Halruaa Today: How one nation's wizards defied Spellplague destruction
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Halruaa is a land of great magic and great wizards. The Spellplague took its toll. Learn what befell this nation of wizards and what it looks like today.
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#realmslore #dnd #forgottenrealms
I'm thrilled to finally expand on this magical land that (to many) had been forgotten by time! What other Realms mysteries are keeping you up at night?
Thank you so much for your continued to support. It's your patronage that make these videos (and all of my extra work over on Patreon) possible: patreon.com/EdGreenwood
Mr. Greenwood, I would like to hear more about what has happened to Daggerdale, Harrowdale and Scardale if you can find the time to inform us. I even used the tavern "The Fouled Line" Volo's guide in a side adventure I cooked up, the trap door included.
The dales are on my to-do list. I'll likely tackle them in a few videos, so each one gets proper coverage.@@theprofessorkeen1911
@@edgreenwoodofficial Thank you Mr. Greenwood! I'll be waiting for them! i just hope that the Archendale folk learned some humility over the years.
Heh. A FEW of them have. Too few.
@@theprofessorkeen1911
The Realms for me has been just as much of an influential, formative place for my writing & storytelling as Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
when Ed is speaking about the lore - IT JUST FEELS REAL
JUST FELL TO MY KNEES OH HALRUAA MY BELOVED
Halruaa sounds like an interesting setting for a survival/builder video game. Start as a magic user that ended up in a remote area of the Halruaa and has to find shelter, build a new home, gather other survivors and use a combination of magic and survival skills to rebuild.
The problem is that magic doesn't work correctly in Abeir, since it doesn't possess the Weave or the gods.
The Weave organizes raw magic. Without it, most arcane casters are going to struggle to cast anything. Wizards will require significant retraining. Bards would have to retrain, in order to deal with the chaos of raw magic.
Warlocks, clerics, druids, paladins, and rangers are going to struggle the most, since they are supposed to channel power from a source which is almost certainly unreachable from Abeir.
Raw, non-Weave elemental magic and psionics work, as do _sources,_ such as magic items and sorcerers.
Halruaan magic would have to undergo significant alterations over time.
I really love that Ed started this channel. One of my favorites to watch.
Do Anchorome/Maztica and Tethyr!!!! Tethyr is so cool. Way cooler than Amn.
Thems fighting words, friend! But, seeing as you have a Morrowind profile pick, I'll let it pass.
Well, Depends on Anchorome/Maztica since Ed stated that anything outside of Faerun is made by outsiders (especially Kara-Tur and Al-Qadim, though even I could see Ed's take on former--maybe he could have made it current Warhammer Fantasy's Cathay...minus grim dark fantasy and tongue-in-cheek humor that probably parodied Fantasy Asia in RPG and wargaming communities).
Tethyr, I would like to see that. I am not sure if it being "Fantasy pre-Reconquista Spain" (at least many of its inhabitants having Middle-Eastern names like Vajra and chronically changed hands between Amn and Calimshan) was his or TSR's idea.
@@powerist209 huh, I thought Maztica/Anchorome was canon to FR because that is where Baulderian made his riches for the Gate?
Yeah, I was looking into that since I am not sure if lore for Baldur’s Gate came before or after the videogame (which was released after Maztica), but Greenwood did state that Anchorome/Maztica came in 2E.
@@haydenbsiegel Maztica did not exist in Ed's conception of the Realms (I believe he had a circa 1982 world map of Toril which is VERY different from what we ended up with post-TSR, and Realmslore fans would pay good money to see!). Anchorome was a massive island archipelago located north of Evermeet and north-west of Tuern and the Moonshaes. After Maztica was introduced by TSR and Doug Niles, the idea was that Anchorome would be the island chain located off the far north-east coast of Maztica, and can be seen there on the Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas (and, with greater difficulty, in the Scholar's View of Abeir-toril from the 3E FRCS). But there was some confusion amongst the editorial staff and the 2E Gold & Glory sourcebook inadvertently mistook Anchorome as the entire continent to the west and north of the Bay of Balduran, despite this clearly just being a northward extension of Maztica. That led to the current confusion where Anchorome is said to be the name of the continent north of the Bay of Balduran and Maztica to the south, despite them being the same continent (there is no supercontinent-divided-into-continents feature like the Yehimal on the main landmass).
