Consequences of eliminating all Drow?

[Xaroth]

So in the campaign I'm DMing, an event took place about 300 years ago where as part of his own personal quest, with no particular reason for picking them in particular, someone took it upon themselves to slaughter the Drow. Not a single one was left alive and he used everything he had at his disposal to wipe them from existence.

I'm mostly curious, what sorta effect would this have on the world? The being would undoubtedly be feared, right? But not everyone likes the Drow, so who knows?

This is a 3.5e campaign, and like I said it's been about 300 years. What sorta things would be different, generally speaking?

[Kelb_Panthera]

The duergar, svirfneblin, and illithids would expand into the void in the underdark. Lloth would probably be reduced to a lesser deity or maybe even a demigod. Elves wouldn't have to worry about that particular threat anymore.

That's about it. All in all, not much.

[Zanos]

The world is significantly better for it.

But in reality without precautions, other underdark races probably move in to fill the gaps left, potentially causing war as they compete for the space and resources left behind by the Drow. Lolth likely ceases to be a deity and probably even becomes a dead power, as God Needs Prayer Badly and worshipers of Lolth outside of Drow are slim to none. Anyone capable of such a feat people would likely be universally terrified of. Genocide, even of an Evil race, is a pretty major Evil feat considering you'd have to kill all the children and expecting mothers. It might make the world better but it shows what lengths such a person or creature is willing and capable of going to to ensure their goals. Not to mention some drow are quite high level in most settings, so they exterminator would have to be quite powerful.

[khaldorgas]

He would be absolutely feared. A being with the ability to decimate an entire civilization, mercilessly with the innocents of this race.

I do not know what scenario you're studying in, but imagine forgotten... There are lvl 30 drows ... Someone who killed these guys is certainly very dangerous.

If I was DMing, I would put the consequences of such an act. A council would turn him over if he did not have a political influence, or else underground creatures would be causing too much trouble on the surface because they no longer have their predators ... Who knows another civilization got hold of the old drow cities and had a Technology and magic breakthrough that could change the history?
Wars for the cities... IDK... a lot of cool things are possible, Depends mainly on the scenario

[Stealth Marmot]

Bob Salvadore would have to actually make up a new goddamn character.

[Zanos]

I'm fairly certain there aren't any level 30 drow in most settings. The most powerful Drow I think was the matron mother of menzobarrenzen(I don't speak undercommon), who was a 25th level cleric, and her son, who was a 24th level diviner/archmage.

Still, exterminating a race that contains a group of allied epic casters is no mean feat.

[Dr.Samurai]

So in the campaign I'm DMing, an event took place about 300 years ago where as part of his own personal quest, with no particular reason for picking them in particular, someone took it upon themselves to slaughter the Drow. Not a single one was left alive and he used everything he had at his disposal to wipe them from existence.
What did he leave behind? Did he slaughter their slaves? Was his power unfocused and widespread or are their cities and infrastructure still intact and left more or less usable?

I'm mostly curious, what sorta effect would this have on the world? The being would undoubtedly be feared, right? But not everyone likes the Drow, so who knows?
He would most certainly be feared because the matrons of Drow society are high level clerics with fiendish allies and servants. And the males among the Drow study to be high level arcanists. Apart from the level of power that suggests, someone willing to annihilate an entire race for "no particular reason" suggests a moral code that should frighten anyone.

This is a 3.5e campaign, and like I said it's been about 300 years. What sorta things would be different, generally speaking?
Well, if slaves weren't killed, that's a lot of people suddenly free. If cities were left intact, do they stay there? Do they try to take over or do they try to escape back home, wherever that is? If resources were left intact, we're talking about wealth, magic items, all sorts of lore, etc. Power groups in the Underdark, as well as those on the surface world, would want access.

So maybe in some cities the Mind Flayers have come in and assumed control of the slave population and the empty city. Perhaps in other cities the slaves of mostly Underdark races took the city over and made it their own, defending it against attempts by others to control them.

