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116-573: Drizzt Do'Urden ( / ˈ d r ɪ t s t d oʊ ˈ ɜːr d ɪ n / ) is a fictional character appearing in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game . Drizzt was created by author R. A. Salvatore as a supporting character in the Icewind Dale Trilogy . Salvatore created him on a whim when his publisher needed him to replace one of

232-560: A yochlol , and Drizzt returns to Menzoberranzan to prevent his friends from being further attacked by dark elves. The drow launch a second attack against Mithril Hall during the Time of Troubles . It is eventually repelled and Drizzt returns to his friends. Passage to Dawn , the final book in the Legacy of the Drow series and published two years after Siege of Darkness , picks up the story six years after

348-471: A B+ rating. He praised the vivid descriptions and good characterizations in the novel, but was critical of unrealistic situations as well as an overemphasis on combat scenarios. The last volume of the trilogy, The Halfling's Gem , was ranked 14th in the New York Times paperback best sellers' list on 11 March 1990. Paul Hughes, in an editorial review of the trilogy on Amazon's website, wrote that, while

464-640: A Realms campaign in the city of Waterdeep before creating a group known as the Knights of Myth Drannor in the Shadowdale region. Greenwood felt that his players' thirst for detail made the Realms what it is: "They want it to seem real, and work on 'honest jobs' and personal activities, until the whole thing grows into far more than a casual campaign. Roleplaying always governs over rules, and the adventures seem to develop themselves." Greenwood has stated that his own version of

580-483: A four-page description and game statistics for Drizzt and Guenhwyvar, written by R. A. Salvatore. The Heroes' Lorebook accessory, published in 1996 and written by Dale Donovan and Paul Culotta , features an update and revision of Drizzt's information from Hall of Heroes . The 1999 accessory Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark by Eric L. Boyd , details the cities and civilizations of Faerûn's Underdark through

696-428: A little depth to an otherwise straightforward hack-and-slash adventure. Publishers Weekly review of The Orc King According to PopMatters ' Andrew Welsh, Drizzt is Salvatore's attempt to create a multifaceted character who faces internal struggles, in hopes of standing out from the drow, and fantasy fiction in general. Welsh feels that Salvatore fails in this regard, saying "any blood Drizzt finds on his hands

812-509: A magic panther pal)". In his review of Homeland , Bricken explained that "when Salvatore introduced Drizzt in 1988's The Crystal Shard , players/readers who hadn't been bothered this by were forced to acknowledge the correlation because characters in the Forgotten Realms judged Drizzt by the color of his skin. He was distrusted, despised, and discriminated against, often even by those he helped." Forgotten Realms Forgotten Realms

928-584: A module based on the computer game Pool of Radiance , was also released in 1988. The boxed set Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms was released in 1988. It gives details of the lands of Kara-Tur , and was designed to be used with the 1986 book Oriental Adventures , which officially placed the book in the Forgotten Realms world. In 1989, DC Comics began publishing a series of Forgotten Realms comics written by Grubb. Each issue contains twenty-six pages, illustrated primarily by Rags Morales and Dave Simons . Twenty-five issues were published in total, with

1044-450: A much slower publication schedule than with previous editions with a focus on quality and profit and "the D&;D teams knows that they have plenty of great campaign settings in their back pocket and are either actively developing more settings or have ideas for them further down the line". The Icewind Dale Trilogy The Icewind Dale Trilogy is a trilogy of epic fantasy novels by

1160-603: A new way for TSR to market its Battlesystem rules, which it had supported with the Bloodstone adventure sequence which started with Bloodstone Pass ; the last two adventures in the series, The Bloodstone Wars (1987) and The Throne of Bloodstone (1988), were unambiguously set in the Forgotten Realms. Some characters from Egg of the Phoenix (1987) by Frank Mentzer were incorporated into The Savage Frontier (1988). The compilation module Desert of Desolation reworked

1276-434: A once-civilized people gone feral under the debased rule of women". The 4th edition update to the Forgotten Realms brought massive lore changes which were "tied to a number of other design philosophies" and the Forgotten Realms "simultaneously had become a grittier setting, on the edge of collapse, while also becoming a more fantastic one, full of wonder and mystery". Jason Wilson, for VentureBeat , highlighted that unlike

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1392-435: A patron deity to secure a good afterlife. A huge number of diverse deities exist within several polytheistic pantheons; a large number of supplements have documented many of them, some in more detail than others. Greenwood created a pantheon of gods for his home Dungeons & Dragons game, in his Forgotten Realms world, which were introduced in his article "Down-to-earth divinity" from Dragon #54 (October 1981). When

1508-568: A series of six books per year – consisting of three core rulebooks as well as three setting books – beginning with the Forgotten Realms. The company started the cycle with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (2008), the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (2008), and Scepter Tower of Spellgard . These books updated the Forgotten Realms to the newest rules system which altered the setting drastically to make it fit with

1624-660: A timeline advance were introduced to the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition in 2001 with the release of the hardcover book the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting , which won the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game Supplement of 2001 in 2002. The timeline was officially advanced from 1358 DR to 1372 DR. The adventure City of the Spider Queen (2002) did not meet its projected sales targets, so Wizards of

1740-457: Is Drizzt's equal in combat, and they clash often due to their conflicting views and goals. In the 1990 book The Halfling's Gem , Artemis kidnaps Regis while in the employ of a powerful crime lord. Drizzt and Wulfgar chase the assassin by sea, with the help of Captain Deudermont , to recover Regis. Drizzt ends up in combat with Artemis Entreri, who leaves the battle wounded. At the end of the book

