I doubt that decimating the Chosen was one of the main intents of 4th edition, they're just the collateral damage of a new jumpstart.
Actually Chris Perkins said they had to "nuke" the Chosen, because too many people perceived them as being able to solve all of the problems of a continent of sixty some million people. The use of the term "nuke" being in the most respectful way possible.
I'm pretty sure they've resolved that one by killing her off - after all, one of the core aspects of the 4e Realms design principles seems to have been a Jihad on the Chosen. ;)
Well, she was Human, and with the death of Mystra, the Chosen effect that made her unaging may have ceased. She's not the first of Mystra's Chosen to die, several bought it before the Seven were born, and as I recall the dead roster now includes Sylune, and Qilue. Elminster being who he is may have had other means.
I doubt that decimating the Chosen was one of the main intents of 4th edition, they're just the collateral damage of a new jumpstart.
At this time, Khelben, Sylune, and Qilue are dead (see the novel Blackstaff, the adventure Shadowdale . . . , and the last book of the Lady Penitent series). I've commented a little about Qilue's demise elsewhere. Elminster has survived, based on a preview or comment I saw elsewhere that was written by the Sage of Shadowdale for the FR campaign book. If I find it, I'll make a note of it.
I'm familiar with the commentary about Mystra's Chosen, though I've never heard of similar comments about any other Chosen (maybe Cadderly?). What I've noticed is that people often CLAIM that the Chosen of Mystra can solve all the problems of the Realms, not that they DO. Sure, several of them admit to being powerful as all get-out, but for various reasons don't go out and turn Toril into a utopia. And several of them aren't world-shaking powers: Dove Falconhand and Storm Silverhand, for example. While both of these ladies ARE powerful (Storm's epic in levels, after all), neither is a character who's going to face down an entire army alone and walk away unscathed as the only survivor. Too often, I see the Chosen with high levels in wizard or sorcerer running around doing those things (e.g. look at the role of the Chosen when Shade returned in the novels). Elminster often pops in but doesn't do a lot of world-shattering, instead giving out information, annoying people into doing what he wants, and adding commentary. For my part, I find the fact that the Chosen are used as a measuring-stick of power annoying. As individuals, I've liked the portrayals of many of them over the years (particularly Alustriel, Laeral, and Storm).
With the advent of the Spellplague, just about anything is possible. For all we know, the disruptions to magic turned Elminster into a 20-year old half-orc.
I also haven't cared for how the Chosen have been dying lately. Qilue's death sparked quite a bit of anger from me and will affect my purchase of novels in the future. At the time, I thought Khelben's demise was a bit contrived, though over time I am coming to the conclusion that his demise wasn't as bad as I thought (but I've never liked Khelben as much as the other Chosen). And Sylune's demise is in a module, which irks me (though not as much as Halaster's death). At least Sylune's demise makes sense in a way: the bad guys laid her to rest, then the Weave was seriously messed with, so the only thing she might have relied on to survive was gone.
Now I'm rambling. I think the true point on this for me is that the deaths of Mystra's Chosen seem more intentional and less like collateral damage. Considering that they're scattered in 2 novels and an adventure (so far), it seems to me like WotC is building up to the more important Chosen (relatively speaking). Which worries me, since Laeral is having Khelben's children and Alustriel was due to step down as the ruler of the Silver Marches. Recipes for disaster in their own ways.
|
I think the true point on this for me is that the deaths of Mystra's Chosen seem more intentional and less like collateral damage. Considering that they're scattered in 2 novels and an adventure (so far), it seems to me like WotC is building up to the more important Chosen (relatively speaking). Which worries me, since Laeral is having Khelben's children and Alustriel was due to step down as the ruler of the Silver Marches. Recipes for disaster in their own ways.
Agreed - this is the same sense I get, both from what WoTC has printed in recent adventures/novels/etc, and from what the various designers have stated (both in terms of "Powerful NPCs" in general, and the Chosen of Mystra, specifically). The NPCs in general, and the Chosen of Mystra as a primary example of this, have been repeatedly cited as one of the 'major problems' with the Realms by several of the designers (notably Chris Perkins, among others). Hence, my 'Jihad on the Chosen' (of Mystra, should've been clarified) comment.
