Has anyone tried to use the Lendore Islands in their campaign with all the changes that occurred after the war (post 586)? Turning the island into the happy domain of the Sehaine seemed a bit extreme for a bunch of High Elves. Gray elves maybe, they tend to be rather aloof and condescending on a good day... But High Elves are a bit more open than most. So they ditch the Council of 5, who roll over and run and everybody else joins them on their magical mystery tour. Sound like a Grateful Dead re-union tour that had really bad acid and jumped the shark.
Sometime in 2nd ed. a theme popped up in the TSR campaign settings. Dwarves were a dying race and elves were sailing away to some unknown land where only elves were allowed. It seemed to mirror the ending of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
In both WoG and FR elves were sailing away or going into seclusion (another example was Celene's isolationism).
3rd ed. Suddenly there was a dwarven baby boom in FR (which makes me wonder why in two editions of the campaign setting dwarves were a dying race/defeated and depressed). Elves suddenly made a comeback and the retreat was over and elves were running around everywhere. WoG never had a 3rd edition and I can't help wondering if the whole retreat to the islands/takeover thing and celene's isolationism would have been undone if it had been brought into a 3rd ed..
I know the two are completely different campaign settings but the similarities have always made me think there was some over arching "theme" the powers that be were pushing at the time in all the campaign settings.
Anyways I have been of two minds in regards to all this...
A) Ignore it and reject the theme that seemed to be interjected at the time that had no real purpose that I can see.
B) Since I like 4th ed and I am converting WoG to that and using it as my 4th ed campaign setting....
Gray elves will be my "Eladrin" and since Celene has always been "strange" its an easy fit for the whole feywild thing. As for Lendore Isles while the high elves are numerous there they do have a gray elf population there. I am going to blame everything that happened there on the gray elves/eladrin and they ordered the high elves to do what they did. A campaign sometime after FTA could allow some immigration or return of former inhabitants perhaps restricting them to the main island and having the other islands off limits or by invitation only. I am still debating how much of the feywild and the rest of the new planes stuff to bring in so this buys me some time.
Anywho
For my campaign which I am placing some time after FTA the Eladrin get the blame for what happened in the Lendore Isles. I will bring stuff in from manual of the planes particularly feywild/weired stuff but it will be mostly on the other Islands. Humans and what not are welcome on the main island and perhaps one or two more and the elves apologized for their eladrin cousins temporary annexation of all the islands. People will need special permission to go to the other islands and all such travel is "at your own risk."
I have also been a great fan of Ravenloft and there were some elven domains in it so I will have some portals and crossings to/from there.
Granted their was the theme of elven retreat; tolkien has a long reach
However the isolation of the Lendore Isles was justified as a growing Sehaine mysticism among the elves and SB support among some humans in authority. Apparently some humans wanted to create another Lordship scenario.
The elves got wind of it and through religious zeal and/or panic kicked out the undesirable humans. The Half-elves that thought this too exterme where also shown to the dock.
Granted some high elves could be having buyers remorse but given the SB actions toward its targets the elves could be feeling vindicated. Besides the Mysticism of Sehaine is an attractive temptation for most elves - termed saced sehaine soil to encourage the reconcillation of the elven race is quite an honour. Most probably feel the loss of some untrustworthy humans is a small price to pay for the enhanced status.
I do remember that bit that the dwarves and elves were dying out but it never really made much sense in greyhawk. Since there was only one continent fully explored.. I do agree the tolkien thing was a huge stretch. I was never a big one for mixing up worlds. Alot of times a found the general premise of one world didn't mix well with another. Like Greyhawk and Msytara or BirthRight. Though it did never stop me from stealing an occasional creature to the players guessing. I know there are some references to spelljammer in some later greyhawk stuff but I tended to ignore it.
I never had the impression that either the elves or the dwarves were "dying" on Oerth in any edition of the game. The takeover of Lendore seemed something entirely different. Sargent seemed to be suggesting that the elves had some grand master plan that they were unveiling after thousands of years of preparation, something related to the vast cosmic things that seemed to be going on in the background of Sargent's writing (fiendish invasions, Tharizdun, Philidor, Stillsong, and The Spectre, for example).
Not necessarily a happy thing, and definitely not a magical mystery tour, but something they felt was so important it justified the displacement of the other races. The island was required for a great rite that they were going to perform. Perhaps they intended to move the Spindrifts off the planet altogether, or perhaps they intended to summon a celestial host from Arvandor to combat the forces of evil on Oerth, or a planar juxtaposition intended to change the nature of magic and perhaps stave off the prophesied end of the Age of Magic on Oerth . Or some esoteric thing related to the cult of Sehanine Moonbow that other races couldn't begin to understand, leaving the inhuman minds of the elves alien and unknowable.
In contrast, in the Forgotten Realms the elves had been abandoning the main continent wholesale since 1st edition, something that never happened in the Greyhawk campaign. They occupied the island without becoming noticeably rarer in the Flanaess.
I wish to convey my own version of the Spindrift/Lendore Isles. I took the scenario that the humans were kicked out by “the Sehaine”. But there it takes a different spin. It seems it was the Sehaine who wanted this idyllic location, but an extremist Sehanine Moonbow cult, led by the Chancellor of Celene (forgot the guy’s name), was actually behind the plot.
I will go into more detail in another venue if people want, but the Reader’s Digest version is this:
1. PCs say “hey, this ain’t right!”- I was able to interject some roleplaying concerning what’s good vs what’s right…very interesting to discover the different views real people have on the concepts
2. Beory the Oerth Mother didn’t like what the elves were doing to “her” land (elves were opening a dimensional plane, which could rip open the Oerthly Fabric), so she lent her weight, as did Mayaheine
3. Coupled with #2 above, we had a PC who had a run-in with Beory in a separate adventure- Beory doesn’t like him much, and now she has to work with him- “paybacks are a b@tch”
Synopsis- players contacted Council of 5, who used magical abilities to break down defenses; players also contacted displaced human up in Cloud City, who launched an aerial invasion; mostly bloodless, but what fighting occurred was extreme (religious fanaticism versus defense of home and hearth); Sehanine kicked out of all but 1 island, which they could keep per treaty signed (brokered by Raoian cleric, no less).
Future issues:
• How does Celene react? Are the Knights of Luna gloating?
• What about the Spindrift neighbors- did the SB attempt to plant an agent during the chaos? Will the northern barbarians attempt raids against possibly weakened defenses? Will the Sea Barons do the same?
• Will the back-home humans, elves, dwarves, halflings and gnomes go back to being friends and sing kumbaya?
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