Exploring Anauroch
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 พ.ค. 2017
- Anauroch (either Ah-NOR-ach or An-OAR-ock-hh'), or The Great Sand Sea, is a magical desert in northern Faerûn. It holds the remnants of the once-powerful Netherese Empire, their flying enclaves having crashed to the ground when their greatest mage Karsus, in a desperate bid to end the war against the phaerimm, challenged the goddess Mystryl for her divine mantle, causing the Weave to falter and all magic to fail. For generations since, Anauroch, the greatest desert in Faerûn, encroached relentlessly on border nations, burying them beneath the sands.
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"God created Arrakis to train the faithful" When designing a desert its useful to consider that the resource it lacks the most is the most important to the shaping of its nations, water. You can take a lot of inspiration from history in this case. The Garamantes were a civilisation of Berbers rose and fell based on its access to water, they found water hidden in the rocks allowing them to irrigate large areas of the desert. But when this resource ran out and the water table dropped their civilisation collapsed. Similarly Palmyra rose to prominence as they controlled one of the few water sources for thousands of miles making it effectively the only trading route for hundreds of miles.
Absolutely, and the actions of the Phaerimm aberrations parched the land in a similar way that the world of the Dark Sun setting has been despoiled by corrupting magic. With the return of the Shadovar people, they bring the power to return water to the land via portals to the elemental chaos.. however, this may very well spell their downfall, as the Elemental realm is home to threats just as dire as nihilistic aberrations!
I can definitely think up interesting ways to play with this. Perhaps you could create some kind of desert spirt to embody the power of the desert who'll resist their land being encroached. Maybe some of the local humanoids would consider turning the deep desert green as sacrilege.
There is a tribe of Desert dwelling Lizard Folk who certainly object!
How many hours of research do you generally do for each video. Or do you just have an eidetic memory?
I love that you referenced Dune here.
I used this as the setting for my last campaign, the players were on an archaeological expedition. They learned of the Netheresse along side their characters, it was awesome
post your notes, that's how homebrew lore gets made canon
Nice touch with the theme from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Glad to see that interest is still strong in the Netherese. Back in the early 90s Anauroch & ancient Netheril was a focus for my campaign that last nearly 15 yrs.
What I like about it is it's endless capacity for artifact-based adventures. Your adventurers can literally take a trip back in time thru their discoveries. The setting can also offer opportunities for the DM to do some great story telling.
Thanks for posting AJ!
Very well done and very informative!
Great video A.J.! Thanks for posting it.. 🙂👍
The 2nd edition supplement Anauroch by Ed Greenwood is very useful if you plan to run a campaign thru there. Also Halruaa foresaw the destruction of the spellplague and transported the whole nation. It was thought destroyed but flying ships have started appearing over the south again.
Hi James. Can you post a link to this? I'm very intrigued about it. Where did they move the whole nation to? Abeir?
Honestly joined a few days ago, best, most informational, with a nice voice, and an amazing selection of pics. Out of all the lore videos across universes (Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Star Wars, Etc.) you deliver the best experience and knowledge of them all. Thank you.
Thank you very much :)
This is also one my favorite zones! i dont know why ive just always loved mushroom zones, deserts, swamps, slime places, and coniferous forests. Thanks a ton for making this
To me, the essence of Dungeons and Dragons is that classic Lost subterranean structure filled with magic, monsters, odd rooms, crazy traps, puzzles, crusty old NPC constructs, and the Desert of Anauroch is FULL of this, it is an exploration campaigner's wildest dream come true, it is the Kick Down Door and Take Treasure adventurer's go to location, it is the Deal With Terrors From The Past campaigner's nest egg, and it is a wild and harsh place, where DM's can introduce the players to the mechanics of day to day survival as they travel through the dunes.
Well now I know that you are also a writer. One with experience. I've never had a DnD with a seasoned DM. Which while home brewed stuff is absolutely fun, an experienced DM can do a lot of fun and dangerous stuff that I'm sure i've never been able to do in my sessions. :D
Excellent work AJ, I am glad to have discovered your channel! You weren't kidding when you mentioned that the forgotten realms campaign is living, breathing world that changes over time. I was surprised to find out that Anauroch is apparently vanishing or has vanished as evidence by some of the recent maps I have seen. Having been a DM of the 2nd edition age, I was sad to see it missing in the maps, but such is the world.
