Drow Eye Color Lore?

[bellofury]

I thought all their eyes were red, with only a few rare exceptions (Like Drizzt's violet eyes or his mother's green eyes) so I made my Cleric of Eilistraee have red eyes. But dialogue with the little Tiefling magician indicates that only Lolth-sworn drow have red eyes. Can someone with more experience in Forgotten Realms lore enlighten me?

[Soft Lockpick]

They've been monkeying with the Drow over time. Basically.

Now there are multiple types of drow, eye color is tied to a curse being lifted by a wizard on a small group of drow, yadda yadda. It's all on the forgotten realms wiki if you want to read the detailed version.

But ultimately, the character creator lets you do a lot more than is canon. My drow is a ginger.

[bellofury]

Originally posted by Soft Lockpick:

They've been monkeying with the Drow over time. Basically.

Now there are multiple types of drow, eye color is tied to a curse being lifted by a wizard on a small group of drow, yadda yadda. It's all on the forgotten realms wiki if you want to read the detailed version.

But ultimately, the character creator lets you do a lot more than is canon. My drow is a ginger.

Odd...The wiki's pretty inconsistent but thanks for the heads up!

[Soft Lockpick]

It's really just them turning the monster race into a playable race. When they do that to a race if they're going to be treated like boogie men generally it's easier if there is a visual indicator some people can know about that makes you more likely to get the benefit of the doubt. It's kind of a "get out of persecuting your players automatically" card for DMs.

Opinion, but I'm pretty sure that's what is behind it.

[Vivian]

Wasnt the red eyes thing originally due to them activating Infravision in the original RASalvatore novels?

[jonnin]

You are trying to reconcile the works of 50+ major and many more minor authors over ~30+ years. There will be some inconsistencies.

at one point red meant infra vision yes. At another point it meant nothing.

[Something completely different]

Originally posted by WUBRGER:

Wasnt the red eyes thing originally due to them activating Infravision in the original RASalvatore novels?

No, otherwise Drizz't would have been blind down below and he was not (even if they initially thought so.)

[Corridian]

Just take it for what the game says. Lolth marked Drow have one of 3 red toned eyes. The rebel Drow have access to the elvish eyes and all the other colors as well.

[Azurella]

From Forgotten Realms - Races of Faerûn (It s not EQ1 there :p)

the drow have black skin that resembles polished obsidian and stark white or pale yellow hair. They commonly have blood-red eyes, although pale eyes (so pale as to be often mistaken for white) in shades of pale lilac, silver, pink, and blue are not unknown.

[MrSoul]

Due to their being half drow, etc as well IN THEORY (ie, as a DM the practice of helping players justify their...maybe little fan fictiony characters), could be considered full blooded drow but have a human/elven ancestor like ten generations back, ie abnormal eye colours run in the family, and influences lets say in a drow who grew up in a small top side commune as a ranger because their some kind of outcasts, or dissidents to drow rule etc.

Basically, its dnd, there is no hard cannon on anything far as I've gathered, and especially from, reading the 5th edition books. Also Forgotten Realms is same map, and general lore wise, as "old days" but it too has been...changed over the last little while with recent editions and also like potentially hundreds of years from the heyday of characters like Drizzt, ie cultures, species and societies change over time too.