13 Great Characters
from Dungeons & Dragons
Part Two
Mordenkainen
Mordenkainen is a fictional wizard from
the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons
roleplaying game. He was created by Gary Gygax as a player character
only months after the start of Gygax's Greyhawk campaign, and is
therefore one of the oldest characters continuously associated with
D&D.
Once Gygax was forced out of TSR, Inc.,
he lost creative control of Mordenkainen. TSR then made Mordenkainen
a powerful wizard with strong convictions against moral absolutes,
and the leader of the Circle of Eight, a cabal of eight powerful
wizards. In fiction associated with the World of Greyhawk, he has
played diverse roles as both protagonist and antagonist.
Official publications for the World of
Greyhawk sometimes contradict each other regarding Mordenkainen. It
is clear, however, that he is an important figure in the fictional
history of the Flanaess.
Tenser
Tenser was born 525 CY, purportedly in
the Wild Coast town of Fax. At some point after 551 CY, he was
recruited by Mordenkainen and Bigby to join the Citadel of Eight.
After the death of his good friend and fellow Citadel member Serten
in 569 CY, the Citadel dissolved. Tenser joined forces with Bigby and
Mordenkainen once more in 574 CY when he joined the Circle of Eight,
replacing Leomund.
In 570 CY, Tenser accompanied Bigby and
Neb Retnar beneath Greyhawk Castle in an unsuccessful attempt to
prevent Robilar, Riggby, and Quij from freeing the demigod Iuz.
In 579 CY, Robilar sacked the Temple of
Elemental Evil, freeing the demoness Zuggtmoy in the process. In
retribution, Tenser, Otis, Rufus, and Burne led an army of
good-aligned forces in pursuit of his former companion, following him
back to his castle and laying siege to it, defeating his armies and
driving them from the Domain of Greyhawk to the Pomarj.
In 581 CY, Tenser accompanied Bigby,
Drawmij, Jallarzi Sallavarian, Nystul, Otiluke, Otto, and Rary to the
tomb of Halmadar the Cruel. Every member of the party died that day,
though they were brought back to life later through the agency of
clone spells.
The Circle was betrayed in 584 CY, when
Tenser, Bigby, and Otiluke discovered a plan by the Circle's own Rary
to slay a number of diplomats assembled in Greyhawk to sign the
treaty ending the Greyhawk Wars. Unfortunately, Rary witnessed their
discovery, and a great magical battle ensued, resulting in the deaths
of Otiluke and Tenser, and severely wounding Bigby, who was unable to
pursue Rary as he escaped. Word later came that Rary's allies, among
them former Citadel member Lord Robilar, had ensured Tenser's and
Otiluke's deaths by destroying every clone they had prepared for such
an incident. Rary and Robilar fled to the Bright Desert, southeast of
Greyhawk, where they established the Empire of the Bright Lands.
However, Rary and Robilar had failed to
discover a clone Tenser had hidden away on Celene, one of Oerth's
moons, and in Goodmonth of 585 CY Tenser was restored to life. Though
he was welcomed back into the Circle, Tenser refused.
Bigby
Bigby was created by Rob Kuntz as a
low-level non-player character evil wizard in the early dungeons of
Greyhawk in 1973. Gary Gygax's character, the wizard Mordenkainen,
encountered Bigby. The two wizards engaged in combat; Mordenkainen
managed to subdue Bigby using a charm spell, and forced Bigby to
become his servant. Kuntz ruled that Bigby would be Mordenkainen's
servant as long as he remained under the charm spell, but until
Gygax, through roleplaying, had won Bigby's loyalty, the evil wizard
would remain a non-player character under Kuntz's control. After a
long time and several adventures, Mordenkainen managed to convince
Bigby to leave his evil ways behind, and Kuntz ruled that it was safe
to remove the charm spell, since Bigby had changed from an enemy to a
loyal henchman; therefore Gygax could use Bigby as a player
character. For a time after this, Kuntz ruled that all the names of
Mordenkainen's future henchmen had to rhyme with Bigby. This resulted
in Zigby the dwarf; Rigby the cleric; Sigby Griggbyson the fighter;
Bigby's apprentice, Nigby; and Digby, who eventually replaced Bigby
as Mordenkainen's new apprentice.
Thereafter, Gygax developed Bigby into
a powerful wizard second only to Mordenkainen, and eventually Bigby
became one of the original members of Gygax's Circle of Eight, a
group of adventurers made up of eight of Gygax's own characters.
When Gygax wrote TSR's AD&D Players
Handbook, he borrowed Bigby's name to describe a series of "hand"
spells (Bigby's crushing hand, Bigby's grasping hand, etc.). This
custom continued on in later versions of D&D, with over two dozen
"hand" spells eventually ascribed to Bigby.
