D&D 5E WotC & Novels

I think the dropping of the novel line goes hand in hand with loosening up canon and making the timeline way less rigid. I think that if movies get made we'll see the novels return, but the goal of the books will be to support other lines and will be released in a very measured way.
 

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Look, I never said every book they did was a piece of crap. I think ther where a few books that really stood out for their time. The OG dragonlance, the crystal shard, heck the finder stone books where some of my personal favorites. But there was alot of trash along with them. Especially the later dragonlance and most of RAs later books. Too many drow fan fiction got published and connecting novels with the table top game never helped. So relax homie.

Thanks, this is a much better response than your first. And again, while I strongly disagree with your sentiment, you and Morrus are right, I need to chill.

I would argue that not only did many of the D&D novels "stand out for their time" but continue to do so today, they continue to be stellar examples of fantasy storytelling. I would also argue that there was most definitely SOME trash, but not nearly a LOT of it within the novel line. But, art is subjective, and IF you read all of those books and honestly felt most were terrible, well, like that's your opinion man (to channel the Big Lebowski).

And, too much "drow fan-fiction"? You're straying back into snark here. If you personally don't care for novels with major drow protagonists, that's fine of course. But none of it is "fan-fiction" (which, even if it was, doesn't make it poor quality). There were three major storylines involving drow protagonists. The long-running "Legend of the Dark Elf" series with Drizzt as the main character (over 30 books), the "Starlight & Shadows" trilogy, and the "War of the Spider Queen" sextet. All of which were extremely popular, went through multiple reprintings, with many hitting the NYT bestsellers list. There's a lot of cranky fans who love to snark on the character of Drizzt, but there are many more who really enjoyed those stories. You don't get over 40 novels strong with strong sales and multiple awards if you are publishing crappy "fan-fiction". But again, hey, if you actually DID read some of those stories and didn't care for them, that's fine. Just stop harshing on my mellow. As you pointed out, I need to relax here . . . . .
 

The Lady Penitent series also dealt with the drow, and led to the death of Vharaun and Eilistraee and one of the Silver Sisters (the drow one, starts with a Q...)
 

The Lady Penitent series also dealt with the drow, and led to the death of Vharaun and Eilistraee and one of the Silver Sisters (the drow one, starts with a Q...)

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that series. It was a follow-up to "War of the Spider Queen" and I conflated the two in my memory. Thanks!

If I remember correctly, the trilogy made significant changes to the Realms as a part of the game's transition to 4E. While that was irritating, I remember enjoying the story! At the end some of the drow were restored to being dark-skinned but not drow, as they were before Lolth's corruption. Whatever happened to these non-drow dark elves? Do they still exist in the Realms?
 

I don't know that they've ever been mentioned since. I haven't seen it, but I haven't really read many FR novels outside of the drow stuff. Reading first Elminster book right now.
 

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that series. It was a follow-up to "War of the Spider Queen" and I conflated the two in my memory. Thanks!

If I remember correctly, the trilogy made significant changes to the Realms as a part of the game's transition to 4E. While that was irritating, I remember enjoying the story! At the end some of the drow were restored to being dark-skinned but not drow, as they were before Lolth's corruption. Whatever happened to these non-drow dark elves? Do they still exist in the Realms?

No, they haven't been mentioned. Eilistraee has returned to life after the Sundering, and she is her normal drow self, with drow followers. Her main focus, according to Ed Greenwood's Death Masks, seems now to be helping her people building stronger relationships with humans (starting from Waterdeep). And it is better that way, because

1)It makes sense. The transformed drow were only a few hundreds, like 10% of the total number of followers of Eilistraee ( a few thousands)--even tho the mage's original intent was to transform them all. They were scattered across Faerun, many died in the Underdark, more died with the Spellplague. With most of Eilistraee's followers remaining drow, they would probably make 0 impact (especially because they'de be virtually indistinguishable from wood elves).

2)Eilistraee doesn't care about the curse. In her lore that has never been mentioned, not once. In her teachings," redemption" (intended like that) never appears, not even once. She has a positive attitude, as she just wants the drow to rediscover the joy of life that they were denied, and forge their own path in life, in harmony with other races and among each other. The "curse" is now part of who the drow are, and Eilistraee acts as a mother goddess to the *drow* as a whole race, to help them flourish again, not force them to change their race. What was associated with her in LP has absolutely nothing to do with her concept. In fact, it conflicts and diminishes with what the character is about. If she wanted to remove the curse, she'd just have worked towards it. She never made a move, she has never cared. In over 10k+ in-universe years (and 20+ years of existing in the published Realms), she never nudged any of her followers towards it, she never spoke about that (except in that one single novel that concluded the series); she instead taught her followers to embrace life, acceptance, and freedom of expression. And rightfully so, because when you are born as a drow, why would you be forced to give up on who you are? Within the context of the novels, this transformation tried to turn Eilistraee's goal, which is a beautful concept, into "redeem yourself for being born as drow", which is just wrong and a copy of religious concepts like the Original Sin.

