Elminster in Myth Drannor ends with the raising of the mythal in the city of Cormanthor which is properly renamed Myth Drannor. As the second book in the Elminster series, it is a directly sequel to The Making of a Mage. The third book, The Temptation of Elminster, is not a direct sequel, but takes place several hundred years later. I hope someday we will get more novels from the time in between the two novels, but as of now this is all we have, and it is just as good as the first two.
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| Can be found in Elminster Ascending and The Annotated Elminster omnibus |
Elminster is still largely unknown but he starts gaining fame in this one, getting on his way to being recognized by many people of the Realms. At this point, his immortality is evident.
The temptation the title speaks of is more in lines with Karsus and his folly, for those unaware he tried to take the mantle of the goddess Mystryl for himself. She was the old goddess of magic before Mystra, and his greed for power caused the downfall of the Netherese Empire. So rather than a sexual temptation, Elminster has the temptation of power.
When he awakes Mystra is silent, Myth Drannor has fallen. The second books ends in 261, and the city fell in 714, and since Elminster has been in stasis, he was not around for the City's fall.
This book is interestingly described as a tragedy, and this is not innaccurate. As we see Elminster come into the lonely and almost friendless role of a super powerful Chosen of the goddess of magic, it's sad aplenty. The guy just needs some love. And the end is fantastic for that, very heartfelt.
Throughout we do see three of the Seven Sisters, and also the story takes place somewhat in 767 DR. Fans of the God of Strife, Bane, will be happy to see some followers of his several centuries before the proper time of D&D in the 14th century.
Overall, this is a fun adventure, really solidifying Elminster as one of my favorite wizards ever, not just in the Realms. This is an Exceptional book, Greenwood has done it again.
This book, despite being written by Ed Greenwood himself, actually contradicts FR sourcebook "The Fall of Myth Drannor" that states that Elminster was very much present and actively involved in the fall of Myth Drannor (trying and failing to prevent its loss) by claiming that Elminster was in stasis for a century despite the fall happening 30+ years before he awakens from stasis.
ReplyDeleteNo explanation for the discrepancy is every provided, although the 'Code of the Harpers' claims that not all of Elminster's memories might be his own due to memory tampering from Mystra. Ironically this Harpers sourcebook was NOT written as an attempt to resolve the Fall of Myth Drannor/Temptation of El discrepancy as the Harpers sourcebook was published in 1993 and Temptation and Fall were published around the same time in 1998 (and with such a concurrent release date you think the publisher would be coordinating the timelines and catching errors like this).