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 Q of the Week: What Makes the Realms THE REALMS?

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T O P I C    R E V I E W
Erik Scott de Bie Posted - 07 Aug 2012 : 16:42:23
This is tied to my ONE CANON, ONE STORY, ONE REALMS thread (see page 8, about 2/3rds of the way down), but I thought I'd post it up here for those who haven't been reading along:

Question of the Week: What about a Realms product (sourcebook, novel, etc) speaks to you as a "Realms" piece?

Specifically, what is it about the Realms that makes the Realms the Realms?

This is a deeply personal question, so don't give me the answer you think I want to hear or that everyone wants to hear. To you, specifically, what makes the Realms really special?

Cheers
30   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
Arcanus Posted - 10 Aug 2012 : 14:28:20
I think that my thoughts are the same as many of the posts here.
I'll just say, as above.
Thauranil Posted - 10 Aug 2012 : 12:52:50
What i love about the realms is that every new novel or game makes you feel that you are reading the actual history of a magical land out there somewhere. The fact that its interconnected and the novels are canon is a huge plus for me.
Xnella Moonblade-Thann Posted - 10 Aug 2012 : 11:02:02
My introduction to the Realms was the Song and Swords series, and I loved that Elaine Cunningham was able to create such interesting elven lore that seems to be taken as fact by the person who created the Realms. She was also able to take a fantasy setting and bring the characters and places to life, making everything seem as if it was real. She even has taken a character or two that was not originaly hers and went somewhere with them that pleased their creator. Anyone who can do all of that is, IMHO, hands-down one of the best authors.
Old Man Harpell Posted - 10 Aug 2012 : 10:47:28
quote:
Originally posted by Alystra Illianniis

And it all goes back to depth. Depth of character, depth of setting, history, lore, story, organizations, and even the deities. These are all elements that are part and parcel of the Realms' "feel". As sfd said, it's the "life" of the setting and its people that is important. And for the record, I belive that is what Wooly and OMH were getting at as well.


Exactly. Thank you, Alystra.
Alystra Illianniis Posted - 09 Aug 2012 : 23:28:07
And it all goes back to depth. Depth of character, depth of setting, history, lore, story, organizations, and even the deities. These are all elements that are part and parcel of the Realms' "feel". As sfd said, it's the "life" of the setting and its people that is important. And for the record, I belive that is what Wooly and OMH were getting at as well.
sfdragon Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 18:43:07
something else that makes the realms the realms.


the life that is brought into each and every character, from Elminster, to shadowbane, to Fox at Twilight and her goliath friend who's problely trapped inside the poor elf and only comes out as her shadow....., to Drizzt, to Storm, Dove, the other seven and chosen of mystra. They all have a unigue personality and it makes them unique and you either end up hating them or loving them to love to hate them( or in some rare cases, both love and ahte them).

Some of them are dead and gone ut they still made the realms what it was and still is.
Markustay Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 18:09:55
It's called 'flavor'.

So basically what you are asking for here Erik is for everyone to describe a flavor, which is kinda like asking to describe chocolate.

What does it taste like? It tastes good. But what does it taste like? It tastes like chocolate. See the problem?

Maybe, like chocolate, FR releases endorphins. All you know is that you want more of it.
Jorkens Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 18:04:01
quote:
Originally posted by Erik Scott de Bie

And will continue to, Jorkens. So it will.

Cheers



Oh just for the record; that was not a kick towards newer developments, it was more meant in the area of suggesting that even in its more primitive form the Realms had something of its own.
Erik Scott de Bie Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 17:59:54
And will continue to, Jorkens. So it will.

Cheers
Jorkens Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 17:53:58
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay

Ah, okay. Then I heartily agree with you.

The Realms is greater then the sum of its parts.



Which is why the setting worked perfectly well in the early days to, before the history and lore got detailed beyond sketches and stories where only hinting at the past.
Markustay Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 17:45:30
Ah, okay. Then I heartily agree with you.

The Realms is greater then the sum of its parts.
WalkerNinja Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 12:16:59
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
In fact, I'm not even sure why Walker Ninja disagreed with me - he appears to be saying much the same as I was, just from a different angle is all.



