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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 - 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.
questing gm Posted - 15 Mar 2025 : 08:45:33
On color of half-orc nipples

https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1900604565038198911

Mar 15, 2025

@Lazgar_lockman

Im gonna need a canonical color for Lazgars nipples

@Dracometeor89

Could always pull a Meli and ask AO himself. @TheEdVerse We beseech thee!

@TheEdVerse

Lazgar's a half-orc, so: brown. And wrinkled.
questing gm Posted - 13 Mar 2025 : 11:22:23
On personality of an alhoon and a lich

https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1899844148972208519

Mar 12, 2025

@BaroqueGustave

@TheEdVerse As the creator of the Alhoon, do you think it would be suitable to play one with a camp, Vincent Price-esque personality, or would that work better with a classic humanoid skeleton lich? I love the aesthetics of both types of lich for that.

@TheEdVerse

Certainly. The classic humanoid lich would be more prone to that sort of personality, but both sorts of liches could greet the world as Vincent Price's frequent on-screen persona did. Neither of them would likely have his foodie side, though. :}
questing gm Posted - 10 Mar 2025 : 11:14:02
On new lore for Greyhawk and Realmslore

https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1898857128426705278

Mar 10, 2025

@TheEdVerse

Interested in matters w...well, no, that would be SAYING, wouldn't it? You'll just have to tune in to get new Greyhawk lore and new #realmslore ...

https://x.com/LGosumba/status/1898464890698039560
questing gm Posted - 05 Mar 2025 : 01:53:46
On Elminster retiring from magic

https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1897047684495892501

Mar 5, 2025

@ProfNR100

Ed, I'm curious. I've heard rumors and stories – almost myths, really – that Elminster got tired of magic, retired, and started a little winery. Is that actually true?


@TheEdVerse

Tired of magic? Not true. Tire of living? Several times. Retired: three times, but Mystra won't let him stay retired. Little wineries started: two, so far. An ice creamery, last time. ;}
questing gm Posted - 05 Mar 2025 : 01:47:03
On Ed running live let's play of his Realms

https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1897047202645860637

Mar 5, 2025

@Chuo_Dori

Have you considered doing a lives let's play one-off based in your version of the realms, wether as part of a charity event or as a self created event?

@TheEdVerse

Have done that a time or two, down the years, at various conventions, either free or as a your-seat-buy goes to a local charity the con is supporting.
questing gm Posted - 03 Mar 2025 : 01:24:46
On original maps of Undermountain

https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1895990278600999327

Mar 2, 2025

@RexfelisCatlord

The published version of the Undermountain megadungeon did not use Ed Greenwood's original maps. Were these ever shared or published anywhere (whether in whole or in part)? If not, would it be possible to publish these at some point?

<https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gk_BHi6WIAAFjZj?format=jpg&name=medium>

@TheEdVerse

See all the orange areas, and the blue (flooded) passage? All part of my original map. What happened was that TSR didn't have time to redraw my original faint pencil maps (with my tiny handwriting all over them), so Dave Sutherland donated some of his gigantic rooms Empire of the Petal Throne campaign maps, and stuck them in all around the edges. Yes, the other nine levels of "my original" Undermountain never got published, but I submitted them so TSR owns them, so I can't publish them elsewhere now.
questing gm Posted - 24 Feb 2025 : 23:59:10
On forced cosmic balance in the Realms

https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1893889416407494997

Feb 24, 2025

@MrScattman

Hey Ed, to pose a similar question, is the multiverse connected to the Forgotten Realms forced to maintain cosmic balance? Does the lady of pain administrate this herself or is she just a side effect of a wider cosmic principle?

@TheEdVerse

I posited this pre-D&D, and TSR agreed to it: the multiverse SEEMS to have an inherent balance or resting state that flawed mortals perceive as balanced. TSR established this internally, Planescape initial design: the Lady of Pain reigns in Sigil, and nowhere else.
questing gm Posted - 19 Feb 2025 : 01:36:45
On the Lake of Dragons being a lake or sea

https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1891700671180665032 https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1891997274168836458

@Spike_4247

@TheEdVerse Me and my friends got into an argument lately. Is "Lake of Dragons" actually a lake, or already a part of the sea? We can't get to agreement on this topic.

@TheEdVerse

If you mean the Dragonmere, it is an arm of the sea, a "long bay" or arm of the Sea of Fallen Stars/Inner Sea. "Lake of Dragons" is the most popular name for it, but is fanciful, originating in a bard's ballad about dragons.

@StevenGarstone

This is super fascinating! Which Bard wrote it? Does this ballad have a name?

@TheEdVerse

The bard Ghellyn Mrustroke, of Chessenta, first began performing the ballad in 1296 DR, and expanded on and improved it over the next dozen years. It survives him as a seldom-performed but respected lay, “Wyrms All Around Us.”
questing gm Posted - 16 Feb 2025 : 11:51:20
On how do the mages of various types view each other

https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1889395801530458164

Feb 12, 2025

@ShadyGrin

#129525;@TheEdVerse i am very curious if you have answered this in a video or plan to in the future, or even on here; what is the cutlure of magic in the forgotten realms, more specifically how do the mages of various types view each other?

ie, clerics, druids, sorcerers, warlocks and wizards...maybe even rangers, eldritch knights and arcane tricksters. And how does the common man or woman view them? is it as varied as the gods themselves?

i am loving the novels in The Avatar series (still working my way through), and fascinated by the spell plague, but it raised a question about current forgotten realms attitude towards magic

@TheEdVerse

This question comes up often, but my answer is usually a variation of the same thing: attitudes vary widely by individual and from time to time and place to place. If you live near a major temple, the “line” preached by local clerics affects you (pro or con), and if you’re in Cormyr, and the War Wizards are part of state enforcement, you may love law and order (their protection) or detest it. If local wizards protect you often against dragon or wyvern raids, you prize them…but what if a rumour arises that they ARE the raiding dragons or wyverns (transforming themselves)? And so on…

It’s important to remember two things: communications is slower and much patchier in the Realms than in our modern world, so “widely shared” attitudes can’t be changed quickly and are often influenced by gossip, and “everybody knows” magic is everywhere, like sunrises and sunsets and stars, not something that one can easily choose to shun or work against; you grow up with it, just like you grow up eating and breathing.
questing gm Posted - 16 Feb 2025 : 11:47:13
On a male crinti becoming a sorcerer

https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1889392646608605366

Feb 12, 2025

@Numan_Ba_Alawi

Hello @TheEdVerse, i would like to create a campaign with a crinti battle sorcerer/rogue/spellwarp sniper, but i have a doubt : could a male crinti could officially be a sorcerer, or all form of magic is prohibed for males in Dambrath ? Thank you ! #Realmslore

@TheEdVerse

A male crinti could indeed be a sorcerer. The prohibition is on TRAINING males in arcane spellcraft, so those who wield magic without that sort of training get around it...and are tolerated in the society. Watched, but tolerated.

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