An elf can turn into a drow?
That must be something of a shock in the morning.
wut?
I would say no. I do think this came up in a chatroom once. And it was pretty much said it was a one way trip. This may have changed but really to get that corrupt you have to be beyond the point of saving. we are talking Hitler evil here not I am a bad person evil
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Gentlemen thank you for your thoughts. Perhaps I was not specific enough with my question. Kvatum has the initial seed for my question. I don’t know how to set up a spoiler part of my post. Kvatum points out where the “dark fate” happens in the pathfinder publications. I am wondering if there can be a “ light fate”. If a drow, say has most un-drow like characteristics, such as mercy honor and compassion, might he transform into an elf? I think this could provide for lots of interesting back stories such as a hero trying to redeem himself for past atrocities he has committed. For that matter, might Sarenrae, the goddess of redemption, reach out and touch a dark soul and spark such a transformation? I really liked the “darke fate” in a second darkness, and I think it would be interesting to have a “light fate”. Furthermore, it would allow for the Drow to continue as the villans. While the good drow would end up being confused elves.
What do you all think?
well it has been stated there are no good drow. So either they are beyond redemption ( my take) or you can convert them back. For myself I just can't see them converting back. Once you reach that level of corruption there really is no going back
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In Raymond Feist's Magician, an event is described where a dark elf (Moredhel) wanders into the heart of the elven kingdom, renounces the dark path and becomes a normal elf again. There is no physical transformation in this case, since the two types of elves aren't very different physically, and it's called 'the Return,' as the elves maintain that they were once a single people, before a group of them left to follow a darker path.
There's obviously a knee-jerk loathing to the whole idea brought up by that dude with the scimitars, and many would counsel against a Drow redemption angle on that basis. Golarion Drow are stated by the designers to be even less prone to redemption than Greyhawk/Realms Drow, being evil to the core and pretty much 'always evil.'
But if it's something y'all want to explore, it's your game, and done well, it could make for a powerful storyline. Perhaps the forces that allow redemption are not so dramatic as those that encourage and reward a fall, and the 'redeemed' Drow retains their Drow coloration, as sort of an indelible marker of their previous status.
It's also possible that there could be degrees of potential here. Perhaps an elf who 'fell' and became a Drow would be incapable of ever being redeemed, having 'made their bed,' so to speak, while an individual who was *born* a Drow could, in whatever terribly unlikely circumstance, choose a different path and be 'redeemed.' (Since they never *chose* to be evil, but were merely born to evil parents.)
Perhaps there is only one way to have a full transformation, from Drow to Elf, and that is to travel through the portal to the First World that the elves used to flee during Earthfall (and through which they relatively recently returned), and only in the First World can the Drow suffer a form of 'bleaching' and be returned to Elven appearance. Even if the Drow in search of redemption discover this, perhaps through the use of a Commune and some insightful questions, she then has to sneak her way to the heavily guarded elf-gate to the First World, at the heart of the elven capital, as it seems profoundly unlikely that the Drow-fearing elves of Golarion will allow her safe passage (assuming they even believe her wild story!).
It's also possible that such a character could prove to be a trojan horse, being used as an unwitting vessel to carry the spirit of a powerful servant of one of the Demon Lords of the Drow into the First World, to wreak the sort of havoc there that Treerazer is wreaking in Golarion... Perhaps the Drow have their own theories, that they can somehow breach the First World and turn it into a dark Unseelie reflection of their own nature, tainting it, and, in turn, tainting all of their non-Drow brethren, transformating all of the Elven race into Drow in a single masterstroke!
Or they would have, if not for those pesky adventurers and their dumb Druid!
I have been wondering something. If conditions are right, an elf, can turn into a drow, particularly if there is evil and darkness in his heart, can the converse be true? Can a drow turn into an elf if the conditions are right? Does he have to wield two scimitars? Thanks
Are all drow born as elves that turn into drow based on the tutelage of their kind? If not, why couldn't one simply choose not to be evil, if an elf can turn into a drow?
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Again thank you for your thoughts. Set, I remember reading Raymond Feist’s series magician apprentice, magician master, Silverthorne, and darkness at Sethanon. Now I remember that moment you brought up. It must of sunk into my unconscious mind and percolated.
A few years ago one of my players wrote an interesting back-story. The Born Identity inspired it. Basically his character was a powerful Zhentarim assassin. His character came out on the wrong end of a political struggle and was sent on a suicide mission to kill Kheleben blackstaff. Instead of killing him Blackstaff decided to use him so he wiped his mind.
So my player’s character started out at first level like everyone else, and as he “gained levels” he was remembering more about his former life and gaining access to his skills and like Quade of total recall, he had the chance to choose a different path.
I just thought the idea of having a drow turn into an elf, an interesting back-story. With their long life spans, the Drow could have commented untold atrocities, and after a transformation from a drow into an elf, he spends the rest of his life trying to right the wrongs he committed while a drow. And with each level he gains, he remembers more of his past.
I just thought that might be an interesting back-story for a character.
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I rather like the physical change being a one-way street while allowing the drow to not be universally locked into chaotic evil(after all, we already have a canon non-evil drow in Golarion), both for aesthetics and because it avoids "I'm redeemed! I'm not black-skinned anymore!"
Are all drow born as elves that turn into drow based on the tutelage of their kind? If not, why couldn't one simply choose not to be evil, if an elf can turn into a drow?
Drow parents will produce drow offspring.
And of course, you can "choose not to be evil", but what villain does so? Some people simply are evil. They choose to be so. It's just like that.
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I rather like the physical change being a one-way street while allowing the drow to not be universally locked into chaotic evil(after all, we already have a canon non-evil drow in Golarion), both for aesthetics and because it avoids "I'm redeemed! I'm not black-skinned anymore!"
With the PF Drow art we've had so far my take has been that Drow have dark-purple skin. Just to avoid the awkward associations.
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Again thank you for your thoughts. Set, I remember reading Raymond Feist’s series magician apprentice, magician master, Silverthorne, and darkness at Sethanon. Now I remember that moment you brought up. It must of sunk into my unconscious mind and percolated.
My pleasure. It's my favorite book aside from Zelazny's Lord of Light, so any chance I get to plug it is a welcome one. :)
So my player’s character started out at first level like everyone else, and as he “gained levels” he was remembering more about his former life and gaining access to his skills and like Quade of total recall, he had the chance to choose a different path.
We've done something similar, playing characters who had once been higher level (and even different classes) before escaping imprisonment by a vampire. It was a deliberate mix-up game where the Wizard remembered having been an 8th level Fighter (but had lost all of those levels and was busy learning something new) and the Cleric was a former Thief (with no Thief abilities, just a decidly mercenary outlook, having turned to the clergy of Olidammara because he wanted protection from the undead, and, in his own words, 'Those Clerics have the ultimate protection racket, and I'm getting in on the ground floor!').
Awesome idea, having it be a former assassin rediscovering his sordid past as 'not a very nice man...' Vaguely reminiscent of the movie A Kiss Before Dying.
With the PF Drow art we've had so far my take has been that Drow have dark-purple skin. Just to avoid the awkward associations.
Indeed, the artwork has varied so many times over the years (glossy obsidian black, blue-black, purple-black, etc.) that the Drow have as many possible colorations as surface elves... I've yet to see artwork with reddish-black or greenish-black Drow, but that wouldn't seem any less likely than blue or purple!