| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Charles Phipps |
Posted - 26 Aug 2024 : 16:12:51
https://beforewegoblog.com/top-ten-favorite-female-dungeons-and-dragons-characters/
We are the products of a variety of factors in our life and one of those things is the media we consume. No, playing roleplaying games and listening to Goth metal didn't turn me into a vampiric wizard (much to my regret) but they opened my eyes to a lot of things I wouldn't have normally been exposed to.
I grew up in a very fundamentalist rural area and I don't think I would have been nearly as educated about girls kicking ass as much as the boys if not for a lot of the heroines I met through the pages of paperback fantasy. Dungeons and Dragons' many heroines (and villainesses) didn't make the entirety of my 12-13 year-old-old's education in this fact but it certainly helped.
So here is a collection of some classic Dungeons and Dragons characters of the feminine persuasion. There's also some modern ones that I've taken a liking to as well because the game never ends.Take note that I'm also only incorporating the ones directly from the game's media or I'd just end up posting the entire cast of Critical Role's campaigns.
10. Kyriani Agrivar (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons comic)
First Appearance: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1#
Description: Kyriani is a half-drow, half-human sorceress with a frequent problem of being split into her two halves. After she finally settles that issue, she is a bon vivant who frequently scandalized her teenage male readership by (GASP) having multiple partners at the same time while refusing to settle down. She also saved Waterdeep and her fellow Selunite bar patrons multiple times with her magic. Too bad TSR burned its bridges with DC comics and her comic was abruptly cancelled.
Why We Love Her: Kyriani of Shadowdale was the daughter of a good aligned wizard and a drow priestess that got split into her respective sides before being reunited. While the racial element might not have been handled the best, Jeff Grubb had a strong lesson about her in that both sides of her heritage were important to treasure. Eventually, she became a lusty and chaotic sorcerer thief that had numerous misadventures throughout Waterdeep. Much like Captain Kirk, her friends had to realize that her "good" and "evil" sides were both necessary for a complete person. Now if only they could keep that comic consistently available for purchase.
9. Viconia DeVir (Baldur's Gate)
First Appearance: Baldur's Gate
Description: Viconia DeVir is the sole survivor of the once grandiose House DeVir in Menzoberrazan. Banished for her refusal to sacrifice an infant, she fled to the surface but struggles with the whole "not being evil" thing in a way that Drizzt Do'Urden came to naturally.While the prejudice she faces may have no existing analog (due to the fact Drow really are a bunch of evil murderers), she's someone who just wants to live her own life. Baldur's Gate 3 made a very controversial choice with her subsequent actions post-game and ones that I think were poorly chosen.
Why We Love Her: Despite this, the love of a good man (or woman with mods) can redeem her to being slightly less evil. Compared to the other love interests of Baldur's Gate 2, she had a far more interesting arc and complete character. She was also someone that players loved even if they weren't interested. Plus, we all love Grey Delisle's voice.
8. Larisssa Snowmane (Dance of the Dead)
First Appearance: Dance of the Dead (Ravenloft)
Description: A dancer working on a magical paddle-boat, Larissa Snowmane just wants to live her best life possible in a demiplane not kind to either women or magic-users. Traveling through the fantasy Louisianian land of Sourange, she dares to seek out forbidden supernatural power from its Dark Lord in hopes of figuring out how to survive the dangers around her.
Why We Love Her: I almost put Ivana Bortisi or Gabrielle Aderre on this list. I wish I could have put Tatyana but she's unfortunately defined by Strahd kidnapping her so much that it's hard to remember she's actually pretty badass. Larissa is a likable and well-realized character that fits right into the Gothic atmosphere of the setting.
7. Shadowheart (Baldur's Gate III)
First Appearance: Baldur's Gate 3
Description: Shadowheart is a cleric of Shar, making her the second of the Lady of Loss' priestesses on this list, but there's a very good reason for that. As basically a perky Goth who seems to fundamentally misunderstand that her goddess isn't misunderstood but a genuinely terrible being. She is the most pursued of all of the Baldur's Gate III love interests, which may be because the audience is still primarily male and she's not a lizard-woman or crimson. Still, she has a fantastic character arc that can run to either good or evil.
Why We Love Her: A lot of people have very complicated relationships with religion. Sometimes, we spend a lot of time trying to justify when tyrannical and oppressive systems that we would just be better off abandoning. Either for different belief systems or abandoning them altogether. Shadowheart is in a cult that, while it worships a goddess of darkness, has all the earmarks of a real life one. While the ideal path is to help her come to this realization on her own, you can also encourage her to double down on a path that will simply destroy everything that she truly is. Both paths have powerful emotional beats. She's also adorable and a LGBT character.
6. Alias (Azure Bonds)
First Appearance: Azure Bonds
Description: Alias wakes up in Cormyr with no memory of her past, a mute dinosaur man companion, and a set of magical tattoos that she can't explain. Later, she discovers that she has no past to return to and is someone who has to forge her own destiny. She's a sarcastic, forceful, but fun character that gradually has to come to learn to accept the choices of her friends even when they mean going against her.
Why We Love Her: Alias is one of the earliest Dungeons and Dragons heroines and is from a time when they weren't afraid to go utterly weird with her origins. Without spoilers, Alias has a more science fiction origin than traditional fantasy. Jeff Grubb and Kate Novac writes her as a flawed, sometimes even bratty, character that has a lot of growing up to do despite (seemingly) being in her twenties. These flaws give her personality. Fun fact: The (inaccurate) art for the character is somewhat infamous and hilariously led to Kate Novac canonizing her chain mail corset by making it evening wear that was enchanted to be harder than plate.
