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Titolo: [FR 4ed] spellplague: the weiling years

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Countdown to the Realms
Spellplague: The Wailing Years
by Brian James 
02/27/2008
Dragon Features Archive
 
Excerpt from the journal of Arleenaya Kithmaer, First Magistrati of
the House of the High One Ascendant, Year of Blue Fire (1385 DR)
"Reaching out northwest from beyond the horizon's rim, I beheld a
sight which was at once horrifying as it was beautiful; a stormlike
catastrophe rolling across the sky, which seemed to be ablaze with
blue fire. Frozen in stupefying awe, I witnessed the cerulean
thunderhead crash into the mighty Lhairghal, throwing pillars of azure
fire skyward to snatch at Selûne's calming light. Selûne, my gods! The
surface of the moon, long presented to us mortals as a barren
landscape of craters and lifeless valleys, now revealed to me majestic
mountains and sprawling seas; itself alight with similar cobalt
radiance. A nearby exclamation from the Magehound returned my
attention earthward to witness a shimmering wall of sapphire flame
racing down Mhair Pass. Five breaths longer and the storm would crash
into the battlement upon which I stood with a handful of loomwardens.
I recall hastily whispered prayers to Azuth, a moment of unqualified
stillness, and then nothing."
As dusk fell over the Shining South on the final day of Uktar in the
Year of Blue Fire (1385 DR), a menacing storm began forming over the
Mhair Jungles west of Halruaa. Beyond its massive size, the storm was
particularly notable for the ribbons of blue flame that seemed to
writhe and flow among its formations. In the mountains near Lhair in
western Halruaa, dumbfounded priests watched in absolute silence,
unable to comprehend the terrible events unfolding on the horizon.
What the clerics of Azuth could not possibly fathom was that three
score or more similar storms sprang up all across Toril; born
instantly upon the assassination of Mystra in her heavenly dominion.
Arleenaya Kithmaer and four nearby priests were teleported to safety
by a quick-thinking magehound. The nation of Halruaa, however, would
suffer horribly that ill-fated night. The three great mountain ranges
that oft protected the nation from external invasion actually made it
difficult for many Halruaans to escape the uncontrolled wild magic
unleashed across the countryside. Halruaa today is best known as a
magical wasteland; it is also the birthplace of the roving mercenary
bands known as the Five Companies.
The cerulean storm and its aftereffects would become known in later
days as the Spellplague. Despite its name, the Spellplague was no mere
magical affliction. For nearly ten years the plague raged on and on in
ever-widening spirals, irrevocably altering whole regions while
leaving others completely unscathed. Whole countries vanished in
earthquakes, fires, and windstorms, inexplicably replaced with peoples
and lands from a world beyond our own. Even the starry constellations
in the Sea of Night seemingly rearranged themselves in the heavens
above. Scholars in later years would name this decade of chaos and
upheaval the Wailing Years, or simply the Plague Years. For more
details on the Spellplague and the secondary catastrophes that
followed in its wake, check out the Countdown to the Realms preview
article Magic in the Forgotten Realms.
The Wailing Years
In game terms, the Spellplague represents the definitive event for
transitioning the setting from one rules system to the next, and the
loss of the Weave will have a profound effect on arcane spellcasters
in your campaign. Though a small percentage of mages are driven to
madness at the outset of the Spellplague, it's recommended you spare
your players from this ignoble fate. Instead, wizards and other arcane
spellcasters find that their magic has gone wild or departed
altogether. In effect, all of Abeir-Toril is blanketed by a massive
zone of wild magic. Refer to the 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign
Setting (page 55) for Table 2–1 of Wild Magic Effects. As the Weave
unravels throughout the month of Nightal in the Year of Blue Fire,
these wild magic zones are quickly replaced with dead magic zones
until one day arcane magic ceases to function altogether.
DMs may wish to take advantage of the Wailing Years to run a low
magic/melee-centric campaign using rules or concepts from sourcebooks
such as Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords or Iron Heroes. Otherwise
it may be wise to simply move your campaign forward to the Year of
Silent Death (1395 DR) or beyond, where direct effects of the
Spellplague have largely subsided and most spellcasters have once
again gained mastery of their magic. See the section below on the
Vilhon Reach for a description of a functioning time portal you may
wish to use for this purpose.
