Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Andrewman 06-19-07, 01:03 AM	Hi, it looks like I'm going to join a game based in the Sembia, or Symbia as my friend spelled it*shrug*, region and I realized I know horribly little about it, what Campaign Setting book will give me information on it? I want to be able to write a decent story background/ know what I'm getting into.
Old Sage 06-19-07, 01:59 AM	Sembia isn't a heavily detailed region in the older Realmslore... mostly because TSR left it as a area for DM's to detail, mostly. See the "Sembia" series of novels, Forgotten Realms Adventures, and the FR boxed sets for 1e and 2e. As well... "Land of Merchants" (Polyhedron #94) and Cult of the Dragon pgs. 33–34. "Rand's Travelogue:- Caravans and Trading Companies in Sembia" -- http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=fr/fx20010905b "Realmslore:- The Flourishing Career of Melvos Hammerstars" -- http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archfr/rl See Ed's replies at Candlekeep also.
Andrewman 06-19-07, 02:00 AM	Alright, thank you!
Old Sage 06-19-07, 02:03 AM	The 3e FRCS also has a little on Sembia as well.
Lord Karsus 06-19-07, 10:37 AM	-If you are playing a campaign that follows canon, or just want an interesting plot twist: -Sembia is currently embroiled in a civil war instigated by the Shadovar and various Sharran cults. Overmaster Kendrick Selkirk and his son Miklos Selkirk are both dead, killed by the Shadovar. Mirabeta Selkirk is currently the de facto ruler.
Zevox 06-19-07, 12:11 PM	For recent and current events in Sembia, Paul Kemp's novels from the Erevis Cale Trilogy and the Twilight War Trilogy are what you'll want to read. One major thing to add to what LK mentioned is that Sembia is in a state of crisis after an event called the Rain of Fire. That was caused at the culmination of the Erevis Cale Trilogy, when one of Selūne's Tears fell towards Faerūn, broke up as it did, and the debris caused massive damage across Sembia and perhaps in nearby regions. The farmlands especially were hard-hit by the fires it caused, and thus food is in short supply, and refugees from the farmlands are flooding into the larger cities of the region, leading to very bad cases of overcrowding, which multiplies the food problem. The region is generally in sorry shape at this point.
Lord Karsus 06-19-07, 02:19 PM	-That's right. I completely forgot that there is a major famine going on, as well.
Meldread 06-19-07, 04:31 PM	Sembians also have a dislike of Elves due to past conflicts. The events perpetrated on Sembia that LK and Zevox mentioned are most likely due to the fact that the Elves are returning to Faerun. Can't have a bunch of Elf haters waiting to greet the new arrivals, right? I would suggest ignoring the events in the book as they are highly contrived to push paper and manipulate the setting in unnatural ways. If you want a good idea of how Sembia works then look at Amn, remove the Cowled Wizards and then look at Cormyr and remove noble families and replace them with wealthy merchant families and you've pretty much got the place down pat. If you want an easier region with more development I suggest going with Amn. A few unique points about Sembia: * They have a dislike of Elves. * They hate pirates a lot. * According to the setting they are by and large highly Lawful people valuing contracts and such. * "Those with the gold make the rules." Pretty much describes the way to look at things in Sembia. * They have a feud with Cormyr and would like to invade. * Sembia has Imperialist aspirations. (Well they did.) * They would like to expand out into the Dalelands and have actually captured one. That is all that comes off the top of my head, but more or less it is a largely lawful merchant society with lots of political intrigue.
Zevox 06-19-07, 05:05 PM	The events perpetrated on Sembia that LK and Zevox mentioned are most likely due to the fact that the Elves are returning to Faerun. The two are completely unrelated. There hasn't even been any Elves involved in those events, and Mr. Kemp's novels weren't in the least connected to the ones that returned Myth Drannor to the Elves. The impact on Sembia by the Erevis Cale Trilogy was a mere side-effect of the events anyway, not something that was intentionally done to the nation. Zevox
Meldread 06-19-07, 06:11 PM	I know it was a side effect. That is the reason I said what I said. After all it could have easily have happened to Cormyr instead of Sembia, or fallen in the mostly unpopulated region of Vaasa, into the Sea of Fallen Stars, wiped out the Dalelands, the Vast, Impiltur, Damara, anywhere near the Moonsea, areas along the Dragon Coast... but instead they aimed directly at Sembia. What I was saying was that WotC wanted Sembia out of the way so that the Elves could make a come back. After all if Sembia was still going strong, and if there was plot development where they could have grown even stronger there would have been a major conflict when the Elves started returning to Myth Drannor and the surrounding region. Of course, I'm biased. I hate the idea of a giant tear of Selune more or less not wiping out all life on the planet. I don't care how many pieces it broke into - it would have obliterated all life on the entire planet. The whole concept was ridiculous.
