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Mirtek
Senior Scribe

595 Posts

Posted - 04 May 2019 :  19:25:32  Show Profile Send Mirtek a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison

Well I play it that the afterlife is like a drug induced fantasy designed to keep the soul calm and willing while the owner of the outer planar dominion slowly leeches away their life force to power himself until the soul is utterly consumed.

Can you tell I'm an atheist

Actually that kind of nails exactly how the D&D afterlife works. Except you do not even get your personalized drug induced fantasy.

Instead you merely get all your memories stripped away directly at day 1 and then "life" out the shared standard of your respective afterlife.

While doing so you're slowly "purified" even more, until you are a perfect mini representation of the ideal of your plane (or deity).

Once you reached this point, you'll be consumed by the plane/deity to empower it.

Good or evil, it doesn't matter, all mortals are just "alignment batteries" in the end.

A few very exceptional individuals may be allowed to keep their memories and are instead assigned special roles by their deities. For the majority Tyr eventualls consumes his faithful as sure as Cyric (or the planes of Celestia and the Abyss respectively).

That's also a reason why the deities of the realms had the Wall of the Faithless build, the terror of the wall prevents that too many of those "tasty little morsels" slip through their fingers.

quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion

Has any extremely powerful mortal in your fiction (or campaign) ever managed to tumble to the dark of things and lead some kind of revolt against the false gods?


No sense in that (other than fleeting personal satisfaction maybe), because even those without patron deity who just go to a plane of existence that matches them the most are going to suffer the very same fate.

And a few truly exceptional individuals are spared (denied?) that fate and made into special servants

Edited by - Mirtek on 05 May 2019 07:02:30
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 04 May 2019 :  22:08:46  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well canon likely dresses it up nicer but I essentially took all the basic components from source books and dressed it up in a more macabre suit.

I'm sure the churches and their priests believe what they are preaching, that when you die your soul will spend eternity in the living embrace of their favoured God (what better way to get worshippers, worked for christianity and other real world Faith's too) and if novels have seeming paradise afterlife then I see no reason not to address it with such a hallucination, but the bare bones is you die and then your soul is consumed to power a deitys continued existence.

Souls after all are the most valued currency in the outer planes, so why wouldn't the gods get in on the action as well.

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Mirtek
Senior Scribe

595 Posts

Posted - 05 May 2019 :  07:01:07  Show Profile Send Mirtek a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison

I'm sure the churches and their priests believe what they are preaching, that when you die your soul will spend eternity in the living embrace of their favoured God
Well, it's not "that" wrong either, at least looking at it from a certain perspective.

You get to spend some time in a "nice" (depending on what you and your deity define as nice) afterlife as an individual (although amnesic) and then you go a step beyond that and forever become part of your deity and make sure your deity will stay around to fight for the dogma you believed in during yoour mortal days.

Same goes for being a non-believer of an individual deity (if not living and dying on Toril that is), just with an outer plane instead of a specific deity
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Hyperion
Acolyte

38 Posts

Posted - 06 May 2019 :  08:44:42  Show Profile Send Hyperion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion


What a cool concept. Imagine playing a character that can be born one way but chooses to change themselves into a better fit. Roleplaying in general is all about being able to try on a new skin and be something you aren't in the real world. But think about how awesome the genasi race must feel for some angst-filled teenager that is unsure of themselves, specifically some aspect of their own sexuality or gender identity. The cynic in me says the D&D team probably pushed this angle to simply attract another demographic for more sales, but I'd prefer to believe it was a really kind and thoughtful move by the staff to create a playable race that felt comfortable for gay or transgender players. There's been such a concerted push in recent years for inclusivity, and it feels to me like this is probably the ideal metaphor for some players struggling with coming out. If that's the case, nicely done WotC! If I'm crazy and reading way too deep into this, and they are simply a race of elemental beings and someone thought it would be neat if they could willingly alter themselves for different combat bonuses, well... still a pretty cool concept!


The idea has its merits but I'm not entirely on board on this, mostly because I remember well in D&D/AD&D elemental races were clearly separated and had specific rivarlies, so I'm not sure I like this very much.
Also the whole conflict between the djinni Calim and efreeti Memnon seems rather diminished by this fact, in my view. I like too some changes to Calimsham but not so much the idea genasi can change elements at will..

Edited by - Hyperion on 06 May 2019 08:46:18
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 07 May 2019 :  02:17:01  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Hyperion

quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion


What a cool concept. Imagine playing a character that can be born one way but chooses to change themselves into a better fit. Roleplaying in general is all about being able to try on a new skin and be something you aren't in the real world. But think about how awesome the genasi race must feel for some angst-filled teenager that is unsure of themselves, specifically some aspect of their own sexuality or gender identity. The cynic in me says the D&D team probably pushed this angle to simply attract another demographic for more sales, but I'd prefer to believe it was a really kind and thoughtful move by the staff to create a playable race that felt comfortable for gay or transgender players. There's been such a concerted push in recent years for inclusivity, and it feels to me like this is probably the ideal metaphor for some players struggling with coming out. If that's the case, nicely done WotC! If I'm crazy and reading way too deep into this, and they are simply a race of elemental beings and someone thought it would be neat if they could willingly alter themselves for different combat bonuses, well... still a pretty cool concept!


The idea has its merits but I'm not entirely on board on this, mostly because I remember well in D&D/AD&D elemental races were clearly separated and had specific rivarlies, so I'm not sure I like this very much.
Also the whole conflict between the djinni Calim and efreeti Memnon seems rather diminished by this fact, in my view. I like too some changes to Calimsham but not so much the idea genasi can change elements at will..



It was tough for me to get behind as well. I'm a firm follower of the 2e Great Wheel as far as planar cosmology goes, so a lot of the changes have me feeling dubious. But it seems all the Inner (Elemental) Planes got smashed together into one big soup called the Elemental Chaos or something like that. Stranger still is the Abyss resides somewhere within this mess, rather than being a distinct outer plane. Not a fan of all that, but at the least I understand the concept of, if all the elemental planes are no longer distinct, neither are the genasi race, who are simply elemental (non-specific) "touched".

It has some merits, but as you pointed out, also some bigtime flaws. I remember in old school D&D there were some pretty bitter rivalries among the evil elemental princes like Ogremoch and Yan-C-Bin, Imix and Olhydra…. man those were from way back...

