The work contained on this page has been penned over time by the creator of the Forgotten Realms - Ed Greenwood, and kindly provided to us here at Candlekeep by The Hooded One on the Candlekeep Forum. The collection presented here is a digest version which has been collated by Scott Kujawa, presenting all Ed's responses and omitting other posters discussions which followed.

(Answers from Ed Greenwood)

Jan - Mar 2007

On January 2, 2007 THO said: No, Toril is not (and never was) a moon. But (though NDAs prevent me from saying one word more on this), I remind scribes that the name is Abeir-Toril, and for the last few decades, all we've seen is Toril. Hint. Hint.

love,
THO

Correct. Jeff did create and name Waukeen, and did name "the planet" Abeir-Toril.

The name "Faerûn" (which means "home" in a long-ago, forgotten language) refers to the main continent of the published Realms. Ed's thinking was that "everyone" knew about the land they lived in, and its boundary seas, but not every culture "of today," Realmstime, knew it was on a spherical planet. There are various names among the Netherese, modern Halruaans, elves, etc, for the planet, but there was no one commonly-accepted one.

TSR needed an "official" label. Jeff was the handler, traffic cop, and "TSR end" of the Realms, and provided one. As with everything, he checked with Ed, and Ed said: fine. Sure. Go ahead.

love,
THO

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January 4, 2007: Hello again, scribes. This time, Ed deals with a recent query (because he can do so swiftly and easily, and is VERY busy right now but trying not to fall silent here at the Keep) from Mythrainer, to whit: "Wanted to ask Ed or anyone else who might have the answers to a couple of questions about Lone Rock in the Sea of Fallen Stars.

Did Ed put it there or was it added by someone else.

And, secondly, did Ed have anything specific in mind when/if he created it (i.e. what/who lives there, if anything? how big is it? is it habitable or is it just some huge craggy rock jutting up from the water? is it dangerous to approach by ship due to underwater rocks or freak storms/currents, etc?)

thanks, Mythrainer"

Ed replies:

Hi. Yes, I put it there. :}

Lone Rock is a bare rock, so no one lives there except seabirds and the organisms that can live in their plentiful droppings. It's about half a mile long (oriented NE-SW) and about a third of a mile across for most of its length, and rises at one end to a 'horn' or pinnacle that rarely gets swept by waves (though the rest of Lone Rock does). That pinnacle is carpeted in seabird nests atop old nests. Sorry, no monsters of note are known to lurk in the vicinity.

Lone Rock is named for the aid to navigation its presence gives. It's only dangerous if sailors run right into it and smash their ships; it's the top of a submerged mountain, and rises almost sheer out of the deeps, with no dangerous surrounding rocks. It causes turbulence in the "swells" (long, sweeping open-water sea waves) by its very presence, of course, but doesn't cause any dangerous storms. In lightning storms it gets hit by lightning a lot because of its height, but there's nothing "freak" about that.

Boats can "drag anchor" (put out a sea anchor rather than actually anchoring) in the lee of Lone Rock, and a pirate punishment of old (usually enacted upon murderers or thieves among crews) was to maroon someone on the rock without food or water, and just sail away. In olden days, many mages practicing teleportation would take ship to Lone Rock, to make it a "known location" they could use as a temporary stopping-place, to drink healing potions or sleep or study spells where very few folk could find them (obviously, this is a fair-weather option only). A few of them sporadically used the Rock as a prison, by bringing captives with them as they teleported in, and then teleporting away and leaving the victim behind.

There's rumored to be a vein of rich gems somewhere in the many, many cracks and clefts that crisscross Lone Rock, crystals that can be dug out with a knife, but tales disagree as to just what sort of gems these are.

So saith Ed.

Creator of Lone Rock, the Sea of Fallen Stars, and a lot of pirates, too.

love to all,
THO

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January 5, 2007: Ahhhh, a PRIVATE communication from my favourite hamster (purrrr)... * [Ahem]

Oh. Heh-heh. Hello again, scribes. This time Ed responds very swiftly (because he had the lore right at hand) to Uzzy's query: "Does Alusair Obarskyr have a name for her own, personal sword?"

Ed replies:

She uses several, but was presented with a beautiful +2 keen longsword by her father upon her twenty-second birthday, that she calls "Royal Kiss." It has an everbright silvered blade and bears her name and the Purple Dragon of Cormyr on both sides, just below the hilt. There is also a rune on the pommel placed there by Vangerdahast, that alerts the Royal Magician of Cormyr (Caladnei, now) of the precise location of the blade whenever any living creature other than Alusair touches it.

Alusair customarily leaves Royal Kiss hanging in her bedchamber wardrobe (a walk-in room), or under her bed (hidden by its skirts) or atop its canopy (where about a dozen healing potions, in unlabelled stainless steel vials, also live), and uses a far more utilitarian (and battered) +1 mighty cleaving longsword that she privately refers to as "Wartusk" or "Old Tusk." It does not bear this name or any engraving at all.

As Steel Regent, she can, of course, use any of the thousands of swords in the royal vaults and Obarskyr family armory (including many magical blades), but it's rare for her to do so. She DOES keep two swords scabbarded and ready, with matching sheathed daggers, one hidden in the Palace and one in the Royal Court (hung where she can easily reach them, on wall-pegs behind hangings in particular passages).

So saith Ed, Master Armourer of the Realms.

love to all,
THO

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On January 5, 2007 THO said: Very good point, Wooly. That's exactly what Ed said. "It may on first glance seem a happy ending, but it's the worst hell Elaine and I could give the character."

Ed also told me that if he and Elaine ever get the chance to revisit the characters, Beldar would almost certainly face the worse problem of someone (by mind-eavesdropping, at some point) magically finding out he isn't who the city thinks he is, and then trying to exploit him.

Of the main characters, only Lark really comes out of it well.

As for the nobles being self-absorbed young prXXcks, Ed said that's exactly what they were supposed to be. In the novel, they're forced to grow up (a bit), but not necessarily to become shining heroes.

It's a book where everyone is "shades of gray." Sometimes heroics are just what people do to get through a bad day.

Now, with that pithy saying uttered, Ed agrees with you about the dropped plot threads (and muttered again about how much he had to trim; we're talking, if I recall correctly, over 40,000 words), and of course, agreed with and liked all the nice things you said.

He says when re-reading it, the monster cult thread was the element that most didn't seem satisfactorily resolved or sufficiently interwoven with the rest of the book.

Would he do it again? You bet!

Will Ed and Elaine get the chance? Probably not, I'm afraid. Because of the way bookstore chains now consult earlier BookScan sales figures when ordering new titles, tacking CoS onto the Cities series was a drastic error on WotC's part, that killed a lot of its sales. It was written to be a book non-gamer fantasy fans might try and like, but never really got the chance to perform that way.

love,
THO

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January 6, 2007: Hi again, scribes of the Realms. This time Ed tackles a recent question from Rinonalyrna Fathomlin: "Hello again Ed! My latest query comes as a result of browsing the forums related to the new Neverwinter Nights 2 CRPG. Basically, there is an argument going on that attracted my interest about whether or not Lord Nasher of Neverwinter (as depicted in the official campaign) is a bad person/ruler, and one subject that was brought up in that thread is the use of trial-by-combat as a last resort when the player character is accused in court of having burned a Luskan village and slaughtering its inhabitants. Apparently, even if the player character successfully "wins" the trial, the prosecutor from Luskan will make a last ditch effort to appeal the case, and calls for Trial by Combat, which turns out to be mandatory. Also brought up was the subject of whether or not a good person in the Realms could believe that people are "guilty until proven innocent". This scenario, and the various arguments brought up by people in that thread, had me wondering about three things:

1) How prevalent (if at all) would trial by combat be in an official criminal court of a major city (like Neverwinter) presided over by the likes of Lord Nasher? I am wondering if the game gets its Realmslore right, here. Do many cities really have "obsure old laws" that allow someone to fight to prove someone's guilty or lack thereof?

2) There were arguments about the morality of trial by combat as is relevant to the social mores of a setting. I've known for a long time that social mores in the Realms are not identical to those of medieval Europe, but some put forth the argument that in such a setting trial by combat would be a common and/or legitimate way of determining if a person is guilty of commiting a crime. Is this the case? As I understand it, the whole idea is that the gods make sure the innocent person wins...but this seems strange to me, because as I understand it most cities in the Realms run by moral governments seem to have court systems much like our own which make use of actual evidence and facts to determine the outcome of a case, not fighting.

3) Is it really a common belief amongst moral people in the Realms--who are educated about the law, and very concerned about justice--that only a bad person would be accused of a crime and it's up to them to prove their innocence, and not vice versa (the modern notion that someone is innocent until proven guilty)? Again, some people were positing this idea, even though personally I find that very hard to believe, based on what I know of the Realms setting. For example, do followers of Tyr prefer to assume that a person is innocent until they are proven guilty, rather than risk doing harm to an innocent person "just in case" they really DID commit the crime? My gut feeling says yes, they would, but I'll defer to your thoughts on this.

I know this is a complex question and a bit of a tall order, but as someone who is both interested in the Realms and laws/justice in general (I work in the legal field), I am most interested in hearing your own thoughts and opinions.

Thank you,
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin"

Ed replies:

Hi! Good queries; okay, here we go...

1. No; any such claim is a distortion of true Realmslore; "obscure old traditions," yes, but "obscure old laws," no. However, this is not necessarily a lore mistake by the game's creators; please note that the prosecutor character in the game may very well fudge "tradition" into "law" to try to press his claim (successfully, obviously; in Luskan, the truth has never been very highly valued; getting one's own way is always the goal in any situation). In other words, he lies and the authorities go along with him because it's much easier to trade with a Luskan that believes you respect its belligerence as opposed to a Luskan that believes you belittled and dismissed its claims.

Many places in the Sword Coast North and in Calimshan have VERY old traditions of trial by combat, dating from times when (and locales where) there was no functioning temple system, policing, or legal system, and thus very little way of investigating crimes and "proving" guilt.

In Neverwinter, today, only among the nobles would trial by combat be a custom (i.e. one noble settling a dispute with another). Even then, it is restricted to both combatants being adults, strict rules for the duel (seconds, witnesses drawn from all local walks of life [guilded merchant, unguilded shopkeeper, noble, city watch, a local herald, one envoy of a foreign city or realm, etc.], priests standing by to give aid and enforce rules as to how the duel shall end [to stop good fighters or cheaters using duels to murder foes], etc.).

Outlanders MIGHT be allowed standing under this tradition IF they claimed noble status and no local could refute it, but Neverwinter itself barely has a surviving nobility, and there's certainly no widespread right-now-Realmstime acceptance of trial by combat, ESPECIALLY when either side can employ champions not directly concerned with the crime (i.e. accused fighting victim or victim's spouse might be thought "just" by the average citizen; accused fighting a trained, court-appointed warrior would NOT).

2. You are correct. The Realms is not medieval Europe, and most intelligent and civilized folk in the Realms would believe that "the gods determining guilt or innocence" would be a matter of the god DIRECTLY signalling guilt or innocence by manifesting (e.g. Lathander's rosy glow surrounds accused) or speaking (voice from altar or avatar, NOT from mortal priest), or sending dream-visions to any judge, jury, executioner, prosecutor, and all witnesses, defendants, etc. of what really happened or what the god wants done now - - and in the case of an imminent sentence (i.e. hanging, hand about to be chopped off), the visions would be immediate, waking ones, not visions sent later when every surviving concerned individual falls asleep.

Certain secular governments in the Realms (such as olden-days Thay and some of the Chessentan cities) had trial by combat, but no one ever advanced the fiction that this had anything at all to do with the gods other than it being a practice they didn't frown on.

