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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer

USA
2066 Posts

Posted - 23 Feb 2021 :  11:49:15  Show Profile  Visit ericlboyd's Homepage Send ericlboyd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Glad you like it. I really like the idea of tying the Arcane to spellweavers (perhaps through theft). It would be really interesting if spellweavers allow other races to "steal" their technology, which really creates a back door conduit to leech magical power.

--
http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11690 Posts

Posted - 23 Feb 2021 :  14:33:01  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd

Glad you like it. I really like the idea of tying the Arcane to spellweavers (perhaps through theft). It would be really interesting if spellweavers allow other races to "steal" their technology, which really creates a back door conduit to leech magical power.



Yeah, exactly what I was going for. Either the Arcane directly steal it, or the spellweavers "drop" the idea off to let it be found, or they deliberately "share" the idea directly and ask the arcane to be their salesmen (until the arcane develop their own helms and spelljamming changes).

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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CorellonsDevout
Great Reader

USA
2708 Posts

Posted - 25 Feb 2021 :  01:09:29  Show Profile Send CorellonsDevout a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Got it! Now I need to read through it lol

Sweet water and light laughter
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AJA
Senior Scribe

USA
747 Posts

Posted - 25 Feb 2021 :  02:10:33  Show Profile Send AJA a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by CorellonsDevout

Got it! Now I need to read through it lol

It can be a bit dense (in terms of both wordcount and history), but if you've been in the Realms for any length of time there should definitely be those moments of recognition of, 'oh, I know that historical event! That person, that location!' If you find yourself bouncing off things or you're having trouble parsing what's where, I'd suggest skipping around to sections you're more familiar with, and reading a bit back or forwards from there. As I said before, in the end it serves to pull together and connect almost the entirety of human history in the (northern) Realms, and to do that in all of twelve pages is quite a testament to the skill of Eric (and George).


AJA
YAFRP
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11690 Posts

Posted - 25 Feb 2021 :  13:41:21  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
A lot of it comes from a dungeon magazine module during the 4e era as well. Monument of ancients or somesuch. I only mention this for people coming in who maybe were like me and hadn't been following 4e lore.

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer

USA
2066 Posts

Posted - 25 Feb 2021 :  16:01:36  Show Profile  Visit ericlboyd's Homepage Send ericlboyd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

A lot of it comes from a dungeon magazine module during the 4e era as well. Monument of ancients or somesuch. I only mention this for people coming in who maybe were like me and hadn't been following 4e lore.



Outside of game products ...

Dungeon #170 (Monument of Ancients), Dragon #338 (Ecology of the Spellweaver), Dragon #361 (Ironfang Keep), and Polyhedron #111 (Godswalk Keep) all play a role in the write-up.

Novels such as Finder's Bane and Dangerous Games also play a key supporting role in some of the lore.

--Eric

--
http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/
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Wendolyn
Seeker

56 Posts

Posted - 02 Mar 2021 :  10:54:58  Show Profile Send Wendolyn a Private Message  Reply with Quote
What wonderful lore you have synthesized and produced! I finally got a chance to sit down and read it, and then re-read it, and you and Gary have done such a terrific job. So many disparate pieces of lore weaved together so artfully. And the writing is great, making the Realms feel so alive, and also have such a sense and weight of history. It is so good I am going to treat it as canon in my games and future writings.

Also, I was very excited to see Maerklos "Stormherald" make an appearance! And in general to see the region around Turmish show up in these broader stories (too often I feel that Turmish and the Vilhon Reach more broadly gets neglected in these Faerun-spanning sagas). Love that Maerklos is the first and greatest warrior priest of a unified Talassan church -- does that also mean he unified the churches of Talos and Bhaelros under one banner? Also, any clue what happened to Maerklos' Sword of Storms? It seems to me the most logical course would have been for the Stormcrossing to have added the sword to his hoard, which then fell into the hands of the dwarves of the Alaoreum, who then either 1) sold it to a merchant of Alaghon or 2) Sjorn Sendreth captured it from the dwarves during their war with Ironfang. Maerklos, once made undread, then follows and recovers his sword there. Another option is that Maerklos is quickly risen from the dead and, following Stormcrossing's death, plunders his hoard and finds the Sword of Storms but somebody else has already pilfered the scepter of the sorcerer-kings.