Edited by - VikingLegion on 11 May 2019 14:45:16
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 11 May 2019 :  14:57:52  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I finished Sword of the Gods yesterday. It was very Cordell, so if you like his style and sensibilities, this is another good one. Here we have an immortal hero with amnesia - I immediately thought of The Nameless One from Planescape: Torment. But this guy is a deva that keeps reincarnating to fight evil as some sort of divinely contracted assassin, he gets his hands dirty when the gods of light don't want to. It was a pretty good story, decent characters - though I think the villains were probably more compelling than most of the protagonists. The main hero is in a race to recover enough of his memories and powerful magical items (that each contain fragments of his past) so he can defeat the big bad. This was an "Abyssal Plague" tie-in novel, so there are plenty of references to Tharizdun and the Cult of the Elder Elemental Eye.

There was also a very strong genasi presence in this one, a whole city full of them in Akanul, so now in the last two books I've seen just a TON of genasi - out west in Calimshan, and now around the Sea of Fallen Stars region. Overall I'm not a huge fan of the whole Abeir-Toril merger, I think it's a clumsy mechanic to usher in a new edition, but it does rather easily explain how certain races (namely genasi and dragonborn) can so quickly go from being extremely rare outliers, to having entire masses of them in great concentrations.

Good book for the most part, not Cordell's best work, but certainly a solid and entertaining read. Up next I start Dawnbringer.
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 23 May 2019 :  11:12:09  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Yesterday I finished Dawnbringer. This was a very nice surprise gem for me. The main story involves two devas attempting to broker a peace between rival houses that have been involved in a blood feud for so many generations neither side even recalls the original grievance.

If I can tangent for a sec... many books ago I was inundated with monks. Monks in every book. Then it shifted to eladrins, and I found them in 2-3 books in a row. Then it became genasi as the major focus. Now, curiously, the last two consecutive books feature devas.

Ok, back on track. The devas were explained very well in this story, functioning not exactly like I remember them in 2e Planescape lore, but updated for mainstream 4e with some very interesting twists. The two devas happen across each other in every incarnation of their beings, as some sort of destiny draws them together time after time. But in this incarnation, things start to change, as one of them has grown increasingly bitter/cynical as to the nature of their work over time. In the background is some Lovecraftian horror imprisoned on another plane of existence, yet able to exert some small measure of influence over the cast on Faerun.

The story and writing quality was excellent overall. So much so that I had to look up Samantha Henderson to see what else she has written and if it's anything I want to track down. This is yet another 4e story of surpassing quality that probably went largely unnoticed and unheralded by the majority of fans that didn't take the Spellplague time jump. Speaking of which, this story covers an absolutely vast timeframe, as it tells a tale that hands down over several generations. It starts in 1460 DR and goes all the way into the 1600s by the time it finishes. Yes, I said 1600s. That aspect of it seemed weird to me, like it was so disconnected from anything else going on. I mean, the late 1400s seemed like a huge jump, now we've gone over 100 years beyond that! I'm interested to see where I end up in the timeline by the time I finish this reading project.

Up next, I will bring 2-3 books with me on vacation, so I won't be updating this thread for at least a couple weeks. I plan to take:
Untold Adventures - not necessarily a FR book, but a collection of short stories from several D&D worlds, some of which are FR.
Unbroken Chain: The Darker Road - sequel to the excellent first book in this line by Jaleigh Johnson.
Neverwinter - not sure I'll get this far, but better to have it and not need it.
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 03 Jun 2019 :  19:55:36  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Back from vacation, I didn't get to read quite as much as I thought I would. I only finished the anthology Untold Adventures. This was a collection of short stories set all over the D&D multiverse, with stories set on Athas (Darksun), Eberron, Nentir Vale (the generic setting of 4th?/5th edition), as well as some others. I'll comment on just the Forgotten Realms entries:

Tall Folk Tales - Lisa Smedman - this was a decent Underdark yarn about a human (who believes himself to be a reincarnated dwarf) describing to another adventurer his harrowing journey through Araumycos - the fungal homeland of the myconid people. There's a strange, undead creature that yearns to have its bones discovered and buried properly in order to find rest. A solid story, nothing noticeably great or bad about this one.

Watchers at the Living Gate - Paul Park - this was a very strange tale about a half-orc druid who is tasked with shutting down a portal or tear in reality that threatens to let in a presence from the Far Realm. A very bizarre story, but extremely well written and may have been the best in the entire book.

Lord of the Darkways - Ed Greenwood - a cool premise; there are several well-to-do Zhentil Keep citizens (prominent merchants, nobles, and such) with ties to Sembia - either through business ventures or familial connections. Each one operates and maintains a portal deep within their own compounds that leads to Sembia. They form something of a secret society and use the portals to smuggle goods, slaves, soldiers, whatever in and out of the Keep for their own profits. Manshoon becomes very concerned about this, imagining what might happen if they ever coordinated together and brought a sizeable force from Sembia directly into the heart of the Keep, thereby bypassing much of their magical defense. He alters the spell powering the gates so that anyone passing through has their blood transformed into acid, and dies in a predictably horrific way. Elminster becomes tasked by Mystra to fix this "abuse" of magic. Though why some spells are considered ok and some are blasphemous to a god of magic, I'll never understand. It still irks me that Mystra isn't just a goddess of magic, but instead becomes this sort of patron for justice and goodness, but that's probably a discussion for another time.

As I said, a pretty good premise, but in typical EG fashion, it soon becomes messy. Another dizzying cast of characters is introduced, some of which last only sentences before being massacred. Illusion magic and shape-shifting abound, as usual, further muddying the waters. Elminster is nigh-indestructible, as he is assaulted by dozens of high-level mages at once, but Mystra simply returns all spells back to sender and the attacking force is turned into so much chum without El even lifting a finger in his own defense. Sigh...

Dreaming of Waterdeep - Rosemary Jones - a prequel for one of her characters that appears in City of the Dead. It's strange, nothing about her type of writing would normally appeal to me, but I find I've enjoyed every one of her entries into the Realms thus far. This one is about the mage Gustin growing up on a farm and always wishing for a more exciting life. He falls in with some questionable adventurers and runs away from his uncle's farm to explore a nearby ruin said to contain treasure.

The Decaying Mansions of Memory - Jay Lake - I know I said I was only going to reference FR entries, but this one was too good not to give at least some passing mention. It's listed as "Core", so I'm assuming that means Nentir Vale/generic, and I didn't recognize any of the locations within the story. But it was an exceedingly well-written story about a man of questionable moral fiber attempting to find a purpose to his life after serving as a mercenary for most of his time as an adult. He ends up at a mysterious monastery seeking wisdom, but are the strange monks just toying with him for their own purposes?

Overall it was a very solid anthology, even factoring in the inclusion of Eberron stories, which is a world I know next to nothing about. There were only 1 or 2 stories that did nothing for me, the rest were either very good or at least of moderate enjoyment. Up next: I'm about 2/3 of the way through Unbroken Chain: The Darker Road and should have that writeup done by the weekend.