Included below is a timeline of key events that occurred during the
Wailing Years, which may be useful to a transitional campaign set in
the kingdom of Cormyr or the Vilhon Reach. Following the timeline is a
brief update of these two regions, including sample adventure hooks.
Timeline
1385 DR (Year of Blue Fire)
The Spellplague: An unthinkable catastrophe ensues when Cyric, aided
and abetted by Shar, murders Mystra in Dweomerheart. The plane itself
disintegrates at once, destroying Savras and sending the gods Azuth
and Velsharoon reeling into the endless Astral Sea. Without Mystra to
govern the Weave, magic bursts its bonds all across Toril and the
surrounding planes and runs wild. In Faerûn, this event is known as
the Spellplague. Thousands of mages are driven insane or destroyed,
and the very substance of the world becomes mutable beneath veils of
azure fire that dance across the skies by night or by day.
Where once stood the realm of Sespech, the Golden Plains, and the
Nagalands, the Spellplague reveals a surreal landscape breathtaking in
its beauty, grandeur, and changeability. For the next century, active
Spellplague cavorts on this territory called the Changing Lands,
contorting terrain, natural law, and the flesh of any creature that
dares enter.
Cormyr is struck hard, but not so violently as many other nations.
Roughly one third of all Wizards of War are slain, driven mad, or
simply have gone missing in the year following Mystra's death.
1386 DR (Year of the Halfling's Lament) A portion of Toril's sibling
world Abeir violently exchanges places with large sections of Chondath
and western Chessenta. Displaced genasi from the Abeiran land of Shyr
quickly set about creating a kingdom of their own.
The former expanse of the Sea of Fallen Stars is altered when wide
portions of the landscape collapse into the Underdark. When the sea
level reaches its new equilibrium, the average drop in water level
measured nearly 50 feet. The waters of the Vilhon Reach were similarly
drained, uncovering several drowned ruins from ancient Jhaamdath.
1387 DR (Year of the Emerald Ermine)
The Emerald Enclave begins sending agents throughout the Vilhon Wilds
to counter the effects of the Spellplague. As years became decades,
their original mission is slowly perverted from one of respect for and
guardianship of nature to a vain struggle against forces far beyond
their control.
The Prismatic Mountains, a beautiful Abeiran mountain range seeming to
be made entirely of dense multicolored glass, appears between the
Desertmouth Mountains and the Thunderpeaks, closing off Shadow Gap and
halting overland trade along the Northride between New Tilverton and
Shadowdale.
1388 DR (Year of the Tanarukka)
Bullywugs tribes from the Farsea Marshes begin harrying Zhentarim
forces operating throughout the Tunlands, diminishing Black Network
activities in the region.
Some members of Cormyr's remaining War Wizards, having lost access to
the Art, begin cross-training with the Purple Dragons in swordplay and
martial defense. In years to come these swordmages will prove
invaluable against neighboring aggression in the region.
1389 DR (Year of the Forgiven Foes)
A strangely angular black monolith is sometimes visible breaking above
the waves along Cormyr's coast, never in the same place twice. 
1390 DR (Year of the Walking Man)
Dowager Dragon Queen, Filfaeril Selazair Obarskyr, dies. Alusair
attends the state funeral, argues briefly and privately with her
nephew the king, and disappears altogether from Court. Rumors persist
of her riding through the frontiers and borderlands, but no confirmed
reports of her appearance exist following the burial of Filfaeril.
1391 DR (Year of the Wrathful Eye)
The dark druid Zalaznar Crinios leads a great host of fell beasts to
sack the forest community of Gurnth. Nobanion calls his followers to
his side at Machran Spire in an effort to counter the pending
invasion.
1392 DR (Year of the Scroll)
The Dragon Coast city of Pros petitions the Crown to become a
vassal-state of Cormyr in order to protect it from the ravages of the
Spellplague. Azoun V reluctantly accepts. By year's end, Pros'
sister-town of Ilipur joins the Forest Kingdom as well. Unfortunately
the receding waters of the Sea of Fallen Stars have spelled ruin for
these small trading towns.