Anyways, just want to congratulate you again on such great work!
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer

USA
2066 Posts

Posted - 02 Mar 2021 :  11:42:41  Show Profile  Visit ericlboyd's Homepage Send ericlboyd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Wendolyn

What wonderful lore you have synthesized and produced! I finally got a chance to sit down and read it, and then re-read it, and you and Gary have done such a terrific job. So many disparate pieces of lore weaved together so artfully. And the writing is great, making the Realms feel so alive, and also have such a sense and weight of history. It is so good I am going to treat it as canon in my games and future writings.

Also, I was very excited to see Maerklos "Stormherald" make an appearance! And in general to see the region around Turmish show up in these broader stories (too often I feel that Turmish and the Vilhon Reach more broadly gets neglected in these Faerun-spanning sagas). Love that Maerklos is the first and greatest warrior priest of a unified Talassan church -- does that also mean he unified the churches of Talos and Bhaelros under one banner? Also, any clue what happened to Maerklos' Sword of Storms? It seems to me the most logical course would have been for the Stormcrossing to have added the sword to his hoard, which then fell into the hands of the dwarves of the Alaoreum, who then either 1) sold it to a merchant of Alaghon or 2) Sjorn Sendreth captured it from the dwarves during their war with Ironfang. Maerklos, once made undread, then follows and recovers his sword there. Another option is that Maerklos is quickly risen from the dead and, following Stormcrossing's death, plunders his hoard and finds the Sword of Storms but somebody else has already pilfered the scepter of the sorcerer-kings.

Anyways, just want to congratulate you again on such great work!



Glad you liked it. That was George's inspiration to weave in Maerklos.

The timing didn't work for him to be the "first and greatest priest of Talos" (an honor that probably goes back to Illusk circa -3000 DR) but it does of the Talassan church, which is just a subtle reinterpretation.

And yes, he's the first warrior-priest of the united Talos / Kozah / Bhaelros church. I'm guessing that the churches of Kozah and Talos unified long before, so Maerklos marks the start of the incorporation of Bhaelros.

--
http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer

USA
2066 Posts

Posted - 02 Mar 2021 :  13:19:23  Show Profile  Visit ericlboyd's Homepage Send ericlboyd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Wendolyn
Also, any clue what happened to Maerklos' Sword of Storms? It seems to me the most logical course would have been for the Stormcrossing to have added the sword to his hoard, which then fell into the hands of the dwarves of the Alaoreum, who then either 1) sold it to a merchant of Alaghon or 2) Sjorn Sendreth captured it from the dwarves during their war with Ironfang. Maerklos, once made undread, then follows and recovers his sword there. Another option is that Maerklos is quickly risen from the dead and, following Stormcrossing's death, plunders his hoard and finds the Sword of Storms but somebody else has already pilfered the scepter of the sorcerer-kings.



I was a little confused about this part of your question til George set me straight.

I agree that the Sword of Storms was part of Stormcrossing's hoard, but beyond that we don't know where it ended up. It is likely it fell into the hands of the Stout Folk, but it may have been lost at a later date.

I don't think we have any evidence though that Maerklos came back as undead. George suggests perhaps you are conflating the priest of Talos in Polyhedron #103 with the undead priest of Talos named Aragath Taltar in Polyhedron #105?


--
http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11690 Posts

Posted - 02 Mar 2021 :  13:49:56  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd

quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

A lot of it comes from a dungeon magazine module during the 4e era as well. Monument of ancients or somesuch. I only mention this for people coming in who maybe were like me and hadn't been following 4e lore.



Outside of game products ...

Dungeon #170 (Monument of Ancients), Dragon #338 (Ecology of the Spellweaver), Dragon #361 (Ironfang Keep), and Polyhedron #111 (Godswalk Keep) all play a role in the write-up.

Novels such as Finder's Bane and Dangerous Games also play a key supporting role in some of the lore.

--Eric



thanks for that. I recognized most of those, except polyhedron 111. Never seen it, and now I'm on a hunt.

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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Wendolyn
Seeker

56 Posts

Posted - 02 Mar 2021 :  19:24:35  Show Profile Send Wendolyn a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Yes Eric you're right! I confused the two. So Maerklos died and stayed dead. May the Rending Storm rest in peace.

