of Elutheria and Saravôsh were both destroyed. Finally, the Drow were defeated at the Battle of Grôn, and driven into the Underdark, where they remain today.
The Taint
The unique appearance of the Dark-Elves is actually the result of magical poisoning which the Drow actually brought upon themselves. The poisoning occurred in the aftermath of the Battle of Saravôsh. During that climactic battle, a large army of Silvar-Elves led by King Ismelian laid siege to the Dark-Elf capital, and their final victory seemed close at hand.
Fearing defeat, the Drow, in an act of fatal desperation, unleashed a gigantic magical explosion that destroyed their own city, and the entire elven army at its gates. One unforeseen side-effect of this explosion was "Ashfall," a darkening of the skies and a subsequent poisoning of the eastern regions of Corwyn, which made much of the region uninhabitable for centuries.
Ashfall also affected the Dark-Elves themselves, in the form of a magical infection which began to infect all Drow. This infection became known as the "Taint." Soon after the Taint began, the skin of the Dark-Elves turned black, their hair turned white, and they could no longer tolerate sunlight.
These effects have lingered until the present day, and many sages believe it was the effects of the Taint, not a military defeat, which was the actual reason the Drow migrated into the Underdark.
Drow City-States