I neither mentioned you nor was I responding to any poster in particular. I believe that there is a broader notion that what makes FR what it is are the details--a notion that I heartily disagree with. I'm just saying that naming all of the inns in each town, with all of the drink specials for each, and one-line stat blocks for each of the workers doesn't make FR. It's more than that.
Brimstone Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 08:30:21
The HISTORY!
Drizztsmanchild Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 08:19:37
What makes the Realms "THE REALMS"?

Easy....you capitalized the letters

;-).
Erik Scott de Bie Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 08:08:09
This is really fun and uplifting, guys. Let's not taint it with digs on another poster. I said at the outset this was very personal, and you're not necessarily going to find that everyone agrees with you. People need to feel safe to express themselves without other posters jumping on their thoughts. I'd you have a problem with that, please just ignore it, and definitely don't post attacks on people you perceive as being in opposition. If you're going to do that, please just take it elsewhere.

Admins, feel free to step in when appropriate.

Cheers
Markustay Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 07:52:04
Not taking sides, but I can't figure out how wooly or OMH disagreed with anyone either.

In fact, I'm not even sure why Walker Ninja disagreed with me - he appears to be saying much the same as I was, just from a different angle is all.

By 'depth' I don't just mean the loads of details and history - I also mentioned the PEOPLE/ Its all interrelated. We don't just hear about Jonquessael of Tavaray, we find out about Tavaray, when it fell, and why. We don't just find out about the 'Hoar Sword', we find out it was carried once by Jonquessael of Tavaray, before he feel defending abridge to an orc horde. What orc horde, you ask? Why the one that was finally defeated by the elves of blah blah blah...

By 'depth' I mean everything has layers. Nothing in FR is two-dimensional. The characters matter most, but part of why they matter is because they are firmly anchored to a very real setting. And not just the 'big guns' - those are just the flashy ones we see in novels. Its the small things that heroes do - heroes like the PCs - that make small incremental changes in the Realms, which add up to those sweeping changes.

The Forgotten Realms isn't an edition, and it isn't a story - its a vast tapestry of endless stories, and not all with happy endings. Its a living, breathing, vibrant place, with the full gamut of emotions. It makes me laugh and it makes me cry. Its life.

Thats what I meant by 'depth' - not just the huge amounts of past lore, but what is done with that lore, and how it is poured into every aspect of the characters we meet.
Jeremy Grenemyer Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 05:47:20
quote:
Originally posted by The Hidden Lord

Garen Thal hits it right on the mark, as opposed to Wooly Rupert and Old Man Hapell, who clearly have no, or a grossly incomplete, awareness of the Realms.
The nature of a thread like this is that it invites personal responses, which are highly subjective. These are not the sorts of responses that can be used as evidence as to whether people have a "clear" understanding of the Realms or not, so let's leave off the comments about other people's points of view, OK?
Wooly Rupert Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 05:11:50
quote:
Originally posted by The Hidden Lord

Garen Thal hits it right on the mark, as opposed to Wooly Rupert and Old Man Hapell, who clearly have no, or a grossly incomplete, awareness of the Realms.


Thank you for the blatant condescension. Not seeing where it's coming from, though, as nothing I said contrasts with Garen's words.

quote:
Originally posted by The Hidden Lord

The Realms is a place for so many stories; not just one band of Lance seeking Heroes, or one tragic vampire, or one group of Gladiators thwarting Dragon Kings... It is a place where nearly every story can find a place... And those stories "keep on keeping on", not just in spite of, but due to, tragedy, conflict and pain.



Still not seeing how this contrasts with anything I said...
Mapolq Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 05:06:00
quote:
Originally posted by WalkerNinja

I heartily disagree with the assumption that Depth/Detail = Realms. It is certainly a characteristic of the Realms, but no more so than Star Wars or Middle Earth really.

What is actually the defining characteristic of the Realms that is the complexity/depth/detail of the setting tends to preclude heroic epic/monomyth story telling--and that's just what TSR liked about it from the beginning.

[...]




Very well put. That's one of the things I was trying to get at, but couldn't translate to words.
The Hidden Lord Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 04:40:10
Garen Thal hits it right on the mark, as opposed to Wooly Rupert and Old Man Hapell, who clearly have no, or a grossly incomplete, awareness of the Realms.

The Realms is a place for so many stories; not just one band of Lance seeking Heroes, or one tragic vampire, or one group of Gladiators thwarting Dragon Kings... It is a place where nearly every story can find a place... And those stories "keep on keeping on", not just in spite of, but due to, tragedy, conflict and pain.
WalkerNinja Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 03:43:11
I heartily disagree with the assumption that Depth/Detail = Realms. It is certainly a characteristic of the Realms, but no more so than Star Wars or Middle Earth really.

