1. They worship a half spider, half woman goddess
An evil race that lives underground has to have some sort of evil leader they look up to or worship. Lolth, also known as The Spider Queen, is the fictional goddess that the dark elves worship. She being of great power but also of great evil, she is most commonly depicted as having the lower body of a spider and upper body of a woman. Lolth promotes chaos into the drow society, dark elves make plots to kill their rivals so Lolth will favor them. "They had gathered there in solemn prayer every night since Matron Ginafae had learned that she had fallen into Lolth's disfavor." Page 25. Since Ginafae had lost Lolth's favor it meant her house could be attacked by another house if they wished to plot against them. Lolth is a awesome with a great design and motives, which makes a great pair for the evil dark elves.
2. They live in the Underdark
What is the Underdark? Well its a secret underground world under the surface of the Forgotten Realms. Its a well kept secret that not many people on the surface know about. "whose sky is a ceiling of heartless stone and whose walls show the gray blandness of death in the torchlight of the foolish surface-dwellers that stumble here." Page 2. The fact that the Dark Elves live in a dangerous place like the Underdark is really cool. It makes them harden warriors and having to live in such a dangerous place proves means they always have to be on guard.
3. There Laws are Interesting
4. The Nobles don't need Stairs
Pretty much all nobles in the Drow society can do magic like summoning shadow orbs, or seeing in the dark. However the coolest thing they can do is levitate. They don't even use stairs they just float to their next destination. "Drow nobles needed no stairs; another manifestation of their innate magical abilities allowed them the power of levitation." Page 14. Its little things like this that make Drow even cooler than they already were.
5. They are Survivors
Since they live in the Underdark and everyone in their society is always looking for a chance to stab them in the back, you better believe they are good survivors. "The drow are the survivors, and this is the Underdark, the valley of death—the land of nameless nightmares." Page 2. Them being good survivors means they are strong fighters and villains.
Me writing this doesn't mean I like and want to be a drow, they are evil and look down upon all races. However, a hero is half as good as his villain, so having a great villain is very important.
