Looking at the map of the Sword Coast in the new "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" adventure, the western reaches of Anauroch are illustrated in a pretty sandy, desolate style. I realize it's just one partial map, but it brought to mind something of which I've been wondering for a while.
Will Anauroch be a desolate desert once more? The Shadovar had done much to restore life to the desert. It was still a desert, but much more livable than the phaerimms had left it.
What do you think? Will the devs, in their haste to wipe away 4E's changes (and the Shadovar too 
), return Anauroch to a state more like pre-Spellplague Anauroch?
Personally, I hope not. Firstly, it just wouldn't make sense. The desert exists because of the phaerimms. Without their destructive influence, the efforts of the Shadovar would logically remain. Also, I'd like to see how Bedine culture develops in their less harsh home.
Most Bedine were absorbed into Netheril, and culturally became Netherese. Will the surviving Shadovar, no longer with their floating cities, and now free of Shar, maintain a nation among these "Netherese" cities and subjects? If so, it sounds like a Netheril with which the remaining Bedine could finally have a meaningful fight. (Maybe the Zhents return to the region, as well, with Shade no longer a threat?)
If you made it this far through my conjecture and musings, you must have some thoughts. What say you?
tallric_kruush wrote:
That's definitely disappointing, and maybe something I choose to ignore in my home games. It makes no sense to me that their ecological repairs, regardless of the magic involved in getting the ball rolling, would undo themselves in their absence. Whatever the official story ends up being, I think I'll portray Anauroch as a more lively desert than the phaerimm-blighted region of earlier times.
The quote block didn't quite work, but I'm assuming that the second paragraph is Erik's thoughts? I'd think that the fall of both enclaves, and the deaths of their entire ruling hierarchy, would adequately convey the dwindling of Shadovar power. He may have written that before knowing Ed's ultimate intentions, I guess.
At this point, I'm afraid that the Shadovar might be virtually wiped from the setting, I think that would be a shame, as they are very interesting when not directly serving Shar's interests. I'd love to see the remains of their society still hanging on, trying to rebuild, in Anauroch. I expect the Sembians to push them out pretty quickly with no threat of enclaves, archmages and powerful shades in the night.
Makes me wonder, too, how they will fix their drowning of Lantan and half of southern Faerun, and their ruining of Halruaa. Those were really boneheaded design choices. I predict some lands are flat out raised from the sea by divine power. I see no other way to undo what was done.
tallric_kruush wrote:
That does sound like a likely implementation for Lantan. Gond kept his people safe, hidden away beneath the seas in a magic bubble. Honestly, that's not much different than my earlier conjecture of Ao, Gond, or a coalition of the "knowledge gods" raising Lantan. Either way, it's cheesy, but it can deal with it. I always used those guys to explain unusual devices or items in the Realms.
Halruaa is a bit of a problem. When the last of the blue fire was cleaned up in the novel series (avoiding spoilers), that was a start. You still have much of the region under water, though. (See Lantan above, I guess). The big hurdle, though, is that most of the mages likely died when the Weave failed and the Spellplague hit. That was one of the major deals of the Spellplague, after all, and the clearest reason for Halruaa's significant stretches of plagueland.
I checked the 4E FRCG, and it says the following on page 50:
"What was once called Halruaa was destroyed in a great holocaust, as if every spell held there had loosed its power simul- taneously."
Other references are no less problematic. How can they believably resurrect the culture of Halruaa? The few Halruaan survivors, or their ancestors, mingle with Shadovar expatriates to reestablish a post-Netherese state once more? How could there even be survivors, other than those out-of-country at the time. That could hardly be a large enough group to rebuild a culture. Oh, well we will see.
When did they say that Lantan or Halruaa would be back? I'd love that, but I didn't recall any statement about those lands.
Irennan wrote:
LordManshoon wrote:
Irennan wrote:
the sundering is basicly a Reboot back to the pre-4th edition realms. ultimatly the explination for the changes is gonna amount to "a wizard did it" I hoenstly suspect that long term 4th edition D&D is gonna be mostly forgotten/
There is more than one way to be a desert.
There's the classic Sahara - miles and miles of sand dunes blowing slowly in the wind, total silence when the wind drops, wrenching heat and blinding sunlight.
And then there's Arizona - you can see the rain falling only on the mesa tops, you are never out of sight of some plant or weed (however scraggly), animals roam around at sunrise / sundown, the creek beds carry flash floods for a day then dry out again, civilized life is tough but not impossibl for a village-sized settlement.
Post-Netheril Anaurach can easily be like the latter. There IS this mountain range between it and the ocean, after all.
If it simply goes back to being a desert, it will just be yet more evidence that the designers only listen about half-way and completely ignore organic, natural change.
Change should be organic to the world, and organic to the story. Otherwise it's just more ham-handed overlay. "WHAM, desert is back! Everyone should be happy now! Gosh, I wonder why they're still upset... dang nerds."
If the Phaerimm are well and truly gone, and unless there was radical climactic change that affected the entire North, then Anauroch should NOT go back to being a desert. There's no organic reason for it to do so. It makes no sense for it to revert back.
But you watch, it will go back to being the original style desert, with no other explanation than, "uhm, the Sundering did it."
It's comical how bad all of this is going to be, really.
Jorunhast wrote:
I have a feeling trying to make sense of this is just going to cause a lot of 
, which will probably only get worse once the official explanation comes out. 
tallric_kruush wrote: