The Netherese studied the Sarrukh and went high, searching for secrets in the grandest expressions of time and the cosmos The Imaskari studied the Batrachi and went deep, searching for secrets in the filament of reality to find its fundamental depths Now I'm imagining what would be possible if both perspectives could be blended. A Universal theory of magic that would yield revelations to make the Gods quiver
The Netherese were manipulated from the very start by the Spellweaver Jergal, former god of death, lord of the end of everything, as detailed in a recent DM's guild official forgotten realms lore masterwork by Eric L. Boyd, (realms lore grand master sage) www.dmsguild.com/product/346895/Jergal-Lord-of-the-End-of-Everything
Man, the visual of a race of golden-skinned people riding domesticated flying heads with a forest of tentacle eyes.. DND feels like a fever dream sometimes.
That's just how D&D (and Pathfinder, and Numenera) work. There's the "grounded" lore that largely follows the rules of D&D, and then there's the wild and imaginative "higher lore" nearly completely divorced from the standard rule system, aside from compatible nomenclature.
I'll never get tired of the expansion of Beholder lore and variations. I really appreciate that we can start to piece together a potential narrative about their existence and purpose if we listen closely to all of your videos -- particularly the Astral Dreadnought and Beholder lore videos, but also any of them that talk about Tharizdun and his machinations for a horrifying return from wherever it is he waits... Thanks for another excellent entry from the TMG-AJ-Pickett-expanded-D&D-multiverse!
Man, when it comes to DND, I always think of a plane as infinite and demiplane as either small(house size) to huge, but huge as in continent size. This is a whole different level, thank you AJ for adding awe to another great video
I've always heard the name Imaskari around D&D properties, but I never thought they would be this fantastical! Has Elminster himself been to an Imaskari demiplane? Imagine the things someone of his caliber could learn....
Wait just one second, there, good sage. They're living in demiplanes. They're altering themselves and other creatures to suit their wants and needs. They're hurtling through time at an insane rate. They know about Thurizdun. Are these about to be the Obyrith again?
Highly unlikely. think of the Obyrith as the worst fears of Tharizdun that lived in his nightmares, and he actually manifested them into reality through his own insanity.
Mr. Pickett, thank you again for another fascinating tale. You have a talent as a presenter and an author and I can't thank you enough for piecing these candle keep Adventures together for us. Just a few minutes before you reminded us that this was your own writing I was wondering what magazines or Source material you had gotten these stories from and it became all the more impressive.
The ongoing adventures of your wizard self are absolutely enthralling. You most definitely bring the explanations to life as if they really happened. It makes me wonder if he will seek out restoration magic to get back his lost memories. Or is he content with his notes of the events?
I'm terrified of The Great Mother noticing the Imaskari... all those Holders, just waiting to be re-imagined. Imagine the damage it would do to the ethereal plane and the realms of thought and dream if suddenly a nested demiplane layer cake of Beholders spawned. Imagine the Imaskari fleeing back to Abeir-Toril again
I want to thank you for helping me keep my sanity while I help take care of my mom and work with all the effort you put into your lore videos and stories, AJ you're the best
Speaking too you, but looking away, the emissary speaks. "Your talents for story telling are lost on mere mortals. They are unworthy and unfit to hear such tales of this lost civilization. My lord however wishes you thanks, and commands you continue. While others would surly meet their fate in the form of a Nothic, you have assumed and peaked the interest of the whispering one". You wonder to yourself. If the keeper of secrets finds your stories interesting, then what might befall you should he loose interest? Knowledge is dangerous, keep your secrets....safe.
I do like the idea of the aberrations known for despotic attitudes laced with a psychotic paranoia being linked to the chained god, the mad god, the chained oblivion, ect.
the craziest part is... ive done so much dnd lore research i understood all of this... i have forgotten realms arcana and religion expertise in real life.
If in the end you hadn't said that this was homebrew, I would have taken this as actual lore. Dame I love such imaginary deep dives! Ps: Don't you dare think I overheard your refferenz to Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy.
Ooooo!! This is going to be very important to my campaign world where I want to explore what happened to the High Imaskar after they were driven into the planes of purple dust by the return of the Egyptian pantheon
Just about anything is possible amongst races or realms where magics flows so freely. All this dimensional barrier distortion and temporary planar manipulation has me thinking how often things from the "outside" spill out and whom is responsible for their containment. Creating a pocket dimension for the express purposes of transportation to and from other "larger" dimensions is all good until a tear opens and some Far Realm monstrosity oozes out and quickly takes root.
Could you imagine a deranged Imaskari blending human, Mind Flayer, and Beholder! A new level of lovecraftian horror. I think I'll call it a "Mind's Eye"
A horse was beyond human comprehension, until it wasn’t. A dog was a terrifying creature, until the day that it wasn’t. Your species’ thoughts are far too simple.
@@almitrahopkins1873 while I advocate open mindedness to ideas….. common quadrupeds are a far cry from a floating, fang mawed, eye stalk crowned, cyclopes with an ego the size of Selune’s tears.
Ethically, three community members on my discord server have earned actual money by contributing images on themes I specifically asked for as I could find no existing artwork that matched exactly what I was talking about. This involvement of fans of my work in the actual creative process is very good and I think is a model for best practice use of these new creative tools. If you wish for a better perspective on the present, ALWAYS look to the past for similar events, check out this video : th-cam.com/video/CfVHXDty5Pk/w-d-xo.html
@@modestrocker1 that really isnt how algorithms work. honestly its quite bad practice to even call this ai because there is no actual intelligence here, algorithms are basically very powerful calculators. they dont steal artwork any more than a human who looks at art they like for inspiration steals that art. also, art generated with algorithms is unique and would not exist in the same state it does without the person who input the prompts, doing them at the time they did and in the order they did. do you credit davinci's paintbrush with painting the mona lisa? or would davinci have to have made his own canvas, brush and paint for it to count as his art? both of those things seem a little ridiculous. in short, yes you can ethically pay someone who generated art with an algorithm because their exertion of will is what produced the artwork. they are the artist. sure it doesnt take long to type in prompt but if it was found out that saturn devouring his son had been painted by goya in about 20 minutes and he found it very easy, would that somehow retroactively change how the painting looks now? also, there are a looooooot of artists who work very hard on their art and get no recognition while some artists who barely work at all on their art get lots of praise an attention. artists are not owed anything merely because they worked hard for a long time. likewise, working not very hard for a short amount of time does not inherently diminish the value/quality of art, assuming the end result is what the artist is pleased with. sorry, theres just so much misunderstanding and misinformation surrounding this topic.
They are a people that have grown so much yet remain isolated in their dreams. A little saddening for sure but still I wish them well. However in regards to their gate there may be a leak. There is a world that has been absorbed by the feywild. An entire planet covered and encased by it and whom its residents have discovered a primal force thanks in no small part to a human colony ship that crashed landed. It is still a planet however so they might never notice, content with wonderous shadows of their own making.
After reading about how the ethergaunts are a super technologically advanced civilization that hates gods in the ethereal plane I kind of want to mess with the concept that either a splinter group or the whole race eventually evolve into the ethergaunts via forming closer and closer symbiotic relationships with their pet holders.
Maybe the deep Imarskari are not so much rivaling the gods as they may eventually evolve into them? Since time are irrelevant to them they could very well go back to beginning.
I thought i had good ideas went mages, necromaners, & psionists made their own demi_plane of peace in the etherial plane. We used alot of stuff from the rode of seven parts & old netheril. You suggestions here are...far supere to what we came up with.
but once you pay people for text to image ai youve lost ethic consumption of art. your basically paying for prompts that steal images from the cloud. ai images arent art and to call them such or to treat them as worth money is sad and devalues any work done by real artists.
The Netherese studied the Sarrukh and went high, searching for secrets in the grandest expressions of time and the cosmos
The Imaskari studied the Batrachi and went deep, searching for secrets in the filament of reality to find its fundamental depths
Now I'm imagining what would be possible if both perspectives could be blended. A Universal theory of magic that would yield revelations to make the Gods quiver
Also, while both were smart, the Netherese seem to be more about brute force of power, whereas the Imaskari are extremely clever and utilitarian
The Netherese were manipulated from the very start by the Spellweaver Jergal, former god of death, lord of the end of everything, as detailed in a recent DM's guild official forgotten realms lore masterwork by Eric L. Boyd, (realms lore grand master sage) www.dmsguild.com/product/346895/Jergal-Lord-of-the-End-of-Everything
@@AJPickett and let's not forget that they were manipulated by the Sarrukh lich known as the Terraseer.
@@Valasilphukiir absolutely! Beware the schemes of immortals.
Using Fey energy to influence the Dreams of Beholders is freaking brilliant!!
Man, the visual of a race of golden-skinned people riding domesticated flying heads with a forest of tentacle eyes.. DND feels like a fever dream sometimes.
Don’t you have a job to do, Dr. Bright?