1856-499: Is a drow who acts against the drow stereotype, favoring friendship and peace over hatred and violence. His unusual personality creates the conflict that allows Salvatore to create so many novels with stories about courage and friendship. Drizzt therefore fights the dark traits that are inherent in the drow. Salvatore uses Drizzt to represent issues of racial prejudice, particularly in The Dark Elf Trilogy . For instance, Drizzt

1972-434: Is a familiar, almost traditional, medieval-styled fantasy setting, it boasted unprecedented scope". "It is, quite simply, Dungeons & Dragons at its very core." Aubrey Sitterson, for PC Magazine , included the Forgotten Realms in a 2015 roundup of the "11 Best Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings" and wrote that "for most people, Forgotten Realms is synonymous with Dungeons & Dragons , and with good reason: it's

2088-452: Is a fantasy world setting, described as a world of strange lands, dangerous creatures, and mighty deities, where magic and supernatural phenomena are quite real. The premise is that, long ago, planet Earth and the world of the Forgotten Realms were more closely connected. As time passed, the inhabitants of Earth had mostly forgotten about the existence of that other world – hence the name Forgotten Realms. The original Forgotten Realms logo, which

2204-485: Is a playable character in the game's seventh stage, described by a writer for Imagine Games Network ( IGN ) as "cool but utterly ineffective." Drizzt appears in Baldur's Gate fighting some gnolls; it is possible for a skilled player to kill him or pickpocket his items, and a friendly or hostile version of Drizzt can be spawned with a cheat code . Drizzt also appears in the sequel Baldur's Gate II and will react negatively if

2320-545: Is born in Menzoberranzan as the third son to Matron Malice, the leader of House Do'Urden (a type of family akin to a Scottish clan ). His father is Zaknafein , a weapons master who secretly hates drow society and teaches Drizzt his martial skills as he reinforces Drizzt's innate moral code. The 1996 short story "The Fires of Narbondel", in the Realms of the Underdark anthology , describes unrelated events involving Zaknafein as

2436-408: Is concerned that if he and his love Cattie-Brie (a human) have children, their offspring will face hostility from both races. Drizzt is also troubled by the lifespan discrepancy between himself and Cattie-Brie. Drizzt was created by happenstance. In 1987 R. A. Salvatore sent Mary Kirchoff , then managing editor of TSR 's book department, a manuscript for what would become his 1990 novel Echoes of

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2552-482: Is once again the main character in the Transitions trilogy, consisting of The Orc King , The Pirate King , and The Ghost King . Drizzt is the main character, along with Bruenor, in R. A. Salvatore's next series in the Forgotten Realms, Neverwinter Saga ; the first book in this series, Gauntlgrym , was released October 5, 2010. The second book in the series Neverwinter , was released October 4, 2011, with

2668-444: Is part of the fictional world of Abeir-Toril (usually just called Toril ), an Earth-like planet with many real-world influences and consists of several large continents. It was first detailed in the original Forgotten Realms Campaign Set , published in 1987 by TSR . The other continents of Toril include Kara-Tur , Zakhara , Maztica , and other yet unspecified landmasses. Kara-Tur, roughly corresponding to ancient East Asia ,

2784-438: Is quickly justified and most 'internal' conflict is superficial at best." A review for Pyramid refers to Drizzt as the "most famous denizen" of Menzoberranzan, identifying him and the city as "some of the most famous pieces of the Realms", while chroniclers of the game Witwer et al. in the book Art & Arcana: A Visual History counted him among the "iconic D&D characters". Rob Bricken of Kotaku called Drizzt "one of

2900-401: Is retroactively considered to be a part of the Forgotten Realms, although it was not until the module The Bloodstone Wars was released that it became the official setting for the module series. Douglas Niles had worked on a novel trilogy with a Celtic theme, which were then altered to become the first novels set in the Forgotten Realms, starting with Darkwalker on Moonshae (1987). It

3016-582: Is the first book in The Moonshae Trilogy , which predates the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set by one month. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Set was later released in 1987 as a boxed set of two source books ( Cyclopedia of the Realms and DM's Sourcebook of the Realms ) and four large color maps, designed by Greenwood in collaboration with Grubb. It sold ca. one hundred fifty thousand times in its first two years. The set introduced

3132-472: Is the last of a series of ground-shaking events. It really affects the whole world of the Forgotten Realms in a major way. You may remember when the Spell Plagues began, the two worlds of the Forgotten Realms, Abeir and Toril, crashed together. That created both geographic changes (the map of the Forgotten Realms and Faerûn actually changed due to that collision), and also changed the way magic works. It changed

3248-421: The Dungeons & Dragons game in 1975, and became a serious role-playing enthusiast with the first Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( AD&D ) game releases in 1978. Greenwood brought his fantasy world into the new medium of role-playing games when a university student named September invited him to play AD&D with her. The setting became the home of Greenwood's personal campaign . Greenwood began

3364-611: The Neverwinter Campaign Setting was released which launched the 4th edition's first major multimedia release. The Forgotten Realms city setting spawned four novels by R. A. Salvatore called the Neverwinter Saga , a comic book, and a board game called The Legend of Drizzt , as well as two video games – the Facebook game Heroes of Neverwinter (2011–2012) and a MMORPG called Neverwinter (2013). Laura Tommervik, from

