Drizzt Do'Urden
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Drizzt Do'Urden is a fictional character in the Dungeons & Dragons-based Forgotten Realms setting. His alignment for the Forgotten Realms roleplaying game series is that of a "Chaotic Good" dark elf ranger who has forsaken both the evil ways of his people and their home (in the Underdark). He is one of only a few drow known to live on the surface. (Other than Drizzt, there is a small community of Vhaeraunite drow who reside in Cormanthor, the former home of the elven court, and worshipers of Eilistraee, goddess of good drow, can also be found in very small, scattered communities.)
The majority of Drizzt's story is told in the fantasy novels of R. A. Salvatore, including The Icewind Dale Trilogy, The Dark Elf Trilogy, the Legacy of the Drow series, the Paths of Darkness series, and The Hunter's Blades Trilogy, but he has also been featured in some D&D based roleplaying games, including the Baldur's Gate Series.
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Biography
Drizzt is about five and a half feet (1.68 meters) tall and weighs around 130 lb (59 kg). Drizzt's favourite weapon is the scimitar, and he carries two magical blades, called Twinkle and Icingdeath. He also carries a magical figurine which summons his black panther companion Guenhwyvar. He wears a pair of bracers of speed on his calves, making him incredibly quick on his feet. He chose to wear them on his legs instead of his arms because when the enchantment combined with his natural speed, his sword-swings became too fast for him to control. Drizzt's attire is generally a cloth tunic, tough pants, and soft boots. He wears an enchanted chainmail shirt, recently taken from a surface drow, whom he beheaded. He also has a long green cape.
Drizzt was taught the ways of the ranger from Montolio Debrouchee (Mooshie), a blind human, and Drizzt realized he had followed these ways all of his life. From this time on, he made his matron goddess Mielikki, Faerūnian goddess of the forest and of rangers.
Thoughtful and sensitive to others, Drizzt holds himself to the highest ideals but does not expect the same of others. Ever alert for treachery and danger, he speaks little but is apt to be polite (if terse) in his dealings. A perfectionist who yearns to be accepted into places and groups and to make friends widely, Drizzt is haunted by the danger he brings to those he befriends thanks to the scrutiny of the clerics of Lolth and his other foes (notably the demon Errtu and the human assassin Artemis Entreri). Those he meets perceive him as having a grim manner.
Early in his surface travels, Alustriel Silverhand welcomed him as warmly and personally as she does all in need, but dared not let him openly into Silverymoon at that time. His deeds have, very slowly, made Drizzt Do’Urden more welcome in the Sword Coast North.
Drizzt Do'Urden means dreamer who walks in the dark.
History
The Dark Elf Trilogy
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Drizzt was born to the tenth noble House of Menzoberranzan, Daermon Nashezbaernon (more commonly known as House Do'Urden). He was the son of Malice, the Do'Urden Matron Mother and her consort, Do'Urden weaponmaster (and sometime Patron) Zaknafein. As the third son, drow culture demanded that Drizzt be sacrificed to their goddess Lloth, but the death of his older brother, Nalfein, shortly after his birth made him the second son and spared him.
Being a male in the matriarchal drow society, Drizzt Do'Urden suffered considerable abuse at the hands of his family in the first sixteen years of his life. His first ten years were spent in the care of his older sister Vierna; though she was far from kind, in his later years Drizzt would recall some affection for her.
As a child, Drizzt displayed amazing reflexes and coordination. Consequently, Zaknafein was able to persuade Malice that Drizzt should become a warrior, instead of replacing Nalfein as the house wizard. Thus, at the age of sixteen, Drizzt began his weapons training. It was then that he began learning the skills that would lead to him become one of the most formidable swordsmen in Faerūn.
