D&D 4E Nentir Vale lore pdfs for the uninitiated DM?

[MockingBird]

Can someone explain the Points of Light concept?

 

[Joshua Randall]

“The term "points of light" also refers to one of the core assumptions the game makes about any game setting, i.e. that "the world is mysterious," and is mostly wild, with a few "points of light" that are civilized.”

POL as a philosophy is there is no big civilization. There were in the past (Arkhosia, Bael Turath, Nerath…) but they are now fallen or severely weakened. Thus leaving plenty of room for D&D stuff like ruins, dungeons, monsters, etc.

 

[Voadam]

Can someone explain the Points of Light concept?

A small area of safety/civilization surrounded by dangerous darkness/wilderness.

So in 4e the default is a fallen empire's leftover settlements.

Each town is fairly isolated and if serious things arise the settlement cannot call on soldiers from the empire to help them out. So a big opportunity for heroes to be needed and rise up to meet challenges.

The isolation also means that while lots can be out there outside of the Point of Light, not much is definitely known, mostly rumors and faded memories and folk stories. The PCs as tough hombres can face the dangers and travel though and explore the unknown to go to new places.

This also sets up lots of ruins to explore that have riches and magic from fallen empires of the past for adventurers to plunder.

 

[Zeromaru X]

Can someone explain the Points of Light concept?

The overall idea of the Points of Light setting is that the world is populated by a variety of intelligent races, strange monsters lurk on other planes, ancient empires have left ruins across the face of the world, and so on. But one of the key conceits about this world is simply this: Civilized folk live in small, isolated "points of light" scattered across a big, dark, dangerous world.

Most of the world is monster-haunted wilderness. The centers of civilization are few and far between, and the world isn't carved up between nation-states that jealously enforce their borders, so the frontier lands are full of bandits, wild animals and monsters, and there are no authorities to deal with this. The settlements are somehow free of monsters, but are full of intrigue and other threats (like bandit guilds or greedy lords). And this may not be always the case. Since towns and villages do not stay in close contact, it's easy for all sorts of evils to befall a settlement without anyone noticing for a long time.

In this kind of world, only adventurers, exceptional individuals that are considered brave heroes by a few and madmen by the rest of the common folk, are the ones who can deal with these threats. There are no Big Name NPCs, so if the adventurers do nothing, the world is doomed.

And in some form, this means that the Points of Light world is a dark world. I’m not going to say that is on the same level of “dark” as Dark Sun is, but is a dark world.

A literary example of the Points of Light world is the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West that is set in a fictionalized version of the old Buddhist cosmology. For instance, humans are clustered together in walled-off, isolated cities (usually small kingdoms made up of the main city and a few miles around) that are separated from each other by miles and miles of wilderness. And all the lands between cities are infested with all manner of man-eating wild animals and demons, the most powerful of them living in impossible high mountains.

The cities themselves are somehow demon-free (with a few exceptions) despite this. Even within the cities, however, there seems to always be a quest of some sort in need of the intervention of the pilgrims (Sun Wukong and company) to solve, usually involving killing something and/or proving the righteousness of Buddhism in some way.

In D&D, the prime example of the PoL setting is the Nentir Vale setting.

The first thing to take into a account is that the current year of a Nentir Vale campaign starts 100 years after the fall of Nerath, in a point of time between the last great war of the age, that destroyed an empire that controlled all of the known world, and the rise of the next world-spanning power, which might be centuries away.

In the Nentir Vale’s World there is no such thing as “The Kingdom”, unlike in the classical D&D worlds. There is no Waterdeep and its Lords’ Alliance, or any other forces with enough power to enforce their laws in the land and that would save the world when the next orc horde attacks or that will maintain in check The Evil Kingdom™, thus allowing for a life of peace and prosperity in the smaller settlements. And if some kind of evil befalls the world, then the people of the Nentir Vale are on their own and usually on the loser’s end. I guess, Raiders of Harkenwold is a good example of this. If not for the player’s characters, Harkenwold would have been unable to deal with the Iron Circle, and possibly the entire Nentir Vale would have been conquered rather easily.

 

[overgeeked]

Can someone explain the Points of Light concept?

This is a bit of text copied from several 4E books, giving an overview of the world.