If we think about it, considering the events in the novels, that "uncursing" was actually a violence, and carried really ugly implications. Basically, those who underwent the transformation were *forced* to do so (the casters themselves are shown to be horrified). They were forced to give up the bodies they were born with, what they were, and the reason for that was that it was the only condition on which Corellon would give them access to Arvandor (which they already had, since Eilistraee's Realm is in Arvandor) and the elves would accept them. Basically, it showed them that their choice in life didn't matter, to be accepted they had to give up part of their identity. And the author/editor tried to pass this--changing the skin of a few of her followers, while abandoning the rest of the drow (the very people whose battle, *curse*, and suffering Eilistraee chose to share, starting since when she was but a "girl", just to bring them her hope in times when they would need her) to their fate--as her goal, which is infinitely far from it. And on top of that, it was because "lol, the rest is unwilling and unreedemable" which again makes 0 sense, given that most of Eilistraee's followers came from the group of drow that was labeled as "unwilling". Talk about trashing a character... I'm really glad that this was retconned away for all practical purposes.
 
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The Lady Penitent series also dealt with the drow, and led to the death of Vharaun and Eilistraee and one of the Silver Sisters (the drow one, starts with a Q...)

For an update on the Lady Penitent novels, as of the 1490s/5e, Ed Greenwood has revealed that Eilistraee did actually manage to survive thanks to help of Mystra, so did Vhaeraun. This is taken from the wiki (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Eilistraee#cite_note-36)

Ed Greenwood suggests that Eilistraee actually spared her brother's life. The Dark Maiden defeated Vhaeraun with the indirect help of her ally Mystra, as the Weave frustrated the Masked Lord's magic while enhancing Eilistraee's. The goddess temporarily took her brother's portfolio, and trapped his sentience in the Weave, where it was enfolded in a dream by Mystra. The Lady of Mysteries did that to ensure that the two drow siblings would survive the cataclysm that she knew was coming—the Spellplague—in which she would be "killed" to renew the Weave, and magic would go wild. Afterwards, Eilistraee survived Halisstra's attempt at killing her, albeit much weakened. When Qilué Veladorn was killed, since the goddess was inhabiting her body, a great part of her power was dragged into the Weave with the Chosen's soul (the souls of Mystra's chosen often become "Voices in the Weave" after their death, as explained inthe novel Spellstorm, and their memories and experiences are shared by Mystra--and, I add, the sword that killed Qilué couldn't destroy souls any longer, since we see another character's soul perfectly intact afetr being killed by the sword). After that, for about a century, Eilistraee could only manfest herself only as a floating black mask surrounded by moonlight, capable of silently communicating with mortals, but not of answering prayers or granting spells (except by direct touch). After Mystra and the Weave were completely restored in 1487DR, the goddess of magic could finally give Eilistraee her own lost power, and do the same with Vhaeraun, after having awakened him from his dream.

The two are now back to life, as drow gods, with mostly drow followers, no longer enemies to each other, and with the same portfolio/power that they had in 1375 DR (Eilistraee is also part of a group of deities with whom the new Mystra is sharing the Weave). Both of them have been personally appearing to their followers and mortals in general. In Death Masks it is revealed that Eilistraee in particular was seen dancing across the Sword Coast with many mortals, even under the walls of Waterdeep itself, which led many of her drow followers to the city, where they received the support of the harpers to build a dancing glade to their goddess within Waterdeep. They have also participated to the reclamation of Maerimydra in one of the AL adventures.

Kiaransalee's name was also never fully erased from the minds of all living beings on Toril (it made 0 sense within the context of the history of High Magic in the Realms, for many reasons, and it was a huge plot hole within the story itself--just as a simple thought: why not do it on Lolth, lol?), and she managed to return to life too. Selvetarm is back as well. Basically, those novels were entirely undone. Sources are Ed Greenwood's Death Masks, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, The Reaver, Ed Greenwood posts on Candlekeep.

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Eilistraee#Rebirth
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Seldarine#The_Second_Sundering
 
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I knew they were back, yeah, but not sure they were entirely undone. Qilue is still dead.

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Yes, but Ed has recently said that the Promenade is being retaken, and that "stuff is happening down there" that he can't talk about yet. With the recent hints about Halaster and the Undermountain, I wouldn't be surprised if Qilué made a reappearance as a Voice in the Weave, like Dove and Syluné have in Death Masks. Basically they're still very much their own selves, but as Weave ghosts.
 
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