My take on this is that when the notables of Baldur's Gate heard of the discovery of Maztica by arch-rivals Amn, they declared Maztica to be fabled Anchorome, already found and claimed centuries earlier by Balduran (when, in reality, Balduran probably only visited the islands), giving Baldur's Gate prior claim to the landmass and its riches. Amn basically ignored them and, later, called them liars. This led to a situation where Balduran sailors refuse to use the name "Maztica" and only call it "Anchorome" and Amnian sailors doing likewise with Maztica, and the debate is fierce enough to see blood spilt in Realms cartographic circles. My feeling is that Amn should lose this debate, as the natives of Maztica called it Maztica, and they DNGAF what some city 3,000 miles away calls it (and it would effectively be a coloniser name in any case), not to mention that Ed's been pretty firm over the years that Anchorome is the island chain, NOT the name of a continent.
Very fun lore. Long live Halruaa! I only hope Dambrath's Crinti found a similar sanctuary from the Spellplague era's calamities.
Maybe in Ravensbluff and Waterdeep since Half Drow are accepted there.
Maybe converting to Eilistraee.
The realm of Dambrath and its stories will always have a special place in my heart.
@@Moleje1337 Mycontil (of Halruaa) kicked your butt. I have no love for Dambrath.
@@shanemartin2215 you do you boo.
I think you can still play with the Crinti! In a campaign I played, we determined some Crinti refugees had holdouts in the Nath and the mountain borders - the timelines align and are short enough to allow for it, giving no time for a focus on booting Crinti out come the Spellplague. So they were transported along too! After a good 100 years of no gods and little magic, it forced the populations to work together and they're now integrated. This lore video seems to reinforce that idea to a degree - or at least not rule it out.
There's also still the Yaulazna earthmote floating around which has became a refugee colony of sorts too, of both Halruaa wizards and pirates (many of which were Crinti). I'm sure current Halruaa has a interest in bringing it home, so to speak.
Nice! My players had three personal side quests around and in Halruaa, including meeting the king.
0:31 And that's why divination is my favorite school of magic (forewarned is forearmed). I didn't know about Halruaa, but it's interesting to compare it with Netheril (both lands of magic that had to deal with catastrophies, but the way things happened was completely different for each of them).
Fantastic video and so welcomed by me and my group of realmsheads. 5e lore is severely lacking and this video has answered so many questions we’ve been asking wotc for years and never gotten an answer. I would dearly love a 5e Forgotten Realms campaign setting book as great as the 2nd and 3rd edition books but i fear it is never going to happen. Thank the gods Ed is here to fill in the void and put the heart and soul back into the realms for us.
So happy to see a video on Halruaa! I’m almost done with book 2 of Counselors & Kings by Elaine Cunningham. It’s been fun so far too!
Loved the cosplay at the end. 😀
Such amazing story! This story show one truth: The most powerful magic nation is not one who use magic unrestricted. It is one who carefully use it with wisdom.
Thank you again for a great peak at Abier again. We definitely need an Abeir book, introducing those hidden lands and our familiar lands for Toril. Still wondering what happened to Maztica...as it was stated "the sea just bubbles" on Abeir where Maztica shoud have appeared.
Wow! Where did it say that? Thats very interesting!
On Greenwood's Grotto, last month, Ed said that "there's a team at work on Maztica, and I bow to them."
Now, that _may_ be a release intended for DMsGuild with Ed on the byline, or it may be a WotC release. I haven't seen further details.
I wonder what happened to the magic resistant counselors of Halruaa, the Jordain. There was a trilogy of books about them called Counselors and Kings that I enjoyed years ago.
FINALLY! Been waiting for this for a long time. Since we play bypassing the Spellplague, we saw it occur on another version of the realms, we avoided the disaster in time. I've created my own versions of Khaerbaal, Assundath, SSorsil, Alathal. Created 2 Demigoddesses in Assundath, and Khaerbaal. They've gone and explored it to investigate, thanks to Tzigone, Zalathorm, and Gabrela. So while we're still 2E, we've added some 4E/5E as a warning of what could happen. Our Halruaa has changed, with less reliance on Mystra, but she has welcomed the other gods I've introduced, even if they are versions of goddesses of Magic, it's how they use it, that defines them. Not just blind loyalty to Mystra or Azuth.
Thanks for this, homie.