When Gygax was forced out of TSR in
1985, he lost the rights to most of his characters, including
Mordenkainen and Bigby. Bigby is one of the famous mages of the
Greyhawk setting whose spells were included in the 1988 Greyhawk
Adventures hardbound. Bigby was reintroduced as a member of a
repurposed Circle of Eight in 1989 in The City of Greyhawk boxed set,
where he appeared as part of a cabal of nine wizards who sought to
balance the forces of Good and Evil in the world. He also appeared in
the adventure Vecna Lives!, where he was temporarily killed by an
ancient warlord armed with the hand and eye of Vecna. When TSR
decided to reboot the World of Greyhawk campaign setting in 1991,
Carl Sargent moved the storyline of the setting forward a decade to
585 CY, the year after the end of a continental war called the
Greyhawk Wars. By this time, Bigby had returned to life via the
agency of a clone spell, and was once again a member of the Circle,
now known as the Circle of Five after the deaths of Tenser and
Otiluke and the treason and departure of Rary.
Bigby remained a potent character in
subsequent versions of the Greyhawk setting, which updated the
storyline to 591 CY.
Gord the Rogue
One of the factors that contributed to
the success of the Dragonlance setting when it was published in 1984
was a popular series of concurrent novels by Tracy Hickman and
Margaret Weis. Gary Gygax, the developer of the World of Greyhawk
campaign setting, realized that novels set in Greyhawk could have a
similar benefit for his recently published World of Greyhawk boxed
set, so he wrote Saga of Old City, the first in a series of novels
that would be published under the banner Greyhawk Adventures. The
protagonist was Gord the Rogue, and this first novel told of his rise
from the Slum Quarter of the city of Greyhawk to become world
traveller and thief extraordinaire. The novel was designed to promote
sales of the boxed set by providing colorful details about the social
customs and peoples of various cities and countries in a region
called the Flanaess.
Even before Saga of Old City rolled off
the presses in November 1985, Gygax wrote a sequel, Artifact of Evil.
He also wrote a short story, "At Moonset Blackcat Comes",
that appeared in the special 100th issue of Dragon magazine in August
1985. This introduced Gord the Rogue to gamers just before Saga of
Old City was scheduled to be released.
However, at the same time, various
factions within TSR with different visions of the company's future
caused a power struggle, and Gygax was forced out on December 31,
1985. By the terms of his settlement with TSR, Gygax kept the rights
to Gord the Rogue as well as all D&D characters whose names were
anagrams or plays on his own name (for example, Yrag and Zagyg).
After Gygax left TSR in 1985, he
continued to write a few more Gord the Rogue novels, which were
published by New Infinities Productions: Sea of Death (1987), Night
Arrant (1987), City of Hawks (1987), Come Endless Darkness (1988),
and Dance of Demons (1988). In Gygax's absence, however, TSR moved
the Greyhawk storyline in new directions that Gygax didn't
appreciate, and the line of Greyhawk Adventures novels (without Gord
the Rogue) continued to be written by Rose Estes. In a literary
declaration that his old world of Oerth was dead, and wanting to make
a clean break with all things Greyhawk and D&D, Gygax destroyed
his version of Oerth in the final Gord the Rogue novel, Dance of
Demons.
Kitiara uth Matar
Kitiara is beautiful, a skilled warrior
and, above all else, she is cold and calculating. Power-hungry, she
has never been truly able to call someone a friend. In many ways, she
and Raistlin are much alike. Neither would hesitate to betray an ally
if presented with a guarantee at supreme power.
She once fell in love with a half elf
named Tanis Half-Elven, and later seduced the knight Sturm
Brightblade, with whom she secretly had a child, Steel Brightblade.
During the War of the Lance, Kitiara
became a Dragon Highlord, with Skie as her personal dragon. She led
the Blue Dragonarmy in the invasion of Solamnia. Her forces conquered
most of eastern Solamnia and were prepared to attack the High
Clerist's Tower, when Kitiara was recalled to meet with the Dragon
Emperor Ariakas.
Emperor Ariakas rejected Kitiara's plan
for a sudden attack on the High Clerist's Tower and instead
instructed her to carry out his own scheme to destroy the Knights of
Solamnia by tricking one of the leading knights, Knight of the Rose
Derek Crownguard, into seeking out a dragon orb. During this meeting
with the Emperor, Kitiara also learned that her former companions had
killed the Dragon Highlord Verminaard.
A disguised Kitiara succeeded in
convincing Lord Crownguard to pursue the dragon orb. She then learned
that not only had Tanis, Sturm, and her brothers killed Verminaard,
but Tanis was now traveling with his former girlfriend, the elven
princess Laurana. This filled Kitiara with a jealous rage, especially
after she heard how incredibly beautiful Laurana was, and the now
obsessed Kitiara began to relentlessly stalk the elfmaid.
