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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
 Posted - 14 Feb 2026 : 17:09:02
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On sailors knowing how to swim
mAc Chaos Role icon, Patron of The Realms — 3/2/2026 1:44 AM
@Ed Greenwood hello! can sailors in FR swim or is it like the olden days when it was considered the mark of a bad sailor to need to swim
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 3/2/2026 6:08 AM
A majority of sailors in and operating out of Faerûn can swim. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2026 : 17:11:03
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On the "Smiling Mask" secret club in Waterdeep
abra Role icon, Patron of The Realms — 1/2/2026 6:52 AM
You know what I'll shoot my shot on this one for @Ed Greenwood 's pile. Ed, do you have any more lore or details on the "Smiling Mask" secret club in Waterdeep you mentioned in the Susprina video?
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 3/2/2026 6:44 AM
Heh. A Lore video is on the way.... |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2026 : 17:14:02
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On formal drow "black-tie" occasions
Zonesylvania Role icon, Patron of The Realms — 4/2/2026 6:39 AM
I have a lore video suggestion: formal drow "black-tie" occasions and entertainments, and the arrangements made thereof, since while RAS mentioned the formal parties by name, he only went into detail on the informal one Liriel hosted before she went to Arach-Tinilith.
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 4/2/2026 12:38 PM
Good idea. Can't get to it for a little while down the road, and when I do, we'll all have to jaunt back to my drow feasts vid, to put the menu with the occasion. :} |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2026 : 17:16:17
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On Slow Cedric's Gallop
Juniper Churlgo Role icon, Scribe of the Realms — 3/11/2025 8:06 AM
Ed, do you have any lore on Slow Cedric's Gallop, a long-razed village on the Spine of the World?
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 4/2/2026 12:50 PM
Lore video coming in the fullness of time. Heh, heh. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2026 : 14:55:54
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On good places to eat at or have fun in Tashluta
Vela Role icon, Artisan of the Realms — 2/2/2026 4:03 PM
Good day @Ed Greenwood, would you know of any good places to eat at or have fun in Tashluta ?
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 4/2/2026 3:11 PM
Watch for an upcoming Lost Lore on this BIG topic. I can give you a few names faster but far more briefly if you let me know what you mean by “fun” and what you’re looking for in the way of a dining experience.
Vela Role icon, Artisan of the Realms — 4/2/2026 7:52 PM
Thank you for replying !
I'm thinking of what an artisan (in my specific case it would be a glassblower) could afford to do to relax on an evening after work; a real life equivalent could be going to the pub or a cheap restaurant, hanging out at the arcade with friends or just sitting in a public park before the sun sets. Of course people in the realms may spend their time very differently, so I'm open to seeing what else there is to do !
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 5/2/2026 6:53 AM
Got it!
So, a Tashlutan crafter who wants to dine in a relaxed, affordable way chatting with friends would likely frequent Altrel’s House or Sulvar’s Sealion (both are in the upper edge of the Bhuirl, the band or layer of the city running all around the caldera that’s home to most crafter’s shops and workshops; it’s the band immediately above the docks, which form the lowest band, the Arshallaera, better known by its nickname in Common: “Fishstink”).
Altrel’s is a dimly lit labyrinth of small interconnected rooms (archways between, no doors) with small tables for three or four diners fitted into its dark corners; it’s dominated by low-voiced talkers drinking and chatting for three or four bells at a stretch, and offers only basic “varulta” (we might say ‘finger food’) brought in baskets upon request. Varulta are always deep-fried savory pastry dumplings enclosing morsels of seasoned meat or fish, akin to real-world samosas or wontons. Altrel’s also serves teas and tisanes, kaeth, hard cider, mead, rather bad ale, and a small variety of wines.
The Sealion is a larger, noisier place that’s more brightly lit, more crowded, and has a faster pace, with servers briskly clearing tables for waiting would-be diners rather than letting diners linger to talk. It has deeper cellars (with zzar and many liqueurs as well as a good selection of all sorts of beers joining the basics on offer at Altrel’s), and a full menu of fish stew, beef stew, many sorts of varulta, and lamb, goat, and fowl tartaevurs (we would say curries: seasoned meat over rice and diced fried vegetables, with tart chutney-like sauces made from figs and local herbs, nuts, and fruits). The garlic eggbread buns are a standout.
