Duergar were dwarves who ignored the quest for sky. They turned purple with white hair, became evil, and got spell like abilities.
Drow were elves who hid deep below ground. They share the same pigmentation as duergar and became evil.
Has it ever been explained what is down there which caused these changes?
Ah...the earthfall shaking Rovagug caused the drow, and Droskar caused the Duergar. But why then do they look the same? Or is being dark skinned with white hair just a darklands look, and the drow were changed to become one with the natives?
Also, according to the articles you linked, it looks like drow are evil by nature while duergar are evil by nurture. Interesting...
Ah...the earthfall shaking Rovagug caused the drow, and Droskar caused the Duergar. But why then do they look the same? Or is being dark skinned with white hair just a darklands look, and the drow were changed to become one with the natives?
Duergar don't have dark skin- they have ashen grey skin. So they are mostly just lacking pigmentation (which is applied from a design stand point since many real world cave dwelling species lack pigmentation).
Honestly, I wouldn't say it is only rovagug that caused the mutation. The udnerdark is generally filled with various interdimensional creatures, radiaition, and leftover toxic chemicals of various long dead races (orvs specifically). So there is plenty down there to screw up just about any race that makes it their home.
I mean... heck, the dwarves originally came from down there. And I am not trying to diss the dwarves out there... but maybe they also suffered some side effects. Torag's paladin code is rather... blooodthirsty for LG. It makes sense when you are living in an underground society surrounded by mutants that would just love the tender meat of your babies... not so much topside perhaps...
I always thought of it like this: Elves like plants. Drow like insects. Insects eat plants. This is going to end poorly for at least one side.In order to survive, the drow threw in their lot with demon lords.
ooo...yeah, that is a nice central motif when you put it like that. That is a nice driving force for the races that lets you provide a deeper contrast between them than 'palate swapped and one is EVVVIIL'.
Elves grew up under the sun- they grew in an environment with plenty of energy for them to harvest, and with plenty of space where they could branch out and spread their roots. They can be free floating dandelion seeds, or they can be ancient sturdy oaks that supports all around them.
Drow, in their various incarnations across various settings, were forced into a dank dark pit with no light and little means to eke out an existence. They, like the venus fly trap, had to adapt more predatory methods in order to survive. Thus the motif of spiders- a creature waiting in the dark, setting out their traps and plots in order to ensnare prey for their use. Whether the method was merely sitting in wait in their spot, or jumping out of their hole with a waiting net like a trap door spider, they were more than ready to grab any unsuspecting creature that fell into reach and sink their fangs into him.
Also, to note another spider comparison that would be a reality of underdark life- like a black widow, they were often forced to eat their own just to get through the day and hope to get to the next generation (both metaphorically, with plots and power struggles... and literally, because hey- free meat. Underdark is harsh man. Take it where ever you can get it.)
Anyway, if you add some more insect motifs, then you can make more varied drow that each carry their own varied purpose and flavor. Ants working on the tunnel... more than waiting to form an army to tear down any threat? Locusts that occasionally rise up to scour the land? Those freaky wasps that lay eggs in other insects (which could be used as a metaphor for manipulators that infiltrate the upper socieities of both above and below ground).
Wait... the ant motif could be applied to dwarves, and the locust motif applied to orcs. Hmmm... yeah, you could do well applying a bug motif to all of the underdark to get at a nice driving force for each race.
Elves live. Very long time
They are also like slow mo chameleons
Give them enough time and they start to resemble their environments
Drow are simply elves who have lived underground long enough to inherit the traits of the environment
Noble drow are blessed by the demon lords they serve
Wood elves look green and brown
Tower elves look white and pasty
Snowcasters look like Loki holding the frost giant casque
If a drow were to spend long enough above ground away from darkland magics and demonic rituals they would look different
Check out their alternate racial traits
A surface infiltrator would look more like seltyiel than depora
Lemeres: I like that. For each underdark race pairing them off with an insect/arachnid.
I'd say that indeed dwarves are like ants. Live underground but not too far, communal, industrious, always digging.
Orcs...ironically...id also call ants. But they are army ants. They don't dig nests. Instead they swarm, devouring everything in their path. The rest in living nests made out of their bodies. I also like the idea of the Orc/Dwarf ancient enmity stemming from a common underdark origin shown by them being different ant species.
And aye...drow are spiders. They spin beautiful webs, but despite their grace they are terrifying creatures. Hell, I'd say that elves are spiders too...only they prey on harmful insects. Drow are just underground variants that are poisonous and cannabalistic.
Ok...sorry, this thread took a weird turn.
Dwarves/Duergar: society building ants.
Orcs: vicious soldier ants.
Drow: spiders.
Serpentfolk: scorpions. Most are not exceptionally deadly, while a few are highly venomous, but they all hurt when they bite.
Mongrelmen: a bunch of different insects. A la....mongrelmen.
Derro: termites. They tend to infest civilizations lot, and cause a lot of structural problems.
Troglodytes: wasps. Don't tend to cluster together too much, but do form little "hives" of activities.
Kobold: bees. See also: weaker wasps, more annoying than anything.
Ghouls: those scavenger beetle things. Mainly because they eat rotten bodies and stuff.
