4E FR. Hope you didn't like the old Realms

[Voss]

Amusing and sad discussion here-
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t ... ]Countdown to the Realms
Year of the Ageless One
by Rich Baker

The Realms of 1479 DR

Ninety-four years ago, Mystra perished and the world went mad.

Unchecked, ungoverned, the raw stuff of wild magic danced across the world, wreaking terrible destruction. Cities burned, kingdoms fell, luckless people were changed into monsters, and mages went berserk. This was the Spellplague, a rippling outbreak of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of magical catastrophes that left no corner of Faerûn untouched. For almost ten years new outbreaks appeared here and there, striking randomly and without warning. Wherever they struck, chaos reigned.

During the Year of Blue Fire and the terrible years that followed, heroes all over Faerûn battled to contain the magical plague. In some places they succeeded; in others, they failed and died horribly. Places guarded by powerful, persistent magical wards were largely unharmed; the Spellplague flowed around mythals and other such mighty enchantments. But even then, some mythal-guarded sites fell prey to invasions of plaguechanged monsters or the spells of maddened archmages. No place was truly safe.

In many places, the Spellplague wrought drastic changes to the very shape of the world. The vast Underdark system beneath the western Shaar suffered a calamitous collapse, leaving a miles-deep pit the size of a country where the Landrise once ran. Thay’s forbidding plateaus were lifted thousands of feet higher, leaving many of its cities in ruins. The Priador and eastern Thesk are a maze of monster-haunted foothills beneath Thay’s daunting ramparts now. Fencelike ridges of glass spires, drifting earthmotes covered in weird aerial forests, towering mesas of whorled stone… all over Faerûn magical landscapes are interspersed with the common rock and root of the lands that existed before. Even in countries that survived the Spellplague more or less intact, these “changelands” stand as striking new landmarks—landmarks that sometimes harbor monsters never before seen in Faerûn.

In time, the fury of the Spellplague burned itself out. New outbreaks became fewer and weaker, and finally seemed to cease altogether. Pockets of “live” Spellplague still exist in a few places known as plaguelands; one of the largest is a vast waste known as the Changing Lands, where Sespech and Chondath used to be. Few people dare to enter such places, but from time to time they disgorge horribly mutated monsters, tormenting the lands nearby. No new plaguelands have appeared in decades now, and some seem to be weakening as the years pass. But the damage has already been done.

No one will ever be able to create a comprehensive chronology of where and when each outbreak struck, or how each town and city fared through the chaos of the Plague Years. Countless thousands of people fled from each new outbreak, migrating here and there across the continent. War, rebellion, and brigandage reigned unchecked. Mad prophets walked the world, preaching that the Spellplague was the wrath of this god or that and demanding repentance, sacrifice, or holy war in atonement. Anarchy descended over most kingdoms and lasted for a generation or more before some semblance of authority was reestablished. The world that emerged from the Plague Years was not the same Faerûn.

The Sword Coast

The Spellplague left the cities of the Sword Coast almost unscathed. Perhaps it was attenuated by the lingering high magic of ancient Illefarn, perhaps it was deflected by the efforts of mighty heroes, or perhaps sheer chance steered the magical contagion away from the Sea of Swords; however it happened, the Sword Coast looks much as it did a hundred years ago.

In Waterdeep the great walking statues hidden within the city arose for a single day and wrecked several wards, only to suddenly halt where they stood when the Spellplague’s influence retreated again. To this day the towering colossi remain standing where they were at that moment, while the city has been rebuilt around their stony waists. Waterdeep is still governed by its Lords, advised by the Blackstaff—the most powerful mage of Blackstaff Tower, heir to the lore of the mighty Khelben. The city remains a hub of trade and commerce; all roads lead to Waterdeep, or so it is said.

To the south, the city of Baldur’s Gate became a refuge for countless thousands fleeing the ruin wrought by the Spellplague in the lands south of the Sea of Fallen Stars. Where other cities and lands turned away such refugees, Baldur’s Gate tolerated them… and now, almost a century later, it is the largest city in Faerûn, sprawling for mile after mile along the banks of the Chionthar. Each group of refugees created their own neighborhood under the walls of the previous immigrants’ districts, and the city is a mad patchwork of crowded neighborhoods, each dominated by a single race or human ethnicity such as dwarf, halfling, gnome, Turmic, or Shaaran.

