There is nothing in all the realms that excites me like an AJ Picket/The Mighty Gluestick D&D and/or Faerunian video. Your content on these topics really is a special, priceless, treasured part of my heart. If I had the honor of one day buying you a drink in thanks it could be said that I was a happy man.
@@AJPickett You are the sole person throughout the planes that I've truly felt would enjoy reading an old Dragon Magazine article to see what it held. At least in my life, finding someone who might share such joys is something that has been a simple impossibility. So if I ever fly to your country, I hope I can buy you a drink or at least a cuppa. I'd also settle for the signing of my collectible 1st edition reprint Player's Handbook, or the original copy I tracked down. :D
That throne is metal and wonderful and it fills me with awe! How interesting that the cloakers were the bad guys in that ancient tale. Usually they are chaotic neutral, but I suppose there certainly could be plenty of evil cloakers especially considering Shar's merging of the negative energy plane and the plane of shadows in the modern lore.
Circumstances determine alignment. I got into an argument with a DM once about my chaotic good alignment and the “interrogation” of an orc prisoner. When I pointed out that torture and execution are no more evil than killing it in combat would be, the DM was leery of it. When I pointed out that there was still a chance that it could live because of the interrogation, he came around to my way of thinking. The orc still went screaming into hell, he just had less parts still attached after our little talk. Hunger or thirst turn all alignments to Chaotic Evil eventually. Dark Sun actually had rules to cover that. It was covered by the chart Alignment in Extreme Circumstances. Three days without water and even a paladin would be downright depraved.
Pre-Duergar clann history was something i never expected to be written, really. Usually what happened in the Illithid colony, stays there and never see a light again, but here an ancient throne properties give us definite proof that at least some of Duergars forefathers were of Shanat!
It is nice to hear some history of The Forgotten Realms again. I look forward to more tales from The Sage whenever he takes his next break from his adventures.
Perfect timing, mate! My players were just taking a shortcut through the underdark tunnels around Deep Shanatar, and I was looking into some lore and stuff to add to travel descriptions as well as to fill out a Deep Dragon's hoard that they're probably gonna have to fight.
And would you believe I had to skip a ton of dwarven history just to keep it closely related to the Wyrmskull throne, but oh man, the Deepspawn Wars were CRAZY!
You are most welcome Chris, this was quite a project! It took me days to even gather all the information I had to read for this subject. Now I want to study old Delzoun and other dwarven history.
Always good to be up when a new video releases better than cinema film😂 but i wonder those cloakers were trying to summon The Patient One so dwarves needed to end there reign to prevent that deity being let loose from far realm or were he dwells. Excited for next video sir keep it up👍
1:00 Gonna take this moment to say that in ed's realms, the yal tengi is an inland sea (assumed crater with an island spire at the center for proof) and the utter north is endless more land to adventure in that is not necessarily all icy and cold. The great glacier pelvuria is artificial- magical in nature. I advise watchers to imagine removing it and then imagine expand the landmasses north to get a better picture of what was intended. In that way, the spine of the world is cold only due to altitude. Also, stepping out of ed's realms to talk about real world parallels from the box-set expansions to faerun's continents, the hordelands are the steppe and the yal tengi is the caspain sea. There is *land* above that lattitude in our world. Room for a massive scandinavia and siberia and canada style upper level to the world map. And it would look so clean, too! Also, note to the nerds, the south of Kara-Tur is *so wierd* when it comes to mapping. Different sources vary WILDLY. Also shoutout to the aliens on the artificial plateau.
Yeah, I mean, that is where a lot of the orcs roam, in lands with only a few human tribes. Also, tons of giants up there (both figuritively and literally, lol)
That part about the duergar being the only ones to be able to sit on the throne makes me hope we'd get a D'rizzt version of a duergar who becomes good and leads his people away from worshiping Asmodeus and sits on the throne
@AJPickett The one that smashed precious items in return for healing? I love that guy! Definitely stealing that idea for the Deep Gnome village they'll be passing through.
