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)

May - Jul 2004

Yup, that passage seems pretty clear to me. Can one hint any more directly? I suppose one could mistake that passage to mean the Srinshee was a goddess, but if one doesn't reach that conclusion, I don't think one can read objectively and twist it to mean she isn't a Chosen. :}

So let me state it baldly, here and now: as far as we mortals can tell, looking briefly through the eyes of Vangerdahast, a man quite familiar with magic and with the company of certain Chosen, the Srinshee IS a Chosen.

While I'm at it, let me reiterate: Mystra is the most powerful deity of the Faerunian pantheon, by virtue of the fact that Toril is so overwhelmingly governed, sourced, and powered by magic. (If Ao the Overgod exists, Ao is for purposes of this argument "more" than a deity.) This is why Mystra's power (the silver fire) is divided up among many mortals: her Chosen. The "Chosen" of Mystra are different than the "Chosen" of other deities (who tend to be champions, advocates, servitors, and so on, who if they have any of the direct power of the deity, are lent it by the deity in a manner quite different from Mystra's probably-unwilling sharing).

There are other Chosen of Mystra besides her willing servants (Elminster, Khelben, and the Seven), many of them as yet unidentified in Realmslore. All of them serve Mystra in their own ways.

The precise nature of what it is to be a Chosen of Mystra still hasn't been fully revealed, and is too vast and complicated to be easily expressed in terms of prestige classes or other rules forms and details. On the other hand, mortals can never perfectly understand the gods, because mortals can only see things with mortal perceptions and senses.

So (as they say) continue to talk amongst yourselves. :}

So saith Ed.

I should underscore that his "your characters, and for that matter the game designers and fiction writers of our real world, can't possibly know and understand everything about the gods" theme is one he has reiterated to us original players for 25 years now - and for that matter, as an original player who had to "sign off" on the original Realms agreement with TSR, let me remind everyone that when Ed speaks about the Realms, he does so with absolute authority: if he says the Srinshee is a Chosen, she IS. Realms game designers and fiction writers can change that, later, with an in-game, in-the-Realms explanation or series of events to bring about the change (like the Avatar/Time of Troubles products), but in any lore dispute about the Realms, Ed wins. Sorta like Tolkien wins if we're talking Middle-Earth, McCaffrey if we're talking Pern, and so on.
THO

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May 4, 2004: Hello again, everyone. Ed tells me that El's Daughter officially goes on sale May 19, but started shipping early so as to "follow him around on his signing tour." He says there were certainly "over thirty" copies sold at Great Canadian Baycon, and wouldn't be surprised if some lucky folks find it elsewhere "from now on." The Chapters store in Peterborough is his next stop (May 6).

He bought a copy at Baycon, BTW, so * I * could read it, and I have, and it's a great romp. I can see places where an editor ahem, curbed Ed's enthusiasm, but it's worth reading at least twice. More for the nuggets of Realmslore. And he made me laugh out loud and even cry a few times, too.

As for the GenCon events, Ed says he hasn't chatted with either the WotC or the GenCon staff about his detailed schedule, yet, but not to worry: he's been invited as an Industry Guest of Honor, and the early event listings are really for people to pounce on the quick-to-fill-up, limited-slots 'hard gaming' events. It was several months later than this last year before things got finalized (usually generic event tickets work for the things Ed's involved in). Failing all else, grab him at the con (he LIKES being grabbed, and I say this as one who should know :}) and sit down for a talk: if he's not rushing to some promised appointment, he'll be happy to talk. That's what he goes to GenCon FOR.

As for the Shadow Weave question, Ed had this to say:

Rich Baker is THE expert on the Shadow Weave, but I certainly agree with him that it extends only as far as the Weave itself does: that is, throughout the Prime Material Plane of Toril (or the crystal sphere of Realmspace, if you prefer), NOT onto other planes. The best way to think of the Shadow Weave is this: it's the echo, or literally the shadow, of the Weave itself, and therefore can't exist where the Weave doesn't - and the Weave, in turn, is our mortal name for the flows of natural energy we call "magic" because we can harness it (spells, spell-like powers, psionics, et al being the ways in which we accomplish that harnessing), that permeate Toril and are an integral part of all life in, on, and in the atmosphere of Toril. Such natural flows, and magic, exist on other planes, and permit travel and energy flows from plane to plane, but only on Toril are the flows known as the Weave, administered by Mystra, and possess a 'Shadow Weave.' Elsewhere, there may or may not be similar 'dark counterparts' to the forces spellcasters can harness as magic, but those counterparts, if they exist, aren't linked to the Shadow Weave, part of the Shadow Weave, or governable in precisely the same way as the Shadow Weave (i.e. a character who can harness the Shadow Weave on Toril can't necessarily reliably use any similar 'dark weave' on another plane. For that matter, spellcasters using the Weave on Toril often get a few surprises when they try to use (or regain) spells while on other planes. Not everything works the same - and results can also vary over time and location, and from individual to individual. Travel away from home, as they say, is always an adventure. :}

And while I'm mentioning Rich Baker, let me not miss the chance to urge everyone to check out his Realms novel THE FORSAKEN HOUSE (first of The Last Mythal trilogy) when it comes out later this year.

And then, of course, it's only fair that I mention the forthcoming Thomas Reid book, THE RUBY GUARDIAN (second in his Scions trilogy), and the rest of the rip-roaring Richard Lee Byers trilogy (that I always privately refer to as "Dragons Go wild!" or just "Dragons Wild!"). Don's book THE YELLOW SILK is a great romp, too, and it's out already - as is Lisa Smedman's VENOM'S TASTE, first in HER trilogy. To say nothing of Paul Kemp's tril- what? Get back to work on MY unfinished collaboration? Yes yes yes of course!

So saith Ed.

So there, and all that.

Ed also wants everyone to know he'll dig into the three-pages-plus of meaty Realmslore questions posted in this thread ASAP (finishing Waterdeep MUST come first), that he hasn't forgotten you all, and that he misses "the daily answering session." He gave me a lift a few hours ago, and I noticed he's put 1000 km on the odometer of the old minivan since last week (going to Hamilton and Kingston for his tour). He musn't sleep much, these days, as usual.
THO

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May 4, 2004: Hello, all. Ed sent this reply for Malaug, late last night:

I enjoy Robert E. Howard for the colour and verve of his storytelling. At times (e.g. his suicide note) he could be lyrical, and at times (the Gent from Bear Creek tales) hilarious, but as he was writing for the pulps, most of his tales tend to follow familiar patterns. Yet there are still few writers who can match the sheer drive of his storytelling (what sf writer and critic Elton Elliott calls "the power of the plain tale"). I must admit I rarely re-read Howard, these days, but some of his Conan tales are justifiably classics. And I treasure a brief chat I had, years ago, with Lin Carter about HOW he and deCamp worked on their Conan pastiches.

So saith Ed.

Me, I just liked hopping onto the altar and wearing the chains as Conan came hacking his way through the nasties to rescue me.
THO

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May 4, 2004: Well met again, all. Your Hooded Lady returns, with the first of a few more replies from Ed, who's tackling your queries peacemeal, thus:

Bruce, when I first envisaged Evermeet, I was thinking of a mist-shrouded, deep blue forest island realm shrouded by spells that kept the rest of the world out, but didn't yet know who lived there (or have a name for it yet). It was 'a great mystery' to mainlanders in Faerun, whom I saw (once the name came along) as often saying things like: "We'll learn THAT sometime after we lay bare the secrets of Evermeet!"

Then along came D&D in its earliest form, and with it the humanocentric rules that made human PCs paramount. That's just fine for a game designer to decree, but a WORLDBUILDER has to come up with some in-the-setting explanation for why elves and dwarves (in particular, out of all the demi-human and humanoid intelligent races) don't dominate in the rules. Like all folks writing for DRAGON, my task was to add to this glorious game, not pick fights with official rules, so I laid the groundwork for why elves and dwarves were 'in decline' in the Faerunian lands, in a way that kept their allure and mystery (Ruins full of "lost" elven magic? Woo-hoo! Lead me to them!) and made for maximum play possibilities.

Either my elves and dwarves had to be too few in number to have kept any of their knowledge and culture in an unbroken manner, or I had to come up with a 'Great Go Elsewhere.' My postulation of the orcs as breeding like rabbits and sweeping over the lands in periodic orc hordes, plus my desire to have demons and devils OCCASIONALLY spice up play but as much as possible protect PCs from the "they can summon their buddies endlessly, so you're automatically toast" problem, gave me some reasons why the power of some elf and dwarf settlements could have been worn down or broken. The old "you grew too proud and big for your own britches to avoid bringing doom down upon yourselves" argument was, of course, another.

