Artemis Entreri

Artemis Entreri is a fictional character in the Dungeons & Dragons-based Forgotten Realms setting. Entreri is depicted as a ruthless assassin and the arch-nemesis of Drizzt Do'Urden, the protagonistic dark elf. He is the creation of author R. A. Salvatore, first appearing in the 1989 novel Streams of Silver, the second book in The Icewind Dale Trilogy. He makes regular reappearances in subsequent novels by Salvatore, reprising his role of antagonist to the hero Drizzt Do'Urden.

Entreri's character has been well-developed in the series of books by Salvatore as well as in official material for the Forgotten Realms setting itself. Portrayed as a cunning and tactical assassin, Entreri lives an empty life, devoid of any kind of pleasure, existing only to kill. Credited with being one of the best assassins in Faerûn, he is a highly composed and calculating man, with fighting skills rivalling those of his nemesis, Drizzt Do'Urden.



Appearance
Artemis Entreri is compact with wiry muscles. He is possessed of angular features, striking high cheekbones, and heavy facial hair growth. Though he is usually clean shaven, Artemis always seems to need a shave. His skin is a grayish hue resulting from an encounter with a shade, in which his vampiric dagger pulled the shade's lifeforce into his own. His raven black hair is thick and full, but his eyes are gray and lifeless, portraying the emptiness of his life and his soul.

Personality
Artemis is a professional and always has an air of control about him. Every move he makes or word he speaks is calculated to achieve a desired effect. He never allows emotions or the circumstances, no matter how dire, to master him. In this, he is completely as determined as Drizzt. He tirelessly maintains himself in top condition, and constantly seeks to improve his martial skills, again just as his drow nemesis does. Artemis also is terribly cunning, able to out think as well as outfight his opponents. One aspect of his professionalism that is rare in a man whose business is killing is that Artemis usually never kills unless it is necessary or unless he's been hired to do so. There has been the occasional exception, such as in The Halfling's Gem, Starless Night, and The Silent Blade, where Entreri killed somebody simply because he really wanted to. On two of these three occasions the victim had made the mistake of angering Artemis and provoking him. Artemis has vowed to "never leave an enemy in his wake." He does not take threats lightly. For the most part, those who are not enemies of Entreri or his allies have nothing to fear from him.

Artemis Entreri's greatest hatred and disgust is reserved for those who are willing to abandon or betray their children in an effort to save themselves. This is because of the events during his formative years, specifically because of something that was done to him by adults that as a child he should have been able to trust. This is suggested in "The Third Level"—Salvatore's contribution to the 1994 Forgotten Realms short story compilation Realms of Infamy—where it says on page 80, "Still, he could smell the breath of that lecherous old man, like the breath of his own father, and his uncle." This is not the only reference, as in The Silent Blade Entreri "thought back further, to the torment that had landed him [in Calimport] in the first place, trials too great for a boy to overcome, deception and betrayal by everyone he had known and trusted, most pointedly his own father." It has also been hypothesized by Jarlaxle Baenre, who knows Artemis very well, that somebody close to him, most likely a "parent or a close family friend" (possibly a priest, and definitely a traveling merchant who helped him get to Calimshan), betrayed him when he was less than nine years of age. Most recently it was discovered in Road of the Patriarch that he was fathered by a priest because his mother needed the money, and was given to an abusive man for care taking. After an attempted rape by his "Uncle" Tosso, Artemis has been extremely reluctant to completely trust anyone (see "Quotes"). He has since begun to slightly trust Jarlaxle, as much as he could trust anyone.

As humans age far more quickly then elves, Entreri first starts to feel the bite of age in The Silent Blade, while Drizzt is still as agile and powerful as he was when the two of them first met. His age also catches up with him in the later novels, Servant of the Shard and Promise of the Witch-King. It is revealed in Promise of the Witch-King that Entreri, having previously stolen the life-force of a Shadovar shade, now appears to have reversed age a full decade, and his aging has slowed considerably. It is likely that he will now live as long as an elf or dwarf (both having roughly the same life span) would.

