Serpent Kingdoms Art Gallery Is Up

[Gez]

It would be what's in the article Sean linked to, so...

 

[ruleslawyer]

Anyway, I have a question about Serpent Kingdoms:

I am really interested in this book, but I also really dislike FR and would use that book for my homebrew setting which is extremely different from FR. So, who knows about Serpent Kingdom's contents? Is it heavily referenced on FR, or just a few notes here and there about "serpents" in that setting that could be easily snapped? (Please a quick answer, as I have only 7 days to buy it with Share the Love on amazon!)

SK really doesn't seem strongly linked to core FR material at all. While the serpent-folk do crop up in lots of FR allusions, they're not really an "iconic" part of the setting like, for example, the major secret societies (Harpers, Cult of the Dragon, Zhentarim, Knights of the Shield, Red Wizards, Shades (3e), etc.), the Seven Sisters, the powers that be in Cormyr and Waterdeep, the Weave, or the "important" FR gods (the Dead Three, Mystra, Azuth, Lathander, Shar, or Selune). In fact, SK appears to introduce a hitherto-unexplored set of regions in the Realms (Mhair, Hlondeth, the Serpent Hills, Tashalar), all of which are easily transportable to another campaign (cough*Hyboria*cough) and a relatively unknown religion (the Cult of Set/Sseth).

The one thing I'm wincing about a bit is the sarrukh. The major things that have bothered me about the evolution of the Realms (which I fell in love with even before the release of the first boxed set in 1987) have been (1) the release of "crunch"-laden material that codifies stuff that never should have been kitted out in rules in the first place, and that in many cases has nothing to do with the setting itself; (2) the transformation of the Realms from Ed's well-articulated creation into a sprawling mess of novels and supplements that lack a common flavor and are loaded with campaign-shattering events; and (3) the introduction into the setting of stuff that's supposed to be background material and adventure hooks as a real and living force with hard rules. The last includes both the Shades (which completely demystify Netheril by bringing into the here-and-now, in addition to introducing yet more astronomically-high-level NPCs) and the sarrukh, who should rightly be a thing of the past and whose legacy should be a wealth of hooks for adventurers. Moreover, it appears that the sarrukh are actually Sseth-worshipping snake-cult uber-badguys, which strikes me as being at odds with the idea of them as an ancient creator race with unknowable motivations.

All IMHO.

 

[Gez]

Well... The Sarrukh's civilization did fall at least twice, sssoooo having them be quite demoted from their former, and very old, place as a creator race with unknowable motivation to snake-cultist uber badguys is reasonnable.

 

[Derulbaskul]

From what I've read so far, the progression of the sarrukh does make sense, IMO.

In expectation for this book, a year ago I allowed a mysterious serpentine staff dating from the days of the creator race to be found by one of the groups I DM. For a year now they have been puzzling over this mysterious artefact with its alien intelligence and nebulous goals... just as I have been waiting for SK to be published so I can finally codify its powers. Good timing, WotC: next week's session was going to be the week when I simply would have had to make up the powers or let this old plotline wither and die.

 

[Krieg]

Regarding the art. I was especially happy the Lizard King's Feast made it in since this book isn't part of the mature line.

Now that is a kick-butt illustration.

If only more of the 3.x artwork was that interesting...

 

[Laman Stahros]

I have the Serpent Kingdom book!

I have heared that, despite beeing in the art gallery, here are no Saurials in the book.

Is this true?

No, there are no Saurials in Serpent Kingdoms. The book deals entirely with the Sarrukh (progenitor race of the scaled races) and the races they created or that were created by their creations.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Well... The Sarrukh's civilization did fall at least twice, sssoooo having them be quite demoted from their former, and very old, place as a creator race with unknowable motivation to snake-cultist uber badguys is reasonnable.

Then why not just use the yuan-ti as the degenerate descendants/creations of the sarrukh, as would make more sense and has been suggested in previous FR supplements anyway? They fill the niche of big-deal ancient snake-guys with a current cult-BBEG emphasis nicely. It seems to me that if you're keeping the super-intelligent, high-CR creator race of old, they should behave that way.

 

[Gez]

Because Faerûn is entering the Age of Returns.

Monsters of Faerûn: The Malaugrym are back!
FRCS: The Shades are back! Bane is back!
Lords of Darkness: The Daemonfey are back!
Unapproachable East: The Mithril Elves are back!
Underdark: The Imaskari are back!
Serpent Kingdoms: The Sarrukh are back!

 

[Nightfall]

Orcus, Graz'zt and Demogorgon are back and so is Mykrul and Bhaal.

So now the fun begins as The Dark Three face off against the Demon Princes of the Abyss!

 

[Gez]

Orcus, I knew (I could have added Faiths & Pantheons to the list), but I didn't know Graz'zt and Demogorgon had disappeared.

And where are Myrkul and Bhaal back? I don't think the Baldur's Gate games are canonical, and IIRC, Myrkul is still prisoner in some sort of crown, isn't he?


More importantly, what's the next Realms sourcebook? Isn't it about the Shining South? What will be the ancient race/subrace/god/cult that will come back there?