| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Jakk |
Posted - 26 Sep 2008 : 22:58:56
Okay... first, how did the Warblade get from the vaults of Maerimydra to the surface? Any number of ways, to my thinking, since the city was blown up by the armies of Kurgoth Hellspawn and the "City of the Spider Queen" superadventure, but it would be nice to have a canon answer.
Second, do we know yet what's up with the Artblade in 4E Realms? According to canon, the Artblade was recovered by Josidiah Starym when he went looking for the Warblade. How he got it, I don't know. I'm suspecting that dragon hoards were involved, given the circumstances of its original loss.
My theory is that Josidiah traded Guenhwyvar to Edallisufanxar for the Artblade, and that somehow Edallisufanxar lost Guenhwyvar, whether by death, a clever thief, or some other process. I don't remember how Drizzt acquired Guenhwyvar, either; the last FR novels I read were the Dark Elf trilogy (Homeland, Exile, Sojourn) when they were new. It wasn't that they caused me to stop reading Realms fiction; I thought that they were excellent books. I just got into reading other things, and never got back to FR fiction.
As for the current location of the Artblade, given the new rules and the new state of the "canon" Realms, my guess is that, like the Art itself in so many ways, the Artblade is no more. Of course, my Realms have taken a different path, so it's not an issue for me. For the sake of completeness, however, it would be nice to know whither the Artblade, since the Warblade and Crownblade have now been returned to Myth Drannor. |
| 12 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Thieran |
Posted - 16 Aug 2009 : 22:39:51
That would be excellent!
Edit: I asked Richard Baker about the Warblade over at the WotC fora. I will let you know if/when he replies.
Second edit: Richard Baker replied promptly and advised me to ask Eric Boyd over here. |
| Jakk |
Posted - 16 Aug 2009 : 17:23:52
quote:
Originally posted by Thieran
Well met!
Alas, I am somehow afraid you are right about your suspicions...
By the way, I like the way, as you described above, how you handle your own campaign timeline and the 4E canon timeline... I was looking for something like that, so thanks for that!
 You're welcome. What's there is just the basic idea; I spent the first year of 4E complaining about what they did, and half-heartedly looking for alternatives... then something snapped back into place somewhere and I decided that all my energy was better used creatively than plaintively... and I'm sure that the mods and more than a few scribes here are thankful for that.  I'm working on hammering out the details now, and when I have something I like, I'll post it in a scroll here. |
| Thieran |
Posted - 16 Aug 2009 : 16:38:35
Well met!
Alas, I am somehow afraid you are right about your suspicions...
By the way, I like the way, as you described above, how you handle your own campaign timeline and the 4E canon timeline... I was looking for something like that, so thanks for that! |
| Jakk |
Posted - 16 Aug 2009 : 16:09:15
Thieran, your arguments are very well reasoned. I suspect you're correct on all counts... so let's hope for a reply from Eric, then... and maybe he can shed some light on the pre-Year of Doom travels of the Artblade as well... but I suspect [NDA]. |
| Thieran |
Posted - 16 Aug 2009 : 15:39:08
Hello Jakk, thanks for your reply and thoughts!
Personally, I think it is extremely likely that the designers simply hadn't decided that the blade is under the ruins of Maerimydra when City of the Spider Queen was published - which happened in September 2002, while Lost Empires of Faerūn was published in February 2005 only. As the CotSQ web enhancement was published more or less simultaneously with the adventure itself, it would have been very odd for them to add a second web enhancement to CotSQ more than two years after its publication, just to tell us about how to incorporate the warblade into the adventure, especially when they clearly had other plans for the blade for the canonical timeline.
An indication that an interpretation along these lines is correct is the fact that LEoF is supposed to give us the state of events at the time when LEoF was published, which was way after the events of CotSQ. In addition, if LEoF had meant to refer to Maerimydra just before the arrival of the PCs of CotSQ, it would have been a bit odd to state that the blade is under the ruins of Maerimydra - Kurgoth Hellspawn attacked the city only 35 days before the start of the adventure (in Daggerdale); not much time for the ruins to become proper ruins, if you understand what I mean.
All in all, I think the evidence is very much in favour of the blade's location still under Maerimydra after the events of CotSQ (up until at least the date of LEoF), with the absence of the blade from CotSQ to be explained by the early publication date of the latter, and the absence of a relevant web enhancement to be explained a) by the strong unlikelyhood of a web enhancement to be published so late after the original publication, and especially b) by the irrelevance and undesirability of the content.
