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Magical power and fantastic features abound in the Forgotten Realms. Arcane secrets whisper to those with the ears to hear in the eons-long movement of the continents, in rushing river rapids, in every inhalation of beasts great and small, and in the sighing cries of the wind. Raw magic is the wild stuff of creation itself, the mute and mindless will of being, suffusing every bit of matter and coursing within every manifestation of energy throughout the world.Wizards, warlocks, clerics, sorcerers, bards, paladins, and even rogues, fighters, rangers, and other adventurers call upon personally derived threads of magic to cast mighty spells, enforce pacts with enigmatic entities, heal injury, ward against evil, or accomplish physical feats that transcend purely mortal means.
Dangerous monsters, too, call up frightful magic to accomplish their deceitful ends. Aberrations spawned by ancient magic seethe below the earth and above it, hungry for flesh and knowledge alike, waiting for the chance to feed. Dragons whose blood runs with magic wield abilities so potent that gods and primordials alike fear to face the most ancient of these mighty beings. Undead fuel their mind and protect their corpses from dissolution by powerful necromantic rituals, especially liches, whose never-ending acquisition of arcane knowledge has propelled more than a few into contention with divine designs.
Indeed, magic is so bountiful in Abeir-Toril that even the land bristles with fantastic landscapes. Great motes of free-hanging earth balance on nothing but air, amazing all those who chance upon these mighty demonstrations of nature’s glory.
If fact, the Realms are so awash with magic that the world proved particularly vulnerable to a plague that fed on magic itself.
The Year of Blue Fire
“Learn ye well the lesson of the pebble that begets a landslide. Likewise a single betrayal unleashed the Spellplague, whose consequences yet dance and stagger across Toril, and beyond.”
--Elminster of Shadowdale, 1479 DR, Year of the Ageless OneAn appalling magical event called the Spellplague afflicted (and still afflicts) the world in 1385 DR.
Despite its name, the Spellplague was much more than a disease. For one, it did not restrict itself to mere flesh. All things were meat to the Spellplague’s insatiable hunger—flesh, stone, magic, space, and perhaps even the flow of time was suborned. The world of Toril, its lost sibling Abeir, and even the planes themselves were infected with a plague of change.
Most suppose the Spellplague was the direct result of the goddess of magic’s murder at the hands of the god Cyric. Some whisper that Mystra’s death was achieved through the machinations of the goddess Shar, with Cyric her unwitting stooge.
This theory holds that the world’s magic was held so long in Mystra’s Weave that when the Weave lost its weaver, magic spontaneously and ruinously burst its bonds. Areas of wild magic, already outside the constraints of the Weave, touched off first when their boundaries misted suddenly away. But eventually, few parts of Toril and the planes beyond were unaffected.
The plague raged on and on in ever-widening spirals, leaving some places completely untouched (such as many northern lands of Faerûn, including Cormyr and the Swordcoast), and radically altering others (such as Muhorand, Unther, and points south). The plague passed into the realms of demons, gods, and lost souls—dividing some realms, joining others, and generally seeding chaos.
Near-mythical realms that had passed beyond easy reach were pulled back, such as the Feywild (called Faerie in ancient days). The home of demons fell through the cosmology, unleashing swarming evil before the Abyss found its new home beneath the Elemental Chaos.
Even the long forgotten world of Toril burned in the plague of spells, despite having been unreachable and cut off from Faerûn for tens of millennia. Portions of Abeir’s landscape were transposed with areas of Toril in the disaster. Such landscapes included their living populations, and thus places such as Akanûl and Tymanther lie as if new-birthed on Faerûn’s face. Across the Trackless Sea, and entire continent of the lost realm reappeared (called Returned Abeir) subsuming the continent of Maztica.
The Spellplague was a potent direct agent of change, but it also set off a string of secondary catastrophes.
Effects on the Weave
For eons, the use of magic in Faerûn was focused through a god of magic, most recently Mystra. Except for certain Netherese wizards of ancient days who learned the truth, most believed that no magic would be possible without such a deity. However, with the death of Mystra and jealous Shar suppressing the ascension of a new deity of magic, it became common knowledge that magic is accessible without a god to control and codify it. Now when a spellcaster speaks of the Weave, she is just using another term for magic.Effects on the Shadow Weave
Just as Mystra controlled the Weave, the goddess Shar controlled the Shadow Weave. Not satisfied with her portion, Shar plotted to seize control of both. She miscalculated. When Cyric murdered Mystra, the Weave collapsed so completely that Shar not only failed to gather up the fraying threads, she also lost control over the Shadow Weave.Just as magic persists without Mystra, so does the dusky power of shadow endure without Shar acting as an intermediary. Powerful necromancers have developed their own unique methods for accessing the dim energies of the Shadowfell.
Effect on Spellcasters
Many creatures that learned to cast spells and channel magic with Mystra’s Weave found themselves powerless in the Spellplague’s wake. Some never regained their power. Others worked to attune themselves to the new magical environment. Many required years to regain this facility, while others never regained the knack. Others took shortcuts to reaquire the power they’d lost, swearing questionable pacts to enigmatic beings in return for the ability to utilize arcane powers.Today, spellcasters access magic through a dizzying array of methods. Some murmur spells and incant rituals, some forge arcane bargains, and others pray for intervention. In truth, it seems that magic can be accessed in more ways than ever before, fueled by newfound knowledge of arcane, shadow, primal, and other sources of power.
Effect on Items
Most magic items that permanently store magic, such as magic swords, cloaks, and boots, survived the Spellplague and continue to operate normally. Permanent access to magic was "installed" in these devices when they were created, so even though the Weave was used in their making, the Weave no longer played any part in their continuing operation. That said, some items that temporarily stored “charges” of magic, such as wands and staffs created prior to the Spellplague, no longer work. If such items do work, they no longer work in the same way.The secret of making magic items in a post-Weave world was relearned decades ago. Magic items are as plentiful as ever, as desperately sought by doughty adventurers, and as mysterious as they ever were.
Effects on the Landscape
Where magic was completely loosed, the Spellplague ate through stone and earth as readily as bone and spell. Broad portions of Faerûn’s surface collapsed into the Underdark, partially draining the Sea of Fallen Stars into the Glimmer Sea far below (and leaving behind a continent-sized pit called the Underchasm). The event splintered several of the Old Empires south of the drained sea into a wildscape of towering mesas, bottomless ravines, and cloud-scraping spires (further erasing evidence of the lands and kingdoms once situated there). Historical lands most changed by the Spellplague include Mulhorand, Unther, Chondath, and portions of Aglarond, the Sea of Fallen Stars, and the Shaar. What was once called Halruaa detonated and was destroyed when every inscribed and prepared spell in the nation went off simultaneously. This explosion was partly to blame for destroying the land bridge between Chult and the Shining South—only a scattered archipelago remains.Tendrils of the Change Plague reached many other corners of Faerûn, sometimes directly across the landscape, othertimes bypassing great swathes of land by infecting both sides of the many two-way portals that once dotted the world.
Pockets of active Spellplague still exist today, most famously in the Changing Land. Referred to as plaguelands, each one is strange and dangerous. No two possess the exact same landscape or features, save for the fact that entering could lead one to be infected by the Spellplague. Luckily, remnant plaguelands possess only a fraction of the vigor demonstrated in the Spellplague’s initial appearance. These lingering Spellplague pockets are secreted away in hard-to-reach locales, often surrounded by twisted no-man’s land. Most of Faerûn and Returned Abeir are entirely free of such pockets, though the plaguechanged and spellscarred may appear in any land.
Effects on Creatures
When the initial wave of Spellplague infected a creature, object, or spell, the target usually dissolved into so much glowing, dissipating ash. However, sometimes living creatures survived the plague's touch but were altered, twisted, or fused to another creature or even a portion of the landscape. The initial Change Plague wave had no regard for boundaries or species, or the ability of a changed entity to survive with its new form, powers, and limitations. The most unlucky of these mewling, hideously changed survivors perished within a few days.Luckily, the initial wave directly touched relatively few parts of Toril and Abeir. Moreover, not all creatures, objects, or spells touched by the original Spellplague were doomed, but to have survived meant having to accept change. Living creatures so affected are differentiated into two broad groups: plaguechanged and spellscarred.
