Forgotten Realms Lore - The Fall of Netheril 

"Area of Effect: One god" How you know your high-magic setting has gone too far.

"they met the illithids and then decided not to travel to other realms." I can't help but wonder why⸮

I didn't realize the Netherese where so stupidly powerful. Cutting off the top of a mountain, flipping it upside down, and building an entire city on top? And they could learn and cast level 12 spells?

Forgotten realms lore is so exciting to learn, i was going to homebrew my whole world but realized FR lore is so much more epic & easier to do. Very amazing lore

I gave my players a sentient sword that speaks Netherese so I watched this to get an understanding of Netheril. I think I know how I am going to roleplay the sword now thanks.

I'm planning to make a character who's a wizard who thinks he can cast Karsus' Avatar. He'll fail, obviously, but it's still a fun motivation

When wizards in my campaign reach a certain mid level and join a wizards' guild, they learn deep lore of Netheril like this (it's assumed that most regular wizards know at least some history of the Netheril, but mostly just some names, dates, and exaggerated legends). In a previous campaign, long ago, one PC - eventually became so powerful he got transported to the outer planes as punishment for abusing magic - did deep research into origins and history of magic, and ended up changing class to specialty priest of Mystra. [This was 2nd ed. "Time of Troubles" era.]

If this isn't Matt Mercer's inspiration for Aeor, Zeidel, Draconia and Cognouza Ward, I'll eat my hat.

When you watch a general dnd lore video and think you figured out what your dms amazing mysterious homebrew campaign secret is......oof

That opening!!!!!

"Anauroch - The Empire of Shade" was one of the best 3.5e adventures, IMHO.

Karsus is by far my favorite story in all of Fearun. He’s the accidental victim of a campaign I’m writing.

I really appreciate how they added a module exploring a fallen Netherese enclave in the rime of the frostmaiden book. Complete with all manners of ridiculously experimental and crazy magic.

Exactly as you said at the end. This is giving so much more confidence as a GM, flavor to my campaigns and my players are more involved with the world!

Absolutely love the "previously on"

that netflix recap tho.. instant subscribe

Another video I saw that talked about "Karsus's Avatar" and I loved their wording when they gained the knowledge from Mystryl about how the weave would be destroyed. Note that the spell would allow the caster to replace the god of their choice. The wording was something along the lines of, "As he gained the knowledge of Mystryl he realized he'd made the only wrong choice of which god to replace.

The intro was absolutely epic! :-D Great job!

I know these are old, but im building a NWN Enhanced Module that I'm pretty excited about. And you have been SO helpful doing exactly what you set out to do. Thank you

Really enjoy your content Jorphdan, your videos have affected my campaigns in a meaningful way. Keep doing these Forgotten Realms videos!

Thank you for this video! There’s like...4 I think different plots going on at the same time in our d&d game and one is we keep stumbling on netheril towers. This was such a nice summary on what netheril was all in one concise chunk.

I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS! Please do a "Forgotten Realms Chronology", using novels/short stories, modules, rulebooks, etc? Like, I'm a weird kid... things that are orderly disturb me immensely. I *NEED* to know The Realm's history as a flowing sequence of events, like our history, or it disturbs me a lot more than it should.

The lore is SO helpful in DM’ing. Dragons of Stormwreck isle features the “king killer comet”. A few videos ago, almost back to the creation, you brought it up. My friend is playing an air genasi and I’m building a one shot for him, I had heard about a wild air genasi “duke” that resides on the air plane, and it turns out the dukes of wind were in the DAWN WAR. So I’ve got some nice dialogue for my wind duke now

These are fantastic videos!!! I have been trying to intake it all. I knew a little, but not nearly this much. Thank you for the wonderful series.

using this in my campaign, having a cult find a broken piece of his body which they are trying to force magic into to try and enable magic beyond the limits currently in place. quite an interesting bit of lore indeed in this vid!

