| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Zeromaru X |
Posted - 29 Dec 2021 : 01:14:19
I've always believed the sharn were formerly the elves of Miyeritar, that were transformed by some spell gone wrong. However, reading about it, it seems like the elves actually summoned the Sharn-liquid, that then subsumed the elves or something like that.
The point is, the elves of Miyeritar didn't become the first Sharn, they just were the first ones in the Realms to be consumed by them.
This makes me wonder what is the actual origin of the Sharn. I know 4e has one (Ecology of the Sharn, Dragon 373), but is there any other origin story in earlier sources? |
| 11 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| PattPlays |
Posted - 04 Jan 2022 : 03:34:29
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
quote:
Originally posted by Steven Schend
quote:
Originally posted by PattPlays
More Sharn lore this century? Exciting! It's not hard to get sucked into the lore of the Sharn when your players are bouncing about the Fallen Kingdoms on-top of the Sharnlands and with Miyeritar right there. I absolutely fell in love with the Tri-Crowned rumor. Sharn are the chaotic neutral wonder-monster I've always wanted. It gets difficult relying solely on Slaad for that role in stories.
Oh sure, now you've thrown out a rumor I've no memory of and it'll cost me a half-day to chase down and reconcile with what I'm writing! Argh! Curses for me waiting 10+ years to actually write this stuff down before note fragments…
SES
You haven't lost it Steven. I wrote that rumor in Under Illefarn Anew.
--Eric
And I cherish that information! I've been tasked by my party to entertain them in the near-ruins of Secomber and so I've got to put stuff in where there's nothing to pull from. Homemade layout of Ameilor Amanitas's tower with no reference, fill in an abandoned dwarven hold with an untraced clan name, and now my grand task of installing a dungeon complex beneath the Lord's Tower on the west hill of Secomber.
I'm putting in a puzzle with a crude depiction of a Sharn with three square holes where the heads are (all nine arms present on the wall-art) and many fitting tiles of various fantasy societies. Put elf dwarf and human in the wall's slots and gain access to a vault that dates back to the fall of Phalorm and became lost and rediscovered and lost again.
The story of the Fallen Heirs fusing into a Sharn and being the mad inheritor of Pharlorm is fascinating and I had to tease it in the dungeon. Phalorm itself seems almost mythical and frightfully forgettable when it's bunched up with all these other realms in the vale.
Plus if the party takes a side quest to walk a frustrated half-elf to Moorsedge they could possibly find a Stone Tablet describing the Sharn Inheritor in more detail. For now I'm content to have a section of The Voices of the Lost on one of the walls of this grand elf-dwarf-human vault beneath Lord's Hill with the word "Forlorn" scratched into the word "Pharlornn". .. As well as some cultists prying loose the forgotten treasures of these human lords and claiming a Dlardrageth Candle of Invocation. Seemed like a nice trophy a lord could have claimed in the past thousand years. Secomber is old as CRAP. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 03 Jan 2022 : 16:00:52
To add to that idea... the sharn may not have acted during the Netherese-Phaerimm conflict because they may not have had the numbers/power to make a difference. Only AFTER the two started winnowing away their numbers against one another might it have become possible for the sharn to really affect the situation without fear of disastrous vengeance being turned upon them. For all we know, the Netherese killed some really powerful Phaerimm, and in the vacuum of that power the Sharn saw the moment to strike. |
| Steven Schend |
Posted - 03 Jan 2022 : 15:34:58
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison
In Anauroch they let Netheril get destroyed, they let the desert spread, they let the survivor states fall, and then finally as the Phaerimm seem about to spread out of Anauroch they turn up, fight the Phaerimm and lock them away. Seems a bit uncharacteristic to me, the Phaerimm were a threat right from the start but completely ignored until they were headed towards the Dalelands of all places (it seems like the Phaerimm always headed east away from the sharn areas probably because they were scared).
In my mind (and mental FR continuity), the sharn didn't fight the phaerimm when they destroyed Netheril because they viewed Netheril in the same destructive and power-mad light that drove them to their state—They saw Netheril and its abuses of power on many levels as equivalent to the madness of the Vyshaan elves. |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 03 Jan 2022 : 03:11:15
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison
One thing that always struck me was the Sharn in the High Forest and the Sharn in Anauroch seemed very different, so much so that i personally treat them as though they came from different stock.
Sharn in Undermountain and High Forest seemed very enigmatic and standoffish.
In Anauroch they let Netheril get destroyed, they let the desert spread, they let the survivor states fall, and then finally as the Phaerimm seem about to spread out of Anauroch they turn up, fight the Phaerimm and lock them away. Seems a bit uncharacteristic to me, the Phaerimm were a threat right from the start but completely ignored until they were headed towards the Dalelands of all places (it seems like the Phaerimm always headed east away from the sharn areas probably because they were scared).
