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 Canon Explanation Why Human NPCs Still Alive?

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T O P I C    R E V I E W
talkitron Posted - 09 Sep 2018 : 19:17:11
I haven't purchased most fifth edition game products and haven't purchased any 5E-timeline novels. It is clear from the internet discussion of game products that non-Chosen, human characters such as Volo are still alive, despite the large time gap between 3E and 5E. Is there a canon explanation for why Volo and other human characters are still alive?

25   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
Charles Phipps Posted - 06 Apr 2022 : 21:40:17
quote:
Given the backstory between those two, I'm glad Asper is dead. Their relationship was disturbing...


I love Asper the character and feel like knocking her off because of Ed setting her and up was a poor way of handling it. I admit, I did have Asper remain his daughter figure in my games and instead have a running gag that Mirt has like a dozen ex-wives including a Red Wizardess of Thay.

Mind you, someone did the math and Durnan apparently married a fourteen year old girl. I'm PRETTY sure that was a mistake.
TheIriaeban Posted - 06 Apr 2022 : 16:37:43
I have a human NPC that was disfigured because of magic. He eventually did something that attracted Moradin's attention. Moradin knew that he wanted to look normal again so as a reward for his efforts to aid dwarves, Moradin made him look like a normal human again. Of course, in the vein of "be careful what you wish for", Moradin went a step further and made him internally a dwarf because dwarves are perfection incarnate. So, he has all the dwarven racial benefits not based on height or education. That also means he now has a dwarven lifespan. His kids are also considered half-dwarves as well. That is why he is alive and kicking in the late 15th century.

Edit: fixed typo
Zeromaru X Posted - 06 Apr 2022 : 15:28:49
Given the backstory between those two, I'm glad Asper is dead. Their relationship was disturbing...
Charles Phipps Posted - 06 Apr 2022 : 07:13:18
Annoyingly, Mirt is alive but Asper is dead.

Forgive the necromancy.
Diffan Posted - 11 Oct 2018 : 15:54:04
Minsc was petrified outside of Baldur's Gate until he was recently un-petrified in 1490's.

In our Avatar game - 4 of the people in our group (all humans) attempted to use a mirror portal found by Khelban Blackstaff to send us back to Earth. This was in 1385 as the Blue Fire swept across the face of Faerűn. We dove into the portal but it was struck by the Spellplague, halting the magical teleportation mid-transport. The mirror was long forgotten for over a century when it was found by a mage in Blackstaff tower. Curious as to the workings of this seemingly "inert" magical device, he took it back to his classroom for his students to study. One student accidentally activated the mirror and out we plopped - 94 years later into 1479 DR. We eventually found the rest of our party, one - a dwarf battlerager - had a booming restaurant business called the Busty Wench that prided itself on it's.....wings and live entertainment (yes, it's a Forgotten Realms version of Hooters - we were like 20 at the time of the campaign haha) while the other dwarf had a successful Smithy weapon and armor shoppe. The third was a half-elf assassin that created his own martial school for troubled kids in Baldur's Gate.
Zeromaru X Posted - 11 Oct 2018 : 02:14:49
The answer is in "Volo’s Waterdeep Enchiridion" (a in-universe update to Volo’s Guide to Waterdeep, that comes in the new adventure). Seems Volo was trapped within an Imprisonment spell before the Spellplague, and was released only recently.
Delnyn Posted - 11 Oct 2018 : 00:29:07
quote:
Originally posted by Irennan

Volo was made a sort of chosen by Mystra, one of the many places where she hid a spark of her power before the Spellplague (she chose Volo because none of her enemies could have suspected him, and because he had shown himself able to survive through what many couldn't). Mirt was trapped in stasis in a bluefire item.


What a laugh to see Elminster's face if that were the case and he found out.
talkitron Posted - 15 Sep 2018 : 19:29:42
Thanks for all the responses.
The Masked Mage Posted - 11 Sep 2018 : 03:55:05
Bilbo never died... Neither did Frodo... just saying.
moonbeast Posted - 11 Sep 2018 : 03:00:23
I'd just tell all my Players that all the "normal" NPCs of Faerun have been drinking their daily potions of Handwavium. So they get to live on forever and ever because…. "The God-Wizards of the Coast" willed it so.


You'd at least think that…. for the sake of verisimilitude…. that at least a few of these (non-mortal) NPCs would have died of old age, or at least would be super-old by the time of 5th Edition. I mean, think about it…. even the most LEGENDARY world-saving uber-heroes of Tolkien Fantasy had succumbed to old age and natural mortality (e.g. the great hero Bilbo Baggins is seen as a very old-aged Hobbit when he reprises in the LOTR). It was explained that his aging was greatly slowed during the years WHEN he possessed the One Ring. But when he voluntarily bequeathed the Ring to his nephew Frodo, the great hero Bilbo began to suffer the effects of natural aging (and mortality) once again.