Kitiara finally caught up to Laurana in
the city of Tarsis. After covertly watching Laurana, Kitiara decided
the elfmaid was too beautiful a rival to let live and decided to kill
her. Kitiara then attacked Laurana from behind, intending to drag the
elfmaid off into an alley, interrogate her about Tanis, and then
murder her. Kitiara expected to easily defeat the pampered princess
and was shocked when Laurana fiercely resisted her attack. It was
only with the help of the sivak draconian Slith that Kitiara was
finally able to subdue Laurana. Kitiara and Slith dragged Laurana off
into an alley, but before they could kill the elfmaid they were
interrupted by none other than Lord Crownguard, leading a group of
Solamnic Knights, and Elistan, a cleric of Paladine. Kitiara fled,
promising Laurana they would meet again.
Meanwhile, the Emperor Ariakas had
become convinced that Kitiara was plotting against him. He had her
arrested and scheduled to be executed though Kitiara managed to
escape with the help of the black robe wizardess, Iolanthe. Kitiara
regained her standing with the Dragon Empire by convincing the death
knight Lord Soth to ally with the Dragonarmies. Ariakas then sent
Kitiara on a secret mission to the city of Flotsam.
While in Flotsam, she found Tanis
disguised as one of her own soldiers and assumed that he too had
enlisted. This meeting rekindled their feelings for each other, and
she encouraged Tanis to stay with her as her lover. But Tanis came to
his senses shortly after, and fled from Kitiara in self-disgust to
rejoin his companions on their flight into the Blood Sea.
In the North, Kitiara was finally
allowed to attack the High Clerist Tower, the defence of which was
now commanded by Sturm Brightblade and Laurana. In the course of
battle, Kitiara killed Sturm, but he managed to delay her long enough
to allow Laurana to successfully use a dragon orb to lure two of
Kitiara's dragons into a trap. The dragon orb also caused the
draconians in Kitiara's army to go berserk which lead to her army
being routed. Kitiara then confronted Laurana on the tower walls,
where she taunted her rival by telling Laurana that Tanis was with
her.
Kitiara then returned to Flotsam only
to find that Tanis had left her. Riding Skie, she pursued the
half-elf's ship into the Blood Sea but failed to capture Tanis before
his ship went down in the Maelstrom.
Meanwhile, the Good Dragons had entered
the war and Laurana had been appointed Commander of the Knights of
Solamnia. Laurana then led her forces, known as the Whitestone Army,
into battle with Kitiara's army and again Kitiara's force was
defeated with Kitiara's deputy Bakaris being captured. The Whitestone
Army then liberated the key city of Kalaman.
The Emperor Ariakas, then went to
execute Kitiara for the defeats she had suffered. However, the death
knight - Lord Soth stayed Ariakas's hand and Kitiara then managed to
convince the Emperor she had a plan to capture Laurana, now known as
the Golden General, and defeat the Whitestone Army, by using
Laurana's love for Tanis Half-Elven to lure her into a trap.
Kitiara sent a false message to
Laurana, skillfully manipulating her rival by telling the elfmaid
that Tanis had been mortally wounded and wanted to see her before he
died, which Kitiara would only allow in exchange for Laurana
returning Bakaris to her. Just as Kitiara expected, Laurana fell for
this trick. The elfmaid, who already believed Tanis was with Kitiara,
was completely convinced the message was true and felt she could
trust Kitiara, so she foolishly took Bakaris to the exchange site
without taking any precautions against it being a trap and was
promptly betrayed and captured by Kitiara's forces. With the Golden
General now her prisoner, Kitiara then traveled to Kalaman and
threatened to execute Laurana in three weeks time unless the
Whitestone Forces surrendered.
Later on, in the climax of the War,
Tanis met with Kitiara in Neraka and offered to willing serve the
Highlord if she would release Laurana. Kitiara agreed to consider his
offer, but she had already made a promise to give Laurana's soul to
Lord Soth. Kitiara then had the captured Laurana put on display for
the evil goddess Takhisis in the audience chamber of the Temple of
Neraka.
Tanis managed to turn the tables on
Kitiara though when he murdered Emperor Ariakas with help from
Raistlin, and seized the Crown of Power. Tanis was about to trade the
Crown of Power for his and Laurana's freedom when Laurana broke free
on her own. Laurana immediately attacked Kitiara, stealing the
Highlord's sword and knocking Kitiara to the ground. Tanis tried to
stop Laurana which caused her to shove him off the platform, leading
to Tanis dropping the crown.
The various Dragonarmy factions began
fighting over the crown and Tanis and Laurana were able to escape.
Kitiara soon tracked down Tanis and Laurana after their escape and
Kitiara then again gave Tanis the chance to become her lover forever.
He refused in favor of Laurana. Kitiara then allowed them to escape
from her and Lord Soth. Lord Soth mocked her for this, but Kitiara
claimed that by letting the two escape she had insured she would
always live in Tanis's heart which would forever poison his
relationship with Laurana.
