| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 09 Jan 2019 : 16:19:25
It occurs to me that Ed has been posting Realmslore on the Twitter, and not everyone has the Twitter.
So I thought a single place where such lore could be collected would be a good thing. 
Ed is a frequent poster there, adding all sorts of Stormtalons and Epic Fantasy stuff, but for the purposes of this thread, I'd like to keep it focused on his Realmslore.
(I'm also stickying this thread, to make it easier to find)
Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) on Twitter
The #Realmslore hashtag on Twitter |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| questing gm |
Posted - 15 May 2025 : 07:22:40
On the shape of birthing half dragons
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1922743950898532560
May 15, 2025
@Raynful
@TheEdVerse Got a blue dragon crisis rn. When half-dragons are made with mammalian humanoids, is it a live-birth, shelled eggs, or does it depend on the mother?
@TheEdVerse
If the mammalian humanoid is the mother, and the birth is successful, the half-dragon emerges as a nine-pound-or-so curled-up miniature half-dragon in a caul that typically ruptures as it comes out, amid a wash of fluid, the caul being very like a soft, thin, rubbery egg around the baby. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 15 May 2025 : 07:17:45
On being the Chosen of multiple gods
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1922741819617460618
May 15, 2025
@PeeperPoppins
@TheEdVerse hello!
I’m curious if it’s possible for a mortal in the FR to be the chosen of multiple gods at once? Obviously such a thing has never occured but would something like that be feasible?
@TheEdVerse
It has happened already: Qilué of the Seven Sisters is shared by Mystra and Eilistraee. It is VERY rare, as deities tend to mistrust each other so deeply. Allied deities quietly assisting each other's Chosen (e.g. among the Triad) isn't rare. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 15 May 2025 : 07:14:24
On how the Zhentarim would react to rogue agents
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1922739836043026511
May 15, 2025
@dicheeto
@TheEdVerse How would the Zhentarim react to an agent of theirs going rogue, splitting from the main bidy and using their cell to take over, lets say the ten-towns?
@TheEdVerse
Badly. "Freelancing" is usually rewarded by death, within the Brotherhood–unless the results are such an advance that leadership is surprised and delighted. Even then, the "reward" is usually to be sent on missions far, far away. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 15 May 2025 : 03:19:48
On Shandril using spellfire on the dracolich
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1922738523280380030
May 15, 2025
@YoDanno
AD&D Terrors Unleashed
The AD&D Dracolich doesn't just breathe death-it savors your fear. Undead dragon with a soul gem that laughs at your vorpal blade. One icy blast, and your party's frozen; one bad save, and its fear aura breaks your will. 5E might give you a shot, but AD&D snarls, "Face its skull, and you're already ash."
Enter its hoard, and you're already doomed
<https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqdgtQGW0AA1JY-?format=jpg&name=small>
@TheEdVerse
Clyde told me he spent two straight days painting the treasure everyone's wading around in.
@ectoterrestria1
Elminster looks quite surprised for a well experienced adventurer.
@TheEdVerse
He's surprised Shandril's being such a reckless idiot, unleashing at the dracolich without going for the head. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 12 May 2025 : 14:33:34
On Chronomacy to hasten growth
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1921623715634119058 https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1921626636283265375
May 12, 2025
@StrytllExtrmdr
@TheEdVerse Master, a newborn heir must rise fast—darkness looms! I've scourged Chronomancy, but couldn't find anything to hasten his growth. Does such magic exist? (If not, perhaps Elminster knows? #128522;) Thank you for the Realms!
@TheEdVerse
Chronomancy is chasing a dream made of wisps of light and mist: it's far more ideas and concepts than dependable magic. Reliably, all one could do is send the heir ahead in time, to arrive in a future year just as he is now (so, with no more experience or physical maturation). There's no substitute or workaround for real-world lived experience. Spells can make someone larger and stronger, but don't teach mastery of the new might and frame. Only a life filled with variety of adventure does that. Sorry.
@RodsFromGod
How about sending them to another plane or sphere? Are there any where time flows faster or slower than Toril?
@TheEdVerse
Yes, BUT...no one's ever charted the differences in time flows, and they seem to change, sometimes suddenly and greatly, like water disturbed by big solid things plunging into the flows. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 12 May 2025 : 11:05:56
On Bahamut and meat pastries of his likeness
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1921621036849619005
May 12, 2025
@KenkuCleric
@TheEdVerse Would Bahamut be offended or flattered if an individual made meat filled pastries in his likeness? I only ask because my character may or may not be smote for this.
@TheEdVerse
Bahamut would likely be flattered, and amused. "Humans. They have an infinite capacity for zigging, when prudence and aforethought would suggest zagging."
|
| questing gm |
Posted - 09 May 2025 : 06:58:05
On the Red Wizards and Waterdhaviann nobles in the D&D movie
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1920600996050243732
May 9, 2025
@OfficialAPoD
Hi @TheEdVerse! Two questions from a fresh watch of the D&D movie:
- What’re the mechanics behind a Red Wizard Blade blocking out clerical magic? Is it the whole weave?
- Were any prominent Waterdhavian nobles caught up in the Beckoning Death?
Cheers as always!
@TheEdVerse
1) SOME Red Wizard blades have enchantments powerful enough to deflect/bend the Weave in a small space around them; this can cause certain spells that aren't touch magics to "miss." There are spells to mitigate/lessen this.
2) No "important" nobles; the affected were idle wastrels, mainly third sons and sidelined "uncles" whose leisure time was devoted to drinking and gambling. Heads of houses were leery of visiting and investing in Neverwinter well before Dagult Neverember "fell ill." |
| questing gm |
Posted - 09 May 2025 : 03:06:22
On Ed's original Undermountain
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1920599104175878401
May 9, 2025
@DungeonNoir
It's still weird they didn't use Ed Greenwood's actual Undermountain. His maps were too squiggly, so they threw them out, substituted the artist's old home dungeon from an Empire of the Petal Throne campaign, and called it a day.
@kanegitsuneZero
Wait, so does this mean no one has seen Greenwood's actual Undermountain or did I misunderstand?
@TheEdVerse
TSR owns my uppermost level of Undermountain maps, and has seen (and received photocopies of) them, back in 1986, plus an upper level inside Mount Waterdeep. They also received and own the Blue Alley, the Dungeon of the Crypt, and several other "mini-dungeons" inside Waterdeep.
If you examine the "Level 1" published maps of Undermountain, all of the central rectangle (the orange rooms and passages, and the yellow ones linking them) are my original layout, minus some inside-pillar shafts and stairs that connected to the surface (cellars, inside building walls, and trapdoors in back alleys, in Waterdeep) and to dungeon levels below. Some of my original Level 2 layout (around the river and Skullport) made it into print, too. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 04 May 2025 : 13:00:46
On Ed's template for naming places
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1918882787504898468
May 4, 2025
@RealmBuilderRPG
I’m always curious as to how authors use linguistics in their settings. I love the classic Forgotten Realms and was wondering if @TheEdVerse had a specific template/inspiration for naming places?
@TheEdVerse
No. What I've done down the years is think about who would have settled/predominated in a spot, what in-Realms language they speak, and what dipthongs and dominant vowel sounds and constructions are in this tongues. That in mind, I just make place names up. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 04 May 2025 : 12:57:12
On the Zhents having their own language
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1918881598495227930
May 4, 2025
@NormanDuke6
@TheEdVerse Does it make sense to allow the Zhents their own language, 'Zhentish'?