Combat/Tactics
Artemis is a tactical master, taking every advantage offered him and seeking to create more. He'll often do this by taunting his foe into anger and mistakes. Artemis is also a very fast learner. Even if he observes a particular combat maneuver just once or twice, he is able to adapt it to his choice of weapons and duplicate it effectively in battle (these tend to be Drizzt's maneuvers, their styles and skill level being so similar). Artemis is also a consummate warrior, combining his ambidexterity, thieving training, and warrior's weapon skills to be one of the most dangerous swordsmen in the Realms. Few men indeed could have so repeatedly crossed blades with Drizzt Do'Urden and lived to tell of it. He specializes in a two-weaponed fighting style with the use of a dagger and a sword, equalling Drizzt in fighting capability. According to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Entreri is an 18th level character, with twelve levels as a fighter, one level as an assassin, one level in ranger, and four levels as a rogue. This was as of the time he had his longsword, prior to stealing Charon's Claw. Entreri has had many adventures since and has risen in levels.

Vampiric Dagger
Often referred to as a "Jeweled Dagger" in various novels, this emerald-studded dagger is Entreri's signature weapon, and is the most recognized and feared weapon in Calimport. With a single strike, the magical weapon could suck the life force of the victim and use it to heal the wielder. For a time, the dagger was taken by Regis after Drizzt defeated Entreri and left him to die at the edge of a cliff. Regis later gave this weapon to Catti-brie to assist her in her search for Drizzt in the Underdark. Entreri retrieved his dagger after he captured Catti-brie in Menzoberranzan.

In battle, Entreri's favorite wielding technique with this dagger is to wield it as a main-gauche in his left hand with a sword or sabre in his right. His common interrogation technique is to force the victim's palm open and use the dagger to make a single blood-drawing tear on it, thus starting the life-draining magic. He usually doesn't have to wait long before the victim yields and pleads for him to stop. When Entreri is seriously hurt and under pursuit, he would commonly use the dagger to heal himself at the expense of a poor begger or drunkard who happens to pass by.

Charon's Claw
"'The sword had a slender, razor-edged, gleaming red blade, its length inscribed with designs of cloaked figures and tall scythes, accentuated by a black blood trough running along its center. Entreri opened his hand enough for the wizard to see the skull-bobbed pommel, with a hilt that appeared like whitened vertebrae. Running from it toward the crosspiece, the hilt was carved to resemble a backbone and rib-cage, and the crosspiece itself resembled a pelvic skeleton, with legs spread out wide and bent back toward the head, so that the wielder's hand fit neatly within the 'bony' boundaries. All of the pommel, hilt and crosspiece was white, like bleached bones—perfectly white, except for the eye sockets of the skull pommel, which seemed like black pits at one moment and flared with red fires the next.' — Servant of the Shard"

In the later books, after losing his deadly saber in his first battles with Drizzt, Artemis was given a longsword upon allying with Bregan D'aerthe. This and his jeweled dagger served as his weapons up until he stole a deadly, sentient, ancient, evil blade forged by the Netherese called Charon's Claw in the novel Servant of the Shard. Anyone who touches the blade or handle of this sword unprotected must compete with it in a battle of wills. This is a highly difficult task, as the sword is immensely strong-minded. Failure means it burns away the flesh and skin of your head, leaving nothing but a corpse with a skull. This ability can be used by the bearer of the sword, but it requires prolonged contact with the enemy, several seconds (Entreri has been seen to impale an enemy with it and let it work). Charon's Claw can be willed by its wielder to leave trails of ash in the air, creating temporary opaque walls to give an edge in battle and also to produce a strange black glow to act as a light in the darkness which renders the wielder invisible to infravision. The sword is also enchanted so that even a small nick or cut will prove eventually fatal, as the wound will fester and eventually poison the victim. Without defeating the blade in a battle of wills, the only way for the wielder to safely use the item is to cover his or her hand with an enchanted, black, red-stitched, magical gauntlet to protect him or her from the blade's effects. This is in fact how Entreri stole the weapon. He had a fake duplicate of the gauntlet created and then switched it for the real one during a duel with the Charon Claw's former wielder. In addition, the real gauntlet can detect, absorb and redirect magical energy as well as psionics, so long as the spell's target is the wearer. Entreri and now Grandmaster Kane are the only known people who have defeated the sword's will, and thus can wield the sword without the gauntlet and not suffer a horrible death.

The gauntlet, however, was recently destroyed when Entreri braved a lich's tower with his partner, the dark elf Jarlaxle. Although Entreri could still suppress Charon's Claw through sheer willpower, he had lost the formidable defenses against magic and psionics that the gauntlet had granted him. However, near the end of Road of the Patriarch, Jarlaxle has the gauntlet "repaired" (he has an almost identical copy of it made, with the same powers, most likely the work of one of the many wizards in Bregan D'aerthe) and gives it back to Entreri.