Sullivan 06-19-07, 06:44 PM	I hate the idea of a giant tear of Selune more or less not wiping out all life on the planet. That depends on the size of the fragment, if it as an asteriod. Most such objects smaller than a few meters upon entry into the atmosphere would break apart and burn up before impact on the surface. One capable of a ELE would ahve to be miles across. And only Talos would want that to happen. But multiple bodies of less than half a meter in length would cause considerable havoc.
Meldread 06-19-07, 07:09 PM	The tear would have to be miles across to be visible from the planets surface and not to mention cause a near (or total) eclipse. We're talking about something that is HUGE probably something bigger than what wiped out the Dinosaurs here on Earth. My problem with it is that I watch too much of the Science Channel and its impossible for me to suspend my sense of disbelief knowing something that size has hit the planet. There is just no way that life should still be on the planet.
Dark Wizard 06-19-07, 08:59 PM	I thought we discussed the giant comet of doom scenario already. Without knowing the exact dimensions and make up of the Tear, we really can't say it was large enough or massive enough to lead to a world ending catastrophe (don't forget entry angle and speed). Not to mention the thing broke up in atmosphere, thus the Rain of Fire concept, so it's not exactly the same size as the extinction meteor of the dinosaurs. I don't know about you, but Vhostym seemed like he actually liked Faerun/Toril (as much as such a being could like anything), we don't know what he did to make his spell work and what he could have done to make sure the consequence wouldn't be automatic armageddon.
Zevox 06-19-07, 10:48 PM	I know it was a side effect. That is the reason I said what I said. After all it could have easily have happened to Cormyr instead of Sembia, or fallen in the mostly unpopulated region of Vaasa, into the Sea of Fallen Stars, wiped out the Dalelands, the Vast, Impiltur, Damara, anywhere near the Moonsea, areas along the Dragon Coast... but instead they aimed directly at Sembia. That would be because the island that Vhostym chose as the location for his final day was off Sembia's coast. What I was saying was that WotC wanted Sembia out of the way so that the Elves could make a come back. After all if Sembia was still going strong, and if there was plot development where they could have grown even stronger there would have been a major conflict when the Elves started returning to Myth Drannor and the surrounding region. Sounds like you're taking circumstantial evidence, combining it with personal bias, and coming to a conclusion that has little support. I'd tend to think it more likely that Sembia was the region that Mr. Kemp chose to hit hardest was because it was Cale's home, and thus the most ripe to act as the setting for further stories about him. Of course, I'm biased. I hate the idea of a giant tear of Selune more or less not wiping out all life on the planet. I don't care how many pieces it broke into - it would have obliterated all life on the entire planet. The whole concept was ridiculous. Oh come on now. The Tear was only 1/20 the size of Selūne (whose size is unknown to begin with). It broke up into a great many small pieces upon entering the atmosphere, likely because Vhostym had a contingency in his spell to cause such (he considered Faerūn his homeworld, and surely knew his spell wouldn't last forever - certainly he wouldn't want it destroyed), and plus many Faerūnian Deities would likely have interfered if it were a credible threat to life on the planet (Chauntea for starters, considering she is the planet, and is arguably the most powerful Deity on the planet). Considering the context of the event, its entirely believable. Zevox
Meldread 06-19-07, 10:59 PM	The problem is there are too many "if's" in there that make it completely contrived. The Tear would HAVE to be massive in order to be seen from the surface of Toril and subsequently block out the sun. Even if it didn't have the potential to kill all life on Toril it would have been much worse... MUCH, MUCH WORSE than it actually was... the whole situation just seemed contrived to create a massive epic shaking event.
Meldread 06-19-07, 11:06 PM	If Selune is roughly the size of our moon, and the Tear is roughly 1/20th of that then that makes the tear roughly how large? About 107.95 miles in size (assuming I did my math correct)? Our Moon has a diameter of 2,159 miles. The size sounds about right to me for a small to medium sized Tear of Selune.
