Hanhula's page

PAIZO has already done that. "Cavern elf" is an elf heritage.

I shall believe this if they actually tie anything of what the drow were and their history into who the cavern elves are. What I've read in this thread suggests they'll just be subterranean elves who lean chaotic with no tie in to the species' history, as JJ mentioned retconning Second Darkness entirely.

AIUI they're not going to "undo" anything. They'll just stop writing past-version drow and references to them into new supplements and books.

JJ has mentioned retconning an entire adventure path already, so yes, they will.

Beyond that, the official PF2E Elf physical description provides wide latitude for skin color, hair color, dwelling, and culture - and states that Elves often take on attributes depending on where they live. Thus it is perfectly possible to play a dark-skinned, light-haired, underground-dwelling Elf using the any of the other elf heritages too.

The description of elves has always provided wide latitude for skin colour, hair colour, dwelling, and culture. It has also had room for a fallen species of elves who forced those dwelling in Kyonin to contend with their existence, mirroring the Dökkálfar and Ljósálfar but with somewhat less of the weird IRL-racist undertones the ancient Norse myths have in the current day.

I'd love to see something like "oh so there were a species of corrupted elves that tried to destroy the world but they failed and collapsed their civilisation, so now there are mystery elf ruins and the survivors built new, better cultures.. but some of them still struggle with the darker impulses", honestly.

I stand in hope that Paizo will reconsider the complete purge and will go for that sort of approach if their legal team OK it.

This is a really disappointing and somewhat upsetting decision. I feel like there were a thousand ways to retcon drow as dark elves or fallen elves or even simply subterranean cavern-dwellers without using WotC property and without undoing thousands of tales built in and around Golarion's lore.

One of my dearest players is an ardent drow-lever. I am glad my current campaign is PF1e, because I know he will not play PF2e now - for we would have to homebrew in the dark elves and their supporting content..

I really hope Paizo listen to the dismay about this. The Reddit thread is equally as disappointed. There are so few voices genuinely happy about this. It's possible to keep a dark elven species and remove what is copyrighted and problematic in their lore without entirely killing it, and it's an incredible disappointment in a company I have come to love so much to see things players love now completely removed.

Also... the comment on making Second Darkness non-canon? That's equally disappointing. I know it's an older AP, but man, a lot of us have stories built up around these old pillars of lore and as much as we can continue telling those at our tables, it's awful to see them collapse into retcon hell. Paizo's not meant to be taking leaves out of Marvel's book.