Stone Dog said:
The thing is, I've heard that is just a future Drizzt musing about the past and doesn't reflect the campaign setting or the timeline of future novels. I'm looking for something specifically confirming information about the FRCS in particular.
Well, the novel is described as a preview of 4th ed(by WOTC) and it is Drizzt musing about the state of the world as it exists in 100 years and the events that led up to it.
We also know that the death of Mystra and the Spellplague are the storyline excuses for 4th ed and they happen in 10 years from the current storyline. It should be noted that the events in the novel happen in only 2 times: 100 years in the future and "present day" which is 10 years before the Spellplague.
It doesn't seem to make much sense to set the new timeline right after the Spellplague as it seems that the entire world would be very occupied with the aftereffects of it as wizards are dying all over the place, magic isn't working correctly anymore, there is a disastrous joining of 2 worlds and the sky being azure and the nature of reality being mutable for a time.
Kind of makes sense to wait a while until the average person gets used to the new world and gets back to "normal", spellcasters learn to cast spells in the new world without the weave, and people mourn the dead and move on.
Plus, it doesn't make much sense to me to have future Drizzt telling all about what the world is like in 100 years if the campaign will be set before then. Since then players know how everything is going to turn out. I think they'd want to leave the future a blank slate.
All these reasons, at least IMO, mean it has to be AT LEAST 100 years in the future. Plus, I've seen one of the designers saying something about the time shift forward alone being enough to remove most of the high level NPCs from FR.