Hello everybody, I have been craving for an actual War in the Forgotten Realms. When I searched for Wars in the Forgotten Realms I was hoping to find Wars that are not necessarily 'Good vs Bad'. The only wars I found were between Elves vs Drow, Dwarves vs Orcs and again all the Good vs Bad wars. I found nothing between 'Neutral vs Neutral' for example the war between England and France in the Medieval Era, neither England nor France were Good or Bad, Right or Wrong. Maybe if there was a War regarding the Lords' Alliance but I don't see the Lord' Alliance as a 'Military Superpower'. Maybe the Lords' Alliance could crumble and fall and the Alliance is broken and 2 sides are made but then again how would that work? If anybody has ideas for how a War or Civil War could start or even if there have been any past Wars that aren't 'Good vs Bad' in the FR, leave your thoughts in the comments.
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First off, history is written by the victors so you will not usually find history written from the viewpoint of nuetrality.
Which is why the only one I can think of would be the Crown Wars. In particular, the later Crown Wars. Sun Elf vs Moon elf for much of them with some wood and drow tossed in.
Agree with the Crown Wars - it's the closest you get to a civil war there is. That is if you don't mind setting your campaign long in the past :)
Alternatively you can escalate the tensions between members of the fallen League of Silver Marches (Luruar). Dwarves harboring hard feelings towards Silverymoon for not helping enough when Sundabar fell to the orcs.
Or maybe escalate tensions between Sembia and the elves of Somberholme (formerly from Myth Drannor) - Sembia was basically forced to go against elves by the now fallen empire of New Netheril and regained independence but lingering tensions probably remain.
Yes, Aryvandaar vs the rest of the Tel'Quessir is pretty close. There's some evil on evil, (Zhentil Keep vs Hillsfar) fairly often. There's been a lot of skirmishing between Cormyr and Sembia. The crusade against the Tuigan Horde is probably another example, as is Lashan's attempt at subduing all the dalelands.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Queen Raedra Obarskyr appreciates the kind words about her deceased grandfather, but her coronation is very much to be respected. And I didn't say anything about being wars of expansion, but they spent the better half of a generation at war with Sembia and Netheril to defend their borders... as well as some borders which were strictly speaking not Cormyrean borders, but if people can't defend themselves then who's to object to Cormyr coming to their aid?
The Tuigan horde example is a great one. From the perspective of the novels from back on the day, the Tuigan start as the protagonists in the first book Horselords and are the antagonists in the third book Crusade. I think that provides good bona fides for being a neutral vs neutral war.
Are Netheril and Shade the same thing? Or are they both floating cities but two different cities?
I sense a certain sarcasm in your last sentence 😊.
The City of Shade (Thultanthar) became known as the returned Netheril Empire because they were the last vestige of the Netheril of old (the last flying city). Basically for over a hundred years, since their appearance from the Shadow Plane, they expanded and grew in influence, reestablishing the old ways of netherese.
That is, until Elminster spanked Telamont Tanthul and dropped the flying city from the sky on Myth Drannor :)
The Tuigan horde example is a great one. From the perspective of the novels from back on the day, the Tuigan start as the protagonists in the first book Horselords and are the antagonists in the third book Crusade. I think that provides good bona fides for being a neutral vs neutral war.
Absolutely! I never read those novels, but that totally makes sense.
Are Netheril and Shade the same thing? Or are they both floating cities but two different cities?
I sense a certain sarcasm in your last sentence 😊.
The City of Shade (Thultanthar) became known as the returned Netheril Empire because they were the last vestige of the Netheril of old (the last flying city). Basically for over a hundred years, since their appearance from the Shadow Plane, they expanded and grew in influence, reestablishing the old ways of netherese.
That is, until Elminster spanked Telamont Tanthul and dropped the flying city from the sky on Myth Drannor :)
Are Netheril and Shade the same thing? Or are they both floating cities but two different cities?
