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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6361 Posts

Posted - 27 Oct 2019 :  08:42:29  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I think you and George may have added a few dates in there, or I am misremembering my GHoTR.

My bad about the founding date. The north-south migration in a sourcebook probably founded ruathym first. Then the land migration detailed by Ed in his thread probably founded illusk and kept going to ruathym. Then George's south to north migration could have come at an earlier or later date (it was a lot longer).

I'm glad I didn't miss any other dates though, I still see no activity from ruathym until a few thousand years later to settle the nearby islands which definitely needs a reason to justify the isolation and inactivity of a bunch of supposed seafaring nomads.

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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore

Australia
6666 Posts

Posted - 27 Oct 2019 :  12:44:41  Show Profile Send George Krashos a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison

I think you and George may have added a few dates in there, or I am misremembering my GHoTR.

My bad about the founding date. The north-south migration in a sourcebook probably founded ruathym first. Then the land migration detailed by Ed in his thread probably founded illusk and kept going to ruathym. Then George's south to north migration could have come at an earlier or later date (it was a lot longer).

I'm glad I didn't miss any other dates though, I still see no activity from ruathym until a few thousand years later to settle the nearby islands which definitely needs a reason to justify the isolation and inactivity of a bunch of supposed seafaring nomads.



I'm on it!

-- George Krashos

"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6361 Posts

Posted - 27 Oct 2019 :  13:58:56  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Excellent news.

Interesting to note the arkauins migrated a few decades after the Rus, makes the Shattering even more likely to be just before 0 dr

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6361 Posts

Posted - 27 Oct 2019 :  17:17:20  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
As for yggdrasils child. I don't intend to link the two trees at all as I don't really bother with planescape lore.

However, I think it has yet to be determined what an arakhor really is. I know they are enormous trees with an extra planar origin, and I know they are used as guardians by the creator races and the elves.
I don't really get how a huge tree can function as a guardian, they aren't exactly known for mobility or offensive weapons.

So what if the enormous trees defend their charge using a rather unique defence mechanism. What if they open one way portals to far off planes whenever anyone disturbs them.
We know the grandfather tree has portals to help beneath it (or had), they could have become two way portals when the energies of holgate keep corrupted it. Yggdrasils child presumably had some portal like abilities (otherwise why make the link, there are lots of big trees on faerun).

Just a thought. I imagine the faeree created the first arakhora (I picture it being grown more than created), the eladrin are know for planar wanderings, the seldarine also got around a lot (and they were fey). Is it not possibly that yggdrasil and these arakhora share an ancient common origin and creator, thus making them very distant cousins.

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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer

USA
2067 Posts

Posted - 27 Oct 2019 :  17:41:42  Show Profile  Visit ericlboyd's Homepage Send ericlboyd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
This is what I have for a sidebar in Crown of Eaerlann. Note, I'm still debating whether to keep the language around the Host Tower or not. Arguably it contradicts existing lore.

===

Arakhora
“Arakhor” is an Elven term that translates loosely as "one who protects the forest," or "tree warden." Akin in some respects to nature elementals, the arakhora drew life, energy, and intelligence from the forest in which they dwelt and gave back a forest's energy by serving as a caretaker and guardian. Writings preserved from the height of Aryvandaar by the church of Labelas Enoreth suggest that the arakhora were a form of elder treant, perhaps the progenitors of the treant race in its modern form. The last known living arakhor is the Grandfather Tree, located in the northwestern reaches of the High Forest. Aside from the arakhor stump on the western bank of the Unicorn Run, the only other known arakhor, living or dead, is the petrified arakhor that has been transformed into the Hostower of the Arcane in Luskan. (Other sources indicate that it is nothing of the sort, but is a dwarf-built edifice.) The legendary giant king, Tark of Thundercloud Keep, is said to have felled the arakhor by the Unicorn Run after his cloud castle got tangled in the arakhor’s upper branches.