@@danielkubicek1323 The very same, oh man, the look on the other players faces when Snicklegrick destroyed very expensive magic items on his little ceremonial anvil! But also, there was a moment where he surfed the nose of a Giant Roc with a storm giant riding it behind him, hurling the wrath of his god at a great blue dragon, in a scene like the X-wings speeding down the surface of the Death Star... Yeah, that gnome was pure metal.
You can stick that in on your own, you know. I can remember a campaign more than three decades ago that included a neutral Duergar. The Complete Book of Dwarves had just come out, so we were rather keen to work some of that material into our game. I created the character Thorfinn Skullsplitter using the Temple Guard kit from that book because there was no way I was going to waste my 18 rolled for strength, even though it would give me an 8 dexterity. To explain why he wasn’t standing guard at some temple to Clangeddin, I concocted a story of a grand pilgrimage because he was the third son of a clan leader, so he would eventually be a High Priest and he didn’t like that very much. My buddy Ethan read the Battlerager kit and it appealed to him to play something other than his usual mage, so he rolled one up. He loved the backstory of Thorfinn, so he made his character the firstborn son of the second born of Thorfinn’s brothers. His backstory was that he went looking for Thorfinn because he knew as a battlerager, he would be skipped in the succession of the clan leadership and the youngest of Thorfinn’s brothers had already arranged the death of Thorfinn’s two oldest brothers, leaving both of our characters as the rightful heir. And that is what thoroughly derailed the DM’s plan for his campaign and kicked off the War of the Axe, a decades-long (in game time) dwarven civil war for control of the Deepaxe clan of Citadel Adbar. And that sets the stage for the Duergar that I was trying to explain. In one of the encounters, we were attacked by Duergar and I wanted to capture at least one of them to “interrogate”. After we got the information that the Duergar were working with the usurper, Thorfinn said to turn him loose because “an execution is not glorious battle and it is below us”. That was just enough to turn that Duergar to our side in the conflict. He became the spy in the usurper’s camp that fed us information in letters signed, “waiting for that glorious battle”. When the spy was caught passing messages and executed by the usurper, it was an emotional gut-punch to all of the players. We even staged a rescue to recover his body and it was interred with the honored dead in Thorfinn’s Hold, marked only with a stone slab inscribed simply, Waiting Brother, because we never did know his name. Even an NPC can be the Drizzt-like good Duergar. You don’t have to make it a PC.
1:50 Question on personal taste, AJ. Wild Dwarves- included in Dwarves Deep as a real important and prominent race of dwarves that at some point are likely found in every wood and shrub on the surface of greater faerun. Do you think the Wild Dwarves are found in wild forests on the edge of civilized lands because they are spawned from modern dwarves who 'go wild' outside of civilization? Or do you think Wild Dwarves existed by the millions all across faerun before Ur-Gold Dwarves seriously explored the surface?
They diverged off in small family groups and adapted to the surface over time, its been many thousands of years, plenty of time to develop their own cultures multiple times over. For example, the Arctic dwarves diverged from the group including clan Duergar, but they settled way up north and are now a distinct sub race of the Dwarves on Faerun.
Amazing. I'm currently DMing SKT and Iymrith motivations always seemed too basic to me, so in my version she infiltrate the storm giants court so she can steal the throne, to destroy it and use its power to fuel her ritual to become a greatwyrm. I'm still thinking about a new phase of the campaign where the players are race against time to find and grab as many scepters as they could to thwart the blue dragon plans.
I have only gotten into the lore of the forgotten relms / dnd recently (thanks to bg3), but I've been interested in the mechanics of playing dnd for a bit though (also bg3 early access). I love that your scripts are like a scholar's lecture on each topic.
Very informative and enjoyable! AJ I was wondering if you had any plans to finish the Netheril Empire series from several years ago? I was only able to find parts I and II, perhaps I missed something? It’s clearly mandatory history to understand “modern” Faerun. Thanks! 🙏😙
Yes, matter of fact it would have been a bad idea to do a part three back then, because Eric Boyd published the lore on Jergal and it completely changes the motivations and cause of the fall of Netheril! Its very heavy lore though, so I need to build up to it.