As to the Sword of Storms, I think that makes perfect sense. It falls into Stormcrossing's hoard, then to the dwarves of the Alaoreum, then to parts unknown.
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11690 Posts

Posted - 03 Mar 2021 :  14:41:19  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd

quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

A lot of it comes from a dungeon magazine module during the 4e era as well. Monument of ancients or somesuch. I only mention this for people coming in who maybe were like me and hadn't been following 4e lore.



Outside of game products ...

Dungeon #170 (Monument of Ancients), Dragon #338 (Ecology of the Spellweaver), Dragon #361 (Ironfang Keep), and Polyhedron #111 (Godswalk Keep) all play a role in the write-up.

Novels such as Finder's Bane and Dangerous Games also play a key supporting role in some of the lore.

--Eric



thanks for that. I recognized most of those, except polyhedron 111. Never seen it, and now I'm on a hunt.



Interesting, so its in the entry for Great Oak by Ed. Apparently Godswalk Keep is yearly visited by the avatars of many gods. Garagos roams the grounds killing any he finds but cannot kill Sharess or Jergal. When he meets them he "howls" aloud and then they have some private meeting.... and a saying amongst the followers of Savras is "See and Survive" based on the concept that its considered a great thing to accomplish to show up there and spy on the three gods to figure out what they're doing.

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 03 Mar 2021 :  18:15:29  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas


Interesting, so its in the entry for Great Oak by Ed. Apparently Godswalk Keep is yearly visited by the avatars of many gods. Garagos roams the grounds killing any he finds but cannot kill Sharess or Jergal. When he meets them he "howls" aloud and then they have some private meeting.... and a saying amongst the followers of Savras is "See and Survive" based on the concept that its considered a great thing to accomplish to show up there and spy on the three gods to figure out what they're doing.



This is also mentioned in the write-up of Garagos in Powers & Pantheons, though I don't know that it's ever been mentioned just why Jergal and Sharess decide to go there at the same time. That's an odd trio to have in one spot, especially since two of them seem to be there just to mock the other one.

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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer

USA
2066 Posts

Posted - 03 Mar 2021 :  18:19:14  Show Profile  Visit ericlboyd's Homepage Send ericlboyd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas


Interesting, so its in the entry for Great Oak by Ed. Apparently Godswalk Keep is yearly visited by the avatars of many gods. Garagos roams the grounds killing any he finds but cannot kill Sharess or Jergal. When he meets them he "howls" aloud and then they have some private meeting.... and a saying amongst the followers of Savras is "See and Survive" based on the concept that its considered a great thing to accomplish to show up there and spy on the three gods to figure out what they're doing.



This is also mentioned in the write-up of Garagos in Powers & Pantheons, though I don't know that it's ever been mentioned just why Jergal and Sharess decide to go there at the same time. That's an odd trio to have in one spot, especially since two of them seem to be there just to mock the other one.



It is a very strange grouping, one scholars are still trying to understand. ;-) Hopefully we contributed a bit more to the mystery.

--
http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 03 Mar 2021 :  18:43:15  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I would personally suspect that both Sharess and Jergal have some other interest in this particular locale, though that begs the question of what the interest is, and it also fails to address why they show up at the same time... Maybe there's something there that neither one of them wants Garagos to be able to get to.

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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11690 Posts

Posted - 03 Mar 2021 :  20:02:21  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
So, based on the entry in the Jergal product, it wasn't "Sharess" that was involved. It was Felidae (whom Bast/Sharess subsumed). It has to do with the scepter of the sorcerer kings getting separated from Myrkul, found by some netherese arcanist, Halaratanthyria, who owned godswalk keep (previously Halar's Hall). Her skyship had been forced down in the border kingdoms, possibly during Karsus' Folly, so she had built a keep there. She finds the scepter, brings it home, and then gets assaulted by the main Maerklos “Stormherald”, the first and greatest warrior-priest of unified Talassan church, (notedly, NOT Kozah's church). They fight and she uses the scepter and ruins her keep and "her desperate use of the scepter of the sorcerer-kings stymied the powers of the deities Jergal, Garagos and Felidae of the Beast Cults (a goddess
long since subsumed by the deity Sharess) for a time and made her ruined keep a haunted place known to the modern Realms as Godswalk Keep."


Maerklos then gets away with the scepter and uses it in some way to help Talos.

