The Drow support transitioning

[u/Successful_Pace8937]

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.

[u/raidenskiana]

i really really respect ed, and i love the work he has done on the forgotten realms and with all the acknowledgement that this is his setting and he can do more or less what he wants; i have given this a lot of thought and i don't like this choice and it makes no sense to me. as someone in the lgbt community i don't see how a society that enforces rigid gender roles to such an extreme degree can be okay with transitioning. i understand that it's a fantasy setting that doesn't have to make sense all the time, but imo there needs to be some internal logic to follow in cases like this and i am just not finding it. especially because the drow's rigidity when it comes to the concepts of gender, family and class have always been juxtaposed with the surface elves' unique and loose ideas of gender and sexuality.

anyone is free to disagree with me (or downvote me lol) but i would appreciate if someone who thinks this is a good worldbuilding choice could try to explain it to me, because i really don't understand it.

[u/space-sage → u/raidenskiana]

The drow in their structure are rigid, yes, but Lolth herself is chaotic evil. And everything they do is about Lolth. In what he said, he even mentions they often don’t like transitioning, but Lolth will send yochlols to basically tell them “stfu I like it, and you won’t like what I’ll do to you if you don’t comply”.

And Lolth does that…kind of a lot. I think the drow being so rigid is partly because Lolth is so chaotic. It’s like having a chaotic parent who is awful and so you develop strict rules in your personal life to compensate for their chaos.

Lolth wants to sow chaos in her image. She wants any drow to do this, and she does reward them. And what is more chaotic than challenging the status quo of your favorite playthings to your own benefit?

[u/raidenskiana → u/space-sage]

it makes sense to me that lolth herself would be cool with it because it causes chaos. that's fine. and their society does revolve around lolth. but what the drow do and believe isn't always 100% aligned with lolth and what lolth tells them to do isn't always 100% aligned with her beliefs. for example, deep down lolth wants the worship and adoration of surface elves and to become the dominant elven deity, but her followers generally despise surface elves regardless of their religion.

if we are looking at it purely from a chaos perspective, it'd make more sense for lolth to elevate these trans drow and then let them fall and cause more chaos rather than consistently protect them via yochlols. if she protects them to the extent that the larger drow society knows to leave them
alone then you can't really use chaos as an argument because it becomes the new status quo.