Svirfneblin: cockroaches. Not really any big threat, but always there somehow.
And that's all I got for now.
Bigrig: Pretty much spot on. Especially like the Derro and Svirflebin.
Finally some folks not glued to the whole evil empire of just label evil Drow. I run mine as more an Aztec race that raid the surface for sentient, sacrificial offerings, eating the dead afterwards in cannibalistic ways. Excess offering stock is eaten alive.
bigrig107
I am so stealing this list! Kewl! Keep it coming.
Give me some more of the Darklmads races that matter, then!
I can't really think of any more.
The ones that bring up immediate recognition would be ghouls and the skum (mostly because they work for the aboleths)
Their societies became too polarized, resulting in one faction retreating underground to escape the other.
Much like what is getting ready to happen with American politics. The faction that retreats underground will eventually become morlocks.
Inner Sea Races goes into a lot more detail on the origin of the drow and other races. You might check it out if you're interested.
Give me some more of the Darklmads races that matter, then!
I can't really think of any more.
Whatever you decide to use as the centerpiece of the story you create.
I started reading "Into the Darklands." Great stuff in there!
Derro
"In fact, the first derro are the descendants of a much
more benign stone-loving fey race known as the pech.
After the fall of the Vault Keepers, one tribe of pech chose
to f lee upward through the Darklands, and when they
reached the surface world they realized they had gone
as far as they could go. They settled into the caverns of
Nar-Voth, and there discovered a strange blue fungus
that grew in great quantities—cytillesh. Brain mold,
as it is known to other races, was once a rarity even in
the nooks and crannies of the Darklands, but the pechs
who discovered it quickly grew addicted to its f lavor and
soothing radiation. They cultivated the stuff in their
settlements, and in so doing doomed themselves to a vile
transformation. They lost their close connection to the
First World, grew larger and more elongated of limb, and
progressively became more violent, sadistic, and insane.
Within a few generations, they had forgotten their
previous ways and become derro.
By living in constant proximity to brain mold and using
it as a primary food source (cytillesh is extremely high
in proteins and fats) the derro have developed an affinity
with the substance such that, while insane, they retain
their mental acuity, unlike what happens to other races
exposed to its radiations over the long term. Generations
of exposure have likewise somehow unlocked the magical
and mental potential in many derro, resulting in a ruling
class of powerful psychopaths known as savants. The derro
also benefit greatly from cytillesh’s benign properties,
though most meet a violent end long before reaching
extreme old age. It does, howevr, allow derro women to
remain fertile for a much longer period of their lives to
offset the stillbirth rates likewise caused by overexposure
to brain mold, and therefore keeps the derro a viable race"
Duergar
"Not all of Nar-Voth’s dwarves chose to abandon their
ancestral homes in pursuit of the Quest for Sky at the onset
of the Age of Darkness. A not-inconsiderable number heard
the prophecies and the rhetoric of Torag’s faithful and
found the very concept of the Quest for Sky to be foolish.
These dwarves chose to remain in the Darklands, a choice
that drove a permanent wedge between clans and shattered
family bonds forever. Yet as they attempted to retain their
hold on the mostly abandoned dwarven cities of Nar-Voth,
they soon found that their numbers were too few to hold the
defenses. These dwarves found themselves in a perpetual
retreat, beset on all sides by troglodytes, derro, dark folk, and
all manner of beasts, and as they retreated to small fortified
portions of their cities they nursed a growing hatred for
their kin, whom they felt had betrayed them and left them
to die in the Darklands. In bitterness, this beleaguered
remnant turned to one of Torag’s greatest enemies in their
hour of need—Droskar the Dark Smith. Droskar gave the
embittered dwarves a new prophecy—a prophecy of darkness
and rebirth, of innovation and the promise of power. These
dwarves, on the verge of extinction, accepted this bargain
and turned their reverence toward this fell deity. As an
outward sign of their corruption, acursed by their former
god and dwarven brothers, all of the hair fell from their
scalps (although their beards and moustaches remained),
and their skin turned an ashen gray. They became known as
duergar—“gray-faced” in the Dwarven tongue.
In exchange for this mark of both shame and fealty,
Droskar imbued within the duergar an innate mastery
of magic to help them survive. Many duergar learned
to train the giant spiders and beetles of the Darklands
to serve as mounts and guardians. With these changes,
the duergar slowly began to reclaim ground lost in their
years of headlong f light. The smallest of the Darklands
dwarf holds were quickly retaken and secured, creating
bastions from which the duergar could mount missions
of vengeance and reclamation.
Duergar society is brutal and filled with toil, as one
might expect from a people dedicated to a deity like
Droskar. Over the ages, they have modified and rebuilt
the ancient dwarven cities, often trading in artistry for
functionality. Their cities generally have little evidence of
rebellious activity, vagabonds, extensive slums, or similar
problems that often plague other cities, yet a duergar city
is by no means a utopia. They are places of endless labor,
where the only ones who work harder than the duergar
to perfect their weapons and defenses are their hapless
slaves—duergar are perhaps the Darklands race most
dependant on slavery, although not out of necessity. To a
duergar, the concept of forcing a lesser race to toil unto
death is the greatest mark of personal success one can
hope to achieve."