3480-508: The Neverwinter Nights and the Baldur's Gate series. Ed Greenwood began writing stories about the Forgotten Realms as a child , starting at the age of eight. He came up with the name from the notion of a multiverse of parallel worlds; Earth is one such world, and the Realms another. In Greenwood's original conception, the fantastic legends of Earth derive from a fantasy world that can no longer be accessed. Greenwood discovered

3596-664: The Paths of Darkness series. The Silent Blade (1998) describes the group's journey to permanently destroy the Crystal Shard. Sea of Swords (2001) continues Drizzt's story after the events of The Spine of the World (1999), which focuses on Wulfgar, and Servant of the Shard (2000), which has Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle as the main characters. Sea of Swords covers the companions' search for Wulfgar's lost magical warhammer, Aegis-fang, and

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3712-769: The Publishers Weekly bestseller list, and #36 on the USA Today list of top sellers. The Two Swords peaked at #4 on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2004. It reached the top of The Wall Street Journal' s hardcover bestseller list after only two weeks, a record for its publisher Wizards of the Coast. It also debuted at #4 on The New York Times's bestseller list and #2 on Publishers Weekly bestseller list. The Lone Drow debuted at #7 on The New York Times Best Seller list in October 2003. Publishers Weekly felt that The Lone Drow

3828-512: The Icewind Dale Trilogy are identified on their covers as books IV, V, and VI of that series. Following from the comic adaptation of The Dark Elf Trilogy , Devil's Due Publishing continued with the adaptation of Crystal Shard . The second issue (October 2006) earned 20th place and the third issue (December 2006) earned 18th place in the list of top 100 Independent comics for their respective months. Devil's Due Publishing announced

3944-580: The Legend of Drizzt Scenario Pack that also includes Wulfgar and the dragon Icingdeath. An enclosed booklet lets players recreate the battle between Drizzt, Wulfgar, and the dragon. The boxed set was nominated for Best Miniature Product at the 2008 ENnies . A special adventure set in Icewind Dale was featured as the centerpiece at the November 3, 2007, Worldwide Dungeons and Dragons Game Day event, to commemorate

4060-564: The Mary Sue -iest characters in all of fiction". The Drizzt Do'Urden books are popular with fantasy fans, and the Drizzt character is author R. A. Salvatore's best known creation. All 34 novels featuring Drizzt by Salvatore have made The New York Times Best Seller list , starting with The Crystal Shard . The Orc King , which marked the 20th anniversary of the character, made it to #7 on the list, as well as #9 on The Wall Street Journal list, #6 on

4176-506: The Wizards of the Coast marketing team, explained the approach: "We use Neverwinter as the connective tissue across multiple product categories. The transmedia campaign is an opportunity for fans to experience the brand however they choose to". In 2013, Wizards of the Coast announced a year-long event called the Sundering which acted as a multimedia project to transition the Forgotten Realms to

4292-530: The drow character Drizzt Do'Urden . Drizzt has since appeared in more than seventeen subsequent novels, many of which have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list . In 1988, the first in a line of Forgotten Realms role-playing video games, Pool of Radiance , was released by Strategic Simulations, Inc . The game was popular and won the Origins Award for "Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1988". Several supplements to

4408-440: The halfling Regis , and their adventures as they stop Akar Kessel , a mage possessed by the sentient artifact Crenshinibon (the book's eponymous Crystal Shard), from gaining control of the region. Streams of Silver (1989), tells the story of the group as they journey to Mithral Hall , Bruenor's boyhood home. Artemis Entreri , a recurring character in the series, also makes his first appearance. In later books, Artemis

4524-468: The 1990s, which led to the setting being hailed as one of the most successful shared fantasy universes of the 1990s. By the first quarter of 1996, TSR had published sixty-four novels set in the Forgotten Realms out of the 242 novels set in AD&;D worlds. These novels in turn sparked interest in role-playing by new gamers. Numerous Forgotten Realms video games were released between 1990 and 2000. Eye of

4640-591: The 20th anniversary of the debut of Drizzt that was upcoming. Drizzt made a brief cameo in the 2011 one-off comic Unit:E , produced by Hasbro as a potential concept for crossing over many of the franchises they owned; he is seen in a splash page amongst many other Hasbro-owned characters (including characters from G.I. Joe , Transformers , M.A.S.K. , Jem and the Holograms , Micronauts , Action Man , Battleship Galaxies , and even Candy Land ), as summoned for Micronauts characters Biotron and Acroyear by

4756-470: The 4th edition changes to the Forgotten Realms: [B]asically, we authors were handed a document and told how things were going to be. We were asked our opinions, but they mattered very little – the changes were being driven from a different direction. [...] To have characters that have built such a strong history, then have that upset on the orders of someone else was very disconcerting. I will admit that

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4872-467: The 4th edition concept of "Points of Light". The main lore change centered around an event called the Spellplague in 1385 DR. This cataclysm was unleashed when the goddess of magic Mystra was killed, "transforming whole nations and altering creatures. In addition, parts of Toril have fused with its long-lost twin world Abeir, whisking away some countries and adding new ones. The Underdark is more open to

4988-468: The American writer R.A. Salvatore . The books are The Crystal Shard , Streams of Silver and The Halfling's Gem . They tell the tale of ranger Drizzt Do'Urden the drow (or dark elf), Wulfgar the barbarian warrior, Regis the halfling , dwarf king Bruenor , and Bruenor's adopted human daughter Catti-brie . It is the first of Salvatore's Forgotten Realms novels which introduces some of

