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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 15 May 2019 :  14:01:21  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Randomly looking over Black Wizard for lore. Not a single place or person in callidyrr is named outside those used directly in events for the plot which I understand is part of d&ds focused story telling, but I hate it.

All i know from callidyrr thanks to this novel is caer callidyrr, Doncaster, oroarke, Cyndre, and the assassin. It might as well have been set on the moon


On the plus side I now know there are 31 centres in corwell, and I have a few more clans and lords to detail that kingdom.

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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore

Australia
6638 Posts

Posted - 15 May 2019 :  22:51:33  Show Profile Send George Krashos a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I always disliked those “could be set anywhere” novels. If they were writing a Star Wars novel, they would never have got away with that.

— 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
6350 Posts

Posted - 16 May 2019 :  07:56:46  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
It could probably be set in star wars without much work.

Maybe I'm spoiled by G R R Martin, but its jarring when the story never has any interaction with other people outside of the main story. It's almost as though all the characters are elitist snobs and refuse to talk to guards, servants, squirrels, etc.

Worse still is this novel has about 50 pages of Tristan and lord pontswain arguing like toddlers over who would be the best king.

I cant fathom why people enjoy reading the novels myself.


Anyway back to the moonshae isles. Again found those crannogs in the myrloch. I've decided they were built around -2000 dr by the first northmen to arrive on the moonshae isles. They were essentially enslaved by the leshay and used to fight in the first war against kazgoroth (they were the cannon fodder).
After that war the few surviving northmen fled and vowed never to return (saying the islands were cursed).

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 17 May 2019 :  08:33:05  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Added a page for the organisation Heralds of the High King. They are my attempt to explain how the sword of cymrych hugh came to be in the big cave just waiting for Tristan to find (the heralds left it there for him as a test of his abilities)

They are led by the ghost of high queen allisynn whose spirit is bound to the magical harp she was playing when kazgoroth shattered it and dealt her a mortal blow.

The heralds are trying to restore the high kingdom and are always looking for potential candidates and testing them.

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 17 May 2019 :  21:11:59  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well i came across the Great Gark in 4e lore on the Dernall Forest. He is a goblin of sorts with dark fey and goblins at his disposal. So i decided to use my idea of twisted halflings (Great Gark is one of them), that made the halflings into evil, black, goblin like creatures.

These few surviving Goibhluin (sounded celtic ish) fled into the Feywild, but they are using actual goblins, that arrived from the mainland on ships, to scout and steal for them.

I also decided on making Doncastle the former abode of these halflings on Alaron, and where the Goibhluin retreated to before they fled into the Feywild. So beneath Doncastle are deep tunnels that lead to the Underdark and also have connections to the Feywild/Shadowfell.

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 20 May 2019 :  08:32:47  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Gradually weaving bits of the story together now. So ordalf and urphania are twins and twins is a bad omen in Fey culture.

Ordalf was the leader and urphania was loyal and supportive, or so it seemed.

Then some sylph prophesies that ordalf will die in the claws of a beast, but that beast will also die, and it will free the People of the Moonshae Isles.

Then Kazgoroth the Beast appears and ordalf figures that Kazgoroth is the Beast that will slay her, so she creates the web of moon wells to forever imprison kazgoroth in a weakened form.

Unfortunately urphania falsified the vision or exploited it. She helped kazgoroth escape in the hope he would kill ordalf.

Urphania was discovered, stripped of her leshay powers, and exiled from karador.
In her exile she began stealing the soul gems that link ordalf soul to the moon wells and so ordalf pulls karador and the leshay into the feywild.

Urphania is now subtly helping and manipulating the pieces of kazgoroth. Helping him to return and helping pollute the moon wells which further weaken ordalf and will force her to return to stop kazgoroth. When all the moon wells are corrupted ordalf is mortal and will die so she must return and imprison him once again or kill him before he kills her.

