Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue

[Irennan]

As some of you might know, this year a new campaign setting for the FR will be released, namely Menzoberranzan.

So, I just wanted to say that this may be a good new for us because, according to what what I've read in [url:1oradvln]http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/ ... ealms?pg=1[/url:1oradvln],
we *should* hopefully see good things about Eilistraee and her followers (and about other supposedly dead drow deities as well) in the book.

[Shir'le E. Illios]

Wow, thanks. I didn't know that. Have basically been staying miles away from WotC since they decided to get rid of Eilistraee. This brings some hope that we'll see future content for the goddess again, but I'm taking a bit of a wait-and-see approach.

It doesn't really surprise me that they're releasing a campaign setting specifically for drow though. And Menzoberranzan seems like a good place for it (personally I would've liked to see some other drow cities get the spotlight for a change, but Menzo [i:34mfat5c]is[/i:34mfat5c] pretty much the template for drow society in the Forgotten Realms). I can't help but be curious to see how things stand with the city.

And I hope that we'll see Eilistraee's return even if for me she never died in the first place.


Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

[Irennan]

You're welcome.

I guess it's not unreasonable to think that they'll somehow fix what they did in their deities killing spree, because what was said about Eilistraee and her fate at the end of the novels really didn't make any sense and had too many loopholes to be left as it is, and the aftermath of it (what happened to the followers of the goddess) wasn't even developed further (as far as I know).

[Rainbow Prism]

Not exactly fix as indulge. Leaving loopholes is a good way to put some material that was not created yet.

Menzoberranzan is name that gives familiar ring to many, which is used well as one of first guides with (hopefully) crucial details.

[Irennan]

[quote="Rainbow Prism":1c0isrsm]Not exactly fix as indulge. Leaving loopholes is a good way to put some material that was not created yet.[/quote:1c0isrsm]

That's what I meant. The turning of some of the drow back into dark elves is a physical evidence that they're not evil by default, but led to behave that way, and it should smooth prejudices that elves held towards them. However the fact that the vast majority of drow is still under the balor blood curse and beyond redemption only makes Eilistraee's sacrifice look unjust and incomplete. The goddess' and her followers' story shouldn't end at this point, more has to be told about them and I guess we'll find it out in the Menzo book.

[galadhion]

While I cannot currently confirm that I was one of the two writers of the Menzoberranzan book, I think you will be very pleased with what is coming this summer. Irennan's thoughts are absolutely correct. The redemption is only half done. The dance will continue.

Eric

[Irennan]

Just awesome

[Shir'le E. Illios]

Sounds good. Thanks, Eric.


Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

[galadhion]

As we get closer to the release date, I can say more. For now, I will caution you that canon cannot be undone. What was written in the Lady Penitent series has to stand. That said, there are plenty of loopholes for the writers of the book to use, as Irennan pointed out. We came up with a fairly ingenious one (at least in my opinion it is) that allows the dance to continue while offering a lot of new roleplaying options.

If you would like to help mold the future of this new perspective on Eilistraee, I encourage you to put together an article proposal for D&D Insider. The Menzo book is only so big so we could only cover a fraction of the possibilities. There is just so much to explore.

Eric (aka Galadhion)

[Bhaern Quel]

Eric, lots of ideas have already been floated. Maybe some of them might be useful, heck Bane got killed once or twice and last I heard he was still alive. For Eilistraee we do not actually get a reported death, like hew brother. Just at last minute Daddy interfered - this could thus be a time of silence from the force of Mother's attack or even Daddy entering the game. If Lolth can become silent for a time, clearly trauma to the Dark Maiden might make for silent for a time.

[Irennan]

[quote:5n82f4oa]Eric, lots of ideas have already been floated. Maybe some of them might be useful, heck Bane got killed once or twice and last I heard he was still alive. For Eilistraee we do not actually get a reported death, like hew brother. Just at last minute Daddy interfered - this could thus be a time of silence from the force of Mother's attack or even Daddy entering the game. If Lolth can become silent for a time, clearly trauma to the Dark Maiden might make for silent for a time.[/quote:5n82f4oa]

I think he was inviting us to come up with ideas about the consequences of Eilistraee's return (what her followers are going to do now, or how they're going to change what they were doing, or their enemies' reaction and stuff like that), since, at least according to what I understood, they've already figured out a good way to get her back. That should be something funny to do when more info will be released, 'cause at the moment (afaik) we have almost no clue about what happened after the 'redemption'.

[galadhion]

Irennan is eerily good at guessing my intent. Yes, the book is finished and with the editors now so our idea is already in the review process. The challenge we had to overcome was to find a way to return an extremely popular goddess to the Realms while being true to the goddess herself. We felt that Eilistraee's sacrifice at the end of [i:1xohmhdd]Ascendancy of the Last[/i:1xohmhdd] had to be respected. To do otherwise would diminish her sacrifice. We found the answer by digging back to the very roots of Eilistraee, Araushnee, and Corellon. I think you're going to like it, because it is unlike anything else that has happened in the Realms, which is perfect for the Dark Maiden. I'll comment more when the book comes out.

And as Irennan said, I'm inviting you all to come up with ideas of the consequences of Eilistraee's return and all the great stuff listed in Irennan's post. With Wizards gearing up for the next edition of D&D they are looking for more flavor pieces that don't contain a great deal of rule mechanics. This group seems a perfect generator for this sort of article. When we get closer to the release date, I'll see what more information I can provide you.

Galadhion

[Irennan]

[quote="galadhion":22xpdtvm]We found the answer by digging back to the very roots of Eilistraee, Araushnee, and Corellon. I think you're going to like it, because it is unlike anything else that has happened in the Realms, which is perfect for the Dark Maiden.[/quote:22xpdtvm]

Sounds very interesting. Looking forward to know what you came up with.

[Irennan]

The table of contents for the 6th (and most likely last) chapter of the book is out, and not even the smallest hint that could lead to Eilistraee and Vhaeraun is there. So, It's likely that the part about their return has been cut in the editing.

I got my hopes too high with WotC. Just my opinion, but It doesn't seem like they really care about what could give depth and flavor to the setting, or about what many of their customers would like, only about what they want the Realms to be (it wouldn't cost anything to them to add a page or two about brother and sister to this book, like the authors themselves -as it has been said on these forums- suggested, opening the possibilities to future development. Yet they decided to go on with simplifying everything. Cool...).

The book can still be interesting tho, that's if you care about lolthite drow (which I, personally, deem trivial, lacking of a meaningful motivation, and boring).

So, that's it... I guess.

[Aylstra Illianniis]

Don't give up hope yet, guys. I have it on good authority (some of the designers and writers are active at Candlekeep!) that there may well be some new info regarding her and Vaerhaun both. It seems that the "new" team is made up mainly of some old and familiar names, and there are several seminars, etc. dealing with FR and Candlekeep at Gen-Con next weekend. The "Rise of the Underdark" will likely be addressed, and I'm willing to bet that so will the drow deities and some of the other "mistakes" of 4th ed. I won't be going myself, unfortunately, but several other members of that site will, and they have agreed to keep us all posted about what they see, hear, etc at these meetings and such. I'll be sure to relay any info I find to all of you here!