But basically, it's a lot of prime real estate up for grabs with lots of wealth and power hidden within, with the pesky problem of a slave population in the way. People will definitely expand to exploit that.

[Zanos]

Also a bunch of fantasy artists who like their leather are suddenly very sad.

[Buufreak]

Core 3.5 or any particular setting? FR would definitely see a decline in power for Lloth, but not a complete disappearance. Which raises a question of what about the Drow-like creatures? Did this fellow also slaughter all the Driders and the Drow-scorpion things as well (afb, they are in one of the later MMs)? Without those, she might as well completely fall off the map.

Also, as Kelb mentioned, the Underdark would see an influx of the other "dark" races. I would suggest, in no small part due to a had one that started to take over the Under', a Dark Orc, Deep Orc, or Orog. Whichever name you prefer. They are bigger, tougher, meaner, and natural slavers, even of other Orcs!

And, of course, with the increase of whatever race happens to take over, or even if its somewhat equal, I'd also see that their deities managed to get some power ups too.

As for the feared question, it depends on the character. Depending on his disposition or even race, others could think they are next. Or he could completely be uplifted as some sort of savior from "them there evil elves."


Bob Salvadore would have to actually make up a new goddamn character.

I'm sad Binwin didn't kill him a year or two back.

[John Longarrow]

Your conqueror would be treated much like Attila. Known for raiding anyone in their path, willing to slaughter entire populations, they'd be feared by anyone who's within reach of their attacks.

What others do depends on how they dealt with the Drow. If they used the same tactics Attila did they would have plundered anything they could take and just left. You'd see empty cities without much of value left chocked full of corpses.

[Berenger]

A splendid festival of light, laughter and joy in the elven capital.

[Telok]

Everyone is safer and happier.
Assuming FR: the drow were into conquering, enslaving, torturing, and sacrificing anyone else that they could. So every group in the Underdark is safer. Only the mind flayers and kua-toa were as nasty as the drow, but the mind flayers lack the numbers to expand fast enough to fill the void and the kua-toa lack the civilization and industry to succeed in taking over. So Underdark territories shift or expand and a new balance of power is reached.

On the surface the major source of raids and attacks from the Underdark is gone. There are celebrations and nothing else changes.

Among the gods the FR Lolth is demoted/killed and all the minor godlings who are reliant on a single, low total population, race worry a bit. There are new efforts to diversify their portfolio of worshippers.

[Karl Aegis]

So you went to Ysgard, killed a bunch of chaotic good dark elves and stole their souls from the outer plane before they could all be resurrected at the start of the day. I feel like that kind of thing is frowned upon and you just got a BUNCH of things trying to kill you. If not actual deities then at least enforcers of the status quo like the Inevitables. Really, you shouldn't be messing with outer planes too much.

[gorfnab]

There would be a lot of lonely and confused spiders...

Would Driders and Draegloths be part of this genocide as well?

[Xaroth]

Alright, because I'm a lazy guy, I'll just answer the points as I see them and mention what I think might be relevant:


Said genocider is a vampiric red dragon with many, many casting levels
Did it as part of a quest in order to become a god, gained many divine ranks
He spared none of them. Not children, not pregnant mothers, not prisoners, not slaves, not clerics, not matrons, none of them. All were found, all were murdered, all were extinguished beyond resurrection.
He tracked down drows that were kept in slavery around the world to kill them, too.
Used whatever means he had to do murder them, even forcing some of them to kill each other or themselves.
Kept structural damage as minimal as possible, all he wanted were the Drow, he didn't see the point in destroying everything around it to get to it unless there was genuinely no other choice.
After gaining godhood he just kinda retired to his own plane and watched the result of his quest play out
The campaign isn't forgotten realms, but it contains material from pretty much every 3.5e book you can think of. If it exists, it's probably sitting around somewhere in my world.
Mind Flayers in particular have filled in most of the gaps left behind by the Drow, but will rethink this based on what Telok said
The dragon god just sorta went into solitude after exterminating the Drow, according to the general populace. He spent 300 years silent until very, very recently. People have been worshipping him out of fear and such, but he's now reappeared because my group have mildly annoyed him.
Uhh...I'm actually not sure, as far as Driders and Draegloths go. Are they like, mutated Drow?

