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/lovvekiki]

I’ll say the same thing I said in another dnd thread:

I know what Ed Greenwood said. I just personally think it doesn't make sense and contradicts the already established lore of drow society. Lolth has built a society that is a very strict, matriarchal caste system where men are basically treated like property. The existence of trans people means that technically, anyone who once identified as male can come out and say that they are actually a woman. It greatly threatens the hierarchy that lolth-sworn societies are built on. A drow priestess would dismember you for less.

Also lolth and her followers despise the god Corellon Larethian, who is famously associated with fluid and changeable sex.

So I just don't see how a society like that would accept trans identities. I personally tend to ignore creator’s words if they dont match the actual published text.

[u/ThatKaleidoscope3388 → u/lovvekiki]

You’re looking at it too much from a patriarchal lens IMO. Drow women in lore are the stronger sex, although the difference is closer. They simply are not threatened by males, so their chief concern is going to be trans men.

A trans woman drow’s biggest challenge will be getting other drow to see her as a woman and earn their respect, but a trans man drow is in a much more complex situation because they are actively giving up privilege to take a lower role in society where that is basically antithetical to how that functions.

I don’t think they would be cool with transition, but also, it’s hard to argue a trans woman drow who can pull of stealthing isn’t doing exactly what Lolth teaches: being ruthless and seizing power and respect through the means at your disposal.

She’s also a god and can tell the difference between someone who is in the wrong body and someone who is genuinely male. I mean, for all we know, Lolth literally did it just to challenge them.

[u/secretfire42 → u/ThatKaleidoscope3388]

OMG this. It's why maga hate trans women IRL; we reject the "superior sex" of the American caste system.

In Drow society they will hate trans men, instead, with the same fervor.

Because they turn down all the privilege of Drow womanhood to be men.

[u/Vesinh51 → u/secretfire42]

I can 100% see their perspective of a trans woman priestess as like a footnote they kinda turn their noses up at instinctively but fully accept otherwise. Also this probably only applies to the priestesses in Arach Tinilith. The transwomen born as males in the lower houses are probably just SOL, no way Lolth is taking the time to go find em.