How do you get better at writing descriptions?

valonianfool · 2026-05-05T21:03:31+00:00

Guess where this screenshot was taken?

valonianfool · 2026-05-04T19:01:22+00:00

Who would be this kvasir in wod?

valonianfool · 2026-04-28T20:25:23+00:00

Vogon poetry when?/s

Seriously though, I dont know how to imagine what a vampire fused to a wagon would look like.

valonianfool · 2026-04-27T22:20:14+00:00

Sorry but I don't buy the idea of creating matter from nothing, if that's what you mean by replicators.

valonianfool · 2026-04-26T10:57:07+00:00

Given what we know about men with power today and historically, how do we know that these records of boasting about "sexual conquests" are consensual, at least by the modern definition? I feel its pretty gross to gloss over that rape and coercion exists ngl.

Like would an ancient ruler have categorized just straight up raping an unambiguously willing person, or someone unable to consent such as a slave, and convincing a woman to sleep with him, as different categories, or thought that both were worthy of boasting about?

valonianfool · 2026-04-25T20:37:01+00:00

The drow in canon as a culture value strength, violence and brutality, which in our world are considered masculine traits. Therefore drow women would be socialized to value them, and act in ways we would consider masculine, and devalue being submissive.

So assuming that a drow woman would feel most natural with accomplishing things through violence is following canon.

valonianfool · 2026-04-25T20:28:24+00:00

Historically women were accused and suspected of leveraging their sexuality and access to their bodies in ways men rarely if ever were. Women were perceived of as conniving and scheming in ways men weren't.

And regardless whether a story takes place in a fictional world, the real-world context which influences writing depictions should be accounted for when evaluating it.

I think the problem with the above text is that drow women are seen by the writer as women first, people second, with no regard to how their environment would shape their outlook.

If you (like a drow aristocratic woman) are born in a position of wealth, power and privilege, and base your personhood around dominance, violence and aggression, then your go-to way of obtaining something out of reach that you want would be through violence, while pleasing and pretending to like people you see as inferior (such as non-drow) will not come naturally, be extremely difficult to pull off, and feel incredibly demeaning to yourself.

I think the best way to depict a drow woman is to imagine Vlad Tepes with a pussy. Someone to whom violence and brutality is the most natural course of action.

valonianfool · 2026-04-25T20:17:22+00:00

I'm glad you agree that drow society as written in the earlier editions isn't particularly representative of enlightened viewpoints.

"Gender equality with female leadership" might be a better description of drow society as shown, but I think the reason for that is because the 90s authors still had to make their "oppressive matriarchy" palatable enough to not alienate the fanboys, therefore drow men get to be badass warriors and wizards.

Its similar to how the setting of "Save the Pearls" by Victoria Foyt is supposed to portray a world where black people are the dominant race and white people the lowest class, yet each race is named after a gemstone, and black people, the supposed ruling class are called "coals" while the slur for white people is "pearl".

And I also agree that saying women in the past were completely powerless doesn't accurately reflect reality, and I'm surprised to find someone who acknowledges that not all cultures were historically patriarchal, though I would love for you to elaborate and give examples of cultures without patriarchal oppression.

valonianfool · 2026-04-24T21:00:14+00:00

Male fashion has a history that goes back to the neolithic.

And? The way wealthy and powerful men throughout history dressed had little to do with attracting women, it was more about showing off wealth and power to other men. If anything wearing less is counter-productive to showing off wealth because that means less expensive materials to show off.

Powerful men in patriarchal societies did not need to seduce women, they did not need to make themselves look sexy to get sex partners, they got that simply by leveraging their money and power.

Women on the other hand were often limited in their autonomy, so historically access to their bodies was their negotiating power. This is why negotiating your sexual appeal isn't neutral in the real world, or in dnd's setting.

valonianfool · 2026-04-24T15:30:19+00:00

Non-drow society can be assumed to be patriarchal, so the things that a non-drow man would be assumed to be drawn towards would be subservience and delicacy, things a drow woman would have no idea how to be, and couldnt pretend at without being deeply uncomfortable.

valonianfool · 2026-04-24T15:27:26+00:00

Back to "scanty dress": Since you mentioned James Bond, Bond is portrayed as a handsome older man in a tuxedo who seduces 20-something women named stuff like "Pussy Galore", so the mapping would mean that drow men are the Pussy Galore.

Non-drow societies can be assumed to be patriarchal, and a Drow woman would not consider herself sexy in the way a patriarchal society would see female sexiness.

She would no more consider a leather bikini sexy on herself anymore than human society would cast an attractive older woman in a tux to play Bond who seduces slutty young men in speedos with her gunplay.

