The Forgotten Realms campaign setting and shared fiction universe for Dungeons & Dragons has birthed a legion of popular characters, from Elminster and Drizzt to Arilyn Moonblade and Cadderly. Get the scoop on a whole mess of 'em here.This is by no means a complete list. As one of the most detailed shared universes (if not the most) in literary history, there are always more characters in the Realms left to explore.
Expy: In appearance, at least, Elminster was a stand-in for Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings until 3rd Edition, when he suddenly looked like Sean Connery.
Red Baron: His loud mercenary youth gave him titles "the Old Wolf" and "Mirt the Merciless".
Retired Badass: Fomerly, commander of a mercenary company.
Storm Silverhand
Race: Human
Class: Fighter/Bard/Sorcerer
Alignment: Chaotic Good
The Caretaker: To the ghost of her sister Syluné, until Syluné's Heroic Sacrifice. Also, after the death of Mystra, Storm is the only person who can soothe Elminster's insanity when he uses magic.
Mother To Her Men: Storm acts as a sort of "den mother" to the Harpers.
The Aloner: Spends nearly a decade in the Underdark with Guenhwyvar as his only companion. It almost drives him mad. He eventually surrenders himself to the svirfnebli, mortal enemies of the drow, out of desperation and loneliness.
Amplifier Artifact: His anklets (really wrist bands, but he wears them on his legs) give him a massive boost to his running speed.
Beware the Nice Ones: He is polite and trusting almost to a fault (even more so in the earlier books), but if you mess with the people he cares about he will end you.
Berserk Button: Threatening any of his friends will more than likely end with the ones doing the threatening dying horribly.
Black Sheep: He becomes this to House Do'Urden after he flees Menzoberranzan at the end of Homeland.
Blue Blood: Was a prince of a noble house before he went rogue.
Breakout Character: Wulfgar was originally going to be the main character of the series.
Chekhov's Skill: This could technically apply to all drow, but in this instance, it specifically applies to the counter of the double-thrust low maneuver.
Fantastic Racism: He was a victim of this during his earliest decades on the surface due to the notoriety of his race. In fact, a major part of the early series deals with his struggle against this trope.
Flash Step: The "Ghost Step" technique. Half Super Speed, half optical illusion. With perfect timing, Drizzt can step to the side in the split second his opponent's weapon passes through his own line of sight, blocking him from view and causing him to seemingly disappear. Done correctly, by the time the opponent figures out what happened, half of his more important organs will be out of place.
Full Name Basis: Most people call Drizzt by his full name when addressing him.
This is lampshaded in Starless Night when Drizzt gets annoyed that Matron Baenre addresses him by his full name at the end of almost every sentence.
Hand Signals: The Drow hand cant is not used so much in later novels because he's not usually around any other drow to use it with, but he attempts to teach it to his companions with limited success.
Heroic BSOD: After the events at Shallows during the Hunter's Blades trilogy, and a more recent one near the end of The Ghost King.
Hero with Bad Publicity: On account of his race. In later novels, however, his reputation is what allows him to be accepted in most places.
In-Series Nickname: Due to most people's inability to speak Drow Undercommon properly, most people (usually vermin) who have only heard of Drizzt call him "Drizzit" upon first meeting.
Like Father, Like Son: Zaknafein absolutely hated everything to do with Menzoberranzan and the ideals instilled into drow from birth by Lolth's clergy. To say Drizzt adopted his mindset is an understatement.
Master Swordsman: He was supposed to replace Zaknafein as House Do'Urden's weaponsmaster before he fled from Menzoberranzan. In later books, many drow warriors and even the weaponsmasters of rival households, to their ultimate doom, have sought the chance to fight "Zaknafein's equal".
No One Gets Left Behind: Drizzt attempts to outrun a drow raiding party sent to recapture him, avoid Artemis Entreri, who is pursuing him in the tunnels, and tries to find a way back up to his friends while physically dragging the injured Regis along with him in The Legacy.
No Pronunciation Guide: Officially, his first name is pronounced "Drist", but a lot of people also say "Driz-et" or other pronunciations.
Author R.A. Salvatore seems to pronounce it as "Dritz" in interviews.
The Demon Stone video game has it pronounced "Drid-st".
Unstoppable Rage: When Drizzt gives himself up to his Hunter personality, there's almost no stopping him.
During the almost century-long Time Skip in Gauntlgrym, while he and Bruenor are seeking out the titular Dwarven kingdom, Drizzt constantly goes out of his way for an excuse to kill something. When coming across other travelers in need, he would jump at the chance to clear out a goblin lair or three or hire himself out as a bodyguard escort, ostensibly for needed money but in honesty hoping for a few random encounters.
What Is This Feeling?: Innovindil made him consider the more pleasurable side of life in The Lone Drow.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: He's this in the earlier books of the series, with Homeland being one of the most obvious examples. However, as of the current storyline he has lost most of this.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: Explored in depth. Drizzt was definitely worried about the idea of outliving his friends for his first few decades on the surface until he struck up a friendship with Innovindil, a surface elf. She advised him to live a series of shorter, segmented lifetimes, taking each as they come, rather than dwelling on the looming centuries. Her advice came into play after the events of Gauntlgrym, when Bruenor, the last of his original friends, died in battle. Drizzt mourned his loss, then picked himself up and began traveling with Dahlia Sin'felle.
