Netheril - The Most Powerful Civilization in Dungeons & Dragons - D&D Timeline 

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Karsus Folly better known as eff around and find out. A maneuver so fantastically short sighted that mages of the realm still measure catastrophic stupidity by units of Karsus.

Brooooo FINALLY IVE ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED IN RUNNING A CAMPAIGN BASED AROUND NETHERIL THIS IS PERFECT!!!

28:59 I played in a game once where a large southern desert was the direct result of a god of death being born there it used to be a fertile plains and forests. If blood was spilled on its sands there was a chance of undead pulling themselves out of the sand below to attack you.

This series is why I've made High Archivist Rhexxus an NPC in my world

You should do one of Greyhawk too, the first setting of D&D and it was created by Gary Gygax himself, mostly I tell because some of the most legendary villains come from there, Acererak, Vecna, Iggwilv, Tharizdun, and most of all this villains became multiversal in all Dungeons and Dragons Multiverse, sort of like the Dragon Gods that are appearently the most present Gods in all of the Settings.

Given how all the deserts on Toril are magical scars, special mention should be made of the Dark Sun setting, where the life-draining magic turned the entire world of Athas into a barren wasteland. Perhaps Toril would've suffered the same fate if all the destructive magic usage was kept unchecked.

Elf: That magic is too dangerous and powerful! Human: dibs

The Terraseer is mentioned again in the history of Forgotten Realms, his name is Arthindoland and he led a city called Oreme. This is all mentioned in "Serpent Kingdoms".

I absolutely love all these younger DMs out there getting excited about Netheril. Wish Ed could read all these posts. 😊 My campaign back in the early 90s was entirely based on Netheril but started in 1371DR. Now that I'm DMing again my new "younger players" are getting to run thru the 2nd plotline I built 30 yrs ago. Starting again back in 1371. Sorry, just feeling nostalgic tonight. Thanks Mr Rhexx for posting this video. Excellent research you've done here. I tip my arcanist hat to you!

TLDW: Netheril was powerful until some arrogant prick used magic to crash the universe's OS. It's okay though because Mystra turned magic off and on again and that did the trick.

Great vid so far, makes Forgotten Realms lore so much more approachable

Not killed. Entombed. Legend has it the goddess cursed Karsus to be aware all this time. To witness his folly, to think of what he did wrong and to watch his world crumble as he watched on in helplessness

Netheril is pretty essential to setting up the world of Faerun. I think they are inspired by the Roman Empire, with the rags to riches story and of course the dramatic fall. I didn't know the full story on Ioun becoming an undead Elder Brain essentially, that is pretty interesting. He is like a distillation of all the worst traits of Netheril: pride, a desire to avoid death, and supremely self-interested. Even with the Terraseer forewarning the Netherese, their fall couldn't be avoided.

So happy the Sharn get some spot light in a D&D video. Considering they did in 600 years what the Netherese couldn't do with all their magic; it is a wonder the world hasn't changed more due to Sharn. If you want a game mechanic understanding of what the sharn are capable of; the 3rd edition version listed them as a base CR6 or so but stressed that this was more like a template. All sharn had levels in arcane and divine spell casting. They had a racial trait where if a sharn got 1 level of an arcane class, then they automatically got 1 level in a divine class. Their ability to reach though portals at will for touch attacks or aim spells at awkward angles isn't to be underestimated either.

Played a game where i was a necromancer from netheril popping into dnd 5e time line. being trapped in a coffin as a re-born (Failed complete ressurection). for some 2-3 thousand years reduced from 20 to lvl 3 with a new magic system. playing an old skeleton guy from a few thousand years was a hell of a fun time. still my most favourite character to play by far.

I did know that Ioulaum was still alive as an Elder brain, but i think i totally underrated his power.

Funnily enough, this uploaded just after I had finally finished watching through most of your D&D lore playlist... guess I'm not quite done yet!

I feel like the seer brought the antimagic creatures in a long-term plot to have Karthas kill the goddess of magic

After playing BG3 and getting involved in the D&D world for the first time these videos are truly amazing and I’m so invested in the Forgotten Realms lore❤

22:43 When one person on the Wi-Fi decides to download a huge game and it slows everything else down.

Damn you crushed that reading of the gnome child. Really tugged at the heart strings... 🥺

Impeccable timing with this series Rhexx. I've been writing up a custom setting for my future D&D games for some time now and I'm getting around to the historical lore of it. I've gotten lots of good inspiration from this series. Keep it up!

Nice stuff! With more and more of Netheril stuff coming back with the recent adventures (Ythrin, the oblesiks and the Nether scroll of Azumar) it really helps to get more info on their origins!

