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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
 Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 08:54:02
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I just unpacked my copy of The Crystal shard, the original version as published back in the olden days of the late eighties of the past century, and I suddenly remembered that in that version, Drizzt is described as being a couple of hundred years old. Of course, starting with Homeland, it's become established canon that Drizzt is much younger than that.
Although Salvatore's series has been published, re-published, compiled, and then re-compiled a couple of times over, I have never laid eyes on let alone read one of the later editions of The Crystal Shard, and I was wondering if at one point that book has ever been re-edited / re-written to make it consistent with the later books (in particular references to Drizzt's age).
Details, details, details. BEAST, I am counting on you in particular.
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swifty
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
517 Posts |
Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 10:56:55
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| did you notice that in the scene with regis fishing the month is called september. |
go back to sleep america.everything is under control.heres american gladiators.watch this.shuttup. BILL HICKS. |
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BEAST
Master of Realmslore
USA
1714 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2010 : 05:53:29
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quote:
Originally posted by Thauramarth
I was wondering if at one point that book has ever been re-edited / re-written to make it consistent with the later books (in particular references to Drizzt's age).
Details, details, details. BEAST, I am counting on you in particular.
(This is my second attempt. MS IE just shut down on me for no reason. Everything else continued running--just the window that I needed to stay open, most, decided to die on me.  )
The first edition paperback of The Crystal Shard (TCSh), back before it had even been assigned as part of "The Icewind Dale Trilogy", was published in JAN-1988. It described Drizzt as being 205 years old, at the beginning of the novel: 200 years below ground, and 5 years above.
The lorebook The Hall of Heroes (APR-1989) altered Drizzt's life history, instead describing him as having lived for 65 years in Menzo, then fleeing to the surface, where he spent an untold number of years.
Upon release of the MAY-1991 paperback edition of Sojourn, Drizzt's age could be re-calculated, adding up the number of years in each novel, up to that point. The first edition hardcover of The Legacy (SEP-1992) confirmed that Drizzt was 60 years old at that time, which agrees perfectly with the time clues in the stories published by then.
However, none of these books actually mentioned a precise year name or number for any of the books. The best anyone could do was to guess.
As TSR transitioned into the 2E of the Forgotten Realms setting, the design team decided to begin correcting this situation. An official date of 1357 DR, or just before the Time of Troubles, was set for the Menzoberranzan [Boxed Set] (OCT-1992), and since The Legacy was being published around the same time, apparently that led TSR to officially set TL in the same year of 1357 DR.
And with Drizzt being 60 years old in that novel, that would officially make his birthday 1297 DR (1357 DR - 60 yr = 1297 DR). This was actually published in the M[BS] and the JUL-1993 FRCS [2E], and numerous other official works ever since.
However, publication of the subsequent novels Starless Night (AUG-1993) and Siege of Darkness (AUG-1994) revealed that the first three books in the "Legacy of the Drow" mini-series were supposed to have taken place during the same calendar year. With SOD coinciding with the Time of Troubles, this would mean that the three novels all took place in the year 1358 DR, or the Year of Shadows: TL in spring, SN in summer, and SOD in autumn. Now, as stated above, with Drizzt being 60 years old in TL, this would indicate a corrected birth year of 1298 DR (1358 DR - 60 yr = 1298 DR).
And so, with TCSh beginning in the autumn of 1350 DR, that would mean that Drizzt had been alive for 52 years at that point: 41 years below ground (1298 to 1339 DR, Homeland through Exile) and 11 years above (1339 to 1350 DR, Sojourn to the beginning of TCSh).
The year 1996 was a Real Life™ "time of troubles" for Bob Salvatore, due to a contract dispute with TSR. This apparently led to several different breaks between the official lore for the Companions of the Hall versus the Companions of Bob's Realms stories, with other writers penning lore using his characters. One example is that the JUL-1996 publication Heroes' Lorebook revised Drizzt's age yet again to approximately 140 years, with him having lived on the surface for about 70 of those years. (This age was preserved in the <WOTC online 3E stats> for Drizzt {2000}.)
JUN-2001's FRCS [3E] doesn't even attempt to give an age for Drizzt, nor does the 2004 <WOTC online 3.5E character profile> for Drizzt.
This is bizarre, to say the least, especially when one considers that TSR and WOTC both continued to issue re-prints of the first edition of TCSh throughout the 1990s--complete with his first stated age of 205 years!
At any rate, the first version of TCSh that essentially corrected Drizzt Do'Urden's age was The Icewind Dale Trilogy Collector's Edition hardcover, "Book I: The Crystal Shard", published JAN-2000. This edition described Drizzt as having lived for more than half a century underground, and then several years on the surface. (Consideration of the precise time clues in the novels, though, would actually point to Drizzt having lived nearly half a century underground {1298 to 1339 DR, or 41 years} and more than a decade on the surface {1339 to 1350 DR, or 11 years}.)
MAR-2005's hardcover The Legend of Drizzt, Book IV: The Crystal Shard retained TIDTCE's age formulation.
I presume that the version of TCSh in the even more recent MAR-2008 The Legend of Drizzt Collector's Edition, Book II hardcover has retained this age data, as well, but I have not reviewed this edition.
Are those enough "[d]etails, details, details" for ya? Hope this helps!  |
"'You don't know my history,' he said dryly."
--Drizzt Do'Urden (The Pirate King, Part 1: Chapter 2)
<"Comprehensive Chronology of R.A. Salvatore Forgotten Realms Works"> |
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Ashe Ravenheart
Great Reader
USA
3243 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2010 : 06:36:09
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Ah, BEAST, ye keep fergettin' the Grand History of the Realms (p. 132):
quote:
1297 DR Year of the Singing Skull
— The son of Malice and Zaknafein Do’Urden, Drizzt of House Daermon Na’Shezbaeron, is born in Menzoberranzan. Using the power of the birth of Drizzt, his mother Malice was able to create a spell capable of defeating House Devir, and as a result House Do’Urden became the Ninth House of Menzoberranzan.
