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unseenmage
Seeker
61 Posts |
 Posted - 21 Sep 2017 : 07:48:46
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What is the safest settlement in Faerun, on the planet even, to spend the entirety of its history?
Am making an immortality plus time travel plan and I need to know the safest places that are the least impacted by plot based shenaniganery.
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Flying monkeys will eat your eyes. |
Edited by - unseenmage on 21 Sep 2017 14:02:41
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2017 : 14:38:38
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Nowhere is truly "safe". We've already seen the Toril and Abeir smashed together and split asunder. Mystra gets killed and everything blows up into magical chaos every time WotC rolls out a new edition, lol.
The "safest" places would probably be nearby characters like Elminster and Drizzt. They might have to endure hardships but they'll never get killed off, they're functionally immortal. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Adhriva
Learned Scribe
USA
147 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2017 : 15:56:40
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quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
The "safest" places would probably be nearby characters like Elminster and Drizzt. They might have to endure hardships but they'll never get killed off, they're functionally immortal.
Yea, THEY might not get killed off but have you ever actually traveled with a protagonist in a story? Not that safe. Wearing a red security tunic on an exploratory spelljammer has longer life expectancy than the average protagonist tag-along - at least you know when you're called on stage you're going to die. |
Professional illustrator and comic book artist.
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2017 : 16:18:06
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Probably Suzail - it even says in the FRA that its one of the safest, most peaceful cities in Faerūn.
Of course, that was written before the Cormyr trilogy of novels, but I still don't think Suzail itself was affected overmuch.
The other would be any place in Lurien... BEFORE the Spellplague. Nothing interesting ever happened there until that (and that wasn't all that interesting either, just TOTAL). |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 21 Sep 2017 16:19:26 |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2017 : 16:55:44
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But part of the appeal of these particular characters is their predictably sappy loyalty to their companions!
Red shirts can skew the odds a lot by being chatty and resourceful ... and by bringing along more red shirts (preferably sullen, creepy, unlikeable, unattractive, incompetent, slow-moving, stupid, half-crippled ones).
Time travel security basically revolves around how temporal paradoxes are resolved. You could set up a "predestination paradox" (aka "causal loop" or "boot-strap paradox") in which the conditions needed to secure the past assert themselves from the future (or possible future). You could avoid the "consistency paradox" (aka "grandfather paradox") by presetting conditions which prevent any contact or any event able to cause contradiction.
You basically ask and answer the question of whether you prefer "time is eternal" or "time is a river".
In the first, the hand of time has already written (will write) all that ever was and ever will be, all is predetermined and unchangeable and invariant (in the "important" details, anyhow), perhaps some fundamental cosmic law/force or some omnipotent being/entity actively manipulates all events (and possible events) in ways which contrive to self-consistently and eternally keep all of time "intact", in simple terms it's just impossible to "break" time or create any kind of temporal paradox because it already has (and will) resolve all (im)possible "contradictions" within itself so such an occurrence is categorically impossible.
In the second, time creates various (nearly infinite) flows and eddies which sometimes move in "loops" or "streams" outside the main, these can (and have, and will) always change in countless ways while the general entirety of the "river of time" continues to flow uninterrupted. This approach has been favoured in the published game rules and lore, and it's a popularly (mis)understood interpretation of quantum theory towards "parallel-universe" or "multiverse" kinds of fiction. It's a philosophy which can accommodate both predetermination and free will (though not necessarily the will of one immortal time traveller because there's always other entities who can impose their own free will), small changes and small events (and their "loops" or "eddies") are sometimes absorbed into larger ones, and enough of these combined might possibly change or redirect the entire "predetermined" flow of time across all eternity (that is, across all actual and all possible eternities).
The "time is an arrow" analogy described and debated by ancient philosophers is unworkable and inapplicable when one is actually able to travel both ways through time.
It seems unlikely that you are a sort of chronomancer or timelord with real intention (and ability) to change the past. So my advice is simply pick whichever flavour of time travel best suits your narrative purposes. And don't be deluded into thinking any place in the Realms is "safe", lol. |
[/Ayrik] |
Edited by - Ayrik on 21 Sep 2017 17:23:50 |
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Starshade
Learned Scribe
Norway
279 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2017 : 17:19:45
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| Longsaddle. It's not a plot point anywhere, usually just a comic relief, a place where crazy wizards live and do stupid things most often seen in Harry Potter books. And they know Drizzt. |
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Bladewind
Master of Realmslore
Netherlands
1280 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2017 : 18:05:04
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I think in terms of the best defenses the Warlocks Crypt (Larloch's Keep on the fallen enclave of Sanctuary in the Troll Moors) is up there.
