Having said that, I, along with several of the scribes of Candlekeep, explored the potential possibilities associated with the return of Selûnarra to the Realms here.
I agree, and I'm happy this particular plot thread wasn't picked up in The Twilight War trilogy.
I disagree because I think that the 4E Realms have swung way too villain heavy. And I think that Selune needs to play a much bigger role in these new Realms than they are giving her at this moment. I mean, she is supposed to be in her waxing phase thus her elevation to a greater god. So why isn't she out there on the main stage fighting Shar? It makes perfect sence to have these Moonbright Netherese even if it is a bit cliche. But this is 4E Realms, it's only natural that it's gonna be a bit cliche.
I disagree because I think that the 4E Realms have swung way too villain heavy. And I think that Selune needs to play a much bigger role in these new Realms than they are giving her at this moment. I mean, she is supposed to be in her waxing phase thus her elevation to a greater god. So why isn't she out there on the main stage fighting Shar? It makes perfect sence to have these Moonbright Netherese even if it is a bit cliche. But this is 4E Realms, it's only natural that it's gonna be a bit cliche.
I agree that Selune's enemity towards Shar has been way underemphasized, but I think having Opus sail back into Faerun to join in the fray would have been incredibly corny and predictable.
I agree that Selune's enemity towards Shar has been way underemphasized, but I think having Opus sail back into Faerun to join in the fray would have been incredibly corny and predictable.
Quite honestly I just don't like the Shade and I hate that they are this major bad guy in 4E Realms. If Opus came back it would neutralize them and pretty much keep them in the Revitalized Anarouch. That way we can see our bumbling yet dangerous Zhenterim return to haunt the Dalelands as they should be doing. Then what you would get is a new area in the Revitalized Anarouch that is kind of an up in the air region with Shade and Opus fighting for control. This would allow players, both good and evil, some great adventuring opportunities.
Quite honestly I just don't like the Shade and I hate that they are this major bad guy in 4E Realms.
And I pretty much don't like anything about the 4E Realms.
If you think having Opus on Faerun would be a good idea, well, try it in a home game (if you get the chance).
And I pretty much don't like anything about the 4E Realms.
If you think having Opus on Faerun would be a good idea, well, try it in a home game (if you get the chance).
Yeah, I'm not much of a fan of 4E Realms either. But since I am mostly a novel reader I can only go with what they give me.
I just like to put in my two cents in hopes that someone hears. ;)
I disagree because I think that the 4E Realms have swung way too villain heavy.
Well, that was sort of the point. Nobody thought that their PC's could be hero's anymore, so now you can make them the only powerful good guys around.
You whine and you get results, it seems.
Well, that was sort of the point. Nobody thought that their PC's could be hero's anymore, so now you can make them the only powerful good guys around.
You whine and you get results, it seems.
Yeah I know. This is where I get really upset over all of the 4E changes. I can live with the mechanics change to a WoW clone to make the game flow better. I can live with the time jump in order to accommodate those changes. I can even live with the killing off of Mystra to help explain the time jump. But to make changes for something that a DM should be doing anyways really boils my blood. Accommodating the lowest common denominator is never a good way to make a superior product and it pains me to see.
Quite honestly I just don't like the Shade and I hate that they are this major bad guy in 4E Realms. If Opus came back it would neutralize them and pretty much keep them in the Revitalized Anarouch. That way we can see our bumbling yet dangerous Zhenterim return to haunt the Dalelands as they should be doing. Then what you would get is a new area in the Revitalized Anarouch that is kind of an up in the air region with Shade and Opus fighting for control. This would allow players, both good and evil, some great adventuring opportunities.
What makes you think the Selunites would win, and simply wouldn't be crushed outright? ;)
That's TSR poisoned thinking, my friend. It's all dark and empty from here on out.
:P-I hope that the Opus enclave never makes a return. Personally, it's too much of a cliche. One city made of shadow, the other made of moonlight, diametrically opposed enemies. There's enough cliches out there.
And remember, 4e was all about removing all those useless symmetries. ;)
And remember, 4e was all about removing all those useless symmetries. ;)
-That too.
