Newsgroup: it.hobby.giochi.gdr.dnd
Titolo: per gli amanti dei Reami

Succose novità in attesa del nuovo setting:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080111a
di seguito riporto il contenuto. 
Buona lettura
Year of the Ageless One (by Rich Baker)
The Realms of 1479 DR
Ninety-four years ago, Mystra perished and the world went mad.
Unchecked, ungoverned, the raw stuff of wild magic danced across the
world, wreaking terrible destruction. Cities burned, kingdoms fell,
luckless people were changed into monsters, and mages went berserk.
This was the Spellplague, a rippling outbreak of hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of magical catastrophes that left no corner of Faerûn
untouched. For almost ten years new outbreaks appeared here and there,
striking randomly and without warning. Wherever they struck, chaos
reigned.
During the Year of Blue Fire and the terrible years that followed,
heroes all over Faerûn battled to contain the magical plague. In some
places they succeeded; in others, they failed and died horribly.
Places guarded by powerful, persistent magical wards were largely
unharmed; the Spellplague flowed around mythals and other such mighty
enchantments. But even then, some mythal-guarded sites fell prey to
invasions of plaguechanged monsters or the spells of maddened
archmages. No place was truly safe.
In many places, the Spellplague wrought drastic changes to the very
shape of the world. The vast Underdark system beneath the western
Shaar suffered a calamitous collapse, leaving a miles-deep pit the
size of a country where the Landrise once ran. Thay’s forbidding
plateaus were lifted thousands of feet higher, leaving many of its
cities in ruins. The Priador and eastern Thesk are a maze of
monster-haunted foothills beneath Thay’s daunting ramparts now.
Fencelike ridges of glass spires, drifting earthmotes covered in weird
aerial forests, towering mesas of whorled stone… all over Faerûn
magical landscapes are interspersed with the common rock and root of
the lands that existed before. Even in countries that survived the
Spellplague more or less intact, these “changelands” stand as striking
new landmarks—landmarks that sometimes harbor monsters never before
seen in Faerûn.
In time, the fury of the Spellplague burned itself out. New outbreaks
became fewer and weaker, and finally seemed to cease altogether.
Pockets of “live” Spellplague still exist in a few places known as
plaguelands; one of the largest is a vast waste known as the Changing
Lands, where Sespech and Chondath used to be. Few people dare to enter
such places, but from time to time they disgorge horribly mutated
monsters, tormenting the lands nearby. No new plaguelands have
appeared in decades now, and some seem to be weakening as the years
pass. But the damage has already been done.
No one will ever be able to create a comprehensive chronology of where
and when each outbreak struck, or how each town and city fared through
the chaos of the Plague Years. Countless thousands of people fled from
each new outbreak, migrating here and there across the continent. War,
rebellion, and brigandage reigned unchecked. Mad prophets walked the
world, preaching that the Spellplague was the wrath of this god or
that and demanding repentance, sacrifice, or holy war in atonement.
Anarchy descended over most kingdoms and lasted for a generation or
more before some semblance of authority was reestablished. The world
that emerged from the Plague Years was not the same Faerûn.
The Sword Coast
The Spellplague left the cities of the Sword Coast almost unscathed.
Perhaps it was attenuated by the lingering high magic of ancient
Illefarn, perhaps it was deflected by the efforts of mighty heroes, or
perhaps sheer chance steered the magical contagion away from the Sea
of Swords; however it happened, the Sword Coast looks much as it did a
hundred years ago. 
In Waterdeep the great walking statues hidden within the city arose
for a single day and wrecked several wards, only to suddenly halt
where they stood when the Spellplague’s influence retreated again. To
this day the towering colossi remain standing where they were at that
moment, while the city has been rebuilt around their stony waists.
Waterdeep is still governed by its Lords, advised by the
Blackstaff—the most powerful mage of Blackstaff Tower, heir to the
lore of the mighty Khelben. The city remains a hub of trade and
commerce; all roads lead to Waterdeep, or so it is said. 