3. No, there's no such "common belief." Faiths embrace the presumption of guilt (and, occasionally, the notion of trial by combat) differently, and their positions change from time to time, but there's no general, overall belief at all. This is a case of some gamers projecting "their take" on the Realms (perfectly legitimate, of course; we all bring our own experience and therefore understanding to every game we try, and roleplaying games leave far more leeway in that than do, say, the rules of checkers) into "what the Realms should be and is, for all, because I say so." Even *I* don't get to do that, untrammeled, and I created the beast. :}

So saith Ed.

Who hopes that helps, Rinonalyrna (and who agrees with you, BTW, that in the race to trim down SWORDS OF EVENINGSTAR, the grieving over Martess, Agannor, and Bey got short shrift).

love to all,
THO

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On January 7, 2007 THO said: Hi, all. Ergdusch, the Realms of the Elves short story occurs during Rich Baker's Last Mythal trilogy (it's "where the Knights went" rather than being front and center battling, for the latter half of those books), whereas the "Swords" trilogy Ed's currently writing about the Knights (oh, and AlorinDawn, I believe SWORDS OF DRAGONFIRE includes passing mention of a Halruaan exiled for his use of a certain procedure) is set decades earlier, starting in the Year of the Spur.

love,
THO

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On January 7, 2007 THO said: Rollo Ruttikin,

Ed has always taken the view that the Dungeon Master is there to serve the players, not rule over them.

In that light, he insists that in all major decisions (such as rules and of course game edition elements used) we vote, and later revisit things some players think "aren't working" and vote again. We collectively chose to remain with 2nd Edition (it took us a long time to stop using 1st Edition bards with 2nd Edition, as suggested by TSR during the 1st to 2nd changeover). We ARE "largely retired" (as in, play very seldom now, what with being scattered worldwide) so rules issues arise far less frequently; playing time is far too precious to waste on "out-of-game" matters.

Rinonalyrna, Ed has told me you'll see a LITTLE more grieving in SWORDS OF DRAGONFIRE, "coming out at emotional moments."

love to all,
THO

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On January 8, 2007 THO said: Yay! You liked it!

I will certainly pass this on to Ed, Charles. I pass on all of these Book Club threads to him, actually; he's very interested in what readers liked or didn't like, what they misunderstood (and therefore he has to make clearer in future books) and what "worked" for them.

Now, one minor cavil: Florin wants to "have fun taking down the high and mighty lass" AND "meet a real live stuck-up noble, up close and personal, for the first time." He DOESN'T consciously want to bed Narantha (UNconsciously, of course he does!); remember, he "unmans" himself for days with that herb so he can pleasure her with lovemaking, but he certainly can't get an erection. (If I'm not being too blunt in my speech here.)

love,
THO

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January 8, 2007: Hi again, scribes. This time, Ed replies to the most recent query by scribe Rolindin: "Mr. Greenwood do the purple knights of corymr have all the same banners (company flags), or is there some differance's between the companie Banners of purple knights.

And do the sir coats the purple knights wear: is all of them the same design, or is there some differance's in them?

By this I mean are the sir coats the light lancers wear the same as the heavy lancers companies? are the light cavarily and heavy cavarily wear the same sir coats (if they wear them at all.)

If this is not too much trouble to ask for.

Then thank you in advance then Mr. Greenwood."

Ed replies:

First of all, I'd like to remind everyone of the difference between a Purple Dragon Knight (the prestige class, which doesn't necessarily have any direct connection with formal knighthoods in Cormyr), knights of Cormyr who happen to hold various ranks in the Purple Dragons (soldiery), and the Purple Dragons (the army of Cormyr, who are mainly untitled commoners but include some knights within their ranks). Rolindin, your questions seem to concentrate on military units (the Purple Dragons as a whole) rather than knights per se.

But let me answer your specific questions, in turn: yes, companies have different banners, as follows: each company includes one person who carries an overly-long, light (and therefore "whippy" or "bendy" in a wind) spear (pike length, but having a spear head). This is always topped by a long Purple Dragon pennant, of "the" Purple Dragon device of Cormyr on a field of gold (for veteran battle units, this status being conferred by the monarch, usually after the unit has fought in at least four battles ["blooded four times"]) or of white (for militia, untried, irregular, or "scratch" [hastily thrown together from elements of other units] units).

Affixed immediately below this long pennant is an individual unit banner, often the personal arms of the noble commanding the unit, or the garrison it's based in, or the function it's performing. Specific designs for these haven't been published yet, but are in the possession of WotC and therefore owned by them and will be revealed at their pleasure. I can tell you that none of them can show any part of a dragon, or a dragon wounded, maimed, chained, etc., and that they often include swords, flames, galloping horses, the heads of horses, spearheads, or some combination thereof.

Stained, torn, or otherwise soiled banners are promptly retired but kept and valued as trophies, by retired common soldiers in their cottages as well as in army mess halls and barracks.

The surcoats of Purple Dragons are shown in the Stephen Fabian illustration on page 72 of the 2nd Edition FORGOTTEN REALMS ADVENTURES hardcover. This scene clearly shows the Purple Dragon device of Cormyr I referred to, above.

All Purple Dragons (except Blue Dragons; I mentioned their insignia in a recent reply) wear essentially the same surcoat, but the surcoats are differenced in two ways: a unit emblem on the sleeve (shoulder) and back, and a rank insignia on the breast (that is, alongside the Purple Dragon; it occupies the breast proper, and the rank insignia is small and usually more or less centered on an (imaginary) diagonal line connecting the wearer's left armpit and left nipple.

Rank insignia are of two sorts: Purple Dragon rank and noble or courtly (arms of a court title, knighthood, or realm office rank. The noble or courtly rank is usually shield-shaped, and is worn (as a sewn-on patch) above the Purple Dragon rank. As you can imagine, falsely wearing a rank to which the wearer isn't entitled (or a Purple Dragon surcoat when one isn't an active Dragon, as brigands like to do) is a severe crime.

The only difference between cavalry and infantry surcoats is length; those who go into battle mounted wear a surcoat that ends at the waist or above, as opposed to the longer ones shown in the FRA illustration. "Light" and "heavy" cavalry designations don't formally apply to the Purple Dragons (at least, not in the real-world American Civil War or more modern sense), though informally, heavy cavalry in Cormyr is almost entirely clad in full coat-of-plate and usually has lots of knights, nobles, or at least standing Dragon veterans (mainly based in Arabel or High Horn) in it, and carries a full range of weaponry plus lances, whereas light cavalry comes from anywhere, uses lighter armor and javelins (throwing spears) or bows rather than lances, and are usually smaller units used as scouts, messengers, skirmishers, and to chase down fleeing foes. Again, these are practical what-the-eye-sees definitions, NOT formal unit designations.

So saith Ed.

Creator of Cormyr, the Purple Dragons - - and most of their foes, for that matter.

P.S. To Ergdusch, KOMD Book 3 is currently under FULL ironclad, spiked-gauntlets-wearing NDA.

love to all,
THO

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On January 8, 2007 THO said: And used them with great pleasure, too. As often as they'd surrender to us.

Seriously, Dargoth, they weren't that overpowered in Ed's hands. He made us roleplay all the singing, creating ballads, improvising new lyrics for difficult tavern crowds, going to all the bardic schools and doing all the "services" (adventuring tasks) they wanted done in exchange for training us, and so on. Remember, in Ed's hands, the Realms isn't stats and rules and rolling dice so much as it is acting and delving into all the "hard work" of each character class.

But yes, we loved 1st Ed bards for their powers. Wheee!

love,
THO

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January 8, 2007: Hello, all. Ed is at a conference, and sat down at a computer and read this thread at Candlekeep, and then sent me this e-mail:

WalkerNinja,

Of course I can provide such a list. Here it is:

1. All matters and topics pertinent (or possibly pertinent) to planned future, or written but not yet published, or licensed but not yet activated, FR products.
2. Same as above.
3. Same as above.
4. Same as... and so on.

Sorry, but all joking aside, I am legally bound, and there are good reasons for NDAs, for any company dealing in Intellectual Properties. It's just a condition of my working life, and certainly governs all my postings here via THO.

Ed

So saith Ed.

And there you have it; just what I expected. If Ed reveals lists of specific NDAs, it can very easily reveal an overall pattern of not just specific future products, but entire product lines or product directions. Definitely a no-no. If pressed, Ed will simply have to fall silent; he's a man of his word, and lives by the agreements he makes.

love,
THO

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January 9, 2007: Hi again, scribes. This time, Ed answers Sage of Stars, re. this end-of-year 06 query: "I'd like to thank Ed and THO for another year of answering Realmslore questions for us all. It must eat up a fair amount of time; and for Ed that's writing time, and so, money out of his pocket.

So, of course, I'd like to cost him some more.

In Cormyr, Sembia, Amn, and Tethyr: do swordsmiths and armorers need "special" licenses or permits from the authorities? Do shops selling secondhand or imported weapons or armor need them?

By "special," I'm really asking: do the governments of these lands seek to specifically control or limit supplies of such goods?

Thank you in advance!"

Ed replies:

Yes, it does, and you're all very welcome; I don't mind in the slightest. Goes with the territory (of creating a properly-detailed fantasy world setting; the detailing is NEVER done).

In all four of the lands you mention, the authorities require special permits for both the makers and the shops, but only in Cormyr and certain Tethyrian duchies have any of these ever been used to overtly control weapon supplies. The permits are for government taxation purposes (and they tend to tax those who deal in war materials highly).

There are of course guilds in all of those places except Sembia, that further limit "who's in the business" (though the reach of guilds is patchy in Tethyr and urban-areas-only in Amn). Most governments negotiate with guilds almost constantly on trade matters, and thus influence weapon and armor supplies almost constantly.

Moreover, Amn has other means (covert agents of the government) of limiting and controlling flows and supplies of weapons and armors within its borders (I'm of course excluding all monster-held areas, here).

So saith Ed.

Who does think about all of this stuff; implications are meat and drink to him (along with all the stuff that actually makes his belly bulge).

love to all,
THO

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On January 10, 2007 THO said: Now THAT'S a loaded last sentence, Sage.

Ed will be back with another Realmslore reply later today (perhaps tomorrow, Keep time), but in the meantime...

First: For me, top AND bottom (though not both at once; that tends to cause bruising and straining whilst trying to "pass through" each other), and I don't mind discussing such matters at all. However, I'll be guided by Alaundo and Sage in how descriptive I get; I don't, above all, want to have this forum blocked for any scribes by parents or screening software. Yet be aware: you can ask me ANYthing.

Second: wills are a fascinating subject that Ed has been avoiding so as not to hamper novel authors crafting plots concerning various characters in myriad Realms locales. In the case of Azoun, however, his will would be fairly short and simple; Cormyrean Crown law and tradition governs most regalia, property, etc.

love to all,
THO

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On January 10, 2007 THO said: Glad you liked it; I will, of course, pass this on to Ed. I'm glad you read it; although SWORDS OF DRAGONFIRE is a direct sequel, these books are more character-driven than plot-driven, and are rich enough to "stand alone." No longtime Realms fan should delay reading them, because they give us such telling glimpses of familiar Realms characters (Vangerdahast, Tanalasta, Filfaeril, Dove, and of course the Knights and Knights-to-be) when younger. DRAGONFIRE should show us a feisty thirteen-year-old Alusair.

love,
THO

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January 11, 2007: Hi again, scribes. Ed swiftly tackles a very recent question this time, from Kaysae: "Greetings, Ed! Thank you for answering my query about the Stonelands and the barony thereof, I greatly enjoyed it! I now have a new question, and I hope you have an answer!

I bought the Menzoberranzan box set (an excellent product by the way) in PDF format several years ago, and there is just one thing that has always nagged me. I finally noticed your name on the cover (I'm slow), and decided to ask.

What is the requirement to make the rank of High Priestess? I notice in the Houses section of the book that the females a separated by Priestess and High Priestess. And in some of the entries of the Matron Mothers it takes about how only X number of daughters were destined for greatness (which happenes to be the number of high priestesses in the house).

I assume it is more than level based, though I could be wrong. Please enlighten me!"