[Coidzor]

Alright, because I'm a lazy guy, I'll just answer the points as I see them and mention what I think might be relevant:


The dragon god just sorta went into solitude after exterminating the Drow, according to the general populace. He spent 300 years silent until very, very recently. People have been worshipping him out of fear and such, but he's now reappeared because my group have mildly annoyed him.
Uhh...I'm actually not sure, as far as Driders and Draegloths go. Are they like, mutated Drow?


...That's inauspicious.

Driders are basically magically twisted drow that have had their lower body replaced with a spider.

Draegloth are a particular variety of Half-Fiend that's from a Drow and a fiend and is all spidery.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Driders are drow who've been punished with an accursed form for displeasing Llolth. Draegloth are half drow, half demons born to those who have recieved Llolth's blessing (and no, they're still made in the traditional, natural method of producing half-fiends).

Given what you said, I'd expect they were wiped out too.

[Xaroth]

Once an individual has that kind of power, they're pretty safely beyond the reach of the mightiest Inevitables.

They've certainly freaked people out, especially if they did it very quickly, but if they've been silent for 300 years, equilibrium has been re-established and no one would be actively worrying about whether they'll strike again and where or how.

Yeah. I gave him 15/16 divine ranks for it amongst other things that he silently accomplished after attaining his first divine ranks.

One member of the party is an elf and was a child when the genocide took place, whilst another member of the party is under a curse that has caused him to be a skeleton that has lived for the past 450 years as one, henceforth he was around as it happened and witnessed the outcome of it as far as the world goes, I'm mostly trying to figure out what to tell him about it while being "realistic".

But as far as how long it took, I almost want to say it'd probably have taken place over the course of a week or so. When I originally wrote the reaction to it (I have a habit of, when I decide something happens in the world, I end up writing something related to it) it was literally like, they sent a slave out to go somewhere with little to no food or water, and they returned a week later to their master's residence, and just found them dead. They looked around everywhere and found them dead, they could only find dead Drow everywhere.

EDIT: Oh, Coidzor changed his message. I can remove what you said if you want me to. As far as Driders and Draegloth go, yeah they were 100% wiped out as well.

[Xaroth]

...That's inauspicious.

Also, forgive my narrow vocabulary but what does that mean in this context?

[Troacctid]

The absence of any particular nonhuman race doesn't usually have major implications for a campaign world—it just means they won't show up as enemies. I've run campaigns without drow, and I've played in campaigns without drow, and it was never a big deal. There weren't any drow, and that was that.

If you want there to be story consequences, then the consequences can be whatever you want them to be, since it's your story. Maybe Lolth got angry that her guys were killed and retaliated by opening a rift to the Demonweb Pits in the middle of Waterdeep. Maybe the massacre of the drow accidentally caused the release of a particularly nasty demon who was sealed in the Underdark. You can pretty much make up anything. *shrug*

[Bad Wolf]

Huge power vacuum, for starters. I see the Mind Flayers as being the most well-organized group, quickly scooping up territory.

Also, here's a (not-so) funny tidbit about Drow, from the Dragon Magazine feature, "The Ecology of the Drow". Drow tend not to have twins. Why? Because whenever they concieve more than one kid, one kills all the others (explicitly states this) in the womb.

So, idk if it's super mega evil. By RAW, it'd be a super saintly act.

[mabriss lethe]

Well, Lemme see:
-If the dragon god started eating chunks out of Lolth's worshipers (assuming she's a part of this mythos). I feel like she would have put in a personal appearance before the end. A throwdown of epic proportions that left the drow annihilated, Lolth's divinity stripped from her (and transferred to the dragon god) but possibly wounding the DG in the process, causing him to retreat and lick his wounds (giving some flavor to his retreat from the world, post drow).