I sense a certain sarcasm in your last sentence 😊.
Yes, and no. Technically, Shade enclave is one of the Netherese floating cities that escaped Karsus' Folly by slipping into the shadowfell. Netheril proper fell when Karsus tried (succeeded actually) to steal the power of Mystryl, goddess of magic. Mystryl sacrificed her self, and in that moment, magic ceased to exist. The goddess of magic was then reincarnated as Mystra (the first one). In that short period of moments between Mystryl and Mystra, most of the Netherese floating cities containing the vast majority of the Netherese floating enclaves (Selunarra is also known to have escaped) crashed and were destroyed, killing the arch mages who lived there.
For 4e, Shade Enclave returned to Toril from the Shadowfell, and re-established the Netherese on Faerun. For 5e, Shade Enclave was destroyed when it crashed into Myth Drannor.
the TL/DR version is that technically shade is a city, filled with some of the last Netherese arch-magi until it's destruction. Now, a few Netherese are left, but they are not completely united and they are weak.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I'll tell you about a war I once made and it all started with a person called keth the warlord. I'll tell you how he got the name. This was my first campaign, in this campaign my party had travelled to feywild after retiring from adventuring. They had a lot of fun in feywild having drining contests with satyrs and armwrestles until they heard that shadowfell had declared war on feywild and they needed a adventurers to help them. So one of my party members said that he will help and his name was keth. So later on when the war was taking place feywild was losing and was about to be taken over by shadowfell. Until keth the warlord travelled to where a ancient gold dragon lived. The dragon wasn't so keen on heading straight into a war but keth managed to persuade the dragon to help and he saved feywild from shadowfell. Keth after on died from a balor that he had made an enemy later on in the campaign.
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"Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced"- Soren Kierkgaard
In general the Forgotten Realms prefers to avoid plotlines of "humans being humans" in favor of having a more obvious bad guy, but you could certainly put together your own variant. What's the goal, though? Wars with no obvious bad guys aren't terribly good adventuring settings.
Hello everybody, I have been craving for an actual War in the Forgotten Realms. When I searched for Wars in the Forgotten Realms I was hoping to find Wars that are not necessarily 'Good vs Bad'. The only wars I found were between Elves vs Drow, Dwarves vs Orcs and again all the Good vs Bad wars. I found nothing between 'Neutral vs Neutral' for example the war between England and France in the Medieval Era, neither England nor France were Good or Bad, Right or Wrong. Maybe if there was a War regarding the Lords' Alliance but I don't see the Lord' Alliance as a 'Military Superpower'. Maybe the Lords' Alliance could crumble and fall and the Alliance is broken and 2 sides are made but then again how would that work? If anybody has ideas for how a War or Civil War could start or even if there have been any past Wars that aren't 'Good vs Bad' in the FR, leave your thoughts in the comments.
REMEMBER: Wizards Of The Coast does not own DDB, they are two different companies. When you buy a physical book, WotC receives the money you bought it for, not DDB and vice versa. If you want a digital key to get an online book for free because you have the hardcopy book then DDB makes no money because you don't buy off DDB you buy off WotC, so please stop making threads about this issue. DDB needs money to continue helping people and servers aren't cheap.
Waterdeep versus Amn
Isn't Cormyr basically always at war with any number of neighbours?
I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.
First off, history is written by the victors so you will not usually find history written from the viewpoint of nuetrality.
Which is why the only one I can think of would be the Crown Wars. In particular, the later Crown Wars. Sun Elf vs Moon elf for much of them with some wood and drow tossed in.
Agree with the Crown Wars - it's the closest you get to a civil war there is. That is if you don't mind setting your campaign long in the past :)
Alternatively you can escalate the tensions between members of the fallen League of Silver Marches (Luruar). Dwarves harboring hard feelings towards Silverymoon for not helping enough when Sundabar fell to the orcs.
