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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1451 Posts |
 Posted - 03 Jan 2023 : 08:32:32
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On herds on the Giant's Plain
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1609743908971610115
Jan 2, 2023
@RpgMatch
Hey there @TheEdVerse in this video analyzing the geography of the Sword Coast, there’s a callout for a large migratory herd that prevents trees from growing enabling the Giants Plain. Thoughts?
https://youtu.be/t2zZ2NSrGwU
@TheEdVerse
The largest Western Heartlands wild herds of rothé, deer, and boar all roam the Giant's Plain, and always have done (they're in my 1986 turnover Realms notes). To many Sword Coast dragons, the Plain is their "happy hunting ground" (they swoop and devour at will).
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1451 Posts |
Posted - 04 Jan 2023 : 09:35:26
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On magic before Mystra
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1610443986719707139
Jan 4, 2023
@Nebuchidnezzar
What was magic before Mystral? -40kDR, the Ostoria/Dragon wars, et al. Amman is also listed as a god of magic, creator, etc. Did the Weave exist in another form? Is there magic outside of the Weave, or pre-Mystral there was just not magic of any kind?
@TheEdVerse
Mystra IS the Weave, but there are many types of magic; metaphorically, the Weave is the Internet, but there are many other ways to reach people.
In Draconic, magic is "arcaniss," and that's what dragons called it before Mystral (and what "arcane" derives from). |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 04 Jan 2023 : 15:36:17
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quote:
Originally posted by questing gm
On magic before Mystra
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1610443986719707139
Jan 4, 2023
@Nebuchidnezzar
What was magic before Mystral? -40kDR, the Ostoria/Dragon wars, et al. Amman is also listed as a god of magic, creator, etc. Did the Weave exist in another form? Is there magic outside of the Weave, or pre-Mystral there was just not magic of any kind?
@TheEdVerse
Mystra IS the Weave, but there are many types of magic; metaphorically, the Weave is the Internet, but there are many other ways to reach people.
In Draconic, magic is "arcaniss," and that's what dragons called it before Mystral (and what "arcane" derives from).
I wonder just how many of us have compared the weave and how it functions to IT functions, as I know at one point I was writing up some concepts of how I pictured magic working, with the weave being admin'd by Mystra, but that she hands off certain kinds of magic to other deities who share the ability to modify that "kind" of magic (bardic, necromantic, elemental, etc....). Then any "changes" they want to make needs to be approved moving up the chain (to prevent say death gods making necromantic power too powerful). I was comparing the weave might be comparable to the internet, while other "weaves" might exist that might be comparable to an IPX network running novell protocols (i.e. it works fine, but has few "apps") OR some "weaves" might be comparable to dialup bulletin boards with a cludgy interface, but theoretical ability to do powerful things.... just with little finesse or ability to modify what they'll do. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Karthak
Seeker
63 Posts |
Posted - 05 Jan 2023 : 00:31:43
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If I was going to use an IT analogy, the weave is a program that harnesses raw magic as its base code and all the 8 schools of magic are just individual menues, with the spells being menu items. So while a spellcaster could use raw code or a similar program to produce desired effects, it's a lot easier to use a program with thousands of years of user notes than mess around with trying to code everything from scratch or mess around with a similar program trying to get it to do what the weave accomplishes. Also explains how cleric magic works and can't easily be replicated by arcane casters, as you're basically calling in a favour with someone who knows the weave program well enough to produce your desired spell without actually displaying any of the process that an arcane caster would need to imitate for their own version of the spell.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1451 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2023 : 06:25:15
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On snow in Thay
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1611590497948024833
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1611602460803579904
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1611602853499645952
Jan 7, 2023
@RpgMatch
Good morrow, @TheEdVerse !
Does it ever snow in Thay? (The non-magical kind, mind ye…)
@TheEdVerse
Yes. Often in the high areas (Thaymount, and the slopes of the Sunset Mountains), uncommonly on the plateau (“High Thay”) where hoar frosts and brief sleet storms are more common than snow that falls and stays (except where the sun doesn’t directly reach), and rarerly elsewhere.
In Thay, ground fogs at night due to day/night temperature differences are more common than “real” precipitation, and snow or summer rain, real precipitation tends to be brief. Sometimes heavy, but short-lived due to moving fast. It keeps humidity down, and Thayans used to being able to see the “front” (a wall or plume of falling rain) of a storm approaching, or receding into the distance.
That’s natural weather, before the Red Wizards start casting spells to affect the weather for agricultural reasons. They favor steady downpours at night, soaking rains for crops that also hamper marauding monsters, brigands, and Thayan rebels or anyone else seeking to move around and do things without being seen by the Red Wizards, the Probity Corps, or government-hire spies.
@RpgMatch
One more quick question: do those steady downpours extend to the cities like Eltabbar?
@TheEdVerse
Rarely. Usually only when resident Red Wizards complain of dust, lowering wells, and parched heat.
Or when an autharch or their family or an important noble complains their garden is looking grim. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1451 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2023 : 06:37:51
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On mercenary companies in the Unapproachable East
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1611601643631427593
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1611619624604270593
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1611863050067537921
@RpgMatch
‘Nother Thay question for you, @TheEdVerse: are there any mercenary companies in the Unapproachable East that Szass Tam could hire to help stage the invasion of a neighboring state?