This could be a really interesting thing, given that supposedly the scepter of the sorcerer kings is what was used to create the Imaskari barrier, and its feared by Toril's gods and leaves Abeir's primordials drooling. Maybe THIS is why suddenly Kozah, Amaunator, Jannath, and Targus all suddenly disappeared (and possibly Jergal too saw a threat with the scepter), and possibly some involvement with Lathander and the Dawn Cataclysm. If Talos and Lathander actually were in the same pantheon that wasn't netherese along with Tyr coming along in the same region.... and all 3 of these deities "go away" after the spellplague (with it being SAID that Tyr died fighting some demons, but..).

Makes me wonder if the Imaskari godswall didn't just divert the ability of gods trying to interact with their followers on TORIL to instead go to ABEIR or somesuch.... so rather than a "wall" it was a "redirection".... and if the spellplague and disappearance of the gods, along with the theory that some gods went to abeir... couldn't be linked into this.

Also makes me want to see what happened in -278 DR (and did Savras and Azuth quarrel then).

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas

Edited by - sleyvas on 03 Mar 2021 20:04:32
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11690 Posts

Posted - 03 Mar 2021 :  20:40:34  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Hmmm, and if one accepts Mystara lore.... there the "cat goddess" Felidae is a sea elven immortal worshipped by Rakasta and sea elves and Tortles who is an ocean goddess and luck goddess named Calitha Starbrow. That could really put a spin on the whole Umberlee becoming the sea goddess, Felidae "dying", the sea elves of the inner sea getting killed, Tyche getting killed, etc... if part of it involved replacing Felidae with Umberlee by killing off her sea elven worshippers. I wonder just where all Felidae had been worshipped. The Yuir? The Shaar? Beneath the Inner Sea by Sea Elves? Was she strictly a cat goddess?

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas

Edited by - sleyvas on 03 Mar 2021 20:47:18
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 03 Mar 2021 :  21:19:55  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

So, based on the entry in the Jergal product, it wasn't "Sharess" that was involved. It was Felidae (whom Bast/Sharess subsumed). It has to do with the scepter of the sorcerer kings getting separated from Myrkul, found by some netherese arcanist, Halaratanthyria, who owned godswalk keep (previously Halar's Hall). Her skyship had been forced down in the border kingdoms, possibly during Karsus' Folly, so she had built a keep there. She finds the scepter, brings it home, and then gets assaulted by the main Maerklos “Stormherald”, the first and greatest warrior-priest of unified Talassan church, (notedly, NOT Kozah's church). They fight and she uses the scepter and ruins her keep and "her desperate use of the scepter of the sorcerer-kings stymied the powers of the deities Jergal, Garagos and Felidae of the Beast Cults (a goddess
long since subsumed by the deity Sharess) for a time and made her ruined keep a haunted place known to the modern Realms as Godswalk Keep."


Maerklos then gets away with the scepter and uses it in some way to help Talos.

This could be a really interesting thing, given that supposedly the scepter of the sorcerer kings is what was used to create the Imaskari barrier, and its feared by Toril's gods and leaves Abeir's primordials drooling. Maybe THIS is why suddenly Kozah, Amaunator, Jannath, and Targus all suddenly disappeared (and possibly Jergal too saw a threat with the scepter), and possibly some involvement with Lathander and the Dawn Cataclysm. If Talos and Lathander actually were in the same pantheon that wasn't netherese along with Tyr coming along in the same region.... and all 3 of these deities "go away" after the spellplague (with it being SAID that Tyr died fighting some demons, but..).

Makes me wonder if the Imaskari godswall didn't just divert the ability of gods trying to interact with their followers on TORIL to instead go to ABEIR or somesuch.... so rather than a "wall" it was a "redirection".... and if the spellplague and disappearance of the gods, along with the theory that some gods went to abeir... couldn't be linked into this.

Also makes me want to see what happened in -278 DR (and did Savras and Azuth quarrel then).



That's good lore, but it doesn't explain why they'd return to that spot, so many years after the fact.

