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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eyebeams" data-source="post: 3039656" data-attributes="member: 9225">The basic Realms Cthulhu scenario was this:1) In prehistory, the Elder Gods battled with one another to the point of exhaustion. The shards of "magical" power left by this struggle is what created the Realms and associated multiverse -- it's all the "sweat" and "blood" of things like Azathoth and Ypg-Sothoth.2) The current gods have some sense that they were a part of other *things*, and the eldest races have a dim memory ot the conflagration, as they were born duting its dying aeons. They know that there is no true moral order to the cosmos and *also* know that there are ancient entities waiting to awaken again. They live in the Underdark because it sheltered them from the last gasps of the cosmic struggle, when the world we know was almost in its current shape. Upper-worlders say that they kicked the Drow, Duergar and others into the Underdark, but the reverse is true; the Drow are the original, ancient line of elves and the surface-dwelling races descend from those who forgot their origins. Among other things, they have easier access to the precursor species who existed before they did and directly served the Elder Gods, like aboleths, mind flayers and shoggoths.3) The Weave is not "real" magic. The Weave is an artifice created by the gods to bar the terrible cosmic energies of the Mythos. Real magic is the art of calling upon Mythos entities and mastering insane formulae -- and it is much more powerful than the intentionally crippled disciplines of divine and arcane magic.4) The Mythos entities are outside of space and time as the Realms understand it. Even though millennia have passed, the entities of the Mythos have only experienced (from their inhuman perspective) a slight pause -- just enough to regain their strength.5) As they grow more powerful their fitful, dreaming thoughts pierce the Weave. Cultists may worship them and try to hasten their return. Interestingly, the "evil" races are among the *least* likely to be involved in these cults, because they have the most accurate recollection of what's at stake. A demon-goddess like Lolth knows that it was once the equivalent of a mitochondria in the "body" of a Mythos entity and has no desire to be reabsorbed when the Elder Gods return.Their mad dreams and the decaying Weave also allow people to master real magic. Suggestions during the seminar include it being able to blow through spell resistance and other defenses that are only of the Weave. This magic is classic Mythos magic, ramped up for the Realms' power level. That means that there aren't conventional limits on casting, but it does drive you insane.6) The panel's suggestion was that creatures like Cthulhu *are* beatable in the Realms -- albiet by a very high level party. The Realms is more Robert E. Howard than straight Lovecraft. Both used the Mythos, but had different takes on how characters interact with them. The major mythos entities are probably not beatable, but their high priests and major servants are.None of the preceding is canon. It just came from brainstorming between Ed and Ken Hite.</blockquote>

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