| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Jakk |
Posted - 20 Sep 2008 : 09:48:35
 I have three things that have been bugging me. Well, six, if you count the first three letters of the title of this thread. First, Garnetallisar. Where is he, and what has he been up to? I understand the guilt trip he's been on, but the elves are back now. Second, there is also the unresolved matter of the fate of Josidiah Starym and the Ary'Faern'Kerym. And third, I *still* want to know what those thirteen pyramids under Ascore are for; anything I make up is going to feel contrived, because I'm sure Ed had a reason for putting them there. The association with the thirteen princes of Shade that I've seen elsewhere on these forums makes sense, but it doesn't explain the details; what the pyramids are actually *for*. I know... NDA! NDA! NDA! It seems that if it's a really interesting and unusual part of the Realms pre-Spellplague, there's an NDA inhibiting its development. NDAs are the *real* reason there was supposedly nothing left to explore in the Realms as they were... that, and an apparent unwillingness to publish any work that might have been done on the regions affected by said NDAs... like the aforementioned pyramids, or the mythal cities other than Myth Drannor (Myth Lharast and Myth Adofaer in particular). Anyway, this is getting dangerously close to a rant, and I really need sleep. Good night all, and I'll be back when I'm rested and happy...er.  |
| 12 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Razz |
Posted - 07 Oct 2008 : 19:41:01
quote:
Originally posted by Jakk
 Thank you, George. Both for calming me down and inspiring me. See my new thread on the Spellplague. 
(Well, actually, it was the good night's sleep that inspired me. But still, thanks for calming me down. NDAs still irritate me, but not nearly as much now, knowing that they're not the reason for my lack of Realmslore.)
I'm guessing that there's no chance of the cut material appearing in anything printed now, so I'll have to get that subscription to D&D Insider that I've been avoiding, right? 
I know how you feel myself and I do understand that what isn't given by Ed or anyone else is usually as a plot hook for imaginative DMs. That's very wise to do to encourage DMs to, well, do their job unlike that of which a certain edition of D&D isn't allowing DMs to really do anymore.
But it's also a double-edge sword. I personally think it unfair that should said DMs do create their own answers and material, they will feel rather cheated and trite when official wording is eventually released and springing some confusion on their FR campaign worlds. Of course, this means nothing if the FR DM doesn't follow most canon in the Realms anyway, but there are quite a number of FR DMs that like to stay as close to canon as possible, with only tweaking if absolutely necessary (I'm one such DM, personally). |
| Jakk |
Posted - 26 Sep 2008 : 23:03:08
Regarding my last comment here: I have a post from "those other boards" that sums it up quite nicely:
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=817656
And *that* is why I'm not following canon, because canon insists on following the powergamers. 'Nuff said. [/rant] |
| Jakk |
Posted - 24 Sep 2008 : 23:46:17
The safehold in the Speculum is a neat thought. I'm assuming that those of us who read the novels will find out in due course... since it clearly won't be appearing in a game supplement, if it's not in the Campaign Guide, from what I've heard about Wizbro's planned publishing schedule. Why is less lore better?
I think that the new generation of Dungeon Masters have forgotten (or never learned) that they, not the players, are in control of the game. If the DM is intimidated by the amount of reading material, he or she just has to tell the players, "what you read may not be the truth, even if it's in an 'official' FR book." The same thing for everything else that got tra- er, changed with the new edition: just because all these powerful NPCs exist, doesn't mean they're going around solving everybody's problems for them. Of course, this has been stated time after time in book after book, but the DMs just don't get it. If these characters are too powerful, then DON'T INCLUDE THEM IN YOUR CAMPAIGN! Just because they exist, doesn't mean the PCs can find them. Besides which, 4E seems to be written with the idea in mind that the PCs should be the focus of the entire world. They should be the focus of the campaign, yes, but of the world? Preposterous! No matter how good your stats are at first level, you're still first level, and if the world doesn't have heroes better than you at that time, then it's been overrun by evil and you don't have a chance no matter how powerful you get. I'm rehashing stuff I've seen all over these boards, and this rant got off topic. Sorry.
