Lore and Legends of the Dezzyverse

Tag: Underdark

  • Drow Hybrids in the Underdark

    Drow Hybrids in the Underdark

    Offspring of Dark Elves and their Thralls

    The 2024 revision of 5th ed D&D, retitled D&D 5.5, removed “half-” species from the game. While this choice was controversial (to say the least), there remains room for characters of mixed parentage. Especially in the Underdark, where the Drow rule over a vast Empire and Drow citizens have virtually unchecked privilege to indulge in their darkest impulses.

    The Empire of the Spider Queen

    A Drow Priestess wearing gold rimmed glasses chained to an ear piercing, with her head tilted back and looking down upon the viewer like she's offended that she's even in your presence.
    Illustration by Kazetier

    I’m going to use this generic name for the Drow Empire in the Underdark to avoid implication of canon, published source material. I also think, by writing this as a roughly generic “Evil Empire of the Dark Elves”, if any DM wishes to utilize the ideas and essays in the DezzyDark (my clever name for this corner of the multiverse).

    This distinction also serves another purpose related to my essay Half-Orcs, Half-Elves and Alignment . The Drow of the Empire of the Spider Queen are evil, and cruel and depraved because that is the society they have developed,a Theocracy that worships the Demon Queen of Spiders, a goddess of Chaos and Evil. Millennia of idolization have woven the Demon Queen of Spiders’ dogma into the very fabric of Imperial Society. But, the Drow are not cruel and evil from the womb.

    The Empire of the Spider Queen is a class society with Drow Priestesses of the Demon Queen of Spiders at the top and non Drow as second class and worse down to the enslaved at the bottom. This implies that the circumstances of a hybrid birth was not consensual.

    Half Drow Ancestries

    Imperial Society is hard on the Drow as a people. Being Elves, their natural birth rate is already low. Constant infighting among the different Households and Factions and Wars of Expansion is draining on the Imperial population. But, maybe due to some dark influence of the Demon Queen, Drow can successfully procreate with several different peoples within their Empire.

    When designing a character of mixed Ancestry, the following traits may be passed from the Drow parent. Some of these traits replace traits passed from the non-Drow parent, and in any case it is discouraged to add too many Drow traits to the resulting Half-Drow ancestry. The choice, as with most character choices, should be an agreement between the Player and Game Master.

    • Darkvision: 60 feet (18 meters) if the other ancestry does not have Darkvision, 120 feet (36 meters) if the other ancestry does have the Darkvision trait
    • Keen Senses: Proficiency with the Insight, Perception or Survival skill
    • Fey Ancestry: Saving Throws to avoid or end the Charmed condition are made with Advantage. Magic cannot force the character to sleep.
    • Drow Lineage: The following cantrip and spells are automatically known and are prepared. The spells may be cast once per day without expending a spell slot. Players must choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as the spellcasting ability during character creation.
      • 1st Level: Dancing Lights cantrip
      • 3rd Level: Færie Fire spell
      • 5th Level: Darkness spell
    • Sunlight Sensitivity: A negative trait, when in direct sunlight, all Perception checks that involve sight are made at Disadvantage

    Half Drow/Human

    The most common hybrid ancestry in the Empire. Of all the enslaved people in the Empire of the Spider Queen, Humans are the most valued. Indeed, Drow will often raid the surface world for the purpose of abducting humans.

    • Type: Humanoid
    • Size: Medium
    • Speed: 30 feet (9 meters)
    • Traits
      • Darkvision: 60 feet (18 meters)
      • Resourceful: Gains Heroic Inspiration every time a Long Rest is finished.
      • Fey Ancestry
      • Versatile: Gain an Origin Feat of the player’s choice.
      • Sunlight Sensitivity

    Half Drow/Tiefling

    Another common hybrid ancestry. Abyssal Tieflings often find common cause with the Imperial Drow. Several families of Abyssal Tieflings have served Drow households for generations.

    • Type: Humanoid
    • Size: Medium (rarely Small)
    • Speed: 30 feet (9 meters)
    • Traits
      • Darkvision: 120 feet (36 meters)
      • Fey Ancestry
      • Resistant to Poison damage
      • Otherworldy Presence: Knows the Thaumaturgy cantrip.
      • During character creation, the player needs to choose between the Abyssal Legacy and Drow Lineage traits.