Across the Sea of Swords, the Moonshaes have fallen into a patchwork of small kingdoms. Caer Calidyrr still stands as the chief kingdom of the native Moonshavians (the Ffolk), but over the last century the powerful mainland realm of Amn has set its sights on this land. Amnite merchant-lords control much of the large island of Gwynneth, while the warlike Northlanders hold Oman and Norland. The Feywild, the realm of Faerie, lies close to Faerûn here, and from its shadows a dire new threat is gathering—the terrible fomorians, who dream of sweeping away the human kingdoms and subjugating the islands beneath their mighty fists.

The Empire of Netheril

Between the North and the Moonsea Lands lies a land under the dominion of shadow. The reborn Empire of Netheril now lies in the basin that once held the desert Anauroch. The new Netheril claims all of the lands that ancient Netheril once occupied, and seeks to dominate Faerûn just as ancient Netheril did twenty centuries ago. Much of Anauroch’s vast basin is still desolate wasteland, but the lords of Netheril have spent decades weaving mighty spells to summon water to the parched lands and fill the empty skies with rain. Slowly but surely, grassland grows over the dunes, and young forests cover the stony barrens.

Netheril is a magical tyranny, governed by a noble caste of shades—powerful human mages and lords who have exchanged their mortal essences for the stuff of shadow. Beneath the shade lords are the citizens of Shade, the ancient city-state that fled into the plane of Shadow when the old empire fell and survived many centuries in dark exile. They are a race of ambitious and masterful humans who strive to advance the power of their realm, hoping to earn the reward of transformation into undying shades themselves. When folk of other lands refer to “the Netherese,” they mean the people of Shade, both human and shadow-transformed.

Decades ago, the Netherese subjugated the nomads of Anauroch and many of the savage humanoid tribes inhabiting the desert. More importantly, the Netherese seized control of the wealthy nation of Sembia in the Twilight War just before the advent of the Spellplague, and they have not relinquished it since. Sembia is the crown jewel of the Empire of Netheril, and provides the Netherese with the wealth and manpower they need to bring more of Faerûn under their control. Only the fragile alliance of Myth Drannor, Cormyr, Evereska, and Luruar checks Netheril’s further expansion… and Netherese diplomats and agents work constantly to break the alliance apart.

While Netheril claims all of Anauroch and the neighboring lands, the Netherese are still few in number, and great portions of this desolate land are left to ruins and monsters. The ruined cities of old Netheril and the Underdark caverns of the monstrous phaerimm (now all but extirpated from the Realms) hold many secrets the shades want to remain hidden, and ancient treasures they seek desperately to recover.

Imperial Cormyr

Cormyr is a strong, stable kingdom that has benefited from back-to-back reigns by very capable monarchs. Azoun V, born in the troubling times at the end of his grandfather’s reign, went on to become a just, wise, and long-lived ruler. Under his rule Cormyr quickly recovered from the chaos of the Plague Years. Azoun V successfully resisted Netheril’s efforts to bring Cormyr under its domionion, and he fought Netherese-sponsored Sembia to a stalemate in a war 40 years ago, preserving Cormyr from Sembia’s fate. Late in his reign, Azoun V enacted a new code of laws that restrained the power of Cormyr’s restless nobility and established rights for commoners oppressed by nobles. His son Foril is now king of Cormyr.

Foril has ruled for 30 years now, and while he is not the legendary warrior his great-grandfather was or the brilliant law-giver his father was, he is a shrewd statesman and administrator. Foril continued his father’s reforms, and authored the alliance of powers that keeps Netheril at bay. Standing between Sembia and Netheril, Cormyr’s best security lies in firm alliance with Myth Drannor and the Dalelands. Cormyr is wealthier and more powerful than it’s been in centuries, largely due to the foresight and determination of the Obarskyrs.

