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AJA
Senior Scribe
USA
747 Posts |
Posted - 13 Apr 2019 : 01:09:33
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Just saw this on Ed's twitter (#Realmslore), thought it might be of interest;
quote: No, the Moonshae Isles were in the Realms before D&D existed. (I created and named them.) TSR asked if I minded if they switched out my Isles for Doug's Albion campaign (which TSR UK was going to publish before it became just a distributor), and I said that was fine, so my Hebrides-style "many small islands" went away, and Doug's came in (and the Ffolk with them). In my original, "Moonshaes" meant "Kissed By the Moon" or "Embraced By The Moon" or "Fed By The Moon," as the name was so old the origin had begun to fade.
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AJA YAFRP
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 26 Apr 2019 : 17:42:31
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Just because the kingdom couldn't be found by humans didn't mean the elves couldn't come and go, and/or that they couldn't maintain contact with the outside world. |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 26 Apr 2019 : 19:30:51
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quote: Originally posted by Gary Dallison
It is true, but I'm pretty sure the novels said synnoria was sealed to keep the humans away, so he wouldn't want his people leaving to go visit humans (and the elves like synnoria, the magic makes you not want to leave). I think kaminas was insulted by Deric and deliberately ended contact with the humans. Cymrych Hugh also ruled from Callidyrr, which is a long way from synnoria and limits contact between the rulers.
Plus I don't think anything noted allisynns race so it might be nice to continue the theme of human and elf pairings that are doomed to fail
Evermeet was created as an elven homeland, away from the other races -- but there is nothing at all that keeps Evermeet's people from leaving and returning.
Just because you lock your front door, it doesn't mean you never intend to use it yourself. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
Posted - 27 Apr 2019 : 11:35:08
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So Kazgoroth died in 201 DR. Then suddenly in 1346 DR he comes back, no explanation or hints as to how and why. Originally I had planned to ignore him coming back and rewrite events with kazgoroth in multiple guises born from his first death (skin, horn, and soul).
Now however I'm thinking I was wrong in excluding kazgoroth returning as the ravager.
We know that Brianne Moonsinger felt Kazgoroths return and she wandered into the Myrloch Vale and vanished. We know the Darkwell has been corrupted in some manner for a long time (possibly since Kazgoroths death by cymrych hugh).
I think Kazgoroth was originally slain in the Darkwell by Cymrych Hugh, and his body dissolved into the waters corrupting it permanently. The Banshee Rider was reanimated after being chucked in the well (can't remember if I read that or made it up) so I have her animated by kazgoroths essence.
What if Brianne Moonsinger was thrown into the Darkwell and Kazgoroth used her power to bring himself back. However this version was weak, only a shadow of his former power, and so easily slain by Tristan and the munchkins of doom.
I can still have the other pieces of Kazgoroth working independently of the original. I have the horn, the skin, his soul (trapped in the cauldron of doom), his claw (from baldurs gate) and the heart left behind after the ravages death.
I think the claw will be relatively minor, creating a blood rider type creature out of those it injures. The heart maybe allows the holder to gain some of his powers.
I'm rather taken with the idea of kazgoroth becoming linked to the sword of cymrych hugh and it gaining the bane ability against him, rather than it being manufactured that way. Kazgoroth killing kaminas wife is one link, trying to corrupt the banshee rider (the queens sister) is another link, and then corrupting allisynn (who I might make greene's twin and thus daughter of kaminas wife) is the third link. That seals his fate and makes him vulnerable to the sword. |
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Alternate Realms Site |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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jamesewelch
Learned Scribe
106 Posts |
Posted - 29 Apr 2019 : 16:36:14
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quote: Originally posted by Gary Dallison
Finished writing up my version of Kazgoroth, although i will likely change it again and again as i continue to evolve the Moonshae Isles.
https://alternaterealmsblog.wordpress.com/home/npcs/island-kingdoms-npcs/kazgoroth/
Kazgoroth could also inflict lycanthropy on bite, charm people (5ft radius or something), and had some innate spell casting (see invisible and detect magic, I think). Just in case you wanted to beef up his stats a bit more :)
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Barastir
Master of Realmslore
Brazil
1600 Posts |
Posted - 30 Apr 2019 : 12:27:41
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quote: Originally posted by Gary Dallison
I'm moving away from the lycanthropy thing as it's too generic and I like unique monsters, (...)
