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Brimstone
Great Reader

USA
3287 Posts

Posted - 26 Aug 2010 :  23:01:53  Show Profile Send Brimstone a Private Message
New Eye on the Realms is up. Circle of Fangs

It has some Cormyrlore in it.

Killer little item, pure Ed Greenwood.
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Brimstone
Great Reader

USA
3287 Posts

Posted - 26 Aug 2010 :  23:06:29  Show Profile Send Brimstone a Private Message
Where can I find more info on Clan Ironstar? What books, novels, ectera. THO do you have any knowledge that you could possibly share with us.


Edited by - Brimstone on 27 Aug 2010 09:40:14
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Dennis
Great Reader

9933 Posts

Posted - 27 Aug 2010 :  05:36:42  Show Profile Send Dennis a Private Message

Ed/THO/fellow scribes,

What's the biggest dead magic area before and after the SP?


Every beginning has an end.
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader

USA
4211 Posts

Posted - 28 Aug 2010 :  23:46:05  Show Profile Send Dalor Darden a Private Message
Ed,

While reading page 40 of the 1st Edition DMs Sourcebook for the Realms I came across a reference to the "Snow People of Thar" that I wanted to ask you about.

quote:

...,and Yostur Ulhmond, a young fighter from the villages of the Snow People in Thar, blond-haired and strong as an ox.



Are these blonde haired people native to Thar? Or, are they an invader people that helped form the Human Kingdom of Thar?

If native, how is it that they are only mentioned in this one passage in loose reference of a young strapping fighter from their villages in Thar?

Any and all information you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT: added quote

The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me!

Edited by - Dalor Darden on 28 Aug 2010 23:49:35
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore

5056 Posts

Posted - 29 Aug 2010 :  17:55:05  Show Profile  Visit The Hooded One's Homepage Send The Hooded One a Private Message
Hi again, all. Sorry for the silence for a few days, but Ed slipped away from his writing for a day to do some signings and interviews and a panel (DM Masterclass, with Robin Laws and Philippe Menard) at Toronto's annual crowded zoo of a geek get-together, FanExpo . . . and I slipped away from MY work to seize the opportunity to chat with him for a bit. FanExpo is fun, but the glaring shortcomings of that disaster of a convention centre were readily apparent.
Anyhoo, we're both back on duty. Wherefore I can bring this Ed response to Dalor Darden:

The Snow People are a blond, white-skinned, stockily-built nomadic hunting human people who hunt the elk and rothe and "highsnows deer" of Thar, having moved into the area after the fall of the "beast-men" (ogre) kingdom there (although the Snow People and various marauding monsters, such as hungry dragons swooping to devour, routed the last ogre tribes and reduced ogres to the rare few hardened raiding bands still encountered in the area today, the power of the ogres was broken by continuous internal feuding and dragonfeeding raids (plus similar raiding by wyverns, perytons, etc.) coupled with the slow but mighty rise in local power of the flind and orcs in the mountains, that ended in vicious wars of mutual extermination). The Snow People have "high" (mountain) and "low" (rolling hills/open country) villages that they move between, along favored routes of encampments where they may tarry for as long as a month or as little as overnight, depending on weather and how good the hunting is. Fur-wearing but hardened to the cold and wise in the ways of the Moonsea North wilderlands, they are considered "barbarians" by more southerly folk (think of a smallish race of blond Conan the Barbarians). As much as any stereotype or overall characterization can be correct, they are a lusty, brawling, cheerful, hardy people, of simple pleasures and past-times are great fear/respect of undead and arcane magic, who tend to see priests as "defenders of mortals by appeasing/tricking/steering the gods."


So saith Ed. Creator of the Snow People, Thar, the Moonsea . . . and oh, yes, the Realms.
love to all,
THO
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader

USA
4211 Posts

Posted - 29 Aug 2010 :  19:53:00  Show Profile Send Dalor Darden a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hi again, all. Sorry for the silence for a few days, but Ed slipped away from his writing for a day to do some signings and interviews and a panel (DM Masterclass, with Robin Laws and Philippe Menard) at Toronto's annual crowded zoo of a geek get-together, FanExpo . . . and I slipped away from MY work to seize the opportunity to chat with him for a bit. FanExpo is fun, but the glaring shortcomings of that disaster of a convention centre were readily apparent.
Anyhoo, we're both back on duty. Wherefore I can bring this Ed response to Dalor Darden:

The Snow People are a blond, white-skinned, stockily-built nomadic hunting human people who hunt the elk and rothe and "highsnows deer" of Thar, having moved into the area after the fall of the "beast-men" (ogre) kingdom there (although the Snow People and various marauding monsters, such as hungry dragons swooping to devour, routed the last ogre tribes and reduced ogres to the rare few hardened raiding bands still encountered in the area today, the power of the ogres was broken by continuous internal feuding and dragonfeeding raids (plus similar raiding by wyverns, perytons, etc.) coupled with the slow but mighty rise in local power of the flind and orcs in the mountains, that ended in vicious wars of mutual extermination). The Snow People have "high" (mountain) and "low" (rolling hills/open country) villages that they move between, along favored routes of encampments where they may tarry for as long as a month or as little as overnight, depending on weather and how good the hunting is. Fur-wearing but hardened to the cold and wise in the ways of the Moonsea North wilderlands, they are considered "barbarians" by more southerly folk (think of a smallish race of blond Conan the Barbarians). As much as any stereotype or overall characterization can be correct, they are a lusty, brawling, cheerful, hardy people, of simple pleasures and past-times are great fear/respect of undead and arcane magic, who tend to see priests as "defenders of mortals by appeasing/tricking/steering the gods."


So saith Ed. Creator of the Snow People, Thar, the Moonsea . . . and oh, yes, the Realms.
love to all,
THO



Many thanks!

My only follow up would be: where did a blond haired people come from? I had thought, up until now, that most of the barbarians of the area were of the darker haired sort.

What of the origins of The Snow People?

The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me!
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore

5056 Posts

Posted - 29 Aug 2010 :  21:29:56  Show Profile  Visit The Hooded One's Homepage Send The Hooded One a Private Message
Hi again, all.
Dalor, most of the barbarians of this part of the world are indeed dark-haired. Ed tells us this, of the origins of the Snow People:

They are of Illuskan blood (thus, predominantly fair-skinned and blond-haired) and came from more westerly areas (in the Sword Coast North, notably the northern High Forest), fleeing to the Tortured Lands through magical gates when an orc horde overwhelmed their lands, long ago.
The gates, most of which have now been destroyed or magically "closed and hidden" (a few by Zhents seeking to control or eliminate them, but most by Harpers and independent mages seeking to keep them out of the hands of the Zhents), are thought to have been part of an early Netherese network created by Netherese working against the rising power and arrogance of the Netherese "sorcerer-kings." Elminster and Khelben both believe they are the gates through (and over) which the "Manygates War" was fought (by wizards and sorcerers of that day).


So saith Ed, giving us all new tidbits of lore in an unsteady but never failing stream, it seems . . .
love to all,
THO
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Blueblade
Senior Scribe

USA
804 Posts

Posted - 29 Aug 2010 :  21:31:56  Show Profile  Visit Blueblade's Homepage Send Blueblade a Private Message
Okay, you KNEW I had to ask: what else can you tell us about this Manygates War?
Sounds like a great setting for a novel, or a campaign.
Deadly hide-and-seek among an array of gates/portals?
Who was fighting who, and why?
BB
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Malcolm
Learned Scribe

242 Posts

Posted - 29 Aug 2010 :  21:33:07  Show Profile  Visit Malcolm's Homepage Send Malcolm a Private Message
Heh. Be careful what you ask for!
I have a sinking feeling about this . . .
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A Gavel
Seeker

USA
53 Posts

Posted - 29 Aug 2010 :  21:41:50  Show Profile  Visit A Gavel's Homepage Send A Gavel a Private Message
Hello. In Ed's Snow People lore, would I be correct in assuming that "highsnows deer" are the Realmsian equivalent of caribou?
Thank you (in advance).
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore

5056 Posts

Posted - 29 Aug 2010 :  21:45:27  Show Profile  Visit The Hooded One's Homepage Send The Hooded One a Private Message
Heh. A Gavel, you would indeed!
love,
THO
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Snowblood
Senior Scribe

Australia
388 Posts

Posted - 31 Aug 2010 :  02:00:24  Show Profile Send Snowblood a Private Message
So Ed would it be a safe bet to think that the "Snow People" and the horse riding barbarians of the Ride are related?????