Urphania hope's kazgoroth will win. If not she will help kill kazgoroth herself to win ordalf confidence back (everyone thinks urphania is dead at the moment), then she will kill her own sister and rule the leshay

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 21 May 2019 :  11:05:16  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Came to the mention of eladrin in the Moonshaes lore, still annoyed with the travesty that 4e did by altering eladrin into something else and elves into this new eladrin.


However, i've decided to mix the two together. I've come up with two branches (so far) of these humanoid fey creatures. The Selah-Drine and the Elah-Drine.

The Selah-Drine are the original, the most powerful, they are the lords of the Plane of Faeree, they are immortal and superpowerful. The LeShay belong to the Selah-Drine (so too did the beings that would become the Seldarine - hence the name similarity).

The Selah-Drine created the Elah-Drine in their own image, they are powerful and specialised in various aspects of nature (fire, ice, earth, wind, lightning, spring, summer, winter, etc). They are organised into tribes, the bralani, the ghaele, the firre, the tulani, etc.
The elves were once Elah-Drine. They escaped to Faerun and over time diminished in power as they were away from the Plane of Faeree.

So Karador will have Elahdrin but they will be of the various different groups from 2e and 3e. They look like elves (reading the 3e descriptions they say they look like elves), but they are more powerful and more fey like.

Elves are still elves, they were once eladrin many tens of thousands of years ago, but now they are just elves. The older elves are more powerful (as cormanthyr empire of elves alludes to - they can see magic, they live longer, etc) and the younger ones are more and more mixed with human blood so they are further diminished.

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 21 May 2019 :  19:42:14  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Reaching the leshay and Fey parts of lore now. I've decided the leshay don't have kids, they are immortal and super powerful so if they had kids that were leshay they would quickly overrun the multi verse.

So any kids they have are lesser beings, the elahdrin.

So prince araithe is not ordalfs son. The Fey misunderstood the concept of son and heir when approximating their succession to human standards (or even elves) and so described him as prince, but really he is just the next most respected leshay.

I've decided prince araithe wants to be the most respected, so he is secretly trying to hasten ordalfs demise. He also doesn't like humans. He has Fey kidnapping human children to raise them as warriors (muubsidhe meaning slave fey) to do the fighting for the leshay when they return to the material plane.

At the end of the adventure I'm planning, karador will return and these armies of muubsidhe will spread out and abduct entire villages to swell their ranks. The muubsidhe are armed with plate mail and silver or cold iron swords (to better kill kazgoroth and his twisted fey army).
Basically the humans will be caught between two alien powers that want to use them as fodder in their armies.

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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore

Australia
6638 Posts

Posted - 24 May 2019 :  14:59:24  Show Profile Send George Krashos a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Just remembered this: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a

Thought you might be interested.

-- 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
6350 Posts

Posted - 24 May 2019 :  15:07:29  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Always interested. Thank you George.

I did come across that recently, decided it should probably be placed on snowdown which has almost no mention of druids to explain their absence (half their membership lost fighting the malarites) and add in a new location to snowdown (the great druids former home).

Cheers for the lookout for more moonshae stuff.

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 24 May 2019 :  21:06:46  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Moving onto Gnarhelm.

I decided a while ago that the illuskans of Gnarhelm were from Stornanter.

Now Stornanter collapsed as a realm in 841 DR after Laeral disappeared. Until that time she had been largely absent, hunting those nobles that had killed Malek Aldanek (Khelben Arunsun).

The illuskans arrived in a massive fleet in 852 DR. Initial thoughts are an invasion fleet. However, the nation of Stornanter collapsed not 11 years prior. I would imagine that the collapse of nation would bring about significant upheaval and strife which would prevent the launching of an invasion fleet. Plus feudal societies tend not to have coordinated military forces (small forces being contributed by individual nobles to form a larger force), without a strong leader there is little chance of a large fleet being formed.

