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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11686 Posts

Posted - 14 Sep 2021 :  13:31:44  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by questing gm

On annual property taxes and prices in Waterdeep and why Volo gave up Trollskull Manor

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1437251124378185734
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1437279686061699078
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1437285368278265857

Sep 13 2021

@frank_oni_oni

I just wrote an epic Reddit post on Waterdeep real estate prices and why Volo gave away Trollskull Manor away in Dragonheist.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, especially if your name is @ChrisPerkinsDnD or @TheEdVerse

https://www.reddit.com/r/WaterdeepDragonHeist/comments/pn1xyw/waterdeep_real_estate_prices_why_volo_gave/


@TheEdVerse

Great thread!

Yes, Waterdeep has annual realty taxes.

See my Twitter answers for Feb 20/20: “The nobles ignored that, so the Lords paid out of city coffers, and added it to the taxes of the two noble houses (which is, sadly, standard procedure in the city; nobles, like anyone else, who don't pay taxes in full get property seized in lieu).”

And for Apr 25/20, re. 1375 DR: “Buildings in Waterdeep didn't have numerical addresses then. (They did have "roll numbers" in the Palace tax records and floorplan registry.)”

And for Apr 29/90: “The city provides a subsidy in the form of a per-head daily ‘credit’ against temple taxes (temples are buildings, and attract a realty tax like all other city properties) that in almost all cases wipes out annual taxes and leaves most temples in the black (yes, in such situations they do receive coins or more often trade-bars from the Palace coffers).”

And (same reply thread, Apr 29/20): “The city also licenses (approves of) construction work, wines and other consumables, and the operating fitnesses of coaches, wagons, and carriages (not handcarts) to maintain public safety. It also steps in to pay for emergency repairs when roof deterioration or some other cause threatens to result in the collapse of a private building (seizing the property if the owner won’t pay or can’t be found, and working out a slow-repayment-over-time deal, otherwise).”

And on May 8/20: “a selection of scribes to quickly copy something, draw up a contract or trade agreement in quadruplicate (a copy to each party, plus a temple copy for the temple holding the money, plus a tax-record-remittance copy for the Palace).”

And on August 9/20, re. privileges of noble houses of Waterdeep: “certain tax deferrals in return for specific investments in civic works programs.”

Your construction costs for Waterdhavian buildings (twice the average base of most other places) are spot-on. Plus building permit costs, which rise substantially if a street has to be blocked off for any length of time (you’re inconveniencing not just neighbours, but traffic flow and therefore commerce in the city).

(The same inflated prices also apply in cities where space is at a premium due to lack of room for expansion [or expansion within the city walls], or where guilds are strong and therefore rates are high, and in cities that have always been expensive, like Athkatla.)

Your taxes for North Ward are too low: it’s equal to Castle Ward, not 5 percent less, and rises above that “equal” in the first two rows of city blocks (heading east) immediately adjacent to Sea Ward.

And back taxes owed is EXACTLY why Volo gave Trollskull Manor away.

@RpgMatch

Can you confirm that the property tax rate in Waterdeep is ~1% of the property price per year? It's .88% in NYC, but 2.5% in the Flemish region of Brussels.

@TheEdVerse

Nope. You're applying a flat formula across a city that, like all real-world cities, has grown over the years. Most real-world cities have the same disparities that exist in Waterdeep: taxes vary from place to place within a city, and rates also vary with social class (political clout); i.e. the nobles, AND temples, AND guilds get themselves tax breaks, and wheeler-dealer wealthy individuals broker deals with the Palace (just as in real life): I give you this land for civic purposes if you'll give me a low rate on yon property over there. In Waterdeep, the annual realty tax ("property tax") rate tends to be lower than 1 percent of the property price; Waterdeep doesn't have "mill rates," it has set taxes per property that get reviewed by the Palace (and always raised) on about a twenty-year cycle. (And the above brokering comes into play to win yourself delays in reassessment.) Waterdeep has always had a "flee south to warmer climes for the winter" problem that it has attempted to soften by keeping realty taxes low (as it has other sources of revenue like the gate taxes, docking fees, permit fees, etc.).

You can use a percentage of purchase price rate as a VERY rough guide to estimating probable taxes, but don't make the mistake of thinking the city calculates taxes that way.

It's always perilous to apply modern real-world ways of doing things to the Realms. And just a brief glance at real-world cities of any longevity (London, Paris, Rome) will reveal that as years pass, their taxation systems change radically (and are inconsistent).

For years, I've worked in public libraries, and run D&D mini-campaigns as library programs. Once I ran for five middle-aged, conservative female librarians who wanted NO bloodshed, no monsters, and no magic.

So I gave them a Waterdeep campaign that was Jane Austen-like "social whirl" on one level (daughters of ambitious guildmasters trying to break into the nobility, or at least become social equals with the weakest, poorest nobles), and on the other: turn Daddy's guild money, not quite keeping pace with his ambitions, into large fortunes by shrewd property investments (buy, sell, flip, reno, rent out, etc.), and impress Daddy so much that he lets you behave like a full guild member or more, because you understand finance and social nuance better than he does. They loved it, and as a result, we delved into (and I detailed) the byzantine property valuations, tax system, and tax dodges of Waterdeep.

