Baldur's Gate 3: Why Auntie Ethel Is Afraid Of Your Tadpole...

possibly the first mention of the netherese comes when the pc attempts to have their tadpole removed by the lovely and ever delightful green hag anti-ethel the wriggler as she refers to it for the simple price of your eye now beyond the sheer stupidity of cutting a deal with a green hag when attempting to remove it she finds that the tadpole offers strange resistance to her attempts and remarks that it has been tampered with by netherese magic referring to it as filthy shadow magic but why does she react this way what exactly does it mean to be imbued with netherese sorcery and what is the connection of shadow magic with netheril in your tadpole now you can't understand netheril without understanding its deep history and how it came to be as well as how it fell netherese magic is sort of a thing but why and how it is a thing requires some explanation you might be surprised that netheril actually had fairly humble origins and this somewhat belies its later achievements and excesses the settlements that would later be called netheril began sometime prior to the beginning of the age of humanity at around roughly 4 000 bdr and rapidly began expanding in the region shortly thereafter after having observed both the rapid expansion and seeing competence of the humans in the region in 3830 bdr the elves of the kingdom of erlani decided to open up trade and diplomatic relations with the humans perhaps the most impactful part of this was the elves decision to teach the humans magic it was a decision that would have consequences for centuries if not millennia to come for reasons unknown these humans who would become the netherese displayed a talent hitherto unseen quickly mastering arcane magic at a pace and scale without precedent sometime later the settlements in cities that formed a common alliance were renamed to netheril named after a shaman king of that time arcane magic rapidly became part of the lifeblood of netheril with virtually every citizen whether high born or lowborn possessing some rudimentary skill in the craft even common citizens had enough understanding such that they would employ cantrips in their daily lives to aid in work and take care of chores and errands and that truly talented were given the title arcanist they quickly formed their own faction rivaling that of the conventional nobility of the nation this initial period of growth and expansion is referred to as the first age in netherie's history this was followed by the nether age so named because it marks the first departure of that nation from conventional magical study into more rarefied and powerful arcane endeavors many associate with netheril after 300 years of study under the irlani elves a man called the finder discovered the nether scrolls in 3533 bdr and the netherese as well as for rooney in history were forever more changed now it's important that we embark on a little digression here to talk about the nether scrolls themselves because what they are and symbolize is extremely important at base the nether scrolls are a set of small scrolls that describe fundamental magical theory and the scrolls were incredibly ancient long before even the nation that would become netheril discovered them the scrolls were created before 30 000 bdr by the people of the empire of the reptilian creator race the saruk who sought to gather and consolidate all the magical knowledge of their world later the avian aerie and amphibian batrocti magic was included but strangely neither fan or human magic was two sets are known to exist the information of the nether scrolls is spread out over 50 individual scrolls with five chapters in total each comprising 10 pages the scrolls themselves are made of precious metal sheets that are wafer thin and flexible like paper and the pages have magical properties each time someone reads a page new content appears which allows for potentially limitless knowledge to be stored in a scroll as the scrolls can be reread with the same effect ad infinitum at least theoretically and the nether scrolls are effectively indestructible the scrolls cover all fundamental theory concerning magic including what modern spellcasters would consider the traditional schools of magic such as evocation and illusion but also include of course item and artifact creation as well as exploration of the plains and beyond needless to say the discovery of the nether scrolls provided magical insights far beyond what the elves had been teaching the nascent netherese and consolidating the knowledge they had found in the scrolls they quickly abandoned the more caution-guided methods of the elves in favor of developing their own brand of magic informed of course by the unrivaled knowledge contained within the nether scrolls for the next 200 years the power of the netherese arcanus ran wild and they soon surpassed what the elves had taught them in the centuries prior and many breakthroughs were made on many magical fronts after having been empowered by the nether scrolls the nether age gave way to the mythilar age so named because of the invention of so-called mythilar immensely powerful netherese devices that allowed for the channeling of vast and unprecedented amounts of arcane power this device was created by one of the greatest of netery's arcanists who would ever live ulam in 3014 bdr whatever complexities were involved in the creation of the mythalar their purpose was simple to convert raw magic from the weave and send that power throughout an enclave to provide the magical energies required