GGs! Another Ark of Hope game complete. Onto the next!
GGs! Another Ark of Hope game complete. Onto the next!
He never sleeps. He never dies.
Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight.
Thanks for the amazing experience Mac, this adventure is sure to leave me in awe (and scared) for a long time
happy memories, and death metal forever
GGs to team KT!!
He never sleeps. He never dies.
Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight.
i knew i was the real leader
you forsook the waifu name but returned at the 11th hour to take the mantle
He never sleeps. He never dies.
Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight.
NYA
HA
HA
one more ark complete
gg guys
only two left
He never sleeps. He never dies.
Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight.
After Mac has run the game for all groups, I'd like us players to compare results!
Trivium of the day: the Forgotten Realms used to worship the Narnian Aslan.
Beast's Lair: Useful Notes
(Lightweight | PDF)
Updated 01/01/15
If posts are off-topic, trolling, terrible or offensive, please allow me to do my job. Reporting keeps your forum healthy.
Seika moderates: modly clarifications, explanations, Q&A, and the British conspiracy to de-codify BL's constitution.
Democracy on Beast's Lair
Really?
He and (the still-extant) Lurue formed a pair - representing "the Lion and the Unicorn" - who were the "Supreme Beasts" among the beast-gods. "Details of Aslan can be gleaned from C.S. Lewis' Narnia series", for those interested, said Ed.
By the time of the adoption of the Realms as an official setting, Aslanwas necessarily removed for copyright reasonswas renamed and totally unchanged otherwise. They weren't even subtle about it. "Nobanion is a deity in his own right and always has been since he entered the Realms from another crystal sphere ... Nobanion entered the Realms centuries ago through one of the many magical pools in the Weathercote Wood, each of which acts as a gate to another world on the Prime Material Plane."
He roars with magical power and strength, he remembers the sheathing of his paws, he flies, he never asks others to lay down their lives if he would not do so himself, his church teaches of his birth and rebirth, he is to be resurrected by tears ...
(In fact, presuming TSR-published Polyhedron remains on the books, so to speak, "Ancient texts also refer to him as the Lion King, or Aslan," so 'we worship Aslan but got him renamed' is kinda still canon).
Beast's Lair: Useful Notes
(Lightweight | PDF)
Updated 01/01/15
If posts are off-topic, trolling, terrible or offensive, please allow me to do my job. Reporting keeps your forum healthy.
Seika moderates: modly clarifications, explanations, Q&A, and the British conspiracy to de-codify BL's constitution.
Democracy on Beast's Lair
Huh. I would expect something like that from Mystara or Greyhawk, not the Realms. I mean, not that the Realms were particularly original or anything, but the overt use of characters and concepts from other works going way beyond simple homages seems more like something Arneson or Gygax would pull.
Thanks for the trivia!
Ah, good ol' Nobanion. He went away with the great divine purge of 4th edition, I think.
Catalog of Somewhat Original Servants
In Progress: Fimbulwinter Quest Project.
Beast's Lair Quest Discord Server
It's possible - I'd say even probable - he still exists as an Exarch.
Wiki says he was still running around in 4e, transformed and then healed. Given the Emerald Enclave's position as one of the headline factions (of all the choices!), I'd be surprised if he hasn't already at least cropped up in some 5e AL material or other.Originally Posted by Daneel Rush
Beast's Lair: Useful Notes
(Lightweight | PDF)
Updated 01/01/15
If posts are off-topic, trolling, terrible or offensive, please allow me to do my job. Reporting keeps your forum healthy.
Seika moderates: modly clarifications, explanations, Q&A, and the British conspiracy to de-codify BL's constitution.
Democracy on Beast's Lair
The Realms stole a million gods, in particular, out of other sources. Mulhorand and Unther outright use the Egyptian and Mesopotamian pantheons (Mulhorand itself is a very literal port of ancient Egypt, because they are magically-kidnapped ancient Egyptians from Earth). Oghma taken from the Cetlic pantheon, Loviatar and Mielikki from the Finnish mythos, Tyr from the Norse ...