Edited by - VikingLegion on 03 Jun 2019 20:08:16
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 08 Jun 2019 :  11:42:04  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I finished Unbroken Chain: The Darker Road, and it's official - I'm a huge Jaleigh Johnson fan. I think now I've read 4 of her novels and 2 short stories, and already she's been inducted into my FR pantheon with Elaine Cunningham, Paul S. Kemp, early RA Salvatore, etc. Her dialogue is brilliant, her character development is right up there with the best, and her mood/tone setting is terrific.

This book had a couple of rough areas, I'd rate it just a hair behind the original Unbroken Chain, but it was still terrific. In this sequel we see the main characters traveling out of the Shadowfell to the "Mirror World" (Toril/Faerun) as Ilvani the witch is mysteriously drawn to her counterpart in Rashemen. Just when I thought this series couldn't get any better, Jaleigh goes and includes my absolute favorite region of FR! Ilvani's dialogue was particularly well written. What looks initially like gibberish or the ravings of a madwoman, eventually start to make sense as you figure out what is happening between the witches/wychlaren and the spirit world. It's very cleverly done. This book would make a good candidate for a re-read, if only my book queue wasn't hundreds and hundreds of books deep! Regardless, it was a great book and great series, and instantly ranks among my personal top tier of FR stories.

Up next, I will tackle Bury Elminster Deep.

Edited by - VikingLegion on 08 Jun 2019 11:43:03
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 22 Jun 2019 :  13:35:26  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I finished Bury Elminster Deep a few days ago. This one seemed a bit less problematic, but I'm not sure if it's just because I've become more inured to his writing style?

I really liked the mind-meld Elminster performed with the noble, Arclath DelCastle to try to reassure him that he isn't a bad guy and that when he rides other's minds, it's only out of necessity. This scene was exceptionally well-written. The only problem is, after Arclath becomes convinced Elminster is a kindly, trustworthy sort (to the point where he breaks down crying because he's so overwhelmed by El's altruistic, benevolent disposition), what does he do next? He immediately commissions another mage to make him an item that will protect against this very thing. It made no sense at all.

That brings me to another point. Every character not named Elminster or Storm seem to be either hysterical over-reactors, or just plain incompetent buffoons. Every noble of Cormyr is a callow, backstabbing fop, every war-wizard is an arrogant blowhard, every purple dragon a bullying, boorish thug - honestly I could barely tell these guys apart from Zhents. It's so tiring to see the supporting cast reduced to something worse than comic relief, all so El and Storm (and Mirt, to a degree) can come off as these ultra-effective, calm-as-can-be solvers of all problems. I get it, they've been around for centuries, they've saved the world numerous times... but would it be too much to ask that someone, anyone else can ever do something of value instead of crumbling under pressure or exploding in an apoplectic fit?

There was a character named the Lady of Ghosts that just sort of appeared out of nowhere when the book was about 80% done and played a very prominent role.

The made up curse words are just getting out of control. Mirt introduced several new ones, must be Waterdeep has their own slang or something... Now we have talandor, caztul, kelstyn, and gelkor to join the ranks of hrast, stlarn, tluin, naed, sabruin, etc. It's not just the fact that these are clumsy, silly words, it's the proliferation of them that are bothering me. I can't read 2 pages without them popping up multiple times. Speaking of clumsy words, this one had a whole new crop of goofy names. I've figured it out, Ed is in love with the letter "R", especially following another consonant it has no place coming after. About halfway through the book I started writing some names down, so this is only a sampling and I'm sure I missed many others:

Sraunter
Broryn
Blamreld
Rorskryn Mreldrake (jeez... overboard!)
Vrabrant
Brabras (Brabras? seriously? Bra followed by bras)

And, the last thing I'll touch upon, reluctantly, is the creepy relationship between Elminster and Storm. Late in the book they are sleeping in a bed together, naked (of course) and this follows:

Such beauty...
He was aroused, yes, stirring beneath her and causing her to purr and move against him in her sleep. Aroused, and why shouldn't he be?
Well, because she was his frend, and although she wasn't his daughter, he's raised her like one some seven hundred years ago. She was his companion, his sword sister, not his lover... never his lover...


The scene goes on with Storm waking up and staring up at him dreamily. They exchange some awkward words before rising to start the day. It's the first time I've seen it mentioned that Elminster regards Storm as an adoptive daughter and wouldn't sleep with her. So.... good on him I guess. But as far as cuddling naked with her every book, and using his ash form to slither all down her bodice and nether regions to make her shiver in pleasure... that's just totally normal behavoir for an adoptive father, right? Ughhh, it's such a gross relationship.

Up next, it's back to RAS for Neverwinter.




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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 30 Jun 2019 :  12:51:07  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I finished Neverwinter. After the last two RAS books being somewhat less enjoyable than what I'm accustomed to, this one was a bit of a bounceback. I'm still not on board with Dahlia, I think that's my biggest point of contention. But I'm not sure if it's as simple as I just don't like the character, or if I don't like her because she's *not* Wulfgar/Cattie-brie/Bruenor/Regis. I experienced a similar issue reading the Dragonlance line of books. After reading so many novels centered around the iconic Heroes of the Lance (Tanis, Sturm, Caramon, Raistlin, etc.) they were eventually phased out and the setting experienced a time jump. Not 100 years like FR (that was WAY too much), but about 20 years, so several of the original characters were still alive, but the mantle had been passed to their children.

It just wasn't the same.

It's a nearly impossible ask of any author to strike gold twice, with two different casts. I think that's why RAS tried to preserve several of his characters through the time jump, particularly Barrabus/Artemis in this story. I found myself oddly enjoying the Entreri + Drizzt relationship in this book, I don't know if it was nostalgia or the evolution of Artemis' character, but it really worked for me, even if it was just a tiny bit forced or contrived. I also really enjoyed seeing all the various factions lining up, there are a lot of players in this one: the Shadovar and tieflings with Artemis. On the other side you have the Thayan forces, bolstered by the Ashmadai and their hellish legions. Valindra the lich also works for their purposes but is a bit of a wildcard. Now the Abolethic Sovereignty has dipped a tentacle into the fray. Lastly you have Drizzt and Dahlia sort of mucking around on both sides. It's making for an interesting weave of shifting alliances and betrayals.

I really liked how Jestry was transformed by the aboleths in that "Weapon X" process wherein he had umber hulk hide magically infused to his body like an exoskeleton. A tad comic-booky, but I thought it was very cool. Effron, the deformed warlock, HAS to be the son of Alegni and Dahlia I'm guessing. All the pieces fit to that puzzle, and I'm waiting for the big reveal probably in the next book.

