I watched the live video of GenCon with Ed Greenwood, and want to share what I learned:
There will be an event that transitions from 4th to 5th edition, known as the Sundering. Ed has assured us that this isn't as jarring as the Time of Troubles or the Spellplague. This story will be told by six veteran Realms writers, each with their own novel. They are as follows:
- The Companions - R.A. Salvatore
- The Godborn - Paul S. Kemp
- The Adversary - Erin M. Evans
- The Reaver - Richard Lee Byers
- The Sentinel - Troy Denning
- The Herald - Ed Greenwood
Second day edit: These novels will come out every two months starting in August of 2013.
Wizards of the Coast will be publishing a number of adventures and then taking the results of those adventures (from sanctioned events, I imagine). Those results will then impact the canon Realms.
Thanks to Paul S. Kemp's Twitter feed, we have an image of several of the characters that will be featured in The Sundering novels.
From left to right, they are:
- ???
- ???
- Farideh
- Vasen Cale (below)
- Erevis Cale (above)
- ???
- Drizzt Do'Urden
- Elminster Aumar
- ???
- Sergeant Cleefe Kenrick (not sure about spelling)
- ??? (below)
- ??? (above)
- Anton Miraveldi (not sure about spelling)
- Drasek Riven (second to the right)
- ???
For anyone interested, the keynote address (which is where I got most of my information) can be found over at http://wizards.com/dnd/gencon.aspx.
August 23rd update #1: Wizards has uploaded the "What is the Sundering?" presentation to YouTube. It's nearly 90 minutes long, but from what I've seen/heard in the first 20 minutes (I've got to go to sleep), it looks very interesting. In fact, "The Sundering" is actually a reference to three events - the separation of Abeir and Toril, the creation of Evermeet and the rendering of Faerûn, and the upcoming event that will be told in the six novels.
The video can be found here (part 1) and here (part 2). I hope I'll be able to update this blog again before or after work.