5104-458: The Beholder for MS-DOS was released in 1990, which was followed by two sequels: the first in 1991, and the second in 1992. All three games were re-released for MS-DOS compatible operating systems on a single disk in 1995. Another 1991 release was Neverwinter Nights on America Online , the first graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG ). In 1998, Baldur's Gate ,

5220-454: The Coast took over publication of Dungeons & Dragons after purchasing TSR in 1997, they trimmed production down from six campaign settings to Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance , and completed AD&D 2nd edition production sometime between 1998 and 1999. They later hired Rob Heinsoo as a member of the D&D Worlds team to focus on Forgotten Realms in the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons . An official material update and

5336-410: The Coast cut back on production of new adventures. In 2002, BioWare released Neverwinter Nights , set in the northern reaches of Faerûn and operating on the revised 3.0 rules for D&D. It was followed by two expansion packs : Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark . A sequel using version 3.5 of the rules was produced by Obsidian Entertainment in 2006, and was followed by

5452-406: The Coast's 5th edition publishing strategy, which focuses on the Forgotten Realms and newer intellectual property for campaign settings, has created a rift in the fan base where some "feel that this push for new players has come at the cost of keeping the game's current players sated" by not updating campaign settings that "predate the Forgotten Realms". Hoffer highlighted that Wizards of the Coast has

5568-449: The Drizzt novels, covering each book in a three-issue mini-series along with a trade paperback collection. To date, Homeland , Exile , Sojourn , The Crystal Shard , Streams of Silver , The Halfling's Gem , The Legacy , and Starless Night have been released. The character has appeared in several video games. He is part of the story and a party member in the 1994 SSI game for PC Menzoberranzan . In Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone he

5684-461: The Forgotten Realms as "a classic fantasy backdrop" and highlighted that "at one time in our history, our world and this one were connected, but over time this magical realm was, well, forgotten. It is an ideal place for any D&D adventure, inspiring limitless possibilities for any smirking dungeon master". In 2019, academic Philip J. Clements called the "highly popular" Forgotten Realms "an unusually well-developed D&D setting" and "more-or-less

5800-439: The Forgotten Realms was published as a setting in 1987, the pantheon added Waukeen, the goddess of trade, money, and wealth, who was created by one of Jeff Grubb 's players, and added to the Forgotten Realms by Grubb. Tyche was replaced with Tymora, and the elemental lords from Melniboné were replaced by Akadi, Grumbar, Istishia, and Kossuth. Much of the history of the Forgotten Realms detailed in novels and source books concerns

5916-517: The Forgotten Realms were briefly supported in the early 1990s. Three more modules were produced for the Kara-Tur setting. The Horde boxed set , released in 1990, detailed the Hordelands, which featured a series of three modules. The Maztica Campaign Set , released in 1991, detailed the continent of Maztica . The original gray boxed set was revised in 1993 to update it to AD&D 2nd edition, with

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6032-416: The Forgotten Realms would be a more open-ended setting than its epic fantasy counterpart Dragonlance , and chose the Realms as a ready-made campaign setting upon deciding to publish AD&D 2nd edition . Greenwood agreed to work on the project and began working to get Forgotten Realms officially published. He sent TSR a few dozen cardboard boxes stuffed with pencil notes and maps, and sold all rights to

6148-534: The Forgotten Realms, as run in his personal campaign, is much darker than published versions. Starting in 1979, Greenwood published a series of articles that detailed the setting in The Dragon (now Dragon ) magazine, the first of which was about a monster known as the curst . Greenwood wrote voluminous entries to Dragon , and used the Realms as a setting for his descriptions of magic items , monsters, and spells . When Gary Gygax "lost control of TSR in 1985,

6264-475: The Forgotten Realms. The focus of the Forgotten Realms setting is the continent of Faerûn, the western part of a continent that was roughly modeled after the Eurasian continent on Earth. The lands of the Forgotten Realms are not all ruled by the human race, with populations of many humanoid races and creatures ubiquitous in fantasy fiction works such as dwarves , elves , goblins , and orcs . Technologically,

6380-555: The Forgotten Realms. In July 1990, the RPGA Network's Polyhedron Newszine began publishing a monthly column by Greenwood entitled "The Everwinking Eye" detailing various locations and personalities in the Realms. The Network used the Forgotten Realms city of Ravens Bluff as the setting for their first living campaign . Official RPGA support for this product line included the Living City module series. A number of sub-settings of

6496-458: The Fourth Magic . She liked it, but asked if he could rewrite it to take place in the Forgotten Realms. She sent him Darkwalker on Moonshae by Douglas Niles , the only novel at the time set in the Forgotten Realms. Salvatore sent her a proposal for a sequel to Darkwalker , but Kirchoff sent back a large map of the Forgotten Realms and told him she wanted a new story set in a different part of

6612-523: The Realms in search of a new home. He eventually finds himself in Icewind Dale where he meets dwarven king Bruenor Battlehammer , and Bruenor's adopted human daughter, Catti-brie . The fourth book chronologically in the series, although the first published, is The Crystal Shard (1988), the first in The Icewind Dale Trilogy . It describes Drizzt's meeting with the barbarian Wulfgar and

6728-465: The Realms. After two weeks of phone calls, Salvatore found a spot on the map that was not already designated for another project, and he located Icewind Dale there. According to Salvatore, the book was "set on the Moonshae Isles , because at the time I thought that was the Realms. When I found out how big the Realms were, I moved the story a thousand miles to the north." Salvatore created Drizzt on