1393 DR (Year of the Ring)
Sembian investors begin buying up land in the southern Dales.
Concerned, Azoun V issues a formal objection to the Dale's Council in
Archendale but the King's emissary is rebuffed.
Spellscarred beings and pilgrims hoping to obtain a spellscar begin
journeying to the Changing Lands in large numbers. They are welcomed
in Ormpetarr by the Order of Blue Fire.
1394 DR (Year of Deaths Unmourned)
Led by the increasingly mad human-turned-eladrin Shadowmoon
Crystalembers, the Grand Cabal of the Emerald Enclave begins
attempting -- often by violent means -- to stem the tide of
spellscarred pilgrims that pass through Turmish.
Years of straining with their conflicted Sembian and Cormyrean
identities, and struggling against the rule of Netheril, culminates in
the annexation of the border city of Daerlun into the Forest Kingdom.
1395 DR (Year of Silent Death)
Sakkors, the Netherese floating enclave not seen since the days before
the Spellplague, makes a reappearance over Daerlun in the dead of
night. The following morning civil unrest breaks out throughout the
city. Azoun V sends elite swordmages to restore order in the city.
Tone and Feel
The 4th Edition Realms are shifting away from a "Renaissance" feel to
a more contemporary higher fantasy environment. If you can imagine
playing D&D in a world that looks like the cover of a Yes album,
you're getting close. Yeah, I needed to Google it, too.
For visuals, go visit 
www.rogerdean.com
. High fantasy doesn't mean
that the Realms are turning into a magical steampunk setting. Eberron
already has elemental-powered airships and trains, and that is not the
direction set for the Realms. Instead, the landscape itself shall be
spectacular, indescribable, striking, and magical.
Of course each region will maintain its own distinctive flavor. We
don't think that Waterdeep belongs on a floating earthmote or that the
Dalelands needs all its farmland replaced with spiky stone towers, but
we want some of that element of the incredible to be a part of almost
every piece of the Realms your characters visit.
Vilhon Reach
The lands of the Vilhon Reach were affected greatly by the merging of
Abeir with Toril. The waters of the Reach itself were partially
drained during the Spellplague, revealing several drowned Cities of
the Sword from ancient Jhaamdath. The once welcoming and cosmopolitan
folk of Turmish have grown increasingly xenophobic throughout the
Wailing Years. Akanûl, formerly the lands of Chondath, are now
populated by genasi from the Abeiran land of Shyr, a region that will
barely survive its first contact with the Abolethic Sovereignty some
years later.
Since the Year of Blue Fire, civilization has been slow to return to
the wilder Spellplague-morphed regions. The notorious Changing Lands
lie close by, contorting terrain, natural law, and the flesh of any
creature that dares enter. The Vilhon Reach is a great example of the
new "Tone and Feel" of the setting in action, making it a great region
to explore some of the more fantastic locales on Faerûn.
ANDRIO'S GATE: The Reach happens to contain one of Toril's few
functioning time gates; a useful tool for bringing characters forward
beyond the Wailing Years (1385 DR to 1395 DR) to a more stable time
period for campaign play. The time gate is located within Mount
Andrus, a volcanic peak within the Orsraun Mountains on Turmish's
western frontier. There the time gate has survived millennia despite
several volcanic eruptions, shielded from the monstrous heat and the
effects of the Spellplague by powerful, and some would say divine,
wards. Adrio's Gate is activated by speaking the name of a year as
given in the Roll of Years then stepping through the gate's event
horizon.
Turmish
Turmish suffered much less than Chondath, but the partial draining of
the Sea of Fallen Stars did leave its busy port at Alaghôn high and
dry. Today, this realm of increasingly competitive and desperate
merchant costers is also a through-route for fanatics on spellscar
pilgrimages to the Changing Lands. The once welcoming and cosmopolitan
Turmishans have grown increasingly xenophobic, and they are guarded
and suspicious of strangers, even though they remain dependent on
outside trade.
North and west of Turmish beyond the Orsraun and Alaoreum Mountains
stretches the forested realm of Gulthandor, ruled by a powerful and
enigmatic druid in lion's form its followers name Nobanion. Gulthandor
has no ties with the largely disbanded organization once known as the
Emerald Enclave. Ilighôn, once the island home of the Enclave, became
part of mainland Turmish when the seas retreated in 1386 DR.
