Now, Asmodeus regained his divinity by slaying Azuth and absorbing his divine essence. It is my understanding that Mystra, being a uniquely powerful god, stored roughly half her power within Azuth and her Chosen at any given moment. So, one could imagine Mystra's ressurection/restoration as having complications for Asmodeus. Even if it didn't, one would imagine Mystra not being particularly happy with the Lord of the Nine for killing right hand man.
Anyway. Question I posed to Mr. Greenwood not long ago, and one I'm not expecting an answer for any time soon, but would like to present to the good people here as food for thought. What would Mystra's return mean for Asmodeus, and what steps, if any, would Asmodeus take to prevent it?
Elminster was
- Asmodeus did not "regain" divinity, he attained it for the first time by killing Azuth and taking his essence.
- Mystra did not store any of her power in Azuth. She did entrust her various Chosen with portions of her divine power, but "half" is perhaps overstating things. Azuth was a divinity in his own right, although if he had survived to 4E they probably would have reclassified him. Azuth did serve Mystra's interests to a degree, and was a close ally, but his divinity was his own.
- If Mystra returns and reclaims her status as a greater god, it really shouldn't affect Asmodeus any more than it would affect another deity. Mystra would be very angry with him, and consider him an enemy, but that's pretty much it.
So, would Asmodeus try to prevent her return? Possibly, and he might even ally with Shar or Cyric to try to do that. But knowing how often Mystra dies and comes back, he might instead just prepare himself for yet another enemy. As Lord of the Nine, he has plenty of experience in that arena.
Frankly, the return of Mystra would be an open admission by the designers that they screwed up big time with their idea, and in my book it would be one of those "too little, too late" things. So much corollary damage has been done to the spirit of the Realms that it likely won't bring back those who preferred having Mystra and her Chosen around; and those who loved the idea that Mystra died with the spellplague will not be pleased either. I see it as just another bad idea by this design team, and I won't be buying anything for the "Shattered Realms" even if Mystra does return.
An ancient deity turned archdevil, the Lord of Nessus longed for untold millennia to reclaim his godhood. The destruction of Dweomerheart sent the dying Azuth (a patron deity of mages) into Asmodeus’s fiery domain. The archdevil killed him and consumed his divine essence. He then ended the Blood War by pushing the Abyss to the bottom of the Elemental Chaos.
So, there's that.
Regarding Azuth; well, admittedly that info I got from wikipedia and therefore it is entirely possibly I was horribly misinformed.
I had a PC that adventured during the Time of Troubles. He was a paladin who lost his divine link to Torm and fought in the Abyss to rescue a kidnapped Goddess. It was a tough adventure but it made for great stories to tell some of the younger players I game with now, who weren't born, when me and my regular gaming group had that adventure. Unfortunately most of those old retired PC's were killed by time jump and Spell-plague.
Dead Magic and Wild Magic zones/Plague Lands, the major loss of detailed maps, and the change in how magic is used have affected my older gaming group. I never put up the new map of the Realms they have all seen it but I told them as far as their characters know the older maps are what Faerun looks like. Many of those who were magic users before have avoided playing magic users because of the major change. After a year or so of gaming in the Realms since the Death of Mystra, they are beginning to understand and accept what has happened on a corporate level and a gamers level. They love the Realms for it's grand history and twisted evolution.
I'm not sure we will see the Chosen of Mystra as they were before even if Mystra does return. There is that place Rhymanthiin, the Hidden City of Hope, once known as Miyeritar, the ancient Library City, that Kelban "Blackstaff" planned his whole life around and gave his life to raise. It might be a location we hear more about if Storm heard something.
Not sure what Necromancy has to do with a battle that might be raging with Asmodeus and the involvement of Velsharoon who was killed with Azuth, but it involves Szass Tam and the Netherese. Maybe Kelemvor has been involved with Midnight, I mean Mystra before....
Anyway. If I'm wrong about Azuth containing part of Mystra's power, like the chosen did, then Jorunhast is probably right that there won't be a dramatic fallout between Asmodeus and Mystra.
Blood War might have some link.
Not sure how, really. In 4E, the Blood War is over, a distant memory.
Honestly, they could radically change the "history" of Asmodeus for the Realms, considering that everything we "know" of him is almost entirely core material. Dragon magazine, and the Fiendish Codex 2, those are the primary sources for Asmo. There's a tiny blurb about him in the old Manual of the Planes, but that's also core.
Tying all of that stuff together, the base history is something along these lines: he was some kind of Angel or divine servitor, created by lawful deities to fight against the demons of the Abyss. He and his fellow angels were changed by this constant, unending battle, in various negative ways; the gods didn't like that, and cast him out of the Upper Planes.
Just prior to being "cast out" (after mortals were created, but with the war against demons still raging), Asmo had essentially tricked the (ancient, original, and now long dead gods) into signing the "Pact Primeval" which allowed him and his fellow devils to set up residence and punish wicked mortal souls.
How much of that would be true for the Forgotten Realms, hard to say. They could create an entirely different backstory, doing away with all of the above. If the 4E FRCG is true about Asmo really having been an ancient deity that lost his power for millenia and became a devil... that's a big, big retcon and contradicts the core D&D origin story.
The origin story for the Realms has always been about Selune and Shar, so how could they retcon in Asmo having been an ancient deity? He might have been created before mortals walked Faerun, perhaps in one of the original battles between Selune and Shar, or perhaps -by- Selune and some of her original sub-deities. Perhaps "angels" and "gods" weren't originally all that different in prehistory.