Some more allegorical writing by RAS early on, this on simple farmer folk forced into banditry:
"What rights, what proper recourse, for those who have not, when those who have keep all?" If I'm not reading too much into a simple line, that's almost certainly a shot at the egregious wealth discrepancies we see in our everyday life. I don't know how others feel when he makes statements like this, but I enjoy it, particularly his shots against racism and organized religion. Some may say he should just stick to fantasy land stuff, but in my experience allegory has long played an enormous role in every fictional sub-genre, so I have no problem with it.

Up next, I've started on Erin M. Evans Brimstone Angels. Just 60 or so pages deep so far, but I think I'm in for a real treat.
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Seravin
Master of Realmslore

Canada
1265 Posts

Posted - 30 Jun 2019 :  16:57:37  Show Profile Send Seravin a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The Erin Evans novels are good stuff; although for some reason I found myself losing interest in the 2nd or 3rd book. But I mean to get back to that series as I really like Erin as a person (in interviews she is so nice and humble and lovely) and I think she "gets" the classc feel of the Grubb/Greenwood Realms while also adding elements of hell and devils that are a bit out there.

Neverwinter was an "okay" book, by this point I just wanted the Companions back and Dhalia to go away.
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe

USA
483 Posts

Posted - 07 Jul 2019 :  12:54:28  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I finished Brimstone Angels yesterday.
I know I've mentioned this personal story before, but it was one of my best book scores of all time, so I'll self-indulgently repeat it :)

A quick search for this book shows two copies around $40, but after that it jumps up to ~$60, $85, $126, etc. I don't know why this particular book (the first in the Brimstone Angels line, the rest are more reasonable) is valued so high. But back when I was trying to acquire it about a year ago, the absolute cheapest copy at that time was OVER $200! Then, while rooting around in the basement of a local used books seller about 20 minutes from where I work, I happened across a copy of it! I opened the front cover and saw in pencil $3.50. I rushed up to the register (along with a handful of 7 or 8 other nice finds) and the owner started ringing it all up. He told me that next week he's doing a week-long 50% sale off everything in the store, and asked if I wanted to put all this stuff back and return then for the discount. I smiled and said, "Nah, it's ok I'll just pay full price now, I don't mind." I was fairly giddy walking back to the car, explaining to my wife what just went down. I searched online for this book for SO long and never could find a copy that was even close to reasonably priced. I long despaired against ever getting one, wondering if it would be the only hole in the collection. That spot has since been taken by a different book, but that's a story for another time.

Ok, on to the actual review... I've liked everything I've read from Erin M Evans thus far, but I think that's only been 1 novel and 1, maybe 2 short stories. I feel like this book brought her to another level. The character development is exquisite. Sometimes I can go through an entire novel and feel like I still only know the protagonist(s) in a superficial manner. Other times (usually in an Elaine Cunningham tale), I can read just a few pages and already start to form a solid idea of their fears, wants, motivations. Erin definitely falls into the latter camp; I rarely see character development to this degree or quality.

I'm surprised (and pleased) by the somewhat risque content of this book. I've always wondered how the publisher feels about it, and if they or the editor try to steer the author into a more washed down, kid-friendly version. Erin pushes the boundary, which I enjoy. Oddly enough though, she does mix in some of the Realms-specific coded curse words that annoy me so much in the Greenwood novels. But then she takes it a step further and came up with a slew of new ones like karshoji, pothac, and henish. For some reason they don't bother me nearly as much as stlarn, tluin, hrast, and the like. Most likely because they aren't so cumbersome off the tongue, but also because they are coming from a dragonborn and two tieflings - so I can easily imagine they are just substituting Draconic or Infernal for the Common tongue. /Tangent ON: that's what makes Ed's weird made-up swears even stranger to me. It's not like the characters in the books are speaking English as we know it anyway. It's all in an alien language none of us know, translated into English for our purposes. So really the only purpose of stlarn and the others is so EG can throw out a BOATLOAD of pseudo curses to bypass the publisher and make his books feel more adult than they are. /Tangent OFF

I really enjoy Lorcan the cambion. You know he's awful, but at the same time he's somewhat charming, like a Danilo Thann gone over to the Darkside. Farideh is also fun to read. Even though I can't personally attest to what it's like being a coltish, smitten teen-age girl, Erin does such a masterful job of showing Farideh's odd combination awkwardness, embarassment, ambition/burning need to prove her self. It was a brilliant move to give her a twin sister that excels at martial excersises, making Farideh even more desperate and eager to seek approval - first from their adoptive dragonborn father, and later her warlock patron.

I don't love the 4th edition ending of the iconic Blood War between devils and demons, and the transformation of succubi from the tanar'ri side to the baatezu. Some things should just be left alone. On the other hand, the original erinyes and succubi were too similar, so I can at least understand the thought process behind a re-imagining of these creatures. Succubi do seem to be more of a patient, subtle corrupter of souls as opposed to the rage-fiend demons, so maybe that's why they got ported over to the devil's side during the Ascension. But all this is stuff that wasn't Erin's decision, so ultimately doesn't impact my evaluation of her work, which was consistently excellent. Much like Neverwinter this book had a wild array of factions vying for power. I have to assume that was encouraged as a way of making more potential plot hooks for the upcoming video game.

There was a moment of levity for me when Havilar was trying to come up with a fancy sounding name for her glaive. At one point she considered Justice or Cutter, but turned them down as "bad and worse". This made me chuckle a bit, as I had created a magical longsword named Justice for my home D&D campaign that was awarded to the Priest of Tyr. Also Cutter is the nickname RAS uses for Khazid'hea, was that an ultra-subtle dig at Bob? Or mere coincidence? Either way, I was amused.

This was a very strong book and I look forward to the continuation of this story. Up next, I will take a brief break from Forgotten Realms to read a non-FR book I'm pretty excited about. I will return to this project with Venom In Her Veins right after that.

Edited by - VikingLegion on 07 Jul 2019 12:58:48
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Arannis
Acolyte

USA
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Posted - 07 Jul 2019 :  16:42:08  Show Profile Send Arannis a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I have to say that the Brimstone Angels books are one of my favorites. I believe the reason the brimstone angels books are so expensive, correct me if I am wrong, is because her series came towards then end of WotC publishing new novels, so there are fewer copies of the books out there. The whole supply and demand thing. That's what I have heard anyway.
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Zeromaru X
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Colombia
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Posted - 07 Jul 2019 :  18:12:15  Show Profile Send Zeromaru X a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion


I don't love the 4th edition ending of the iconic Blood War between devils and demons, and the transformation of succubi from the tanar'ri side to the baatezu.



You should read the whole series, then. Though, to be fair, 4e didn't actually ended it. It put in a cold war phase. I don't know why they said it was ended in the FRCG, but the Brimstone Angels series makes this a good plot to explore.

Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world...
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VikingLegion
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Posted - 20 Jul 2019 :  21:31:46  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I finished Venom in Her Veins yesterday. New author for me (Tim Pratt), so I wasn't sure what to expect. This book felt a bit like a D&D session at times, but was still a fun read overall. It's set in a jungle but ends up leading into the Underdark. At first I thought it was just going to be more drow and duergar, but the author resisted this easy lure and built the story around much lesser-used races. The yuan-ti feature very prominently in the jungle portions, as well as being very involved with the main protagonist. But once we go underground we see all manner of cool and underutilized races like grell, derro, quaggoths, etc. I particularly enjoyed the manic insanity of the derro, I have a fondness for those guys going back decades to an old D&D campaign wherein a human wildmage decided to set himself up as their supreme ruler during the "Night Below" boxed-set adventure.

The presentation was a bit off. The author tends to write enormous paragraphs, some taking up almost an entire page, so it ends up looking like a gigantic wall of text. Added in were some obvious printing press issues, where certain letters would get squashed up funny. It was distracting.

Pratt really went for it as far as including a wide and diverse cast of characters to take advantage of the current edition. A tiefling psion, an eladrin sorceress, a shaman, a dragonborn fighter, etc. And while none of the characters were so memorable as to leave an indelible print on my mind, they were interesting enough for the time being. Where this book really shined was in the extremely cool descriptions of spell effects and magical weapons/items utilized. I have a feeling Pratt would be a very fun DM to run a gaming group, as he seems to enjoy creating some imaginative scenarios and details. So while this book will probably never get confused with serious literature, it was an enjoyable romp and a satisfying story.

Up next... TBD
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12swords
Acolyte

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Posted - 28 Jul 2019 :  16:20:23  Show Profile Send 12swords a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion

I finished Gauntlgrym a couple days ago. RAS was absolutely my favorite author for many of the early FR years, but it seems as though his last several novels have been books in search of a story.

Personally I think Kozah's Needle was made just so RAS could go even more overboard with his in-depth fighting descriptions. I used to be all-in on the fight scenes, perfectly recreating in my mind the exact positions of each combatant, almost down to the point of using figurines to represent them. Nowadays, it's all I can do to hold my attention firm as I scan over the action, trying to sort out if anything of major importance happens. I just don't care that her rear plant foot was offset at a 30 degree angle instead of her traditional 45 degrees while she used her off-hand to reach under the 2nd flail bar and flip it's position while flaring her left hip out into a spinning.... bleh.... ok, so she just smacked an orc in the face and knocked him out, great, moving on... As for the rest of Dahlia, well there's just not much there to evaluate. I think she's a really shallow, undeveloped character. What little development we see sort of played false to me anyhow - she goes from being an utterly ruthless, completely self-assured and confident villain, to a bit of a milksop patsy of the Red Wizardess Sylora Salm, to an energetic, smiling, fun-loving companion-in-arms to Drizzt that is going to rekindle his elven spirit and push him out of his current grim demeanor. She's just not working for me, although some of her lightning attacks and post-enemy-defeat poses did score pretty high on the coolness factor, even if they were a bit forced.

This story helps me understand that weird short story in the previous anthology a little bit better - the one about the mystical forest on the outskirts of Ten Towns. I still can't get past the wizard named Addadearber though. I think RAS should give a close friend or family member (his son, perhaps?) a one-time VETO power per book, on any character name, because man, Bob has come out with some atrocious ones over the years - I'm looking at you Cordio Muffinhead. I mean, his main character, the iconic dark elf that is amongst the most popular of all fantasy creations, has such a clumsy name that you will hear at least 3 or 4 different pronunciations when talking to other fans. Imagine if he spent just a little more time coming up with something a little smoother there. We still don't know the official story that is going to be used in the FR movie in development, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that the goofiness of this name may be an impediment as to whether that earns the final nod or not. Imagine a trailer for a film and you hear that guy with the iconic "In A World voice. Now picture him getting to the end and saying something like, "Homeland: The Legend of Drizzt Do'Urden" and thinking how badly that will test in a focus group. It sounds like you have marbles in your mouth. Hey, what did that guy say? Drizzle Dundee? Jerzit Durden? The hell is that? The film would probably have to be named "The Legend of the Dark Elf" or something, but you can only avoid that name for so long before it has to come up.

Lastly, the entire Gauntlgrym storyline bugs me, simply because... well, didn't we already do this with Mithral Hall? Bruenor faked an illness way back in, I think the very end of the Crystal Shard series, no? He tricks Drizzt into helping him find this near mythical ancient stronghold that will help him reclaim the glory of his people. So he bails on his kingdom up in Icewind Dale to go chasing after a legend that will help him rekindle dwarfdom in the North. Now, many years later, it seems like he's bored with being the king of Mithral Hall, so he starts it all over again with an even MOAR LEGENDARY homeland of the original Delzoun dwarves. The whole thing seems a bit clunky and ill-conceived to me.



I'm very much enjoying this thread, VL. I think you're doing a hero's work, reading so much (mostly bad) fantasy. I know it's something I probably wouldn't have the patience for.
Your thoughts on RAS pretty much mirror my own. I loved The Crystal Shard when it first came out, liked his other early books, but the majority of his stuff this century seems so workmanlike. Just churning out content, even if it repeats itself.
I agree with you on the fight scenes, part of me thinks RAS goes into such detailed descriptions of a fight so he can fluff up the word count. I can't even finish a scene most of the time, about 2 paragraphs into "he flipped his sword back and around to the left" my eyes glaze over and my mind wanders. Maybe it's just me but I have a hard time imagining what's actually happening even with the description.
BTW, I know what you mean about his names, but Drizzt rhymes with 'pissed'.

You also make a great point about the repetition of plots. Finding lost dwarven homelands, wars between dwarves and orcs/giants/drow, we've done those plots twice already. And the fact that almost half of every book is taken up with scenes from Menzoberranzan is just tiresome to me. The endless plotting of the 9th House struggling to rise to the 6th House, etc etc, just bores me to tears most of the time. Who cares? We all know House Baenre will always be on top and Bregan D'aerthe will always be profiting on the fringes, that's as much as I really care about Menzoberranzan.

Anyway, rant over about RAS. And he's actually one of the GOOD writers of Realms novels. I can't bring myself to read one of Greenwood's books, although I did enjoy his Elminster articles in Dragon magazine. He does have a great imagination though, even if it doesn't always translate well to novels.
In Ed's defense though, the nap scene with Storm Silverhand in Bury Elminster Deep, El was in a different, younger body at the time, plus the raising of her like a daughter occurred 700 years ago.

Tim Pratt wrote several novels for the Pathfinder line that I felt were better than Venom in her Veins, they showed off his sense of humor more. For RPG fantasy novels, they weren't bad at all, I found them quite entertaining.