6844-460: The Rings ." Salvatore calls Drizzt "the classic romantic hero —misunderstood, holding to a code of ideals even when the going gets tough, and getting no appreciation for it most of the time." Drizzt's story begins in the novel Homeland , the start of The Dark Elf Trilogy and published in 1990 as a prequel to The Icewind Dale Trilogy , which was published between 1988 and 1990. In the book, Drizzt

6960-500: The Spell Plague. Markings that marked spell-plagued people and animals will fade and go away. It's really about moving the Forgotten Realms forward, but also about bringing it around to the most beloved and most fondly remembered Forgotten Realms. The result of The Second Sundering, in game terms, was the transition from 4th edition rules to 5th edition rules of Dungeons & Dragons , published in 2014. When D&D 5th edition

7076-711: The Time of Troubles cataclysm, the 4th edition Spellplague cataclysm was "one players never embraced in the same manner as the earlier disaster". Shannon Appelcline, author of Designers & Dragons , wrote: [The 4th edition] Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide may be the most controversial D&D book ever produced by Wizards. That's entirely due to the large-scale destruction of the Realms. Similar updates have been tried by other companies — to reinvigorate settings, to make them more accessible to new players, or to make them more adventuresome. [...] It never seems to go well, because old fans feel left behind. With that said, some folks did love

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7192-576: The Time of Troubles, or Godswar, as seen in The Avatar Trilogy . The setting is home to several noteworthy recurring characters that have gained wider reception, including: In his book The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer's Bible , Sean Patrick Fannon describes the Forgotten Realms as being "the most ambitious fantasy game setting published since Tekumel ", and that it "may be the most widely played-in game setting in RPG history". Similarly, in literature,

7308-416: The abrupt changes forced me into an uncomfortable place, and from that place came some of the better things I've written, but I very much preferred the way it was done this time, with 5th Edition and the changes, where we, the authors, were told what was happening to the game and asked how we could make the world and the lore live and breathe it. Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com , reported that Wizards of

7424-512: The actions of various deities and The Chosen (mortal representatives with a portion of their deities' power) such as Elminster , Fzoul Chembryl, Midnight (who later became the new embodiment of the goddess of magic, Mystra ), and the Seven Sisters. Above all other deities is Ao, the Overlord, who does not sanction worshipers and distances himself from mortals. He is single-handedly responsible for

7540-591: The alien AI Synergy (a reimagined version of the AI from Jem ). Drizzt features prominently in the D&D Adventure System Cooperative Play board game The Legend of Drizzt , released October 18, 2011. Drizzt has also been seen in the game Neverwinter by Cryptic Studios . He appears as part of the Neverwinter: Underdark expansion that allows players to travel to the drow city of Menzoberranzan and play several quests written by R. A. Salvatore. In 2021, Drizzt

7656-543: The best-known characters in that world. The final book of this series, The Halfling's Gem , appeared in The New York Times Best Seller list . A prequel trilogy, The Dark Elf Trilogy , followed, as did several subsequent sequel series such as Legacy of the Drow and Paths of Darkness . In later years, these and other books featuring the character Drizzt Do'Urden have been rebranded as installments of The Legend of Drizzt , and such publications of

7772-476: The campaign setting and explained how to use it, and reserved space on the map for SSI 's Gold Box computer role-playing games set in the Forgotten Realms. TSR began incorporating elements by other designers into the Forgotten Realms, including the Moonshae Isles by Douglas Niles , the "Desert of Desolation" by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman , and Kara-Tur by Zeb Cook . The setting also provided

7888-416: The changes, because the setting was now more playable, more accessible, more fantastic, and more PC centered. [...] Meanwhile, a series of adventures and novels called The Sundering (2013–2014) reversed many of the 4e changes to the Realms, but without rebooting the timeline. Instead, the Realms continues to evolve and advance, as it has since its earlier days. R. A. Salvatore was also publicly unhappy with

8004-463: The characters in an early version of the first book, The Crystal Shard . Drizzt has since become a popular heroic character of the Forgotten Realms setting, and has been featured as the main character of a long series of books, starting chronologically with The Dark Elf Trilogy . As an atypical drow (dark elf), Drizzt has forsaken both the evil ways of his people and their home in the Underdark , in

8120-533: The company saw an opportunity to move beyond Greyhawk and introduce a new default setting". In 1986, TSR began looking for a new campaign setting for AD&D , and assigned Jeff Grubb to find out more about the setting used by Greenwood as portrayed in his articles in Dragon . Greenwood states that Grubb asked him "Do you just make this stuff up as you go, or do you really have a huge campaign world?", and Greenwood answered "yes" to both questions. TSR felt that

8236-464: The drow elves that something about them got stuck in the back of my head. Thank God!" Although many readers have assumed that Drizzt is based on one of the many Dungeons & Dragons role-playing campaigns that the author has played, this is not the case. Salvatore's main influences were classical literature and works of J. R. R. Tolkien . "I like to think of Drizzt as a cross between Daryth from Darkwalker on Moonshae and Aragorn from The Lord of

8352-575: The drow attack. Drizzt and Catti-Brie work with Captain Deudermont on his pirate-hunting ship, with the Companions of the Hall ultimately fighting the powerful demon Errtu who is aided by the Crystal Shard, which had previously been buried under a mountain of snow. Wulfgar, never truly dead, returns to life from the Abyss as the demon who had held his soul was destroyed. Drizzt is the main character in only two books of

