In an other thread, someone asserted, drow have "inky black" skin. Some drow do, but drow have a variety of possible skin tones, just like humans do.
The artwork in Tashas, whose editors are highly sensitive to skin colors, intentionally include portraits of the drow with "light gray" skin thus emphasizing the range of skin tones possible. Of course, every edition of D&D includes these various skin tones among drow portraits. There are D&D texts too that mention the diversity of drow complexion.
The 5e Players Handbook − presenting the 5e version of the Forgotten Realms setting − mentions how the drow skin "resembles polished obsidian". Obsidian itself comes in a variety of shades and can be pale, whether translucent or featuring whitish mineral inclusions, or both. Here is an example of a "silvery" polished obsidian. Other specimens of obsidian can be even paler.
Here is an example of obsidian that I normally have in mind when I imagine a "typical" drow. You can see how it allows for lots of skin tone details.
Here is an example of polished snow obsidian, suggesting what drow freckles might look like.
Polished obsidian shines with a "vitreous" (glass-like) luster. It can range from opaque to translucent, and from black to pale gray, depending on the particle inclusions that comprise the obsidian. A hint of color is possible, with examples of magenta, violet, indigo, cyan, emerald, lime, yellow, gold, orange, vermilion, and ruby. A choice of color can be awesome for an otherworldly fey ambiance for the drow complexion.
I enjoy the flavor of "obsidian" skin for many reasons. Mostly, the obsidian is a stone thus connotes the drow as subterranean nature spirits. They are fey. The obsidian has a glasslike luster and is clearly nonhuman. The many forms that reallife obsidian can come in, matches the many ways that D&D has portrayed the drow across the eras. The variety of obsidian allows for a variety of drow skin colors. The palette of shades and colors available gives D&D artists creative space to diversify the artwork, to focus on specific character concepts, thus makes D&D artwork more interesting. I love the obsidian!
The drow illustrations in Tashas include dark skin (purplish) and light skin (grayish). Such drow depictions are standard in D&D and are familiar to me. What did get my attention, was the high elves with dark skin. For example, my favorite art in Tashas is the Psi Warrior illustration. The skin is dark bronze (blackish gray with hue of orange red). The hair is black.
A brief digression. What I especially love about the Psi Warrior portrait is, it conveys the "jock wizard" archetype. He is clean-shaven short-hair, muscular, and masculine. He is also goodlooking. It is rare to find a wizard in D&D that I view as goodlooking. For me the jock wizard is a refreshing change of pace from the long-hair long-beard robed archetype, heh, that I am quite sick of. I get the trope − Merlin! Gandalf! − but please move on! Each wizard is unique. Indeed a wizard can find a way to look like whatever one wants to look. Depictions of wizards can be more diverse than other classes! The Psi Warrior is of course a Fighter archetype (who are stereotypically goodlooking clean-shaven short-hair jocks) but the aura of magical special effects from the telekinetic shield comes across visually as wizardly enough. I appreciate that this individual elf appears masculine and muscular, and appreciate that this particular wizard appears masculine and muscular. There are wizards who are androgynous, whether young or old, and at the same time, there is a whole spectrum of gender possibilities for wizard portraits. Some male wizards are masculine, some are androgynous, some are feminine.
The skin color of the high elf surprised me when I was looking at the illustration for the Bladesinger. It depicts two Bladesingers, one a feminine woman and one a masculine man. (Again, thank you for the jock wizard! The hair was long rather than a short-hair wizard, but that is ok on occasion, heh.) The caption said, "drow" and "high elf". I looked at the picture and wondered why the drow had black hair. Of course, I then realized the high elf had the dark skin (bluish), and the drow had the light skin (light gray). Actually, the two are about the same shade, but the bluish coloring along with the contrasting hair, made the overall impression of the drow read as a lighter complexion.
I love the obsidian flavor of the drow, because of its stone earthiness. For the high elf, I enjoy the skyey colors. Any sky color is possible, including the dusky purples of a twilight sunset. Some high elves can have cloud-like skin and sunshine-bright hair (compare the wood elf wild magic barbarian), but dusk and night are also possible, and the high elves too feature a diversity of skin complexions.