for the maintenance of magical items objects and beyond and it was at this time that the first floating cities of netheril appeared powered by one of many mythilar the first one having been created once again by the infamous and awesomely powerful arcanus ulam and it was towards the end of this age that growing distrust of the netherese enterprise led to the theft of a set of nether scrolls by their earth's wild teachers and allies the elves one of the thieves interestingly enough was a gnome who upon glimpsing but a few pages of a scroll had the entirety of knowledge of the school of illusion transferred to him which later led to the widespread use of illusion magic in gnomish communities something that remains common to this day after the mythilar era the next period of time is called the silver age it is marked by the first formal creation of the political rulership by mages or magocracy and increase expansion and trade the settling of new territory and most importantly the intentional scattering of the stolen nether scrolls by the elves the silver age is followed by the aptly named golden age and sees the rise of netery's power still further with unprecedented numbers of enclaves being uplifted into the sky and rapacious expansion of the empire beyond its borders a staple of the netherese empire by this time is slavery and very few outside of netheril trust netherese or confined common cause with them and it's safe to say that the netherese by now had succeeded in alienating virtually all around them the golden age was followed by the age of discovery and it's at this time that the netherese began exploring the stars beyond toro by means of spacecraft called spell jammers venturing into realm space for the first time however they immediately encounter illithids who've had far more experience traversing the spheres and are driven back to toro virtually no space exploration takes place for the next 1000 years the final age of netheril is called the shadow age named such because it marks the demise of the netherese empire this age begins with the birth of karsus a name you've probably heard before both from me and indirectly from gale in baldur's gate 3. this period is characterized by a number of setbacks that eventually threaten to the empire above all the discovery of the pharyn malevolent but highly intelligent magic wielding aberrations dwelling in the underdark for years nethery's experiments in magic resulted in magical residues seeping into the ground in the underdark which negatively affected the pharyn who in retaliation began draining the lands above of life and magic leading to the creation of destructive wild magic zones and barren wastelands or once lush landscape was present many floating enclaves were destroyed deprived of their magical power source brought about by the draining of magic by the faerum and all this culminated in a very worried karsus developing the most powerful spell ever devised by any mortal the spell called carcissus avatar concerned about the dangers of the faerum and the decline of netheril karcus believed that he had to take drastic action to save his country and that he was the only one capable of saving it with that in mind he sought to seal the power of a god that he might eradicate the threats posed to netheril but he miscalculated greatly upon finishing his spell which took six hours to cast he stole the divinity from the only god he should not have the goddess mistral whose constant presence and vigilance was required to maintain and regulate the weave as his body swelled and was overwhelmed by her power he instantly realized albeit too late his mistake the weave fell into chaos and was nearly destroyed in all the floating cities powered by the magical mythilar can crash into earth mistral was instantly reincarnated as mystra a much more lawful and stringent advocate of the weave and immediately banned all spells higher than level 9 an event that came to be called mistress ban magic would henceforth be harder to learn requiring memorization and would be more difficult to store on one's mind limiting its possibilities severely whereas before there simply were no potential limits to magic and its applications the spell karsus avatar was sent early into the ends of time by the goddess in order that no one ever make use of it again and netheril in all its glory ends here or at least partly just days prior to the destruction of netheril by karsus an arcanist named telemontonthel a powerful wizard well verse in shadow magic was experimenting with magic related to the shadow weave and managed to shift his entire enclave tholtenthar to the plane of shadow but could not return for several weeks upon witnessing the catastrophe that occurred in his absence he decided that he and his enclave should remain in the shadow plane in order to maintain what could be the last of their magically gifted people he vowed to one day return to torel and reestablish netheril these people over time gradually transformed in what would be called the shadowvar as their bodies and minds had become twisted by the nearly two thousand years spent in the shadowfell and they became creatures of it the shadowvar never forgot the role the faerum had played in the destruction of netheril and were devoted shar worshipers even before leaving for the shadowfell they spent their time after the fall waiting and observing as well as preserving ancient netherese's lore in history and one day when the time was deemed ripe they returned to faerun in 1372 dr the ancient netherese who had become known as the shadovar