Time of troubles book spawning In game

[StoneBreaker]

hey I would like to menton that I found a time of troubles book in game, it would be a good idea to remove this from the tables so t doesnt drop into PC hands.

[One Two Three Five]

Why? Time of Troubles would've been twenty-ish years ago from where Arelith sits, timelocked and forsaken, in FR lore.

[Cortex]

technically over a hundred years now in Arelith Time.

[Astral]

So is Arelith in a time bubble or is it actually 100~ years post the time of troubles in Arelith too?

[One Two Three Five]

Time bubble between Bane's resurrection and Lolth's silence, is the precise time we're supposed to be at. Extrapolated from the actual FR year, but.

Basically there's a hundred or so years of Arelith History, all of which, theoretically, takes place in 1372 DR. Wouldn't think about it too much.

[I Don~t Feel Like Dancing]

It's not any kind of secret or obscure happening. The Time of Troubles was a pretty huge event for Toril, possibly one of the most significant things to happen in the setting. PCs with any decent amount of lore should know about it even if it wasn't a fairly recent event (which it is) for the world-changing ripples to come of that like a bunch of gods dying and a bunch of people suddenly becoming deities.

Cyric, Mystra, Kelemvor, all three became deities because of the Time of Troubles and it's no secret that there have been elves practicing pottery longer than those three have been gods.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

0 AR arguably isn't even 1372, or whatever FR date equivalent. We have "Before Reckoning" on Arelith, which is BR, and I believe it goes back to at least 20 BR, likely further.

0 AR marks the split with Amia.

Arelith is currently 131 AR, Arelith Reckoning. We have at least 150 years of Arelithian history, thus at least 150 years separates the current in-game time to 1372. Thus we have approximately 170 years between present and the Time of Troubles.

When identifying how Arelith operates in the 3.5 FR lore timeline, I think the best advice is look at what's happening in 3.5 and just assume the status quo has occurred for the past 170 years.

Mulhorand and Unther are still at war. Mulhorand still occupies most of Unther.
Cormyr is still turbulent since the Tuigan Horde invaded Turmish.
Thay is still looking to undermine the countries east of Mulhorand, to thwart Mulhorand's geopolitical influence in the region.
The North and Silver Marches are in the aftermath of the drow attacks.
Tethyr and Amn are still engaged in their covert merchant shadow wars.
The Elves are still retreating West, to Evermeet.
Amn colonized the New World- Maztica. Helmites are scorned.
Etc.

Arelith does exist in a bubble. To be honest, I would love love if Devs contracted out people to make a "Arelith friendly FR timeline" that would be specific to our environment and would move the thread forward on some of the above, while still keeping things fairly status quo.

I would recommend to any new player to ignore FR wiki, unless you know FR lore, and instead find a PDF of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting for 3.5. if you read that, that's all generally canon, save the bit about Bane. But it otherwise encapsulates generally what would be considered correct history in our setting.

edit: correct me if I'm wrong here 12345, I know we borrow some lore from 3.0, especially around the Bane stuff, but that's not my forte.

[Cortex]

how about a bane time line, the darkest time line, where bane won

[gilescorey]

how about a bane time line, the darkest time line, where bane won

You're living in it.

[gilescorey]

On a serious note, after reading these Time of Troubles books I think they should be refurbished. They have a bit of "FR Wiki copypaste" flair to them; everything's written from the view of an omniscient outsider and it feels off.

[WanderingPoet]

I did once find a book that mentioned Aerdrie Faenya was a fey-oriented aspect of Akadi - I am not sure if that is actually known lorewise at this time period.

I think I've also seen her referenced as a Primordial though that is supposed to be 4th edition? Not sure which books these two were in though.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

I did once find a book that mentioned Aerdrie Faenya was a fey-oriented aspect of Akadi - I am not sure if that is actually known lorewise at this time period.

I think I've also seen her referenced as a Primordial though that is supposed to be 4th edition? Not sure which books these two were in though.

The Primordial nonsense has very much entered and re-entered bits of Arelith consciousness over the past few years.

This is unavoidable because many turn to the FR wiki for lore, which is fair, but what most don't immediately recognize is that the FR wiki is updated and maintained (and organized) to be the most current. So, for 5th Edition. We are in 3.5. 3.5 was a system that was "current" 10+ years ago. It's difficult to get a sense of parallelism when everything is off kilter.