8468-642: The drow city of Menzoberranzan . Drizzt's story is told in Salvatore's fantasy novels in The Icewind Dale Trilogy , The Dark Elf Trilogy , the Legacy of the Drow series, the Paths of Darkness series, The Hunter's Blades Trilogy , the Transitions series, and the Neverwinter Saga , as well as in the short stories "The Dowry", "Dark Mirror", and "Comrades at Odds". All of the novels featuring Drizzt have made The New York Times Best Seller list . A number of

8584-519: The evil drow ways and escapes Menzoberranzan into the Underdark . At this time he also acquires the statuette that allows him to summon the magical panther Guenhwyvar . Guenhwyvar travels by Drizzt's side as he makes his way across the Realms. Drizzt fights off the resurrected spirit-wraith of his father in Exile , the second book in the Dark Elf Trilogy and also published in 1990. Sojourn picks up

8700-575: The expansion sets Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir . The Forgotten Realms Deluxe Edition compilation was released in 2006, containing the Baldur's Gate series (excluding the Dark Alliance games), Icewind Dale series, and all Neverwinter Nights games before Neverwinter Nights 2 . With the release of Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition in 2008, Wizards opted for a publishing plan featuring

8816-562: The first in a line of popular role-playing video games developed by BioWare and "considered by most pundits as the hands-down best PC roleplaying game ever", was released. The game was followed by a sequel, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn , in 2000 and Icewind Dale , a separate game that utilized the same game engine as Baldur's Gate . Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor was released in 2001. Several popular Forgotten Realms characters such as Drizzt Do'Urden and Elminster made minor appearances in these games. When Wizards of

8932-483: The flagship setting for D&D". He also noted that it has received the greatest number of supplements. In a retrospective on the legacy of Dungeons & Dragons , academic Daniel Heath Justice commented that the " Forgotten Realms was explicitly based on the civilized-versus-savage binary and leaned in hard on racial essentialism in its sadistic black-skinned drow led by vicious matriarchs and their terrible spider goddess, firmly melding anti-Blackness with misogyny,

9048-404: The folks at TSR did. Naturally when TSR was shopping for new campaign worlds as part of their cross-media strategy, they had to get the Forgotten Realms. R. A. Salvatore took Greenwood's world and created characters and stories for it that made him a bestselling author and sustained TSR as a major fantasy book publisher". In 1985, the AD&D module Bloodstone Pass was released by TSR and

9164-428: The gods being cast down was planned by TSR management from the top-down and started with Hall of Heroes (1989) and continued with a three-adventure Avatar series (1989) and a three-novel Avatar series (1989), and some stories in the comic book. TSR adjusted the timeline of the Forgotten Realms by advancing the calendar one year forward to 1358 DR, referring to the gap as the Time of Troubles. In early 1990,

9280-411: The group finds Regis, and Guenhwyvar kills Artemis's employer. Legacy of the Drow is a tetralogy , unlike the previous two trilogies. The 1993 short story, Dark Mirror , in the Realms of Valor anthology, describes events just prior to the series. The first three books, The Legacy , Starless Night , and Siege of Darkness , describe a drow attack on Mithril Hall. Wulfgar is seemingly slain by

9396-410: The hardcover Forgotten Realms Adventures by Grubb and Greenwood was released, which introduced the setting to AD&D 2nd edition; the book also detailed how the Time of Troubles had changed the setting. The Ruins of Undermountain (1991) was one of the first published mega-dungeons. The Al-Qadim setting by Jeff Grubb was released in 1992, and the setting was added to the southern part of

9512-505: The highest standard. Meeting one of the most iconic figures in D&;D could help make players feel important in their campaign." In the Io9 series revisiting older Dungeons & Dragons novels, in his review of The Crystal Shard , Rob Bricken referred to Drizzt as "arguably the most famous and beloved D&D character of all time" and noted that Wizards of the Coast had finally begun combatting

9628-431: The individual issues for this series would be collected into a trade paperback with Tyler Walpole serving as the cover artist. The series was adapted by Andrew Dabb and pencilled by Val Semeiks. The trade paperback for Streams of Silver was ranked 34 in the top 100 Graphic Novels for August 2007, with an estimated pre-order sale quantity of 2,524. The final issue of Halfling's Gem was announced on 18 September 2007 and

9744-463: The last being released in 1991. A fifty-six page annual Forgotten Realms Comic Annual #1: Waterdhavian Nights , illustrated by various artists, was released in 1990. Curse of the Azure Bonds , a module based on the role-playing video game of the same name , was released in 1989. To transition the Forgotten Realms from first edition AD&D to the ruleset's second edition, a story involving

9860-447: The main character, and a young Drizzt plays a supporting role. During a raid against a group of surface elves, Drizzt finds himself unable to participate in the slaughter with his fellow drow. He pretends to kill an elf child, but actually helps her to escape. When the deception is discovered, Zaknafein is sacrificed in Drizzt's stead to appease Lolth, the drow's goddess. Following a war against another House, Drizzt curses his family and

9976-525: The new edition, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (2015), was released on November 3, 2015, and only covered a fraction of the Forgotten Realms. It describes the 2013 Sundering event, referred to as the Second Sundering in the book, and its consequences in game terms and lore. The video game Sword Coast Legends (2015) published by Digital Extremes was also released in the same month as

10092-586: The next edition of the game. This release included a weekly D&D Encounters in-store play event, a free-to-play mobile game Arena of War (2013), and a collaborative novel series: The Companions (2013) by R. A. Salvatore, The Godborn (2013) by Paul S. Kemp , The Adversary (2013) by Erin Evans , The Reaver (2014) by Richard Lee Byers , The Sentinel (2014) by Troy Denning , and The Herald (2014) by Ed Greenwood. Liz Schuh, Head of Publishing and Licensing for Dungeons & Dragons , said: The Sundering

