What IS the Spellplague, fundamentally? I mean, is it like, waves of magic, or an actual cough-cough-sneeze sickness that gets passed biologically?
Is the Spellplague visible? Like, would normal commoners be able to see a cloud of, I don't know, misty Spellplague-ness coming in on the wind and go, "welp. Spellplague. Better get inside." ?
Is it normally deadly? Do infected people pass it to their offspring? Are there visible symptoms of the plague? Does the plague travel, or are there just blighted areas that people usually steer clear of?
That's all. If you post to answer one, or all, of my questions, I appreciate it. Hell, if you come in to call me an idiot, I appreciate you taking the time to type it out. Thanks for reading.
visible symptoms of the plague include bouts of diareah, massive coughing fits, 12 hour vommiting sessions.... oh wait you wanted the spell plague and not the plague, a blue scar is visible and anything else would depend on the scar.
does it travel, well not on its own.....
it travels by being around various plaguechanged beasts and by being in the plaguelands.
and yes there are plaguelands, they include some spots in the underdark, halruaa, and anywhere you want....
Hi there, I'm a pretty new player to the fourth edition, I only just started playing at the beginning of this summer. I'm now about to DM a campaign for my first time, and it's going to be a fairly long one, one that spans all three tiers. It's not going to be set in the Forgotten Realms, to be honest, jumping in from the 4th edition, I find all the vast and storied histories and nuances of the FR campaign setting to be too much for me to handle on my first time DMing. I'm building my own campaign setting, and sampling bits and pieces from different established settings. Why am I posting on the Forgotten Realms section, you ask? Because, I was flipping through the Forgotten Realm's Player Guide, and one thing that caught my interest was the Spellplague. I thought the idea of a Spellplague was pretty neat, but I didn't get to read into much of it before having to leave, (the book wasn't mine), and I just wanted to ask some questions about it from you more experienced types to get some ideas about how to incorporate a spellplague/spellscarred creature(s) into my campagin. I don't plan on making it the focus of my campaign, just something that sort of exists in the world as a part of the back-ground. I think I might make it a relatively new and mysterious thing in the setting, so the players can choose to investigate/study it or ignore it completely.
Well met and good luck with your campaign.
Now that I've got that long-winded intro squared away, my questions:
What IS the Spellplague, fundamentally? I mean, is it like, waves of magic, or an actual cough-cough-sneeze sickness that gets passed biologically?
The Spellplague is the event on Toril (planet the Forgotten Realms is on) in which the deity of magic, Mystra, was murdered on her home plane. Because she was in control of the magical balancing factor called The Weave, it burst when she died. This erupted in something called "Blue Fire" that cascaded all over the world. This caused magic to react in extreamly violent and different ways. Most arcane spellcasters were affected at this time, some going mad while others lost their magic, and many others contacted a plague-like sickness that had unfortunate effects which led to death.
Is the Spellplague visible? Like, would normal commoners be able to see a cloud of, I don't know, misty Spellplague-ness coming in on the wind and go, "welp. Spellplague. Better get inside." ?
The initial spellplague was visable as a "Blue Fire" or "Blue Aura" and was (if I'm not mistaken) almost like a magical wave that passed over the world. It might have had substance, perhaps like a gas? Also, it prevaded the land and animals alike, so it touched nearly everything.
Is it normally deadly? Do infected people pass it to their offspring? Are there visible symptoms of the plague? Does the plague travel, or are there just blighted areas that people usually steer clear of?
I believe it reacts differently to each individual, some killing instantly while others gain a 'scar' or Plague-scar which enacts magical properties but often with pain or some ill side effect. In most places with a high concentration of Spellplague, people die or don't come back from journeys into such places. I'm not quite certain if it can be passed on to others via offspring, but sfdragon said it might with the novel Mistshore. Not having read the novel, it's possible. Visable symptoms of the plage are often blue scars that are noticed on your skin and other quais-magical effects one might think of. Like glowing eyes, the ability to levitate temporarly, etc...
That's all. If you post to answer one, or all, of my questions, I appreciate it. Hell, if you come in to call me an idiot, I appreciate you taking the time to type it out. Thanks for reading.
You had some good questions and it can get confusing because even the books don't go too far in depth with the effects of the Spellplague. For one, because they'd like it for DMs to figure how it might work within their own game, which is great. Another is because they don't want to have to be accountable for some descriptions of it's effects if a writer uses it in their campaigns. The Spellplague isn't like any other sickness with common effects and can be whatever the DM consideres best in their campaign.
As for being part of the Realms, it's the bane of my existence (and doesn't belong), but I'm saving my anti-Plague Realms stuff for outside the Wizards forums...
But, there's more cool stuff from the 4e FRCG and Player Book. I've used other stuff like Outsider Islands like Returned Abeir, the Earthmotes and flying islands, and other stuff not part of the realms before for home games. And as I said, the spell plague can be dabbled with for so much stuff!
I also had a question on the rammifications of the Spellplague... does this mean that there are no more wizards or sorcerers, or that there cannot be anymore? Did they all just die, and the classes are gone now?
Nope, not at all. There are hordes of spellcasters alive and well in 1480 DR. Even during the Spellplague itself and the Wailing Years that followed, many wizards and sorcerers survived. True, some went insane, while others lost their talent and had to relearn it from square one, but the Spellplague didn't eliminate every mage. Arcane practitioners as a whole are alive and well.
It was also during this time that Warlocks began to come into their own. Many who couldn't handle the change or regain their lost Art turned to powerful entities like the Archfey or the denizens of the Far Realm; in return for their souls, they got instant access to magic, rather than spending years rebuilding what the Spellplague had taken from them.