(Aglarond for example…)
With the Simbul now dead, the peninsula with their forests and the free city ports would make a nice addition to Thayan holdings.
(He’ll need to add living to his armies, because he’s leaving the Thazalhar killing fields dormant in case the Mulhorandi get any ideas…)
@TheEdVerse
Yes, but not big “army”-sized ones. The dragon princes of Murghôm permit small (40 veteran and fully-equipped, full-pay members or less) mercenary companies (founded by former Murghômi army commanders as that kingdom’s former army shrank under pressure from, and the decrees of, the dragon princes) to exist, so long as they don’t band together for any purpose whatsoever within the land, or in any adjacent land (for example, Thay). The reason for this is that the ruling dragons don’t want a large army or armies to assemble outside their borders and then invade, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the dragons. So if Szass Tam hires one small band, and word gets around (and the dragon princes have their spies throughout the cities and important waytop towns on the cross-Thay caravan roads), others wouldn’t dare hire on with him.
If Tam used magic or blackmail to coerce any Murghômi mercenaries to work for him, under any circumstances, the dragon princes would lash out at him, by slaying and destroying the bodies of double the number of competent senior Red Wizards (versus number of mercenaries). They’ve done it before, and they’ll do it again if need be, and Szass Tam will seek to avoid this, because he hates being publicly bested by anyone and have Thay’s populace know it (this is one reason he’s been reluctant, and therefore slow, to invade Aglarond one more time; too many public past failures).
And the Mulhorandi watch Thay for signs of weakness, too, and if the dragon princes are humbling Tam right next door, they’ll send raiding parties. (Divine rulers and their avatars and Chosen have no fear of Tam, and precious little respect.)
All of which means Szass Tam will likely try to avoid a war on many fronts by hiring one Murghômi mercenary band at a time, as fast-moving strike forces. This is an ideal role for them, as all such mercenaries are superb horse archers, with their own hardy, well-trained battle mounts. If he uses one such band and reduces it to a few wounded survivors, he’ll pay them off properly, with no treachery or malice, magically transport them to his border with Murghôm, and only then hire another Murghômi band.
Nimjammir, Vurlakh, and Sessim all host resident mercenary bands. Naelor’s Banner (based on Thuldan Way on the western edge of Nimjammir) enjoys perhaps the best reputation among them, for precision on the field, outstanding discipline, and long service (over forty years of financially successful hirings). Symbol: diagonal flaming dagger in canary yellow, point to upper right, on a royal purple field.
Shaele Flamehair is perhaps the most notorious mercenary commander, for her calmly reckless boldness as well as her fire-orange hair and beauty, and Shaele’s Shields out of Vurlakh are among the most expensive of the busy mercenary bands as a result. Symbol: a horizontal row of three orange shields, the center one overlapping the two outer ones.
Turvuld’s Swords out of Sessim are the antithesis of Shaele’s bold and dashing style; they are silent, stolid, stonefaced, conservative professionals who minimize risks and take great care over small details. Symbol: two crossed silver sabers (curved swords), right over left and points to the top, bisected by a vertical silver spear, point uppermost, on a dun-brown/tawny field.
@RpgMatch
He’s truly in a bind then. Perhaps his best hope is to create a wartime accord with Undrek’Thoz… #129300;
In my game he’s also working on inducting the living (and future dead) of Thay into a standing army. When they do move, the defenders will need to defend against them twice.
Though with the Dragon Princes at his doorstep, perhaps a treatise with Tiamat or taking control of the Dragon Masks will needed… #129300;
@TheEdVerse
If Tam ever somehow makes an alliance with the Dragon Princes, or manages to keep them REALLY busy with something/someone else, watch out... Though as Elminster gently reminded me: "We DO watch, ye know."
@RpgMatch
Ahem. It appears to me that being able flush the Dragon Princes out of their lairs in aggressive posture, facing powerful wizards could create opportunity for even more powerful dragons attacking from above.
With this in mind, I was digging through the lore and found Szass Tam some potential draconian partners in crime:
Option 1: Aurgloroasa & Daurgothoth - yes, Daurgothoth does want to destroy the Red Wizards, but he also wants to create living dracoliches and Aurgloroasa wants to establish a draconian theocracy Null’s name. What better place to start than to take over Murghôm?
Option 2: the vampiric dragon Capnolithyl who is already familiar with Murghôm and could establish it as a new vampiric draconic principality under his rule.
Option 3: Klauth the “Old Snarl". What better option for death from above?
for any of these allies, there are several rewards:
1st, gold in hand from the mines of Thay.
2nd, the riches from the fallen dragon’s hordes (which Szass would send his undead armies to collect).
3rd, the potential subjugation of the remaining dragons and Murghôm.
in any case, Szass has a hedge: the phylactery of Alasklerbanbastos.
Win or lose, there will be the body of a dead dragon around with which Szass will gain another powerful ally.
@TheEdVerse
Everything you say is valid.
It's a question of Szass managing to convince potential allies, what bargains he can strike, and when he wants to start toppling dominos.
Despite his many reverses when trying to operate outside of Thay, he's on top inside Thay right now.