Drow versus High Elf. Earth versus Sky. I like it.
Seeing as how they are a subterranean race with almost no exposure to UV radiation, and therefore no need for melanin or other pigmentations, the Drow in my world are ashen gray.
I'm more amused by the WoW-like high elf in the picture than anything to do with the drow. I don't tend to think of D&D high elves as sky blue.
The elf ears too are diverse in Tashas elf portraits. The Religious Order Patron depicts elves (Acolytes), who probably exhibit "typical" elf ears, something like a narrowish teardrop shape.
However, the ear shapes of individual elves vary greatly.
• both the drow and the high elf (Bladesingers): teardrop ears (but with tips capped in ear jewelry to enhance a long narrow point)
• high elf (Psi Warrior): small subtle (tolkien-esque) ears • possibly high elf (Genie Warlock): long narrow sharp (somewhat wow-esque but smaller) ears
• drow elf (Eloquence Bard): very large wide cat-like (even vampire-bat-like) ears • drow elf (Infiltrator Artificer): long narrow ears • drow elf (Rogue with Steady Aim): small subtle ears.
• wood elf (Wild Magic Barbarian): small but long and narrow ears • wood elf (Aristocrat): large sharp ears
• two elves (in a guild as a Patron recruiting gymnasts): brunette with the typical teardrop ears, blond with large long narrow ears
• possibly elf (Intellect Fortress): very large long narrow (wow-esque) ears • possibly elf (searching for Traps): curved paisely-like but very long and narrow ears
All-in-all, elves exhibit extensive variations on the teardrop shape. The diversity seems to vary more by individual than by group.
I'm more amused by the WoW-like high elf in the picture than anything to do with the drow. I don't tend to think of D&D high elves as sky blue.
Moon elves (one kind of high elf) have long had bluish skin tones in Forgotten Realms.
In Tashas, the individual diversity of skin colors makes it more difficult to color code the elves. For example, I am unsure if the Acolytes of the Religious Order Patron, are wood elves or high elves.
I will guess the high elves have a higher frequency of purplish shades (whose tinge can range from indigo to ruby), and wood elves have higher frequency of grass-ish (from emerald to chatreuse). But both elves have a spectrum of skin colors that overlap all of the human shades of orange. When an elf is some shade of orange (whether bronze or white), I cant tell if the elf is wood or high.
Possibly, the seguing away from "color coding" is intentional. So, the wood elves and high elves are just "elves". Meanwhile, what makes the drow distinctive isnt their color, but their glass-like stone luster.
Seeing as how they are a subterranean race with almost no exposure to UV radiation, and therefore no need for melanin or other pigmentations, the Drow in my world are ashen gray.
Here is the image of the Bladesingers in Tashas. It comes from a preview for Tashas content in Fantasy Grounds, and is made available to the public, here via Enworld.
The image is an excellent example of the diverse complexions that individual elves can have.
In this preview you can see three elves. • Dark bronze − wood elf (Aristocrat, top right image) • Indigo − high elf (Bladesinger, on right of bottom right image) • Ashen gray − drow elf (Bladesinger, on left of bottom right image)
At least, it's well documented with pretty pictures, but I like my drow like I like my coffee, pure black. :p
Which is sort of a lie as I don't drink coffee, but still, I lik my drows "vintage" thank you very much. :D
I agree. That’s how they were described in the Fiend Folio way back when and that’s how I like them as well. But if others want to have a variety of tones that’s fine with me. Play how you like.
I will always think of drow as having dark skin, though individual variation makes sense. Elven skin tones have varied (wood elves tend to have more earthy skin tones, for example). I don't have Tashas, but I will agree about the wizards lol. I enjoy a young, good-looking wizard myself lol.
I hope they keep elven culture (I know bladesinger has been made an option for others, but I will always think of it is as elven thing, considering it is part of their culture as much as it is a class). But that comes regardless of skin tone, so skyey elves are fine with me. Just give me elves lol.
