"[10]: 103 Gygax stated that "Drow are mentioned in Keightley's The Fairy Mythology, as I recall (it might have been The Secret Commonwealth—neither book is before me, and it is not all that important anyway), and as Dark Elves of evil nature, they served as an ideal basis for the creation of a unique new mythos designed especially for the AD&D game.

[49][50][51] The drow feature in a pre-written playable module called Demon Queen's Enclave (2008) which takes adventurers from levels 14 through 17 into the Underdark to battle the forces of Orcus and possibly ally with members of the treacherous dark elves and/or their minions.

The drow are also discussed in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (2015) and in the Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018) supplements, including write-ups for their pantheon updated to the 5E Forgotten Realms status-quo.

In the Eberron setting, for example, drow dwell in rainforests and cyclopean ruins on the continent of Xen'drik"[60] Made famous by R. A. Salvatore's Drizzt novels, these dark elves from the game influenced subsequent works of fantasy.

[65]: 128  In the Io9 series revisiting older Dungeons & Dragons novels, in his review of Homeland by Salvatore, Bricken says that "its greatest strength is how it explores drow society, which up to that point was best summarized as 'very evil.'

Prior to Drizzt, in the vein of orcs, trolls, and primary-colored dragons, the Drow were essentially categorized as more monsters for players to battle and defeat.

[68] In contrast, in his review of Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue for DieHard GameFan, Alex Lucard wrote, "I'll be honest: I've never understood the appeal of the Drow at all.

[65]: 126 In 2010, scholar Cory Lowell Grewell found that in the Baldur's Gate video game series, "issues of contemporary race relations are brought to the fore in the player-Character's interactions with the dark-skinned Drow Elves.

"[74] In the book Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy (2012), author James Rocha states that the difference between drow and dark elves in the Forgotten Realms setting is rooted in racist stereotypes: "an acceptable lighter skinned dark race side by side with only the most rare exceptions in the darker race, which is thought to be inherently evil, mirrors American history in a very uncomfortable fashion".

[75]: 98  In a retrospective on the legacy of Dungeons & Dragons, academic Daniel Heath Justice also commented that the "Forgotten Realms was explicitly based on the civilized-versus-savage binary and leaned in hard on racial essentialism in its sadistic black-skinned drow led by vicious matriarchs and their terrible spider goddess, firmly melding anti-Blackness with misogyny, a once-civilized people gone feral under the debased rule of women".

In response to this criticism in 2020, Wizards of the Coast stated: "we present orcs and drow in a new light in two of our most recent books, Eberron: Rising from the Last War and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount.

The main issue is that the drow (like other 'evil' races) are presented as a large monolithic society dedicated to evil instead of a group with multiple competing interests and beliefs.

This allows Wizards of the Coast to retain the brand identity of the drow that drove sales of drow-related products for thirty years, while shifting emphasis away from an implied endorsement of naturalized racism".

The history of the drow within the game is revealed; in ages past, the elves were torn by discord and warfare, driving out from their surface lands their selfish and cruel members, who sought safety in the underworld.

These creatures, later known as the "dark elvenfolk" or drow, grew strong in the arcane arts over the centuries and content with their gloomy fairyland beneath the earth, though they still bear enmity towards and seek revenge against their distant kin, the elves and faeries who drove them down.

Drow are difficult to surprise as they are able to see very well in the dark, have an intuitive sense about their underground world similar to that of dwarves, and can detect hidden or secret doors as easily as other elves do.

Drow society is fragmented into opposing noble houses and merchant families, and they base their rigid class system on the belief that the strongest should rule.

Female drow tend to fill many positions of great importance, with priests of the dark goddess Lolth holding a very high place in society.

[83] Within the context of many Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings, the drow were forced underground in what is now known as the Underdark after the great war amongst the elves, a vast system of caverns and tunnels spanning much of the continent.

[85] Matthew Beilman, for CBR, highlighted that Lolth based "drow society is a lethal cloak-and-dagger affair—like a constant Game of Thrones but if every character were playing by Lannister/Bolton rules.

Some communities of drow worship other gods (like Vhaeraun or Eilistraee), and thus, their hierarchy changes, reverses the roles of males and females, or (such as in the case of Eilastree) even approaching something like a workable, progressive society.

Due in no small part to a religion that allows for souls to be reborn in another body, the Kryn society is race-neutral in a way that's rarely seen in fantasy lore.

[6] Academics Lisa Horton and David Beard, in the book The Routledge Handbook of Remix Studies and Digital Humanities, viewed the Kryn Dynasty and Xhorhasian culture as "a departure and significant extension of D&D lore surrounding drow" and highlighted that their religion is centered on "the physical manifestation of light itself, the Luxon, and the pursuit off immortality".

Drow society, being strongly matriarchal, allows the females to hold all positions of power in the government, and to choose and discard mates freely.

However, all of these alternative deities (except perhaps Ghaunadaur) were killed or forgotten in the last years before the Spellplague,[93][page needed][94][95] but they managed to return to life and regain their followers, about a century later, during the Sundering.

Some theories say that these rare Drow may have accidentally been sent there during a plane shifting spell or related magic, a misfire as like as not that is corrected before the respective timelines are tampered with too drastically.

In her arachnid form, Lolth takes the appearance of a giant black widow spider with the head of a female drow or human peering from between the eight spider-eyes.

Lolth's role in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting was first detailed in Ed Greenwood's second edition AD&D sourcebook, Drow of the Underdark (1991).

You likely won't get a chance to get close enough to harm Lolth, due to the fact that you are battling her in her home dimension, which is filled with an army of demonic spiders.

[44] "The chitine and the choldrith are part-elf, part-spider abominations created by magic as servitors of the spider goddess Lolth"[126] appearing in the Forgotten Realms setting.