I made the dwarves go the route of "too few offspring, desperate grim survivors go away or go extinct" (akin to some real-world Native American peoples), and the elves go the route of hiding themselves behind magic walls in the heart of the nicest forest that are left. Nice forests -- Evermeet -- oh, NOW I know who lives there! Having the elves lurk among and around largely-uncaring human settlements maximizes their air of mystery and "specialness," but must go hand-in-hand with making PC elves sundered from a lot of that power, to keep play balance at the party level.

TSR designers added the name and overarching concept of 'the Retreat' to this realm-by-realm, city-by-city individual withdrawal idea of mine, and over the years, yes, comments by many and writings by some have reinforced the Tolkienesque feel of this. I even once heard a TSR foreign sales rep explain D&D (to Milwaukee-area business executives dropping by GenCon to see what all this lunacy was about) as a game in which "you act out the roles of characters like those in the Lord of the Rings: elves, wizards, dwarves, fighters...magic works, and so on."

In your posting, you hit upon a good design and commercial reason for "getting the elves out of the way." Most readers of novels want to read books about humans they can relate to, and understand (Hamlet published in Klingon is great fun, but isn't going to hit the bestseller lists, because your average American reader can't understand or read Klingon, and doesn't want to; the same goes for Dr. Seuss done in Latin). Logically, in many situations in Faerun, the elves would dominate and be center stage, and this creates a problem. (Right now, as a librarian and an observer of the field, I'd say that Wizards has this problem actively on its hands in the form of the drow: the tendency to use the dark elves becomes a tendency to overuse them, and what happens to your publishing line if, overnight, the reading public tires of them? Remember the Goosebumps popularity of R. L. Stine? Or the pick-a-path fad, before that?).

Unfortunately for some of your line of questioning, Mystra is dedicated to seeing that magic is as widespread and popular in its use as possible, NOT to preserving existing magical constructs, or the status quo of "who's on top in the magical world."

Perhaps Corellon and the other Seldarine view the increasing reliance on magic as a corrupting, expanding weakness in elves that should be weeded out the hard way, forcing those surviving elves to become more hardy, practical, and in touch with the changing world (i.e. more adaptable, like those successful humans) and less jaded, arrogant, overconfident, and fixated on pursuing dreamy goals of magical sophistication.

It's hard for mortals to know the motives of gods. All we can do is endlessly examine and speculate about their actions (or what we're TOLD are their actions), and draw our own conclusions. It may be that all patron gods of races see the necessity for purgative, restorative cycles in the careers of their races that none of us know about, and the Seldarine are enthusiastically "driving down" the elves of today in just such a cyclical downturn, to renew them as stronger, brighter, and different. We just don't know, do we?

Now as a designer, I agree that we haven't been shown enough of elves or dwarves (or, hey, halflings, who tend to get the one-note "smartass tricksters and thieves" treatment, or gnomes, the truly FORGOTTEN folk of the Forgotten Realms) in published Realmslore to DM their societies properly. That's why I pushed so long for certain fan writers to get their dwarf novels published, and one of the reasons I'm so excited about Rich Baker's forthcoming trilogy.

And yes, I agree that the "add a race" tendency of 3e products, like the "Hey, I'm SURE we need another dozen prestige classes!" tendency, must necessarily take up product space that means development of existing elements get shorter shrift. That's an aspect of the crunch vs. fluff argument that, as a freelancer, I'm in exactly the same position as you are: I can snarl about it, and make suggestions, but ultimately, those decisions are made by others.

Perhaps that's a good thing: I've no idea if an Ed Greenwood-helmed Realms would have been as commercially successful (and therefore still published at all) if TSR had hired me along with my world, right from the start. I understand loyalty and consistency and pleasing customers very well, but everything else about the business world is a mystery to me...and as the real-world headlines show us, a lot of 'big business,' these days, has forgotten all about those three root things to chase other goals, and done so very successfully (in some cases adorned with scandals, but hey, they still have the riches and the power, and I'm still a guy who lives in the country and struggles to pay the bills :}).

So saith Ed.

We traded tax tales when he was giving me a lift in his van recently, and let me just say this: most of you would probably be very surprised at how little Ed made, last year, as a writer and game designer. He doesn't, despite the persistent gamer myth, get a royalty on every last copy of every Realms product sold (if he did, then yes, we WOULD be talking millions).

And then he could make his own Realms movies, with all of us players starring in them. Sigh; I could be embracing Sean Connery right now...

(Why, THANK YOU, Wooly. Of course I'd have to properly thank you first.if there was anything left of me after properly thanking Conan, of course.)
THO

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May 4, 2004: Well met again, all. Herewith, another of Ed's replies:

Hi, Abizoath. In answer to your question: we mortals don't know.

Sylune very much did want to be resurrected at the time of her death, though she now seems content with her lot (as a spectral harpist, able to possess the bodies of the living or manifest in ghostly form within a certain distance from any fragment of stone taken from the floor of her hut in Shadowdale [such fragments being carried by all of the Chosen, and also carefully placed in strategic places elsewhere]).

However, Sylune's desires and the powers her sisters wield lead to the inevitable conclusion that there IS some sort of reason that prevents her from being resurrected.

The nature of that reason is where the debate rages. Strongest among the current theories is the thinking that Mystra (not yet Midnight, but she who was mother to the Seven) didn't want her resurrected, or that Ao or some circumstances involving her silver fire prevented that resurrection.

Azuth and Elminster believe something else, however: that Sylune, in some ways the wisest of the Seven, was 'ready' for another step in the progression or 'life-cycle' of a Chosen of Mystra, ascending to another form of existence more closely bound to the Weave.

And that the Weave itself, or Mystra's innermost self, or Ao or some greater power or intellect, was aware of this, and saw Sylune's transformation as necessary.

Perhaps we'll all know more someday. Perhaps I can seize the chance to write a novel about it, a few years from now. The debate will doubtless continue. What we do know for sure is that Sylune's abilities continue to change and grow, that she is now almost an intelligent, mutable mass of silver fire more closely attuned to the Weave than any mortal, and that she knows only a little more of what she can now do than the rest of the Chosen do.

I'm thinking she's going to surprise us all...

So saith Ed.

GOOD question, Abizoath, because these are the sort of answers Ed has always given us, as our DM, when his mind is leaping ahead into new cleverness. You've sparked something (probably turned him back to thinking about something he left unfinished), and we may all be richer for the result.

Ah, I love the Realms. Thank you, Ed.
THO

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May 4, 2004: Well met again, all. Ed replies to Arthedain:

Hi, Arthedain. Well, it's like this: Harpers' Hill is a place of eerie beauty because it's a center of natural power (a focus or node of magic that 'grew' out of the natural processes of the land, not out of any casting or work by intelligent creatures). These rare locales, when in woodlands, are sacred to the elves, and are thought by some to be the work of Eldath, Silvanus, or other gods. (Those underground are of course sacred to dwarves and gnomes.)

By long-standing agreement with the elves of the Elven Court and among each other, the Harpers have kept the Hill clear of any permanent structure and any dedication to a specific god (no altars, though one can perform a ritual using any stone, and no buildings, though one can pitch a tent on the Hill, if one doesn't mind being under constant Harper surveillance).

The Harpers (and the few elves who've clung to life in the woods around the Dales, throughout all the recent troubles) will want to keep the Hill clear.

Moreover, Harpers often use it as a rendezvous, and Elminster and others performing powerful castings sometimes use the 'shield' of its powerful magic as a cover for their work (i.e. show up on the Hill to hurl and even augment their magics). The Hill 'twists' translocation magics (teleports, etc.), and thus, no gate/portal/teleport will work [to a precise destination] directly to or from it (though the air above it and the land immediately around it are fair game).

If I was the DM, in this situation, I'd send the PC some visions from Solonor discouraging use of the Hill itself, and "suggesting" a particular, hitherto-unknown tiny glade or pool in the forest near Shadowdale. Finding that spot will be an adventure in itself (trying to work out some way to share the memorized vision with Storm Silverhand, say, or the ghostly Sylune, or a resident elf, so as to be guided), and in that locale there may well be another adventure to uncover, such as an underground mini-dungeon. Cryptic guidance from Solonor could well continue.

