DM Q&A: Setting: City of Shade (was: 'Shades')

[Kelandros Armelis]

To my knowledge this Topic is a no-no on FRC as DM´s mentioned to me.
One wanted to bring it up again and ask if that is still the case.
Can I have a response if it is forbidden knowledge or if it has been revised.
If it is still forbidden, please give me a good explanation why.
Thanks in advance.

[DM Justicar - Creator of FRC]

Mar 12, 2010 15:17:55 GMT -5 Kelandros Armelis said:

To my knowledge this Topic is a no-no on FRC as DM´s mentioned to me.
One wanted to bring it up again and ask if that is still the case.
Can I have a response if it is forbidden knowledge or if it has been revised.
If it is still forbidden, please give me a good explanation why.
Thanks in advance.

I truly have no idea what you mean. How do you mean shades are a forbidden topic?

[Savoie Faire]

'Shades' has several meanings in D&D. Do you refer to the undead, entities from the plane of Shadow, or cool eyewear?

If you refer to the creatures of The City of Shades in Anauroch, I refer you to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, especially the following quote:

"Shades were once humanoids, but they have traded their souls for the essence of shadowstuff."

This would pose significant problems for the player of such a character, including the inability to use raise, resurrection, or respawn upon such a being, as each of these require a soul to be called back. One death, even if nobody sees it, would be sufficient to eliminate such a character from the campaign. (No fighting rats!)

There are other reasons such a character would not be allowed, such as the application of a template unsupported by NWN and the change to 'Outsider' type.

This is not an exhaustive treatment of the subject, so if you wish we can discuss the topic in a more appropriate forum. The end result will be that Shades are not, and will never be, a playable race in FRC.

If I have missed the point of your post, please be more specific so that your concerns may be properly addressed.

[EDM Neo]

Apologies for posting in DM Q&A, just figured I'd help clarify... if I'm not mistaken, he's asking about the City of Shade, a Netherese city which survived Karsus' Folly because it was pulled into the plane of shadows by Shar, and which reappeared in Faerun in 1372, as detailed in some novels that I've never read and therefore can't comment on.

It had previously been deemed that PCs generally shouldn't know anything about it's reappearance without learning about it ICly through a DM plot because it had so recently occurred. To my knowledge, no new ruling on the matter has been issued since the time skip to 1374, which is what Kelandros is asking for now.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Savoie Faire.

[Kelandros Armelis]

My bad, yes i ment the City of Shade and the Shadovar.

My intention never was to play a Shade.

My question was more concerning the knowledge of the reappearance and that they exist.
Neoseanster has mentioned the ruling that PC´s should not know of it.
I would like to know if this is still the case or if our PC´s would have heard of them and therefore can bring them up in IC discussions and so on.

[Munroe]

I think with the timeskip it's hard to deny knowledge of them.

It's a flying city over the desert.

The Shade army marched on Cormyr and reached Tilverton, where they were met by Vangerdhast at the head of a force to repel them. In the course of the battle, magics were released that destroyed Tilverton.

It should be known that Cormyr went to war with Shade because the City of Shade was attempting to melt the High Ice and irrigate Anauroch, which would cause flooding throughout the regions near Anauroch, including the Silver Marches and Cormyr.

The people of Cormyr probably know that a strike was made on the City of Shade that disabled their ability to melt any more of the High Ice (for the time being).

I've omitted significant details from the campaign journal found in Player's Guide to Faerun, but this much can be taken entirely:

With the phaerimms' army broken and Shade crippled by its battles with both the phaerimms and the allied nations of Faerun, the continent has settled back into an uneasy peace. The return of the archwizards, as the bards have already dubbed this series of events, has left much of the Heartlands region in disarray. Evereska's army is all but totally depleted, Cormyr is still reeling from the loss of Tilverton and the aftershocks of King Azoun IV's recent death, and virtually every nation in the region is now facing a severe drought and an economic crisis. Given the Shadovar's tenacity, it seems unlikely that this temporary peace can last much longer.

Note also that the Waterdhavian army came to the aid of Evereska when it was under attack by the phaerimms and initially, before Alusair found out they were melting the High Ice, the nations of Faerun were allied with the Shadovar against the phaerimms.

Also note that this campaign journal is current as of 1 Kythorn 1373, so the news presented here is actually a bit old by now.

Also related, on Greengrass 1373, Cormyrians began building New Tilverton just a few miles from the ruins of Tilverton.

The Shadovar are around, as is the City of Shade, and even some mention of their mysterious Shadow Weave magic. Just don't go overboard with how much your character knows.

[Kelandros Armelis]

Alright, thank you very much.
This will give new discussion topics on grand strategies for the Red Knight faithfull. ;D

[Munroe]

*bump*