The Companions of the Hall, also known as the Companions of Mithral Hall, are a fictional adventuring party in R. A. Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt novels, which are set in the Forgotten Realms. The group comprises the drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden, his human partner Catti-brie, the dwarf Bruenor Battlehammer, the human barbarian Wulfgar, and the halfling rogue Regis. Associated principally with Icewind Dale and the dwarven stronghold of Mithral Hall, from which the group is named after, the characters first appear together in The Crystal Shard (1988), the opening novel of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and recur throughout the wider series.

Salvatore originally intended for Wulfgar to be the protagonist of The Crystal Shard and created Drizzt as his companion. Drizzt subsequently emerged as the central character while Salvatore was writing the novel, and Catti-brie was added after an editor observed that the original draft lacked a female lead. Later changes to the chronology of the Forgotten Realms separated the group, before Salvatore reunited its members in The Companions (2013) and the subsequent Companions Codex trilogy.

Four members of the group are the playable protagonists of the 2021 action role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance. Retrospective reviews of the original novels have noted Drizzt's dominance of the ensemble while crediting later installments with giving Catti-brie and Regis more substantial roles. Critical responses to the group's reunion in The Companions and its portrayal in Dark Alliance were mixed.

Development and publication

Salvatore devised Wulfgar as the protagonist of his first Forgotten Realms novel. He initially expected to use characters from Douglas Niles's Darkwalker on Moonshae, but was told not to use Niles's characters and to create a new companion for Wulfgar. Salvatore proposed a drow ranger as Wulfgar's sidekick and named him Drizzt. While writing an early scene in The Crystal Shard, Salvatore decided that Drizzt should instead become the novel's lead.^[1]

Catti-brie was not in Salvatore's first draft. In a 2013 Reddit question-and-answer session, he wrote that an editor had pointed out the absence of a female lead, and that he named the new character after his daughter Caitlin Brielle, who was born fifteen days after he delivered the draft.^[2] Salvatore later discussed the hostile responses he received as Catti-brie became a more powerful character. He connected her development to a broader move by fantasy writers away from female characters who existed only to be rescued.^[3] Salvatore ended the 1996 novel Passage to Dawn with "Drizzt and Catti-brie riding off into the sunset" as he had envisioned it to be his final book about Drizzt and his companions after falling out with his then-publisher, TSR, Inc.^[4]

For the fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, The Forgotten Realms chronology was advanced by about a century. Salvatore said the change interrupted unfinished storylines involving the shorter-lived Companions. Catti-brie and Regis died during the Spellplague, while Bruenor died in a later series; Salvatore said that the mandate had prompted him to become more creative with his writing in response to the revised setting, and drew upon his personal experiences of unexpected bereavement influenced the manner of Catti-brie and Regis's deaths.^[4] In The Companions (2013), Bruenor, Catti-brie, Regis, and Wulfgar receive second lives and set out to rejoin Drizzt. Salvatore said that he was nervous readers would reject their return, and used the characters' memories of their earlier lives to alter their goals and behavior.^[4][5] The reunited group next appeared in Night of the Hunter (2014), the first book of the Companions Codex series.^[6]

Characters and portrayal

Drizzt is the series' central hero, an exile from an evil drow society whose has built friendships on the surface world. Wulfgar supplies the young warrior archetype for which the series was originally designed for. Bruenor is the leader of Clan Battlehammer and serves as the group's patriarchal figure. Catti-brie is raised by Bruenor after her father was killed by goblins and is trained in archery. Among the first humans in Icewind Dale to befriend Drizzt, she later marries Drizzt even though she was initially betrothed to Wulfgar. Her influence helps establish the friendship between Drizzt and Bruenor, after which they are joined by Wulfgar and Regis, a halfling rogue who is the least martial member. Drizzt's magical panther Guenhwyvar often accompanies the group as an ally.^[7][8]

The Crystal Shard presents Drizzt, Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Regis as the principal adventurers, while Catti-brie has a small supporting role.^[7] The second novel, Streams of Silver (1989), follows Bruenor, Drizzt, Wulfgar, and Regis as they search for Mithral Hall. Catti-brie is captured while pursuing them, escapes, and joins the others at the dwarven stronghold. Regis is abducted at the end of that novel, leading to the rescue story in The Halfling's Gem (1990).^[9][10]

