Countdown to the Realms: Magic in the Forgotten Realms

[Nymrohd]

Unther, Mulhorand, Chessenta seem to have been displaced into Abeir.

 

[Rpgraccoon]

I liked the idea of Mazteca. However, never had the urge to do much with it if Abier or whatever adds too it and the old world. I could have a revised interest in that part of the realms.

 

[Irda Ranger]

You see, I've always seen the Realms as the "standard" and "plain vanilla" setting - a standard array of races and cultures (including all those Earth parallels),

Quite the contrary, IIRC the Gray Box Realms were all fairly unique to that world, with few (if any) Real World Parallels ("RWPs"). The worst of the RWPs, such as Maztica, came about after Greenwood has licensed it to TSR. I think they got lazy in the design process.

I'm also quite sure that the RWPs (such as Maztica and Unther) got blowed up precisely because they were RWPs. Worlds & Monsters made it clear that WotC thinks that D&D worlds (both the implied one and the settings) should be clearly distinct worlds that aren't easily categorized by Earth analogies. Their reasoning was that if you just thought you were in 15th century France, or 10th century BCE Egypt, you'd lose some of the fantasy feel. I agree with them too. I also applaud the decision, because they have chosen the harder path (designing new, believable worlds) rather than the easy one (medieval copypasta) just so we can have a better game. That's cool.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

I will add however that real world copy can be fun.... It tied even to the 'it was a twin world to us' idea of old.

But well, as long as Maztica still exist in a way....

 

[phoenixgod2000]

I am devastated by these revelations. I realize that sounds like strong language for a fake world but that is how I feel. The Forgotten realms novels were some of the first books I ever read and I've played and ran D&D in the realms almost exclusively since I graduated past the red box. I have a very strong connection to this world.

This isn't my world anymore. I don't want to play in this bizarre wasteland that used to be the realms. Our current game is set in Maztica. A past company of adventurers basically controls the sea of fallen stars. I love the old empires and many adventures were set there. I like Midnight and the endless parade of gods and demigods. My favorite 2nd ed books are Faiths and Avatars, Powers and Pantheons, and Demihuman deities. Those three books, with all their detail have more story ideas per page than just about any other D&D books.

They've taken everything I like about the realms and subsumed it with some half-baked ideas that have no connection to the vast history of the realms. They've taken an amazing world and broken it to fit with their new mechanics instead of altering the mechanics to fit the world the way they should have.

In a way I should be thankful. Now that the FR is so much ash, I'll get off my behind and do something new. I'm thinking of using the Dominions 3 game as the basis of my new world. Lots of kingdoms and empires and Pretender Gods make good epic destines.

Congratulations Wizards, you've managed to make my almost twenty years of games and FR history totally worthless.

This isn't a knock on 4e mechanics which I generally like so far--except for the stupid rings--just my feelings on FR

 

[The Little Raven]

Congratulations Wizards, you've managed to make my almost twenty years of games and FR history totally worthless.

Did they somehow travel back in time and ruin those many hours of fun that you had with your games? If not, then how is it that all those hours are suddenly "worthless," when you probably found plenty of worth while playing?

I'm sorry but "changes make my past gaming experience worthless" is a totally ridiculous thing to claim.

 

[Nymrohd]

How did they make your years of games and FR history worthless?

 

[phoenixgod2000]

no, its not totally ridiculous. It's totally irrational. There is a difference.

I Love the books Enders Game and The Wizard of Earthsea. I consider them some of the finest literature of their respective types. But the authors (in my eyes) came out with sequals that not only were far inferior books, but managed to taint my enjoyment of the original books because all I can think of as I'm reading is the fate that is in store for them.

My brain obssesses over stuff like that. I can't not know what is the official canon of the realms and not have it taint my memories and my campagain. Maybe I should be able to, but I can't. I can't read the novel Silverfall, and not be horrified at the fates of my girls, the seven sisters. I can't know that vast patches of the realms have been replaced and possibly destroyed and know that my group's characters were on those pieces of land and are now dead. I can't ignore the fact that the trials and tribulations and happily ever afters of my characters are essentially gone and most of the characters of my players are eighty years dead.

Ed Greenwood's work, is in my mind, essentially optimistic. That is why I like the seven sisters and Elminster. they are joyful warriors for their causes. There is no optimism in what I have read so far of the current realms. Just the doom of what came before.

Jon

 

[The Ubbergeek]

perhaps Greenwood is TOO optimist, too wishy wishy as a general?

However, even the 'classic' realms had some truly dark bits....

It's time that evil have more of a presence, more strenght. Heroes need foils.


Also, nobody is imortal. Elminster, Drizzt, the sisters, etc... they will have to die one day. And perhaps it's good. Drama can spring from deaths, stories. Hope, anger, revenge, despair...

 

[catsclaw227]

Unther, Mulhorand, Chessenta seem to have been displaced into Abeir.

Actually, I think that they said was:

Across the Trackless Sea, and entire continent of the lost realm reappeared (called Returned Abeir) subsuming the continent of Maztica.

I am pretty sure it's not the same thing, but I am no FR expert.

Where magic was completely loosed, the Spellplague ate through stone and earth as readily as bone and spell. Broad portions of Faerûn’s surface collapsed into the Underdark, partially draining the Sea of Fallen Stars into the Glimmer Sea far below (and leaving behind a continent-sized pit called the Underchasm). The event splintered several of the Old Empires south of the drained sea into a wildscape of towering mesas, bottomless ravines, and cloud-scraping spires (further erasing evidence of the lands and kingdoms once situated there). Historical lands most changed by the Spellplague include Mulhorand, Unther, Chondath, and portions of Aglarond, the Sea of Fallen Stars, and the Shaar. What was once called Halruaa detonated and was destroyed when every inscribed and prepared spell in the nation went off simultaneously. This explosion was partly to blame for destroying the land bridge between Chult and the Shining South—only a scattered archipelago remains.

Emphasis mine. I am not sure if they actually said how the Spellplague has affected these areas. Are there other quotes elsewhere that I am missing?