@TheEdVerse
Local dialect (slang), certainly. However, so many Zhents have come from elsewhere, and speak Common along the trade routes and around the Moonsea, that they're mainly going to talk like Heartlands merchants everywhere. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 25 Apr 2025 : 15:18:42
On surface food that a drow might like
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1915253220265361725
Apr 24, 2025
@insanenoodlyguy
I got a Drow male, minor noble house from Maerimydra who did some stuff that had him running from the city (lucky for him Kurgoths Sack went down right after and his family had bigger, hotter problems). What food might such a Drow probably find himself liking on the surface?
@TheEdVerse
Drow are as varied in their culinary tastes as, say, humans, but MOST drow from the Underdark will fall in love with fresh fruit of all sorts (and degrees of sweetness/tartness) thanks to the juicyness and flavors.
Nicely-seasoned and prepared snake, eel, and edible beetle innards (and shrimp, crab, and lobster for the same consistencies) are closer to the non-fungi edibles drow like in the Underdark, so will be more “familiar” to him, and so feel “safer” and substantial as meals.
And finally, the variety of edible surface fleshy mushrooms and fungi will seem to him as if he went from “three varieties of meat at local shops” to “a huge buffet of all sorts of meat” for him to sample.
Everything else will be an acquired taste, but green vegetables (peas, lettuce, celery, cucumbers) will be the most exotic, and will either revolt him forever, or be “dicey” at first but then become his sought-afters. Spices and herbs of the surface will be a constant learning curve, and sweet confections (sugar-coated breadstuffs!) may be a shock, or a delight!
(Happy roleplaying!) |
| questing gm |
Posted - 25 Apr 2025 : 15:13:09
On the Weave-wraiths from Hand of Fire
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1915249529135186077
Apr 24, 2025
@ItalianKarsus
@TheEdVerse in Hand of Fire, one "Weave-wraith" dies; in web article, Alustriel bound the others. https://web.archive.org/web/20050212042733/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/fr/handoffire
She planned on a long-term spellfire-based cage; what befell them with Shandril out? Are they related to Barrowfields item-bound ones? Why'd Mystra save them?
@TheEdVerse
With the tumult of those times in the Realms at which HAND OF FIRE was set behind Toril now, the need to humble the mad Netherese Weave-wraiths has passed. Alustriel’s plan was for her to cage them with the Weave and her command of it, while Shandril’s spellfire burned away some of their magical power and some of their madness with it.
As a Weavemaster, Alustriel can command the Weave with enough force and precision to call on it to cage wraiths or other powerful beings (living spells, for example) with a strong magical nature. Her warning to Andras was for him to summon other Weavemasters (Elminster, her fellow Sisters, or other Chosen) in the event she herself went down, to re-encage the mad Netherese.
Mystra forbade their destruction because, despite their madness pride, and fell intent, she wanted their magical knowledge and creativity (devising new spells) to be preserved…because that’s the core of what Mystra seeks to do: make magic more widely used by everyone, and constantly make magic wider in its horizons (creative uses). |
| questing gm |
Posted - 25 Apr 2025 : 15:10:15
On the cosmology changes to the Realms
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1914569617609044119 https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1915109535934562699 https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1915241914003075454 https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1915245103569834075
Apr 22, 2025
@Mapscientist1
Hey Ed, I had a question I couldn't find an answer to. I've been trying to understand the timeline of the changes to FR cosmology, but and a few things struck me as odd. I was thinking about the implications of the switches between the Great Wheel and the World Tree mostly such as, first and foremost, why and how did the cosmology switch, both in-world and out-of-game? It seems as though the outer planes were in a sort of WIP state behind the curtain, which nobody could access during the Era of Upheaval. What happened to the planes that got cut?
I'm also curious to know what the design intention was for this change and if you had any inside knowledge on how/why this was needed from an IRL executive standpoint, and what involvement you might've had on designing the World Tree/Axis models, if any. Appreciate you
@TheEdVerse
I don't know why the cosmology was changed; I've never been on staff at either TSR or Wizards, and that was an internal design decision. I can only speculate. One thing I have heard is that it covered for "getting rid of" problematic plane names like "Happy Hunting Grounds."
