I think Dunmer are simply heavily TES-ized Drow. Their appearance and mentality are strikingly similar, except that in TES the Dunmer have red eyes and they pass off evil as being "their way," which apparently clears them of charges. Dunmer are patriarchal, though, and are not subterranean.

For one thing, TES Dark Elves aren't all evil, unlike Dark Elves in almost everything else.

Theyre certainly perceived as such by most of the outside world, though. Especialy in pre-imperial times... highly xenophobic, slavery, warlike, assassins as officially sanctioned way of politics...

Though, I mustve missed the Dunmer being partiarchal...

Says the heavily Evolutionized caveman.

I really don't think they are patriarchal. Sure, males seem to be more prominent in many positions of power, but as the player and some examples have shown, women can become leaders and heads of factions in Morrowind. This means that they are neither patriarchal and matriarchal, and have a tendency towards males in society, but that is all. Females have for more freedoms and the ability than they have for the most part in RL history up until really quite recently. I would say that any female Dunmer in Morrowind can go on to achieve whatever she likes if she has the ability and will to do so. Since the female Telvanni councilors are quite old, I suspect that it has been this way for quite some time, and is not a new imperial additive, but an actual part of Dunmeri/Chimeri Culture.

Nah, the majority of Drow aren't evil. What with every D&D player wanting a Dritzz, half the Drow population are probably running around as PCs trying to amend for their past ways.Well that's what I've seen form playing with D&D players. The fact they get a huge Character penalty as per leveling doesn't seem to deter.

Yes, well I'm sure you played Blood Moon - bet I played it first - and read that book about the snow prince in that barrow? What the post above was referring to is the general lack of thought that made a nonsense of stuff in Morrowind. A confused attempt on the part of an ill-educated dev/companyman who never played Morrowind but heard of snow elves and tried to change DUNmer into Snowmer makes as much sense as anything else I can think of to explain the DUNmer's weird colouring in Oblivion. Or maybe the dev was stoned and playing with colours and decided 'THAT' was pretty? You choose.

Gez and Durza
As for the wiki I suspect that they only scratched the surface of the Orcney 'drow' - the real story behind that is little nocturnal sea-birds called orcs that only come to land to breed in the underground caves beneath the main Island - the ancient Orkney men only hearing their cries and never seeing them took them to be evil spirits - that came to be called orcs. Nice theory that the Scandinavians may have renamed them to fit with beings of their own Mythos, but, umm, they didn't - want proof? Get ahold of a really old volume on Norse Myths and legends. NO DROW. What happened was that enterprising folk of the Isles wanted to drum up American tourist interest by linking them to AD&D

Well you are both correct Gez and Durza. Gygax said both things. Because he did lift the idea of the evil underground beings that never came to the surface from the Mythos of the Orkney isles, and then had trouble with the name because he also had Orcs in-game. Likely he had done his research and discovered the actual source of JRR's Orcs. But anyways, one night he was thinking of a word so he kept writing 'word' down, and then he thought about everything about his underground people being the opposite of good and that led to looking at things backwards, so in his drug-crazed state he wrote 'word' backwards and was mighty pleased by the result.

The rest is history. Gez 1pt, Durza 1pt

The reason Drow are mostly evil and matriarchic society is because of their worship of Lolth. Not all Drow worship Lolth either.

Yes, because anything appearing in any other fantasy roleplaying setting that even possibly remotely resembles drow is obviously D&D's drow.

AD&D is not the be all and end all, nor was it ever intended to be however some old farts like myself enjoy seeing it in mods for this game to bring those old artifacts to life in ways we never dreamed possible.

As I've said before, a Plane is a Plane.

I like to be in Vvardenfell!
O.K. by me in Vvardenfell!
Ev'rything free in Vvardenfell
Except the beasties in Vvardenfell!

Drow are D&D/Forgotten Realms.
Dunmer are Elder Scrolls.

Differences are quite noticeable in the history books having to deal with Morrowind.