The Drow are a sub-species of Elf that originated on the continent of Xen'drik. Drow are dark skinned and white haired, and every drow has some natural ability to manipulate light and shadow. Their low light vision is also superior to that of other elves, though Drow in Eberron do not have sunlight sensitivity.
The history of the Drow is interwoven with that of the elves. Following the conflict with Dal Quor, the giants of Xen'drik were weakened, and this allowed the elves that they had enslaved to rise up. In an effort to combat the uprising, the giants of the Sulat League magebred captured elves to create a new species of elf, a weapon for the giants that could go places that the giants couldn't. When the dragons of Argonessen laid waste to the civilisations of the giants and cursed the land they owned, the drow were caught in the destruction. From the ashes, several distinct cultures emerged.
Most of the Drow on Xen'drik are Qaltiar. A smaller group named the Sulatar still cling to the traditions of the giants, and another group fled the apocalypse and took refuge in Khyber and became the Umbragen.