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Zeromaru X
Great Reader

Colombia
2441 Posts

Posted - 14 Nov 2017 :  17:52:52  Show Profile Send Zeromaru X a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I cast raise death!

I revive this topic for a draconic question. We know the Father of Chessenta, Mighty Tchazzar was reborn during the Second(or so) Sundering. Did his not-so worthy companions, Skutosiin and Gestaniius, revived as well? Or we can assume they remained dead, their skulls in the trophy room of the Vanquisher Hall in Tymanther?

If they remained dead, we then can assume that Tchazzar was not revived by Tiamat, but by his own godhood or something? (Perhaps Ao brought him back because of the cult he had in Chessenta, that was stronk in the 1480s, as per the Brotherhood of the Griffon novels).

Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world...

Edited by - Zeromaru X on 14 Nov 2017 17:59:47
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Gyor
Master of Realmslore

1621 Posts

Posted - 14 Nov 2017 :  20:30:29  Show Profile Send Gyor a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Zeromaru X

I cast raise death!

I revive this topic for a draconic question. We know the Father of Chessenta, Mighty Tchazzar was reborn during the Second(or so) Sundering. Did his not-so worthy companions, Skutosiin and Gestaniius, revived as well? Or we can assume they remained dead, their skulls in the trophy room of the Vanquisher Hall in Tymanther?

If they remained dead, we then can assume that Tchazzar was not revived by Tiamat, but by his own godhood or something? (Perhaps Ao brought him back because of the cult he had in Chessenta, that was stronk in the 1480s, as per the Brotherhood of the Griffon novels).



Unknown, but it appears he only controls Ebros, not all of Chessenta this time, other areas have other leaders.
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 14 Nov 2017 :  21:26:02  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I'm pretty sure you only have to do the 'raise dead' thing when a topic is over a year old. This one's just a month old - thats 'fresh', around here.

As for your question, I guess this would be another case of, "they are, if you want them to be".

"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
2441 Posts

Posted - 14 Nov 2017 :  21:34:32  Show Profile Send Zeromaru X a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay

As for your question, I guess this would be another case of, "they are, if you want them to be".



Something that really bugs me of the current Realms products. I prefer a yes or no, even if I end up not liking the answer, than a "maybe". Damn neutrals...

But yes, I guess that this is the case here, as well.

EDIT:
Ohh, this is my 777th post.

Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world...

Edited by - Zeromaru X on 14 Nov 2017 21:35:40
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see
Learned Scribe

235 Posts

Posted - 19 Nov 2017 :  05:53:10  Show Profile Send see a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay

Then in 2e they started publishing other settings, which probably seemed like a good idea at the time. To us, it was a godsend, because we got The Forgotten Realms (and those Dragonlancers got their stuff). And something strange happened - the 'core' setting was no longer THE setting - FR became more popular than GH. That means they were producing rulebooks for for their less-popular setting, and nothing directly for their most popular setting (rules-wise).

Actually, the GH-to-FR switch was something TSR pushed, rather than a market reaction. With Gygax gone, TSR wanted to displace it. They maybe should have replaced Greyhawk references with FR ones in 2nd Edition to make the break clean, but that would have broken compatibility (The Simbul's Interposing Hand?)
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 19 Nov 2017 :  20:17:14  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
What they could have done (and STILL should, considering how 'all inclusive' 5e is meant to be) is say that the named spells are so-named after "mages of vast power from a distant age" (Blackmoor, and this would actual be TRUE, from a meta-gaming perspective). You backfill the Blackmoor setting into the the Pre-Dawn war Prime Material plane (because most settings have some residual piece of Blackmoor in them), and say THAT was the original 'Mankind' Creator race (which I picture being 'superior' to modern humans - its a common trope in fantasy/scify). This would also harken back to where we got our 'Vancian' system from - from Jack Vance's Dying Earth books. Gygax & Co. copied that spell format BECAUSE it sounded very cool and fantasy-ish. Thus, those mages are long dead from a bygone age (The 'Time before time").

