Ed Greenwoods Castlemorn

[Krug]

Got to check those eyes. For a while I was reading CastleMOM

 

[BrooklynKnight]

get with the current events Dark Jezter....Star Elves are now in FR...so it's 501.

Dragon introduced Ghost Elves so make that 502.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

502, if you count the Ghost Elves in the latest issue of Dragon.

DAMN you beat me to it!

 

[Wormwood]

Looking at the Castlemorn map only reinforces my (unfulfilled) dream of catching a glipse of Ed Greenwood's *original* map of Faerun.

 

[grodog]

I'll add this comment from Greenwood (from Realms-L):

One is to point back at my last answer to the list about the multiverse of linked worlds (the "multiverse" name usually gets credited to Michael Moorcock, by the way, but the idea is much, much older than modern fantasy, and I even borrowed some of the proof of that: I had the Wood Between The Worlds [from the William Morris novel of the same name] in my multiverse, as a "common ground" shared by many of the gates), and draw the obvious inference that (as Damian suggested) you can of course use the one setting with the other. Once you see Castlemorn, you'll readily see why. I designed it to "easily fit" with many already-going medieval fantasy worlds, and if it doesn't quite stitch neatly onto yours, well -- that's why there are gates, right?

Well, Ed's got it wrong this time...:

1. a. The universe considered as lacking order or a single ruling and guiding power.

1895 W. JAMES in Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 6 10 Visible nature is all plasticity and indifference, a multiverse, as one might call it, and not a universe. 1899 F. W. O. WARDE Eng. Roses IV. 433 Within, without, nowhere and everywhere; Now bedrock of the mighty Multiverse, And then the thinnest wreath of thinnest cloud Inpalpable. [snip]

1. b. orig. Science Fiction. A hypothetical space or realm of being consisting of a number of universes, of which our own universe is only one; (spec. in Physics) the large collection of universes in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, according to which every event at the quantum level gives rise to a number of parallel universes in which each in turn of the different possible outcomes occurs.

1963 M. MOORCOCK in Sci. Fiction Adventures 6 No. 32. 54 Jewelled, the multiverse spread around him, awash with life, rich with pulsating energy. 1982 Time (Nexis) 15 Mar. 92 The task of the science-fiction writer, said Dick, ‘is creating multiverses, rather than a universe.’ 1990 New Scientist 9 June 37/2 The wormhole picture changes our view of the ‘origin’ of the Universe in a big bang, which is now seen simply as the event corresponding to our Universe branching off from the greater ‘multiverse’, to which we must still be connected by an umbilical wormhole. 1994 Interzone Sept. 27/2 Suddenly there was insight. He could treat it as a single object existing simultaneously at all levels in a multiverse.

...Michael Moorcock coined multiverse as it applies to a multiplanar fantasy/D&D setting.

That said, though, I like Ed's Kenzer book, and would be happy to check out more of his work, especially if it has the flavor of the old pre-1e box set FR from the Dragon articles!

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, Moorcock coined the term, but not the idea, which was Mr. Greenwood's point.

Most notably, the land of Faerie or Elf-land or Magonia or any name you want to call it, has been around as part of folklore for 1000s of years.

If you read legends about it, it basically is a parallel world to ours, and the Elves/Faeries can come through gates. Faerie hills and rings most notably. And some people have "second sight" which means they can peer into the other world.

That is actually what Moorcock based his multiverse novels on - his Melniboneans (and assorted others) are in fact elves. He actually says as much in one of the Corum books.

It's also pretty easy to come up with examples of parallel worlds before Moorcock. Lewis Carrol's Wonderland and Through a Looking Glass.

 

[Staffan]

I had the Wood Between The Worlds [from the William Morris novel of the same name] in my multiverse

According to www.libris.kb.se (the database for the Swedish Royal Library), it's The wood beyond the world. The Wood Between the Worlds is, I believe, from the Narnia books (though it's only used in The Magician's Nephew).

Edit: Speaking of which, The Magician's Nephew was released in 1955 (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was released in 1950, involves travel to another world, but doesn't have the Wood). The first Elric novel was released in 1965, if my web-fu is correct.

 

[grodog]

Well, Moorcock coined the term, but not the idea, which was Mr. Greenwood's point.

You're right trancejeremy, I misread Ed's original intent in his comment. Thanks for correcting my erroneous correction

 

[Faraer]

Also, in the southern islands (Nor Umber, Arshroon, Bel's Sharth, Halar, etc.), maybe we're glimpsing the Earthsea-like archipelago that was Ed's original Moonshaes before they were written over by Douglas Niles's.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Well, Ed is coming out with this new setting to be published by FFE.

The front page has a link to a map of the new setting and comments made by James Ward who says that FR Fans will love this setting.

Does anyone else get the feeling that Castlemorn might be what ForgottenRealms could have been if Ed Greenwood had complete Creative Controle?

Or maybe its just a setting done by all the compiled notes Ed has and wasnt able/unallowed to use on FR.

I for one am anxiously waiting for this setting. I'm gonna buy it and keep it right next to my FR books :-D

Not really. His Band of Four or whatever it was with the Kingless Lands just proved to me that his work was better as RPG material than fiction. Some interesting ideas but...