As for building any "official" temple or shrine in Shadowdale: your PC must apply to Mourngrym, who is VERY suspicious about such things (after years of Zhent envoys trying to persuade him to let them found this temple, or that, and his own personal mistrust of self-important, self-interested clergy of ANY faith). Siting the temple deep in the forest is the obvious solution, because it allows Mourngrym to officially ignore it. The very application would bring down a covert Harper investigation on all of the PCs, not just the half-drow ranger (whose blood heritage should lead Those Who Harp to already be keeping an eye on him), to make sure that the ranger isn't being duped by other PCs, or the party being duped by someone else, to establish something they can use as a base, smuggling cache, or hideaway. (If I was a Red Wizard wanting to spy on Elminster, hiding out in the attic of a temple is probably as good 'cover' as I can get.)

Of course, this is YOUR Realms campaign. If you would like your player to succeed in having his PC establish a temple on the Hill, let him succeed. I wouldn't for the reasons outlined above, and because I always want PCs who try to build a temple to find themselves thigh-deep in headaches right away (fees, permissions, and permits from local authorities, vandalism from those who dislike the particular faith, organized opposition from clergies of rival faiths, attempts by clergy of the PC's faith to control everything AND coerce the PC into running the temple or at least serving as its full-time, on-site caretaker ["What, you want to go on adventuring? No, no, the holy god wants you to do THIS now! He personally told me so last night -- me, the Highest of all his high priests! Of course he said nothing to you: you are but as the dullest and most clumsy of his servants, a barely-forged tool that it is my sacred duty to temper and develop! So obey!"], and so on, and on, until the player groans, "How did I ever get mixed up in all of this?"). But then, I am the gentlest and fairest of all DMs. :}

So saith Ed, grinning evilly as he buffs his halo.

You don't fool ME, old Weirdbeard! Oh, no! I've seen your other side, felt the edge of your tongue (it felt very nice, actually ), know better than to...well, no, I think I'll stop now. Blueblade and Wooly are probably already straining for control at their keyboards.
THO

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May 6, 2004: Hello, fellow scribes. The Lady Hooded steps out of the night to the light of our shared fire once more, with another answer from Ed:

Thanks for dredging up the Realms linguistics, Faraer. I'll see if I can find a few more as-yet-unpublished terms to add to them, in the weeks ahead. I'll tackle a few more of your questions right now:

I believe the FRCS dates the Zhentarim conquest of Daggerdale at 1336 because what's being referred to therein is the most definitive and complete occupation of the dale, wherein the Zhents established laws and enforcement, built roads and fortifications, and dwelt everywhere (as opposed to establishing on-road guardposts and garrisons and raiding the dale continuously from them). Daggerdale "fell" (with the Morns going into hiding 'for the first time') soon after the fall of Teshendale, but wasn't continuously occupied, especially in winter -- and it became a magnet for outlaws, dalefolk who wanted to fight the Zhents, bored young Cormyrean and Sembian adventure-seekers, and folk from the Vast wanting to seize land for themselves... all of whom delighted in killing Zhents. So Daggerdale has had a troubled history for a long time.

The timeline in the FRCS is of necessity simplified, and yes, there are errors. I agree with you that the statement about the most common form of government in the Heartlands being the feudal monarchy IS an error (perhaps the Faerunian source material consulted by the writer of that section was Cormyrean in origin). "Most successful" would probably be nearer the mark, considering the longevity of the Obarskyr dynasty and the overall safety and prosperity of the realm of Cormyr. Almost all Heartlands and more northerly farmers in the Realms are indeed freemen, though a case can be made for serfdom (in fact if not in name) in Tethyr (before the Black Days), and in Calimshan right now -- and arguably those latter two countries have more land area yielding more crop outputs due to climate, so perhaps one can say some form of serfdom is a part of the "highest output" farmlands. The most common Realms term for the equivalent of a serf is "bondsman," meaning someone who holds lands under a contract ("bond") that sets forth conditions. The duties and rules don't directly correspond to those of real-world serfs, either in England or on the Continent.

Certainly the duchies of Tethyr and the border baronies of Amn, like Cormyr, are "feudal" in nature, but that term isn't used to mean serfdom. It merely means the local lord has to render military support to the ruler when called upon, and in turn has the power to commandeer portions of local crop yields from the farms under the local lord's protection (and in some cases "yeomen warriors" from among the farmhands) when the need arises.

So far as I know, NO farmer in the Dales is anything but a freeman or a hired "crofter" working and living on lands owned by another, and paying rent to the owner in the form of either coin or a portion of the crop yields.

In Sembia and upland Cormyr, crofters are the norm: except in strips of land fronting along all major roads and in the most remote locales, almost all of the tilled land is owned by one wealthy family or another. In 'downland' Cormyr (roughly: south of Immersea and Waymoot), wealthy families may own large numbers of seperate individual city buildings or smallhold farms, but their properties are amongst the smallholds of independent Cormyrean citizens ('freefolk').

I'm not a fan of tinker gnomes in the Realms except as VERY rare, comic-relief individuals (or families). The folk of Lantan and other Gond-worshippers fill the necessary 'Professor Branestawm/Rube Goldberg' mad inventor niche quite capably, and I see individual, urban-dwelling (in predominantly human trading cities) halfling and gnome families as the source of small, clever inventions (intricate double locks, fold-down doorstops, removable boot scrapers that double as other useful implements, heat-reflecting stove hoods and fans whose blades are turned by the heat of cooking-fires, and so on).

I see the native gnomes of the Realms (except for the 'deep gnomes' of the Underdark) as being the quiet collectors-and-refiners of good ideas from all cultures, who keep low profiles, and make good livings through trading useful items. For instance, I think the majority (and the best) of spectacles, magnifying glasses, spyglasses, and other devices involving glass lenses in the Realms are made by gnomes. Gnomes have perfected the most practical intricate non-magical locks and hinges, long ago mastered industrial-output papermaking and bookbinding, are experts on waterproofing (garments and portable containers for scrolls and flat paper), and are working on building bigger and better looms for "everyday" cloth. Many gnomes are working to perfect wire, and fashion everyday items from wire.

I've got to get that gnometalk Volo article into print some day. Hmm; perhaps with Volo shorn from it, it could become a WotC web piece. Must talk to the good folks...

So saith Ed.

As for me, I must go now, before I say something else to earn that "increasingly flirtatious" reputation (for which much thanks!).
THO

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May 6, 2004: Dost thou like what thou dost see? Yes, it can all come off, except for the hood... or I'd not be: The Hooded One.

And that I am.

Bearing, as usual, the latest Words of Ed:

simontrinity, I'd love to write a LOT about Cylyria Dragonbreast, because she's another of those fascinating loose-end/prime mover Realms NPCs, but I believe doing so, here and now, would hamper other creative people in their own future projects. I'd say this is another of those unfortunate NDA things. For now. Would you like to hear about her 'black sheep' little sister? :}

Dargoth, the archdevils have been very active in the Realms, but not in the same high-profile manner as various demon lords. It's a matter of style (the preferred devilish way is sly and subtle manipulation of mortals: brutish force is for lesser devils and lesser beings of all sorts, such as, ahem, demons) and self-preservation (unless one happens to be an outcast devil, in which case one is frantically searching for allies, dupes, and 'secret weapons' on Toril and elsewhere, one operates fleetingly outside of the Nine Hells, except through intermediaries, because every moment one spends away from one's own ruled level is a moment that an ambitious underling or rival archdevil can use to wreak havoc [or subtly damage] one's own rule and military strength).

Alathayn, your point about Set is a good one, and there's of course no reason at all that Set can't be worshipped by individual Thayan NPCs or PCs in your campaign. The problem that has hampered widespread veneration of Set among Thayans is the autocratic, ruthless tactics of Set's clergy in Mulhorand. Wizards seeking to rise in personal power tend to be unwilling to embrace a faith in which they know priests are going to pop up and try to control them -- and they're also going to be very wary of that same faith spreading amongst their underlings and apprentices, because they'll believe those same priests are inevitably going to order the faithful to do something that challenges the authority of the wizard (suggesting the apprentices and underlings slay the wizard, for example, or steal crucial magic from him). Red Wizards tend to look to deities who allow wizards to personally grow in power without suffering the dictates or energetic intrigues of a controlling priesthood.

As scribes can see, I'm selectively answering parts of questions right now, trying to tackle some of those I can easily and swiftly answer before too many queries get backed up. If you notice I've only answered some parts of your questions, please don't think I'm ducking the other bits: I've just set them aside until the Waterdeep novel is done, that's all.

Which reminds me: those of you who read ELMINSTER'S DAUGHTER will discover several works of fictional Realms literature referenced therein. Through the 'good offices' of Volo (I know, you hadn't dreamed he had any), I have procured one page -- just one-- of Rauthur's favourite reading material, and I'm debating just how to get it into the hands of fans of the Realms. I must discuss this highly sensitive matter with my friends in Book Publishing at Wizards first, but I'm open to ah, creative suggestions...