I will always think of drow as having dark skin, though individual variation makes sense. Elven skin tones have varied (wood elves tend to have more earthy skin tones, for example). I don't have Tashas, but I will agree about the wizards lol. I enjoy a young, good-looking wizard myself lol.
I hope they keep elven culture (I know bladesinger has been made an option for others, but I will always think of it is as elven thing, considering it is part of their culture as much as it is a class). But that comes regardless of skin tone, so skyey elves are fine with me. Just give me elves lol.
It occurs to me, the male wizards are goodlooking BECAUSE they are elves.
I approve! In the reallife folkbeliefs, different cultures have quite different ideas about elves. But what all the elves have in common is fate, magic, and beauty. Likewise, when beings from other cultures are equated with elves, such Greek nymph, the reason for the connection is beauty.
The skin color of drow evolved across the editions of D&D.
In 1e, the original drow by Gygax (as found in the Vault of Drow and Fiend Folio) have "black" skin. Females had glossy skin, and males had matte skin.
In 2e, the drow of the Forgotten Realms setting by Greenwood, the drow likewise have "black" skin.
The 3e Monster Manual says the drow has "jet black" skin, but the drow illustration looks like purple obsidian.
In the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, the original "dark elves" have "dark skin" of various shades and colors, while only the ones called drow who worship Lolth have "black" skin. Both the females and the males of these drow have glossy skin, resembling glass-like "polished obsidian". The non-black dark elves can vary in skin color.
(Also note in the 3e FRCS, some of the "moon elves" have blue skin. Today in the 5e Players Handbook, these moon elves are among the many variations of high elves. Thus, some 5e high elves have blue skin, as we see in the Tashas portrait of the Bladesinger.)
In 4e, in both the Forgotten Kingdoms and the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, the drow have "midnight black skin with a blue cast".
The 5e Players Handbook has combined all of these possible skin colors for the drow. There the drow entry as a subrace of elf says, the drow are "dark skin" of many shades and colors, and is like "polished obsidian", where obsidian itself comes in a diversity of shades and colors.
I always took the "blue skin" of the moon elves to mean a blueish tinge, not actual Blue Men blue lol, but more like how real world humans can have "bronze" or "reddish" tinges to skin. But I agree that how skin tones are described in D&D has evolved over time.
The Forgotten Realms setting has "albino" drow who have white skin. The skin can be "pale" gray, "bone white", or bright "alabaster white". These white drow can pass as high elves.
The guidebook, 3e Drow of the Underdark, mentions the white-skin drow. The drow language calls them szarkai "ghost spider".
If I understand correctly, Ed Greenwood mentions them in his 2e Drow of the Underdark. They occur in a few adventures.
Drow with light skin have been around since AD&D.
In the context of 5e, the paler specimens of the "polished obsidian" covers this aspect of D&D drow tradition, albeit such palor is more likely "pale" grayish, possibly with a hint of color, as a opposed to bright white.
I always took the "blue skin" of the moon elves to mean a blueish tinge, not actual Blue Men blue lol, but more like how real world humans can have "bronze" or "reddish" tinges to skin. But I agree that how skin tones are described in D&D has evolved over time.
I love how the high elf includes the "sun elf" and the "moon elf" as aspects of the sky. If their skin color includes any sky color, including daylight blue, midnight blue, bright cloud, golden sunbeam, ruddy sunset, purple-blue twilight, I am a happy camper.
I would be even happier if they were actually luminous like the sky, glowing with an aura of light.
I like your volcanic rock spectrum for the Drow and sky notes to high elf complexions, the photo essay was really cool. I think wood elves can fit in the middle of this logic having various greens and brown tawny hues (sorta non mechanically but tonally reflective of "natural camouflage" to reflect their society's nature) reflective of the forest flora they inhabit. Eldadrin, I see a bit more tuned to respective seasons' vibrance. Literal snow whites that shine with crystaline properties for winters, Vibrant greens and other colors reflective of fruits and lush foliage of springs and winters (maybe stretch over to plumage colorations too). Impressive oranges and reds and yellows for the Autumnal harvest and foliage turning.