Death Seeker: He originally came to the grove where he lived because he was looking for a place to die after the incident where he lost his sight, wherein several of his friends died. The grove was next to a large establishment of hostile orcs.
Butt Monkey: Thanks mostly in part to Drizzt, he never fails to make an ass out of himself.
Harmless Villain: Inverted. Roddy initially comes off as somewhat of a joke villain and isn't really much of a threat. But then he murders two characters and threatens to rape the then-seven-year-old Catti-brie.
Moral Event Horizon: His morals were always certainly ambiguous, but his villainy isn't clearly established until he strangles Kellindil with his bare hands.
Close To Home: When attempting to enter Castle Perilous, Athrogate called a stuck gate a "son of a bar whore". Artemis didn't take it well.
Combat Pragmatist: Played straight for the most part, he'll pull every dirty trick in the book during a fight. Of course, its kind of subverted in that he lacks pragmatism on a grander scale; he prefers to fight, period, meaning he'll avoid less hazardous ways of dealing with his enemies.
At one point, while fighting Drizzt, he held a mouthful of sewer water in his mouth for several pages until the perfect time to spit it in Drizzt's face.
Athrogate: Well now, I'd say that's better, but it'd be a lie. Any elf's but a girl making ready to cry.
Entreri: And if you keep rhyming, you're going to die. [Athrogate laughs] No. There is no joke in my words. And the rhyme was coincidental.
Dark and Troubled Past: It is revealed in the short story The Third Level and later in Road of the Patriarch that Entreri was physically and sexually abused as a child and was sold to a pedophile merchant who later intended to sell him into slavery.
Deadpan Snarker: In spades in the Sellswords trilogy and in the short stories that are set during that timeline.
Death Glare: Most people on the receiving end on this usually don't end up living too much longer afterwards.
Dual Wielding: Noteably, Artemis actually does it right, using a sword in his main hand and a dagger in his left.
See also Evil Weapon. Doesn't have a personality aside from vague impulses, but will burn its owner alive from the inside out the minute he drops his guard. Recently, it has been revealed that the weapon has enslaved him and is keeping him alive to torture him.
Enemy Mine: Teams up with Drizzt in an early appearance, and a few subsequent ones as well.
Even Evil Has Standards: He has a special kind of hate for parents who sell out or abandon their kids in an effort to save themselves.
Evil Counterpart: To Drizzt. Drizzt even states himself on more than one occasion that if things had gone differently in Menzoberranzan he had no doubt that they would have turned out the same.
In Name Only: Game-stat example. In every appearance, he is universally described as an assassin. But when the Time of Troubles rolled around, R.A. Salvatore got a phone call saying that the writing team planned to have all assassins die as part of a massive ritual. Not wanting to lose a beloved character, Salvatore replied, "He's not really an assassin; just a fighter with a few levels of thief who specializes in killing people."
Older than They Look: Specifically stated to be over 40, but looks like he's in his late-20s to early-30s.
Played even straighter as Barrabus the Gray. Due to Entreri/Barrabus being infused with a Shade, he would now be over 100 years old and still looking about 30.
Start of Darkness: Road of the Patriarch showed Artemis's childhood via flashback, wherein it was shown that he was molested, beaten, and sold into slavery.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Whenever he's forced to fight alongside Drizzt against more immediate enemies.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: With Drizzt to an extent. He is perfectly willing to let Drizzt become a sacrifice to Lolth, but only if he is allowed the chance to defeat him in a fair battle first.
The Stoic: Is known for his cold, emotionless personality until he started partnering with Jarlaxle, and, thanks to Idalia's Flute, he became...
Villainous Rescue: Entreri frees and teams up with Catti-Brie in Starless Night to free the captured Drizzt in the hopes that Drizzt will help lead him to the surface and away from Menzoberranzan.
Epic Flail: Dual wields them. When activated, one causes anything metallic it hits to rust, the other causes an explosion on impact.
He Cleans Up Nicely: Originally introduced wearing the ale-and-sweat stained furs and leathers that come to dwarves standard issue. By Gauntlgrym, almost a century later, Jarlaxle has him wearing a downright stylish purple-and-black outfit, convinced him to bathe at least twice a year, and has even managed to groom his beard. By Jarlaxle's own reckoning, he's worked miracles.
Honor Before Reason: Had two golden opportunities to kill Drizzt during their fight. Passed up both of them because it would have been un-sportsmanlike.
Lightning Bruiser: While not a particularly fast runner, Athrogate is incredibly agile, able to keep pace with Drizzt in hand to hand combat, and casually doing backflips while curb-stomping mooks, for no other reason than to show off.
No One Should Survive That: Got completely curbstomped by a pit fiend and fell from a bridge, but (barely) lived to tell the tale.
Unskilled, but Strong: While he's nothing to really scoff at, Dahlia noted that Athrogate makes up for his lack of precision with brute strength.
Warrior Poet: Literally. Generally agreed to not be very good, though.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: While not immortal, he was cursed by a wizard to have an unnaturally long life span.
Bruenor Battlehammer
Race: Shield Dwarf
Class: Fighter
Alignment: Neutral Good
Allergic To Routine: He'll find any way to try to head out adventuring instead of sitting around taking care of the boring royal matters of his station.
An Axe to Grind: Signature weapon is a one-handed battle-axe and a shield.
