Menzoberranzan was introduced in "The Crystal Shard" (1988) as part of the background for Drizzt Do'Urden. Shannon Appelcline (author of "Designers & Dragons") wrote that "from the time of that first book of Salvatore’s Icewind Dale trilogy, Drizzt was a breakout success, due in no small part to his mysterious origins and his 'years in Menzoberranzan, or in the wilds of the Underdark . . .' With that one sentence, Salvatore ensured that the Underdark would rise up to unseat Deepearth as the collective name for D&D’s underground realms—and that fans would want to know more about those realms".