Other than the D&D podcast where Chris Perkins said the Chosen had to be "nuked," Steven Schend said that if they were going to kill Khelben, he was glad they allowed him to be the one to do it (i.e. it was going to happen, one way or the other), and Rich Baker mentioned that they intentionally wanted to kill off Halaster (which is even stranger, since Halaster was neither a chosen, nor good . . . or even neutral . . . which seems more like an anti-history stance than anything).
Other than the D&D podcast where Chris Perkins said the Chosen had to be "nuked," Steven Schend said that if they were going to kill Khelben, he was glad they allowed him to be the one to do it (i.e. it was going to happen, one way or the other), and Rich Baker mentioned that they intentionally wanted to kill off Halaster (which is even stranger, since Halaster was neither a chosen, nor good . . . or even neutral . . . which seems more like an anti-history stance than anything).
I missed that podcast. Can you tell me which one I'm looking for?
|
...which seems more like an anti-history stance ...
This type of stuff actually rattles me..., how could any group of game leaders be so detached, so compassionless, so merciless or mercenary (depending on your views) that they would stoop to the level of killers of art?
This destruction reveals quite a bit about the decision makers over there...
AS FOR ME AND MY GAMES, FR LIVES STILL. The timeline proposed by wotc is rejected, found to be illegitimate. These are horrible decisions like those of mad army officers that should be relieved of duty.
|
I want to build a zoo, 4E Realms style: A Topical Aside
My old zoo still works, and still makes money for me, but people have seen everything my zoo has to offer. I notice that some people go next door to the strip mall before, after, or instead of going to the zoo. I want their business, too. So I decide, although I've told everyone I'm not making a new zoo, I'm going to make a new zoo.
My zoo has always been acclaimed for the fact that I designed it in a way that each animal was placed in an enclosure which was tailored and optimal for their existence. I was almost 100% happy with the enclosures, the animals were almost 100% happy, and the guests were almost 100% happy. It wasn't perfect, but it was close. Despite this, I start thinking in order to get that strip mall money, the best way to handle my new zoo is to make a zoo that looks like a strip mall. The decision is made to make each animal's enclosure the same style and the same size, just like the stores in the strip mall look.
While it looks nothing like my old zoo, my marketing people tell me that I should promote the new zoo as being new and radical, and that only a great fool or someone who didn't understand zoos would be critical of it; they call the plan "The Emperor's New Zoo", and I have developed the first cult of personality for a zoo.
Now, my zoo has always had certain areas that visitors have loved, arranged by where the animals are found geographically. The oldest and most beloved is the Asian exhibit. It has served me well over the decades, and most everyone who has visited my zoo has at least one tale they can tell of visiting that area. But I decide that, because it's old and tired (and doesn't make me as much money as other areas), I'm not rebuilding it.
The African area is the second oldest. It has almost as many visitors as the Asian area. And this one makes me money, hand over fist. But I have a problem. The plans I've made do not work well for the animals that live there. Each pen in my strip mall zoo is the same size, and that's very limiting. Some of the animals in the African area of the zoo are simply too large to fit in these enclosures. Do I wait to reopen my zoo for a time when I can have slightly bigger enclosures? Of course not. This is one of my cash cows. So I decide to do two things- first, I'm going to put things that fit in the enclosures in the African area, not worrying where they come from, and secondly I'm just going to kill the animals that no longer fit in the African exhibit.
And I'm going to execute them publicly.
Just before my zoo closes, I make a keepsake book for my patrons called _A Grand History Of The Zoo_. People look forward to it because it will be a piece of nostalgia they can always hold on to. Only the pictures I decide to use of animals in the books are pictures that I cull from various sources rather than taking new pictures, and in some cases they aren't even pictures of the animals in my zoo. On the last page I announce my plans to redesign the zoo.
Feedback is in the resoundingly negative, but I don't care. My plans are set in stone.
I leak information between then and the opening of the zoo about the changes I'm making. There is speculation about which animals I'm going to kill. People make the connection that the largest, most difficult to accommodate animals are also the most iconic animals of that area, and they're the ones that will have to die.