Badass Grandpa: Begins the series as this. Already well into middle-age in dwarven years when he first meets Drizzt, he continues for another two hundred or so and never lets up for a minute.
It Is Not Your Time: Pulled out of his coma by Regis in The Lone Drow, but dwarves strongly believe that Moradin sent him back to help fight against Obould's horde.
These Hands Have Killed: Has this reaction after the first time she killed another human. Notably, she'd killed quite a few orcs and goblins before, and indeed had just slaughtered a group of grey dwarves a few moments before with a bow.
Women In Refrigerators: In her last appearance, she is struck down at the beginning of the book by a wild magic surge during the Spellplague. She spends the remainder of the story alternating between a coma and magic-based hallucinations before finally expiring.
Distracted by the Sexy: Her fighting garb is designed to distract her opponents with the sexy.
Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Tortured her vampire lover for information, then told him to make love to her, and that if he didn't (or didn't do it well), she would kill him. While this isn't portrayed as a positive act, it isn't treated as horribly as depictions of her own rape. If anything serves to demonstrate that she is a powerful character, and no sympathy is given to the vampire over it.
Freak Out: When Drizzt visits the Moonwood in Starless Night she gets one good look at him and then attacks him.
Freudian Excuse: Drizzt covering her in her mother's blood in order to hide her from his fellow drow didn't do her sanity any good. That, and her sole reason for going after Drizzt is because she think he's the guilty party of her people's massacre, rather than the one who saved her.
Ungrateful Bitch: Drizzt saves her as a child, refuses to harm her in a later book even though she attacks him with no provocation. She thanks him by blaming him for her mother's death and then spends Sea of Swords will the sole purpose of finding him so she can kill him. In her defence, she's not all there.
Bald of Awesome: Notably, Jarlaxle's shaved head is actually significant; hairstyle indicates station in drow society. By shaving his head, Jarlaxle removes himself from this system.
Bare Your Midriff: Besides his eyepatch, cape, and hat, Jarlaxle's other iconic piece of clothing is a short vest that exposes his stomach muscles.
Bishounen: Has been complemented on his handsomeness by a dragon. She also said looks even more handsome with hair. Not to mention the narration itself, which mentions several times how ridiculously attractive he is.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his quirks, he has been extremely successful as a houseless drow male for centuries and as the leader of Bregan D'aerthe.
The Casanova: Has loved and left more than his fair share in the past. Including dragons, much to Entreri's horror.
First Name Basis: Most people call him by his first name (since it's the only one he gives), but notably, he's the only person to ever call Entreri by his first name in universe.
Hand Signals: The Drow hand cant. He uses it frequently with his lieutenants and sometimes with Entreri, whom he taught it to.
Karma Houdini: Manipulated various parties into starting a war in Luskan so that he could take control of the city and use it as a free port to trade Underdark goods with the surface world. Thousands died in the ensuing conflict, including noncombatants that died due to lack of food and shelter during the harsh winter that followed. Not only does Jarlaxle succeed in becoming the Man Behind the Man in Luskan, but he convinces Drizzt of his relative innocence and suffers no consequences for it.
Not to mention that it directly resulted in the death of Drizzt's good friend Deudermont, which happened when Athrogate engaged Drizzt in combat and prevented him from rescuing the poor guy. And yet when Jarlaxle teams up with Drizzt again in the following book, there (astonishingly) don't appear to be any hard feelings.
Knife Nut: He has a bracer that produces an unlimited amount of throwing knives. He puts them to good use.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Zig Zagged. While Jarlaxle is certainly morally ambiguous and is usually working with the bad guys, he is never considered an outright villain himself. This is actually averted in The Ghost King and Gauntlgrym, when his role is actually as one of the good guys.
Refuge in Audacity: Jarlaxle's flamboyancy tends to either enrage or shock people too much for them to actually try to do anything to him. It was lampshaded after Jarlaxle's "Who I Am" monologue to Queen Christine in Road of the Patriarch.
The acceptance in a public tavern that Drizzt labored for decades to earn? Jarlaxle got it in five minutes when he walked in, took a seat at another man's table, got him kicked out for drawing steel, and bought everyone a round.
Refusal of The Call: He was chosen by Lolth to be one of her agents and flat-out refused. Then again, Lolth's most favored servants are bringers of chaos, and he certainly is that, almost singlehandedly making things more interesting in Menzoberranzan than they've been in centuries.
10-Minute Retirement: Played with. Stepped away from Bregan D'aerthe after the events of Servant of the Shard, but was shown to be back in control as of The Pirate King. Treated in later installments to be more of a sabbatical, putting his mercenaries in Kimmuriel's command so that there'd be an opposing voice of reason and business to counteract Jarlaxle's often-whimsical orders.
Walking the Earth: 10% for finding new business opportunities for Bregan D'aerthe, 90% just for the hell of it.
Wands Akimbo: Has been shown a few times wielding two wands (one that fires lightning and one that shoots globs) in long-range combat.
Wasn't That Fun?: This is practically Jarlaxle's catch-phrase during the Sellswords Trilogy and the various short stories featuring him and Entreri. Entreri is never impressed.
Wild Card: During his tenure in Menzoberranzan so very, very much.