I just realized something: that immortality spell attributed to Iolaum was rendered at least partially functionally obsolete in BOVD, where the Steal Life spell lets you drain a victim with an 8th level slot and make yourself ~48-60 weeks younger with each victim/casting (variance because it drains ability scores 1 point for 1 week, most vanilla NPCs in 3.5 RAW have 10's before racial modifiers so most should have their lowest ability score in the 8-10 range and whatever their lowest is you'd get that times 6 in weeks younger). Yes it's slower, but it's also a hell of a lot easier, even with the whole new moon requirement for becoming younger, and single people disappearing at a time would be a hell of a lot easier to keep quiet than a whole battalion.

This is great timing. Next week I'm starting a campaign set in netheril in an alternate timeline where Karsus' Folly never happened so having having some audio to listen to to learn more about the kingdom is super convenient!

Really hoping you re-release these as a full movie version. This series is fantastic

I love the history of Toril! Thanks so much for this amazing treat! If I recall correctly, the Netherese actually hunted people who lived on the ground. They would chase them down with wyverns and take their heads as trophies.

I wonder if he will talk about how some of the Drow became uncorrupted or the spell plague that brought the Dragonborn into the world?

See, MrRhexx, over 33 mins of pure POSITIVE content with no apology needed feels really good! An apology is only needed when a violation of our trust is committed. For as long as no violation is committed, let the positivity reign! Trusting your viewers to be patient while you do your incredible research to create such awesome content is one of the highest compliments you can give us. To apologize for that is to take that wonderful feeling away. We Love You and support your interests and efforts to build this community 🫶 (Keep this awesome feeling going, please.)

Finally, the part I wanted to hear about the most. Granted, I lnew about precisely one of the previous event but I 've still been looking forward to this.

So, that joke that every other monster was made by either the mind flayers or by a long lost wizard casting spells on animals... I suppose these are the long lost wizards in question?

Hyped to see some Karatur or maybe Zakhara, sword coast is nice but ther is soo much more that would allow games to have a fresher feeling to them. Also, i cant get enough of Netherise, its just too good, only Sigil can top them in culture.

Selune rescued a flying enclave at the time of the fall and it is the only enclave to still exists today (it's on Selune's plane) and they have at least 1 full chapter of the scrolls. they survived because they were the only enclave that had allowed the worship of gods of which Selune was the main one. they barely make contact with Faerun and only just to get the Nether Scrolls but if you plane shift there and are cool with the goddess then they are friendly enough to teach you magic. dont know if this lore is still accurate but haven't heard anything else about it while i was searching about the Nether Scrolls.

Now that you're back to covering Netheril and their powerful magic, would love to hear your lore on epic level spellcasting! Based on your videos about 10th level magic and beyond, it sounds like a great way to circumvent those pesky magic restrictions. Your channel has given me so many great ideas for my 5e planar campaign, and it would be great to have even more cool lore and systems from earlier dnd editions to incorporate!

Amazing work as always and what good timing! I just started a campaign in Anauroch and this video helps to hammer out the details.

There was a high level magic companion to DnD long ago called "The Spellcasters Bible" for magic beyond character level 18. Had a spell called Geds bloody pill for making a magic battery/slash recharge as well as the fun spell "Last word" that allows you to prep a spell to cast after death.

This guy just couldn't become a normal lich huh, he had to create a life extension spell and then when that stopped working he decided to turn into an elder brain

Good info, my DnD has homebrewed some lore so that Netheril wasn't completely destroyed and instead has been in it's own different plane caused by Karsus folly. And my Wizard character is from there, he left his plane to hide something from the other Netherese. He is also a history professor there so it's good to know all this stuff I might have to use

Another one! I swear you have no idea how much i look forwards to these!

Easily my favorite video yet. Bravo MrRhexx

I love these videos! They teach me so much for my homebrew in the setting! Oh olease please please keep teaching us more about the history of settings! 😢 I bought all your pdfs!🎉

Poor Terraseer. The guy probably just gave up. Helping found the greatest civilization on earth just to see it kill itself must be heart breaking. Also I do not really understand why not more cities tried to escape by shifting planes, expanding into and exploring the infinite seems so fitting for their civilization

This is probably my favorite part of D&D lore. Netheril is just so friggin cool to learn about! Imagine being able to upcast a spell like fireball or something upwards of 11th level. The amount of damage that would do 😅

Your videos always inspire me for new campaigns or just make me want to play D&D in general, Especially the ones about civilizations and D&D history. The only problem is that I sometimes get bored after watching one of these because I want to play D&D so badly I don't have interest in playing anything else. Keep it up.