And I inspired two of them to try becoming real estate magnates in real life. One had a disastrous time, but the other left her library job behind for wealth and a big mansion in Woodbridge and a trophy husband.

Ah, they grow up so fast... ;}

@VentureSatchel

Truly inspiring! I love a good bit of socioeconomics in my RPGs. Perhaps why I'm looking to play the Spreadsheet Simulator that is Traveller5.

@TheEdVerse

Just as it's possible to play LORDS OF WATERDEEP as an entirely "builder" game, outcompeting each other without open conflict (just don't use the mandatory quests cards), playing merchants competing in a law-and-order environment that prevents knifings can make for a fascinating game without PC combat. That has just as much tension and competition, and far more CHARACTER acting and bluffing, and players using their wits, than rolling of dice to decide one's fate. :}



Well, I didn't read through his whole extrapolation, but its interesting to see someone trying to figure out expenses for buildings in Waterdeep. I give the guy props.

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 15 Sep 2021 :  01:35:39  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On poems/songs in The Code of the Harpers

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1437798062483726341

Sep 14 2021

@GMRaphi
Ok #adnd veterans!
Who wrote the Harper songs / poems in this book? @TheEdVerse was it you?
<image of The Code of the Harpers: https://twitter.com/GMRaphi/status/1437760059983945733/photo/1>


@TheEdVerse

Of course. ;}
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 15 Sep 2021 :  01:37:59  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On pronouncing Obarskyr

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1437797074922319874

Sep 14 2021

@seanodaniels

All my research is for naught, so I now desperately appeal to the authorities: How does one pronounce Obarskyr?
@TheEdVerse @erinmevans

@TheEdVerse

"Oh-BAR-skeer."
Little used at Court, however, in favour of "Cormyr," as in: "Azoun of Cormyr."
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 16 Sep 2021 :  02:42:49  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On the use of treacle in the Realms

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1438240442391408641

Sep 16 2021

Artie_Pavlov
Hi @TheEdVerse! is there anything you can share about the use of treacle in the realms? In cooking, magic, or what it's made of? Thanks in advance!

@TheEdVerse

Sure. In our world, treacle is unrefined sugar syrup, commonly called “molasses” if it’s dark (opaque brown), and “golden syrup” or some variant of that if it’s light (translucent and golden).

In the Realms, “treacle” means just the dark stuff, as the lighter variety is called various things including, yep, “golden syrup.” In the Realms as in our world, this light syrup finds its way into tarts and sponge puddings (treacle tart and treacle sponge pudding are classic British desserts).

In our real world, molasses finds its way into oatmeal for those who can’t get maple syrup, into pies like pecan pie, into bread like pumpernickel, and into sauces (BBQ sauce), into meat marinades, into rum, into gingerbread cookies, and into baked beans.

If I was writing that same sentence about the Realms, I’d say: treacle finds its way into oatmeal for those who can’t get maple syrup, into pies like nutbrown tarts, into bread like darkloaf, and into firefruit meat sauces and marinades, into rum and darkfire slake, into ginger biscuits, and bean-barrel-sauce (some eat it with the beans, and some wash it off, treating it like a disposable preservative or to make “sweetwater,” a cheap dessert drink or baking/cooking sweetener).
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 19 Sep 2021 :  03:45:32  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On the Sea of Fallen Stars being saltwater

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1439308217960574984

Sep 19 2021

@RpgMatch

So the Sea of Fallen Stars is saltwater, not fresh?

@TheEdVerse

The Sea of Fallen Stars (aka The Inner Sea, a name it bore some thirty years before Paizo existed, let alone Golarion) is indeed saltwater. With some brackish inlets.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 20 Sep 2021 :  01:23:02  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On pronouncing drow in the Realms

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1439670423239671809
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1440700292819939334

Sep 20 2021

@TokakuT

Hey @TheEdVerse how is the word drow pronounced in the realms?

@TheEdVerse

"Drow" to rhyme with "cow" and NOT "drow" to rhyme with "row" (as in, propel a boat). This comes to us from Gary Gygax, who put drow in the game.

However, regional accents do affect vowel sounds, so you may hear various pronunciations across the Realms.

@dm_punks

Droo

@TheEdVerse

"Droo" is a brown sauce made from boiling down three sorts of roots and the edible turtles of the River Ith. Rather peppery, but used in many dishes in the southern duchies of Tethyr, and all across Calimshan.

Calling any elf a brown sauce? Expect a negative reaction.

- Edited to add tweet for Sep 22 2021 tweet and response

Edited by - questing gm on 23 Sep 2021 00:56:29
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 23 Sep 2021 :  01:00:56  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Felhaur’s Fine Fish never mentioned in Volo's Guide to Waterdeep

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1440480156397703168

Sep 22 2021

@Sundered_Ant

Hey @TheEdVerse, got a hopefully simple question about your most prolific city.