Tashluta has no parkland within the caldera (land has long been too scarce and expensive for open space to survive within the city proper), and the closest thing it does have to publicly accessible parkland is a woodlot (of mainly oak trees, of all ages) that contains the Oak Grove of Silvanus (a local shrine to the god) on the high ground east of the city, outside the walls. The trees and shrubberies are carefully manicured, and a labyrinth of moss-paved narrow trails wind among them, connecting the central grove with ornamental gates (archways without actual gates) around the borders of the woodlot, and with rustic wooden benches (for three adults maximum) set at intervals along the trails. No staying in the woodlot after dark except by making substantial (50 gp or more) offerings to the shrinekeepers (five druids, one of whom commands powerful divine magic). If you’re outside Tashluta proper, the city gates are shut for the night two bells after sunset (so the actual time varies around the year, as sunset moves naturally); if you’re outside after then, you’re outside until dawn.
Tashluta has no arcades, but it does have gaming dens (gaming, and serious-stakes gambling, can also be had at city festhalls) that serve kaeth and teas, sell a small selection of varulta, and rent out seats at gaming tables for a copper piece per bell (hour). These dens are where friends show up to play dice, card, and board games together, and gossip; some patrons wager responsibilities (“you’re buying supper for us all, tomorrow”) on the outcomes of these games, or try to pass on messages or transact simple business or recruitments at gaming dens, but they’re essentially relaxed hangouts for busy, weary folk to spend time away from their workplaces and their homes (it’s not unknown for couples to go to separate gaming dens, each, with their own circle of friends).
Everyone has their own favorites among the two dozen or so gaming dens, usually based very much on who else frequents them, but most Tashlutans will agree that for quiet privacy, Cathtrellur’s and Thorla’s Flagon are among the foremost, and for “seeing and being seen” and stiff competition at the games, Tarshin’s Taps and the Wild Wyvern and Baerul’s Basiliskar are good bets.
If a wild, bawdy festhall is what one seeks, Tsarel’s Sepulcher, in the Zoeklo, is what most Tashlutans think of first (Tsarel isn’t dead, and it’s not actually a burial vault and never was; it bears that name because of the phantoms of shrouded dead that haunt it, appearing unbidden from time to time).
Vela Role icon, Artisan of the Realms — 8/2/2026 6:19 AM
Hello again @Ed Greenwood, you've mentioned the Arshallaera and the Bhuirl in the last question (thank you for your reply, by the way) about Tashluta; what other bands/layers are there in this city ?
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 8/2/2026 10:50 AM
Tashluta rises up the steep slopes of the caldera in eight horizontal layers. Bottom to top:
Arshallaera = Fishstink = the docks
The Bhuirl = Glimmermarket = merchant offices, trading centers, and bulk trading
The Thaal = crafter’s warehouses and shops
The Yalaerl = high-end expensive shops and showrooms
The Meirtalal = where most of the middle class (crafters, shopowners, soldiers) lives
The Zoeklo = noisy, crowded lower and middle class shopping district
The Caul = lower class housing (parts are slums)
The Raharrital = Wallturrets = inns, stayhouses, and city guards barracks, along the city wall
This will all be detailed in Lost Lore Of The Realms 48 (when we get there), which should be a lore overview of Tashluta as of “right now” Realmstime. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2026 : 14:58:38
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On creating and roleplaying Fzoul
LukasJP Role icon, Patron of The Realms — 4/2/2026 5:15 PM
Hey @Ed Greenwood, got sort of a twofold question for you regarding Fzoul - whose creation is he (I assume yours?), and how would you personally roleplay him?
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 5/2/2026 3:10 AM
He is my creation, and I have always roleplayed him as a large, handsome man (scourge of the ladies and considers that merely his due) who is charismatic, overconfident, and blind to his own faults...so the likes of Manshoon can 'play' him and he doesn't see it until too late (and then seeks to blame someone else for it, rather than ever face his own shortcomings). Thinks nothing of changing allegiances back and forth many times, so as to be on the winning side...because morality and rules don't apply to him, he's SPECIAL. Bold but not reckless (will run away to fight another day), but firm and fearless until he realizes the true peril or that his bluff won't work. Privately thinks those who don't see things his way are fools. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2026 : 15:02:17
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On sunglasses in Silverymoon
KryptonianEradicator Role icon, Patron of The Realms — 5/2/2026 1:10 PM
Good day Sage @Ed Greenwood, hope all is groovy with you and yours. So, an easy one on behalf of my brother's Drow Warlock. Are there wearable, shaded lenses (sunglasses) available in the environs of Silverymoon?