As we only play in the Shining South and tips of the Zakhara, Land of fate. I loved this video.
I will forever love the realms as Ed created them. 5e is decent mechanics but devoid of life.
Thank you lord Greenwood This was a great video.
Ed. Please go narrate your books. I would buy every single audio book you put out. I think it would be the best way for some of us busy parents to enjoy your works and brush up on the lore for running our own games. Also, I'd probably use them to get to sleep. And that's meant as a compliment, bud.
Anything spell plague ! Love it
Thanks for all that you do
Oh so cool! I hadnt heard of this place before.
Talking about the spell sickness reminded me of the spelljammer book
Thanks, Ed! It's always really cool to get new lore from you.
Man I wish any of this lore was actually in the 5E books. I know they don't publish supplements like they used to but the way they write lore these days it's like the Spellplague was just some minor footnote in history rather than a devastating global catastrophe that changed the face of the world.
Huzzah,, the Shinning South.
Awesome Ed , so grateful for your Realm. WE adventure in this land as a party of spellcasters it was Amazing.
I was not aware you had a YT channel of your own! Instantly subscribed.
Hello great sage! A pleasure as always to hear your side and watch your mind whirl! A question that keeps me up at night is, what would you have done with Kara-Tur instead of what it is now? Did you have plans for the far east? What would you do to diversify it, making less of an analog of our world?
Thank you for your creation, it has become one of my all time favorite fantasy worlds. Your truly a champion of creativity! Thank you!
Thank you Ed ❤
Great video Sir ❤
Loved the Halruaa video. Can you do a Tethyr video sometime? I played a lot in tethyr and in epic levels(level 35-40) as well and I want to use it again as a DM
What do you even fight at level 35+?
Epic level opponents..😅 💪
Its been a long time since I've had my source books out, but off the top o my head, liches, dragons, demons, angels, chosen, champions..etc..
@@sebbonxxsebbon6824 3rd 3.5 had a number of adventures published which are for levels above 20 and even above 30, which could easily be scaled up or down, and the Epic Level Handbook was offering a lot of cool monsters. There was also a 4th edtion adventure which our DM changed to 3rd edition rules which called for 30 level character. Enemies were great wurms, storm giants, demons and devils (all of them with quite a few class levels) and epic level characters. Then in the more difficult adventures the big bosses were a demon lord of the Abyss in the 4th edition adveture and two demigod beings in the last adveture we played.
Before this started, I was going to say the hallruan's had only survived their time in Abeir through use if the Jordain and the Former Queens clockwork creatures.
Hi Ed, recently stumbled across your chanel and I love your content so much. Lot's of new lore that I can use for my campaign! Question, are you planning on doing content on spotify? I'd love to listen to your stuff when commuting to work!
Next will you be describing how Halruaa returns to Toril in the Second Sundering? Was this the work of a reduced number of elders in a society with a reduced trust in magic, or fully a happenstance because its nice to have Halruua in Faerun?
I would love to see what Lantan is up to now
One of my players is currently playing a Lantanese gnome born in Toril, she was a fervor devout of Gond, but as her prayers werent heard in Abeir, she struggled (but succeeded) to keep her faith.
Her daugther, however, was born on Abeir, and after her father died in Abeir, and his tomb was left in Abeir after the return to Toril, she has been experiencing a serious trauma and finds all gods either fake or evil.
I love it all
what are the three studs on halruaan wizards' heads? I saw them in the forgotten realms comics.
Ed greenwood talking post spell plague halruua.. why thank you.
Could you expand on Halruaans attitude towards the different arcane caster types before and after the spellplague? As well, do they see Divine magic/casters in the same light or are god spells a 'safer' option to arcane?
good googly moogly!
For the algorithm 🎉
By the way Ed, given that Halruaa spent a century on Abeir do you think Dragonborn might be relatively common in the country these days?
I'm convinced the writers at WOTC want to destroy the Realms, no idea why but they're doing everything they can to make them kinda suck.
I liked 3 and 3.5 mechanically but I don't take anything past second edition as lore in my realms unless I really like an individual piece.
lol as a former mtg fanatic i feel this in my soul
wotc has been rapidly gutted by hasbro
its only greed now
I don’t see them making them suck in as much they’re not investing in world building at all.