In the book "Volo's Guide to Waterdeep," one of the little maps show these two stores never mentioned anywhere in any book. I'm assuming they were cut for space mind sharing anything about them?

@TheEdVerse

Hi! I've found the first Spices Street shop; here you go:

Felhaur’s Fine Fish
[3 coins]
A third-generation fishmonger’s shop known to all in Dock Ward, and widely trusted. The fish is kept just submerged in water to keep the air from getting at it, under smooth, flat stones as fishweights, and atop a layer of crushed ice, in shallow metal display trays atop gently-sloping-towards-the-customer counters. Eels, sea cucumbers, octopuses, squids, and shellfish are to be had as well as silverfin and other scaled and finned “ordinary” fish.

Proprietor: There are persistent rumors that Imber Felhaur, the current owner, a balding middle-aged man with a moustache and a weary but friendly manner and face (he works the shop with his three sons and three younger daughters; his wife Lhorrim dislikes fish, and takes no part in the establishment), is involved in smuggling. He wears a cleaver at his apron-belt, and has been known to order folk who mentions smugglers in his hearing to “Get out. NOW.”

[Volo note: No less a personage than Elminster tells me Felhaur is a message-drop for smugglers, and no more than that, but sensitive about it because the Watch overtly and menacingly keep an eye on him. The Old Sage also tells me Lhorrim, whose day job is pickling and jarring seaweed and whelk, has a sideline she never advertises: sewing up wounds with no questions asked, disinfecting as she goes with her pickling brine—which hurts like the fire of the gods; El won’t tell me how he knows THAT.]
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 24 Sep 2021 :  01:13:33  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On half-dwarves in the Realms

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1441061842466578432

Sep 23 2021

@Artie_Pavlov

Hi @TheEdVerse. are half-dwarves your thing in the realms? or inherited/created? Also, they seem to be super rare. Is there any breeding-specific lore? I seem to always forget that in the realms dwarves actually can breed with humans.

<Image of Nuli Barbarak: https://twitter.com/Artie_Pavlov/status/1440988057596043264/photo/1>

@TheEdVerse

I can't recall if this made it into published Realmslore, or just internal design lore, but I have answered this via the Hooded One: most half-dwarves can "pass" as either (usually short, stocky) human or as a (tallish) dwarf. And do, so they SEEM rare.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 24 Sep 2021 :  01:20:46  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On sign language in major cities and thieves' cant

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1441068006663233536
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1441203963399901184

Sep 23 2021

@DjPhalcona

@TheEdVerse A quick question for you regarding languages in the forgotten realms. Do any of the major trade cities have a sort of sign language like an ASL style thing for maybe deaf travelers or merchants of the sort?

@TheEdVerse

Docks, mills, forges, and other noisy workplaces long ago devised a SIMPLE “hand-code” for moving around and handling cargo, that, over time, caravan and seafaring merchants took all over the Realms.
Despite the name, it’s a system of arm gestures (the subtle hand gestures are more for tallying and negotiating, and segue into covert hand-signals used in ruling courts, etc.) for “Approach” and “Get back!” and “Danger!” and “Over There!” and “Go/It’s that way” and “Go/It’s FAR that way” and “Set it down just THERE” and the like. Kenku use it all the time, as do half-orcs and others who don’t want to stumble over spoken language they’re not comfortable in, or speak in an accent they know won’t go over well. Gnomes and halflings often use it alongside speech, in everyday situations, to either carry on two conversations at once, or to speak to one party (say, a fellow gnome or halfling) but to exclude another (such as a human). Example: gnome behind counter, speaking to a customer on the other side of the counter, but gesturing to a gnome stock-fetcher through a trapdoor, who’s in a storeroom below.

@Banjinkun

I have a follow up. How widespread is Thieves' Cant within the Realms? Can non thieves know it ? And how far is it spread across Faerun and other lands, continents, planes...

Thanks!

@TheEdVerse

Thieves' Cant is everywhere across the Realms. Many non-thieves (especially merchants who fence stolen goods, or just have to pay 'protection' $ to thieves) know a few words of it. However, it's hard to stay current in any language (or code) if you're an outsider.


- Edited to add tweet on Sep 24.

Edited by - questing gm on 25 Sep 2021 02:31:12
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 25 Sep 2021 :  02:36:49  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On rakshasa magical immunity against silverfire and spellfire

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1441455038346432517

Sep 25 2021

@shadowfox6908

@TheEdVerse would spellfire and or silverfire affect a Rakshasa, considering its limited magic immunity?

@TheEdVerse

Both would, without exceptions, even if the spellfire or silverfire is being used to accomplish something akin to the effect of a spell of 6th level or lower.

Both spellfire and silverfire are versions of the raw power of the Weave; spellfire literally the natural energies of the world unleashed as consuming flames, and silverfire as a fine-tuned, controlled and focused version of gathered natural energies (if spellfire is a blowtorch, silverfire is a laser beam).