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 6/2/2026 4:05 AM
Yes, but they don’t look like our real-world ones. What you can get in Silverymoon is a leather skullcap with a metal “beak” that runs up the back, over the crown, and then juts out in front. Halfway between the front of the cap and the end of the jutting beak, the beak has a hinge welded to it, and clasped in the hinge (so, yes, it can fold flat) is a tinted (LITERALLY smoked, as in: held in the smoke of a fire until it’s covered with a deposit) horizontal oval visor (like the sort of thing that many modern real-world football or hockey helmets are fitted with). The design came from lizardfolk war-helms that already had this shape and construction; Gondite priests just added a hinged-to-fold-flat glass visor-piece. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2026 : 15:07:30
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On taste of Wyvernwater
Joe Chang Role icon, Legend of the Realms — 6/2/2026 7:55 AM
Hi @Ed Greenwood is the Wyvernwater drinkable, and how does it taste?
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 7/2/2026 3:56 AM
Yes, but…folk everywhere in the Realms know that it’s best to get your drinking water from where springs rise, high up in the countryside, so it’s percolated through rock and hasn’t had flow time yet to gather in taints from rotting dead things. So stream water is preferred.
All of the small local fishing boats and private skiffs carry “dippers” (usually battered, dented old home water-ewers) for taking up water from over the side, and putting it into handkegs for household use. This is done out in the center of the Wyvernwater (or any lake), not near the shore where suspended sediments (mud) and rotting fish taint will be much stronger.
Water taken from the Wyvernwater well offshore will be light and clear, with a very faint earthy taste. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2026 : 15:13:11
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On garrison labels of Silverymoon
GAMEtatron Role icon, Patron of The Realms — 6/2/2026 8:33 PM
Hi Ed!
In Volo's Guide to the North, page 171, we find a map of Silverymoon.
On the map, number 8 is labeled as "East Garrison Barracks", but those barracks are about as far West as one can get in the city.
Number 9 is labeled as "West Garrison Barracks", but they are actually about as far South as one can get in the city.
Are they just labeled wrong, or is there another reason for these names?
Thank you for your time
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 7/2/2026 4:11 AM
Heh. You’ve stumbled across a local security measure. As in, a member of the Spellguard thinking it was likely a bad idea to let someone with the reputation Volo er, “enjoyed” at the time to have accurate information about where members of the garrison slept, when off duty. (The truth? Some in discreetly-hidden rooms in several civic buildings, and others in rooming houses near the gates that also let rooms to genuine tenants.) So they misled him. Both of those so-called “Barracks” buildings are actually within-the-walls shared-good warehouses where shippers can rent space for cargoes just arrived in the city but not yet dispersed to clients, or cargoes being shipped out of the city, that are awaiting caravans. |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2026 : 15:54:36
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On savory elvish pies or tarts
Zonesylvania Role icon, Patron of The Realms — 16/11/2025 10:28 AM
dear saer @Ed Greenwood, can you give us a few examples of savory pies or tarts that elves might typically cook? thankee!
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 7/2/2026 4:07 PM
Sure. Elven cuisine is closely tied to woodland plants that grow wild locally; over time elven settlements “farm” these, transplanting and tending so they grow far more numerous.
Which is a long-winded preface to the fact that specific ingredients often shift from place to place, to match what’s locally available.
Perhaps the most widely popular favorite elven savory tart is made with fern-fronds, particular small browncap mushrooms (which closely resemble several poisonous varieties, so know thy mushrooms if harvesting yourself for this), and quail eggs that have had their whites “extended” with flax seed paste, water, and chickpea water (aquafaba). Elven families all have their own combinations of herbs and spices to season these fit-in-your-palm tarts, which are flexible and damp-ish in consistency rather than flaky and crumbly. So they can range from peppery to tart, with most tasting something like roasted almonds or chestnuts that have been roasted with fleshy mushrooms, in butter. These tarts are called velrae (singular and plural the same word-form), which means “fern-taste.”
