I have a doubt that I would like to share with you all about the Time of Troubles and the Spellplague.
Is the "time of trouble" related to the "spellplague" event that happened in Faerun or is the opposite, the spellplague has happened because of the time of troubles?
My main doubt is because I have been reading the adventures of Drizzt D'uorden and in one of the books, the Siege of Darkness (I guess), some events happened:
The Drow, by influence and command of Matron Baenre, were preparing the armies to attack Mithra Hall (and also to destroy Drizzt), suddenly their wizards/spellcasters and the priestess of Lolth realized that their power were not working anymore, even Lolth did not reply to their prays
Lolth went "AWOL" for a while, but she appears later when she makes a deal with the demon Ertru to guarantee the destruction of Drizzt. By that time she says/mentions that those are times of trouble for the Gods
Only the psionic Drow were powerful by those time once they were not affected.
So...., some of my doubts, for instance:
Were those events caused by "The Time of Troubles?"
It seems that the Spellplague had its effect lasted for around 10 years and it seems that the Time of Troubles lasted around 1 year. Is it possible to get a timeline for those events?
Was the Time of troubles a trigger for the Spellplague or the opposite?
I would appreciate if someone could share or discuss comments on this subject or point me some source where I can get more reliable and solid information.
The Time of Troubles and the Spellplague are two separated events in Forgotten Realms.
The Time of Troubles happened in 1358 DR. During this time (more or less one year long), the gods were made mortal and forced to wander the Realms. Arcane magic was unpredictable, divine magic unanswered.
The Spellplague happened in 1385 DR, and was caused by Cyric killing Mystra with the help of Shar. Arcane spellcasters were driven mad or killed. Faerun was changed as well, with entire nations disappeared or displaced.
I will "assume" then that the event/problem that has happened to the drow in the Drizzt adventure was related to the Time of Troubles. Which points me to some direction in terms of the timeline of Drizzt, that I have been struggling to follow, for instance, when the drow were preparing to attach Mithra Hall, Drizzt was around 50 years old.
Getting a timeline, also, for the 5e campaigns is another difficult point to me.... but that is another topic.
Thanks for your help and input. Honestly, I thought the Spellplague lasted only around 10 years. As I replied to Filcat, getting a time line in Faerun is not easy for me (or maybe I am not trying hard).
I am trying to get the timeline for the 5e adventures, such as which one started first; well....., I would say that it the Start Set - Lost Mine of Phandelver, but I am not sure when it has happened.
It seems they are not following the same timeline as they were published, I mean, HotDQ is the 2nd publication, but it seems, through some other websites that SKT would be the best sequence after the LMoP.
Also Lolth going walkabout isn't exactly strange, she is an insane spider-demon goddess. Waukeen was AWOL for a long time too.
Well, Waukeen was captured by a demon lord. So there were reasons. 😊
TBH while I call myself a D&D fan most of my lore knowledge is from Baldurs' Gate and RPG sourcebooks rather than from Novels. (Although I'm sure I have an audiobook narrated by Ice-T somewhere...!)
Thanks for your comment in this thread :-). Since I posted the question and because of the participation of our companions, I have been looking for more precise references. I found some very interesting information on the web about the Spellplague and about the timeline of F.R., I did not find yet more details crossing the Times of troubles with what happened to Lolth in the Drizzt's adventure.
However, I found something in the Sword Coast Adventures' Guide, on Chapter one which is really cool an which I recommend for the players who like the lore.
PS: all books I read, I got from the local public library. Last Wednesday I went back there looking for the Drizzt's book in which Lolth "disappeared", so I could refresh my memory and check again the text, but it was rented to someone else :-(
Thanks for your comment. I just woul like to share that one good source for getting general + useful info is the Sword Coast Adventures' Guide, if you have the chance of "grabbing" it.
I interrupted my current reading (SellSwords Trilogy) to read it.
As far as I remember, the Silence of Lloth and the Time of Troubles were entirely separate events with the ToT happening years before. The Spellplague (and other sundry nastiness) occurs later still, as as mentioned has affects that last decades.
