Catti-brie

Catti-brie (spelled in later publications as "Cattie-brie") is a fictional character in the Forgotten Realms setting, based on the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The creation of American author R.A. Salvatore, she is primarily known as the love interest of the drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden and has appeared in multiple media alongside Drizzt.

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 had envisioned it to be his final book about Drizzt and his companions after falling out with his then-publisher, TSR, Inc. On the decision to kill off Catti-brie 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, Salvatore explained that Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast had issued the mandate to advance the timeline of the Forgotten Realms by 100 years. Salvatore suggested that his "hand was forced” as the time jump conflicts with Catti-brie's natural human lifespan; although he had made plans to take the character in an "interesting direction", Salvatore concluded that being forced into an uncomfortable space had prompted him to become more creative with his writing in response to the revised setting. Salvatore drew from his personal experiences in his approach to portray the ignominious deaths of Catti-brie and her halfling friend Regis.

Salvatore later found a way to bring Catti-brie back into the story canon along with Drizzt's other companions. He recalled feeling nervous about potential negative fan reception, but felt that he had a sensible and justifiable reason for his approach, and thought he could "make a point". Salvatore emphasized that many readers are emotionally attached to Drizzt and his companions after following the stories he wrote about them for several years.

Catti-brie is a beautiful auburn-haired and blue-eyed woman with a kind, tolerant, and pragmatic personality. Catti-brie is a member of the Companions of the Hall, and often serves as the emotional compass for her adventuring companions, guiding both Drizzt and Wulfgar into wise action with her common sense and clear insight. Catti-brie was the first person from the Icewind Dale that accepted Drizzt, and she was very young when Drizzt got to know her.

The mother of Catti-brie died in childbirth, and then her father moved with Catti-brie from Mirabar to Termalaine, which is one of the Ten Towns. He was very 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 goblin horde. Bruenor saved the life of the orphaned girl and adopted Catti-brie as his daughter. Catti-brie has no recollection of her life before Bruenor adopted her, but she did have a pleasant childhood living with the dwarves. As a result of her upbringing, Catti-brie 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. Catti-Brie 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.

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. Catti-Brie 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. Catti-brie's body remained on the material plane, though her mind and spirit is 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.