The Masked Mage Posted - 11 Sep 2018 : 01:38:41
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

weave ghosts, spectral mages, turning oneself into a magic item (as in instilling one's intellect into the item) are some I've used as well.


Still wish there was a good write-up for weave ghosts
Lord Karsus Posted - 10 Sep 2018 : 17:47:58
-One could probably claim Elven ancestry somewhere in their past. Or some other long-lived race. Not enough to be considered a Half-X, but enough to extend their lifespans.
Starshade Posted - 10 Sep 2018 : 15:45:52
Using an vampiric dagger on a Shadovar.
Brimstone Posted - 10 Sep 2018 : 15:18:29
The Demiplane of Grodd is yet another example...
sleyvas Posted - 10 Sep 2018 : 12:27:17
weave ghosts, spectral mages, turning oneself into a magic item (as in instilling one's intellect into the item) are some I've used as well.
Ayrik Posted - 10 Sep 2018 : 09:36:59
The Realms has reincarnation ... not as strictly written in the spell descriptions ... but simply an explanation for a person/identity being "reborn" again at some later time, effectively identical to the "original" person, for reasons (great or small) beyond mortal understandings. Realmslore seems to do this a lot with popular/powerful elves.

The Realms also has time travel - accompanied by the usual baggage of time-editing and time-cheating and handwaved-paradoxes and parallel universes and all that.

And the Realms has always suffered the whims of deities and powers, gods and goddesses, angels and fiends, artifacts galore. Any of which can simply decree a person exists "just because".
The Masked Mage Posted - 10 Sep 2018 : 06:32:30
Yeah, forgot the Sharn thing - was not a fan so maybe I blocked it out.
Fineva Posted - 10 Sep 2018 : 03:51:00
Becoming a Sharn in service to the pentad of gods then dropping Sharn form when the Secret City is built.
Brimstone Posted - 10 Sep 2018 : 01:12:56
Yep, everything The Masked Mage said...
The Masked Mage Posted - 09 Sep 2018 : 23:57:17
There are many, many many possibly explanations:

1st - this is a world where you can raise and resurrect the dead with a myriad of different magics.
2nd - numerous NPCs are long lived in some way (Chosen for example).
3rd - Ed made the bluefire items that brought his NPCs back and there was never a roster of who was all inside so fill em up.
4th - as mentioned above, some characters were whisked through time in some way by the spellplague.
5th - characters who are trapped somehow in magic would still be alive; the most basic possible examples of this entrapment are:
a) temporal stasis magic
b) petrification magic
c) long term sleep (like Phesult's sleep of the ages)
d) imprisonment magic
e) magic jar magics.
f) longevity magics (like elixirs of youth or, my personal favorite, rings of timelessness)
g) cloning magics (Manshoon anyone? :P)

All of these are basic explanations for how one would still be alive. A little creativity makes the possibilities nearly endless and this is a good thing. One of the reasons the Realms was, in my humble opinion, the best campaign world TSR had was the huge number of characters that all the novels and supplements gave DMs to work with. There were literally thousands of them. The time jump into 4th E ostensibly ruined that aspect of the realms so now you have to gimmick them back into fantasy life.
Irennan Posted - 09 Sep 2018 : 22:29:28
Durnan is alive too, because he has a few potions of longevity in his treasure.
talkitron Posted - 09 Sep 2018 : 22:11:14
Thanks all. Are Mirt and Volo the main non-Chosen humans to remain alive?
Irennan Posted - 09 Sep 2018 : 21:35:05
Volo was made a sort of chosen by Mystra, one of the many places where she hid a spark of her power before the Spellplague (she chose Volo because none of her enemies could have suspected him, and because he had shown himself able to survive through what many couldn't). Mirt was trapped in stasis in a bluefire item.
BadLuckBugbear Posted - 09 Sep 2018 : 21:15:17
quote:
Originally posted by Zeromaru X

There is a semi-explanation in one of the earlier Onder magazines. IIRC, some authors used the Spellplague as an explanation. Other characters have less clear (there is no explanation for Mirt, for instance).



I thought Mirt the Moneylender was soul-trapped in a magic axe and released a long time later.
Zeromaru X Posted - 09 Sep 2018 : 21:00:45
There is a semi-explanation in one of the earlier Onder magazines. IIRC, some authors used the Spellplague as an explanation. Other characters have less clear (there is no explanation for Mirt, for instance).

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