Back to my original point: I would much rather buy a sourcebook packed with Realmslore every month or two than pony up money for an e-zine subscription whose content may only have a 50% chance of being useful to me. [/rant] |
| althen artren |
Posted - 22 Sep 2008 : 21:39:04
I always assumed Josidiah somehow teleported into the Speculum and entered the
Safehold there. Why and awaiting what I don't know. But I have heard that
pocket dimension before, I think somewhere here in the forums. |
| Jakk |
Posted - 22 Sep 2008 : 00:41:07
Althen... in response to your mention of Josidiah and the Artblade, I have a theory... it's not mine; I saw it in another post either here or on the Wizards boards (can't remember where now), but I liked it so much that I used it (with some tweaks) for my own storyline.
Briefly: All non-canon: The magical explosion that destroyed the yugoloths besieging the School of Wizardry and left no trace of Josidiah or the Artblade killed Josidiah, but shunted his spirit (now a baelnorn) and the Artblade into a pocket plane. The struggle over the Weave between Shar and Mystra in 1385 caused the pocket plane to be re-absorbed by the Prime, depositing Josidiah and the Artblade back at the ruins of the School of Wizardry in Myth Drannor, where the Coronal is alerted by similar wards to those triggered by the Warblade's return. As to who in particular finds the Artblade and the Warblade, that's up to you; I picked a couple of elf PCs from an old campaign I helped DM; a big thank you to the players for allowing the DMs to keep copies of the character sheets after campaign wrap-up. I like keeping good PCs around for NPC purposes. The campaign I'm playing in now is run by one of my players from the last 2nd Edition campaign I DM'ed, and it's neat to see the occasional familiar face in Waterdeep or Cormyr. Yes, we're playing 3.5 rules with some tweaks from the Pathfinder beta rules. |
| althen artren |
Posted - 22 Sep 2008 : 00:07:54
I've looked at the maps for Netheril and have seen names of cities
in 1 ed Anauroch and Arcane Age myself, and some cities that Ed names in the forums don't
match ANYTHING printed (even on that great map in GHTtR), so information
is being withheld. Sucks with big S. Gues I have to make it up myself,
I won't buy the $ed Realms book.
I am in my last proofread for something I am turning in here. Keep an eye out,
I want somebody to read it.
|
| Jakk |
Posted - 21 Sep 2008 : 22:01:28
I suspect that all of the good stuff is there... seeing as how WotC lost its interest in "fluff" when Hasbro took over. And particularly now that they are supposedly only publishing two books per setting, why do they need to keep all this lore hidden from us? Their own publication schedule says that they aren't going to use it. Of course, it *may* find its way into D&D Insider... but I'm not going to pay for a subscription to possibilities and chances. I would quite happily pay for the kind of book that WotC claims there is no market for, and I suspect that many others in Candlekeep feel the same way. It sounds to me like a case of blindly ignoring market research, or just not doing it in the first place, but that's the kind of behavior that "Dilbert" has conditioned us to expect from management.
As for the High Ice, my theory is that most of what's under there is the former Inner Sea... that's where all the ice came from. The restored geography of Netheril is just about the only thing I'm keeping from the 4E Realms, and I'm getting the geography from my old Arcane Age material, because I refuse to pay money for anything 4th Edition Realms, but I have enough respect for copyright law that I won't download the books either. The only books I have electronic copies of are books that I bought in hardcopy, and the only reason I downloaded them was because the indices are either lame or nonexistent apart from the 3E FRCS. Apparently, advertising was more important than telling us what page to find things on. All things considered, that's a pretty minor thing to be my only complaint about 3E Realms... apart from the *total lack* of published material on Cormyr, the Western Heartlands, Amn, and Tethyr outside of snippets included in the GHotR. If that last megamodule trilogy had been three *sourcebooks* with those titles, they would have been worth buying. As it was, the holes in the module plots have already been done to death by other posters, so I won't take this rant there.
