Newsgroup: it.hobby.giochi.gdr.dnd
Titolo: FR 4e: magic in the realms

da dragon ecco un altro articolo sui nuovi reami:
Countdown to the Realms
Magic in the Forgotten Realms
by Rich Baker 
01/30/2008
Dragon Features Archive
 
Magical power and fantastic features abound in the Forgotten Realms.
Arcane secrets whisper to those with the ears to hear in the eons-long
movement of the continents, in rushing river rapids, in every
inhalation of beasts great and small, and in the sighing cries of the
wind. Raw magic is the wild stuff of creation itself, the mute and
mindless will of being, suffusing every bit of matter and coursing
within every manifestation of energy throughout the world.
Wizards, warlocks, clerics, sorcerers, bards, paladins, and even
rogues, fighters, rangers, and other adventurers call upon personally
derived threads of magic to cast mighty spells, enforce pacts with
enigmatic entities, heal injury, ward against evil, or accomplish
physical feats that transcend purely mortal means. 
Dangerous monsters, too, call up frightful magic to accomplish their
deceitful ends. Aberrations spawned by ancient magic seethe below the
earth and above it, hungry for flesh and knowledge alike, waiting for
the chance to feed. Dragons whose blood runs with magic wield
abilities so potent that gods and primordials alike fear to face the
most ancient of these mighty beings. Undead fuel their mind and
protect their corpses from dissolution by powerful necromantic
rituals, especially liches, whose never-ending acquisition of arcane
knowledge has propelled more than a few into contention with divine
designs.
Indeed, magic is so bountiful in Abeir-Toril that even the land
bristles with fantastic landscapes. Great motes of free-hanging earth
balance on nothing but air, amazing all those who chance upon these
mighty demonstrations of nature’s glory. 
If fact, the Realms are so awash with magic that the world proved
particularly vulnerable to a plague that fed on magic itself.
The Year of Blue Fire
“Learn ye well the lesson of the pebble that begets a landslide.
Likewise a single betrayal unleashed the Spellplague, whose
consequences yet dance and stagger across Toril, and beyond.”
--Elminster of Shadowdale, 1479 DR, Year of the Ageless One
An appalling magical event called the Spellplague afflicted (and still
afflicts) the world in 1385 DR.
Despite its name, the Spellplague was much more than a disease. For
one, it did not restrict itself to mere flesh. All things were meat to
the Spellplague’s insatiable hunger—flesh, stone, magic, space, and
perhaps even the flow of time was suborned. The world of Toril, its
lost sibling Abeir, and even the planes themselves were infected with
a plague of change.
Most suppose the Spellplague was the direct result of the goddess of
magic’s murder at the hands of the god Cyric. Some whisper that
Mystra’s death was achieved through the machinations of the goddess
Shar, with Cyric her unwitting stooge.
This theory holds that the world’s magic was held so long in Mystra’s
Weave that when the Weave lost its weaver, magic spontaneously and
ruinously burst its bonds. Areas of wild magic, already outside the
constraints of the Weave, touched off first when their boundaries
misted suddenly away. But eventually, few parts of Toril and the
planes beyond were unaffected.
The plague raged on and on in ever-widening spirals, leaving some
places completely untouched (such as many northern lands of Faerûn,
including Cormyr and the Swordcoast), and radically altering others
(such as Muhorand, Unther, and points south). The plague passed into
the realms of demons, gods, and lost souls—dividing some realms,
joining others, and generally seeding chaos. 
Near-mythical realms that had passed beyond easy reach were pulled
back, such as the Feywild (called Faerie in ancient days). The home of
demons fell through the cosmology, unleashing swarming evil before the
Abyss found its new home beneath the Elemental Chaos.
Even the long forgotten world of Toril burned in the plague of spells,
despite having been unreachable and cut off from Faerûn for tens of
millennia. Portions of Abeir’s landscape were transposed with areas of
Toril in the disaster. Such landscapes included their living
populations, and thus places such as Akanûl and Tymanther lie as if
new-birthed on Faerûn’s face. Across the Trackless Sea, and entire
continent of the lost realm reappeared (called Returned Abeir)
subsuming the continent of Maztica.
The Spellplague was a potent direct agent of change, but it also set
off a string of secondary catastrophes.
Effects on the Weave
For eons, the use of magic in Faerûn was focused through a god of
magic, most recently Mystra. Except for certain Netherese wizards of
ancient days who learned the truth, most believed that no magic would
be possible without such a deity. However, with the death of Mystra
and jealous Shar suppressing the ascension of a new deity of magic, it
became common knowledge that magic is accessible without a god to
control and codify it. Now when a spellcaster speaks of the Weave, she
is just using another term for magic. 
Effects on the Shadow Weave
Just as Mystra controlled the Weave, the goddess Shar controlled the
Shadow Weave. Not satisfied with her portion, Shar plotted to seize
control of both. She miscalculated. When Cyric murdered Mystra, the
Weave collapsed so completely that Shar not only failed to gather up
the fraying threads, she also lost control over the Shadow Weave.
Just as magic persists without Mystra, so does the dusky power of
shadow endure without Shar acting as an intermediary. Powerful
necromancers have developed their own unique methods for accessing the
dim energies of the Shadowfell. 
Effect on Spellcasters
Many creatures that learned to cast spells and channel magic with
Mystra’s Weave found themselves powerless in the Spellplague’s wake.
Some never regained their power. Others worked to attune themselves to
the new magical environment. Many required years to regain this
facility, while others never regained the knack. Others took shortcuts
to reaquire the power they’d lost, swearing questionable pacts to
enigmatic beings in return for the ability to utilize arcane powers.
Today, spellcasters access magic through a dizzying array of methods.