returned to faerun over a site called the anarch desert a magically created desert that resulted from the manipulations of the feyrim and their conflict with the netherese but had formerly been the locus of power of ancient netheril telemontanthol the leader of the shades immediately began rooting out the faerim and in a short order had virtually eliminated them from faerun driving them to extinction something that had led the modern people of faerun to view the shadowvar as being far more benevolent than they actually were in time their true nature and ambitions became known and surrounding nations grew increasingly suspicious for over 100 years the shadovar who eventually became synonymous with the netherese as was their intent expanded their territory and sought to recreate the former glory of netheril all of which came to a screeching halt in 1487 dr when their leader telemont tonthal was slain in an attempt to empower his goddess char with the portfolio of the goddess of magic and his floating city came crashing down the further expansion of the shadowvar was held in check but they remained in smaller numbers and persisted as his children and heirs have survived as of the beginning of baldur's gate 3 which again takes place in 1492 dr now let's go back to auntie ethel and have a listen to her much better that human skin is fierce restrictive indeed i am and a fabulous one like that not many get to see a hag in all her glory consider yourself blessed now choose which eye will it be right or left hold on to your knickers this might sting of it no that wasn't so bad was it that color suits you now unless you want tentacles for a tone stay absolutely still i've removed one of these bloggers before but it's a touch tricky the squirms at the hag's words pain builds behind your eye you feel the creature arrive as it's dragged towards your ear then it bites back burrowing even deeper into your brain your little you didn't tell me it was necessary someone's tempered with your parasite that's likely why you've not turned yet lessons you're a though is a wet weak that thing has been touched by more than mind flayers you're a dead soul walking i can't help you what about it i held up my end of the bargain it's not it's not my fault the rickles tainted by shadow magic i want nothing to do with you or that scum in your brain i'd kill you for that but why deny your riddler the pleasure but let it not be said that antietam doesn't honor her death here it's on you to fix yourself now get out she mentions both shadow magic and the netherese and she's very fearful and now you probably have a better idea as to why she would be although we cannot identify exactly how netheril in the shadow of ara might be involved given the evidence it would be incredibly unlikely that they were not involved their magic is clearly affecting the status of the tadpole in your head and even endowing it with unusual powers netherese shadow magic and add to this that the shadow of are perhaps the most fanatical char worshipers that have ever lived and it all starts to make sense shadowheart the shadow of r and the tadpole although again the details can't be known but it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that the plot of bg3 involves both an attempt to restore netheril and to empower the goddess shar the shadowvar also likely possess magic from ancient netheril as well as new spells and sorcery developed on the shadow plane possibly resulting in a weaving of ancient netherese magic and something even more sinister you see magic drawn from the shadow weave does not behave or operate like magic drawn from the conventional weave and that alone might explain some of the reasons why the tadpole acts the way it does and is so resistant to attempts to remove it there's also one more theory related to netheril that could be relevant you'll recall the name of ulam the archmage and arcanus of the mythilar era who created the mythilar his story did not end with the fall of netheril in fact it continued in a most interesting manner he first became a lich which was almost par for the course with many of the netherese's arcanas who survived the fall of netheril but beyond that he was the first to do something most unusual as after becoming a lich he later fused his essence with that of an illiterate elder brain becoming an undead elder brain in the process the only one of its kind in all the realms which presents yet another possibility of the nethery's involvement in baldur's gate 3. you see beyond this yulum was also the first person to actively engage with illithids in an effort to teach them magic this is significant because illithids overwhelmingly favor psionics over arcane magic and illithids who pursue arcane magic are considered pariahs and are cast out of illited society as the potential for rebellion against the elder brain and community is too great perhaps ulum also has a hand in the plight of the pc one thing seems clear whatever the exact nature of their involvement the netherese have returned with a vengeance and are going to play a major role in baldur's gate 3 on multiple fronts how and where though will only be revealed with the game's release and even then there will be many remaining mysteries to explore as always thank you for tuning in please leave a like comment and subscribe as it really helps out the channel and i'll check you out next time take care

Channel: Spell&Shield

Views: 71,483

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Id: LRDtDTCvxHs

Length: 18min 30sec (1110 seconds)

Published: Thu May 26 2022