A rakshasa has innate spellcasting abilties and an innate limited magic immunity, but spellfire and silverfire aren’t “magic” save in the loosest sense of the word: something that I don’t any other way to make happen must be ‘magic.’ Rather, they are a means to channel the natural energies of the world from the Weave WITHOUT using spells; the rakshasa’s immunity is applied against spells, and so can’t be applied successfully against spellfire or silverfire.

If I have a magical power that prevents explosions but not ignition, and am put in a wooden outhouse with a lit bomb, and I use my power to prevent the bomb exploding, but the lit fuse causes the outhouse to burn, and the bomb melts along with me inside the resulting inferno, I used my magical power but it didn’t prevent my being harmed.
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 25 Sep 2021 :  02:42:09  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On rangers and druids following Amaunator

https://twitter.com/cainer1967/status/1441224264665862149

Sep 23 2021

@cainer1967

Hello Ed. Would it be ok for a Druid or Ranger to follow Amaunator in the sword coast? The sun aspect seems as though it might be of interest to them, but the lawful nature may also conflict. Thank you

@TheEdVerse

Yes, to both.

Remember, all sane intelligent beings in the Realms believe in, and to some extent worship (even if it's just "please don't harm me" prayers) all of them.

So deities are used to mortal worshippers of different alignments, and vice versa. It's more working together/common aims than it is alignments, when it comes to all mortal/deity relationships.

The sun is vital to life and growth. I can see both a druid and a ranger "gardening" nature to let sunlight (for growth and renewal) into dense woods.

Edited by - questing gm on 01 Nov 2021 05:32:45
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 25 Sep 2021 :  02:54:16  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On first publication of Baldur's Gate

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1441466478650445825
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1441485524024188935

Sep 25 2021

@Squach

I imagine @TheEdVerse would be the best person to tell you about the first time Baldur’s Gate was mentioned in publications (and maybe tell the tale of how/when he came up with it).

@TheEdVerse

Baldur’s Gate first appeared in a Realms short story I wrote entitled “The Box That Crept On Talons” in 1968. (Yes, six years before D&D first appeared.)

My father really liked that tale, and wanted to proudly hand it around among his friends at work as he was in the habit of doing with most of my scribblings, but because it was a full-length story and he was afraid of losing it as it made the rounds, he had me retype it on Gestetner mimeograph stencils to make copies of it. It was later published, along with other Realms tales including one set in Baldur’s Gate entitled “Mirt Kisses A Monster” and another that has several scenes in the Gate, entitled “But She Kept A Dagger There,” in a chapbook collection I put together entitled COME OCTEMBER (1976).

I’ve forgotten when the first mention of Baldur’s Gate made it into The Dragon, but the first time I mentioned it in an article manuscript was for the Gates article that appeared in issue #37; I think it was in one of the paragaphs that got cut in editing, that detailed the “stops” in a chain of linked gates (one of which was in a second-floor bedchamber of a noble’s tallhouse in Baldur’s Gate, up on the peninsula that shelters the ‘bowl’ of the main city).

Baldur’s Gate was not named for Baldr or Balder (the son of Odin and Frigg), but for a character I’d created, who lived there before the city grew up around him and the natural sheltered harbour at the rivermouth: a dwarf named Harbaldur, a smith who made a living forging grand, ornamented, but massively strong gates for castles and vaults.

“Balduran” was added later by TSR (I think by Tim Beach), though I did have a seafaring explorer who sailed west out of Baldur’s Gate to explore the seas, named Shala Lonstur (a halfling lady who disappeared from lore when TSR acquired the Realms; I’m guessing they wanted to focus to be on humans, and male humans at that, so the gamers they saw as their target audience could “identify”).

And I’ve coined literally thousands of names, adopting them if they “feel right” (in sound) for the character of the being I’m trying to apply them to; “Harbaldur” is one of these, as to me, the sound of it fit a skilled, confident, gruff dwarf who hammered on an anvil.

@Squach

You are, as always, a gentleman and a scholar, my friend. Thanks for the lore, and know that in my Realms Harbaldur will always be the real founder of the city, even if that Balduran kid came around later to steal the glory. ;-)

@TheEdVerse

The dwarves, being shorter, always get overlooked.

(Ahem. I'll go quietly.)

Oh, while I'm at the revealing ancient history game: Anchorôme is a campaign about hopping along a chain of islands, and that archipelago itself, NOT a continent. ;}
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 26 Sep 2021 :  02:49:16  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Elminster's greatest piece of advice

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1441771850405761026

Sep 25 2021


@srkrxs

Hello, so we are playing post campaign now with our 20th lvl characters. My character Kairon has met Elminster and started to study under him and learn from him. What is the greatest piece of advice Elminster would pass on to an apprentice?

@TheEdVerse

"Being a wizard of any worth to the world, know ye, is knowing when NOT to hurl thy spells."
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 27 Sep 2021 :  00:32:06  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Umberlee being called the Bitch Queen

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1442006437580861442

Sep 26 2021


@DorkyTeacher

@TheEdVerse How does Umberlee feel about being referred to as the B** Queen?

