Guide:Races Guide by Phantomsplit: Difference between revisions

| [[Tiefling#Asmodeus_Tieflings|Asmodeous Tiefling]] || [[Charisma]] || [[Hellish Rebuke]]

| [[Tiefling#Mephistopholes_Tieflings|Mephistopholes Tiefling]] || [[Charisma]] || [[Burning Hands]], [[Flame Blade]], [[Mage Hand]]*

| [[Tiefling#Zariel_Tieflings|Zariel Tiefling]] || [[Charisma]] || [[Searing Smite]], [[Branding Smite]]

In short summary, the elven gods were once all united and referred to as the Seldarine over 10,000 years before the events of Baldur's Gate 3. They were led by Corellon. His consort Araushnee craved Corellon's power and plotted against him, trying several times to get Corellon assassinated. Usually her plan consisted of causing an evil god and its forces to go to war with the Seldarine gods, and plotting for Corellon to "accidentally" die as a result of the battle. For the last of these plots Araushnee cursed Corellon's scabbard so that it would draw the arrows fired by their daughter Eilistraee and frame her for Corellon's death. This plan did somewhat work but it only wounded Corellon. Evenutally Araushnee and her son Vhaeraun who helped her with these plots would be caught and put on trial. Araushnee and her son were exiled from the elven pantheon, and Araushnee would later [https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/a/ae/Lolth_AFR_alt.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20220524084243 turn herself into spider like demonic creature] and take the name of Lolth. Meanwhile Eilistraee (the daughter of now Lolth who was framed for the attempted murder of her father Corellon) willingly exiled herself from the pantheon so that she may be there as a light to guide the dark elves who she feared were in danger from Lolth.

After her exile, Lolth went to the demon inhabited domain of the Abyss in a realm now known as the Demonweb Pits. From there she has plotted against Corellon and her former elven god kin by trying to steal the worship of the dark elves and have them go to war with Corellon's remaining elven worshippers. This primarily took the form of working behind the scenes to cause wars between the dark elves of Illythiir and other elven groups, and then being there to shelter and aid the dark elves when they were in these dire times of war. After enough occurrences of this she became popular among the dark elves. As the dark elves then grew more powerful over time and became more violent under the influence of Lolth and other evil gods, the original elven Seldarine pantheon sought to stop these wars by cursing all dark elves; even those who were not involved in Lolth's wars. They were cursed to become Drow making it difficult for them to tolerate the sun's light on the surface and magically drawing them to the great underground network known as the Underdark. This did stop the conflicts so long as the surface elves stayed away from the underdark, but also drove many neutral or good Drow into the arms of Lolth who was there to care for them. Drow occasionally return to the surface as raiding bands to fulfill some desire of Lolth or another, and these Drow leave disaster in their wake. This has been the state of things for over 10,000 years. Over this time Lolth's influence grew further to the point where most underdark dwelling Drow are fanatically [[Drow#Lolth-Sworn_Drow|Lolth-Sworn]].

There do remain some Drow that try to mend relations and coexist with surface races, to separate themselves from Lolth's influence, and to redeem their evil kin. These are referred to in BG3 as [[Drow#Seldarine_Drow|Seldarine Drow]], which is the name of the original elven pantheon of Gods led by Corellon. They will very likely worship Eilistraee for coming down from godhood to live among them and sharing her similar goals of redeeming the fallen Drow taken by her mother Lolth.

For a surface dweller, seeing a Drow is perhaps one of the most terrifying things imaginable. There are many stories of their surface raiding parties devastating small villages, taking slaves and treating them despicably, and torturing their victims. If your character is a Lolth-sworn Drow then they may encourage this type of reaction as they try to frighten those who see them, or give folks further stories to tell of the horrible things Drow are capable of. In underdark society Drow are at the top with female Drow calling all the shots. They have a house system led by matriarchs which I am not going to get into or we'll be here for hours, and so far I have not seen much mention of this in BG3. However underdark dwelling races like [[Gnome#Deep_Gnomes|Deep Gnomes]] and [[Dwarf#Duergar|Duergar]] may also fear Drow, because their rage and evil tendencies are not just reserved for surface dwellers.

Pretty much any class or build will get tremendous benefit from being a Drow. Charisma casting classes like [[Bard]], [[Warlock]], [[Paladin]], and [[Sorcerer]] may get a bit more benefit than others thanks to the [[Faerie Fire]] spell but nothing too substantial. Warlocks with the Devil's Sight [[Eldritch Invocation]] may get further use of the Drow's [[Darkness]] Spell.