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Exile (Forgotten Realms Novel)
''Exile'' is a fantasy novel by American writer R. A. Salvatore, the second book in The Dark Elf Trilogy. It was published in 1990. Plot introduction ''Exile'' follows Drizzt Do'Urden to the wilds of the Underdark. For the ten years following his abandoning his house, he is left with no one but his faithful Guenhwyvar, a magical Panther he had acquired in ''Homeland''. He is also met with great dangers that he meets with the business ends of his scimitars. Struggling with conflicting emotions, which involve his failure in Menzoberranzan and a deep grief for his father Zaknafien, he makes his way to the surface to face newer dangers. Plot summary Drizzt 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, thanks to Lolth's "greatest gift" Zin-Carla, to find Drizzt. In the end, Zaknafein regained enough control to sacrifice himself, flinging his body into a pool of acid In comput ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Easley
Jeff Easley (born 1954) is an oil painter who creates fantasy artwork for role-playing games, comics, and magazines, as well as non-fantasy commercial art. Early life Easley was born in Nicholasville, Kentucky in 1954. He spent time drawing as a child, particularly creatures such as ghosts and monsters. "I watched lots of monster movies on the late show, and built every monster model kit I could get my hands on," he said. He attended high school in Nicholasville, and then earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Murray State University in Kentucky. Career After Cynthia finished grad school, the couple moved to Massachusetts with some friends, where Easley began his career as a professional artist. "I did freelance work for Warren Publications, including covers and comic strips for ''Creepy'', ''Eerie'', and ''Vampirella'', and for Marvel Comics magazines, including covers for '' Savage Sword of Conan'' and ''Bizarre Adventures''. But my real income came from my job at th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Underdark
The Underdark is a fictional setting which has appeared in ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing campaigns and ''Dungeons & Dragons''-based fiction books, including the Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore. It is described as a vast subterranean network of interconnected caverns and tunnels, stretching beneath entire continents and forming an underworld for surface settings. ''Polygon'' called it "one of ''D&D''s most well-known realms". Use in campaign settings The Underdark featured prominently in the campaign settings ''World of Greyhawk'' and the ''Forgotten Realms''. The concept of a dungeon that spanned a planet was first introduced by Gary Gygax in his D-series of game modules and at the end of the G-series. The Underdark was described in detail in the 1986 manual ''Dungeoneer's Survival Guide'', by Doug Niles. It was also part of the ''Eberron'' campaign setting, in which it was called Khyber and was home to evil beings driven deep into the caverns at the end of the ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1990 American Novels
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Mesopotamia is partitioned into two Roman provinces divided by the Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Osroene. * Emperor Septimius Severus lays siege to the city-state Hatra in Central-Mesopotamia, but fails to capture the city despite breaching the walls. * Two new legions, I Parthica and III Parthica, are formed as a permanent garrison. China * Battle of Yijing: Chinese warlord Yuan Shao defeats Gongsun Zan. Korea * Geodeung succeeds Suro of Geumgwan Gaya, as king of the Korean kingdom of Gaya (traditional date). By topic Religion * Pope Zephyrinus succeeds Pope Victor I, as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Baenre
''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, Greenwood brought the setting to publication for the ''D&D'' game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, as have various licensed products including novels, role-playing video game adaptations (including the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game to use graphics), comic books, and an upcoming film. Forgotten Realms is a fantasy world setting, described as a world of strange lands, dangerous creatures, and mighty deities, where magic and supernatural phenomena are quite real. The premise is that, long ago, planet Earth and the world of the Forgo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acid
In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequence of database operations that satisfies the ACID properties (which can be perceived as a single logical operation on the data) is called a ''transaction''. For example, a transfer of funds from one bank account to another, even involving multiple changes such as debiting one account and crediting another, is a single transaction. In 1983, Andreas Reuter and Theo Härder coined the acronym ''ACID'', building on earlier work by Jim Gray who named atomicity, consistency, and durability, but not isolation, when characterizing the transaction concept. These four properties are the major guarantees of the transaction paradigm, which has influenced many aspects of development in database systems. According to Gray and Reuter, the IBM Informa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Undead (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game, "monsters" are generally the antagonists which players must fight and defeat to progress in the game. Since the game's first edition in 1974, a bestiary was included along other game manuals, first called ''Monsters & Treasure'' and now commonly called the ''Monster Manual''. Described as an "essential" part of ''Dungeons & Dragons'', the game's monsters have become notable in their own right, influencing fields such as video games and fiction, as well as popular culture. The term ''monster'' in ''Dungeons & Dragons'' can refer to a variety of creatures, including traditional monsters such as dragons, supernatural creatures such as ghosts, and mundane or fantastic animals—in short, "an enormous heterogeneous collection of natural and monstrous foes." While many monsters are adapted from pre-existing myths and legends, others have been invented specifically for the game, sometimes having characteristics specifically sui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Illithid