Imagine a world of bold warriors, mighty wizards, and terrible monsters. Imagine a world of ancient ruins, vast caverns, and great wild wastes where only the bravest heroes dare to tread. Imagine a world of swords and magic, a world of elves and goblins, a world of giants and dragons. This is the world of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.

A Dark World. The current age has no all-encompassing empire. The world is shrouded in a dark age, between the collapse of the last great empire and the rise of the next, which might be centuries away. Minor kingdoms prosper, to be sure: baronies, holdings, city-states. But each settlement appears as a point of light in the widespread darkness, a haven, an island of civilization in the wilderness that covers the world. Adventurers can rest and recuperate in settlements between adventures. No settlement is entirely safe, however, and adventures often break out within (or under) cities and towns.

The World Is a Fantastic Place. Magic works, servants of the gods wield divine power, and fire giants build strongholds in active volcanoes. The world might be based on reality, but it’s a blend of real-world physics, cultures, and history with a heavy dose of fantasy. For the game’s purposes, it doesn’t matter what historical paladins were like; it cares about what paladins are like in the fantasy world. Adventurers visit the most fantastic locations: wide cavern passages cut by rivers of lava, towers held aloft in the sky by ancient magic, and forests of twisted trees draped in shimmering fog.

The World Is Ancient. Empires rise and empires crumble, leaving few places that have not been touched by their grandeur. Ruin, time, and natural forces eventually claim all, leaving the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game world rich with places of adventure and mystery. Ancient civilizations and their knowledge survive in legends, artifacts, and the ruins they left behind, but chaos and darkness inevitably follow an empire’s collapse. Each new realm must carve a place out of the world rather than build on the efforts of past civilizations.

The World Is Mysterious. Wild, uncontrolled regions abound and cover most of the world. City-states of various races dot the darkness, bastions in the wilderness built amid the ruins of the past. Some of these settlements are “points of light” where adventurers can expect peaceful interaction with the inhabitants, but many more are dangerous. No one race lords over the world, and vast kingdoms are rare. People know the area they live in well, and they’ve heard stories of other places from merchants and travelers, but few know what lies beyond the mountains or in the depth of the great forest unless they’ve been there personally.

Monsters Are Everywhere. Most monsters of the world are as natural as bears or horses are on Earth, and monsters inhabit civilized parts of the world and the wilderness alike. Griffon riders patrol the skies over dwarf cities, domesticated behemoths carry trade goods over long distances, a yuan-ti empire holds sway just a few hundred miles from a human kingdom, and a troop of ice archons from the Elemental Chaos might suddenly appear in the mountains near a major city.

Adventurers Are Exceptional. Player characters are the pioneers, explorers, trailblazers, thrill seekers, and heroes of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game world. Although nonplayer characters might have a class and gain power, they do not necessarily advance as adventurers do, and they exist for a different purpose. Not everyone in the world gains levels as adventurers do. An NPC might be a veteran of numerous battles and still not become a 3rd-level fighter; an army of elves is made up of soldiers, not fighters.

The Civilized Races Band Together. The great races of the world—humans, dwarves, eladrin, elves, and halflings—drew closer together during the time of the last great empire (which was human-dominated). That’s what makes them the civilized races—they’re the ones found living together in the towns and cities of civilization. Other races, including dragonborn and tieflings, are in decline, heirs of ancient empires long forgotten. Goblins, orcs, gnolls, kobolds, and similar savage races were never part of that human empire. Some of them, such as the militaristic hobgoblins, have cities, organized societies, and kingdoms of their own. These are islands of civilization in the wilderness, but they are not “points of light.”

Magic Is Not Everyday, but it Is Natural. No one is superstitious about magic, but neither is the use of magic trivial. Practitioners of magic are as rare as fighters. People might see evidence of magic every day, but it’s usually minor—a fantastic monster, a visibly answered prayer, a wizard flying by on a griffon. However, true masters of magic are rare. Many people have access to a little magic, and such minor magic helps those living within the points of light to maintain their communities. But those who have the power to shape spells the way a blacksmith shapes metal are as rare as adventurers and appear as friends or foes to the player characters.

Gods and Primordials Shaped the World. The primordials, elemental creatures of enormous power, shaped the world out of the Elemental Chaos. The gods gave it permanence and warred with the primordials for control of the new creation, in a great conflict known as the Dawn War. The gods eventually triumphed, and primordials now slumber in remote parts of the Elemental Chaos or rage in hidden prisons.

