Global Navigation: If I can cheat, I can do whatever I want

Fortunately, the effect of the magic of absorbing was obvious. The land around the floating cities of Nasiril was becoming increasingly desertified. However, at the beginning, this situation did not attract the attention of the great masters. They simply moved the floating cities to other places. When they realized that these "plagues of the land" seemed to be following the cities, the great masters really felt that things were not good. However, as these cities moved around, they really "led" the Flint Magic Acorn to complete a desertification movement. The result was the formation of a large desert later named "Anauroch".

The plague was raging, but the arcanists were slow to come up with a good way to deal with the Felin Magic Sunflower. Sometimes, some powerful archmages would create more powerful magic, but at this time they would often encounter raids launched by the Felin Magic Sunflower, a creature that only wanted to destroy humanity. The Felin Magic Sunflower rarely left any survivors, and through their magic, they blocked most of the prophecy sensing magic. This almost cut off people's contact, and they even had difficulty judging whether a certain archmage was still alive. Of course, this also prevented the news about the progress of the war from being spread in a timely manner.

The dual power of the suction magic caused the quasi-magic items in the floating city to become ineffective. Moreover, any magic that was not permanently injected into an item under the environment of magic permanence would become ineffective or even negative under this influence. Iolum's life extension magic was another kind of magic that would frequently fail and cause the caster's life to be rapidly shortened. However, at least ordinary magic could still be used.

Heavy Magic

Karsus discovered that the phaerimm's magic draining away his own immortality was weakening. He knew that if he couldn't deal with the culprit, he would have to choose another way to survive. So he became a lich and began to study "heavy magic". But this new combination of physics, chemistry, and magic was extremely unstable. If he didn't destroy Netheril and all of Toril before he succeeded, Karsus believed, heavy magic would bring a higher level of magic power than the magic that was drained away. His main purpose in studying heavy magic was to destroy the abominable underground creatures, because they were the ones who were responsible for the continued decline of Netheril's usable magical energy.

Heavy magic, unlike any invisible magic, is a tangible, perceptible entity. It has a spherical appearance and a pure honey-like color. It will not stick to any object even a little bit of impurities. On the contrary, it can automatically float away from any object that touches it. Using one hand or walking through heavy magic feels as light as walking through a shallow body of water.

Karsus discovered that Heavy Magic could be imbued with other magic. He also determined that he could "paint" it on any surface (such as a wall, a door, or a piece of machinery) and give it the same magical effect. He also discovered that he could easily insert a small amount of Heavy Magic imbued with dispel magic into a keyhole. That would render detect trap and lock-opening magic ineffective.

The ability to generate Heavy Mana scales with the Arcanist's level. For each spell level, there is one cubic foot of Heavy Mana (which weighs one pound). So when Karthus cast Heavy Mana, he had 41 cubic feet of Heavy Mana. He then added a Volhm's drain spell to the thick, gelatinous substance, which increased the spell's power to its maximum, with a radius of 2500 feet. Unexpectedly, the Heavy Mana then began to weaken the Mysera Core's mana output. The extremely effective drain spell sucked all the mana away and sent it back to the Mysera Core. The floating city was slowly stripped of its magical power source.

As you can imagine, the floating city became shaky. All the lights flickered, and the power of quasi-magical items waxed and waned as the magic fluctuated. Karsus desperately used his magic to lift the heavy mana, then cast a Tolodine's gust of wind and threw it far away from the city. However, the objects fell heavily into the High Forest, killing an arcanist living there, Ulgris. This man who had turned his back on Netheril was drained of his life force and turned into a lich.

After the first failure, Karsus spent several years perfecting this research, trying to make it work. One of his favorite things was to add various magics to a large amount of heavy magic, so that he could "paint" it anywhere he wanted. He once "painted" the walls and dome of the whole house with Toscudlo's hallucinatory terrain, creating all kinds of dreamlike scenes. In addition, he could also make the trial stand in the court remind everyone at any time that someone standing there was lying.

As other uses of heavy magic were being explored, a group of demons from the lower planes infiltrated the city of Lianzhong. The city is located in the north of the Far Horn Forest. The demons planned to occupy the city until they could replace Karsus. They seemed to be successful, but they did not. Karsus and his loyal advisers and friends spent three years, and finally used heavy magic with Oberon's dismissal and Aksa's disintegrate to destroy the monsters.

Around 3505, the great arcanists were worried about the strange reactions to magic (caused by the magic of the Phelin). Many of them left the country and fled to various places in the west and north. One of the arcanists traveled west to the ruins of Ellaska and established a new human country in the name of this ancient country. He used his magic to build the entire city from the ground. Although the city was not completed before the arcanist passed away, his dedication did benefit future generations.

The people who stayed behind continued to look for the weakness of the Phairim. At this time, the Netherese had a mysterious foreign aid, a race called Sharn. As a result, the Phairim suddenly faced the dilemma of fighting on two fronts. When the Sharn encountered the Phairim, their attacking spells collided and began to change the nearby landforms, causing the continuous mountains to turn into rolling hills and the desert to become more and more vast.

The Fall

Around 3520, the great Archmage Iorum disappeared. His friends, including Karsus, believed that he had to leave Netheril because he relied heavily on magic to survive (he was nearly three thousand years old). Iorum's whereabouts eventually became a mystery.

When the people learned of Iorum's disappearance, Netheril was in a state of panic. The archmages were worried because the situation was on the verge of mutiny. Karsus felt that an extremely heavy burden was on his shoulders, that is, the future of Netheril. It was time to make a desperate effort to revive the country from the crisis, he felt. So after years of study, he created a kind of magic and used it on himself.