After the War of the Lance, Kitiara led
her Dragonarmies against the city of Palanthas in a campaign known as
the Blue Lady's War. She was hoping to stop her half-brother Raistlin
in his quest to defeat Takhisis as she believed the goddess would
greatly reward her for this service. As Kitiara's troops battled the
Palanthians, she fought her way into the Tower of High Sorcery in
Palanthas and even managed to take Raistlin's apprentice, Dalamar by
surprise and stab him. However, Kitiara failed to finish Dalamar off
and he then mortally wounded her with his magic. It was then that
Kitiara realized she had been betrayed by Lord Soth, who had become
obsessed with her and planned to bind her soul to him for eternity.
Kitiara pleaded with Tanis Half-Elven
(who had arrived in the tower shortly after her fight with Dalamar)
to protect her from Lord Soth. Tanis nearly did so despite the fact
that he had no way to defeat the powerful death knight. However, both
Dalamar and Lord Soth reminded Tanis of all he would be throwing
away, and after thinking about his wife, Laurana, and the life he
hoped to have with her, Tanis stood down and allowed Lord Soth to
take the dying Kitiara.
Having achieved what he wanted Soth
then withdrew his forces from the battle. Without their undead
allies, the remaining Dragonarmy forces were defeated by the
Palanthians, though the city was devastated in the fighting.
Kitiara died, but her soul vanished
before the death knight could bind it. Both Lord Soth and the dragon
Skie tried to find her soul, but they both failed.
Vecna
Vecna was born as a human, centuries
ago as a member of the untouchable caste in the Flan city of Fleeth
on Oerth. He was initially trained by his mother, Mazzel, in the art
of magic, before she was executed by the government of Fleeth for
practicing witchcraft. Vowing revenge, Vecna eventually assumed a
mastery of the dark arts achieved by no mortal before or since. Some
say this achievement was due to direct tutelage by Mok'slyk the
Serpent, believed to be the personification of arcane magic itself.
Nearly one thousand years after his
birth, Vecna, now a lich and ruler of a great and terrible empire (in
the Sheldomar Valley, centered near the modern-day Rushmoors), laid
siege to the city of Fleeth with an army of arcane spellcasters and
undead. Legend has it that Vecna was nearly slain in this battle by
clerics channeling the power of Pholtus, the god of light. The
clerics unleashed a great burst of light, which hit Vecna primarily
on his left side. Vecna was rescued and brought to safety by one of
his wizard generals, a cambion named Acererak (who would one day
himself become a mighty demilich).
Vecna eventually recovered. On the
verge of conquering Fleeth, the officials of the city came before him
to beg for mercy. They offered up the entire city and her wealth if
only Vecna would spare the lives of her citizens. When Vecna was not
satisfied, the officials offered their own lives. Vecna gave one of
their number, Artau, and his family, over to his lieutenant, Kas, who
spent the entire day torturing and murdering them before the other
officials. Still unsatisfied, Vecna slaughtered all within the city,
and had their heads stacked before the officials, with those of their
family members prominent. Vecna then granted his mercy, granting the
officials leave to depart, and promising them his protection for the
rest of their lives.
At his empire's height, Vecna was
betrayed and destroyed by his most trusted lieutenant, a vampire
called Kas the Bloody-Handed, using a magical sword that Vecna
himself had crafted for him, now known as the Sword of Kas. Only his
left hand and his eye survived the battle, perhaps because of the
previous events in Fleeth.
Vecna did not stay gone forever, and
rose as a demigod of magic and secrets in the world of Greyhawk. In
581 CY, his cult helped set events in motion that would have granted
him the power of a greater god, but the plan was ultimately foiled.
After these events, Vecna ended up imprisoned in the demiplane of
Ravenloft, but broke free again later, emerging with the power of a
greater god, after absorbing the power of Iuz. He then broke free
into the city of Sigil, where he came perilously close to rearranging
all existence to his whims. (Vecna's multiverse shattering campaign
in Sigil is used as an in-universe way to explain the differences
between the 2nd and 3rd editions of Dungeons & Dragons.) When
Vecna was ejected from Sigil by a party of adventurers, Iuz was freed
and Vecna returned to Oerth greatly reduced in power, though still a
lesser god.
In the events of the Living Greyhawk
campaign setting, Vecna's machinations allowed him to reappear on the
prime material plane and retake his place in the Oerth pantheon.