10208-453: The novels have been adapted into graphic novels by Devil's Due Publishing . Drizzt has also been featured in D&D -based role-playing video games , including the Baldur's Gate series and Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone . Drizzt Do'Urden's stories are set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons . The character has been a mainstay for author R. A. Salvatore, appearing in his novels for over 30 years. Drizzt

10324-408: The novels have been among the most requested books by fans of the fantasy genre. D&D chroniclers Michael Witwer et al. , in the book Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana , noted that the "level of Tolkienesque history and detail that Greenwood had infused in his creation - and almost "real world" quality - granted the Realms an irresistible allure [...]. While at its core the Forgotten Realms

10440-530: The novels written in the Forgotten Realms setting have formed one of "the industry's leading fantasy series". Over time these novels have gained "unprecedented popularity", which led, as Marc Oxoby noted in his book, The 1990s , to the novels having an "extraordinary shelf life", remaining in print for many years. This popular reception has also been reflected in public libraries; for example, Joyce Saricks states in The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction that

10556-582: The original boxed set were released under the first edition rules, beginning with Waterdeep and the North , which was followed by Moonshae in 1987, and Empires of the Sands , The Magister , The Savage Frontier , Dreams of the Red Wizards , and Lords of Darkness in 1988. The City System boxed set was released in 1988, and it contained several maps of the city of Waterdeep. Ruins of Adventure ,

10672-404: The pantheon of the gods. The Sundering is all about those two worlds separating—coming apart—and the process of that separation is really the story that we're telling over the next year. At the end of this story arc, Abeir and Toril will be separate again, and many of the things that happened when they crashed together will go back to the way they were before. So magic will be much like it was before

10788-496: The perspective of the title character. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting hardcover for the game's third edition features a brief description and game statistics for Drizzt for this edition, under the section on the Sword Coast North. Drizzt has also appeared in a number of graphic novels and video games, and as a miniature figure . Beginning in 2005, Devil's Due Publishing began releasing comic book adaptations of

10904-432: The player has imported characters from the first game that killed Drizzt or has any of his unique items. He will also react negatively to any elven character with a low reputation with the same name, challenging them to a duel of honor. He is also an unlockable playable character in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II . Drizzt is also included in the Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures game, in

11020-526: The previous adventures to fit as part of the Forgotten Realms. The module Under Illefarn published in 1987 is set in the Forgotten Realms, as is the module released in 1988, Swords of the Iron Legion . R. A. Salvatore wrote his first novel for the Forgotten Realms, The Crystal Shard (1988), which was originally set in the Moonshae Islands before being moved to a new location and introduced

11136-452: The release of a new Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed set containing three books ( A Grand Tour of the Realms , Running the Realms , and Shadowdale ) and various "monster supplements". Additional material for the setting was released steadily throughout the 1990s. Forgotten Realms novels, such as the Legacy of the Drow series, the first three books of The Elminster Series , and numerous anthologies were also released throughout

11252-513: The release of the 2001 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting , the setting was given its own distinct and separate cosmological arrangement, with unique planes not explicitly connected to those of the other settings. Religion plays a large part in the Forgotten Realms, with deities and their followers being an integral part of the world. Deities interact directly in mortal affairs, answer prayers, and have their own personal agendas. All deities must have worshipers to survive, and all mortals must worship

11368-453: The reunion of the group after an extended separation. Drizzt returns as the main character throughout The Hunter's Blades Trilogy . In The Thousand Orcs (2002), Drizzt and his friends encounter the powerful orc Obould Many-Arrows, who has employed frost giants to aid him in gaining control of the region. After a battle at the town of Shallows, Drizzt believes the other Companions of the Hall to have fallen in battle, and he sets off into

11484-480: The setting for a token fee. He noted that TSR altered his original conception of the Realms being a place that could be accessed from Earth, as "[c]oncerns over possible lawsuits (kids getting hurt while trying to 'find a gate') led TSR to de-emphasize this meaning". Jon Peterson, author of Dungeons and Dragons Art and Arcana: A Visual History , said that Greenwood "was that rare obsessive DM who just seemed to have more ideas and energy to pour into his world than even

11600-503: The setting that played home to the massively popular Baldur's Gate video game, as well as R. A. Salvatore's Drizzt books. Currently, it's the only campaign setting actively supported by D&D makers Wizards of the Coast, which would be restrictive if Forgotten Realms wasn't such an incredibly diverse place, housing classic European middle ages tropes, as well as a heroic fantasy take on African, Middle Eastern, and other real-world cultures". Brian Silliman, for SYFY Wire in 2017, described

11716-423: The spur of the moment. He was under pressure to create a sidekick for Wulfgar in the Icewind Dale series . Salvatore had sent an early version of The Crystal Shard (what would become his first published novel) to TSR, and one day Kirchoff called him. She was on her way to a marketing meeting concerning the book, and informed him that they could not use one of the characters. He asked for time to think, but she

11832-400: The stereotype of the drow as a "super-evil, subterranean race", which Drizzt forsakes "to become a noble Ranger on the surface world". Bricken noted that "Drizzt ends up overshadowing almost everyone and everything" but comments that "Drizzt and Wulfgar are so preternaturally badass they beat 25 giants by themselves (well, with help from Drizzt's magic panther Guenhwyvar, because of course he has

