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Dark-Elf Roleplaying Notes

First, read the Book of Knowledge for a head start.

Dark elves are perhaps most dangerous race in all of Derlith. What makes them so
dangerous is that their evilness is so completely unorganized and unpredictable.
A dark elf acts upon his whims above all. Whatever causes the most misery or
advances the will of the dark elf is what is done above all else. Dark elves are
also extremely racist to all but their own kind. The only exception is that they
sometimes ally with cambions, as they believe in the similar philosophy that the
weak will always be destroyed by the strong, and also they believe that cambions
are related to the gods of the dark elves - the evil spider god, that is. Dark
elves despise all elves, as it is the "elves' fault" that they were forced below
the surface millenia ago. Elves are killed on sight for this reason. Dark elven
raiding parties have been known to rise into the forest by night and destroy
entire elven villages - men, women, and children, and to force the parents to
watch their children be tortured and die in front of them. The other races,
aside from cambions, are viewed by dark elves as future slaves to do their
bidding. They believe humans are nothing but useless wastes of space and
material created by the gods.

Dark elves have a reverance for spiders of all kinds, and they will never kill
them, as it is a bad taboo to do so. The spider god always looks unfavorably on
those who do so. Dark elves usually  will use poison in combat so long as the
poison causes their opponent much pain and suffering before they die. A dark elf
can NEVER be trusted, as they will turn on a dime if a situation does not suit
them coming out ahead in some way.

Despite being so chaotic in nature, dark elven society is amazingly more ordered
then one would think. There are basically four castes to dark elven society, all
sometimes intermixing with one another: nobles, warriors, merchants, and slaves.
Virtually all spellcasters must be from a noble family. Warriors can be found
amongst all the castes, yet they make up a caste of their own. The same is true
of the merchants. Slaves are 99% made up of people not of the dark elven race.
They are never elves, because elves are put to death. The majority of clerics
are female, and the majority of mages are male. The spider god prefers females
to be the leaders of his worship, and often a high priestess is the head of
every noble family. Favor of the spider god is required to remain a noble
family. Should this favor be lost for any reason (even if on a whim of the
spider god), all the other powerful noble families will destroy that noble
family. Wars are often declared between nobles as well. Usually if the family
declaring the war does not win, they lose the favor of the spider god, and are
destroyed by all the other families.

Loyalty to the dark elf is securely based on fear and nothing else. Because of
this, it is very rare to find a dark elf at the head of any majorly large band
of outlaws or criminal organization. They do not have the leadership ability
necessary to inspire people to follow  them. They must use fear to do so.
Because of this, along with a general distrust people have for dark elves,
drow often only are able to lead up to 20-25 individuals. However, the
exception to this rule is when solely dark elves are involved in an
organization. When this is the case, fear of the spider god often keeps them in
line. This is what has happened in Oakspire, where hundreds of dark elves have
taken over the forested city and are preparing to raise their entire race back
to the surface... or so rumors hold.

So when playing dark elves, remember that they are usually selfish,
backstabbing, racist, vengeful, chaotic in action, cowardly, and very disloyal.
However, they are very fierce in battle, giving no quarter to their enemies -
especially elves, whom they like to play with and torture before killing.

Note that in AD&D, the dark elves follow a spider GODDESS - here ,however,
it is a GOD.