Morgan Ironwolf
Morgan Ironwolf grew up in the Copper
quarter of Corunglain, the only child of a professional caravan guard
for Corey House (Thomas Ironwolf) and a house maid for a merchant
family (Morgause Ironwolf). Her father was gone much of the time, but
when he was home, he taught her to fight in order to defend herself,
for Corunglain is under constant threat and life in the Copper
quarter is not always as safe as a father might like. It was there
that she met Rebecca Hardby (the daughter of one of her mother's
co-workers, Susanna Hardby) and "Black" Dougall Campbell
(the son of William Campbell, a co-worker with her father, who had
left Glantri because only a mage could make a name for himself
there). Black Dougall's recklessness tended to get the three of them
into a lot of trouble; he was a friend, but the sort of friend who
sometimes leaves you wondering how you got in this deep. She had a
taste for the art of combat, so she hired on with Corey House herself
when she was old enough to do so and worked for a while to accumulate
enough gear to set out on her own with her friends. Rebecca had
become a priestess of the Church of Darokin, and Dougall...still had
his knack for getting in over his head and taking his friends with
them. They encountered another pair of adventurers on the way to
their first adventure and hooked up with them. Silverleaf was an
Alfheimer Elf; Frederik was a Dwarf raised by humans of all things,
with a human name and no clue of his true ancestry. Their first
adventure was a mixed success; they cleared out an evil dungeon, but
Black Dougall was slain when he was overconfident about his
trap-finding abilities. Despite the horrible death of Black Dougall
on their first adventure, she still is optimistic about life as an
adventurer.
Morgan's mother was quiet and
submissive and Morgan pretty quickly learned to get her own way by
just doing what she wanted and apologising afterwards. Her father
further encouraged her to be strong and take no shit from anyone.
This made life hard as a caravan guard, which is one reason she left
the work to become an adventurer. She tends to become the leader of
any group she is part of. At the same time, though, she believes
strength should be used to defend others, and thus is a fairly
benevolent, if bossy, adventurer. This bossiness sometimes turns
people off.
Dalamar
Dalamar Argent, also known as Dalamar
the Dark, Dalamar of Tarsis, and Dalamar Nightson is a Silvanesti
elf, though he has now been made a dark elf and thus exiled for using
evil magic. Dalamar is a Wizard of the Black Robes, calling upon the
black moon Nuitari for his power. Dalamar was apprenticed to the
great wizard Raistlin Majere, and he was, for a short time, Highmage
of the Conclave, the society that rules the magical world. He was
once killed, but is now resurrected and still serving the Black Robes
and the entire magical world. Despite the fact that black robes
indicate evilness in the Dragonlance universe, Dalamar has helped out
noble characters in the cause of good upon multiple occasions.
Finder Wyvernspur
A few centuries ago, Finder was a
member of the Wyvernspur family, who are nobles in Cormyr, and a
highly accomplished bard. Rising to prominence among the Harpers, he
was quite successful in his youth. Finder's skills in music were such
that his songs transcended mere music, inspiring others to great
works, renewed vigor or deep despair.
Inevitably, Finder's works were copied
by other performers, who added their own twists to his songs. It was
inevitable that their performances would thus veer from the level of
perfection that Finder strove for. In anger at the corruption of his
works, Finder vowed to create a method by which his songs would be
preserved in the ideal state; that is, the way he himself wanted.
Disregarding the advice of powerful
mages who claimed it was too dangerous, Finder first modified an
artifact, the Finder's Stone, to act as a recording and playback
device for his music, spells, and journal. He accomplished this by
inserting a sliver of para-elemental ice into the stone, cooling it
while simultaneously expanding its storage capacity. The Stone was a
success, however Finder wasn't satisfied by the flat, unliving
playback it delivered.
To make his music both "alive"
and immortal, he then devised a magical clone of himself that he
could fill with memories—including his music. This clone, Flattery
Wyvernspur, was physically almost identical to Finder. However, the
egotistical Finder was unsatisfied by the emotionally childlike and
inexperienced clone's imperfect reproductions of Finder's music.
After only three days of unsuccessful practice, Finder lashed out in
frustration and struck the clone. He continued a cycle of abuse until
finally, Flattery snapped and attempted to kill Finder with a ring of
disintegration. One of Finder's apprentices died when he threw
himself in front of the beam, while another was later driven to
suicide by the now evil Flattery. This resulted in a severe backlash
to Finder's reputation within the still fledgling Harper
organization, despite Finder's attempts at a partial cover-up. He
claimed his apprentices were injured in an explosion in which the
clone was also killed. Flattery actually escaped, and cleaned out
Finder's lab. Finder himself was brought to trial before the Harpers,
including Elminster.
The verdict was harsh: many Harpers had
watched Finder's obsession grow, and the fatal result of his attempts
to preserve his music were viewed as a terrible crime by his fellow
Harpers. The Harpers condemned Finder to timeless existence in the
Citadel of White Exile, located on the border between the Positive
Energy Plane and the Plane of Gems. His songs and his name were wiped
from the Realms. Only a few, such as Elminster and Morala of Milli,
remembered them, in case they should emerge again.
