The World of Layonara

The Layonara Community => Roleplaying => Topic started by: Script Wrecked on July 03, 2008, 10:36:36 PM

Title: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: Script Wrecked on July 03, 2008, 10:36:36 PM: Or,

"Why Play A Drow If You're Only Going To Be A Dark Skinned Elf?"

(and I use the term "drow" deliberately)

The original drow, of course, was Drizzt Do'Urden (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Drizzt_Do'Urden),

[INDENT]"an atypical drow who has forsaken both the evil ways of his people and their home in the Underdark. He is one of few drow known to live on the surface."[/INDENT]

who has become the archetypal drow character, and whose story of escaping the Underdark and living on the surface forms the proforma for most drow character backgrounds (due in part to the neccessity of having to get from there to here to play).

It seems to me that an intrinsic part of the drow character storyline is the hated outsider living incognito amongst the traditional adversary.

That story then advances and the character develops as they eventually establish a relationship with some of the people they meet (other player characters), forming a tight circle of trusted friends, to whom they (probably) end up revealing themselves, either because they are good, and are proving their worth despite their dark lineage, or because they are evil and are really duping everyone.

However, it seems to me that the whole premise is undermined by players flaunting their character's drowness in public, as though drow are generally accepted.

Aside from this going against what is written about [LORE]Dark Elves[/LORE] in Lore, if drow are generally accepted, what's the point of being one? If everyone accepts you, aren't you just a dark-skinned elf?

In my opinion, being generally accepted breaks the uniqueness of the concept and the role-playing opportunity of being a drow has to offer.

Further, by flaunting a character's drowness, isn't the above premise being broken for the next person to play a drow?

There is no big reveal when the next character outs themselves (or is outted) as a drow, because everyone knows of[SIZE=10](1)[/SIZE] half-a-dozen other drow. "Oh, another dark elf. More above than below, they say. Yes, isn't one of them a waiter in the such-and-such pub?" In short, drow become mundane.

In a module, such actions would be fine, because the story is about you. In a persistent world, where you are one of many, isn't there is a certain responsibility to those who will come after you?

Regards,

Script Wrecked.

[SIZE=10](1) as opposed to "knows".[/SIZE]
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: AeonBlues on July 04, 2008, 04:20:26 AM: Greaeaeaeaeat, must be that time of year. Get out your oak clubs and pitch forks. Light your torches. It is time to bash and the dark elfs and remind everyone that drow are deceitful evil buggers. History has taught us over and over again that drow will lie, cheat and murder your children. Anyone who has made friends with a drow is either crazy or a bad role player.

*sighs* Alas, you are right, people do need reminders. To trust a drow is to trust the player OOCly and not recognize that the drow are the most feared, most treacherous, and most notoriously evil of all races.

AeonBlues
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: Stephen_Zuckerman on July 04, 2008, 08:52:28 AM: I agree with AeonBlues' statement. Well. The literal meaning.

Drow are evil. Kill them. Exceptions? Bah.

:)
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: miltonyorkcastle on July 04, 2008, 09:19:05 AM: Pssst. Drow don't exist on Layo. It's dark elf or nothing. :p

P.S. I know what you're getting at and for that the name difference means little. I'm just trying to steer players away from using the term "drow" in general. Speaking of which, if you notice anywhere on LORE that it mentions "drow," let me know so the term can be changed to "dark elf."
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: Serissa on July 04, 2008, 09:26:09 AM: Most RL underground species have lost their color. Perhaps the new game will have evil pure white elves with red eyes and special sensitivity to sunburn?
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: Lareth on July 04, 2008, 09:49:19 AM: Quote from: Serissa
Most RL underground species have lost their color. Perhaps the new game will have evil pure white elves with red eyes and special sensitivity to sunburn?

Hehe, I like that as an idea.... albinos make the best baddies, there's just something extra creepy about them :)
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: Gulnyr on July 04, 2008, 12:18:03 PM: Quote from: miltonyorkcastle
Pssst. Drow don't exist on Layo. It's dark elf or nothing.

Quote from: Serissa
Most RL underground species have lost their color. Perhaps the new game will have evil pure white elves with red eyes and special sensitivity to sunburn?

While Milt's statement is true and we all know it because we play here are pay attention, generally, even if we slip up and say 'drow' now and then, Serissa's suggestion of changing the appearance drastically is the only way to keep new players from joining the MMO, seeing black-skinned elves, and saying, "Oh look, drow."

Don't want drow? Don't make drow! If there are no black-skinned elves, there will be no drow. That's the simplest way to get rid of the word from the world.
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: Drizzlin on July 04, 2008, 04:40:55 PM: While I agree with your intent behind the post and that dark elves need to be treated as stated in lore, you are off on Drizzt being the first dark elf. First off Gary Gygax created dark elves back in one of his first modules as npc monsters.

