For those who would like to borrow Jarlaxle, Vierna, and Kimmuriel's species and racial group, drow elves are the subterranean subtype of elves found in Faerûn and some other Dungeons and Dragons worlds. Like all elves, they are long-lived and elegant, with an innate affinity for magic and for their native environment; in the case of drow, this environment is underground.

For the sake of my sanity we're mostly going by current (fifth edition) Dungeons and Dragons rules, because the actual capabilities of drow have been retconned multiple times over the course of the series as game rules changed.

Drow elves typically have the following physical traits:

• Dark grey skin, sometimes with purple or blue undertones.
  
• White hair, including eyebrows and lashes. With a very few notable exceptions, elves do not grow facial hair.
  
• Red or pink eyes are most common, followed by shades of yellow and orange; green, grey, violet, or blue eyes rare but possible.
  
• Good visual acuity in near-total darkness, allowing them to see clearly, if in monochrome, to a range of 120 feet. (Sunlight causes disorientation and pain in some drow, although this seems to be more a matter of acclimation than innate aversion to the sun; drow that live on the surface generally adapt to daylight conditions over time.)
  
• Overall, hearing and eyesight is slightly better than in humans.
  
• Pointed ears.
  
• Typically stand between five and five and a half feet tall, making them short for elves but still within the normal human range, with females typically taller and broader than males. There is, however, evidence that this is strongly impacted by widespread childhood malnutrition, and transformed players may or may not find their height effected (I believe all three of our former drow kept their original heights on humanization).

Drow elves typically have the following metaphysical traits:

• An affinity for light and darkness based magics: all drow can conjure small, free-floating dancing lights at will, and with a little more effort can coat an area or object in harmless but persistent faerie fire or call up a fifteen-foot sphere of magical darkness.
  
• Other magics: Although none of our drow present would consider themselves mages, Vierna and Jarlaxle have the early childhood magical training typical of the nobility and can levitate themselves. Kimmuriel has weirder shit going on, which I am going to leave to Ruka to explain if they want because this is long enough without me trying to figure out psionics as well.
  
• Like all elves, drow are resistant to charm magic (magic that makes the target more well-disposed toward the caster), and cannot be put to sleep by magic.
  
• Although capable of sleep, can choose to instead enter a trance state known as Reverie; while in Reverie, a drow remains semiconscious of their surroundings, and meditates deeply rather than dreaming. Four hours of trance is typically equivalent to eight hours of sleep, although some drow find sleep to still be more restful.