Opening day arrives. People go to the African area out of curiosity. Sure enough, I have the elephant, the lion, and the gorilla lined up in the middle of the area. The fans of those animals watch helplessly as the animals are shot in the heads, while those people who had never visited the area before look on indifferently wondering what all the fuss is about.
A year later, when the South American exhibit opens and people see large animals in the pens that I've now found a way to make bigger, to the dismay of all the fans of the old African area it's clear that if I had just waited a little longer to make changes that maybe the gorilla, lion, and elephant would all still be alive.
But I don't care. Because I've got their money either way.
Nice zoological reference. I'll NEVER leave FR!!! (but i'm jumping to pathfinder because what FR has become) That setting is what got me into this hobby! The gold series computer games got me hooked (pool of radiance, etc.)
|
I'd draw some comparisons with what has been done to the realms and the attitudes behind it to the attitudes and actions of certain comic book writers and editors in the past decade and a half. Some people just can't be trusted to play in a shared universe without breaking some of the toys.
Saying you're looking forward to kill off a character people like isn't really the best way to foster good will, y'know?
I was never a big fan of the Realms, but I still consider the cullings and timeshift one big Discontinuity and just pretend it never happened. It's worked pretty well for me so far with the comics industry.
I missed that podcast. Can you tell me which one I'm looking for?
Chris Perkins 4th Edition Realms Interview
I will point out that it seemed to me, in recent months, the developers got much better at not making some of the more polarizing comments, but in this one, they are still a bit in that mode.
I particularly like Mike Lescault's bringing up the "Rich Baker Must Be Stopped" comment that was floating around WOTC's boards as a way to summarily ignore any criticism of the Realms as hysterical or irrational.
Also, Rich Baker mentioned on his blog that most of the preview articles that they had planned were canceled due to "lack of manpower." Apparently there were 10 or so of them that never showed up on the site.
For what its worth, I much preferred Ed Greenwood's heartfelt appeal on Candlekeep to give the new Realms a chance, recognizing that this new direction is a risk, and understanding if long term fans may not like what they see, so long as they care to give it a look.
WOTC could have learned a lot from Ed Greenwood's approach.
|
|
For what its worth, I much preferred Ed Greenwood's heartfelt appeal on Candlekeep to give the new Realms a chance, recognizing that this new direction is a risk, and understanding if long term fans may not like what they see, so long as they care to give it a look.
WOTC could have learned a lot from Ed Greenwood's approach.
Unfortunately, by the time that came around, I was already too soured on the 'new' Realms. I think what really did it was feeling time and again that much of what was done was unnecessary, heavy-handed, and seemed to hold a great deal of disregard for the existing fans of the setting as it was. I kept finding myself thinking "Well, if they'd just moderated this or that one little thing, they would have accomplished all of the same ends, yet not left me/us feeling like I/we have had salt poured in our wounds." The seeming unwillingness to listen to suggestions made along these lines, or the impression given that the only views that were taken into consideration were those of the "Realms haters/detractors" only added to this. I may be entirely unfounded in that assessment, and it's just my own personal opinion.
Mostly though, it wasn't even so much that I was soured on the new Realms, conceptually, but that I could not bring myself to overcome my distaste for the level of discontinuity (to borrow Mikaze's term) that the designers had introduced. If they could do this, then what stops them from doing the same again, etc...
|
|
For many of us, this distrust is permanent....If they could do this, then what stops them from doing the same again, etc...
Trust is never something that is easily earned once broken. It is this loss of trust in the collective stewardship of those who oversee the imaginary world where our stories are told that is perhaps the most telling blow. For me, it has also come at a time where I have had the opportunity to compare it to how the designers at Paizo have acted towards their fans. The difference, even it is merely my own perception of such things, has been stark.
This has contributed in large part to my disentangling myself from a heavy commitment into the Forgotten Realms, replacing it with an investment (at least monetarily, to begin with) in Pathfinder.
I will point out that it seemed to me, in recent months, the developers got much better at not making some of the more polarizing comments, but in this one, they are still a bit in that mode.
I particularly like Mike Lescault's bringing up the "Rich Baker Must Be Stopped" comment that was floating around WOTC's boards as a way to summarily ignore any criticism of the Realms as hysterical or irrational.