What palette (and aspect of nature, if anything besides shadows?) would go with Shadar Kai?
Seeing as how they are a subterranean race with almost no exposure to UV radiation, and therefore no need for melanin or other pigmentations, the Drow in my world are ashen gray.
Judjing from the legends of their origins I doubt the dark in Drow skin have anything to do with melanin. More likely with ommochromes or other black pigments found in spiders. Which fit the description of Drow skin rather well - with blue-ish hue and gloss rather than brown-ish hue and pastel tone of melanin.
In an other thread, someone asserted, drow have "inky black" skin. Some drow do, but drow have a variety of possible skin tones, just like humans do.
The artwork in Tashas, whose editors are highly sensitive to skin colors, intentionally include portraits of the drow with "light gray" skin thus emphasizing the range of skin tones possible. Of course, every edition of D&D includes these various skin tones among drow portraits. There are D&D texts too that mention the diversity of drow complexion.
The 5e Players Handbook − presenting the 5e version of the Forgotten Realms setting − mentions how the drow skin "resembles polished obsidian". Obsidian itself comes in a variety of shades and can be pale, whether translucent or featuring whitish mineral inclusions, or both. Here is an example of a "silvery" polished obsidian. Other specimens of obsidian can be even paler.
Here is an example of obsidian that I normally have in mind when I imagine a "typical" drow. You can see how it allows for lots of skin tone details.
Here is an example of polished snow obsidian, suggesting what drow freckles might look like.
Polished obsidian shines with a "vitreous" (glass-like) luster. It can range from opaque to translucent, and from black to pale gray, depending on the particle inclusions that comprise the obsidian. A hint of color is possible, with examples of magenta, violet, indigo, cyan, emerald, lime, yellow, gold, orange, vermilion, and ruby. A choice of color can be awesome for an otherworldly fey ambiance for the drow complexion.
I enjoy the flavor of "obsidian" skin for many reasons. Mostly, the obsidian is a stone thus connotes the drow as subterranean nature spirits. They are fey. The obsidian has a glasslike luster and is clearly nonhuman. The many forms that reallife obsidian can come in, matches the many ways that D&D has portrayed the drow across the eras. The variety of obsidian allows for a variety of drow skin colors. The palette of shades and colors available gives D&D artists creative space to diversify the artwork, to focus on specific character concepts, thus makes D&D artwork more interesting. I love the obsidian!
The drow illustrations in Tashas include dark skin (purplish) and light skin (grayish). Such drow depictions are standard in D&D and are familiar to me. What did get my attention, was the high elves with dark skin. For example, my favorite art in Tashas is the Psi Warrior illustration. The skin is dark bronze (blackish gray with hue of orange red). The hair is black.
A brief digression. What I especially love about the Psi Warrior portrait is, it conveys the "jock wizard" archetype. He is clean-shaven short-hair, muscular, and masculine. He is also goodlooking. It is rare to find a wizard in D&D that I view as goodlooking. For me the jock wizard is a refreshing change of pace from the long-hair long-beard robed archetype, heh, that I am quite sick of. I get the trope − Merlin! Gandalf! − but please move on! Each wizard is unique. Indeed a wizard can find a way to look like whatever one wants to look. Depictions of wizards can be more diverse than other classes! The Psi Warrior is of course a Fighter archetype (who are stereotypically goodlooking clean-shaven short-hair jocks) but the aura of magical special effects from the telekinetic shield comes across visually as wizardly enough. I appreciate that this individual elf appears masculine and muscular, and appreciate that this particular wizard appears masculine and muscular. There are wizards who are androgynous, whether young or old, and at the same time, there is a whole spectrum of gender possibilities for wizard portraits. Some male wizards are masculine, some are androgynous, some are feminine.
The skin color of the high elf surprised me when I was looking at the illustration for the Bladesinger. It depicts two Bladesingers, one a feminine woman and one a masculine man. (Again, thank you for the jock wizard! The hair was long rather than a short-hair wizard, but that is ok on occasion, heh.) The caption said, "drow" and "high elf". I looked at the picture and wondered why the drow had black hair. Of course, I then realized the high elf had the dark skin (bluish), and the drow had the light skin (light gray). Actually, the two are about the same shade, but the bluish coloring along with the contrasting hair, made the overall impression of the drow read as a lighter complexion.