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
Before the spellplague Mystra (goddess of magic, the weave/internets) was killed by Cyric (god of strife, lies, intrigue, murder) using Mask (god of thieves) in the form of a sword in a plot orchestrated by Shar (darkness, loss, possibly caverns now?). Plot twist: Mask is Shar's son I think. But as of 5E / "sundering 2: the re-smashing", she's alive along with some previously dead deities (Bhaal, Myrkul, also Leria I think)
In the Time of Troubles Mystra wanted to get past Helm (duty, vigilance) who I think was the only god not to be made mortal since he guards the way to and from the godly/celestial realm and the mortal one. Mystra said* 'Yo Helmy, this mortal things a drag, I'm gonna go home now ok?' and he was all up in her grill 'Sorry GF but the big Aay-Oh is saying no since hes's got a headache, why you think yous all down on the prime plane?. Sorry but you can't come into the club tonight'. And he killed her. Literally like that. :P
But Mystra, literally being magic itself, has died and been reborn each time since the Weave is almost ubiquitous in Faerun. She's super powerful, but as a result probably hard to kill, unless you literally obliterated the concept of magic (or were using Shar's 'shadow weave'). She also has a lot of allies (most of the good deities are allied to at least one or two other similar ones, but the non Lawful evil ones are quite solitary...) so that probably lets her skirt the rules a bit. She also had Azuth to make a CD-Rom backup just in case and her spirit lived in her chosen or something.
Speaking of dead gods, Torm got revenge killed by Bane (who was reincarnated via his demonic demigod son I think) but since that was his literal job (smiting evil) he got a pass.
Bhaal split his essence over 'scores of mortal progeny' to enable him to be reborn after he was killed by Cyric (who being a bit short in the marble department didn't subsume his portfolio of murder) - by killing mystra and bhaal and generally mooching power he became uber strong, but being a bit crazy I don't think it lasted too long.
Myrkul got killed by Mystra (presumably before trying to get into the heavens and getting ganked by Torm) but locked himself in an artefact. I'm sketchy on that one. Suffice to say when you're literally the god of the (un)dead, it's gonna be hard to keep you down!! He's back in 5E but there's also Kelemvor so Myrkul is god of undead and a bit evil, Kelemvor is the neutral judge.
Basically they downsized/consolidated the pantheon - the egyptian mullherondi pantheon 'ascended' and various bits got consolidated which does make it a bit easier. I only wish Vecna existed in Faerun!! (i guess he could travel through the planes?) All that being said I like to leave the gods alone rather than have them as interactable things, exceptions being big bads like Tiamat who is something you can fight and kill and is currently stuck on the top layer of hell.
Finally there's also a cool story about Bhaal, Myrkul and Bane which details how the original god of the dead, Jergal, split his power between them.
*seriously, volo's words are not that reliable after 14 pints of ale!!
Thanks a l ot for your reply and contribution in this thread. You really put a lot of effort (and time) in your explanation. I will be honest...... I learned some interesting points from you, I also got lost in following some events that happened to Mystra, but that is because I need to research more the lore of DnD.
The lore of DnD...., that's another interesting topic.
Anyway, due to the motivational responses from you all I am also doing a research to get a timeline for the adventures published in 5E, which I intend to share with you within the next couple of hours. I am using mainly the material from WoTC and websites (which is not always reliable information but still interesting sources).
You're welcome. I've been playing D&D for some time but as I said I never got too invested in the novels and official canon. I like to know where things stand generally (what gods are alive/dead, and stuff) but I don't really go for massive world changing / realm shattering things. I like the realms as a backdrop to add verisimilitude - so I have backup. If a player says 'whats the god of knowledge' and I haven't thought of it, I can just refer to the existing one in FR (Oghma).
Similarly if I'm running a city intrigue game in Waterdeep, the fact that it's in Waterdeep is less relevant to me until the players want to leave, and even then maps can be 'inaccurate'!
Of course other players and DMs are more into the realms and really want to interact with it and meet the famous characters and that's fine too - one of the best thing about RPGs is that it's not wrong to do it differently :-)
The published adventure modules occur roughly around the same time in the case of the Tyranny of Dragons, Elemental Evil, Rage of Demons, and Storm King's Thunder storylines; roughly 1491 DR (The Year of the Scarlet Witch) based on a sidebar under "History" in Chapter 2 of Princes of the Apocalypse, and tie-in suggestions in other modules.
The Curse of Strahd storyline happens over and over again in Barovia since it is outside the Prime Material Plane. Tales from the Yawning Portal is intended to be "plugged-in" to existing campaigns or used as standalone adventures.
Tomb of Annihilation moves the calendar forward a bit, but WotC has intentionally left specific dates out of most modules by design. They'll likely choose to add "canon" dates later.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi my dear companions,
I have a doubt that I would like to share with you all about the Time of Troubles and the Spellplague.
Is the "time of trouble" related to the "spellplague" event that happened in Faerun or is the opposite, the spellplague has happened because of the time of troubles?
My main doubt is because I have been reading the adventures of Drizzt D'uorden and in one of the books, the Siege of Darkness (I guess), some events happened:
So...., some of my doubts, for instance:
I would appreciate if someone could share or discuss comments on this subject or point me some source where I can get more reliable and solid information.