Nearly three centuries later, the
sorceress Cassana found details of Finder's experiments and tracked
him down in the Citadel. She offered him a second chance, though her
motives for doing so were dark. He accepted, and the result was the
adventuress Alias, who he filled with false memories and all of his
music. In her release from Cassana and the "Dark Masters,"
Alias met Finder, known as Nameless, and he discovered that she, too,
had been adapting his music to enhance it. However, Finder found he
could accept this fact. Within a year, Flattery reemerged and
attempted to steal the Wyvern's Spur, an artifact and heirloom of the
Wyvernspurs. He was killed when Giogi Wyvernspur used the Spur
against him.
Now returned to the Realms, Finder was
yet again put on trial. This time, the trial was to determine whether
he could be reintroduced into the Realms or returned to the White
Citadel. After a long and dangerous journey with his halfling friend,
Olive Ruskettle, Finder found the love and courage within himself to
sacrifice the Finder's Stone and save the Realms from the evil
Moander. At that time, Moander had enslaved a number of the
otherworldly reptilian humanoids known as Saurials, and captured the
Turmish mage Akabar bel Akash in a plot to build a new body. By
dismantling the stone and using the para-elemental ice at its core,
Finder was able to slay Moander's real body in Tarterus, and claim
its godly essence for his own. Moander's portfolio of rot and
corruption, however, remained unclaimed by the bard.
In doing this, Finder freed the
Saurials, one of whom—"Dragonbait"—was traveling with
Alias at the time, who had been enslaved by Moander. Finder
immediately gained the worship of this stranded race (excepting
Dragonbait who followed Tyr), as their own deities remained on the
world they left behind. He was also pardoned by the Harpers due to
his bravery, and his name and songs were restored to the Realms.
Still a fledgling power, Finder started
to develop a base of worshipers at the urging of his first priestess,
the Saurial Copperbloom. To do so, he manifested himself to a young
bard named Joel, posing as the elderly priest Jedidiah, who espoused
the wonders of Finder's vision. Joel later became close friends with
Finder, as well as his first human cleric, from the time they spent
together searching for an artifact, the Hand of Bane.
Szass Tam
Szass Tam is the most powerful of a
group of eight zulkirs, or wizards, who rule the country of Thay. He
is the Zulkir of the school of Necromancy. Tam is a Lich and many of
his servants are undead.
Szass Tam is the ruler of Thaymount,
however, rumor says that Szass is under the command of Larloch,
working on search for artifacts. He attempted to destroy the world
and create his own in the year of the Dark Circle (1478 DR), but this
plot was foiled.
He makes an appearance in R.A.
Salvatore's 2010 book Gauntlgrym.
Whitney-Robinson, Voronica. The
Crimson Gold (Wizards of the Coast, 2003).
Donovan, Dale. Villains' Lorebook
(TSR, 1998).
Pryor, Anthony. Spellbound (TSR,
1995).
Rabe, Jean. Red Magic (TSR,
1991).
Byers, Richard Lee. Unclean
(Wizards of the Coast, April 2007)
Byers, Richard Lee. Undead
(Wizards of the Coast, March 2008)
Byers, Richard Lee. Unholy (Wizards
of the Coast, February 2009)
Alias
As detailed in Azure Bonds, Alias
awakens in a tavern room. She soon discovers that she has a newly
acquired azure colored tattoo imprinted on the inside of her sword
arm extending from her wrist to her elbow; and she has no memory of
how she got there, or where the tattoo came from. At first she
attributes her memory loss to inebriation and the tattoo as a drunken
prank by companions.
Alias is informed by the Innkeeper of
the 'Hidden Lady' that she was found unconscious on the doorstep, and
no-one knows where she came from. A mage, Akabar Bel Akash introduces
himself and offers to investigate her tattoo; but a simple Detect
Magic spell causes Alias severe pain, and an eruption of azure light
from the tattoo. An attempt to have the tattoo removed by a priest
goes even less well; and Alias finds herself compelled to attack the
hapless priest and nearly kills him.
Before long, Alias becomes the leader
of a disparate trio of adventurers - the mysterious lizard-creature
whom she names Dragonbait, the southern mage called Akabar Bel Akash
and the famed halfling "bard" named Olive Ruskettle whom
the other three are hired to rescue from a red dragon named
Mistinarperadnacles Hai Draco ('Mist').
It is later revealed that Alias herself
is in fact a complicated, magically created, artificial being
intended by her creators to be their proxy in various nefarious
purposes. Her long term memories were actually granted to her by her
sole benign (but misled) creator and her short term memory loss is
due in part to the gap between the end of her artificial memories and
her premature awakening. She was 'programmed' with a variety of
unconscious tasks and desires on behalf of her creators, to fulfil
their goals without even knowing that she had done so. She was also
programmed to attack those who tried to remove such controls - such
as the priest she consulted on awakening.