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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11690 Posts

Posted - 03 Mar 2021 :  22:21:05  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

So, based on the entry in the Jergal product, it wasn't "Sharess" that was involved. It was Felidae (whom Bast/Sharess subsumed). It has to do with the scepter of the sorcerer kings getting separated from Myrkul, found by some netherese arcanist, Halaratanthyria, who owned godswalk keep (previously Halar's Hall). Her skyship had been forced down in the border kingdoms, possibly during Karsus' Folly, so she had built a keep there. She finds the scepter, brings it home, and then gets assaulted by the main Maerklos “Stormherald”, the first and greatest warrior-priest of unified Talassan church, (notedly, NOT Kozah's church). They fight and she uses the scepter and ruins her keep and "her desperate use of the scepter of the sorcerer-kings stymied the powers of the deities Jergal, Garagos and Felidae of the Beast Cults (a goddess
long since subsumed by the deity Sharess) for a time and made her ruined keep a haunted place known to the modern Realms as Godswalk Keep."


Maerklos then gets away with the scepter and uses it in some way to help Talos.

This could be a really interesting thing, given that supposedly the scepter of the sorcerer kings is what was used to create the Imaskari barrier, and its feared by Toril's gods and leaves Abeir's primordials drooling. Maybe THIS is why suddenly Kozah, Amaunator, Jannath, and Targus all suddenly disappeared (and possibly Jergal too saw a threat with the scepter), and possibly some involvement with Lathander and the Dawn Cataclysm. If Talos and Lathander actually were in the same pantheon that wasn't netherese along with Tyr coming along in the same region.... and all 3 of these deities "go away" after the spellplague (with it being SAID that Tyr died fighting some demons, but..).

Makes me wonder if the Imaskari godswall didn't just divert the ability of gods trying to interact with their followers on TORIL to instead go to ABEIR or somesuch.... so rather than a "wall" it was a "redirection".... and if the spellplague and disappearance of the gods, along with the theory that some gods went to abeir... couldn't be linked into this.

Also makes me want to see what happened in -278 DR (and did Savras and Azuth quarrel then).



That's good lore, but it doesn't explain why they'd return to that spot, so many years after the fact.



Maybe plotting AGAINST Lathander to find some way to reverse the effects and return the old gods back?

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore

Australia
6643 Posts

Posted - 03 Mar 2021 :  22:33:57  Show Profile Send George Krashos a Private Message  Reply with Quote
That scepter sure did some crazy things ...

-- George Krashos

"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus
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TheIriaeban
Master of Realmslore

USA
1289 Posts

Posted - 10 Apr 2021 :  22:55:14  Show Profile Send TheIriaeban a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I am looking into the Shadowstar and the shadevari and I am trying to make sense of the history as it was depicted in the novels. According to the Book of Shadows:

The shadevari had been around "since the beginning" and worked for Bhaal for thousands of years.

Gond created the Shadowstar and Azuth used it to imprisoned the shadevari before hurling it into the cosmos.

The main problem here is that Bhaal is a "newer" god and has not been around long enough for the shadevari to have worked for him for "thousands of years". BUT, what if the Book of Shadows didn't mention Bhaal by name and instead said that the shadevari worked for the God of Death. That would mean that the shadevari could have worked for Bhaal's predecessor Jergal and Morhion just assumed it was Bhaal based on his modern point of view.

Given the shadevari's abilities, I could see Jergal making a deal with them for them to work for him to find the parts of the Code of Reversion (maybe they thought they could use it to turn the universe back to before even the births of Selune and Shar). Either way, Jergal got them to work for him and, being wise enough to not have all his eggs in one basket, he also went through with his other plans via worshippers. Then, after Bhaal took over, Bhaal decided to use them for other things so Jergal was able to manipulate Gond and Azuth into trapping the shadevari as punishment for their lack of loyalty.

That seems like it could dovetail into Jergal's history in this work and would clean up the history of the shadevari some and also solidify the later involvement of Bhaal, Azuth, and Gond.

Is that plausible or am I missing something?

"Iriaebor is a fine city. So what if you can have violence between merchant groups break out at any moment. Not every city can offer dinner AND a show."

My FR writeups - http://www.mediafire.com/folder/um3liz6tqsf5n/Documents
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore

Australia
6643 Posts

Posted - 11 Apr 2021 :  02:24:28  Show Profile Send George Krashos a Private Message  Reply with Quote
There are a range of option. I point out that the shadevari of the myth in F&A bear no resemblance to the creatures featured in the novels and statted up in Polyhedron and the game products. It might be that the the novel shadevari are something else: connected to the imprisoned shadevari, but not the actual creatures. Also, the "working for Bhaal for thousands of years" is obviously hyperbole as Azuth likely ascended around the same time as Bhaal as well. We are aware of the issue and I have given Eric crap about his myth sidebars in F&A for years now - - and it may be addressed in the fullness of time. The ways of the gods, once they become gods, are mysterious and opaque.

