Eska: “The Drow Problem” Solved! Dathomirians

For those of you that don’t know, the drow of D&D have at times had an image problem. I’ll leave others to define it:

Race: The Original Sin of the Fantasy Genre by Paul B. Sturtevant

This has never been a issue at any of my tables. It’s been mentioned, but has not caused a problem. Still it’s one of those things that has always been at the back of my mind.

I’m also a believer that Great DM’s Steal Relentlessly. A good world should be a great slurry of this world and that. A sampling of the things that resonate with the DM and players.

In Eska, I already set my dark elves of Eska apart from the cannon D&D drow. On Eska, all the elfish races have equal capacity of good and evil, just like humans. They are enemies of other elves, dwarves and hobgoblins.

So now, I’m adding a layer of Star Wars’ Dathomorians into the slurry of the dark elves of Eska. The imaging is on point. Upon closer review, the Dathomirians are already reskinned drow.

A matriarchal society ruled by the Nightsisters? Pale skinned witches that manipulate foggy green magical auras that can look vaguely web-like? Mother Talzin is now the leader of the dark elves of Eska.

Hit squads of red clad female ninjas and assassins. To match the art, I would have to drop the hand crossbows and replace them with short bows, but I feel that is not a big deal, but the crossbows can easily be kept as well.

Let’s not forget the Nightbrothers. Subservient males that are kept around for muscle and breeding. On Dathomir they are all kept in a village on the other side of the planet!