Dungeons & Dragons Announces Arcana Unleashed, New Magic-Themed Sourcebook at $49.99 Price Point

[tetrasodium]

Have you looked at the art? Seen anything that looks like Thay or any other Forgotten realms location? We have Alustriel in Sigil, and a Hogwarts style wizard school with students happy, excited and engaged. I’m pretty sure Thayan wizard school is more like Dotheboys Hall. Lots of other pictures of people not wearing red robes not on barren plateaus.

Wellll......

Spoiler: Potentially

FRCS pg205

Or this Unapproachable East Pg160

The Red Wizards need apprentices with enough foundation to be more use than burden before taking them on as an apprentice rather than low level staff or test subject

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Wellll......

Spoiler: Potentially

FRCS pg205
View attachment 431256
Or this Unapproachable East Pg160
View attachment 431257

The Red Wizards need apprentices with enough foundation to be more use than burden before taking them on as an apprentice rather than low level staff or test subject

Thay undoubtedly has magic schools (you visit one in Masks of the Betrayer). But they are not going to be smiling happy places where teachers perform exciting practical demonstrations and students leap excitedly from their seats. They are places where students study textbooks in absolute silence whilst red-robed overseers cane anyone who so much as twitches.

 

[Parmandur]

None of the art remotely resembles a land of mask-wearing witches and rustic berserker lodges either.

It looks like Sigil, Stryxhaven, Eberron, Ravnica or some other high magitech location.

Right, like Agalrond, the main check on Thay in geopolitics and magic. The presence of one of the Seven Sisters, as you point out, makes that possible connection stronger.

I point out Rasheman due to the Subclasses we saw in UA, mainly, and Rasheman is a Magocracy too, like Agalrond and Thay.

 

[Parmandur]

setting characters

Like the Simbul's sister, Alustriel Silverhand...?

 

[Parmandur]

no, but there is a difference between this being a Thay Gazetteer and this being a book similar to the FR players book with a Thay section.

I am not saying it contains nothing but Thay, only that I expect it to also contain some Thay while you rule that out

I would expect more about Agalrond, the Magocracy that operates as a bulwark against Than in-settingand the probable home base for the Adventure.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Like the Simbul's sister, Alustriel Silverhand...?

Who lives in Sigil, and is illustrated in Sigil.

 

[Parmandur]

Who lives in Sigil, and is illustrated in Sigil.

She does not live in Sigil, she lives in Waterdeep...in fact, she is the political executive of Waterdeep, the Open Lord? Not convinced that is Sigil, particularly. Her sister, the Simbul's, was the monarch of Agalrond before the current Simbar h Council of 15 archmages inherited power.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

She does not live in Sigil, she lives in Waterdeep

As of VEoR, she lives in Sigil.

I suspect she go tired of politics.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yeah, who is fighting the Red Wizards in a wizard war...? The happy wizard school stuff looks like a good fit for Aglarond as described in the Arcane Empires section of the new FR book, and both Aglarond and Rashemen would work great as places of origin and home bases for PCs dealing with the Red Wizards, and the location of weird secret Wizard sects as described in the Background text. This is being marketed as a player book for an Adventure Campaign, on the very cover. They are doing something with the page count.

Getting more info on Algarond and Rashemen would make me very happy. Especially if it also has some magic items and maybe means some bits in AU are inspired by Rashemen!

 

[Parmandur]

As of VEoR, she lives in Sigil.

I suspect she go tired of politics.

She shows up in Sigil. Bit different.

Point is, the art depicting a Forgotten Realms character with personal ties to the Arcane Empires regions not a particularly compelling reason to believe that the tie-in book to a campaign set in the Arcane Empiresregion won't have some info on the Arcane Empires region.