At twenty years of age, he went to Melee-Magthere, Menzoberranzan's warrior academy, where he excelled in his studies despite his resistance to the attempted brainwashing by the masters of the academy. When it was clear that there were none in Drizzt's class who could beat him, the masters of the academy matched him against students three years above him. Drizzt defeated that class easily. His time at the academy would have been spotless (by Drow standards) except for the graduation ceremony, where he disgraced himself by refusing to take part in an orgy, refusing the advances of two high priestesses, one of them his sister, and damning Lolth.
After graduating he took part in a surface raid in which he saved the life of a child of the most bitter enemy of the drow, the surface elves, by hiding her underneath her murdered mother. Drizzt's weaponmaster Zaknafein, having similar morals to Drizzt, thought he killed the child, but Lolth knew he hadn't and dropped the Do'Urden family from her favour because of it. Zaknafein then fought with Drizzt, thinking he had become like other drow, and was told the truth of the matter by Drizzt.
Unfortunately, the women of house Do'Urden, in a bid to find out why Do'Urden was no longer in Lolth's favour, were watching this battle. The end result of this is that Zaknafein offered himself as a sacrifice to spare Drizzt and Drizzt, on realizing what had happened, left house Do'Urden to live in the Underdark wilderness.
Drizzt then spent some years in the Underdark, during which he was enslaved by mind flayers and then had to fight Zaknafein again, who had been made undead by Malice to find Drizzt. In the end, Zaknafein regained enough control to make himself fall into a pool of acid, destroying himself.
For Malice's failure to use Zaknafein to kill Drizzt, Lolth decreed that house Do'Urden should be destroyed, and House Baenre (the most powerful house in Menzoberranzan) did just that, with only Vierna and Dinin (Drizzt's older brother) surviving.
Having lived in the Underdark for over forty years, Drizzt then realized that neither he nor anyone around him would be safe, so he decided to travel to the surface. There he met with much adversity because of his race, and eventually moved to Icewind Dale, where he joined with Catti-brie, Bruenor Battlehammer, Regis the halfling and Wulfgar the barbarian.
The Icewind Dale Trilogy
Even in Icewind Dale, Drizzt was not fully accepted, except by the dwarves. He roamed the tundra, hunting down yeti and giants that threatened the cities of Icewind Dale, Ten Towns. When the barbarians that were the native people of the Dale banded together to slaughter the people of Ten Towns, whom they veiwed as invaders, Drizzt, with his drow stealth and ranger's knowledge of the terrain, was able to discern their plans and relay the information to his friends Regis and Bruenor. Regis, on the council of Ten Towns, used persuasion and a magical ruby pendant to convince the stubborn leaders of the towns to work together to thwart the barbarian attack. Even with the aid of his magical pendant, Regis only barely managed to sway the stubborn Kemp of Targos, one of the greatest military commanders of Ten Towns.
Because of the warning and their unified efforts, Ten Towns and the dwarves successfully repelled the barbarian attackers, decimating the proud warriors. Drizzt fought in the battle, personally meeting the barbarian king, Heafstagg, in combat. Drizzt wounded Heafstagg many times, including a stab to the stomach and a slash across the abdomen that should have been fatal. But Drizzt himself was wounded, and Heafstagg escaped and survived. During this same battle, Bruenor met a young barbarian standard bearer, who broke the shaft of his banner over the dwarf's head. Bruenor, unfazed, slammed the youth with his shield, rendering him unconcious. After the battle, Bruenor saved this same youth from being killed in cold blood by the townspeople, taking the young man, Wulfgar, into his care. Bruenor also defended the wounded and unconscious Drizzt, slamming Kemp to the ground and breaking the nose of his Lieutenant when he found them kicking the injured drow. Bruenor told the people of Ten Towns, quite truthfully, that if not for Drizzt Do'Urden, they would even now be lying dead. After this, Drizzt found more acceptance in Icewind Dale, even respect.
Five years passed, with Wulfgar indentured to the dwarves. Bruenor taught him to smith and mine, and came to love him like a son. Though Wulfgar origanally resented the dwarves and his indenture, he came to respect and even love Bruenor, like the father that he had never known.