So an alternative is people fleeing the collapse of Stornanter. If the cities survive why would people flee?
Initial thoughts are that the nobles Laeral was hunting regrouped after her disappearance and attempted to take over Illusk and or Port Llast. The fighting caused by that could force many to leave (particularly the losers). Because i only have the names of the evil nobles (those who killed Malek) from Stornanter i'm tempted to think they attempted a takeover of Illusk and were eventually forced out and forced to flee.
That way i can use the names of some legitimate noble houses and have an explanation for why they arrived on the Moonshae Isles and why they landed in Gnarhelm (Callidyrr would have been a much better target, but if you cant go back home you have to take the easy option).

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 25 May 2019 :  19:09:49  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Read up on races of faerun to try and get an idea of illuskan society so I can flesh out gnarhelm.

I found that the illuskans detailed therein matched almost exactly to the northmen, but doesn't really match up with the populations of waterdeep, the savage frontier, etc.

Apparently illuskans respect only strength, love to fight, and don't like magic.

Now there are illuskans like that, the uthgar are part illuskan and match that perfectly, the islanders operate like that, but stornanter was ruled by a wizardess, waterdeep is filled with magic users and the illuskans aren't fighting all the time, more importantly they aren't expanding very much either despite their warlike nature.

I'm beginning to think that the islanders are the illuskans as depicted in races of faerun, but those on the sword coast have been civilised and now contain a large portion of tethyrian ancestry (which value family above all).

So perhaps mainland illuskans value power above all else (be that martial, or magic, or political) and their tethyrian mixing means they are fiercely loyal to their groups which gives rise to guild rivalries and street gangs and other group warfare (explains the guild wars in waterdeep and the gangs in luskan).

So gnarhelm being founded by stornanter refugees is mostly civilised illuskan so they have more black hair than fair. They are heavily fictionalised (so the nation keeps splitting into 3 duchies run by powerful noble families), and they are happy to farm and mine and do magic as long as it makes them powerful (in their own mind) but they don't engage in external warfare all that often, instead fighting internally for more power.
The northmen of the other islands think the people of gnarhelm are soft and weak cousins.

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 28 May 2019 :  19:25:43  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The novels at first glance provide a similar lack of information on Gnarhelm as elsewhere in the Moonshae Isles.

Prince Brandon wears a horned helm, the royal helm of his clan. Makes sense for it to be an item brought from stornanter, magical.

Of course vikings did not wear horns on their helmets, so i've not made the northmen have them thus far. A horned helmet would make the warriors of Gnarhelm different but i need a reason as to why it is horned.

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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer

USA
2065 Posts

Posted - 28 May 2019 :  20:30:02  Show Profile  Visit ericlboyd's Homepage Send ericlboyd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison

The novels at first glance provide a similar lack of information on Gnarhelm as elsewhere in the Moonshae Isles.

Prince Brandon wears a horned helm, the royal helm of his clan. Makes sense for it to be an item brought from stornanter, magical.

Of course vikings did not wear horns on their helmets, so i've not made the northmen have them thus far. A horned helmet would make the warriors of Gnarhelm different but i need a reason as to why it is horned.



Horned helmets can be used as weapons. (See dwarven battle ragers in Drizzt books and there were stats in one of the old splatbooks.)

Horned helmets likely represent some mythical horned beast.

Maybe the Faerunian Leviathian (see Elder Evils book) has horns?

--Eric

--
http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 28 May 2019 :  21:20:06  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
That's not a bad idea, stornanter has a history of interactions with mythical creatures (the kraken that laeral had to drive away). I could have the horns actually be kraken tentacles, perhaps a former servant of the kraken that helped pass information to it before it attacked laeral (the beginning of a kraken society).

Cheers for the idea.

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 29 May 2019 :  10:16:02  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Gnarhelm seems to have little appetite for raising in the source books or novels, they work in the fields, mines, and fishing. So they seem to be much less aggressive than the northmen of norland, Oman, and norheim.
They also engage in trade with callidyrr, trading metal for something (presumably food as their food production is limited which in turn affects their population).
I'm thinking that gnarhelm is the trading gateway for the other northmen islands.
I figure most traders would avoid norland, norheim, and Oman for the fear of being raided or attacked. If you aren't strong enough you are liable to lose your cargo and your freedom (enslaved).
Gnarhelm however seems quite civilised so people trade with them and then they in turn trade with the northmen.