YURGRIM'S DELVE: Alaghôn remains the capital of Turmish; the city's
curious architecture is the result of the Chondathan humans building
over existing structures left by a previous dwarven civilization. The
dwarves also left an abandoned mine -- a maze of subterranean tunnels,
vaults, and catacombs that have never been fully explored, or fully
rid of monsters -- beneath the city streets. Few entrances to the
Undercity remain, but adventurers continue to brave their dark reaches
in search of plunder. A few ancient tomes make reference to a lich
queen from Unther residing below the palace, yet most discount these
accounts as wild tales of fiction.
PRIDE OF THE FIREMANE: Zalaznar Crinios (CE dark tree druid 20), has
turned away from the teachings of Eldath to embrace Malar, who
"rewarded" the High Druid by transforming him into a Dark Tree
(Shining South p62). Zalaznar is gathering a great host of fell beasts
to sack the forest community of Gurnth (village; population ~300).
Nobanion is calling all able-bodied adventurers to his side at Machran
Spire in an effort to counter the pending invasion.
Nobanion
Lord Firemane, Lord of Gulthandor
Unaligned Exarch of Silvanus
Seen as a great protector and guardian across the Vilhon Wilds,
Nobanion (No-BAN-yun) appears as a great male lion of at least twice
normal size. His coat gleams with the radiance of the sun, and his
mane is incredibly thick and luxurious. Sometimes the Lion God's mane
ignites in a nimbus of amber and golden fire, the origin of his title
"Lord Firemane." At will he can sprout the wings of a gigantic eagle.
Thought to be a favored champion of Silvanus, Nobanion now rules the
forested realm of Gulthandor from the druidic stronghold of
Cedarsproke. Beyond Gulthandor, Lord Firemane is also honored as the
titular ruler of the wemic Tenpaw tribe of the Shining Plains. Clerics
of Silvanus who honor the tenets of the King of Lions are known as
Roaring Avengers.
Exarchs
The exarchs are often called demigods or heroes, and many are ascended
mortal servants of greater gods, brought up from the world to serve as
agents of their divine masters. Many, but not all, attract worshipers
of their own, and they have some ability to grant spells, but are more
often simply conduits from the mortal world to the attention of the
higher gods. For example, the druids of Gulthandor pay homage to the
Lion God, but in reality the character's divine spells are being
granted by Nobanion's patron, Silvanus. Unlike true deities, exarchs
are not bound to live in Astral Dominions with their patrons. Like
Nobanion, many choose to live on the Material Plane, more directly
engaged in the lives of their mortal followers.
Finally, exarchs in D&D campaigns are fully intended to be defeatable
by any epic-level PC strong enough to attempt it. Of course, immortal
beings are not just sitting around waiting for epic-level adventurers
to take their life. And should the PCs even succeed in such an
endeavor, they'll surely have earned the wrath of the exarch's patron
deity.
Chondath
A portion of Toril's sibling world, Abeir violently exchanged places
with large sections of Chondath and western Chessenta during the
Spellplague. The shattered ruins of cities lie broken at the bottom of
ravines or thrust high atop stone spires, a constant draw to
adventurers seeking troves of lost gold. The land today is
characterized by crazed stone spires, cavernous ravines, and cliffs
like petrified waves. Freefloating earthmotes host miniature forests,
grasslands, lakes, and ever-replenishing waterfalls that mist the land
below in draperies of mist. The wild landscape is perfectly suited to
the tempestuous population of genasi that now claim the land as their
own. Akanûl is the name of this genasi-ruled realm, and the capital
city of Airspur holds the bulk of the nation's population. The waters
of the Vilhon Reach were partially drained during the Spellplague,
revealing several ruined Cities of the Sword, lost since the last days
of Jhaamdath. Travelers to the region are few and far between. The few
who travel through this treacherous floodplain return with madness or
not at all.