The seven 'taloned' wizardtowers combine to make a black (basalt?) castle around the courtyards and sectioned gardenwalls of the mansions of Orbedals/Sanctuaries architecture that survived the Fall. Its surrounding ruins are littered with necromantic curses, spellweb matrices and troll militia to scare away intruders.
In the past Sanctuary was highly anti-violence, and anti-weapon laws were kept to make the place truly stable for millennia. I think this mentality of peace and respite still survives in Larloch, so if you can see to his wishes you might find that his protection will be assured for a long time into the future. You just have to adjust to all the 'hospitality' of your new undead neighbours, as the lower courtyards are crawling with liches, vampires, wights and wraiths...
In terms of remoteness, I'd chose a nice little cottage/wizardtower behind a waterfall in any mountain range where you could still reach the odd caravan or range-farmer for supplies, like the Storm Horns northeast of Cormyr. |
My campaign sketches
Druidic Groves
Creature Feature: Giant Spiders |
Edited by - Bladewind on 21 Sep 2017 18:12:20 |
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Zeromaru X
Great Reader
Colombia
2482 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2017 : 20:13:25
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If you're searching for the most defensible city, you may want to read about Djerad Thymar. The city is not only a fortress defended by a highly trained military (the Lance Defenders, the respective clan warbands, and other military organizations such as the Platinum Cadre), but also every dragonborn citizen (and every non-dragonborn citizen raised by dragonborn) are well trained in combat, and will take up arms if the city is ever threatened. They are no common militia: they are an army.
Is like fighting against a city that has a 30000+ army. |
Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world... |
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2017 : 22:05:48
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quote:
Originally posted by Starshade
Longsaddle. It's not a plot point anywhere, usually just a comic relief, a place where crazy wizards live and do stupid things most often seen in Harry Potter books. And they know Drizzt.
Plenty of Harpells have perished there.  |
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sfdragon
Great Reader
2285 Posts |
Posted - 23 Sep 2017 : 08:10:16
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| and they ahve been born there too |
why is being a wizard like being a drow? both are likely to find a dagger in the back from a rival or one looking to further his own goals, fame and power
My FR fan fiction
Magister's GAmbit
http://steelfiredragon.deviantart.com/gallery/33539234 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11854 Posts |
Posted - 23 Sep 2017 : 12:29:31
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| Bezantur.... yeah... Bezantur... totally 100% safe.... yeah... trust me... |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 23 Sep 2017 : 12:46:59
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The safest places to be "in" the Realms are actually elsewhere. Extradimensional adjuncts, demiplanar estates, ethereal and inner-planar retreats. The most worldly and prized "immortal" characters of the Realms weather dangers "in" the Realms by whisking themselves away to some other-place "safehold", indeed the most "unkillable" of these characters have a variety of such "safeholds" to choose from, located both in and out of Realmspace proper.
Apocalyptic new-edition-rules or death-of-Mystra-interregna sometimes prevent access to extra-planar sorts of places, at least for a while (when they'd be most needed). But things always settle down into another stable "new order" and the "safety" of these other-places persists when viewed across larger scales of time. |
[/Ayrik] |
Edited by - Ayrik on 23 Sep 2017 12:50:16 |
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Gyor
Master of Realmslore
1625 Posts |
Posted - 23 Sep 2017 : 13:10:18
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| Currently, Skuld (I'm assuming it has returned or rebuilt), because who wants to pick a fight with a group of Gods directly. |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 23 Sep 2017 : 13:42:58
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| Mirt the Moneylender seems to do okay. A canny survivor of the Realms since even before it's inception, through every edition since, he always manages to find a way to keep himself well-fed in some quiet corner at the edge of the stage while the story moves on. He never really seems to be too prosperous for too long, yet always he prospers at least a little (and certainly he doesn't go hungry), sometimes his influence is pivotal on events of major consequence for the entire Realms (even though other characters receive all the attention). I don't know what old Mirt's got going for him, but he's onto something, you can't argue with success. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Veritas
Learned Scribe
209 Posts |
Posted - 25 Sep 2017 : 21:11:15
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Safest Corner of the Realms?