-- George Krashos

"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6351 Posts

Posted - 11 Apr 2021 :  13:24:47  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
My own personal take is that it doesnt matter what the myth says what is important is what happened.

We know verraketh found something and over time he turned into the shadowking. We know he had servants called shadevar that were seemingly lesser versions of himself, there were 13 of them in total I believe.

We also know verraketh had children who had children and some of them underwent a transformation into a shadowking as well.

So what I'm proposing is that what verraketh found tainted his bloodline and those that had the gift or were exposed to magic were also likely to undergo a transformation.

Thus these shadevari were his descendants and thus technically they are weaker aspects of himself.

The shadevari children do not become shadowkings unless they are exposed to the shadowstar (physical contact I'm guessing) which augments their nature and makes them more powerful, caledan didn't transform until after he met the shadowking and the shadowstar was in the same room and he may have touched it. The novel also had a book that said that a shadowking would spontaneously arise once in a generation. The shadowking ruled for 300 years, that could equate to about 10 shadevari, not so very far from 13.

The shadowking wouldn't want any rivals so he denied them the shadowstar and kept them as weaker servants. Talembar may have even been a shadevar and was able to transform as caledan did (the novel says Talembar was disguised as a troll and the shadevar look a lot like trolls)

As for azuth and bhaal. The timeline doesnt match the myth or the history but real world myths are often confused over time so bhaal and azuth as mortals or demigods could both have tried to control or imprison the shadevari, at least one shadevari was around free roaming during crypt of the shadowking so the claim that azuth bound them all in the shadowstar doesnt seem correct given that the shadowstar was still locked up in the crypt at the time.

If you dont want to use the actual gods then replace them with priests of azuth or bhaal who tried to control free roaming shadevari or imprison them.

The myths are a metaphor for the real events. Few would accept the bible's version of Noah or the parting of the Red Sea. We know the reality is that the straits of Gibraltar were breached and the ocean flooded in to form the Mediterranean Sea.


I do hope the knucklebones thing gets demythed into something more real. The idea that 3 near divine beings would play a game for ultimate power seems out of place in the while story of the dark three. It would be like trump, Putin, and boris playing monopoly to decide who pressed the thermo nuclear war button, it's clearly not what would happen in reality but makes for a nice story.

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TheIriaeban
Master of Realmslore

USA
1289 Posts

Posted - 11 Apr 2021 :  15:09:13  Show Profile Send TheIriaeban a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Thanks guys. I am trying to write up an artifact entry for the Shadowstar (since Kellen has it and he lives in Iriaebor) and part of that is its history which I thought may involve Jergal based on what I read in Lord of the End of Everything. I suppose I will just put "the item's true history is still guarded by the mists of time".

"Iriaebor is a fine city. So what if you can have violence between merchant groups break out at any moment. Not every city can offer dinner AND a show."

My FR writeups - http://www.mediafire.com/folder/um3liz6tqsf5n/Documents
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer

USA
2066 Posts

Posted - 11 Apr 2021 :  19:57:12  Show Profile  Visit ericlboyd's Homepage Send ericlboyd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
You can see more details in "Jergal: Lord of the End of Everything" on DM's Guild.

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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/
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Jacob Vardy
Acolyte

1 Posts

Posted - 13 Jun 2022 :  07:37:00  Show Profile Send Jacob Vardy a Private Message  Reply with Quote
"Jergal: Lord of the End of Everything" is great. I figured thread necromancy would be OK given the subject. I'm just trawling the forum's for mentions of Turmish for my current campaign. The pamphlet had plenty of tidbits to throw out to players for verisimilitude.
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer

USA
2066 Posts

Posted - 03 Jul 2022 :  20:30:51  Show Profile  Visit ericlboyd's Homepage Send ericlboyd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Jacob Vardy

"Jergal: Lord of the End of Everything" is great. I figured thread necromancy would be OK given the subject. I'm just trawling the forum's for mentions of Turmish for my current campaign. The pamphlet had plenty of tidbits to throw out to players for verisimilitude.



Glad you liked it!

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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/
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