By the way:
Shadow creatures start appearing at random places in the eastern region of Cormanthor, the eladrin realm. The threats presented by these creatures are believed to be the latest plot of Netheril to destabilize the hated eladrin kingdom ruled from Myth Drannor.
I don't think I mentioned Netehril...
Gomez
Nice. Pitty there are no source references though.
Actually, Brian started noting sources for particular year-references, when relevant. Take the 1464 DR entry for example:-
1464 DR: The Waterdhavian archmage Ashemmon (formerly of Rhymanthiin) dies, passing the mantle of Blackstaff to Samark Dhanzscul
Source: Ashemmon's death is referenced in the novel 'Blackstaff Tower', page 243 by Steven E. Schend
I mean they would be useful in Montonius1's compiled version.
Gomez
There are no sources in the original Grand History and I will not add them to the ebook as they disrupt the read and thus would require footnotes or endnotes and I have no desire to prepare them. If people truly desire the sources for the information that's what the original thread uniquely provides. I will update over time as we get more tweets and novels set in the new time period and perhaps, in the future, if there is enough demand, I will annotate and footnote the ebook. But let's first see if people even enjoy it or find it useful before taking it further.
Canon? Nooooooo... but don't we wish it was.
1386 DR Year of the Ebil Munchkins - A group of adventurers travel to Temporal Prime and managed to diverge the timestream. While there is a new Abeir-Toril wherein Mystra dies and the world is forever change, there is another where she lives, removes the Shades, resurrects Khelben, and sends the Elves back to Evermeet and restores Myth Drannor to its former ruined status. While she is at it, she makes the Zhents semi-intelligent and able to accomplish things without looking like idiots, and she also warns Bane to avoid Szass Tam.
Canon? Nooooooo... but don't we wish it was.
who is this we that you speak of, I like myth drannor as a active city
The problem with 4e FR is that there are no more ruins to explore - everyone either 'came back', or rebuilt. Now playing in the Realms reminds me of outfitting for a Jungle safari... and spending a week at the Ritz in NYC.
Seriously... Elves belong in one place and one place only... and since I can't fit them all in my ashtray, Evereska* will do...
Honestly, Drow in Cormanthor is way more useful to me then another forest filled with Elvsies.
"Hey Look!" The designers put Elves in the woods! How friggin original! Its not like there weren't 37 other forests in FR with Elves in them..."
I hear those same designers are so clever they've been thinking about putting Dwarves under Mountains!
Can you believe it? The originality just blows me away...
*Note: I'm only talking about mainland Faerûn here.
1386 DR Year of the Ebil Munchkins - A group of adventurers travel to Temporal Prime and managed to diverge the timestream. While there is a new Abeir-Toril wherein Mystra dies and the world is forever change, there is another where she lives, removes the Shades, resurrects Khelben, and sends the Elves back to Evermeet and restores Myth Drannor to its former ruined status. While she is at it, she makes the Zhents semi-intelligent and able to accomplish things without looking like idiots, and she also warns Bane to avoid Szass Tam.
Canon? Nooooooo... but don't we wish it was.
Now where do I sign up. You should be the Lead FR Designer! ;)
Because an active city is just so much more useful to a DM then a ruin?
The problem with 4e FR is that there are no more ruins to explore - everyone either 'came back', or rebuilt. Now playing in the Realms reminds me of outfitting for a Jungle safari... and spending a week at the Ritz in NYC.
Seriously... Elves belong in one place and one place only... and since I can't fit them all in my ashtray, Evereska* will do...
Honestly, Drow in Cormanthor is way more useful to me then another forest filled with Elvsies.
"Hey Look!" The designers put Elves in the woods! How friggin original! Its not like there weren't 37 other forests in FR with Elves in them..."
I hear those same designers are so clever they've been thinking about putting Dwarves under Mountains!
Can you believe it? The originality just blows me away...
*Note: I'm only talking about mainland Faerûn here.
If you start writing novels I'll read them. Unfortunately I don't ever get to play the game anymore so I am at the whim of WoTC's grand machinations and not some DM's imaginative mind.
snip.
year but iirc you were one of many who told me who was this we when I said we.... something something something about mystra and a few other things....
and anything pretty much on the moonsea region is better off as a ruin.
including but not irestricted to
Zhentil keep
Phlan
raven;s whatever
the other cties
especially the one that formerly held the red plooms.
I just prefer Myth Drannor as a better safe port in the storm.....
before was phlan, but they are no ruin anymore either, just zhentil keep....
Zhentil Keep is still in ruins in my game - I bought the boxed set, and about a week later TSR was acting like it was business-as-usual there... and I wasn't going to stand for it. I use the Citadel of the Raven as the Zhents main base of operations in the area. The Black Network have re-established a presence there, but it is spotty and limited to only certain sections of the city (like the docks). I think a half-ruined, factionalized and monster-filled city is far more useful then an up-and-running Zhentil Keep.
If you're playing in 4e, you could also use Rich Baker's version of Hulburg... which I like.
I just prefer Cormanthor to stay as a 'dark and mysterious place filed with ruins', then a new Elf Kingdom. I don't game in the western heartlands, so I need my version of the High Forest in the East.
And now this thread has me re-thinking a part of my homebrew world...
1386 DR While she is at it, she makes the Zhents semi-intelligent and able to accomplish things without looking like idiots
But... but... how would the authors(especially Ed) portray the Zhents then if they do not stumble over their own feet while trying to tie their own shoelaces?
But... but... how would the authors(especially Ed) portray the Zhents then if they do not stumble over their own feet while trying to tie their own shoelaces?
Like cunning villains who are a few steps ahead of their foes and pull the strings of vulnerable governments, people, businesses, etc. You know, like they were portrayed in Ed's original vision, before TSR gave him the Vader force choke and told him that evil must always appear bumbling and incompetent so as not to encourage the idea that the good guys are ever really threatened by their foes.
It was really just a way to get rid of 'lowbies' who wanted into the organization, and it struck me as a very clever way to use 'mis-direction'. Applying that to the wider Realms as a whole, and some of the apparently disparate lore we have about the Zhents, it could be entirely possible that these 'false missions' are set-ups by the real Zhentillar to not only keep the 'good guys' off-kilter and sow confusion, but also weed-out all the crap from their organization.
So there are really TWO groups of Zhents - the ones we most-often see, who fail miserably (and often spectacularly), making completely ridiculous decisions and stupid mistakes... and the real group - the hierarchy who rarely fail, and who are busy conducting the real goals of the group while the 'riff-raff' keeps the 'do-gooders' occupied.
In this way, we can still use the canon (and often ludicrous) Zhents, and still maintain that they are a dark and powerful clandestine group (and only rarely allow our PCs to see the real members in operation, who are brilliant, well-prepared, and professional).
At least, thats how I reconcile the two seperate ideas concerning the Black Network.
In the meantime, the published Grand History of the Realms provides a full Realms chronology, running from around -34,000 DR to 1385 DR when the Spellplague began.