Lore Assistance

[cazna]

Hello.

I was interested in joining these Eilistraeeans, but I want to know the date of the truce between Eilistraee and Shevarash, just in case.

Oh boy, I wasn't even aware of this! Errrrrrr! Another reason for me to never convert to 4e.

[cazna]

Pull back and look at the context of all it. FR does not play off the theory that humans are natural, and therefore everything they do is also natural. The fluff/lore of the druid class hangs more in the celtic druid sort of way (especially in 2nd edition) than anything else. Smithing metals is an art of civilization, not something you find naturally in the wildnerness. Again this stresses the point that humans/other civilized races have pulled away from the natural way, not just found and expanded their path in nature.

Some druids like to rp the claim that tearing ore from the earth and then crafting it is harmful to nature. Damaging to the correct order of the world by infecting it with horrid mines and pouring more waste into the land, but you dont need to rp that to not wish to wear metal. You can simply acknowledge that nature itself does not provide you with iron, but rather through the crafts of man it is created.

Okay, I like that explanation. What is with sickles and scimitars then though?

I am going to guess that it has something to do with the Egyptian mythology of Set killing his brother Osiris(God of farming and later on the Underworld) with a scimitar.

[magus_taliesin]

Pull back and look at the context of all it. FR does not play off the theory that humans are natural, and therefore everything they do is also natural. The fluff/lore of the druid class hangs more in the celtic druid sort of way (especially in 2nd edition) than anything else. Smithing metals is an art of civilization, not something you find naturally in the wildnerness. Again this stresses the point that humans/other civilized races have pulled away from the natural way, not just found and expanded their path in nature.

Some druids like to rp the claim that tearing ore from the earth and then crafting it is harmful to nature. Damaging to the correct order of the world by infecting it with horrid mines and pouring more waste into the land, but you dont need to rp that to not wish to wear metal. You can simply acknowledge that nature itself does not provide you with iron, but rather through the crafts of man it is created.

Okay, I like that explanation. What is with sickles and scimitars then though?

I am going to guess that it has something to do with the Egyptian mythology of Set killing his brother Osiris(God of farming and later on the Underworld) with a scimitar.

Nope, this was covered in another thread. Sickles were holy weapons to the celtic druids. The celts also were one of the tribes to use a sword called a falcata, which is similar to a scimitar. I am betting that the original designers of DnD thought it wiser to just make the scimitar the sword for druids instead of adding a strange, obscure sword very few people have heard of. Neither of these weapon require a lot of metal, and can be crafted from iron. Small quantities of iron can be found without mining and if you don't make steel there is much less byproduct or waste in the process.

[Maecius]

Background sought:

Looking for two places that might exist in FR lore, roughly matching these descriptions:

1) A forest town/kingdom/society of some sort, either Elven or with strong Elven influence, and with a strong tradition of magic. Magic should be entwined with the governance of this place, ideally with it actually being ruled by a mageocracy or similar. For bonus points, the place would be defended by a guard of local hunters/rangers or other mostly non-magical militia.

2) A coastal human city or colony, renowned for accomplished sea-farers.

Any help from the local loremasters?

I don't have a lot of time to look into this at this precise point in time, but a few places to look at could include:

1a) http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Evereska
1b) http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Aglarond

2a) http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Luskan
2b) http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Pirate_Isles
2c) http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Selgaunt

Keep in mind that the above website is steeped in 4th Edition Lore and many of its facts will not be relevant to the server. That being said, if any of those fit with what you need, I can send you more timeline-appropriate data -- just wing me a PM.

Otherwise, good luck! I'll try to come back to this thread again if I've not helped much!

[Lightseeker]

Hello.

I was interested in joining these Eilistraeeans, but I want to know the date of the truce between Eilistraee and Shevarash, just in case.

Oh boy, I wasn't even aware of this! Errrrrrr! Another reason for me to never convert to 4e.

Actually I herd it was for priets only. And Shevarashians have no way to determine them, or the wish.

[Aikura]

Background sought:

Looking for two places that might exist in FR lore, roughly matching these descriptions:

1) A forest town/kingdom/society of some sort, either Elven or with strong Elven influence, and with a strong tradition of magic. Magic should be entwined with the governance of this place, ideally with it actually being ruled by a mageocracy or similar. For bonus points, the place would be defended by a guard of local hunters/rangers or other mostly non-magical militia.

2) A coastal human city or colony, renowned for accomplished sea-farers.

Any help from the local loremasters?

I don't have a lot of time to look into this at this precise point in time, but a few places to look at could include:

1a) http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Evereska
1b) http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Aglarond

2a) http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Luskan
2b) http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Pirate_Isles
2c) http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Selgaunt

Keep in mind that the above website is steeped in 4th Edition Lore and many of its facts will not be relevant to the server. That being said, if any of those fit with what you need, I can send you more timeline-appropriate data -- just wing me a PM.

Otherwise, good luck! I'll try to come back to this thread again if I've not helped much!

Aw, thanks Maecius! Aglarond looks perfect at a glance, and its proximity to the Pirate Isles provides the second hook there as well. Please do not invest any more time in this, I can take it from there and do the research myself. I just did not know where to start is all. Thanks again Maecius, you are loresomeness.

*does the Maecius dance*

[Psyike]

Wish I would have found this thread earlier! So first and foremost *bump* so that other new players like myself perhaps notice it

I have a couple mostly unrelated questions that have come up between myself and fiance as we've played our characters.

1) Must a blackguard be devoted to a deity? From what I can tell, complete divine says that a divine character -can- worship a cause instead. But I'm actually more interested in a blackguard receiving powers from an extraplanar creature, somewhat like a warlock. Would this be possible?

