Shadow Stone

[Gary V. Foss]

Randall W. Porter@6550 wrote:

> At first I thought, "oh yeah, that's nice. Rich Baker finally got a novel
> published after being jerked around on The Falcon and the Wolf." But the more
> I thought about it (from a selfisher perspective) the more torqued I got.
>
> Here's a novel that was written for BR by one its principle creators. TSR
> stiffed him on his first novel by pulling the BR line. Now he has to rework
> the story to fit into the Forgotten (rightfully so!) Realms and publish it
> under that product line. Wouldn't it have been less work just to publish it
> as a BR novel? I mean, c'mon, TSR novels really don't get any advertising
> support, the work was already written, and BR fans could have been thrown
> a bone. Instead of getting a unique story about Cerilia, we have another
> title to add to the endless parade of Forgotten Realms books. While I'm sure
> Rich's storyline is good no matter what setting it's in, switching the original
> backdrop of the story robs it of its flavor and nuances.

Welcome to the wonderful world of publishing, my friend. As a wannabe writer
myself, I can tell you this is not unusual. In fact, as Rich probably learned by
having his first book shelved, rewriting like this is not at all uncommon and from
a writer's point of view, rewriting is far superior to not writing at all....

It's amazing how sweet the words "may be publishable after drastic rewriting" are
after having heard "does not fit our current format" so many times.... If I were
Mr. Baker I would have rewritten it, added some sex and violence, put in a catchy
theme song by the Spice Girls and set the whole thing on a cruiseship if a
publisher said that was what they wanted.

Gary

[Eosin the Red]

Ok, got a few questions for the gurus.

I just finished reading the Shadow Stone and I got most of it convereted back into BR in my mind but I still have some unanswered questions.

1. Any thoughts on why/how the CoS was destroyed?

2. When did it take place in BR history - I assume 400 to 450 MR.

3. Do others think that the main villian was meant to be one of the lost?

On the Spiders Test:

1. Why does the Spider think he was an Elf and why do the elves hate him so?

Thanks in advance.

Eosin the Red

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[Raesene Andu]

Some answers, well my opinions anyway.

2. I think the book would have taken place some time before 400 MR, possibly a far back as 100 or 200 MR. Ruins of Empire refers to Aelies being hundreds of year old. It wouldn't have been straight after the destruction of the college (which I'm assuming took place shortly after the death of Michael Roele), but it would not have been recently either, so roughly 3-400 years ago sounds about right.

1. As for how the college was destroyed, there was a good idea put forward as part of the Online City project. Basically it went that the source holdings of the old college were chunks of rock thrown out from the exploding Mt. Deismaar that contained a portion of each of the gods power (i.e. powerful mebhaighl stones). The college control seven of these stones, known as godstones by the wizards, and drew on that power as their source holdings. The stones were kept safe deep beneath the tower in the old dungeons, and were linked to seven different wizards by ley lines, just like normal sources.
For hundreds of years things were well at the college, and the wizards used the power granted by these godstone to increase their power and influence, as well as their understanding of magic. However that all changed with the death of Michael Roele at the hands of the Gorgon. Like the rest of the empire, the college fell into factional fighting (as most of the wizards were members of the various noble families). This fighting eventually led to the destruction of the college when one wizard attempted to gain control over all the godstones (and hence the college and most likely the Imperial City itself). Another wizard, a newly invested member of the college council (who in my campaign became Azusena Karitina, the current head of the college), learned of this plan and teleport away the godstone she was linked to. This attempt disrupted the link between the godstones, created an explosion that destroyed the college and as a by-product created a shadow duplicate of the old college in the Shadow World.

3. The villian of the novel is definitly one of the lost.

[ConjurerDragon]

Eosin the Red wrote:

>Ok, got a few questions for the gurus.
>I just finished reading the Shadow Stone and I got most of it convereted back into BR in my mind but I still have some unanswered questions.
>...
>On the Spiders Test:
>1. Why does the Spider think he was an Elf and why do the elves hate him so?
>
He is becoming mad and more mad as more time passes - and a lot of time
has passed for him since Deismaar.

There are several rumours of what the Spider has been. A human merchant,
an elf - as far as I remember it´s in"Blood Enemies".
Losing his mind he remembers what he has heard as rumours and for
moments seems to believe that rumours himself, losing his own identity
(probably Tal-Quazar the goblin lord).

Reason could be that his bestial form does not only change his
appearance, but also his mind to be more and more a monstrous spider and
less goblin.

That the elves hate him - why should they not? He kills and hunts elves
since he is the spider, he fought them at Deismaar.

And of course the old humanoid-sidhelien conflict from old, as the
Sidhelien were the masters of all of Cerilia and the humanoids their
slaves - until the humanoids rebelled and killed the great elven leader
Sidhe Braechlachheim (-2968 to -2911 before Deismaar) from the Chronicle
of Cerilia.
bye
Michael Romes

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[Eosin the Red]

> >Ok, got a few questions for the gurus.
> >On the Spiders Test:
> >1. Why does the Spider think he was an Elf and why do the elves hate him so?
> >
> He is becoming mad and more mad as more time passes - and a lot of time has passed for him since Deismaar.
>
> That the elves hate him - why should they not? He kills and hunts elves since he is the spider, he fought them at Deismaar.


I would understand thier [elves] dislike for him and humans as well but the hate felt/pursued by the elf-mage in the Spiders Test went beyond that, it was personal and the spider was to be made to suffer. It seemed like only half of the story was told....The Spider recounts the beginning of his tale and Endier tells the last chapters but The elf-mage did not tell the middle of the Spiders Story. It seems that the middle may be just as interesting as the other two parts. Did anyone else feel that way?

The arguement that "elves hate him because he is the Spider" does not provide enough motivation, else they would be doing the same to the Gorgon, the Boar, and others. Sure, they don`t like the Awnshegh but they don`t go hunting them in their lairs, like they do the Spider. Elves seem more inclined to kill quickly and cleanly, but this particular elf wants an immortal lifetime of suffering for the Spider and he wants to enjoy it?

???

Eosin the Red

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[irdeggman]

The Spider resides in a remnant of the "old" forest. None of the other awnshgeghien do. This along with his being a goblin (the oldest foes of the elves) would seem sufficient to "justify" their hatred of him. There were also rumors of The Spider having performed bloodtheft on an elf and having "absorbed" some of his memories. This later presents a whole new line of possibilities for what bloodtheft could entail.:)

[kgauck]

----- Original Message -----
From: "irdeggman" <brnetboard@TUARHIEVEL.ORG>
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 3:44 AM


> There were also rumors of The Spider having performed bloodtheft
> on an elf and having "absorbed" some of his memories. This later
> presents a whole new line of possibilities for what bloodtheft
> could entail.:)

Or it might be the case that the elf in question had Blood History.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[Eosin the Red]

>>> There were also rumors of The Spider having performed bloodtheft on an elf and having "absorbed" some of his memories. This later presents a whole new line of possibilities for what bloodtheft could entail.:)
>

>>>Or it might be the case that the elf in question had Blood History.

This is sorta what I was after. The book hinted that there may be more to the spiders history than what was presented. Blood Enemies hints at this but I wondered if anyne had given it much more thought or if there were relevant `facts` that I was missing (still new to BR and do not have all the material).

Eosin

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