11948-482: The story when Drizzt leaves the Underdark for the surface, where he meets a blind human ranger named Montolio Debrouchee . When Montolio begins teaching him the ways of the ranger, Drizzt realizes that, unknowingly, he had been following those very principles his entire life. From then on Drizzt's patron goddess is Mielikki , the Faerûnian goddess of the forest and of rangers. Montolio eventually dies, and Drizzt travels

12064-618: The surface. Thay has become a nightmare land of death and the Elves, sensing the newfound connection to the Feywild, have returned to Faerûn in force". The event moved the fictional world's timeline 94 years into the future to 1479 DR. The Spellplague acted as "a narrative justification for design changes". In 2008, the Forgotten Realms also became the setting for the RPGA's sole living campaign, Living Forgotten Realms , replacing Living Greyhawk . In 2011,

12180-597: The tabletop campaign guide. 5th edition details on "the rest of Faerûn had been untouched until the Tomb of Annihilation (2017), an adventure that leaves the northern Sword Coast for the southern jungles of Chult". The official Dungeons & Dragons actual play web series Rivals of Waterdeep , which premiered in 2018, is set in the Forgotten Realms. It has adapted adventure modules such as Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (2018), Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (2019) and Candlekeep Mysteries (2021) which are also set in

12296-480: The third installment entitled Charon's Claw released August 7, 2012. The fourth book in the series " The Last Threshold ", was released March 5, 2013. Drizzt Do'Urden has been featured in several accessories and one book for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The Hall of Heroes accessory for the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons , published in 1989, features

12412-519: The wilderness to fight all orcs in vengeance. The Lone Drow (2003) continues this storyline as the still-living Companions protect Mithril Hall from orc attacks without the aid of Drizzt. He is reunited with his friends in The Two Swords (2003). R. A. Salvatore's next series of Forgotten Realms books, The Sellswords Trilogy , focus on the further adventures of Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle, with Drizzt only being mentioned in them. However, Drizzt

12528-436: The world of the Forgotten Realms resembles the pre-industrial Earth in the 13th or 14th century. However, the presence of magic provides an additional element of power to the societies. There are several nation states and many independent cities, with loose alliances being formed for defense or conquest. Trade is performed by ship or horse-drawn vehicle , and manufacturing is based upon cottage industry . The Forgotten Realms

12644-467: Was already late for the meeting. Off the top of his head, Salvatore said he had a Dark Elf. Kirchoff was skeptical, but Salvatore convinced her it would be fine because he was just a sidekick. She asked his name, and he replied Drizzt Do'Urden. She asked if he could spell it, and he said "not a chance". Recalling Drizzt's creation in an interview, Salvatore said, "I don't know where it came from. I guess that Gary Gygax just did such an amazing job in creating

12760-555: Was clichéd, but that some of the characters did achieve "some complexity". They singled out two characters for praise: Innovindel, an elf who talks "pensively" of her long life in contrast to the short lived humans, and Obould the orc king. Drizzt Do'Urden was #3 on Game Rant 's 2020 "10 Must-Have NPCs In Dungeons & Dragons Lore To Make Your Campaigns Awesome" list — the article states that "A skilled ranger in his own right, Drizzt remains equally-adept in conversation. He's always wary of danger, strives for perfection, and held himself to

12876-636: Was featured on two cards in the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms line from the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game. Sleep Sound (2021) is a poem by R. A. Salvatore which received an animated short to promote the "Summer Of Drizzt" marketing campaign. The short features scenes from the story of Drizzt; it was narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch and animated by The Sequence Group. Salvatore mixes neatly choreographed battles with philosophical musings from self-styled "renegade soul" Drizzt, lending

12992-544: Was later the focus of its own source book Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms , published in 1988. There is also a vast subterranean world called the Underdark beneath the surface. In early editions of the setting, The Realms shared a unified cosmology with various other campaign settings called the Great Wheel. In this way each of the Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings were linked together to form one interwoven world connected by various planes of existence. With

13108-404: Was published in 2014, Wizards of the Coast announced that the Forgotten Realms would continue to serve as the official campaign setting for its upcoming published adventure materials. The village of Phandalin in the Forgotten Realms acted as the primary setting for the new 5th edition Starter Set (2014) which was published before the release of three new core rulebooks. "Tyranny of Dragons"

13224-590: Was shipped in December 2007. The final issue #3 completes the adaptation of Dark Elf Trilogy and Icewind Dale Trilogy . The entire trilogy was ranked 9th in Banophernalia's top 10 books for 2000. In the same site, the series was given 3 stars for Crystal Shard and 3.5 stars for Streams of Silver and The Halfling's Gem . It was considered standard enjoyable fantasy fare, although clichéd. Ian Strelec, staff reviewer for d20zines.com , awarded Streams of Silver

13340-660: Was the first multimedia storyline for the new edition and included two adventure modules, Hoard of the Dragon Queen (2014) and The Rise of Tiamat (2014), and an update to the Neverwinter (2013) video game. The next two storylines, "Elemental Evil" which included Princes of the Apocalypse (2015) and "Rage of Demons" which included Out of the Abyss (2015), were also set in the Forgotten Realms. The first campaign guide for

13456-420: Was used until 2000, had small runic letters that read "Herein lie the lost lands" as an allusion to the connection between the two worlds. Forgotten Realms is one of the most popular D&D settings , largely due to the success of novels by authors such as R. A. Salvatore and numerous role-playing video games, including Pool of Radiance (1988), Eye of the Beholder (1991), Icewind Dale (2000),

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