Talking Fantasy – R.A. Salvatore Interview, Part 1
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Unwinnable: Exactly. Drizzt always maintains an innocent outlook and it seems that the Dahlia character acts as a lens to the new politics with her more realistic and almost dystopic view. Do you think it was really your intention to balance out the viewpoints from classic fantasy like Drizzt to a new modern form? Is she almost his Virgil as he is traveling into this Inferno?
R.A.: That is a good analogy. No, that is really not what I was thinking, but it does make sense now that you say it. You do a lot of things by accident and people accuse you of brilliance. I love being a writer. More for me, it was this character of Dahlia.
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When you first meet her in Gauntlgrym, you understand right away that there is a real scar there and that scar has very much clouded who she might have been.
The idea of surrounding Drizzt with someone like that, someone who is undeniably attractive and fascinating and skilled – the allure is too strong for him to ignore and maybe instead he is ignoring some things about her that should be flashing like big red lights in his mind.
So when we talk about the Realms and how the Realms have changed and how that hundred-year jump and the Spellplague and the second world of the Shadowfell kind is engulfing the world, I had nothing to do with that any of that, obviously – I work as a contractor for Wizards of the Coast, but it is their sandbox. The one thing they did that really struck me as fertile ground was the idea of the danger and the darkness that had come to the world. That is the one thing that really stayed with me from all of the changes, so I purposely set out to show that.
And yes, Dahlia was supposed to show that, but I never thought of her as the Virgil character. In some ways I was thinking of her more as the pleased to meet you won’t you guess my name character and being the one ready to pull Drizzt down with her or kill him if he didn’t come along.
Unwinnable: Well, that is what I think is interesting. He has such an innocent outlook and it is pretty awesome and unwavering. He does not like change and even through the book he still maintains that sense of optimism, which is awesome.
R.A.: He has to.
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Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow where R.A. Salvatore talks about Amalur and discusses how writing has changed over the last 20 years. Getting to speak to one of his favorite authors of all time has made @GeorgeCollazo so happy that it is almost insufferable.