Also, Rich Baker mentioned on his blog that most of the preview articles that they had planned were canceled due to "lack of manpower." Apparently there were 10 or so of them that never showed up on the site.
For what its worth, I much preferred Ed Greenwood's heartfelt appeal on Candlekeep to give the new Realms a chance, recognizing that this new direction is a risk, and understanding if long term fans may not like what they see, so long as they care to give it a look.
WOTC could have learned a lot from Ed Greenwood's approach.
Thanks. I'm listening to this now and feel rather disgusted. Glad I haven't had lunch yet.
|
|
Latest update, via the Luruar (aka Silver Marches) preview excerpt posted to the WotC website.
Luruar
The two big things that jump out are:
1) Alustriel is dead (doesn't say how, I presume of old age, and the implication is it happened a long time ago).
2) The Harpers have long since disbanded.
|
|
The other thing that irked me was the destruction of the drow pantheon. Not only Eilistrae but Vhaerun and Kiaransalee. They all served a purpose and provided a perfect balance against Lloth in their own respective ways.
Balance, schmalance. I liked the idea of a 'Drow pantheon' merely because it was something that the Realms had that was unique and designed *for the Realms,* and not just snagged and incorporated willy-nilly from another setting or source (like the larger number of demihuman dieties, from Greyhawk, or the 'cold, elemental gods' from Moorcock, or Al-Qadim or Kara-Tur).
Kiaransalee was unique to the Realms, *created* for the Realms, and that made her cooler, more 'iconic' to the setting, than Yondalla or whomever.
I wasn't exactly in love with Eilistraee (although if any race has a goddess of dancin' nekkid in the moonlight, I'm glad it was the Drow and not, say, Grippli...), but I would rather have her exist in the Realms *and not use her in my games,* than have her shuffled off unceremoniously because they want to 'trim the fat' for some unfathomable reason. That way the DMs and players who do want to use her will have updated rules and 'fluff' related to her priests and worshippers, and I can turn a couple of pages and read the updated rules and 'fluff' related to *my* favorite dead goddess, Lleira.
My years-long campaign died soon after the Time of Troubles, when I realized that the new game books were reflecting the changes from those novels, and that Bane, Bhaal, Myrkul, etc. were really dead, and Yuckpoo Zim, 'the Baneson' or whoever was replacing Bane. Compared to how fast the Time of Troubles sent me running back to Greyhawk, I would not be surprised to see this Spellplague thing turn long-time fans off to the setting even faster.
I kinda feel bad for Ed Greenwood. This setting was pretty much his baby, and they've asked him to come out and plead with the fans to give it a chance.
"We've kidnapped your kid, and replaced him with this messed-up-looking half-demon/half-lizard thing from another world. Please try to convince your kid's friends that this is really your kid, and they should be nice to him and give him money, even if he called them names and stuff."
Latest update, via the Luruar (aka Silver Marches) preview excerpt posted to the WotC website.
LuruarThe two big things that jump out are:
1) Alustriel is dead (doesn't say how, I presume of old age, and the implication is it happened a long time ago).
2) The Harpers have long since disbanded.
Well, that's 4 Chosen down. That leaves Elminster (who we know survives), the Simbul, Laeral, Dove, and Storm. I keep thinking I'm going to be down to 1 Chosen by the time the end of the month rolls around.
As for the Harpers, they've disappeared before. I honestly don't know why they'd disband. They're heroes, why wouldn't they try to keep working despite the Spellplague? Even with Mystra's death and the loss of the Chosen, they'd still have plenty of divine patronage and the Chosen weren't the only Master Harpers around.
Time will tell I guess.
|
|
"We've kidnapped your kid, and replaced him with this messed-up-looking half-demon/half-lizard thing from another world. Please try to convince your kid's friends that this is really your kid, and they should be nice to him and give him money, even if he called them names and stuff."
Between the Zoo analogy and this child kidnapping thing, I am convinced that this horrible, horrible destruction of the forgotten realms will long after be remembered, perhaps influencing product purchasing decisions to the point of no longer supporting wotc products for many years to come. Oftentimes, consumers stop supporting a company based on lack of integrity or trust. This community deserves much better.
