Hiya!
Entirely possible. But, IME, people who slavishly follow a published campaign world (ex: Forgotten Realms) that 'advances the timeline' as novels, adventures, supplements, etc get published are more likely to poo-poo anyone who has a FR campaign that doesn't follow that meta-story. This is true for many hobbies, so it's more of a human thing than specific to fantasy settings for D&D, which is why I touched on the whole "divided community" thing. Looking at Star Wars, for example, fans have to accept the movies. All of them. They don't have to like them, and arguments of epic proportions can be found all around the net and elsewhere. But nobody can really say "Well, in MY Star Wars movie..."...because that's not how movies work. With a RPG setting/world/campaign, however, that is not true. When a company tries to market/make their "FRPG Campaign Setting" follow the same business model as a book/movie franchise...well...just look at the hot mess that FR was in for YEARS. Just about ever major upheaval in FR has been met with savage clashes of raving nerd-armies. To this very day we STILL see heated battles about this, that, or the other thing in regards to "which FR age is best/worst". Why? Again, IMNSHO, this is because TSR decided that a "living campaign" (re: advancing story line) was a GREAT idea! Publish novels and have things in those novels affect the RPG line. Publish video games and have stuff in there affect the RPG line. It's BRILLIANT! Can't fail! People who want the "whole FR experience" will buy the RPG stuff, the novels, and anything else...because it's all tied together and ever-advancing! We'll be millionaires!
Well, that's what happens when you hire kids out of college who have nothing but business or marketing degrees under their belt and no actual experience with role-playing games. LOL! (OK, that's probably not what actually happened...but it sure as heckfire
felt like it to me).
So that was my point. That an ever progressing "meta plot" in a movie, novel series, video game series, and stuff like that work wonders! Trying to add that into an RPG setting...asking for pain, suffering and tears. When watching a TV series, say, Game of Thrones or The Expanse...people enjoy it because they can see the story unfolding. They can see the sub-plots forming and resolving. And they can see how all the characters change and develop throughout these trials and tribulations. Business/Marketing folk don't understand that in an RPG, it's the PLAYERS that do all that...not the company. I don't think business/marketing folk like this. I'd bet they get the cold sweats at night just thinking about the fact that they don't have control over the actual direction or popularity of a game/setting. That, effectively, their careers are in the hands of geeky adults who like to sit around a table and play make believe with other adults.
^_^
Paul L. Ming