Gotta love the Chrono Trigger nod at 1:31

As someone new to DnD due to Baldur Gate 3, I love tge story behind Netheril and of Karsus. I get to feel more of what happen and how the story is set.

"You know the more I read Spelljammer stuff..." Yes? Yes? :-) "...I really want to run a fantasy Star Trek game..." ;-(

Your Star Trek meets Fantasy world exploring is basically Magic the Gathering. It's the story of the Planeswalkers and more recently the group known as the Gate Watch. Would be a fun way to run a campaign if you could find a way to keep your PCs from being to over powered. Unless you add a Stargate type device to Planeshift or a ship that does the same similar to the Weatherlight in Magic. Why can't I find a good DM like you nearby haha

The Shadow realm a garbage dump wow

Interestingly Karsus became a vestige when he was turned to stone, and now can serve as a warlock patron of the great old one. He appears as a red sphere to potential warlocks and his warlocks are apparently symbolized with stigmata for some reason.

No one caught the clone high reference!?!? Nicely done!

this was an amazing explanation on the history and lore of Karsus and Mystra. I needed this to cook my homebrew campagin >:)

Thanks so much for this videos!! Just prep, and taking notes for my Setting of Forgotton Realms! The story is really cool, think it will be easy to do extra pieces and bits, to do sidequets

I just love how complex the world of abeir-toril is. The timeline alone is so amazing, I wouldn't even be able to put it into words but you sir do the best job of doing so. By the way, right now I am about halfway through the death gate cycle but afterwards I was wondering if you would suggest reading the icewind dale trilogy or the netheril trilogy. It's so difficult to choose myself so I will just go by recommendation. On a minor side note, are you strictly sticking with the lore of forgotten realms or would you consider doing other lore as well? Like dragonlance, diablo, world of warcraft, dragonrealm, etc.

So I was creating a Ranger character using Xanathar's guide to make a ranger and one of his qualities is that he inhabited an ancient forest that bordered the Shadowfell. He also fought in some battles, was wounded by magic, and some of his siblings died. When I rolled for their deaths, many of them were tortured to death. I heard a bit about Netheril in the Brimstone Angels series and they were described as being sadistic. Would it make sense for my ranger and his siblings to have been fighting off Shadovar incursions from the Shadowfell?

This is great! It shows more detail of how Forgotten Realms history was made.

This is coming in super clutch for Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden as a DM. Thanks!

6 Years on, and this video is still being helpful. I am planning to transition to a spelljammer like adventure as a continuation to Rime of the Frostmaiden. It will likely (depending on what my players do) take place back around the time of Karsus's Folly, and I like the idea of them being presented with these high-level magic shenanigans. I also like the idea of the star trek inspired spelljammer adventure, except I think I'm going to go more for a Mass Effect style, with the possibility of recruiting help from among ancient heroes. Assemble a team and save magic as they know it from being completely destroyed forever. But getting good overviews of the lore as jumping off points for my own adventures is super helpful, and even now they're greatly appreciated.

This series is so good. Thank you for your videos!

Yknow it’s kinda amazing you covered this probably around the same time baldurs gate 3 started production. And we have a character that talks in depth about Karsus’s folly.

THANK YOU for the Space Ghost reference! 😂

Thank you, brushing up on the fall to explain to my player why 10th level isnt allowed/what it is.

Really liked the idea of Crossing Star Trek and Spelljammers... A bad ass ship with a large crew seeking out other worlds for the purpose of exploration. An Arcane Voyage of the Beagle.

The fallen empire literally fell :D I love this lore playlist.

Thank you! im finding myself short of lore for my dm group. I think it would make a nice twist to find a city or a lvl 10 spell :)

Awesome work. I've recently started a FR campaign and your vídeos are giving me great ideas for plot hooks and such. Thanks!

I’m going to somehow convert my Ley Line Walker into a Planeswalker and do a an unofficial crossover of D&D and Rifts based around the events in this video. Should be fun.