Or they could say that he was a divine servitor (aka angel) created prior to mortals, and he and his fellow angels were instumental in fighting back the Abyss. After mortals were created, they could even tie in the "Pact Primeval" by saying Asmo the angel used it as a means to siphon off worshipper energy and thereby became a god. But perhaps a lesser one, and the other gods stripped him of divinity and "cast him out" of the upper planes.
Lots of ways they could spin this off with retcon mania, really.
Well, the backstory for Asmodeus was always framed with qualifiers that amounted to "It's hard to say for sure, this is as best as we can guess/piece together.", along with suggestions that Asmodeus himself was keeping the truth murky by putting out some misinformation himself, that there were holes in some of the various stories, so on and so forth. I'd have to dig out my fiendish codex and book of vile darkness, and I'm not completely sure where they are at the moment, so I'm working from memory.
That's also very true, the core material for Asmo was described that way.
And you're right, the whole thing about Asmo formerly being a deity in ancient times, that could be "the" lie at the core of his worshippers' dogma in the Realms. Although my money would be put on either:
a) this is an error due to lazy or sloppy editing
or
b) it was planned, and they have (or had) intentions for expanding on Asmo's backstory in 4E.
With the "Abyssal Plague" cross-settings event (novels series) that they've just started, and given the fact that Cordell is writing book 2 of that series for the Realms "part," I'd imagine that they'll expand on Asmo's backstory at least a little.
Could be way off base with that, though.
In general that is, as I don't recall ever seeing it in print anywhere. Wonder if it counts as an urban legend in the Realms...
I'd love to know where that 'store half her power' thing came from...
I think it's possiobly an assumption based on what happened wth Azuth; or I could be totally wrong.
I wonder about Azuth's Old Staff that was used to kill Mystra. It once contained the trapped deity Savras, who was later freed, after Mystra help Azuth rise into divinity. Old Staff had a Spirit Stone for a gem at it's tip. Beings reduced to less than 2HD recieved no save against it's effect of absorbing that being into the Spirit Stone. Could Mystra be trapped within the Old Staff's Spirit Stone? Perhaps I've said too much....
Yet for some reason, and I'm certainly not pointing fingers at the OP, he's already told us where that tidbit came to him from, there are plenty of people who cling to the 'half her power' thing, with nothing to back it up that I'm aware of. Grates me far more than it should probably, but there you have it.
The first is fact: Mystra is storing a portion (very tiny) in her Chosen, which is supposed to be her backup plan to save the Weave in case something bad happened. Though, that bit of lore seems to have been tossed out the window with 4E.
The second is rumor, perhaps, but I'm not entirely sure. It was claimed that Mystra had so many Chosen (and keep in mind that Ed has stated that Mystra had even more Chosen than we were aware of) in an attempt to dilute her power. If Mystra didn't dilute her power, she'd be strong enough to challenge Ao, and thus this was a mandate placed upon Mystra by Ao. This may have been a rumor, or it could be based upon something Ed said on Candlekeep. I'm unsure.
If you take the two together, I think it's how people arrive to the 'half her power' conclusion.
Nature of the beast I'm afraid when it comes to Wiki's. One of many reasons why I don't particularly trust or use them much.
I would amend that to say "fan maintained" wiki pages. Wikipedia proper is staffed by people that try to maintain a certain integrity of the information on the site.
BTW, Mystra still does have her own page.
forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Mystra
;)I love Wiki's in general. I use the FR Wiki all the time. True, sometimes information isn't perfect, but in the case of the FR Wiki that doesn't diminish its usefulness. In fact, my primary use for the FR Wiki is to help me locate information in source books.
For example, let's say I want to locate some information on some mercenary companies. I go to the wiki, and go to the category that lists a number of mercenary groups in the Realms. I discover the Red Shields. I'm able to get a general idea of what they're about, where they're based out of, and consider if they're useful to me or not. If I decide that they are useful, I'm then able to learn that the information on the Wiki comes from pages 75 and 76 in Power of Faerûn. So I get that source book and open it up, reading the information for myself.
It saves an untold amount of time. Next to search engine technology the wiki concept is the second best thing invented for the internet that I couldn't live without.
I love Wiki's in general. I use the FR Wiki all the time. True, sometimes information isn't perfect, but in the case of the FR Wiki that doesn't diminish its usefulness. In fact, my primary use for the FR Wiki is to help me locate information in source books.
For example, let's say I want to locate some information on some mercenary companies. I go to the wiki, and go to the category that lists a number of mercenary groups in the Realms. I discover the Red Shields. I'm able to get a general idea of what they're about, where they're based out of, and consider if they're useful to me or not. If I decide that they are useful, I'm then able to learn that the information on the Wiki comes from pages 75 and 76 in Power of Faerûn. So I get that source book and open it up, reading the information for myself.
It saves an untold amount of time. Next to search engine technology the wiki concept is the second best thing invented for the internet that I couldn't live without.
I also use the FR wiki pretty heavily when I am reading a novel. Especially something that is part of a trilogy. When you are reading book two or three a year later, the wiki helps me remember who is who.
You mean you don't commit this stuff to memory so that its always available for reference? Geez... slackers the lot of you.
Seriously though, I have an odd penchant for recalling stuff like that off the top of my head, so I find my memory is usually faster than my hands typing on Wiki. Kinda neat, I guess, but even I think its a little weird sometimes. Having a fairly extensive 2e collection doesn't hurt much either.
Yeah, I know. I wish I had that type of total recall, but I don't. 