Cormyr now controls Daerlun and Urmlaspyr, two formerly Sembian cities that managed to break away from that realm before the Netherese yoke settled completely over them. During the chaos of the Spellplague and the years that followed, the small cities on the southern shore of the Dragonmere turned to Cormyr for protection. Only ten years ago, the thief-ruled city of Proskur proved so obnoxious to the Forest Kingdom’s growing trade and prosperity that King Foril brought it under Cormyr’s authority as well. Not all of these territories are content under Cormyrean rule.

Adventurers in the service of the Crown find plenty of excitement in the Stonelands, the Tunlands, and the Stormhorns, where various monsters and savage tribes (some secretly sponsored by Netheril) cause no small amount of trouble.

Tymanther, Land of the Dragon Warriors

Along the shore of the Alamber Sea, old Unther was swept away by a catastrophic outbreak of the Spellplague. Where once ancient Unther stood now stands an arid mesa-land inhabited by draconic humanoids calling themselves dragonborn. This is the realm of Tymanther. The dragonborn have proven to be a proud, martial race, and in the decades since the Year of Blue Fire they have slowly tamed the ruined changeland from the Riders to the Sky all the way to the Black Ash Plain.

Some say that the dragonborn are creations of Tiamat, hatched from vast incubators hidden beneath temples of the dragon-goddess in the cities of Unther. Others believe that the dragonborn are descended from the human population of the old empire, changed by the touch of the Spellplague into something no longer human. But the truth of the matter is even stranger: As it did in many other places in Faerûn, the Spellplague opened the door to some other realm entirely, wrenching the aeries and castles of the dragonborn from their native land—wherever that once was—and depositing them amid the chaos of devastated Unther.

The dragonborn of Tymanther are highly militarized, and the “lords” of the land are those dragonborn who have proven themselves capable of leading their fellows. It is a harsh and unforgiving meritocracy, and each of the kingdom’s great clans is organized more like an army than a noble house. In the world from which they came, the dragonborn fought many terrible wars against true dragons, and they still harbor an ancestral hate for the winged wyrms.

Tymanther lies atop the rubble of ancient Unther, and Untheric ruins are common throughout the land. Even in its decline, Unther was a rich and populous land, and many palaces and treasure vaults of the God-King’s favorites still wait to be discovered. In other places, broken cities carried into Faerûn from Tymanther’s appearance are likewise storehouses of gold, gems, and magical artifacts. Unfortunately, many powerful monsters settled into these Untheric and Tymantheran ruins during the Plague Years, and still pose a deadly threat to those who delve too deeply.

The Changed World

This brief discussion touches on only a few of Faerûn’s myriad kingdoms and peoples. It’s a quick sketch of how a century has changed several familiar lands, and a look at one new land that has arisen during that time. Many of Faerûn’s most iconic locales are still what they were a century ago; wood elves still roam the High Forest, and pirates still sail the Sea of Fallen Stars. Other places such as Unther have changed drastically, as described above. But above all Faerûn remains a land of high magic, terrifying monsters, ancient ruins, and hidden wonders—the essential fantasy world for your players to explore.

In upcoming previews, we’ll take a more thorough look at other aspects of the new Faerûn—the fate of the Chosen, the nature of the pantheon, how magic has changed in the world, and an introduction to some of the new threats that now menace Faerûn. Good fortune and good adventuring until next time![/quote]

So. yeah. ToT all over again. Bullshit justifications for shit that didn't need to be justified. Not sure whats up with the geographical changes, (Thay is now a mountain! Why? We don't know!) or the mini-realms of chaos, but hey, Skyrealms of Jorune is making a comeback! Crystals! And flying earthmotes! Aerial Forests!

Anyway. Fun with assbackwards logic, too. Magic is dying/changing/exploding! But places with a lot of magical energy and high level wizards? Those are fine. Wtf?

And of course, a nation of ancient archmages can't crush a piddly little kingdom when they've got allied forces squeezing the little bastards in from the other side. Right...

I did fine the blatant erasure of Unther and the other blatantly real-world Empires amusing. Watching the writers just obliterate something is always amusing. Particularly so they could air drop the new dragonborn into the setting. Planar Gate. Done. 'Aren't we great writers?'