-Lolth could have survived the encounter. Now quasi-mortal, she wanders the world in disguise, plotting her vengeance, possibly looking for ways to usurp another god's domain to "get back in the game" She could be a secret ally or antagonist to the players, or both.

- Her counterstrike did something BAD and permanent to the world. (see comment above)

[MesiDoomstalker]

I should note there are a small number of non-Drow worshipper's of Lolth. Forget their names but this weird spider-y race that's also from the Underdark worship her (and get spells apparently, according to one of the War of the Spiderqueen books). Of course non-Drow other Humanoids as well. I doubt she'll be completely stripped of her Divinity, but most likely DR 0 or DR 1. Maybe DR 3 at most. Very much a huge step down.

I also agree with Mabriss, Lolth would have intervened, personally, before his genocide was done. That's the only way I see Lolth being truly out of the picture is her losing that fight and not managing to escape. One race no one has mentioned for filling the power gap is Aboleth's. They usually need a flooded cavern, but that's not much of a problem in the Underdark. Just seal up lower caverns and start filling.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Huge power vacuum, for starters. I see the Mind Flayers as being the most well-organized group, quickly scooping up territory.

Also, here's a (not-so) funny tidbit about Drow, from the Dragon Magazine feature, "The Ecology of the Drow". Drow tend not to have twins. Why? Because whenever they concieve more than one kid, one kills all the others (explicitly states this) in the womb.

So, idk if it's super mega evil. By RAW, it'd be a super saintly act.

No. Hell no. That's not what the RAW says at all. It's pretty much exactly the opposite of the RAW.

[kellbyb]

No. Hell no. That's not what the RAW says at all. It's pretty much exactly the opposite of the RAW.

I don't have a link on hand, but I believe the founder of this site has a particularly relevant quote on this matter.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I don't have a link on hand, but I believe the founder of this site has a particularly relevant quote on this matter.

I'm not saying the RAW shouldn't say it, I'm saying it doesn't say that. Bad Wolf is horribly mistaken.

[kellbyb]

I'm not saying the RAW shouldn't say it, I'm saying it doesn't say that. Bad Wolf is horribly mistaken.

My thoughts exactly.

[animewatcha]

Such would definately be a ping on neutral deities of magic with 20 levels of cleric and/or wizard. Being deities that they have lived long enough to know all the legal fineprint associated with the Wish/Miracle . So therefore, a carefully worded Wish/Miracle.......

[Mechalich]

The ability for anything in a D&D setting to completely eliminate any major sapient species and thereby ascend to godhood in the process implies some pretty weird things about what godhood means in that world. Lloth what, just sat around and watched this happen? Heck, even Corellon would probably come down on this sort of action like a ton of bricks. Is this like that thing in the War of the Spider Queen when the drow pantheon specifically made themselves vulnerable to destruction and therefore a bunch of mortals were able to mass forget Kiriansalee out of existence (IMO one of the dumbest FR canon events ever to occur)? And the idea of just wandering off afterwards to enjoy godhood quietly...um...again, remarkable amount of passivity on the part of all other gods here.

In such a situation the biggest consequence is not any sort of realignment in the underdark, but the recognition that it's open season on lesser mortals as a means of acquiring godhood. Everyone in a position to crank out an epic spell presumably launches their own attempt and your world descends into fiery oblivion in short order from the unleashed violence.

[5ColouredWalker]

Lolth is, from memory, a Demon Prince, so no loosing her divinity unless she looses control of her plane of the Abyss. However, being so weakened the Demonweb Pits could well be taken from her shortly thereafter.

But yes, Lolth is super F*cking active when it comes to the Drow, which means after, or even part way through the first Drow city, this person would have to be so much more powerful than Lolth, or had help from someone of such power, that he can beat her back and kill Drow with some of his spare actions.

