Forgotten Realms: History of the Realms

[Blackrat]

I have a guestion for you who already have the book. How much is there about the other continents outside Faerun? I mean like Zackhara, Matztica and Kara-Tur. As it is not yeat available where I'm from but I'm planning on possibly buying it. But this guestion is the thing that still keeps me from deciding wether to get it or not.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I'm still waiting for mine. It seems destined to be the Realms' capstone, since it's likely that a lot of fans will be turning away from 4e FR in disgust.

So I hope the FR's funeral eulogy will live up to the Realms.

 

[freyar]

I just finally finished reading this, and I am very interested in why/how the realms is going to change, and is this going to be the direction of the 4th edition D&D/Forgotten realms. For all those who have not read this, I am not posting the spoilers that the team, INCLUDING MR. Greenwood himself, placed into the time line of this book.

I just want to mention that some of the designers have stated publicly (at Candlekeep) that the "spoiler" entries for 1375-1385DR were added after they were done with the book and that Ed Greenwood has said that the changes were not his idea (even if he was informed of some of them a while ago). So the GHotR shouldn't be taken to imply that the main authors of this book or Ed Greenwood himself really like the new direction FR is taking for 4e. Just my 2cp.

 

[Zaukrie]

I spent a lot of time looking through it at the game store. It is a very, very nice book. But, the re-use of the art was really, really annoying. THE book of history, a table top quality book, and they cheap out on us and give us re-used art. Lame, lame, lame. Other than that, it was a great book.

 

[kreynolds]

Personally, I am starting to think this advancement in timeline will be something that eventually will be "undone". There is an entry towards the back of the book, a part of a journal of someone investigating the cult of shar, and eventually being sucked into the faith. It eludes to a very big plan of shars, which I think is changing the roll of years to something more of her liking.

Then there's the sample download of the Orc King, with Driz'zt describing the changes over the last 100 years. I'm thinking not even WotC would be so bold to pre-determine what is to come in 100 years.

It screams to me a classic formula in all Star Trek series, the "nightmare episode". Such storelines involve something terrible happening in the timeline, characters dying, ships, worlds and fleets being destroyed, etc. Eventually, the events are "undone", and the timeline is returned to normal.

Just a theory.

 

[wingsandsword]

If they are using the events of 1384 and 1385 as an excuse for all the vast changes in 4e, with Warlocks being a core class and wizards being radically different and tieflings being a main race and this whole new cosmology, and so on, then it's probably the end of me buying Forgotten Realms books.

The events of this sudden 10 year jump in the timeline sound about as good for Forgotten Realms as Fifth Age was for Dragonlance with destroying magic as everybody knows it, laying waste to the pantheon, and ravaging the world.

Aside from the last page of the book (and the few art gaffes already mentioned), it's a great book.

Well, in my next Forgotten Realms campaign the PC's may well encounter a Chronomancer from about a decade in the future trying to undo a coming cataclysm, and the PC's get to prevent the breaking of the world, but that's the closest any of that's going to be in a game I run.

 

[johnnype]

I just got my copy so I haven't had enough time to digest it all but one thing I did notice is that the original pdf had a reference page that listed where the entries in the timeline came from. It's missing from the book. Also the original pdf color coded the entries to correspond with the different regions and some entries also listed what novel the events happened in. I didn't see any of this in the book.

Bottom line: the book is awesome but I'm keeping my copy of the pdf to go with it. If you don't have the original pdf, go find it.

Lastly, the recycled artwork is a bit jarring.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Personally, I am starting to think this advancement in timeline will be something that eventually will be "undone". There is an entry towards the back of the book, a part of a journal of someone investigating the cult of shar, and eventually being sucked into the faith. It eludes to a very big plan of shars, which I think is changing the roll of years to something more of her liking.

Then there's the sample download of the Orc King, with Driz'zt describing the changes over the last 100 years. I'm thinking not even WotC would be so bold to pre-determine what is to come in 100 years.

Unless this is ineed a nightmare episode thing, I wouldn't put it past WoTC to pre-determine a century of activities. After all, they already talk about changes that FUBAR the Realms, a 100-year-jump won't make it any worse after that.

If the crap they've been telling us was something like L5R's 1000 Years of Darkness, I'd be OK with it, but not like this.

(For those who don't know: Legend of the Five Rings has an alternate timeline where the Clan War ended with a victory for the evil god Fu Leng, he rules Rokugan as Emperor, and everything looks really bleak. But it's just a "how things could be" showcase, not the official. The only part of this that made it into the canon is a single samurai that somehow came from that alternate timeline into "official" Rokugan, though even there it is hinted that it's a nightmare realm).

 

[Eridanis]

Hi
I'm sad to say I was dissappointed with the interior art in this book.

I agree it's a little disconcerting, but Brian James mentioned (on WotC or Candlekeep, can't remember) that the art budget for this book was very low, and so he pushed for the budget to be spent on new maps rather than new art. Right call, IMO, for a book of lore.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I was browsing through this book at the bookstore today, and saw a picture of a warforged. Are they in the Realms now? How is that explained?