- Edited on 7/1/23 to add new tweets
- Edited on 8/1/23 to add new tweets |
Edited by - questing gm on 08 Jan 2023 00:12:11 |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1451 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2023 : 06:46:03
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On Denzar or Surag in Thay
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1611608186947047425
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1611613892798722048
Jan 7, 2023
@RpgMatch
Hey there @TheEdVerse - do you have any notes about the minor settlements of Denzar or Surag in Thay?
If not, I'll populate them with my own headcanon.
@TheEdVerse
Sure. Denzar is a mining supply (food, picks, mules, etc.) and processing center (where raw ore is crushed and smelted) serving small, hand-worked mines dotted throughout Gauros. These diggings yield mostly copper, but some lead and silver, and a trickle of gold. So Denzar is a place of plumes of sulphurous smoke from the furnaces, huge piles of firewood carted in, complaining oxen and mules and their handlers, rubblestone-walled buildings, and hard drinking. Outcasts, misfits, and crossbreeds are recruited for mining here, and mended if they survive mining injuries. It’s a rough, frontier place, and Red Wizards, effete nobles, and other too-wealthy, too-snobbish Thayans are sullenly disliked. Your typical hardened miner can fell your typical Thayan veteran soldier with one punch, and tear apart (and crush all the joints of) your rank-and-file undead Thayan soldier in short order.
Even powerful Red Wizards should watch their backs. A spellcaster with his skull smashed like a dropped egg rarely casts effective retaliatory spells.
Surag is a small but crowded community of steep slopes covered with steeper cobbled lanes and multi-storey homes, in a rocky bowl where the Surag River tumbles into Lake Thaylambar. Or rather, used to tumble, ere Thayans built many water-powered mills here: stamping mills for ore, grist mills for producing flour, and fulling mills to produce good fabric. Most Suraghran are millers or “tinkerers” who keep the fills running, and there are guards posted against brigands and “prowling beasts down out of the mountains” (monsters do follow the Surag River in search of food). It’s a place of order, watchful policing by soldiers, small but good inns, and eateries, but no taverns (inn guests drink at inns, and workers drink at home; taverns were long ago outlawed in the then-village as “places of brawls and trouble”).
Later, as Surag expanded, paddocks appeared on the gently-rolling hills around the river gorge, for caravan assembly and camping, and to pen sheep shorn here for their wool. Then sheep and goat slaughtering began, candlemaking, and the smoking of meat for transport elsewhere.
So Surag has long been a materials and food supply center for Eltabbar. To government officials, it was a handy place to rush friends and relatives to, if they got caught up in a scandal, and it still serves that purpose.
Which has made it a center for cynics (if not rebels) who detest what Thay is becoming, and the corruption that riddles it now. Another good reason for Suraghran to drink (and snarl complaints) at home.
- Edited on 7/1/23 to add new tweets |
Edited by - questing gm on 07 Jan 2023 23:55:53 |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1451 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2023 : 13:49:12
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On being resurrected over and over
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1611924992433819649
Jan 8, 2023
@groudon466
Are there any syndromes or maladies that come from being resurrected over and over? A character of mine has died and come back on ten occasions- I'm wondering if her soul might be a tad loose after all that shuffling around.
@TheEdVerse
There are two that have shown up in Realmsplay in the "home" Realms campaign: if someone was ever buried ere coming back, they have acute claustrophobia (in tight, dark spaces or if they can't breathe), and if they meet a being who slew them: instant rage-terror. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1451 Posts |
Posted - 09 Jan 2023 : 09:26:15
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On cocktail recipes
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1612327425760706561
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1612338546538323968
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1612340670005387264
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1612343128857481216
@duckiiphotos
@TheEdVerse have a good forgotten realms drink recipes?!
@TheEdVerse
If you mean cocktails, lots, but most are NDA. I submitted them to TSR in 1986, they own them, and they decided not to publish them for Code of Ethics reasons. (My guess? They didn't want to give Satanic Panic-ed adults any ammunition, like "trying to corrupt our children!")
I think I answered a question on the Candlekeep forums years back, through The Hooded One, in which I gave a small fistfull of cocktails recipes. They're archived and searchable, I believe.
I'll go look and see what's still up at Candlekeep. :}
Found it. Unfortunately, it's not much: "cocktails with Realms names:
Angel's Kiss: Tansar's Dance
Buck's Fizz: Marthoun's Flagon
Cherry Sling: Dragondown
Daiquiri: Ladydagger
Gimlet: Bright Blade
Margarita (Strawberry): Wyvernblood
Mint Julep: Sea Ward Slake
Pina Colada: Snowfire
Port and Starboard: Nightfire
Rickey (Gin): Lightning Bolt
Rob Roy: Battle Banner
Rusty Nail: Merchants' Tears
Rum Eggnog: Harbour Foam
Stone Fence: Stag At Bay
Tequila Sunrise: Caravan Lantern
I know there's more, because I concocted some for a TSR staffer's wedding back in the early 1990s. I'll putter and get back to you... |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1451 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jan 2023 : 09:07:19
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On best shipbuilders on the Sea of Fallen Stars
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1613424357413642241
Jan 12, 2023
@RpgMatch
Hey @TheEdVerse I’m working on something for Szass Tam, so I’m curious: which organization –which could be commissioned– are the best shipbuilders on the Sea of Fallen Stars?
@TheEdVerse
It depends on what you mean by “best.”