Creating the basis for a very desert-themed campaign for my local group. So glad to see you've got so much material on this sort of thing. You're a fairly primary source of info for me, both as raw information, and jumping points for my own ideas and deeper research. Plus, it's great listening material while i work. X3. Definitely pitting together a playlist for myself. XP.
From the intro music, I thought I was going to watch an old Clint Eastwood movie...lol.
I love those old spaghetti westerns.
Me to.. to this day, musical pocket watches make me nervous.
LOVE the opening music! hahah great content!
it's from kelly's heroes, a fantasic ww2 movie
wonderful your characterization is perfect thank you.
Thanks for the vid sir.👍🏼👍🏼
Right now my players are running through a chapter of our campaign taking place in the Anauroch Desert. I seriously homebrewed it. I wanted to do Mad Max meets AD&D (I DM a 1st-2nd Edition game), then I realized that that pretty much describes Dark Sun. So I added some Mad Max elements. I am drawing heavily from Dark Sun material, including the 2E Dark Sun Monster Compendium from the binders. The desert is constantly growing because of Dark Sun defiler magic caused by a Defiler Lich(Ravenloft Material). The Lich's lair is surrounded by Graboids(Tremors....I Homebrewed them). The PCs haven't made it to the Defiler's lair yet, but they are flying around in a Spelljammer Dragonfly ship and will probably try the Defiler's lair in the next session or two. Like Dark Sun, metal is extremely rare in our Anauroch. Typical world coins are worthless here. The people in the desert trade with stone pieces. I took out the trade routes and the desert is so vast that the people living in the interior don't know that 'green places' still exist. The people are also almost all deformed in some way. They think that the entire world is a blasted wasteland. I even made a part of the desert called Arrakis, and the spice Mulanje is a thing there as are the worms and the Fremin people with eyes that are blue upon blue. So I have combined Mad Max, Dark Sun, Dune, Tremors, Spelljammer, Ravenloft, The Forgotten Realms, and my own homebrew stuff to create our Anauroch. So far, the mixture is working better than I thought it would! It's going great at the table!
Man that intro got me hyped
The 2e source book stated that the area was turned from green to sandy waste by the pharreem (or how ever the hell you spell it) casting spells that drain away moisture over and over. Did that get retconned out with 5e?
chad lynch No, that is spot on. Now the Phaerimm are less active. the Shadovar have returned to restore life to the desert, melting the northern ice (see maps towards the end of the video to illustrate how the area has changed over time)
The phaerimm were trapped under the desert by the netherese, and in the nethereses absence, the desert was growing. If memory serves me correctly
@@johnnyscifi I recall reading some 2e source that said or heavily implied it was the sharn who trapped the phaerimm, restricting them to Anauroch and the underdark beneath it via some sort of magical barrier.
Like I've said elsewhere, I stopped buying and following D&D after 2e, so I don't know if they ignored that part of the old lore or changed it somehow.
web.archive.org/web/20170124053844/www.lomion.de/cmm/sharn.php
From what I know not much is being done in 5th edition for Anauroch. But who knows, maybe someone is doing something now. 😉
Loved this particular vid A.J. Very well done on the subject. I have DM'd in the Forgotten Realms for a little over 25 years, and this is one of my favorite areas too...for all of the same reasons you mentioned. It sounds like you too use Planescape as the backdrop for planes-hopping. Give me a shout if you're interested in chatting and comparing notes sometime. Cheers!
Thanks Rob, yeah, my planes travel ideas are heavily influenced by Planescape.
Back in 1992 I based my campaign on the rebuilding of Netheril in several plotlines involving The Halruaans & the clergy of Shar. My problem with what the designers at TSR & Then WoTC is that they never involved the Halruaans in an attempt to remake their heritage. Instead they allowed Telemont Tanthul to bring back his city of Shade. Troy Denning wrote a series of novels, published a series of adventures but didn't involve the Halruaans. Which was disappointing to me. And to that end, the Zhentarim had trade routes thru the desert. Why didn't they involve them? There was so much lost potential to make Anauroch even better as a campaign supplement.
I've really enjoyed your videos so far, I do have a question that I'd love to hear you explore; the Crystal Sphere's when ever we are talking about the planes and the realms, it seems, to be mentioned, but never deep dived; I'd love to hear about it, Love your videos!
17:28 that camel just told a dad joke and is so proud
Well I say it is time for the leaders of the flying city to go on a tour of the desert. Freeze the city in time, teleport the leaders to the surface, unfreeze the leaders and have them go on a trip through the desert. It is easy to remain indifferent when you remain above the lands you claim to rule.