Ed replies:

With pleasure. Yes, it is far more than level-based (though level advancement does in this case indicate experience in the service of the Dark Goddess, and is a factor.

Here, however, are the two far more powerful factors in determining when a given drow priestess becomes a high priestess:

1. The Favour of Lolth ("Favor of Lolth" in American spelling): the goddess likes you (right now). This is paramount; a child could become High Priestess if Lolth wanted her to.

2. Intra-House Dynamics (aka "Last Drow Standing"): if heavy losses (deaths, exiles, etc. for whatever reason) disable many family members, those remaining may ascend to titles, ranks, and positions they might ordinarily be years away from achieving. If you're the newest priestess and everyone else gets wiped out, you're High Priestess (until someone takes it away from you). In other words, as always in Lolth-worshipping drow society, you will use your rank (and, usually life along with it) if you don't demonstrate loyalty to Lolth and capability.

So saith Ed, Low Detailer of Menzoberranzan.

love to all,
THO

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January 12, 2007: Hi, all. I sent your extensive comments on to Ed, Charles, and herewith is his response, moving through your reply responding to points in the rough order you made them.

Ed says:

Glad you liked SWORDS OF EVENINGSTAR, Charles. It's my favourite among my Realms novels, thus far, because I'm a better writer than I was when I started doing them, and because I was allowed much greater freedom than hitherto, on the journey from title concept to final printed page. There are some "grrr" moments for me, such as editorial changes of "chatelaine" to "reticule," but on the whole, I'm fairly pleased with it.

Fairly, I said, because I ran out of wordcount, as usual (something that hasn't happened to me on SWORDS OF DRAGONFIRE, so I'm finally learning :}), which is why the last third of the book is such a headlong rush of nonstop action. (Even then, I had to chop entire subplots, not just themes!) It was always intended to have battles and deaths, but I was intending more of a slow, inexorable "incoming doom" build between such moments.

The first part of the book, that you loved so much, is also my favourite. A "dream Ed Greenwood Realms novel" (to me, that is) would be almost all this sort of almost leisurely, editorially-chatty, close-in focus on just a few characters bouncing off each other (the same thing Elaine achieved in ELFSHADOW with Danilo and Arilyn). Doing that sort of tale is * FUN * for me; for too many years, I'd hear editorial snarls of "It's been eight pages and you haven't killed anyone! The Realms is guys fighting monsters, with magic whooshing around! Never forget that!" when I tried what I did with Florin and Narantha in the forest at any great length.

I, too, think my Tanalasta versus Vangerdahast is the strongest scene in the book. That and the Spurbright noble father and son scene, plus the various demonstrations of Vangey terrorizing his scribes and junior War Wizards, are the "I've gotta put this in" Realmslore backbone of the book. That and showing readers the REAL Filfaeril for the first time.

My Lady Hooded is quite right when she stated that Florin's deliberate taking of the herb had made his body temporarily physically incapable of production or delivery of seed. You were correct in thinking it a contraceptive (it is), but it also prevents erections (again, something I should have been less coy about, but was trying not to run into problems with my new and very good editor over). Florin of course desires Narantha, but he really is being heroic in denying himself any possibility of "having" her, so he can get the chance to meet, really get to know, and "tame" a noble (this isn't a misogynistic thing, it's a "we right-headed country folk who live in the real world can PROVE we're better than these stuck-up, ridiculously out-of-touch nobles, and mayhap fix one of them, at least, to know and understand Cormyr better so she isn't one more part of the problem - - and I can prove to self, elders like Delbossan, and my friends that I managed that feat, and really Am Something!"). If I hadn't been recounting "true" Realmslore (rooted in the deeds and written-up past histories of Player Characters), the genders could just as easily have been the other way around, with the female slipping the herb to a male noble to protect herself from his lust.

I'm afraid bringing all the other characters onstage of necessity pulled the spotlight away from Florin in the latter stages of the book, which is when he goes from "Hey! I can do this!" to "Wow, can it be this easy?" to "Oh, sh*t, am I in over my head! Help! No, no, I can't let anyone know I need help! I've gotta be the strong silent type, or we're all doomed! Mielikki, PLEASE HELP ME!"

Rickman as Vangey? Oh, ho! Well, he's a little more growly [Willard Brimley? No, too nice; hmmm] where the Snape act would be sneeringly sardonic, but otherwise...

[blinks, throws up hands] No, no, I'm NOT going to go down the "casting the Realms" road again. No no no. :}

Back to the book. Yes, something of the vignettes-succeeding-yet-more vignettes nature of the second part of the book was forced on me by the telescoping (my trying not to go WAY over my wordcount) of the story, and part of it was my realization that I can't tell this story with its proper grounding and impact at all if I don't share with the reader something of the Cormyr that's always been in my head, but hasn't made it into print. Hence the Tana/Vangey scene, the Spurbright scene, the Crownsilver scenes, the Espar as backcountry touches, Dauntless growling his way around Arabel, and so on. You'll see more of Dauntless in DRAGONFIRE, by the way. I also had to show a little of Jhessail mastering magic (editorial changes at that "blasting the monsters at the pit" scene, by the way, clumsily turned my "battlestrike" [what folk IN THE REALMS often call a magic missile spell, into "magic missile").

Azoun remains of necessity a little distant in this book, and appears only briefly in DRAGONFIRE, but between the two books and the framing scenes in the Realmslore web columns, throughout most of 2006, I'm determined to bring him increasingly into focus for Realms readers, as a real and understandable guy.

And yes, the book was of course meant to shock and stun with the losses in its final third. Deaths are meaningless to modern readers (and television watchers) if they aren't allowed to (and guided into) caring about the characters before they get taken down. Remember, my hands are SOMEWHAT tied in SWORDS OF EVENINGSTAR, in that I'm retelling "real" Realmslore (i.e. home campaign "what the PCs did" roleplaying history). Certain characters died, and I had to include those "facts," however I might have wanted to alter things for the sake of the unfolding story.

You're quite correct in seeing that MOST Cormyrean nobles privately grumble and gossip about unseating the Obarskyrs (or at least whichever particular one is on the throne, just now), or even leisurely plot and scheme about it (as a drinking and chuckling sport) far more than they ever actually DO anything that'll get their heads chopped off (nobles are beheaded with swords for high treason, and exiled for low treason like trying to besmirch the reputation of a royal by spreading lies or luring a royal into imprudent behaviour). It takes an outside agent aiding, abetting, or sponsoring, or organizing, or otherwise goading them to get most REAL dangers to the throne (as opposed to just opportunistic murder attempts) into the "working" stage. Yes, you were meant to pity Lord Crownsilver - - and HIS tale isn't over yet, either. :}

I avoided playing the "Azoun's host of bastards" card because I only had one book to work within, not a shelf full of novels I'd be allowed to write, and it was supposed to be titled (and therefore - - truth in advertising, y'know - - had better BE the story of the) SWORDS OF EVENINGSTAR. Not all those illegitimates. Now, there IS an adventuring company running around the Realms right now that's almost entirely made up of Azoun's illegitimate children, but that's another story...

As for their being invisible, that's just it: darn near every large noble house, and a lot of common-born families, too, has one. So they don't stand out as unusual - - and of course they function as full members of the families they're formally part of (remember, some older male nobles are enraged by the King's dalliances with their wives, but lots of Cormyreans are PROUD that he visited their beds, or a bed just down the street from them, and don't frown on either Azoun's behaviour or the result. So in one sense writing a book concentrating on Azoun's bastards would be like writing a book concentrating on half the men in an average-sized town: they may share a common sire, but they're all different from each other, doing different things, living different lives, and NOT all wanting to end up at Court with a title and royal recognition, either.

Not every adventuring band has the "ripple effect" that the Swords did, here. That's part of why they rose to prominence; they happened to be in the right place at the right time (or, you know, the wrong place at the wrong...), to be the catalyst for a lot of things that had been building. So not every adventuring company has the impact they did, and in particular very few NOVICE adventuring bands stir up things anything like the Swords did.

The telescoping is why all the deaths seem to pile up thick and fast in the later chapters of the book; it isn't typical of adventuring sessions, where PCs very rarely die, and Total Party Kills only occur if parties really do stupid things and then stubbornly don't try to back out or flee. Good roleplayers who know the Realms rarely even think of doing those "stupid things."

As for doing a young Alusair trilogy: I'd LOVE to. For a variety of reasons (yes, those shields suddenly looming close, all around us, are indeed NDAs, so spare your questions), I don't think I'll get the chance, but... ah, it would have been nice to write about nine or ten Cormyr trilogies that all dovetail into a tapestry of Cormyr from about the time of Azoun IV setting off as a youthful adventurer up to right now, Realms time. I'm sure everyone's noticed by now how I keep sneaking back to the Forest Kingdom, in book after book (Elminster's Daughter? Got to get her out of Waterdeep straight away and into Cormyr, of course).

The "guest stars," as you term them, are to me a vital part of any Realms novel. I don't mean that Elminster or Drizzt should wander through the pages of every book, I mean that to capture the illusion of this fantasy world as a living, breathing place, it's very important not to have main characters wander through what seems like a passive pastoral backdrop until they show up, with all the "big guns" away on vacations, missing, bedridden, busy behind locked doors, etc. I don't mean the guest stars should each become the handy deus ex machina of every plot, nor that every book should peer at rulers or nobles or other "peak of power" characters, but the world should feel as if everyone's active in it doing lots of interesting things, not that Faerûn holds its breath and watches One Big Event that the novel follows.

I will answer your question about the right way to start courting Cormyrean princesses in the Ask Eddie 07 thread, when I get to it (it's near the top of the heap of queries, but that's a big heap), but entering the peerage is NOT the right way to go about it EXCEPT in the way you mention (when noble is an adventurer personally ennobled for deeds). In general, recent Obarskyrs have wanted to wed commoners (especially wealthy ones) or nobles from other lands far away, where such unions don't give the other land any claims to the Dragon Throne. Filfaeril was an exception (a return to the old way of doing things, which is considered unwise because it pits established noble family against established noble family, increasing social tensions for generations).

You'll see more of Arabel (albeit briefly) in SWORDS OF DRAGONFIRE, and yes, it is a city that, like Marsember, is inhabited by a lot of people that just want to get on with their lives, a lot more who welcome the protection against outlaws and roving monster bands and orc hordes and marauding monsters, and the law and order within the walls, that Cormyr's rule gives them, and a small minority that fiercely hates this "oppression" and will seize any chance they get to "throw off the yoke" and rebel. Again. The timing of this trilogy isn't quite right for Gondegal, and his rising really deserves an entire book, which (given that he escaped into the mists of Ravenloft) couldn't have a narratively very satisfying ending. However, there is a long, long list of "stories I'd love to tell someday," and that's on it. I'm not expecting that particular someday to ever come, but who knows?

Thanks for the praise and the critical look, and I'm glad you enjoyed the book; I hope you'll like SWORDS OF DRAGONFIRE, which inevitably involves a lot more character vignettes and the ever-burgeoning cast featured in them.

So saith Ed.

Who for my money is a far better writer than most who've risen within the gaming field. I know many like to sneer at his work, but that "many" includes very few editors, because he's one of the busiest working writers I've ever encountered (and I've been involved in various professional ways in publishing for the last thirty years or so).

love,
THO

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January 12, 2007: Ask and ye shall receive (ahem, as has been said before).

Hello again, fellow scribes. This time Ed tackles one of those thorny questions of faith, as posed by Ethriel and amplified by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin, as follows:

Ethriel: "Here's a question: Is every last soul that doesn't have a faith simply doomed no matter what? Including children that die before they can embrace a deity? In one short story, a mother commits suicide to save her child on the Fugue Plane, is the kid done for anyways? Later on, another kid dies and finds himself on the Fugue Plane without God's guidance, ending with him walking off with the kid... are we to expect a 'and they burned in hell' coda?

Also, how about Zaknafein in the Drizzt books, since he's apparently at peace in a 'better place?'