You can say Drizzt was the first to have novels written about him, but that was because he was the .0000000000001% unique dark elf. The real Drow remained in the city of Menzoberanzen and were later written about in more deapth. I like to think that Matron Malice was the first Drow written about as she gave birth to Drizzt in the opening scene and that book was about the fall of her house, the betrayal of her weaponmaster, and the doom of her house because of her son. =)

Jarlaxle was around well before Drizzt and there have been books about him, and books about the dark elf cities. Personally I love everything about Drizzt and at the same time hate that he is a Dark Elf, for the simple fact that everyone wants to play a goody dark elf. If you want to read a great Drow series, read The War of the Spider Queen series.

Edit: Oh and what Aeon said about the whole open dark elf's again...
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: lonnarin on July 04, 2008, 05:27:23 PM: *shrugs* People have certainly been shunning and threatening and spitting upon my orc and Deep Dwarf properly. The problem with Dark elves is that their lads and lasses are so bloody HOT! I mean, look at Alantha, she's got a charisma of round the 30s likely. Some poor townguard's going to be summoned to stop... the most incredibly gorgeous woman he's ever seen. It's easy to hate the orc or the deep dwarf as they're ugly as sin. The orc's not even evil and people hate him. But put a hot elven lass in some silken robes with a 30+ charisma who neither wrinkles nor fattens with age, and being a guy kind of outweighs the being afraid of deep races. My friends have warned me of the evil in the hearts of my past 50 or so girfriends... didn't stop me from from making the same basic mistakes over and over.

As for kill on sight, hmmm, only Grovel my goblin is evil and depravedly unlawful to consider that. Gloom's evil as sin, wears it on his shoulder, but he still has the expectation to obey the law. Grovel's wise enough to not act openly evil and try to pretend to be a cutesy little freak like Smeagol kind of was. But everybody Neutral or better that I play has um... the basic morals that prevent them from being CE. So if anybody starts some witch-hunter campaign just because they're angsty that we have a PVP wand and rules and all, they can always make the request to be shifted CE and NPCized as a glowing red unspeaking killy-bugger. :P

Please review the crystal clear rules on PVP and understand that *kill on sight will never happen* Otherwise Darilith or G'ork would have respawn griefed you to permadeath by the bindstone long ago... Use the PvP wands! Use Tells! Use the Arena! But don't use history and rp as a shielded excuse to break server rules killing players on sight. RP the hate, don't mutter about how its not there.
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: Drizzlin on July 04, 2008, 06:08:24 PM: Leave it to Lonnarin...lol
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: Script Wrecked on July 05, 2008, 12:43:45 AM: Quote from: Drizzlin
While I agree with your intent behind the post and that dark elves need to be treated as stated in lore, you are off on Drizzt being the first dark elf. First off Gary Gygax created dark elves back in one of his first modules as npc monsters.

*thumbs through an original owner, AD&D (1e) "Dungeon Module D3, Vault of the Drow" module* :)

Quote from: lonnarin
Please review the crystal clear rules on PVP and understand that *kill on sight will never happen* Otherwise Darilith or G'ork would have respawn griefed you to permadeath by the bindstone long ago... Use the PvP wands! Use Tells! Use the Arena! But don't use history and rp as a shielded excuse to break server rules killing players on sight. RP the hate, don't mutter about how its not there.

Absolutely.

Though, perhaps if dark elf characters were RP'ed as though they were down to their last Soul Strand, and would be lynched, hung, drawn, quartered, fricasseed, boiled in oil, plunged in molten iron, and exposed to Kryptonite if revealed, then perhaps that might give a certain "edge" to their RP. ;)

Regards,

Script Wrecked.
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: lonnarin on July 05, 2008, 03:03:11 AM: Plenty surface dwarves out there still portal through Prantz. Some own property and pay taxes there. I think more dwarves out there should feel what it's like to be worried about being executed on sight. You can ask Skabot or Ketibjorn how utterly difficult it is to try and get Bjornigar anywhere NEAR even Haft Lake... He treats that place like most dark elves should treat Hempstead!

Not too many tackle the deep dwarf guards though. The curse of the purple floaty text... Turns brutal violent racists into Azattan choir boys every time! What Would Varka Do? *salutes his statue* He'd go down fighting or not go at all, that's what. None of this smiling polite to the durn deep dwarf guards, thats for certain! And no going through checkpoints to use the crafthall either.