So saith Ed.

As for me, this Hooded Lady remembers that page very well. I think it would make great background reading material. That is: I'm sure you're all familiar with one-page advertisements for various things that have what purports to be the page of an open book in the background, partially obscured by something else -- with tantalizing snippets of VERY interesting prose drawing you into the ad. I wonder if Ed could get someone at Wizards to use his 'Purple Page' in that manner. Hmmm (stretches langorously, remembers she's wearing just a hood, and pauses to adjust it rakishly)
THO

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May 7, 2004: Hi, SiriusBlack. Ed's toiling away on the Waterdeep book right now, and asked me to quickly answer your Rhauligan question.

No spoilers for ELMINSTER'S DAUGHTER follow, but merely a summary of all we know about Rhauligan.

Glarasteer Rhauligan wasn't (as far as I recall) in BEYOND THE HIGH ROAD, which Troy wrote. He was introduced in CORMYR: A NOVEL, got 'his own story' in REALMS OF MYSTERY ("The Grinning Ghost of Taverton Hall"), and appeared as a supporting character in Ed's REALMS OF SHADOW story ("When Shadows Come Seeking A Throne").

In addition, Ed's Dragon Annual piece on Cormyr included the Purple Dragon Highknight prestige class, and explained that the Highknights are something akin to the James Bonds of the Cormyrean government (Rhauligan is, of course, a Highknight).

Ed confirms that he created Rhauligan long, long ago for fiction purposes (an as-yet-still-secret long-term plot idea that predates TSR's publication of the Realms, and that may never see print if the published Realms takes another direction), used him in play exactly ONCE with us Knights (he remained a non-speaking, nameless background character assembled in a room with some Knights, and was never developed more fully because our characters didn't say or do things that would have caused that level of involvement in play), and put him into the Cormyr novel to give Dauneth Marliir a plausible way into protected Palace and Court areas.

Rhauligan is a Harper, a bit of a rogue, and has demonstrated his personal loyalty to Alusair and Filfaeril often enough in the past to be trusted to remain far more independent and mysterious than many Highknights (though Vangerdahast insisted on prying into the minds and habits of all Highknights, Rhauligan included). The Crown turns a blind eye to the smuggling and minor-stolen-item-fencing activities Rhauligan's turret-top sales business has often provided a cover for.

So saith Ed.

Rhauligan's obviously becoming one of Ed's favourites, and Ed once remarked to me that he'd love to do a book wherein Mirt, Rhauligan, Sharantyr, and Storm all get thrown together in some sort of adventure. I want to assure you and all scribes who read this that I forcefully expressed my extreme enthusiasm for this idea. Ah, several times.
THO

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On May 7, 2004 THO said: Well met again, gentles. This time, I'm tackling Maskanodel's question (for Ed, who's still pounding away at his keyboard as I post this).

This has been asked before, and Ed emphasized that almost all of the Chosen would be piles of bone-dust by now if they were unaugmented mortals like me and thou. He pointed out that all of them can choose the bodies and appearances they customarily inhabit (within limits; they can't use the silver fire to give them stable augmentations to their abilities or physiques, so no growing tails or wings at will; spells must be used). The Simbul made a career down the years of Realmsplay of appearing as various birds, cats, fenceposts, discarded hats, and even stranger things. So the old wizard you see is Elminster's chosen appearance of the day.

Obviously, he changed his favoured appearance.

What REALLY happened is that Wizards of the Coast wanted a different look for El for 3e to move him away from looking like the popular conception of Gandalf/Merlin/whatever. Precisely why they did that is an answer only they can give, but moving El away from Gandalf could quite easily be a part of it. Ed didn't object, but it wasn't idea. As I recall overhearing him say to Jim Butler of WotC (in the lobby of the Milwaukee Hilton, at GenCon) at the time: "Sure, as long as El and Khelben don't end up looking too much like each other to confuse people."

I've handed the Sharess and Dragonbreast 'dark sister' queries to Ed, and he'll get to them ASAP, but I know he's off to the Avid Reader in Cobourg tonight for another ELMINSTER'S DAUGHTER signing. After the inevitable reading (of some Bezrar and Malakar scenes, I believe), this one ought to be the most cozy "family chat" atmosphere of the entire tour, so if you have deep Realmslore queries and can get there, this'll be your best chance to quiz Ed for an hour or so...
THO

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On May 7, 2004 THO said: Hello again, all. Thy Lady Hooded yet again, tying up some loose ends.

Dargoth: I'm sorry. Ed tells me Mount Hotenow is one of those can't-say-a-word-due-to-NDAs topic.

Alathayn, I'd say that your Red Wizard venerating Set will just have to keep things secret -- and show me a Red Wizard who DOESN'T have secrets!

Now, I myself have a question for a questioning scribe:

Athenon, you're already familiar with the Calaunt information in the FORGOTTEN REALMS ADVENTURES hardcover rulebook, right?

Fair riding, all, for now!
THO

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On May 7, 2004 THO said: Why, Sirius, 'tis my pleasure!

You were right to chastise me for my overreaction in the Moon Doors thread (for which I also owe Shadowlord an apology - sorry!) and I owe you. So chastise me some more... it makes me purr.

As for Elaith, what other tidbit can I throw you? Hmmm, not much, just now. I can say the novel will PROBABLY let readers briefly visit a revel hosted by Elaith, and you might get a slight glimpse of Elaith as a landlord, but Ed's not saying much about the book as it unfolds, out of respect for Elaine (Ed created Elaith, but wants Elaine to be free to tell any tale she wants to about the character, because she's depicted him so wonderfully, and so says as little about Elaith as he can manage, so as to give her as much freedom in future for storytelling) and because novels have a way of changing during editing, and he doesn't want to mislead with promises about things you'll end up not seeing.

I do know he's been involved with future game information about Waterdeep, and done some things for the WotC website on doings in Waterdeep that haven't yet been posted, so there should be more Waterdhavian lore coming your way in the months and years ahead.

As a player, I sometimes find myself squealing with excitement and then knowing I can't pass a single word of what I've heard or know along to anyone else. Let's just say I hope even a tiny fraction of what I've seen of Waterdeep someday becomes available for you and other scribes. My main character has hidden to eavesdrop on balconies of noble mansions, made love on rooftops in North Ward, chased thieves down sewers in Castle Ward, opened tombs in the City of the Dead, impersonated drunken sailors in Dock Ward dives, skulked through City Guard tunnels inside Mount Waterdeep, and even fought a VERY strange monster in Mirt's Mansion.

Ahhh, the memories.

Thanks, Sirius. My smiler is brighter now. (See?)
THO

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May 9, 2004: Hello again, scribes. Thy Lady Hooded doth bear the latest words from Ed, this time for tauster (who waited so patiently, and then reminded SO humbly that I was moved to interrupt Ed):

Ah, yes, the mysterious Glen. Here we go, questions answered by number:

1. From dragons (ha ha). Specifically, from a few [mainly evil, obviously] draconic individuals who enjoy mating (and sometimes even slaying a mate and seizing a new hoard), but have no intention of hatching young who may become rivals in time to come, but who see a ready way to increase their own wealth by selling eggs to a few bold dwarves who offer ready coin, by means of moots on peaktops (arranged by signal banners; dragons swoop down only if interested) rather than by daring to approach lairs and thus becoming eliminate-at-all-costs perils.

2. Therefore, very few of the eggs traded in Dale are stolen. Yes, gates/portals are used by some of the egg-traders. Concentrations of dragons are a logical source for eggs (being as the elder wyrms "on top" in such a community would see the dangers of population outstripping food supply, younger wyrms becoming frustrated at being shut out of power and so ganging up on older wyrms), but the locations of those concentrations are dwarven secrets. And yes, dragon-egg thief would be a VERY rare occupation.

The Low Road is a long Underdark route, known to certain dwarves, connecting Glen to the subterranean dwarf realm east of the Great Rift (see the map included with DWARVES DEEP). Rather than being a single long tunnel, the Low Road is a mental map of 'safe' passages known to certain dwarves, 'the best way through the maze' of natural and creature-made Underdark tunnels.

The dwarves have constructed small, defensible strongholds along it (including, yes, one just 'below' Glen itself), and also crafted many small refuges (hiding-chambers with caches of food, drink, weapons, splints, ropes, and tools) 'on' the Low Road, but the long route is neither a clear and obvious one, nor an unchanging one.