If I remember right, at the very least AO would be taking a look at that, and he's just barely shy of Omni-potent, which means he had to have ended up approving of the decision, or at the very least letting it play out, which would have made all the other gods very, very, very nervous.
And then probably have resulted in all the gods with small groups like Lolth loosing all their worshipers since genocide like that got approval from AO, and the resulting war would probably give him a headache and cause an eddition change :smalltongue:

[Zanos]

Lolth is, from memory, a Demon Prince, so no loosing her divinity unless she looses control of her plane of the Abyss. However, being so weakened the Demonweb Pits could well be taken from her shortly thereafter.
Demon Princes have no inherent Divinity. There's far more without divine ranks than with, most of them are just Balors with unique abilities. That said whether or not the destruction of a Deities interests on the material plane is sufficient to remove their Divine Ranks depends on the setting. If you can achieve the DR of a greater deity just with some genocide, then I doubt having your pet species/worshipers destroyed does very much. Also whether or not Lolth can interfere with their deaths varies by settings as well. OP mentioned it's a custom kitchen sink setting, and when I run my own settings that have deities I require them to act through their mortal servants on the material plane rather than interfere directly, otherwise Clerics are kind of pointless, as is any conflict in general. Just boils down to whichever sides patron has a higher Divine Rank.

Also, genocide of the Drow is absolutely an Evil act. Only killing creatures with the Evil subtype is always Good. Murdering Evil people(and Drow are people, much as it pains me to say) is Evil, it's only kosher to kill them when they actively threaten you. And considering non-Evil and otherwise innocent Drow exist...

But just becomes somethings Evil doesn't mean it's bad. The material plane is almost certainly better off without Drow than with them.

[Particle_Man]

Would this include half-drow or people with some drow in their ancestry?

Also, how thorough are we talking about? If a petrified drow were thawed out with stone to flesh would the dragon god come back to kill her? Or was the dragon so thorough that there are not any petrified, hidden, etc. drow anywhere?

Is true resurrection possible? Could a high enough level caster bring back a couple of drow? (Once you have two . . .). Would that bring the dragon god back to kill them?

[Bad Wolf]

I'm not saying the RAW shouldn't say it, I'm saying it doesn't say that. Bad Wolf is horribly mistaken.

Yeah, that may have been a bit...Mistaken. Basically my argument was:

1: Drows are evil.
2: Destroying evil is good.
3: That makes killing all of them Good™.

Though the race entry for Hellbred says that slaughtering orcs is okay /tangent

[Zanos]

Drow have an Evil culture, but aren't made of Evil like demons or devils. Also murdering people just because they're Evil isn't Good. A paladin who walks into a town, turns on Detect Evil, and chops off anyone's head who pings is going to fall pretty quickly.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Also, genocide of the Drow is absolutely an Evil act. Only killing creatures with the Evil subtype is always Good. Murdering Evil people(and Drow are people, much as it pains me to say) is Evil, it's only kosher to kill them when they actively threaten you. And considering non-Evil and otherwise innocent Drow exist...

But just becomes somethings Evil doesn't mean it's bad. The material plane is almost certainly better off without Drow than with them.

The underlined isn't true either. It's acceptable, not good but acceptable, to kill fiends without any kind of vetting first. The same goes for any -always- evil creatures; which does not include most (any?) humanoid type creatures.

The final point is probably true though. The extermination of the drow is categorically evil (genocide is one of -very- few things that is explicitly always evil) but the world may well be better off for it.

[Zanos]

AFB, but i think one of the Books of Questionable Morality says that destroying [Evil] creatures(might just be [Evil] outsiders) is always a Good act.

[Kelb_Panthera]

AFB, but i think one of the Books of Questionable Morality says that destroying [Evil] creatures(might just be [Evil] outsiders) is always a Good act.

It's VD and it's just fiends; not [evil] outsiders (of which fiends are a subset) and certainly not all [evil] creatures.

[Particle_Man]

Since the killer in question was a red dragon (presumably CE) isn't the alignment discussion moot? The Red Dragon didn't kill the drow because they were evil. The red dragon killed the drow to gain power, pure and simple.

