However, the following entry can be found in abridged editions of Funk & Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of the English Language, such as The Desk Standard Dictionary of the English Language: " In folk-lore, one of a race of underground elves represented as skillful workers in metal. "I wanted a most unusual race as the main power in the Underdark, so used the reference to 'dark elves' from the dictionary to create the Drow." There seems to be no work with this title. Gygax later stated that he took the term from a listing in the Funk & Wagnall's Unexpurgated Dictionary, and no other source at all. Gygax stated, "Drow are mentioned in Keightley's The Fairy Mythology, as I recall (it might have been The Secret Commonwealth-neither book is before me, and it is not all that important anyway), and as Dark Elves of evil nature, they served as an ideal basis for the creation of a unique new mythos designed especially for the AD&D game." The form "drow" can be found in neither work. while the dark elves are blacker than pitch." : 103 the dark elves however live down below the ground. However, in the Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson wrote about the black elves: ". Everything about the Dungeons & Dragons drow was invented by Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax except for the basic concept of "dark elves". Trow/drow was used to refer to a wide variety of evil sprites. The Oxford English Dictionary gives no entry for "drow", but two of the citations under "trow" name it as an alternative form of the word.
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With the release of the 5th edition of D&D in 2014, and the release under the OGL of an SRD for that edition, the GSL fell into disuse, though it remains the only license for 4th edition.The word "drow" is from the Orcadian and Shetland dialects of Scots, an alternative form of " trow", which is a cognate with " troll". Shortly after the end of the convention a number of Wizards of the Coast's jobs were eliminated, including the Licensing Manager position that was held by Linae Foster. Prior to Gen Con 2008, it was announced that the GSL was undergoing a revision. The license also can be updated by Wizards of the Coast and updates affect all licensees in case of litigation the licensees must pay the legal costs of Wizards of the Coast.Īfter reviewing the terms and conditions of the GSL, Necromancer Games co-founder Clark Peterson declared it "an unmitigated disaster", and that his company would cease its efforts to support the new edition. People wishing to use this license are also granted a logo that must be placed onto their products to state that they are compatible with Dungeon & Dragons 4th Edition. The GSL, however, grants use of the 4th Edition System Reference Document, which lists trademarks, words, and short phrases that could be used to refer to materials in the Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition rules, but contains no rules itself. Also released at the same time was the d20 System Trademark License, allowing third-party publishers to indicate compatibility using a system logo, but not allowing the use of the D&D trademark. The OGL is a copyright license, allowing the use of copyrighted text created by others in one's products. It was released to the public by Wizards of the Coast (WotC) on June 17, 2008.Ī System Reference Document (SRD) of the 3rd edition of D&D had been licensed under the Open Game License (OGL). The Game System License is a license that allows third-party publishers to create products compatible with and using the intellectual property from the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D).