D&D General Who are the iconic NPCs in each D&D campaign setting?

[Demetrios1453]

There isn’t one! That’s the whole point. The setting is built around not having any iconic heroic NPCs. The PCs are the heroes!

It could be argued then (quite a bit tongue in cheek) that since Vi is Crawford's PC, she's therefore a hero, and therefore could qualify for iconic hero status!

 

[JEB]

For Al-Qadim the only one I recall is Sheikh Kamal al-Asad a level 20 Desert Rider and most powerful of the Desert Sheiks. There was also a redhaired female Sheik

Also Golden Voyages had the Sultan of Gana (who I always imagined was a retired Sinbad)

Thanks! Did any of those characters appear in multiple products, or in any non-tabletop material? (Though I don't think there was much of that for Al-Qadim. A computer game, maybe?)

 

[pukunui]

It could be argued then (quite a bit tongue in cheek) that since Vi is Crawford's PC, she's therefore a hero, and therefore could qualify for iconic hero status!

But she isn’t iconic!

 

[Staffan]

A big part of Eberron is that the PCs are the movers and shakers. Not even the heads of the Dragonmarked houses really stand out.

Lady Vol and the Lord of Blades are probably the closest thing the setting has to iconic villains.

Eberron is much more defined by organizations than particular NPCs. Blades and Vol are the main individual villains, with maybe Merrix d'Cannith picking up some of the slack. On the good guy side there is Oalian and Jaela Daran, but those are bound to particular locations (Oalian because he is a tree, and Jaela because she's level 18 or so within the cathedral in Flamekeep, but level 3-5 outside of it). Kaius III I is a bit of a dark horse: he's a vampire who at one point made a deal with Vol, but is now working against her and the Emerald Claw; and he has imprisoned his grandson somewhere and pretends to be him and rule in his stead, but at the same time he's one of the strongest supporters of keeping the peace and making sure Karrnath doesn't go to war again. He's a force for stability, but not necessarily good.

 

[pukunui]

Eberron is much more defined by organizations than particular NPCs.

Yes, exactly! Lots of movers and shakers, but they're more at the organizational level: the Dragonmarked Houses, the Five Nations, the Inspired of Riedra, the Aurum, the Lords of Dust, and so on. Most of these groups have leaders, but very few of those leaders are a) heroes, b) iconic, and/or c) powerful. Its the combined power of the group/s they lead that is powerful.

The most iconic thing about the gods is that they may or may not exist.

 

[Parmandur]

Mirt the Moneylender

Worth mentioning that Mirt was the main character of the very first Forgoten Realms short story yesterday Ed Greenwood wrote in 1967, "One Comes, Unheralded, to Zirta" [Zirta was later renamed to Scornubel]. The whole cast of characters in that short story says a lot about Who is Who in the Forgotten Realms, at base, since so many are still around:

Alustriel Silverhand • Beldrim Taruster • Durnan • Elminster Aumar • Filfaeril Obarskyr • Mirt • Storm Silverhand

 

[Parmandur]

I feel like Wizards tried to make Acererak a bit of a thing in the early 5e era (DMG cover, Tomb of Annihilation), but there hasn't been a new reference in a while, has there?

He is important in the Greyhawk chapter for Vecna, which just came out (good Dungeon, too).

 

[Parmandur]

Well, I appreciate the Vecna love. Because, for me, Vecna is, and always will be, Greyhawk. But I think that this is likely a disappearing fact (and opinion).

It is pretty firmly established in Vecna: Eve of Ruin thar Vecna is from the Flannaes, and that Ackerack was a disciple of Vecna.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I just saw this.

You know better. You must know better!

I am just your friendly voice of warning.

YOU VOICE THE NAMELESS ONE'S APPELLATION AT YOUR OWN PERIL. THE NAMELESS ONE DOES NOT FORGET, AND THE NAMELESS ONE DOES NOT FORGIVE.

That which shall not be named is that inchoate fear you have every night before the sleep takes you ... do not tempt it's wrath.

Once, a person depicted the nameless one as a Georgia O'Keefe painting on a module; the eternal darkness chose to destroy TSR as retribution.

Allow the name of the howling madness to pass your lips, and you will regret what little life you have left.

Do not summon doom by even thinking of that which shall not named, let alone letting those words form in your voice. For that way lies madness.

If you see someone beginning to voice those words, slap the sound from their piehole before they gain power. Slap them twice if they are a bard.

You know all of this to be true.

All I said was "That piece of halibut was good enough for Tharizdun."

 

[Tonguez]

Thanks! Did any of those characters appear in multiple products, or in any non-tabletop material? (Though I don't think there was much of that for Al-Qadim. A computer game, maybe?)

The only recurring characters I recall are the Grand Caliph of Huzuz, who iirc routinely went around the city in disguise doing good deeds
Then there was Zann the Learned leader of the Zanites who built the Universities of Zakhara (but he might be a god?). Equally there are the Genie Rulers and other Genie and Jann NPCs - especially in Secrets of the Lamp