D&D 5E Hoard of the Dragon Queen Maps

[Zaukrie]

Wow. Typos in the names.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I haven't kept up with any parts of The Spellplague / The Sundering... but was the Anauroch/Netheril/Anauroch changeover and back a part of the Abeir merge?

 

[Bumamgar]

I haven't kept up with any parts of The Spellplague / The Sundering... but was the Anauroch/Netheril/Anauroch changeover and back a part of the Abeir merge?

Yes, Netheril and the Shades were from Abeir.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Wow. Typos in the names.

I found it fairly disappointing because they're not obscure locations. And I don't fault the cartographer: an editor should have caught these.

I haven't kept up with any parts of The Spellplague / The Sundering... but was the Anauroch/Netheril/Anauroch changeover and back a part of the Abeir merge?

No, nothing to do with Abeir.

Yes, Netheril and the Shades were from Abeir.

Um, no they weren't.

Netheril was one of Ed's original ancient magical empires and then the idea was butchered by slade in the execrable 2E boxed set Netheril: Arcana Age. The Shades were invented for the 3E version of FR but I believe have been wiped out in the latest Elminster novel based on reviews I have read (I don't read FR novels but I read the reviews or summaries).

 

[KarinsDad]

I found it fairly disappointing because they're not obscure locations. And I don't fault the cartographer: an editor should have caught these.

I fault both. Cartographers should be referring to earlier maps to ensure some level of correctness. Editors should carefully edit all product.

 

[Bumamgar]

Netheril was one of Ed's original ancient magical empires and then the idea was butchered by slade in the execrable 2E boxed set Netheril: Arcana Age. The Shades were invented for the 3E version of FR but I believe have been wiped out in the latest Elminster novel based on reviews I have read (I don't read FR novels but I read the reviews or summaries).

You are correct, apparently I didn't read my 3e lore closely enough. In ancient times, the Shadovar escaped the destruction of Netheril by fleeing into Shadow. They returned in the Year of Wild Magic (1372 DR, the 'current' year of 3e) and found their old empire buried under the Anauroch desert. The 4e campaign guide is a little vague on what caused Anauroch to stop being a desert, saying simply that "Rivers now flow from the melting glaciers, rain falls, temperatures are moderate, and in some places vegetation is particularly lush." Reading the description of Anauroch in the 3e Forgotten Realms campaign setting it is still described as a desert and the City of Shade is described as having re-appeared 'early in the Year of Wild Magic' but with no mention of the desert climate starting to change. Apparently these changes are something that happened in the intervening 100 years between 3e and 4e, which is why I (incorrectly) assumed the climate change was part of the merging of Abeir and Toril.

I haven't completed the Sundering Novels yet, I'm partway through book 5, but so far they've all been focused on agents of Netheril attempting to advance Shar's plans to take over / destroy the world, as well as gathering more power by collecting the various divine shards spread out through the various Chosen (apparently every god and their brother have a bunch of Chosen wandering around, so much so that at one point a Netheril wizard was able to establish multiple 'concentration camps' with thousands of potential Chosen at each camp.) Various hints so far lead me to believe that the Shadovar will be defeated / destroyed. Sakkors has crashed to the ground and been destroyed, for example.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I fault both. Cartographers should be referring to earlier maps to ensure some level of correctness. Editors should carefully edit all product.

I tweeted to Jared: Truly great maps. Shame about the spelling mistakes. WotC needs better editors.

He replied: I agree, I'm just the artist so i do what im told!

(snip) The 4e campaign guide is a little vague on what caused Anauroch to stop being a desert, saying simply that "Rivers now flow from the melting glaciers, rain falls, temperatures are moderate, and in some places vegetation is particularly lush." Reading the description of Anauroch in the 3e Forgotten Realms campaign setting it is still described as a desert and the City of Shade is described as having re-appeared 'early in the Year of Wild Magic' but with no mention of the desert climate starting to change. Apparently these changes are something that happened in the intervening 100 years between 3e and 4e, which is why I (incorrectly) assumed the climate change was part of the merging of Abeir and Toril. (snip)

The climate change was also explained in 3E. The desertification of Anauroch was a result of the phaerimm using their life drain spell (that's from 2E). The Shadovar defeated them at some point and also used shadow magic to try to reduce the sun's impact on Anauroch ( I think that was both in a novel and also one or more of the sourcebooks).

(snip) I haven't completed the Sundering Novels yet, I'm partway through book 5, but so far they've all been focused on agents of Netheril attempting to advance Shar's plans to take over / destroy the world, as well as gathering more power by collecting the various divine shards spread out through the various Chosen (apparently every god and their brother have a bunch of Chosen wandering around, so much so that at one point a Netheril wizard was able to establish multiple 'concentration camps' with thousands of potential Chosen at each camp.) Various hints so far lead me to believe that the Shadovar will be defeated / destroyed. Sakkors has crashed to the ground and been destroyed, for example.

Yeah, it sounds like a bad comic book series.

[sblock] Elminster apparently slaps them all down in the end and that's that: no more Shadovar. [/sblock]

 

[DEFCON 1]

The climate change was also explained in 3E. The desertification of Anauroch was a result of the phaerimm using their life drain spell (that's from 2E). The Shadovar defeated them at some point and also used shadow magic to try to reduce the sun's impact on Anauroch ( I think that was both in a novel and also one or more of the sourcebooks).

Huh. So Anauroch became a desert due to Life Drain from the phaerimm. At some point in the 100 years between 3E and 4E, the desert turned back into a more temperate area due to the Shadovar and was reclaimed as Netheril (as per the 4E world map) Then if this new Sword Coast map is actually a representation of 10 years later for 5E (1489ish)... it's turned back into the Anauroch, presumably because the Shadovar were defeated and thus the Life Drain magics re-established themselves and the area dried up again.

That sound about right?

 

[Thaumaturge]

I think I'm going to put my soul in the "inconsistent spellings are a thing that happen in a world with spell-check, so they definitely happen in a pseudo-renaissance place like Toril" place. As long as I can tell what the place is supposed to be (Felbarr vs Felbar) I'm not too worried.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Huh. So Anauroch became a desert due to Life Drain from the phaerimm. At some point in the 100 years between 3E and 4E, the desert turned back into a more temperate area due to the Shadovar and was reclaimed as Netheril (as per the 4E world map) Then if this new Sword Coast map is actually a representation of 10 years later for 5E (1489ish)... it's turned back into the Anauroch, presumably because the Shadovar were defeated and thus the Life Drain magics re-established themselves and the area dried up again.

That sound about right?

Yes, I think your conclusion is sound. Then again, the phaerimm were supposedly offed between 3.xE and 4E so I am not 100%... and I refuse to read any of the novels to find out.

I suppose we will have to wait for the new campaign setting to be absolutely sure.

I think I'm going to put my soul in the "inconsistent spellings are a thing that happen in a world with spell-check, so they definitely happen in a pseudo-renaissance place like Toril" place. As long as I can tell what the place is supposed to be (Felbarr vs Felbar) I'm not too worried.

Thaumaturge.

I must admit, before I posted my comment about the spelling here and on Twitter, I thought someone might chip me about it for this reason. And to be frank, that's what I will be giving as the reason for the errors if my players end up asking and if I end up using this map.

On a positive note, they've reverted to the correct spelling of Greypeak (rather than Graypeak) Mountains. I like that.