As for consequences well on the one hand, less drow is probably good for most people that are not drow. On the other, now there is an evil red dragon GOD waiting to strike. So who knows where that will lead eventually?

[Coidzor]

Demon Princes have no inherent Divinity. There's far more without divine ranks than with, most of them are just Balors with unique abilities. That said whether or not the destruction of a Deities interests on the material plane is sufficient to remove their Divine Ranks depends on the setting. If you can achieve the DR of a greater deity just with some genocide, then I doubt having your pet species/worshipers destroyed does very much. Also whether or not Lolth can interfere with their deaths varies by settings as well. OP mentioned it's a custom kitchen sink setting, and when I run my own settings that have deities I require them to act through their mortal servants on the material plane rather than interfere directly, otherwise Clerics are kind of pointless, as is any conflict in general. Just boils down to whichever sides patron has a higher Divine Rank.

OTOH, if it's just the piddly clerics of a god who is half-forgotten and hasn't taken any interest in mortals for 300 years, then personally pissing off the deity doesn't really matter if he's trapped himself into only being able to work through proxies, because if he's been doing his own thing that means he hasn't been forging alliances with fiends or other outsiders to have heralds or be able to easily and quickly hire a fiendish hit squad.


Also, forgive my narrow vocabulary but what does that mean in this context?

It's very close to being a red flag that the DM has some sort of self-insert character.

OTOH, maybe I just re-read SUEthulu and the saga of Circle Chief (http://irolledazero.blogspot.com/2013/04/what-is-this.html) too recently.

[atemu1234]

The world is significantly better for it.

But in reality without precautions, other underdark races probably move in to fill the gaps left, potentially causing war as they compete for the space and resources left behind by the Drow. Lolth likely ceases to be a deity and probably even becomes a dead power, as God Needs Prayer Badly and worshipers of Lolth outside of Drow are slim to none. Anyone capable of such a feat people would likely be universally terrified of. Genocide, even of an Evil race, is a pretty major Evil feat considering you'd have to kill all the children and expecting mothers. It might make the world better but it shows what lengths such a person or creature is willing and capable of going to to ensure their goals. Not to mention some drow are quite high level in most settings, so they exterminator would have to be quite powerful.

I'd say that of the extant underdark races, the most liable to seize control would probably be Duergar if they could get their act together; but in all likelihood, Illithids would seize the Drows' niche and enslave more races to feed their growth.


Bob Salvadore would have to actually make up a new goddamn character.

Didn't bobby complain about the fountain of expies a while back?


Driders are drow who've been punished with an accursed form for displeasing Llolth. Draegloth are half drow, half demons born to those who have recieved Llolth's blessing (and no, they're still made in the traditional, natural method of producing half-fiends).

Given what you said, I'd expect they were wiped out too.

Or they'd die out on their own - are we talking a Familicide situation? Because that can... be theoretically arranged.


Would this include half-drow or people with some drow in their ancestry?

Also, how thorough are we talking about? If a petrified drow were thawed out with stone to flesh would the dragon god come back to kill her? Or was the dragon so thorough that there are not any petrified, hidden, etc. drow anywhere?

Is true resurrection possible? Could a high enough level caster bring back a couple of drow? (Once you have two . . .). Would that bring the dragon god back to kill them?

If we're talking on par with an epic spell, fudging it so that even a ninth level spell wouldn't work is kind of child's play.

[Âmesang]

I'm fairly certain there aren't any level 30 drow in most settings. The most powerful Drow I think was the matron mother of menzobarrenzen(I don't speak undercommon), who was a 25th level cleric, and her son, who was a 24th level diviner/archmage.

Still, exterminating a race that contains a group of allied epic casters is no mean feat.
There's also Eclavdra, the Matron Mother of House Eilservs on Oerth; I recall her being a 23rd-level cleric with access to 11th-level spell slots.