That's just how D&D (and Pathfinder, and Numenera) work. There's the "grounded" lore that largely follows the rules of D&D, and then there's the wild and imaginative "higher lore" nearly completely divorced from the standard rule system, aside from compatible nomenclature.
Isn't it?
What! What!
*Several minutes of Beyond-Post-Scarcity Ultra-society description*
"Anyway, the Holders - "
Exquisite.
I'll never get tired of the expansion of Beholder lore and variations. I really appreciate that we can start to piece together a potential narrative about their existence and purpose if we listen closely to all of your videos -- particularly the Astral Dreadnought and Beholder lore videos, but also any of them that talk about Tharizdun and his machinations for a horrifying return from wherever it is he waits...
Thanks for another excellent entry from the TMG-AJ-Pickett-expanded-D&D-multiverse!
Man, when it comes to DND, I always think of a plane as infinite and demiplane as either small(house size) to huge, but huge as in continent size. This is a whole different level, thank you AJ for adding awe to another great video
Would love to see more on Deep Imiskar
Following the response to this video, that is assured.
Ahh Imaskar, sooo ready for this!
I do wish the Sage accidents past a remnant of Jaahmdath.
@@soultron4238 too soon man, too soon...
@@AJPickett freaking awesome video!
I've always heard the name Imaskari around D&D properties, but I never thought they would be this fantastical!
Has Elminster himself been to an Imaskari demiplane? Imagine the things someone of his caliber could learn....
This is certainly a fascinating area of lore. I look forward to learning about the molf.
May Vecna never notice you.
Vecna hates AI art
Wait just one second, there, good sage. They're living in demiplanes. They're altering themselves and other creatures to suit their wants and needs. They're hurtling through time at an insane rate. They know about Thurizdun. Are these about to be the Obyrith again?
Highly unlikely. think of the Obyrith as the worst fears of Tharizdun that lived in his nightmares, and he actually manifested them into reality through his own insanity.
I have to say how much I’ve been loving this continued saga of the sage. Tying the videos together into a cohesive storyline
House holders? Finally, I get to run an encounter with a landlord in one of my games! Keep up the great work!
lol, that's some odd landlord you have there :)
But vampires have already been in the game since 1E though
I'm immediately in love with this setting
Impressive. Call it “The Rime of the Ancient Imaskar”
the part where worlds were being formed sort of made me think of the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy
Mr. Pickett, thank you again for another fascinating tale. You have a talent as a presenter and an author and I can't thank you enough for piecing these candle keep Adventures together for us. Just a few minutes before you reminded us that this was your own writing I was wondering what magazines or Source material you had gotten these stories from and it became all the more impressive.
Thank you.
The ongoing adventures of your wizard self are absolutely enthralling. You most definitely bring the explanations to life as if they really happened.
It makes me wonder if he will seek out restoration magic to get back his lost memories. Or is he content with his notes of the events?
😉 we shall see.
Been a minute my friend! I'll enjoy listening to this tomorrow morning while running errands :)
Another great episode! Always enjoy your artistic choices for the illustrations accompanying the entertaining lore!
I'm terrified of The Great Mother noticing the Imaskari... all those Holders, just waiting to be re-imagined. Imagine the damage it would do to the ethereal plane and the realms of thought and dream if suddenly a nested demiplane layer cake of Beholders spawned. Imagine the Imaskari fleeing back to Abeir-Toril again
Elminster would be proud!!!
Excellent Storytelling & World Building!!!
Awesome it’s a quarter to midnight and I’m 10 beers in AJ Pickett coming in like a champ Rock and roll
Same timezone!
@@Rippertear rock on
Me too
@@GrimDarkHalfOff holy hell that’s awesome loved the dark sun vid
amazing, so interesting, hookwd from beginning to end, AJ. You make it feel alive and "real"
Thank you as always! I love these lore videos from characters!
Much apprecaited!
I want to thank you for helping me keep my sanity while I help take care of my mom and work with all the effort you put into your lore videos and stories, AJ you're the best
Thank you Thomas
@@AJPickett appreciation and gratitude are the least I can do
Wow... Again. My gods man how is it you kick so much ass. Another friggin awesome story my dude. Thanks for the work you do.
Thanks for the video AJ!
Bless the Mighty GlueStick
Speaking too you, but looking away, the emissary speaks.
"Your talents for story telling are lost on mere mortals. They are unworthy and unfit to hear such tales of this lost civilization. My lord however wishes you thanks, and commands you continue. While others would surly meet their fate in the form of a Nothic, you have assumed and peaked the interest of the whispering one".
