What is going on exactly? I know the FR are now the default setting and WotC won't publish anything soon, but what about events happening in the FR. What is the Sundering and what has it affected? Is there a place where I can get all the info? Is it a soft reboot? A retcon?
Thanks!
We know only a very narrow part of the whole event, untill WotC releases a FRCS. The Sundering has been told to be supposed to return the Realms to their old feel and to restore what was lost.
Basically Ao separated Abeir and Toril again (but nothing has been said about what's going on in -eventually- returned Maztica/Mulhorand), rewrote the Tablets of fate (and the previously ''lost'' gods are now coming back, with Mystra's, Mask's, Helm's, Lathander's and Bhaal's returns being featured in novels/adventures)
Also, the Weave is back, some geographical changes have been reported (underchasm filled, earthmotes going away, the patches of blue fire being 'cured' from the top of my mind), Shade's enclave is in ruin, Myth Drannor was supposed to be in ruin too (the enclave crashed on it), but apparently the building were too spread out and city took no irreversible damage. A few old characters are also back (like Drizzt's friends, Laeral, Alustriel).
But really, the post.Sundering Realms paradoxically are still very vague, even after the novel series' completion.
Can't decide how much is by design (keep things mysterious) or by nessessity (time to get books out). We will see either way.
It's by necessity, as Mearls said in his AMA that they want to do a broad FR update, reporting all the changes that occured.
You simply don't keep things ''mysterious'' after overhyping something like they did with the Sundering (esepcially since they are keeping the whole setting mysterious right now
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Seems a little bit of a unweildy approach to me, but that's sort of been WotC's thing since 4e started, at least as far as settings were concerned. Doesn't give me a lot of optimism for 5e to be honest, but I'm not going to say it's crap or awesome until I actually see the books. Not for the ruleset though, I decided a long time ago I'm not having anything more to do with strict level-based systems, which is pretty much how D&D works on a mechanical level.