Plaguechanged
A massive change in body and mind marks a creature that has survived contact with the original wave of the Spellplague during the Year of Blue Fire. Such survivors are called the Plaguechanged. Extreme alterations forge potent monstrosities in even the meekest flesh. Plaguechanged creatures are monsters, driven slightly insane by the viciousness of their metamorphosis. Few of this generation survive today, because the initial plague was so virulent, and the changes wrought were so extreme. What’s more, many decades have passed since the Spellplague’s end, so most plaguechanged creatures simply died in the interim. A few of the horrifying monstrosities remain, though, hidden away in various corners of the world.Spellscarred
Spellscars are a phenomena of the present, gained when someone moves too close to a plagueland (where active Spellplague yet lingers), though sometimes spellscars afflict people who’ve never had any contact with rampant magic. Some individuals—heroes and villains alike—can gain spellscars and learn to master the powers inherent in them. Player characters can gain spellscars and learn to master the powers inherent in them.On rare occasions, a spellscar appears as a physical abnormality, but more often it is an intangible mark that only appears when its owner calls upon it. When this happens, a spellscar might appear as jagged cracks of blue fire racing out across a spellscarred’s forearms hands, a corona of blue flame igniting the creature’s hair, a flaming blue glyph on the creature’s forehead, or perhaps even wings of cobalt flame. In many instances, an individual's sudden manifestation of blue fire is a reliable indicator of a spellscar.
Magic in the Year of The Ageless One
The ancient wonder of old magic yet lingers among the ruins of thousand-year-old empires, in crumbling towers of mad wizards, and in buried vaults of elder races. The modern marvels of living wizards, sorcerers, warlocks, clerics, druids, and other spellcasters stride the land as purposefully as they ever did, altering the world in small or large ways with each spell they cast. Indeed, without the divine restrictions of previous ages, magic is more abundant than ever, manifesting not only as inexplicable changes to the landscape, items, and creatures, but even in some of the most fantastic exploits of fighters, rouges, rangers, and other heroes. Magic truly does permeate all things. For all the changes wrought by the Mystra’s death, magic remains the lifeblood of Toril.
Interesting to note that the date for the quote by Elminster is 1479 DR.
Interesting to note that the date for the quote by Elminster is 1479 DR.
It's my understanding that they are moving the timeline forward about 100 years, so this makes some sense...
Of course, it also means that ol' El is still around and kickin'.
Sean Mahoney
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Some additional things of note:
They mention spellscars as something a character can aquire. I'm guessing maybe this will be a feat, possibly one that can be gained mutiple times. Either that, or it will be some kind of prestige class.
Also, I'm guessing that Returned Abeir might be how they introduce the tieflings. That would make sense to me.
Poor Halruaa. Ouch!
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Interesting to note that the date for the quote by Elminster is 1479 DR.It's my understanding that they are moving the timeline forward about 100 years, so this makes some sense...
Of course, it also means that ol' El is still around and kickin'.
Sean Mahoney
That's what I meant. I was under the impression that there was some confusion as to whether he would survive the Spellplague. Looks like we have our answer.
I was under the impression that it was supposed to only be a 10 year jump and not a 100 year jump.
The world of Toril, its lost sibling Abeir
Umm... what?!?! Toril and Abeir are two different worlds? I thought, Abeir-Toril WAS the name of the world...
ach... this gave me a head-ache.
This theory holds that the world’s magic was held so long in Mystra’s Weave that when the Weave lost its weaver, magic spontaneously and ruinously burst its bonds.
And the problem with this theory is that it already happened before during the Time of Troubles and we didn't see these extreme of changes... I guess I don't know for how long this chaos went on this time though.
