Who are the heroes on the FR books? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Who are the heroes on the FR books? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Sylvos
06-11-05, 11:37 PM Who are the adventurers that appear on several of the FR game books?
Normally I'd just figure they are randomly drawn characters but they have appeared on at least 3 books so far so I figured they were existing heroes or mentioned somewhere I had missed. Or the artist (thankfully) wanted to maintain a sense of semblance in his art and just used same heroes over and over to help maintain a consistant image or idea.
Anyway, just wondering!
Kuje31
06-12-05, 01:09 AM The Knights of Myth Drannor, one of Ed's original groups. They are finally getting a trilogy as well. :)
Sylvos
06-12-05, 02:58 AM oh wow, i had no idea he had put Florin and Merith and Torm etc.. on the covers.
Interesting I don't remember any of them being half-drow or wielding a polearm =).
however, its all good that i can not wait to come out!
Old Sage
06-12-05, 03:21 AM oh wow, i had no idea he had put Florin and Merith and Torm etc.. on the covers.
Interesting I don't remember any of them being half-drow or wielding a polearm =).Lanseril Snowmantle is the only half-elf among the Knights. There are no half-drow.

however, its all good that i can not wait to come out!Early last year, Ed revealed a little about the first book in the trilogy -

I can say the first one begins just before the Knights are actually formed, when Florin Falconhand agrees to undertake a certain task, and gets more than he bargained for.
warlockco
06-12-05, 06:30 AM Who are the adventurers that appear on several of the FR game books?
Normally I'd just figure they are randomly drawn characters but they have appeared on at least 3 books so far so I figured they were existing heroes or mentioned somewhere I had missed. Or the artist (thankfully) wanted to maintain a sense of semblance in his art and just used same heroes over and over to help maintain a consistant image or idea.
Anyway, just wondering!

Depends on what books you are referring to. If you just saying books, there are many that people could pick from.

If however you mean the "adventuring group" that has shown up in alot of the new FR books, they are the "FR Iconic" NPCs, they have no official stats at this time, as to their names, they elude me at this time, since I haven't paid too much attention to it beyond asking Rich if they had printed stats anywhere yet.
Kuje31
06-12-05, 11:56 AM oh wow, i had no idea he had put Florin and Merith and Torm etc.. on the covers.
Interesting I don't remember any of them being half-drow or wielding a polearm =).
however, its all good that i can not wait to come out!

Er my bad, no that's not what I meant and I should stop replying when I'm either half-awake or half-asleep. :)

But now that I reread your first reply, the pics on the current covers are just a group of iconics WOTC decided to create for the covers. :)

Sorry for the confusion.
Realmsrat
06-12-05, 01:37 PM The blonde sun elf with the longsword and wand on the cover of underdark, lost empires of faerun, and the player's guide to faerun, is Araevin from the last mythal trilogy. The other characters visible with him are people he traveled with before the start of the trilogy.
warlockco
06-12-05, 04:42 PM The blonde sun elf with the longsword and wand on the cover of underdark, lost empires of faerun, and the player's guide to faerun, is Araevin from the last mythal trilogy. The other characters visible with him are people he traveled with before the start of the trilogy.

Rich has said no to that.
Both elves have the same name and appearance, but are not the same elf.
ElGrecoETAC
06-12-05, 07:26 PM That's not true. I asked Rich that question specifically, referring to the Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms, the Lost Empires of Faerun, and the Forsaken House book, and he answered in the above "ask the FR developers thread" that, he was, in fact, the same individual (the protagonist from Forsaken House).

In fact, Rich also said that he appears on the Underdark cover as well, which I didn't catch at first.
FineasBoggs
06-12-05, 07:34 PM The elf is the one and same, Rich did confirm such. As well as the Paladin, IIRC, looking guy from PGtF and LE, though from which book, I don't recall.
FineasBoggs
06-12-05, 07:35 PM In fact, regarding to Underdark, I think he said there was something of an error in the timeline that wasn't quite consistent with the novels.

I wish I could remember where that was. Maybe on the Ask....thread???
ElGrecoETAC
06-12-05, 07:38 PM Here is the link to the page where Rich shared the info, if anyone's interested. :)

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=282525&page=33&pp=30

Early in the days of FR 3E, we decided that we needed to create some "iconic" FR characters, along the lines of the D&D iconics--Jozan, Regdar, Mialee, and the rest. We needed them for FR-specific playtesting, and we figured we'd also use them for some art references too. Araevin was one of the iconics I created; the original sketch was by Sam Wood. We used a few of the FR "iconics" stealthily here and there for art pieces in various books--so you see Sanidine the earth genasi fighter on the cover of Underdark, Araevin on the cover of PGtoF, and so on.

