Drow; the dark elves. Banished to the Underdeep millennia ago by their surface cousins, they plot, scheme and struggle for survival. Beautiful yet wicked, brilliant and deadly, the drow are the knife in the dark, the threat in the deeps.

Since the drow were introduced to the roleplaying world some 25 years ago, they have become both favourites of many Games Masters and terrible foes to uncounted parties of Player Characters. Sadly, over time they have also become overused and oversimplified. There is no mystery to them any more. Players know exactly what to expect from an encounter with drow and exactly how to cope with it. Games Masters find themselves saddled with innumerable clichés and presumptions about the drow, making one raiding party just like any other, one drow city just like all the others.

Which is where this book comes in.

Within these pages, the reader will find that the drow are as complex and vibrant as any inhabitants of the surface of the world, for this book is dedicated to the drow and to exploring all their varied, wicked splendour. In the millennia since the drow were forced underground in the Great Betrayal and dispersed throughout the Underdeep in the Sundering, the intense pressures of life beneath the surface have caused them to change dramatically. For years, they have been thought of as a sophisticated and cruel race, governed by an even crueler spider-worshipping matriarchy with absolute power over every drow. The truth is not so simple and arrogant adventurers who set out beneath the surface of the world, certain they know the full measure of the drow, will find themselves quite unpleasantly surprised.

Within The Tome of Drow Lore, Games Masters will find information on a variety of drow cultures, religions, societies, Houses and even sub-races. In addition, there are new drow spells, feats and drow equipment, of magical, alchemical and mundane natures.

For those interested primarily in the archetypal spider-worshipping drow, they are certainly covered, as no book on drow would be complete without them. They are not the sum total of the drow, however. Scattered throughout the Underdeep, the dark elves have adapted to and been altered by their strange and hostile environment. Centuries spent in isolation from one another have given rise to a variety of cultures and beliefs. Games Masters interested in putting an entirely new spin on the drow may forsake the usual culture altogether with such options as a the savage and brutal Kanahraun, insular Sulzthul or the martial Lorgreln who have divorced themselves entirely from their fey roots.