An option would be that the corrupting bite (which is canon) would generate different kinds of lycanthropes. Each individual would transform into a lycanthrope with an animal type which would reflect something of his or her nature... Kazgoroth would be able to see the potential beast in the heart of a possible victim. |
"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
6351 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore
Australia
6645 Posts |
Posted - 10 May 2019 : 05:14:40
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How about: they were always there?
-- 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 |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
Posted - 10 May 2019 : 11:35:54
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Thinking more I'm not sure the trolls and goblins could have always been there. The moonshae isles aas devoid of humanoid life except for the leshay (and they are very lords of a sort) so trolls and goblins would have bred in vast numbers (as they do without anything to reduce their population) and scoured the island chain clean of life.
The elves didn't arrive until -10000 dr so that leaves a long time for trolls and goblins to turn the islands into a barren wasteland.
Now dwarves are prone to transformation from outside sources. The urdunnir and duergar both transformed from dwarves over a prolonged period of time (urdunnir is supposedly a divine transformation but i don't do that so it is magic or magic radiation based for me).
Now trolls are present in alaron, Gwyneth, and moray where the dwarves populations are, so there is a weak link. Perhaps when dwarvenhome fell, the dwarves trapped underground were transformed into these troll like creatures (strong, feral, regenerate, ugly). I have a duergar invasion destroying dwarvenhome so it could even be a mix of dwarf and duergar trolls.
The goblins I think I will link to halflings. Halflings are an early arriver to the moonshae. Kazgoroth warps humans into blood riders, he warps firbolg into fkmorean, elves are too pure to warp, and dwarves are resistant to magic so also don't change, but halflings likely took part in the first war with kazgoroth so there would be a few transformed versions running around - little, feral, vicious, bloodthirsty monsters. They can be concentrated on alaron, Gwyneth, and the kirin archipelago where halflings are present.
I also decided the northmen arrived in the moonshae long before the ffolk, around the time of kazgoroths war, but were nearly wiped out and forced to move on, which is why the islands were avoided for so long after even though other islands were settled by them way before 0 dr. |
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Alternate Realms Site |
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Demzer
Senior Scribe
873 Posts |
Posted - 10 May 2019 : 12:28:24
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quote: Originally posted by Gary Dallison
... (or in the case of dwarves by under dark tunnel) ...
This can work for goblins and trolls too. At any point one or a few groups/tribes as small or as big as you need might have started to wander under the seabed because they were pushed by other more vicious Underdark horrors or simply because of overpopulation or maybe they were escaped slaves or whatever.
The Leshays would have definitely exterminated any such pest that posed a problem for their enviroment (and so would do the elves) so I wouldn't worry about them taking over the islands. |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Demzer
Senior Scribe
873 Posts |
Posted - 10 May 2019 : 15:35:19
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quote: Originally posted by Gary Dallison
It's certainly possible for all the monsters of the moonshae to arrive via one means or another. However the feel of the moonshae is distinctly Celtic and that is all about individuality, unique monsters, special heroes, and fantastic places. Out of the box goblins and trolls is not quite so interesting as a breed of goblin or troll that is unique to the moonshae with it's own history and abilities.
Plus i use the one monster many origins model to keep things diverse.
And this is commendable but everything everywhere having it's own origin kills immersion at some point. I can understand the concept for different Prime Material Planes, differents universes and different Planes and even very very distant places. But ultimately the Moonshaes are not that isolated, their climate is not very special, the "good" demihuman races got there with ships or through the Underdark or portals and I don't see many problems with the "evil" demihuman races doing the same.
quote: Originally posted by Gary Dallison
As for the leshay, it may be my interpretation if Fey creatures but I always think of them as a collection of individuals rather than a nation. They sometimes work together under dire circumstances but otherwise go their own mysterious way. I definitely don't think they would exterminate anything (being a bit Gandalf like for unintended consequences) and I'm not sure they have or ever had the numbers necessary to deal with goblin or troll infestations.