Is there light that can be shed?"

and:

Rinonalyrna Fathomlin: "I just want to comment that this subject greatly interests me as well... and comes very close to certain real-world beliefs about what happens when innocent children die before being inducted into a particular religious faith."

Ed replies:

Firstly: I cannot comment on Zak; that's a question for Bob to answer in his own way, at a time of his choosing.

Secondly: please remember there's no "God's guidance" in the Realms in a singular sense; the Realms has many gods, not One. Nor does the Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, etc. "burn in hell" coda to be expected or necessarily follows.

Thirdly: No soul is doomed through an inability to make choices, only by the choices that soul has made.

In other words, innocents do not have a single predetermined fate (despite the propaganda of some Faerûnian sages and churches; i.e. what you may have read in various published adventures or sourcebooks).

There are (obviously) many gaps in the knowledge folk of Faerûn have of their own cosmology, and even more in what we gamers and readers know of it; there are errors and omissions in the published canon (and NOTHING is eternal, as the changing divine roster and multiverse views prove).

I cannot (NDAs again) close all those gaps, clean up all the fuzzy bits, and Reveal All, here or in print anywhere soon. So you'll just have to trust me when I say that all souls have fates, mortals cannot yet know all of those fates nor reliably know what fate a specific innocent soul will end up experiencing. So whatever a DM decides, holds true for that campaign and that soul - - but any wise DM will discuss religious beliefs with all of his/her players beforehand, and establish the "comfortable for all" ground rules. This is definitely a place where the game should be tailored to each group of gamers. I have never been a fan of either predestiny or absolutes - - and if you examine the D&D rules carefully and dispassionately, throughout all their editions, neither is the game system. It embraces concepts of good and evil, of achievement and teamwork, of ethical and religious belief and system, but it is posited on player characters having freedom in their actions (hence, "beating" predestination), and having to make life choices continually (arguing against absolutes).

This "wiggle room" or "elbow room" is the space we all need to tell stories and have adventures.

So saith Ed.

In yet another classic reply. I'm very glad he never wanted to go into politics except on the local, "fix this problem or injustice" level; we might never have had the Realms...

love to all,
THO

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January 13, 2007: Hi again, everyone. Ed continues to deal with short, easily-answered recent queries, this time turning to Malcolm's query: "Dear Ed and THO,

Mention of the Heralds made me wonder: do actors putting together costumes, assassins and thieving guilds making up disguises, etc. run into problems with the Heralds?

If an actor playing Azoun IV (in a theater in Westgate or Sembia, where the authorities wouldn't mind an unflattering portrayal of Obarskyr kings at all) uses the royal arms to tell the audience he's pretending to be King Azoun, is that a Heralds' "no-no"? Or a tolerated exception?"

Ed replies:

It's a tolerated exception, on a stage, or in a tavern taproom or inn common-room, wherein costumes and minicry (the satirical social comment of the day) is perfectly allowed (i.e. ignored by the Heralds) for actors, bards, minstrels, and just plain folks.

What worries the Heralds is deliberate, intended-to-fool-an-audience deception (someone writing a letter purporting to be the king, or trying to give orders whilst passing himself off as a knight, noble, or monarch).

Assassins and thieves are by nature 'in trouble' with the Heralds but usually don't care a whit about being so; actors are indeed "tolerated exceptions."

So saith Ed, Creator of the Heralds and King Azoun (and Cormyr and Westgate, too).

love to all,
THO

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On January 14, 2007 THO said: Oh, Charles, you've made this aging girl VERY happy.

*[happy sigh]*

At last, AT LAST, a post from a reader who 'gets it.' I'm so pleased to read this passage, in particular:

"It's a tragedy now and actually explains why he's such a huge lech, the guy needs every human connection he can. It also explains him and the Simbul which had me confused for a while....both are utterly crazy over the power they wield and want to be rid of it but dare not."

I'm sure Ed will eventually have a reply to send back to you, but I couldn't wait that long to express my pleasure.

Ed has been writing things at this level for years, and I get SO tired of reading all the "Elmonster is obviously Greenwood's wish fulfillment, bring on Driz-zit and chop the dirty old man up" posts.

Thank you.

love,
THO

(Reply about the Temptation of Elminster novel)

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January 14, 2007: Exactly, Charles. Well said. (Ed, of course, will reply on this, too, in the fullness of time.)

Well, hi, all!

I bring you another lore answer from Ed, this time to WalkerNinja's question: "Are the three major families of Melvaunt significantly invested in Melvauntan real-estate? If so, what percentage is owned by them?"

Ed replies:

They are indeed, and although percentages change over time, their expansion as landlords was sharply curtailed about a decade ago when local shopkeepers started allying with outlander investors to thwart loan foreclosures and to outbid the "True Masters" (as folk of Melvaunt took to calling the Nanthers, Leiyraghons, and Bruils). This secretly relieved the Leiyraghons and Bruils, who'd been bleeding themselves white trying to keep up with the Nanthers - - and very much relieved independent landowners all over the city, who feared being squeezed out of their own city, particularly after the Nanthers started using beatings and arson (via hired agents hired by other agents rather than directly, of course) to "persuade" landowners to sell, rather than their former tactic of just offering so much coin that only a fool would refuse (though a greater fool would accept and then try to continue living in Melvaunt, without expecting another agent of the Nanthers to come along and try to steal or coerce the money right back out of their coffers).

So for the last eight to ten years things have been rather stable, and are as follows (SHOP means percentage of shops and retail spaces; WARE means percentage of warehouse, shipping, and goods storage cellars; PH means private housing space, not including rental rooms above shops, which are included under SHOP; in all cases, we're speaking only of property within the walls of Melvaunt):

Nanther: SHOP 49, WARE 56, PH 31

Leiyraghon: SHOP 27, WARE 21, PH 12

Bruil: SHOP 19, WARE 11, PH 16

So saith Ed, Creator of Melvaunt, and there you have it.

The City of Swords is a tense place, as you might imagine.

love to all,
THO

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January 15, 2007: Hi again, all. I bring you this time Ed's response to a question from Thangorn: "Greetings Ed & THO, I trust the creation of new facets of the realms is coming along smoothly. Further to my question regarding Zhentish "nobility" I wanted to ask you a quick question about Storm Silverhand.

When you think about Storm's musical abilities and what she actually might sound like when performing are there any real life contemporaries/parallels that come to mind? Thanks"

Ed replies:

I love this question, though answering it properly has been (as you'll read) something of a struggle for me.

Storm has a deep, rich voice. She lacks the "shrieking edge" that, say, Loreena McKennitt or Maddy Prior achieve all too often, or Sinead O'Connor or Candice Night (of Blackmore's Night) take on when "pushing" their voices, but her harping is often similar to McKennitt's. Her lute-work is close to Paul O'Dette (as on ROBIN IS TO THE GREENWOOD GONE).

Her voice tends to be gentle and clear (like much of Enya's singing), though again, lower-pitched than Enya. About the pitch of Chrissy Hyde's singing voice (at least in her lowest passages on the "unplugged" live version of "Chain Gang"), but Storm has a richer, fuller voice than hers.

Actually, Gordon Lightfoot in his prime had a pitch that's "pretty close" for Storm, but of course a different (male) vocal quality.

Many alto opera singers have the pitch I'm trying to describe, but of course have trained, full, "finished" voices, and I'm trying to convey that Storm instead has a soft, smooth, clear, usually gentle voice ("Enya delivery," I've heard it called). When I try to describe it in terms of popular singers, I'm trying to avoid people who become shrill when they go up in pitch (something you'll hear in everyone from Joni Mitchell through Buffy and Baez to Carole King) and also trying to avoid the "whiskey 'n' cigarettes" roughness of many black female blues vocalists, from, say, Bessie Smith on.

Storm can also mimic the voices of others, as well as birdcalls, trumpets, and so on, and often works these effects into her performances. So she CAN sound like a trilling bird or a breathy little girl when she wants to.

I'll keep searching for performances I think capture the vocal quaity I'm trying to describe, and post it via THO when I find them.

So saith Ed.

I've heard some of this before (before his throat surgery, Ed was an accomplished choral singer, and could and often did imitate Storm and other NPCs singing; since then, he mainly describes them).

love to all,
THO

Hello again, fellow scribes. This time I come bearing a surprise from Ed, a follow-up for Thangorn:

Aha. Your mention of music for Storm put me in mind of a 'set' of music I cobbled together for use for Storm's performances. Here are a few real-world musical selections I've used, in the format: song/ group/one of the CDs or albums the song appears on. An asterisk indicates music I feel is especially "key" or "core" to Storm.

The Prickly Bush/Steeleye Span/Time
The Weaver/Steeleye Span/TheCollection: Steeleye Span In Concert [live version]
*Dawn of the Day/Steeleye Span/Tonight's The Night
[[Maddy Prior's vocals on "Dawn of the Day" are a little high in pitch and on two passages too "sharp/piercing/edgy," but otherwise, this IS Storm]]
Honest Work/Maddy Prior/Flesh & Blood
Who Am I?/Maddy Prior/Flesh & Blood
Reynardine/Maddy Prior/Arthur the King
Elspeth of Nottingham/Focus/Focus III [note: instrumental]
Lord Baker/Sinead O'Connor/Sean-Nos Nua
Push/Sarah McLachlan/Juno Awards 2005 [live version]
Unrelated Thing/They Might Be Giants/John Henry
Afterglow/Genesis/Seconds Out [live version]
More Fool Me/Genesis/Selling England By The Pound
*Broadsword/Jethro Tull/Broadsword and the Beast
Minstrel Hall/Blackmore's Night/Shadows of the Moon [note: instrumental]
Home Again/Blackmore's Night/Fires At Midnight
Crowning of the King/Blackmore's Night/Fires At Midnight
Bonny Portmore/Lorenna McKennitt/The Visit
The Lady of Shalott/Lorenna McKennitt/The Visit
*I Cried For Us/Kate & Anna McGarrigle/Love Over And Over
*The Bike Song/Kate & Anna McGarrigle/Matapedia
*Alexandra Leaving/Leonard Cohen/Ten New Songs
Love Itself/Leonard Cohen/Ten New Songs
The Faith/Leonard Cohen/Dear Heather
*Isabella/Enya/Only Time: The Collection
Anywhere Is/Enya/Only Time: The Collection
*Cheerio/Jethro Tull/Broadsword and the Beast

Please note that these aren't "Eddie's Musical Favourites" (and are by no means all "medieval" in sound. But they DO evoke Storm for me and for my "home" campaign Realms gamers.

So saith Ed.

Whose eclectic taste in music (everything from Kipper Family to Ketelby, Barenaked Ladies to Bonzo Dog Doodah Band, and Rush - - who played at his high school back when he was attending it - - to Respighi) has always amazed me.

He has been, at various times, a lousy piano player, adequate recorder player, nice deep bass chorister, good mimic of others (Stanley Holloway, Flanders & Swann - - and he once imitated Noel Coward well enough for a high school play for the recording to fool some Coward-fan parents in the audience into thinking it WAS Coward, and storming the stage after the performance to find out where to get this "unknown" Coward recording they didn't own!), adequate rock bass player, and a bad rock drummer.

Now, he tells me, he's launched a new career as a sometime singer in the bathtub.

love to all,
THO

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January 16, 2007: Hi again, all. This time I bring an answer from Ed to Charles Phipps, re. this query (which Ed loved, by the way): "Well, third time's a charm, and let's hope Ed can find the time to answer this one since I have NOOOooooo idea how to answer this one when my player introduced it.

What would be the requirements of someone to genuinely pay court to Alusair for a potential husband as opposed to just another of her many consorts (which doesn't seem that difficult)?