5. Sadira of Tyr (The Prism Pentad)
First Appearance: The Verdant Passage
Description: Sadira of Tyr is a half-elf born to a woman enslaved by the ruthless Templar Tithian of Tyr. Studying the arts of the preserver, Sadira is part of the resistance known as the Veiled Alliance and wants more than anything to liberate the slaves of her city. Sadira loves both the gladiator Rikus and the nobleman Agis. Rather than being forced to choose, she just carries on a relationship with both. Which was pretty unusual for Nineties fantasy. At least the kinds I read.
Why We Love Her: Sadira is a fantastic antiheroine who doesn't always make the correct choice in the burned out world of Athas. The temptations of dark magic and defiling power are always present. Sadira also doesn't want to give up anything she acquires because she's a woman who grew up with nothing. Faced against the cruelty and oppression of the slave-holding Sorcerer Kings, she is always on the right side of history but that doesn't mean she doesn't have her own personal ambitions.
4. Cattie Brie (The Legend of Drizzt)
First Appearance: The Halfling's Shard
Description: A young warrior woman raised by dwarves, Cattie Brie has been the longtime companion of Drizzt and the other Companions of the Hall. Cattie Brie is an archer and swordswoman who eventually decides to become a sorceress. Cattie Brie eventually becomes lovers with Drizzt but spends the majority of her literary time as simply his closest friend.
Why We Love Her: Cattie Brie isn't the strangest of the Companions of the Hall but is probably the glue that sticks them all together. Like Steve Guttenberg in Police Academy, it's necessary to have a straight man keeping everyone on point. Much of the story is about her coming into her own across the decades and realizing she has more to offer than simply being everyone's support. Plus, it's nice to have a plaintalking and serious protagonist. I fully believe Cattie Brie helped inspire plenty of the archer rogues and magicians out there like Imoen.
3. Crysania Tarinius (Dragonlance Legends)
First Appearance: Time of the Twins
Description: A cleric of the god Paladine, Crysania grew up spoiled sweet and devoted her life to the cause of good after wanting for nothing. Unfortunately, she was a little too confident in her righteousness and was easily persuaded to join Raistlin Majere's blasphemous plan to slay the Queen of Darkness so he could ascend to godhood. Her flaws, like other characters on this list, actually make her interesting.
Why We Love Her: The greatest of all Dungeons and Dragons romances is one built from being an utter train wreck (lightning rail?) from beginning to end. Crysania is attracted to the dark, sinister, and delicate nature of Raistlin while he's always believed himself to be an unlovable monster. In a lesser series, this would have been the start of a redemption arc but it is a story that benefits from acknowledging there's more important things than love. Her care for Raistlin is real but, in the end, she is a person who cares for good more.
2. Arilyn Moonblade (Songs and Swords)
First Appearance: Elfsong
Description: Arilyn Moonblade was born a half-elf and the child of a Princess of Evermeet. You'd think the latter would count for something but her human heritage means she's just a stain on the royal family's honor. Growing up with no knowledge of her heritage, she is trained to be an assassin for the Harpers and ends up with a lot of very ridiculous notions about how to go about doing this (like challenging opponents to honorable combat). It requires the goofy and flamboyant Danilo Thann to bring her, even partially, out of her shell.
Why We Love Her: Arilyn Moonblade is much like Tanis Half-Elven in that she struggles with her mixed heritage. However, unlike Tanis, it is not a source of shame for her. Instead, it is a source of anger because Arilyn recognizes it is the racism and undeserved pride of the elves that motivates her ostracism. A hardened killer with a heart, Arilyn is a character who normally would be a man in the kind of fantasy I read growing up. However, the fact that she is one doesn't detract from her femininity nor does it require her to prove herself. It's simply her personality and it is always entertaining. If the elves can't accept that about her, she'll just do her own thing.
1. Kitiara Uth Matar (Dragonlance Chronicles/Legends)
First Appearance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Description: The only villain on the list and my pick for the all-time best female character in Dungeons and Dragons, Kitiara Uth Matar is a multifaceted female character that could have been the protagonist of her own series. Indeed, she has starred in several spin-offs and prequels to the Dragonlance main series. A hardened warrior, lover, and warlord, she just happens to have chosen to fight on the winning side.
Why We Love Her: Kitiara was unlike any other female characters I'd read when I first picked up the Dragonlance Legends books for the first time. Physically dominant, sexually aggressive, and ambitious, she was a woman after my own dark ambition. Kitiara also was a character who was chiefly opposed by a fellow woman in Laurana Kanan. Lord Soth, Dalamar, Skie, and Ariakas are all impressed with her strength of spirit with only her brother really able to hold her respect. Plus, she's a dragon rider.
Honorable Mentions: Laurana (Dragonlance Chronicles), Neeva (Prism Pentad), Princess Alusair (Forgotten Realms), Ruha (The Harpers), Lirel Baenre (Daughter of the Drow), Alustriel (Forgotten Realms), Imoen (Baldur's Gate), Annah (Planescape: Torment), Falls from Grace (Planescape: Torment), Danica (The Cleric Quintet), Sheila (Dungeons and Dragons cartoon) |
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