The World of Toisian ~ View topic

As I have mentioned before, I've been a little uncomfortable with having stereotypical D&D-based Drow running around Toisian for some time, now, especially since the more public we become, the more likely we are to run into legal troubles with such material. I seriously doubt that the drow character that we had way back when is coming back, so I wonder if it's a good time to address this before they start coming up again. Something I've been thinking about for a while is the Scottish trow, a nocturnal, subterranean, troll-like faerie-type creature (phew!). Wikipedia has two relevant but meager articles, one about trow and one about "the people called Drows, who may, in most other respects, be identified with the Caledonian fairies."

I recall having read sources that equate the two names, and I will consult my books over the next few days to see what I can figure out, but several of you here are much better-versed in this area than I am, and I would appreciate anything you have to say on the subject.

At the moment, my thought is that Toisian drow are (as before) a subset of the forest elves who took to worshipping the dark gods and were exiled for it, and they fled the forests for refuges underground. They have become shorter and slightly thicker in build. They have a rich musical culture, perhaps even moreso than forest elves (whose musical traditions are often coupled with dance and theatre), and for them, music is as much a vehicle for magic and worship as it is a way of entertaining and passing on knowledge. Now, black skin/white hair (i.e. your standard D&D dark elf) in a subterranean environment makes no sense from a biological point of view, as far as I know, so I move that our drow be albino-pale or close to it. I will put some research into eye and hair colors that would correspond to this; hair is a particular concern for me because elvish hair is much coarser/heavier and darker than human hair, so I'm not sure what would happen. Would drow hair, then, be very coarse light blond? Red? Gray/white? Would it stay brown/black like the forest elves?

Biology aside, I do not want to do the "evil creatures are black and evil!" thing. It's a habit that fantasy should think about breaking.

walking arsenal Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 48

I don't have a problem with that, though I don't know if that, by their immortal nature and no need for physical labor due to magic, they would necessarily become stockier. Shorter due to limited space, but maybe not thicker, because that would only be taking up the space they saved themselves due to shrinking over a ridiculous amount of time and make them far too obvious when they ventured out into the world for their nefarious purposes. It doesn't hurt to relate them to fairies, but if you're trying to get away from something another person has already built then don't make them exactly that either.

I agree on the point that evil isn't dark or black, in fact, if you look at the way Japan portrays things (since a lot of this world is based off them) the good guys always wear black. Now, most of that is due to white being the color of the dead, but it's not a bad notion. The fact that most who worship the evil gods worship at night is due to hide their rituals from others who would persecute them, they aren't worshiping because it's night. Due to this practice they became known as "Dark Gods" as followers have been caught worshiping in secluded areas on moonless nights.

Still the elves with their dark hair and the evil elves with their white/blond/red hair is a good plan. Eye color might be a little less relevant because we can say it's affected by magic causing often unnatural colors or colors that make no sense given how the individual looks.

*nods* I guess what I'm envisioning with them is not necessarily bulkier, or stocky like fantasy dwarves or something, but... just not as ridiculously lean as the surface elves are, I suppose. I figure that since they're not spending most of their time twirling around in the trees, there's no evolutionary pressure towards a super-lean figure. So, very minor changes, probably just a little more pronounced musculature, slightly wider hips/shoulders in the respective sexes, things like that. And I suppose that the relation to faeries is only in the same strict sense that, in European mythology, elves are generally some fae-type creature - so the only references for the drow/trow that I have found in earth mythology describe them as such. Definitely not proposing a connection there in Toisian itself, since I'm feeling like Toisian fae are totally different from the elves.

Okay. I am thinking that a spectrum from white to red works well for drow hair, though it'd probably still be quite coarse, given the elvish lineage? And I agree that eye color probably doesn't matter that much. I'm still going to reseach it a little, but more from curiosity than anything else.

onigiri Joined: 02 Mar 2006 Posts: 4 Location: Right here

Lighter colors tend to be finer hair, but whatever you want in that respect. It all depends on how many generations back the evolutionary split is, or if magic had anything to do with speeding along the changes.

As far as the rest I take it to mean they look a little more human than the elves, as far as build goes? Waxy looking, pale skin, light colored hair, shorter with more distinction between male and female.

Also, if Elves, with their tree dancing, would have more natural colored clothing (like browns and greys) would these evil ones have more vibrant, unnatural looking colors? Such as bright reds and blues, neon greens, things that stand out a lot? Since we are discussing how their different in other ways we might as well get cultural distinction out there in other aspects.

I'm assuming an Elf/Drow lifespan of three hundred years, give or take, and a generation gap of about a hundred years. All that's been said about when, exactly, the Drow were kicked out has been "thousands of years" - so we could be talking... I don't know. Twenty generations, or a hundred, or more. Anyway - I'm largely taking reference from albinism, in which case the quality/type of hair isn't really affected. Though, Drow hair would probably become somewhat less coarse because it's no longer needed to protect from harsh weather. So. Hmm.

So, yeah, I suppose the Drow are a little closer to humans, physically. I figure they're still taller, in the five-and-three-quarters to six-and-a-half feet range, and still a bit slimmer than humans, but that is pretty much how it's working out.

That is an interesting thought - it depends to some degree on what materials they'd have available and how much time they spend in not-complete-darkness, but I think it would make sense if they consciously chose brighter, more striking colors for their clothing.