The players are heroes in Cormyr even as I'm considering helping the need along for a royal match with poor King Azoun the Fifth, ill-fated boy that he seems to be (Gods help whomever is successfully in ending his young life)"

Ed replies:

I'm going to begin by assuming that in your Realms campaign, Alusair is Steel Regent, Filfaeril is the Dowager Dragon Queen, and the infant Azoun the Fifth is alive and well. I am further assuming that the suitor is a human male (non-humans or half-breeds are another can of worms entirely, as would be a same-gender or multiple-partners union).

The first requirement to be a genuine suitor for Alusair is to meet with her approval. She's a VERY shrewd judge of self-interested manipulators, can and has taken her sexual fill of almost anyone she wants, when she wants (yes, both male and female, though she vastly prefers the lads), has been taught very well by her parents and Vangerdahast as to Cormyrean law, lore, and where skeletons are buried or in closets realm-wide. She is very strong-minded, and will marry no one she doesn't want to. (In MY Realms campaign, she'll probably never marry, and certainly not while still Regent.) In short, she isn't "burning to be loved or cherished," and won't easily fall for anyone.

The second requirement to be a suitor with any hope of success is suitability for the realm. Alusair is NOT going to go for a Sembian (Cormyr sees Sembia as trying to take it over, and the people would definitely see such a union as a way to do this) or a powerful arcane spellcaster (the commoners are already a little unhappy about the War Wizards in general and Vangerdahast in particular, like Caladnei because she's young and not seen as anything like Vangey's match in magical power or love of scheming; they would see any powerful wizard or sorcerer suitor as someone who'll use magic to control Alusair, and turn the kingdom into a tyranny). Powerful priests are "out" for the same reason; the realm has long resisted a state religion or any dominant role of one faith, preferring the secular leadership of the Crown, enforced by the Purple Dragons bolstered by the necessary evil of the War Wizards, because they see every Dragon as "one of us."

In like manner, a blood member of one of the major noble families is also unacceptable, because of the very real fear of civil war: advance one noble family (plus its noble allies; more will quickly leap onto the bandwagon) over the others, and pretenders to the throne will pop up all over the realm, thrust forward by ambitious nobles (it's a regency, remember, with over a hundred known bastards of Azoun in every noble family and many common-born ones, too). A minor noble heritage - - as long as the individual is clearly NOT a bastard of Azoun (because if he is, we'll be plunged back into the "well, our bastard is just as good as your bastard, and probably better" - - bolstered by the fact that Alusair is unlikely to "go for" the oldest of her father's bastards, given that they're much her senior in age, which means her chosen one will have a lesser, junior claim to the Dragon Throne than many of the rival claimants) WOULD be acceptable, but even then risks the "dark danger" of civil strife, because outcast noble families in Westgate and elsewhere, Inner Sea pirates who want freedom to operate, and Sembian interests who want to see Cormyr go down or be conquered by them, will all see a lovely opportunity to sponsor rebellions or at least rival claimants, whispering to, and working through, noble families of Cormyr they trade with daily (promising THEM the throne, if the bid succeeds).

Alaphondar, the Highknights, the War Wizards, and all of the Obarskyrs know this danger very well, and Alusair has been raised to be ever-wary of it; she's NOT going to imperil her realm because of any potential mate. So the only "acceptable" sort of nobility, in her eyes (and those of the realm, though the nobles will sneer) is a commoner - - yes, even an adventurer - - raised to the nobility for their service to Cormyr. An outlander adventurer with a "respectable" past (nobility or wealth) would be ideal, so long as they're from some place too far away (such as Waterdeep) to be seen as gaining a dangerous claim to Cormyr through the marriage. (Amn WOULD be seen as a danger, as it's large, ambitious, trades extensively with Cormyr, and has long wanted an "arm touching the Inner Sea.")

Finally, folk from Thay or Zhentil Keep or Calimshan haven't much hope: the former two places are seen as corrupted by the Red Wizards and Zhentarim (so any representative "must" be a spy or tool of those evil organizations, who want to enslave - - and experiment on - - us all), and there's sufficient racism in Cormyr against Calishites ("they're all slavers, aren't they?") to make them truly unpopular in any position of power.

The third requirement for suitors is a clean local past: since arriving in Cormyr, has the individual publicly butchered any "just plain folks" (law-abiding Cormyreans who aren't running amok with weapons, or nobles scheming against the Crown, or agents of the Zhents or other outlander sinister powers)? Have they spoken out against guilds or nobles or Crown laws or institutions? Have they worked too closely with one noble house (especially of Arabel or Marsember)? Have they demonstrated a brutal, mad, or disloyal to Cormyr personal character? Cormyreans admire those who stand up for themselves, or for justice (as opposed to "blindly-applied law" or "nobles throwing their weight in coins around"), but they are wary of tyrants and all who consider themselves "better than the next man." They will also mistrust anyone who's made a living by thievery.

Then, of course, matters will proceed according to the performance of the would-be suitor: how does he approach Alusair? Does he anger key courtiers, or make enemies of powerful nobles? Can nobles manipulate him into blunders? Does he do anything that can be seen as seeking Alusair's hand for personal gain?

This could be a great long-term, ongoing roleplaying opportunity. Alusair is independent and likes her freedom; she won't mind a marriage to someone who will be a good, loyal war-leader for the realm, her trusted eyes when she has to be elsewhere, and who isn't so submissive as to bore her, but does give way to her doing just as she pleases in matters of bedding partners she chooses, maintaining her close friendships with "her lords" (the young male nobles she's always ridden with, and latterly commanded). Does her suitor want her to bear his children? Will he agree beforehand to a morganatic marriage (wherein his children are specifically and formally NOT part of the succession to the Dragon Throne)? Alusair would prefer a man who doesn't want children, and will agree to such conditions "before all the Court," with written contract and all, before their wedding.

I could on for pages and pages of this thread discussing possibilities and permutations, but would quickly reach the "if this, then that, but on the other hand, if this other thing, then blah blah blah" stage; I can say little useful until I know more specifics of the unfolding situation. (So, if you want to keep me posted as your campaign play unfolds, and would like my "okay, that'll cause X and Y" comments, go right ahead...)

Everything I've said here could be learned by a would-be suitor who sat down with a friendly (or well-paid) local sage, senior Purple Dragon, War Wizard (who'd promptly report the entire conversation, earning the PC spies and magically farscrying eavesdroppers, from that moment on), senior courtier (ditto the War Wizard's reporting-in), elderly noble patriarch or matriarch of a minor no-axe-to-grind house, or one of the Suzail-based wealthy retired men and women who view doings at Court as their daily entertainment - - and follow all the gossip avidly.

You've got me interested, Charles; go for it!

So saith Ed.

I, too, want to hear what happens! What say, Charles?

love to all,
THO

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On January 17, 2007 THO said: Easy, Dargoth, easy, there!

Ed tells me the delay is his fault.

Wizards still have Waterdeep News items by him, but have run out of both Realmslore and Border Kingdoms entries (assuming we've had all three High Mukshar instalments; I've not checked)

- - and he's been too blamed busy with [NDA and NDA, so assume still-secret WotC projects, as well as helping XXX with NDA] to get any more ready, yet.

Ed says this past year has been scheduling hell for him; 4 novels, 3 game products and assists with others, about 30 webcolumns, a dozen or so short stories, and lots of "incidental writing, editing, and critiquing." (And, of course, he does have a day job, chairs a library board, helped get a local mayor elected, speaks to school classes, at cons, and seniors' and literary groups, yadda yadda heaping yadda...)

So please be patient; Ed will get new lore to Wizards as soon as he can!

love,
THO

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January 18, 2007: Hello again, all. This time Ed gives a swift response to a question from Rolindin: "First Mr. Greenwood I would like to say I enjoy reading your writings on the FR page. The question I have for you; have you thought about writing a part three to the Coinkind?"

Ed replies:

As per my Realms agreements and NDAs, I can't confirm forthcoming Realmslore column topics, but let me hint: I HAVE entertained such thoughts, yes. :}

So saith Ed.

Such a subtle hinter, eh?

This dovetails with WalkerNinja's suggestion. By all means run such a poll, because Ed now has more freedom than he started out with. Initially, he would suggest a long list of topics and send it in, and at the WotC end, topics would be approved or nixed, and Ed would then set to work on the surviving ones. I understand things have become more flexible.

love,
THO

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January 19, 2007: Hi, all. Another swift-n-simple answer from Ed this time, to Kuje re. this: "Ed, I'm curious about something. :)

Has any dracolich ever turned into a dragon form of a demilich? So, I guess it would be a demi-dracolich."

Ed replies:

Yes. Details (monster stats, name of this sort of beast, etc.) are currently NDA. The reason? A staff designer contemplating writing a Realms novel asked me about this before 3e. We talked, certain things were decided, along came 3e, and nothing's yet appeared - - but of course that means the NDA is still in force. I'll check privately, but please don't try to 'read' anything into my silence if I fail to speak again on this matter (for the reasons given here most recently in a response to WalkerNinja).

So saith Ed.

"Aha!" and so forth.

love to all,
THO

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January 20, 2007: Hello again, scribes. This time Ed tackles the first of several related questions about wills posed by Charles Phipps and Rinonalyrna Fathomlin.

This one's from Charles Phipps: "And for a completely random question. Did Azoun have a will? Was there anything left to his rather extensive spawn?"

Ed replies:

I'm assuming here that by "rather extensive spawn" you mean his illegitimate offspring. On the legitimate side of the roster, Azoun and Filfaeril had a son who died very young and two daughters, who would seem to be about the bare minimum for securing the succession in a perilous, often-at-war kingdom.

Yes, he had a will, although as THO rightly pointed out, it covers personal possessions and wealth rather than "state" property like the crown jewels, thrones, castles, palaces, et cetera (which are inherited or passed along according to specific Crown laws or long-standing tradition).

Azoun left a tiny amount to "any issue of my three children Foril, Tanalasta, and Alusair, whether recognized by me or not" (in other words, legitimate grandchildren he might be unaware of, if any).

However, he left absolutely nothing at all to his numerous illegitimate offspring.

It would be a Very Bold Political Move Indeed (on the dead monarch's part) if Azoun left anything to any bastard offspring (as opposed to quietly giving them money, lands, or a building during his lifetime, which is "okay," often done, and by tradition overlooked by the Court, other Obarskyrs, the rest of the nobles, etc.) in his will, and he didn't.

Azoun has so many bastard offspring that gifting things to a few of them would probably turn out to be an unofficial death sentence for any illegitimates thus 'anointed.'

If a monarch of Cormyr only had one to four bastards, or one plus some legitimate children, or any combination of legitimate and a handful of bastards, recognizing the bastards in a will would be a very likely way to start a civil war (as opportunistic nobles "backed" rival bastard claimants).

Monarchs of Cormyr are taught this, and their Court Wizards (the "other hat" worn by Vangey) and Royal Sages (Alaphondar) know it and hammer it home to all royals they're training; no sane Obarskyr would do such a thing except perhaps out of spite, as a deliberate attempt to wreck the kingdom after their own passing.

So saith Ed.

Who will reply to the other related queries over the next few days.

love to all,
THO

Hi again, all. Discussion of wills continues herein, as Rinonalyrna Fathomlin posted: "You know, I work in my county's Surrogate's Office (where we probate wills, handle administrations, and so forth), and I've actually wondered about what wills are like in the Forgotten Realms, and how similar they are to our own...and what the wills of certain characters would be like (including Azoun)."

and Charles Phipps responded: "Yes, some will info would be lovely in general though I meant specific.

I can imagine given some of the Realms events that plenty of interesting will sessions could be read. Elminster has seemed to have died so often that I imagine that he uses it solely to clean out his Hut of Junk. I also assume there's an equivalent of "Do not resurrect" in some wills. I further wonder if one loses all property on death even if one is resurrected ;-)

(Hopefully, relatives will be nice enough to give it back)"

Ed replies:

I'll say more in general about wills later, when I can. Suffice it to say that they vary widely in specifics from place to place, but wherever there's an entrenched nobility in the Realms, and a wealthy merchant class, clear rules and rights of inheritance soon develop - - or disputes tear that city or realm apart.