Some murmur spells and incant rituals, some forge arcane bargains, and
others pray for intervention. In truth, it seems that magic can be
accessed in more ways than ever before, fueled by newfound knowledge
of arcane, shadow, primal, and other sources of power.
Effect on Items
Most magic items that permanently store magic, such as magic swords,
cloaks, and boots, survived the Spellplague and continue to operate
normally. Permanent access to magic was "installed" in these devices
when they were created, so even though the Weave was used in their
making, the Weave no longer played any part in their continuing
operation. That said, some items that temporarily stored “charges” of
magic, such as wands and staffs created prior to the Spellplague, no
longer work. If such items do work, they no longer work in the same
way.
The secret of making magic items in a post-Weave world was relearned
decades ago. Magic items are as plentiful as ever, as desperately
sought by doughty adventurers, and as mysterious as they ever were.
Effects on the Landscape
Where magic was completely loosed, the Spellplague ate through stone
and earth as readily as bone and spell. Broad portions of Faerûn’s
surface collapsed into the Underdark, partially draining the Sea of
Fallen Stars into the Glimmer Sea far below (and leaving behind a
continent-sized pit called the Underchasm). The event splintered
several of the Old Empires south of the drained sea into a wildscape
of towering mesas, bottomless ravines, and cloud-scraping spires
(further erasing evidence of the lands and kingdoms once situated
there). Historical lands most changed by the Spellplague include
Mulhorand, Unther, Chondath, and portions of Aglarond, the Sea of
Fallen Stars, and the Shaar. What was once called Halruaa detonated
and was destroyed when every inscribed and prepared spell in the
nation went off simultaneously. This explosion was partly to blame for
destroying the land bridge between Chult and the Shining South—only a
scattered archipelago remains.
Tendrils of the Change Plague reached many other corners of Faerûn,
sometimes directly across the landscape, othertimes bypassing great
swathes of land by infecting both sides of the many two-way portals
that once dotted the world. 
Pockets of active Spellplague still exist today, most famously in the
Changing Land. Referred to as plaguelands, each one is strange and
dangerous. No two possess the exact same landscape or features, save
for the fact that entering could lead one to be infected by the
Spellplague. Luckily, remnant plaguelands possess only a fraction of
the vigor demonstrated in the Spellplague’s initial appearance. These
lingering Spellplague pockets are secreted away in hard-to-reach
locales, often surrounded by twisted no-man’s land. Most of Faerûn and
Returned Abeir are entirely free of such pockets, though the
plaguechanged and spellscarred may appear in any land.
Effects on Creatures
When the initial wave of Spellplague infected a creature, object, or
spell, the target usually dissolved into so much glowing, dissipating
ash. However, sometimes living creatures survived the plague's touch
but were altered, twisted, or fused to another creature or even a
portion of the landscape. The initial Change Plague wave had no regard
for boundaries or species, or the ability of a changed entity to
survive with its new form, powers, and limitations. The most unlucky
of these mewling, hideously changed survivors perished within a few
days.
Luckily, the initial wave directly touched relatively few parts of
Toril and Abeir. Moreover, not all creatures, objects, or spells
touched by the original Spellplague were doomed, but to have survived
meant having to accept change. Living creatures so affected are
differentiated into two broad groups: plaguechanged and spellscarred.
Plaguechanged
A massive change in body and mind marks a creature that has survived
contact with the original wave of the Spellplague during the Year of
Blue Fire. Such survivors are called the Plaguechanged. Extreme
alterations forge potent monstrosities in even the meekest flesh.
Plaguechanged creatures are monsters, driven slightly insane by the
viciousness of their metamorphosis. Few of this generation survive
today, because the initial plague was so virulent, and the changes
wrought were so extreme. What’s more, many decades have passed since
the Spellplague’s end, so most plaguechanged creatures simply died in
the interim. A few of the horrifying monstrosities remain, though,
hidden away in various corners of the world.
Spellscarred
Spellscars are a phenomena of the present, gained when someone moves
too close to a plagueland (where active Spellplague yet lingers),
though sometimes spellscars afflict people who’ve never had any
contact with rampant magic. Some individuals—heroes and villains
alike—can gain spellscars and learn to master the powers inherent in
them. Player characters can gain spellscars and learn to master the
powers inherent in them.
On rare occasions, a spellscar appears as a physical abnormality, but
more often it is an intangible mark that only appears when its owner
calls upon it. When this happens, a spellscar might appear as jagged
cracks of blue fire racing out across a spellscarred’s forearms hands,
a corona of blue flame igniting the creature’s hair, a flaming blue
glyph on the creature’s forehead, or perhaps even wings of cobalt
flame. In many instances, an individual's sudden manifestation of blue
fire is a reliable indicator of a spellscar.
Magic in the Year of The Ageless One
The ancient wonder of old magic yet lingers among the ruins of
thousand-year-old empires, in crumbling towers of mad wizards, and in
buried vaults of elder races. The modern marvels of living wizards,
sorcerers, warlocks, clerics, druids, and other spellcasters stride
the land as purposefully as they ever did, altering the world in small
or large ways with each spell they cast. Indeed, without the divine
restrictions of previous ages, magic is more abundant than ever,
manifesting not only as inexplicable changes to the landscape, items,
and creatures, but even in some of the most fantastic exploits of
fighters, rouges, rangers, and other heroes. Magic truly does permeate
all things. For all the changes wrought by the Mystra’s death, magic
remains the lifeblood of Toril.

