[UPDATED] The Archmage (aka Ed Greenwood) Returns to the Forgotten Realms

The Archmage? Is this some black metal band?

 

[Xavian Starsider]

Go to Candlekeep forums and see what some fans think about that.

If they disagree, they're wrong. Forgotten Realms is a sandbox for the world's greatest storytelling game. The stories you tell cannot be superseded by any other source including official ones. If I decide that in my story, Icewind Dale is full of dinosaurs and Chult is full of yetis, Candlekeep cannot override me. For my players, it becomes the primary canon.

 

[Irennan]

There's already a 'separate' Greenwood Realms canon, published as 'Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms' in October of 2012.

With that said, having Greenwood publish Realms material on the DMs Guild is pretty much a no-brainer.

Elminster's FR is not Ed's original ''canon''. His FR doesn't even include the ToT and hasn't even reached the 1370s, AFAIK, while that book even includes info about the 1400s DR.

The book includes some of his original notes and design, sure, but only stuff that is compatible with the official timeline.

 

[Irennan]

If they disagree, they're wrong. Forgotten Realms is a sandbox for the world's greatest storytelling game. The stories you tell cannot be superseded by any other source including official ones. If I decide that in my story, Icewind Dale is full of dinosaurs and Chult is full of yetis, Candlekeep cannot override me. For my players, it becomes the primary canon.

No one over Candlekeep, or possibly anywhere, will disagree with you on that. However WotC/Ed's lore obviously ''dictate'' canon of the published version of the Realms.

 

[Irennan]

Also, we still don't know if Ed will write in the official timeline, or use his own. His books might very well be set in the 5e era.

 

[Morrus]

Ed dropped me a quick note to say "Let's call them Mirt "stories" rather than "novellas." MUCH shorter than novels, is the plan. Mirt goes to a little-detailed place. Mirt stories, NOT novels, end of the year. Mirt goes to a neglected Realms locale in a story, Volo's Guide to same spot, plus game adventure".

 

[FallenAkriel]

I feel that Forgotten Realms is now given back to the people. I definitively dont see WotC exploring it much more. We can see it with them having Ravenloft as the next adventure. I expect in the future big adventures-friendly for Eberron, Planescape, Dark Sun in the next few years. Sure they will porbably be compatible/adaptable to Forgotten Realms.

Ed Greenwood is such a great news for pure Realms fans for new/revised content. Back to 1E/2E setting books feel!

 

[GobiWon]

I think that there is enough reverence for Greenwood that anything he produces will be considered canon. Even if it deviates from published materials, I think WotC will do their best to fit it in or explain the discrepancies away. There might even be an agreement to physically publish the material if sales hit a certain point.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

I hope WotC decides to spend a little bit of time going over ***all*** of the NDA material for the Realms that they (and TSR before them) have been sitting on for years (meaning completed writing jobs by Ed, and possibly others, as well as supplementary/helper material of the kind that Ed regularly sent in to WotC, for projects that never saw the light of day in publication), with the goal of figuring out what they can free up from NDA status, so Ed can publish it in some form to the DMs Guild.

This way WotC could at least obtain some money for previously unpublished work.

There are a ton of fan questions posed to Ed at Candlekeep that have been left unanswered because of the dreaded NDA wall, as well as "things left hanging" in the Realms, that could be answered if WotC saw fit to allow NDA information to go free, so to speak.

New Volo's Guides would be the perfect avenue for that information.

Could Sean Reynolds be tapped for something like this? He's worked for TSR, and for WotC, and has plenty of Realms design experience. If anyone can successfully navigate through the history of Realms publishing, it's him.

 

[Irennan]

I think that there is enough reverence for Greenwood that anything he produces will be considered canon. Even if it deviates from published materials, I think WotC will do their best to fit it in or explain the discrepancies away. There might even be an agreement to physically publish the material if sales hit a certain point.

It's also in Ed's contract that anything he says/writes about the FR is considered canon, unless contradicted by WotC. However, if Ed writes in the current 5e era, I think that there might be some agreements with WotC.

 

[JeffB]

Good news. Looking forward to lore and adventure material from the man himself. Maybe they can get Mr. Grubb involved as well