To get a little specific about Cormyr: Cormyrean law holds that nobles can't be resurrected AND retain their "blood rights" (i.e. they can come back, but they lose inheritances, even if "the last one" of a family; property reverts to the Crown; so if they die when young and are raised, this is usually kept secret in an attempt to avoid later problems; for non-royals, there's an exception in the case of children who've not yet been presented at Court; they CAN be raised and still be considered "legitimate," but the moment they've been confirmed as heirs or fullblood family members In the Royal Presence, death will thereafter disinherit them).

Obarskyrs can be resurrected, but again, reigning monarchs who are "brought back" lose their crowns and all blood status, and the act of bringing them back is high treason (i.e. persons doing it will be executed).

The "returned" former monarch is gelded (if male) and magically made barren (and in at least one case, was sewn up physically), and exiled, often after War Wizard mind-tampering to remove some of their memories.

In most cases, the returned monarch either openly and deliberately committed suicide or submitted to being magically blasted to ash, for "all to see" (to prevent endless strife with nobles kidnapping them and forcibly breeding them, or magically controlling them as puppet rival monarchs), or was quietly watched, followed, and "killed off Cormyrean soil" a few days after being exiled.

Yes, I know this is all "news" to most scholars of matters Cormyrean. 'Tis a subject I'll say more of, someday.

Royals who aren't reigning in their own right when killed, can be resurrected without losing their inheritance (full status). By saying "reigning in their own right" here, I'm pointing out that any Regent (such as Alusair) could be killed, brought back, and would still count as a legitimate heir if the deaths of others later left her with the closest claim to the throne.

Most of this is academic Court and sage debate, by the way; when real crises of succession happen, in Cormyr and elsewhere, the sword (as in, support of the most nobles, for bastards or usurpers or whomever) will usually rule the day.

So saith Ed.

Who has yet another related question (from Rinonalyrna Fathomlin) to answer tomorrow.

love to all,
THO

Well met again, scribes. As promised, this time Ed tackles a query from Rinonalyrna Fathomlin about inheritances: "Thanks for the information--I can see why wills and laws regarding them might be better off staying on the less-detailed side. I would love it if Ed could give a teensy-bit more information about how Cormyrean law would distribute the assets of an estate (ie. does it always go to next of kin no matter what the deceased person desired?). If not, I understand."

Ed replies:

If a Cormyrean dies and no legitimate blood relative (cousin is closest) survives, property reverts to the Crown. In any event, land, money, and goods are held and administered by the Crown until an heir is located (for nobles: search forever if there's any doubt ("doubt" meaning missing persons who are recorded in the rolls of the Heralds and/or in the ledgers at the Royal Court in Suzail, which are duplicated at another hidden, secret location in the kingdom, thought by most to be a vault in or beneath High Horn, but by some to be an underground "dungeon" reached via portals from somewhere near Jester's Green); for kin of knights: search twelve summers; for commoners: search three years).

Titles, surnames, and the like can't be denied by a deceased: you can leave your son or daughter nothing (or the rebuking "single used copper coin of the realm"), but you can't literally "disown" them. However, the desires of the deceased are generally followed absolutely regarding dispositions to children, with two exceptions: wedded spouses can't be left with little or nothing while children reap the loot; nor can disabled parents, relatives, or spouses; they "must be provided for." The Crown will do this for the truly poor, but it will exact a share from willed property to "ground" its support if Court pursers judge that a deceased tried to leave property to some beneficiaries without "discharging obligations" for support of others (note that the Court considers all matters carefully, dismissing the claims of false relatives or persons who sponge off their kin for years, and then claim they have a right to go on doing so from the estate; War Wizards will mind-read claimants and priests examine their bodies to make sure they're infirm).

With all of this said, when it comes to able-bodied children old enough to fend for themselves (age 12 for males and puberty or 13 for females, whichever comes later), a deceased parents' wishes are usually considered absolute.

If dear old Pa gives Rory the eldest a sack of silver coins and the words "This is more than I started with; go out and win a good life for yourself!" and gives Launcein the younger lad "my wagon and horses, to be given to Master Traevyn in return for prenticing Launcein for two years, as we agreed to" [note: as long as there's either a written agreement, or guild witness, or Traevyn confirms the bargain; otherwise, Launcein just gets the wagon and horses, to do with as he pleases] and gives the youngest, his daughter Mrelda, "the house, such as it is, and with all else therein," to dwell in or sell off or try to make a living taking lodgers or doing laundry or starting a brothel or trying to lure a husband - - the Court is going to accept this, even if the three kids aren't happy. The three kids are free to swap or reach altered distributions among themselves, IF they agree without coercion or dispute - - but if there's any dispute, Court bailiffs (veteran Purple Dragons and senior courtiers, working together and with the support of priests and War Wizards, if they need such) will step in and enforce dead Pa's wishes.

So saith Ed.

That do to work with, Rinonalyrna? I'm sure Ed can say more if you ask narrow-scope specific followups; again, this is a topic he's been as vague as possible on for years, to avoid trammeling novel writers (though he set the Obarskyr rules down years ago, and amended them only slightly when working with Jeff Grubb on that classic of Cormyr lore, CORMYR: A NOVEL).

love to all,
THO

Oooh, good question, George! Off to Ed it goes!

Hello again, all.

This time Ed answers Rinonalyrna Fathomlin, re. this followup: "Actually, there is one more thing I was wondering about: I know that most newer wills contain a self-proving clause that states that the testator was not a minor, was of sound mind, and was under no undue influence or constraint. Is there anything similar to that in Cormyr? Being the fastidiously lawful realm that it is, I figure there might be. Thanks again, Rinonalyrna"

Ed replies:

Yes and no. That is, there are no such written clauses, but there ARE witnesses who sign, mark, stamp, or seal the documents attesting to the very things you mention. As I revealed some years ago, most contracts, trade agreements, and wills in Cormyr (and in wider settled and civilized Faerûn, too) are made before witnesses at a temple (priests) or before magisters (local justices) or "local lords" (administrators installed by the Crown, the equivalents of mayors and police chiefs).

Their marks on a will are only placed there if they believe the testator (not a Realms term, by the way; in the Realms, such persons are known as "utterers") is either of age or is the last living heir of a family (underage nobles can make wills, if they are "the last of their line," as can the sole eneficiaries of family wealth if more than one land property is part of that wealth), is of sound mind, and isn't under constraint or undue influence (this last part is their primary focus; Crown clerks and the local lords they work for will often "guest" an utterer for days, chatting with them over meals and walks alone, to make sure they're not influenced by someone else, as well as making the usual magical examinations).

Except, of course, in cases where no controversy or difficulties are thought to exist. Which from time to time (when hitherto-unknown or thought-to-be-dead heirs or claimants arise) causes future complications, yes.

So saith Ed.

Who thinks things through in the Realms, and over forty years has built up a fair depth of thinking for us all.

love,
THO

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January 22, 2007: Eldath is female.

Red Knight is female but has on occasion used male avatars.

When Ed "invented" divine portfolios (which really means: formalized the concept for the D&D game by assigning specific interests to deities and using the word "portfolio" for them), he speculated on the existence (or not) of a Divine Balance.

His take on it (see many GenCon seminars) is that mortals can only imperfectly understand the nature of divinity.

There may be no balance in a pantheon.

There certainly aren't an orderly array of equally-offsetting portfolios (or as this thread expresses it, "portfolios and their opposities") in the Realms pantheon. Given the chaos factor, there probably can never be.

Yes, having deities opposed on a particular matter (Silvanus vs. Chauntea over plants, as posted) makes for great roleplaying opportunities, but trying to extend this "direct opposition exists" to all topics, and all deities, becomes futile.

This is not my opinion, BTW, this is Ed's take on the world and pantheon he created, as expressed at GenCon seminars and agreed with at those seminars by the successive Realms traffic cops of Jeff Grubb and Steven Schend, and by other TSR and later WotC designers such as Steve Winter, David Wise, Frank Mentzer, etc.

love to all,
THO

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January 25, 2007: Hi again, all. This time, Ed replies to Wooly Rupert, in regard to my mention of Alusair at age thirteen appearing in the forthcoming SWORDS OF DRAGONFIRE: "Speaking of which, how old was she on her visit to the Inn of the Dripping Dagger (the visit mentioned in Volo's Guide to Waterdeep, when the patrons taught her profanity and how to throw daggers)?"

Ed replies:

Late fourteen, as I recall. I can't check all of my relevant notes right now, and one of them implies she might have been "just" fifteen, but I believe fourteen is more likely.

So saith Ed, and checking back on some of my sporadic pencil scribbles, I'm thinking fourteen, too. "Fourteen going on fifteen," as they say.

P.S. Rolindin: the Highknights are the "James Bond" types of secret agents for Cormyr, the War Wizards do most surveillance (aided and abetted by loyal retired Purple Dragons dwelling all over the realm), and (especially outside the borders of the realm) the Harpers assist, too (through the personal relatiponship between Dove and Filfaeril, as shown in Ed's current trilogy about the Knights of Myth Drannor). Ed will of course provide you with a proper reply eventually.

love,
THO

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January 27, 2007: Hello again, scribes. This time Ed makes answer to Rollo Ruttikin, re. this: "Well met Hooded One! I have always wondered about the various Volo's Guides and the assorted recipes for different things like Dragon Stew.

Aside from some of the FR ingredients, are these recipes real or imaginary? Are they inspired by true dishes that one could possibly concoct if one had the time and talent to do so? Of course I realize that certain ingredients would need to be subsituted. Whatever the case may be, Ed sounds like he would be an amazing chef!

This is important to me because I am fat. Thanks!!"

Ed replies:

Amazing eater, yes (or was; for health reasons, I'm having to be far more careful now than I used to be). Amazing chef, no. I've never lived in a household where I've been allowed to do my own thing in the kitchen (except for washing dishes; I wash a LOT of dishes). I learned to cook on Scout camping trips, and am "okay" preparing a VERY limited roster of meals. However, I've watched and listened to many good cooks, read lots of recipes and herblore, and could probably become an average cook, given the opportunity. I'm a fantasy writer, and although I understand seasonings quite well (herbs and spices and how they work or don't work have always fascinated me), those recipes are inventions. I'd treat them with great caution.

If you wanted to make Dragon Stew, for instance, I'd substitute beef or pork for the dragon meat, and then sit down with a large selection of good cookbooks (use a public library if you don't have your own selection already) and compare beef or pork dishes, the procedure and the seasonings, and adjust amounts (and substitute ingredients for my sometimes-fantastical ones). Many published recipes have to be tinkered with, in the kitchen, to make them better, or to work at all - - but when comparing my recipes with "real" recipes, go with the real one, every time!

See page 15 of the 2005 vintage of this thread for my earlier reply on this topic.

So saith Ed.

Whom I know enjoys watching RESTAURANT MAKEOVER or even GOOD EATS and IRON CHEF AMERICA from time to time, when in hotel rooms.

love to all,
THO

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January 27, 2007: Hello, all. This time I bring you Ed of the Greenwood's response to scribe Jamallo Kreen, regarding the 2e sourcebook entitled REALMSPACE: "Who conceived the idea of Those Who Walk -- the hundreds of thousands of people who walk endlessly in a perfect (?) circle within the crystal sphere of Realmspace? Ed? "Slade"? Some long-forgotten editor at TSR? Inquiring DMs want to know."

Ed replies:

So far as I know, Slade created Those Who Walk. When in arrived at TSR pre-GenCon one year, Bruce Heard (then Acquisitions Manager for TSR, which meant he handled all freelancers, including me) asked me to review Slade's draft manuscript for the book, and Those Who Walk were in it then.

So saith Ed.

Who is often nostalgic for the zany TSR past (from the safe distance of someone who never had to work there).

love to all,
THO

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January 29, 2007: My, it's gone all quiet, all of a sudden...