Edited by - 12swords on 28 Jul 2019 16:40:15
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VikingLegion
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Posted - 01 Aug 2019 :  22:10:47  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by 12swords
I'm very much enjoying this thread, VL. I think you're doing a hero's work, reading so much (mostly bad) fantasy. I know it's something I probably wouldn't have the patience for.
Your thoughts on RAS pretty much mirror my own. I loved The Crystal Shard when it first came out, liked his other early books, but the majority of his stuff this century seems so workmanlike. Just churning out content, even if it repeats itself.
I agree with you on the fight scenes, part of me thinks RAS goes into such detailed descriptions of a fight so he can fluff up the word count. I can't even finish a scene most of the time, about 2 paragraphs into "he flipped his sword back and around to the left" my eyes glaze over and my mind wanders. Maybe it's just me but I have a hard time imagining what's actually happening even with the description.
BTW, I know what you mean about his names, but Drizzt rhymes with 'pissed'.



Welcome to the thread 12swords and congratulations, that's yet another pronunciation to add to my list!

#1 Drizzit with 2 syllables is the most common one I hear. RAS has made several jokes about this in his books wherein uneducated farm-types mis-pronounce him thusly.

#2 Drizzzzt with "sleepy z's" like the word buzzed, capped off with a hard "t" is probably the one I now use the most, though it sounds silly out loud.

#3 Drittst with hard t's flanking the hard s is one I've come across in rare instances. All one syllable, like Dritt followed quickly by the first 2 letters of "stay" for example. It sounds super cumbersome until you try it a few times in rapid succession.

#4 Drissed, you say? I can honestly say I've never heard that one before. Like pissed or missed or kissed but starting with DR.... I don't hate it...

But all this simply underscores my point. How can arguably the most popular fantasy character created in the last 30 years have such a clumsy spelling that you can't get a room full of fans to agree on how to say it. Luke Skywalker and Gandalf the Grey never had such issues. What's funny is I've met RAS twice - once at a large speaking engagement and once in a bizarre, totally random 1-on-1 chance encounter I could never duplicate - and neither time did it occur to me to simply ask this question. He did say it one time in the opening of his speech, but it was very quick and I couldn't quite pick out the nuance.

quote:

In Ed's defense though, the nap scene with Storm Silverhand in Bury Elminster Deep, El was in a different, younger body at the time, plus the raising of her like a daughter occurred 700 years ago.



Yeah that's gonna be a no for me, dog. If someone is your daughter (biological or otherwise), they are your daughter until the end of all time and maybe beyond. El and Storm's relationship is the single grossest aspect of the entire Forgotten Realms.

quote:

Tim Pratt wrote several novels for the Pathfinder line that I felt were better than Venom in her Veins, they showed off his sense of humor more. For RPG fantasy novels, they weren't bad at all, I found them quite entertaining.



Thanks for the heads-up. I own 2 Pathfinder novels I found on the cheap (one written by Elaine Cunningham, who's weekly grocery lists I would purchase if she decided to publish them) and am entertaining the idea of reading that world after I wrap up the Realms. And then I saw a cover for one with a giant robot shooting laser beams and that troubled me greatly.

Edited by - VikingLegion on 01 Aug 2019 22:14:43
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12swords
Acolyte

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Posted - 02 Aug 2019 :  00:45:34  Show Profile Send 12swords a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by VikingLegion

Welcome to the thread 12swords and congratulations, that's yet another pronunciation to add to my list!

#1 Drizzit with 2 syllables is the most common one I hear. RAS has made several jokes about this in his books wherein uneducated farm-types mis-pronounce him thusly.

#2 Drizzzzt with "sleepy z's" like the word buzzed, capped off with a hard "t" is probably the one I now use the most, though it sounds silly out loud.

#3 Drittst with hard t's flanking the hard s is one I've come across in rare instances. All one syllable, like Dritt followed quickly by the first 2 letters of "stay" for example. It sounds super cumbersome until you try it a few times in rapid succession.

#4 Drissed, you say? I can honestly say I've never heard that one before. Like pissed or missed or kissed but starting with DR.... I don't hate it...

But all this simply underscores my point. How can arguably the most popular fantasy character created in the last 30 years have such a clumsy spelling that you can't get a room full of fans to agree on how to say it. Luke Skywalker and Gandalf the Grey never had such issues. What's funny is I've met RAS twice - once at a large speaking engagement and once in a bizarre, totally random 1-on-1 chance encounter I could never duplicate - and neither time did it occur to me to simply ask this question. He did say it one time in the opening of his speech, but it was very quick and I couldn't quite pick out the nuance.

quote:

In Ed's defense though, the nap scene with Storm Silverhand in Bury Elminster Deep, El was in a different, younger body at the time, plus the raising of her like a daughter occurred 700 years ago.



Yeah that's gonna be a no for me, dog. If someone is your daughter (biological or otherwise), they are your daughter until the end of all time and maybe beyond. El and Storm's relationship is the single grossest aspect of the entire Forgotten Realms.

quote:

Tim Pratt wrote several novels for the Pathfinder line that I felt were better than Venom in her Veins, they showed off his sense of humor more. For RPG fantasy novels, they weren't bad at all, I found them quite entertaining.



Thanks for the heads-up. I own 2 Pathfinder novels I found on the cheap (one written by Elaine Cunningham, who's weekly grocery lists I would purchase if she decided to publish them) and am entertaining the idea of reading that world after I wrap up the Realms. And then I saw a cover for one with a giant robot shooting laser beams and that troubled me greatly.



I used to pronounce it Drizz-it for the longest time as well, until a few years ago someone on the 'internets' said RAS pronounces it as rhyming with pissed, but is it more of a -zz or -ss sound? I guess either way would sound very similar.
But ur right, one of RAS's weaknesses seems to be name generation. Muffinhead is something a 6 year old would name their first D&D character.
RAS does seem to acknowledge that the name is difficult to pronounce, as you mentioned in the books sometimes characters pronounce his name wrongly. And just in general you've made a really good point that the whole Drow naming convention of lots of Z's and X's and S's are used to make the names sound alien and sinister but are really hard to pronounce.

I hear you, I've never had children so I'm not an expert on the subject but obviously thinking sexual thoughts about family is pretty wack, although the Targaryens seem to get along with it. I was just thinking that 700 years is many times the lifespan of a human, and assuming normal aging until adulthood where it stops or is greatly slowed, then El has known Storm as a peer for many times longer than he knew her as a surrogate child (680 years to 20 years). But according to your reviews, it seems to be a common theme that El gets it on with just about any comely female he winks at. Pure fantasy nerd wish fulfillment there, but I understand where Ed is coming from. It's why so much of the D&D artwork from the 70's-90's were half naked females. TSR knew who their core audience was.