I recommend all of your videos to anybody looking for dnd lore. You do an amazing job my dood

Was thinking about returning to D&D after decades away and watching your videos and your passion for the topics has definitely pushed me to jump back in. Also currently enjoying your tour of the Heavens. Keep 'em coming! And thank you! 🙏🖖

I'm glad to see that you're back making videos weekly

been waiting for a netheril video for years man thanks

Just realized I flubbed a bit when I mentioned a Buffy fanfic on an earlier vid in this series: it wasn't an Imaskari expedition that had a couple people stay on ancient Earth that show up in the fic, they were Netherese, but they found Earth via Imaskari records of some sort, and whatever defenses the emigrating gods had erected basically made their Spelljammer crash when they arrived and they were basically stuck. Either way, yeah the author clearly knew a bit about this and I'm still sad they never finished it...

Ioulaum YESSSSS!!!!!! You finally are talking about him!

Great deep dive. Always welcome to see your videos

Wonderful video, and very timely. I'm running Icewind Dale and one of my players is rather curious about finding Ythryn and the history of the empire it came from.

Hi Fermin! I wonder why Netheril used slaves when it had access to so much magic and technology. What did the slaves do that constructs couldn't?

Amazing as always! You know none of us would complain if you made it a 10+ video deep dive!! 😁 Also, I’m going to use that Awaken/Alter Beast Nether Scroll the explanation for Hitpoint Press’ Humblefolk existing in my version of Faerun! 🦊🐭🐔🐥🦉

Cant wait! These series is extremely interesting!

My all time favorite faction in the either game! ❤️

Wonderfull video i was waiting for this video since i kind of needed it for my campaign.

That would be such a cool campaign. Where the villan summons an altered beast army and you steal his scroll to build an army of your own and fight them.

I love your videos dude ever since the elder scrolls lore videos and now I dont even play dnd but I like how you explain the lore of the world and make it feel so interesting

Love this history series. Looking forward to the one about orcs especially if the kingdom of many arrows is talked about.

2:54 All I can focus on is the scream sound effect used in the old Swords & Sandals browser game 😅

I've been waiting for this! Sweet!

civilization obtains powers rivaled by the gods themselves "Guys they made *Fridges* , like, everybody had one!" 🤣 i love this hahaha

Fantastic video! They were hoisted by their own petard.

Then deeper we delve!! Good video!

I love this! Keep it going

Your videos make me want to run a campaign set in the realms!

Love your vids man.

This was awesome!!

An arcanist in an old D&D novel used a spell to summon a specific greater demon just to have it loosen a tight lid of a jar the arcanist wanted to open.

Huged D&D fan hear , been role playing ever sinch 12 , keep up the good work , realy enjoy the vedio,s .

I like how you used "Sacrifice" game main menu music as a background music for your vid. Good choice.

Amazing stuff !!!

what would we do without you. Another amazing and informative video. 🎉

For more info in the Terraseer and Jergal, definitely check out Ed Greenwood's Lord of The End of Everything

*kobolds read with disgust what the Netheril did to the gnomes* "Professional HAVE standards."

Amazing video as always!! Could you do a video about Candlekeep?

Thanks for the lore! ^^

32:15 Look for the small cluster of islands above the words ‘Celestial Sea’ in the upper right portion of the circled red area. These are the Isle of Gargantuas, the term 2nd edition used for Kaiju! Three species of Kaiju live on these islands, based off of King Kong, Mothra and Godzilla!

I would totally ba on board with 10 videos of Netheril empire history

I would not be upset by ten videos in this era

i always love the content rhexx goodshit

Your videos are priceless! THANK YOU

I want a video on that Lich Elder Brain!

This should be interesting.

It’s weird that Netheril, the ancient civilization that left the most powerful artifacts and secrets coveted by current Realms figures, was itself dependent on the discovery of artifacts and secrets from an even more ancient civilization. I wonder if the Sarrukh also based their power and the Nether Scrolls on secrets and artifacts from an EVEN MORE ancient civilization we just don’t know about yet. And so on.

I have to know, where did you find that world map for 24:50? I've looked for a map before, but only found the Western portion of that map (Approximately the Sword Coast). There are some older ones, but that one is so detailed!

Hello MrRhexx. I really love your videos and all the lore you touch! But would there be a possibility to see videos about the Lore of Golarion (Pathfinder) ?

15:20 Everybody gangsta till the spell AoE is *"One god"*

I'm here for any Netheril content.

