#drow quotes

While reading Condemnation, I stumbled across this fragment where a priestess of Eilistraee, who is also a former priestess of Lolth, has a little dispute with a Lolth-sworn drow. I think it shows really well the fundamental differences between their worldviews:

"I want to challenge you to do something (...) Imagine, for a moment, that you could live in a place where you can walk the streets without fearing an assassin’s dagger in your back. Imagine that your friends - real friends - want nothing more from you than the pleasure of your company, that your sisters cherish your accomplishments instead of resenting your successes, and your children are not murdered for an accidental failing. Imagine that your lovers seek you out for who you are, and not your station or influence. Imagine that your goddess asks you to celebrate her with your joy, not your terror."

"There is no such - (...) I can’t imagine such nonsense. It’s an empty fantasy, signifying nothing. We’re not meant for such things; no one is, not dark elf, not light-elf, not even the insipid humans. Only a fool dwells on dreams."

I found this prayer to Eilistraee in Dedications to the Pantheon - below the original English version is my attempt to translate it to drow language.

I used drow name tables from #267 Dragon Magazine to translate "Silver Lady" into something that would look more like a proper name / title than like a literal translation of "silver" and "lady". So, female prefix May- (beautiful, beauty, silver) + female suffix -inil (lady). I really like this result ❤️

Drow version of the prayer written in 3e Espruar would look like this...

...and High Drowic version - I suppose this script would not be used for Eilistraean prayer, but I really like how it looks:

My attempts to translate common phrases used among drow from this post into drow language. For translation purposes, I needed to replace some words I could not find in available dictionaries:

🕷️ In darkness, there is opportunity - Wun oloth, gaer zhah mayarn. (used "chance" instead of "opportunity")

🕷️ Only the strong survive - Er'griff lil gareth dro'xun.

🕷️ Help unasked for is never help - Xxizz nau'jorosus whol zhah neitar xxizz.

🕷️ Help freely offered is not free - Xxizz duul'ssone gultahus zhah naut duul'sso.

🕷️ Before Lolth, all are weak - P'los Lolth, jal phuul yibin.

🕷️ Weakness is the spawn of contentment and affection - Yibinss zhah lil klu'chud del sae'ethadus lueth saphin. (used "liking" instead of "affection")

🕷️ A spider without a web is no hunter - Orbb xuileb cress zhah nau silinrul. (omitted translating "a", since it is seldom used in Drow)

🕷️ Test me, Lolth - Zud'dar ussa, Lolth.

Prayer to Lolth from Dedications to the Pantheon, with my attempt to translate it to drow language.

I could not find "unravel" in any drow language sources, so for translation purposes I used "come undone" instead. Also, I swapped "let" with "allow" because it sounds much better.

Prayer written in 3e Espruar script...

Collection of common phrases used among drow, according to Drow Of The Underdark (DnD 3.5e).

In 3.5e, drow were supposed to use a combination of Undercommon language (Underdark equivalent of surface Common) and various dialects of Elven instead of developing their own unique language. So, phrases below are not written in a "proper" Drow - they still provide a nice insight into drow culture, though:

🕷️ Inorum lo’athi, uvrastes (In darkness, there is opportunity) - one of the most popular drow proverbs, urging to always look for an advantage.

🕷️ Su lidos verith (Only the strong survive) - or, more accurately, "Those who survive are strong", since in comparison to the surface version of this phrase, drow version reverses cause and effect.