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[TheSword]

Wrong. If you use something that isn’t yours it’s stealing, and if it’s been horribly misrepresented for over a hundred years, it’s not unreasonable to be upset.

But the bottom line is, it doesn’t matter if you are incapable of understanding why someone is upset, because that’s not your call to make. You can either apologise and try not to do it again, or you can be a total jerk.

That’s only half the definition of stealing/theft. You missed out the other half which consists of intending to deprive the owner of the property. Taking the Benin Bronzes was theft. Putting jollof rice in your cookbook isn’t.

What you’re actually talking about is disrespect. It’s disrespectful to take the symbol of a brutally oppressed people and a national shame and then use to sell sports tickets. If you take out the brutal oppression then it wouldn’t be a problem.

Culture spreads. It’s what it does. As it spreads it changes. Just as the Greek Gods changed when appropriated by the Romans or when Homer wrote about the Odyssey. It’s been this case since people sat and talked around fires.

Though I would say that the presence of Norse, Greek and Egyptian gods in modern media is actually a legacy of the enduring quality and resonance of those cultures rather than a sign of disrespect. Imitation as they say is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

[Parmandur]

Heartlands contains not just Sembia, Cormyr, Dalelands, but also Dragoncoast & Moonsea cities except Mulmaster. It also has the Citadel of the Raven. This seems to be the home turf of Zhents and Purple Dragon Knights faction.

It's the Eastern Heartlands from the Grey Box minus the Vast.

Swordcoast surprisingly does not contain Neverwinter, High Forest, Silver Marches, or Long Saddle that is in the North Region. It does include Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate, going as far south as Neskel. Also includes the nation of Eltanguard toward the east. Also includes the Warlock's Crypt. Alot of different natural environments. Feels like the North got more of the Swordcoast then the Swordcoast did.

The "Sword coast" here is the Western Heartlands from the Grey Box, with Waterdeep, whi h is more accurate. North of Waterdeep was not originally the Sword Coast, it's on the Trackless Sea not the Sea of Swords.

The North is the old Savage Frontier, minus the Trackless Sea isles which h are now bunched with the Moonshaes.

Arcane Empires Thay seems to have eater some of Mulhorand's territory, including sadly Sultim. Not sure why Altumbel is considered part of the Arcane Empires, its not know for its Arcane Magic.

Altumbel is generally depicted as a psudeo-autonomous region of Aglarond, full of isolationist fishers and pirates, not a nation itself.

 

[TheSword]

Literally the last time thst D&D used a resl world deity in s product, over 3 years ago, someone said:

Pretty sure they’re featured extensively in Planescape right at the end of 2023.

 

[Yaarel]

None. He is a god of justice that got his hand chopped by a big wolf... /s

The Norse Týr is a personification of "winning", not a force of justice. Indeed, they dont allow him in court cases, because winning a case isnt the same thing as justice prevailing. Some suggested the one-handedness relates to only one side being able to win in a zero-sum conflict.

 

[Parmandur]

Pretty sure they’re featured extensively in Planescape right at the end of 2023.

They 100% notably did not: they specifically did not use a single real world deity name or identifier in Planescape, to the extent that in a couple places it seems they removed them on purposem

 

[Parmandur]

The Forgotten Lands is huge, by far the most nations. It Vaasa, Impiltur, Damara, Narfell, Mulmaster, The Vast, Thesk, The Great Dale. This one regional section I think will need to be bigger. Which is fine, because Anauroch with just the desert& High Glacier and possibly Shade reborn won't take as much space.

Arcane Empires Thay seems to have eater some of Mulhorand's territory, including sadly Sultim. Not sure why Altumbel is considered part of the Arcane Empires, its not know for its Arcane Magic.

Another way to look at these regions is to compare the breakdown to the original FR series, as well as the Grey Box:

• The Grey Box zoomed in on the Western Heartlands (now "Sword Coast") and the Eastern Heartlands (now the Heartlands, minus the Vast from the GB, more on thst later)
• FR1 was just Waterdeep, which is now in the Sword Coast (and I imagine they will point to Drsgon Heist, that remains a great city supplement if a bit uneven as a Campaign)
• FR2 was just the Moonshae Isles, now im the Trackless Sea region
• FR3 covered the Lands of Intrigue in this book precisely
• FR5 (FR4 was non-geographic) covered the Savage Frontier and Trackless Sea, now The North and Trackless Sea regions
• FR6 covered Thay, Agalrond (including Altumbel), Rashemen and Thesk...so the Arcane Empires is FR6 minus Thesk (of which, more anon)
• FR9 covered the Bloodstone Lands, namely Vaasa, Damara, Impiltur, Narfel and the Great Dale. The interesting big change in regions here is to take the Vast from the Eastern Heartlands and Thesk from the Arcane Empires and put them together (along with the Great Glacier from FR14) so it will be interesting how they detail and position this area.
• FR10 covered the Old Empirea, no change here
• FR13 covered the Anauroch, also no changes.

The only region of the 10 thwt does not correspond to one of the FR modules pretty exactly is the Vilhon Reach...which randomly got detailed in the module I14 for Battle System integration.

So the 3E polotical map seems less relevant than the FR module era categories.

Depending on the map,

Think you may have gotten cut off there?

 

[TheSword]

They 100% notably did not: they specifically did not use a single real world deity name or identifier in Planescape, to the extent that in a couple places it seems they removed them on purposem

Wow, I haven’t got my book to hand but your conviction convinced me. I think it was all the religious locations Thebestus, Elysian, Hades, Olympus etc that befuddled me.

 

[Parmandur]

Wow, I haven’t got my book to hand but your conviction convinced me. I think it was all the religious locations Thebestus, Elysian, Hades, Olympus etc that befuddled me.

There are some suggestive place names, but they go out of their way to remove any non-D&D deity from the text. We had a while Discourse aboutnit at the time.

 

[TheSword]

There are some suggestive place names, but they go out of their way to remove any non-D&D deity from the text. We had a while Discourse aboutnit at the time.

I’m ok with that. No Zeus but a big Zeus sized space at the dinner table in Olympus.

As a big fan of the show Kaos I can dig it.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I'm of partial Greek heritage and one of my relatives is a Hellenic Neopagan. While specific sites and landforms of the Mediterranean hold significance to their religious practices, from what I understand the concept of Olympus or Hades as locations are not sacred, not in the same way that land is held to be sacred by, say, many Native American tribes. Mt. Olympus as it stands in Greece and Olympus as represented in Arborea is neither as sacred nor sacrilegious as the Black Hills of North Dakota and Mt. Rushmore, respectively.