@TheEdVerse

She revels in it. Anything that gets worshippers. So, a la "If you can't be a Shining Example, Be A Dire Warning," negative attention is still attention. Fear and hatred will do just fine for her. She drowns a lot of sailors, costing herself worshippers, so needs new.
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Firestorm
Senior Scribe

Canada
826 Posts

Posted - 28 Sep 2021 :  00:59:07  Show Profile Send Firestorm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
If I ever had a curiosity question, this is it.

Are jorunhast and Vangerdahast the same person? When azoun asked vangey "whatever happened to jorunhast" vangey dodged the question and didn't answer.

Vangey was also the first "old" royal mage when he started his position training azoun, looking 80 years old or so.

Jorunhast was a young man just out of his teens when he began apprenticing to thanderahast in 1018 till his dismissal in 1286.

I noticed Baerauble was youngish in-75 when he met the first Obaskyr and was mage royal for centuries before taking a very young Amedahast in 376 as a pupil to replace him. Amedahast was also ancient by the time she was training a young Thanedahast in 629 till 1018 when he was acid burned fighting the purple dragon.

If not, why did vangey dodged the question? Lol
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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

Malaysia
1095 Posts

Posted - 28 Sep 2021 :  01:47:34  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Glorindel of Waterdeep

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1442494612078096385

Sep 27 2021

@DarkElfDesigns

@TheEdVerse I see two references to characters in Waterdeep one a painter (Bard?) named Glorindel and another name Glorfindel are thes the same character and which is the correct name?

@TheEdVerse

In an article in DRAGON 179, Nigel Findley introduced the wizard-bard Glorindel of Waterdeep, maker of magical paintings.

I’ve no idea how he came up with the name, and Nigel is too dead to ask, but apparently the Tolkien estate’s lawyers were VERY quick, at the time, to make sure it wasn’t derived from the Middle-Earth elf prince Glorfindel.

For the same reason, there’s no one named “Glorfindel” in official published Realmslore. As a DM, anyone can make use of planar gates and the multiverse concept to have almost any fictional character show up in the Realms—at their gaming table.

The closest I’ve come to “Glorfindel” in Waterdeep is the halfling cook Glorarra Summermantle at Castle Waterdeep, and Glormae Indranth of the Watchful Order of Magists & Protectors, a fair-haired, rail-thin mage who goes on many Watch patrols because she gets to see stores and streets in the city she’d otherwise never visit.

Oh, and there’s a merchant named Iylas Phindrel (human, from Scornubel), who deals in blown glass window panes and glass door handles, in Trades Ward.
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 28 Sep 2021 :  03:25:59  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Firestorm

If I ever had a curiosity question, this is it.

Are jorunhast and Vangerdahast the same person? When azoun asked vangey "whatever happened to jorunhast" vangey dodged the question and didn't answer.

Vangey was also the first "old" royal mage when he started his position training azoun, looking 80 years old or so.

Jorunhast was a young man just out of his teens when he began apprenticing to thanderahast in 1018 till his dismissal in 1286.

I noticed Baerauble was youngish in-75 when he met the first Obaskyr and was mage royal for centuries before taking a very young Amedahast in 376 as a pupil to replace him. Amedahast was also ancient by the time she was training a young Thanedahast in 629 till 1018 when he was acid burned fighting the purple dragon.

If not, why did vangey dodged the question? Lol



Jorunhast, the last we saw him, is alive and well in Myth Nantar, in Serôs (a city at the bottom of the Sea of Fallen Stars).

I think Vangerdahast dodged the question because Jorunhast had been exiled for slaying a royal. That's kinda bad form, and it certainly makes things a bit awkward to say "Oh, my predecessor killed one of your predecessors, but don't worry, you and I are cool."

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questing gm
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Posted - 30 Sep 2021 :  00:25:59  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On the Elvish word for magical staff

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1443024073286725634

Sep 29 2021

@gkrashos

@TheEdVerse Hi Ed. I know how you love a quickie, so here we go: what’s the elvish word for “staff” as in the magical, held by wizards-type?

@TheEdVerse

Heh.
"Nethorn" is a magical staff; "nathorn" is a non-magical one, "nathold" is a long pole (unfinished pikeshaft or future flagpole, etc.), and "nathin" is a growing tree that's tall, straight, and thin (suitable for making a nathold of).
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sleyvas
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quote:
Originally posted by questing gm

On Glorindel of Waterdeep

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1442494612078096385

Sep 27 2021

@DarkElfDesigns

@TheEdVerse I see two references to characters in Waterdeep one a painter (Bard?) named Glorindel and another name Glorfindel are thes the same character and which is the correct name?

@TheEdVerse

In an article in DRAGON 179, Nigel Findley introduced the wizard-bard Glorindel of Waterdeep, maker of magical paintings.

I’ve no idea how he came up with the name, and Nigel is too dead to ask, but apparently the Tolkien estate’s lawyers were VERY quick, at the time, to make sure it wasn’t derived from the Middle-Earth elf prince Glorfindel.