AJ, whats your headcanon for the identity of the north-east 'crags' surface entrance to gauntlgrym? I presume it is southwest of Berun's Hill and there would be many similar structures that are mere abandoned mines nearby to the true entrance- stocked with dwarvish netherese and elven traps
I've got more experience with the Northern elven people (hence my accent when speaking elven), but I get along well with the southern shield dwarves who are frequent visitors to Candlekeep (the southern elves are a touchy, xenophobic lot on the eastern coasts), there are options for your entrance to Gauntlgrym, there are natural caves (what the dwarves call dead caves as they are very dry and there is a lot of unstable rock there) leading up to the big city gates, which lead into the twisting mines with rails in them, these are defensive tunnels more than actual mines, the other entrances are from the underdark up to the city through mine shafts and there are mines that lead to the big forges... in short, getting into the city you will almost always be going through well travelled caves, into mine passages that you need to navigate carefully, and then into the city.
@@AJPickett fun read- though I meant literally the fabled 'entrance hidden in the crags' that is said to be found on the surface. Party is going to survey the range like they're a photographer in a prop plane (lvl 12 druid with intense perception flying over the area with buffs and eagle's eyes) and I want to get across that though they may find an entrance right away, I'm not sure how a secluded and long un-used dwarven surface-to-city back-door should be presented.
Only if you pass a DC 19 charisma check, big boy! LoL. Thanks for all your work. You're an indispensable and unending source of lore. Creators like you are the sovereign glue of the D&D community!
I love the Dwarven lore, but it always seems so melancholy. Like with the Elves for example, they've made mistakes as a people, but in the end, they get the Isle of Evermeet, their gods are actively working towards bettering them as a people, etc. Dwarves by contrast have this sense of fallen glory to them. The current dwarves will never be as good as their prior generations, so the Dwarven people are stuck in this eternal spiral of loss. They were such a great people, mighty and powerful, but malign forces and in-fighting have corrupted their destined path. And the Dwarven gods don't seem very concerned with how the Dwarves are falling further and further, year after year, into what seems like an inevitable doom. Am I wrong? Do the Dwarven gods/people have some master plan to at least return their folk to some form of prosperity, or at least stability?
Dwarves exist on many different worlds, the story of their civilization on Toril is just one planet, and lets not forget, the kingdoms of Shanatar lasted for thousands of years in prosperity. Currently, the Human species on Toril is recovering from an epic loss of three major empires, at one time Imaskar, Netheril and Jhaamdath all existed at the same time, now, human civilization is very much reduced, basically back to city-states at best. The dwarves also spread from Faerun to other planes of existence, and presumably other planets via portal magic, establishing new civilizations on other worlds... who knows how long they have been doing this? Who knows where the humans first came from? We know in the lore, for example, that the Orcs came to Toril from no less than six other worlds that they dominate as the primary humanoid culture, and the Orcs were on Toril for possibly longer than the humans have been. I think the main thing though, is that Elves, Orcs and Dwarves are not human, they have different cultural values, a different perspective on their history and different goals for their future. The dwarves will endure, as long as they live, so will their culture and their values, that is their main concern, the numbers of their population is more of a human concern, Dwarves live on average three times as long as Humans, they have a fundamental drive to build things that endure, when they build something, they are going to use it for three times as long as a human... you see? Fundamental difference in mentality. When you buy some piece of crap plastic product designed to break... that is how dwarves feel about 90% of things humans manufacture. Dwarves have ruins that have endured for seventeen thousand years... humans may build the occasional standing stone circle or pyramid, but they have nothing like that sort of enduring legacy of their past... to them, its the humans who live chaotic, fleeting lives with no lasting legacy they can pass on to their children, so, they feel the same way about us, just for different reasons.
@@AJPickett All good points, when I think D&D I usually default to Faerun, but you are right in pointing out that is somewhat myopic. Bottom line for me is that I'd love to see a great Dwarven resurgence, a chance for the Dwarves to earn their happy ending. And now I can only wonder what a Dwarf would have to say about shrinkflation!