Dark Wizard 06-19-07, 11:27 PM	The problem is there are too many "if's" in there that make it completely contrived. You do realize you have a lot of "ifs" to make it contrived in the way you perceive it. The Tear would HAVE to be massive in order to be seen from the surface of Toril and subsequently block out the sun. I would like to think that depends more on visible surface area and the reflectivity of the material. As for the eclipse, I don't quite recall the details, but it could be that the Tear only caused a "virtual" eclipse in a large area of Toril, like if your hand is blocking the sun from your eyes but the rest of your body is being exposed to sunlight. As I said before, it really depends on where the Tear was during the relevant moments. MUCH, MUCH WORSE than it actually was... I pictured it like one of the early scenes in the movie Armageddon with the fiery space debris hitting New York. Dangerous and no doubt unpleasant (not to mention uncertain) to be in, but far from apocalyptic. If you look at it through just raw math without more context you might not see the entire picture; for instance (I heard this one Discovery channel or some such), a decent sized hurricane technically puts out more energy per second than the equivalent yield of the first atomic bomb. The effect is less drastic (though still significant) than a few thousand atomic bombs going off, since the energy is dispersed over a wider volume and what type of energy matters a lot. A lot of satellites and space debris falls to Earth every year, but much of it burns up in the atmosphere so we don't hear of people getting crushed in their homes by old weather satellites or chunks of space rock. the whole situation just seemed contrived to create a massive epic shaking event. I wouldn't disagree with that. There will be some amount of contrivances in any fictional writing. You could say it's a matter of personal taste, but I really don't feel we have enough information to make a decisive judgment.
PaulKemp 06-20-07, 09:48 AM	I pictured it like one of the early scenes in the movie Armageddon with the fiery space debris hitting New York. Dangerous and no doubt unpleasant (not to mention uncertain) to be in, but far from apocalyptic. This is the manner in which I conceptualized it also. A few additional points related to some issues raised in the thread. First, while I (for obvious reasons) have focused on the impact of the Rain of Fire only in Sembia, there is nothing to suggest that it did not have some impact in other areas of the region. I suspect it did. Second, the Tear's disintegration was not wholly, or even predominantly, caused by entry into the atmosphere (though that happened, too). Instead, it was a function of the sudden surge of magical energy that occured when the Sojourner's spell was prematurely interrupted. The surge caused the Tear to crumble and none of the resulting pieces were large enough to cause widespread destruction. Third, the idea that it is contrived is entirely correct. Of course, every event in a novel is contrived. That's the nature of the beast. I can, however, state with certainty that the occurence of the Rain of Fire had nothing to do with the return of the Elves to Cormanthyr (that is, it was not conceptualized as a device to cripple Sembia to allow the return) Obviously the idea in the novel does not work for everyone. I wish it were otherwise, of course, but so it goes.
Zevox 06-20-07, 11:59 AM	The problem is there are too many "if's" in there that make it completely contrived. The only "if" in what I said was "if it were a credible threat to life on the planet"... seriously, how hard is it to believe that, in a world where magic is real and the Gods are highly active, such an event could occur and not be planet-altering? Especially given theres only one or two Gods who would want that to happen (Shar and Talos), whereas virtually every other one, including two of the most powerful (Mystra and Chauntea), would have a vested interest in stopping such an event? Selūne would know the event was occurring, since it was tampering with one of her Tears, and she happens to be friendly with a good many of the Deities who wouldn't want such a thing to happen. Given that most of the Rains of Fire happened off-screen (we have Cale seeing the Tear explode as he wakes up, and after-the-fact descriptions of the damage it did to Sembia, and thats it), why should it be contrived at all for those Deities to have interfered to ensure the damage was minimal? the whole situation just seemed contrived to create a massive epic shaking event. If that were the case, the event would be getting much more coverage than it actually is, instead of being a mere side effect of one set of novels and only a small part of the driving force behind another. Zevox
TomCosta 06-20-07, 05:28 PM	You should read the Sembia series of novels, probably the best source given the scant game material out there, the latest set of Erevis Cale novels (as already mentioned), and the recent Last Mythal series of novels, which take place in between the other two series.
Sullivan 06-20-07, 05:47 PM	So, the Not Evil members of the Selkirk family are dead, the Evil Member of the Selkirk family are alive and kicking, the nation is suffering a famine, something of a Shade invasion and is locked in a civil war. Well, sounds like time to invest in Sembian real estate and businesses. You know what they say, buy low, sell high... and it sounds like Sembia is pretty low right now. What books cover this?