[RandomCasualty]

1200158660[/unixtime]]
And of course, a nation of ancient archmages can't crush a piddly little kingdom when they've got allied forces squeezing the little bastards in from the other side. Right...

That's normal for the realms. There's unwritten rule that if you're a high level NPC, you can't go after other high level NPCs, you have to work behind the scenes through low level characters to get your agenda complete, such that it happens as slowly and ineffectively as possible and can be prevented by mid or low level heroes.

I did fine the blatant erasure of Unther and the other blatantly real-world Empires amusing. Watching the writers just obliterate something is always amusing. Particularly so they could air drop the new dragonborn into the setting. Planar Gate. Done. 'Aren't we great writers?'

Yeah, lots of thought to that one.

It'd have been more interesting if they made them warped from the spellplague. The planar gate thing is just a lame excuse to teleport a new land into the realms. I mean, since when is this Ravenloft, where nations just form out of nothing?

[virgil]

How recently was the Time of Troubles in the continuity? Depending on how recent it was, there might be some elves (or maybe even humans) that have seen the world go through two great cataclysms by now; which would give me incentive to leave.

[Username17]

As a matter of fact, I did hate the realms. But I don't understand why they would do something so inane and clunky like this. Advancing the plot and killing all the high level characters is a good idea. But changing the land forms so that even maps are obsolete is just weird.

At that point it is no more similar to Faerun than Greyhawk was. I seriously don't understand what they were thinking.

Actually that's not quite true. I think they were thinking that they wanted to write their own setting from scratch because they had ideas that were "awesome" and figured that they'd sell more copies if they put the words "Forgotten Realms" on it. And they are right. But they would have sold even more copies had they packaged up actual Forgotten Realms in some recognizable format.

-Username17

[Cynic]

IN other words they removed the old shit that had some flavor that might have appealed to many of the old players and put in some other new shit that might and probably will appeal to the newer generation of players 4e probably hopes to attract.

Same old, same old.

I was a little annoyed at first but it really isn't that bad (well the writing is, the reasoning probably is as well).

Although I don't see who has died aside from Mystra (again).

Khelben Blackstaff apparently still rules waterdeep and while Elminster isn't noted anywhere, he doesn't seem to have died yet either.

I haven't kept up with Realms since probably 2002 so I might be way off. I just did a quick readthrough of the WIki articles on the time of troubles

~~

Also, Virgileso, the ToT happend in 1358 so there have been many elves and humans who have been through two cataclysms.
~

[Voss]

Yeah, this advances the time line by about 100 years or so, but the actual disaster happens 1385 or so by their wacky calender. So even some of the orcs have seen two major world-shattering disasters in their lifetime.

Khelben is dead, however. I think a novel got him. 'The' Blackstaff they're referring to in this is just a title, or so I understand. But my knowledge is more from browsing the 'new FR' threads. There could very well be clones, simulacrums or magical time hopping toads involved. There usually are.

Elminster and Drizzt, aka 'The Boring Ones', will still be around. Everyone else is a possible corpse, along with most of the demigods and lesser gods.
But with the big two characters still around, they figure they can still sell books. And of course, the 'popular locations' have been mysteriously spared from the bizarrely discriminating world-wide catastrophe.

[K]

I've never had a problem with any of the settings. I mean, any setting will accumulate high-level characters once you start writing books about it. Greyhawk's only saving grace is that aside from a handful of adventures and around ten books about two characters, there was enough for a setting without people saying "Why isn't Mordenkainen taking care of this instead of us?"

FR has several hundred novels and even more adventures hwicvh each need a high level enemy to be fun, so there really are hundreds of gus who could be clearing out the Old One's Graveyard before a plague of undead ravages the town of Old Oak.

But this rewrite of FR is a natural urge to reset a beloved setting. With all the existing books and adventures and books, it is really hard to write anything in the setting without stumbling onto someone elses stuff and someone saying "hey wait, the Simbul destroyed that city in that other book. Sorry."

As far as I can tell, once the marketters of Hasbro got a hold of WotC, they decided to only make changes that make more money.