I love the obsidian flavor of the drow, because of its stone earthiness. For the high elf, I enjoy the skyey colors. Any sky color is possible, including the dusky purples of a twilight sunset. Some high elves can have cloud-like skin and sunshine-bright hair (compare the wood elf wild magic barbarian), but dusk and night are also possible, and the high elves too feature a diversity of skin complexions.
Drow versus High Elf. Earth versus Sky. I like it.
he / him
I'm more amused by the WoW-like high elf in the picture than anything to do with the drow. I don't tend to think of D&D high elves as sky blue.
Moon elves (one kind of high elf) have long had bluish skin tones in Forgotten Realms.
Seeing as how they are a subterranean race with almost no exposure to UV radiation, and therefore no need for melanin or other pigmentations, the Drow in my world are ashen gray.
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The elf ears too are diverse in Tashas elf portraits. The Religious Order Patron depicts elves (Acolytes), who probably exhibit "typical" elf ears, something like a narrowish teardrop shape.
However, the ear shapes of individual elves vary greatly.
• both the drow and the high elf (Bladesingers): teardrop ears (but with tips capped in ear jewelry to enhance a long narrow point)
• high elf (Psi Warrior): small subtle (tolkien-esque) ears
• possibly high elf (Genie Warlock): long narrow sharp (somewhat wow-esque but smaller) ears
• drow elf (Eloquence Bard): very large wide cat-like (even vampire-bat-like) ears
• drow elf (Infiltrator Artificer): long narrow ears
• drow elf (Rogue with Steady Aim): small subtle ears.
• wood elf (Wild Magic Barbarian): small but long and narrow ears
• wood elf (Aristocrat): large sharp ears
• two elves (in a guild as a Patron recruiting gymnasts): brunette with the typical teardrop ears, blond with large long narrow ears
• possibly elf (Intellect Fortress): very large long narrow (wow-esque) ears
• possibly elf (searching for Traps): curved paisely-like but very long and narrow ears
All-in-all, elves exhibit extensive variations on the teardrop shape. The diversity seems to vary more by individual than by group.
he / him
In Tashas, the individual diversity of skin colors makes it more difficult to color code the elves. For example, I am unsure if the Acolytes of the Religious Order Patron, are wood elves or high elves.
I will guess the high elves have a higher frequency of purplish shades (whose tinge can range from indigo to ruby), and wood elves have higher frequency of grass-ish (from emerald to chatreuse). But both elves have a spectrum of skin colors that overlap all of the human shades of orange. When an elf is some shade of orange (whether bronze or white), I cant tell if the elf is wood or high.
Possibly, the seguing away from "color coding" is intentional. So, the wood elves and high elves are just "elves". Meanwhile, what makes the drow distinctive isnt their color, but their glass-like stone luster.
he / him
Ashen gray. A normal shade of stone!
he / him
I like my coffee the way I like my souls: dark as night and bitter as sin. I suppose that goes for Drow too.
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Here is the image of the Bladesingers in Tashas. It comes from a preview for Tashas content in Fantasy Grounds, and is made available to the public, here via Enworld.
The image is an excellent example of the diverse complexions that individual elves can have.
In this preview you can see three elves.
• Dark bronze − wood elf (Aristocrat, top right image)
• Indigo − high elf (Bladesinger, on right of bottom right image)
• Ashen gray − drow elf (Bladesinger, on left of bottom right image)
Skyey high elf and earthy drow. Love it!
he / him
I agree. That’s how they were described in the Fiend Folio way back when and that’s how I like them as well. But if others want to have a variety of tones that’s fine with me. Play how you like.
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I will always think of drow as having dark skin, though individual variation makes sense. Elven skin tones have varied (wood elves tend to have more earthy skin tones, for example). I don't have Tashas, but I will agree about the wizards lol. I enjoy a young, good-looking wizard myself lol.