    Half Drow/Hobgoblin

    The Drow bear little respect for Hobgoblins, or any Goblinoid, considering them only useful for menial slaves. However, the shared connection to the Fae, allows for occasional hybrid offspring. Half Drow/Hobgoblin are used to command warbands of Goblinoids indentured to Imperial households. In Goblinoid Society, these hybrids often rise to positions of leadership, Cheiftains and Predarchs and Captains.

    • Type: Humanoid/ Goblinoid
    • Size: Medium
    • Speed: 30 feet (9 meters)
    • Traits
      • Darkvision: 120 feet (36 meters)
      • Fortune from the Many: On missing an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check, gain an immediate bonus equal to the number of allies visible within 30 feet (9 meters) to a maximum of +3. This ability can be used a number of times each day equal to the character’s Proficiency Bonus (refresh after finishing a Long Rest).
      • Fey Ancestry
      • Drow Lineage
      • Sunlight Sensitivity

    Half Drow/Orc

    An exceedingly rare hybrid, and many would say “cursed”. These unfortunate souls are not welcome anywhere, rejected by both the Imperial society of Drow and the Tribes of the Orcs. Both the Drow and Orcs consider one another less than people. Orc Tribes see Drow as another version of their cultural enemies, the Elves. Imperial Drow see Orcs as little more than beasts, unsuitable even for slavery.

    The Half Drow/Orc physical traits are not appealing when combined. They are misshapen, and considered ugly by the standards of either culture. Unlike other Drow Hybrids, the Half Drow/Orc are shunned and outcast. Living solitary, miserable, hidden lives in the deep tunnels and caverns.

    • Type: Humanoid
    • Size: Medium
    • Speed: 30 feet (9 meters)
    • Traits
      • Darkvision: 120 feet (36 meters)
      • Relentless Endurance: When reduced to zero hit points, but not killed outright, remain at one hit point. Can only be used once per day and refreshes after finishing a Long Rest
      • Menacing: Proficiency with Intimidation Skill
      • Savage Attacks: On scoring a critical hit with a weapon, roll one of the weapons dice an additional time and add the result to the damage total.
      • Fey Ancestry
      • Sunlight Sensitivity
      • Outcast: All non-intimidation social checks are made with Disadvantage

    Drow Cambion

    Cambion are not balanced with other character species options. Because of this, Cambion should be selected only with the agreement of the Game Master.

    In Imperial Drow society, the Cambion are the only hybrid Drow that are full citizens, but only those Cambion whose feindish parentage is enthralled to the Demon Queen of Spiders.

    • Spider Queen Cambion
    • Type: Humanoid, Fiend
    • Size: Medium
    • Speed: 30 feet (9 meters), Climb 30 feet (9 meters)
    • Traits
      • Darkvision: 120 feet (36 meters)
      • Tremorsense: 60 feet (18 meters)
      • Fey Ancestry
      • Keen Senses
      • Drow Lineage
      • Spider Climb: Can climb difficult surfaces, including upside-down on ceilings without needing an ability check.
      • Web Walker: Ignores movement restrictions caused by webs or webbing.
      • Fiendish Charm: Magically charm one humanoid hat can be seen within 30 feet (9 meters)for one day unless the victim can succeed with a Wisdom Saving throw against DC 8+ Proficiency Bonus+ Spellcasting Ability Modifier
      • Sunlight Sensitivity
      • Pull of the Pit: A cambion’s demonic ancestry creates a constant draw towards selfishness, cruelty, and evil. This creates a a Flaw Personality Trait that should the player choose to roleplay, and the consequences immediately and negatively affect the character or their companions, They gain Heroic Inspiration.
  • Slavery in Swords & Sorcery

    Slavery in Swords & Sorcery

    Veiling our crimes behind a smiling historical mask

    I’m designing an Underdark adventure. It’s deep below the surface of the world, closer to the wicked empires of Dark Elves, Grey Dwarves, Mind Flayers and Kuo-Toa. In the setting for this adventure, there is a settlement. A small semi-permanent collection of structures and tents that’s grown up at a crossroads next to an underground lake.