Or maybe escalate tensions between Sembia and the elves of Somberholme (formerly from Myth Drannor) - Sembia was basically forced to go against elves by the now fallen empire of New Netheril and regained independence but lingering tensions probably remain.
Yes, Aryvandaar vs the rest of the Tel'Quessir is pretty close. There's some evil on evil, (Zhentil Keep vs Hillsfar) fairly often. There's been a lot of skirmishing between Cormyr and Sembia. The crusade against the Tuigan Horde is probably another example, as is Lashan's attempt at subduing all the dalelands.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Not really. Cormyr is ruled by a lawful good king and would be unlikely to engage in wars of expansion. In my opinion.
Queen Raedra Obarskyr appreciates the kind words about her deceased grandfather, but her coronation is very much to be respected. And I didn't say anything about being wars of expansion, but they spent the better half of a generation at war with Sembia and Netheril to defend their borders... as well as some borders which were strictly speaking not Cormyrean borders, but if people can't defend themselves then who's to object to Cormyr coming to their aid?
I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.
The blood war is evil v evil
Okay. Thanks. Idk all that.
Are Netheril and Shade the same thing? Or are they both floating cities but two different cities?
I sense a certain sarcasm in your last sentence 😊.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Whoops, this one was first:
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
The Tuigan horde example is a great one. From the perspective of the novels from back on the day, the Tuigan start as the protagonists in the first book Horselords and are the antagonists in the third book Crusade. I think that provides good bona fides for being a neutral vs neutral war.
The City of Shade (Thultanthar) became known as the returned Netheril Empire because they were the last vestige of the Netheril of old (the last flying city). Basically for over a hundred years, since their appearance from the Shadow Plane, they expanded and grew in influence, reestablishing the old ways of netherese.
That is, until Elminster spanked Telamont Tanthul and dropped the flying city from the sky on Myth Drannor :)
Absolutely! I never read those novels, but that totally makes sense.
Thank you. Appreciate the info.
Yes, and no. Technically, Shade enclave is one of the Netherese floating cities that escaped Karsus' Folly by slipping into the shadowfell. Netheril proper fell when Karsus tried (succeeded actually) to steal the power of Mystryl, goddess of magic. Mystryl sacrificed her self, and in that moment, magic ceased to exist. The goddess of magic was then reincarnated as Mystra (the first one). In that short period of moments between Mystryl and Mystra, most of the Netherese floating cities containing the vast majority of the Netherese floating enclaves (Selunarra is also known to have escaped) crashed and were destroyed, killing the arch mages who lived there.
For 4e, Shade Enclave returned to Toril from the Shadowfell, and re-established the Netherese on Faerun. For 5e, Shade Enclave was destroyed when it crashed into Myth Drannor.
the TL/DR version is that technically shade is a city, filled with some of the last Netherese arch-magi until it's destruction. Now, a few Netherese are left, but they are not completely united and they are weak.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I'll tell you about a war I once made and it all started with a person called keth the warlord. I'll tell you how he got the name. This was my first campaign, in this campaign my party had travelled to feywild after retiring from adventuring. They had a lot of fun in feywild having drining contests with satyrs and armwrestles until they heard that shadowfell had declared war on feywild and they needed a adventurers to help them. So one of my party members said that he will help and his name was keth. So later on when the war was taking place feywild was losing and was about to be taken over by shadowfell. Until keth the warlord travelled to where a ancient gold dragon lived. The dragon wasn't so keen on heading straight into a war but keth managed to persuade the dragon to help and he saved feywild from shadowfell. Keth after on died from a balor that he had made an enemy later on in the campaign.
"Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced"- Soren Kierkgaard
In general the Forgotten Realms prefers to avoid plotlines of "humans being humans" in favor of having a more obvious bad guy, but you could certainly put together your own variant. What's the goal, though? Wars with no obvious bad guys aren't terribly good adventuring settings.
Wow! So the Shadowfell existed as far back as the age of Netheril.