Thanks a lot for your attention.
Cheers,
Drakortex
Drakortex, cleric of Bahamut.
The Time of Troubles and the Spellplague are two separated events in Forgotten Realms.
The Time of Troubles happened in 1358 DR. During this time (more or less one year long), the gods were made mortal and forced to wander the Realms. Arcane magic was unpredictable, divine magic unanswered.
The Spellplague happened in 1385 DR, and was caused by Cyric killing Mystra with the help of Shar. Arcane spellcasters were driven mad or killed. Faerun was changed as well, with entire nations disappeared or displaced.
Just to add to filcat's info as well, the Spellplague lasted 100 years - current time line in Faerun put us around 1492-1494.
Site Rules & Guidelines || How to Tooltip || Contact Support || Changelog || Pricing FAQ || Homebrew FAQ
If you have questions/concerns, please Private Message me or another moderator.
Wary the wizard who focuses on homebrew, for he can create nightmares that you wouldn't even dream of
Thanks Filcat,
I will "assume" then that the event/problem that has happened to the drow in the Drizzt adventure was related to the Time of Troubles. Which points me to some direction in terms of the timeline of Drizzt, that I have been struggling to follow, for instance, when the drow were preparing to attach Mithra Hall, Drizzt was around 50 years old.
Getting a timeline, also, for the 5e campaigns is another difficult point to me.... but that is another topic.
Thank you again Filcat.
You all are great.
Sincerely,
Drakortex.
Drakortex, cleric of Bahamut.
HI Sorce,
Thanks for your help and input. Honestly, I thought the Spellplague lasted only around 10 years. As I replied to Filcat, getting a time line in Faerun is not easy for me (or maybe I am not trying hard).
I am trying to get the timeline for the 5e adventures, such as which one started first; well....., I would say that it the Start Set - Lost Mine of Phandelver, but I am not sure when it has happened.
It seems they are not following the same timeline as they were published, I mean, HotDQ is the 2nd publication, but it seems, through some other websites that SKT would be the best sequence after the LMoP.
Anyway, thanks again for your time.
Sincerely,
Drakortex.
Drakortex, cleric of Bahamut.
Also Lolth going walkabout isn't exactly strange, she is an insane spider-demon goddess. Waukeen was AWOL for a long time too.
Southampton Guild of Roleplayers
My YouTube (C&C Welcome!)
Southampton Guild of Roleplayers
My YouTube (C&C Welcome!)
Hi Hawksmoor,
Thanks for your comment in this thread :-). Since I posted the question and because of the participation of our companions, I have been looking for more precise references. I found some very interesting information on the web about the Spellplague and about the timeline of F.R., I did not find yet more details crossing the Times of troubles with what happened to Lolth in the Drizzt's adventure.
However, I found something in the Sword Coast Adventures' Guide, on Chapter one which is really cool an which I recommend for the players who like the lore.
PS: all books I read, I got from the local public library. Last Wednesday I went back there looking for the Drizzt's book in which Lolth "disappeared", so I could refresh my memory and check again the text, but it was rented to someone else :-(
I put it on hold anyway for reading later.
Cheers,
Drakortex.
Drakortex, cleric of Bahamut.
Hi JoeRPGs,
Thanks for your comment. I just woul like to share that one good source for getting general + useful info is the Sword Coast Adventures' Guide, if you have the chance of "grabbing" it.
I interrupted my current reading (SellSwords Trilogy) to read it.
Cheers,
Drakortex.
Drakortex, cleric of Bahamut.
Hi,
As far as I remember, the Silence of Lloth and the Time of Troubles were entirely separate events with the ToT happening years before. The Spellplague (and other sundry nastiness) occurs later still, as as mentioned has affects that last decades.
Hawksmoor
I've got the SCAG although I've not read much of the fluff outside of the religion section tbh
Southampton Guild of Roleplayers
My YouTube (C&C Welcome!)
Wait, wasn't Mystra killed by Helm during the Time of Troubles? If so, what caused the Spellplaugue . . .
Granted my information is from a wiki, so it might not be all that reliable.