Minis make money, so we get a game thats inter-changeable with a minis combat game. New editions make money, so we get new editions. Web-based content delivery is much cheaper than magazines, so we get Dragon and Dungeon getting taken back from Paizo and put on the Web.

The biggest problem is that Hasbro are a bunch of bean counters trying to max the profit of DnD rather than trying to merge it with business models that produce even bigger profits and yet us keep the parts of the gasme we love (games, movies, and merchandising).

[JonSetanta]

1200169545[/unixtime]]Y
Elminster and Drizzt, aka 'The Boring Ones', will still be around.

DAMN IT!!!

[KauTZ]

The only thing that I could ever possibly care about in this is that Netheril now rocks out with their cocks out.

Tyrannical shadow-magic magocracy? Hells yeah.

[Voss]

1200183635[/unixtime]]

1200169545[/unixtime]]Y
Elminster and Drizzt, aka 'The Boring Ones', will still be around.

DAMN IT!!!

Oh, come on. Like they were really going to kill their cash cows.
I suspect half the reason for the setting change is to give Bob and Ed some new ideas for novels. Maybe the next two or three won't be so tired and cliche.

OK, fine. Maybe a chapter or two out of the next novel won't be quite so tired and cliche.

[JonSetanta]

Elminster/Drizzt yaoi would seem like a bigger cash cow.
A little anime makeover, let the Drowtales artists remake the image, and voila... you've just reigned in the 'teenage girl gamer' demographic.

[Leress]

1200189289[/unixtime]]Elminster/Drizzt yaoi would seem like a bigger cash cow.
A little anime makeover, let the Drowtales artists remake the image, and voila... you've just reigned in the 'teenage girl gamer' demographic.

Thanks, now I need some brain bleach

[Voss]

El could whip out that sexchange magic Mystra used on him and they could go for random genders every time they screw.

Pull in almost every sexual orientation.

And I think Elminster is hairy enough to be a furry...

[Desdan_Mervolam]

So, if Mystra died like 85 years ago, why is Elminster alive? Why haven't the dozens of enemies that Elminster had that were only kept in check by the fact that his girlfriend was a (totally hawt)goddess banged down his door and skullfucked him until his magic oozed out his ears?

[Captain_Bleach]

1200189289[/unixtime]]Elminster/Drizzt yaoi would seem like a bigger cash cow.
A little anime makeover, let the Drowtales artists remake the image, and voila... you've just reigned in the 'teenage girl gamer' demographic.

I don't think Kern does Yaoi...

[Voss]

Bleach- How can you tell? It looks like something drawn by a pederast with a drow fetish. Presumably they're all pink on the inside.

Desdan- The almighty writer fiat says so. As does the $$. And lets be honest, in the Realms, high level wizards are more powerful than gods.

[Prak]

1200169920[/unixtime]]As far as I can tell, once the marketters of Hasbro got a hold of WotC, they decided to only make changes that make more money.

Minis make money, so we get a game thats inter-changeable with a minis combat game. New editions make money, so we get new editions. Web-based content delivery is much cheaper than magazines, so we get Dragon and Dungeon getting taken back from Paizo and put on the Web.

The biggest problem is that Hasbro are a bunch of bean counters trying to max the profit of DnD rather than trying to merge it with business models that produce even bigger profits and yet us keep the parts of the gasme we love (games, movies, and merchandising).

y'know, this is a point that derely needed to be made, and I've not heard anyone else make. It really isn't Wizards' fault, it's Hasbros. They did it with Beast Wars too, and probably with many other things. It's not Wizards' fault that 4e is coming out, really, it's probably not entirely their fault that 4e is shaping up to suck, because really, it's hasbro that's saying "bend over, take our orders, and shove Hannah fucking Montannah into that game of you can... we'd really like to hit that market too."

I feel like an idiot for not realizing this on my own, but I think alot of us probably forget that Wizards is owned by Hasbro. Or at the very least, alot of the people on the wizards boards forget that...

[Leress]

For me it was pretty apparent when they made a Transformers and Maple story card game that wizards wasn't really in control anymore.

[Captain_Bleach]

1200208711[/unixtime]]Bleach- How can you tell? It looks like something drawn by a pederast with a drow fetish. Presumably they're all pink on the inside.

