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Zeromaru X
Great Reader
Colombia
2443 Posts |
 Posted - 03 Sep 2017 : 17:12:15
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The guy of the Forgotten Realms History channel asking for an image of this place in Twitter, and I got curious.
Any scribe knows if there is an official image about this bell?
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Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world... |
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 03 Sep 2017 : 17:15:34
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| Yes. There's an illustration of it on page 63 of The Moonsea Reference Guide from the 2e The Moonsea boxed set. It's not a particularly impressive image (it's a standard western European belfry with a single bell, underwater), but it does exist. |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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Zeromaru X
Great Reader
Colombia
2443 Posts |
Posted - 03 Sep 2017 : 17:54:05
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Thanks. I will tell him. I hope he put that image in a video, because I don't have that book and now I'm curious about it.  |
Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world... |
Edited by - Zeromaru X on 03 Sep 2017 17:55:12 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 03 Sep 2017 : 21:28:50
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| Bell in the Depths. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Zeromaru X
Great Reader
Colombia
2443 Posts |
Posted - 03 Sep 2017 : 21:57:45
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| Thanks! So, is a sunken tower? It reminds me of one of the level of Soul Reaver (an old PSone game). However, the guy who runs the history of Faerūn channels says that this image is not the one he is searching. He says that the image he is searching shows the tower outside the water, and perhaps is from a 3.5 book. |
Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world... |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 04 Sep 2017 : 01:44:46
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THIS is probably the pic he is thinking of.
Thats not 'The Bell in the Depths', thats Sunken Ahjuutal, over near Calimshan, and that illustration appeared in 3e's Lost Empires, on pg.123
Unfortunately, you can no longer view the full-sized artwork at the WotC site. There was NO illustration for the BitD in 3e's Mysteries of the Moonsea - only a map of the area (underwater) for an encounter.
EDIT:
And BTW, why does he think a site called The Bell in the Depths would be out of the water?
There are no 'tides' in the Moonsea... although who knows what happened in 4e. Its possible it became exposed with all the water loss. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 04 Sep 2017 01:48:01 |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4685 Posts |
Posted - 04 Sep 2017 : 01:58:11
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| *Blink* No tides in the Moonsea? Water mass too small? |
"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 04 Sep 2017 : 02:09:38
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Yup, and the ones in the Sea of Fallen stars is Negligible.
We had a big discussion (heated, IIRC) about that. I insisted it would, since its about the size of the Great Lakes, and someone else insisted it wouldn't, ALSO siting the Great Lakes as an example. The problem is that the Great Lakes has a tide, but its only like an inch or so, so it doesn't really effect anything (hence, that other person's insistence that "it didn't" have a tide... but an inch, is an inch. LOL
But as Brian James said (he piped-in on that one), with magic and everything else going on in the world, who knows how and why things work? If you want it to have a tide, go for it. It came up when we were discussing whether water would be pouring over the Sharksbane Wall now {4e at the time}, and how it would be cool if it did this in opposites directions, twice a day (because of the tide - we picture the wall-top just below the surface in 4e). |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 04 Sep 2017 02:10:30 |
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Gyor
Master of Realmslore
1621 Posts |
Posted - 04 Sep 2017 : 13:43:03
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| I think the inner sea would be more like the meditarrian sea then a single great lake, its massive, deeper too. |
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Zeromaru X
Great Reader
Colombia
2443 Posts |
Posted - 04 Sep 2017 : 14:22:13
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
THIS is probably the pic he is thinking of.
Thats not 'The Bell in the Depths', thats Sunken Ahjuutal, over near Calimshan, and that illustration appeared in 3e's Lost Empires, on pg.123
Unfortunately, you can no longer view the full-sized artwork at the WotC site. There was NO illustration for the BitD in 3e's Mysteries of the Moonsea - only a map of the area (underwater) for an encounter.
EDIT:
And BTW, why does he think a site called The Bell in the Depths would be out of the water?
There are no 'tides' in the Moonsea... although who knows what happened in 4e. Its possible it became exposed with all the water loss.