Aryvandaar, Ilythiir, Arnothoi, Orva, Sarphil, Anauria/Asram/Hlondath, Uvaeren, Braceldaur, Ilodhar, Lisenaar, Imaskar, Miyeritar, Orishaar, Shantel Othrieir, Keltormir, Eaerlann, Ammarindar, Siluvanede, Sharrven, Illefarn, Ardeep, Rystal Wood, Evereska are all available here for download:http://phasai.deviantart.com/gallery/
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader

USA
4211 Posts

Posted - 31 Aug 2010 :  04:20:11  Show Profile Send Dalor Darden a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Snowblood

So Ed would it be a safe bet to think that the "Snow People" and the horse riding barbarians of the Ride are related?????



I'm personally inclined to think that there may be some intermarriage; but only so far as rare individuals. From what I've read and been told, the Eraka have intermarried with many groups with only the Varm tribe being still relatively "pure blooded" as far as published material goes.

The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me!
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 31 Aug 2010 :  21:05:23  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message
Since the Gur were dark-featured, and the Ride Barbarians are related to those folk (through the Netherease), it would stand to reason that the two groups have inter-bred, which is not only logical, but also par-for-the-course in the Realms (after all, the Anghardt inter-bred with Orcs on occasion!)

Picture two distinct groups - a horse-lord type of mounted culture, and a more sedentary group living around the northern fringes of The Ride, with racial features of both groups cropping-up in various families (throw-back genes and what-not). This is how you wind up with a dark-featured Wulfgar in a predominately light-featured people.

A third group would be the Inuit-like people who live on the actual glacier - immigrants from northern kara-Tur who crossed the ice (and hinted at in at least one eastern source, and I believe made canon somewhere in the GHotR).

There is yet another un-mounted group that appear in Vassa during the time much of Vassa was still 'appearing' from the ice - they were featured in a short story somehwhere (including some odd reptilian/amphibious critters living beneath the mud). I would hazard to guess that that group were of Gur derivation that had adopted some 'snow people' ways (further proof of much northern cross-cultural pollination).

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone


Edited by - Markustay on 31 Aug 2010 21:10:41
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createvmind
Senior Scribe

490 Posts

Posted - 01 Sep 2010 :  21:13:48  Show Profile  Visit createvmind's Homepage Send createvmind a Private Message
Hello Ed,

What are the origins of Vampirism in your "realms"? What are the origins of how it mutated to affect creatures greater than monstrous such as the dragon Brimstone?
Are you privy to the creature that made Brimstone vampiric, can you say yes without breaking NDA?

Are their any wendigo of note in your realms as well pre -spellplague?
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Brimstone
Great Reader

USA
3287 Posts

Posted - 01 Sep 2010 :  23:29:58  Show Profile Send Brimstone a Private Message
Did someone say my name?

THO what can Ed tell us about the Old Red Dragon Brimstone that lives in the Stormhorns, Cormyr. Also mentioned in Draconomicon(The Original One)

Thanks for any replies.

Edit looked him up in Dragons of Faerun.

"These things also I have observed: that knowledge of our world is
to be nurtured like a precious flower, for it is the most precious
thing we have. Wherefore guard the word written and heed
words unwritten and set them down ere they fade . . . Learn
then, well, the arts of reading, writing, and listening true, and they
will lead you to the greatest art of all: understanding."
Alaundo of Candlekeep

Edited by - Brimstone on 01 Sep 2010 23:48:04
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 02 Sep 2010 :  02:34:43  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message
A question I've been meaning to ask, and prompted to at this time because of another current thread:

Ed, I note that you have many distinct species of flora and fauna for the Realms (along with foodstuffs, drinkables, ect...), and I get the idea that you specifically went out of your way in your world-building to make Faerun NOT an earth amalgam by creating many, if not all, original animals for your Realms. Were all normal critters FR-specific, or did you sprinkle-in earth creatures as well? Were those creatures actually the descendants of animals brought from Earth and elsewhere (the whole 'Forgotten Realms' thing), or was it a case of parallel evolution?