Other things are the tripartite nature of gnarhelm kingdom, it seems to be made of three major regions, each of which vie for control of the throne. I'm considering three major noble families, each related to the first king.
The nobles and their young sons are eager to prove their place in society and so engage in constant civil strife with each other for control of the throne. That's how the storm knight and his followers gain traction among the young nobility and persuade them to become guerilla fighters in their own country.

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Barastir
Master of Realmslore

Brazil
1600 Posts

Posted - 29 May 2019 :  13:16:05  Show Profile Send Barastir a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The entry on the northmen of Gnarhelm in the 1e Moonshaes book, telling they are not unlike other northmen in behavior but are more prone to ride, makes me think of Tolkien's Rohirrim.

"Goodness is not a natural state, but must be
fought for to be attained and maintained.
Lead by example.
Let your deeds speak your intentions.
Goodness radiated from the heart."

The Paladin's Virtues, excerpt from the "Quentin's Monograph"
(by Ed Greenwood)
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 29 May 2019 :  13:33:06  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I'm definitely making them the only realm that uses horses for combat and transport (rather than for caravans, but Gwyneth hires are more like donkeys in my mind).

The original source book made no distinction between the origin of gnarhelm and the other northmen islands but I have made that distinction. I'm going for a derivative of northmen culture, so whereas the northmen only follow the strongest and best warriors, the illuskans are more civilised and recognise other strengths (knowledge, magic, politics) as important, thus allowing them to have a stable hereditary nobility (unlike northmen culture which will only follow war leaders).

I just came across the tomb of cymrych hugh in the prophet. That annoys me worse than darkwell. Cymrych hugh was buried in secret just outside of callidyrr northern border (which was all part of callidyrr then) and nobody found it. He also just happened to be buried with magic items that perfectly complemented the needs and abilities of the heroes that discovered them. Not happy. But my heralds of the high king organisation solves that problem and I have a few more royal regalia items to detail.

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 29 May 2019 :  19:23:40  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
So the King of Gnarhelm lives in a wooden lodge.

Gnarhelm is a land of hills and cliffs, there are no large forests on Gnarhelm. Wood would not exactly be plentiful, whereas stone is everywhere in a mountainous region.

Gnarhelm has a relatively large fleet, i would imagine the wood was needed for its seafaring activities.

I understand why they said Gnarhelm had a wooden lodge as the King's house, because they wanted Gnarhelm to be another kingdom of northmen and the northmen dont use stone, but of course the people of Gnarhelm mine, so stonecutting would be a skill they should possess.

So now i need a reason why the King's lodge is made of wood. The Storm Knight article mentions that the followers of the Storm Knight attack noble castles so perhaps even the King has been affected by the Storm Knight. Also i've got a decade of bad winters at the turn of the 1300s so that would have made people hungry, especially in Gnarhelm where its population is at maximum capacity for its food production.
So perhaps the castles in Gnarhelm suffered a lot during the past few decades, moreover Gnarhelm is cold and windy and castles were really cold and draughty so perhaps they were never particularly popular and now have been replaced with small lodges (that are cosier but more vulnerable to attack).

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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore

Australia
6638 Posts

Posted - 29 May 2019 :  22:19:55  Show Profile Send George Krashos a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Or perhaps it was built a long time ago when there were forests on Gnarhelm and stands as a relic and status symbol for the ruler of the isle.

-- 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
6350 Posts

Posted - 29 May 2019 :  22:28:43  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Also a good one but the ffolk lived there a long time ago and presumably built castles. The northmen were not averse to using the castles of the ffolk (norland), so I'd expect the same here. Plus wood doesn't do so well in damp conditions.

However, it's possible there are some forests on gnarhelm that are unmentioned (norland has a large forest but only mentioned once and later ignored).

It's a quandary. I shall probably put all the ideas in. Ffolk castles gradually fell into ruin. They built their own imitations that were abandoned due to maintenance costs and draughty conditions eventually taking up in the old hunting lodges. Civil unrest wrecked most of those and so the illuskan society is gradually degrading towards that of other northmen islands.