Out of game though, I am still flabbergasted that they decided another ToT was in order... I mean, it wasn't real widely accepted as a good thing last time.
Even the long forgotten world of Toril burned in the plague of spells, despite having been unreachable and cut off from Faerûn for tens of millennia. Portions of Abeir’s landscape were transposed with areas of Toril in the disaster.
Again... what the heck is this... <gurgle>... so confused.
Across the Trackless Sea, and entire continent of the lost realm reappeared (called Returned Abeir) subsuming the continent of Maztica.
Um... ok... but if Abeir is the one that came back then how is Toril "long forgotten?" Is it just because it is called Forgotten Realms? And what do they got against poor Maztica that they decided to wipe it out?
"You got no support in 3E, DIE!!!"
What was once called Halruaa detonated and was destroyed when every inscribed and prepared spell in the nation went off simultaneously.
Wow... guess they didn't like them. Must of had too many people choose both the Halruan Elder and the Incantatrix who then also threw in Arcane Thesis feat in his campaign...
Of course all this also means that those of you who were lucky enough to get your copy of the Forgotten Realms Atlas software are out of luck now! Bwahaha!
Or maybe this all just resulted from a designer accidentally spilling his coffee on the master copy of the map of Faerun.
In all seriousness though, I actually find this very interesting... thank you for grabbing it and posting.
Sean Mahoney
I love how entire planes were radically altered, worlds were combine together, planes merged, and yet conveniently Cormyr and Waterdeep survive intact without change. I'm not particularly impressed by this explanation of the spellplague and its effects. If they were going to change that much about the world they may as well have just gone ahead and completely changed it.
Interesting to note that the date for the quote by Elminster is 1479 DR.It's my understanding that they are moving the timeline forward about 100 years, so this makes some sense...
Of course, it also means that ol' El is still around and kickin'.
Sean Mahoney
Wow, he's, like, old and stuff.
Interesting. I particularly like the handwave that explains the sundering of the planes to fit with the new 4E cosmology.
No surprises here, really.
So long, Realms. It's been a good ride. I'll miss you.
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Effect on Spellcasters
Many creatures that learned to cast spells and channel magic with Mystra’s Weave found themselves powerless in the Spellplague’s wake. Some never regained their power. Others worked to attune themselves to the new magical environment. Many required years to regain this facility, while others never regained the knack. Others took shortcuts to reaquire the power they’d lost, swearing questionable pacts to enigmatic beings in return for the ability to utilize arcane powers.Today, spellcasters access magic through a dizzying array of methods. Some murmur spells and incant rituals, some forge arcane bargains, and others pray for intervention. In truth, it seems that magic can be accessed in more ways than ever before, fueled by newfound knowledge of arcane, shadow, primal, and other sources of power.
Interesting way to fold Warlocks into the setting. The bit about necromancers tapping into the Shadow Weave at least suggests that they will have necromancers, possibly even in a couple of years. Yay, it's the 'college' of magic that makes the best villains and the most complicated anti-heroes.
I kinda loathed Maztica, but somebody had to love it, and I know I'd be a sad panda if it was Al-Qadim or Kara-Tur that got unceremoniously yanked from the setting...
Similarly, I don't like every single Realms diety, but I ended up dumping the setting (after spending years converting all of my friends to the Realms, and then having to eat prodigious amounts of crow when they sardonically welcomed me back) when they bumped off Myrkul, Bane, Bhaal, Mystra 2.0 and Lleira in the Time of Troubles, and I feel bad for anyone who stuck around and is now seeing some of their favorite parts being wiped out for no apparent reason. (Since the 4E rules do not seem to be dependent on how many dieties the setting has.)
Well, that was me Set but for the grace of Paizo.
I was a die hard realms fan until the APs came out and I cared far more about story than setting. As a result I have been running in Greyhawk and fully plan on switching to Golarion once I run those APs.
THANK YOU FOR SAVING ME FROM THIS PAIZO!!!!
Sean Mahoney
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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So, out of curiosity, does anyone like this? In particular, if you were not interested in the Realms before, does this make you want to play in it?