And on MANY worlds those names are still in-use, and in some cases, wizards of great power take those names for themselves to reflect their might... but they certainly aren't the originals. The Circle of Eight should NOT be the creators of those spells, because therein lies the whole problem. If we keep that bit of lore, then we either have to lose the names (which would be a damn shame - thats part of D&D's awesome flavor), or we'd have to go with setting-specific names (as they attempted in the Netheril material, which didn't work for us at all). Its such an easy fix to just say the GH Guys (and gals) are 'knock-offs'. The ancient names for the ancient spells have simply withstood the test of times (thanks, in no small part, to long-lived races like elves and dragons, who save that sort of thing for tens of thousands of years).

EDIT:
They've actually already somewhat done this already with one - Ioun. He was a Netherese archmage. Now he is a God (as of 4e). He may have even been part of GH's history (if not, he'd be the only 'named' personage in magic who wasn't). Obviously, the Netherese guy was named after the original - precisely what I propose here with the others. As for the original Ioun - I am picturing him being the first 'Chosen' (ascended mortal/immortal) of the first 'God of Magic' (which may be Corellon in the 4e/5e lore - I am not sure). He was probably one of the few - if not the only - former-mortal-turned-deity from the First World (pre-Dawn war era).

And he would have been from Blackmoor, naturally.

EDIT2:
Oops... she's a female. My bad. It doesn't change anything though. The culture the name came from would be long dead, thus, the 'gender' of the name is meaningless. So a man from Netheril could have taken her name and no-one would have batted an eye.

Plus, maybe he was transgender.

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone


Edited by - Markustay on 19 Nov 2017 20:29:52
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Zeromaru X
Great Reader

Colombia
2441 Posts

Posted - 19 Nov 2017 :  20:59:44  Show Profile Send Zeromaru X a Private Message  Reply with Quote
AFAIK, the solution they came up with is that the spells came from books "imported" from other worlds. And this is canon, at least with Mordenkainen (as per Volo's to all things Magical). So, if you got spells created by Mordenkainen that way (buying books from planeswalker merchants), I guess that spells created by other wizards or sorcerers or whatever, could have reach the Realms the same way. And viceversa, some spells developed in Faerūn may have spread to other worlds the same way.

I do like your explanation for the creation of the spellcasting style magic, though. "Vancian magic" should predate the current civilizations in many D&D worlds. This would explain why the system is so pervasive in many worlds. Though, I guess I would credit the elves for it. If not for its creation, at least they were the ones who spread it.

Though, I remember having read in some 4e material that Netheril had a different system of magic that didn't relied that much on the Weave, and it was like the system used in 4e adter the Spellplague (in fact, that is the in-universe explanation for the system of using magic in the Spellplagued Realms: it was developed using the old Netherese style as a basis, to allow spellcasters to cast magic without the use of the Weave).

As for Ioun, the goddess of knowledge and prophecy (not magic; although she also has some wizards as her followers, she is just an academic goddess), she predates Ioun the Netherese mage for... eons? (I mean, in-universe). xDD I guess, he got named after her, and this could mean that the Netherese knew about this goddess (this also opens some interesting questions about the Netherese gods that may have been forgotten in the current Realms).

Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world...

Edited by - Zeromaru X on 19 Nov 2017 21:02:46
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Gyor
Master of Realmslore

1621 Posts

Posted - 21 Nov 2017 :  00:17:41  Show Profile Send Gyor a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Zeromaru X

AFAIK, the solution they came up with is that the spells came from books "imported" from other worlds. And this is canon, at least with Mordenkainen (as per Volo's to all things Magical). So, if you got spells created by Mordenkainen that way (buying books from planeswalker merchants), I guess that spells created by other wizards or sorcerers or whatever, could have reach the Realms the same way. And viceversa, some spells developed in Faerūn may have spread to other worlds the same way.

I do like your explanation for the creation of the spellcasting style magic, though. "Vancian magic" should predate the current civilizations in many D&D worlds. This would explain why the system is so pervasive in many worlds. Though, I guess I would credit the elves for it. If not for its creation, at least they were the ones who spread it.

Though, I remember having read in some 4e material that Netheril had a different system of magic that didn't relied that much on the Weave, and it was like the system used in 4e adter the Spellplague (in fact, that is the in-universe explanation for the system of using magic in the Spellplagued Realms: it was developed using the old Netherese style as a basis, to allow spellcasters to cast magic without the use of the Weave).