Done. Rant over.  |
| althen artren |
Posted - 21 Sep 2008 : 17:58:22
Spells stilled, Jakk:
I echo your frustration. There are a great many things I would like to
work on also: the crypts of Uvaeren, Josidiah and the Artblade,
Nezras the Traitor, the Nomad of Scars, I would like the map that
Wotc has of the areas around Myth Drannor that Ed supplied they so I can develope
suburbs and close adventurers, the minerals under Myth Drannor, the fate of the Starym
after they left Myth Drannor, the frozen cities under the High Ice. I think it is a **** crying shame that we are denied great material due to the "chance" that an author might need something in the future.
I would much have the material for my writing and my Realms, and let the published
Realms go where they may. Seeing as how they have and I no longer have an interest in
95% of future stuff I feel greatly cheated.
Can you imagine what is on the cutting room floor |
| Jakk |
Posted - 21 Sep 2008 : 09:39:45
When NDAs are used properly, I have no problem with them... it's when they don't get lifted after a product's cancellation that it gets annoying, and I've heard several accounts of that happening throughout the lifetime of the Realms back to the TSR days. Once an NDA is no longer applicable, it needs to be marked as such, so that the information (if there is any) can be made available to the community. For instance, the info about the red pyramids that was cut from Lost Empires... I'd *love* to see that... maybe as a Web enhancement for LEoF? Pretty please? Just don't convert the stats to 4E, please. (Not doing so makes life easier for all of us, really.)  Of course, now that 3E is no longer officially supported, it just isn't going to happen... is it?  |
| Erik Scott de Bie |
Posted - 21 Sep 2008 : 01:56:45
Not to disparage being frustrated by NDAs or anything, but I have at times been *encouraged* by seeing NDAs out there about something I'm just dying to know--it means that someone (usually Ed) *is indeed* or at least *has a good chance of* writing something that will address said issues.
But I totally sympathize!
Cheers |
| Jakk |
Posted - 20 Sep 2008 : 18:47:38
Thank you, George. Both for calming me down and inspiring me. See my new thread on the Spellplague.
(Well, actually, it was the good night's sleep that inspired me. But still, thanks for calming me down. NDAs still irritate me, but not nearly as much now, knowing that they're not the reason for my lack of Realmslore.)
I'm guessing that there's no chance of the cut material appearing in anything printed now, so I'll have to get that subscription to D&D Insider that I've been avoiding, right? |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 20 Sep 2008 : 13:29:08
Jakk, you're getting all riled up over ... well ... nothing.
Your first two 'issues', namely the fate of both Garnet and Josidiah Starym are not hideen from you by NDAs or other such things, they are quite simply dangling realmslore plot hooks left there on purpose for people to do with what they will. Steven and Ed are famous for dotting their writings with them and Eric Boyd is famous again for stitching them together in wonderful tapestries of unfolding realmslore (as well as leaving behind his fair share as well ...). There is no answer to your queries, their stories have not been told as yet - by Ed or anyone.
As for the 13 pyramids of Ascore I can tell you that LEoF had an update on what they were and what was happening to them by who but this got cut from the product. Again, not to 'hide' this realmslore from the fanbase but because what had been written about them was new, not linked in any significant way to previous realmslore on Netheril and, speaking personally, the development of that little bit of realmslore didn't do much to float my boat. The Netheril section of LEoF received a pretty significant re-write. Again, that leaves a dangling FR plot hook for the fans.
Oh, and whilst Ed would very easily be able to tell you about Garnet, Josidiah and the pyramids of Ascore, he likely won't. Not because he wants to hide anything from you but because he recognises a good realmslore hook when he sees one and never opines or dabbles needlessly. For indeed there is no reason to provide the in depth treatment those hooks would deserve. They serve better as vehicles for FR DMs imaginations throughout the FR community when they remain mysterious and undetailed. Also, all three 'hooks' are not of Ed's creation and he has no 'stuff in the basement' on them specifically (well, maybe on the Ascore pyramids but I'm pretty sure they are a creation of Paul Jaquays).
So, no need to get all worked up - channel that energy into doing some writing on those topics and come up with good reamslore to share with us all. After all, every bit of good realmslore was made up by someone, somewhen.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go make up some stuff about Impiltur.
-- George Krashos
|
|
|