Drow and Underdark predators know that dwarves frequently travel north-south in this area of the Underdark, and are constantly attacking travellers they find and dwarf holds they discover-but it's wrong to assume that "a quite large underground-keep must be neccessary to secure glen" against drow surface incursions, because drow have their own ongoing wars and their own foes, too (including deep gnomes and some quite greedy mind-flayers), and are kept quite busy with daily patrols and strife. Moreover, many drow communities are controlled by powerful drow trading families who dislike the trade expenses and disruptions of large-scale warfare, and avoid or discourage it whenever possible (it's always easy for drow elders to allow hot-headed 'warbrands' to mount their own expeditions off into the Underdark, to either return victorious or -- far more often -- never be heard from again).

3. Therefore, Glen is one end of the Low Road, and Rimmitor (the DWARVES DEEP maps say "Rimmito" but this is a misprint) is the other, but there are many side-branches and various routes in between these two places.

4. Dwarves keep the names and locations of private family holds as secret as possible, so I can only say that as one travels south from Glen, the small communities of Fell's Axe, Adaern, Muranthor, and Uldel's Leap lie along the Low Road -- but precisely where they are, and the names of other places on the Road, remain mysterious. There's also an aboleth-governed subterranean lake (name not known to Volo) along the Road, that as it passes this lake winds through a maze of half-flooded tunnels to discourage drow and other attacks.

5. The phrase 'the Low Road' is becoming well-known among dwarves and gnomes all over the Heartlands, and starting to creep into human awareness (although, among humans, only a few well-connected travelling merchants properly know what and where the Road is; thanks to a fanciful ballad, many humans think it's a long, clear tunnel that runs deeper and deeper into the earth, that dying dwarves traverse in a pilgrimage to die before their gods in a vast cavern of bones). Dwarves and gnomes all know correctly WHAT the Low Road is [purpose, general route, and some features], but only a few know the correct route of the Road (in other words, a handful of hardy and daring traders enrich themselves using it, and on rare occasions serve as 'guides' to all others). They are the only group to use it (though of course drow and other interests raid small portions of it), and most of them are fierce individualists, rather than any sort of organized power group (though most of them share a fellowship of mutual respect, and from time to time form small, usually short-lived alliances and pacts).

6. Around all surface connections (there are rumored to be at least two others along the Road, neither of them in settled areas or near any surface hamlet), dwarves tend to prepare many 'false door falling block' traps, teeter-totter-floor fall-shaft traps, and the like, so that only those 'in the know' can safely pass between the Underdark and the Realms Above by choosing exactly the right route. In addition, the dwarves maintain garrisons in rooms built with firing-ports and many crossbows. A defender in one of these chambers commands a field of fire down the length of a long stretch of passage, and can snatch up a succession of crossbows or fire large ballistae. 'Beneath' Glen are three of these chambers, commanding passages that wind so as to pass all of them -- and two of the chambers are equipped with levers that let fall ceiling-frames weighted with rocks and fitted with spikes, onto the heads of unwelcome travellers moving around a 'dogleg' of passage (the trap being the entire ceiling of the dogleg, ten feet wide by about seventy feet long, and therefore impossible to avoid). In addition, the defenders of Glen keep a pack of wardogs that they can release into the tunnels through doors only they control -- and take care to keep these menaces hungry. They also have at least one 'blindrun' side-passage that ends in a chamber where a fearsome monster (reports vary as to its nature, probably because slain monsters aren't always replaced by exactly the same sort of beast) is confined.

7. Traffic along the Low Road isn't as frequent as one might expect, but all manner of goods can be carried. Small, portable and yet valuable items (such as gems) are favoured over bulk goods, but food (especially to surface folk, in really hard winters, and Underfolk, when drow and monster attacks are really fierce) can often be more valuable than the rarest gem.

8. A meeting between antagonistic races along the Road would almost undoubtedly be a battle. Among dwarves, and between dwarves and gnomes, there's a "peace of the road" code, yes (though some dwarves probably only honour it if they think there might be witnesses to any attack on a hated rival), and some gnomes even operate a 'rescue and healing' service somewhere along the Road . . . but yes, hostile and rapacious races aren't welcome on the Road.

I hope these replies are of help, tauster; sorry it's taken me so long to hand these to the Hooded One (the Waterdeep book still rules me). And you're welcome; we both enjoy doing sharing Realmslore. Fair fate for now!

So saith Ed, and I echo his sentiments.

I'd happily recline and, er, bask here for a time, but I'm afraid if I fall asleep like this, wearing only my boots and the hood, Mr. Krashos might come along and slather me with butter! Ugh! Honey, yes, whipped cream even, but butter?
THO

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May 9, 2004: Well met again, gentles. I bring the words of Ed, as usual, and some swift answers of mine own, to whit: SiriusBlack, 'tis my understanding that Ed is being consulted (as in: Realmslore e-mails are flying back and forth) rather than officially being involved as a writer.

And, Sirius, you say the sweetest things ("Why do I have a feeling with a character you run this might have taken place all in one night?"). I shall have to * twinkle * in your direction. There. As for your touch and purr musings... well, now, we'll just have to see, won't we?

Ahem. I find it's getting rather warm in here. So, without further ado, the words of Ed:

As promised, a glimpse of Cylyria Dragonbreast's younger sister Amaleene. It now seems as if this lithe, thin, raven-haired accomplished mimic and actress is as ruthless and cold-blooded as humans get. For years, she played the part of Cylyria's devoted and loving sister, acting as a Harper go-between and nurse to wounded Harpers as Those Who Harp grew stronger. Amaleene has a good singing voice and is skilled with the lyre, has rather plain looks but is usually well-dressed, and is always alert (seeing and hearing EVERYTHING around her) and forgets nothing. She has very good balance, and can move very quietly when she wants to.

She's also a shrewd judge of individuals and of human nature, and is a sympathetic listener. For years she received Harper training and gathered knowledge -- and yet was adoit enough to become the secret lover of no less than two patriarchs of 'first folk' (noble) Berduskan families: Caunter and Jalarghar. In the case of Irwyn Caunter, she carried on a dalliance with his ambitious son Roryl at the same time.

Amaleene wormed information she wanted out of all of these contacts, until she was ready to make her move. It seems she was born with a talent for sorcery, and from a very early age has been able to conceal her true thoughts, memories, and knowledge behind a screen of mental falsehoods. It's not known if she's developed her sorcery much beyond this, because some of the things she's since accomplished could have been done with magic items rather than spells.

Using Roryl Caunter as her dupe, she faked her own death in the early days of 1371 DR (bringing down undeserved Harper wrath on the Caunter family) and stole substantial wealth from both the Caunters and the Jalarghars, made it seem as if Harpers were responsible for the thefts, and vanished.

It seems she made use of gates (portals) known to the Harpers to move far across Faerun, to Telflamm, then Athkatla, and then briefly Luskan, Neverwinter, Myratma, and Waterdeep. Her present whereabouts are unknown.

In every city, Amaleene used her knowledge of local Harper agents and unfolding Harper activities to betray Harpers to their deaths and to seize wealth belonging to her victims. In Athkatla, she apparently seduced at least one city official, and by the time she reached Waterdeep, she seemed to be working with a mind flayer and a doppleganger with ease, skill, and (apparently) trust. The identities of these associates are unknown.

Amaleene Dragonbreast has some means of hiding from all magical or psionic attempts to locate, contact, or affect her, and she seems to enjoy tricking, harming, and robbing others, openly laughing and gloating during her thefts. On at least three occasions she's impersonated a wife (with knowledge, mimicry, and presumably some magical means of altering her body) well enough to deceive a husband, and she shows no signs of settling down in any one location. Beyond sheer enjoyment in what she's doing, her motives are unknown. She does harm to Harpers when doing so will allow her to accomplish something else, but passes them by or even aids them at other times. She's known to carry and use poisoned weapons and to poison drinks with ingested poisons, and is thought to have gathered a small collection of magic items.

She once convinced a Calishite merchant (whom she subsequently slew; a hidden servant observed both the demonstration and the murder) that she was more than a human by producing a stirge from a carry-coffer. Claiming it was a "pet," she bared herself and let it drink blood at will, saying she did this often to give it strength. Though this demonstration left her visibly weak and pale, she had strength enough left, after the stirge was sated, to both dance for the merchant and then to "make strenuous love" to him.

Amaleene remains a mystery, and has been seen operating alone as well as with the doppleganger and mind flayer; if she belongs to any fell organizations, no Harper yet knows of it.

So saith Ed.