To the south, the city of Baldur’s Gate became a refuge for countless
thousands fleeing the ruin wrought by the Spellplague in the lands
south of the Sea of Fallen Stars. Where other cities and lands turned
away such refugees, Baldur’s Gate tolerated them… and now, almost a
century later, it is the largest city in Faerûn, sprawling for mile
after mile along the banks of the Chionthar. Each group of refugees
created their own neighborhood under the walls of the previous
immigrants’ districts, and the city is a mad patchwork of crowded
neighborhoods, each dominated by a single race or human ethnicity such
as dwarf, halfling, gnome, Turmic, or Shaaran.
Across the Sea of Swords, the Moonshaes have fallen into a patchwork
of small kingdoms. Caer Calidyrr still stands as the chief kingdom of
the native Moonshavians (the Ffolk), but over the last century the
powerful mainland realm of Amn has set its sights on this land. Amnite
merchant-lords control much of the large island of Gwynneth, while the
warlike Northlanders hold Oman and Norland. The Feywild, the realm of
Faerie, lies close to Faerûn here, and from its shadows a dire new
threat is gathering—the terrible fomorians, who dream of sweeping away
the human kingdoms and subjugating the islands beneath their mighty
fists. 
The Empire of Netheril
Between the North and the Moonsea Lands lies a land under the dominion
of shadow. The reborn Empire of Netheril now lies in the basin that
once held the desert Anauroch. The new Netheril claims all of the
lands that ancient Netheril once occupied, and seeks to dominate
Faerûn just as ancient Netheril did twenty centuries ago. Much of
Anauroch’s vast basin is still desolate wasteland, but the lords of
Netheril have spent decades weaving mighty spells to summon water to
the parched lands and fill the empty skies with rain. Slowly but
surely, grassland grows over the dunes, and young forests cover the
stony barrens.
Netheril is a magical tyranny, governed by a noble caste of
shades—powerful human mages and lords who have exchanged their mortal
essences for the stuff of shadow. Beneath the shade lords are the
citizens of Shade, the ancient city-state that fled into the plane of
Shadow when the old empire fell and survived many centuries in dark
exile. They are a race of ambitious and masterful humans who strive to
advance the power of their realm, hoping to earn the reward of
transformation into undying shades themselves. When folk of other
lands refer to “the Netherese,” they mean the people of Shade, both
human and shadow-transformed.
Decades ago, the Netherese subjugated the nomads of Anauroch and many
of the savage humanoid tribes inhabiting the desert. More importantly,
the Netherese seized control of the wealthy nation of Sembia in the
Twilight War just before the advent of the Spellplague, and they have
not relinquished it since. Sembia is the crown jewel of the Empire of
Netheril, and provides the Netherese with the wealth and manpower they
need to bring more of Faerûn under their control. Only the fragile
alliance of Myth Drannor, Cormyr, Evereska, and Luruar checks
Netheril’s further expansion… and Netherese diplomats and agents work
constantly to break the alliance apart.
While Netheril claims all of Anauroch and the neighboring lands, the
Netherese are still few in number, and great portions of this desolate
land are left to ruins and monsters. The ruined cities of old Netheril
and the Underdark caverns of the monstrous phaerimm (now all but
extirpated from the Realms) hold many secrets the shades want to
remain hidden, and ancient treasures they seek desperately to recover.
Imperial Cormyr
Cormyr is a strong, stable kingdom that has benefited from
back-to-back reigns by very capable monarchs. Azoun V, born in the
troubling times at the end of his grandfather’s reign, went on to
become a just, wise, and long-lived ruler. Under his rule Cormyr
quickly recovered from the chaos of the Plague Years. Azoun V
successfully resisted Netheril’s efforts to bring Cormyr under its
domionion, and he fought Netherese-sponsored Sembia to a stalemate in
a war 40 years ago, preserving Cormyr from Sembia’s fate. Late in his
reign, Azoun V enacted a new code of laws that restrained the power of
Cormyr’s restless nobility and established rights for commoners
oppressed by nobles. His son Foril is now king of Cormyr. 