In Salvatore's short story "That Curious Sword" in the Realms of Shadow: Return of the Archwizards • Anthology, it is revealed that Charon's Claw is a Netherese artifact. After killing a Shadovar messenger sent to retrieve the blade with his vampiric dagger, Entreri absorbed some of the shade's life-force, thus becoming more attuned to the blade and gaining some shade (a creature infused with the stuff of shadow) characteristics. "'A Netherese blade…' Jarlaxle mused. He looked at Entreri, and his eyes widened for just a moment, then a smile spread across his face. 'Tell me, how does your sword feel about you now?'"

Obsession with Drizzt
After their first meeting, Artemis knew that he and Drizzt were virtually equal in skill. The primary difference between himself and Drizzt noticed by Artemis was Drizzt's virtue, specifically Drizzt's caring and concern for his friends. Artemis, by contrast, had a life that could only be considered empty. He had no real friends and no loved ones. He considered such emotional connections to be hindrances, believing that the reason he was so skilled with his blades was because he had dedicated his life to being the best, and had done so to the exclusion of all other pursuits.

But now here was somebody seemingly as good as he was, somebody with friends and loved ones and a full life. For Entreri to accept that Drizzt was his equal (or possibly his better) in fighting skill, he would be forced to accept that it was possible to be an effective fighter while still pursuing and finding friendship, love and happiness. If this were true, it would mean that Entreri had wasted his life. This was something the assassin vehemently refused to admit to himself. Thus he became obsessed with proving once and for all that he was the better fighter, and that he was the better fighter because he had chosen to forego such things as friendship and love.

Entreri has said as much to Drizzt, although he was likely attempting to convince himself as well. He has taunted the drow by telling him that all one needs to do to manipulate him is threaten one of his friends and that he, Entreri, could never be manipulated in such a manner.

Another factor is jealousy. Artemis was never able to trust anybody as a friend as he grew up, and developed a belief that the only person he could truly count on was himself. When Artemis looks at Drizzt, he sees the kind of person he might have become if things had gone differently in his life (Drizzt sees the same thing when he looks at Artemis). Artemis sees Drizzt has found friends he can count on and enjoy life with, and despite anything he may say to the contrary Artemis wishes, deep down, that he had also found friends like that.

History
Entreri reveals little about his past, but some is known about his early life. Artemis Entreri was born into the streets of Memnon, to a prostitute named Shalani, he was constantly abused by his 'father', Belrigger, and his uncle. Eventually, his mother sold him to a pedophile merchant who was, if anything, worse than his uncle; this must have been how he reached Calimport. This betrayal was enough to put a block on Entreri's emotions, making the man hide from the world by a sheer mental wall of rage and cynicism. In Calimport, he was taken in by the thieves' guild ruled by Pasha Basadoni. Basadoni taught young Artemis the tricks of the trade, teaching him the basics of fighting, and helping him master stealth. As Entreri practiced, he flourished, becoming the most efficient and deadly assassin in Calimshan and perhaps all of Faerûn. He was hired by many Pashas, his most recent employer being Pasha Pook. Pasha Pook hired Artemis to track down a halfling named Regis who had stolen an enchanted ruby from Pook. Entreri would chase Regis for several years, each time with Regis only escaping by a hair's breadth. Entreri eventually cornered Regis in the far north at the Spine of the World. Entreri then met Regis's friend Drizzt Do'Urden and became obsessed with defeating the dark elf after he was defeated by him. Entreri's hunt for Drizzt inevitably got him caught up with Jarlaxle Baenre and the dark elves, and his most recent ventures have been with them.

Entreri became so skilled in his art that he was amazed upon meeting Drizzt, his only equal. Entreri wanted to test who was the better fighter and so eventually became obsessed with destroying or defeating the drow crusader. Artemis never really got the satisfaction of a proper fight, though the few times he and Drizzt did duke it out the elf usually won out, but not in the way the assassin would have preferred.

When Artemis finally got his fight Drizzt won again. Earlier in the duel the combatants' heads had smashed together, causing swelling around Artemis' eye which increased as the battle raged on until his vision in that eye was completely gone. Drizzt finally took advantage of this to slash Artemis' wrist, depriving him of his sword, and a moment later grip his dagger arm with the other hand. Drizzt had considered the whole affair pointless, and again made his sentiments known to Entreri with his scimitar pressed to the assassin's throat. "So what have we proven?" the drow demanded. "Because my head connected in a favorable place with yours, limiting your vision, I am the better fighter?" But Entreri wanted it ended, one way or another, and told him to finish it.

