Or, "Just because you don't wish to support certain aspects of the FR, doesn't mean you should just erase it all."
I think I posted this in the wrong forum (3e FR) initially, and this is where it actually belongs.
In this post I will attempt to provide a slightly different version of events for the "Spellplague" in which the setting of the Forgotten Realms is less nonsensically trashed and rebuilt. This is a response to the article "Countdown to the Realms; Magic in the Forgotten Realms" which can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080130a once you log in.
It will be assumed that the information presented in the article is merely one version of the story that has achieved popular support from the common peoples of Faerun -- it is not what actually happened, merely what most people think happened.
Here is my disclaimer though:
Show
I am not a Realmslore expert. I have only been involved in it since 2nd edition's gray box, and have only read a handful of the novels. I do however know most of the 3rd edition-era material.
This "version" is my current plan for integrating 4th edition FR material into my (future) FR games, if I decide I want to use it at all. If this seems like ideas put forth by other posters, then all I can say is "great minds think alike" as I wrote this on my own.
This "version" is my current plan for integrating 4th edition FR material into my (future) FR games, if I decide I want to use it at all. If this seems like ideas put forth by other posters, then all I can say is "great minds think alike" as I wrote this on my own.
And Keryth - the real world, as fantasy worlds, can be mean and all. You can't have always what you want.
where exactly is there room for a new continent in there that wouldn't be obvious to the experienced sailors as new land? The sail between continents would be severely shorter in your version.
A bit 'I don't like what they do, so I say Ni and do My Way'? I wonder. Kind of feel cheap by bits, cop out by others.
And Keryth - the real world, as fantasy worlds, can be mean and all. You can't have always what you want.
I know that. Trust me, I do. And, if I had what I wanted all the time, I'd be married to Alessandra Ambrosio, Deep Space Nine would have movies by now, and D&D would still be 2nd Edition.
I know that. Trust me, I do. And, if I had what I wanted all the time, I'd be married to Alessandra Ambrosio, Deep Space Nine would have movies by now, and D&D would still be 2nd Edition.
I'm not trying to hijack this thread but, thus far 4thed seems to have a 2nd ed feel to it to me.
the note on maztica is so funny here...
where exactly is there room for a new continent in there that wouldn't be obvious to the experienced sailors as new land? The sail between continents would be severely shorter in your version.
I know this isn't perfect, but neither is the official view presented (such as, what happened to the Mazticans if they are all subsumed? They dimensions "traded spaces"?)
Honestly I have no idea how big this new continent will be, but I made the assumption it would be longer than wide. I also made the assumptions that while there certainly were several profitable voyages across the sea, the majority of people in the world wouldn't have the faintest idea exactly how long it would take to get to the other side, and would certainly be confused by running into an uncharted landmass. Trading costers in Sembia and Calimshan would probably have ships return with reports that there was something blocking their path -- assuming the currents aren't so screwed up they are all lost at sea that is...
Honestly they would notice something was wrong when there were no Mazticans when they landed also, so what is the big deal about the travel time? However, the explorers may then just label the new inhabitants "Mazticans" even though they are a completely different people, oh the real world irony!
the note on maztica is so funny here...
where exactly is there room for a new continent in there that wouldn't be obvious to the experienced sailors as new land? The sail between continents would be severely shorter in your version.
Why? It's a brand new continent, how are they to know how big it is? Or it could have brought a large amount of ocean along with it, extending the distance to Maztica greatly. There's any number of reasons, not least that no one sailed the distance for more than a generation for fear of being caught by magical storms, and the precise distance fell out of living memory.
Why? It's a brand new continent, how are they to know how big it is? Or it could have brought a large amount of ocean along with it, extending the distance to Maztica greatly. There's any number of reasons, not least that no one sailed the distance for more than a generation for fear of being caught by magical storms, and the precise distance fell out of living memory.
Those are good points as well -- Maztica might have just been "pushed back" somewhat to compensate.
I also thought of another explanation which would leave Maztica in existence while still allowing for the new continent: Somewhere between Faerun and Maztica is an invisible tear in the planes which connects to a nearly identical location on the other world. It is in the middle of the ocean, completely transparent in both directions and runs for the majority of the length of the Trackless Sea. Ships will only notice something is wrong at night time, when the stars don't match up to the charts. If they keep sailing on a heading toward where they think Maztica should be (West) they run into the "new continent" without realizing they are on another planet or dimension.
Perhaps Maztica was, in canon, more like fused or united than totaly sundered and destroyed. Maybe maztican elements remains.
If not canon, you could surely assumate this.
I suspect the same thing happened to Maztica. So as punishmet gnomes were taken out of the PHB.
I found your idea very good. But The merchant Costers are from Waterdeep, Amn, Tethyr and Calimshan and not Sembia.
What will you do with Mulhorand ?