Leaving aside a variety of private small scale codes used by various guilds, houses and other organizations, the Dark Elves have two forms of writing distinct to themselves. The first of which is Drow Glyphic, a collection of over eight thousands logogramic characters. Glyphic is the older of the two systems, going back at least seven thousand years with several competing systems which were codified by the First Dark Emperor shortly after her ascension to power. To this day it remains in use in a formal setting. Even so between 3,200 BIA and 2,500 BIA from glyphic was derived a new system of writing. Arguably modeled on the High Elvish system and those employed by the Elves and the Second Empire, several common gylphs were repurposed to serve as letters in a phonetic Alphabet. Glyphic is still used by the academies of magic, formal legal documents, various customary roles such as naming ships and is used by the upper crust of Drow society for snob factor, though the phonetic alphabet is more commonly used in day to day operations.