Forgotten Realms: Darkwalker on the Moonshae II

Part of the reason that I'm going through all the Forgotten Realms novels - as well as other projects that will come up whenever I get around to them - is to learn more about the worlds and how they work. What a professional setting feels like, which is a lot more fulfilling to get to by piecing it from literature rather than reading an encyclopedia (for what else would the setting books be considered).

So, the Moonshaes, an area that I will forever confuse with the Moonsea. What did this book teach me about them?

The first is the governmental structure they have in place, which is akin to city-states, but stuck in a fuedal-type structure. I imagine that there's a central hub - a town, if you will - for each large area of outlying "province." There's trade, sure, but probably not a lot of it - most of the area that I saw seemed to be more or less self-sufficient through farming, hunting, and fishing - and any trade that does happen is likely for luxuries, which I'd say is supported by the fact that the only traders that show up are related to Calimshan, the desert empire that I'd assume are more likely to export spices and frills than anything necessary for life.

The protagonist is a prince and his father a king, and while the king himself - from what we see of him at least - gets a measure of respect, it's not enough to be a full-fledged king, at least the ones I'm familiar with. Based on his commitment to leading from the front and his disappointment in Tristan for being a failure at... well, I'll save my complaints about Tristan for another time, but I would assume that kings in this area are more akin to dukes and earned their position through force of arms and keep it the same way. In times of peace, why not keep them in power? But as soon as something needs protecting, they better step up.

But, there's the historical (though I would say more mythical or legendary in the context of the story) High King, or the hero that united all the little states together to combat a much larger force. In some way, I'd say this borders on an almost structured fuedal system, with the nobility handling their own little fiefs and the High King ruling over all, but as far as the story leads me to believe, this uniting was a one-time thing that lasted perhaps a generation at most. It's a little cloudy, though, as the inherent hero-nature of the book (as opposed to societal) shadows what actually happened in the past. Was there actually a fuedal system in place, like I would hope, that may have lasted a few generations before long-lasting peace degraded it to nothing? Did this hero just manage to unite everyone for a single battle or war and his legend was impressive enough (or made impressive enough because every region needs a legacy) that oral history has made it an even bigger deal than it was? I don't really know.

Regardless, the state of the region now is essentially a collection of city-states that have a shared history and legacy and a theoretical promise to aid each other against a common enemy, but no official ties. I'd liken it to Greece - mostly because my real-world historical knowledge is about as shaky as my Faerun historical knowledge and that's the only kind of parallel that I can make.

As far as geographical location - which I couldn't care less about, but I feel obligated to include - it's likely in the far south, around the location of Halruaa (at least as far as latitude goes). The trade with Calimshan points to this (though it's by ship, so not as strongly as I would like). Really, the main thing is that the enemies are coming from the north, so it's an educated guess.

Damn, I forgot to mention the clergy and what I can tell about that. That's the pain of not actually writing an outline, script, or even bother to edit these. But it's what I have to deal with if I actually want to keep up on this project.

C'est la vie.

Forgotten Realms: Darkwalker on Moonshae I

Synopsis

In order to avoid spoiling anything inadvertently, I will do so immediately. This also aids in discussion as I find that most Dungeons & Dragons books either focus on a specific character or group of characters over all else, or specifically on a story that needs to be told.

So Tristan Kendrick is the son of a local king, and his adoptive sister is an orphan. And they have a halfling thief friend that tries to cheat them out of as much gold as possible (what else would a halfling thief do), and a newcomer to the region that's more or less an assassin/spy hybrid that also knows how to train dogs real well. Which is convenient, since there's a new dog. And a bard, because everyone needs a bard.

The eponymous Darkwalker is an unnatural corruptive beast/force that wants to bring down all of humanity (probably), but especially the Moonshaes because someone there was the one who sealed him away in the first place. He sends a werewolf to lead a giant wolf pack, stirs up the Firbolgs - sort of naturey giants which have a horrible reputation as most giants due despite Firbolg's more recent interpretations - and personally leads a group of northmen himself.

Throughout the book, Robyn - Tristan's adoptive sister and love interest - discovers that she's the daughter of the Great Druid of the land (presumably, it's never spelled out that clearly how powerful her mother is other than powerful), which imparts a sorcerer-like control over nature (despite sorcerers not being canon yet, and druid-sorcerers never being a thing as far as I'm aware - who knows, I wouldn't put it past 5e archetypes), and is the key to getting rid of the Beast.

Tristan and his companions - including Robyn from above - go on a quaint little quest, find the artifact that everyone cares about, and end up leading entire armies against the combined forces that the corrupted Beast has brought to bear. Except for the wolf herd, which the dog just took leadership of essentially off-screen (i.e. largely through itallic end-chapter text). They break the attack and the band of five (comprised of 2 PCs and 3 NPCs) chase down the big bad and defeat him.

Except... one of the corrupted druids takes his heart. Because you can't have a fantasy book that's less than a trilogy, even back in these days.