The spell was Karthus' Avatar, a unique 12th-level spell. It temporarily steals the power of a god. Karthus chose the goddess of magic, Mystril, as his target. Finally, he cast the spell, never expecting it to permanently change the way magic works. Extensive knowledge often overwhelms rational wisdom, and Karthus was no exception. He felt divine power rushing in from all directions, surging and surging wildly. Suddenly, his mind was filled with incredible knowledge. But in an instant, Karthus realized what a terrible thing he had done. He stole power from a god he should not have stolen. Mystril's duty required her to use her divine power to regulate and repair the weave of magic - because the weave was always under threat, and the abuse of magic by the Netherese and the phaerimm's magic often damaged it. When she lost the ability to stabilize the web of raw magic (natural, pure, unprocessed magical energy), magical energy suddenly became rampant. They surged and fluctuated in disorder, causing the power of all magic to suddenly double - although it only lasted for a short time.

In order to protect the magic network, Mystril sacrificed herself before the situation could get out of hand. Only in this way could she cut off the connection between her and Karsus and close the magic network at the same time. This also caused all magic in the world to temporarily disappear. Unfortunately, without the support of magical power, Netheril's floating cities fell one after another, and Karsus was quickly swallowed by death. His bloated body turned into a stone statue, falling from the crumbling platform of the floating city and falling vertically to the ground. His body sank in the wind, and his petrified eyes still shone with the wisdom of the omniscience of the gods, vaguely witnessing the end of the floating cities being shattered and the withering of all life there.

His heart was broken - his greed for the power of the gods caused him to open the door to destruction with his own hands, burying his home, his relatives, his friends, and his people in the abyss of disaster.

Soon Mystra was reincarnated as the new goddess of magic, named Mystra. She took on the body of a beautiful peasant girl. Although the girl only knew the most basic tricks, she was born to be a great master. After that, her first task was to restore order to the magic network. This time, she added some restrictive rules, and from then on, spells above level 10 could no longer be used. By the time Mystra completed the new magic network, she had only saved three Netheril floating cities, and none of the others were spared. These three cities were Anauria, Asram, and Hlondath. They were originally located in extremely high altitudes, and only survived until the magic network was restored. They landed safely on the ground, and the residents were still in shock and stumbled out of the city.

The priests of the goddess of magic were informed of Karsus by the goddess. Some of them were told in dreams, while others were told through visions during prayer. Mishra did this to warn people and prevent such tragedies from happening again in the future. However, Karsus is still revered as the only mortal in history who reached the realm of god through magic, even if it was only a flash in the pan.

In just a few months, fearing the threat of the phaerimm, the punishment of the gods, and the attacks of the orcs, the surviving residents left the city. About a third of the population moved north. The rest built the "ghost" of the Netheril Empire in the south of the old empire - or more nicely, the Survivor Kingdom - including the three city-states of Anaril, Asrun, and Harondanth.

Some of the people who migrated north misinterpreted Mishra's "revelation in the dream". According to their own understanding, they built a small city near the remains of Karsus, who was now a blood-red stone statue. They regarded the former great master as a dead god and worshipped his remains. They also named the city "Karse" to show respect for the "god". However, their reverence for Karsus angered a neighbor. Later generations generally believed that the lich Urgris destroyed the city in 3533 as revenge for Karsus. But another sage believed that Urgris was also trying to destroy the remaining Netheril at Ascalhorn. It was performing its revenge drama bit by bit and very patiently, and became more evil as time passed.

Ulgris opened a secret door to Baator, where they found reinforcements. Over the course of centuries, Baatezu infiltrated Cape Askr one by one. At first, they disguised themselves as retainers and servants, infiltrating the lives of the locals. But soon, they began to act as advisers and planners, moving between powerful arcanists, inciting infighting, misunderstanding, and panic. Nearly a thousand years later, Cape Askr finally became the Hellgate Keep.

The End of the End

During the 300-year period known as the End of All Things, all survivors of Netheril met a devastating end. The Dark Ages began in 3826, when Asrun was struck by one of the deadliest plagues in Toril's history. Within a month, all of the people were dead. Even those who escaped the plague were not spared.

It is believed that during this period, Kiputytto (a god who tried to replace Tayrona) attempted to overthrow Talona's influence in Toril, but was killed by Tayrona. At that time, in order to get the city residents who wanted to appease the wrath of the Plague Goddess to pray to her, Tayrona chose the doomed Asrun to show the power of the plague. Through this move, the number of people who believed in Tayrona and prayed to her increased dramatically. The Plague Goddess gained enough power. She killed Kiputytto and absorbed her power.

In 3970, Anaril fell. In an attack by the orcs, they succumbed to the enemy's power. However, after the city fell, the people launched a surprise attack on these plundering orcs, but they were already badly weakened.

The Crown Against Scepter Wars began in 4058 and ended in 4167. The battle between Cormanthyr and Harondance was a quick one, with only a few casualties on either side. The war was mostly a display of military and magical prowess by the participating nations, and in the end, Myth Drannor emerged victorious after defeating all of its enemies.

Just as it was no surprise that Mith Zanor would win most wars, it was the swift demise of Harondanth. In 4188, the city-state's "dying breaths" became increasingly weak. As the Analok Desert gradually swallowed up its land and left its people starving, the Analielites finally fled hastily to the heart of Faerûn under the desert's expulsion. (End of this chapter)