Commander Contrarian: His arrangement with Jarlaxle after taking over Bregan D'aerthe while Jarlaxle is Walking the Earth. Jarlaxle is still in nominal command of the group, and occasionally calls in the troops for his latest projects, but Kimmuriel has the power to refuse or modify Jarlaxle's orders if he feels that what Jarlaxle wants isn't in the group's best interests. Despite the possibility of conflict (especially between drow), so far the arrangement has worked out swimmingly for both.
Conflicting Loyalty: In Servant of The Shard between Jarlaxle and Rai-guy. He didn't want to betray Jarlaxle, out of loyalty to him for saving his life after the fall of House Oblodra, but he eventually sided with Rai-guy because he believed that Jarlaxle's behaviour would destroy Bregan D'aerthe.
Creature Of Habit: He would rather serve as lieutenant and focus on improving his abilities than serve as leader of Bregan D'aerthe.
Deadpan Snarker: And he doesn't hesistate to use it on anyone, including Jarlaxle.
Dragon Ascendant: Kimmuriel is more or less forced into this after Jarlaxle leaves him in charge of Bregan D'aerthe to go travelling on The Surface.
Arch-Enemy: After Artemis, Obould is top ringer for Drizzt's arch rival. Obould's war is responsible for the death's of several of Drizzt's friends, the crippling of his love interest, and shaking the very foundations of his reality. Drizzt, on the other hand, is was the single biggest thorn in Obould's side during the war, causing no end of problems for the orc king by killing hundreds of his soldiers and spreading fear through the rest. Obould is one of the few people to force Drizzt to flee from combat, and despite two vicious battles, neither was able to achieve a decisive victory over the other.
A Man Is Always Eager: Averted; while he is a sexually active character, he made a habbit of surrounding himself with the most beautiful female orcs in his kingdom, letting them grind against him during feasts and warcouncils, and showing absolutely no interests in them as a way of showing off to his men how much more disciplined and controlled he was compared to them.
Anti-Villain: His methods are brutal, but his goal is noble; create a stable orc state and put an end to his people's self-destructive ways.
Armour Is Useless: Averted hard. His armour saves his life again and again.
Obould:Look around you, drow. This is my home now. My kingdom! When you fly on your pet, you see the greatness of Obould. You see the Kingdom of Dark Arrows. Remember that name for the last minutes of your life. You die in Dark Arrows, Drizzt Do'Urden, and will be eaten by birds on a mountain side in the home of King Obould.
Canon Immigrant: Reversed, depending on whether you consider the novels or gamebooks more canon; Obould was originally featured in a sourcebook for the RPG before making it into the novels.
The Chosen One: Blessed and Chosen by Gruumsh to lead the orc people into a new age.
Cool Horse: Averted; he tried breaking a captured pegasus, but when the horse refused to yield to hem even after he made it clear he could kill the thing with a swift punch, he relented, having a respect for the creature's wild nature.
Karma Houdini: A lot of innocent people die in the war he starts. A lot of innocent people die by his hand. In the end, he forces a stalemate, establishes a lasting kingdom, and rules for decades before dying in his sleep of old age.
Lightning Bruiser: He's stronger than Wulfgar and as fast as Drizzt.
Master Swordsman: He's as good with his greatsword as Drizzt is with his scimitars or Artemis is with his saber.
My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Though not in the same way as Drizzt. Obould is every bit as evil as you would expect an orc to be, it's just that he's also bright, extremely motivated, capable of diplomacy, and far more civilised than any member of his species has a right to be.
Offing the Offspring: Obould originally had eight sons. Seven of them plotted against him, three did so openly. By the time he comes into the books, Obould only has one living son, the implication being he killed the others. He would have killed that one too (for incompetence rather than treason), but someone else beat him to it.
Orc Bites Drow: He bite's a drow priestess' throat out and spits it back into her face as she bleeds to death; he did this both as insult and to prevent her from casting a spell.
Pet the Dog: He treats his prisoners fairly well. He threatened death to any of his men who harmed a captured pegasus or a dwarven prisoner, and even had his shamans heal Regis before returning him to the Companions. This is more about the pragmatic villainy than actual sympathy, but still.
Shadow Archetype: To Drizzt. They're both exceptional members of Always Chaotic Evil races who see the obvious flaws in their respective cultures, rejecting said culture in favor of their own moral codes. Where as Drizzt used his martial skill to escape and evade his people, living apart from them, Obould used his cunning and political savvy(backed by martial skill) to force a fundamental change in the way his people lived. It's interesting to note that the parallels between them are never drawn explicitly in the text, and Drizzt never compares himself to Obould. He does, however, compare Obould to Artemis twice, the first time noting that the orc king apparently felt he needed to prove something by insisting on fighting Drizzt one on one, and the second time as a note towards his prowess in combat.
Uberorc : Obould rejected the traditions and morals of orcish society, rising above them and forcing a fundamental change in his people and their way of life, and by extension, the way of life for their neighbors.
Underestimating Badassery: The very idea that an orc could be as badass as Obould is is utterly incomprehensible to the Companions of the Hall. This both serves him well and bites him in the ass; in battle he has the edge(not that he really needs it) because they think he'll far less formidable than he is. On the other hand, when he seeks to try and force negotiations, that same underestimation leads them to think that fighting him is the better option.