===

--
http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6361 Posts

Posted - 27 Oct 2019 :  17:58:32  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Keep the contradictions in. As long as its preceded by an ambiguous inference then it's not a definitive truth and you can say what you like. I often precede deliberately incorrect statements with "sages believe" and then print the truth later so that skim readers get one version that is only partly true and dedicated fans get the whole truth later (I loved the revelations hidden in the old 2e books and have tried to imitate that).

Good stuff on the arakhor by the way, it makes an already hotly anticipated project even more exciting.

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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer

USA
2067 Posts

Posted - 27 Oct 2019 :  19:35:17  Show Profile  Visit ericlboyd's Homepage Send ericlboyd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
As for how they work, look at spirit of the land in MM2, page 189. The way I wrote it up is that the Grandfather Tree can create an advanced 60 HD spirit of the land at will (one at a time).


--
http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/

Edited by - ericlboyd on 27 Oct 2019 22:27:21
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6361 Posts

Posted - 27 Oct 2019 :  21:42:57  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I shall look that up tomorrow. My initial thought is, is that power enough to defend whatever they were placed atop from whoever's might be seeking it. If the answer is no then that should be just the first of many abilities an arakhora possess.

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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11830 Posts

Posted - 27 Oct 2019 :  22:27:05  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Hmmm, I hadn't really thought about grandfather tree being a portal nexus, but yeah, I guess it would fit. I also like Eric's assumption that it works like a spirit of the land from the 3e monster manual 2. It might be interesting if it could give the woodling template to any being that does something …. maybe since Yggdrasil's Child is about runes being put on it, maybe if someone carves their name in its trunk they can take on the woodling template (carving their name requiring some special tools, possibly attuned to them via some odd process).

On the idea of their having been a similar tree on the unicorn run that was cut down.... maybe this wood was used by Netherese in construction of portals and other magic items. A similar tree down in the Yuirwood makes sense to me as well, given that there are known to be gates there as well (via their menhir circles, but perhaps these circles are drawing upon the power of a hidden tree). Maybe another down near durpar/Ulgarth in the Ajmer Forest which might explain the Viking type influences in said area (i.e. norse temples nearby, Ulgarth nearby and maybe the "northmen" that came down to the Utter East were pursuing rumors of some sort tied to a tree similar to the one in Ruathym). In fact, if there was a tree in the Ajmer and it had been harvested from and used to construct the portal that the Arkaiun came through and the portal in Shandalaur in Ashanath that the Rus came through... maybe that can fit with its malfunctioning. The people that inhabit Ulgarth are probably at least partly drawn from the Illuskan bloodlines that came through and were raiding Mulhorand for a while as well.

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6361 Posts

Posted - 28 Oct 2019 :  06:25:46  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well the rune carving bit is definitely magic and I chose to associate it with weave anchors (like the nether scrolls) so someone made this tree a weave anchor at some point in its history, I'm guessing while it was still alive, probably the sarrukh baetith.

And when it comes to the portal bit, I was thinking more along the lines of, something beats the first line of defence (spirit of the land) of the arakhora, perhaps they manage to avoid the arakhora smacking them to bits (ala whomping willow), they get beneath the tree to its roots where whatever it is protecting lies and it randomly opens a portal for a split second beneath the feet of an intruder and chucks them into some random place on the planes. Maybe it can only do this once every so often, but it would still be difficult to avoid and very effective (and explains the presence of portals near so many of these dead trees.

Of course it could be a bit more complicated and perhaps you have to accidentally touch a root to trigger a portal. Hellgate Keep and its energy fallout corrupted that in the grandfather tree and opened up a portal to the nine hells.

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Edited by - Gary Dallison on 28 Oct 2019 09:41:28
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6361 Posts

Posted - 28 Oct 2019 :  20:59:16  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Wow, a spirit of the land is ass kickingly hard, there isnt much going to get past one of them.

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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer

USA
2067 Posts

Posted - 28 Oct 2019 :  21:20:23  Show Profile  Visit ericlboyd's Homepage Send ericlboyd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I never had a reason to use one and then I realized it was perfect.

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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/
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