You wonder to yourself. If the keeper of secrets finds your stories interesting, then what might befall you should he loose interest?
Knowledge is dangerous, keep your secrets....safe.
VEcna did nothing wrong!
I love this introduction. More of this, please!
I wonder if they created a beeholder to sweeten their tea.
🐝🌼🍯🍵
I always wondered about someone using dream spells on a beholder to alter reality/create materials
This was amazing, I loved it! I felt like I was hearing a genuine account...!
I do like the idea of the aberrations known for despotic attitudes laced with a psychotic paranoia being linked to the chained god, the mad god, the chained oblivion, ect.
He mentioned it in the Astral Dreadnought ecology video, too.
Great video, looking forward to more of the deep Imaskari stuff, could make a great campaign setting in itself.
This was splendid, ..
Hope you are having a lovely weekend.
the craziest part is...
ive done so much dnd lore research i understood all of this...
i have forgotten realms arcana and religion expertise in real life.
I wish I could give you a diploma or something 🙂
@@AJPickett my diploma is the insane shenanigans ive pulled off in games with this knowledge
Incredible! I had been looking for some advanced magic technology for my campaign, and I think I've found it. Thanks AJ!
I always liked the Deep Imaskari section of Underdark. Your expansion is logical and exciting. Good job! I'd like to hear more if you come up with it!
The writing in this video is amazing. I could read a whole book or a whole series about the adventures of these advanced humans.
If in the end you hadn't said that this was homebrew, I would have taken this as actual lore. Dame I love such imaginary deep dives!
Ps: Don't you dare think I overheard your refferenz to Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy.
Really cool narrative. Reminds me a little bit like a fleshed our Moebius storyline.
thank you for your wisdom and insights, great sage !
amazing video
I've watched 20+ of your videos and loved them all. I'd be so very happy if you could fix your audio quality. Hope you're well.
Thanks for the feedback, can you be more specific about what was lacking in the audio on this video, I strive to improve.
Imaging a domesticated Beholder for some reason Immediately made me think of how all of the appliances in The Flintstones we're living creatures, haha
Imagining*
Practical applications for Beholders… anyone else wondering why Imaskar, or Netheril fell???
To put it simply evil litches and immorality.
So basically All Tomorrows but with Beholders instead of humans, Nice😎
Thanks aj for the continued content, you always seem to spark my creativity with your videos.
My pleasure!
WOW this was great
This is such a cool video. Honestly one of my favorites of yours. I'd love to learn more about this topic
I love this kind of visual guide, told as if experienced. Please keep these up! Super cool!
Ooooo!! This is going to be very important to my campaign world where I want to explore what happened to the High Imaskar after they were driven into the planes of purple dust by the return of the Egyptian pantheon
so awesome! thanks for this! I cannot wait for more💯
This reminds me of a blend of celtic stories of Faerie and ancient aliens
Finally!
Real good fantasy!!
Thank you thank you thank you!!!!
Yes, always love anything more about Deep Imaskar!
Just about anything is possible amongst races or realms where magics flows so freely. All this dimensional barrier distortion and temporary planar manipulation has me thinking how often things from the "outside" spill out and whom is responsible for their containment. Creating a pocket dimension for the express purposes of transportation to and from other "larger" dimensions is all good until a tear opens and some Far Realm monstrosity oozes out and quickly takes root.
I've said it before and I will said it again... Divination and Abduration are the first and most important schools of magic in any curriculum.
Could you imagine a deranged Imaskari blending human, Mind Flayer, and Beholder!
A new level of lovecraftian horror.
I think I'll call it a "Mind's Eye"
Damn, Imaskar sounds sick!
I need another dragon tale, I soo do love hearing you tell stories.
Atlantis-esk people moved beyond mortals. Love it
Well done AJ- Thanks so much for posting!
My pleasure!
The holder makers work so perfect from my world, After all the war of true form changed a lot of things Back in the day...
Absolutely love these types of videos fantastic video
This was great thanks AJ
Love this, looking forward for more ^^
they really looked at a thing beyond human comprehension and said, "yea I'll domesticate that"
Never say never, Red Dragons tolerate Gith riding on them after all🤯
To be fair, their goddess said they had to and the guy who convinced her was never heard from again
A horse was beyond human comprehension, until it wasn’t. A dog was a terrifying creature, until the day that it wasn’t. Your species’ thoughts are far too simple.