Villainous Valor: Sees fit to fight Drizzt in one on one combat not once, but twice. Somewhat subverted in that he's not outmatched; the first time he forces Drizzt to run away, and the second time it's Drizzt who has to pull out all the dirty tricks to stand up to him.
You No Take Candle: Has shades of this speech pattern in his early appearances, giving the rogue drow band the impression that he was an easily manipulated pushover. Eventually, after being made into Grummsh's Chosen, he becomes much more articulate.
A Good Way to Die: His final act was placing Bruenor on the crankshaft that would let the king reseal the primordial that powers Gauntlgrym.
The Last Dance: Helping Bruenor fight the pit fiend in Gauntlgrym proved to be his.
The Pig Pen: Covered in dirt and grim. Hair's greasy as all hell. Was actually forced to take a bath in The Orc King, for the first time in years, and likely tried to kill the person who forced it on him.
Power Fist: Uses his armored gauntlets to punch the hell out of enemies. Some art depicts them with wolverine...spikes.
Rule Of Cool: The only reason his fighting style actually works.
Spikes of Villainy: Averted; his armor is covered with spikes, but he's very much a good guy.
Defeat Means Friendship: When Wulfgar was young, Bruenor defeated him in battle, then took him on as a slave. He eventually grew into the adopted son and apprentice roles over the period of five years.
Drop the Hammer: His signature weapon is Aegis-fang, a massive warhammer that returns when he throws it.
Drowning My Sorrows: Fell deep into the bottle to try and deal with his post-traumatic stress from being trapped in the Abyss.
Executive Meddling: Wulfgar was supposed to stay dead, but a combination of fan request and editor input brought him back in Passage to Dawn.
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: To a mild degree. While in Luskan, he was recruited by Morik the Rogue to be the muscle for his extortion racket for the promise of good money, a few laughs, and the chance to beat up unscrupulous smugglers and the like. Looked at through the bottom of a whiskey bottle, it didn't seem like that bad an idea.
He's Back: Finally managed to break out of his alcoholism in The Spine of the World.
Heroic BSOD: Somewhere during his time in the Abyss.
Made of Iron: Something of a Charles Atlas Superpower, Wulfgar's amazing durability is the result of long hours of working alongside dwarves every day for five years straight.
Was Put on a Bus in The Orc King after the events of The Two Swords, and made a brief appearance in The Pirate King before disappearing from the main narrative completely. He gets a send off in a short story in an anthology book later on, though.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Played with, since he didn't fight in a war, so much as survive being tortured by a demon for seven years.
The First Cut Is the Deepest: Before he was killed at Mithril Hall, he and Catti-Brie were set to be married. But after being recovered from the Abyss and all the torture he was made to endure, they couldn't quite make it work anymore.
Bolt of Divine Retribution: Was gifted one to use against House Oblodra after the Time of Troubles to show the entire city what happens when you annoy Lolth.
The Empress: Had been called "the uncrowned Queen of Menzoberranzan" many times during her reign.
The Starscream: When Jarlaxle is swayed by the Crystal Shard's personality, he convinces Kimmuriel to join him in a coup, deliberately sabotaging Bregan D'aerthe's surface operations before moving against Jarlaxle himself. Note that he only did so out of fear that Jarlaxle's greed had gotten the best of him and put the group at risk, but being a drow, it's not as though he needed much of an excuse.
In-Series Nickname: "Zak". Interesting variation in that the author uses it more in narration than he does Zaknafein's full name, and even more than the actual characters themselves use it.
Master Swordsman: He is the weapons master of House Do'Urden and is considered to be the best in Menzoberranzan.
Meaningful Name: According to the 3.5E sourcebook Drow of the Underdark, "Zaknafein" means something along the lines of "distant noble vengeance". Rather appropriate considering who his son became.
Would Hit a Girl: Zaknafein takes particular glee in killing Drow priestesses. Justified as he sees them as holding up the evil ideals of Drow society.
Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Played straight and subverted. He is horrified with the drow practice of murdering every member of an opposing family during a house war, including small children. At the same time he has no choice in the matter because refusing would mean his death. This later becomes a Berserk Button for him when he thinks that Drizzt murdered an elven child during the surface raid.
Dinin Do'Urden
Race: Drow
Class: Fighter
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Back Stab: Pulled this on Nalfein near the beginning of Homeland, which allowed Drizzt to not be sacrificed on the day of his birth. By drow law, every third male child is sacrificed to Lolth. With Nalfein's death, Drizzt was no longer the third son and was spared.
Unfriendly Fire: The above backstab is pulled during a war with another house.
Love Triangle: Drizzt and Innovindil seem to express some amount of feelings for each other, while Drizzt also has strong feelings for Catti-brie. However, Innovindil seems happy to encourage Drizzt to find love with Catti-brie.
Herzgo Alegni
Race: Tiefling
Class: Fighter
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Evil Weapon: Came into possession of Charon's Claw when Bregan D'aerthe sold Artemis out to the Netherese.
Rasputinian Death: Was blasted nearly to death by a super-charged lightning shot, then healed almost completely, only to have her spine snapped in half moments later.
The Alcoholic: This almost got him killed sometime before the start of the series when his sister Greyanna attempted to kill him by luring him into a trap. He didn't realize what was up until it was almost too late.
Enemy Mine: Decided to help Quenthel when Danifae started to show signs of group dominance in Resurrection, despite the fact that they still wanted to wring each other's necks.