No, it's when the lifedrain spells threatened Evereska that the sharn acted.
-- George Krashos |
| ericlboyd |
Posted - 02 Jan 2022 : 23:23:04
quote:
Originally posted by Steven Schend
quote:
Originally posted by PattPlays
More Sharn lore this century? Exciting! It's not hard to get sucked into the lore of the Sharn when your players are bouncing about the Fallen Kingdoms on-top of the Sharnlands and with Miyeritar right there. I absolutely fell in love with the Tri-Crowned rumor. Sharn are the chaotic neutral wonder-monster I've always wanted. It gets difficult relying solely on Slaad for that role in stories.
Oh sure, now you've thrown out a rumor I've no memory of and it'll cost me a half-day to chase down and reconcile with what I'm writing! Argh! Curses for me waiting 10+ years to actually write this stuff down before note fragments…
SES
You haven't lost it Steven. I wrote that rumor in Under Illefarn Anew.
--Eric |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 02 Jan 2022 : 20:43:35
One thing that always struck me was the Sharn in the High Forest and the Sharn in Anauroch seemed very different, so much so that i personally treat them as though they came from different stock.
Sharn in Undermountain and High Forest seemed very enigmatic and standoffish.
In Anauroch they let Netheril get destroyed, they let the desert spread, they let the survivor states fall, and then finally as the Phaerimm seem about to spread out of Anauroch they turn up, fight the Phaerimm and lock them away. Seems a bit uncharacteristic to me, the Phaerimm were a threat right from the start but completely ignored until they were headed towards the Dalelands of all places (it seems like the Phaerimm always headed east away from the sharn areas probably because they were scared). |
| Steven Schend |
Posted - 02 Jan 2022 : 20:06:03
quote:
Originally posted by PattPlays
More Sharn lore this century? Exciting! It's not hard to get sucked into the lore of the Sharn when your players are bouncing about the Fallen Kingdoms on-top of the Sharnlands and with Miyeritar right there. I absolutely fell in love with the Tri-Crowned rumor. Sharn are the chaotic neutral wonder-monster I've always wanted. It gets difficult relying solely on Slaad for that role in stories.
Oh sure, now you've thrown out a rumor I've no memory of and it'll cost me a half-day to chase down and reconcile with what I'm writing! Argh! Curses for me waiting 10+ years to actually write this stuff down before note fragments…
SES |
| PattPlays |
Posted - 31 Dec 2021 : 03:46:37
quote:
Originally posted by Steven Schend
Thanks, George; perfect summation, buddy.
There's a lot of hidden lore buried among the flashbacks in BLACKSTAFF that flesh out the Sharn and what I'd intended with them. They're Ed's creation as per Ruins of Undermountain (the original box) but I'd been playing with them off and on throughout my FR work.
Now if I can just get around to finishing an article or 17, I'll perhaps have more lore on sharn, Rhymanthiin, Miyeritar, and the like for the new year. We'll have to hope I do better at focusing my time and energy than I did this year…
Steven
More Sharn lore this century? Exciting! It's not hard to get sucked into the lore of the Sharn when your players are bouncing about the Fallen Kingdoms on-top of the Sharnlands and with Miyeritar right there. I absolutely fell in love with the Tri-Crowned rumor. Sharn are the chaotic neutral wonder-monster I've always wanted. It gets difficult relying solely on Slaad for that role in stories. |
| Zeromaru X |
Posted - 29 Dec 2021 : 17:20:20
Thanks for answering. I'm going to check the entry in Cormanthyr. |
| Steven Schend |
Posted - 29 Dec 2021 : 03:05:20
Thanks, George; perfect summation, buddy.
There's a lot of hidden lore buried among the flashbacks in BLACKSTAFF that flesh out the Sharn and what I'd intended with them. They're Ed's creation as per Ruins of Undermountain (the original box) but I'd been playing with them off and on throughout my FR work.
Now if I can just get around to finishing an article or 17, I'll perhaps have more lore on sharn, Rhymanthiin, Miyeritar, and the like for the new year. We'll have to hope I do better at focusing my time and energy than I did this year…
Steven |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 29 Dec 2021 : 01:45:39
Cormanthyr (p.22): Steven Schend always intended that the ninety dark elf wizards noted in the Dark Disaster section were the first sharn. Unable to defeat the Vyshaan killing storm, the three High Mages sacrificed themselves in a ritual to save their companions. These are the "elder" sharn that are sometimes noted in the sources. After that, the sharn would absorb other individuals in similar straits throughout the history of the North - with all races included: centaurs, dwarves, humans, et. al., even likely some humanoids such as orcs and their ilk - creating new, lesser sharn. Some of these lesser sharn were returned to life and their previous forms in the ritual that created Rhymanthiin.
Sharn lore has been played with by many creators since and the original genesis idea has becomes somewhat blurred. That's the Realms for you.
-- George Krashos |
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