During this same time, the failed wizard Akar Kessel, left to die in the Spine of the World, found Crenshinibon, the Crystal Shard, a magical, sentient crystal with the ability to lend power to its wielder, make tower sactuaries in the likeness of itself, and posess the minds of others, including that of its wielder. Crenshinibon, obsessed with domination, twisted Akar Kessel's mind to get him to do its will. Kessel, with no idea that he was being controlled, decided to conquer Icewind Dale for his own. He enslaved the goblins and orcs of the nearby mountains, building them into his own army, their wills completely destroyed by Crenshinibon. He even managed to gain control of Heafstagg, and through him the tribes of barbarians. He also acquired the services of a balor named Errtu to be his general, though it was far more interested in sticking around long enough to get his hands on Crenshinibon than anything else.
Near the end of Wulfgar's indenture, Bruenor forged Aegis-fang, the magical warhammer, for his adopted son. He then took Wulfgar to be trained in the ways of battle, choosing Drizzt as the young man's instructor. Wulfgar was ambivalent when he saw that his teacher was a Drow, but quickly came to respect and admire the dark elf. Drizzt turned the young man into a formidable warrior. The two of them took out an entire lair of frost giants with only the help of Guenhwyvar. Wulfgar then left to hunt down an ice dragon, Icingdeath. Drizzt tracked him, and the two of them killed the dragon. Drizzt found a simitar in the treasure hoard, and took it for his own, naming it after the dragon.
As Akar Kessel moved in on Ten Towns, his armies sweeping aside the disorganized defense with little trouble, Wulfgar took the horns of Icingdeath and challanged Heafstagg for kingship. He won the challange, killing the old king. Drizzt, sensing the demon Errtu, and recognizing the balor from his days in Menzoberannzan, called the demon and faced it alone with Guenhwyvar. After a battle, and the aid of the fire-banishing properties of the simitar Icingdeath, he managed to defeat the demon, banishing it to the abyss for one hundred years.
After defeating the demon, Drizzt used his stealth and Guen's magical eyes to find his way into the Crystal Tower, where he fought his way past Akar Kessel's orcs and trolls to face the wizard himself. The wizard, sure of victory, imprisoned the drow in a cage of magical light, and taunted him with images of the barbarians joining the battle for Ten Towns, thinking that Heafstagg sill led them. However, Wulfgar led his people not against Ten Towns, but against Kessel. With the help of Regis, a prisoner in the tower, Drizzt escaped his cage, and followed Kessel through a portal to the top of a mountain. There, after a short battle, the magical heat of Crenshinibon destabilized the snow cap, and an avalanche killed Kessel and took Drizzt back down the mountain. With the fall of Kessel, the vessel of Crenshinibon, the orcs and goblins lost cohesion and were slaughtered. Bruenor, faking mortal injury, tricked Drizzt into agreeing to search for Mithral Hall, Bruenor's boyhood home.
Fan reactions
It should be noted that among a sizable group of fans of the Forgotten Realms, Drizzt Do'Urden is considered to be quite a trite character and unrealistic to the setting. Many also take umbrage at R.A. Salvatore's changing of the canon of the Forgotten Realms setting in his Drizzt novels.
Novels with Drizzt as the title character do, however, tend to sell extremely well in comparison to other Forgotten Realms-line books, often breaking into the New York Times bestseller lists when first released. While perhaps controversial among some Forgotten Realms fans, Drizzt is certainly one of the better-known faces—if not the best-known face—from the Forgotten Realms, and books featuring him are among the most popular of the Dungeons and Dragons inspired fiction. His popularity reaches beyond the gaming community, appealing to a wide range of fantasy and science fiction fans.
- Related articles: Artemis Entreri, Guenhwyvar (cat), Icingdeath, and Twinklefr:Drizzt Do'Urden