Icewind Dale

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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 is a northern region of the Realms, and is one of the most far-northern areas covered in the canon thus far. Secondly, The Icewind Dale Trilogy was the second series of Forgotten Realms ever published, named because they were set in this region. Finally, Icewind Dale is the name of a number of D&D based videogames... also set in the Icewind Dale region.

The Region

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.

The Novels

The Icewind Dale Trilogy was the second set of novels to be printed set in the Forgotten Realms, after the Moonshae Trilogy novels. Set in the titular Icewind Dale region, 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.

The trilogy consists of the three following books:

In The Crystal Shard, the future adventuring party of renegade Drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden, dwarf fighter Bruenor Battlehammer, halfling rogue Regis, barbarian Wulfgar and archer Catti-brie are assembled to defeat Akar Kessel, a once-insignificant wastrel of an apprentice wizard who unwittingly discovers a powerful and malevolent artifact called Crenshinibon.

In Streams of Silver, with Kessel dead, 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.

In The Halfling's Gem, Regis is kidnapped by the assassin Artemis Enterie, working on behalf of the thieves guildmaster whom Regis betrayed years ago, forcing Regis' friends to stage a rescue.

The Games

As a game series, Icewind Dale spans four entries; Icewind Dale proper, the two expansion packs Heart of Winter and Trial 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 Trilogy, 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.