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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6382518" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I don't really follow your comparison to America. America is a real place, with real social and cultural dynamics, exercising a real influence on the life experiences and hence personalities etc of those who live and/or grow up within it.</p><p></p><p>The Shadowfell and Feywild are not real places. They're fictional creations, whose authors are trying to convey to an audience what they are like, and what their purpose is as literary creations. The way an author does that is by locating certain sorts of familiar creatures within them. <em>In the fiction</em>, the character of a unicorn, or a ghost, may well be shaped by its origin. But in discussing theme, cosmology, and how they relate to monster design we are not talking from the perspective of a character within the fiction. We're talking from the perspective of authors and audience of literary creations.</p><p></p><p>When the author tells you that the Shadowfell is where ghosts and wraiths come from, the audience - who are already familiar with ghosts, wraiths, and notions of a shadowy spirit-world - is able to understand what the author intends the Shadowfell to be. It is a place of death, of lingering tragedy, of emotional anguish, etc.</p><p></p><p>Similarly, when the author tells you that the Feywild is populated by unicorns and pixies, the audience is able to understand that it is a place of magical forests and exaggerated natural beauty.</p><p></p><p>I don't really follow. If you tell me that Gygaxian Monster Manual unicorns come from the Shadowfell, then all you do is confuse me. Why would CG creatures of sylvan beautiy and blessings for the pure of heart come from a place called the Shadowfell? Are you trying to be funny, or (perhaps) bitterly ironic?</p><p></p><p>Assuming a non-ironic, non-comedy game, then if you are trying to present the Shadowfell in the sort of way the 4e designers did you wouldn't put unicorns in the Shadowfell. You might put corrupted unicorns there (Rolemaster used t have such creatures, and I'm sure other systems/campaign worlds have had them too), but the fact that they are corrupted unicorns tells us something about the Shadowfell. And those corrupted unicorns wouldn't, mechanically, be the same monster. For instance, a touch from their horn wouldn't cure poison - more likely they have a horn-based attack that deals necrotic and/or poison damage.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6382518, member: 42582"] I don't really follow your comparison to America. America is a real place, with real social and cultural dynamics, exercising a real influence on the life experiences and hence personalities etc of those who live and/or grow up within it. The Shadowfell and Feywild are not real places. They're fictional creations, whose authors are trying to convey to an audience what they are like, and what their purpose is as literary creations. The way an author does that is by locating certain sorts of familiar creatures within them. [I]In the fiction[/I], the character of a unicorn, or a ghost, may well be shaped by its origin. But in discussing theme, cosmology, and how they relate to monster design we are not talking from the perspective of a character within the fiction. We're talking from the perspective of authors and audience of literary creations. When the author tells you that the Shadowfell is where ghosts and wraiths come from, the audience - who are already familiar with ghosts, wraiths, and notions of a shadowy spirit-world - is able to understand what the author intends the Shadowfell to be. It is a place of death, of lingering tragedy, of emotional anguish, etc. Similarly, when the author tells you that the Feywild is populated by unicorns and pixies, the audience is able to understand that it is a place of magical forests and exaggerated natural beauty. I don't really follow. If you tell me that Gygaxian Monster Manual unicorns come from the Shadowfell, then all you do is confuse me. Why would CG creatures of sylvan beautiy and blessings for the pure of heart come from a place called the Shadowfell? Are you trying to be funny, or (perhaps) bitterly ironic? Assuming a non-ironic, non-comedy game, then if you are trying to present the Shadowfell in the sort of way the 4e designers did you wouldn't put unicorns in the Shadowfell. You might put corrupted unicorns there (Rolemaster used t have such creatures, and I'm sure other systems/campaign worlds have had them too), but the fact that they are corrupted unicorns tells us something about the Shadowfell. And those corrupted unicorns wouldn't, mechanically, be the same monster. For instance, a touch from their horn wouldn't cure poison - more likely they have a horn-based attack that deals necrotic and/or poison damage. [/QUOTE]
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