Hi again, all. This time I have Ed's answer for Tormtar, re. this: "Dear Ed and THO, a couple of questions based around the same main theme: A member of my group recently asked me about the state of education in Faerun. Now, as a university history lecturer, it got me thinking. How are the offspring of nobles educated in Faerun (although I know it will vary geographically and culturally)? Are they taught by a number of personal tutors (probably drawn from relatives, local lower ranking clergy, specifically employed sages and even specialised family retainers) or are they sent to organised institutions (colleges or universities) as is hinted at in the 'Enlightened Student' entry in Champions of Valour? Also, how do the merchant classes educate their children (in cities with extensive guilds I would imagine that they play a role in organising and perhaps delivering education)? Finally, not to leave the common folk out, how are the children of commoner's educated (if at all)? Are there certain faiths out there which attempt to provide education?

Thanks to both of you for providing any info you can amidst your hectic schedules and thanks for taking the time to provide us with so much Realms Lore in the first place."

Ed replies:

The simple answer is: it varies greatly from place to place.

Everyone can receive VERY basic instruction in tasks from local guilds (along the lines of "don't do this, or you'll blow yourself up/cut yourself; instead, call in the guild!"), in local lore from local courtiers/civic scribes ("that property belongs to Lhannath the miller, from the old dead felsul down to the creek; formerly it belonged to the weaver Rustragus, and before that - - I have all the dates here"), and from priests of almost all faiths about who the gods are, what their portfolios and beliefs are, where their temples and current civic projects are, and so on (with emphasis on the beneficial importance of their own faith, of course, but with very little "lying" propaganda; in the polytheistic Realms, it's considered a sin by all to deceive about any faith).

There are "high" sages (researchers, too expensive for most folk below the wealthy merchant or guild level, and often consulted by rulers and nobles) and "low" sages (neighborhood shopkeepers who dispense small-scale information from their acquired knowledge and personal libraries; the former sort of learning tends to be very good, and the latter repeats any errors that might be in their books; most commoners hire low sages to tutor their children, on specific matters, building on what they can get for free from priests). The high sages are the ones who debate with each other, write chapbooks, and sponsor adventurers to recover lost books (or pay well for books brought to them "on spec").

Much common knowledge is built up locally from gossip, rants and facts in chapbooks, and from talking with peddlers and caravans stopping in town overnight; minstrels and caravan workers make many coins carrying or delivering messages, and telling "the news" (sometimes colorful invented stories). That's why caravans are so socially important in waystop settlements like Shadowdale.

Bards, heralds, and various faiths (particularly monastic orders) set up organized schools, but the vast majority of these are in large cities (e.g. Waterdeep and Silverymoon), and of these urban schools, the majority are "academies" (which function as what we could call "finishing schools" - - that is, although they impart lore, their primary purpose is to teach etiquette, deportment, an accent, fashion do's and don'ts, a world-view, and so on, so as to aid in social climbing or success).

Private tutors are much used among the nobility, who often want to have their young disciplined without doing such distasteful work personally, AND want all the results of a good academy [see above] without "the rabble" knowing their little Launsarra went to Madame Theorla's Peerless Academy of Social Quality [if Launsarra does turn up at such a place, it either means her family is too impoverished to hire a good tutor, or more likely Launsarra beats and terrorizes tutors, or even poisons them or pushes them off balconies, when her temper gets the better of her].

You are quite correct as to the origins of most tutors (add old impoverished nobles from elsewhere, plus retired military officers, to the list for weapons-training and discipline).

Yes, the larger guilds often establish tutors in more than just the "hands on" work of the guild, but these tend to be for guild members only, and not made known to the wider public at all. Some guilds "grow" this arm of their staff into private investigators (because they want to know what rival guilds are up to, courtiers are planning or thinking about them, and so on), and said staff often hire adventurers "of discretion" to handle the more dangerous eavesdropping, kidnapping, spying, and thieving assignments involved.

Lastly, the level of common education varies greatly from place to place, depending on the attitudes of rulers. In general, the trading places (such as Amn, Sembia, and Waterdeep) want a literate populace who can do basic math; it cuts down on cheating, unrest, and theft, and provides more customers hungry for "wonders from afar" and with coin enough to buy such things. Commoners in places with militias (such as Cormyr) are trained and drilled in local geography, map-reading, discipline and taking orders, the local chain of command/how to access local lords and their staff to report or demand things, how to read and write, how to draw way-symbols and interpret them, and so on. Purple Dragons get posted all over the realm, and so have a wider world-view and pick up all sorts of local lore, such as the brands used by local horse-breeders, where specific sorts of caravan-goods come from, and so on; as so many folk everywhere have done military or militia service, this gives most of the population a shared grounding in lore.

So saith Ed.

Who added to me that he could go on for pages and pages, but simply hasn't the time. As usual.

love to all,
THO

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On January 29, 2007 THO said: Yes, they can, Jhiroth, and yes, at least four have. We Knights encountered them once, with Ed as DM in the "home" Realms campaign. So far as I know, Ed (who created archliches, dracoliches, and illithiliches [Alhoon], among others), has never published stats or details anywhere. I believe they are part of an NDA for a now-stalled project; sorry.

love,
THO

(Phaerimm liches)

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On February 1, 2007 THO said: Sorry, WalkerNinja, but as I said earlier: Ed simply hasn't had the time, whilst juggling three novels, two game products, and a big NDA at once (and holding down a real-life job that has nothing to do with gaming, don't forget), to write more articles. He's very sorry about that, but he just CAN'T invent more time for his day. As it is, he's down to about three hours sleep a night, cramming as much extra writing time into his life as he can. It's quite likely that his lore replies here at the Keep will become more sporadic, too, in the month ahead. Sigh.

On the bright side, I see 2007 hosting the publication of THREE new Ed Greenwood novels. Only one is a Realms book, but, hey, it's SWORDS OF DRAGONFIRE.

love,
THO

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February 1, 2007: Quite correct, Rinonalyrna! Individual instances of in-family censorship can and do occur, but in general (polytheistic setting) "pious" literature has little dominance beyond "look up the handy code" chapbooks, and folk in the Realms value learning (and basic math skills) highly for their children.

As it happens, the Realmslore answer I bear this time is to an earlier query by Jamallo Kreen. Ed says he will certainly continue to slip in "fashion and costume tidbits" whenever he can, in future published Realmslore.

Also, though he promises a proper future answer to your query about information-gathering groups, he did send this:

I have largely avoided publishing lore about those who seek knowledge for its own sake, for three reasons:

1. This is perfect "DM's special" territory; that is, to work best within a given campaign, such elements should be created by the DM and tailored to match current PC locations, power levels, and specific activities. So as to bring PCs in contact with such individuals but to avoid the "run to Elminster's Tower and ask Lhaeo this, that, and the other, for the third time today" problem. (Allowing lazy players to avoid sending their characters on adventures to learn information, rather than just going to handy NPCs.)

2. Two years ago, when I completed the overall design for Castlemourn, such seekers after knowledge became a vital part of the nature of that setting. I did NOT want Castlemourn to just be a copy of the Realms, so I turned away from that topic in the ongoing detailing of the Realms.

3. This one's NDA, big time!

So there you have it. A non-answer, of sorts, from Ed.

love,
THO

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February 1, 2007: Stop the Keep quills! This just in!

I have received wholehearted confirmation from Ed for Garen Thal's reply, posted above, re. matters Cormyrean. In the words of Ed: "Consider it as definitive as if it came from my pen."

So there you have it.

Love to all,
THO

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February 2, 2007: Hi again, scribes. This time I bring you the words of Ed to AlorinDawn, re. this: "Hooded One, Since you say The Knights of Myth Drannor are largely retired, I have some question about your home campaign. I'm asking out of curiosity of what you and your fellow players do and hopefully not about canon events with the published characters to avoid being NDAed here =)

Are the Knights just frozen in time in your campaign until you all can meet the next game session, or have the characters gone off to live more domestic lives if they can? If the later where do the respective members call home now?/Cheers"

Ed replies:

Yes, I know you asked THO this one. :}

She thought I should handle it, and tossed it along to me.

Yes, everything is frozen in time between play sessions, these days; chronologically, the "home" campaign is back before the Time of Troubles. As I've said before, I think campaigns work best when the DM serves the players, and major parameters are voted on, not dictated by the DM; this was their decision, and I stand by it. Of necessity, the published Realms and "my own" Realms are going to diverge, and this was the common consensus as to how to handle the situation.

Most of the senior Knights are semi-retired: Doust and Islif are married and living back in Cormyr; Semoor Wolftooth (Jelde Asturien) is also back in Cormyr, dwelling at the temple of Lathander in Eveningstar; Florin and Dove are married and have a (now grown) son, and so on. Of the characters created Knights at the end of SWORDS OF EVENINGSTAR, Florin is still actively adventuring and based in Shadowdale; Pennae is dead; Doust, Islif, and Semoor are as retired from adventuring as Faerûn will allow them to be, and certainly retired from the Knights (Doust and Semoor primarily serve the needs of their churches now); and Jhessail is based in Shadowdale, but goes adventuring less and less often (she's busy tutoring apprentices, and has Illistyl to "go spellslinging" for her).

When I say "based in Shadowdale," by the way, I should make it clear that although all of the living Knights have rooms given over to them in the Tower of Ashaba, they spend almost all of their time elsewhere (when in the dale, they're usually in Storm's farmhouse or Elminster's Tower), and have actually been establishing hidden homes all over the wooded Dragonreach lands (including taking over several Sembian "country estate retreats" from rich, evil Sembians they've relieved of their lives), and searching for a site for a new "home base."

So saith Ed.

Who's simplifying here of necessity; there are so many subplots, romances, entangled NPCs, and so on in the "home" Realms campaign that it would literally take pages to cover what's going on.

Come to think of it, as we all age and time increasingly passes, we're all going to NEED those pages.

love to all,
THO

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February 3, 2007: Hi, all. A brief Ed answer this time, to Ergdusch. I originally answered Ergdusch's question about the chronology of Ed's short story "Tears So White" from REALMS OF THE ELVES thus: "Ergdusch, the Realms of the Elves short story occurs during Rich Baker's Last Mythal trilogy (it's "where the Knights went" rather than being front and center battling, for the latter half of those books), whereas the "Swords" trilogy Ed's currently writing about the Knights is set decades earlier, starting in the Year of the Spur."

Ergdusch then replied: "Thanks for the quick answer, THO. However, your answer is somewhat unsatifying as it still leaves the question open to when that trilogy will end? Before or after the short story mentioned above? If you are allowed to talk about such details........ I would like to know."

Well, I don't know said "details," so I passed this on to Ed, who now replies:

Hi, Ergdusch. Except as editors approve of such 'leaks,' imparting public information about future products is a no-no. NDAs almost always govern them. EDITORS can talk, mind you, and the tradition has been that once they do, my lips are loosened on the specific topics they have spoken about (many GenCon seminars over the years have featured unofficial verbal games wherein audiences try to get staffers to let slip something of interest). So although I've been allowed (by the former head of Publishing at WotC) to say a few things about SWORDS OF DRAGONFIRE, the not-yet-published sequel to SWORDS OF EVENINGSTAR (and I mean a FEW things, such as that it begins immediately after the previous book, the Knights are in it, and the Princess Alusair and Dauntless are both in it). From those fragments, and some less firm hints I've dropped here at the Keep (such as Lord Crownsilver's tale not being over yet), anyone can guess that the book at least begins in Cormyr. Longtime Realms fans know from reading FR7 HALL OF HEROES something of what lies in the Knights' future. Readers of EVENINGSTAR can guess as to likely content of DRAGONFIRE, just by recalling the unresolved villainous plots and other "loose ends" remaining at the end of EVENINGSTAR.

However, I can't yet say more about either DRAGONFIRE or the third Knights book. All I can do is hint, so I'll hint this much: the Knights of Myth Drannor trilogy opens many years before most of the action in The Last Mythal trilogy. The first book didn't cover all that much passage of time, and I expect that trend to continue.