In all my years on Drowtales, he has never drawn a handsome "bishounen" male. Of course, I could be wrong, what with "Daydream" and all.

[Voss]

http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.ph ... r][br]Boys? Girls? Who the fuck knows?

[Prak]

1200213109[/unixtime]]For me it was pretty apparent when they made a Transformers and Maple story card game that wizards wasn't really in control anymore.

It's easy to forget, especially when one focuses on one or two products to the almost exclusion of anything else the company does, that they are owned by another, larger, less customer-interest oriented company.

Hasbro makes things for little kids. So they can whip out ten "editions" transformers in a single year, and the kids will eat it up. Whip out a new edition of D&D when it's not needed(not really, anyway) and while, yes, some people will eat it up, other people will get very pissed off. Wizards' best possible business decision, right now, would be to separate from Hasbro and get to a point where they can make decisions that are both in their financial interest, and in the interest of their consumers. They will be able to make their own timelines and be able to push stuff off, hopefully, until it's as bug-free as possible. Because the only bugs I want in D&D are Monstrous Vermin/Humanoids and weird things that don't break the game, even if they are exploited.

[Captain_Bleach]

1200255663[/unixtime]]http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.ph ... r][br]Boys? Girls? Who the fuck knows?

Alright, Voss, you win.

I have to admit, girly-boys are popular because all those Yaoi fangirls eat it up.

It is pretty much required to make anime elves be androgynous to the point that you become confused as to whether or not you should be turned on.

[Absentminded_Wizard]

Hasbro makes things for little kids. So they can whip out ten "editions" transformers in a single year, and the kids will eat it up. Whip out a new edition of D&D when it's not needed(not really, anyway) and while, yes, some people will eat it up, other people will get very pissed off.

I figure it was only a couple years tops before they would really need a new edition. The same signs from the last days of 2e were there. There were multiple versions of some rules in circulation (polymorph, anyone?). There were also drastically different rules systems being tried out to fix holes in the system (Book of Nine Swords, anyone?)

Back on the topic of the new FR: The best thing they did was kill Mystra off. Seriously, other than Drizzt, just about every grotesquely overpowered NPC in the Realms was a chosen of Mystra. It's like they had some unwritten rule that Mystra was Ed Greenwood's favorite goddess, so her Chosen had to kick everybody's ass. It would be even cooler if Elminster's power was somehow diminished because Mystra is dead. Somehow, I'm not optimistic about that actually happening....

[Voss]

1200277991[/unixtime]]

1200255663[/unixtime]]http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.ph ... r][br]Boys? Girls? Who the fuck knows?

Alright, Voss, you win.

I have to admit, girly-boys are popular because all those Yaoi fangirls eat it up.

It is pretty much required to make anime elves be androgynous to the point that you become confused as to whether or not you should be turned on.

Actually, the only 'this was actually in an anime' elf I can think of off hand isn't androgynous at all. Her gender is quite apparent. Painfully so, at times.
http://therossman01.tripod.com/top10bab ... r][br]Well, and the 'good' elf from the same series.

[Voss]

And because Rich Baker likes to prove he's a moron in public, he answers some questions in order to 'prove' that they aren't inept. He fails.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.ph ... r][quote]1) The Spellplague. Originally describes as a “sickness afflicting magic-users and killing or driving them insane” (or something like that) now seems to be more like “Time of Troubles on steroids”. As MarkusTay already mused on another thread: “What, exactly, is the definition of "The Spellplague"? Its certainly NOT a disease, or even a magical illness, so the word 'plague' is a misnomer. What the Spellplague IS is a 'poetic' descriptor for a period of time (not a tangible 'thing') when Mystra was killed, and the Weave disappeared.”

I might not have struck the right tone in the article. Spellplague isn't just a term for "the second Time of Troubles"; it's an actual phenomenon, a manifestation of magic that often appears as an aura of blue fire. You could bottle up a bit of Spellplague, take it somewhere, and let it go. It's like some sort of nanovirus whose eruptions/outbreaks appeared in many different places over the course of ten years or so, and still continue in a few very unlucky spots.


