Icewind Dale

2021-07-19T17:55:43Z

2601:203:480:A9A0:ED61:F79A:23C1:7D24:

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'''Icewind Dale''' is a name that can refer to any of three things relating to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. First and foremost, Icewind Dale was [[R.A. Salvatore]]'s sandbox for ''The Crystal Shard'', a tolerable adolescent-aimed fantasy book, if pulling in a lot of 1980s D&D tropes. That book got swiftly expanded and [[retcon]]'ed into the second series of Forgotten Realms, with the Dale as one of the most far-northern areas covered, basically so it could touch as little of the already-established Realms as possible. Finally, ''Icewind Dale'' is the name of a number of D&D based videogames... also set in the Icewind Dale region. Icewind Dale is also featured in the adventure Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

==The Region==
[[File:Ten towns map-5E.png|thumb|right|500px|The Ten Towns of Icewind Dale]]
Icewind Dale is an area of arctic tundra that is the northermost explored area of Faerun; civilization consists of the Ten-Towns - a confederation of ten minor settlements, a local dwarfhold, and wandering tribes of nomadic barbarians called the Uthgardt. The Ten-Towns are centered around three lakes that house knucklehead trout, a strange fish whose bones can be worked like ivory. The "civilized" population (not counting the indigenous barbarians) is predominantly fishermen, hunters, trappers, miners, craftsmen, dwarves, and merchants who come for the local trade in ivory, gems and furs.

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==The Novels==
The (slightly inaccurately tagged) Icewind Dale Trilogy was the second set of novels to be printed for the [[Forgotten Realms]], after the [[Moonshae Trilogy]]. It was the literary debut of that most infamous of [[drow]], [[Drizzt Do'Urden]] - though not the chronologically first of Drizzt's stories, which would be presented as an unnamed trilogy some time after Drizzt became popular. In this series, Drizzt is Strider not Aragorn; he's got no arc, ''needs'' no arc. As for the Dale, only the first book actually deals in that.

In '''The Crystal Shard''', Akar Kessel, a once-insignificant wastrel of an apprentice [[wizard]], betrays his master and is himself betrayed, and left for dead in the snow. "Luckily" in the aforementioned snow he stumbles upon the eponymous shard: a powerful and malevolent artifact called Crenshinibon. Kessel's pathetic need for rethpekt allows him to be seduced, and he starts becoming a dark lord in an ice palace, ''Snow Queen'' style. Down in the Icewind Dale, [[dwarf]] [[fighter]] Bruenor Battlehammer has adopted [[barbarian]] Wulfgar as his indentured man and archer Catti-brie as... we don't know exactly what, she's mostly there [[Incest_Smith|to tease Wulfgar]]. Bruenor and Wulfgar assemble the Ten Towns ''and'' the barbarians to defeat eeevil, with the help of renegade [[Drow]] [[ranger]] Drizzt Do'Urden (playing Batman) and [[halfling]] [[rogue]] Regis (playing... Circe, with his gemstone). As noted ''TCS'' wasn't a Greenwood joint so wasn't intended for the Realms as originally written; it works fine as a standalone.

In '''Streams of Silver''', with Kessel dead (um, spoiler?), Bruenor talks his friends into seeking out the lost dwarfhold of Mithral Hall, his ancestral home. It proves no easy journey, for the dread [[dragon]] who drove the dwarves away still lurks in its shadowy depths. Boy, nobody ever thought of writing a story like THAT before!!

In '''The Halfling's Gem''', Regis is kidnapped by the [[assassin]] Artemis Entreri, working on behalf of the thieves-guild-master whom Regis betrayed years ago, forcing Regis' friends to stage a rescue.

The ''Legend of Drizzt'' graphic-novel / funnybook series collects these.

==The Games==
As a game series, Icewind Dale spans four entries; Icewind Dale proper, the two expansion packs Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster, and the sequel Icewind Dale II. The original trinity use [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] 2e as their base ruleset, whilst ID2 uses [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition]]. Unlike the similar [[Baldur's Gate (Games)|Baldur's Gate series]], the Icewind Dale games take [[Your Dudes]] to the extreme; there are no NPC party members, and instead you generate and flesh out the entire party you want to play as at character creation.

===Icewind Dale===
Your custom-created party is chilling in the town of Easthaven in the year of Mirtul, 1281 DR (Year of the Cold Soul); after doing a few low-level good deeds, you come to the notice of the town leader Hrothgar, a semi-retired adventurer who is putting together an expedition to investigate strange goings on in the town of Kuldahar. However, your expedition is attacked by [[Frost Giant]]s, and you are the only survivors. Continuing to Kuldahar, you get caught up with investigating the strange goings on, which ultimately leads you to thwart the attempted invasion of Icewind Dale by two rival [[fiend]]s - the [[marilith]] Yxunomei and the [[Baatezu|pit fiend]] Belhifet. As part of this, the party must enter the tomb of an ancient undead [[barbarian]] warrior, explore the sundered ruins of an ancient [[Elf|elven]] fortress haunted by the [[ghost]]s of the [[elves]] and [[orc]]s who died trying to claim it, restore the mind of a maddened [[lich|baelnorn]], and fight through the monster-infested ruins of the [[dwarf]] stronghold of Dorn's Deep.

===Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter===
An Uthgardt barbarian shaman seeks out your party at Kuldahar - either during or after the events of the main game - and begs for your assistance in stopping his chieftain, Wylfdene, who has become intent on attacking the Ten-Towns. It turns out that Wylfdene is actually possessed by the spirit of Icasaracht, a mighty [[Chromatic Dragon|white dragon]] matriarch who was slain by the founder of Easthaven, and who has now risen from the dead to seek vengeance. After much chaos and struggle to exorcise her, your party chases her down and slays her again.

===Icewind Dale: Trials of the Luremaster===
Unlike the other games in this grouping, Trials of the Luremaster doesn't take place in Icewind Dale. Instead, it takes place out in the middle of the fucking Anauroch desert. The excuse is that, if you're playing this continually, this is the direct sequel to the events of ID1 and ID:HoW and your party left the Frozen North and headed somewhere warmer after all your battles were done. Anyway, the plot is simple: guided by a mysterious [[halfling]] named Hobart Stubbletoes, your party has come to the ancient ruins of Castle Maluradrek - you can pull this off in-game by meeting Hobart in the Whistling Gallows Inn in Lonelywood, which is the town where you start your quest in Heart of Winter; he teleports you directly there. Inside, an insane [[undead]] [[bard]] with a knack for rhyming verse challenges the party to prove themselves heroes by granting the castle's undead inhabitants eternal rest at last.

===Icewind Dale II===
A true sequel to the original Icewind Dale and its expansion packs, this game is set 30 years after the events of everything. Your party are a band of mercenaries hired to defend the town of Targos, because an organization called the [[Legion of the Chimera]] - an array of halfbreeds and mixed-blood creatures seeking equality and acceptance for their kind - has gone screaming off the deep rails due to the persistent racism they faced from the Ten-Towns (the last straw was when the mayor of Bryn Shander tried to assassinate the leaders of the Legion by sending the [[fey'ri]] pastries infused with holy water) and has now fallen under the influence of the cult of [[Iyachtu Xvim]].

...Despite what you're thinking, this came out in 2002. And in fact it's shown that the Ten-Towns really are kind of to blame for all this, but the Legion is treated as the bad guys because, well, mostly because they're different kinds of half-breed monsters. Also the overarching story was (according to George Ziets) written by Joshua Sawyer in a weekend.

===Dark Alliance===
Hot off the press and announced during the 2019 Game Awards, there is going to be another D&D game taking place in Icewind Dale. Details are scarce right now, but it is listed as a "4 person co-op RPG" that lets you run around as Drizzt and his buddies killing dudes in a frozen hellscape.

==Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden==
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An adventure for 5th edition D&D, where the players investigate the cause of an endless winter.

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[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings]]
[[Category:Forgotten Realms]]

Auril

2021-07-19T17:51:06Z

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{{Infobox Deity
|Name = Auril
|Symbol = [[File:Auril unholy symbol.jpg|150px]] '''3E:''' White snowflake in a gray diamond with a white border '''5E:''' Six-pointed snowflake
|Aliases = Saukuruk, the Cold Goddess, the Frostmaiden, Icedawn, Lady Frostkiss
|Alignment = Neutral Evil
|Divine Rank = Lesser / Intermediate Goddess
|Pantheon = Faerûn, Frostfell
|Portfolio = Cold, ice, winter
|Domains = '''3E:''' Air, Cold, Evil, Storm, Water, Winter '''4E:''' Storm, Winter '''5E:''' Nature, Tempest
|Home Plane = '''[[Great Wheel]]:''' ''Winter's Hall'' ([[Pandemonium]]) '''[[World Tree]]:''' ''Winter's Hall'' (Fury's Heart) '''[[World Axis]]:''' ''Land Under Eternal Ice'' (Deep Wilds)
|Worshippers = Arctic dwellers, [[druid]]s, [[ranger]]s, frost [[giant]]s
|Favoured Weapon = ''Icemaiden's Caress'' (Ice axe)
}}
{{dnd-stub}}
'''Auril''' is the [[Forgotten Realms]] goddess of cold and winter. She is the boss of the 5th Edition adventure ''[[Icewind Dale]]: Rime of the Frostmaden''.

==Lore==
Auril was believed to have been once one of the [[Archfey]], specifically, the Queen of Air and Darkness, who gained her divinity by absorbing power from the slumbering [[Ulutiu]], one day hoping to completely absorb the gods portfolios and gain control over all things related to cold. Though not written down some developers did not flat out comferm or deny this implied thierory and even put forth a counter thiery that [[the Queen of Air and Darkness]] and Auril can gain additional influence by impersonating each other.

==Dogma==
Cover all the lands with ice. Quench fire wherever it is found. Let in the winds and the cold; cut down windbreaks and chop holes in walls and roofs that my breath may come in. Work darkness to hide the cursed sun so that the chill that Auril brings may slay. Take the life of an arctic creature only in great need, but all others at will. Make all Faerûn fear the Frostmaiden. Revere the Cold Goddess and sing her praises into any chill breeze or winter wind. Do not raise your hand against any other [[cleric]] of Auril.
[[File:Auril p91.jpg|thumb|left|300px|The Frostmaiden herself]]
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Icewind Dale

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