When I was thinking up "The Last Mythal," I figured out early on that I wanted a sun elf mage as a protagonist. As a convenient handle on the character, I started thinking of him as "Araevin," because I knew he'd look a lot like Araevin, the iconic character. But, as I wrestled with building the series outline, I got Araevin anchored deeper and deeper in my head, until finally I decided not to fight it anymore. So, I used the name and look outright for my novel. While I was at it, I borrowed a couple of more names from our 3E iconics--so Belmora the dwarf gets mentioned in Forsaken House, for example.

Now, I sort of wish I hadn't done that, because Araevin's appearances in various RPG products suggest a character history that has nothing to do with the guy I'm writing about in The Last Mythal. Specifically, Araevin's appearance in "City of the Spider Queen" art sure suggests that he was fighting drow under the Dalelands less than a year before the start of Forsaken House, and clearly Forsaken House doesn't make any allowances for him to have been away from Evermeet having an adventure then. On the other hand, if you're going to think up sun elf wizards for two different purposes, maybe they *ought* to be the same guy.

So Araevin sort of is and sort of isn't the same character you see in the RPG art. As far as stats for the characters, I have half an idea of what they are, but I haven't sat down to thrash them out the way I did for the Spider Queen characters. I know Araevin started Forsaken House around 14th or 15th level, just based on the spells I let him use. I'd peg Starbrow as a fighter of 20th level, maybe a little more. Seiveril is a cleric of 21st or 22nd level, give or take (he needed an epic resurrection spell, after all). Beyond that, I'm not telling yet.

Originally Posted by ElGrecoETAC
Rich Baker, greetings from Mesopotamia. A quick question or two for you:

Being overseas and behind things, it just became apparent to me that the main character from "Forsaken House" (great book, by the way) is the same guy from the covers of Player's Guide to Faerun and Lost Empires of Faerun--all books that have your name on them.

Was this coordinated "advertisement" for the book's character? Are any of the other folks on the covers members of the Company of the White Star? Any plan on giving us some stats for the novel characters? Maybe even just a plain old alignment-class-level line?

Thanks!

...and an earlier post on page 25 of the same thread.

Early in the days of FR 3rd Edition, we created a set of FR iconic characters in the same vein as the D&D 3rd Ed. iconics like Jozan, Tordek, and the rest. We knew we'd use them for art occasionally, but the real goal was to build a set of FR characters we could use for playtesting. So Araevin the sun elf wizard, Belmora the shield dwarf cleric, Evendur the aasimar paladin, Sanadine the earth genasi fighter, etc., etc., came into existence. (I did create Araevin, as it turns out, but the whole FR team at the time contributed to making up the other characters.) We used them as the "standard" adventuring party in art suggestions for City of the Spider Queen, Underdark, and on a few book covers too. Sam Wood created some gorgeous black-and-white sketches of several of these characters that just looked incredible, and we sent 'em out to other artists as references.

When I started working on the Forsaken House outline, I knew I wanted a sun elf protagonist, and I wound up leaning toward a wizard of some sort. Naturally, I thought of Araevin. Once I got the name and look of Araevin stuck in my head, I decided, "Ah, heck, I'll just call my character Araevin."

In retrospect, I kinda wish I hadn't done that, because there's an implied history for Araevin in game product that maybe we don't want for the novel character. Specifically, we can guess that Araevin was stomping around in Maerimydra fighting Kiaransalee-worshipping drow in the War of the Spider Queen, which takes place only a year or so before the events of Last Mythal. But maybe I'm just over-thinking it.

If we publish stats of the Last Mythal characters, it'll be in Dragon or on the website.

For whatever reason, the link takes you to page 1 of the thread. Go to pages 30 and 25 for the above text, and scroll down to the appropriate posts. :)
FineasBoggs
06-12-05, 07:43 PM There now the Paladin looking dude was in CotSQ as well. Missed that one.
warlockco
06-12-05, 07:49 PM That's not true. I asked Rich that question specifically, referring to the Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms, the Lost Empires of Faerun, and the Forsaken House book, and he answered in the above "ask the FR developers thread" that, he was, in fact, the same individual (the protagonist from Forsaken House).

