Did the developers miss the Lost Empires of Faerûn entry and only use the entries in Serpent Kingdoms describing Nezram’s search for the sarrukh? Did Nezram return around 1370 DR but wants the date of his return kept secret for some reason? What do you think?
Its fairly easy to tie them altogether - Nezram returns because certain 'alarms' he set into place have 'gone off'. He obviously built some contingency detection magics in-place in regards to Toril, in the event that any powerful, ancient magical empire returns (Netheril, Imaskar, the Sarrukh, etc..).
He returns because of the Netherease (Shade), discovers the Khaastas and their search for the Sarrukh, and then observes certain Imaskari that have been leaving Deep Imaskar... just before the world goes BOOM!
He naturally blames everything on the returning Imaskari, because not only did their return happen to fall-out just prior to the Spellplague, but it also greatly benefitted the Imaskari, because it wiped Mulhorand clean for them.
That... and he also discovered Azuth's staff (the one used to kill Mystra) was actually one of the missing Imaskarkana. ;)
So by the time the FRCG comes into play, he's been hankering for some Imaskari blood for a hundred years, and now everyone, included him, probably thinks thats the original reason why he retrurned in the first place... but we know it wasn't.
Even in the RW, the 'truths' known in one century become fiction in the next, and vice-versa.
Regarding Azuth’s Old Staff, while it certainly looks like one of the lost Imaskarcana (that big ol’ Spirit Stone gem on top, the Donjon of Facets, sure looks like imperial regalia to me) is there anything to support that interpretation? I was under the impression he created it specifically to imprison Savras.
As can be expected, the FRCG entry is probably wrong. At my most charitable, I'd say that it's a 100 years later misinterpretation of events. After all, one could take 1358, the Time Of Troubles, as the beginning of one long series of similar catastrophes and events that one could easily lump together under the umbrella term 'Spellplague' (spit!). Take the spontaneous return of Shade as being a part of all that, and bingo, Nezram returns during the 'Spellplague'.
That he 'found' Mulhorand wiped away could just be figurative. Alternatively, he'd journeyed to Shade and Deep Imaskar to investigate (or reappeared in these lands), and by the time he journeyed back home, it was too late. (Teleportation magic kind of voids the long travel time, but magic has changed a few times since he left, and he might have lost the ability). Or maybe it happened when he popped out for eggs.
Yes; someone probably didn't research things enough.
This probably.
nah its the imaskarcana, Azuth was originally a mortal leshay
I found some things I assume previous posters already know but were a surprise to me, so I will repeat them. There is a passage in Darkvision by Bruce R. Cordell involving a painting found in an Imaskari ruin in which seven leShay bearing magical tomes stand before Emperor Omanond (I really need to get around to reading that book). The entry for -4000 DR here directly mentions an alliance between the leShay and Imaskari. This makes perfect sense to me, considering planar magic is the specialty of both the leShay and the Imaskari.
However I do not know where the idea of Azuth being connected to Imaskar or the leShay comes from. As far as I know Azuth’s origin has never been expressly stated. The wording of Magic of Faerûn and Faiths and Pantheons suggests he was a mortal who achieved the title of first Magister by sifting the magical knowledge of fallen empires and was not an ancient power when he tried to rip divinity from Savras around the beginning of Dalereckoning. It is possible Azuth trapped Savras in one of the Imaskarcana which became his staff upon Savras’ release, but is there anything to support Azuth having been a leShay?
It is also possible that the high one himself was from deep imaskar.
would still make him mortal.
well are Fey immortal or or just extremly longed lived.
It is also possible that the high one himself was from deep imaskar.
would still make him mortal.
I understand this and to be honest I love the idea of mortal Azuth patiently amassing power in the shadows and waiting for empires to die so he can easily plunder their knowledge unmolested but is it written anywhere?
no, he was human, Savras was the patient one
Savras was unequivocally a mortal human wizard from Halruaa before becoming a lesser diety (Magic of Faerûn).
Or is Markus just making up crap again? :p (re: Azuth's staff).
Aside from my very first statement (which Shemmy was nice-enough to repeat), everything I wrote was conjecture based on what the OP was trying to accomplish - sorry if anyone didn't 'get it'.
Thats all 'homebrew', except where it is based on the few canon bits I was trying to tie-together. Nowhere does it say that Azuth's staff is/was one of the Imaskarkana, but gods lie all the time, and we know that the Imaskari did indeed develop forms of 'anti-god' magic.. so you have to admit that was one helluvan idea. ;)
You could just as easilly say that Nezram is convinced that it was an Imaskarkana, in his 'madness' and obvious obssession against Imaskar. It doesn't have to actually be... it could be just a rumour that has taken on a life of it's own - consider it 'campaign fodder'.
Only the third Imaskarkana in the Underdark looks like a tome - they are all artifact items (I assume the 'arcane know-how' is somehow imbedded within them).
A Staff with the power to trap and/or bind immensly powerful extra-planer entities is very much up the Imaskari's alley.
"... the Seventh Imaskarcana—a fabled artifact of ancient Imaskar that resembles a large, golden key—is an appropriate choice. The Seventh Imaskarcana holds the entire body of Imaskari knowledge about creating permanent extradimensional spaces, and it also has additional powers that are left to your discretion."
well are Fey immortal or or just extremly longed lived.
-leShay are immortal.
Fey that dwell in the Feywild (and perhaps elsewhere) are immortal.
Ergo, its fairly easy to come to the conclusion that the feywild itself somehow 'energizes' these beings, and when seperated from it, they lose some of their power and immortality. However, they would still be extremely long-lived compared to most mortal races, and it would take several generations of seperation before their longevity began to approach normal mortal standards.
Hence, the Elves. ;)
Also elven attitude towards death is more like a journey. From one point of view all are immortal cause their spirits merge with gods.
-It says right there in the ELH: They don't die from age or disease; they only die if they are killed. They're immortal. It makes no exception to where they are.
I don't use that source... 'epic' anything turns my stomache.
Besides, you just proved to me it isn't worth reading. ;)
Anyhow, isn't that just pertaining to Le'Shay, and NOT Fey in general?
on the otherhand, ... imaskarian would have been easier to explain and believeable.