The Bell is not mentioned in 4e. Otherwise, I would have known about it. So, if you want to develop it, there is no canon to hinder you. |
Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world... |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 04 Sep 2017 : 18:16:24
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
But as Brian James said (he piped-in on that one), with magic and everything else going on in the world, who knows how and why things work? If you want it to have a tide, go for it. It came up when we were discussing whether water would be pouring over the Sharksbane Wall now {4e at the time}, and how it would be cool if it did this in opposites directions, twice a day (because of the tide - we picture the wall-top just below the surface in 4e).
It's a nifty idea, but the FRCG had 30 feet of wall sticking out of the water.
Of course, before the Spellplague, the Sharksbane wall wasn an average of 80 feet below the surface... So the Sea of Fallen Stars lost 50 feet of height, and that 50 feet was somehow 110 feet, where the Wall was.
Given the entirely unaddressed impact this would have on the area, I can't see why someone thought this was a good idea.
A better idea would have been having it just below -- or above -- the surface, and breached in more places. Then you don't have a large body of water entirely cut off from the larger body, and multiple breaches means all shipping has to go thru a number of limited spots... With or without tides, that's a lot more potential for adventuring fun, there. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 04 Sep 2017 : 18:48:13
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This is super-easy to rectify (and not just because 4e lore was a haphazard mess, most of which we should just ignore). The wall stuck-out briefly in the initial part of the Spellplague (the Wailing Years), and thats when the greatest amounts of water would have been 'moving around', until things stabilized*. As the water rushed-out of the Sea of Alamber (heading into the Underchasm), 30 feet of wall was exposed, and then as other bodies of water (and rivers) adjusted to refill the alamber, the sea leveled-out a bit. Thus, ALL lore can be true.
Now, onto my supposition - Tides. What if there ARE tides in the SoFS - weird, somewhat unpredictable ties. as if there was sometimes a second invisible moon effecting Toril's oceans? The could have been something that became problematic (emphasized) during the 'Lost century', and now, for whatever reason (*cough* Sundering 2.0 *cough*), the tides have gone back to a more normal state... for Toril. In other words, despite this not being how it would work on Earth, there are TONS of factors we can imagine that would cause this situation (gods, magic, 'planer rifts', etc). I think to would be far more fun to imagine the wall there, and that ships can only pass at certain times, perhaps even monthly. And since we have canon evidence of earth (as in 'the ground') moving both UP and DOWN during the Spellplague (and whenever we have 'magical chaos'), there is no reason we can't imagine that something is making the wall itself move up and down... as if something beneath is slowly breathing... 
*And thanks to this, I just had an amazing idea on how to 'fix' this situation in regards to Cormyr, and I can use my current project (The Seven Shires) to do just that. The Neck is extremely narrow (despite what maps show) and shallow, and even 'freezes over' during most winters (THAT is canon). It would have been fairly simple for Cormyr's War Wizards** to erect a temporary (century?) set of 'locks' there, to keep the water level stable (since we can clearly see the water level did NOT change during the 4e era in The Dragonmere). In fact... a 50' drop in water level should have left the neck high-and-dry, at its narrowest, shallowest point, me thinks. Or close to it, at any rate. Now that i think about it, magic didn't even have to be involved at all - if the water rushed out of the The Neck fast enough, there would have been no time for the flowing water (from the Dragonmere) to dig the channel deeper as it rushed out - The Dragonmere would have been left mostly intact by the suddenly dry Neck. Then Cormyrian engineers could have come along and dug a 'canal' in the muddy bottom, with locks at either end, reconnecting the bodies of water. THAT would explain a LOT.
**And if you tell me they didn't have the magic to do it, well then, I guess you didn't know they possessed The Mighty McGuffin of Grumbar. 
And as we all know, magical items - especially artifact-level items - weren't affected by the Spellplague.  |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 04 Sep 2017 19:00:30 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 04 Sep 2017 : 19:03:53
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I'm actually falling in love with my own idea (don't I always? LMAO).
The best part about this - who would be nearly as concerned with this situation as the Cormyrians? The Shou, who had been using that sea-Gate in the Dragonmere for some time during 3e. And who are the greatest canal builders (that we know of) on Toril? The Shou - they built dozens, hundreds of miles long! So I picture some Cormyrian Wizards and engineers, etc., looking at the dry Neck, scratching their heads, and a Shou Dragonship arrives and an ambassador says, "I think we can help you with this". |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 04 Sep 2017 19:05:12 |
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The Bell of the Deeps