In fact, Rich also said that he appears on the Underdark cover as well, which I didn't catch at first.

And the quotes that you provided prove that they are the same and not the same at the same time.

Since he couldn't have been in Underdark.

Way I see it, there are two that look the same, and happen to have the same first name.

To me, it looks more like "writer's block" messing with things.
ElGrecoETAC
06-12-05, 08:38 PM And the quotes that you provided prove that they are the same and not the same at the same time.
But that isn't what you stated initially.

I'm not trying to split hairs, but the answer your provided and the answer Rich gave are different. I went ahead and posted the answer I received from Rich, which wasn't, in fact, simply "no, they're two different guys with the same name." When I realized that my answer wasn't exactly complete either, I went ahead and posted the entirety of the discussion so that the poster could decide for him/herself.

From his answers, it's obvious that Rich decided to use the iconic character, references to the character's party, etc., but was frustrated when he realized the implied sourcebook background and the novel background might not all match up.

Since he couldn't have been in Underdark.
But he did offer a decent answer as to how he could have been there, after all (the Maerimydra comment in the second quote block).
Link182
06-12-05, 09:42 PM Cool. But who are the "black dragon riding bad guys" on the cover of Champions of Ruin?
ElGrecoETAC
06-12-05, 09:50 PM Go to the sticky "questions for developers" thread above and ask away. :)
FineasBoggs
06-12-05, 11:12 PM Certainly, from Rich's explanation, there was more that lead one to believe they are the same, rather than not, despite his "sort of" "sort of not."
warlockco
06-12-05, 11:45 PM Certainly, from Rich's explanation, there was more that lead one to believe they are the same, rather non not, despite his "sort of" "sort of not."

Yeah Rich can get pretty evasive at times, can't blame the guy though ;)
Myssa Rei
06-13-05, 03:55 AM I'm glad that someone else brought this up, since I wasn't entirely sure where to put the question in the forums. ^^;

Oh, and has anyone noticed that the Calishite-looking sorcerer appears in art for the 'Imperial South', 'Old Empires', and 'Dream of Myth Drannor' chapter art in the Lost Empires of Faerun campaign supplement? That glaive-wielding fighter-type from the cover appears with him as well.

