D&D 5E Sundering - So what happened?

[Nya]

I`ll have to confess, that i am not exactly uptodate concerning on what happen to the realms in 4th edition and what changed in the sundering...
Some boxes and books from the 2nd and 3rd edition area, but that`s it.
Can anyone give me a short rundown an what happened? I feel a bit lost

Edit: its sundering not thundering...

 

[Ravenheart87]

You mean during the Sundering?

 

[Nya]

Oh, that`s embarrassing
*going to edit the post to make it less embarassing*

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Don't worry about it, lotth of uth on EnWorld type with an internet lithp, it'th nothing to be ashamed of.

I for one would like to thee hith quethtion about the Thundering anthwered, though - what exactly hath changed? Can thomeone thummerize the novelth, and will Tyranny of Dragonth altho be making changeth to the Realmth?

 

[variant]

You had orcs frolicking and holding hands with humans and elves, Eilistraee sacrificing herself to turn drow into brown elves, another cataclysmic event to make the wonky 4e spell system fit in the Realms, elven eyes turned all one color and they gained the ability to teleport at will, and the life insurance premium went up again for the position as the goddess of magic.

 

[Jer]

Haven't read the novels yet (went off game fiction for a while and have been slowly coming back to it), but the transition from 3rd to 4th involved a massive cataclysm called the Spellplague where the Weave was corrupted/altered/messed up somehow when Mystra was assassinated by Cyric. For some reason that I think the Sundering novels explain (maybe?) this caused the continent (world?) of Abeir that had been separated from Abeir-Toril in the distant past to come back to the west of Faerun (big old continent ruled by dragons - I think it might also be where Dragonborn were from but I'm unsure on that one). It also caused pockets of the world of Aebir to replace areas of Faerun and caused a massive cataclysm that did a whole bunch of stuff to the geography of the continent and screwed up the politics so that Faerun would be (more of) a points of light setting. And they advanced the timeline by a century. I'm not a huge Realms junkie, but that's my overall picture of what happened (Realms junkies - please correct where this is off base, 'cause I'd like to know too).

My understanding of the Sundering is that it's a big ole reset button on the 4e changes in the sense that Abeir goes back where it was before. Beyond that I would also like to hear from someone who's read the books (and how much of a Realms fan you have to be to make them worth reading).

 

[DMZ2112]

You had orcs frolicking and holding hands with humans and elves, Eilistraee sacrificing herself to turn drow into brown elves, another cataclysmic event to make the wonky 4e spell system fit in the Realms, elven eyes turned all one color and they gained the ability to teleport at will, and the life insurance premium went up again for the position as the goddess of magic.

I think you're talking about the Spellplague. The Sundering is the transition from 4th to 5th, not 3rd to 4th.

My understanding of the Sundering is that it's a big ole reset button on the 4e changes in the sense that Abeir goes back where it was before. Beyond that I would also like to hear from someone who's read the books (and how much of a Realms fan you have to be to make them worth reading).

The starring cast of the Sundering series left me cold -- so many antiheroes! -- but I skipped ahead to The Herald after reading the excerpt on Wizards' site. Turns out I really dig Greenwood's writing style. But I'm on chapter 15 of 19 and they're still talking about the Sundering as something that has yet to happen, so I can't really recommend the novels as a primer. I'm not really sure what their purpose was.

But I do recommend The Herald as a good novel. Thoroughly enjoyable, and it doesn't require that you have read the previous five. For some reason.

For the record, I wouldn't call myself a Realms 'fan.' My knowledge of the setting consists entirely of what I've picked up by playing D&D in general for 28 years.

 

[variant]

I think you're talking about the Spellplague. The Sundering is the transition from 4th to 5th, not 3rd to 4th.

Yes, I know, but he said he wasn't familiar with what happened from 3rd to 4th and he asked for a summary of what happened. The Sundering isn't complete and there's no reason to go into detail about what has happened because that will be detailed in the upcoming campaign setting book.

 

[DMZ2112]

in the upcoming campaign setting book.

...In the what now?

 

[TerraDave]

what happened during the sundering?

The WotCs learned how to do more coherent and appealing cross-media story events, including learning a lot of what not to do, and are applying those lessons with the dragon one they are rolling out now.

I mean, that seems to be what actually happened.