Drow

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are drow blue or black?

 

I think they are black, but painters use blue to better show their features. Black pictures tend to become pretty flat, or so I've noticed. One in shades of grey wouldn't look very cool either on the cover of a book, magazine or whatever...

 

They should be jet-black following the FRCS book. And Azardu's point seem to be rather good

 

My points usually are.
j/k

 

well i was under the impression that they were black, but have never ever seen a black one!

 

Indeed they are black, but on the covers of the Drizzt books they look more like purple to me

 

I personaly think they are realy dark blue. That explains why Drizzt and Viconia are more blue, because if drow are a long time on the surface, their skin gets lighter. That also explains why with a lot of drow their skin looks black, because it is such a dark colour of blue.

 

it's interesting, wouldn't a race who have never seen the sun have pale skin?

 

I suppose it should be blue, cause thats what colour a dogs is under its fur (never see sun)

 

Actually geneticly I don't see any reason for someone black turning pale when they are not exposed to sunlight. It works the other way around with pigment exposed to sunlight growing a resistance towards light by turning darker. But there is no reason why it should work the other way around. So as Tal suggested, they might have been black when they descended. But this is fiction afterall. Not science. Anyway blue dogs? Isn't it just the blood that makes the dog skin you referred to look blue, cause it it so thin and pale?

 

From what I've read, (very limited mind you), they were know as Dark Elves before they decended below the surface, so I suppose that was a trait that was already there. And it would seem to work to their advantage in the underdark to keep them alive (harder to see and hit I supose), so I guess it was a trait that wasn't going to be bred out of their race. That's just my take at least.

 

Maybe they just all remembered to keep taking their vitamin D tablets when they went into the underdark.

 

Pigmentation of the skin is fueled by sunlight as Nobleman stated. However, that includes all pigmentation, Nobleman, not just the darker colors. So if there is no sunlight available, your skin will lose all pigmentation, thus the pale appearance. Of course, Drow could have a quite different type of skin, one that is naturally black without pigmentation.

 

Uh?? I think we have a missunderstanding. I wasn't very clear though. Heh. I was thinking about genetic alteration, like negroes, not the seasoning change like white people jumping around in sunlight. Once your genes code for black skin there is no reason for them to change towards white. Even as Crawl mentioned there might be a genetic drift towards dark skin due to better survival. It hardly has much influence next to the drows intelligence though. Hence the small difference in darkness of two drows' skins has little to say next to the way they use their intelligence to hide, hunt and evade. But still there is no genetic reason to turn black. Neither any positive or negative feedback, I think the english definitions are, to stimulate white or pale skin.

 

Genetics or not, coloration of skin in the real world is still determined by pigmentation. And pigmentation cannot happen in the absence of light. Negroes may have a genetic preponderance of melanin pigments, but even a Negro stuck underground for a few decades would turn pale.

 

I don't know that much about the FR version of Drow, but the original D&D version from "Vault of the Drow" made the drow home a UV wonderland (from funky minerals).

aloha
Vormaerin

 

I remember reading in one of those NWN forum updates that one of the creators from NWN said that the color of a drow's skin is ebony. And ebony is some sort of black if I am not mistaken. (please correct me if I'm wrong)

[This message has been edited by Silverblade (edited November 06, 2001).]