I hope they keep elven culture (I know bladesinger has been made an option for others, but I will always think of it is as elven thing, considering it is part of their culture as much as it is a class). But that comes regardless of skin tone, so skyey elves are fine with me. Just give me elves lol.
It occurs to me, the male wizards are goodlooking BECAUSE they are elves.
I approve! In the reallife folkbeliefs, different cultures have quite different ideas about elves. But what all the elves have in common is fate, magic, and beauty. Likewise, when beings from other cultures are equated with elves, such Greek nymph, the reason for the connection is beauty.
he / him
The skin color of drow evolved across the editions of D&D.
In 1e, the original drow by Gygax (as found in the Vault of Drow and Fiend Folio) have "black" skin. Females had glossy skin, and males had matte skin.
In 2e, the drow of the Forgotten Realms setting by Greenwood, the drow likewise have "black" skin.
The 3e Monster Manual says the drow has "jet black" skin, but the drow illustration looks like purple obsidian.
In the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, the original "dark elves" have "dark skin" of various shades and colors, while only the ones called drow who worship Lolth have "black" skin. Both the females and the males of these drow have glossy skin, resembling glass-like "polished obsidian". The non-black dark elves can vary in skin color.
(Also note in the 3e FRCS, some of the "moon elves" have blue skin. Today in the 5e Players Handbook, these moon elves are among the many variations of high elves. Thus, some 5e high elves have blue skin, as we see in the Tashas portrait of the Bladesinger.)
In 4e, in both the Forgotten Kingdoms and the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, the drow have "midnight black skin with a blue cast".
The 5e Players Handbook has combined all of these possible skin colors for the drow. There the drow entry as a subrace of elf says, the drow are "dark skin" of many shades and colors, and is like "polished obsidian", where obsidian itself comes in a diversity of shades and colors.
he / him
I always took the "blue skin" of the moon elves to mean a blueish tinge, not actual Blue Men blue lol, but more like how real world humans can have "bronze" or "reddish" tinges to skin. But I agree that how skin tones are described in D&D has evolved over time.
The Forgotten Realms setting has "albino" drow who have white skin. The skin can be "pale" gray, "bone white", or bright "alabaster white". These white drow can pass as high elves.
The guidebook, 3e Drow of the Underdark, mentions the white-skin drow. The drow language calls them szarkai "ghost spider".
If I understand correctly, Ed Greenwood mentions them in his 2e Drow of the Underdark. They occur in a few adventures.
Drow with light skin have been around since AD&D.
In the context of 5e, the paler specimens of the "polished obsidian" covers this aspect of D&D drow tradition, albeit such palor is more likely "pale" grayish, possibly with a hint of color, as a opposed to bright white.
he / him
I love how the high elf includes the "sun elf" and the "moon elf" as aspects of the sky. If their skin color includes any sky color, including daylight blue, midnight blue, bright cloud, golden sunbeam, ruddy sunset, purple-blue twilight, I am a happy camper.
I would be even happier if they were actually luminous like the sky, glowing with an aura of light.
he / him
I like your volcanic rock spectrum for the Drow and sky notes to high elf complexions, the photo essay was really cool. I think wood elves can fit in the middle of this logic having various greens and brown tawny hues (sorta non mechanically but tonally reflective of "natural camouflage" to reflect their society's nature) reflective of the forest flora they inhabit. Eldadrin, I see a bit more tuned to respective seasons' vibrance. Literal snow whites that shine with crystaline properties for winters, Vibrant greens and other colors reflective of fruits and lush foliage of springs and winters (maybe stretch over to plumage colorations too). Impressive oranges and reds and yellows for the Autumnal harvest and foliage turning.
What palette (and aspect of nature, if anything besides shadows?) would go with Shadar Kai?
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Judjing from the legends of their origins I doubt the dark in Drow skin have anything to do with melanin. More likely with ommochromes or other black pigments found in spiders. Which fit the description of Drow skin rather well - with blue-ish hue and gloss rather than brown-ish hue and pastel tone of melanin.
Which is fun because coffee isn't really black at all, only really really dark brown. :P