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

The Archmage? Is this some black metal band?

 

[neobolts]

This isn't Star Wars. Neither Greenwood nor WOTC dictate FR canon. In the world of RPGs, novels, published settings, video games and even the upcoming movie are secondary and tertiary to the true canon: what happens in your game.

Well...I consider our group's Star Wars d20 game where the Jedi Temple massacre awakened Cthulhu to be more canon than the Special Editions.

 

[Mirtek]

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

No, that one is set in the official realms canon, ToT, Spellplague, etc. is all in, even if downplayed by only having a few sentences each

 

[GobiWon]

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!

I wouldn't hold my breath. Planescape maybe. They want to establish Forgotten Realms as the world of D&D. Ravenloft and Planscape fit into the cosmology and can be easily accessed from the Realms, but the introduction of new campaign settings like Eberron and Dark Sun is problematic from a marketing perspective. They want the movies and the video games all set in a unified world. Introduction of competing settings is counter-productive to this goal.

 

[Kramodlog]

I would venture a guess

Yeah, they guessed wrong when they thought that 4e's change to the Realms wouldn't affect sells. FR lore is popular and Ed's even more so. Will it compete with WotC's? I'm curious to find out.

 

[Kramodlog]

If they disagree, they're wrong.

Doesn't matter. Voting with your wallet is what makes something right or wrong when it comes to businesses like WotC.

 

[ChapolimX]

Very good news for Realms fans indeed !!! I wonder what does he means by little-detailed places. Is he thinking of places not detailed on SCAG/WOTC Storylines? Or it will be about places not well detailed in the entire Forgotten Realms product history? What locales people want to read from Mr. Greenwood?

 

[Irennan]

Very good news for Realms fans indeed !!! I wonder what does he means by little-detailed places. Is he thinking of places not detailed on SCAG/WOTC Storylines? Or it will be about places not well detailed in the entire Forgotten Realms product history? What locales people want to read from Mr. Greenwood?

For me, it's the Moonsea, Haruaa, Rashemen and the High Forest.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

I am hoping for more material on Scornubel, aka the Divided City.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Yeah, they guessed wrong when they thought that 4e's change to the Realms wouldn't affect sells. FR lore is popular and Ed's even more so. Will it compete with WotC's? I'm curious to find out.

True... but we also both know that pure sales are not their going concern these past couple of years. If sales were all that mattered, they would have produced all this Realms stuff themselves these past two years instead of holding off on anything and then opening the doors to other people now doing it.

So I truly think a splintered-off Realms timeline set up by the Ed Greenwood Company is one of WotC's lesser concerns about this whole thing. Especially considering a whole heap of Realms players don't even care about Ed's personal Realms stuff anyway. But if Ed getting back in the game brings a bunch of 2E-era players back into the D&D fold then that's probably good enough for the folks in Seattle.

 

[JohnLynch]

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.

And nothing in that book contradicted the official timeline, nor does anything in his candlekeep posts (in fact he overtly produces material for the current Realms on candlekeep). When Ed sold the Realms he had a clause in the contract that is likely meaningless to 99% of the fan base, but means something to Ed and at least some of the fan base. Which is that everything Ed says for the Realms until such point as something is published by WotC/TSR that contradicts it. In the event it is contradicted Ed is able (and does) find a way to reconcile the contradiction so that what he said becomes canon again. Ed doesn't need WotC's stamp of approval for something to be declared canon. As I said, likely meaningless to most, but I expect Ed will continue to honor that term by not contradicting canon (and offering explanations if he inadvertently does).