Those who Harp.
The Forgotten Realms series is a loosely-connected series of novels about the Harpers, published between 1991 and 1998. Set in Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms, it follows members of said group as they go on various adventures and quests. Several books were interwoven with other major series, such as Songs and Swords and Shandril's Saga.
The Harpers are an organization consisting primarily of bards and rangers operating across Abeir-Toril. The organization is devoted to promoting good, preserving history (primarily art as well as music), and maintaining a balance between nature and civilization. They do this by keeping kingdoms small and the destruction of the environment to a mininum.
They considered the elven empire of Myth Drannor shortly before its fall to be the pinnacle of civilized history and strove to recreate the world in that image.
- The Parched Sea by Creator/Troy Denning (1991)
- Elfshadow by Elaine Cunningham (1991)
- Red Magic by Jean Rabe (1991)
- The Night Parade by Scott Ciencin (1992)
- The Ring of Winter by James Lowder (1992)
- Crypt of the Shadowking by Mark Anthony (1993)
- Soldiers of Ice by David Cook (1993)
- Elfsong by Elaine Cunningham (1994)
- Crown of Fire by Ed Greenwood (1994)
- Masquerades by Jeff Grubb & Kate Novak (1995)
- Curse of the Shadowmage (November 1995) – Mark Anthony
- The Veiled Dragon by Troy Denning
- Silver Shadows by Elaine Cunningham (1996)
- Stormlight by Ed Greenwood (1994)
- Finders Bane by Jeff Grubb & Kate Novak (1997)
- Thornhold by Elaine Cunningham (1998)
- Rise of the Blade by Charles Moffat (unpublished, 1998)
These books contain the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Lots of these with Myrmeen Lhal, Bronwyn, Ruha, Shandril Shesshair, and Arilyn Moonblade.
- A God Am I: Finder Wyvernspur is now one of the new gods of Toril and has a single priest in Joel the Rebel Bard.
- Antihero A lot of the Harpers are considered to be criminals, spies, and meddlers by the governments of Abeir-Toril. Then again, Jerkass Has a Point. Finder Wyvernspur is a particular example of a Nominal Hero.
- Arch-Enemy: Malik Nasser, maniacal thief and chosen of the mad God Cyric, is this to the harper witch Ruha, who spent many years hunting him down.
- Assassin Outclassin':
- The Harpers regularly have to deal with assassins sent by the Zhentarim, Red Wizards, and other evil groups.
- Arilyn Moonblade is undercover as an assassin when she's actually an agent of the Harpers.
- Balance Between Good and Evil: Played somewhat better than most as the balance is between evil who is trying to destroy it and the good who is usually passive in its face of it.
- The Bard: The Harpers take their name from this profession and are the biggest baddest group of these in fantasy.
- Big Good: Elminster, Khelben, and the Seven Sisters serve as this for the Harpers. The Cynic among them think this make them The Pawn.
- Cain and Abel: Bronwyn Caradoon and her brother, Dag Zoreth. She's a Harper agent and he's a priest of Cyric as well as agent of the Zhentarim.
- Canon Welding: A number of existing series like Shandril's Saga and Song And Swords were made part of this. Also, Masquerades and Tymora's Luck are unofficial parts of The Finder's Stone Trilogy.
- Can't Argue with Elves: One of the flaws of the organization is that they have an idealized view of elves when any fan of the Realms knows that they're actually often in need of a Screw You, Elves!.
- Cool Sword: The moonblades wielded by the champions of the elves, particularly Arilyn.
- Distant Finale: Of sorts. The Crown of Fire was a sequel to the Spellfire books despite both being part of Shandril's Saga.
- The Fair Folk: A much-much darker version with The Night Parade as the titular group is a bunch of Humanoid Abomination creatures that kidnap children from the Realms and take them back to places alien even to the people there.
- Heroic Neutral: Almost an inversion of how the trope is normally played. The Harpers have no cause in a setting defined by them other than balance, music, and "good" and are constantly meddling.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Knights of Samular and Dag Zoreth both lose their claim to Thornhold castle in Thornhold due to the fact the castle belonged to the descendants of Samular. Notably of which both Bronwyn and the girl she's raising, Cara, are while Dag Zoreth has disqualified himself from via patricide. As such, Bronwyn denies them all by giving it to the Stoneshaft clan.
- Hypocrite: The Harpers have been known to kick out members like the Bhaalspawn, Artus Climber, and Khelben for not towing the line when their entire shtick is Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!.
- Immortality Seeker: A surprising number of Harpers like Artus Cimber and Finder Wyvernspur. Unlike evil characters in the Realms, they avoid undeath and seek alternative means.
- Knight Templar: The Knights of Samular in Thornhold are pretty much the absolute worst paladins in all the Realms (and the Knights of Helm exist) for being arrogant, controlling, self-righteous, and just plain stupid. Being influenced by agents of Cyric and the Zhentarim help.
- Jerkass Has a Point: The Harpers carry out a lot of their meddling and "heroic" resistance without any sort of plan or care to the consequences.
- La RĂ©sistance: The Harpers operate like a massive revolutionary group that works in cells, passes secret messages, and fights against the various powers that be. Their lack of a defined target, though, makes all governments nervous.
- Neutral Good: In-universe. The most common Harper alignment according to official stats and Word of God.
- Nostalgia Filter: The Harpers view Myth Drannor as The Good Kingdom and maybe even Utopia. Anyone who has read Elminster in Myth Drannor knows it to have been a massively racist society of arrogant elves who viewed humans as vermin.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Shandril can utterly break AD&D Second Edition rules to slaughter things well above her weight class. These include a dracolich.
- Professional Killer: The Harpers don't advertise it but they include a number of them who just flat out murder "evildoers." Arilyn Moonblade even uses this as her cover.
- Quirky Bard: Harpers have many-many variants on Bards with quite a few dual classing like Danillo Than and Finder Wyvernspur.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Myrmeen Lhal is both badass, a Harper, and the ruler of Arabel.
- Renegade Splinter Faction: The Moonstars were one of these briefly in the Realms but gently faded away as the conflict died down with Third Edition.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: A constant theme in the books is the Harpers choosing to stand up for the little guy against what is lawful or popular.
- Self-Made Orphan: In Thornhold, Dag Zoreth kills his paladin father as a way to show his loyalty to the Church of Cyric.
- To Be Lawful or Good: As illustrated in many of the books, particularly Thornhold, many paladins and other champions of good distrust if not outright hate the Harpers for their lack of respect for the law.
- We ARE Struggling Together: The Harpers have the backing of the Chosen of Mystra and her church among several other nature themed gods. However, the Gods of Good in general, particularly the lawful ones as well as the governments of non-evil nations don't approve of the Harpers' activities.