In the 1490s DR, the shipbuilders who can make the most luxurious large ships are Anabravvur’s of Selgaunt, in Sembia (third generation firm, current head: Alpharra Anabravvur (unwed thirty-six-year-old albino woman, smart as a whip, coldly clear-headed, and VERY rich and well-connected in Sembia). They’re expensive, and so busy that they can afford to take their time (if you complain as a client, they just shrug; they’ve so much business waiting that they don’t care if they lose a client. Or six.) Their vessels are beautiful, elegantly designed, and superb in materials and workmanship.
If you want the fastest makers of rugged top-quality ships, when looks don’t matter but durability and seaworthiness in storms does, your best choice of shipbuilders will be Marhymbel House Shipways of Sarshel, in Impiltur, run by the brothers Ilund and Vromur Marhymbel, a second-generation firm who always “overbuild” for strength.
And if you want value for money (cheap, good, and fairly quick) you’d likely want to do business with that old, sarcastic martinet Arkheld Kolnarrbeir of Marsember, in Cormyr, who’s assembled a diverse-race crew of old, veteran shipbuilders and the best non-magical drydock cranes in existence. |
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AJA
Senior Scribe
USA
770 Posts |
Posted - 07 Feb 2023 : 04:27:01
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quote:
https://twitter.com/RpgMatch/status/1622344559807311873
RPGMatch - connecting TTRPG players
@RpgMatch
If Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) –the creator of Faerûn (aka the Forgotten Realms) –started a Patreon, would you be down?
Let’s imagine at $3/month.
PS. Please RT, like and comment.
#ttrpg #dnd #dungeonsAndDragons #ttrpgpollsyndicate
4:20 PM · Feb 5, 2023
==================================================
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1622347649926971392?cxt=HHwWgICygfKl3oMtAAAA
Ed Greenwood
@TheEdVerse
A noble idea, methinks!
But what do YOU think?
4:33 PM · Feb 5, 2023
Heck, I'd go $5/month without hesitation. Like a Twitch sub, but paid in reverse for 30+ years of enjoyment and so much free content along the way. Even if it meant Ed shifting away from Twitter (especially if it meant Ed getting off of that hellsite). Any additional Patreon content going forward would just be icing on the cake.
(also, don't know if questing gm is on a well-deserved break or has dropped out of Twitter but, either way, thank you for working so long on archiving Ed's tweets, and hope you are well!)
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AJA
YAFRP
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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AJA
Senior Scribe
USA
770 Posts |
Posted - 09 Feb 2023 : 00:45:52
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Well, that didn't take long 
https://www.patreon.com/EdGreenwood/
$3/month for written Edlore and Discord channel, $7/month for "exclusive, unabridged #Realmslore videos", and on from there.
There's already several articles up, including things like "The Nine Gods of Elder Calimshan" and "Halfling Homes and Home Life In Faerûn."
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AJA
YAFRP
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 17:12:27
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| Got bored, started collecting ED's Tweets since 12 January 2023. THen found I could not stop until I reached present day. So, I will add them to the list. On 16-17 March, Ed mentioned that he'd shift most of his longer lore-answers to the Discord linked to his Patreon Channel. |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 17:15:00
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Dwarven Women & Beards
(OR: are dwarven females targets for the Razor-Industrial Complex)
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1613766959505489920
13 January 2023
@SlickGillis
Do female Dwarves have beards? I know Gygax said so back in first, but I figure I best ask Elminster himself.
@TheEdVerse
All dwarves of the Realms are more hirsute than the average human.
Some female dwarves have beards, some wear false beards when going to war (as so many foes know they're fewer than males, so wipe them out and over time, the dwarves dwindle), and some shave clean.
MOST female dwarves, if they do nothing at all to their hair, naturally have sideburns, some curving into chin-edge fringes.
Unknown among dwarves of the Realms without deliberate styling: curly hair.
@gkrashos
To be clear, naturally, dwarves in the Realms only have straight hair?
@TheEdVerse
Yes. A few may have slightly wavy hair, but dwarven hair has stiff shafts like horsehair, so doesn't form tight curls (ringlets). Unless treated (heat, curlers, etc.) |
Edited by - Thauramarth on 16 Apr 2023 17:19:40 |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 17:17:04
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Drow Word(s) for "Love"
(And, as very special guest star, the three ugliest letters in Realmslore.)
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1613775838209806338
13 January 2023
@PurgeTheXeno
t occurs to me that it may have been forgotten, or more ominously, removed. Does Eilisraee know the Drow word for Love?
@TheEdVerse
Eilistraee knows all the drow words for love, and the elvish ones, too.
The Drow words are:
alurlssrin = unselfish, deep love
raggath = act of love (lovemaking)
lurraggath = act of love (sacrificial or noble deed)
ssinssrigg = passion, lust, greed, longing, love
And the Elvish words are:
arkhlavae = lovemaking
evae = love, absence of malice
immaea = familial love, loyalty to kin and family
immeeira = act or demonstration of love (deed, testimonial or honour, not lovemaking)
nor = love, essence of passion
Incidentally, one nickname her six Sisters have for Eilstraee is "Darkfire-Of-Love"
@DaBroni2501
Always happy to read more about Eilistraee!
By the way, do you know what happens to the dark elves after the Lady Penitent trilogy? It seems like everyone forgot about them.
@TheEdVerse
Unfortunately, that NDA remains very firmly in place. Sorry.