Heroic Sacrifice: Sacrificed himself to save Kael in The Crystal Mountain.
No Honor Among Thieves: Completely left Ryld for dead in Dissolution, but felt a mote of guilt about it, albeit briefly. It came back to bite him.
Not In This For Your Revolution: While he was forced into looking for Lolth by Gromph and the Matrons of Menzoberranzan, Pharaun was mostly in the hunt for the glory, since if he came back successful, it would put him in a better position to become Archmage, should Gromph ever die.
Exotic Weapon Supremacy: By drow standards. Most drow use light weaponry with an emphasis on dexterity, crafted from Underdark mithril. Ryld's blade is dwarven-crafted and friggin' huge!
In Harm's Way: Wanted more excitement in his life and got plenty.
And I Must Scream: As a "reward" for betraying Lolth (and doing such a bad job of it), she was transformed into Lolth's emissary, sent to deal with her enemies as her avenger while unable to control her own actions and being perfectly aware of her consciousness while doing so.
Memory Gambit: Zasian cast a spell on her in order to prevent the inhabitants of Celestia from catching on to her role in his plan to invade the realm. Unfortunately, this also prevented her from realizing what was going on.
Revenge Before Reason: After being freed from his geas in The Crystal Mountain, he could have just walked away and left the entire ordeal behind him after leaving the party. Instead, he decided he'd help the demon lords of the Abyss wage war on Celestia because the angels pissed him off.
The Scream: Was quite pissed to learn that traveling from the City of Brass over to Celestia had taken 12 years instead of the mere moments it felt like.
Team Killer: Abandoned the party in The Crystal Mountain and came back with a host of demons to kill them for getting in his way.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He really did not like being forced to work with an angel in the Empyrean Odyssey trilogy.
The Gloves Come Off: When he cut ties with Dyrr, the lichdrow attempted to kill him in retaliation. Nimor put on his Game Face and fought back for a bit and set the guy—who was just as powerful as Gromph—back on his heels.
Orphan's Ordeal: Had to come to grips with the fact of who his parents were and their differences in morality over the course of the Empyrean Odyssey trilogy.
Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Wasn't even born when the series started. He was born while Aliisza was in stasis placed on her by the Triad and was raised by Tauran. The next time we (and Aliisza) see him, he's already fully grown.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: Followed in Tauran's footsteps at the end of the The Crystal Mountain and went to stop Kaanyr from reaching the Lifespring instead of marching off to war against the Abyss.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted. While he is a half-drow, he's actually a good guy. Doesn't mean he's not dangerous to his enemies, though.
Ship Tease: Had a scene where he was feeling particularly heart-broken about what was happening with the gods and got head-on-lap action with Aliisza...
Ship Sinking: ...and then they both died at the end of The Crystal Mountain.
Flat Earth Agnostic: For a long time he questioned whether or not the gods actually existed, even though he was a priest and recieved magic from one; somewhat justified in that Deneir actually encourages his followers to question dogma and think for themselves.
Older than They Look: Over sixty, but looks to be in his mid twenties due to reverse aging for a few years; he actually looks younger than his own son.
Rich Idiot with No Day Job: The Dandy singing dubious couplets and less than successfully dabbling in magic — just one more good-for-nothing noble. He's the lad who pranks people using a singing sword with Bawdy Song. He "forgot" to make publically known the part where he personally researched the spell allowing to edit the musical repertoire of pre-existing magical items. For example.
Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain: Mostly. He tried to be a full-on hero, then full-on villain, but failed at both.
Broken Bird: The haughty, though back then innocent, variant. From the prince, Captain of the King's guard, betrothed to a princess and heir to an almost sacred artifact to self-exile and soon enough grave robber.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Most people who spend five minutes around Pikel assume he's either insane or stupid. Once they see him fight, his badassery can't be denied.
Genius Ditz: Often comes up with clever plans, and has saved the day more than once with a Big Damned Heroes moment. But still, he's a bit of a ditz.
Nature Hero: Can talk to animals, grow trees, control roots.
Scars Are Forever: Lost his arm while helping to defend Mithral Hall against Obould Many-Arrows, Gerti Orelsdottr, and their respective forces. Thirteen years later, he still hasn't got it back.
A God Am I: Attempted a ritual to turn himself into a greater god. Failed and more or less destroyed his country in doing so, turning most everyone into zombies. Plans to try again in another country.
Ax Crazy: His original characterization was this, along with a dose of Cackling Mad. He's mellowed out a bit and doesn't cackle so much, but he still has shades of this.
Back from the Dead: Died after the fall fo Netheril, when his worshippers either died or abandoned him. Was reborn as Lathander, and reborn again after the Spellplague.
Lawful Stupid: Allowed most of his followers to die in the fall of Netheril as he was contractually prohibited from interfering in matters of magic, which were Mystryl's domain.
Distaff Counterpart: To Silvanus; he represents the wild untamed nature, while Chauntea is the more humanity friendly agricultural farmland that feeds and sustains people.
Anti-Mutiny: An odd case in that she was tricked by her mother Aurushnee / Lloth into helping with the coup, then turned back, atoned and began to convert the dark elves (now turned into drow) back to the old path as she saw it. And succeed with a lot of them.
Actual Pacifist: She's also the goddess of peace. And gives a sanctuary to those who think they fed up with violence, such as a certain Gold Elf vampire, and collected the whole colony of disillusioned Malenti.