@@daniell1483 Well, the dragon princes (video on them soon) are dominating and consolidating their power in the land of Murghom, where a lot of ancient dwarven ruins are located, so, if there is one thing that motivates dwarves into action, it is messing with their historic monuments! Also, remember the Deepspawn? If the Dwarves are really motivated, they can build clone armies very, very quickly. And a war with dragons would be just that kind of motivation.
That’s how TSR worked. Ed Greenwood was DM and the Forgotten Realms was his home brew campaign. Dark Sun was Troy Denning’s. Dragonlance was Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weiss’ campaign. The play test credits in those books and boxed sets were the players in the games that developed those worlds. That’s why the crap WotC puts out is pretty much garbage. They hire writers, not players & DMs. If WotC was smart about it, they would alter their business practices to act more like a patron of the arts, rather than a producer of goods. If they paid AJ $40k a year just to think up ideas and paid him a decent royalty for what he produced, they would see their profit margins soar. The mistake TSR made that put them in serious financial trouble was overproducing the Birthright line. If they would have produced 100,000 units instead of a million, they never would have been in a position where they needed WotC to buy D&D for it to survive. If WotC produced small batch runs of of 50-100k of thirty or forty different game worlds, they wouldn’t have massive amounts invested in turning out one main campaign line. These lore videos pay the bills. They aren’t AJ’s best work. Go watch the videos of his original work and you’ll see the good stuff. You can tell from those that he grew up with things like Dragon Magazine and the Gazetteer series, back when D&D was freaking awesome, not just a product created by a massive corporation. If I ran WotC, I’d pay him $40k a year just to see what he comes up with when he is free to let his mind wanders over countless imaginary worlds. I’d also find a couple dozen others like him to see what they come up with when you put them in a room with a complete library of game materials. The popularity of the digital releases of what “the gang” produces would tell you what to release as hardcover physical books.
@@AJPickett it's very rare to see a map that zoomed out. TM4 & TM5 did, but those are very old now & not so detailed. I think I have everything 1 & 2e FR, but that's obviously later. Is it a fan made map or official?
There is nothing in all the realms that excites me like an AJ Picket/The Mighty Gluestick D&D and/or Faerunian video. Your content on these topics really is a special, priceless, treasured part of my heart. If I had the honor of one day buying you a drink in thanks it could be said that I was a happy man.
Wow, thank you!
@@AJPickett You are the sole person throughout the planes that I've truly felt would enjoy reading an old Dragon Magazine article to see what it held. At least in my life, finding someone who might share such joys is something that has been a simple impossibility. So if I ever fly to your country, I hope I can buy you a drink or at least a cuppa. I'd also settle for the signing of my collectible 1st edition reprint Player's Handbook, or the original copy I tracked down. :D
I would be happy to sign your PHB @@47thStreet
I just wish I still had my old Rifter collection. The look on my face when I placed the name on those bits to a face at last!
LOL, I will happily sign a copy of Rifter #23 for you@@CptDrake
That throne is metal and wonderful and it fills me with awe!
How interesting that the cloakers were the bad guys in that ancient tale. Usually they are chaotic neutral, but I suppose there certainly could be plenty of evil cloakers especially considering Shar's merging of the negative energy plane and the plane of shadows in the modern lore.
Cloakers are only chaotic neutral when left to their own devices, the moment humanoids are around... CHAOTIC EVIL.
Circumstances determine alignment.
I got into an argument with a DM once about my chaotic good alignment and the “interrogation” of an orc prisoner. When I pointed out that torture and execution are no more evil than killing it in combat would be, the DM was leery of it. When I pointed out that there was still a chance that it could live because of the interrogation, he came around to my way of thinking. The orc still went screaming into hell, he just had less parts still attached after our little talk.
Hunger or thirst turn all alignments to Chaotic Evil eventually. Dark Sun actually had rules to cover that. It was covered by the chart Alignment in Extreme Circumstances. Three days without water and even a paladin would be downright depraved.
