Just a quick question because I am unsure about something.
I want to make a surface dwelling male Drow, be attracted to a Wood Elf female and visa versa.
The Drow would be a generational follower of Eilistraee. He comes from a family founded by some of the first Drow to turn against Lolth and escape the Underdark and survive. They have been trying to make their place on the surface world ever since. So this particular Drow has not been tainted by the evil society that corrupts other Drow.
Despite being a Drow, he has a love of nature and has tried to find someone to teach him Druid craft, but of course being a Drow, nobody would give him the time of day until he met this one Wood Elf.
The Wood Elf is generally kind hearted and trusting and prefers to judge people by their actions in the present and not by their past.
I want to make the two develop a friendship and then a secret relationship.
My question is though, what would happen if their relationship was discovered?
I can't seem to find a consistent answer to this question. So if anyone more versed in Elven lore can base an answer upon that, then I'd be eternally greatful.
Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whole misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Sorry, I could not resist :)
Anyway, from your description, it sounds as if the Drow's family would not mind as much, especially if a Cleric of Eilistraee blessed the relationship. The Wood Elf family...well, it depends on their background. Do they reside in an area that is prone to Drow attacks? Do they have a direct reason to despise the Drow? Since the Drow protagonist is from a family that turned against Lolth, do the Wood Elves know about this fact? If so, how long have they known about it?
Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whole misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
I love the way Shakespearean prose is written (wrote?).
It is elegant and beautiful and full of depth and meaning. It is almost like there is magic in the words - magic that inspires and moves the soul, and conjures up the imagination to bring into existence, whole new worlds.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
You always come up with the interesting questions..
My take would be, in the immediate circle of the Wood Elf community, it would be based on the level of trust, commitment, and time they know this Drow. Probably a good proven friend, and faithful wouldn't be a problem. But since we are talking elves, that could be a long time, because they can be patient. I'd personally say 100 years, if we are talking passive activity. If something heroic, or a more active commitment, it would be less. The more active, the less negative the response.
Outside that community, you would probably get somewhere between distaste and shock (other wood elves), disgust (moon, high elves), and perhaps bigotry (Eladrin, sun elves). Old biases and grudges take a long time to heal.
Other Drow, ( aka not of his family), would see them as traitors to their race, and would probably look to putting them on the altar of Lolth as quickly as possible, based on whatever priority the Matron Mothers have in mind at that moment. Other Drow exiles would be far more accepting, but I suppose that might have to do with why they are exiled. A house on the losing edge of a power struggle hiding on the surface, still thinks they are noble drow. An escaped group of males and females looking to free themselves from Lolth, would be far more accepting.
I was planning on having them both have the Druid class. The Wood Elf being a higher level Druid than the Drow, and the Drow essentially being taught the ways of the Druid by the Wood Elf.
I wanted to make the Drow into a kind and gentle person, who loves nature. There is no malice in his eyes, no hated in his actions and he finds joy and peace and companionship in the animals and plants and insects that make up his world.
Sadly, he has few friends who are not his family or from his community because the world at large has a bee in its bonnet about Drow - even ones who seem to be kind and honest at first glance and this is also why he has struggled to find a teacher or mentor to teach him the ways of the Druid. However, he has learned some things on his own, through trial and error.
I was thinking that the Wood Elf had been watching him for a while and was impressed with his determination to learn and his respect for the forest and the creatures that live there and his dedication to Eilistraee as well as his attempts to find joy and love and happiness in the world around him.
In short, he is not your typical Drow. He is completely free of the social conditioning that he would have received, had he of been born in one of the Drow cities of the Underdark and since his community is protected by Eilistraee, he is free of Lolth as well. Consequently, although he still looks like a Drow, his soul has much more in common with surface Elves; (although he can never truly be restored since only Corellon can do that and we all know that will never happen), and so, having seen what she believed to be true goodness in his heart, and a genuine desire to walk the path a Druid, the Wood Elf decided that she would be his teacher and the more time she spent teaching him and getting to know him, the closer they got.
It should also be noted that the Wood Elves live in a forest, and the Drow community makes their homes bordering this forest. There have not been any Drow attacks here for many, many years, and although the older Wood Elves might remember times when they were attacked by Drow, they have never had any problems with the surface Drow who are their neighbours.
For the most part, though, the two communities of Elves live entirely separate lives. The Wood Elves don't interact with the Drow unless the absolutely have to, and the Drow stay away from the Wood Elves, for fear they might anger them or provoke a knee jerk reaction.
The Drow know how they viewed, they know what their race has done and although they don't blame the other Elves for being angry about it or feeling hurt and betrayed by it, they don't want to risk a confrontation with them either because that might very well destroy everything that they have tried to build.
The two communities are peaceful neighbours who respect each other boundaries but hardly ever interact with each other.
Yipes, this is getting super long, but just thought I would share what I had been thinking since you shared all your thoughts with me.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Hi,
Just a quick question because I am unsure about something.
I want to make a surface dwelling male Drow, be attracted to a Wood Elf female and visa versa.