I'm currently playing a half-elven arcane paladin, a member of a secret magical order that preserved part of Mystra's Domain & teachings during the Time of Troubles. Now, a hundred years later, Mystra is reemerging to claim & lead her church, while my paladin is learning, by experience, about the Shadowfell, the Shadowvar, portals from hither to thither, the Anauroc, the Mythellar, etc. He's also learning about the Harpers, and is creating his own order of knighthood based upon the lore of Netheril, both Kings Nether, the Arcanists, the Shades, and the idea that the beloved Nether the Younger went into exile, outside of Anauroc, in order to build an army & retake Netheril some day. My knights will represent King Nether's warriors, living in exile for centuries, preparing for that day when we return to the Anauroc to change it back to its state before the Shades came. Your Netheril videos have been very helpful!!

The box set was truly great. Got to play with Arcs and the old rules of magic. Made for some truly sick adventures. Great setting.

I look forward to your videos every week, thank you! I'm glad I found you when you started.

Another great video. I am actually considering returning to the realms because of these.

Karsus's giant stone body was already found and interacted with by Galaeron Nihmedu & friends in "" by Troy Denning. Just in case you didn't know, but perhaps you were referring to that, actually.

Dude please do spelljammer lore, I'd love to see that.

The Netherese war with the Phaerimm is another Forgotten Realms bit of trivia that drives me nuts. Here we have a ridiculously powerful race of elder beings living in the Underdark, not all that far away from other races like the Drow and the Duergar, and all that, who want to destroy all life and enslave what they don't destroy, they succeed in bringing down one of the greatest empires known at the time...and then they just stop what they're doing and twiddle their thumbs like nothing's changed. They aren't imprisoned or anything, far from it they are still active in the Underdark to the best of my knowledge. But despite casting a spell that conveniently wipes out the immediate problem to them they just decide to just not do anything anymore. The end.

Netheril: I've fallen and I can't get up. Real funny ha ha, I know.

Yeah! More Netheril! Though I guess there isn't really anymore after this... Maybe some more crazy gnome history to come?

these videos are so great! thank you for providing a great recap of the Forgotten realms.

I've been wanting to run a Star Trek inspired planeshifting game for a while now, but I'd never read about Spelljammer before! Where should I start reading if I want to find out more about Spelljammer?

This one was awesome. Definently gonna use this in my next setting!

I love your Star Trek soundbite.

This was a fantastic episode. Thank you!

I'm only watching your videos now. Loved the FF VI reference!

I know its old, but I just wanted to say... I concur with your original pronunciation of Mythallar.

I like this story. 👌 And I love seeing the story of the Weave's destruction in a nutshell.

I don't comment too often on RU-vid, but I wanted to let you know, I love your videos. Thank you.

My favorite story involving Karsus and his mistake actually takes place in a fictional continent. The DM plucked elements and deities from D&D and just brought some of them together. However, he did so masterfully and created a universe all his own. So...In this universe, Karsus's folly did occur, but that restriction on Lvl 10+ spells wasn't restricted quite so heavily. A big mistake. So, the heroes go on their adventures, causing a few huge things to occur. The death of a god (leading to a huge mistake). Later on, a drow joined the party for a stint through Baator. In the material plane, they returned, 12 years later. During this time, the Drow who was with the group had given orders to destabilize the region and cause the great nations of the land to go to war. The party found out, turning on him. This culminated with him discovering the knowledge of Karsus and his spell and casting it, using Corellon as the target deity. His mind couldn't handle it, he killed his most loyal followers, and some deities. The deific power was voluntarily given to ASMODEUS OF ALL DEITIES, just so he could be sane. Then Asmodeus went on a deific killing spree, and the party had to go into his soul and KILL IT. Long story short...DON'T. USE. THAT. SPELL!