In the DM handbook it states that one of the prereqs for becoming a BG is an encounter with an evil outsider. This sounds like really fun potential RP. Having recently joined the School of Mages in Sshamath, I could easily picture my character in the future attempting to rally mage allies to summon a demon/devil/what-have-you. This would create RP not only for my character, but any others that wished to be involved in a summoning. So I'm crossing my fingers that being true to lore wouldn't squash this potential idea.

2) Outside of Sshamath (i.e., in a -typical- drow city) are there drow commoners? Or does every drow belong to a house of some sort? If not, how do drow commoners typically come into being? Who were their parents and why did they not belong to a house?

I hope those make sense. If not, let me know and I'll try to clarify. Forewarning, other questions are likely to follow

EDIT:
I -may- have found an answer for question 2 on the following site:
http://drowcampaign.roleplaynexus.com/drowsociety.html
But I'd still be curious to hear the thoughts of the resident experts. Drow commoners exist in typical drow cities, but typical drow cities were founded by nobles. So are all current commoners centuries old descendants of nobles that fell out of favor or some such?

[Arath.inc]

I am curious, is there a possibility to RP Talos follower as a Drow (from lore perspective?). I know that Malyk, an aspect of Talos were in Sshamath, then hunted down, but i don't know when this happened, prior to servers in game time or after?

[Rainbow Prism]

I was talking PM with Hollow a little and I am confused a little after that. What is canon lore about drow concerning reverie? Do they enter it or they sleep as normal races. Basically I thought that they are in sleepless activity and only few percents enter reverie, while Hollow considered that they are sleeping normally. What's the truth?

[Gwynn]

I was talking PM with Hollow a little and I am confused a little after that. What is canon lore about drow concerning reverie? Do they enter it or they sleep as normal races. Basically I thought that they are in sleepless activity and only few percents enter reverie, while Hollow considered that they are sleeping normally. What's the truth?

I was wondering this myself... I'm always intentionally ambiguous IC and say that my drow needs to "rest." So I tried to look it up. According to the Forgotten Realms Wiki, "Like all elves, drow require no sleep but instead enter a meditative trance throughout which they retain full awareness of their surroundings. This state is half-again more efficient than the way in which most races gain rest. Recently it was shown that more and more drow are actually sleeping because they cant find the peace in themselves to enter reverie." So it seems like you could RP it either way (trance vs. sleep), but I imagine your drow would do one or the other.

[HollowLaughter]

I was wondering this myself... I'm always intentionally ambiguous IC and say that my drow needs to "rest." So I tried to look it up. According to the Forgotten Realms Wiki, "Like all elves, drow require no sleep but instead enter a meditative trance throughout which they retain full awareness of their surroundings. This state is half-again more efficient than the way in which most races gain rest. Recently it was shown that more and more drow are actually sleeping because they cant find the peace in themselves to enter reverie." So it seems like you could RP it either way (trance vs. sleep), but I imagine your drow would do one or the other.

As I mentioned to Rainbow when we were having this discussion, most of the comments about drow and sleeping are based on commentary in the novels, such as Daughter of the Drow.

[Krisaga]

I play Krisaga as an alcoholic, but also that she likes finer wines. As much as I'd like to pretend she knows anything about Forgotten Realms wines, I myself don't. Is there a good source for the different kinds and what good years are or do one the DM's here happen to know this offhand?

[HollowLaughter]

I play Krisaga as an alcoholic, but also that she likes finer wines. As much as I'd like to pretend she knows anything about Forgotten Realms wines, I myself don't. Is there a good source for the different kinds and what good years are or do one the DM's here happen to know this offhand?

Posted with permission from Maecius.

This link goes to the list I most often use.

The wiki, which includes from Faerun-specific foods as well.

Here's the long/full Candlekeep list.

[Krisaga]

Cool, that's very helpful, but I'm also curious as to what are good vintage years in the forgotten realms? I remember Storm of Zehir making mention of like... what was it, 1401?

[Karond]

I've a question tied to the lore of Sshamath, I just don't get it.

What kind of city is it really, the detailed version?

I've met alot of underdark characters in my journeys, and I've seen more Elistraee followers than Llothian or any other god but Ghaundaur (which all the favored souls follow). Is this typical?

I've also seen alot of the lesser races, fully roleplaying independence. I've talked to people to understand their motivations, but the typical answer is "are you from the charnag? No? Then you cant say anything". I cant really answer that, but to me it seems the Sshamath is a sort of netural city of commerce. Anything goes. Everyone here is equals, except the charnag maelthra who is never present. The wizards who rule from their towers are not to be seen anywhere, because all the wizards or sorcerers are Imaskari not caring the least for Sshamath, drow or anyone else. It is a lawless place, more or less. A drow city empty of drow, lost and disconnected from the rest of the underdark.

If this is the aim, I am totally fine with it. But I got the impression it was different. Now, I'm not complaining about anyones roleplaying skills, players play what they want to play. But somewhere along the road it seems the Sshamath lore I read on these forums is nowhere to be found, and I've difficulties adjusting. DM activity the last 1-2 weeks is centered upon logging in, asking us if we have a technical issue or need help, before they log out and jump into server 1 again.

It is understandable. They've twice the population numbers, and even half of our numbers in the underdark are just surface players looting chests on the surface or grinding away at what I would guess are very rewarding surface areas without risk of getting the DM's attention. How I wish we could be in their shoes, to be harassed by DM's at least a 1/4th of the time as the first server, to actually portray some of the lore and rules and enforcement needed. Well, that is, if the city is supposed to be anything other than a chaotic netural place in a cave for the outcasts of the underdark starting a new life.

It sounds cozy and nice though, with that ever foreboding shadow that one day or another the drow or duergars will just send an army and take it over.

Regards,

// Tanarukk player.