Menzoberranzan

Menzoberranzan, the "City of Spiders", is a fictional city-state in the world of the Forgotten Realms, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. The city is located in the Upper Northdark, about two miles below the Surbrin Vale, between the Moonwood and the Frost Hills (north of the Evermoors and under the River Surbin). It is famed as the birthplace of Drizzt Do'Urden, the protagonist of several series of best-selling novels by noted fantasy author R. A. Salvatore. Menzoberranzan has been developed into a video game (of the same name) and a tabletop RPG setting.

== Creative origins == In 1988, the character Drizzt Do'Urden was created by author R. A. Salvatore as a supporting character in the Icewind Dale Trilogy and referenced the character's "years in Menzoberranzan". The prequel series, The Dark Elf Trilogy, features the origin of Drizzt Do'Urden and the main setting is his home city of Menzoberranzan. Salvatore went through old Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules, such as Descent to the Depths of the Earth, Vault of the Drow, and Queen of the Demon Web Pits, for references on the Drow but the Drow were not defined outside of a matriarchal society in the Underdark. Salvatore was given carte blanche to create the entire society within the city. Mario Puzo's The Godfather and the Five Families of New York greatly influenced Salvatore when he created the "super-structure" of the city and helped him create a "logical consistency" for the society.