In the 2013 book The Companions, it is revealed that Mielikki, the patron deity of Drizzt, offered Catti-brie the choice of being reincarnated as a mortal newborn of the same race and sex as her first mortal form. She reemerges as a Bedine tribeswoman named Ruqiah who is born in 1463 DR, long after the original Catti-brie died in 1385 DR.^[11]

A 2014 profile in The Escapist described the Companions as having remained closely associated through more than twenty books.^[4]

Other media

The Companions of the Hall, led by Drizzt, have appeared in the 2000 video game Baldur's Gate: Shadows of Amn as minor characters. If the player solicits aid from the Companions, they will later appear and help the player in a battle against one of the game's main antagonists.^[12]

Other media

The five Companions appear together as non-player characters in the 2000 role-playing game Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. The player's party may encounter Drizzt, Bruenor, Catti-brie, Wulfgar, and Regis after leaving the Underdark and can enlist their help in an assault on the stronghold of the vampire Bodhi.^[13]

The three novels of The Icewind Dale Trilogy were adapted into graphic novels and later collected by IDW Publishing in the 2012 volume Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms—The Legend of Drizzt Omnibus, Volume 2.^[14] All five Companions are also playable heroes in Wizards of the Coast's 2011 cooperative board game The Legend of Drizzt, which uses characters, enemies, and locations from Salvatore's novels.^[15][16]

Drizzt, Bruenor, Catti-brie, Wulfgar, and Regis are playable characters in Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms, where they form the game's Companions of the Hall affiliation and provide bonuses when placed together in a formation.^[17] The five were also released as companion characters in the massively multiplayer role-playing game Neverwinter during its 2021 "Summer of Drizzt" promotion; Regis was available only through a bundle containing the complete group.^[18]

Four of the Companions were represented as legendary creature cards in the 2021 Magic: The Gathering release Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and its associated Commander products. Drizzt and Bruenor appeared in the principal card set, while Catti-brie appeared in the Aura of Courage Commander deck and Wulfgar in Draconic Rage.^[19][20]

Four of the Companions are the protagonists of the 2021 video game Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance.^[1][21] The game takes place after The Crystal Shard and has Drizzt, Bruenor, Catti-brie, and Wulfgar as its four playable characters.^[21] The game was not connected to the story of the earlier Dark Alliance games, but retained their emphasis on cooperation.^[22] Salvatore advised the developers not to retell stories already covered by the novels. Tuque instead placed a new adventure between published stories. Salvatore accepted changes made for the game, including portraying Catti-brie as the experienced adventurer she becomes in later books rather than as she was immediately after The Crystal Shard.^[23]

Reception

In retrospective reviews written for io9, Rob Bricken called The Crystal Shard an ensemble novel that was nevertheless overshadowed by Drizzt. He regarded Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Regis as variations on familiar dwarf, barbarian, and hobbit types, and criticized Catti-brie's limited part in the story.^[7] Bricken found Catti-brie substantially better developed in Streams of Silver, where he considered her a protagonist and an equal participant in the climax.^[9] In his review of The Halfling's Gem, he wrote that Drizzt remained the principal character but that Regis took an active part in resisting his captors and helping his rescuers.^[10]

Reviews of The Companions disagreed over the group's return. Kelly Jensen of SF Crowsnest praised the novel as both a beginning and an ending, and considered the bond among the five characters central to the series' treatment of friendship, loyalty, and honor.^[8] Tomasz Cybulski of the Polish fantasy publication Poltergeist criticized the three parallel childhood narratives of Bruenor, Catti-brie, and Regis as repetitive and slow, although he wrote that the ending finally recovered the adventurous tone promised by the premise.^[24]

Reviews of Dark Alliance also differed on the adaptation. Andy Kelly of PC Gamer wrote that the four playable characters had markedly different combat styles and that Salvatore's involvement gave the conventional plot a stronger connection to the novels.^[25] Garrick Durham-Raley of MMORPG.com, by contrast, found that the game did little to communicate its story or explore Icewind Dale despite using the Companions and events following The Crystal Shard.^[26]

References