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I'm reading the Forgotten Realms Novels- #202 The Howling Delve by Jaleigh Johnson (Dungeons 2)
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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8158916" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>I've <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/im-reading-the-forgotten-realms-novels-109-the-shadow-stone-by-richard-baker.667899/post-7829084" target="_blank">mentioned before</a> that it's an open secret that Rich Baker originally wrote this as a Birthright novel. Unfortunately, it was ready to go just as TSR was being acquired by WotC, who shuttered that setting as part of their general streamlining of TSR's multiplicity of campaign worlds. Rather than being released for free online (which is what happened to Baker's other Birthright novel, <em>The Falcon and the Wolf</em>), it was reworked into a Forgotten Realms novel.</p><p></p><p>Personally, I don't recall much of the novel now (surprise, surprise), since it's been twenty years or so since I read it. Aeron is very clearly Cerilia's High Mage Aelies, but beyond that what comes through most clearly is that the "Shadow Plane" in this novel is Birthright's Shadow World, a menacing twilight realm acts as a dark parallel to the mortal world. As much as that sounds like the actual Plane of Shadow (or Demi-plane of Shadow, which is what it was prior to Third Edition), it's not; Planescape's <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17293/A-Guide-to-the-Ethereal-Plane-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>A Guide to the Ethereal Plane</em></a> (affiliate link) made it clear that, at least in AD&D 2E terms, the Shadow World occupied the space where Border Ethereal would normally be for Aebrynis's crystal sphere (Aebrynis being the planet, and Cerilia the continent, on which the Birthright campaign is set).</p><p></p><p>This novel is supposed to tell the story about how the Shadow World wasn't always the twisted realm it is now, once being a less malevolent faerie realm; one still alien, but less overtly hostile; and long before that, they were the same world, eventually being ruptured in twain (which ironically evokes the "Abeir/Toril" split that recent editions have played up for the Forgotten Realms, and of which there's no sign in the FR-reworking of this novel). Ironically, Birthright fans would get more of this in the <a href="http://tsr.bothgunsblazing.com/br/br-bloodspawn.htm" target="_blank"><em>Blood Spawn: Creatures of Light and Shadow</em></a> book, a Birthright-specific bestiary which also got the axe after WotC acquired TSR and was subsequently released online.</p><p></p><p>As for how well this fits in with Faerun's relationship to the Shadow Plane and similar creatures (such as the shadevari), I can't exactly recall off the top of my head, but my impression is that it's something of a square peg in a round hole, and that this novel has been quietly ignored by subsequent canon, since everyone in the know knows that it's not really part of it. I suppose I should be able to look past that and try and enjoy the story for what it is, but when a large part of what I try to take away from these books is how well they help me understand the wider world, knowing that this one doesn't really have anything to offer in that regard puts a damper on my enthusiasm for it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 8158916, member: 8461"] I've [url=https://www.enworld.org/threads/im-reading-the-forgotten-realms-novels-109-the-shadow-stone-by-richard-baker.667899/post-7829084]mentioned before[/url] that it's an open secret that Rich Baker originally wrote this as a Birthright novel. Unfortunately, it was ready to go just as TSR was being acquired by WotC, who shuttered that setting as part of their general streamlining of TSR's multiplicity of campaign worlds. Rather than being released for free online (which is what happened to Baker's other Birthright novel, [I]The Falcon and the Wolf[/I]), it was reworked into a Forgotten Realms novel. Personally, I don't recall much of the novel now (surprise, surprise), since it's been twenty years or so since I read it. Aeron is very clearly Cerilia's High Mage Aelies, but beyond that what comes through most clearly is that the "Shadow Plane" in this novel is Birthright's Shadow World, a menacing twilight realm acts as a dark parallel to the mortal world. As much as that sounds like the actual Plane of Shadow (or Demi-plane of Shadow, which is what it was prior to Third Edition), it's not; Planescape's [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17293/A-Guide-to-the-Ethereal-Plane-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]A Guide to the Ethereal Plane[/I][/URL] (affiliate link) made it clear that, at least in AD&D 2E terms, the Shadow World occupied the space where Border Ethereal would normally be for Aebrynis's crystal sphere (Aebrynis being the planet, and Cerilia the continent, on which the Birthright campaign is set). This novel is supposed to tell the story about how the Shadow World wasn't always the twisted realm it is now, once being a less malevolent faerie realm; one still alien, but less overtly hostile; and long before that, they were the same world, eventually being ruptured in twain (which ironically evokes the "Abeir/Toril" split that recent editions have played up for the Forgotten Realms, and of which there's no sign in the FR-reworking of this novel). Ironically, Birthright fans would get more of this in the [URL='http://tsr.bothgunsblazing.com/br/br-bloodspawn.htm'][I]Blood Spawn: Creatures of Light and Shadow[/I][/URL] book, a Birthright-specific bestiary which also got the axe after WotC acquired TSR and was subsequently released online. As for how well this fits in with Faerun's relationship to the Shadow Plane and similar creatures (such as the shadevari), I can't exactly recall off the top of my head, but my impression is that it's something of a square peg in a round hole, and that this novel has been quietly ignored by subsequent canon, since everyone in the know knows that it's not really part of it. I suppose I should be able to look past that and try and enjoy the story for what it is, but when a large part of what I try to take away from these books is how well they help me understand the wider world, knowing that this one doesn't really have anything to offer in that regard puts a damper on my enthusiasm for it. [/QUOTE]
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