Alias's adventures involve her
defeating each of her creators in turn, to become free of their
control. By the end of the book, only two are left alive - the
Nameless Bard, and the dark god, Moander; who was discorporated, but
would return to Faerun in the later novel, Song of the Saurials.
In the first book, Azure Bonds, Alias
is relatively self-confident and strong-willed. In the later book,
Song of the Saurials, her new self-knowledge coupled with the
relatively limited emotional maturity her implanted memories gave her
(the Nameless Bard being a man of extreme vanity and selfishness)
began to manifest with more immature behaviours, petulance and lack
of emotional control.
Cattie-Brie
Catti-brie's mother died in childbirth,
and her father moved with his daughter from Mirabar to Termalaine,
one of the Ten Towns. For three years, he was quite successful—but
then a goblin ended the man's life. All of Termalaine might have
fallen to a goblin onslaught but for the dwarves of clan Battlehammer
rushing from their valley to turn back the horde. Bruenor himself
saved the orphan girl from death. When the smoke cleared, he claimed
Catti-brie as his adopted daughter.
Catti-brie has no memories of the time
before Bruenor took her in, but she had a pleasant childhood with the
dwarves. During the five years Wulfgar spent in Bruenor's service,
she helped him to break the bonds of his barbarian upbringing and
bring out the compassion and intelligence that was inside him. The
bond between them continued to grow stronger as they adventured
together with Bruenor, Regis, and Drizzt Do'Urden, and at one time
were betrothed. But then tragedy struck their relationship when drow
seeking the death of Drizzt attacked Mithril Hall, and Wulfgar was
killed by a yochlol (a minion of the spider queen Lolth) and later
given by Lolth to the demon Errtu.
Catti-brie was the first person in the
Icewind Dale to accept Drizzt, although she was very young when
Drizzt came to know her. Catti-brie possesses a stubborn and tough
dwarf personality due to her foster-father. Catti-brie was one of the
Companions of the Hall, and had a tentative, on-off romance with
Drizzt through many of the books. This tension finally culminated in
The Two Swords, when Catti-brie and Drizzt finally became lovers.
Catti-brie's dwarven upbringing is
clear throughout the series. She is portrayed various times during
their adventures as having the same accent as the dwarves she grew up
with.
For quite a while Catti-brie mourned
the loss of Wulfgar, but as time passed she found herself falling in
love with Drizzt. When Wulfgar returned from his apparent death, it
caused a great deal of mixed emotions in Catti-brie. Wulfgar fled his
friends, eventually finding his own way and accepting Catti-brie's
burgeoning relationship with Drizzt (a matter that was finally
settled in The Two Swords, the third book in the Hunter's Blades
trilogy).
When Regis was being chased by Artemis
Entreri, Catti-brie was held prisoner by the assassin. After the
finding of Mithril Hall she discovered Taulmaril the Heartseeker,
Gift of Anariel, Sister of Faerûn, in the destroyed Hall of
Dumathoin. For several years she also carried the sentient blade
Khazid'hea otherwise known as "Cutter", the sword that she
took from the body of Dantrag Baenre, after defeat and death at the
hands of Drizzt. Khazid'hea was stolen by an enthralled Delly Curtie,
who was shortly after slain by orcs. Drizzt found the weapon, but
lost it in a battle with the orc king Obould Many-Arrows. It was
recovered by an exiled drow named Tos'un Del'Armgo, who was in league
with the orcs.
In combat, Catti-brie usually supported
her friends with Taulmaril and her limitless supply of arrows. She
was not hesitant about entering melee, however, and would charge into
combat with Khazid'hea at the ready, generally confident in her
ability to dominate the blade. However, she was recently wounded by a
giant-thrown boulder during the defense of Mithril Hall from the
legions of Obould Many-Arrows. This lasting injury has forced her to
largely forgo the use of traditional melee weaponry, being physically
unable to fight as she once did. To compensate, she has instead
started learning magic under the tutelage of the illusionist
Nanfoodle and Lady Alustriel.
In The Ghost King, Cattie-brie is
touched by a strand of the failing Weave of Magic and put into a
comatose state from the effects of the Spellplague. She spends the
entirety of the book reliving her memories, and it is discovered that
she is caught between realms in a place known as Shadowfell. She
eventually dies as a result of the effects and is taken to a personal
heaven by Mielikki.
In The Companions, the first book of
the series The Sundering, it is revealed that Catti-brie, along with
Regis, Wulfgar, and Bruenor, were gathered together in Mielikki's
personal heaven to be given a choice to aid Drizzt against Lolth at a
future date by being reborn into new bodies. Catti-brie, Regis, and
Bruenor choose to temporarily forgo the choice to seek the afterlife
in order to save Drizzt, while Wulfgar chooses instead to seek the
afterlife and his family after the Companions of the Hall. She is
reborn among a Bedine family with her full knowledge intact, and
subsequently lives with them, then with a coven of mages in Netheril,
and finally makes her way to the appointed rendezvous with Drizzt, an
event that takes place coinciding with the ending of the previous
Drizzt novel, The Last Threshold.