So there is still the question who retrieved the Warblade, and I agree with you that it is likely that House Dhuurniv did so themselves, the exact means (and exact time) being unknown. I still hope we receive canonical answers from Mr Boyd... |
| Jakk |
Posted - 16 Aug 2009 : 01:19:30
Thieran, I would suspect that House Dhuurniv retrieved the Warblade themselves (or sent agents to do so on their behalf), and you could flip a coin as to whether it was retrieved before or after CotSQ... it would make more sense for the blade to have been retrieved while the PCs are on their way to Maerimydra in the early stages of the adventure, seeing as the blade isn't mentioned in the adventure, which means that either it was already gone by the time the PCs get to Maerimydra, or it had not yet been decided that the blade was there to begin with when the adventure went to press; but in the latter case, I would have expected (and hoped for) some mention of the Warblade in a Web enhancement for CotSQ. As for it being retrieved by someone else, that is also likely, given what little we know about Josidiah Starym and his acquisition of the Artblade apparently in exchange for Guenhwyvar (who later turns up as the companion of a certain drow). Curious... and probably two mysteries we will never receive canon answers for.  |
| Thieran |
Posted - 14 Aug 2009 : 10:29:03
quote:
Originally posted by sfdragon
well okay when the last arms major who wielded the warblase lost his life to the drow, the sword animated itself and defended its fallen master. with masive magic the drow subdued the blade and took it to their vault where it stayed until the shadow dale adventure book took place and the drow priests of lolth took it up to bribe the reigning coronal into a false peace or some such, and in the end, when the heroes came in and said veni vici whatever, took the blade. they are given a choice return the blade for a friend for life and maybe then some or keep it.
officially the blade was returned to myth drannor after the adventure through shadow dale
The problem is that as far as I know, it is not made clear how exactly House Dhuurniv came into the possession of the Warblade. Like Jakk, I also would like to have a canon answer. To obtain one, I posted this question in the Eric L. Boyd thread last year and again recently.
Lost Empires of Faerūn states that the Warblade was hidden in the ruins of Maerimydra; so it must have been retrieved after the fall of the city (and probably after the events of City of the Spider Queen as well, as the information in LEoF is probably meant to give the state of things of a later date).
Did House Dhuurniv retrieve the Warblade themselves, or did they obtain it after it had been retrieved by someone else (who came across it more accidentally)? There are many possibilities. |
| Jakk |
Posted - 29 Sep 2008 : 05:22:40
I suspect so... for my honest views on the matter with respect to canon, see the final paragraph of the first entry in this scroll. ;) |
| Vangelor |
Posted - 29 Sep 2008 : 04:56:09
I think it is intentional that at least one Elfblade remains unrecovered, its location a mystery, so that DMs have that hook to play with. Naturally, as the art of magic has changed in the wake of the Spellplague, it is the Artblade that is missing. Its return would indicate the People of Myth Drannor have succeeded in adapting to the new laws of magic to the point that Cormanthyr can be said to have been effectively re-established. Providing neither of the other two Elfblades have gone missing by then. ;) |
| Jakk |
Posted - 29 Sep 2008 : 04:40:21
Okay... for those who are interested, and haven't located the info for themselves, I've just done so; that megamodule trilogy *is* useful for some things after all...
In "Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land" (page 82), we learn that the Matron Sisters of House Dhuurniv of Maerimydra are in control of the Warblade, as it was brought to Maerimydra by the drow after the death of Lord Orym Hawksong in -331 DR. The Matron Sisters intend to exchange the Warblade for a commitment from the new Coronal to allow the drow to hold the Twisted Tower unchallenged, and this backfires, as a non-drow elf obtains the blade somehow. I still don't have those details yet, but I'm working on it. Any thoughts? |
| Jakk |
Posted - 28 Sep 2008 : 21:12:46
Thanks for the theories. I had the earlier info about the Warblade; just didn't include it for brevity. Thanks for including it all the same, because I didn't realize that the drow had brought the blade up as a bargaining chip, but it kind of makes sense... as much sense as anything else they've done in their 4E series of RSE's, anyway.
As far as the Artblade is concerned, I like option C. I'm a bit obstinate when it comes to change, and as far as I'm concerned, 4E Realms is a different world. Seeing as they're now saying that Abeir split off from Toril early on, I'm saying that the dissolution of the Weave (as temporary as it was in my timeline) caused Toril to split into two alternate realities, the first of which is the timeline of my group's campaigns (since we're not playing 4E anyway, and are already well past 1385 DR), the second of which follows the canon 4E timeline. I was going to just ignore 4E material entirely, but I don't see that as productive in the long term, if Wizbro decides that they've screwed up, so I'm giving them an out. Despite what I've said in some (most?) of my earlier posts, the last thing I want to see is the setting go belly-up just because somebody at Wizbro decided to listen to the Mystra-hating powergamers. And if the 4E Realms sell well, then Wizbro has proven their thesis: "If you tear it down, they will come." |
| sfdragon |
Posted - 27 Sep 2008 : 10:04:45
wait maybe i should just go copy my other post on this, i'd be quicker.
runs off
runs back
well okay when the last arms major who wielded the warblase lost his life to the drow, the sword animated itself and defended its fallen master. with masive magic the drow subdued the blade and took it to their vault where it stayed until the shadow dale adventure book took place and the drow priests of lolth took it up to bribe the reigning coronal into a false peace or some such, and in the end, when the heroes came in and said veni vici whatever, took the blade. they are given a choice return the blade for a friend for life and maybe then some or keep it.
officially the blade was returned to myth drannor after the adventure through shadow dale
as for the artblade in 4e.
well the last thing stated on the artblade is that the spell major used the high magic stored with in the gem on the artblade, and had white flame destroy themselves, the demons and devils, and the library or something.
the speculation on its description of one of its write ups is that it went to
a: dweomerheart
b: arvandor
the song tower and the ruleblade went to arvandor
and i dont see the artblade going to the dweomerheart so...
my opinions:
a:feywild
b: abeir
c:toril time shifted to the future or the past
the bottom line is that, it would depend on what high magic rituals was in its gem. |
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