Which is not to discount the other, slightly less direct rip-offs: Tyche is given a bare distinction from the Greek personification by her division into Tymora and Beshaba; similarly, Chauntea, Gond, and Sune are admitted re-named uses of Demeter, Hephaestus, and Aphrodite respectively; Talona is a re-name of Finnish Kiputyyto; Akadi, Gruumbar, Istishia, and Kossuth are hasty copyright-dodges of the Melnibonéan elemental lords Misha, Grome, Straasha, and Katakal, and originally appeared as such like Aslan did; Azuth has always been Azuth, but Greenwood calls him "merely a renamed Aarth" from Lieber's Fafhrd...
Greenwood made up his own gods too, but when he was turning the Realms into a place for him and his friends to play D&D, he tried to use "canon" D&D sources too. Just as lots of us would: it's always instinctual to want to be able to point to a book and cite it as an inarguable source of authority when you're being entrusted with the kind of power a DM has in a game. And, at the time, that basically meant Deities and Demigods and not a lot else: in turn, that meant almost exclusively "extant" gods, because Deities didn't much bother with making up its own.
Beast's Lair: Useful Notes
(Lightweight | PDF)
Updated 01/01/15
If posts are off-topic, trolling, terrible or offensive, please allow me to do my job. Reporting keeps your forum healthy.
Seika moderates: modly clarifications, explanations, Q&A, and the British conspiracy to de-codify BL's constitution.
Democracy on Beast's Lair
No, no, I know that. But I think it's one thing to, say, use Greek or Norse gods, and another to use, I don't know, Arioch, Xiombarg and similar. Like, Elminster is basically a Gandalf rip-off, but he's still just a rip-off, not the actual Gandalf who planeshifted there from Middle Earth.
Mulholrand sounds wild
Enjoyed that bit of trivia about Aslan. What's odd about the Emerald Enclave being a headline faction?
They were, like, a vague regional concern - you certainly noted them, but they were usually a reactive rather than active force - in the Vilhon Reach. They were quite specific to the Reach, indeed: one of the requirements for membership was "has performed an act that benefits nature in the Vilhon". The Vilhon Reach, in turn, was an out-of-the-way region with various squabbling minor states that the rest of the Realms pretty much ignored. Its defining attributes were "mercenaries" and "plagues", both of which kept slaughtering its people and thus preventing the Reach gaining much power or looking interesting for conquest. Out-of-game, it's notable almost solely for being the setting of I14, one of the few 1e-era FR publications: although that was for Battlesystem, and therefore even more niche. (This is the origin of the "mercenaries" attribute).
Then suddenly they're an organisation to be spoken of in the same breath as the Harpers and the Zhents, who've dominated FR storytelling since the beginning? They're sending agents (and giving them settled positions) not just out of Vilhon, and not just to the Eastern Heartlands (which are, at least, still on the Sea of Fallen Stars), but to Waterdeep and Neverwinter and parts farther North? That's more than two thousand miles away from their homeland. It's a massive and weird change of direction: it feels like they really could have used some other organisation, or made one up, rather than take on the Enclave and alter them this much.
Beast's Lair: Useful Notes
(Lightweight | PDF)
Updated 01/01/15
If posts are off-topic, trolling, terrible or offensive, please allow me to do my job. Reporting keeps your forum healthy.
Seika moderates: modly clarifications, explanations, Q&A, and the British conspiracy to de-codify BL's constitution.
Democracy on Beast's Lair
With no knowledge of lore prior to 5E, my thought with its factions was that they appeared to be set out to appeal to specific classes so that players would be interested in them. I'm guessing the Emerald Enclave was used because they wanted something that Rangers and Druids would want to join, and the name was evocative enough to fit the bill. Since I don't know what other organizations Faerun has, I don't know if there were any that would appear as compelling to new players.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