His words left me with a shiver: we Knights spoke with Amaleene once, in Berdusk, before all of this -- and she seemed a kind, meek young thing devoted to nursing wounded Harpers in hiding. Hmmm . . . Ed, how about a novel?
THO

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On May 9, 2004 THO said: Well met! Thy Lady Hooded to the aid of seekers after Realmslore, once more:

fourthmensch, Ed's still chin-deep in novel writing, but I can provide a few Realms slang terms from memory and from notes given by Ed to us players long ago:

"kell" means 'try,' but is only used when whatever is being tried is unfinished, nigh-impossible, tricky or dangerous, or there's some doubt as to whether whoever's trying it will ever accomplish it (and "kell" is used unchanged regardless of tense, and sometimes also in place of the word "done," as in: "You're not going to kell stealing THAT, are you?" and "Kell such feats often, have you?"). Polite speech sticks to 'try' and 'tried' and 'done,' leaving "kell" for cynical, disbelieving, or openly derisive speech ("Kings always SAY they'll clean all monsters out of the woods. Oh, and they KELL, too, for a tenday, each of them, sometimes sending more than one knight to do it, too.")

"stlarn" and "stlarning" are fairly polite equivalents for the f-word, of about the blasphemous strength of 'darn!' and see use where we might say "screwing up" (They can't kell one simple task without stlarning up!) or (for Brits) "bloody alarm clock!" (stlarning time-bells!)

a "codloose winker" is a lecher (derivation: a winking man with a loose or often-removed codpiece)

a "darkblade" is a mercenary ("hiresword") demonstrably lacking in principles or loyalty to a patron who's hired him

a "scorchkettle" is a woman who delivers impressively blistering words to someone in public (usually because she's quick-tempered)

"gulletfire" is bad beer or wine, whereas "throatslake" is any drinkable that takes care of thirst and doesn't cause illness in doing so, but isn't particularly pleasant to drink

a "spurnarmor" is either a woman with a spectacular figure, or a well-endowed man (as in: "If I had those, I'd be a spurnarmor too!" or: "Galad! What a spurnarmor!")

... which reminds me that "Galad!" is the current Heartlands replacement for "Zooks!" or "Zounds!" or any nonsense word used as an "I'm astonished" or "I'm impressed" expression . . . and Elminster probably brought "Gadzooks!" and "Zounds!" into the Realms from his our-real-world visits centuries back, so in the Realms they HAVEN'T developed from "God's wounds!"

"glim" means "beautiful in an eye-catching way" (flashy)

"lalandath" means agile, sleek, lithe, and is often said of dancers or women whose beauty is accentuated by their movements (so a well-built but sleekly-dancing tavern dancer might be described as: "WHAT a glimmer! A lalandath spurnarmor, glim enough to leave every man in the place rivvim, and my codpiece itching!")

so, of course:

"rivvim" means "lust" or "lusty" (As in: "I'm fair rivvim when I looks upon her.")

"darburl" (pronounced DAR-burl) means angry (As in: "I'm right darburl, just now." or: "He makes me proper darburl, that one.")

"badaulder" (pronounced BAH-doll-durr, with a lilt in the word) is the western Heartlands expression for "bullshit!" or "hogwash!" (and its usage is creeping into Cormyr right now, headed for Sembia, the Dales, and the Moonsea)

"haularake!" (pronounced HALL-ah-rake, and said very quickly, as if it has but one syllable) is the all-faiths, acceptable in polite society equivalent of "God damn it!" (or perhaps "God damn it all, anyway!")

"thael" means glad, or pleasant, or heart-lifting (As in "I'm always thael to see her," or "That feast was right thael" or "I always get that moment of thael, when I look down from the ridge and see... home.")

So now you can curse me or ah, describe me in Realms terms.

Athenon: Ed will get to Calaunt, I promise... and, arilyn742: Why, whatever do you mean?

Moon smile and sun greet, until next,
THO

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May 12, 2004: Hail and well met, all! Thy Lady Hooded returns, bringing once more the words of Ed, this time to The Simbul:

Well, George states things correctly when he says that 3e rules specifics matter a whole lot less to me than Realmslore, and yes, I AM the guy who thought up the Godswar, though (back in issue 54 of The Dragon), it was as a way for a DM who's let things get out of hand to do a one-time drastic 'rules fix' in a campaign (remove a +6 sword or artifact, or reduce it to something flashy but less awesome-master-destruction, for example), NOT as a "let's shuffle the gods" plotline.

However, as someone who's done some fumbling 3e and 3.5e freelance design for Wizards, I do appreciate the work you've gone to, to put the powers of the Chosen into template form... and any fan of The Simbul is a friend of mine!

So, let's take a look at your template. Your assumption as to the intention behind many of their powers ("to keep them from dying from natural causes rather than simply duplicating a specific magic item") is quite correct, and silver fire should definitely be usable repeatedly and often (in emergencies only, as outpourings can be physically painful and it is a finite resource because unleashing it strains the host body, and if pushed, can drive the host beyond the limits of consciousness and muscular control). I imagine Skip Williams (the Sage), wh had to fix spellfire a time or two, will have fits at the thought of silver fire being usable like a flamethrower, but... well, what's in the novels stands as canon (yes, I'll hand The Hooded One my kuje31 answer about canon right after I finish this one).

I'm happy to offer my comments, but I'm not a WotC employee and not a 3.5e expert by any stretch of the imagination (I prefer D&D as acting in an unfolding story during which the DM occasionally tosses dice or asks a player to, and no one necessarily knows why those dice are being rolled).

Now, something else MUST be said here: the laudable design philosophy of 3rd edition D&D is that EVERYTHING be clearly quantified in rules (i.e. all powers of gods and monsters must be set forth in rules-specific ways, so that DM and players both know EXACTLY what they do, and theoretically a character of sufficient power, who does the right research/develops the right spell/gains the right level/whatever to gain the power, could do so -- and the rules are right there to govern how that newly gained magic or ability or power functions, complete with limitations, etc).

However, there are some properties of the Chosen that MUST remain mysterious, not just because I as a Realms novelist or John Doe as a Realms game designer need the freedom to do something different in the future, but because Mystra hasn't revealed or bestowed all of the powers yet, and the "new" Mystra may have different ideas and styles of operating than the old one. So NO rules representation of the Chosen can be complete -- to say nothing of the fact that even Mystra and Azuth can't foresee how becoming a Chosen will affect unique personal properties already possessed by the individual (Halaster is a very different being from Dove, right?). You've covered this neatly with your "Unknown Powers" notation.

Right, caveats established. Onward... to a minor glitch, right away:

"Appearance: The Chosen of Mystra appear no different than other creatures of their type, however their hair (if any) takes on a silver-white hue." Not quite; only offspring of Mystra (that is, of a mortal host mother in which Mystra is blood-present) gain the silver hair; the fact that she "had" these daughters in order to make them Chosen is incidental to the silver tresses (although, yes, gaining Chosen was her only motive for bringing the seven women into being). That's why the Seven have it, and Elminster and Khelben and other Chosen don't.

To the silver fire combat/harmful discharge effects, I would add (I'm speaking casually here, not framing specific rules) that Chosen can unleash it with fingertip precision from, yes, their fingertips (or eyes) as a finger-width straight beam, and so cut laser-like through things (including magical barriers and effects, into which they can cut 'windows' in the same way as they could cut a lock out of a metal door, or neatly separate a pane of glass from its frame). In addition, if they stick their fingers into the blood of someone, or onto a trail of blood that leads unbroken to a creature, or bite or kiss the creature so as to directly (i.e. body to body touch, not via a weapon or item) reach the creature's bloodstream, they can unleash harmful or healing silver fire effects throughout the creature (remember The Simbul crawling all over the wounded Elminster?) by acting on its blood-flow.

Otherwise, this seems just fine to me -- and as for the Name and Song Attunement ability inclusion being contradictory to the printed rules: no worries. Specific NPCs often "break" the rules, and this means the rules need to be amended (or the breaking ignored), not that the NPCs should all be changed. I view it this way: if a designer wants to tell me that Noble NPC Noldor isn't a cavalier any longer, but is now a fighter with this or that prestige class, that's fine, because the rules systems are merely a way of expressing game mechanics, but if the change in rules systems now means Noldor should only know, say (I'm making numbers up, here) 6 languages, but we already know he knows 8 languages, guess what: the 8 languages is established Realmslore, so he does indeed know 8 languages. He doesn't magically, overnight, "forget" 2 of them. If the designer wants Noldor to only have 6 languages, he has to come up with an in-the-Realms reason for it (e.g. an illithid tentacle started to eat his brain, but got chopped off, leaving his mastery of two tongues "forever scrambled"). That's the way the original Realms agreement stands, despite some instances of Realmslore being changed over time and different products and different editions.