…which makes me wonder how many "Underdarks" would such a genocide affect, since Lolth's influence spreads beyond both Oerth and Toril; there was that time she attempted to invade Eberron in Dungeons & Dragons Online, and I think both Queen of the Demonweb Pits and Expedition to the Demonweb Pits mention other worlds under her sway.

Though it seems this theoretical event isn't taking multiple material planes into account, but it's why I like PLANESCAPE® and SPELLJAMMER®. :smalltongue:

[Zanos]

I'd say that of the extant underdark races, the most liable to seize control would probably be Duergar if they could get their act together; but in all likelihood, Illithids would seize the Drows' niche and enslave more races to feed their growth.
Illithids tend to plod rather than seize. Their lifecycle doesn't really allow for much rapid expansion, as they need to capture other species and either mindslave them or use them to create new mindflayers. If the drow are dead and gone the Illithid can't really use them for anything, so they would need to make war with another race to have the wetware to fill a new area.



There's also Eclavdra, the Matron Mother of House Eilservs on Oerth; I recall her being a 23rd-level cleric with access to 11th-level spell slots.
Good ol' Faerun, can't chuck a fireball without hitting an invisible astral epic spellcaster. :smalltongue:

[Malimar]

Good ol' Faerun, can't chuck a fireball without hitting an invisible astral epic spellcaster. :smalltongue:

This is true and correct of both Faerûn and Oerth, but for clarification Oerth (Greyhawk) and Faerûn (Forgotten Realms) are not the same.


OTOH, there are plenty of settings without high-level/epic characters, and the one in the OP's scenario could easily be one of them. (Think Eberron, where the highest-level characters are in the low teens.)

If that's the case, I'd say the biggest problem the would-be genocider would have is probably direct divine intervention from Lolth -- but it could easily be an Eberron-esque setting where direct divine intervention is verboten for whatever reason (which would have consequences for the genocider once he's acquired his divine ranks), or Lolth could be distracted by her business in all the other worlds that have drow, or whatever.

[Zanos]

This is true and correct of both Faerûn and Oerth, but for clarification Oerth (Greyhawk) and Faerûn (Forgotten Realms) are not the same.
Ah, my fault. The casters I was discussing were from Faerun and I neglected to read Amesang's post carefully.

[Sheogoroth]

I actually think the world would be in greater danger as a result.

Let's look at the major players in the underdark.

Aboleths
- Not majorly impacted by the absence of Drow. Glimmersea doesn't interact much with outside races, and the Aboleths, while powerful, are not major movers and shakers in the underdark or really anywhere on land.
Beholders
- Again, powerful but reclusive and sedentary.
Fomorian
- Barely organized, not expansionist.
Kuo-toa
- Not much here, tethered to the aboleths
Myconids (Fungus-men)
- Organized, but not very expansionist
Pech
- Nope.
Svirfneblin (Deep Gnomes)
- Had their capital wiped out by the drow, though typically isolationist. I could see them waging a war to retake their small homeland, but that's about it.

If they just pack up and disappear, well you have this massive rag-tag slave population of Derro, bugbears, hobgoblins, ogres, humans, and orcs which would probably more or less sieze control of drow settlements and armaments. (Taking Menzobarazan as an example, has 40 thousand slaves and 20 thousand drow.) So you would have this very large slave population, which would mean that in the very short term, not much would change. The immediate shift would be a dissolution of all existing drow alliances(mostly defensive pacts with Cave Dragons and Beholders around smaller drow settlements, and larger pacts with Naga and Duergar.)
Duergar are unlikely to move in to fill the power void or really challenge the new kingdoms of freed slaves, since their empire is in decline and since they don't really do that, though they could see some expansion.

That leaves us with the only other real player in the underdark- Mind Flayers.
None of the people dominated by the drow have any particular resistance, and since their wills were crushed once I would imagine that the Mind Flayers would have a hey-day. I couldn't actually see it going any other way, really than the absolute and utter domination of the former Drow lands and hordes of slaves by the Mind Flayers. From there, they would probably become the dominant force in the Underdark and the largest threat to the surface realm as well.