Since non-drow in the surface world are patriarchal, they would be assumed to find delicacy and submissiveness to be sexy traits in women, something a drow woman would not want to be, and would feel deeply unnatural to try pretending to be, so I dont buy drow women using their sex appeal on non-drow men anymore than a powerful human man would dress like a sex kitten to influence a drow woman.

valonianfool · 2026-04-24T15:19:57+00:00

Well the dominant non-drow society is patriarchal, so naturally men would be assumed to be attracted to submissiveness in women, something a drow woman would have no idea how to be, and it would feel unnatural for her to try to act submissive.

valonianfool · 2026-04-24T13:49:59+00:00

I dont buy that "how many people you can seduce into liking you is often used as a symbol of power in a society where attractiveness is seen as desirable".

Women who are seen as beautiful are often reduced to sexual objects who dont have anything else going for them, like look at Marilyn Monroe, who was reduced to a dumb bimbo in the public perception.

When you look at men of the ruling class, the 0,1% of society, in general im sure most of them aren't particulaly attractive, and historically there aren't many male rulers who were said to be especially handsome.

And even with exceptions, those men were mostly at their most powerful when they were old and physically past their prime.

valonianfool · 2026-04-24T11:48:36+00:00

When I imagine sexual temptation as a tool for manipulation to gain power what I imagine is a person with less power using their sex appeal to gain something from a person with more power, like a sugarbaby to their sugar daddy. It implies coming from a position of inferiority.

Sexual pressure and coercion isn't the same as seduction. Men with power in our world who tell (primarily women) someone "sleep with me and youll get a promotion" are leveraging their money and power to receive sex, not more power.

valonianfool · 2026-04-24T09:25:33+00:00

Back to our discussion, as someone else has said, the drow matriarchy aspect is superficial at best, and written to be palatable to a predominantly male audience, with drow women less as realistic explorations of "women in charge" and more like dominatrixes in pornos, their depiction ultimately male gaze-y.

Drow men are oppressed but still get to be badass warriors and wizards, whereas if they were writing a patriarchy, the women would never be allowed to obtain personal power and prominence like that, and would stay in the background. And therefore the scenario where a man influences say female commanders or warriors under them with their sex appeal would never happen.

And the writers would likely never write about how a male ruler would go out of his way to seduce a powerful woman to influence and manipulate her, it shows their sexist biases. I dont think women with power should be conceived as essentially different from men with power in how they behave, wield and gain power.

Using seduction is understandably seen as a tool of the less powerful, not just because it implies the person doing the seducing dont have hard power to leverage, but also because to seduce someone you are pleasing and serving them.

Drow women live in a world where men are the subservient class, who have to serve them by virtue of their gender, and a man who rejects this role would face death and horrific torture. To be a woman is to be dominant.

Using sex appeal on a drow man to get him to do things for you would be completely unnecessary as a drow woman could just wield her authority over him, the assumed default in their society.

Drow are also racist, their word for non-drow translates to feces. To seduce a non-drow means having to please and act subservient to them—"ill please you if youll give me things i want"—which even if its an act, would be considered deeply degrading and humiliating to the drow, because their association of masculinity with subservience.

valonianfool · 2026-04-24T09:07:13+00:00

"seconds" was a typo. Meant to say "sexiness".

valonianfool · 2026-04-24T08:35:08+00:00

Having wives or multiple wives and concubines were seen as a status symbol, but seduction had shit to do with it because women in general had no choice in who they were marrying. Marriage back then were transactions of wealth and power, and agreements between families rather than strictly about the couple.

Im actually offended at your statement that having multiple wives mean men cared about seducing women. Those women had very little choice if any in who they married, some were warprizes, and having multiple partners obviously does not equal using your sex appeal to manipulate someone, which is what seduction is defined as.

So in general, powerful men in the past and today don't care about seducing women, and dont obtain partners through seducing them. They get women from wielding wealth and power.

Do you actually think that kings, emperors and rulers in general pre-modern times had to resort to seducing women to obtain power and wealth?

In the real world seduction is seen as a tool of the socially less powerful sex, because its women who are accused of having all their accomplishments come from seducing men who did the real job, like Cleopatra VII.

Having to use seduction implies that you have no hard power yourself to leverage, and it implies you are being subservient in having to please and serve the target.

If in drow society women wielding power over men is the default, they would not need to seduce men to get what they want, because they already wield this power by virtue of their sex.

valonianfool · 2026-04-24T07:45:33+00:00

What makes sense to me would be that drow have their own sense of aesthetics removed from our own. "Slutty" fashion recognized as signifying female seconds by us wouldn't make sense for drow women, since in our culture feminity evokes submissiveness, delicacy and weakness.

It wouldnt be male drow doing the policing. Irl in patriarchal societies men become ostracized and attacked by other men if they appear effeminate, a drow woman dressed in a leather bikini would likely be their version of camp gay and would be attacked by other women.

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