Catti-brie

Lore & Background

Catti-brie is a beautiful auburn-haired and blue-eyed woman with a kind, tolerant, and pragmatic personality. Her mother died in childbirth, and her father moved with her from Mirabar to Termalaine, one of the Ten Towns. He was successful for three years until a goblin killed him. Termalaine was threatened by a goblin onslaught until the dwarves of clan Battlehammer rushed from their valley to defeat the horde. Bruenor saved the orphaned girl and adopted Catti-brie as his daughter. She has no recollection of her life before Bruenor adopted her, but had a pleasant childhood living with the dwarves. As a result, she has a stubborn and tough dwarven personality like that of her foster-father. During the five years that Wulfgar spent in the service of Bruenor, Catti-brie helped him overcome his barbarian upbringing to highlight the compassion and intelligence inside of him. She and Wulfgar developed a bond which grew stronger while they adventured with Bruenor, Regis, and Drizzt Do'Urden, and they were ultimately betrothed. A drow seeking to kill Drizzt attacked Mithral Hall, and Wulfgar was captured by Errtu during one of the battles, ending their relationship tragically. She would then have a tentative, on-again-off-again romance with Drizzt through the novels which culminates in The Two Swords.

In Their Own Story

The assassin Artemis Entreri was chasing Regis, and Artemis held Catti-brie prisoner. After Mithral Hall was found, Catti-brie discovered the weapon Taulmaril the Heartseeker, Gift of Anariel, Sister of Faerûn, which was lost in the destroyed Hall of Dumathoin. She additionally carried the sentient sword Khazid'hea for several years, also known as "Cutter", which she took from Dantrag Baenre, after Drizzt killed him. Shortly after beginning her training as a Wizard, Catti-brie was struck by a falling strand of the Weave during the Spellplague. Her body remained on the material plane, though her mind and spirit was pulled into the plane of existence known as Shadowfell. Her patron goddess Mielikki eventually retrieved her spirit but she could not be returned to the world of the living in her state, instead remaining in a pocket dimension created by Mielikki. In the 2013 book The Companions, it is revealed that Mielikki 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.

Reader's Guide

Catti-brie used Taulmaril in combat and had a limitless arrow supply. She would charge into melee combat armed with Khazid'hea confident that she could dominate the blade. She was wounded by a boulder thrown by a giant while defending Mithril Hall from the orc legions of Obould Many-Arrows, and this lasting injury limited her ability to fight using melee weaponry. She studied magic under the wizard Alustriel Silverhand. Taulmaril was a gift to the Mithral Hall dwarves by Lady Anariel, Sister of Faerûn. The bow is made of wood enspelled not to break or scratch, and the quiver held 20 silver arrows which can magically teleport back to the quiver; when one was used the quiver magically replaced it. Part of the weapon's enchantment is that the arrows are imbued with crackling energy in flight that causes them to deal far more damage than typical. The energy is probably electrical in nature, as it scorches targets and can set flammables alight. Another property is that the arrow travels at super high speeds compared to a normal bow, allowing it to blast through enemies even when they have armor. Khazid'hea was the evil sentient blade she wielded during The Legacy period, with the ability to communicate with its user and change the shape of its own hilt; the super sharp blade could cut through solid stone. Khazid'hea could easily take over the minds of others in its search to be wielded by Drizzt Do'Urden. Catti-brie was able to overcome the sword and put it to deadly use, though soon after Khazid'hea left her hands and after some time led to the death of Delly Curtie, Wulfgar's wife, and after that fell into the hands of another drow elf. The sword's name, Khazid'hea, literally means cutter in the drow language.

Did You Know?

• R.A. Salvatore named Catti-brie after his daughter Caitlin Brielle after the editor suggested The Crystal Shard would be better with a strong female character.
• Salvatore ended the 1996 novel Passage to Dawn with 'Drizzt and Catti-brie riding off into the sunset' as he envisioned it to be his final book about Drizzt.
• Catti-brie was killed off as a direct consequence of the Spellplague event in the Transitions trilogy, which begins with 2007’s The Orc King and concludes in 2009’s The Ghost King.
• Catti-brie makes a cameo appearance along with the other Companions of the Hall in 2000's Baldur's Gate II.
• She appears in the 2021 Magic: The Gathering expansion set Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms as a 'Legendary Creature' card in the Aura Of Courage commander deck.