Check out my Extended signature here
Class Guides: Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer, Bard General Guides: PvP
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
Before the spellplague Mystra (goddess of magic, the weave/internets) was killed by Cyric (god of strife, lies, intrigue,
murder) using Mask (god of thieves) in the form of a sword in a plot orchestrated by Shar (darkness, loss, possibly caverns now?). Plot twist: Mask is Shar's son I think. But as of 5E / "sundering 2: the re-smashing", she's alive along with some previously dead deities (Bhaal, Myrkul, also Leria I think)In the Time of Troubles Mystra wanted to get past Helm (duty, vigilance) who I think was the only god not to be made mortal since he guards the way to and from the godly/celestial realm and the mortal one. Mystra said* 'Yo Helmy, this mortal things a drag, I'm gonna go home now ok?' and he was all up in her grill 'Sorry GF but the big Aay-Oh is saying no since hes's got a headache, why you think yous all down on the prime plane?. Sorry but you can't come into the club tonight'. And he killed her. Literally like that. :P
But Mystra, literally being magic itself, has died and been reborn each time since the Weave is almost ubiquitous in Faerun. She's super powerful, but as a result probably hard to kill, unless you literally obliterated the concept of magic (or were using Shar's 'shadow weave'). She also has a lot of allies (most of the good deities are allied to at least one or two other similar ones, but the non Lawful evil ones are quite solitary...) so that probably lets her skirt the rules a bit. She also had Azuth to make a CD-Rom backup just in case and her spirit lived in her chosen or something.
Speaking of dead gods, Torm got revenge killed by Bane (who was reincarnated via his demonic demigod son I think) but since that was his literal job (smiting evil) he got a pass.
Bhaal split his essence over 'scores of mortal progeny' to enable him to be reborn after he was killed by Cyric (who being a bit short in the marble department didn't subsume his portfolio of murder) - by killing mystra and bhaal and generally mooching power he became uber strong, but being a bit crazy I don't think it lasted too long.
Myrkul got killed by Mystra (presumably before trying to get into the heavens and getting ganked by Torm) but locked himself in an artefact. I'm sketchy on that one. Suffice to say when you're literally the god of the (un)dead, it's gonna be hard to keep you down!! He's back in 5E but there's also Kelemvor so Myrkul is god of undead and a bit evil, Kelemvor is the neutral judge.
Basically they downsized/consolidated the pantheon - the
egyptianmullherondi pantheon 'ascended' and various bits got consolidated which does make it a bit easier. I only wish Vecna existed in Faerun!! (i guess he could travel through the planes?) All that being said I like to leave the gods alone rather than have them as interactable things, exceptions being big bads like Tiamat who is something you can fight and kill and is currently stuck on the top layer of hell.Finally there's also a cool story about Bhaal, Myrkul and Bane which details how the original god of the dead, Jergal, split his power between them.
*seriously, volo's words are not that reliable after 14 pints of ale!!
Southampton Guild of Roleplayers
My YouTube (C&C Welcome!)
Hi JoeRPGs,
Thanks a l ot for your reply and contribution in this thread. You really put a lot of effort (and time) in your explanation. I will be honest...... I learned some interesting points from you, I also got lost in following some events that happened to Mystra, but that is because I need to research more the lore of DnD.
The lore of DnD...., that's another interesting topic.
Anyway, due to the motivational responses from you all I am also doing a research to get a timeline for the adventures published in 5E, which I intend to share with you within the next couple of hours. I am using mainly the material from WoTC and websites (which is not always reliable information but still interesting sources).
Cheers,
Drakortex.
Drakortex, cleric of Bahamut.
You're welcome. I've been playing D&D for some time but as I said I never got too invested in the novels and official canon. I like to know where things stand generally (what gods are alive/dead, and stuff) but I don't really go for massive world changing / realm shattering things. I like the realms as a backdrop to add verisimilitude - so I have backup. If a player says 'whats the god of knowledge' and I haven't thought of it, I can just refer to the existing one in FR (Oghma).
Similarly if I'm running a city intrigue game in Waterdeep, the fact that it's in Waterdeep is less relevant to me until the players want to leave, and even then maps can be 'inaccurate'!
Of course other players and DMs are more into the realms and really want to interact with it and meet the famous characters and that's fine too - one of the best thing about RPGs is that it's not wrong to do it differently :-)
Southampton Guild of Roleplayers
My YouTube (C&C Welcome!)
The published adventure modules occur roughly around the same time in the case of the Tyranny of Dragons, Elemental Evil, Rage of Demons, and Storm King's Thunder storylines; roughly 1491 DR (The Year of the Scarlet Witch) based on a sidebar under "History" in Chapter 2 of Princes of the Apocalypse, and tie-in suggestions in other modules.
The Curse of Strahd storyline happens over and over again in Barovia since it is outside the Prime Material Plane. Tales from the Yawning Portal is intended to be "plugged-in" to existing campaigns or used as standalone adventures.
Tomb of Annihilation moves the calendar forward a bit, but WotC has intentionally left specific dates out of most modules by design. They'll likely choose to add "canon" dates later.