When D&D creators Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax adopted the word race for the playable species in D&D, they used the term in the same sense as the human race. More commonly, “race” refers to human groups who share superficial traits common to their ancestry, and that use recalls a long history of peop
The drow being black skinned and evil… while I had never associated drow with IRL people, I can see how that might be touchy in a modern context.
I read something from R.A. Salvatore recently where he mentioned giving the drow more depth without retconning anything.
Simply put, the classic drow, like those from Menzoberranzan, are indeed evil, but there are other drow societies out there that aren’t.
This implies the classic evil drow comes from their cruel upbringing rather than being inherent to their lineage, which is honestly something I always imagined to be the case.
Drizzt’s story already fits that.
I thought this is a pretty simple and effective way to modernize the take on drow, without messing with the stories that have already been told.