For the same reason, there’s no one named “Glorfindel” in official published Realmslore. As a DM, anyone can make use of planar gates and the multiverse concept to have almost any fictional character show up in the Realms—at their gaming table.

The closest I’ve come to “Glorfindel” in Waterdeep is the halfling cook Glorarra Summermantle at Castle Waterdeep, and Glormae Indranth of the Watchful Order of Magists & Protectors, a fair-haired, rail-thin mage who goes on many Watch patrols because she gets to see stores and streets in the city she’d otherwise never visit.

Oh, and there’s a merchant named Iylas Phindrel (human, from Scornubel), who deals in blown glass window panes and glass door handles, in Trades Ward.



Really? This is one of those things that I can see happening because of the whole using of Melnibone and Cthulhu stuff so freely at the time (that they quickly quit doing). I'd wonder nowadays if someone like J.K. Rowling would be mad if a Harold Potter appeared in Waterdeep or something. I would think the fanbase would be more mad than her.

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

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Wooly Rupert
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Posted - 30 Sep 2021 :  13:44:29  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas


Really? This is one of those things that I can see happening because of the whole using of Melnibone and Cthulhu stuff so freely at the time (that they quickly quit doing). I'd wonder nowadays if someone like J.K. Rowling would be mad if a Harold Potter appeared in Waterdeep or something. I would think the fanbase would be more mad than her.



I'm not sure where you're going with the Melnibone and Cthulhu stuff; James Ward has addressed that one and it was entirely above-board. And that was for one core product.

Anyway, if it was something like Harald the potter, then no one would be able to say anything. Now, a young mage with glasses and a scar on his forehead, with a similar name? That's where it gets legally ugly.

Weis & Hickman came close to reusing one of their characters in another property, but didn't *quite* go there. In the Death's Gate Cycle, a character starts to introduce himself, but then stops. I don't recall the exact line, but it was something like "My name is Fiz -- no, wait, already used that one... Zifnab! My name is Zifnab."

The character had a lot in common with Fizban, but was just different enough to avoid legal trouble. Zifnab did mention Tanis Half-Elven, but it was only a passing mention of Tanis taking a shower, whilst in Berlin in 1948. (Zifnab also mentions Gandalf, the Millennium Falcon, a certain rather NSFW movie about a young Texan woman named Debbie, and nuclear weapons - stuff Fizban certainly wouldn't have known about)

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sleyvas
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Posted - 30 Sep 2021 :  21:34:31  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas


Really? This is one of those things that I can see happening because of the whole using of Melnibone and Cthulhu stuff so freely at the time (that they quickly quit doing). I'd wonder nowadays if someone like J.K. Rowling would be mad if a Harold Potter appeared in Waterdeep or something. I would think the fanbase would be more mad than her.



I'm not sure where you're going with the Melnibone and Cthulhu stuff; James Ward has addressed that one and it was entirely above-board. And that was for one core product.

Anyway, if it was something like Harald the potter, then no one would be able to say anything. Now, a young mage with glasses and a scar on his forehead, with a similar name? That's where it gets legally ugly.

Weis & Hickman came close to reusing one of their characters in another property, but didn't *quite* go there. In the Death's Gate Cycle, a character starts to introduce himself, but then stops. I don't recall the exact line, but it was something like "My name is Fiz -- no, wait, already used that one... Zifnab! My name is Zifnab."

The character had a lot in common with Fizban, but was just different enough to avoid legal trouble. Zifnab did mention Tanis Half-Elven, but it was only a passing mention of Tanis taking a shower, whilst in Berlin in 1948. (Zifnab also mentions Gandalf, the Millennium Falcon, a certain rather NSFW movie about a young Texan woman named Debbie, and nuclear weapons - stuff Fizban certainly wouldn't have known about)



Read what I responded to... Tolkien's people were coming at D&D in the beginning according to Ed for using the name Glorfindel. That's why I wondered if people nowadays would actually consider this something like praise. For instance, would the people who wrote the Hunt for Red October be upset over the use of "The Scarlet Marpenoth"... or would the fanbase. I'd imagine the writers couldn't give 2 farts and it might even make them smile.

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Wooly Rupert
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Posted - 30 Sep 2021 :  22:30:44  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas


Read what I responded to... Tolkien's people were coming at D&D in the beginning according to Ed for using the name Glorfindel. That's why I wondered if people nowadays would actually consider this something like praise. For instance, would the people who wrote the Hunt for Red October be upset over the use of "The Scarlet Marpenoth"... or would the fanbase. I'd imagine the writers couldn't give 2 farts and it might even make them smile.



Well, Tom Clancy (who wrote The Hunt for Red October) is dead, and there isn't a huge amount of overlap betwixt his readership and FR fans.

So long as the captain of the Scarlet Marpenoth doesn't wind up trying to defect whilst everyone else in the Realms is trying to help or hinder him, I think it'll slide.

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questing gm
Master of Realmslore

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Posted - 03 Oct 2021 :  14:46:30  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On roleplaying gods of the Realms

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1444490058946449409

Oct 3 2021

@__ThoughtPolice

Say what you want about Forgotten Realms but it does a really bang up job of considering the relationships of its deities with each other and the world in a substantive and complex way.