I believe WoTC is limited on what they can change in Ed's works outside of game mechanics for a game session as he still owns the copyrights to it.
@@Fizzbann Whoa, didn't know that - do you have a citation? That's a huge risk if they don't have a permissive lic. to create new works based on it, at min.
So wait, where do spelljammers dock?
Oops. Guess that fiend I rp'd in avernus wound have been incinerated.
Mh... I have to change a few things in my campaign in light of these news.
The antagonist of this campaign is a Giftless wizard wannabe who hailed from a family of spellcasters, and basically caused many problems in search for a way to forcibly obtain the Gift. I had thought of making him an Halruaan, given the nation's magical status before the Spellplague, but given the changes another nationality would be a better fit.
I guess the good thing for Halruaa that the Zhents are on the other side of the continent & would have to be nuts to try & conquer them .. Thay on the other hand is a little closer. XD
Zakhara is just south, not too far across the Great Sea.
Amazing one piece meme in there.
So basically 4th edition made Halruaa boring and weak. Yet I'm glad Ed could explain it all to me, thanks Ed!
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I never liked the Spellplague event at all and just ignored it. I made my own Shadow Cataclysm that took all of Toril into the Shadowfell instead. I based my first 5e campaign there and then the party managed to restore most of the realms through defeating the Shadovar. 2nd 5e campaign is based in Halruaa and is 100 years afters the renewal and is some of the children of the 1st campaign. I love Halruaa and I like to think that Ed would like my version of his wondrous realm. :) The Shadovar are not done yet!
Were the average citizens aware of what the elders were trying to do beforehand?
Never refer to the current natives of Halruaa as Halruins, it doesn't go well.
😮😊
Make halruaa greta again
I wonder, who is your favorite One Piece character?
I honestly think Halruaa should have been devastated, and would have made a great adventuring area filled with chaos and lost magic and wild magic.
To be honest I doubt the Spellplague was even expected by Ed. This lore is kind of more like a tourniquet hastily patched on the disastrous outcome for going to 4e.
TSR killed Mystra multiple times, but none was as devastating to this edition change, so much so that they had to somewhat mend it back in 5e. So despite I appreciate Ed Greenwood's effort to make the changes. The awkwardness is definitely telling. Because if Spellplague would fully manifest on Toril, a high magic world like this would have been turned into Dark Sun.
I think it was Ed's design originally to have these 3 polar powers of magical realms to keep each others in balance. The Netheril, the Thay and Halruaa. Because if you look at the map, three of them weaved a Bermuda triangle by their locations.
While we didn't devastate Halruaa, we still play in the 2E Shining South, we've adventured in a ruined version of Halruaa in the alternate universe we call 4-5/E.
Can definitely run it that way if you like. Sounds pretty cool!
For being descendants of the people responsible for Karsus' Folly, im surprised they would be humbled at all. May their humility prevail though especially considering that Haluraa is no longer on par with Thay or Zhentarim. I wonder if post second sundering Halruaa would have their share of ruins to explore much like Myth Drannor is.
Now that you mentioned the spellplague and having read spellfire recently I wonder if there's a difference between the spellfires of the spellplague and the spellfire a certain lady thief would get.
Does Halruaa still have a large fleet of airships after the spellplague, and what happened with the different schools of magic that where located in the eastern plains of the kingdom?
In a long running campaign I made an echo of Halruaa become a Domain of Dread due to the results of the phase shift, and my players started the game stuck in the Halruaan airport stranded and grounded due to the excessive mists.
Mordy needs to leave the realms
He's hanging around, annoying the WotC writers until they give in and create a Greyhawk sourcebook (which feels overdue at this point).
I really dislike this modern halruaa. This entire edition is a watered down version of d&d and now halruaa is another land, no longer unique for high magic gameplay....
This seems to be mostly ed's take on the situation. According to 5e Sword Coast Adventure Guide what Ed's saying here is not the current canon: Page 10: "Halruaa has largely been restored to the insular, magic-mighty nation it once was." - The 4ed spell plague is not written as having hurt Halruaa, but used to teleport it into Abeir. "Now that the events of those times have been mostly undone, the famed Halruaan Skyships and waterborne vessels have spread out from their home once again," and on page 149, it states that they still are controlled by a mageocracy, and still have their strange and bizarre laws that will get you banished if you break them.
Dude needs an onlyfans😊
: ( D