Shir'le E. Illios wrote:Interesting.
Though I do wonder how that works with the one detail about drow skin color that I did like: that Corellon gave the drow their skin color to show his love for his (then) wife and children (where Araushnee took it as an insult, which added to her eventually betraying the elven deities).
Maybe that was true in 2e (and in 2e there was no mention of appearance-changing curses, it first appeared in 3e IIRC), but--assuming that it was still true in 3e--in the end-3e/LP version, he could only have done that by making the dark elves brown-skinned. The curse that turned them into black-skinned elves came much later, and had the purpose to "reflect the evil inside" or some other BS like that.
In this version, the drow have always been black-skinned/silver-haired, no appearance-changing curse there. Interestingly, this is perfectly in line with Elaine's Evermeet: Island of Elves (2e). In that book, Araushnee, Eilistraee, and all dark elves are black-skinned from the beginning. But it's no surprise, really, end-3e covered anything good regarding the drow in the previous lore with tons of mud, and intentionally so (Thinking about it, I'm no longer torn over this: it's a good feeling to see the end-3e influence gone. I don't like when previous lore gets dumpstered, but end-3e/LP trashed all that came before, so getting rid of it is for the best).
It also makes me wonder if the drow were still cursed (during one of the Crown Wars) to be forced underground. I did have a story for that in mind at one point.
Even so, I do like the approach that it's how they chose to look.
Love -x-x-x-
Shir'le
According to Lost Empires of Faerun, after the drow were cursed, all of them (including innocents and victims) were forcefully driven underground by the joined forces of all the remaining elven empires. It wasn't magic to drive them down there, but other elves, so that could easily still be true even without appearance-changing curses.
I agree that this is an interesting development, and it gets rid of one of the most hated aspects of the LP books (one that also warped Eilistraee's character and goals).
I'd also like to hear what kind of story you had in mind, if that's possible.