Pre-Duergar clann history was something i never expected to be written, really. Usually what happened in the Illithid colony, stays there and never see a light again, but here an ancient throne properties give us definite proof that at least some of Duergars forefathers were of Shanat!
The fact that all the descendants are duregar is really cool
It is nice to hear some history of The Forgotten Realms again. I look forward to more tales from The Sage whenever he takes his next break from his adventures.
Perfect timing, mate! My players were just taking a shortcut through the underdark tunnels around Deep Shanatar, and I was looking into some lore and stuff to add to travel descriptions as well as to fill out a Deep Dragon's hoard that they're probably gonna have to fight.
Thank you so much. I knew the throne had some cool lore attached to it that the articles i found on it explained. 👍 ❤
And would you believe I had to skip a ton of dwarven history just to keep it closely related to the Wyrmskull throne, but oh man, the Deepspawn Wars were CRAZY!
@AJPickett look forward to future videos on it or anything else
@@AJPickett Dwarf lore would take a lifetime to cover in complete detail.
@@almitrahopkins1873 that is the great gift of making videos about Faerun... it has never ending lore!
Awesome video AJ. Thanks again
You are most welcome Chris, this was quite a project! It took me days to even gather all the information I had to read for this subject. Now I want to study old Delzoun and other dwarven history.
@@AJPickett it was enjoyable to listen to and watch
Awesome video. Would love to see a Baalzebul Video
Last time thanks AJ. Rewatch the videos gave me some great ideas for my story
So glad you are doing D&D again, WOTC/Hasbro suck balls, but D&D belongs to us, the community
Always good to be up when a new video releases better than cinema film😂 but i wonder those cloakers were trying to summon The Patient One so dwarves needed to end there reign to prevent that deity being let loose from far realm or were he dwells. Excited for next video sir keep it up👍
Sounds like the best gaming chair for a Duergar
Really enjoy your content! Thank you A.J.!
❤ a great video of forgotten realms! As usual AJ has gifted inspiration for my d&d campaigns!
More dwarf lore plz.
DnD history. My favorite!
Me too. So much of current D&D is about charting the future, but sometimes it feels like all the cool stuff happened in the distant past.
@@daniell1483 More folks should run campaigns set in the past eras of Faerun.
1:00 Gonna take this moment to say that in ed's realms, the yal tengi is an inland sea (assumed crater with an island spire at the center for proof) and the utter north is endless more land to adventure in that is not necessarily all icy and cold.
The great glacier pelvuria is artificial- magical in nature. I advise watchers to imagine removing it and then imagine expand the landmasses north to get a better picture of what was intended. In that way, the spine of the world is cold only due to altitude.
Also, stepping out of ed's realms to talk about real world parallels from the box-set expansions to faerun's continents, the hordelands are the steppe and the yal tengi is the caspain sea. There is *land* above that lattitude in our world. Room for a massive scandinavia and siberia and canada style upper level to the world map. And it would look so clean, too!
Also, note to the nerds, the south of Kara-Tur is *so wierd* when it comes to mapping. Different sources vary WILDLY. Also shoutout to the aliens on the artificial plateau.
Yeah, I mean, that is where a lot of the orcs roam, in lands with only a few human tribes. Also, tons of giants up there (both figuritively and literally, lol)
I find the dwarven history so cool so it makes me kinda sad that you don't see them being very relevant in the official campaigns.
(not that I would buy any new WoTC book, but still lol)
We can always write our own campaigns :)
I’ve played in and run all-dwarf campaigns in the past. They can be a real giggle if your players can get into it.
@@almitrahopkins1873 100% true
Cool this is very timely. My BG3 MC is a dweguar.
That part about the duergar being the only ones to be able to sit on the throne makes me hope we'd get a D'rizzt version of a duergar who becomes good and leads his people away from worshiping Asmodeus and sits on the throne
Time to draft up a Duergar PC for Stormking's Thunder!
I played a deep gnome cleric of Gelf Darkhearth named Snicklegrick in that campaign.
@AJPickett The one that smashed precious items in return for healing? I love that guy! Definitely stealing that idea for the Deep Gnome village they'll be passing through.