This is weak beyond weak. I was expecting something a little less clusmy for the Realms. If they wanted a core setting using the core cosmology, they should have just created one, not mutilated the Realms. They didn't do anyone any favors with this. People that liked the old Realms have effectively had their setting destroyed and these new Realms are just a brand new setting with a bunch of Realms lore crammed in. How does that make the Realms more accessible? I didn't even understand half of the article about wtf happened due to all the references to Realms history.
And this Abeir thing? Why not just make Abeir into the alternate universe Toril, a place very much like the FR, but one which has always operated under the 4e cosmology. You could even still call the products the Forgotten Realms if you wanted. That would have been a much better transition to 4e.
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What I don't understand is this, "However, with the death of Mystra and jealous Shar suppressing the ascension of a new deity of magic."
Huh??? Since when did Shar become able to tell Ao that he CAN'T make a new deity of magic! Seriously how the hell did she manage that. Especially after she lost her grasp on the Shadow Weave when she attempted to grab the Weave.
(The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book better come with a lifetime supply of gaming snacks or I will never even look at it.) ;)
WHY WON'T THE CHOSEN DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAMN YOU ELMINSTER AND ALL OF YOUR RIDICULOUS CHOSEN COHORTS!!!
Oh, sorry. Too much coffee today...
This is really the most contrived bunch of crap I've read in a while. As has been noted, Mystra already bit the big one once, and was just replaced by Midnight who became Mystra. Why then logically did not one of the Chosen just assume the mantle, since one of the reasons for the existence of the Chosen was in the event of Mystra's death?
And how is this explanation of magic all that much different from before? Clerics ALWAYS prayed for spells. People could always forge "dark pacts" (they just weren't a playable class). There is nothing new or shiny here, just a contrived justification for 4e.
And yes, the fact that Waterdeep escapes this unscathed bothers me to no end.
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Wow, that's a big pile of dumb.
You know, I was searching for a way to eloquently express my feelings on 4e Faerun, and I believe I will agree with Sebastian's assessment. :)
I just look at this with bemusement now. As soon as they announced 4e WotC stopped supporting the Forgotten Realms as far as I'm concerned. I will never grace their bank account with one shiny nickel of mine, nor will I ever play in this steaming mound they have mistakenly named the Forgotten Realms.
What I don't understand is this, "However, with the death of Mystra and jealous Shar suppressing the ascension of a new deity of magic."
Huh??? Since when did Shar become able to tell Ao that he CAN'T make a new deity of magic! Seriously how the hell did she manage that. Especially after she lost her grasp on the Shadow Weave when she attempted to grab the Weave.
(The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book better come with a lifetime supply of gaming snacks or I will never even look at it.) ;)
Maybe she pulled a Tykhisis and hide the planet...
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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What I don't understand is this, "However, with the death of Mystra and jealous Shar suppressing the ascension of a new deity of magic."
Huh??? Since when did Shar become able to tell Ao that he CAN'T make a new deity of magic! Seriously how the hell did she manage that. Especially after she lost her grasp on the Shadow Weave when she attempted to grab the Weave.
Spellplague.
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Hmm, if Halrua, famed for it's tightly controlled, masterful and methodical use of magic, blowed up, I can't imagine that Thay, which gained a reputation in 3E of taking magical shortcuts and tapping dangerous power sources, didn't get blasted clear off the planet.
Given the description of what happened to Halrua, there's probably a steaming crater south of Aglarond and Rashemen in the 4E realms...
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Let me see if I can address some of these questions:
Umm... what?!?! Toril and Abeir are two different worlds? I thought, Abeir-Toril WAS the name of the world...
Spellplague.
Again... what the heck is this... <gurgle>... so confused.
Spellplague.
Um... ok... but if Abeir is the one that came back then how is Toril "long forgotten?" Is it just because it is called Forgotten Realms? And what do they got against poor Maztica that they decided to wipe it out?
Spellplague.
Hope that clears everything up!