There are a lot fewer PF novels than D&D ones so it probably would take you much less than a year to finish them all. I think in general they're more consistent in quality than D&D novels because PF only contracted established novelists - you had to have been a published novelist before they hired you. The giant robot one is based on PF's version of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, where adventurers explore a crashed alien starship, so you'll see lasers and robots and such in that storyline. That was actually written by Pratt as well and IMO was an easy read, fairly interesting and humorous and well-paced.

What's next on your reading list? Venom in her Veins was published in 2012, so if you're all caught up you probably don't have more than 20 novels left. You might be done in a few months or so?

Edited by - 12swords on 02 Aug 2019 00:51:05
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VikingLegion
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Posted - 02 Aug 2019 :  02:08:55  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Glad you asked. Just last night I finished The Rose of Sarifal. I just counted the pile, and there are 27 books left to reach the [current] end of the FR novel line. I'm missing one book, so that has caused me to go just a bit out of order. Hopefully I can remedy that soon.

As for Rose, this was one of the craziest books I've read in quite some time. Just reading the author bio before starting had my head spinning, and I hadn't even cracked page 1 yet. It is set in the Moonshaes, ~100 years after the Spellplague. From what I could understand, some rift to the Feywild has torn open and eladrin, fomorians, and all sorts of fey creatures have come barreling in, overrunning the failing Kendrick line of humans, who are now an enslaved minority. Were creatures abound, but are often thought of as no better than animals by the ultra-elfy eladrin.

One of the protagonists is a "shifter", a race I thought existed only in the Eberron campaign. But I don't get too hung up on that, as I'm a fan of interlinking the various D&D settings. Also it is thought that shifters are humanoids with a touch of lycanthropy in their veins from past ancestors, so thematically it worked just fine.

Paulina Claiborne's writing style is like nothing I've come across. I alternated between thinking this is some of the best writing in the entire FR catalogue, to WTF moments where I had no idea what was happening. Her prose is utterly frenetic and so emotionally charged and visceral, like Lynn Abbey on Angel Dust. She's not afraid of more risqué content - lots of strange sexual relations, tons of cursing (actual curses, not stlarn and hrast), orcs running around with necklaces made out of the genitalia of male warriors they have vanquished in battle, etc. Zero punches were pulled.

There was a gnome named Suka with pink/spiky hair, tattoos, piercings, and so on. The more I think of it, the more I'm certain Suka is an author-insert into the story. She has a habit of speaking and/or thinking in very modern-day anachronistic phrases, like the following:

"She didn't know what Lord Mindarion was smoking, but she wanted some."

"Fine, thought Suka. Whatever - eladrin were wicked hot. Cold and hot. It was a well-known fact, part of what made them so creepy and grotesque and horrible and bad. They were slutty and sterile at the same time. Everybody wanted to have sex with them and nobody could."


Several of the characters could perform magic-like abilities, like misdirection/illusion spells without any reason or explanation as to why they could do this. I think Paulina has a general idea of D&D "rules" and such, and then takes a lot of liberties with them. Often this enhanced the story in my opinion. I can handwave a lot of that away if it makes for a better narrative.

How about the effect of the Spellplague on deities other than Mystra? It was mentioned that several of the Lords of Fury went missing or died during that time. Malar the Beastlord played prominently into the storyline of this book. But the big surprise was Chauntea wanted him to be returned to Faerun. Why would these terribly bitter enemies cooperate on any level? Restoring the balance? As for what the story was about... I couldn't tell you. It was wild and very hard to follow for the most part, other than the titular Rose of Sarifal is a half eladrin princess who is being hunted down by her decadent family that wishes to erase her claim to the throne (i.e. kill her) and preserve the status quo, something they do with almost religious zeal. Claiborne does a magnificent job describing the ennui that must set in for these all but immortal creatures who's life spans are so long they almost seem removed from Time. In fact, her treatment of several of the fey subraces was really unique and incredibly interesting.

The Rose acquires a ragtag group of adventurers that protect her for various reasons (greed, sense of adventure, political gain, etc.) and they end up roaming all over the Moonshaes. The end was bizarre, even by the standards of this exceedingly odd book. I've been thinking it over today and I still can't come to a satisfactory explanation as to what happened. This book was one of the wilder rides I've been on - it was frustrating and magical and confusing and thought-provoking all at once. One thing it never was, was boring. Read it if you dare, I'd love to see another perspective on it.

Up next, tomorrow I will most likely start Lisa Smedman's The Gilded Rune.
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12swords
Acolyte

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Posted - 02 Aug 2019 :  16:30:34  Show Profile Send 12swords a Private Message  Reply with Quote
27 books left, and you're averaging about a book a week, maybe faster? So you'll probably be done sometime this winter...

I looked up the author's bio in the book and it sounds like an intentional parody:
HOME-SCHOOLED IN KANSAS BY CHINESE MISSIONARIES, Paulina Claiborne has eschewed all subsequent education. Between the prison terms that punctuate her life, she has worked as a cook, a hairdresser, a lifecoach, a toxicologist, a freelance letter-opener, and a private surgeon. She has won several prestigious literary awards, including the Warden’s Special Prize for Model Servitude. She enjoys quilt-making, knife-fighting, and alcohol. For the past few years she has had no fixed address.

Supposedly Paulina Claiborne is a pen name for Paul Claiborne Park, http://www.sfwa.org/members/park/Index.html
Seems like he's written some science fiction novels in the 80's to the 00's, and I guess WOTC gave him a novel to do.

The book seems like a crazy ride, really good at times and really bad at times, I might have to check it out and compare notes with you.

Edited by - 12swords on 02 Aug 2019 16:31:49
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Gary Dallison
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United Kingdom
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Posted - 02 Aug 2019 :  21:43:10  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
A shameless attempt at getting lore without having to slog through a novel myself, would anyone be able to say if there is any pre spellplague information in the Rose of Sarifal, or any information post spellplague that could possibly be devolved backwards in time (cause and effect in reverse) to liberate some pre spellplague lore.

I really dont want to have to read another bad novel (i've been spoiled by game of thrones, hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, and other literary gems)

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12swords
Acolyte

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Posted - 05 Aug 2019 :  04:43:04  Show Profile Send 12swords a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Sorry Gary, never read the book myself. Is there anything specific about pre-Spellplague lore you're looking for? I would think WOTC has a splatbook or two that covers at least some of it, without having to read entire novels.
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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 05 Aug 2019 :  07:42:00  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
My interest in the spellplague is non existent, it is the moonshaes I am looking for lore on any places or people or detail that might have existed in the past (1360s or earlier) and any other older details like myths or legends that can be extrapolated.