@@danielkubicek1323 The very same, oh man, the look on the other players faces when Snicklegrick destroyed very expensive magic items on his little ceremonial anvil! But also, there was a moment where he surfed the nose of a Giant Roc with a storm giant riding it behind him, hurling the wrath of his god at a great blue dragon, in a scene like the X-wings speeding down the surface of the Death Star... Yeah, that gnome was pure metal.
You can stick that in on your own, you know. I can remember a campaign more than three decades ago that included a neutral Duergar.
The Complete Book of Dwarves had just come out, so we were rather keen to work some of that material into our game. I created the character Thorfinn Skullsplitter using the Temple Guard kit from that book because there was no way I was going to waste my 18 rolled for strength, even though it would give me an 8 dexterity. To explain why he wasn’t standing guard at some temple to Clangeddin, I concocted a story of a grand pilgrimage because he was the third son of a clan leader, so he would eventually be a High Priest and he didn’t like that very much.
My buddy Ethan read the Battlerager kit and it appealed to him to play something other than his usual mage, so he rolled one up. He loved the backstory of Thorfinn, so he made his character the firstborn son of the second born of Thorfinn’s brothers. His backstory was that he went looking for Thorfinn because he knew as a battlerager, he would be skipped in the succession of the clan leadership and the youngest of Thorfinn’s brothers had already arranged the death of Thorfinn’s two oldest brothers, leaving both of our characters as the rightful heir. And that is what thoroughly derailed the DM’s plan for his campaign and kicked off the War of the Axe, a decades-long (in game time) dwarven civil war for control of the Deepaxe clan of Citadel Adbar.
And that sets the stage for the Duergar that I was trying to explain. In one of the encounters, we were attacked by Duergar and I wanted to capture at least one of them to “interrogate”. After we got the information that the Duergar were working with the usurper, Thorfinn said to turn him loose because “an execution is not glorious battle and it is below us”. That was just enough to turn that Duergar to our side in the conflict. He became the spy in the usurper’s camp that fed us information in letters signed, “waiting for that glorious battle”.
When the spy was caught passing messages and executed by the usurper, it was an emotional gut-punch to all of the players. We even staged a rescue to recover his body and it was interred with the honored dead in Thorfinn’s Hold, marked only with a stone slab inscribed simply, Waiting Brother, because we never did know his name.
Even an NPC can be the Drizzt-like good Duergar. You don’t have to make it a PC.
1:50 Question on personal taste, AJ. Wild Dwarves- included in Dwarves Deep as a real important and prominent race of dwarves that at some point are likely found in every wood and shrub on the surface of greater faerun.
Do you think the Wild Dwarves are found in wild forests on the edge of civilized lands because they are spawned from modern dwarves who 'go wild' outside of civilization? Or do you think Wild Dwarves existed by the millions all across faerun before Ur-Gold Dwarves seriously explored the surface?
They diverged off in small family groups and adapted to the surface over time, its been many thousands of years, plenty of time to develop their own cultures multiple times over. For example, the Arctic dwarves diverged from the group including clan Duergar, but they settled way up north and are now a distinct sub race of the Dwarves on Faerun.
Amazing. I'm currently DMing SKT and Iymrith motivations always seemed too basic to me, so in my version she infiltrate the storm giants court so she can steal the throne, to destroy it and use its power to fuel her ritual to become a greatwyrm. I'm still thinking about a new phase of the campaign where the players are race against time to find and grab as many scepters as they could to thwart the blue dragon plans.
Excellent idea.
@@AJPickett Just one thing: the Korolnor Scepter was the one featured in SKT. Its last location was in the hands of Princess Serissa.
@@marcosgalvaosilva Dang it! lol, thanks for that info :)
I have only gotten into the lore of the forgotten relms / dnd recently (thanks to bg3), but I've been interested in the mechanics of playing dnd for a bit though (also bg3 early access). I love that your scripts are like a scholar's lecture on each topic.