The Chondalwood is a confusion of ravines and floating junglemotes,
some sailing free, others webbed to lower jungle regions by thick
vines and vegetation. The Chondalwood's vigor is impressive -- it grew
in the Spellplague's wake instead of being diminished or being erased
by it; witness its colonizing junglemotes spreading like airborne
seeds north, south, and east, and west. The halflings and centaurs
that once roamed these woods are now gone; replaced with spellscarred
satyrs and feral elves who declare blood feud on any outsider entering
the jungle's heartwood.
LESSER OF TWO EVILS: During a violent spring thunderstorm, a strange
angular black monolith is spotted in the shallow waters off the Nun
Coast near Reth. The following morning, kuo-toa harpooners flying
strange winged morkoth attack the port city. The invaders are repelled
by High Lady Glorganna and a detachment of Banite guerrillas. It
remains unclear what the Abolethic Sovereignty was seeking in the city
-- half of which lies in shattered ruin at the bottom of the Bay of
Silvanus.
MAGEDOOM: At the center of the Chondalwood is a ruin of ancient,
toppled stone towers whose cellars are packed with gold coins. The
elves of Wildhome steer well clear of it, citing terrible bodiless
guardian creatures that ravage flesh, inspire madness, and target
spellcasters in particular, igniting them like torches.
Changing Lands
Where once stood the realm of Sespech, the Golden Plains, and the
Nagalands, now stands a surreal landscape breathtaking in its beauty,
grandeur, and changeability. Active Spellplague still cavorts on this
territory, contorting terrain, natural law, and the flesh of any
creature that dares enter. Earthmotes aplenty break up the sky in a
strange parity with the fractured terrain below. Swaths of moving
earth change with mercurial speed, and great ravines empty directly
into the Underdark. Artist renditions that capture true glimpses of
the place's exquisite loveliness and horrific strangeness can command
large sums back in civilized lands.
SCAR PILGRIMAGE: Plaguechanged and pilgrims hoping to obtain a
spellscar sometimes journey here because it's the most prominent
plagueland in Faerûn, as well as a great hold of the Order of Blue
Fire. The stability of the plagueland's border provides an environment
where the clever, ambitious, or insane can experiment with the
Spellplague and its effects. As with most who brave plaguelands, few
pilgrims who enter the Changing Land are ever seen again, but those
who do return sometimes claim newfound power.
Religion DC 30: The Order of Blue Fire appears as a benevolent service
organization, but its public face is a front to a more sinister
organization. It formed as a cult dedicated to the idea that the
Spellplague was a holy cosmic event, the changing work of which should
be encouraged to continue. The focal points of this belief system are
inscrutable beings known as the Masters of Absolute Accord. The
Masters can manipulate plaguelands and send visions to the
spellscarred. Their guidance often leads to miraculous and terrible
events that spread and nurture existing active pockets of Spellplague.
Motes
After the plague of change, some elements of the physical world have
gained a supernatural independence from certain natural laws. The most
striking of these (to those unfamiliar with them) are motes.
Motes are free-floating bits of landscape that defy gravity to hover
in place over certain locales (usually, those locales most affected by
the Spellplague). These motes are not usually more than a few hundred
meters along any one dimension, but despite this relative small size,
ecosystems cling to these motes, apparently sustained by the more
natural landscape over or through which a particular mote floats. 
Motes are often referred to according to the type of landscape each
sports. Thus, there are junglemotes, fungusmotes, cavemotes,
grassmotes, pinemotes, and so on. Larger motes may support animal
life, including humanoids.
Cormyr
Unlike the lands of the Vilhon Reach, the nation of Cormyr suffered
little geological upheaval during the Spellplague Years. Instead the
upheaval in the Forest Kingdom was largely political. Famine, economic
hardship, and unrest among the peerage would be difficult for any
ruling monarch, yet these challenges perhaps weighed more heavily upon
the shoulders of young King Azoun V. Claiming the Dragon Throne in the
Year of Three Streams Blooded (1384 DR), Azoun had merely thirteen
winters behind him at his coronation and only sixteen months on the
throne before the Spellplague sent the world spinning into chaos.
Thankfully, the king surrounded himself with men and women of wise
counsel, including the Caladnei, Mage Royal of Cormyr. Under his rule,
the Forest Kingdom quickly recovered from the anarchy of the Wailing
Years, and the young king went on to become a just, wise, and
long-lived ruler.