Gods Are Distant. At the end of the Dawn War, the mighty primal spirits of the world exerted their influence, forbidding gods and primordials alike from directly influencing the world. Now exarchs act in the world on behalf of their gods, and angels appear to undertake missions that promote the agendas of the gods they serve. Gods are extremely powerful, compared to mortals and monsters, but they aren’t omniscient or omnipotent. They provide access to the divine power source for their clerics and paladins, and their followers pray to them in hopes that they or their exarchs will hear them and bless them.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Hot dammit reading that made me love 4e all over again. They really, really nailed a specific tone (that I happen to love) right from the jump.

 

[haakon1]

Basically, it’s the Dark Ages, after the Fall of Rome, played out in fantasy.

That’s why my 4e character was a Paladin named Tiberius whose goal was to restore the Empire.

I think the reason for 4e choosing this approach is a reaction to Forgotten Realms. No famous characters, adventurers are exceptional rather than bartenders being 8th level, and big cities don’t exist sounds like a “tired of FR” to me.

I didn’t like 4e as a game, but I appreciate the setting. For my campaigns (which are 3.5e Greyhawk since 2003), the Nentir Vale, the Known World, and FR exist on other planets of the Prime Material Plane. Nentir Vale, though, has 4e physics.

 

[kronovan]

If you're open to exploring the Nentir Vale through novels, I recommend the Abyssal Plague trilogy.

Abyssal Plague book 1: The Temple of Yellow Skulls
Abyssal Plague book 2: Oath of Vigilance
Abyssal Plague book 3: The Eye of the Chained God

Written by Don Bassingthwaite and James Wyatt, they're a good read with a theme that isn't commonly found in D&D novels. As the story progresses, you visit some very perilous and intriguing locations along the way.

 

[Zeromaru X]

Someone at the Piazza forums asked me if I could share my map of the Nerathan League that I posted a few years ago, but unlabeled. Sadly, the unlabeled version seems to have died with my old PC, so I re-made the map from the start, and I thought it would be a good idea to share it here as well. They new version ended up being not exactly as the old one, but it's close enough for me. This map is a modified version of the official Nentir Vale's world map from the Conquest of Nerath game. An unlabeled version was provided some years ago in Reddit, by Cargo Culture, and that is the version I'm using for my map.

As for the modifications, they are all canonical places from official products, but some locations were selected ad hoc, fitting the necessities of my campaign (from some years ago). However, the locations in the Nentir Vale, the Trollhaunt Warrens and the Dragondown Coast are all canonical (both places and locations). This is a list of my modifications:

• I've modified the Nentir Vale so the Cairngorm Peaks can be seen as actual peaks, and also Thunderspire Mountain, that according to the official adventure towers most mountains in the Dawnforge Mountains, but strangely was missing in the official map. Talking about the Dawnforges, I've added the lakes shown in the Hammerfast supplement. I've also added the Cloak Wood west of Fallcrest, that is also missing in the official map (or covered by the big letters and Cargo Culture didn't added it to their version). Finally, I've added the crater in the Chaos Scar (the place is supposed to be a meteor impact site).
• West of the Nentir Vale I've added the Silvery Lake (from Revenge of the Giants) and the Ironwall Mountains (form Orcs of Stonefang Pass). These are "non-canonical" placements for canonical locations that I used in my old campaign. Canonically, those places are supposed to be near the Nentir Vale, so that's where I think they are located.
• South of Nentir Vale, I've added Sentinel Peak (from The Minotaurs of Mistwatch, in Dragon 385), near the lake Cargo Culture added to the map.
• I've modified the Trollhaunt Warrens to match the map from King of the Trollhaunt Warrens, expanding the rivers from the official map and adding the two lakes from that adventure.
• Finallyt, I've modified the Dragondown Mountains (in the southwestern coast) so they match the map of the Dragondown Coast included in the Seal of Karga Kul novel.

Here is the map, feel free to use it if you like it. For now, this is the requested unlabeled version, but I'm planning to post a labeled version soon, so stay tuned.

Enjoy it, and (delayed) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

 

[not-so-newguy]

Great map, thanks for sharing