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Date/Timeline/State of the Cosmos

Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 12:54 pm
by ChevroletElvis
Hi everyone. I'm sorta new, sorta not. i played on Amia, and not really ever here.
I am trying to build my character as part of the world, and in order to do that, I need to know about the world.... especially what year it is. Are we sorta frozen in 1372 DR?.... or we have progressed at a 10:1 ratio from there to present? Assuming Arelith began in 2005, that would put us at 14 years irl, and 140 in DR, so 1512DR?

Also, I assume all deities that can be chosen in-game are alive?

Re: Date/Timeline/State of the Cosmos

Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 2:09 pm
by Mr_Rieper
It's a common question.

The Player's Handbook has a pretty succinct explanation of it.

Basically everything in the 3rd edition and 3.5 edition books is all canon. Everything 4th edition onwards is not. The reason time is frozen is to prevent us from venturing into 4e territory (which imo is pretty awful and I'm glad we don't)

This can make finding info on wikis pretty confusing because most of them are currently 5e, which isn't canon as far as Arelith is concerned. Arelith is in its own time bubble, basically. It's to prevent Forgotten Realms from changing too drastically around us.

Re: Date/Timeline/State of the Cosmos

Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 4:07 pm
by ChevroletElvis
Mr_Rieper wrote:
Fri May 17, 2019 2:09 pm

Basically everything in the 3rd edition and 3.5 edition books is all canon. Everything 4th edition onwards is not. The reason time is frozen is to prevent us from venturing into 4e territory (which imo is pretty awful and I'm glad we don't)
Thank you. In character, assuming my character follows what year it is correctly, I use whatever the "-date" command gives me, right? So, right now it's 151 AR?

Re: Date/Timeline/State of the Cosmos

Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 6:38 pm
by Aelryn Bloodmoon
I've found it helps to think of it more along the lines not of time being frozen, but rather the moment you leave the 3.5 timeline, you ignore all books from 4th edition onward. Everything in the books before then applies, but for any lore changes afterwards, they have to come from the DM's.

As Mr. Rieper points out, this keeps us from dealing with 4th Edition, and without the awkwardness of a frozen time period, gives us the leeway we need to play successive generations of characters over the years where relevant.

Re: Date/Timeline/State of the Cosmos

Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 9:37 pm
by Bibliophile
Yes the year IG is currently 151.