The Drow would be a generational follower of Eilistraee. He comes from a family founded by some of the first Drow to turn against Lolth and escape the Underdark and survive. They have been trying to make their place on the surface world ever since. So this particular Drow has not been tainted by the evil society that corrupts other Drow.
Despite being a Drow, he has a love of nature and has tried to find someone to teach him Druid craft, but of course being a Drow, nobody would give him the time of day until he met this one Wood Elf.
The Wood Elf is generally kind hearted and trusting and prefers to judge people by their actions in the present and not by their past.
I want to make the two develop a friendship and then a secret relationship.
My question is though, what would happen if their relationship was discovered?
I can't seem to find a consistent answer to this question. So if anyone more versed in Elven lore can base an answer upon that, then I'd be eternally greatful.
Thanks
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
According to the Bard of Avon:
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Sorry, I could not resist :)
Anyway, from your description, it sounds as if the Drow's family would not mind as much, especially if a Cleric of Eilistraee blessed the relationship. The Wood Elf family...well, it depends on their background. Do they reside in an area that is prone to Drow attacks? Do they have a direct reason to despise the Drow? Since the Drow protagonist is from a family that turned against Lolth, do the Wood Elves know about this fact? If so, how long have they known about it?
I hope this helps.
I love the way Shakespearean prose is written (wrote?).
It is elegant and beautiful and full of depth and meaning. It is almost like there is magic in the words - magic that inspires and moves the soul, and conjures up the imagination to bring into existence, whole new worlds.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
You always come up with the interesting questions..
My take would be, in the immediate circle of the Wood Elf community, it would be based on the level of trust, commitment, and time they know this Drow. Probably a good proven friend, and faithful wouldn't be a problem. But since we are talking elves, that could be a long time, because they can be patient. I'd personally say 100 years, if we are talking passive activity. If something heroic, or a more active commitment, it would be less. The more active, the less negative the response.
Outside that community, you would probably get somewhere between distaste and shock (other wood elves), disgust (moon, high elves), and perhaps bigotry (Eladrin, sun elves). Old biases and grudges take a long time to heal.
Other Drow, ( aka not of his family), would see them as traitors to their race, and would probably look to putting them on the altar of Lolth as quickly as possible, based on whatever priority the Matron Mothers have in mind at that moment. Other Drow exiles would be far more accepting, but I suppose that might have to do with why they are exiled. A house on the losing edge of a power struggle hiding on the surface, still thinks they are noble drow. An escaped group of males and females looking to free themselves from Lolth, would be far more accepting.
Those are good points.
I was planning on having them both have the Druid class. The Wood Elf being a higher level Druid than the Drow, and the Drow essentially being taught the ways of the Druid by the Wood Elf.
I wanted to make the Drow into a kind and gentle person, who loves nature. There is no malice in his eyes, no hated in his actions and he finds joy and peace and companionship in the animals and plants and insects that make up his world.
Sadly, he has few friends who are not his family or from his community because the world at large has a bee in its bonnet about Drow - even ones who seem to be kind and honest at first glance and this is also why he has struggled to find a teacher or mentor to teach him the ways of the Druid. However, he has learned some things on his own, through trial and error.
I was thinking that the Wood Elf had been watching him for a while and was impressed with his determination to learn and his respect for the forest and the creatures that live there and his dedication to Eilistraee as well as his attempts to find joy and love and happiness in the world around him.
In short, he is not your typical Drow. He is completely free of the social conditioning that he would have received, had he of been born in one of the Drow cities of the Underdark and since his community is protected by Eilistraee, he is free of Lolth as well. Consequently, although he still looks like a Drow, his soul has much more in common with surface Elves; (although he can never truly be restored since only Corellon can do that and we all know that will never happen), and so, having seen what she believed to be true goodness in his heart, and a genuine desire to walk the path a Druid, the Wood Elf decided that she would be his teacher and the more time she spent teaching him and getting to know him, the closer they got.
It should also be noted that the Wood Elves live in a forest, and the Drow community makes their homes bordering this forest. There have not been any Drow attacks here for many, many years, and although the older Wood Elves might remember times when they were attacked by Drow, they have never had any problems with the surface Drow who are their neighbours.
For the most part, though, the two communities of Elves live entirely separate lives. The Wood Elves don't interact with the Drow unless the absolutely have to, and the Drow stay away from the Wood Elves, for fear they might anger them or provoke a knee jerk reaction.
The Drow know how they viewed, they know what their race has done and although they don't blame the other Elves for being angry about it or feeling hurt and betrayed by it, they don't want to risk a confrontation with them either because that might very well destroy everything that they have tried to build.
The two communities are peaceful neighbours who respect each other boundaries but hardly ever interact with each other.
Yipes, this is getting super long, but just thought I would share what I had been thinking since you shared all your thoughts with me.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Perhaps never more fitting than in your example :)
EDIT: Never change, SocialFoxes. You bring a unique angle to these forums and I enjoy it thoroughly.
"Not all those who wander are lost"