Well, I ignored the Time of Troubles and ignored pretty much everything else after that. I tried to incorporate some of the earliest novels (Icewind Dale, Moonshae Islands) into my FR campaign in order to stay "official" and then I realized how absolutely time consuming and stressful that would be, so I blew it off.
I ran the Realms from 1987 to 2002. It was based on the original boxed set and whatever I chose to incorporate, which wasn't much. I have campaign notes and old character sheets and PC designed strongholds and hundreds of NPCs that are put away in storage.
Whenever I decide to use the Realms again, THAT's the only version of the Realms that exists for me anyway, so I really don't care what Wizards does or doesn't do to the setting, to be perfectly blunt.
|
|
...so I really don't care what Wizards does or doesn't do...
... and If we look at the creative aspect of our game, why should we care what a company says, its our world to do as we please, right?
There is a risk, however, that if a leading company stopps support of what we know, love, choose, prefer, etc., then we won't benefit from any supporting materials, items to purchase, cool game table enhancements. For example, that's why for the stuff that matters, I'll stay 3.5/OGL/PRPG. I love the richness presented in my 3.5 Forgotten Realms collection, and appreciate its internal consistency, its finely crafted richness, and its coherency with the traditions and history of dungeons and dragons.
What they've done to the realms is nothing short of murder. I reject their timeline, I reject the death of the iconics, and I reject them as a steward of something so precious as the forgotten realms. IMHO, I cannot be persuaded that they needed to f-up the realms. Was there some shortage on imagination this year? Would it have been impossible for them to conceive of a new world? As many on this thread have suggested, there were limitless options and permutations of options they could have gone with. Now, its one big cluster fu@!
|
|
The Harpers have had internal issues before, including a split led by Khelben. Maybe this time they've finally come to ahead and those who still meddle are doing it on thier own. I've also noticed that most Harper novels I reaad end up with either a dead Harper or one who leaves the group. Maybe they've had that high a mortality rate, or the Zhents finally dealt them a crippling blow.
Ideally, an organization like the Harpers should be a little less overt anyway. I'd be fine with them still existing, but being a bit more behind the scenes. A 'secret spy organization' with a dozen patron dieties, it's own special Prestige Classes and dozens of Epic level characters running around is pushing it, IMO.
The Harpers have had internal issues before, including a split led by Khelben. Maybe this time they've finally come to ahead and those who still meddle are doing it on thier own. I've also noticed that most Harper novels I reaad end up with either a dead Harper or one who leaves the group. Maybe they've had that high a mortality rate, or the Zhents finally dealt them a crippling blow.Ideally, an organization like the Harpers should be a little less overt anyway. I'd be fine with them still existing, but being a bit more behind the scenes. A 'secret spy organization' with a dozen patron dieties, it's own special Prestige Classes and dozens of Epic level characters running around is pushing it, IMO.
LOL
You have a point.
|
Agreed, but I appreciate the rabid following it had. I'm a fan of the Drow and they absolutely SCREWED Elistraee (sp?). That's a bunch of bunk.
Yeah, I appreciate the following as well. Ironically, I'm more apt to give it a look given what they've done to it.
I don't know much about Elistraee. What happened there?
To answer your question:
** spoiler omitted **
send it back to em...with a big I QUIT! written inside the front cover! heh
Forgotten Realms remains the flagship world of WOTC. If they're selling a switch to a new edition, it stands to reason that that world has to be the display bed of the new rules. 4E is such a dramatic change that an event even more universal than the Time of Troubles is called to highlight the occasion.
But as I demonstrated up thread, there were ways to shift the Realms to 4e and to even address the "problems" the designers were sure had to be addressed without the extend of the changes that they implemented.
|
|
Forgotten Realms remains the flagship world of WOTC. If they're selling a switch to a new edition, it stands to reason that that world has to be the display bed of the new rules. 4E is such a dramatic change that an event even more universal than the Time of Troubles is called to highlight the occasion.
All they've done, again, to my utter amazement at their lack of marketing savvy, is piss off yet more fans with this insane decision to mutilate one of their cash cows.