Lord Karsus 06-20-07, 06:23 PM	So, the Not Evil members of the Selkirk family are dead, the Evil Member of the Selkirk family are alive and kicking, the nation is suffering a famine, something of a Shade invasion and is locked in a civil war. -Yeah, that's about it. What books cover this? -It's all covered in Mr. Kemp's The Twilight War Trilogy, of which, only the first installment, Shadowbred has been published.
Eccerion 06-20-07, 06:27 PM	As far as the rain of fire is consearned, mates I seriously advise you not to get real life physics mixed to much into a fantasy campaign, it'll only make you put bitemarks into your desktop. Of course when something happens that noone cant fully understand or figure out, remember the golden rule: "Whenever you notice something like that....a wizard did it" :D For info on Sembia check out the Sembia series of books, gives as good an insight into Sembia as has ever been produced, the designers left the spesifics of sembia largly untouched in order to have a place where DMs can go nuts in their own campaigns without running into the lore wall.:gel: What captures the Sembia mindset is the golden rule: He who has the gold, rules" :king:
GothicDan 06-21-07, 03:31 AM	Speaking as someone one class away from a BS in physics and with an interest in chaos theory, I'll pretend like that in some way validates my opinion on the following matter. Assuming a particle the size that Meldread did, even if it was breaking up in the atmosphere (magically and naturally), the sheer amount of heat generated, the disproportionate atmospheric pressure changes it would create, and the like, would still have made the event something that would have majorly affected much of Faerun in terms of weather and perhaps some other natural cycles. It wouldn't have caused a Mesozoic catastrophe, but planets can experience ice ages just from things like multiple volcanic eruptions and foreign space debris impacting the surface. I'll pretend like Chauntea "muffled" the effects to appease my physics sensibilities.
PaulKemp 06-21-07, 08:55 AM	I'll pretend like Chauntea "muffled" the effects to appease my physics sensibilities. GD, Thanks for the info. Me, I went to law school to hide from the hard sciences. :)
bitter thorn 06-21-07, 12:27 PM	It's always cool when the author contributes to the dialog! BTW, what is the date for the Rain of Fire event? Did it have any direct impact on nearby regions? Thanks! This is the manner in which I conceptualized it also. A few additional points related to some issues raised in the thread. First, while I (for obvious reasons) have focused on the impact of the Rain of Fire only in Sembia, there is nothing to suggest that it did not have some impact in other areas of the region. I suspect it did. Second, the Tear's disintegration was not wholly, or even predominantly, caused by entry into the atmosphere (though that happened, too). Instead, it was a function of the sudden surge of magical energy that occured when the Sojourner's spell was prematurely interrupted. The surge caused the Tear to crumble and none of the resulting pieces were large enough to cause widespread destruction. Third, the idea that it is contrived is entirely correct. Of course, every event in a novel is contrived. That's the nature of the beast. I can, however, state with certainty that the occurence of the Rain of Fire had nothing to do with the return of the Elves to Cormanthyr (that is, it was not conceptualized as a device to cripple Sembia to allow the return) Obviously the idea in the novel does not work for everyone. I wish it were otherwise, of course, but so it goes.
PaulKemp 06-21-07, 01:38 PM	BTW, what is the date for the Rain of Fire event? Did it have any direct impact on nearby regions? Thanks! BT, I do not have my notes handy for the exact date, but my ballpark recollection is late summer-early autumn of 1373. I believe the forthcoming product, A Grand History of the Realms, will have a specific date for the Rain of Fire. As for its effect on nearby regions -- I'd rather leave that for other authors or designers to explore. I'm not trying to be coy, but I can really speak only to those things with which I am directly involved (and at this point I'm directly involved only with the happenings in Sembia). :) Paul
bitter thorn 06-21-07, 01:40 PM	Thank you much! I'm really looking forward to the release of A Grand History of the Realms!
Lord Karsus 06-21-07, 06:42 PM	It's always cool when the author contributes to the dialog! -It is. I wish more authors activley participated like Mr. Kemp does. BTW, what is the date for the Rain of Fire event? -It's definitley DR 1373, we know that much. Wow...Hard to believe that that was about two years ago, game time. Where does the time go?