| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| The Arcanamach |
Posted - 21 Feb 2014 : 03:32:13
This is a quote by Eltheron from my Reading The Reaver thread. I found it very interesting and wanted to see if any fellow scribes could expand upon the idea without contradicting previous lore (as I'm not the most fluent in the lore these days):
quote:
Fine, I'll take a stab at it. People didn't like AO to begin with, so what if AO died? What happens if an overdeity dies or is killed?
If an overdeity is the enforcer or caretaker of some kind of "Pact Primeval" (in this case, the Tablets of Fate), then perhaps what Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul did in stealing it triggered a slow death for AO. Cosmic rules begin to break down, dead gods find themselves suddenly alive again yet uncertain whether or not they'll stay alive without some entity above them.
Currently living gods become terrified as the barriers between worlds begin to weaken. In the case of Abeir, AO didn't intentionally cause it to merge with and swap different parts of Faerun. It was just that AO was dying and his ability to keep realities separate was weakening. And we find out it's not a "twin" planet anyway, it's a divergent reality Realms that AO created to separate the gods from the primordials. During AO's slow death, other alternate realities attempt to merge or swap with parts of Faerun again.
Amaunator reappeared as Lathander became incredibly weakened, and he took Lathander's place for a time. What the gods are doing now is trying to save their reality. And in order to do so, it means one of them must become the new Overdeity and pass into a higher level of reality. To stabilize time and separate the various quantum realities, Amaunator steps up. Lathander becomes stronger as his people rightfully turn back to him for worship. Amaunator is the one deity who can promise a fair "new contract" for all the gods, good and evil.
Mystryl (the original) resumes guardianship of the Weave and repairs it, which bolsters the "walls" between these other realities and other worlds and planes. It's Mystryl because her memories are drawn from the fragments of the former Weave and include memories of all her past avatars. Also, we learn that Cyric and Shar never murdered Mystra. Rather, her existence as a god was intimately tied into the nature of reality and she "went dark" when AO died. The spellplague and the cosmic changes were the result of AO's death, not hers. For the past 100+ years, the gods have been terrified and have been doing their best to hold reality together.
Halruaa returns, as do Maztica and other places, as Amaunator sorts out the divergent realities. Plaguelands fizzle out or are repaired with the restoration of the Weave and the re-separation of the various worlds/realities. Planes that were merged are un-merged.
And meanwhile, intermediate and lesser gods vie for position, power, and worshipers on Faerun.
Small colonies or individual random dragonborn, planetouched, genasi, or other entities might remain behind on Faerun so people still have the option of playing them. But from their perspective, all they really know is that they were from another world somewhere in the universe and Faerun has always had a lot of portals.
Now there's still quite a lot of deus ex machina involved in that. How do we make it such that Amaunator and the other gods require the literal help and assistance of mortals to save Faerun and Toril, so it's not all dependent on the gods' magic?
How about: all the Chosen of all the gods must relinquish their power to create the new Overdeity. In the case of good deities and mortals, this can be done freely. In the case of evil Chosen they have to be put down permanently. Now some of the evil gods, like Shar and Cyric, see this as a potential opportunity to become the new Overgod instead of Amaunator so they lie, attempt to cheat, etc. during the Sundering period. Other evil gods might cooperate with Amaunator's grand plan but start up other more minor plots to ensure their own survival or power.
At the end of it all, mortals triumph and Amaunator is raised as the new Overgod. Each of the Sundering books could've been about a critical fight between two diametrically opposed Chosen. Once Amaunator is risen, all memories of an overgod start to fade and even Oghma's attempts to document what happen begin to fade. People remember the wars between some fantastically powerful archmages, archdruids, and so on, and that the world was in significant peril (so say all the deities to their followers).
And we never see another Chosen again.
And yeah, that's still all quite cheesy, but I think it's a lot better than just some kind of handwaving with no explanations ever made.
ALSO: There is an idea from sleyvas' most recent thread posed by Markustay that I think can be germaine to this thread...but I don't want to steal from their discussion. Basically, Markus offers the possibility that Mystra is an aspect of Ao and that certain other entities are as well. But I will let him chime in if he wishes. |
| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Eltheron |
Posted - 02 Mar 2015 : 20:17:04
Thanks for the kind words, Arcanamach and others. |
| _Jarlaxle_ |
Posted - 02 Mar 2015 : 14:34:27
IMHO if Ao somehow dies his boss would just implant someone else in his position so live goes on as usual. |
| Tarlyn |
Posted - 02 Mar 2015 : 12:17:15
quote:
Originally posted by Baptor
a) they repair the Realms but not enough for me (ie Haluraa is gone, Lantan is gone, etc)
b) they do repair it but use significant hand-waiving and silliness to do so (much of which I've seen going on)
a) I think it has already been hinted at that Haluraa wasn't destroyed. Here is a link http://community.wizards.com/forum/forgotten-realms/threads/4184661 to a post about it on the wizards forum.
b) I don't view the journey of the Sundering as that important. It is the destination i.e the 5e Realms that I am interested in. I think the above suggestion isn't that dramatically different than the novel events. It does accomplish the same thing, setting up a bridge to the 5e realms. I also mess with the official Sundering cannon in my home Realms. I make little changes that allow the novel events to play out as they did, but the behind the scenes explanation is a little different. That is the benefit behind the Sundering being vague. Each group can find an explanation to get from the previous Realms state to the 5e Realms that works for them. Some will want to stick with a prior version of the Realms and there is nothing wrong with that. However, I don't think there is one magic bullet that everyone is going to like to explain the changes necessary to make the Realms the Realms again. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 02 Mar 2015 : 12:14:51
quote:
Originally posted by TBeholder
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I once proposed something similar to bring back Mystra: several of her Chosen enacting some ritual that saw them sacrifice themselves to become reborn Mystra.
It's not like this would make things worse at this point, it's just that there are enough of wh40k ripoffs as it is.
I had no knowledge of that until you posted the link.
But there is a certain amount of sense in my idea that I think your link lacks -- Mystra's Chosen are invested, by her, with a part of her divine essence. They are literally carrying around a piece of the goddess within them. So Mystra being reborn from that essence is an obvious possibility.
It also involved some other elements, including Mystra's statue at the Pool of Yeven in Battledale -- we've never found out what's up with that statue, but Azuth guarding it during the ToT has got to be significant. |
| TBeholder |
Posted - 02 Mar 2015 : 07:43:07
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I once proposed something similar to bring back Mystra: several of her Chosen enacting some ritual that saw them sacrifice themselves to become reborn Mystra.
It's not like this would make things worse at this point, it's just that there are enough of wh40k ripoffs as it is. |
| Baptor |
Posted - 02 Mar 2015 : 04:14:50
This is amazing!
I've been wracking my brain for months trying to come up with some kind of cohesive plot like this one.
My main concern about a 5e Realms has been that either
a) they repair the Realms but not enough for me (ie Haluraa is gone, Lantan is gone, etc)
b) they do repair it but use significant hand-waiving and silliness to do so (much of which I've seen going on)
This story sounds legit. It allows, at its end, for someone to realign reality and bring back whatever you want or leave whatever you want.
Thanks! |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 21 Feb 2014 : 05:18:29
I once proposed something similar to bring back Mystra: several of her Chosen enacting some ritual that saw them sacrifice themselves to become reborn Mystra. |
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