Not really. Knight Errant posted a list of ways the new mechanics could have been incorporated without essentially rebooting the Realms. They were all subtle, made sense in the context of the setting, and didn't invalidate all of the previous FR fluff. One guy who doesn't get paid to do game design work 8 hours a day, came up with much more subtle, creative, changes that would be far less grating to fans of the setting than the FR team at WotC. They had a whole team of "professionals", and the best they could come up is "Nuke the seeting, let the spellplague explain all of these nonsensical changes,and advance the timeline 100 years so all pre-existing Realms lore is made irrelevant." That's just plain lazy and disrespectful to the fans of the setting.
It's amazing really. WotC hasn't made one single decision in the past 18 months that I haven't hated. Not just disliked, but hated. I'm not sure how they could maintain such a perfect record without knowing me personally.
I played D&D for 30 years, but I think if I touched a 4e product today it would spark a matter-antimatter reaction that would destroy the galaxy.
May Ed forgive me for saying it, but this new "4gotten Relmz" needs a bullet through the head.
It's amazing really. WotC hasn't made one single decision in the past 18 months that I haven't hated. Not just disliked, but hated. I'm not sure how they could maintain such a perfect record without knowing me personally.
Maybe they DO know you personally! Check your house for bugs. They may be monitoring you. We used to think Paramount had our Trek games bugged when an episode would appear on screen a season after it happened in our game.
;-)
|
|
Forgotten Realms remains the flagship world of WOTC. If they're selling a switch to a new edition, it stands to reason that that world has to be the display bed of the new rules. 4E is such a dramatic change that an event even more universal than the Time of Troubles is called to highlight the occasion.
All they've done, again, to my utter amazement at their lack of marketing savvy, is piss off yet more fans with this insane decision to mutilate one of their cash cows.
If they needed a world to highlight the new rules then they could have developed a world based on the material in the Wizards Presents preview books. I will be using a home brew world based on that material if I ever end up playing 4th edition.
|
|
4E is such a dramatic change that an event even more universal than the Time of Troubles is called to highlight the occasion.
The spellplague, from my understanding, was caused by one goddess being killed. The Time of Troubles was when Ao kicked all the gods out of their homes and into the material plane world, where several died. Which one comes across as "more universal"?
The bottom line:
They new what THEY wanted for a 4e world. They also wanted to use the FR fanbase (being that most of the designers make side-money from writing FR novels).
They decided to take FR, and completely change it so that it matched the new world concept they had for 4e. I have to think they assumed FR fans were idiots, and that we would think this 'other world' was the Realms. They even went so far as to change the history and the name of the planet ('breaking' the name in half, to imply it is two seperate worlds that have now re-merged).
Besides the fact that they created an entirely new setting and are trying to pass it off as FR, the new setting is really just re-hashed generic fantasy fare, so it doesn't really jump out and grab new players either. They destroyed the existing fan-base and didn't even create something interesting enough to replace it (obviously saving their best ideas for their novels, and using all the crap for their 'day job').
Add to that that they took out ALL powerful female characters (silly women... thinking they could come out of the kitchen that way), and took the advanced black culture that was in Chult (Mezro) and destroyed it, turning the clock back so that they are all now half-nakit savage spear-chuckers (some of which practice cannibalism) running around the jungles shouting "Unga Bunga!".
This looks like something created in 1978, not 2008. WotC has single-handedly brought RPG gaming back to the Stoneage, when minority groups new their place.
Kudos, WotC, from nuking a half-century of cultural advancement and returning us to a more ignorant time.
Rant Over.
The spellplague, from my understanding, was caused by one goddess being killed. The Time of Troubles was when Ao kicked all the gods out of their homes and into the material plane world, where several died. Which one comes across as "more universal"?
They are using this setting-specific event to explain their new cosmology - a cosmology that spans EVERY setting they plan to re-visit (and god help Eberron).
In other words, what happened on Toril, didn't neccessarily STAY on Toril - the entire D&D multiverse was effected by the death of a single FR goddess. "The planes themselves re-aligned with her death".
That is why this is looking like a VERY uncreative attempt to re-write D&D, and take the game further away from what giants like Gygax and Greenwood had spent so many years perfecting.
