[Qwalnee]

The Drow and their world are fascinating to read about, but, realistically, to actually live in the Drowtales world is something we wouldn't wish to our worst enemies.

But nothing is purely black or white. Putting aside the endless war of all against all, starvation, slavery, torture, incest, cannibalism and demons devouring your soul , what are the good aspects of Drow life and society?

I can think about:

Long life (if you are commoner, it means life of hunger and watching your back, if you are noble, it means life of watching your back ten times as much)

Immunity to most diseases

Chocolate (if you are one of the 1% who can afford it )

Any other ideas?

[Dalvyserran]

some cities are a lot different with cultural rules and social norms. Nuqrah is a pretty advanced city compared to Chel, and they have a lot of comforts thanks to early colonization.

[Zarannya]

Magic, for one - it can make life interesting. The Jaal'Darya's life magic alone can do some pretty complicated stuff that we couldn't do in the real world, and it makes golem technology (particularly in the area of prosthetics) pretty advanced. Just look as Sang from the Sarghress clan - in the real world, she wouldn't have even half of the mobility that she has in the Drowtales world if only because magic makes the prosthetics much more controllable. Plus, one of the articles that gave info about the Beldrobbaen sub-houses (from a podcast I think?) said that a house devess was able to fully change genders in order to carry on their family line. Though, there is that pesky mana pool requirement, I suppose - get caught up on the surface or away from a group of other fae, and your magic ability plummets if I recall correctly.

I mentioned golem tech earlier - that's another aspect of drow life that's pretty cool. There's a lot of versatility in golem technology, and it's probably one of the most versatile skills that I've seen so far, since you can apply golem tech to almost anything if you know what you're doing. Any of the golem prosthetic body parts and Nishi'kanta's awesome turbo golem are great examples. I mean, who doesn't think giant robots like the Balvhakara's version of the Decapodian Mobile Oppression Palace are awesome?

[Shgon Dunstan]

The Drow and their world are fascinating to read about, but, realistically, to actually live in the Drowtales world is something we wouldn't wish to our worst enemies.

But nothing is purely black or white. Putting aside the endless war of all against all, starvation, slavery, torture, incest, cannibalism and demons devouring your soul , what are the good aspects of Drow life and society?

I can think about:

Long life (if you are commoner, it means life of hunger and watching your back, if you are noble, it means life of watching your back ten times as much)

Immunity to most diseases

Chocolate (if you are one of the 1% who can afford it )

Any other ideas?

IIRC your typical drow only lives like 200 years, if their lucky enough to make it that long.


... Honestly, there really isn't really any "good" about living in drow society, not compared with the modern first world anyway. Sure they have somethings we don't... If you luck into them, and can afforded them when you do, and don't mind the lose of everything else we have... Or just the sense of smell killing stench of their cities...

[Doom Chinchilla]

The average lifespan for male commoners is 100 years, I think, and something like 150 or 175 years for female commoners... (information from the podcasts).

I think there are some positions in some clans were you can live comfortably and safely for a long time. If you are a healer, golem engineer, foci crafter, high arts teacher, administrator...etc., in the Sullisin'rune, Illhar'do, Nal'Sarkoth, Beldrobbaen or Kal'Yantra clans, you avoid being entangled into politics and avoid to go to war, you can be fine for a long time...

Yes, I know, all those clans are suffering their own share of troubles now, but these times are exceptional. Barring the current troubles, you would be safe in said position...

On the other hand, all those positions are accesible only to a minority. So I guess only a select few can fully enjoy the good side of the drow life and society...

[Qwalnee]

IIRC your typical drow only lives like 200 years, if their lucky enough to make it that long.

How is it calculated? Is there hard limit on commoner's lifespan, or is it statistical average, and the lucky commoner who always finds food, dodges demons and avoids being collateral damage in clan wars can live as long as Empress Diva?

... Honestly, there really isn't really any "good" about living in drow society, not compared with the modern first world anyway. Sure they have somethings we don't... If you luck into them, and can afforded them when you do, and don't mind the lose of everything else we have... Or just the sense of smell killing stench of their cities...

For relative measure of suckiness of Drow life, I found this unique megathread on Space Battles forum.
https://forums.spacebattles.com
This is the ultimate comparison of fantastic countries/groups/governments I ever found. Warning: it is massive, reading it will cost you large part of your life, if you have one.