For soundtracks we, back in my old campaign, grabbed a vinyl of Conan The Barbarian soundtrack and put that on, except flipping it over all the time was annoying. I out it on for my new group and they lved it. Another excellent vid, keep up the great job 😎 🤘 🍻

THIS IS SICK also is there enough info to do a vid around the dragon empire.?

I remember when Dscrybe sucked lol. I'm glad they grew to something worth buying now

So I’m not the only one who was thinking of the kingdom of Zeal from Chrono Trigger listening to this, right?

15:29 I belive that the spell used to create the enclaves was “Proctiv's move mountain”, in fact not designed by Ioulaum.

Imagine putting Krasus Folly as a D&D setting, damn fun it would be

I love my Nethtil box set & adventure

I'm still fascinated by the setting that came about organically in a one player campaign I cowrote with a friend that was new to dnd. He wanted to be on earth originally, in Italy, as a sort of occult hunting sorcerer. I transposed Italy into, and onto, or parallel within Sembia. He loosely based his character on the comics and movie character Constantine (Kianu Reeves), a sorc that hunted demons and witches etc. The one shot prologue, which took several sessions, was based on Princess Bride. Buttercup was being abducted by the rival Gilder in order to stop Humperdink. He was possessed by a powerful demon that was basically bringing about an antichrist through attempting to sacrifice Buttercup. The plan was thwarted and Humperdink was slain, and the demon, which became a recurring character went back to the abyss. But in that moment when he was slain from his host our 3 charscters were sucked into the unleashed magic explosion and we spun out into what was the 4th ed shadow fell, where we made our way to gloom wrought, which I had had in mind for a city scape setting based on my character from another campaign thst was serving the raven queen. By pure coincidence, based on the Constantine comics, my friend wanted a "hideout," like a mage tower. I sat him in front of the map, not knowing anything about forgotten realms, did the equivalent of spinning the globe and he chose the location of the "city of shade" then in Anaroch. I went into hardcore lore investigsting and was shocked and surprised to discover that Gloomwrought in the Shadowfell was the parallel shadow realm version of the city of shade, which had several names, but was known as Thulthanthar. From there the campaign practically wrote itself. Thulthantar was one of the surviving floating enclaves, it was the one that spent about 1300 years in the shadow realm or Shadowfell. It eventually came back and, if I recall correctly, per the lore, reestablished the neo netherese empire. Our campaign basically prequels those events as they are leaving the Shadowfell. Before they reestablish new netheril in the material plane they made an attempt and a bid for power in the Shadowfell by assaulting Gloomwrought with a confederation and opportunistic alliance with the demonic forces of Orcus and an associated powerful lich. We started off on our our way to Shadowfell's Anorouch and stayed at the inn in Shadowfell Arabel. When Thulthanthar descended on the city with it's airship navy and they firebombed and decimated the city. With survivors from the inn we managed to overtake some of the shade netherese and commandeer one of their airships, as we flew the rest of the way to Gloomwrought, Arabel in flames and ruins fading bright in the Shadowfell's permanent night horizon. Basically we brought tidings to the city that it's material plane sister city was on its way to seige the city. Three days of spies and descending chaos as the city's factuins broke out into open conflict and refugees formed and others bolstered their defenses. It was an epic battle scenario that unfolded. The demons in the west gates, the undead on the east, and the netherese and Thulthanthar looming over the city from the air. Basically the undead were being powered by a mythallar and its energies being channeled by the lich. Once that part of the seige lifted and the demon captains, lead by the Humperdink demon were slain (he ended up having several names), the demons retreated too, and the netherese, alone in the seige retreated and then teleported back to the material plane. The netherese bid for an extra planar empire failed. God that was so much fun, and it was organic and more or less fit the lore. I still think about it all the time and want to build on those adventures. We ended up secondarily pursuing an avatar of the remnant of defeated Shar. Difficult to explain or place in the lore except that it's more or less "present day," in the lore. We ended up back on earth trying to stop this "shard of Shar" (of which there are presumably many, becasue her power was shattered and trying to make a comeback, becasue the netherese were her main civilization of worshippers left. Her primacy as a major diety collapsed with them, when, if I rememeber correctly, Elminster brought down Thulthanthar when it was similarly assaulting Myth Drannor? God I can't rmemeber, Its been years.) It was epic, had several more mini side campaigns related to that and the aftermath, still want to do more. If you're out there, I hope this inspires you, please rememeber me when you visit Gloomwrought and hopefully the moment and setting where Thulthanthar and the Netherese fight for their ascendance!

i wish there was lore on abeir for after the split from toril and before they got portals between them