Drow Language 🕷️ Glossary from Drow of the Underdark (2e)
Drow glossary from Drow of the Underdark (E. Greenwood, 1991), a supplemental rules book for use with AD&D (2e). Around two hundred canon words that allow to create simple sentences, messages and the like.
I organized the terms from the glossary into categories, so that the range of topics and the variety of vocabulary for each of them could be seen more clearly. Unsurprisingly, categories with the most words are connected to dealing with people, stealth and fight, travel and exploration, also magic and spirituality.
🕷️ To Be
tlu – be, to be
phuul – are
zhah – is
🕷️ Pronouns
usstan – I, self (literally, "this one")
usstil – one in my place
dos – you
dosst – yours
dosstan – yourself
nind – they, them, their, theirs*
nindyn – those
vel’uss – who
*In fan-created drow language sources, "them", "their" and "theirs" are usually translated differently to avoid confusion.
🕷️ People, Professions, Titles
dobluth – outcast
faern – wizard, magic-worker of any race or gender
ilharn – patron, title of matron mother’s chosen mate
ilhar – mother, to mother*
ilharess – matron or matron mother, title of a female ruling a noble drow House
ilharessen – matrons
jabbuk – master, male in charge of some task or office
malla – honored, term of respect
qu’ellar – House, titled noble family
sargtlin – (drow) warrior
valsharess – queen**
yathrin – (drow) priestess
yathtallar – (drow) high priestess
*Only in a biological sense - "to mother" as in "to give birth to", not "to nourish and comfort".
** Title typically reserved for Lolth.
🕷️ Friends, Enemies, Relationships
abban – ally, not-enemy
abbil – comrade, trusted friend*
akh – band, group
inthigg – agreement, treaty
khaless – trust**
maglust – apart, alone
nau – no
ogglin – rival, opponent, enemy***
qua’laelay – argument, disagreement, confrontation, but not yet open conflict
quarth – order, exercise of authority
quarthen – ordered, commanded
ssinssrigg – passion, lust, greed, longing, love****
thalra – meet, encounter
talthalra – meeting, council, parley
thalack – war, open fighting
xal – may, might, perhaps
* At least as trusted as possible in drow terms (see khaless).
** Especially foolish or misplaced kind of trust, since drow do not really believe in genuine trust.
*** "Active"; all creatures are considered potential ogglin until proven otherwise.
**** Not a selfless, unconditional, romantic kind of love.
🕷️ Non-Drow, Monsters
darthiir – faeries, surface elves, traitors
gol – goblin
goln – goblins
haszak – illithid, mind flayer
haszakkin – illithids
rivvil – human
rivvin – humans
orbb – spider
phindar – monster, dangerous being, especially a non-intelligent creature
🕷️ Insults
iblith – offal, excrement, carrion*
wael – fool
* Often used in reference to non-drow and slaves.
🕷️ Battle, Life, Death
bautha – dodge, to dodge
dro – life, alive
elgg – kill, slay, destroy
elghinn – death
honglath – clever thinking, calm, bravery, good behavior
jivvin – fun, play, but in sense of amusing cruelty, "animal spirits"
kulg – snag, hitch, blockage*
kulggen – deliberate rampart, shield, or other barrier
luth – cast, throw, hurl
phalar – grave, battle-marker
plynn – take, size
sargh – confidence in weapons, battle-might, strength-at-arms, valor
sarn! – beware!, warning!
sreen – danger
streea – suicide, death in the service of Lolth, a House, or a community
streeaka – reckless(ness), fearless(ness)
thalackz’hind – raid, attack from afar
ultrinnan – conquering, victory, to win or prevail
velve – blade, dagger, knife, sword
z'ress – power, strength, force, dominance**
* Impediment to will or to plans, but also an actual, material blockage, like debris in a shaft or passage.