So, for what it's worth, I like this template -- and if I was running 3e or 3.5e in my home Realms campaign, I'd adopt it pronto. (As it is, I'm a storytelling DM who uses no game rules more often than not, as Krash alluded to, and whose players vote on which rules system we "officially" use... which is why we happen to still be using 2nd Edition.) Thank you for your work, and for sharing it with us. Now, George Krashos (whom I regard as an old friend, though I'm sure "old" is not a word he'll receive joyously :}) commented: "Personally, I'd get far more FR utility out of a write-up you did on the Simbul that told me what her five favourite ballads are, tipple of choice, what happened that last dozen or so times she cast 'legend lore' and whether she has and friendships/alliances with any dragons in the East." That's true, too. So I hereby promise that I will reveal a few more tidbits of lore about The Simbul over the months to come. I prefer the small, personal, odd stuff that DMs can use to add colour to a character (like favourite sayings) rather than dates ruled, kings overthrown, dragons wrestled into submission, and so on. The Hooded One used to call this my "Show me the colour of her underwear" preference, but for The Simbul (the character, not you :}) the answer to that is: she doesn't wear any. :}

So saith Ed.

I suppose I should chime in with the smart remark here that I'm not wearing any just now, either, but though that happens to be the truth, it's just too easy.

So fair faring until next, all.
THO

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May 12, 2004: And, as promised, Ed's words to kuje31 re. canon (Athenon/Will, I promise I'll tell some Ed as DM stories, to go with the ones in the early single-digit pages of this thread, the moment life spares me the time to do more than snatch and toss Ed's words to waiting scribes... which may be five or six days from now):

Although many licensed Realms products have given some designers fits over the years (and yes, the elf queen who appeared in the Wealdath in the BG II game was one such matter), the Volo's Guide to BG II is indeed canon. I can't personally speak for the BG novels being canon.

What I can say is that, although gamers and fans hold many different personal positions on what is and what is not canon, the original Realms agreement is pretty clear on this: anything I write or say about the Realms IS official canon (hmm, sounds almost papal, doesn't it?), although future in-print products can "fix" things I write or say and then the revision becomes canon, AS LONG AS it's an in-the-Realms explanation. (To make up a hypothetical but entirely fictitious example, if a BATTLESYSTEM --remember that? -- product came out that changed the class and stats of an established Realms character, that alteration would NOT be a canon change, because it's a rules sytem detail that can be ascribed as being unique to BATTLESYSTEM: "Well, in your AD&D game King Thog is still a 7th level barbarian, but in BATTLESYSTEM terms, he's a YY" UNLESS the BATTLESYSTEM product stated that King Thog was transformed by a god into a YY.)

So, yes, my sourcebook is canon, and I'd assume the novels and "the stats for the characters in those novels that are in Dragon" are canon, too. However, that last bit IS an assumption on my part.

But yes, like it or not, if I say it, it's canon. Which is why, of course, I say so little, and in such guarded terms. :}

So saith Ed, grinning cheesily as he types that last sentence, no doubt.

[ Like this: ] Canon debates always seem to me to be in the same category as arguing about those angels on the head of that pin with an atheist, but never mind. If it keeps us all talking to each other, and the elverquisst flowing...
THO

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May 14, 2004: Well met from The Hooded One. I was able to e-speak Ed for just a few minutes today (he's juggling family visits, trying to get the Waterdeep book finished, and the time-wasting but necessary side of writing (faxes, legal documents, permissions, e-consults, et al), and managed to get this answer for Sarelle:

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the later games at all. I've provided lore (and in some cases even fiction "frontpieces" for the game manual) for most of the Realms games, and even been consulted on plotlines of a few of them, but I have zilch time to play computer games, and tend to write on various vintage Macs; when I can view a Realms games at all, it's usually any early build with all "cheats" turned on so I can't be killed, so as to walk through and examine everything in the shortest possible time. So what gets most slighted in such situations? You guessed it: henchmen. :}

As a result, my experiences are so limited as to make my opinion worthless. Aerie, eh? I'll have to go look, if I ever get my life back. :}

So saith Ed.

I sympathize, also having no time for computer gaming. (Leisure time? What's that?)
THO

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May 14, 2004: Hello, all. Thy Lady Hooded with the latest words of Ed, who is way too busy just now to answer any of the in-depth Realmslore queries he knows are piling up, but wants you to know he very much wants to deal with all of them, ASAP:

Hello, scribes! First to Gareth: glad your mum loves my books, and thank you for introducing her to them. It's a very slow process, conquering the world one reader's mind at a time... seriously, if I can spread a little enjoyment, that's great!

Borch, I think fellow scribes have tracked down all the in-print Realmslore about your three queries, so I'll have to generate more. :}

Ditto, Metis; I'll get going on tidbits about the Reach.

Dargoth, good point about computer games differing from Realms continuity. My take is always: if a game has several different possible outcomes depending on PC actions, then obviously it can't establish continuity because Realmslore can't assume PCs do "X and only X." Moreover, your point about things that just happen in a computer game and are never mentioned elsewhere is probably the way we have to "read" what is becoming canon and what isn't, and as I said earlier, I can't utter any useful and definitive judgement on whether the games are canon or aren't, only state my assumption. I CAN speak definitively about the Volo's Guide I wrote. I suppose this debate will always rage. Hmm, sorta like real-life politics. :}

George, thank you. A fluffy Simbul you'll have, and I, too, am really enjoying sharing with everyone at Candlekeep. It's like a relaxed party at a cottage, sprawled on chesterfields/sofas/lounges and chatting with friends who love the same things you do. I hope to keep it up for as long as I can (years, if the site and the interest and my heart hold out). And yes, it's lovely when you and Eric and others (Garen Thal leaps to mind) skillfully weave new Realmslore to help make the whole tapestry brighter, richer, and stronger. A particular satisfaction AND a life-work.

So, Purple Dragon Knight, you want to see Elminster powerless, do you? So do a LOT of folks in the Realms. Me, I'd like to see Storm chopping wood in the nude again alongside a duplicate of her, sweat and curves and all, who just happens to have the merrily bearded visage of Elminster himself. :}

Real hard Realms-style swearing? Okay, Faraer, I'll get to work on it. Tastefully, of course, as is my wont. :}

Taelohn, please don't misinterpret my mention of Halaster as meaning he's a Chosen. I meant to just pick two individual beings in the Realms who possess some mastery of magic in very different ways (Dove ISN'T a powerful mage), and consider that, if one added "being a Chosen" to their very different natures, powers, and characters, one would naturally end up with two very different "magical powers" results. Dargoth, I doubt a table is the way to go with the Chosen of Mystra, because I DO want everyone to be unique and different purely because it's more interesting and leaves more "fun roleplaying room" to things. I don't want the Chosen to all be just so many troops with identical special power-and nor do Mystra or Ao, because the whole point of Mystra's Chosen is to stop Mystra from controlling everyone by scattering her power, AND to prevent anyone else from controlling her through the same means (I also had to have an explanation for how Bane COULD control Mystra during the Time of Troubles). So if they're all different, working out some grand plan for controlling them all, or Mystra through them, is that much harder.

Proc, I'll get to work on the Waterdeep Watch stuff. Some snippets of info will be revealed in my Realms of Dragons short story, and in the Waterdeep novel, but you need a handy core of stuff to work with.

To both SiriusBlack and kuje31, glad you liked Elminster's Daughter! I'm happy with how it turned out, and was really comfortable with the story as it flowed in the telling. I look forward to the chance to tell more stories with the same characters.

Wooops! Must run, now, but rest assured that the Hooded Gentleness is feeding me ALL of the thread converse, and I'm puttering on all sorts of lore replies as a result.

So saith Ed.

Hmm, "Hooded Gentleness," eh? Now THAT'S a stage name I could do something with. Just what, we'll talk about some other time and place.
THO

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May 15, 2004: Hello, all. Thy Lady Hooded once more, with brief words of Ed (answering Dargoth from way back on April 17:

I'm not sure exactly what's going on at Dragonspear Castle right now. The answer to that depends on events in your own Realms campaign. I can say that the portal that wider Faerun heard so much about (see the Hordes of Dragonspear adventure) was destroyed, and most of the devils slain. However, some devils escaped, scattering and temporarily going into hiding all over Faerun. Most of these have been hunted down since, but others (particular some of the most powerful and subtle devils) continue to work mischief, usually by manipulating humans.

Nor was the destroyed portal the only one in the vicinity of the Castle --wherefore some other portals to fell planes ARE still open, and various evil and half-hidden power groups vie for control of them. Again, the specifics are up to individual DMs.

So saith Ed, giving one of his familiar "maximum play opportunities" answers.

