War of the Spider Queen

War of the Spider Queen is a fantasy series of novels set in the Forgotten Realms universe published by Wizards of the Coast. The series contains six books focused on the drow and their principal deity Lolth. Each of the six novels in the series is written by a different author with veteran Forgotten Realms author R. A. Salvatore overseeing the project. Cover art for each book in the series was designed by Gerald Brom who has done other Forgotten Realms work including reprints of The Avatar Series. According to Salvatore, the idea for the series was that of his editor Philip Athans, who also wrote the fifth book of the series. Athans had to convince Salvatore to sign onto the project, and it was the idea that Salvatore "could help some other writers get some much-needed exposure" that won the author over. Salvatore and fellow authors Richard Baker, Thomas Reid, and Richard Lee Byers along with Athans and others then met in Seattle to compile the main overview of the storyline. Afterwards, Salvatore became the content editor, mostly ensuring that content within the Drow city of Menzoberranzan "kept the place where I wanted it for future works." In September 2006, Wizards of the Coast released the War of the Spider Queen series in two separate gift sets featuring Brom's artwork on the exterior of the boxes. Graphic design for the gift sets was done by Lisa Hanson and Matt Adelsperger. Since the completion of War of the Spider Queen, two series continuing the stories of certain characters from the series were developed by authors involved in the original series. Thomas M. Reid, author of Insurrection, continued the story of the half-demons Aliisza and Kaanyr Vhok in The Empyrean Odyssey trilogy. Its first installment, The Gossamer Plain, was released in May 2007; the second book, The Fractured Sky, was released in November 2008; and the finale, The Crystal Mountain, was published in July 2009. Lisa Smedman, who developed the character Halisstra Melarn heavily in Extinction, continued the story of the drow priestess in The Lady Penitent trilogy; the first two books, Sacrifice of the Widow and Storm of the Dead, were released in 2007, while the third, Ascendancy of the Last, was released in June 2008.