It would be interesting to see if they actually have histories behind them.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sylvos 06-11-05, 11:37 PM	Who are the adventurers that appear on several of the FR game books? Normally I'd just figure they are randomly drawn characters but they have appeared on at least 3 books so far so I figured they were existing heroes or mentioned somewhere I had missed. Or the artist (thankfully) wanted to maintain a sense of semblance in his art and just used same heroes over and over to help maintain a consistant image or idea. Anyway, just wondering!
Kuje31 06-12-05, 01:09 AM	The Knights of Myth Drannor, one of Ed's original groups. They are finally getting a trilogy as well. :)
Sylvos 06-12-05, 02:58 AM	oh wow, i had no idea he had put Florin and Merith and Torm etc.. on the covers. Interesting I don't remember any of them being half-drow or wielding a polearm =). however, its all good that i can not wait to come out!
Old Sage 06-12-05, 03:21 AM	oh wow, i had no idea he had put Florin and Merith and Torm etc.. on the covers. Interesting I don't remember any of them being half-drow or wielding a polearm =).Lanseril Snowmantle is the only half-elf among the Knights. There are no half-drow. however, its all good that i can not wait to come out!Early last year, Ed revealed a little about the first book in the trilogy - I can say the first one begins just before the Knights are actually formed, when Florin Falconhand agrees to undertake a certain task, and gets more than he bargained for.
warlockco 06-12-05, 06:30 AM	Who are the adventurers that appear on several of the FR game books? Normally I'd just figure they are randomly drawn characters but they have appeared on at least 3 books so far so I figured they were existing heroes or mentioned somewhere I had missed. Or the artist (thankfully) wanted to maintain a sense of semblance in his art and just used same heroes over and over to help maintain a consistant image or idea. Anyway, just wondering! Depends on what books you are referring to. If you just saying books, there are many that people could pick from. If however you mean the "adventuring group" that has shown up in alot of the new FR books, they are the "FR Iconic" NPCs, they have no official stats at this time, as to their names, they elude me at this time, since I haven't paid too much attention to it beyond asking Rich if they had printed stats anywhere yet.
Kuje31 06-12-05, 11:56 AM	oh wow, i had no idea he had put Florin and Merith and Torm etc.. on the covers. Interesting I don't remember any of them being half-drow or wielding a polearm =). however, its all good that i can not wait to come out! Er my bad, no that's not what I meant and I should stop replying when I'm either half-awake or half-asleep. :) But now that I reread your first reply, the pics on the current covers are just a group of iconics WOTC decided to create for the covers. :) Sorry for the confusion.
Realmsrat 06-12-05, 01:37 PM	The blonde sun elf with the longsword and wand on the cover of underdark, lost empires of faerun, and the player's guide to faerun, is Araevin from the last mythal trilogy. The other characters visible with him are people he traveled with before the start of the trilogy.
warlockco 06-12-05, 04:42 PM	The blonde sun elf with the longsword and wand on the cover of underdark, lost empires of faerun, and the player's guide to faerun, is Araevin from the last mythal trilogy. The other characters visible with him are people he traveled with before the start of the trilogy. Rich has said no to that. Both elves have the same name and appearance, but are not the same elf.
ElGrecoETAC 06-12-05, 07:26 PM	That's not true. I asked Rich that question specifically, referring to the Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms, the Lost Empires of Faerun, and the Forsaken House book, and he answered in the above "ask the FR developers thread" that, he was, in fact, the same individual (the protagonist from Forsaken House). In fact, Rich also said that he appears on the Underdark cover as well, which I didn't catch at first.
FineasBoggs 06-12-05, 07:34 PM	The elf is the one and same, Rich did confirm such. As well as the Paladin, IIRC, looking guy from PGtF and LE, though from which book, I don't recall.
FineasBoggs 06-12-05, 07:35 PM	In fact, regarding to Underdark, I think he said there was something of an error in the timeline that wasn't quite consistent with the novels. I wish I could remember where that was. Maybe on the Ask....thread???
ElGrecoETAC 06-12-05, 07:38 PM	Here is the link to the page where Rich shared the info, if anyone's interested. :) http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=282525&page=33&pp=30 Early in the days of FR 3E, we decided that we needed to create some "iconic" FR characters, along the lines of the D&D iconics--Jozan, Regdar, Mialee, and the rest. We needed them for FR-specific playtesting, and we figured we'd also use them for some art references too. Araevin was one of the iconics I created; the original sketch was by Sam Wood. We used a few of the FR "iconics" stealthily here and there for art pieces in various books--so you see Sanidine the earth genasi fighter on the cover of Underdark, Araevin on the cover of PGtoF, and so on. When I was thinking up "The Last Mythal," I figured out early on that I wanted a sun elf mage as a protagonist. As a convenient handle on the character, I started thinking of him as "Araevin," because I knew he'd look a lot like Araevin, the iconic character. But, as I wrestled with building the series outline, I got Araevin anchored deeper and deeper in my head, until finally I decided not to fight it anymore. So, I used the name and look outright for my novel. While I was at it, I borrowed a couple of more names from our 3E iconics--so Belmora the dwarf gets mentioned in Forsaken House, for example. Now, I sort of wish I hadn't done that, because Araevin's appearances in various RPG products suggest a character history that has nothing to do with the guy I'm writing about in The Last Mythal. Specifically, Araevin's appearance in "City of the Spider Queen" art sure suggests that he was fighting drow under the Dalelands less than a year before the start of Forsaken House, and clearly