In the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game, illithids (commonly known as mind flayers) are monstrous humanoid ''aberrations'' with psionic powers. In a typical ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign setting, they live in the moist caverns and cities of the enormous Underdark. Illithids believe themselves to be the dominant species of the multiverse and use other intelligent creatures as thralls, slaves, and chattel. Illithids are well known for making thralls out of other intelligent creatures, as well as feasting on their brains. Publication history Mind flayers were created by Gary Gygax, who has said that one of his inspirations for them was the cover painting of the Titus Crow book ''The Burrowers Beneath'' by Brian Lumley. Tim Kirk's cover art on the book, then in its first printing, depicted only the tentacles of the titular burrowers, the Chthonians. ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (1974–1976) Mind flayers first appeared in the official newsletter of TSR, ''The Strate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menzoberranzan
Menzoberranzan, the "City of Spiders", is a fictional city-state in the world of the ''Forgotten Realms'', a ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign setting. The city is located in the Upper Northdark, about two miles below the Surbrin Vale, between the Moonwood and the Frost Hills (north of the Evermoors and under the River SurbinEd Greenwood, Sean K. Reynolds, Skip Williams, Rob Heinsoo (June 2001). ''Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3rd edition''. (Wizards of the Coast), ''p. 13, 125, 171, 212-213''. .). It is famed as the birthplace of Drizzt Do'Urden, the protagonist of several series of best-selling novels by noted fantasy author R. A. Salvatore. Menzoberranzan has been developed into a video game (of the same name) and a tabletop RPG setting. Menzoberranzan has been described as "a perfect unjust state" and compared to Glaucon's vision of a state that is held together only by the fear of retribution. Creative origins In 1988, the character Drizzt Do'Urden was created ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drizzt Do'Urden
Drizzt Do'Urden () is a fictional character appearing in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. Drizzt was created by author R. A. Salvatore as a supporting character in the ''Icewind Dale Trilogy''. Salvatore created him on a whim when his publisher needed him to replace one of the characters in an early version of the first book, ''The Crystal Shard''. Drizzt has since become a popular heroic character of the Forgotten Realms setting, and has been featured as the main character of a long series of books, starting chronologically with ''The Dark Elf Trilogy''. As an atypical drow (dark elf), Drizzt has forsaken both the evil ways of his people and their home in the Underdark, in the drow city of Menzoberranzan. Drizzt's story is told in Salvatore's fantasy novels in ''The Icewind Dale Trilogy'', ''The Dark Elf Trilogy'', the '' Legacy of the Drow'' series, the ''Paths of Darkness'' series, ''The Hunter's Blades Trilogy'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dark Elf Trilogy
''The Dark Elf Trilogy'' is a prequel to the ''Icewind Dale Trilogy'' by R. A. Salvatore. Drizzt Do'Urden, a drow, or dark elf, was originally written as a supporting character in the ''Icewind Dale Trilogy'' to Wulfgar the barbarian. However, the author soon realized how popular the character was, and Drizzt became the main character. The final book ''Sojourn'' made the New York Times Best Seller list. Works included The trilogy consists of: #''Homeland'' (1990) — ''Homeland'' follows the story of Drizzt from around the time and circumstances of his birth and his upbringing amongst the drow (dark elves). The book takes the reader into Menzoberranzan, the drow home city. From here, the reader follows Drizzt on his quest to follow his principles in a land where such feelings are threatened by all his family including his mother Matron Malice. #''Exile'' (1990) — ''Exile'' tells the story of Drizzt outside of the drow cities in the open wilderness of the Underdark. For the ten y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fantasy Novel
Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fantasy literature may be directed at both children and adults. Fantasy is a subgenre of speculative fiction and is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes, respectively, though these genres overlap. Historically, most works of fantasy were written, however, since the 1960s, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music and art. Many fantasy novels originally written for children and adolescents also attract an adult audience. Examples include ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', the '' Harry Potter'' series, '' The Chronicles of Narnia'', and ''The Hobbit''. History Beginnings Stories invo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sojourn (novel)
''Sojourn'' is a fantasy novel by American writer R. A. Salvatore, the third book in The Dark Elf Trilogy. It was published in 1991. Plot summary Having lived in the Underdark for over forty years, Drizzt 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, but also found his true calling in life as a ranger, during his time with a blind ranger named Montolio. He eventually moved to Icewind Dale, where he joined with Catti-Brie, Bruenor Battlehammer, Regis the Halfling, and Wulfgar the barbarian. Reception On March 26, 1991 ''Sojourn'' debuted at 13 of ''The New York Times'' bestseller list. Ian Strelec awarded the final book of the trilogy, ''Sojourn'' with a B+ rating. He stated he found the book short and although not incredible, it was an important component of the Drizzt mythos. According to PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural cri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