What is actually the defining characteristic of the Realms that is the complexity/depth/detail of the setting tends to preclude heroic epic/monomyth story telling--and that's just what TSR liked about it from the beginning.

Remember that the Realms was adopted by TSR not JUST because it was already designed, but because it contrasted strongly with the extremely narrow heroic-epic story line of Dragonlance.

In many ways, Realms stories (rooted in their details) form anti-epics where the heroes often don't act particularly heroic (there was a thread about this in regard to Elminster/War Wizards/and the Sisters recently) and antagonists are defined by more concrete motives than evil-for-the-sake-of-evil. Indeed, frequently in Greenwood tales, antagonistic elements are thwarted not by epic combat and battle, but through and innovative meeting of their needs--guerilla diplomacy.

The Realms tells us that the world is unfathomably complex, that characters have dimensions that aren't immediately obvious, and that conflict is able to be resolved as much by wit as by force. Detail and depth is one medium through which this is communicated, but is rather a symptom than the nature of the condition.
Markustay Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 03:19:14
I think what most everyone is talking about is depth - the deep history behind every little thing, from items to people to fallen Empires. It's immersive. You don't just know about a certain thing - you find out where its been, and who has held it.
The Sage Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 02:54:38
quote:
Originally posted by Garen Thal

For me, the realms is the feeling that I'm witnessing (either as an observer or a participant or a plotter) in an ongoing story. The players were there before I got there, and will be there after I'm gone, not waiting in frozen frame for me to pop my head back in, but constantly moving, constantly changing, with motivations and desires beyond what makes for an interesting adventure or a fun tale. It's joy and tragedy and senseless violence and triumphant victory, sometimes when no one at all is looking.

I couldn't have put it better myself, Brian. Wholeheartedly agreed.

...

Ideally, when I look at the Realms, I'm looking, predominantly, for lore. But at the same time, I'm also looking for material that doesn't sit under a cloud of stagnacity because developers -- primarily -- and home-based game-masters -- generally -- are afraid to take what they've learned and expand upon it. The Realms has never been about staying in one place for too long. Even during the lore-loved days of 1e/2e... there was much impetus, even if it wasn't as obvious, either through events or NPCs, that the setting could, and will, move forward -- incorporating new ideas and new themes to bring greater life to the whole of the setting.

In that sense, I can greatly applaud much of the design framework for the 4e Realms. It sought to found this game-design philosophy in a new way -- by taking a grand departure from everything that came before it.

I know we'll dispute the positives and negatives of the 4e Realms for many years still to come, but my ramblings here aren't meant for that purpose. I'm merely attempting to illustrate that the design philosophy behind much of the 4e Realms really hasn't been all that different from the approach most of the designers took with earlier editions. It's just that the 4e framework sought to promote that philosophy on an entirely new level than most of us have been used to.

It's a truth that has long been written into the official Realms firmament... just look to the Ol' Grey Box:-
quote:
Finally, the Realms are a land of adventure, and therefore adventurers. It is the time of heroes, when one man of pure heart (or with a powerful artifact) may hold his own against enemy hordes, where legions of evil forces may muster and be destroyed by the actions of a few, where the nations rise and fall on magical tides which mere men can control. It is a time when the bold and the lucky may make their fortunes and gain great power over their worlds.
The evolution of lore has been part of the Realms from the very beginning. It's this incorporated growth, that intelligently seeks to expand upon what has come before, with what is to come, in a way that embraces the history of lore that compromises the setting. Each designer and every GM can make their own mark on the Realms -- whether through the officially-sanctioned quills of a gaming company, or through the Saturday evening's adventure at a friend's gaming table. We can each stand against those hordes, or singularly muster the legions of evil in any way we see fit, and still find a place for how we run our own Realms in the lore as it evolves.

That's what makes the Realms the Realms to me. That I can find a place for all that I love about fantasy in the one place -- and that the shifting nature of the lore can accomodate all that I can bring to the gaming table -- even when armed with nothing more than my imagination, and a desire to tell a story against the grand backdrop of Ed's masterful creation.
Old Man Harpell Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 02:27:16
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

What makes the Realms the Realms?

