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Department of Belated Realmslore Once More!
Josh Kellemen @JoshKellemen
RETURN OF THE ARCHWIZARDS suggests that prior to Mystral’s death, part of what allowed magic (at least of non-elven-high-magic type) to reach such heights was that Shar had not yet been able..
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Jun 25, 2026 · 1:49 AM UTC
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..to split?/exploit? the weave into weave and shadow weave. Is that accurate?
My response:
Split? No. Exploit, yes. Shar couldn’t take over the Weave; Mystra is more powerful and IS the Weave—and can cut off Shar’s practical access to magic in any battle by...
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..what we might call “rewiring on the fly.” So if Shar tries to attack Mystra with THIS magic, Mystra twists it into THAT (analogy: I’m trying to flee, and stand on the accelerator pedal of my car…but the car doesn't move, because without my gaining any hint of..
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..it, Mystra made that pedal suddenly control not the engine, but the windshield wipers).
What Shar did was build a “shadow” or echo of the Weave, so if the Weave is a tall building, the Shadow Weave is workers’ scaffolding leaning against that building and..
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..anchored to it. The Shadow Weave relies on the Weave for structure, and saps power from it (by duplicating spell effects, to make a “power call” just as a wizard casting a normal Weave spell works an enchantment that makes a “power call”) to power all Shadow..
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..Weave spells.
So, yes, once the Shadow Weave existed, the Weave’s power was being leaked out of it, and the Weave’s structure was being buffeted by all ‘large’ uses of the Shadow Weave (7th level and greater spells), so the Weave could no longer reach such...
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..heights in a stable fashion (it could call up that much power, but the wild magic effects were multiplied)…so Mystra cut off access to really powerful spells to preserve stability for all. (Analogy: no speed limits on a highway, some drivers drive at...
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..ridiculously high speeds and overmatch their tires and kill a lot of people with spectacular crashes, so a speed limit gets imposed.)
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