 wrote:
Bhč, dopo aver letto questo pezzo sulla magia confermo il mio "schifo"
per questa operazione della WoTC.
La spellplague NON ha nessuna coerenza, nč logica nč di setting, e si
rivela essere giusto un nome piazzato li per giustificare un
cambiamento atto a vendere e nulla piů.
Che delusione. Mi aspettavo che i creativi della wizards avessero un
pochetto piů di fantasia :-(

 pochetto più di fantasia :-(
a me invece è piaciuta!
di fatto hanno integrato il vecchio, ti hanno detto che mystra
imbrigliava la magia vera e propria attraverso la Trama e con la morte
di Mystra la magia si è liberata dall'imbriglio e ha fatto un casino
cosa d'altra parte coerente con i maghi Netheresi che in passato
avevano incantesimi veramente MOLTO potenti
e anche il fatto che non devi passare attraverso Mystra mi rende più
interessanti i reami come Mago
Fabio

interessanti i reami come Mago
Mah, non discouto l'utilità di questi cambiamenti Fabio, ma solo le
spiegazioni che danno, che sono di una fragilità e di una debolezza
disarmante per chi conosce a fondo i reami :-(
Sulla base di quanto detto finora non adotterò i nuovi reami (pur
acquistando i manuali). In pratica hanno fatto un nuovo setting col
nome del vecchio, magari più bello, più interessante, più valido, ma
che non presenta quella continuità e quella coerenza per poter essere
la naturale prosecuzione del vecchio setting.
ciao!

 la naturale prosecuzione del vecchio setting.
mi sembra un pdv veramente esagerato
Fabio

mi sembra un pdv veramente esagerato
Pdv? punto di vista?

 Pdv? punto di vista?
si
capisco pure che non possa piacere ma tutta questa incoerenza non la
vedo, dal mio pdv aumenta l'appetibilità dei reami (tanto da farmi
considerare l'acquisto dei manuali base - ho solo quelli della 1' ed.)
perchè è un mondo magico e quindi ci sta tutto uno stravolgimento di
questo genere
mi è piaciuto pure la fusione con l'altro mondo :)
Fabio