Edit: I guess the above scenario assumes that all Drow in existence vaporized. So to get the discussion back to the poster's original question, who was your mythical backstory-figure who wiped out all Drow? What did he have at his disposal? Magic? An Army? As I would assume that the army that wiped out the Drow probably would have included a coalition of at least one race IN the underdark that could assist with logistics. They would probably be the one to take over most of what was conquered.

[Coidzor]

Illithids tend to plod rather than seize. Their lifecycle doesn't really allow for much rapid expansion, as they need to capture other species and either mindslave them or use them to create new mindflayers. If the drow are dead and gone the Illithid can't really use them for anything, so they would need to make war with another race to have the wetware to fill a new area.



Good ol' Faerun, can't chuck a fireball without hitting an invisible astral epic spellcaster. :smalltongue:

What can Illithid do with goblin, bugbear, vrill(?), orc, orog, or dwarf slaves?

I can only remember them making new mind flayers out of humans and half-elves.

[Kelb_Panthera]

What can Illithid do with goblin, bugbear, vrill(?), orc, orog, or dwarf slaves?

I can only remember them making new mind flayers out of humans and half-elves.

You've misremembered. Any mammalian humanoid of about human/elf size.

[Buufreak]

Good ol' Faerun, can't chuck a fireball without hitting an invisible astral epic spellcaster. :smalltongue:

Yup. That's quotable. Permission, please?

[Malimar]

You've misremembered. Any mammalian humanoid of about human/elf size.
I think it's less a case of misremembering and more a case of remembering the wrong material.

Fiend Folio says

Humans are almost always used as hosts for tadpole implantation, because they are the only race that produces true illithids. The process also works on other kinds of humanoids, but it yields a half-illithid rather than an actual mind flayer.

But (a) more primary material supersedes less-primary material, and Lords of Madness is the primary source for aberrations, not Fiend Folio, and (b) later material supersedes earlier material, and Lords of Madness is later than Fiend Folio. Either way, the Lords of Madness p63 specification on ceremorphosis, to which Kelb refers, is more correct.

[Lormador]

You could have pretty much zero consequences, with Drow simply not encountered anymore and the Underdark run per usual.

Or you could radically shift the Underdark landscape, turning the former slave-filled cities into successful militant democracies (like Athens) and transform the cave world into an extension of the surface world.

[zyggythorn]

So I notice that we're all talking a whole bunch about FR, Greyhawk, and Ebberon, but not terribly much about the OP's setting.

I'm assuming that Lolth is present in this setting, because the drow are so damned tethered to her even mechanically. Do any other Drow deities exist? What about deific alliances?

Also, I further support the Mindflayer expansion theory, and welcome our new cephalopodian overlords!

(Caveat: atleast one slave nation will arise from this, because by writing standards, it will happen)

[MesiDoomstalker]

My problem with Mind Flayers filling in the gap is they are explicitly small in number in pretty much every campaign setting. I'm sure they'd be able to bolster their mind-slave numbers in the wake, but I doubt they'd be able to muster the forces necessary to capture an entire city's worth of slaves. Not with out suffering some real (read: Mind Flayer) losses, which honestly may not be worth it in the long run. The process of making new Mind Flayers is long and not 100% successful. It's just difficult for Mind Flayers to expand rapidly.

[Zanos]

Yup. That's quotable. Permission, please?
http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/thumbs_up_waynes_world.gif

I actually forgot the sheer scale of Drow slaving. 40,000 slaves is a lot, but considering their diversity I honestly expect really, really bad riots in the remains of all the drow cities as they slaughter eachother. I still don't think mindflayer reproduction is fast enough that they would completely take over drow territory, but the available wetware would probably give them some expansion.

It's possible that the slave races organize into small bands and carve out fracture the former drow territory, so those cities become extremely dangerous and chaotic patches controlled by various factions.