As for Ioun, the goddess of knowledge and prophecy (not magic; although she also has some wizards as her followers, she is just an academic goddess), she predates Ioun the Netherese mage for... eons? (I mean, in-universe). xDD I guess, he got named after her, and this could mean that the Netherese knew about this goddess (this also opens some interesting questions about the Netherese gods that may have been forgotten in the current Realms).



Mordenkainen was weirdly in the last novel for the Forgotten Realms that Ed wrote, so yeah, basically the Greyhawk and FR connection is solid.
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 21 Nov 2017 :  17:43:59  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Yes, but we also have evidence that at least some of these spells existed long before those 'Greyhawk guys' were even born, so thats a problem. Thats part of the reason why they renamed the spells in the Netheril box (which no-one at all ever used, AFAIK).

Its been a LONG time since I was a GH DM, but I do recall a couple of passages about members of the Circle of Eight creating at least a few of their spells (Bigby jumps to mind). So here's my solution - he did create/modify some of the spells created by the original Bigby. In fact, he took the name 'Bigby' because he was such a fan of those spells. Perhaps only one 'Bigby Hand' spell survived from the pre-Sundered prime material world, and the GH Bigby has built all the rest off of that one. It doesn't really matter - we don't even need to go into detail. All that matters is that we establish their was an original 'set' (NOT 'group' - they may not have even known each other), and on various worlds over time, magically powerful folk have taken those names, probably just to invoke awe in the 'unwashed masses' (people who are not schooled enough to know better). In fact, we could even go a step further and conjecture that not all the members of the CoE (pre-GH Wars) were the same people throughout their tenure. It could have even been like 'titles', before the GH Wars. The original (GH) Mordenkainen may have died at some point, and Khelben Arunson (the younger) may have taken his place, without anyone but the other Circle members even knowing (and that could even 'patch' some other stuff, come to think of it).

The idea here is that the Circle of Eight wanted to instill that sense of awe (fear?) in people, so they took those names, and would continue to maintain those names, so people would truly believe they were the ones who came up with all those spells (and they probably did create a few variants during their careers). Same thing goes for Ioun - he took that name because of the stones, not the other way around. He wanted folks to think he was responsible for that. This was a common practice back in the days of ancient kings and emperors (taking a new name upon getting your 'position'). And then after Rary betrayed everyone, the CoE survivors dropped the whole thing, and the new members who joined didn't need to adjust their names.

Thats my fix - bring back those beloved naming conventions, and tweak the history just a tad. Thats all we need. Once you put them that far back in time, writers no longer have to worry about creating anachronisms in regards to spells.

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone


Edited by - Markustay on 21 Nov 2017 21:04:15
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Zeromaru X
Great Reader

Colombia
2441 Posts

Posted - 21 Nov 2017 :  20:49:02  Show Profile Send Zeromaru X a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well, you can also say that they rediscovered lost stuff on their own. Like, learning to recreate lost technology without ever having seen such technology.

Even if the Hand spells have existed in worlds far beyond in the past, perhaps Bigby was the first one who developed them in Oerth—he, researching on his own, discovered how to create those Hand spells that the ancients may have used in the young days of creation, but whose knowledge was lost to time. And in the modern age, prompting people to say that he was the one who created them, even if he just rediscovered such magic.

Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world...

Edited by - Zeromaru X on 21 Nov 2017 20:50:48
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 21 Nov 2017 :  21:19:11  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well, people have been saying that for years - that the spells get 'redeveloped' on each world. Problem is, we loose those cool names that way (because it wouldn't make sense if someone re-invented something and then spontaneously re-named it the original name as well). It might be interesting to come up with new names for each world, but it would soon turn into a convoluted mess (or more likely, as with the Netheril box, no-one bothered to use the alternate names).
Perhaps someone could possibly see the spell described somewhere in a history book or story, and then create a very similar spell (same spell, for all intents and purposes), and then use the name from the book. But for every spell? You could do that for a few, perhaps, but it would just get silly doing that with every one (on every world!)

And then we go back to the writing. Authors tend to 'go back in time' a lot. Either with the entire story, or with parts of it taking place 'in the past'. Anthologies used to be known for those 'historic bits'. You start to get the weirdness of an author using names they shouldn't, but its an anachronism (in-setting). The GHotR is actually rife with that - you'll see realms mentioned by name in an entry, long before that realm even existed. Then again, I'm probably the only one who notices that, or gets annoyed by it. Mountain ranges, rivers, etc, etc. Even occasional references to swamps and marshes that shouldn't have been there at that time (or an entire SEA, etc, etc).