I live in the Arizona Desert, and I thought immediate of Native American Tribes, when you mentioned the Bedine People. Particuallary; the Apache.
Cheer's from the Arizona Desert.
next round trip Anaurch Sun and Desert Spear.
Aj can you give some information about where to acquire the old big box set maps that you keep bringing up?
could you do a spine of the world, Icewind dale series?
Great videos! How about one on Behamot, or what ever the speling is for the Platinum Dragon? I have yet to run across anything about him other than he is the god of the metallic dragons and the "brother" of Tiamat. Thanks, and well done, my friend!
As I am doing a long series on dragons right now, I plan to finish it off with a video on Tiamat, Bahamut and the dragon pantheon. Thanks for watching! :)
The new season of FR will be made known on June 2 and 3 by way of twitch tv with the unveiling of season 7 campaign book and all products including the new crunch book and other D&D stuff as well.
Surprised there is no presence of Thay there. They'd know it's worth.
I've never played Faerun, but a lot of the ideas you've discussed I'd happily drop into Numenera, Dark Sun, and the TSR's old B3 The Lost City module (I've run it many times for many groups).
Sounds like you've got a lot lined up and I really looking forward to it. :)
I was rumaaging through old books, and ran across an old favorite - the Boggle! Have you ever used these?
-Kurt
Hey Boggles are in Volo's guide!
Well, the new version, so something you might find fascinating to compare.
AJ Pickett Hey...didn't they write & perform the song "Video Killed The Radio Star??" What are they doing in Volo's Guide?! I'd like to see a video explaining THAT!
I want this to be central to my game.
Here is a strange request, how about a video on generic lost dwarven holds/mines/kingdoms? I think that is a classic staple of fantasy RPGs, but there doesn't seem to be a lot out there focusing on them.
Beat me to the fremen comparison
Is Anauroch desert the result of a Dead Magic zone ? Also, the Shadow Weave is available to those in the desert area where the Dead Magic is present. Is that correct ?
Because of this video I have created a new deity, and unsaid deity has created an entire world with seven humanoid species. Yes, the planet is mostly nothing but deserts.
Just because you mentioned the Zhentarim. Arent both Fzoul, and Manshoon now dead? Are the Zhentarim even still around?
I wonder if the Aranoch desert in Diablo was named after the Anauroch
Hmmm... seems a bit close for mere coincidence
5:17 that's elder scrolls
just wonder which monster manual type books you would recommend between the 5e monster manual or the volo's guide to monsters or similar books i already have a few though its from 4e and a few things from before that.
Kobold Press Tome of Beasts (for 5th edition) is an outstanding sourcebook that I use all the time.
koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/tome-of-beasts-for-5th-edition/
thanks for the suggestion while i don't play i do enjoy learning about the various creatures and such so feeling like getting one of the new books to read through
what was the song at the start?
Attercop oops, forgot to add it to 'the music used' playlist
Before Anauroch became a Desert what was the climate like there? Since it's in the North I'd think it would have been temperate at best and slightly cold at worse? But you can see on the Faerun Map that from a geographical standpoint this desert doesn't really make sense since the area where it is, is usually temperate, subarctic and even arctic further north. But Magic makes for drastic climate changes in the Realms I guess...
The image of a desert being scorching hot is a Hollywood myth because they always shoot in the Sahara or Arabian Desert. The Taklamakan and Gobi deserts in China have an average yearly temperature of -3°C with long winters around -20°C and short summers up to 40°C. A desert is an area of low (or even no) precipitation. Temperature is secondary.
Yes but this particular desert was altered by the Phaerimm I think... they used life draining magic to alter the land itself.
considering that create water is a 0-level spell, deserts shouldn't be that big of a problem in d&d. theoretically, anyway
Is it me or is it every time you use the phrase 'seize the realm of the gods' your mike goes all distant and echoey.
What should be done with regard to Karsus? Should he remain a vaguely humanoid shaped red butte, a vestige, or does he deserve a chance at redemption and amends?
He actually makes an appearance later as Karsus the Half Living, not a lich exactly, just a profoundly cursed, but still formidable archmage, lost in space and time, his sanity and goals, largely a mystery. As for redemption, hmmm, it has been over a thousand years, the tremendous death and destruction is a faded memory, the world has been struck once again with huge magical disruption, even the gods themselves have been decimated during the Time of Troubles, so perhaps there is a chance that Karsus could regather and incarnate once again, as some long brewing plot element in your campaign.