It's the feel -- everything has a history, and fits together into a logical, seamless whole. It's a place that I can picture actually existing somewhere. It's the potential -- around every corner, there is more history, more stories, and more wonder. It's a place I want to explore, and it's a place I think I could be happy to physically live in.

I sometimes think on the fact that as we progress from childhood to adulthood, we lose a lot of our sense of wonder at the world. The Realms brings some of that wonder back, for me.

At least, prior editions did. I'm not trying to start an edition war, and I'm not even going to discuss it further in this thread. I am going to note, however, that much of my dislike for the 4E Realms stems from the fact that I don't see the potential and wonder there, any more, and it now has more of an oppressive, dystopian feel, much like most cyberpunk tales.

I hope that the 5E Realms can recapture the feel of the Realms of 2E.



I'm glad I read the whole thread - saved me from repeating what The Hamster already posted. Word for word.

Most 'D&D' worlds feel like...well...worlds that you just run your 'generic' game in, kill monsters, loot treasure, rinse, repeat - this is especially true of Greyhawk. Not saying that it can't be awesome fun, but that's pretty much what it's often reduced to.

Only two TSR/WOTC worlds have avoided this piece-by-piece impression for me - the Realms, and Cerilia (Birthright). They don't feel 'assembled', like a child's jigsaw puzzle - they feel like primal, ancient worlds of legend and myth, every bit as real in some parallel reality as Spaceship Earth is to us.

In either of them, I can crack open a sourcebook and let my mind fill in details that I would give almost anything to be able to see firsthand, literally dreaming as I read. No other world sourcebooks have I really been able to do that. Cerilia isn't going to be supported, so I can keep it at the point it was discontinued, knowing that the magic won't be taken away abruptly (pun not intended, but acknowledged).

In the Shattered Realms, if I stay in certain places (the Sword Coast, for example) and deliberately exclude certain things (NPCs and other things I have grown immensely fond of that are abruptly no longer there), I can believe it is still the magic world of deep myth that I started my walks in as a young man (and I am obviously not so young any more). The Realms is truthfully one of the very few things that has kept me from aging (apart from chronologically, of course).

- OMH
Tarlyn Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 01:11:44
From a high level view: The import things about the realms are magic, locations, characters, items and their great histories and the sense of wonder that all of those things working together generate.

From a DM's persepective: The role of adventurers in the Realms has always stood out to me. IMO it is the only setting that wove adventurers into the fabric of everyday life. Adventurers in realms aren't the one hero destined to save the world, but instead a relatively common sight. Realm's source books cover the attitude of people in a region to adventurers and the implication is that there are lots of adventurers in most regions. While the PCs are the protagonists of the story in game, other stories are occurring around them that they might cameo in. The Realms for me is always a living breathing setting, never just a backdrop for the PCs adventures.

I inherited a D&D group in college and the first surprise I had when running them was their attempts to tie every plot together. The first session was spent with the players collecting 5 different possible adventurer hooks and then trying to puzzle how they all fit together. Then when they returned from their adventure and found out some of the hooks were resolved by other adventurers / NPCs I was greeted by equal surprise. The PCs quickly grew to like that the setting was not stagnate, things change when they aren't in town and not always for the worse.

What makes this living breathing world possible IMO detailed NPCs with far ranging plots, organizations that span the setting with goals, divine being scheming in far off planes, the individual nations with seperate goals and a level of detail that allows a DM to dive into the world, but still leaves plenty of room to drive the story. IMO 2e and what I have seen from 1e did this best, 3e had to rigid details and 4e not anywhere near enough.

I also enjoy the many unique story concepts with cool mechanics such as the weave, mythals, portal networks, elven high magic, circle magic, chosen, spellfire, war wizard cloaks, moon blades, harper pins, iconic spells, bladesingers, battleragers, shades, magic pipes, clerics with abilities that relate to their deity and many more things that I cannot think of at the moment. All of these allow players to make characters that feel more like they are a part of the world, because the mechanics they have play a part in the setting.

quote:
Originally posted by Erik Scott de Bie
What I think we need are more mundane role-models to look to: heroes who don't use magic (outside of magic items at most) who still manage to succeed.