Very informative and enjoyable! AJ I was wondering if you had any plans to finish the Netheril Empire series from several years ago? I was only able to find parts I and II, perhaps I missed something? It’s clearly mandatory history to understand “modern” Faerun. Thanks! 🙏😙
Yes, matter of fact it would have been a bad idea to do a part three back then, because Eric Boyd published the lore on Jergal and it completely changes the motivations and cause of the fall of Netheril! Its very heavy lore though, so I need to build up to it.
@@AJPickett I see! Thank you!
Love realms lore 😊
Thanks for another great vid
Glad you enjoyed it
AJ, whats your headcanon for the identity of the north-east 'crags' surface entrance to gauntlgrym? I presume it is southwest of Berun's Hill and there would be many similar structures that are mere abandoned mines nearby to the true entrance- stocked with dwarvish netherese and elven traps
I've got more experience with the Northern elven people (hence my accent when speaking elven), but I get along well with the southern shield dwarves who are frequent visitors to Candlekeep (the southern elves are a touchy, xenophobic lot on the eastern coasts), there are options for your entrance to Gauntlgrym, there are natural caves (what the dwarves call dead caves as they are very dry and there is a lot of unstable rock there) leading up to the big city gates, which lead into the twisting mines with rails in them, these are defensive tunnels more than actual mines, the other entrances are from the underdark up to the city through mine shafts and there are mines that lead to the big forges... in short, getting into the city you will almost always be going through well travelled caves, into mine passages that you need to navigate carefully, and then into the city.
@@AJPickett fun read- though I meant literally the fabled 'entrance hidden in the crags' that is said to be found on the surface. Party is going to survey the range like they're a photographer in a prop plane (lvl 12 druid with intense perception flying over the area with buffs and eagle's eyes) and I want to get across that though they may find an entrance right away, I'm not sure how a secluded and long un-used dwarven surface-to-city back-door should be presented.
AJ do you have any planes of the multiverse videos?
I have many.
I didn't know, any of this.
Its safe to say that this last week has been a pretty intense study of dwarven history for me.
@@AJPickett Only a week? You’ve just started, I take it.
@@almitrahopkins1873 Yeah, I have so much to learn... its awesome.
Does it flush? Or is it a manual kinda throne?
Let me show you the proper use of the Mithril Scepter... bend over a second?
Only if you pass a DC 19 charisma check, big boy! LoL. Thanks for all your work. You're an indispensable and unending source of lore. Creators like you are the sovereign glue of the D&D community!
-Dumathoin: "There's a reason I'm a god of secrets under the mountains, I just never thought this would be one of them!"
🤣
Will you do elven artifacts anytime soon?
Which one did you have in mind?
@@AJPickett Based on the question, I think “any” or “all” is the likely answer.
@@almitrahopkins1873 I'm much more likely to produce a video based on a specific topic request. (case in point, this one)
Noted I will look into this.
not really sure how much is in this but could you look into the Moonblades, If not the Highfire crown and the elven magic that made it.
I love all dwarf lore
I love the Dwarven lore, but it always seems so melancholy. Like with the Elves for example, they've made mistakes as a people, but in the end, they get the Isle of Evermeet, their gods are actively working towards bettering them as a people, etc. Dwarves by contrast have this sense of fallen glory to them. The current dwarves will never be as good as their prior generations, so the Dwarven people are stuck in this eternal spiral of loss. They were such a great people, mighty and powerful, but malign forces and in-fighting have corrupted their destined path. And the Dwarven gods don't seem very concerned with how the Dwarves are falling further and further, year after year, into what seems like an inevitable doom.
Am I wrong? Do the Dwarven gods/people have some master plan to at least return their folk to some form of prosperity, or at least stability?