I'm running a campaign on a floating city that is controlled by an ex red wizard of thay lich (ex student of Szass Tam; travelled to Eberron and thought that the divine pantheon would be easy to manipulate since they choose to abstained from mortal contact; he wanted to become a God and introduced a corrupted dogma of Baccob that was essentially himself. He also channeled energy away from Vecna using Vecna's hand and eye) The setting is taking place at an arena (think Roman Colosseum but magically fortified to contain magic wielding slaves and monsters) My buddy is playing an enslaved Female Gnoll (Flind) Fighter Fang of Yeenoghu with the Godblooded template and half-fiend template. The Ex Red Wizard now actually Vecna suggested a reenactment of Epic proportions where Mazhka (my friend) would lead a party of her own Gnoll fighters, playing the part of Yeenoghu and have another gladiator Gnoll (half-fiend warlock) play the part of Gorllik (second edition god of the Gnolls). During the battle between rival Gnolls the hundred plus thousand people chanting "Yee-no-ghu" became to manifest him in my buddies PC (gaining strength, increasing in size, gaining fast healing all the way to when he defeated Gorlik and consumed him that he became fully possessed by Yeenoghu (I handed him the Book of Vial darkness and said you get to play as Yeenoghu so get familiar with that stat block). It is an epic encounter that we are gonna start this weekend. Veccna is gonna entrap the entire Colosseum in a modified dimensional lock and watch the entire stadium try and fight Yeenoghu while he watches the crowd panic and the gladiator game coordinators doing everything they can to oppose him. However it gets more complicated because of the savagery of Mazhka some people have begun a cult of Yeenoghu and they wanna try to overthrow the emperor and they are going to disintegrate the wall of force dome over the arena allowing Yeenoghu an escape from the fighting pit. A few high level wizards are gonna try to contain him but even with there SR checks they will have a tough time affecting him for long. 2 teams of Gladiators/Gladiator school leaders will attempt to get Yeenoghu back into the center of the arena and make a giant magic circle against evil to contain him around the wall of the arena. While they are trying to do that Orcas being jealous of Yeenoghu sent his SkullLord and Deathbringer to try and kill Yeenoghu. The SkullLord when close to death with empty out a large bag of holding containing a starving boneyard and will dip using a scroll. I've balanced the encounter to Yeenoghu's state block so until the undead incursion My buddy will be feeling like a god. Though the wizards will give him a tough time. Especially the one that will disjunction his shapechange spell and his other buffs. And of course because the red wizards are involved the original team trying to contain Yeenoghu will be "aided" by Escldra Yeth (20th level red wizard Vampire) and 6 other level 10th red wizards. All boosted with circle magic. They are there to mainly try to defeat both Yeenoghu and Vecna, Vecna being the main target. (Tough shit I've done the math; Escldra doing everything she can to increase her SR check magically is rolling a +64 but Vecna will dispell them all next round and then her max is a 44 to overcome SR the lowest she can roll to break Vecna's SR is 62, minimum roll to break is an 18 (15% success rate). Best they hope for is to make sure the circle goes off and keep Vecna occupied by hitting him fast and hard. SR doesn't account for certain spells so there will be tricks to be had. Overall this encounter will be Epic and make for a great story. When my friend stands victorious over the thousands of dead the other gods are gonna make their presence and "rebalance" the realm again. This being a homebrew setting combining Eberron and the Forgotten Realms the Gods hadn't made their presence known till now, the Divine Gate being dismantled so they (the entire pantheon) could bring balance again. Yeenoghu being a part of the pantheon now having eaten Gorlik won't be killed outright and will be allowed to return to the Abyss with his Champion (Mazhka). Thus finally getting my friend released from slavery and started on a new leg of Mazhka's story and another step closer to becoming powerful enough to kill and eat Yeenoghu herself to become the new god of the Gnolls or be eaten and Yeenoghu will grow stronger.

if anyone interested there is a book trilogy that cover the end of this era, first book is called sword play (forgot the names of the others) about a barbarian named starbright steelshanks(least i vaguely remember that to be his name spoilers he eventually meets Karsus just as he casts the spell and the city falls

Haha, inb4 Netherese Mindflayer Tadpoles!

