Nope.
usually, the copyright stuff is for the more off the wall creatures, like most aberrations (which tend to be less than 100 years old).
Drow can also be synonymous with 'dark elves', which works fine as a name and can limit. Duergar is more specific in use, and can just seem silly in many settings. Most don't have the world building space to fit in 'evil dwarves' as a specific thing. Pathfinder and DnD manage too, since they develop large underdark ecologies.
But a lot of movies, tv series, and videogames might not have the time and space to work in a whole underground world- usually, it is just a quick pass through to some macguffin, and random spider things or orcs suffice.
Without the large world building exercise, these races just seem like "cheap reskins...BUT EVVVUUULLLL!" Which can come off as lame. I kind of give that kind of attitude to the underdark version of gnomes (...cause gnomes...BUT EVVVUUULL!)
Plus lots of fiction that goes with some variant on evil dwarves or elves doesn't feel the need to make them a separate race; they just give Elves and dwarves the same range of nice guys and a#&&%&~s that humanity already gets.
IThe rather unfortunate D&D/Pathfinder implementation where evil elves all have black skin, while the good ones have proper aryan features also doesn't help.
Nope.
usually, the copyright stuff is for the more off the wall creatures, like most aberrations (which tend to be less than 100 years old).
Drow can also be synonymous with 'dark elves', which works fine as a name and can limit. Duergar is more specific in use, and can just seem silly in many settings. Most don't have the world building space to fit in 'evil dwarves' as a specific thing. Pathfinder and DnD manage too, since they develop large underdark ecologies.
But a lot of movies, tv series, and videogames might not have the time and space to work in a whole underground world- usually, it is just a quick pass through to some macguffin, and random spider things or orcs suffice.
Without the large world building exercise, these races just seem like "cheap reskins...BUT EVVVUUULLLL!" Which can come off as lame. I kind of give that kind of attitude to the underdark version of gnomes (...cause gnomes...BUT NEUUUUUUTRAL!)
FTFY.
FTFY.
Ah, yes. Sorry- underdark, so I just assumed.
Ok- gnomes...but MORLOCKS!
EDIT: On second thought, I might have conflated them with spriggans. Who at least have a nice gimmick- they TURN SUPER HUGE AND BUFF. And that can at least come as a nice suprise if you haven't memorized the bestiary. You think "Oh, small, twitch roguey guys" and then "suddenly fighting a giant".
IThe rather unfortunate D&D/Pathfinder implementation where evil elves all have black skin, while the good ones have proper aryan features also doesn't help.
Meh. Take it up with a bunch of long dead Norse people. They specifically made evil black skinned elves a thing in their mythology/tales.
We're just using what's already out there to populate our game worlds.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
IThe rather unfortunate D&D/Pathfinder implementation where evil elves all have black skin, while the good ones have proper aryan features also doesn't help.Meh. Take it up with a bunch of long dead Norse people. They specifically made evil black skinned elves a thing in their mythology/tales.
We're just using what's already out there to populate our game worlds.
It is more likely a 'death' thing, rather than race. Corpses often turn black with decay. So the color seems obvious when you are trying to make an evil version of something- give it death iconography.
Really, I would be more worried by the fact that the term 'black' itself is a real life race thing...despite the obvious shades of brown and all. That seems more unfortunate.
It means that you can't have a monster stained with decay, ashes, and pitch without it turning into a race thing.
Also, don't forget the DrowTales webcomic, which heavily models their dark elves off of the D&Desque standard yet is unaffiliated with Wizards of the Coast.
They've been around long enough that I feel any potential legal trouble has been resolved/reached, but for a time it surprised me that a for-profit webcomic (they have merchandise and subscriptions) was using another's IP.
Drow are like gnolls - the actual origin is something rather old (gnolls are from a Tennyson poem, drow are from Viking folklore) and thus they're public domain.
Even though gnolls and drow as we actually think of them are the direct result of what D&D did with them. I.e., Gygax successfully rebranded what those critters are.
IThe rather unfortunate D&D/Pathfinder implementation where evil elves all have black skin, while the good ones have proper aryan features also doesn't help.Meh. Take it up with a bunch of long dead Norse people. They specifically made evil black skinned elves a thing in their mythology/tales.
We're just using what's already out there to populate our game worlds.
The Svartalves of Norse mythology were quite different from the D&D version of Drow, and honestly closer to the Tolkein/D&D Dwarves. The actual folkloric Drow were closer to trolls or selkies than elves.
Basically, the concept of black-skinned white-haired evil elves who live underground was largely invented by D&D.
I prefer Dokkalfar myself.