The rational side of me realizes that I have enough FR material in my collection (almost everything from the gray box until the end of 3.5) to run it the way I want to without a care in the world for what has changed in the 4th Ed. version. But the creative side of me, the side that dove into this setting from the very beginning and loved everything about it as it grew and matured, feels like this is fundamentally wrong. It may have been 'legal' to do it, but it was most assuredly not 'just'. It feels like a betrayal of trust to me, and I know I'm not the only one who feels that way about it.
I know I'm being overly dramatic, but I feel like WotC has turned into the Alliance, and I've had to become a Browncoat. The line "May have been the losin' side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one" comes to mind right now...
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
|
|
Ao may have been maintaining a level of maintennce during thier exile. Apparantly this time he either chose not to, or was caught napping at the switch.
Or he was conveniently ignored because his presence would have dashed upon the rocks with the fury of a Category 5 hurricane this ridiculous idea of Mystra's death undoing everything.
I find it inconceivable that the same supreme being (at least as far as Toril was concerned (yes, yes, I know Ao answered to a higher authority, just play along)) that mere years early stripped every divine being of their power for their own napping on the job would become so non-interventionist that it would let catastrophe reign down on the planet, or that a being of such power could not be aware of what one of his servants was doing (an entity capable of reducing hundreds of gods to mortal, powerless forms with a thought must surely possess some degree of omniscience).
|
|
Not just any goddess, but the Weave Mistress herself. Mystra stood above the other Faerunian dieties of magic as being THE mistress of the weave and one with it.
Yeah, and it's not like she could die without the setting 'sploding...
Oh, wait a tick, this is death three for the goddess of magic? And the Realms somehow survived the last two? And there's this overgod named Ao who is supposed to keep all this stuff under control? And Mystra has deliberately planned for 'outages' and 'service interruptions' by imbuing fragments of her power into a bunch of Chosen, a Magister *and* some other dieties of magic (Azuth, etc.)? And there are other gods of magic, such as Corellon and Thoth, in the setting, who could pick up the reins if she dropped them?
Meh. It was sloppy writing. I haven't played in the Realms since the Time of Troubles and *I* can come up with ways to incorporate Dragonborn, Tieflings, Warlocks, etc. that respect what has come before. The people at Candlekeep could do that about a thousand times better, and they wouldn't even charge for the service.
Midnight is only the latest caretaker of the Weave, and as it hummed along just fine for millenia *before her,* it should be humming along just peachy for millenia *after her.*
According to the modules, she was only 8th level anyway. Perhaps they should have hired someone a little more experienced for that 'goddess of magic' position anyway, someone who could cast Teleport, perhaps? I bet the Simbul wouldn't have gone down that easy...
|
Mystra on the other hand...another symptom of novelists and designers doing a game of one-upmanship, designing a nigh-unkillable character who exercises massive power with extreme prejudice (and when I say prejudice, I mean the "my servants get +10 Con and awesome abilities" prejudice - part of me thinks they should just make the Chosen demi-gods and be done with it).
no... the magister is worst
Maybe Ao setup the Spellplague in the first place? The Gods didn't seem to learn their danged lesson from the last time he had to come kick some Godly butt, so this time he said screw it, maybe you'll come to appreciate my view on things better this way?
It's been a while since I read the ToT series ... why was Ao cheesed off in the first place again? Some tablet-whatsits or something?
|
|
I kinda feel bad for Ed Greenwood. This setting was pretty much his baby, and they've asked him to come out and plead with the fans to give it a chance."We've kidnapped your kid, and replaced him with this...
He sold them his kid and for a decent sum. The deal he made worked out very well for him. He's working on a new world anyway, Candleburn I think it's called.
That sum was $5000 if I recall. I think people have a very wrong impression of Ed sitting at home, in his palacial mansion, having money fights (ie. throwing wads of $1000 bills around playfully) with his butlers and limo drivers. He has obviously profited, but almost every penny is from being paid as a freelancer. And he's said that he doesn't get paid more than any other freelancer for WotC, and that WotC pays less than TSR did for freelance work. He simply tends to write more than any other freelancer.