    And it has a slave market.

    The institution in the Underdark

    Within the adventure location there are bands of escaped slaves and posses of slave hunters playing cat-and-mouse in the lightless tunnels. There’s a party of death-worshiping drow more than willing to sacrifice anyone they capture to the Demon Prince of Undeath. Bad people making bad choices and doing bad things. It’s one of the dangers of the adventure that the characters need to overcome.

    Slavery and the trafficking of people remain an evil. Simulating this evil in game doesn’t make it better. Worse, making the institution of slavery a part of a role-playing game can trivialize the impact of it.

    It’s true that whole ethnicities of people were owned throughout history. The struggle for them to win their freedom is both centuries long and ongoing even today. Just because there’s no antebellum aristocrat in a smart white suit sipping bourbon on the front porch of his plantation, doesn’t mean that slavery remains very real, and remains an ethnically motivated practice.

    As a middle-aged, masc presenting white person, it is cruel to pretend that slavery, even in game, is normalized. Especially if I have players at my table whose families may well have been enslaved in the not-to distant past. It is likewise cruel to place a player in the position of being a slave owner, appeaser of slavery as an institution or have their character be a slave without the player’s active consent.

    Gaming and Consent

    Since I mentioned consent, I should expound. Tabletop Role Playing is a communal experience. At least two people interacting to tell an improvised story about the Game Master’s adventure and the Player’s Original Character. Because of that, the players and Game Master need mutual, and active consent when playing.

    This extends to most interactions in game. But where it runs into the question of humanity, that interaction is critical. If any party at the table doesn’t want to be confronted with dark or transgressive subject matter, those wishes need to be respected. This includes enslavement and institutional slavery.

    Real World Institutions vs In-World Lore

    For as long as I’ve been gaming, there has always been this loud, obnoxious, background noise advocating for more “Historical Realism” in Tabletop role-playing. Everything from disparaging Hit Points, to weapon space, and for the modern and future settings, the minutae of guns. I’ve seen hundreds of systems and house-rules. Most of them bogging down the game as the table comes to a screeching halt as we figure out what body-part just got hit by which attack.

    The other historical rabbit-hole is environmental realism. Great Lords ruled over peasants, the aristocracy were allowed to do whatever they wanted because they were the rulers. Gods, after Braveheart roared through the community like so many screaming extras, the term Prima Noctis started cropping up everywhere. Of course, enslavement of every historical stripe has long been a yardstick by which “immersion” was measured. Lawful and Good alignments were construed to support the institution. It was deemed, “ok” and “natural” and because it was imaginary roleplay, wasn’t really real. Like I mentioned up in the consent section, if that’s what the table agrees to, then enjoy your game. I’m not trying to police your table.

    But, when you hear my game in the FLGS, or play at my table at convention, don’t expect to go to the market and buy yourself a slave. I don’t have fun being a GM who plays the slaver, or the enslaved. I don’t care for “historical realism”. At best it’s whitewashed History, at worst it’s a power fantasy about owning people.

    What about those Slavers hanging out in the Underdark?

    I started this essay with the adventure and setting I’m designing. By having slavery as an institution in the background, I’m hoping to allow the tables who utilize my adventure some freedom to adjust it’s impact to suit their taste. There’s a group of escaped slaves and there’s a band of hunters chasing them, it’s up to the players and their characters to react to that set of encounters. It’s up to the Game Master to determine it’s importance. Slavers have made great antagonists in fiction for a very long time. One of the first series of adventures published for AD&D was the A-Series of modules, collectively known as “Against the Slave Lords”. One of the classic cues that there is something “bad” about a given realm is the presence or absence of legal slavery. I’m not saying “don’t use slavery at all in D&D”, I’m asking to put some thought into whether or not it contributes to the story that’s being made at your table.

    And, for the Seven Heavens, don’t justify it behind the excuse of “slavery was common in 3rd Century Rome (or 16th century France, or choose your historical era here)”. Tabletop roleplaying isn’t about historical accuracy, it’s about having fun with your friends, and making new ones.