And don't even get me started on The Ring of Winter. Great story, but set way too far back in the past for certain things to make sense (like describing the kingdom of Cormyr, before there was a Cormyr). The giant talking rodents are also rather annoying.

We can't fix all the geographic inconsistencies that have crept-in over the years, but we can at least get our very kewl, very D&D-ish spell names back, just with a little tweak. Greyhawk fans might get their feathers ruffled, but those same feathers have been ruffled since about 1987 or so... ain't nuthin' gonna change.

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone


Edited by - Markustay on 21 Nov 2017 21:19:36
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 21 Nov 2017 :  22:05:25  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Zeromaru X

I do like your explanation for the creation of the spellcasting style magic, though. "Vancian magic" should predate the current civilizations in many D&D worlds. This would explain why the system is so pervasive in many worlds. Though, I guess I would credit the elves for it. If not for its creation, at least they were the ones who spread it.
Except I think Elves learned their original magic from the Fey (after all, they ARE fey), or rather, from the Eladrin in 4e/5e parlance.

And I don't think that was ANYTHING like 'Vancian Magic' This isn't really the proper thread for this discussion (I've been meaning to start a 'Non-Cosmological Theories Thread', to go with the cosmological one), but in a nutshell, I picture Fey magic being tied closer to the fundamental forces of nature itself, which includes 'Time'. They can slightly tweak the 'great dimensions' and that's how they get their results. They literally 'hack' reality. But they do so like sorcerers - its an innate gift (which is why all sorcerers have to have those bloodlines - magic doesn't come to humans naturally).

Conjecture:
'Vancian' Magic was developed by the Blackmoor Culture (I really need a name for the first human race, not just its empire - Mahnkīn?) Its actually a form of super-science (which is precisely what it was in Jack Vance's wonderful books). Humans couldn't 'do magic' like elves or 'the gods' could (as a natural trait), so they developed a highly complex, codified science based around symbology, spoken words, somatic gestures, and material components to do their own 'hack' of the underlying code of the universe (and such code REALLY exists, BTW - its what the study of quantum physics is all about). Think of them like 'cheat codes' that those early guys figured-out, to make changes to the universe (probably created by 'the Builders' for just such a purpose, and then just left in-place).

Now, the original world/universe was very mutable. That was its nature. It was easy or 'magical races' to just reach in and make changes on the fly. Nothing was supposed to be 'set in stone' (quite literally) until after everything was complete/perfect... which may have never happened, what with so many different beings all trying to 'do it their way'. The Fey were one of the Creatori - the first (im)mortals. They had access to all of that.

The Elves were different - they were born after the God (Dawn) War, after 'death' came into the world*. Things were harder to manipulate (as we can see by the tremendous disasters they caused whenever they sued 'Elven High Magic'). Their ritual no longer had the power (or they no longer had the power to control what they unleashed) to do their bidding properly, and so, they learned from the humans, and others. 'Vancian' casting wasn't theirs, but they embraced it fully, over time. Its what the Weave is based on (the Weave is that 'Vancian' code written over the 'fundamental code' of the universe itself - as I've said many times elsewhere, like a GUI).

In fact, come to think of it, the Blackmoorians may have created the very first Weave, and since they lived on an endless plane, it was more of an 'area affect' for them, like a Mythal, but much, MUCH greater (like they would have created continent-sized 'magical fields' so they could do their 'spells'). Who knows? Maybe they called that first proto-Weave 'Mystara'.

Of course, all of this means Vancian (D&D) 'spells' shouldn't work in the Phlogiston. Personally, I'm fine with that.


*I actually think all of that is less 'death' based, and more 'time' based - suddenly, everyone had to adhere to TIME - it became linear, and everything had a 'shelf life', so to speak. All it took was one irreconcilable act - the death of an Elder God - and time had its very first Fixed Point. After that, everything had time applied to it, which meant it had to have a beginning, and an end. people died before then, but it was through violent acts (accidental, or killing), or a god simply snapping its fingers and making them all 'just go away' as if they never were. The 'Death' that came into existence (from the story of the WoL&D) is death by old age. That's my take on it.

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone


Edited by - Markustay on 21 Nov 2017 22:06:22
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