From that, I'm afraid you must draw your own conclusions.

So saith Ed.

Who I know would LOVE to say more.

love to all,
THO

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On February 5, 2007 THO said: Because, like any teenager hanging out in a semi-wilderness "hideout" with other teenagers, she ignored the law. Remember, she doesn't even have a proper belt and scabbard for the thing yet!

There are many "casual exceptions" to the law. The man who made the blade for her (and all smiths, asked to make or repair blades) is lawfully allowed to have it and even (in his workplace, to test balance, temper, etc.) brandish it; she could have "covered" herself, if questioned carrying it from him to her home or to the Stronghold, by saying (honestly) that it was her payment to him. (Cormyreans are VERY strong on debt repayments.) Sword vendors are likewise allowed to have weapons unbound in their possession -- and so on.

The right way to regard peacestrings laws are that they are the sort of thing Watch officers and Purple Dragons apply when they WANT to; in other words, against a suspicious character, not old Aldo the one-legged veteran who fetches down his old sword from his wall and waves it while telling of his valiant part in an old battle on behalf of the Crown, years and years ago. Most of the time, "authorities" turn a blind eye, enforcing only when it's useful to control malcontents, drunkards, crazies, bandits, and thieves.

Garen Thal is correct; almost all of the sword waving in SWORDS OF EVENINGSTAR is done by "exempt" persons; even Florin, as a forester in the woods, or Delbossan and his guards, as arms of the Crown charged with guarding and protecting Narantha, are "allowed" to draw unbound steel. So are nobles in their own homes (includes walled grounds immediately around them, such as gardens). Anyone hunting, noble or otherwise, who can give just cause why they're allowed to hunt where they're found, is also "allowed." And so on.

The regulation usually gets levied against folk in a city, tavern, or inn, who walk around with bared steel to menace others, or who draw steel at a guild or club meeting. "Don't place that wager, or else..." or "Better pay up, or else..." (Response: someone slips out to fetch the Watch.)

One place where folk will always run into trouble with unbound weapons is when meeting a road-patrol on a road in Cormyr, or trying to pass through any city gate, in or out. If there's a brawl at a tavern or an inspection by the Watch or arriving Purple Dragons, patrons had better have their weapons bound, too.

I'm basing this response on years of play with Ed as DM, much of it in Cormyr -- or involving Knights "twitting" Cormyreans who are in the Dales.

love,
THO

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February 5, 2007: And hello again, scribes; Ed's latest lore reply just arrived (with a thump) in my inbox.

This time Ed answers Charles Phipps re. this: "An odd question Ed but one I'm really curious about.

Can you tell us what Fzoul's style of leadership is like? I'm interested as to how the Chosen of Bane interacts with his followers in the Church and Zhents."

Ed replies:

Charles, I've always tried to keep this topic as "fuzzy" as possible, so as to give Realms novel authors maximum freedom. However, let me speak in overall generalizations rather than specifics.

Whereas Manshoon played one underling off against another, using implied threats and dire examples to "train" loyal behaviour (and had as many as fourteen "contingency plans" in place at all times, constantly altering and dovetailing them so as to smoothly control everything without seeming to), Fzoul is the ultimate political animal: he'll say and do anything to get his own way, right now, in every situation.

This of course means none of the gods he serves trust him; they know his loyalty is ultimately personal, and he has kept his life and position only because the priests under him supported him as a religious superior, AND the beholders supported him personally, as the man they could best precisely order about. Fzoul uses the beholders to crush personal threats against him, and the priests to keep the Zhentarim wizards (who so tested and sought to undermine Manshoon, repeatedly) in line.

Fzoul has risen far and fast, by being a lucky, swift-witted, and ruthless opportunist. However, in cunning, foresight, and strategy Manshoon is always about eight steps ahead of him; some observers (such as Elminster) even believe Manshoon engineered his own "downfall" so as not to be in charge and on the firing line when "something big" happens, soon. Just what that is, and how Fzoul's going to handle it, of course remain mysteries Yet To Be Revealed, for us all.

So saith Ed.

Who has spoken and written about this topic a time or two before, and is carefully dancing around both NDAs and future plans, here.

love to all,
THO

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February 6, 2007: Hello again, scribes. This time Ed responds to Uzzy, re. this: "Hello again Ed! I'm currently reading Crown of Fire (and enjoying it thoroughly), and have a few questions about the Zhentarim wizard Gathlarue and her apprentices, Mairara and Tespril. I was wondering firstly if there was more you could tell us about them and the relationship between them all, which seemed to be rather close. Secondly, Gathlarue mentions that 'no woman, it seemed, rose high in the robed ranks of the Zhentarim' and that she needed to appear as a man around the other wizards. Ashemmi in Spellfire was similar mentioned as a 'him'. Is there any historical reason why women could not rise highly in the ranks of the Zhentarim in the time of Manshoon, or just cultural bias and has such changed, or are Syculla Darkhope and Ashemmi the exception to the rule? Thanks once again for your replies and excellent novels."

Ed replies:

You're quite welcome. I enjoy writing both, and hope I'm steadily getting better.

No, there's no historical reason for a bar on the advancement of women within the ranks of the Zhentarim, but there is (see hereafter) something of a cultural bias. Here we go...

The conditions that existed from Manshoon's founding of the Brotherhood until he was "overthrown" by Fzoul were, among ALL member wizards, a seething, constant struggle for supremacy.

Because a lot of the more powerful wizards had come from backgrounds where male wizards (their former tutors) habitually exploited females (including apprentices--and yes, some female tutors sexually used and "kept down" both male and female apprentices, just as some male tutors did the same with both male and female apprentices), these "senior Zhentarim" used the gender of female wizards against them, as one more way of "keeping down" potential rivals.

Manshoon saw all of this striving as good for the organization (and his continued control of it), and so didn't intervene except in particular cases, as he personally desired to do so. As a result, female wizards got raped, dominated, and belittled as a matter of course, and many of them succeeded only by taking lovers and working with them in a team.

The Shadowsil (Symgharyl Maruel, as seen in SPELLFIRE and the forthcoming SWORDS OF DRAGONFIRE) "slept her way to the top" by becoming Manshoon's lover and vaulting past the senior wizards in effective rank, but most female wizards didn't get very high in the ranks EXCEPT through being every bit as efficient and ruthless as the men. Ashemmi used a male disguise for most of her career, and so did Gathlarue; both saw it as one way to overcome this handicap.

As for Gathlarue's relationship with her apprentices, Mairara and Tespril: Gathlarue liked both males and females, but among the Zhentarim dared only enjoy females for fear of being "used" by males--so she exploited her apprentices and confined herself to that sexual outlet for her own "career safety." She came to truly love her appentices, though she always put herself first. Mairara and Tespril also came to love their tormentor, and to really enjoy her cruel attentions. Yes, they're the masochists in an S&M relationship; I didn't see the need to try to battle TSR editors to make things more explicit, because there was no "story" need to do so; as Elaine and I once agreed to say: "We titillate and move on." :}

So saith Ed.

Who in the past often wrote fully detailed, frankly pornographic love scenes for his novels, and sent them in to his editors along with all the rest of the prose, so they could share them around the office for laughter and chuckles (yes, he's always had male AND female editors). Nowadays, with the editors so overworked, he won't waste their time in that manner without being specifically asked to do so.

(So, do they ask? NDA!)

love to all (and frequently),
THO

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On February 6, 2007 THO said: Faraer has (as usual) got it "spot on" correct.

The Lords' Alliance is just that: an alliance of lords who generally share the same goals. They have spies and go-betweens/envoys who work for them (swearing personal allegiance to a particular lord), as information gatherers and sharers between the lords. Think of it as behind-the-scenes diplomacy, where they report a political event or outbreak of raiding or fighting to each other, and often decide on a united position to take regarding the event.

So, Marquant: no headquarters, no formal meetings, no badges and uniforms, and so on. The "structure" you're looking for just isn't there. This isn't the EU or the UN; it's more the Bildenberger Group or a "Red Phone" or "Hotline" network among various heads of state.

The public knows about the Alliance because of the peace its members work to maintain and the trade alliances and easy flows they foster (generally in the Sword Coast North and father south down the Sword Coast and east along the Heartlands trade routes).So, yes, they are the ultimate "behind the scenes" power group.

I hope this helps to explain the Alliance a bit better. How do I know all of this? Because we Knights (of Myth Drannor; my PC and other PCs) briefly found ourselves used as "go-betweens" to guard-and-carry items and documents from Lord to Lord, in Ed Greenwood's "home" Realms campaign (or as I like to think of it, THE [real, original] Forgotten Realms).

love,
THO

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On February 6, 2007 THO said: The colored-with-marker, taped-together map is now in the keeping of Julia Martin, and was displayed at Ed's roast at GenCon two years ago. It's a TSR creation (they taped together Ed's 8.5" x 11" b&w photocopied pages, 55 or 56 of them, as I recall).

Sets of those photocopies have been given out to charity donors or convention prize winners at least three times over the years, as have at least two sets of Ed's 30-odd 27" x 35" Waterdeep building-by-building maps, AND two sets of his original maps of "here, there, and everywhere." Ed is a SUPERB freehand mapper; when he turned over his maps to TSR, they advanced the standards of the field (now, of course, there are CAD programs, etc.).

love to all,
THO

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February 7, 2007: Thanks, WalkerNinja. I will pass these on to Ed. My general feeling is that all of these topics are too "big" for Realmslore web columns (series, yes, though both Ed and the WotC web folks seem happiest with one- , two- , or three-part coverage of topics), but we'll see what Ed says.

Oh, hi again, all!

Foxhelm recently posted a barrage of questions for Ed, and he's tackled some of them now, leaving others for later. Here we go: "Has Ed read Eric L. Boyd's article in Dragon 350 (Legacies of Ancient Empires: Planetouched of Faerun)? If so, could he spin some lore about the planetouched that lie within, with my interests being with Azerblood and the Celadrins in particular?

Also what do the Seven Sister and the other Chosen of Mystra react to the news of the ending of "Blackstaff"? Do they even know? And what is their opinion of Khelben now?

Now a couple of humourous question...

Does Elminster have groupies? Like with sexy wizardresses who are turned on by skillful hands or warrior women that hunger for a man with the ability to become very dangerous? And what would the Simbul think of that?

Also a who would win question: The Simbul...or Granny Weatherwax from Discworld?

These are all of the questions I have for the moment. Thanks and good health.

Foxhelm, who still wonders if the Realms word for Librarian is Ed?"

Ed replies:

Of course I read Eric's article, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait quite some time for follow-up lore from my pen regarding the planetouched; I'm way beyond wildly busy, right now.

As for the reactions of the Chosen to the events of BLACKSTAFF: yes, they know. How do they feel? NDA. And think of Khelben? NDA. (Sorry, but to say anything more would reveal too much of forbidden-right-now future Realmslore.)

Yes, Elminster has groupies. I'll write some scenes touching on that, some day. The Simbul finds it amusing. (And understands his needs in responding to them; see THO's reply to Charles Phipps in the novel thread, in his review of THE TEMPTATION OF ELMINSTER.)

You are correct about two of the sorts of groupies he gets. There are others, including non-spellcasters fascinated by powerful wizards and/or shapechangers; by those who lust after men who've been alive for centuries and personally known heroes and heroines now dust, that said groupies idolize; and those fascinated by humans who have been both genders.

As for your "who would win" query; that's hardly fair unless you also get Terry's reply, but for my money: The Simbul would win ONLY if she got in a devastating surprise attack or first strike; otherwise, my coins would be on Esmerelda Weatherwax, all the way.

As for the Realms word for librarian: there are many. Ook, indeed.

So saith Ed.

No, Ed is the Realms word for "Creator." Librarians are the beautiful, intelligent, capable women Ed has worked under for over three decades (and yes, I chose the words "worked under" deliberately).

love to all,
THO

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