| 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 - 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On any unpublished tidbits in the Silver Marches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. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 16 Feb 2025 : 11:38:50
On mason's guild in Baldur's Gate
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1889390602837471370
Feb 12, 2025
@BrzenskaI
Hi, Mr Greenwood, just wanted to ask, is there a mason's guild in Baldur's Gate ? And if so, in which district would it be located ? Asking for a character with the Guild Artisan background.
@TheEdVerse
Yes. The Guild of Masons, Stonecutters, and Hard-Sculptors (“Stoneheads” in Baldurian street slang) is now newly headquartered on the northwestern edge of Stonyeyes district in the Outer City, and “runs” of dressed building stone from its sorting yards (the space needs of which have forced this guild to move several times, abandoning their initial location in Lower City’s Brampton district for progressively “distant” locations) run along Wall Lane between the Guildyard Gates and the city’s Basilisk Gate. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 16 Feb 2025 : 11:34:09
On name of hill near to Elturel
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1889375306051367099
Feb 12, 2025
@bengecartogrphy
So @TheEdVerse does this hill have a name?
<https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GjfYDkmWwAAgM0E?format=jpg&name=900x900>
@TheEdVerse
Yes, that’s The Hill of the Headless Dancer (see my sourcebook Prayers from the Faithful, pp. 26-27). |
| questing gm |
Posted - 06 Jan 2025 : 00:18:56
On Ed peeping at Elminster and Mordenkainen
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1876007200340254753
Jan 6, 2025
@FRWiki
Elminster (left) and Mordenkainen (right) having snacks in @TheEdVerse 's living room, with Ed hiding inside a suit of armor. #dnd #forgottenrealms #Realmslore
#128214;: The Wizards Three (Dragon #185) #127912;: Dan Burr
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/The_Wizards_Three
<https://i.redd.it/u5nuh04u7sha1.jpg>
@rhylthar
Who is the woman in the painting? #129300;
@AlbertoMagnus76
@TheEdVerse's alternative peeping spot when he is caught in the suit of armor
@TheEdVerse
Dang! Another secret sussed out! ;} |
| questing gm |
Posted - 19 Dec 2024 : 01:22:09
On topography of Waterdeep
https://x.com/TheEdVerse/status/1869266052829597741
Dec 18, 2024
@CourierCall
@TheEdVerse this might seems a strange question but what is the topography of Waterdeep? Like what streets are actually hills you have to head up? Does the sea ward sit ON the coast or above it? Etc.
Thanks!
@TheEdVerse
See the beautiful foldout Val Valusek color drawing included in the CITY SYSTEM boxed set (Fr Wiki, City System entry, "Full aerial-view poster map." near the bottom of the entry). Sea Ward rise from a beach outside the city walls as one heads east/landward. |
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