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12swords
Acolyte

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Posted - 06 Aug 2019 :  01:17:36  Show Profile Send 12swords a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Hmm, would this help at all?
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/248303/Moonshae-Isles-Regional-Guide

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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 06 Aug 2019 :  09:36:26  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I'm fairly confident in claiming that I have located every published source on the moonshae isles and am gradually combing through them for lore to put into my website. The only ones I ignored up to now were the novels, but I recently admitted defeat and read the entire moonshae trilogy and druidhone trilogy in a 6 week, torturous slog. The only one left that I know of is this rose of sarifal, which I doubt will have any pre spellplague lore or anything I can derive to pre spellplague, which is why I'm being lazy and asking if anyone who has read it recently recalls anything that might prove useful - myths, legends, tales, long lived individuals, ruined locations, etc

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Iahn Qoyllor
Acolyte

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Posted - 22 Aug 2019 :  08:42:35  Show Profile Send Iahn Qoyllor a Private Message  Reply with Quote
VikingLegion - missing your posts mate! Did Rose of Sarifal break you or are you just taking a much needed break?
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VikingLegion
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Posted - 22 Aug 2019 :  21:45:48  Show Profile Send VikingLegion a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Iahn Qoyllor

VikingLegion - missing your posts mate! Did Rose of Sarifal break you or are you just taking a much needed break?



Nope, still here! To answer both you and 12swords - yes I had been averaging about a book a week, but my reading rate has taken a large hit of late. Nothing to do with any specific FR book. I generally try to read about 30 pages a day at work, and another 20 or so at night before bed. I have some larger, more valuable, non-D&D books I've been looking to read for some time, so I use my nighttime reading for those, not wanting to continually lug them back and forth from home to work to home, possibly damaging them and so on. So that's knocked out about 40% of my reading progress on the FR line.

As for Gary, The Rose of Sarifal had very little I can recall regarding any pre-1400s Moonshae lore, other than to say that the Kendrick line faltered heavily and was failing even before the Spellplague shattered human domination of these isles. I don't know if your Realms takes place after the events of the 2nd trilogy, but if so you are probably in the 1370s? As I'm sure you're aware, High King Keene dies in 1373 defending the realm against a red dragon, and Queen Alicia is left to fend off the incursion of Fae in the form of leShay and various fomorians and so on. Apparently whoever is the heir of Keene and Alicia sounds like they were very ineffective/incompetent, and the humans were being rapidly driven out and/or enslaved before the Spellplague came and pretty much put a nail in their coffin.

In other news, yesterday I finished The Gilded Rune. This was an ok book. It centers around Torrin, a human that is absolutely convinced he is really a dwarf that Moradin errantly cast into a human body. This is the same Torrin from one of the recent anthologies. The short story was a fun and interesting read, though I had some misgivings that this character's gimmick would be strong enough to carry an entire full-length novel. The story revolves around an affliction called the Stoneplague (there sure are a lot of plagues... Spellplague, Abyssal Plague, etc.) that slowly calcifies dwarves, turning their blood into mud and their flesh into rock. Torrin, by virtue of his human body, is immune to the Stoneplague and believes it is his gods-given destiny to solve the mystery, that this is the reason Moradin placed his "dwarven soul" into a human body.

Smedman did a really nice job bringing out some nuances of dwarven culture. The beginning of each chapter had quotes from a book called the Delver's Tome, little parables and nuggets of knowledge to help dwarves live a proper life. Similar to Ed Greenwood's snippets from various plays, treatises, and journals, I really enjoy the added life these things bring to the books. Smedman also made use of several proverbs, sayings, aphorisms, etc. to bring out more dwarven culture, particularly the outlook of members of the Delver's Guild. Like when Torrin decides he is investigating a dead end and wants to follow another lead, he calls it "digging in another direction." Or when he is considering a rash action, where you or I might use the phrase "rocking the boat", she instead goes with "tipping the ore cart." It's little nuances like this I very much enjoy and add quite a bit to the story in their own little way.

It was very late in the book (page 322 to be exact) when Torrin enters a large melee and it dawned on me that this was just the 2nd combat encounter in the entire book! That felt strange to me and made me wonder how many authors throw extraneous fights into their stories just to break up the pacing or because they feel they need to have lots of sword swinging and fireballs exploding to hold a reader's interest. This book focused much more on the mystery, a large conspiracy, and a few plot twists. All in all it was a decent whodunit. Nothing amazing you have to rush out and purchase, but a solid tale, particularly if you like dwarves.

Up next is Charon's Claw.
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
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Posted - 22 Aug 2019 :  21:55:55  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Hmm, I may have to give that one a try. It sounds interesting, and there might be some useful background for a dwarven NPC I created.

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Veylandemar
Acolyte

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Posted - 24 Aug 2019 :  05:27:22  Show Profile Send Veylandemar a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:

In other news, yesterday I finished The Gilded Rune. This was an ok book. It centers around Torrin, a human that is absolutely convinced he is really a dwarf that Moradin errantly cast into a human body. This is the same Torrin from one of the recent anthologies. The short story was a fun and interesting read, though I had some misgivings that this character's gimmick would be strong enough to carry an entire full-length novel. The story revolves around an affliction called the Stoneplague (there sure are a lot of plagues... Spellplague, Abyssal Plague, etc.) that slowly calcifies dwarves, turning their blood into mud and their flesh into rock. Torrin, by virtue of his human body, is immune to the Stoneplague and believes it is his gods-given destiny to solve the mystery, that this is the reason Moradin placed his "dwarven soul" into a human body.




I've been waiting for ages for you to get to this book, VL.
While I haven't read it since its' release back in 2012 there were quite a few things about the story that stuck with me - Mostly how I thought the story was going to play out.

Due to the little lore snippets around the Mordinsamman and the dwarven mythology, I thought that the Stoneplague was going to be something a bit more of a divine folly.
It felt to me as if it was building up towards a uniquely Dwarven crisis due to the events of the Thunder Blessing, whereby Moradin increased the dwarven population on Toril by splitting dwarven soul in two and increasing the frequency of twins among his people.

I thought that the direction things were going was that now, a few generations later, those split souls were seeing diminishing returns - Each generation saw the souls further split, leading to a point where this Divine Boon became the problem and the diminished souls now present amongst the Dwarven people was the cause of the Stoneplague - They literally didn't have strong enough fragments of their souls left to keep them from reverting to the stone and clay that Moradin forged the first dwarves from.

But then midway through it turned out to be Dueregar or Derro magic.

I do recall thinking early in the book that Torrin might be a bit flat and gimmicky due to being the 'human who wants to be a dwarf', but likewise I thought it a case of him being uniquely positioned to help his chosen society.

While it has been the better part of seven years, I do believe I enjoyed the book even if I was somewhat disappointed by the antagonist. But that's my own fault for reading too far into things!

~V
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