Are they related to Rainbow Bright?
But to make changes for something that a DM should be doing anyways really boils my blood. Accommodating the lowest common denominator is never a good way to make a superior product and it pains me to see.
Moonbright?
Are they related to Rainbow Bright?
Related to Markus Tights, sexy.
Moonbright?
Are they related to Rainbow Bright?
I'd just like to note that in Ed's thread on Candlekeep, Ed recently used the term "moonbright" to refer to elven blood (ie. a noble family has some "elven moonbright" in them thanks to some members who took elves as mates).
It has nothing to do with this thread, really, but I figured I'd mention it.
ITA...Bring back the Zhentarim and the Black Network!
I had a stroke when I heard Khelben was dead and Mystra was soon to follow. However, the 4e Realms has some intriguing possibilities....Bane is back. Those nosy Harpers are gone. (it's their fault the Shadovar are here in the first place!) Myth Drannor is back. Lolth is the only game in town, as she has eaten, absorbed, or dismissed the other drow deities.
I can't believe it. I found something nice to say about the 4e realms.
Now, if the Coronal of Myth Drannor can find the lost swords and bring back the missing tower, life will be peachy keen.
FWIW, I think Returned Abeir is a total waste of printer's ink. They could have used that section of the book to update the Shou Empire. That's what I thought they were going to do when I saw Oni's in the Monster Manual.
They got rid of them, because a bunch of untalented writers couldn't make them work. It isn't Ed's fault the Zhents looked like idiots -its the FR writers fault!
If you can't handle something, don't write about it! Leave them for people who have enough common sense to know how to use them properly!
The Zhents are gone because THEY ruined them - and thats the god's honest, irrefutable truth!
Instead we get the crapatstic Shades and their amazing flying city.
Yay
Edit: Sorry for the rant, but I'm really tired of FR being destroyed by people who couldn't handle her.
...(it's their fault the Shadovar are here in the first place!)
-Not really, no. It can be stretched to have multiple "culprits", but it was a bunch of cultists from Vaasa, a Beholder, and the Evereskan Tomb Guardians' fault, technically. They set things in motion, with the release of a bunch of Phaerimm.
FWIW, I think Returned Abeir is a total waste of printer's ink. They could have used that section of the book to update the Shou Empire. That's what I thought they were going to do when I saw Oni's in the Monster Manual.
While I agree with this on the surface - nothing against Ed's cretaion, I just don't see what point it serves, AT ALL - I would rather have seen them put more info about all of the Faerûnian locales in the book.
What we really needed was more detail, not more barely-adequate entries without enough meat to them to run a decent campaign.
And PLEASE, for the love of god, I hope no one curently working at WotC goes anywhere near the East - they screwed-up Toril enough as it is.
I agree - removing the Zhentarrim - a mainstay of the setting, as if in afterthought, was disrespectful and ridiculous!
They got rid of them, because a bunch of untalented writers couldn't make them work. It isn't Ed's fault the Zhents looked like idiots -its the FR writers fault!
If you can't handle something, don't write about it! Leave them for people who have enough common sense to know how to use them properly!
The Zhents are gone because THEY ruined them - and thats the god's honest, irrefutable truth!
Instead we get the crapatstic Shades and their amazing flying city.
Yay
Edit: Sorry for the rant, but I'm really tired of FR being destroyed by people who couldn't handle her.
Sigh
They got rid of them, because a bunch of untalented writers couldn't make them work. It isn't Ed's fault the Zhents looked like idiots -its the FR writers fault!
If you can't handle something, don't write about it! Leave them for people who have enough common sense to know how to use them properly!
The Zhents are gone because THEY ruined them - and thats the god's honest, irrefutable truth!
No, it's not. The Zhents were ruined because of TSR's policy on evil. Ed himself made it clear that TSR forced him to turn the Zhents into keystone cops (his words), because TSR policy stated that evil must never win or be shown favorable in any way.
WotC has tossed that policy to the wayside, obviously. However, after years of being the whipping boys of all things good, how realistic would it be if the Zhents suddenly began to win? How many people would have complained or found it believable?