This doesn't mean she's not decisive or strategically savvy. At least two novels did show her at active and well-timed work on expansion and conversion — Eldath is non-violent, and smoothly subversive, so her acquisitions go quietly.
Ghibli Hills: The terrain of preference is quiet glades, pools, springs and waterfalls.
Red Oni, Blue Oni / Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's in almost sisterly relationship with Mielikki — they generally divide jobs at "nurturing" vs. "protection".
Took a Level in Badass: Twice; was originally a fairly minor demigod who managed to take out Bane during the Time of Troubles; this got him upped to intermediate god. When Tyr decided he was no longer cut out for the job, he passed his power and duties onto Torm, promoting him to greater god.
Tymora, The Lady Who Smiles
Alternate Character Interpretation: In-Universe-Halflings consider her a halfling Goddess who has tricked other races into worshiping her too.
Badass Boast: "Fortune Favors the Bold!!" used to encourage worshipers and others to trust in Tymora's luck and take high risks in return for high rewards in the pursuit of what they want.
Cool, but Inefficient: Her favored weapon is the shuriken, one of the weakest weapons that exists.
Split at Birth: Tymora and Beshaba were both literally formed when Tyche the Goddess of Luck, was split in half by Selūne after being corrupted by Moander. The myth goes that Beshaba got all of Tyche's beauty and frivolousness, while Tymora got all of the heart and kindness.
Retcon: In 4th Edition, changed into an aspect of Chauntea.
Neutral Deities
Gond, The Wonderbringer
For Science!: He promotes prosperity, but yes, he's a very much Neutral power. This sometimes becomes easy to forget, and sometimes important to remember (e.g. his work for Cyric).
Don't Fear The Reaper: While not nice or friendly, Kelemvor goes a long way to minimize fear of death.
Jerkass Faēade / Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As a mortal, Kelemvor wanted to be a hero and wanted to help people. However, he had a curse that turned him into a panther and forced him to kill someone if he ever did anything for reasons other than personal gain.
Necessary Evil: He maintains a wall of souls to keep the gods in power. This is a motivation for one of the party members in Mask of The Betrayer renouncing her faith in him. However, what most who bring this up fail to mention is that he actually tried taking it down soon after becoming a god, and, well... Let's just say it didn'tworkout.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In his first years after becoming God of Death, he took the moral judgment of souls upon himself, whereas previous death gods only judged on whether a soul has been true to his patron god. He constructed places of reward and punishment for the faithless souls in his realm. As a result, good and heroic mortals stopped worshiping their own gods because they could count on Kelemvor's judgment, while more evil types were terrified of dying for fear of being condemned (you know, even more so). This screwed with the Balance Between Good and Evil on Faerun and resulted in a pantheon of seriously disgruntled deities on both sides.
Everyone Calls Her the Red Knight: The Red Knight keeps her real name secret from everyone except Tempus. If anyone were to know it, that person "would be privy to all the plots and strategems of rulers throughout Faerūn and the deities throughout the planes."
Spear Counterpart: To Chauntea; while she represents the tamed nature of agriculture and farming, Silvanus represents the wild forests.
Tempus, Lord of Battles
Supreme god of war in the Faerūnian Pantheon.
An Axe to Grind: His church's favored weapon is the battle axe; odd, considering one of his titles is the Foehammer and his holy symbol is a sword on a shield; though being the god of war, it would make sense for him to be a Multi Melee Master.
Asskicking Equals Authority: Tempus became and maintains his position as god of war by defeating all others who would claim the title.
Blood Knight: About halfway. Tempus does enjoy fights the most, but the warfare should be about honour and glory — he opposes meaningless carnage and destruction, or endless blood feuds. Conversely, cowardice and other dishonorable behaviour is punished, as are attacks on what belongs to Eldath: his followers are supposed to search for a tough opponent, not push pacifists around.
Boisterous Bruiser: His style — honest, feasting, active, not holding grudges, but eager for the next fight. He even gave the Strategy part of the portfolio to Red Knight and left Destruction to Garagos.
Dating Catwoman: Has romantic ties to Beshaba, evil goddess of bad luck. While Tempus is a neutral god, he's one of the only non-evil gods to have an affair with a blatantly evil one.
Due to the Dead: Those who fought well are praised and remembered. Indeed, followers of Tempus frequently hang all around the worship site collected shields of fallen warriors, whether allies or foes.
Gods Need Prayer Badly: The fact that gods in the Forgotten Realms are empowered by worship means that Tempus, to whom practically every combatant on the planet says a prayer on the eve of battle, is one of the most powerful deities in the entire pantheon.
Affably Evil: Is generally calm and polite. Just don't piss him off.
Asskicking Equals Authority: As with most evil deities, he maintains power mainly by being smart enough and strong enough to stop anyone from taking it from him.
Carry a Big Stick: The Ruby Rod of Asmodeus, besides having a very...unfortunate name, is one of the most powerful weapons in the realms. His church favors great clubs and maces crafted in the Rod's image.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Suggested to have genuinly cared for his (deceased) wife and (still living) daughter. Granted, both were/are evil themselves, but still.
God of Evil: His offical position within the pantheon is God of Sin.