He actually makes a great patron for a warlock, just imagine the stories you could spin off that
Phaerimm: The Daleks of D&D
AJ, please consider scripting more of your work. You have some amazing content, but it can be challenging to listen to with so many "and's" and "yeah's". Consider the Faerun History Channel as an example. They put out some good content and you have the potential to be on their level.
Yeah, I have taken this advice on board and am now scripting most of what I do. The scripts in all their unedited, poorly spelled glory can be viewed by my patreon crew. Some times I may just throw a video up and have a chat, but that will be a rare thing going forward I think.
Much appreciated, thanks for taking the time to provide constructive feedback :)
Yeah, I was really impressed with your recent video. Your scripting of it was night-and-day. And hey, if you need to make a "chat" video as a rough draft, go for it. Perhaps it can be used to refine the cleaner video that you finally post. All in all, keep up the good work. I love FR lore and you're doing the RP community a great service with sharing this lore.
Is there a list of the artists credited anywhere?
On this six year old video, no, but I can find the name of any artist if you comment with the time stamp and ask me to find the artist for you. (google reverse image search is really good at finding the source of artwork on the internet)
@@AJPickett I'm not sure there's a way for me to say this without it coming across shittily , but I'd personally recommend , from both a legal and ethical standpoint , that you do those reverse image searches and credit any art you're using in any video from which you're continuing to profit on TH-cam , irrespective of how long it's gone undone before now.
@@johnymey4034 fair call, my policy is, and has always been, if any artist gets in contact with me about any issue, I take down the video and deal with the issue. In the six years this video has been up, not one artist has raised any concerns, in fact, only three artists have ever messaged me about use of their work, and one was just to correct the spelling of their name (across ALL the videos on my channel, not this one). Now I'm hoping to not sound shitty either, but do you have art appearing in any of my videos? Are you an artist with digital portfolio images hosted online and displayed to the public without putting a watermark or signature on it? (both of which you should always do, of course), or are you speaking on the behalf of all the artists (of which I also am one)?
I thank you for your concern, but there are no ethical or legal issues with what I do, when everything is resolved amicably the moment any problem arises and, that is unlikely to happen ever again, as now I generate and provide AI art for anyone to use from my content.
When did Darkhold end up in the Anauroch?
forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Darkhold
what abiout the other lower planes. like you have talked about the nine hells and the abyss and the far realm the elemental chaos but what of the others, Gehenna, Pandemonium Tarterus, Hades. etc. what does any of them move time differently are they all just varying plays on the abyss or the nine hells. why are they their own planes. same with the higher planes but i have an mc that gets stuck in the lower planes for a long time and somehow survives but is changed dramatically because time moves differently or so i would like to think. ill have to do some independant study.
Would karsis in his prime be able to take on samaster
kiara sanders yes.
Karsus in his prime practiced chronomancy and also craft and cast the only known 14th lvl spell. Yea I'm home he would have slapped down Sammaster.
If you're going to talk about Orcus are you going to talk about Rappan Athuk?
Erm... well, it has a temple of Orcus... but it is not technically part of Toril, or any campaign setting, it is a drop in mega dungeon that can be the basis of an entire campaign in and of itself. Has nobody else done any sort of video explaining what Rappan Athuk is?
Nothing in your timbre. Mostly just book reviews or people complaining that they died to dire rats.
Jared Prymont well, it is pretty famous.. kind of the conceptual father of Under mountain.
Maybe put it in the 'to do later' pile.
I like it the way there demographic is the way of the Klingons
tried to steal the power of the gods or he tried to save his empire using the avatar spell..... you decide
Sounds like the opening or closing line of documentary
What i learned about the Aunauroch today: "So, and, yeah."
U da ugly
You read this word for word from the Forgotten Realm Wiki
Some parts, yep, as I tell people, I draw from multiple sources, the Forgotten Realms (and general Wiki), Dragon magazine, source books, Li Po's guides to the planes, published source books. I am assembling and presenting information from reliable sources, and interjecting my views on things.
uuuuh,ummm.uhhh,uh,um, lol. I guess your not reading a script lol
not for this video, no, its very old.
@@AJPickett still good content. love your short stories!
Anauroch sucks man....YOU explore it...every time we try.......we die! LOL