@jackoftales

Replying to @__ThoughtPolice
It does. And it does so while stealing most of them, and it doesn't even file off the serial numbers.:)

@__ThoughtPolice

What's interesting is how it manages to patchwork all those overlapping pantheons together pretty seamlessly for the most part. There's a lot of interconnectivity that feels messily organic or real.

@jackoftales

Aye. It uses the same method I do, which is to roleplay how those gods would react to the other gods, to their actions. Or seems to.
@TheEdVerse did a good job with it.

Is that an accurate assessment, @TheEdVerse?

@TheEdVerse

It is indeed.

If PCs are to have free will (not be divine pawns) then gods must be fallible (like the Greek or Roman pantheons), not all-knowing/all-seeing. The power balances and relationships among/between deities shift all the time; I have always roleplayed them.

Just as I roleplay many offstage NPC activities, to guard against the world being a static backdrop driven only by PC activities, with every NPC reacting to PC deeds, but never acting (on their own).

Doing so also avoids a lot of "happened too fast" timing problems.

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questing gm
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Posted - 03 Oct 2021 :  14:48:56  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On house numbering system in Waterdeep

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1444489071858966529
https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1444812430119481347

Oct 3 2021

@RpgMatch

Replying to @PuckinDM
House numbers in Waterdeep is definitely a question for @TheEdVerse. How does the house numbering system work, Ed? #waterdeep

@TheEdVerse

It doesn’t. ;}

Numerical street addresses are still being introduced, and very messily.

The system was a Lord Neverember innovation.

Before he became Open Lord, buildings in Waterdeep had “roll numbers” in the Palace tax records and floorplan registry, but only the owners/taxpayers and the Palace knew them. What citizens knew was how to describe the location of where they lived. See my answer of April 25/20 about a specific building, which is “eastfront Irimmar’s Walk, two doors north of Selduth Street, Trades Ward.” Everything is ‘so many doors’ from a streetmoot (intersection), temple, pump, civic building, or city gate. And “eastfront” in this example means means fronting on the east side of the street.

To echo what I said in an earlier reply, the Realms isn’t a copy of our real world. Some things developed in different ways there, and are done differently, in the Realms.

@CommonplacePub1

#RealmsLexicon "Streetmoot" - intersection

@TheEdVerse

"Streetmoot" in a city, "waymoot" out in the wilderlands (roads and trails intersecting or crossing).


- Edited on Oct 5 2021 to add new tweet.

Edited by - questing gm on 05 Oct 2021 02:27:37
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questing gm
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Posted - 03 Oct 2021 :  14:51:09  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Calimport in Alzhedo

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1444171700120207363

Oct 2 2021

@gkrashos

Hi Ed. I was just struck by something. Calimport wouldn’t be called that by its citizens. “Port” is a word in Common (English). So is the name Calim(Alzhedo word for “port”) or something else entirely?

@TheEdVerse

Heh. The thing is, the Alzhedo word for "port" is "ulport" (and the "u" vanishes when it's combined into a name, so, "Calimport"). Of old, ulport was "ulporth."

The Common Tongue borrowed the word from Alzhedo.
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questing gm
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Posted - 05 Oct 2021 :  02:25:31  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On minotaurs' favorite marinades

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1445029541433462785

Oct 4 2021

@TheEdVerse

Deeper and deeper into the minotaur’s maze
We fared, only to stop, drop our jaws and gaze
At the firepit where the beast on a spit did raze
Foe after foe, in a trice, after marinating them for days

@MissMartinsen

I had no idea minotaurs were such gourmands! What kind of marinades do they favor? :)

@TheEdVerse

According to my father, "roast blood of insurance salesmen," but he may have been projecting. ;}

Seriously, I'd say they would crush lemons, limes, oranges, quince, persimmons, and even tomatoes.
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questing gm
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Posted - 09 Oct 2021 :  02:04:11  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Karsus' next of kin

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1446502188336009216

Oct 8 2021

@mcmurphy510

@TheEdVerse got a quick #realmslore question for you.

Did Karsus of Netheril (the momentary god) have any siblings or family?

Thanks for your awesome world!

@TheEdVerse

At the time of his momentary godhood, Karsus had only one surviving kinsman: a nephew, Raent. Who detested everything his uncle did, and was.

Raent was an arcanist with his own "wild talents" (i.e. a sorcerer as well as a mage). And disappeared, likely deliberately.
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questing gm
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Posted - 09 Oct 2021 :  02:09:28  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Zelbross not known from published lore

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1446276252260786181

Oct 8 2021

@smparlin

@TheEdVerse Sir, Ed!! Cira 1300s, is there anything about Zelbross you can share we might not know from published lore? How much did you flesh it out in the home realms game and did the Knights stop by?

@TheEdVerse

The Company of the Crazed Venturers, not the later Knights, visited Zelbross, and there’s a faint 1978 pencil map and key somewhere in my Shipping Container 1 (the 80-footer).

