Arneson reference in Temple of Elemental Evil

[Havard]

The character's name is actually Rannos Davl, RANNOS DAVL, "L" not "i". "Rawnos Dawl" in the video game, IIRC.

The character *could in theory* be an unfriendly dig at Arneson, but what I remember from the module does not seem to point in that direction, and the supposed anagram is a stretch, and probably based on the error I mention above.
He's honestly a pretty random NPC, and he and his partner Gremag go all in style with the other evil-doers in the story.

Could be a dig, but possibly just a reference? Did the character originate in T1 Homlet (1979) or Temple of Elemental Evil (1985)? In 1985 I think there could be less of a reason to have it as a negative thing. And since most of ToEE was written by Frank Mentzer, could it be based on a play test character that Dave used for playtesting the dungeons years prior?


-Havard