The Helmlands
Formed during the Time of Troubles, this desolate land of howling
winds and jagged rock was the site of Mystra's destruction at the
hands of Helm in the Year of Shadows (1358 DR). In the months
following its creation, locals named the site the Pits of Mystra, for
the land was nothing but bubbling tar pits as far as the eye could
see. Priests dedicated to the new Goddess of Magic cleansed the land
of the fetid pits in later years, but the tear in the fabric of the
Weave remained. Today a forest of towering redwoods has returned; the
original was lost when Mystra's dying energy blasted the land like a
million Shou cannons. In the wake of the Spellplague, the Helmlands
have grown, spreading along the northern wall of the Stormhorns,
stretching as far west as the foothills above Eveningstar. Wild magic
still pervades the entire region, but unlike the Changing Lands,
visitors may enter the Helmslands without fear of becoming
spellscarred.
TEMPLE ACHERON: Once the blasted ruin of Castle Kilgrave, the imposing
stronghold was rebuilt by priests of Bane following his apparent
resurrection in the Year of Wild Magic (1372 DR). As the Lord of
Strife himself had done during the Time of Troubles, the strifelords
reshaped the ruins into an echo of Bane's Temple of the Suffering in
the Barrens of Doom and Despair. Thirty-foot-high walls constructed of
a seamless other-worldly material of black laced with green connect
the windowless towers on four corners, and on the west side a towering
60-foot obelisk encloses a drawbridge set against the wall. Purple
Dragon Knights stationed at Castle Crag patrol the eastern perimeter
of the Helmslands daily, keeping a vigilant eye for any threats coming
from Temple Acheron.
Farsea Swamp
This slowly growing swamp consists of two formerly separate marshes,
Farsea and Tun. The swamp has mile after mile of muddy terrain swept
with golden-green tall grasses broken by channels of bronze water.
Most citizens of Cormyr see the wetlands as dark, forbidding places,
where evil festers and foul creatures lurk in murky water to devour
the unwary. While this image is largely true of the deadly Vast Swamp
in eastern Cormyr, it is an incomplete and misleading portrayal of the
Farsea Swamp.
LEGACY OF THE BATRACHI: Amid the vast, fog-laced expanse of the Farsea
Swamp rests the scattered ruins of a vanished civilization, not
Netherese as many have speculated. Thick with poisonous insects and
plague, few enough have glimpsed these ruins. Ornate buildings made of
glass as strong as steel hint at a magical technology lost to the
present day. Rumors have it that the bold can claim gold and strange
secrets from the half-drowned basements, if they can but survive the
swamp's pestilence and withstand the might of strange creatures set as
guardians within the interior of the glassteel towers.
Hullack Forest
Dark and foreboding best describes the thick dense woods of the
Hullack Forest. The Hullack is almost a primeval forest, with dark
valleys and hidden vales that have gone unseen for decades. Ghostly
creatures and odd monsters pepper the local folklore, and orcs and
goblins are frequent visitors from the Thunder Peaks. In the years
immediately preceding the Spellplague, large numbers of adventurers
entered the forest seeking to clear it of monsters and explore its
deeper regions. Thunderstone, a small town on the southern edge of
Hullack Forest, was often used as a base of operations for such
expeditions. These crown-sanctioned activities came to an abrupt end
in the Year of the Wrathful Eye (1391 DR) when the Eldreth Veluuthra,
a militant group of human-despising elves, claimed the forest as their
own. A brief conflict with the elves ensued in the Year of Deaths
Unmourned (1394 DR), but young King Azoun V later turned his full
attention to more pressing threats from neighboring Netheril and
Sembia.
REALM OF WAILING FOG: Sandwiched between the Hullack Forest and the
Thunder Peaks, the Realm of Wailing Fog remains a land of desolate
fens, ever-present mist, and eerie echoing calls. Even the Eldreth
Veluuthra dare not explore the realm's long-ruined towers. Travelers
to the region speak of a heavy feeling of "watchfulness" hanging over
everything. Rumors persist that a coven of hags lives in the area, but
these claims have never been substantiated.

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