Do the Dark Powers love Cormyr for some reason?

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The Lesser Evil
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Do the Dark Powers love Cormyr for some reason?

Post by The Lesser Evil »

A little big interesting in how many unrelated characters (3 of which are darklords) happen to come from Cormyr. We have:
*Baron Urik von Kharkov (okay, not Cormyrean, but was educated there) :vonkharkov:
*Gondegal ("the Lost King of Arabel") plus Knightengale the paladin that's pursuing him if you include the AD&D collector card
*Harkon Lukas :lucas:
*Leederik/the Phantom Lover (at least first sighted there)
*Salizarr the Meazel

That seems like a disproportionately high number for a single nation on a previously published TSR world. Maybe the DPs are just trying to keep it safe for some unknown alien reason?
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Re: Do the Dark Powers love Cormyr for some reason?

Post by alhoon »

And Drakov
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Re: Do the Dark Powers love Cormyr for some reason?

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Drakov came from Krynn.
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Re: Do the Dark Powers love Cormyr for some reason?

Post by Skyrock »

Was Cormyr simply better fleshed out than the rest of the FR at that time by adventures etc.? The first FR box only came out in 1987 and was in 1990 still relatively sparsely described.
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Re: Do the Dark Powers love Cormyr for some reason?

Post by DustBunny »

Skyrock wrote:Was Cormyr simply better fleshed out than the rest of the FR at that time by adventures etc.? The first FR box only came out in 1987 and was in 1990 still relatively sparsely described.
There were other things occuring as well.

Gygax left TSR in 1985, and Greyhawke (his world) became a bit of a legal mess and withered during 86-88 as FR became the 'Flagship world'. Greyhawke stumbled along until its cancellation in 1994.
Dragonlance had the Soth controversy which created problems for notable Krynn Anasalon characters, and the new continent (Taladas?) didn't appear till ~1989
Athas didn't exist until 1991 and didn't work in the setting anyway. Ditto for Birthright and Council wyrms.
So it seems like the source for most NPCs is either FR or 'generic fantasy world'.

As for why Cormyr specifically, at the time the first Grey box Cormyr was pretty much 'center of civilization', and its cities and lands were detailed fairly heavily.
Other regions had a few areas detailed (like the Dale lands, and the Sword Coast) but few major nations beyond a basic blurb.
Splat books for Thay, Sword coast, Kara-tur, Amn, etc appeared in 88-89 but they didn't really take off until 2nd ed, by which time the Black box was out.
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