** Especially strength of the will that allows a person, for example, to successfully manipulate others.
🕷️ Schemes, Stealth, Shadows
brorn – surprise
brorna – surprises
golhyrr – surprise, ruse, trap
ilindith – aim, goal, hoped-for event
inth – plan, stratagem, scheme
kyone – alert / alertly, wary / warily, careful / carefully
kyorl – watch, wait, guard
kyorlin – watching, waiting, guarding
olist – caution, stealth
oloth – darkness, utter natural darkness or magical darkness
ssussun – light, brightness
veldrin – shadows, concealment afforded by varying light
velkyn – unseen, hidden, invisible
waela – foolish, unaware, unwary
🕷️ Magic, Faith, Destiny
elamshin – destiny, the will of Lolth*
elend – usual, traditional
faer – magic
faerl – magical
faerbol – magical item
orthae – holy, sacred
Quarvalsharess – Goddess (title of Lolth)
quar’valsharess – goddess (other than Lolth)
ul-ilindith – destiny
yath – temple, also property, work or decree of the temple
Yorn – power, will or servant-creature of the Goddess (Lolth)
* Destiny as unique purpose, connected to the intent of higher power (Lolth).
🕷️ Work, Learning, Exploration
colbauth – path, known way
mrimm – guide, key, inspiration
noamuth – wanderer, lost, unknown
obsul – opening, door, gap or chink
ragar – find, discover, uncover
talinth – think, consider
xun – do, to complete or accomplish
xund – striving, effort, work
xundus – doing, achievement, work completed or manifested in some concrete result
zhaunil – learning, wisdom, knowledge
z'hin – walk
z'hind – trip, journey, expedition
z'orr – climb
🕷️ Wealth, Goods, Gifts
belaern – wealth, coinage, treasure
belbau – to give
belbol – gift
bol – item, thing, an unknown, unidentified, mysterious or important object
cahallin – food, but only produced or harvested, including raid-spoils; not hunted game or cooked food
🕷️ Numbers, Quantity
uss – one
ust – first
draa – two
drada – second
llar – three
llarnbuss – third
tuth – both
mzild – more
jal – all
🕷️ Comparisons
alur – better, superior
alurl – best, foremost
taga – than
ultrin – supreme, highest, conqueror
ultrine – supreme, highest (applied to Lolth only)
🕷️ Relations In Space And Time
alust – in front, facing, in the forefront
bauth – around, about
dal – from
del – of
doeb – out
elendar – continue, continued, continuing, enduring
harl – down, under, below
izil – as
lil – the
lueth – and
natha – a
pholor – on, upon
rath – back
ratha – backs
rathrae – behind
ulu – to
wun – in
wund – among, within, into
For more of my drow lore ramblings, feel free to check my pinned post 🕷️
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Fantasy races are an uncomfortable concept, because they present a world that literally works the way racists think that it works. The attempts to mitigate this problem often fail to address the core concern, merely making the idea more palatable.
A big example is trying to correct by changing the language from "races" to "species." This attempt fails for two reasons:
1) Exactly! Racists think that people of other races are a different species. That's the foundation of "race science," phrenology, all of it.
2) Are demihumans different species, though? Like, the interactions between elves and dwarves don't resemble the interactions between different species in our world. They don't act like snakes and lemurs, or whales and krill, or even cats and dogs. More often we've got different groups of people, who may speak different languages and have different cultural practices, engaging in diplomacy or war and struggling to coexist. In practice, they are treated as nations: ethnicities. Except they're ethnicities who are biologically distinct enough to have objective differences in ability.
This is something that puts me on edge in Mass Effect, otherwise one of my favorite games. True, the game ultimately lands on condemning the genophage, and it's not subtle about that. I mean just look at the name... But it's still considered debatable, morally grey, and Mordin Solus remains one of the most charming and enduring heroes of the series. The setting has bent over backwards to make every racist stereotype and talking point as legitimate as possible. In this setting, it is objectively true, scientifically proven that it is in the DNA of Krogans to naturally be violent, warmongering killing machines whose explosively rapid breeding poses an existential threat to the galaxy. That in turn is meant to make us think that maybe forced sterilization is something worth considering. It's hard to ignore the parallels to real life racist propaganda. I don't think it's malicious, just ungrounded and thoughtless; the result of creators to whom these ideals are abstract thought experiments, rather than reflections of real history.
Another big example is Dark Elves. They try to make it okay, to mitigate the message by fleshing them out as characters, by scapegoating an abusive deity rather than an ingrained nature, by erasing the monster manual description that reads "Always Chaotic Evil," by trending skin tone away from black and towards purple, or gray, even pale white. But none of it really changes the core issue, does it? The idea of drow is to equate dark skin with evil, to fetishize that idea, and to tell a story about a subsect of people cast into darkness as a result of sin in a direct parallel to racist Christian beliefs about dark skin being a curse or punishment from God.