I think you already have heroes that make do in the realms without being casters. Drizzt, Arilyn , Mirt and Jarlaxle to name a few. The common thing to Realm's heroes is that they all have access to some kind of magic. Mirt and Jarlaxle are basically batman type heroes with a seemingly endless supply of magic trinkets while Arilyn and Drizzt have a few iconic magic items. If you mean heroes that are the equal of say Jarlaxle that just get by with pure brute strength, grit and cunning, I don't think that it makes much sense. Jarlaxle is already an incredibly cunning rogue with grit to spare, having a ring that let's him teleport halfway across the world only makes him more impressive. There is only so much that can believably be achieved with strength and wits when you are comparing yourself to people that already have those benefits and more.
Mapolq Posted - 08 Aug 2012 : 00:33:49
I'll have to echo some thoughts that have already been written here.

What makes the Realms is the level of detail and the interconnectivity of everything. These things make the place so very believable in (almost) every way.

Years ago I was talking about the Realms to a friend who knew nothing about it besides the name and that it was a D&D setting. He asked me what the "theme" of the Realms was, and I answered him by saying the Forgotten Realms didn't have a "theme". Even "fantasy" can't describe it fully, and that's a very broad term. In the same way that the Earth has no "theme", so doesn't the Realms. Its diversity makes it really shine as a "secondary world", to use Tolkien's term.
xaeyruudh Posted - 07 Aug 2012 : 23:19:53
I agree with a lot of what's been said already. For me, what makes the Realms The Realms was Ed, and continues to be the designers. It's not a brown-nosing answer. I believe the reason the Realms has succeeded is because of the storytelling, and more specifically the fact that the storytellers take requests.

I don't think there's any single thing we can point to about the world itself and say that it's better than anything that's been done before. Yes, there are some unique features of the Realms that are awesome (the Weave, the concept of the Chosen regardless of how you feel about the execution, circle magic, mythals, mythallars, moonblades, and a long list of other neat stuff that maybe hasn't been done in quite the same way elsewhere) but other worlds have unique features too and they haven't made those worlds the King of the Hill, because it's not about the world itself. Ed's got a knack for storytelling, and evidently a decanter of endless ideas, but so do a lot of other authors (and as we've seen even here on Candlekeep, Ed's flavor of wordsmithing is not a selling point of the Realms for everyone).

The quality, and to a lesser extent the quantity, of the stories is the key... not the subject matter.

I can log on Candlekeep (and once upon a time, the FR mailing list) and find the words of the author himself, continually expanding the setting through his friends. Even if you aren't a lover of Ed's style (you're a weirdo), it's pretty tough to hate the fact that you can ask him any question you want and have a reasonable hope (NDAs suck) of getting an answer which will be personalized to you. It's like having a question about behind-the-scenes stuff in The Hunt for Red October, and being able to get clarification (sometimes many pages in length) directed to you by name, from Clancy himself, at 3am on a random Tuesday.

That is something no other setting that's captured my attention can offer. It's why I'm still reading and writing in the Realms, in spite of my contempt for the directions in which the setting is warped.

And I said designerS. Not only is Ed's brain available (in bursts) at any hour of the day or night, but so are the minds of dozens of other published authors/designers and probably hundreds of others who haven't been published yet but really deserve to be.

The Realms is in some ways better than the real world. We're not just traveling the world discovering things that have always been there and cannot be reimagined. We're creating those things as we go, and writing the past and the future. We're creating the neat features that make the Realms as a world unique. The ability to interact with the designers, and get their feedback, and be their feedback, is what makes the Realms as a setting unique.

Cheers, Erik. Thought-provoking topic.
Bladewind Posted - 07 Aug 2012 : 22:43:34
Tough question.

I'll just mention some of things that I usually find quite consistantly in (better) realms novels and sourcebooks.

Character. Even a simple object, like a sword, placed in front of the PC's has history attached to it, giving it character.

Mesopolitan cities I love to mentally walk through. Amn, Arabel, Baldurs Gate, Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Silverymoon, Ravens Bluff, I numerous others all have a distinct feel about them, and provide for some of the best skullduggery games with so little effort. A DM need only lay down a townmap in the middle of the table and spin some rumors or two, and lo and behold fun will be had. Usually a dozen organisations are plotting a score more devious plans at the same time in that city alone!

The ecology. I love the quircky dungeons like Undermountain like any other fan, but I practicly devoured the Elminster Ecologies series, and continue to mine those resources for coming up with cool encounters that fit logically in the area ecology. I love how adventurers are sometimes right smackdab in the middle of a food chain, struggling to rise to the top. (Eric, your novel Depths of Madness had a particularly neat ecology I thought!)