@Boxboxxes
Speaking from ignorance here. If Ed created the FR and what we see on the actual game differs from time to time, they can just make the changes? :o
@TheEdVerse
When TSR purchased the Realms in 1986, they acquired the right to make changes, add things, and take things away. What I say and write about the Realms is canon, unless or until they contradict or change it, in print. So, yes, they can just make the changes. ;}
@ThorThunderdog
What's the most significant thing they "just changed" from the original?
@TheEdVerse
Putting real-world cultures (or Hollywood versions of them) into the Realms.
Then replacing my Moonshaes with the TSR UK Albion setting.
Then changing the gods and deleting assassins for a D&D game edition change (Time of Troubles).
Then the 100-year time jump of 4th edition.
@AuntieHauntie
Oh huh. I always thought the "Human cultures migrating from Earth to Faerun via magic" was an original element from you. Did not know that was TSR.
@TheEdVerse
I had gates linking many parallel Prime Material Planes (our real Earth and the Realms among them) but secretive traders and fugitives used them, not invading armies bringing entire cultures with them. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 24 Apr 2025 : 13:14:27
quote:
Originally posted by questing gm
On the feeling of being healed
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1915108230562558136
Apr 24, 2025
@Venefic101
Hello from Minnesota, this past weekend my party and I were investigating sightings of red clothed wizards about a days ride from Waterdeep when we thought of a question. What does being healed by magic feel like? We came to the conclusion that having your bones rapidly mended, muscle stitched, and flesh healed would probably hurt like a bitch and then be hot and itchy afterwards whether by potion or spell. Just curious if that’s a correct assumption or not.
Thank you for your time and have a good day.
@TheEdVerse
The answer is: it varies depending on what sort of being is healing, what damage is being healed, and what magic is being used.
It's always "a rush," meaning: an excited, tingling, energy rushing through you sensation.
What varies is how painful it is, and if you feel hot, cold, or otherwise. "New" (replaced) bits of you often itch for a day or three afterwards, yes. Lower-level spells shield the recipient less against pain and shock; more powerful spells are "gentler."
There are instances in Realmsplay at the "home" table where individuals being healed in battle, while active, by touch spells, roared out in agony as they were being healed.
I don't know why, but I really love this.... something I had never really explored. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 24 Apr 2025 : 02:12:01
On the size of territory of Ostoria
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1915115384732033310
Apr 24, 2025
@herosnomore
Hey @TheEdVerse,
A while back, I asked a question about mapping Ostoria before it fell. Trying to pin point the locations (so I've found Nedeheim and Helligheim), and seeing how much territory it had before the fell. You think you could help a Giant Fan out?
@TheEdVerse
I have done very little with Ostoria, and would have to lean on my "Lore Lords" of the Realms, like Eric L Boyd and George Krashos, but in general: giants ranged far and wide over the lands in their day, with their own "hunting grounds" (includes foraging), venturing far from Ostoria, which was more a tucked-away, mountain-girt refuge that giants visited when they felt the need, rather than "the country in which all giants dwelt."
So, not a huge territory. Let me rummage in the lorefiles and get back to you. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 24 Apr 2025 : 01:51:19
On any unpublished tidbits in the Silver Marches
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1915113163986522592
Apr 24, 2025
@Blackley_Pluto
@TheEdVerse question for you, if i may! Big fan of Forgotten Realms and im currently running a campaign set in the Silver Marches, are there any tidbits you could share about maybe a city or area in the region that isn't in a published work or similar? Thanks!
@TheEdVerse
Sure! Over at my Discord server, Greenwood’s Grotto, I answer Realmslore queries as often as I can grab the time.