@@almitrahopkins1873 while I advocate open mindedness to ideas….. common quadrupeds are a far cry from a floating, fang mawed, eye stalk crowned, cyclopes with an ego the size of Selune’s tears.
"Yea, I'll domesticate that." Is probably all the evidence of the Imiskari still being human I'll ever need.
Imaskar content, always appreciated!
always so good!. Thank you AJ
Awesome vid
Have you been using midjourney? Y or N? just curious?
Ethically, three community members on my discord server have earned actual money by contributing images on themes I specifically asked for as I could find no existing artwork that matched exactly what I was talking about. This involvement of fans of my work in the actual creative process is very good and I think is a model for best practice use of these new creative tools. If you wish for a better perspective on the present, ALWAYS look to the past for similar events, check out this video : th-cam.com/video/CfVHXDty5Pk/w-d-xo.html
@@modestrocker1 that really isnt how algorithms work. honestly its quite bad practice to even call this ai because there is no actual intelligence here, algorithms are basically very powerful calculators. they dont steal artwork any more than a human who looks at art they like for inspiration steals that art. also, art generated with algorithms is unique and would not exist in the same state it does without the person who input the prompts, doing them at the time they did and in the order they did. do you credit davinci's paintbrush with painting the mona lisa? or would davinci have to have made his own canvas, brush and paint for it to count as his art? both of those things seem a little ridiculous.
in short, yes you can ethically pay someone who generated art with an algorithm because their exertion of will is what produced the artwork. they are the artist. sure it doesnt take long to type in prompt but if it was found out that saturn devouring his son had been painted by goya in about 20 minutes and he found it very easy, would that somehow retroactively change how the painting looks now? also, there are a looooooot of artists who work very hard on their art and get no recognition while some artists who barely work at all on their art get lots of praise an attention. artists are not owed anything merely because they worked hard for a long time. likewise, working not very hard for a short amount of time does not inherently diminish the value/quality of art, assuming the end result is what the artist is pleased with.
sorry, theres just so much misunderstanding and misinformation surrounding this topic.
N
Merely an observing retired dinosaur here, so I don't really count. Still creating my own stuff "just in case".
One of the most feared and powerful creatures that is known to the common ppl hmmm I think I’ll turn it into the dnd equivalent of a mini van
Weird thought...this was what they were meant to be at creation, and it's the Eye Tyrants that are the abberation....
The Imaskari have some of my favorite lore.
They are a people that have grown so much yet remain isolated in their dreams. A little saddening for sure but still I wish them well. However in regards to their gate there may be a leak. There is a world that has been absorbed by the feywild. An entire planet covered and encased by it and whom its residents have discovered a primal force thanks in no small part to a human colony ship that crashed landed. It is still a planet however so they might never notice, content with wonderous shadows of their own making.
Love the story style
After reading about how the ethergaunts are a super technologically advanced civilization that hates gods in the ethereal plane I kind of want to mess with the concept that either a splinter group or the whole race eventually evolve into the ethergaunts via forming closer and closer symbiotic relationships with their pet holders.
cool stuff. my head hurts now.
Super awesome! I like this a lot.
Thak you for sharing :)
I love your work AJ, I would like to see some more artifact lore, like the sphere of annihilation?
I love this fiction. Thank you very much for producing this sir.
Thank you AJ.
Stellar
Harold the garbage goober from Rick and Morty
I assume we're gonna get Molf Traders next?
Indeed.
I love adventure novel intros. :3
Love the idea of domesticated beholders lol
Niiice! I love Candlekeep stories!
Maybe the deep Imarskari are not so much rivaling the gods as they may eventually evolve into them? Since time are irrelevant to them they could very well go back to beginning.
This was great.
Yay!
Awesome story buddy.
i would love to see Nenio react to that :D
I thought i had good ideas went mages, necromaners, & psionists made their own demi_plane of peace in the etherial plane. We used alot of stuff from the rode of seven parts & old netheril. You suggestions here are...far supere to what we came up with.
Good video AJ
YAAAAAAS
O_O early O_O thanks you so much!
Awesome
This is a lot.
Welcome to AJ's imagination.
Someone's been having fun with the AI programs
but once you pay people for text to image ai youve lost ethic consumption of art. your basically paying for prompts that steal images from the cloud. ai images arent art and to call them such or to treat them as worth money is sad and devalues any work done by real artists.
@@modestrocker1 I hear a tiny violin playing behind all of your posts. And that makes for *alot* of tiny violin.
@@Jeremycook_ an orchestra of teeny tiny violins lol