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I actually DO know everything. I just have a very poor index of my knowledge.
Ashe's Character Sheet
Alphabetized Index of Realms NPCs |
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BEAST
Master of Realmslore
USA
1714 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2010 : 07:56:23
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quote:
Originally posted by Ashe Ravenheart
Ah, BEAST, ye keep fergettin' the Grand History of the Realms (p. 132):
quote:
1297 DR Year of the Singing Skull
— The son of Malice and Zaknafein Do’Urden, Drizzt of House Daermon Na’Shezbaeron, is born in Menzoberranzan. Using the power of the birth of Drizzt, his mother Malice was able to create a spell capable of defeating House Devir, and as a result House Do’Urden became the Ninth House of Menzoberranzan.
Negatory, Ghost Rider.
I recognized that multiple works indicate such:
quote:
Originally posted by BEAST:
And with Drizzt being 60 years old in that novel, that would officially make his birthday 1297 DR (1357 DR - 60 yr = 1297 DR). This was actually published in the M[BS] and the JUL-1993 FRCS [2E], and numerous other official works ever since [bold added].
I didn't forget them. I simply chose not to name all the sources that I believe to be in error [EDIT: I simply chose not to name all the publications that appear to be inconsistent with the source novels and short stories]. 
I'm still working on my RAS Realms Chronology. I'll eventually cite all the various sources that I've been able to get my grubby little hands on, there.
As far as TGHOTR goes, Brian has encouraged me to keep working on my research, without saying "yea" or "nay" on any of the particular dates. I'm not holding my breath on WOTC changing the official dates; I'm just offering my own independent, thoroughly-researched, contrary conclusions. 
[EDIT: Toned down the snarkiness, a bit.  ] |
"'You don't know my history,' he said dryly."
--Drizzt Do'Urden (The Pirate King, Part 1: Chapter 2)
<"Comprehensive Chronology of R.A. Salvatore Forgotten Realms Works"> |
Edited by - BEAST on 15 Feb 2010 06:53:59 |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2010 : 07:56:48
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quote:
Originally posted by BEAST
Are those enough "[d]etails, details, details" for ya? Hope this helps!
Aaaaand... The Man delivers, Ladies and Gentlemen!
The funny thing is, I remembered the 200 year mention in The Crystal Shard, without even re-reading it, but I forgot the 65-year mention in Hall of Heroes, and the 70/140 year time frame in Heroes Lorebook, even though I consult those quite regularly. |
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BEAST
Master of Realmslore
USA
1714 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2010 : 08:40:47
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Hey, glad you liked it, Thauramarth!
quote:
Originally posted by swifty
did you notice that in the scene with regis fishing the month is called september.
Yeah, Bob had a little difficulty differentiating between Real World and Realmsian timekeeping, early on.
In the first edition of The Crystal Shard (JAN-1988), he set Book I: Chapter 2 in the month of September, and he began Book II in the month of June, just before the summer solstice.
And in Sojourn's MAY-1991 first edition paperback, he wrote that there was an early January thaw in Icewind Dale.
I don't own the The Icewind Dale Trilogy Collector's Edition JAN-2000 hardcover, and I've lost my notes somewhere  , so I'm not sure if those month names were corrected there or not.
But in MAR-2005's The Legend of Drizzt, Book IV: The Crystal Shard hardcover, those months were changed to Kythorn and Eleasis [EDIT: Eleint], respectively.
Neither The Dark Elf Trilogy Collector's Edition, "Book III: Sojourn", (JUL-1998); nor the SEP-2004 hardcover The Legend of Drizzt, Book III: Sojourn corrected the month of January to "Hammer", though.
It's also weird that none of the editors caught these glitches, either. Oh well. 
Also, Bob had a tough go at it when it came to remembering the difference between Real World "weeks" and Realmsian "tendays" in the 1E and 2E stories.
This became a bit of a problem with the novel Exile, which featured the Zin-carla ritual. In the DEC-1990 first edition, this ritual took "ten weeks, for seventy cycles of Narbondel" (i.e., 70 days) for completion. But in later editions, someone apparently used the word processor's "Find & Replace" feature to simply replace weeks with "tendays". The problem there, though, was that they didn't update the number of days or cycles of Narbondel, accordingly--they retained the "seventy cycles of Narbondel" lingo. But changing ten weeks or seventy cycles to ten tendays should not preserve the same number of seventy days. Ten tendays translates to one hundred days--not seventy. So maybe they should've changed "weeks" to "tendays" and "ten" to "seven", for a corrected phrase of "seven tendays, for seventy cycles of Narbondel".
Actually, in trying to work out a timeline for Exile, which supposedly only takes a few short months from beginning to end, it has become a little difficult to reconcile all the old "weeks" lingo with the "tendays" lingo. What used to take, say, 30 weeks (210 days), could become problematic if we simply change the units to 30 tendays (or 300 days). They don't translate exactly. So I have to come up with some sort of "fudge factor" in order to wrangle Exile into fitting in the same overall amount of time as was originally allotted: a few short months.
[EDIT: Whew! Caught my own mistake.  ] |
"'You don't know my history,' he said dryly."
--Drizzt Do'Urden (The Pirate King, Part 1: Chapter 2)
<"Comprehensive Chronology of R.A. Salvatore Forgotten Realms Works"> |
Edited by - BEAST on 14 Feb 2010 16:17:04 |
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Crystal Shard Question