From a reply I just made there, here’s an establishment in the city of Sundabar that welcomes adventurers of all races, from drow to aarakocra, and lizardfolk to dragonborn:
Brokh’s Tankard. In the hovels and older warehouses that crowd the eastern verges of Sundabar is this adventurers’ favorite, a low dive of a tavern that consists of a dank, gloomy stone-walled taproom of many alcoves and candle-wheel lamps hanging from massive chains. This great room has kitchens and pantries behind it to the left, jakes behind it to the right, and in between passages that descend in long, curving ramps, to connect to a descending series of cellars, also given over to tables for dining and drinking. The seventh and eighth cellars have side-tunnels leading to rooms that can be rented for the night, for travelers desiring accommodations or drunkards too gone to find their ways home, and the ninth and lowest cellar is where the kegs of merriment are stored.
The founding dwarf, “Brokh” (more formally, Barrokhuld the Younger, of Clan Vorstone), is long dead, but his descendants still own and run the place. With the aid of some living spells who inhabit the cellars (guarding the strong drink in the ninth level, by the way) and about whom locals tell all manner of conflicting and colorful origin stories.
In Sundabar, Brokh’s Tankard is best known for the Burning of the Beards, a battle that almost destroyed the tavern, and began with a 1362 DR duergar raid on some shield dwarves drinking at the Tankard, whom the two-dozen-strong duergar regarded as trade rivals hampering their prosperity in “their” region of the Underdark.
Ironically, they were entirely entirely mistaken, attacking the wrong dwarves, and paid for this error with their lives, though they took over a dozen dwarves, and about twenty other drinkers, with them. They began their attack with fire magic directed at the beards of their targets, and the taproom was a scorched shell by the time the last duergar was overwhelmed and hacked down—with three clerics and a mage battling the flames to quench them and save that end of Sundabar from a widespread inferno. To this day, torches, lanterns, and fire spells are still forbidden for guests of the tavern to bring or wield.
And there you have it: a meeting and hiring place for adventurers, a "base" if you'd like. I have literally hundreds of small lore tidbits about the Sword Coast North; is there anything SORT of lore that would be particularly helpful? |
| questing gm |
Posted - 24 Apr 2025 : 01:47:10
On the feeling of being healed
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1915108230562558136
Apr 24, 2025
@Venefic101
Hello from Minnesota, this past weekend my party and I were investigating sightings of red clothed wizards about a days ride from Waterdeep when we thought of a question. What does being healed by magic feel like? We came to the conclusion that having your bones rapidly mended, muscle stitched, and flesh healed would probably hurt like a bitch and then be hot and itchy afterwards whether by potion or spell. Just curious if that’s a correct assumption or not.
Thank you for your time and have a good day.
@TheEdVerse
The answer is: it varies depending on what sort of being is healing, what damage is being healed, and what magic is being used.
It's always "a rush," meaning: an excited, tingling, energy rushing through you sensation.
What varies is how painful it is, and if you feel hot, cold, or otherwise. "New" (replaced) bits of you often itch for a day or three afterwards, yes. Lower-level spells shield the recipient less against pain and shock; more powerful spells are "gentler."
There are instances in Realmsplay at the "home" table where individuals being healed in battle, while active, by touch spells, roared out in agony as they were being healed. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 24 Apr 2025 : 01:42:34
On Arthindol the Terraseer being a played character
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1915106596000235985
Apr 24, 2025
@7720da2cb2124d6
@TheEdVerse was Arthindol the Terraseer ever a played character?
@TheEdVerse
No. Not by me or in my campaigns, at least. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 22 Apr 2025 : 11:00:23
On why druids can't wear metal armor
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1914572066965147784
Apr 22, 2025
@JoshAirey88
@TheEdVerse We've been discussing in my group why druids cannot use metal armour. My thought is that metal is as natural as leather or cloth (if not more so), but my friend said something about "interference with the weave and the natural order."
Could you clarify this for us?
