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Palanan
2013-04-18, 09:30 PM
I've been looking for background material on Athkatla--the capital of Amn, in Faerūn--but there doesn't seem to be much in the 3.0 Forgotten Realms sourcebooks. It's too far north to appear in Shining South, nowhere near Silver Marches, and only rates a couple of mentions in the Waterdeep book. The FRCS gives it all of five sentences.

In older material, Athkatla has one or two brief mentions in the AD&D FRCS and again in City of Splendors, always to do with the Shadow Thieves. I couldn't find anything else, but my AD&D material is far from comprehensive.

Is there anything more on Athkatla in the AD&D sourcebooks? Or anywhere else? Apart from a couple of sketchy wikis, my google-fu isn't coming up with much.

.

ericp65
2013-04-18, 09:59 PM
I've been looking for background material on Athkatla--the capital of Amn, in Faerūn--but there doesn't seem to be much in the 3.0 Forgotten Realms sourcebooks. It's too far north to appear in Shining South, nowhere near Silver Marches, and only rates a couple of mentions in the Waterdeep book. The FRCS gives it all of five sentences.

In older material, Athkatla has one or two brief mentions in the AD&D FRCS and again in City of Splendors, always to do with the Shadow Thieves. I couldn't find anything else, but my AD&D material is far from comprehensive.

Is there anything more on Athkatla in the AD&D sourcebooks? Or anywhere else? Apart from a couple of sketchy wikis, my google-fu isn't coming up with much.

.

That may be all there is, as far as background. If you want some "current" local detail, you could take from BG2.

Karnith
2013-04-18, 10:04 PM
You could check Lands of Intrigue, a 2e book with information on Amn (and Tethyr and Erlkazar) in general, though I'm not sure how much it detail it gives to Athkatla specifically.

It used to be on WotC's D&D old edition downloads page, but that seems to no longer be a thing.

Alleran
2013-04-18, 10:16 PM
It used to be on WotC's D&D old edition downloads page, but that seems to no longer be a thing.
I've heard that the files are still on their website, but the links have vanished, so you'd need to actually know what the download link/file location is in order to get it.

Since those books were up as free downloads, does that technically mean that if they're uploaded elsewhere, getting them from those places can be freely recommended and/or linked to? What's the legal standpoint on that sort of thing?

Cog
2013-04-18, 10:25 PM
Since those books were up as free downloads, does that technically mean that if they're uploaded elsewhere, getting them from those places can be freely recommended and/or linked to? What's the legal standpoint on that sort of thing?
It's their content to do with as they wish, and to post or not post as they like. If they've taken it down, the fact that it was once posted does not invalidate their copyright. Only if it was posted with a license for reproduction - like the OGL for 3.5's core rules - are there any rights granted to others.

KillingAScarab
2013-04-19, 12:53 AM
It used to be on WotC's D&D old edition downloads page, but that seems to no longer be a thing.If only there were some sort of Internet Archive (http://web.archive.org/web/20040409132634/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/downloads).

Book two is the one which deals with Amn, and it starts on page 102 of the .pdf.

Palanan
2013-04-19, 10:25 AM
Okay, thanks to everyone for the suggestions. It sounds like Lands of Intrigue is the way to go.

Also, for completeness' sake, does anyone know of any mentions in the mass-market paperbacks? Apparently Athkatla shows up in a couple books in a terror-beneath-the-waves trilogy, and I wondered if it came up anywhere else.

I've never really read any of the FR paperbacks, and don't know how much of Faerūn they cover--although presumably quite a lot--and I also don't know if they're considered official canon. But I'll take info from anywhere right now.

Kuulvheysoon
2013-04-19, 10:50 AM
If you're talking about Mel Odom's Threat from the Sea trilogy, there's no mention of Athkatla there (It's mostly around the Sea of Fallen Stars and Waterdeep).

Far as I know, there's nothing really set in Amn (pre-4e) for novels. I mean yeah, there's the BG2 novelization, and the game itself, but I cannot think of anything else.

KillingAScarab
2013-04-19, 10:51 AM
From this chronology (http://www.nj-pbem.com/data/General/Timeline4.htm), I'm getting that Milil appeared in Athkatla during the Time of Troubles, but I don't know if this was explored in a paperback book, simply mentioned in one or some other work, or it's in a game supplement. The information on the Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athkatla#Clergy_.26_churches) for Athkatla has a dearth of citations, but seems to have been copied largely from the Sorcerer's Place page on Athkatla for Baldur's Gate II (http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/Walkthrough/athkatla.php).

One of these days I'll get around to reading all five books (http://www.o-love.net/realms/desc_ava.html#Tantras) of the Avatar Trilogy. In the first book I know they mentioned the gossip of what Avatars were in some other cities.

Kuulvheysoon
2013-04-19, 12:19 PM
One of these days I'll get around to reading all five books (http://www.o-love.net/realms/desc_ava.html#Tantras) of the Avatar Trilogy. In the first book I know they mentioned the gossip of what Avatars were in some other cities.

I think you only need to read the first three - IIRC, the last two deal only with post-ascension matters.

Palanan
2013-04-19, 12:32 PM
Originally Posted by Kuulvheysoon
If you're talking about Mel Odom's Threat from the Sea trilogy, there's no mention of Athkatla there (It's mostly around the Sea of Fallen Stars and Waterdeep).

That was indeed the trilogy I meant, although I haven't read it myself. That was about the only thing that came up when I tried searching for "Athkatla" on Amazon, so I assumed Athkatla was a location in the novels. They come up with the "look inside" feature, so I figured Amazon might have some algorithm dealing with text in the e-samples or whatever. Maybe not.

--Thanks for the extra information, guys. For my purposes, it looks like Athkatla is not nearly so exhaustively covered as Waterdeep--not by orders of magnitude, which is what I was hoping for. Faerūn is a comfortable place for me, but sometimes places like Waterdeep can feel a little cramped.