Part one:
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/force-chart-of-niceness-conquest.105383
Part two:
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/force-chart-of-niceness-part-deux.141690
Part three
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/force-chart-of-niceness-part-tres.202548

Here the spacebattlers compared nearly all known and imaginable kingdoms, empires , states and societies from all kinds of fantasy/SF/comics/games/parody works, and sorted them on scale from A to Z as for quality of life. The Culture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture from works of Iain Banks gets A , and Z is for hell-places of eternal pain and torture .

The final rating list is here:
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/force-chart-of-niceness-part-tres.202548/page-8
and the rating is: Chel'el'sussoloth Drow (Drowtales): J

the debate about rating is here: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/force-chart-of-niceness-conquest.105383/page-38

For comparison: J rated are Bene Gesserit from Dune universe, Cetagandan Empire from Vorkosigan universe, Cylons from Battlestar Galactica universe, Ferengi alliance and Romulan Star Empire from Star Trek universe, Latveria from Marvel Comics universe, United Citizen Federation from Starship Troopers movie.

For another comparison, the original DnD Drow are rated M.

This is the same rating as Death Eaters from Harry Potter universe, Empire of Azad from Culture universe, Fire Nation from Avatar universe, Final Society Draka from Draka universe, Goa'uld System Lords from Stargate universe, House Lannister from ASoIaF, Kzinti from Known Space universe, Norsefire from V for Vendetta.

[SFI]

IIRC your typical drow only lives like 200 years, if their lucky enough to make it that long.

How is it calculated? Is there hard limit on commoner's lifespan, or is it statistical average, and the lucky commoner who always finds food, dodges demons and avoids being collateral damage in clan wars can live as long as Empress Diva?

An average, me thinkest, cause otherwise nobles and commoners would have to be two different species

[Doom Chinchilla]

All drow have an unlimited lifespan, but people starve or are murdered a lot in Chel...

Mmmm... the sages of Sha'shi calculated the average lifespan of Chelian commoners 100 years before the beginning of the Moonless Age comic, that is, before the Nidra'chaal war, before the old system collapsed. At that time demons were VERY rare to come at, and wars were supposed to not involve commoners... And since drow are immune to disease, that means that all those early commoner deaths were due to starvation and crime... Diva's Empire was a very f***ed up period too...

I guess drow who survived their first decades in Chel accumulated enough skills, strength and savviness to be able to dodge death with increasing ease... Most people who died in Chel probably did it young. Many probably were babies who couldn't be fed by their parents.

[Smokehammer]

My biggest positives ( for Chel, during Diva's rule) would be batshit amounts of freedom, legal dueling, and plenty of opportunity for adventure/exploration.

Also Doom -work related accidents probably killed alot of commoners as well. would those kill more than all the battles Vals shouldve been in? Ehhhh, mining IS dangerous, and would guess most of what Chel produces comes from that industry but its no where near as dangerous as war. And battles shouldve also killed more upper class people than criminals vs commoners as well. If starvation had been that rampant it shouldve led to widescale revolt a LOOOOOOONG time before Quain showed up. So yeah, unless its just crazy infant mortality thanks to infanticide -arguably Chelian society shouldnt work with commoners having less of an average life expectancy than nobles -unless most commoners die trying to become lesser nobles, and thats where most of the warfare takes place?

[Shgon Dunstan]

All drow have an unlimited lifespan, but people starve or are murdered a lot in Chel...

IIRC it caps out somewhere around a thousand. They don't physically age so long as they have the mana, but it's their aura itself starts to feel it's age.

[Doom Chinchilla]

All drow have an unlimited lifespan, but people starve or are murdered a lot in Chel...

IIRC it caps out somewhere around a thousand. They don't physically age so long as they have the mana, but it's their aura itself starts to feel it's age.

A thousand years old drow still doesn't age. The problem is, at that age they can't go out of a city for a long period of time, or they start aging.

Before the demonic invasion destroyed the world, when the planet was full of elves and fae animals and mana plants, the whole world was bathed in mana, enveloped in a single huge mana pool, so it was no problem. Somebody like Ash'waren, Diva, Sha'sana or Thalestris could travel the world without restraint and keep living on and on, until somebody killed her...

Diva is older than 1,000 years old. She was at least 1,100 years old when the coup happened. Ash'waren is at least 1,138 years old now. Thalestris must be around the same age. Sha'sana was probably older than the three of them when she died.