@TheEdVerse
Yes. The D&D in-house design thinking has always been that NATURAL iron or copper in the earth is no hindrance to druidic magic, but REFINED, concentrated metal items ("cold iron") is. When the Realms was made a D&D setting, that became canon for the Realms. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 22 Apr 2025 : 10:51:29
On Vecna and popsicles
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1914570691044651075
Apr 22, 2025
@GatoNegroArmy
Someone ask him if vecna likes popsicles.
@TheEdVerse
Yes! Vecna likes all manner of sweets (Elminster has seen him devour various flavors of ice cream, chocolate bars with cherry filling, and even candy floss!). Liches don't need to eat, so it must be pure pleasure chowing! |
| Zeromaru X |
Posted - 20 Apr 2025 : 04:31:25
I just wanted to thank you for keeping this thread updated. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 14 Apr 2025 : 06:25:49
On Uttersea
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1911509029274198487
Apr 14, 2025
@Planescaper91
Hello from France,
I'm an old DM and a great fan of Forgotten Realms.
Currently I'm running a campaign near Tuern and particularly Uttersea. I wasn't able to find a map of that small town.
Do you have any advise for its design please.
@TheEdVerse
Sure!
Originally, the volcanic island was known as Uttersea, as to seafaring Northmen it marked the beginning of vast open seas, uncharted and “empty of all but storms.” The rich volcanic soil, coupled with the volcanic heat that still warms the half-collapsed caldera and the bay that now fills its missing southern arc, made it great for farming, so the Northmen seized it and settled. The land became known as Tuern after an early leader, and the settlement known as Uttersea. It was settled haphazardly, but frequent landslides forced a design on it that persists today: stone wharves jut out into the bay and are joined together along the shore into a hard “dock” with two large “beaching ramps” where ships large and small can be winched ashore; upland of both ramps are large shipbuilding sheds.
Above them, Uttersea climbs the slopes of the caldera, which are thickly planted with clinging vines and stunted shrubs and trees to anchor the “clinker” stone-rubble-dominated soil as much as possible.
Streets follow a switchback pattern: from the ends of the dock, packed-clinker roads curve along the caldera parallel to the dock, like rice-growing terraces on slopes in parts of the real-world Far East, with NO direct uphill/downhill routes, just the curves at both ends of the parallel runs.
The best houses are located as high as possible, off to the sides of the main “bands” of streets on their own side-lanes. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 13 Apr 2025 : 05:52:37
On Torm and the Penance of Duty circa 1500DR
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1910764913791820012
Apr 12, 2025
@AndrewFarmer777
Hey @TheEdVerse With the revival of Tyr in the Second Sundering, Torm seems like he "disappeared." As an avid Champion of Torm lover, is Torm still around in FR, and do his followers still follow the Penance of century past?
@TheEdVerse
Torm is very much “still around” in the Realms circa 1500 DR, his church small but energetic and very much a “factor on the local scene” in most places on Faerûn. His devout followers still perform the Penance of Duty; doing so shapes and guides their lives. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 13 Apr 2025 : 05:40:02
On Midnight's height
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1910762566776746018
Apr 12, 2025
@Elric428th
Hi Ed
We’re running a campaign that features Midnight, and there’s a bit of a debate about her height—any chance you could settle it for us?
@TheEdVerse
Midnight as a mortal stands 5ft 6 ½ (168.9 cm) tall (so, the same height as Angelina Jolie, for those who've met her). |
| questing gm |
Posted - 10 Apr 2025 : 14:20:09
On Elsura Dauniir and Baelem the Bold surviving the Spellplague, and still travelling in the 1490s
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1910223538528616955
Apr 10, 2025
@Heimdayl
Did Elsura Dauniir and Baelem the Bold survive the Spellplague, and are they still travelling alone in the 1490s?