Another popular elven savory tart is made with flour derived from beech nuts, and the right proportions of coarse-ground acorns, walnuts, hazelnuts, and diced figs, molded into patties and then fried in oil pressed from klael (avocados). The fried patties are cut into roundels that fit into the crusts: the flour is used to make what we might call soft tortillas, then gathered around a fried roundel in a miniature “open-topped treasure sack” that’s then doused in tree sap that tastes like VERY mild leeks (so the open sack has a layer of sap atop the patty, within it) and then fried again. These tarts are called ororth (“forest-eat”—and again, singular and plural have the same word-form).
Small (smaller around than an adult elf cook’s smallest finger) forest roots, of the blueleaf, duskwood, and felsul trees, are harvested in segments about as long as that smallest finger, then washed, then wrapped in wild forest mint leaves, then boiled until soft, then diced, mixed with the abundant forest vine known as winding-worm (because it looks like segmented earthworms wrapped around each other in slender bundles), and the mixture fried until sizzling, then removed from heat, allowed to cool, pressed into patties, and pressed into acorn-flour tart shells, which are gently heated until they stick to the patty-mix. These root-tarts are easily made, and so form the majority of tarts eaten by most elves; they taste like asparagus but with the texture of a fried hamburger patty, and are known as lahlurae (“named-root,” which really means noticed-root, real meaning: I can taste the roots in this; again, singular and plural word-forms are the same). |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2026 : 16:08:06
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On numerology in the Realms
Mind Flayer #1 Fan Role icon, Patron of The Realms — 7/2/2026 9:09 PM
Dear Saer @Ed Greenwood, is numerology a practice in the Forgotten Realms? Are there writing systems that double as numerical systems?
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 8/2/2026 12:58 AM
Yes, and yes. All of the language scripts I developed for the Realms before D&D existed have means of writing numerical amounts as part of them, and certain numbers have significance/meaning to particular deities (and therefore their mortal clergy). |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2026 : 16:10:46
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On the Brigadier of Skullport
abra Role icon, Patron of The Realms — 7/2/2026 6:01 AM
@Ed Greenwood Since I was reminded about him the other day, is The Brigadier of Skullport (the giff) still around after the collapse of the city, selling guns elsewhere? Figure you might have an answer since I remember you mentioning you and Grubb having to figure out the smokepowder thing for the giff.
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 8/2/2026 2:23 AM
Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: a lore video is coming! |
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore
Malaysia
1896 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2026 : 16:14:55
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On idol in the Weeping War
Juniper Churlgo Role icon, Scribe of the Realms — 9/2/2026 5:46 AM
Ed, in Myth Drannor, who or what is this idol behind someone killed in the Weeping War? Judging by the textures, its in the Dwarven Dungeons under the city or in the Elven Catacombs under Castle Cormanthor. (extra points for the fallen person's lore too)
<https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1072136642162343986/1470174027720036616/1000.png?ex=6992e782&is=69919602&hm=c7155544523edb89bdfa18026396af66e706a6d2423d262d3e248ca9ea21ca30&>
Ed Greenwood Role icon, Father of the Realms — 9/2/2026 3:33 PM
See the original FIEND FOLIO (the book with the Githyanki on the cover, TSR 02012), page 32. That’s an idol of the Prince of Evil Earth Creatures, Ogrémoch (one of the Elemental Princes of Evil).
The skeletal adventurer sprawled in front of the idol was in life the fighter Roas (“ROE-az”) Perdralhund of Athkatla, an overbold man who wanted to forge his own life rather than take over his father’s rented-rooms cleaning business; he departed Athkatla in 1296 DR to seek his fortune. He was slain with a Longsword +2 of the Exultant Shriek (a cursed blade that lets out a very loud, long high-pitched “YES!” of triumph when it takes a life). Its wielder usually can’t get rid of it (it teleports back to them no matter what they do), but when it has taken seven lives in the hands of one bearer, it can be left behind—and that’s what happened here. Elminster always wondered what happened to him… |
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Ed Greenwood from Greenwood's Grotto
