D&D 5E Per Ed Greenwood, Halruaa survived the Spellplague

Well, as Ed explained it to me at a recent convention, Halruaan magical shields went up, making teleportation and scrying impossible and clouding most divination magic into chaotic uselessness . . . and when the Spellplague hit, many Halruaans died went magic briefly "went wild" and structures collapsed, in-flight effects failed and gravity took over, active magics turned chaotic, and so on. At the same time, many wizards went insane or got brain-burned or were killed when caught in their own spells going chaotic . . . and a lot of the surviving Halruaans assumed the realm was under attack and cast or activated all of their appropriate "rainy day" defenses - - so MORE shields went up, many of them twisted or going wild as time passed . . . so Halruaa was effectively cut off from the rest of Faerûn. And caught in mid-dimensional segueing between Abeir and Toril (and not the entire country as a neat whole unit, but bits and pieces of it in a very localized fashion). Which in turn meant more wild magic and the leakage of other magics from elsewhere through it, and MORE defensive spellcasting, and . . . an increasing "no go zone" from the POV of those nearby in Toril.So it doesn't so much "blink" as it disappears into/behind impenetrable mists of tangled magic (old comics readers, think of all of those weird panels drawn in elder Doctor Strange issues), for a time.
To emerge with many structures devastated (think of many World War II cities after heavy bombing), the populace scattered, weary, and wary . . . and even more determined to be isolationalist.
Have I got it right, THO? Ed?

Click to expand...

Yes, indeed, Wooly.
And I've actually stepped back into the Keep to bring Ed's words in response to this from Irennan: "Oh, so that means that Halruaa actually survived the Spellplague. Well, that's much needed good news. Has all the crazy magic stuff altered Halruaan society, leading people to rely on something else next to magic (especially in the time where the remaining wizards would try to learn to use the new Weave-less magic)? And may we get some hint (probably NDA) on how Halruaa looks now (after -I guess- its people rebuilt what was destroyed), and what has changed with the return of the Weave?" and to MaskedOne's followups. Here's Ed:

Yes, Halruaa survived the Spellplague, and Malcolm relayed what I said very accurately. Yes, all the magical chaos has shattered Halruaan society, in that their "usual ways" and attitudes have been swept away, and every family is questioning their status quo (laws, customs, reliance on magic, assumptions about their place in the world). There was much loss of life, a lot of fear and paranoia, and so as the result of the return of the Weave, a lot of hard work went into variants and "improvements" on the guards and wards spell, placing it permanently in various dwellings (most new Halruaan dwellings look like fortresses, and are readily defensible) and in "rings" around the land (food gardens, ponds, orchards, etc.) immediately surrounding those dwellings. A favorite Halruaan tactic is to have prowling guardian creatures hiding inside thick conjured fogs/mists, so intruders can't see what's approaching and/or watching them. Halruaa no longer has any formal contact with the outside world, so many folk elsewhere in Faerûn may think it is a fallen, abandoned land. And it does have numerous wild magic "zones" along its borders, moved and kept there by the strongest surviving Halruaan spellcasters, as a deterrent to outsiders. Right now, Halruaa is definitely in "leave us alone, nothing to see here, so move along, right away" mode.


So saith Ed. Imparting Realmslore whenever he can.
love to all,
THO

Click to expand...

Blackwarder said:

Whooooo, nice! I can see steering my players to toward it, thinking that they are going to loot a fallen empire and run smack into the surviving Halruaan.

Click to expand...

sanishiver said:

A couple links to the Candlekeep.com forums with the relevant info, as relayed by the mysterious Hooded One (THO):

http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19841&whichpage=4#463287



Note the above was posted by a user named Malcolm, but then confirmed by THO.

http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19841&whichpage=6#464546



What do you think?

Me? I like it, because the style suggests that the content of the 4E FRCS isn't written from an omnicscient point of view, but from a "this is what the world thought it knew at the time, and not all of it was true."

This bodes well for the deities of the Realms, methinks, who may not in fact be aspects of other deities, etc. I'm curious to see what happened to Lantan as well.

Click to expand...

sanishiver said:

What do you think?

Click to expand...

1. "We need to bring an apocalypse here! It'll be fun!"
2. "BOOM! EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED FOREVER. SO MUCH ACTION!"
3. "...wait, why is everyone yelling about how the change is bad and doesn't make sense and..."
4. "Wow. People aren't big fans of this."
5. "....maybe things haven't change so much always in every place? It's okay, your favorite thing is still around!"
6. "Okay, there's a few little differences, but this is basically the same FR it's always been!"
7. "Great, all of this stuff is still true."
8. "...man, FR is stale and has too much history and context. Maybe we just need to start fresh!"

Rejuvenator said:

This might be a newbie question, but why couldn't D&D do for Forgotten Realms what J. J. Abram's Star Trek did for the original Star Trek? At least as an "official option".

Click to expand...