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone

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Jorkens
Great Reader

Norway
2950 Posts

Posted - 02 Sep 2010 :  11:36:48  Show Profile Send Jorkens a Private Message
Thanks Markus, I had planned to ask the same question. But from what I remember from Ed's novels the animals were mostly general earth types weren't they?
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore

5056 Posts

Posted - 02 Sep 2010 :  15:16:10  Show Profile  Visit The Hooded One's Homepage Send The Hooded One a Private Message
Hi again, all.
Markustay, "brought from" in some cases (mounts ridden through gates, pack animals and herds driven, etc.) but Ed has always told me that most "Earth-and-Realms" animals wandered freely through long-unattended, "open" gates/portals.
love,
THO
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore

5056 Posts

Posted - 02 Sep 2010 :  15:16:56  Show Profile  Visit The Hooded One's Homepage Send The Hooded One a Private Message
Important postscript:
Some of which still exist and are "operating" to this day.
love,
THO
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Ashe Ravenheart
Great Reader

USA
3243 Posts

Posted - 02 Sep 2010 :  15:34:16  Show Profile Send Ashe Ravenheart a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by The Hooded One

Important postscript:
Some of which still exist and are "operating" to this day.
love,
THO

Scruffy's in the Realms? Mom said she ran away when I was five, but I *know* Scruffy would never have run away, so she's probably fell through a portal or something. Right?

Seriously, though, do other things fall through the portals by accident? I'm wondering if non-organic items make it through or if the portals can only be keyed to living creatures. (Purely random Thursday morning curiosity's gotten the better of me.)

I actually DO know everything. I just have a very poor index of my knowledge.

Ashe's Character Sheet

Alphabetized Index of Realms NPCs

Edited by - Ashe Ravenheart on 02 Sep 2010 15:34:35
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore

5056 Posts

Posted - 02 Sep 2010 :  16:43:01  Show Profile  Visit The Hooded One's Homepage Send The Hooded One a Private Message
From Ed's original Realms turnover (1986):

Some gates "work" only for living creatures, others for living creatures plus organic matter carried by them (in direct skin contact), some for living creatures plus organic matter in close contact (i.e. carried in satchels, packs, strongchests) or indirect contact (on wagon or automaton/enchanted item/mechanical/undead mount that is in contact with living creature), and sone for inorganic material in various of the aforementioned relationships with living creatures.
Others are "open" to everything (items, breezes, precipitation, etc.) passing freely in one direction or both directions.
A particular gate may exhibit any or all of these properties at particular times or when particular conditions/circumstances occur. Experimention is often necessary to avoid diaster for wayfarers.


So saith Ed. So, yes, objects can be thrown/roll/be blown/drift, or fall through SOME gates, at particular times, and so pass from world to world. usually unaltered.
love,
THO
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore

5056 Posts

Posted - 02 Sep 2010 :  16:43:53  Show Profile  Visit The Hooded One's Homepage Send The Hooded One a Private Message
...And Scruffy is somewhere, happily wandering.
love,
THO
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Knight of the Gate
Senior Scribe

USA
624 Posts

Posted - 02 Sep 2010 :  19:55:34  Show Profile Send Knight of the Gate a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by The Hooded One

From Ed's original Realms turnover (1986):

Some gates "work" only for living creatures, others for living creatures plus organic matter carried by them (in direct skin contact), some for living creatures plus organic matter in close contact (i.e. carried in satchels, packs, strongchests) or indirect contact (on wagon or automaton/enchanted item/mechanical/undead mount that is in contact with living creature), and sone for inorganic material in various of the aforementioned relationships with living creatures.
Others are "open" to everything (items, breezes, precipitation, etc.) passing freely in one direction or both directions.
A particular gate may exhibit any or all of these properties at particular times or when particular conditions/circumstances occur. Experimention is often necessary to avoid diaster for wayfarers.


So saith Ed. So, yes, objects can be thrown/roll/be blown/drift, or fall through SOME gates, at particular times, and so pass from world to world. usually unaltered.
love,
THO


My players are currently battling through Dun-Tharos, finding the detritus of ages; I think that with this tidbit (plus a little inspiration from 'The Gods Must be Crazy' They're gonna run across a functioning Coke machine....

EDIT:This makes me wonder; have there been any examples of 'Cargo cults' arising from such inter-planar flotsam? barbarians (or even more 'civilized' folk) deciding that a sufficiently advanced or strange object was sent to them by the gods, or the object itself being venerated as a god?