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Edited by - Thauramarth on 16 Apr 2023 17:18:44 |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 17:21:42
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More Ships? War Ships!
(Or, the 12 January 2023 Post continued)
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1613966356608872449
13 January 2023
@RpgMatch
Thank you! How about for more war-like maritime activities?
@TheEdVerse
Sure!
So for warships, the fastest builders are:
Selvard Haeleophar, Master Shipbuilder, of Telflamm (a brilliant, mercurial dashing ladies-man whose feuds and tirades are legendary); he has built armor-plated coastal rakers with fitted rams, oars as well as sails, and raised ballistae decks, in twelve days, but twenty-one days is the norm for his six drydock shipyard.
He has a rival, Vellard Sisters Shipwright of Tsurlagol, who can keel only three vessels at a time, but can turn out “bare-timbers but navigable” rakers or battle-caravels in eighteen days (the norm? slips to nineteen or twenty days before crews can sail a new warship on its maiden shakedown voyage).
The cheapest good warship builders are:
Pelandro Rahavillar, Pelandro’s Peerless Shipyards, of Teziir, maker of old-design “cruisers” (the large but unarmored and not ram-equipped battle caravels) that can double as merchant vessels when not fighting. Pelandro was a dashing ladies-man, but nowadays is a flamboyant old romantic with a cane and much wistful nostalgia. And six wives.
Jhassala Lyrimmjakh, of Nimpeth, specializes in small, fast coastal rakers, slender and stealthy and utterly unsuited to ramming or carrying heavy artillery of any sort. They have minimal comforts (decking turns the hold into one big common cabin), but are beautiful and very swift; lee-boards can be dropped on the “inside” of a turn to help them turn tight and quick. Most are painted in dark colors; they lie low in the water, and so are suited for stormy seas. Jhassala’s grandparents were slaves in Nimpeth, and she fiercely hunts and assassinates any slavers trying to revive the defunct slave-trade (it collapsed in the Spellplague and never recovered) in Nimpeth.
The sturdiest warships are built (slowly) by:
Ruelrond Honadarr, Master Shipwright, of Hlath, famous among sailors as the builder of Honadarr’s Unsinkable Hulks,” wallowing wide-hulled, slow tubs that resist capsizing, are treated to be fire-resistant, and are nigh-impossible to sink (ramming them repeatedly or using storm waves to sail atop them and grapple to lodge atop, to shove them under ere cutting the grapple-lines seem to be the only ways to send one to the bottom). Critics sneer that they “sail sideways” and “have all the grace of a bloated dead ox carcass,” but they last, and last, and last.
The most luxurious warships (“pamper-cabins” as well as fancy trim and brass railings and experimental ballistae and even mangonels mounted) are made (slowly and every expensively) by: Hargauntra Velrauthynd, Lady Master of the Waves, of Saerloon, in Sembia. Her warships are large and beautiful, and much favoured by maritime powers for fleet flagships, to carry rulers or for celebratory sailpasts of cheering citizenry.
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 17:26:51
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How does Ed do it?
(Or, 58 years of tending the Realms gives one a pretty good grasp of what goes, and what goes not.)
https://twitter.com/FeedGalactus/status/1614042506802462722
13 January 2023
@FeedGalactus
This is stunning. Did all of this previously exist in other resources (published or not) or did you just craft this on the fly? Fantastic!
@TheEdVerse
I crafted it on the fly. It's what I do. ;}
For the Realms, I started 58 years ago; it's become a daily habit.
I knew which ports had dominant shipyards, and judged changing military naval strengths in the Sea of Fallen Stars (for PiratesoftheFS) and since.
Yep, made it up.
@FeedGalactus
Mastery of the craft. You’re an example of that “10,000 hours” principle. Great stuff. Thank you!
@TheEdVerse
You're very welcome!
The knack is to put your head into the Realms, to think of things and see things as if you lived there, and it's all real.
Then when something "doesn't fit," it sticks out, and you can generate lore details that weave it into the grand tapestry so it belongs.
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1614513858386739201
15 January 2023
@gimme_grits
Hi, old D&D player recently returned but new to Twitter and found you. Curious about if many of your answers are created from questions asked of you, or did your notes really have the the names and descriptions of the ship builders to this level of detail?
@TheEdVerse
Many of the 1490sDR-era answers I create as I have time* to get to lore questions (* = I have been REALLY busy, both personally and writing-wise, ever since COVID arose in the world and disrupted so many publishing schedules), but this level of detail exists in my notes in the 1350s-80s DR-era for many places, individuals, groups, things and matters. I work on the Realms every day of my life, and that’s been going on for 58 years now.
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 17:31:29
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Githzerai Words for "Friend"
(Or, "speak friend and enter", just not when we're in the middle of rrakkma. Plus, is Yoda a githzerai?)
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1614510530697506817
15 January 2023
@VikGray
Noble sir Ed, I hope you are doing good these days, and as you helped so much before on Thay and Netheril, another language related question.
How will be "friend" in gitzerai?
Context, theres great AL Adventure PHLAN 1-2_Enemy of my Enemy where you get to visit limbo and help zerai, which is...Honestly breathtaking experience, truly hope BG3 will have glimpse of githzerai content to feel just as good. So Theres a character, anarch Najwa adventurers get to help to recover from sickly slumber.