It's not that THEY should be in fear of us, but we should be afraid of THEM! You can't really blame the dark elves trying to pretend to be likeable, they have +2 intelligence so they are cunning, and +2 charisma so they have a way with words and tend to be convincing liars. We on the other hand who hate the dark elves enough to try to lynch them on sight, should treat every single one of them as dangerous as Darilith or a Dark Elf Mage of the Rift... capable of zapping us with an implosion at any moment. The lack of hatred shown is part of the reason that I RP Gloom as so utterly detestable. I try to clue people in immediately that this guy is not somebody you would want to have stand watch over you sleeping, and any "friendship" he has is purely mercantile. I wholley enjoy the loathing he's had at the hands of Grenna and Chaynce for example! And Barion surely would love to wring his pompous, wretched little neck. Others like Trouble and Filuviel refuse to even be near him because of not racial, but purely moral reasons. Still, he has a 6 charisma.. and the lowest charisma or intelligence a dark elf can start with in game is 10. So I think that might be the biggest difference between say an orc and a dark dwarf, vs. a dark elf. If you're trying to convince a police officer that you're not a shoplifter, do you smile at him and try to blend in, or do you do a quick doubletake and start running, obviously scared? The typical dark elf is both cunning and charismatic, he's going to try to blend in, pretend he's a loveable guy. Don't blame him for trying, yell at him, warn his friends, show some of that racial hate.
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: Drizzlin on July 05, 2008, 04:09:20 AM: Quote from: Script Wrecked
*thumbs through an original owner, AD&D (1e) "Dungeon Module D3, Vault of the Drow" module* :)

Absolutely.

Though, perhaps if dark elf characters were RP'ed as though they were down to their last Soul Strand, and would be lynched, hung, drawn, quartered, fricasseed, boiled in oil, plunged in molten iron, and exposed to Kryptonite if revealed, then perhaps that might give a certain "edge" to their RP. ;)

Regards,

Script Wrecked.

It is a double edged sword though. While some dark elves would be careful, to RP a dark elf properly, you have to have the mindset that all races are below you. A dark elf believes they are superior to all races in every way and always have the upper hand. Then take into account how powerful some actually are, like Sin was, Alantha, and to some degree Daralith. Those three dark elves walk with confidence that they will survive....

Now with that said, they are not fools and shouldn't walk around in the open on the surface flaunting what they are, nor should an elf walk freely in a dark elf city. I just dislike when people forget what they are dealing with, but I also know where you are coming from when people do not portray dark elves as LORE states they should be.
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: lonnarin on July 05, 2008, 07:45:24 AM: I think that critiquing of the populace on whether or not they are RPing a race properly does little in the long run. In literally a fraction of the time spent debating the whole "subrace X is so evil we should hate them more" side of things, those who have a problem with how those races were being currently portrayed could just simply roll up their own villainous hated characters of said race; they could set the standard. I mean, look how many times Darilith was referenced in this thread and he's just one dark elf! That's why I made Gloom, to help promote the evil of deep dwarves. Too many people I felt were becoming complacent living in a city run by slavers who execute wee starving Gnomes! Why not instead of worrying about how *others* RP, a couple people make vile dark elves to meet said "tan elves" and taunt them IC? Do something dastardly like poison a well or eat a baby, something. Ruin that goodwill for the rest of them.

G'ork and Muhkuman are certainly giving people reason to rightly fear the half-orc as of late! Just ask Storold what he thinks of G'ork, or the whole Darsus family. Prior to G'ork, half-orcs were considered so cute and cuddly in comparison. Bakkee was a good foil to the common "me wuvs youse" misconception of the half-giant adventurer. Pyrtechite giantess who can rip yer arms off... egads! She scared even Farros. :D
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: Script Wrecked on July 05, 2008, 11:05:43 AM: Quote from: lonnarin
I think that critiquing of the populace on whether or not they are RPing a race properly does little in the long run. In literally a fraction of the time spent debating the whole "subrace X is so evil we should hate them more" side of things, those who have a problem with how those races were being currently portrayed could just simply roll up their own villainous hated characters of said race;

You speak of yourself in this regard, and assume too much about others. Some of us actually take a while to come up with their character backgrounds. I believe my first submission took two weeks to come together, and in the end didn't pass muster.

Also, some of us only run one character at a time, so there is only so much example setting that can be done.

However, point taken about walking the talk.

Regards,

Script Wrecked.
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: Link092 on July 15, 2008, 01:45:04 PM: ... hmmmmm.
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: scifibarbie on July 15, 2008, 01:59:50 PM: *meekly raises her hand...

I will say...If Grenna Rockbasher sees a dark elf..she attacks on sight. Nothing like hate and a battle ragers sensibilites. :D

And yes, Grennas had her butt handed to her on more than one occasion..still wont stop her though. :D

So all those dark elfs out there...stop and say hellp top grenna if you like. It would make her day...she give you milk and cookies, and an axe to the head! ;)
Title: Re: What It Means To Play A Drow
Post by: HooD!uM on February 12, 2010, 03:15:15 AM: Anyone ever read the Maztica trilogy from forgotten realms? Where can i get an albino Dark elf who can dupe a whole conquering army of humans/dwarfs to take a voyage to a unknown land, to plunder just to fit into her evil agenda that she's been planning for decades.... :P