Nevertheless, Drizzt refused to kill Entreri. Instead he let him live, and so Artemis, desperate for death now that he had been conclusively defeated by Drizzt, cried out and charged Drizzt. Drizzt instinctively lashed out defensively with a shot that would have killed the assassin but for the outside intrusion of a psionicist, Kimmuriel Oblodra, who had covered Entreri with a protective shield of psionic power. The shield absorbed the power of Drizzt's shot, and when Entreri reflexively fired a punch at Drizzt, the kinetic energy of the shot was transferred into the ranger. The blast "killed" Drizzt, enraging Entreri all the more, for he wanted a fair fight. Despite his initial anger and chagrin at this conclusion, Artemis wound up living a happier life from there on, though, (to whatever degree you could call the assassin's twisted existence happy) with Drizzt "dead." Whereas he had previously been obsessed with proving himself the better fighter, Artemis was now able to reluctantly put his rivalry with Drizzt behind him and concentrate on other things. No one told the assassin, but Drizzt was healed right after Entreri had been forcibly removed from the room where they had dueled. Since he acquired Charon's Claw, Artemis has not fought Drizzt.

Entreri became close friends with a halfling by the name of Dwahvel Tiggerwillies, the guildmistress of a halfling guild based in the Calimport. He was able to confide in her, which was a rare thing indeed for the assassin. After Entreri aided Jarlaxle, Cadderly, and their companions in a quest to destroy the malevolent Crystal Shard, he traveled with the drow mercenary leader Jarlaxle to the Damara area in search of new adventures.

In the short story "That Curious Sword" (which took place in Heliogabalus in the Bloodstone Lands in the Year of the Shield, or 1367 DR) in the Realms of Shadow anthology, a Shadovar approached Entreri and tried to take Charon's Claw, which he said belonged to the Netherese. Entreri killed the man with his jewelled dagger and drained the shade's life-force, thus becoming part shade (one infused with shadowstuff) himself. Since that encounter, his skin has taken a slightly gray pallor, and Charon's Claw feels a certain affinity toward him. It is possible that this is an attempt by R.A. Salvatore to extend his short (in comparison to Drizzt's) life span.

In his most recent adventure, Entreri followed Jarlaxle to the vast land of Vaasa in search of a powerful artifact once belonging to the Witch-King Zhengyi. Following his defeat in an epic war decades ago, the evil wizard's many artifacts continued to plague Vaasa and the surrounding lands. One such item was a book that would generate a magical fortress, sucking on the life force of whatever unfortunate wizard activated it.

The book had indeed been activated, and incidentally the tower generated held the item Jarlaxle sought. Thus the pair traveled to Vaasa, and infiltrated the "Army of Bloodstone." This elite mercenary band of warriors protected the neighboring kingdom of Damara from goblin and giant tribes in the Vaasan plain. While procuring the item, Jarlaxle and Artemis incidentally saved a local half-orc community from Zhengyi's tower, and the young wizardess who'd activated it.

During the affair, Artemis discovered that a Idalia's flute, a magical artifact Jarlaxle had given him was manipulating his feelings. This was an effort on Jarlaxle's part to open up Artemis' heart. Uncomfortably, it caused the assassin to grow sudden strong feelings for the young half-orc wizardess and a nobleborn captain in the Bloodstone Army. Jarlaxle claimed he was trying to give Entreri a reason to live besides killing, to give the man some peace in his troubled life. However, Jarlaxle's capricious nature has caused Artemis to take this claim with more than a degree of skepticism. The flute also causes Artemis to fall in "love" with a half-elf by the name of Calihye. At the end of Promise of the Witch-King, he sleeps with her, and their relationship develops throughout Road of the Patriarch. However, troubled by Artemis's role in the death of her friend Parissus, she later tries to kill him when he asks her to come with him and leave her home. Although Artemis is protected from injury by Kimmuriel Oblodra, the drow psionist acting under Jarlaxle's orders, and even though it is made clear that Calihye was under severe emotional turmoil and did not really want to hurt him, their relationship is obviously ended.