High Magic in a setting where swashbuckling wit and gritty sword and sorcery is equally common. Light hearted derring-do is balanced with the evil magelord experimenting on commoners or himself. Both light and dark fantasy is encountered across the broad range of playing areas in the Forgotten Realms.

Alystra Illianniis Posted - 07 Aug 2012 : 22:08:05
What makes the Realms special for me? I'd say it's the characters and places that move, change, and interact. Reading about nobles squabbling in Cormyr or Waterdeep, drow Houses scheming in Menzo, or the rich history of the elven kingdoms or the daily skull-duggery in Skullport (see what I just did? ;-) ) make it live for me. Sourcebooks that flesh out the people and locations in various parts of the world, and which detail the machinations of gods and organizations make things interesting and fluid, bringing a sense of real people and places. A town you visited in your last game might be razed by a passing red dragon during the Rage, or Elminster might be sitting with his feet propped in the corner of your local tavern. You just never know what you might run into!
Eilserus Posted - 07 Aug 2012 : 22:05:48
The lore we receive. The Volo's guides as noted are perfect examples. It shows us living breathing communities and places in depth and far beyond what we normally get from say a campaign guide. I like how I can be reading about a tavern, some of its characters, their motivations and oh yeah, there's this rumor of a dwarven stronghold called Firehammer Hold and they all died of disease long ago and there happens to be maps scratched in the walls in the back of the taproom etc. Little adventure hooks like that, unique magic items with a history, interesting and ancient spells, realms etc. And these instances cover a few pages and there's many more through said book to read about and use. Those are the things that light my eyes up because I can take those ideas and riff off them or stick them wherever I want. I may be decent at creating my own realmslore, mainly underdark and dwarf stuff, but I can't hold a candle to what comes from Ed, Boyd, Schend and many other great loremasters.

I hope for 5E we don't see 3E's use of tactical maps and other stuff for half a product for adventures. Just give us a normal map like we've recently seen in Dungeon magazine. For other supplements, a quarter or half the product dedicated to prestige classes and feats, please leave out. I liked 3.5 for the most part, but there were so many feats, classes, and prestige classes to choose from, it'd take forever to sift through all the books to find something to use and half the time I dont remember any of them except the more common ones. Most of this is probably due to stat block bloat, which was one of the things I didn't like about 3.5...detailing out the above simply took too much space. If this can all be trimmed down for 5E to take up way fewer pages I'd be alright with it. Nice one line stats like the old 2E way of doing things for npc's works for me (Triel Baenre drow f, P20, STR 16, DEX 12, CON 15, INT 14, WIS 20). If the npc is important, stick them in the back of the book like Volo's and add a bit more detail about their aims, gear, etc.

Scererar above mentions a good point. I've been reading about the Realms since I was in 6th grade and have been following it more or less a good 20 years. And the Spellfire novel was a great example, because it evoked a sense of wonder and exploration that I didn't think was possible(as I just read it earlier this summer). I haven't kept up on my novel reading as well as I should, but Spellfire gave me the feel of something I havent' seen often since the days of The Crystal Shard, Homeland, Elminster Making of a Mage etc. There's been many great novels throughout the years, and I'm forgetting other titles at the moment, but some of them have the ability to completely draw a person in and invoke that sense of wonder of what's over the next hill or forest.

PS: Realms designers please go through the Spellfire series. There's some really good stuff in there that never seemed to have made it into official design. The biggest areas that stick out to me are the great details of the trade run from Scornubel to Waterdeep.

What also makes the Realms the Realms? The Zhentarim and the Red Wizards. They're just great classic bad guys. Maybe Manshoon will work more on the Zhents after we find out what happens in Ed's next novel. And perhaps we could get Fzoul back as a banelich, since they've been known to be on par with demipowers. I'm OK with Szass Tam ruling Thay, but it'd be even better if it was full of Red Wizards and Zulkirs of the classic sort and they reported to Tam in some sense.

Cormyr could do for a king like an Azoun type that is rising to power. The golden age for that country has ended and things are tough right now, but it'd be nice to see that country as a rising star fighting to regain what it lost. I think Ed is touching on this somewhat, but a phoenix rising from the ashes type deal would make for some great adventures there.

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