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 16 Jun 2019 :  14:55:44  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Going through black wizards, a bit more lore in the first few pages with more people.

Friar Nolan struck me as odd. A complete stranger among the ffolk who had worked hard to ingratiate himself among the nobles, suddenly suggests that the lords seek the ruling of the high king in crowning a new king of corwell.
Suddenly he knows a lot about the ancient laws of the ffolk and suddenly suggests the one thing that would say right into the hands of King Carrathal. Makes me think he was a secret stooge of the high king all along.

I can have the high king connected to the top priest of the church of chauntea in callidyrr, he can then start sending priests to corwell to expand the faith, but secretly they are spreading good words about the high king.

Also noted that in the novels the high king has the crown of the isles, but I'm pretty sure that was lost with high king Dolan in the invasion of gnarhelm. I think I will have Reginald Carrathal have the council fashion a fake crown of the isles to back his claim to be high king and extend his authority over all the ffolk kingdoms.



Also noted a bear called Grunt dwells in the sacred grove of the earth mother. I think I shall make him the guardian of this moonwell, and newt can be the guardian of the white well.


Lastly, king Kendrick had a favoured boar spear so I may as well make that one of the royal regalia, or make it an homage to the original regalia.

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Edited by - Gary Dallison on 16 Jun 2019 17:04:58
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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 18 Jun 2019 :  20:45:57  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
A few more things notable in Black Wizards.

Newt was able to handle the Heart of Kazgoroth without being affected, despite Robyn touching it and passing out instantly. I'm tempted more and more to make these faerie dragons into a material plane manifestation of a much larger creature on the faeree plane and Newt in particular to be a fey lord of sorts.

Cyndre had a mirror that showed Corwell's great hall, and the sahuagin city. Yes Cyndre could have created it, but i prefer magic items to be very, very expensive to create so i'd much rather it is a powerful and unique item. Corwell has a Moonwell, i could easily place a Moonwell beneath the waters (there is one near Flamsterd Isle) where the sahuagin city is, the mirror could be attuned to look at Moonwells - perhaps an item made by Ordalf or Urphania.

The duergar in the Moonshae Isles, it doesnt say if they live there or not. I'm almost tempted to make them mercenaries wanting to establish a kingdom. The svirfneblin it says live beneath Caer Callidyrr, but the Duergar could really be from anywhere.



Caer Allisynn has bags of holding in it (i think they are bags of holding - they hold far more than their size indicates) and a pair of gloves that blends into the skin making them invisible (not sure of the use of such a pair of gloves unless they have additional magical powers) - such a design seems elven in nature to me.


Tavish - a bard, owns her own magical folding boat - if she isnt a Great Bard i'm going to have to make her one as she seems rather wealthy for a travelling bard.

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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 20 Jun 2019 :  13:10:46  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
So the deep glass seems almost identical to the mirror that cyndre used. Ignoring the mythical creation story around it, it seems plausible that two powerfully magical items of similar form and function are connected somehow.

So someone at some time created two or more of these magic mirrors to allow them to view far off places and communicate easily with others in possession of the other mirror.

My initial thoughts are that the high king would want to communicate with his vessels in far off islands quickly and efficiently (boat would take days, carrier pigeon would take hours). Such an item would be in flamsterds powers to create.



Also Alexei supposedly has "high magic in his blood" I took this to have several possible meanings.
First is that Alexei is magically enchanted, hence "magic in his blood"
Second Is that Alexei is descended of someone magically powerful. This could be an elf (high magic literally meaning high elven magic) or that he is related to the line of the high king (high kings magic in his blood).


Also the druids were all turned to stone by the powers of the moon well, some power not mentioned elsewhere. I note that one the isle of Oman there is a stone wood so perhaps the moon wells have done this before to protect the druids (and guardians) or to destroy or imprison intruders.

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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 21 Jun 2019 :  08:41:00  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
So Alexei is thayan and cyndre trained in thay (making him mulan at least and likely thayan).

