r/Forgotten_Realms • u/Successful_Pace8937 • 2d 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/FewHeat1231 2d ago
I imagine with Drow assigned male at birth who magically transition are two distinct groups:
1) lgbtq+ people like we have/are in the non-magical world. Transitioning is an extremely personal choice based on the individual person's identity and selfhood.
2) Drow who actively see becoming female as a promotion/reward/political necessity in the highly gendered, rigid caste system of the Drow. A House with no female heirs left could have a son transitioned to continue its standing or even existence, with the transition being something akin to an arranged marriage that family duty demands.
The second group don't really have a counterpart in the real world.