After a conflict with King Gareth Dragonsbane of Damara, Artemis and Jarlaxle are exiled from the Bloodstone lands. Upon leaving, Artemis, again prompted by the flute, returns to his childhood home in Memnon. He then finds and kills his abusive uncle and the corrupt priest who likely fathered him, but learns that his mother is already dead. Artemis then goes separate ways with Jarlaxle at the end of Road of the Patriarch. Still haunted by his childhood and struggling to accept what he has become since then, he breaks Idalia's flute and states to Jarlaxle "Artemis Entreri is dead." He then reveals that he is leaving for Calimport and says that he wishes to go home.

The Icewind Dale Trilogy



 * The Crystal Shard (1988) — First look at Artemis Entreri, he only appears at the very end, but it leaves much to the imagination.
 * Streams of Silver (1989) — Entreri is on a quest to capture the halfling Regis and recover the stolen gem, then return both to his guildmaster, Pasha Pook.
 * The Halfling's Gem (1990) — Entreri successfully returns Regis and the gem to Pasha Pook, his guildmaster, though he was closely followed by Drizzt Do'Urden and company.

Legacy of the Drow



 * The Legacy (1992) — Accompanied by his future friend, Jarlaxle, among other drow, including Drizzt Do'Urden's sister, Vierna, Entreri is sent to "take care of Drizzt and the others."
 * Starless Night (1993) — Entreri returns to Menzoberranzan after his near fatal experience on the surface world. His loathing of the city leads him to deciding whether he should save a hated rival, or risk a life in the Underdark.

Paths of Darkness



 * The Silent Blade (1998) — A split book in which it follows many different points of view, Entreri is granted his one wish, competing with Drizzt Do'Urden in a duel to the death.

Sellswords



 * Servant of the Shard(2000) (also the third book in the Paths of Darkness series) — This story follows both Entreri and Jarlaxle in their struggle through the port city of Calimport. Jarlaxle's new toy, the Crystal Shard, begins to slip its own thoughts into the mind of its master. Entreri, noticing this, goes out of his way to save his friend and destroy the evil crystal.
 * Promise of the Witch-King (2005) — Entreri and Jarlaxle have become bounty hunters, mercenaries for hire, and assassins all at once. They are hired by two dragon sisters to recover lost magical items of Zhengyi, a powerful lich who ruled over the region for many years before his downfall. Their journey eventually leads them to a small half-orc community where a Zhengyi artifact has been uncovered.
 * Road of the Patriarch (2006) — Just released.

Short Stories

 * "The Third Level" - A short story of Entreri's early years in the Realms of Infamy anthology
 * "Empty Joys" — A short story of Entreri and Jarlaxle in the Best of the Realms anthology.
 * "That Curious Sword" — Short story of Entreri from the Realms of Shadow anthology in the Return of the Archwizards series.
 * "Wickless in the Nether" — Short story of Entreri and Jarlaxle in the Realms of Dragons anthology.

Video Games

 * Entreri appears as a hidden playable character in the game Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II after playing through all difficult levels, plus one extra-difficult secret level that enables the player to choose Drizzt Do'Urden.
 * In Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn he was originally intended to appear, but he was cut from the final game. He can still be summoned by using the CLUAConsole:CreateCreature("Artemis") cheat code.
 * Entreri appears in Tyrants of the Moonsea, a freely downloadable module for Neverwinter Nights originally intended to be marketed as a NWN premium module. In the module, he is hired and attempts but fails to assassinate Astar Greysteel, a companion of the hero.

Quotations

 * "I learned at a very young age that I cannot trust in or count on anyone but myself. To do so invites deceit and despair and opens a vulnerability that can be exploited. To do so is a weakness."—Entreri


 * "With each kill I grow wiser, and with added wisdom I grow stronger."—Artemis Entreri


 * Jarlaxle: "Charm is a learned art." Entreri: "So is murder."


 * Ellery: "We will not be caught by surprise." Entreri: "Almost everyone I've killed uttered similar last words." Jarlaxle: "Then I am glad once again that you are on my side." Entreri: "They've often said that too."


 * Entreri: "You are lucky you did not strike him blind." Jarlaxle: "Wouldn't have been the first time." Entreri: "Stunning."
 * (In reference to a halfling's shocked reaction after casting a detect magic spell and scanning Jarlaxle.)


 * Entreri: (to the halfling Dwahvel) "You understand your role in every contingency?" Dwahvel: "In every contigency that you have outlined." Entreri: "Then you understand every contingency."