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It really does sadden me. FR has always been my favourite setting - ToT and all. It really was this (most of the information has been around in less flowery language for a while now) that absolutely solidified my "I will never play or put any money into 4e" resolution. I was willing to at least keep it around as a "wow, let's take a break from D&D for this week" kind of game, but ever since I heard about some of the "ideas" for FR I abandoned WotC to whatever fate the interlopers have devised for it.
And Rich Baker ought to be ashamed. Even if Chris Perkins is going to stand up and try to defend him, Rich is absolutely unapologetic about what has happened and the role he's played in the changes.
SOmeone above made a good point - this doesn't make new people want to try it out (as noted none of this makes any sense unless you know what has come before anyway), and it alienates the vast majority of FR fans who already play in the setting. A lot of those never progressed the timeline to or past the Time of Troubles, even.
Anyway, I'm glad to see that some people who aren't even fans of FR see this for what it is.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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I'm okay with all this.
They did not make the MEGA-TRAVELLER mistake of letting us play during the upheaval. If there's a watershed event, give us the world after everything's calmed down again.
They gave us Cormyr, relatively unscathed, for those people who want to play the new rules in a comfortable topology, but the new game systems (Hey, where'd all the Harper druids go?) will still cause serious disruptions.
On the other hand, they did not just set the Realms aside and start a new campaign world, the way TSR set Greyhawk aside when the Realms became the default setting for 2nd Edition. To do so would have allowed people to continue play in some "official but unsupported old setting."
They gave us a lot of new places to explore once people dig themselves out of their local "points of light".
I'm not going to play 4th Edition, and even if I were, I would feel bound to play in any pre-packaged game world; but I think this was the right kind of "Time of Real Troubles" that Wizards needed, since they want to forever prevent any possible "return to the Forgotten Realms".
As a longtime FR player (you can shell me and laugh at me as you like), I have no objections to changes in the setting as editions go by. That means that I don't mind seeing new stuff.
I DO mind when whole nations vanish (e.g. Halruaa), the geography for hundreds of miles gets ripped to shreds (e.g. Sea of Fallen Stars), and other such crude efforts to alter my home stomping grounds occur.
Changes over a hundred years should be plentiful. New leaders rise and fall, bringing political changes that cause the tenor of the FR to become darker, grittier, or whatnot.
If the Sea of Fallen Stars fell into the Glimmer Sea, even partially, multiple civilizations could be imperiled. The coastlines of the Sea of Fallen Stars would change. I could see some major land-grabbing here.
Why would the Spellplague leave some entire regions relatively intact? Cormyr has a standing tradition of arcane might in its military (the War Wizards) that probably has no right to be intact.
Shar has kept a new deity of magic from rising. How? At least 7 of Mystra's Chosen existed (Elminster, Qilue, Laeral, Alustriel, Dove, Storm, and the Simbul) at the time. Elminster had vanished, while Dove and Storm were wounded in Shadowdale fighting the Zhents and company. No Chosen had the power of a god (sure seemed like it sometimes though). But each held some portion of Mystra's power so no one force that managed to control Mystra could gain control over all of the Weave. None of the Chosen were wimps. So why didn't any of them ascend? As previously noted, Shar couldn't tell Ao 'no'. Perhaps Ao didn't want them to ascend? Maybe Ao wanted the world reunited? Maybe he just didn't care?
I find that the mechanism of change is highly unimaginative, as the Godswar was barely two decades before these shenanigans. I didn't mind the premise of the Avatars Crisis nor the execution (other than the fact that no one executed Cyric back then). But this is really just not that great. I find that the geographical changes are nonsensical from a real-world viewpoint (if Halruaa exploded, you'd probably knock the whole planet out of orbit). The Sea of Fallen Stars changes would be staggering. Most of all, the world was already chock-full of magic. Now they say there's more? How? The Weave was originally everywhere, then everywhere but in dead magic zones. The Shadow Weave may have been described as the 'holes in the net', but both forms of magic operated anywhere you stood. How much more magic is that?