How can life be so bountiful, providing such sublime rewards for mediocrity? -Umberto Ecco

Edited by - Knight of the Gate on 02 Sep 2010 20:00:42
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore

5056 Posts

Posted - 02 Sep 2010 :  21:28:01  Show Profile  Visit The Hooded One's Homepage Send The Hooded One a Private Message
Indeed there have! (Several of we players in Ed's campaign really enjoyed the Niven and Barnes novel DREAM PARK, when it first appeared.) However, I'll have to get Ed to give you a proper answer on this, so as to "spill" only the right amount for our campaign purposes...
love,
THO

Edited by - The Hooded One on 02 Sep 2010 21:28:27
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 02 Sep 2010 :  22:11:58  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message
"Dream Park" was off the shizzle!

Sorry... currently staying with my two teenage sons...

Anyhow, the whole 'Dark Fire' thing was awesome, and an appearance by the Spruce Goose was so weird-history cool. I actually used that book as a reference when working on some of the Osse material over on the WotC boards awhile back.

Thank You for that answer THO, but more directly, did Ed make a major effort to create original animals as much as possible, or not really?

And I'm glad that wasn't Fluffy I found in my tire treads... probably some random goblin from 'the other side'. You should see the Jermlaine problem we have here in the NY subway system!

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone

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Menelvagor
Senior Scribe

Israel
352 Posts

Posted - 03 Sep 2010 :  05:37:23  Show Profile  Visit Menelvagor's Homepage Send Menelvagor a Private Message
The stuff about gates/portals and passing through them is extremely interesting to me. I contend that Symrustar Auglamyr fell through one into a different world or another plane, and I wiat for her return (or finding her here on Earth). I don't suppose that NDA had moved, has it? *mournful look*

"Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly.
How much less them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation in the dust, are crushed before the moth?" - Eliphaz the Temanite, Job IV, 17-19.

"Yea, though he live a thousand years twice, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?" - Ecclesiastes VI, 6.

"There are no stupid questions – just a bunch of inquisitive idiots."

"Let's not call it 'hijacking'. Let's call it 'Thread Drift'."
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Foxhelm
Senior Scribe

Canada
592 Posts

Posted - 03 Sep 2010 :  13:38:51  Show Profile Send Foxhelm a Private Message
I have a few questions:

1) A repeat of what Avengers and Invokers are like in the Realms?

2) What families of Eladrins in the the Fourth edition realms are the most likely to have mercantile backgrounds and wealth?

3) Can you list what has happened to the noble families of eladrin/elves in the realms (Descendants of Myth Drannor and Evermeet and so forth)?

4) Do dead gods still slumber lightly, and could awaken if the proper ritual is prepared?

Thanks for the answers you can provide and those hints you leave behind when you can't.

Ed Greenwood! The Solution... and Cause of all the Realms Problems!
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore

5056 Posts

Posted - 03 Sep 2010 :  16:06:51  Show Profile  Visit The Hooded One's Homepage Send The Hooded One a Private Message
Hi again, all.
Foxhelm, Ed will of course have to give you proper answers to those queries, but the "really short versions" are as follows:
1. A "metarules lore" question. Hmmm. We'll see.
2. Aha. Meat and drink to Ed. Expect something, no matter how strict the NDAs.
3. Nope. Flat no; I know there are strict NDA prohibitions here. What you as a loreseeker quite rightly want to know, designers and fiction writers at work in the Realms NEED to be left vague and incomplete. Ed may drop a few hints about a few families, no more.
4. Yes, and yes.

So saith me. We'll see what Ed can provide, in the fulnness of time (he's busy busy busy with official writing and behind-the-scenes help right now).
love,
THO
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore

5056 Posts

Posted - 03 Sep 2010 :  16:12:22  Show Profile  Visit The Hooded One's Homepage Send The Hooded One a Private Message
Hi again. Markustay, Ed (like everyone else trying to write D&D lore for THE DRAGON, back then) tried to match, and follow the hints and nuances of, all official published material. Which meant that dogs, cats, horses, et al were "givens" that had to be there...because they were already there, established in the official rules.
Yes, the gates connecting many parallel Prime Material Planes ("alternate worlds" of our Earth, the Realms, etc.) allowed for birds and beasts and other life forms to travel fairly freely back and forth, and be deliberately brought back and forth, but Ed had "Realmsian versions" of almost everything, from breeds of horses to types of vultures/scavenger birds, and their names show up from time to time in published lore.
This was deliberate on Ed's part to encourage roleplaying, rather than having gamers mentally operate on what they knew of things from our real world, and so fall into the "everything is mundane" mindset.
So, yes, there are Realms versions of "the critters of the marsh," the beasts of burden, the squawking jungle birds, etc.
love,
THO
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