The hamlet sprawls along the west bank of Brossaddan’s Water (later called “the Hark Rill” and later still “the Harkril”), a tiny local stream that empties into the Delimibyr, which is where the superb-for-pottery clay banks are. “Sprawls” because there’s a cluster of homes, outhouses, and “half dug into hills” storage barns (for winter food) nigh the river and then a wide arc of outlying farms around it, reached by a spiderweb of lanes (grassy tracks to minimize traffic-caused mud, with two thick lines of berrybushes planted along both sides so you don’t get lost trudging home in a winter whiteout blizzard and freeze to death, to provide a little wind cover, and to provide berries and a supply of edible critters that come to forage on the berries). It had an inn on the Shining Trail (the Last Place) and a tavern, The Sly Fox, and a secret Harper safe haven: the farm of the recluse Harthress “Hard Axe” Shaenra, a scarred, fat old retired adventuress with long, wild white hair, a deep, white, puckered sword-scar running straight down a viewer’s left side of her face, and a gravel voice mainly used to spew long and complicated oaths (“By the untasted teats of the stillborn sow!” and the like). She was, of course, a Harper, and wore bracers (normally hidden under the tattered sleeves of her filthy old weathercoats) that could catapult multiple sleep-poisoned darts. Though she did most of her fighting with axe and blade.

The countryside north of Zelbross, up to the forest, was very rich in game (deer and foxes and “gurra” [the local name for groundhogs] in particular, and several Zelbrossans maintained extensive and successful trap-lines by which they fed their families and neighbours, and gained lots of pelts to cure and make into winter clothing.

There’s not a lot more that I can recall off the top of my head and drawing on the campaign notes here in my office, but near Zelbross, in the wilds northeast of the hamlet, is the “bottle-tomb” of an ancient wizard (a hole in the ground lined with stones that’s the rough shape of a bottle, that a dead person is ‘buried’ in standing up) that at one time—and may still—have a scepter, some rings, and a spellbook in it; the Venturers found it, but didn’t plunder it.
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questing gm
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Posted - 09 Oct 2021 :  02:12:02  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On Elvish words for "sylvan" or "of the forest/woodlands"

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1446266238238330881

Oct 8 2021

@gkrashos

@TheEdVerse Okay, last one. I promise. Well, for a while. Maybe, only a little while. Addiction is a terrible thing ... how do elves and dwarves describe something as "sylvan" or "of the forest/woodlands"? Thanks Ed, you're the best!

@TheEdVerse

For sylvan or of the forests/of the woodlands, elves say that something is of the woods/forest as it should be, and instead of using the elven words “aar” for woodland or “or” for forest, they use the word “laraelever.”

laraelever = (literally “of-heart-home”) of the woods/forest as it should be (unblighted, unscorched by fire, uncut by the uncaring who clear, as opposed to harvest in harmony with sylvan life cycles and continued growth)

An elf might use this word to describe a curved piece of wood in furniture that grew that way and was harvested, as opposed to a piece that was carved out of a much larger piece of wood.

For UNTOUCHED sylvan areas (by which elves mean: no non-woodland-being trails cut through, and no woodcutting), the Elvish word is “araeladonever” (heart-peace-home).
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questing gm
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Posted - 10 Oct 2021 :  04:07:13  Show Profile  Visit questing gm's Homepage Send questing gm a Private Message  Reply with Quote
On bard colleges in Baldur's Gate

https://twitter.com/TheEdVerse/status/1446900052237107202

Oct 8 2021

@EoghanMacmillan

Hey Ed, quick wee question: are there any extant bardic colleges (or similar institutions) in Baldur's Gate? From what I read the College of Cli was there historically, but anything else of note? Thanks in advance Slightly smiling face

@TheEdVerse

There's The House Of The Lute on Ulvur's Lane, halfway up the "bowl" above the harbour; a modest kaeth house/minstrels' gallery at streetfront, but offers instruction (soundproofed chambers) from masters, above and behind. Small but great library.

@EoghanMacmillan

Replying to @TheEdVerse
Cheers! So that'd be Lower City, right? Either Steeps or Eastway, depending on which side of the harbour we're talking. Anything in the Upper, at all? Not really sure how many would be appropriate for a city this size.

Also, uh, "kaeth house"? Not familiar, please define... #128563;#128517;

@TheEdVerse

In the Steeps (higher up, not dockside-close).

Kaeth is one of the Realms words for coffee, so a "coffee house" venue.

In the Upper City, there are half a dozen clubs at which bards and minstrels regularly perform, but no colleges. A handful of old retired bards teach for coin at their dwellings (one has a house in the Upper City, but most live in rented upper rooms across Eastway).

The Gate tends to be more a "earn coin, DO things," hustle place than it is a "train and learn and consult libraries" place.

The houseowning bard in the Upper City who trains for coin is the half-elf Sharintra Ironmrantel. Her old, narrow high house fronts on Lamprepurr Lane (Temples District). She wears old, tattered shawls over worn-smooth leathers.

Edited by - questing gm on 01 Nov 2021 23:44:03
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