Overall, I approve of change. But changes need to make sense from an internal viewpoint. Why didn't Thay explode, or any of the drow cities, or any mythal-covered city? I heard about the nature of mythals as 'living things', but the Spellplague didn't care if you were alive when it messed with you.
Consistency is not the only requirement for success, but it sure helps.
Oh Sebastian, I could hug you right now, except it would probably make both of us very uncomfortable.
Ironically, I would have been much more understanding had WOTC said that they were putting the Realms on hiatus while they developed their new 4th edition setting.
You hit the nail right on the head. You can't make everyone love the Realms, and yet WOTC's philosophy seems to be that if you trash 50% of the setting, and then throw the "untouched" part of the setting 100 years into the future, all those people that didn't like the Realms before will love it, and the old guard should be happy too.
Seriously, if the Realms isn't the best flagship for D&D, I can handle that another setting will carry the banner. I can handle that a lot better than I can having the setting thrown through a blender.
Also, I'd like to echo Sebastian's point. I don't like to assume that I know something just because its my gut feeling. Does this honestly make non Realms fans really interested in the setting? I've seen some people say yes, but what I guess I'm really wondering is, for every new person that picks up a Realms sourcebook, do you think that you have created a 20 year devoted fan? Do you think that the person that picks this up out of curiosity will be picking up Realms stuff next year? Two years from now?
Or is it more likely that the "new" Realms sales will likely come from people that want to see the first "official" setting to implement 4th edition changes in order to see how they work in that context?
This saddens me a great deal. I did not get on board with Forgotten Realms until 3rd edition (always liked Greyhawk and "the Known World" more). But I really enjoyed a lot of things about Forgotten Realms that were introduced in 3rd edition. The Silver Marches and the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book were enough to get me to go back and start looking for 2nd edition and 1st edition Forgotten Realm products.
*sigh*
This just means that for me at least, with the purchase of the final suppliments, Forgotten Realms ends with third.
Perhaps Ao didn't want them to ascend? Maybe Ao wanted the world reunited? Maybe he just didn't care?
Funny thing. This whole "Spellplague" thing starts up, and gods start trying to kill each other left and right, even though I told them not too the last time this stuff happened, so I was about to ground them, and about that time WOTC called me in for a meeting, sat me down in a room with Vecna and Chaos, and asked us what we would do if we had to chance to completely change our respective universes.
Well, I had plenty of notes. Vecna wouldn't let anyone else see his notes. Chaos just took out a marker and wrote on the meeting room table "KILLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!"
So I figured the meeting was pretty much a waste of time, but I had a few good notes. I peek back into the multiverse, and all of the sudden, half the planes were turned inside out, dead gods were everywhere, and half the planet was fused with some other planet I threw out in the early development stage because I got bored with it.
Perhaps Ao didn't want them to ascend? Maybe Ao wanted the world reunited? Maybe he just didn't care?
Funny thing. This whole "Spellplague" thing starts up, and gods start trying to kill each other left and right, even though I told them not too the last time this stuff happened, so I was about to ground them, and about that time WOTC called me in for a meeting, sat me down in a room with Vecna and Chaos, and asked us what we would do if we had to chance to completely change our respective universes.
Well, I had plenty of notes. Vecna wouldn't let anyone else see his notes. Chaos just took out a marker and wrote on the meeting room table "KILLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!"
So I figured the meeting was pretty much a waste of time, but I had a few good notes. I peek back into the multiverse, and all of the sudden, half the planes were turned inside out, dead gods were everywhere, and half the planet was fused with some other planet I threw out in the early development stage because I got bored with it.
That sounds amazingly like something in our home campaign when 2nd edition rolled through.
Now, Lord Ao, are you going to fix this mess, or leave it up to those WotC people?
But hell, maybe the execution will be good. Stranger things have happened.
I would hope. I plan on buying the setting because I like settings and I think WotC usually creates good campaign stuff.
But I'm not sure why they felt the need to call it the Realms. I guess one could think of it like Earth: Apocolypse or something. Realms: Spellplagued. But I guess all those, "Let's save the realms," adventures and campaigns PCs have been involved with didn't pay off.
