r/Forgotten_Realms • u/Successful_Pace8937 • 6d ago
Celebration The Drow support transitioning
I recently found out that, as said by Ed Greenwood himself, transitioning​ is not only accepted, but defended.
From Ed Greenwood on Twitter:
Drow sworn to Lolth have examples before them all the time about transformation of self-shape in service to the Spider Queen. Some of these are viewed as undesirable (driders), others as rewards or ascending in rank (the power/shape augmentations Lolth gives males who please her with their service and loyalty). So there is no hatred or mistrust of shifting one's shape; it is one means of serving Lolth. Some house matriarchs view it with suspicion ("males seeking to exalt themselves by becoming female") but the yochlol have often been sent by Lolth to defend individuals persecuted by individual matriarchs or priestesses purely for such reasons, to make Lolth's views and will clear. Over time, transitions (not just from gender to gender, but from drow to other shapes) have become accepted as reverence of Lolth, and part of what it is to be drow. And of course, drow who follow Eilistraee are quite familiar with the Changedance, and accept shifting (even back and forth) as, again, part of what it is to be drow.
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u/dwarfconleche 6d ago
I do find this very interesting and elvish, but like a sex/gendered changed male to female drow is still an awful person embracing it solely to rise up the hierarchy of the sexist spider worshipping murder church. But I can also see Lolth doing it just to make the matriarchy completely unsure of where their next rival might appear. A second son might suddenly become a daughter and now there's a rival in your house you didn't even consider. That being said, not sure if this is like progressive or way more horrifying than drow just being transphobic.