@TheEdVerse
They did, but there's a story there! Expect a Realms video in three or four months or so... |
| questing gm |
Posted - 10 Apr 2025 : 12:07:37
On the origins of the purple dust in the Plains of Purple Dust
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1910220227968717166
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1910763680565698832
Apr 10, 2025
@scootmage
Hey there, Ed. My group is currently in the Plains of Purple Dust, and have lots of questions about the purple dust itself. Mostly, we are wondering: Where does this purple dust come from? #129300;
@TheEdVerse
Like most deserts, the dust is simply the grit (tiny particles of rock) that are so light, among the sand of that dessicated area, that they blow around in even the faintest breezes. I’ll be doing a YouTube video a few months from now about why the dust of this particular desert is purple (and turns the sky crimson where it isn’t amethyst, due to hanging in the air as sunlight beats down). Hint: if you can detect magic, the dust radiates magic. Meaning some magical event or discharge of some great power, long ago, made the dust purple (and likely created the desert). For now, let's just say the Realms has a very magical past. In this case involving conflict, liches, and dragons...
@KeltarDevir
Is this event related to either the Imaskari or the Mulan people when they reigned over there? Or maybe even further back in time with the Batrachi?
@TheEdVerse
A long time ago. ;}
- Edited on 13/4/25 to add new tweets |
| questing gm |
Posted - 10 Apr 2025 : 12:03:26
On non-evil hags
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1910217541252690247
Apr 10, 2025
@aatroxesq
@TheEdVerse hello! Longtime enjoyer of your work, reader of many of your novels.
A question - do you think there is a possibility of the existence of hags that are not necessarily evil, but leaned more into being "neutral, but selfish" or something along those lines?
@TheEdVerse
Yes, there's always a possibility. Elminster is of the opinion that such beings exist, but aren't called "hags" by others because they're not seen as evil. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 10 Apr 2025 : 11:56:15
On trimming hairs with Prestidigitation
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1910216477833121941
Apr 10, 2025
@FakeChan1
Hmmm Mr. Greenwood, got a far out there question for you. Can one "manscape" or " trim body hair" with prestidigitation?
@TheEdVerse
Only if you've saved large and strong enough clippings of your own nails (finger or toe) to use as blades. A metal blade breaks a prestidigitation spell.
If you alter the incantation, and experiment sufficiently, you can use talons or sharp bones or cuttlefish. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 07 Apr 2025 : 08:35:47
On autism in Faerun
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1909116240334905658
Apr 7, 2025
@Purpleowl8
Hey @TheEdVerse Does autism occur in Faerun? This question is not limited to humans, but extends to all sapient beings.
If so, how does each race/species react to Autistics? Do they have their own terms for it?
@TheEdVerse
It does, but is usually thought of as being caused by wild (natural) magic, so autistic individuals are usually referred to as “spelltouched.” (The Spellplague damaged the minds of many arcane spellcasters, and is vividly remembered all over Toril.) |
| questing gm |
Posted - 04 Apr 2025 : 11:08:53
On drow society's view of trans people and transition
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1908006909237473451
Apr 4, 2025
@hauntedbyspells
Hey Mr.Greenwood! I've got you a question :P I've recently been playing as a Lolth-sworn drow, and while studying drow society and traditions, I started wondering—how does drow society view trans people and transition?
Could you help me understand this better?
@TheEdVerse
Sure!
Drow sworn to Lolth have examples before them all the time about transformation of self-shape in service to the Spider Queen. Some of these are viewed as undesirable (driders), others as rewards or ascending in rank (the power/shape augmentations Lolth gives males who please her with their service and loyalty). So there is no hatred or mistrust of shifting one's shape; it is one means of serving Lolth. Some house matriarchs view it with suspicion ("males seeking to exalt themselves by becoming female") but the yochlol have often been sent by Lolth to defend individuals persecuted by individual matriarchs or priestesses purely for such reasons, to make Lolth's views and will clear. Over time, transitions (not just from gender to gender, but from drow to other shapes) have become accepted as reverence of Lolth, and part of what it is to be drow.
And of course, drow who follow Eilistraee are quite familiar with the Changedance, and accept shifting (even back and forth) as, again, part of what it is to be drow. |
|
|