Jarlaxle
Jarlaxle,
who led the mercenary band Bregan D'aerthe, seems to hold a grudging
loyalty to the ruling family of Baenre, which raises questions about
his relationship to them. He eventually gave up his leadership of
Bregan D'aerthe to the powerful drow psionicist Kimmuriel Oblodra and
now travels the lands of Faerûn with his new companion, Artemis
Entreri. It is revealed at the end of Servant of the Shard that his
full name is Jarlaxle Baenre and that he is the third son of Yvonnel
Baenre and was once sacrificed to Lolth. It is customary for the
third sons of drow noble houses to be sacrificed to Lolth to reduce
infighting; therefore, Jarlaxle was probably sacrificed for this
reason.
The book Road of the Patriarch mentions
that Jarlaxle's birth was an irony and a source of chaos that
Jarlaxle himself would appreciate. The psionicist Matron Mother of
House Oblodra, the third house in Menzoberranzan, for reasons of her
own, put a kinetic barrier on the infant Jarlaxle, a psionic trick
that absorbs and stores energy encountered by it for a time, and then
vents it all at once. Matron Baenre grew increasingly frantic,
rapidly stabbing at her newborn son, and then the secondboy Doquiao
tried to pick up Jarlaxle, and had his chest almost completely
destroyed by the venting force. Matron Baenre assumed Jarlaxle was
Lolth-blessed, and in fright, had him put out on a small island in
Menzoberranzan's lake. Details of the next part of his life are
unclear, and the nature of Jarlaxle's upbringing is unknown, but
Jarlaxle did seem to attract Lolth's approval at one point. Lolth had
apparently chosen him to be one of her Agents. It also is hinted that
a few drow are beginning to suspect that Jarlaxle is no longer
blessed by Lolth. Later, when it was revealed to Jarlaxle that he was
indeed blessed by Lolth, the spider queen herself gave him his
memories as an infant. Despite this, Jarlaxle claims he has never
kneeled before Lolth. At some point, this refusal apparently resulted
in Lolth revoking his status as one of her Agents. Among drow, losing
the Spider Queen's favor almost always results in an individual or
organization's destruction, as the Spider Queen ensures that all
other interested parties in Menzoberranzan learn that she has placed
this particular party in her disfavor (typically, an individual or
house who has lost Lolth's favor is the last to know.) Losing Lolth's
favor means either fleeing all Lolth-worshiping drow society (as
Drizzt did) or being destroyed. Jarlaxle, however, has been able to
keep the secret that he no longer enjoys favored status with Lolth,
and even prosper, apparently for centuries, in Menzoberranzan.
Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that he has not completely
lost Lolth's favor, even if he is no longer one of her favored
Agents.
Jarlaxle is an extremely cunning and
devious drow, confident and unshakable no matter the situation. His
true intentions are never fully revealed and he seems to thrive on
causing chaos. The reason for him leaving behind his leadership of
Bregan D'aerthe is truly unknown, though it seems he wishes to
experience the same joys as Drizzt. Even though he takes no active
part in the activities of Bregan D'aerthe, he still keeps in regular
contact with the band's new ruler, Kimmuriel Oblodra.
He hopes to bring some meaning to the
life of his traveling companion, Artemis Entreri. Jarlaxle has
collected many mysterious magical items that once belonged to the
Witch King Zhengyi, whose powers may prove to be more useful than
expected.
As of the end of Road of the Patriarch
Entreri had left Jarlaxle and his manipulations. Jarlaxle seems to
have found a new companion in the emotionally disturbed and
infinitely lived dwarf, Athrogate. The last line of text implies that
Jarlaxle has given up his manipulating ways, though this is doubtful
considering his nature.
Jarlaxle was also a good friend of
Zaknafein Do'Urden, and often shows the dead elf a great deal of
respect, although it is revealed in Road of the Patriarch that he
betrayed Zaknafein in some way.
He is featured in The Pirate King where
he manipulates pirates to help him control Luskan and leads to the
eventual downfall of the City of Sails and the death of Captain
Deudermont. Jarlaxle is further featured in the The Ghost King as one
of the targets of the Ghost King's ire. When Catti-Brie's body is
discovered missing a distraught Drizzt and Bruenor offer him a great
sum of money to find her, but he goes against type and refuses any
payment.
He appears in the novel Gauntlgrym,
along with his dwarf friend Athrogate.
Sincerely,
NATHAN NEUHARTH
Author, Editor, Publisher & Consultant
Owner of Night Horse Publishing House
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