So, my cleric helped and god so much keen interest in githzerai as a kind and their mental training he stayed for enough time to be able to train his mind so well he could Move their fortress whole inch (then he was faint for a week, but these are the details).
So, when he was coming back to the material plane, he parted with Najwa and she said "You are full of attachments and bustle like any of your kind, but there is an ocean of calmness within you that elevates your mind. And although you are not gihtzerai,we will always welcome you. So, come back as friend. Friend of the githzerai"
That is it, sorry, thought that it is better to provide context/background
@TheEdVerse
Githzerai say “zatha” when they mean friend, and zuu is lover, zanama is family, zathav is group of friends who hang out together or are working on something together or who share a common interest), whereas abruu is a personal foe, and luruu are a group of beings you are enemies of
Githzerai usually, in relaxed normal converse, begin with a subject, then a verb, then the rest of the sentence. So in English “The eel merchants kill I think we should go and hurriedly do them."
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 17:34:07
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Ed on Reading Order
(Or, a beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every scholar of the Forgotten Realms knows.)
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1614684541477687298
15 January 2023
@gimme_grits
question for you if you would please. My eyes and available time aren’t what they once were so I’m turning to audiobooks to read or reread all my Forgotten Realms. Do you by chance recommend a reading order to get the best feel for the realms? This could be just your books or perhaps the majority of Forgotten Realms books out? Taking 20 years off from D&D left me wondering where or how to complete the task.
@TheEdVerse
Warning: I haven’t heard many of the audiobooks (Wizards sends me nothing for lore-checking, and I’ve no time to go hunting), so can’t speak to the narration quality, but I would likely start with my Knights of Myth Drannor trilogy, then go to Bob’s Menzo trilogy (Homeland, etc.) and follow on to his Crystal Shard books, then do Azure Bonds, and Elfhsadow, and Spellfire, then continue chronologically, using THE GRAND HISTORY OF THE REALMS to put things in order.
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 17:38:07
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Post-Spell Plague Timeline (I guess?)
(Or, sometimes we find the answer, but we cannot find the question. Also: 42.)
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1613950710143488009
13 January 2023
Teral the Tax Dragon, CPA
@TeralTaxDragon
@TheEdVerse Is the spellplague still a thing? Can people still become infected by it, or are the last vestiges all that will remain?
(Original question located thanks to Wooly Rupert)
@TheEdVerse
I don’t know of any comprehensive public timelines (Wizards has an internal one, and several senior Realms aficionados maintain their own working ones). Nothing I can share, sorry.
However, the Spellplague is “over” as far as “what everybody knows” in the Realms. It’s NOT over, really, as there are still ripples of wild magic and ongoing repercussions of failed bindings and wards and construction-related magics, but…the Weave is reliable again and arcane spellcasters can function normally again, if their minds didn’t get wrecked in the Spellplague. To younger ones, it’s a terrible story from the past.
@Druid_Templar
Was this another way to level the field of higher level casters? How did the likes of Aumvor or Larloch fair against insanity? Or was being an undead kind of a buffer against the weave wracking their minds?
@TheEdVerse
It had the effect of thinning the ranks of higher level casters of arcane magic, yes, but no one intended that. It arose due to the slayer of Mystra not understanding or believing her true nature (that she IS the Weave), perhaps arrogantly dismissing that as mere propaganda = Mystra was nothing "special."
And yes, ALL undead arcane spellcasters were mentally "buffered" against the Spellplague's ravages due to their minds not being alive and ever-changing. There was no physical buffer, so some had brains damaged.
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Edited by - Thauramarth on 16 Apr 2023 20:24:37 |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 17:43:02
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Boots, cloaks, and healing in Hultail
(Or, how to purchase a single boot, mend a gashed cloak, and have yon hurt healed and yer pride soothed.)
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1614696570825367553
15 January 2023
@CommonplacePub1
Hello @TheEdVerse from rainy California!
Editors' Note: So much for Albert Hammond's credibility.
Suppose you are a forester who stumbles into a fight over territory between two bears in the King's Forest, and Queen Raedra sits the throne.
You get away minus a boot and a claw-gash to your cloak that's sunk as far as your back.
You one-boot it to Hultail for help. Where might you:
1. Buy a sturdy replacement boot?
2. Find a non-spellcasting healer that won't blab to all about the blundering mistakes of a certain forester?
3. Find a fast mender of cloaks?
Thank you Ed!
@TheEdVerse
Hultail boasts a cobbler who does repair work; a used clothing, belts, baldrics, and footwear shop; and a bootmaker.
The cobbler is Arlburt Nammond, of Bell Lane (winds generally N-S in southwestern built-up Hultail), a big-nose, fat, dumpy little bowlegged man who’s amiable and always working (“he stitches in his sleep”). He does unlovely but very sturdy work, and folk come to him from all around.
The shop where you might be able to snag replacement used boots (with the usual “these feel odd on my feet” travails) is Muranee’s Old Treasures on the S side of Hultails’s main E-W street, run by Muranee Crownlinden and her “daughters” (six younger women unrelated to her, orphans and strays she’s taken in, who now help her run her shop, do the laundry and cooking and help with the buying; the most competent of them is probably Jeveldra Shieldwinter, from Suzail). The shop is a converted house, room after room full of sorted used goods on tables; don’t forget to check upstairs. Only the kitchen, the pantry attached to it, and the “back room” (laundry and back entrance) beyond that are off limits to patrons. Muranee and her daughters sleep on beds winched down from the attic through the upper-room ceilings once the shop is closed, every evening. They make up a merry household.
