Baldur's Gate characters.

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I didn't think that this topic is about game play so I guessed that will be better to do the question here.

What I want to know is where the place names and character names come from. Drizzt, Bruenor, Sword Coast, Baldur's, Lilarcor, Aegis Fang, drows, etc.
Is all inspired on some book? real life things? mythology?

I can't find anything related to it. Any ideas?

 

Um, they have years of Forgotten Realms lore behind them. You know, D&D?

It (mostly) all comes from Ed Greenwood, he invented it and sold it to (TSR?), but it is all owned by Wizards of the Coast now.

As for books, Drizzt and Bruenor come from the Icewind Dale Trilogy first, but the Drow Elf Trilogy is chronologically first.

Try looking here

 

Great info in those links, thank you guys, is exactly what I needed.

PS. Sorry for posting in the wrong forums.

 

*ahem* Although all of those are, indeed of the Forgotten Realmslore...the names chosen by Ed Greenwood were not pulled out of thin air- many came from other sources.

examples off the top of my head:
Silvanus: mentioned idley in one of Paul's letters in the new testament, also some Roman spirit
Tyr: one of Odin's sons in Norse mythology
Oghma: the god of scholars and learning from Irish mythology

although many names are made up; many are influenced by other sources.

The Forgotten Realms is, in essence, a garbage bin of fantasy, myth, and science fiction. Of course, we love it all the same!

 

And drow is, of course, a nordic name for dark elves.

Even Baldr (Baldur) was a norse god

 

Just about the whole Mullhorandi pantheon is ripped straight from Eygptian mythology and Tiamat is ripped from Babylonian mythology (want to say Ao is too, but I can't remember). Selune is slight modification of the Greek Selene, though Selune bears almost nothing in common with the promiscuous Greek goddess of the moon.

Ilmater and Lathander are clearly based on mythological figures even if they fail to share those figures names.

I believe Bahamut is also Babylonian. Surtr and Thrym are also pulled from Norse Mythology.

[ May 20, 2006, 19:13: Message edited by: Ilmater's Suffering ]

 

Hmm... I don't think Drow is old norse for Dark elf... I think the old-norse word for dark elf is "Svartalf" or black elf. The word svartalf was actually used in the old FR cosmology, or the "core D&D cosmology" as it's called in 3.5E.

In the great wheel, one of the planes is called Ysgard (clearly inspired from Asgard), and one of its layers is called Nidavellir. In Nidavellir is an area called Svartalfheim, where a population of neutral drows live. Just wanted to add it !

A lot of the monsters in D&D are also from various mythologies, for example Pegasi, Djinni, Sphinxs and dragons...

 

Dude! Dragons are from myth???!!! Wtf...I thought Ed Greenwood invented them...I am so disillusioned right now.

 

... It was just to make an example...

 

I dont know much about all these things you´re saying, i suposse i have to believe it blind.
But now that someone mentioned characters, i like to say something that amussed me:
If you have selected a dark elf character, a drow, isnt funny that there are not any restrictions about alignment?
Supossedly, drows are mostly "evil" (mostly chaotic evil) so you can´t choose any "good" or "Legal", just some neutral and chaotic evil.
Yes, i admitt there are exceptions to this rule(Drizzt), but I´m not shure the ranger was "good" at all, always seems to me more like a "true neutral", or even something between "legal evil" and "chaotic good"...I dont know.
I think Drizzt suffer a lot for beeing like he is, in a world like the Underdark.He even got to run away from "home" for being different from the rest.
So, at the end, he is more like an "unique" kind of drow.. somebody correct me if I´m wrong.

 

He was unique, you're right. He was all alone. But he's happier now he's spawned a million clones. Are there any evil drow left, or are they all just misunderstood?

 

Sorry cant resist to link in this one to the current discussion about dark elves: http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=44

Well per the rules you have the various descriptions of "usually lawfull good" and "allways chaotic evil" etc, they had some nice numbers on it somewhere i dont recal, but it basically means that "allways chaotic evil" means that somewhere roughly between 95-99% of the race is chaotic evil. and the usually was somewhere around 50% or so. So there is absolutelly nothing wring with a player picking drow and makes hes drow a lawfull good paladin. Just highly unlikelly. And if i was the DM i would have forced him to make one **** of a good background-story to get away with that (and if i found even the slightest hint of drizzt ripoff its over and out!).

It is just that players love to make their chaotic good über 1337 drows

(seriouslly how many of you did pick anything else than chaotic good in your first game ?)

 

Check out my new Underdark RP. Same rules.

Chaotic Neutral, since you asked. I prefer to play myself the first time through a game.

 

First time I played I was CN too... I've actually heard that a lot of players make their first char evil, but without any special reason ... My old DM told me that...

 

Really? The people I talk to usually choose good or neutral for first time... They suffer from too much influence from various cliches, unfortunately .

 

Technically my first played character was CG (a social anarchist and all) but he, as an idea, was created in tandem with a LE fighter (good characters are just easier to fit into parties). They filled the role of oppressor and liberator I suppose. I have a thing for CG and LE characters (cruel LN characters for that matter as well), represents my differing view of "ideal" and "exemplar" people, thats for sure. It's just easier to break in the game as a good or neutral character, it's way too easy to screw up other PCs with an evil character and end the fun (specifically since that LE character I had created was very inclined to draw blades in order to protect his pride).