Forsaken House doesn't make any allowances for him to have been away from Evermeet having an adventure then. On the other hand, if you're going to think up sun elf wizards for two different purposes, maybe they ought to be the same guy. So Araevin sort of is and sort of isn't the same character you see in the RPG art. As far as stats for the characters, I have half an idea of what they are, but I haven't sat down to thrash them out the way I did for the Spider Queen characters. I know Araevin started Forsaken House around 14th or 15th level, just based on the spells I let him use. I'd peg Starbrow as a fighter of 20th level, maybe a little more. Seiveril is a cleric of 21st or 22nd level, give or take (he needed an epic resurrection spell, after all). Beyond that, I'm not telling yet. Originally Posted by ElGrecoETAC Rich Baker, greetings from Mesopotamia. A quick question or two for you: Being overseas and behind things, it just became apparent to me that the main character from "Forsaken House" (great book, by the way) is the same guy from the covers of Player's Guide to Faerun and Lost Empires of Faerun--all books that have your name on them. Was this coordinated "advertisement" for the book's character? Are any of the other folks on the covers members of the Company of the White Star? Any plan on giving us some stats for the novel characters? Maybe even just a plain old alignment-class-level line? Thanks! ...and an earlier post on page 25 of the same thread. Early in the days of FR 3rd Edition, we created a set of FR iconic characters in the same vein as the D&D 3rd Ed. iconics like Jozan, Tordek, and the rest. We knew we'd use them for art occasionally, but the real goal was to build a set of FR characters we could use for playtesting. So Araevin the sun elf wizard, Belmora the shield dwarf cleric, Evendur the aasimar paladin, Sanadine the earth genasi fighter, etc., etc., came into existence. (I did create Araevin, as it turns out, but the whole FR team at the time contributed to making up the other characters.) We used them as the "standard" adventuring party in art suggestions for City of the Spider Queen, Underdark, and on a few book covers too. Sam Wood created some gorgeous black-and-white sketches of several of these characters that just looked incredible, and we sent 'em out to other artists as references. When I started working on the Forsaken House outline, I knew I wanted a sun elf protagonist, and I wound up leaning toward a wizard of some sort. Naturally, I thought of Araevin. Once I got the name and look of Araevin stuck in my head, I decided, "Ah, heck, I'll just call my character Araevin." In retrospect, I kinda wish I hadn't done that, because there's an implied history for Araevin in game product that maybe we don't want for the novel character. Specifically, we can guess that Araevin was stomping around in Maerimydra fighting Kiaransalee-worshipping drow in the War of the Spider Queen, which takes place only a year or so before the events of Last Mythal. But maybe I'm just over-thinking it. If we publish stats of the Last Mythal characters, it'll be in Dragon or on the website. For whatever reason, the link takes you to page 1 of the thread. Go to pages 30 and 25 for the above text, and scroll down to the appropriate posts. :)
FineasBoggs 06-12-05, 07:43 PM	There now the Paladin looking dude was in CotSQ as well. Missed that one.
warlockco 06-12-05, 07:49 PM	That's not true. I asked Rich that question specifically, referring to the Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms, the Lost Empires of Faerun, and the Forsaken House book, and he answered in the above "ask the FR developers thread" that, he was, in fact, the same individual (the protagonist from Forsaken House). In fact, Rich also said that he appears on the Underdark cover as well, which I didn't catch at first. And the quotes that you provided prove that they are the same and not the same at the same time. Since he couldn't have been in Underdark. Way I see it, there are two that look the same, and happen to have the same first name. To me, it looks more like "writer's block" messing with things.
ElGrecoETAC 06-12-05, 08:38 PM	And the quotes that you provided prove that they are the same and not the same at the same time. But that isn't what you stated initially. I'm not trying to split hairs, but the answer your provided and the answer Rich gave are different. I went ahead and posted the answer I received from Rich, which wasn't, in fact, simply "no, they're two different guys with the same name." When I realized that my answer wasn't exactly complete either, I went ahead and posted the entirety of the discussion so that the poster could decide for him/herself. From his answers, it's obvious that Rich decided to use the iconic character, references to the character's party, etc., but was frustrated when he realized the implied sourcebook background and the novel background might not all match up. Since he couldn't have been in Underdark. But he did offer a decent answer as to how he could have been there, after all (the Maerimydra comment in the second quote block).
Link182 06-12-05, 09:42 PM	Cool. But who are the "black dragon riding bad guys" on the cover of Champions of Ruin?
ElGrecoETAC 06-12-05, 09:50 PM	Go to the sticky "questions for developers" thread above and ask away. :)
FineasBoggs 06-12-05, 11:12 PM	Certainly, from Rich's explanation, there was more that lead one to believe they are the same, rather than not, despite his "sort of" "sort of not."
warlockco 06-12-05, 11:45 PM	Certainly, from Rich's explanation, there was more that lead one to believe they are the same, rather non not, despite his "sort of" "sort of not." Yeah Rich can get pretty evasive at times, can't blame the guy though ;)
Myssa Rei 06-13-05, 03:55 AM	I'm glad that someone else brought this up, since I wasn't entirely sure where to put the question in the forums. ^^; Oh, and has anyone noticed that the Calishite-looking sorcerer appears in art for the 'Imperial South', 'Old Empires', and 'Dream of Myth Drannor' chapter art in the Lost Empires of Faerun campaign supplement? That glaive-wielding fighter-type from the cover appears with him as well. It would be interesting to see if they actually have histories behind them.