Deity of Human Origin: Is one of the earliest examples in the Forgotten Realms mythos, having been part of an adventuring trio known as the Dead Three, along with Bhaal and Myrkul. The three sought out Jergal, Lord of the End of Everything, the previous god of death, fear, and murder, hoping to kill him and divide his power. Luckily for them, Jergal was bored with his power, and gave it up willingly, making Bane the god of fear, Bhaal the god of murder, and Myrkul the god of the dead. All three were later killed, and thus far only Bane has returned.
Pragmatic Villainy: Bane commands order in his church, and his followers are as likely to solve disputes through reasonable debate as through violence.
Power Fist: His church favors the use of spiked gauntlets called The Black Hands of Bane as their Weapon of Choice.
Villainesses Want Heroes: Romantically involved with Tempus, the antiheroic War God. One of the very few instances of an evil deity being involved with a non-evil deity.
Cyric, The Prince of Lies
Arch-Enemy: Formerly with Mystra; currently with Kelemvor and Bane.
A God Am I: Even when human, this was all he could think of.
Axe Crazy: Most of the time, though his lucid moments are far scarier than his crazy moments.
Blessed with Suck: During his trial, a mortal worshiper managed to steal a reversed copy of the Cyrinishad away from the middle of Candlekeep and a pair of guardians a hell of a lot more skilled and violent than he was. While under Mystra's (lifelong, as it turns out) enchantment to speak the truth, the full truth, and nothing but the truth, he read the book aloud at Cyric's trial, curing him of the original Cyrinishad's curse and restoring him to sanity. As a reward, Cyric promoted him to be his Seraph of Lies. When the man protested that he couldn't lie, Cyric told him that made him perfect for the job.
Career Killers: A major part of his worship comes from this profession.
Dirty Coward: Runs away when he knows he can't win at all, turns to stealing and lying instead of fighting to get what he wants.
Eldritch Abomination: Binds one of these to him after freeing it from its fetters. Kezef the Chaos Hound still seems loyal to Cyric even while being imprisoned again by Mask.
Evil vs. Evil: Is commanding his church into a holy war against the church of Bane. Was also commanding his church to war against EACH OTHER when he was "insane".
Fate Worse than Death: His punishment for the deaths of Helm and Mystra and the Spellplague? Eternal banishment to a pocket plane, doomed to forever be trapped and hated and feared by all.
Not quite so. He can still grant spells to his worshippers and such, just not communicate with anyone or anything. Cyric is already insane. Imagine when he gets out of his little prison. He is already hated and feared by all, also. That isn't something new to Cyric and that seems to almost be his entire goal.
It's All About Me: Had his followers create a tome that convinced anyone who read it that Cyric was the only true god. Then he read it himself.
Not So Harmless: For a while, he was considered something of a harmless villain because he was too crazy to be effective. Then he killed Mystra and set off the Spellplague.
Don't forget how he orchestrated the death of Helm, and subsequently Tyr's fall from grace.
That Liar Lies: Pretty much called by Torm "nothing but lies" when he claims he didn't kill the former goddess of Illusion. (He was technically NOT lying, since it was MASK who killed her, in the guise of Cyric's sword, Godsbane.)
Trickster Archetype: Sort of. He makes it very clear that he prefers trickery and lies over such petty things as judging the dead, but he isn't a funny jokester at all. More like an Evil!Trickster.
Villains Never Lie: Despite his title, he doesn't have to, most of the time. Like with Malik, the best lie is the most unbelievable truth.
Xanatos Speed Chess: Cyric is a master of this. Just read the novels he's in and see how he turns every situation to his advantage, even if it looks like its going to pot. The Trial for example. His plot to have the Cyrinishad read at the Trial gets squashed quite quickly, but Cyric had another way to win the Trial. He had planned for the eventuality of the trial failing, even though he is about as arrogant as it gets and doesn't believe he could possibly fail. Of course, in the end, we realize the trial was ALL CYRIC'S DOING IN THE FIRST PLACE! At the start, he had planned it to expose the other gods to the Cyrinishad, but when that failed, immediately decided ending Mystra and Kelemvor's love would also serve his evil just as well.
It's implied in some sources that he's really the Greyhawk deity known there as the Elder Elemental Eye. It's implied in other sources that the E.E.E is really Tharizdun himself. So...
Dragon-in-Chief: Was this when part of Lolth's Legion of Doom. While she was the mastermind behind it, Gruumsh was by far the most powerful deity in the group, and the only one who could hold his own against Corellon.
Evil Counterpart: To Tempus. While the two have little in the way of interaction, Gruumsh's realm is described as a dark reflection of Tempus' Warrior's Rest.
Eye Scream: On Lolth's advice, Gruumsh ambushed Corellon, who cut out one of his eyes. Gruumsh now despises both deities.
Hero Killer: The first description of diecide in the Realms was Gruumsh killing Re, Big Good of the Mulhorandi pantheon.
Our Orcs Are Different: Gruumsh himself is the epitome of the older, more savage orcs, though lately has been guiding his people to a more neutral stance, if only because getting them out of caves will make them stronger as a whole.
The Man Behind the Man / Hijacked by Ganon: Was revealed that Talos, a more human-centric deity of storms, natural disasters, rebellion, and destruction, and the leader of a group of evil gods known as the Deities of Fury, was in fact Gruumsh in disguise, getting some non-orc worshipers.
