Okay, I've finished going through it, and I've got to say that while I'm not completely thrilled, I'm not overly hurt that they've done anything egregious with established bits. On the whole, this is a short supplement which will serve to whet the appetite of those who are interested in the Arcane Age things, and who can then buy the full Netheril box set if they want to (I don't advise the physical one unless you're bereft of sense like me, expensive.)
The positives are definitely the art, and I enjoy the modern re-imagining of Eileanar (thanks Mike!) as well as the Conch setting; the stat blocks for phaerimm are welcome, if a little boring (could probably be dressed up a bit for a home game,) and honestly the fact the setting has gotten any attention at all is great to see. They're using the magen more, which is nice as they were a good feature of Rime of the Frostmaiden.
The dates are still accurate in the supplement (at a quick glance) which is a bit odd because they got one of the Netheril dates wrong in the core FR book, so I'm confused as to why they got the dates correct in the supplement, but we'll ignore that as an editing issue.
I'm not entirely convinced that there would be a regular orc business-owner in Conch either, given the established history of orcs in Netheril, and the fact orcs are burning cities and towns contemporaneously (and amassing a large army to invade from the north,) gnomes were also persecuted (enslaved!) for many years in the empire, but this could also be left up to the DM to work through the problems of (if they already have an established Netheril setting.) You could have some nice story about an orc who is furious at their fellow orcs for burning Earsome?
Yes I am aware of the ideal-world vision of 5e 2024 D&D when it comes to species. The above comment was made with the context of the existing lore from the 90s, your table can do with source information whatever it wishes. Nobody is forcing you to have good or evil orcs, heck, you can make the raiding parties squirrels for all I care.
By my count this is the third time TSR/WotC have had Karsus' attempted apotheosis on display, once in How the Mighty are Fallen; once in Dangerous Games; and once here. This version feels a bit boring compared to the previous two descriptions of the event, but I feel like this is a good area that a DM can take some artistic license.
