What does Drow Speech sound like?

Question

I am about to play a Drow Rogue-Fighter and I want to roleplay my character well, and this includes doing a voice. What is the proper voice for a [charismatic] Drow [Rogue-Fighter]? I was thinking something kind of low and blunt, but wanted to know if there are any audio or descriptive references available.

Answer 1

The closest thing to an official sound for the drow language might come from TSR's The Drow of the Underdark (1991), which describes some drow vocabulary and phrases. The book describes drow speech as follows:

Drow are as eloquent and musical in their speech as other elves, and are capable of readily reproducing the sounds of other languages. Most drow are good mimics; a drow overhearing speech who imitates the words and tone is 45% likely (+1% per exposure to the language) to be audibly mistaken for the being they are imitating.

According to this, drow sound like elves, and drow adventurers are likely to speak with little or no accent. You can find several elvish language references on Youtube, including J.R.R Tolkien reading a poem in Elvish. Legolas from the Lord of the Rings movies is another good example, although a drow's cultural background would lend itself to a slightly more violent and selfish tone.

Answer 2

Search for sound clips from Icewind Dale 2, there's 2 drow clips for each gender if memory serves and are really good if that's what you're looking for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p651lYmaUkY, not the exact clip (it's someone imitating the voice clip) but very close, still looking for the original one (my IWD2 CD is broke and I can't reinstall it).

Answer 3

If you want to try to subtly remind the other players that as a Drow there may be something dangerous and sinister about you, you could try speaking something like Christopher Lee as Saruman in the LoTR movies (and many other villainous characters in his career).

Don't raise your voice, and try to keep your tone and pacing even. Enunciate and draw out all the syllables of the words you speak in character.

Answer 4

This may be not be exactly what you want, but many of the Forgotten Realms books by RA Salvatore have audo-book versions available. I think there are relatively few actual drow words in there, but you have, often rather good, voice actors taking pains to voice a drow and to give different voices/accents to different characters as they read.

Plus, they are rather entertaining on their own and worth listening to on commutes.

Answer 5

I have always thought of Drow as having scratchy sharp voices (think wicked witch of the west) based on the writings of the Forgotten Realms Underdark. That said there are always those who do not fit expectations (Mike Tyson for example). So If you want your Drow to sound different (Even from an accepted norm) I do not see any reason it could not.