But mostly it feels like a weak excuse to fit FR into the 4e cosmology.
Long live Golarion!
That sounds amazingly like something in our home campaign when 2nd edition rolled through.Now, Lord Ao, are you going to fix this mess, or leave it up to those WotC people?
You know, I'm actually on vacation for the next century or so, and I can't get a refund on the tickets, so for now I'm going to let it go. Plus, between reading this lame issue of Spider Man and looking at the mess WOTC already made, I figure if I just hit the reset button, nobody can really complain much anyway. I'll just say that Elminster made a deal with Asmodeus to give up women for 100 years or so, and Asmodeus makes it like the last 119 years never happened or something like that.
So are we going to get major shake ups each time a new PHB, DMG and MM come out to incorporate all of those new things as well? Like aftershocks of the SpellPlague or something?
Sean Mahoney
Indeed. Didn't you notice in this article and the last countdown one that they pointed out that the Spellplague just sort of died down, but its still active in places? So anything they don't want to think too hard about explaining, BAM . . . Spellplague acting up again.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Oh Sebastian, I could hug you right now, except it would probably make both of us very uncomfortable.
Yeah, and the Jade's getting really possessive of me lately - it's creepy.
Also, I'd like to echo Sebastian's point. I don't like to assume that I know something just because its my gut feeling. Does this honestly make non Realms fans really interested in the setting? I've seen some people say yes, but what I guess I'm really wondering is, for every new person that picks up a Realms sourcebook, do you think that you have created a 20 year devoted fan? Do you think that the person that picks this up out of curiosity will be picking up Realms stuff next year? Two years from now?Or is it more likely that the "new" Realms sales will likely come from people that want to see the first "official" setting to implement 4th edition changes in order to see how they work in that context?
The funny thing is that before the details of the changes were announced, I was vaguely interested in them doing something dramatic to the realms, like goosing it forward 100 years. But what they've done is just so hamfisted and clumsy. They destroyed what made the Realms the Realms and yet haven't increased accessibility by retaining the major political entities.
Oh my God. I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was... We finally really did it.
You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! g*@ d%!n you all to hell!
Does hell exist after the Spellplague?
I'll side with big pile of dumb.
Elminster and Drizzt will fix it!
Bad things happen to people who say that...
Wow, that's a big pile of dumb.
now thats just plain truth there...and abeir-toril is one world not two.that and the whole weave nonsence saddly shows me that the FR design team eaither does not know s@#t adout the realms or took a big crap on it. just make a new world stop f@%*Ing with the realms .
sorry had to say that . i really need to stop reading theis 4e forsaken realm$ crap. lest i have my 1/2/3e FR stuff so at lest i can play in the realms not some madmax beyound waterdeep.
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One wonders what else the Spellplague could be responsible for in the Realms. Naturally it can't affect any areas where computer games have been made (contractual immunity and all that), but everything else is up for grabs.
Anyway, it's really, really dumb. In ways I could describe for hours on end. But really, I've neither the time, energy or patience to take WoTC to task for destroying my favourite setting. Le sigh.
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Well, the one positive that I had hoped would come from this whole misguided Realms-reboot-abortion was that Elminster would finally be gone.
Nope.
In fact, this self-important little article seems to exult in itself by quoting his nigh-immortal pompous ass in the very beginning so as to deny us even the suspense, nay, the hope that he was finally, completely, well and truly dead.
I cut my teeth on the gray box, endured/survived the Time of Troubles, and was perfectly comfortable with the 3rd edition changes.
This whole article is just insulting even to people who have left the Realms behind for other settings (like me).
I feel like they have exhumed my favorite memories of gaming in the Realms and sh@t upon them. I cannot imagine how they can even attempt to salvage a design disaster of this magnitude.
*Casts Magic Circle Against 4E*
Now back to staring at my toes...which incidently are infinitely more interesting and cohesive than the horrid filth that will bear the branding of Forgotten Realms in 4E.