I remember when in one of the 3E Modules, the Zhents and Sharrans attacked Shadowdale. In the opening they nearly killed Elminster, forcing his contingencies to activate and whisk him away to a pocket plane. (Or something along those lines.) I remember people complaining and whining about that fact, and one post in particular complained that it wasn't realistic and that Elminster should have easily dispatched them all. (From there the poster went on to explain this based upon the Sharran Cleric's intelligence score vs Elminster's.)
It was easier and more believable to create a new BBEG in the region than to try and revive the reputation of an old one. Especially one, by all logical counts based upon its vast number of failures and setbacks, should no longer exist.
WotC has tossed that policy to the wayside, obviously. However, after years of being the whipping boys of all things good, how realistic would it be if the Zhents suddenly began to win? How many people would have complained or found it believable?
And, yet, here we are all complaining and finding it unbelievable.
Give me back TSR.
And, yet, here we are all complaining and finding it unbelievable.
Give me back TSR.
Are things any more or less believable than the Time of Troubles? If anything, it began with TSR and the tradition continued up until the Spellplague. Was the Spellplague contrived? Yes, but so was the Time of Troubles. At the time the ToT was a major change to the Realms, even though it may not seem like much after years and years of RSE after RSE and then the RSE to end them all - the Spellplague.
The ToT created a snowball effect regarding RSE's.
Are things any more or less believable than the Time of Troubles?
....
The ToT created a snowball effect regarding RSE's.
I was speaking of TSR.
TOT was their one and only huge event, as I recall.
When Wizards bough TSR, it was then that they tried to RSE off their success.
What is needed is for Shar and Telamont's son(don't remember his name)'s treachery and murder of Telamont's wife to be revealed, and that can lead to a divide amongst the Shadovar and also the creation of a less annoying Netheril in the future.
I have no real interest in Opus myself. I wish the Shades didn't worship Shar though. I mean seriously, it's just not Netherese to be worshipping dieties.
What is needed is for Shar and Telamont's son(don't remember his name)'s treachery and murder of Telamont's wife to be revealed, and that can lead to a divide amongst the Shadovar and also the creation of a less annoying Netheril in the future.
Won't happen, seemingly due to the number of Shar-infatuated emokids in WoTC R&D.
I jest, in part.
What is needed is for Shar and Telamont's son(don't remember his name)'s treachery and murder of Telamont's wife to be revealed, and that can lead to a divide amongst the Shadovar and also the creation of a less annoying Netheril in the future.
-Spoiler ahead:
Show
-It was revealed, in Paul Kemp's last book. Apparently, Telamont Tanthul (as well as Hadrhune, seemingly) knew the whole time.
Mrtyl!!! Scotch!!!
; hopefully they have something in store for him yet... the whole idea of the dragonborn still makes me weep; who came up with it i wonder!! so not FR... and yet like caolin i am not a rpg player but a reader so i have to take what they give me.. trying to get used to the new realms and for their benefit the first books arent so bad as i feared. i liked the mistshore especially; love the mystra reference there, so she is not completely dead at least to me as long as she is referenced in books..so selunara/opus (couldnt remeber the name so came up with 'moonbright'... excuse me if it caused any confusion) kinda represents my hope that they will tone down on shar a little and bring a sort of balance to the way too evil realms.
loved the idea with selunarans as werewolfs
thanks everyone for the contributions to the thread.. appreciated
...hate what sembia has become; is it only me or was it immensely more fun when it was a merchant country with a lot of backstabbing, intrigue, corruption and yet still with many temples for the goodly gods?
It's not just you. I know I preferred Sembia the way it was before--that is, not a Sharran-theocracy.
It's not just you. I know I preferred Sembia the way it was before--that is, not a Sharran-theocracy.
-All in all, I don't think too much in Sembia has changed, other than who actually rules it. The people, their greediness, their dislike for Cormyr, and so on, all of that I would say is still there.
it's understandable for a few people to believe in such a religion; hiding their inner madness; working for their evil ambitions; sacrificing innocents at secret rituals but quite another for a nation of 'normal' people becoming sharrans...(provided its not a nation who lived in the plane of shadow; a plane of grief and bitterness for generations)