Loving you videos, not sure why I have only started watching now. at about 5:54 you show a part of a history timeline; where can I find that?

Hello Jorphdan. I have grown to truly enjoy your videos. I'm an old time FR junkie so I Love all the lore. Thank you. I'd love to see a video about the Moonblades and/or their weilders throughout Faerunian history. I've purchased one of your University Hoodies to help support your channel and your good works. I will wear it proudly with a name badge that says, "Ask Me About: Aboleths :)"

Okay the thing that made me really happy about that intro was the Star Trek: And now the Conclusion

Karsus sounds like a sorcerer that just had the work ethic of a master wizard.

I got a laugh for the Majel Barrett and where do i sign on for Dungeon Trek totally down for exploring as long as i dont have to wear red

Spelljammer is leagues beyond as you can include every campaign setting plus many that would not fit in regular campaigns. And illithid make for badass characters very complex both neutral and evil

Larian mustve been watching too lol

Loved this, so much lore to absorb!

technically the term wizard didn't exist until after karsus's folly, and he exists as a vestage with the portfolio he got as a god was that of grate hubarous and is now basically a great old one taking the form of a massive blood red rock

I've totaly been working on a tardis realm exploration campaign for a while. Modular living ship, dr whoish with its own motives/quest guiding

The Netherese empire is such a great story in the history of Toril. Alongside Numenor, I have a huge love for ancient advanced or powerful empires which fall due to their own hubris. I'm trying to make my own for my story, sort of a combination of the two minus floating cities and the like (and with a smattering of the Roman Republic/Empire). Still highly advanced in magical development but they will fall due to hubris.

I think I’m gonna tinker with a tiny Mythallar. My BBEG is a beholder who’s dream effects are amplified. Thus turning Icewind Dales Ten Towns into a craggy valley that’s temperature is a persistent 80 degrees. The feeling is being watched is amplified ect. The beholder Using the device to send any beholder kin it dreams into the astral sea so his perfection won’t be bothered by rivals

I was planning to do a campaign that takes place a couple hundred years before Karsus' folly. Any suggestions or tips?

I'm not that versed in the lore, so how much time is there supposedly between the Fall of Netheril and the current time/year the current campaigns are set in? (official campaigns)

Lol it is a great intro!!

Im running a campaign where my Wizard has devoted her life to studying Netherese lore, she's convinced she knows where the lost scrolls are.

I started a campaign in Netheril's times. All players lives in low cities of Nether... Man, it is so amazing... Netheril are the best. And Karsus... He was so powerful, that he could not understand the consequences of his power... So frustrating lol.

[SPOILER FOR ICEWIND DALE DO NOT READ IF YOU DONT WANNA GET SPOILED] These videos are now necessary for the obelisks thing that turn back time in the end of Icewind Dale, I hope to God my players do that

This was fun! Thanks!

is there a size on the mythallar ? because i was thinking of using it has a way to keep a summer season on the castle grounds.

["Corridors of time" starts playing]

"The poor creatures that want to eliminate all life, How could the Netherese destroy there home?!"

Thanks for this. Previous video about the floating cities, I was like, meh. But this makes them way more epic.

Karsus's falling somebody better catch em

sharn and phaerium, both magical beasts that i am scared of!

8:00 Jorphdan, you would enjoy the last arc of Critical Role C2 if you're looking for a callback to these cities.

Keep 'em coming!

I am starting to think matt mercer has seen this video after seeing in what direction the current arc of critical role campaign 2 is climaxing towards... i am scared

I shall be running a campaign set in the long distant past before the dawn war , so spells above 9th will be obtainable . So netheril peaks my interest

Also Karsus is inside the world tree not a stone statue.