A single leshay (as we know it from game mechanics/canonical tales) can wipe out entire nations of goblins and trolls. I'm not talking of going on a genocidal spree just because, I'm saying that if the pests (trolls/goblins) got out of control on their own (for example, outbreeding their surrounding) then the leshays would take a split second to annihilate any excess that was threatening the balance of the ecosystem they were living in. The elves later would do the same, with several order of magnitudes less overpowering force but anyway probably much more than what any troll/goblin tribe could muster in the limited confines of the Moonshaes.
The orc hordes of the North and the goblinoids hordes of the south and the heartlands are much more dangerous because they live in enviroments that can sustain much much bigger populations, so when overpopulation occurs the numbers are already out of scale with respect to the "civilised nations" of man- elf- and dwarvenkind. The Moonshae cannot suffer a similar issue. |
Edited by - Demzer on 10 May 2019 15:35:58 |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Keseril
Acolyte
Russia
5 Posts |
Posted - 12 May 2019 : 10:34:58
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Hello! First of all, Gary Dallison, you did freaking great job! Moonshae is my favorite region for now and you played a big part in this.
Want to ask you. You said that you using original story but adding something from you own. All information here about locations and other stuffs is just yours implementation of things? Or is canon? |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
Posted - 12 May 2019 : 16:54:07
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Hi Kesseril, thank you for the very kind words, the moonshae are far from finished and I mostly do this for myself but it's always nice to hear that others get some mileage from it. So if you have any questions or anything you'd like to know more about or even any ideas yourself then just say so (especially spelling or grammar mistakes as my English is terrible - like most English people).
Now onto your question. My general approach is to take canon and twist it so that it is still the same but slightly different to commonly held opinions (little point in writing everything the same as has already been written), but I also like to expand the grey areas and what is written between the lines as much as I possibly can.
So almost everything I do is based, or distantly based (for things i have expanded on and then expanded my expansions) in canon lore. I try not to create things totally new unless there is a massive gap in the lore with nothing to fill it.
So norland is pretty empty, I've been forced to add locations to make it usable. There is no mention of orcs so I haven't added and orc nation there. There are however firbolgs on the island and some frost giants so I've added in ruins from a firbolg giant empire that is alluded to in the history of the region.
In moray there are orcs but no historic mention of them so I added in a portal from the orcgates affair of the red wizards that dumped them there. The 4e lore has lycanthropes overrunning the region so I've linked moray to a place in the feywild where an ancient Grimm creature (that I made up to explain the lycanthropy in the moonshae- not wanting to use a run of the mill werewolf) that has become trapped in the feywild. Moray also has no castle but three watchtower, so I added those watchtower into every ffolk settlement and then decided why moray had no castle despite a history of repeated raids by northmen. In the end I figured the northmen burned down the castle so much they stopped repairing it, so now i have a ruined castle and a place for treasure to be lost.
In some cases I have made stuff up, like the grimmulf and the heralds of the high king, all based on what I consider good ideas from people here, and to expand blanks in the lore or explain things the lore does not.
But generally it is all based from some stray bit of lore that I have twisted to make it slightly different (I'm rather proud of making the earth mother be an enemy of the druids who think they serve her - and in the adventure I plan to do, when the druids call on the children for help, the whole humanoid population is in danger as these super powers try to eradicate all humanoid life).
I'm more than happy to talk moonshae all day if you are running a campaign and need some inspiration, or you just like talking moonshae isles. However I have departed considerably from my first version in the alternate dimensions pdf I made and now work solely on the wordpress site (which is constantly work in progress.
Thanks again for looking at it and taking the time to say hi.
Gary
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