The bootmaker is Vhaerikho Lhlandast (“VARE-ik-ho Lul-AND-ast”) from Saerloon, a dapper halfling who’s a deadly-accurate mimic and works with a crew of gnomes (they all fled Sembia together after some scandal or trouble they don’t discuss). They do top-quality work worthy of expensive shops in the best cities, and if you have a tenday to spare, could make a single boot and weather it so it would look like part of a pair with a client’s surviving boot.
For a healer who can keep her mouth shut, you can’t do better than “Mother” Thaere (pronounced “Thair” to rhyme with hair), who lives in her garden-surrounded cottage east of Hultail proper, near the Thunderflow south riverbank (Thaere Mrindormra, local human family with a little half-elven blood three generations back; she’s the last to live locally, and is sixty-ish and unwed), but you could also seek out Sulimra “the Dark Rose,” a young, beautiful, andrecently-arrived woman from Turmish, who has dusky skin, very black eyebrows, and some of the largest brown eyes ever seen in the face of a human of average size, and makes her living growing herbs, mixing medicines, and painting flattering portraits; she rents two back rooms in the cottage of the Widow Trawny, on the southern edge of Hultail.
As for a fast mender of cloaks, tents, and robes (she doesn’t touch socks or “fancy dresses,” and her work is more sturdy than beautiful; it won’t stand out as crude, but she’ll pucker fabric edges together to get a stronger mend-seam rather than try for something subtle that won’t last/hold as well), I recommend Avarelle Myntdown, on Easting Lane (runs SW-NE at the southeastern edge of “built-up” Hultail, across from Harrafe Orlimbur’s red-roofed barn with the spire), a middle-aged, gentle woman who was once strikingly beautiful and now looks more “worn-out motherly” despite being unwed and never a mother. She will do work while you wait, and charges little; many pay her her in food (and generously, as she’s locally well-liked). |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 17:45:11
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Red Wizards' Training
(Or, Red Wizards' Boot Camp: not Hogwarts, not Strixhaven either.)
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1617716031497310210
24 January 2023
@RpgMatch
Hey @TheEdVerse people are asking about Red Wizard training.
Do they all train at the Arcane College of Eltabbar under Headmaster, Kolex Senda (mentioned in your latest book) or are there other colleges dispersed across other Thayan tharches and cities?
@TheEdVerse
Young Red Wizards are usually trained by older (often embittered and disabled) Red Wizards all over Thay. The Arcane College in Eltabbar is where they go to be tested (and sometimes trained, if the tests show their mastery is lacking).
If the Probity Corps is suspicious of the loyalty of any Red Wizard being trained, or specifics of their training, they may murmur into the ear of a senior Red Wizard to step in and send that trainee to the Arcane College. Yet some Red Wizards only see the Arcane College when they’re being tested.
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 17:48:27
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Rashemmi Witches' Masks
(Or, what is Krash up to, asking about the Witches of Rashemen?)
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1618064885107290118
25 January 2023
@gkrashos
hi! Fleeting thought and question: what do the masks of the Witches of Rashemen look like? Are they full face masks? Eye masks? Plain? Ornate? Colored? The details are important. 
Editors' Note: Smiley VERY approximative.
@TheEdVerse
"Rashemi witch-masks” (more properly: “face-veils of the Wychlaran Rashemaar”) do vary, but most half-masks are very old (or rather, worn by very old witches). The vast majority are “more than full face” masks: they cover the sides of the head (with biteouts in their edges so they can be put into place without fouling the wearer’s ears), are cloth-lined on the inside but a light rigid shell (like baked-hard, lacquered paper mâché, though they’re actually a hemp-fiber-and-certain-plant-leaves mix) on the “public” side, and have a headband incorporated (you don one by settling it over your head, with long hair if you have it piled up into a top-of-head bun and pinned there, then pull the pins [which ride in boot sheaths, and are often coated with sleep-poison] and adjust the hair down to cover the headband).
The front or public surface of the mask may be of any hue (and some witches own and use a “fashion array” of different-coloured masks), has two eye-slits but no nasal slits (the mask “bumps out” along a center line down to the chin to provide not just room for the nose, but ample space for breathing air circulation), and is usually painted with small adornments, such as family marks, personal badges or sigils, and seniority/achievement marks (a long-axis-vertical-four-pointed-star is a mark of seniority among the air circulation), and is usually painted with small adornments, such as family marks, personal badges or sigils, and seniority/achievement marks (a long-axis-vertical-four-pointed-star is a mark of seniority among the Wychlaran, and a semi-circular “upper half of a human eye” drawing, like a protractor but with a long-axis-vertical-diamond eyeball at the bottom center, is a mark of advanced seniority among the Wychlaran).
Most masks are of dark or metallic hues (navy blue and very dark green are particularly popular; black is rare because it denotes “angry mourning” [on the road for revenge]), and Wychlaran call them “asatheirr,” which means ‘world-face.’
@Jay71405979
Wonderful detail! More than any artist could depict and more than I have seen in any released product!
