#moonshae

So, the very first product to bear the Forgotten Realms logo was Douglas Niles’ novel Darkwalker on Moonshae (1987), but that book was not conceived as about the Forgotten Realms at all. Instead it reflected with Niles’ own world or one under development at TSR’s UK division (or some combination of the two); the half-finished novel was stranded when TSR UK was shuttered.

Meanwhile, Greenwood’s Moonshae Isles was this remote, rather sleepy archipelago (it sounds sort of like a combination of Harn and Earthsea, which I must say is rather appealing). It was deemed too large and too empty for the public-facing campaign setting, so it was removed and replaced with Nile’s Celtic-themed realm. I don’t know if it is amusing or aggravating or what, but Greenwood always avoided bringing in obvious real-world cultures into his home Realms, so it is fairly ironic that the first major TSR addition was the plopping of a British-shaped island onto the map.

The book is almost entirely lore. History, geography, sociology, important people, groups, factions and so on. Very little in terms of mechanics. I honestly can’t quite say why I feel like this one is more usable as a game sourcebook than FR1, but I feel like it is, even with less attribute block and zero explicit adventure hooks.

Couple other interesting things. First, this is the second generic world that Niles created that wound up bolted onto the Realms. The first was the Bloodstone Lands. And, he also bolted someone else onto the Moonshaes — Aaron Allston’s Korinn Archipelago is here, making N4: Treasure Hunt a retroactive Forgotten Realms adventure.

Rose Reads the Realms Novels - Part 1

Please note that this post contains spoilers for a nearly 40 year old book.

We're starting off strong with a book set in an area of the Forgotten Realms I was lore-blind to. I've never played in a campaign that touched Moonshae, nor read any books set there... until now.

This almost doesn't feel like a Forgotten Realms book to me because everything I associate with the Realms is really mostly the Sword Coast and Icewind Dale with a dip into Vilhon Reach.

Moonshae seems to have a vaguely Welsh motif going for it with place names like "Caer Corwell" and local elves known as Llewyrr. Sure enough, when I looked it up, the local language for the Ffolk in Moonshae, Waelan, is loosely based on Welsh. We also have fantasy vikings in the form of the Northmen which are very on the nose.