Serpent Kingdoms Art Gallery Is Up

[Gez]

This is one of my favorites - The Serpent Sibyl

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/sk_gallery/82364.jpg

Have you noticed? Those wavy stars things on her breasts? (BTW, what's a reptilian critter doing with these trademarked mammalian-only organs?)

Her nipple clamp thingies are the same as Janet Jackson's!

 

[Rauol_Duke]

Have you noticed? Those wavy stars things on her breasts? (BTW, what's a reptilian critter doing with these trademarked mammalian-only organs?)

Her nipple clamp thingies are the same as Janet Jackson's!

Maybe the Sibyl's trying to get a spot on next year's Super Bowl Halftime show.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Because Faerûn is entering the Age of Returns.

Monsters of Faerûn: The Malaugrym are back!
FRCS: The Shades are back! Bane is back!
Lords of Darkness: The Daemonfey are back!
Unapproachable East: The Mithril Elves are back!
Underdark: The Imaskari are back!
Serpent Kingdoms: The Sarrukh are back!

Yeah, that was my point to begin with, Gez. It just annoys the heck out of me that some things can't just stay mysterious or dead and have done with.

Orcus, I knew (I could have added Faiths & Pantheons to the list), but I didn't know Graz'zt and Demogorgon had disappeared.

And where are Myrkul and Bhaal back? I don't think the Baldur's Gate games are canonical, and IIRC, Myrkul is still prisoner in some sort of crown, isn't he?

Yup, that's right, thank goodness.

More importantly, what's the next Realms sourcebook? Isn't it about the Shining South? What will be the ancient race/subrace/god/cult that will come back there?

I don't even want to think about it. The Netherese gods, maybe (they probably worship 'em in Halruaa, right?).

 

[Derulbaskul]

This one really impressed me. The closer I looked, the cooler it became. (snip) Mark me down as a fan of Jeremy Jarvis' artwork.

Urgh.

Look at the sense of proportion: it's all wrong, although nowhere near as bad as many of his other pieces. And look at the legs. Actually, look at the legs on the picture of Graz'zt from BoVD for a mroe egregious example: I think he applies the half-grasshopper template before he completes a picture.

IMO/YMMV; of course.

 

[ericlboyd]

Yeah, that was my point to begin with, Gez. It just annoys the heck out of me that some things can't just stay mysterious or dead and have done with.
Yup, that's right, thank goodness.
I don't even want to think about it. The Netherese gods, maybe (they probably worship 'em in Halruaa, right?).

I've never been a fan of "by coincidence, an ancient evil JUST woke up plotlines ..." My first question is always "Why this year/decade/century and not last or next?" In a game setting that lasts for many years, there will over time be a disproportionate number of such events in a short period of history, as many designers and novelists resurrect "buried ancient evils" within the window of the evolving year-by-year timeline, straining credulity.

Despite this tendency, in the Realms, I think we have the perfect catalyst to explain many such events: The Time of Troubles. The aftermath of this recent deific reshuffling (a pivotal and unique inflection point in the history of Faerun) should last decades, if not more, IMHO, and affect many different gods/cultures with many unexpected side effects.

In SK, we had to explain sudden activity by both the yuan-ti (after centuries of inactivity) and the sarrukh (after thousands of years of inactivity or plane-walking) without straining the bounds of credulity. The catalyst we chose was the retreat of the Okothian sarrukh back to Faerun within the past six centuries (because they've been losing a millennia-old war with the khaasta) coupled with the Time of Troubles effectively causing a big panic attack nearly two decades ago.

During that "panic attack", the Okothian sarrukh struck a fateful deal, binding Sseth into eternal slumber and handing his mantle over to Set. This major transformation resulted in Sseth sending his nightmares out to his worshipers, thus rousing both the yuan-ti and the Mhairshaulkan sarrukh from their slumbers. We are just beginning to see the result of such, nearly two decades after the ToT.

You'll note that SK has one other major inflection point in its various histories: the lifedrain spells of the phaerimm. The desertification of Anauroch causes the Netherese to flee south and west, putting pressure on the ophidians of the Serpent Hills. Pushed into new territory, the ophidians discover the Naja Fountain and Terpenzi. Once discovered, Terpenzi begins a campaign of subjugation of the ophidians. At Terpenzi's direction, the ophidians to summon the Hss'tafi tribe from the southern jungles, to manage their empire. This in turn upsets the millennia-old detente between the great houses of the Black and Mhair Jungles, leading to civil war amongst the southern yuan-ti tribes. This in turn leads to Merrshaulk dispatching Sseth and the rise of Serpentes and the rise of House Se'Sehen.

In other words, the Scaly Ones have thousands of years of history and long stretches of somnolence. All the major changes in the culture of the Scaly Ones in the last two millennia has been in indirect response to two major external triggers: the Time of Troubles and the Fall of Netheril.

Hopefully that doesn't strain your credulity.

--Eric