@TheEdVerse
Thank you! I forgot to emphasize that they hang down below the chin, usually with a slight prow (think: old white hockey goalie mask), to overhang part of the throat. |
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TBeholder
Great Reader
2428 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 18:43:33
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quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison
It's just a guess, but Twitter's api now costing money means that the collector used to gather Ed's tweets probably wont work, which means it will have to be done the hard way (logging into twitter and finding the realmslore tweets).
Uh, why would you need to log in? Or search? It would be enough to regularly scrape the URL ( mobile.twitter.com/TheEdVerse ) and parse HTML (to extract messages), no? |
People never wonder How the world goes round -Helloween
And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense -R.W.Wood
It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo. -Ed Whitchurch |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36804 Posts |
Posted - 16 Apr 2023 : 19:42:25
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quote:
Originally posted by Thauramarth
Post-Spell Plague Timeline (I guess?)
(Or, sometimes we find the answer, but we cannot find the question. Also: 42.)
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1613950710143488009
13 January 2023
(Original question was Tweet "from an account that no longer exists", and could not be located.)
@TheEdVerse
I don’t know of any comprehensive public timelines (Wizards has an internal one, and several senior Realms aficionados maintain their own working ones). Nothing I can share, sorry.
However, the Spellplague is “over” as far as “what everybody knows” in the Realms. It’s NOT over, really, as there are still ripples of wild magic and ongoing repercussions of failed bindings and wards and construction-related magics, but…the Weave is reliable again and arcane spellcasters can function normally again, if their minds didn’t get wrecked in the Spellplague. To younger ones, it’s a terrible story from the past.
@Druid_Templar
Was this another way to level the field of higher level casters? How did the likes of Aumvor or Larloch fair against insanity? Or was being an undead kind of a buffer against the weave wracking their minds?
@TheEdVerse
It had the effect of thinning the ranks of higher level casters of arcane magic, yes, but no one intended that. It arose due to the slayer of Mystra not understanding or believing her true nature (that she IS the Weave), perhaps arrogantly dismissing that as mere propaganda = Mystra was nothing "special."
And yes, ALL undead arcane spellcasters were mentally "buffered" against the Spellplague's ravages due to their minds not being alive and ever-changing. There was no physical buffer, so some had brains damaged.
The original question:
Teral the Tax Dragon, CPA
@TeralTaxDragon
@TheEdVerse Is the spellplague still a thing? Can people still become infected by it, or are the last vestiges all that will remain? |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen!  |
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ElfBane
Learned Scribe
USA
285 Posts |
Posted - 17 Apr 2023 : 06:36:50
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What happened to "questing gm" ?
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 17 Apr 2023 : 09:19:23
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Silverymoon - Everlund Connections
(Or, Southbound and Down / Eighteen Orcs Runnin')
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1618284592573874177
25 January 2023
@CraigKVincent
Hello Ed! Regional maps show the road from Silverymoon to Everlund on the east bank, however city maps of Silverymoon seem to say the trail leaves the southern part of the city on the other side of the river. What route does the trail take?
@TheEdVerse
The caravan road linking Everlund and Silverymoon departs northbank Silverymoon (the older part of that city) through the Sundabar Gate, on the same side of the river as northbank Everlund (passing through Everlund’s Silverymoon Gate).
There is also a trail linking southbank Silverymoon with southbank Everlund (via Everlund’s Downriver Gate), that winds through the Silverwood and is used by locals who know that forest, and by woodcutters, not wagon-merchants (except in emergencies).
About a half-day upriver of Silverymoon, there is a ferry crossing the Rauvin (four-wagon-sized flat barge, linked to stout cross-cables both sides that never survive the spring torrents, and drawn by winched-cables with the aid of rothé teams walking cleared “runs” out into the forest, both sides of the river (both banks have fortified pens for the rothé, mules, oxen, and messenger-horses). Most wagons and carts use this ferry to go to and from the northbank road, which is why the meandering trail into the depths of the Silverwood (where it branches many times; only humans on foot and with a mule or pony at most can win through to Olostin’s Hold) isn’t shown on large-area-coverage maps.
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 17 Apr 2023 : 09:25:10
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quote:
Originally posted by ElfBane
What happened to "questing gm" ?
Questing GM has not posted since 12 January of this year. |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 17 Apr 2023 : 09:28:37
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Date of Borth of Methrammar Aerasumé
(Or, "Alustriel is not my girl / she's just a Chosen / and I am not the One / and the kid is not my son" -- Extract from "Drizzt, the musical").
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1618278758921940992
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1618804662819487744
25 January 2023
@AzzaelUlbrinter
how old is Methrammar Aerasumé, high marshall of Silverymoon and son of Alustriel? I need to know if he was already born by the time Alaustriel met Drizzt Eyes
@TheEdVerse
Methrammar Aerasumé was born in 1322 DR, the third-born of the twelve brothers known as the Tall Ones. So, yes, he born three decades before Alustriel first met Drizzt.
CORRECTION! Methrammar Aerasumé was born in 1304 DR, the Year of the Stag. So, he was born well before Alustriel first met Drizzt.
Thanks to the Lorelords of the Realms for catching this!
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Edited by - Thauramarth on 17 Apr 2023 09:29:34 |
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Ed Greenwood on Twitter
