D&D 5E What lore update do you want from the Forgotten Realms?

[Parmandur]

Mulhorand's Gods returning in the form of Human, Aasimar, and Tiefling Gods and kicked High Imaskar's ass to the point where High Imaskar retreated to Extradimesinal spaces (most likely the Celestial Nadir) and the Plains of Purple Dust.

It strikes me that if Ardlings make it through to the PHB, that the Mulan aristocracy will be amenable to being reinterpreted as Arslings. Pharoh Horusatep IX with a Falcon head and Celestial Magig? Sounds about right.

Radiant Citadel has a bunch of mini settings intended to be set on mostly different worlds, but the book gives suggestions on where in the Forgotten Realms you can place these minisettings.

I don't know if you have read the Radiant Citadel suggestions, but if they are any indication of how WotC will use the FR in the future it is going to be getting way more casual with canon than they have been up to now. "Sure, just throw the fantasy Phillipines next door to the Moonshaes?" I am down with that, personally.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The big one for me is the deities. If WotC never bothers fleshing out and updating the non-Sword-Coast parts of the realms, fine. I hate it, but it doesn't affect a game on the sword coast if we never hear about what's going on in Cormyr or Turmish or Unther or Myth Drannor or whatever. But the Gods are everywhere, and a lot of the 4e metaplot turned their lore inside out and upside down, and that directly affects what a PC (cleric, or paladin, or just worshipper) knows or thinks of their (or someone else's) god, church, religion, etc.

I mean, Tyr killed Helm and then gave up his godhood and disappeared and came back. Tyr is the lawful Good god of justice, for pete's sake, and so that's a very big deal. What impact did that episode have on Tyr's church, on Tyr's clergy, on Tyr's doctrine, on how Tyr is perceived in the Realms? SCAG just airily assumes the Tyr/Torm/Ilmater triad took up where it left off once Tyr came back, but that ... strains credibility to the breaking point. Or what about Hoar-Assuran? The god of revenge - he became the minion of Bane for what, a hundred years or so? Bane is the sort of god that many, many people want to take revenge AGAINST, so what did that do for Hoar-Assuran's credibility, or clergy, to be his flunky for so long? What does Hoar-Assuran have to say for himself? What's the official line from the church of Hoar-Assuran when asked 'hey, X years ago my family were murdered in cold blood by Bane-worshippers and Hoar-Assuran denied me help and sided with the Baneites when i asked for revenge, what's up with that?'

Strong feeling is that modern WotC fervently wished that the Spellplague era had never been written, and just wish the whole issue would go away so they never talk about it much. And frankly, the Spellplague lore wrote realmlore into such an messy place that there's probably no plausible way to fix it. It looks to me like WotC has chosen to deal with by simply advancing the timeline, returning to something kinda-sorta similar to the status quo ante and never talking about details ever again.

I had a pretty easy time writing up a Realms that moved forward from 4e, but then again I’m the sort who likes the “no deep dives” take on worldbuilding wizards is using in 5e. YMMV.

In my future FR, Netheril hasn’t fallen but the Shadovar have, and are now a hidden cult lurking throughout Faerun seeking to end the world they could not rule. Netheril was taken over by different factions and forged a sort of federation of kingdoms with each Netherese city state, some of the Dales, and different tribal groups of Bedine and other groups assimilated by the Shadovar. I simply retconned the whole idea of the Bedine just going “we are Netherese now, our old culture is just gone. Moving on.” To instead be that they were told to assimilate by the Shadovar and had little choice, and now some have returned to the steppe that was once a magical desert to live as close to how thier ancestors did as they can manage, allowing me to rebuild that culture with less racism.
Meanwhile, other Bedine have adapted to more urban or agricultural life and embraced magic. It annoys many of them that their style of coffee, brewed super-fine ground in an ibrik in heated sand, is often called Netherese Kaffe outside of the region, but the trade in exporting it is very lucrative.

In a call back to old Netheril, I have the Netherese Federation specializing in a kinda new kinda old way of making magic items. Basically a person might have several “magic items” that are actually just focuses for the power-stone or mithaline that is a proper magic item. The lesser items don’t function without the mithaline, and the mithaline is powered passively by the wearer. The city of Shade was not yeeted into Myth Drannor, and both cities still survive.

Relationships between the Federation, the former Netherese vassal state of Sembia, and the states who held Netheril at bay for over a century, are still tense, but the death of the entire Telemont family line (as far as anyone knows), and the entirely new government of Netheril in the present day, has softened the situation from a war footing to cautious diplomacy and trade.

Just as an example.

 

[bloodtide]

I'd love for them to do everything after 1375DR (aka all 4E and 5E lore) was just just a bad drunken dream by Volo.

I'd love to see more Volo Guide books....in the 2E style. And such Guides by "other authors" for the rest of the Realms.

 

[James Gasik]

Drizz't children.

There's that webtoon they're making about his daughter.

 

[cbwjm]

I would like to have a source book similar to that made for the 3rd edition. That was really cool.

Still one of the best setting books released in my opinion.

 

[Parmandur]

Still one of the best setting books released in my opinion.

A 3E style book that implemented some more 5E style elements, and reverted back to a metaplot neutral status similar to the Gray Box would be chef's kiss very nice.

 

[Demetrios1453]

A 3E style book that implemented some more 5E style elements, and reverted back to a metaplot neutral status similar to the Gray Box would be chef's kiss very nice.

This would be the best case scenario, in my opinion. The 3e FRCS really is the model setting guides should aspire to.

And anyway, without novels, the metaplot will be far, far less.

 

[jgsugden]

If I were WotC, I'd consider much of the timeline to be a mistake. To that end, I'd run a storyline that reboots the FR back to the Grey Box.

 

[humble minion]

This would be the best case scenario, in my opinion. The 3e FRCS really is the model setting guides should aspire to.

It certainly is one of the best WotC has ever done. I'm a big fan of the 5e Eberron book as well, though there's some minor design/editing bits I'd quibble over. Eberron as a setting isn't really my cup of tea, but the book is really solid, practical, and packed with ideas and detail that are really game-useable.

 

[Haplo781]

If I were WotC, I'd consider much of the timeline to be a mistake. To that end, I'd run a storyline that reboots the FR back to the Grey Box.

What do you think the obelisks are for?