I find the idea that the sahuagin of kressilacc worship bhaal to be utterly preposterous, cant think of any way to twist that so I might just ignore it completely

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George Krashos
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Posted - 21 Jun 2019 :  08:43:45  Show Profile Send George Krashos a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison

So Alexei is thayan and cyndre trained in thay (making him mulan at least and likely thayan).

I find the idea that the sahuagin of kressilacc worship bhaal to be utterly preposterous, cant think of any way to twist that so I might just ignore it completely



They don't know they are worshipping Bhaal. They think they are worshipping Koraxis "the Ravening Maw", a deific guise Bhaal uses to divert sahuagin worship from Sekolah.

-- George Krashos

"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus
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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 21 Jun 2019 :  09:40:08  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
That is an explanation I can get behind, however when using a non God centric model of religions it is difficult for aliases to arise without secret cultists from the original religion (bhaal) setting up a cult under a different name in another region.

The problem I now have is that the sahuagin are very much separated from any other bhaal worshippers which makes the spread of his worship problematic.

I shall add in koraxis though (cool name) while I figure out how

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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 26 Jun 2019 :  21:29:56  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
So within 3 pages of the novel Darkwell, i've already found a note that will no doubt prove problematic.

quote:
for two centuries the Kendricks ruled only the small, sparsely populated land of Corwell.


This could mean several things.

Either the Kendricks are a new line of the royal dynasty that rules Corwell - i think this might not be possible according to info we have on members of the Kendrick dynasty however (i need to check).

Or the Kings of Corwell also ruled another island / kingdom at some point until 2 centuries ago. In 1266 DR Flamsterd buys the isle of Flamsterd from Corwell but that happened one century ago, not two.


This is the kind of lore nugget i was hoping to find in the first two novels, and now i've found one i really wish i hadnt.

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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 27 Jun 2019 :  14:44:47  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
So Robyn is the daughter of Brianna Moonsinger, her father is as yet undetailed (i'm at the start of Darkwell).

Robyn tells Tristan that if she becomes the Great Druid then she cannot get married, she must remain chaste. Kind of odd given that Brianna Moonsinger had a daughter (Robyn) and was the Great Druid of the Moonshae Isles, although we do not yet know if the two coincided.

I'm wondering if perhaps Robyn and Tristan are not related.

Robyn is an anagram of Bryon. Bryon's wife died shortly after Tristan was born and he sank into a great depression. Brianna Moonsinger knew him well enough to trust him with the safety of her child, despite his depression.
Perhaps when Bryons wife died he found solace in Brianna Moonsinger and fathered a child in 1329 DR. She then leaves to deal with the growing power of Kazgoroth and is killed.

It of course makes later events a bit icky, but if i'm making the Moonsingers part LeShay then fey genetics dont work the same as humans so it doesnt cause any genetic or social problems.
I could also slightly rewrite future history and make Alicia and Deirdre twins (which are a bad sign in fey culture - or so i hear as one of them almost always ends up bad).

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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 28 Jun 2019 :  10:22:03  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Daryths death was brutal. I'm enjoying darkwell more than the other books (despite it being more God based than the others). It has more of a realmsian feel to it and more lore.

So codscove was conquered by northmen in the last century.

Tristans silver chain shirt is very light and unblemished, sounds like mithril to me. It completely absorbed a blow from an owl bear so it's got to be more than normal steel.

The scrolls of arcanus are interesting but very deus ex machina. Supposedly penned before the time of cymrych hugh, they are meant to be clerical and related to a God of nature. I'm tempted to tie them to Ebenfar and or Netheril. Arcanus could be a corruption of the title Arcanist, and a number of Netherese archwizards explored both divine and arcane magic. The talfir that would become the ffolk left the sword coast, but there is no reason to believe they all left, perhaps a few persisted in Amn and Tethyr for a time and the scrolls of Arcanus are relics left over from these ffolk precursors (hence the similarities in runic script).


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Edited by - Gary Dallison on 29 Jun 2019 09:08:10
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