Quote:
2) When Mystra died the last time, how come the Weave didn’t dissolve then, and why did the Spellplague not take place? And if Mystryl was able to “recreate” herself as Mystra -– in an instant –- why did not Mystra do it when Cyric and Shar assaulted Dweomerheart?

Not to give a pat answer here, but I'd simply say that Shar, having observed the deaths of Mystryl and Mystra, realized that she needed to follow a very specific process when she arranged Midnight's murder, or else the goddess of magic would simply re-create herself. So Shar chose a method that hadn't been tried before and prevented such a rebirth.


Quote:
3) I may be wrong, but since Mystra died and the Weave “dissolved”, how come not *all* “Epic” or “High Magic” Spells and “Mythal-like Magics” were affected?

I'd say because mythals and such things have a special self-sustaining, "looped" nature. They're described as living magics in many ways. They have a lifeforce (of sorts) all their own, and I'd say that's what sustained them. But I don't know if we've specifically decided that is the reason, I'm just offering some speculation.


Quote:
4) Along the same lines –- when the Shadow Weave dissolved, too, why did the Shade not lose their spellcasting abilities or were not driven insane? Why did the City of Shade not crash to ground? Just because it had a “Mythallar”? I point to my previous concern –- wasn’t this Mythallar part of the Weave?

Because the Shadow Weave isn't the Weave, and does not actually rely on the Weave's existence. It's an alternate "interface," and was not directly damaged by Mystra's death. Although I think it's fair to guess that there might have been "blowback" Shar didn't expect, and the Spellplague didn't necessarily respect Shadow Weave users caught in its path.


Quote:
7) I also seem to recall that the Weave upholds all life on Toril and all living things are connected to the Weave (I may remember incorrectly, but this might be something Ed has said on Candlekeep?) and if it collapses, *all life* on Toril should *perish*. I’m not sure if I remember correctly, but if I do, is there any particular reason why this should not have happened?

Because total planetary death wouldn't be very useful to us? As far as I know, nothing about Realms says that the Weave *has* to be present for life to exist. If we ever said something like that before, I think we were wrong to do so, or else we've been portraying antimagic zones and dead magic zones all wrong for years.


Quote:
8) So why did the Walking Statues go on a “rampage”, if by my logic either Waterdeep should have been *fully* protected *or* the rest of the Sword Coast (BG included) should have been utterly wiped out?

Even if the Spellplague did not directly impinge in the area of ancient wards, powerful individuals driven mad or infected outside such wards sometimes walked into the protected places and then blew stuff up. Or so I would guess. Maybe the "animate the walking statues" idea was the work of a mighty archmage who had a really bad idea before adventurers stopped his plan.



Quote:
10) Thymanther. I thought the Dragonborn were *already* introduced into Realmslore in ‘Dragons of Faerûn’ as children of Bahamut and Tiamat?

That's an unfortunate coincidence; when naming the new PC race developed for 4e, our developers settled on the best available name from 3e. The dragonborn from Races of the Dragon introduced in Dragons of Faerun aren't necessarily the dragonborn of 4e.


Quote:
12) Were Bards affected by the Spellplague, too? And what are you going to do with them (as FR has traditionally always had many bard NPCs) if there is no Bard class in PHB? And yet –- did the Spellplague affect Sorcerers, Arcane Archers, Bladesingers, Assassins, et al. or just the Wizards?

Any Weave users, I'd say. But don't worry, bards are around in 4e. If they're not in the Player's Handbook we'll have them available soon after online or in another sourcebook. You can assume bards are still around.

Sorry you're disappointed, Asgetrion, but I hope I've convinced you that there is at least some small chance we might not be completely inept. Thanks for your thoughtful post, and I hope you'll reserve final judgment until you see all the pieces together in one place.[/quote]

Translation: 'I don't know the answers to these questions. We didn't think about this shit for very long, and we know it doesn't hold together very well, but we're very sorry you've already figured that out. Plus, if old fluff doesn't support current plans, the old fluff obviously sucks and should be replaced without thought. Oh, and writer fiat is *awesome*'.

So... yeah.