So, do I think we need to cancel Mass Effect and stop playing D&D or telling stories about drow? No, not really. I mean... I do all these things. Truth is, I don't have an actionable solution, for myself or anyone. But the dynamic is clearly present and worth describing. And the attempts to challenge it are often insufficient, more about making ourselves feel better about what we're already doing than enacting real change.
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BG3 Drow Lore 🕷️ Minthara's alurlssrin
Alurlssrin is a drow term Minthara uses to describe the bond she shares with Tav - but what does it precisely mean?
🕷️ Alurlssrin In BG3 - alurlssrin appears in some specific Minthara’s lines, when the player character romances her. According to Narrator, it is …a word used rarely, describing the deepest bonds of trust and love.
When asked about it, Minthara says simply that alurlssrin means “love” and confesses that she never really expected to use it. In another line, she seems to be convinced that alurlssrin is the kind of bond that can be life-lasting.
When Tav tries to reciprocate, saying: I alurlssrin you too, Minthara – with a hint of amusement – explains that alurlssrin is a noun.
The alurl- part may suggest that this word means “the best” kind of an emotional bond, or something close to it (alurl – “best, foremost” in Drowic).
🕷️ Alurlssrin And Ssinssrigg - in R. A. Salvatore’s The Legacy, it is stated that …there is no word in the drow language for love. The closest word (...) is ssinssrigg, but that is a term better equated with physical lust or selfish greed.
Ssinssrigg is another term that appears in one of Minthara’s lines, when the player character romances her, but does not have her high approval. She says then: What we share is no more than ssinssrigg, a passion that burns fierce, but has no foundation.
But... since according to drow lore, there is no word for “true” love in Drowic – and the closest term is ssinssrigg - where did alurlssrin come from?
🕷️ Drow Words For Love - alurlssrin was first mentioned by Ed Greenwood in his post (TheEdVerse, Twitter, Jan. 2023) about Eilistraee and drow words for love:
Eilistraee knows all the drow words for love, and the elvish ones, too. The Drow words are: alurlssrin = unselfish, deep love, raggath = act of love (lovemaking), lurraggath = act of love (sacrificial or noble deed), ssinssrigg = passion, lust, greed, longing, love.
(Among elvish words for love, apparently also known to Eilistraee, there is nor = love, essence of passion. It also appears in one of Minthara's lines, when she calls her lover ust-nor - thank you to @vspin for messaging me about this!)
It seems, then, that alurlssrin is a drow word that is known to Eilistraee and most likely to her followers...
...but Lolth-sworn drow – or at least Menzoberranyr drow – do not know / use it. 🤔 So how is it possible that Minthara, a (former) paladin of Lolth from Menzoberranzan, is familiar with it?
🕷️ Alurlssrin In Minthara's Vocabulary
I have a feeling that alurlssrin appears in Minthara’s lines simply because a drow word for deep, true love was needed for the dialogue. Still, I tried to come up with some more lore-adequate explanations:
🕷️ Some Very Old Word – perhaps in Menzoberranzan, alurlssrin is a half-forgotten archaism that is no longer regularly used, but an educated (or bookwormish) drow can still stumble across it in centuries-old books and figure out its meaning.
🕷️ Language Of Heretics – as a paladin of Lolth, it is possible that Minthara came to contact with Eilistraeans – or with their culture – at some point. She might be even trained to recognize this particular kind of “heresy”, learning symbols and words popularly used among the followers of Eilistraee... alurlssrin included.
🕷️ Not So Unknown Anymore – language tends to change over time, and between the quote from The Legacy and the events of Baldur’s Gate 3, there is a gap of over 130 years. Maybe during this time, alurlssrin term became less unknown in Menzoberranzan? Although considering its connection to Eilistraee and her cult, this may be the least likely explanation.
Regardless of everything, the fact that Minthara calls the bond between her and Tav alurlssrin is certainly meaningful. Typically, many drow like her might not be exactly (or at all) familiar with a sheer concept of deep, unselfish, lasting love...
For more of my drow lore ramblings, feel free to check my pinned post 🕷️
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