Dwarves exist on many different worlds, the story of their civilization on Toril is just one planet, and lets not forget, the kingdoms of Shanatar lasted for thousands of years in prosperity. Currently, the Human species on Toril is recovering from an epic loss of three major empires, at one time Imaskar, Netheril and Jhaamdath all existed at the same time, now, human civilization is very much reduced, basically back to city-states at best. The dwarves also spread from Faerun to other planes of existence, and presumably other planets via portal magic, establishing new civilizations on other worlds... who knows how long they have been doing this? Who knows where the humans first came from? We know in the lore, for example, that the Orcs came to Toril from no less than six other worlds that they dominate as the primary humanoid culture, and the Orcs were on Toril for possibly longer than the humans have been. I think the main thing though, is that Elves, Orcs and Dwarves are not human, they have different cultural values, a different perspective on their history and different goals for their future. The dwarves will endure, as long as they live, so will their culture and their values, that is their main concern, the numbers of their population is more of a human concern, Dwarves live on average three times as long as Humans, they have a fundamental drive to build things that endure, when they build something, they are going to use it for three times as long as a human... you see? Fundamental difference in mentality. When you buy some piece of crap plastic product designed to break... that is how dwarves feel about 90% of things humans manufacture. Dwarves have ruins that have endured for seventeen thousand years... humans may build the occasional standing stone circle or pyramid, but they have nothing like that sort of enduring legacy of their past... to them, its the humans who live chaotic, fleeting lives with no lasting legacy they can pass on to their children, so, they feel the same way about us, just for different reasons.
@@AJPickett All good points, when I think D&D I usually default to Faerun, but you are right in pointing out that is somewhat myopic. Bottom line for me is that I'd love to see a great Dwarven resurgence, a chance for the Dwarves to earn their happy ending.
And now I can only wonder what a Dwarf would have to say about shrinkflation!
@@daniell1483 Well, the dragon princes (video on them soon) are dominating and consolidating their power in the land of Murghom, where a lot of ancient dwarven ruins are located, so, if there is one thing that motivates dwarves into action, it is messing with their historic monuments! Also, remember the Deepspawn? If the Dwarves are really motivated, they can build clone armies very, very quickly.
And a war with dragons would be just that kind of motivation.
You guys could publish an actual Lore Bible at this point and it would be better than anything WoTC has produced in YEARS
That’s how TSR worked. Ed Greenwood was DM and the Forgotten Realms was his home brew campaign. Dark Sun was Troy Denning’s. Dragonlance was Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weiss’ campaign. The play test credits in those books and boxed sets were the players in the games that developed those worlds.
That’s why the crap WotC puts out is pretty much garbage. They hire writers, not players & DMs. If WotC was smart about it, they would alter their business practices to act more like a patron of the arts, rather than a producer of goods. If they paid AJ $40k a year just to think up ideas and paid him a decent royalty for what he produced, they would see their profit margins soar.
The mistake TSR made that put them in serious financial trouble was overproducing the Birthright line. If they would have produced 100,000 units instead of a million, they never would have been in a position where they needed WotC to buy D&D for it to survive. If WotC produced small batch runs of of 50-100k of thirty or forty different game worlds, they wouldn’t have massive amounts invested in turning out one main campaign line.
These lore videos pay the bills. They aren’t AJ’s best work. Go watch the videos of his original work and you’ll see the good stuff. You can tell from those that he grew up with things like Dragon Magazine and the Gazetteer series, back when D&D was freaking awesome, not just a product created by a massive corporation.
If I ran WotC, I’d pay him $40k a year just to see what he comes up with when he is free to let his mind wanders over countless imaginary worlds. I’d also find a couple dozen others like him to see what they come up with when you put them in a room with a complete library of game materials. The popularity of the digital releases of what “the gang” produces would tell you what to release as hardcover physical books.
@@almitrahopkins1873 $100k per year, minimum.
Woke up to this notification. Today is gonna be a good day
What's the source for the map at 3:00?
Sorry, that's classified.
@@AJPickett it's very rare to see a map that zoomed out. TM4 & TM5 did, but those are very old now & not so detailed. I think I have everything 1 & 2e FR, but that's obviously later. Is it a fan made map or official?
It's a HandsomeRob map
@@verpalorian310 That it is. Well done, gain 200 exp.
Home of Primus your original idea?
How would a shadow dragon fight a shadow demon
Howe does one eradicate a shadow dragon
Thx
Cheer's
👍
See George? DnD did it without the incest and horrible last few seasons.