Netheril's Fall - First Impressions

If Astarion's Book of Hungers is the player-facing add-on for Heroes of Faerun, than Netheril's Fall is the slightly more beefy add-on for Adventures in Faerun. The new digital "DLC" for the Forgotten Realms book is a gazetteer for the lost kingdom of Netheril, with an overview of the fallen kingdom, a look at two of its cities (one flying city, Eileanar, and the landbound city Conch), some magically-themed environmental hazards, and a short collection of mini-adventures in the style of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Netheril's Fall is functionally a mini-gazetteer, albeit not quite as beefy as the five gazetteers found in Adventures in Faerun that detail various regions.

At first glance, it's easy to see why Netheril's Fall wasn't included in Adventures in Faerun. Netheril is a fallen empire and having an adventure in Netheril will likely require the use of time gates (which are conveniently explained in the supplement, with two adventures dedicated to traveling and crossing through a Time Gate. I'll note that the adventures in this book feel much more specific than what we saw in Adventures in Faerun or the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. While the adventures in other books could be "plugged" into any level-appropriate campaign, these adventures feel much more narrow in scope and cover specific locations or events found in the DLC. There's a few adventures in Adventures in Faerun that cover locales seen in the gazetteer, but there aren't very many that cover a specific event. I don't mind the "one page adventure" format, but I'm not sure it works with every adventure type. If an adventure sends players into a mad wizard's attempted ascent into godhood, I want a little more meat than a few encounters and a resolution of "well, the players will have time to explore the city before the ritual fails."

Another criticism I have of Netheril's Fall is that Netheril doesn't feel nearly as fantastical as an ancient high-magic society should. Given that Adventures in Faerun did a very find job of elevating the Forgotten Realms beyond its generic high fantasy trappings, I feel like a bit more care could have really sold Netheril as more fantastical in nature than what we got. If we could have gotten a few more pages about Netheril's culture, I feel like Netheril would have been more appealing as a place that DMs would want to incorporate into their campaigns. As presented, there are a few cool ideas, but even the phaerimm (one of my favorite D&D monsters) feel a bit flat compared to what we would have gotten.

I was critical of Astarion's Book of Hunger's price point, and while I feel that $15 is still too high for Netheril's Fall, there's a lot more "content" compared to that book. Generally speaking, some adventure content, a gazetteer, and some monster statblocks is probably a bit more valuable than one new species and a collection of feats, although I'm probably a bit biased towards DM content since I'm usually the one behind the DM screen. I personally would had preferred a $10 price point for this DLC, but others may feel that the price point of these are more fair.

All in all, I feel a bit underwhelmed by Netheril's Fall. Netheril seems like a very cool part of Forgotten Realms lore, but it's not given full justice here. I know there's some other Netheril content out there from past editions, and I encourage people to check those out on DMs Guild if they want a real deep dive into this lost empire.

 

[Zardnaar]

Gray elves. The others lived like 1500 or 1750 or something like that. However, humans only live to about 75, but some live to 110+. Elves would be similar with some living 2500 or more years.

So very few elves that could potentially remember Netheril. And they would probably have to live in the vicinity as well.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Gray elves. The others lived like 1500 or 1750 or something like that. However, humans only live to about 75, but some live to 110+. Elves would be similar with some living 2500 or more years.

That's why I see the "change" to 750 years as simply a change to what we're seeing represented. It's the more likely lifespan of an elf, rather than the higher end. Sure, there's some really old elves that may have been children when Netheril fell, but for most, it's the equivalent of the 1770's to us real-world modern humans. It might be known history, but it's still "a long time ago".

To everyone who isn't an elf, it's the Roman Empire. Still something that you've certainly heard of, but c'mon, outside those of us with an interest, your average person doesn't really know much about the place, other than stories that aren't actually very accurate. They're more equivalent to "Legends".

And yet we still live in its shadow.

 

[JPL]

I pulled out the old boxed set recently. I could see doing a campaign that might be sort of an epic fantasy "Lower Decks," with the PCs as a group of expendable apprentices working for a half-mad or completely mad archwizard. Up in the floating cities, everything is the worst kind of civilized, all corrupt and decadent and cutthroat. Down on the ground, everything is the worst kind of barbaric, a points of light setting where any point of light seems to get extinguished awfully quickly. And all kinds of aberrations and magical misfires happen all the time.

 

[bedir than]

The Fall of Netheril was -339 DR, over 1800 years prior to the current FR book timeline, and generations ago even for Elves and Dwarves.

That's only three elven generations, the equivalent of around 250 years for humans. That's recent history. Most real world lost civilisation stories average about 10,000 years in the past.

And others with similar comments of course

We have people in a real world with a highly available internet who have already forgotten about major events and nations within their own lifetimes.
Knowledge and civilizations fade really fast.

 

[TheSword]

I've always felt that ancient Netheril wasn't a very interesting place to visit, should you stumble across a time-gate. Flying cities are cool, but overall if just felt like the ancient Realms that are pretty much the same as the modern Realms. This supplement doesn't change that, of course.

I'd rather have a culture of flying cities in my "modern" campaign, other than the distant past.

But this is a genre problem overall, not just a problem with the Realms.

I imagine it to be a bit like the Time Lords of Gallifrey - hyper advanced society, caste based, with strange customs.

Or like the Aes Sedai flashbacks from the time of legends.

Or the Romulans

I think you have to bring Netheril through cultural and behaviors oddities that develop from a society where magic runs like tap water. Eberron dialed up to eleven!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

We have people in a real world with a highly available internet who have already forgotten about major events and nations within their own lifetimes.
Knowledge and civilizations fade really fast.

Nonsense.

 

[Parmandur]

One of Halaster's apprentices was a still living Netherese Wizard who was killed in 1369 or something like that.

I mean, Halastar was actually like 5,000 years old when he died, and came from a pre-Netherese civilization l, but thst involves timefreezing. But he was active again im the 2nd ce fury DR. Sliminster was born on the 3rd century DR. So with powerful magics users, knowledge of the ancient world is alive even with Humans.

 

[TheSword]

I mean, Halastar was actually like 5,000 years old when he died, and came from a pre-Netherese civilization l, but thst involves timefreezing. But he was active again im the 2nd ce fury DR. Sliminster was born on the 3rd century DR. So with powerful magics users, knowledge of the ancient world is alive even with Humans.

Who is Sliminster?

 

[Azzy]

Who is Sliminster?

Elminster. Parmandur is all thumbs.

 

[bedir than]

Nonsense.

Trying to find a non-political event to disprove the one-word rebuttal is hard.

There are large swaths of Americans who didn't know which side of World War II the Soviets were on.
About 20% of Americans didn't know the Berlin Wall was taken down 12 months after it was.