Foril has ruled for 30 years now, and while he is not the legendary
warrior his great-grandfather was or the brilliant law-giver his
father was, he is a shrewd statesman and administrator. Foril
continued his father’s reforms, and authored the alliance of powers
that keeps Netheril at bay. Standing between Sembia and Netheril,
Cormyr’s best security lies in firm alliance with Myth Drannor and the
Dalelands. Cormyr is wealthier and more powerful than it’s been in
centuries, largely due to the foresight and determination of the
Obarskyrs. 
Cormyr now controls Daerlun and Urmlaspyr, two formerly Sembian cities
that managed to break away from that realm before the Netherese yoke
settled completely over them. During the chaos of the Spellplague and
the years that followed, the small cities on the southern shore of the
Dragonmere turned to Cormyr for protection. Only ten years ago, the
thief-ruled city of Proskur proved so obnoxious to the Forest
Kingdom’s growing trade and prosperity that King Foril brought it
under Cormyr’s authority as well. Not all of these territories are
content under Cormyrean rule.
Adventurers in the service of the Crown find plenty of excitement in
the Stonelands, the Tunlands, and the Stormhorns, where various
monsters and savage tribes (some secretly sponsored by Netheril) cause
no small amount of trouble. 
Tymanther, Land of the Dragon Warriors
Along the shore of the Alamber Sea, old Unther was swept away by a
catastrophic outbreak of the Spellplague. Where once ancient Unther
stood now stands an arid mesa-land inhabited by draconic humanoids
calling themselves dragonborn. This is the realm of Tymanther. The
dragonborn have proven to be a proud, martial race, and in the decades
since the Year of Blue Fire they have slowly tamed the ruined
changeland from the Riders to the Sky all the way to the Black Ash
Plain. 
Some say that the dragonborn are creations of Tiamat, hatched from
vast incubators hidden beneath temples of the dragon-goddess in the
cities of Unther. Others believe that the dragonborn are descended
from the human population of the old empire, changed by the touch of
the Spellplague into something no longer human. But the truth of the
matter is even stranger: As it did in many other places in Faerûn, the
Spellplague opened the door to some other realm entirely, wrenching
the aeries and castles of the dragonborn from their native
land—wherever that once was—and depositing them amid the chaos of
devastated Unther.
The dragonborn of Tymanther are highly militarized, and the “lords” of
the land are those dragonborn who have proven themselves capable of
leading their fellows. It is a harsh and unforgiving meritocracy, and
each of the kingdom’s great clans is organized more like an army than
a noble house. In the world from which they came, the dragonborn
fought many terrible wars against true dragons, and they still harbor
an ancestral hate for the winged wyrms.
Tymanther lies atop the rubble of ancient Unther, and Untheric ruins
are common throughout the land. Even in its decline, Unther was a rich
and populous land, and many palaces and treasure vaults of the
God-King’s favorites still wait to be discovered. In other places,
broken cities carried into Faerûn from Tymanther’s appearance are
likewise storehouses of gold, gems, and magical artifacts.
Unfortunately, many powerful monsters settled into these Untheric and
Tymantheran ruins during the Plague Years, and still pose a deadly
threat to those who delve too deeply.
The Changed World
This brief discussion touches on only a few of Faerûn’s myriad
kingdoms and peoples. It’s a quick sketch of how a century has changed
several familiar lands, and a look at one new land that has arisen
during that time. Many of Faerûn’s most iconic locales are still what
they were a century ago; wood elves still roam the High Forest, and
pirates still sail the Sea of Fallen Stars. Other places such as
Unther have changed drastically, as described above. But above all
Faerûn remains a land of high magic, terrifying monsters, ancient
ruins, and hidden wonders—the essential fantasy world for your players
to explore.
In upcoming previews, we’ll take a more thorough look at other aspects
of the new Faerûn—the fate of the Chosen, the nature of the pantheon,
how magic has changed in the world, and an introduction to some of the
new threats that now menace Faerûn. Good fortune and good adventuring
until next time!

 Succose novità in attesa del nuovo setting:
ops scusa l'ho postato anche io :(
sorry

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Scusa di che? ma ci mancherebbe!!!
Meglio due volte la stessa notizia che nessuna ;-)

 Meglio due volte la stessa notizia che nessuna ;-)
vero :)