Of which more very soon.
THO

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May 15, 2004: Fair meeting once again, scribes! Thy Lady Hooded rides in with another reply from Ed, this time for the April 18th questions posed by Bakra, Lord of the Outlying Thread:

Hi, Bakra. Well, I can tell you that unless editing prunes these lore-mentions away, the forthcoming Serpent Kingdoms product will identify important events that befell during both the 'Year of the Sighing Serpent' (1289) and the 'Year of the Ormserpent' (1295), giving the usual cryptic hindsight reason behind the two year-names.

"Ormserpent" is a corruption of a "wormserpent," and this is an old name for a naga. I can add something NOT mentioned in Serpent Kingdoms: that there once was a gigantic, unique reptile called THE Ormserpent (briefly worshipped in its own cult) that legend tells us was able to disgorge, after great agonies, "spawns" of 3-6 living creatures of all manner of other serpentine races (a maximum of 2 creatures out of such a spew being the same sort of creature), and that it would perish if it ever vomited forth another ormserpent. One tale also claims that a clan of very-long-lived, immune-to-all-poisons women of sinister intelligence and purpose, who can shapechange into various snake forms (from small to monstrous), are the "Daughters of the Ormserpent," spewed out by it, one by one, on rare occasions.

This is old, old Realmslore from my personal scrolls, hitherto hidden even from the keenest scholars of Candlekeep, and it may or may not be more than mere legend. Whew. Ask and ye shall receive, Bakra! WELL, now... Daughters of the Ormserpent, eh? I'll have to investigate more fully, in our Realmsplay sessions, as to whether or not certain fell females might just be members of this clan. If, of course, it truly exists.
THO

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On May 16, 2004 THO said: Just managed to snatch a few moments for matters Realmsian, so 'tis time for Thy Hooded Lady to answer a few of the queries put directly to HER (uh, me ) by fellow scribes.

First, from Shadowlord, back on April 18th: "If you could have your PCs visit an outer plane, what would it be?"

Brightwater, of course. Arvandor and the Gates of the Moon when I wanted 'quiet time,' but Brightwater would be my first choice. Obvious, I know, but sometimes I am just a BIT bold and forward.

Which leads me to Bakra's question about Hallowe'en Realmsplay. Yes, we've had a few rather creepy "dance with the dead" sessions. Longtime Realms fans may recall Nidus and his Wand of Endless Repetition. Well, we found a huge spell-field cast by that fell mage, over the great hall of a castle. Couples in finery, long since withered away to bones, were dancing (in formal, waltz-like, clasped-together movements) tirelessly as odd bones crumbled away or dropped off... and while we were in the hall, we had to keep making saving throws against the magic or repeat precisely our actions of the previous round. It progressed from macabre to truly scary.

We've also had Feast of the Moon storytelling sessions (in which we roleplayed villagers recounting hair-raising tales of the dead, and had some ghosts correct them and then 'wink out'), ghosts whispering to us in dark places, and the dead walking from family crypts, just to mention a few. Ed also described, in grisly detail, a shouting, kicking merchant being literally torn apart by crawling claws as we watched (through scrying magic).

Which leads me to a far more recent request from Athenon/Will, about sharing some of Ed's best moments as a DM. You're right, Will, things are rarely boring around our gaming table. It's not just because of Ed, because we all act out our characters with energy and enthusiasm, but Ed sets the tone.

Let me pluck just a few 'bright remembrances' to share:

Ed portraying the manic Halaster (pouncing on and eating imaginary flies and all) baiting the Knights in the depths of Undermountain, in a thoroughly terrifying performance that left us all jumpy for the rest of the evening.

Ed playing the part of an animated warrior's helm that couldn't speak (though it could make noises that conveyed its emotional state) and yet was trying its darndest to lure us through a dungeon into the traps it was spell-linked to. Swooping, purring, cajoling, dancing in the air, buzzing menacingly as it swooped at us -- we were in absolute stitches of laughter by the time it finally succeeded in getting one of us to plunge into a pit, went into a victory dance -- and flew straight into its own destruction by celebrating its way right into a metal-shredding spell field.

Ed playing all of the parts in a dramatic secret meeting of a noble conspiracy to overthrow the Obarskyrs, whilst we Knights listened tensely from the far side of a tapestry. Incredibly realistic dialogue, instead of the all-too-frequent "You already know this, Von Villain, but our audience doesn't, so let me explain it to you again for their benefit" banter. Ed's particularly good at "overheard dialogue," and once did a seduction scene that had me squirmingly hot, let me tell you -- although when we burst out of hiding with weapons drawn at the er, moment of climax, it became hilariously obvious that we'd entirely misjudged what we'd been listening to.

Ed impressing the heck out of us with a Mirt-style buffoon performance from a Cormyrean tax collector that fooled us completely -- only to have the tax official 'step out of his act' for a moment to enlist our aid in bringing to justice one of the nobles he'd been auditing, after he uncovered crown treason rather than mere gold-piece-pinching. Ed made it obvious that this act is what enabled the tax collector to ferret out so many truths about the nobles he was investigating, on a daily basis.

Ed playing the part of Queen Filfaeril of Cormyr, facing down a Red Wizard envoy who was bold enough to try to coerce permissions out of her at Court, with Azoun absent. Filfaeril was polite, gracious, and very eloquent in her refusals -- and when the mage sought to outthink her, she turned politely steely. When he dared to try to add a little magical persuasion and War Wizards came running, she dealt with the foolish Red Wizard with a regal bluntness, pronouncing cold doom on him in a manner that left us wincingly impressed around the gaming table. If you close your eyes to blot out the smiling bearded giant at the end of the table and just LISTEN, Ed's voices sound so real.

Ed doing a deliberately hilarious "two pompous wizards spell-dueling" scene at a MageFair in which he declaimed one mage's lines, then dashed across the room to turn and deliver his rivals' words, and then ran back to his first location to utter the response, and so on. We were rolling around laughing by the time he was (breathlessly) done.

Ed playing the part of an elder dragon, bargaining with us Knights for its own survival by offering portions of its hoard -- and doing it so well that I am forever scornful of dragons seen in movies and fantasy novels. Ed can make the "I'm older than dirt and sadly wise, but don't trifle with me, human" viewpoint seem VERY real, where most wise-old-dragons come across as one-dimensional villains or oh-so-jaded feybritches.

Ed portraying a farm wife, pleading with a Zhent for her life, knowing she's doomed but offering everything, from information about everyone in her village to her own body, to buy time for her children to run away (out the back of her farmhouse). He did it so well that two of us Knights burst out of our nicely-set-up ambush prematurely to slaughter her Zhent tormentor and defend her... knowing as we did so that the cost was alerting the main company of Zhents to our presence, and leaving us with a long, hard running fight to survive (because they outnumbered us so greatly).

I could list dozens of other moments, a lot of them more high-stakes dramatic, but enough. Real life beckons rather imperiously, I'm afraid.

Full goblets and fine fare until next,
THO

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May 16, 2004: Hail, fellow scribes! Doth the wind blow fair for thee?

Yes, 'tis I, The Hooded One, with VERY fresh words from Ed (as in, not smart-tongued, but only just these last few breaths uttered: I e-sent him postings from this thread and he replied almost instantly):

Aha! A very timely pair of related questions! I'm going to break off puttering on the outstanding Realmslore questions in this thread for a few minutes, and quickly answer this latest matter about Vangerdahast and Elminster.

simontrinity, I hope in future fiction to outline this in far greater detail, but let me summarize the relationship between Vangey and Old El.

Gerath Hoan, welcome to the thread, and I hope what follows answers your query about Vangey.

Briefly put, Vangerdahast has always been an ambitious, controlling sort of person, and has always been fiercely, unswervingly dedicated to the service of Cormyr (or to be a tad more precise, his vision of what the Forest Kingdom could and should be).

Early in his career, Vangey found himself desiring to achieve the greatest possible personal magical power to arm himself properly for plunging into the ferocious power struggles swirling around the Cormyrean Court at the time of his youth (and realizing his personal knowledge of magic and mastery of spells would have to be better than anyone the various Cormyrean noble families -- and/or their Sembian allies -- could hire). He decided to go to the best tutor he could think of: Elminster.

He became El's apprentice, and flourished in spellcraft, though he found Elminster's freewheeling, meddling, all-too-often-overly-kindhearted style grating (being himself more in love with control and hierarchy).

The problems arose after Vangey left Elminster's tutelage (amicably enough) and returned to Cormyr. Vangerdahast considered El his 'ace in the hole' to call upon whenever real crises threatened the stability of Cormyr and outstripped War Wizard capabilities, and did so -- but very much resented that Elminster's meddling and wise old advice came with such aid, every time.

One of the supporting scenes in ELMINSTER IN HELL ("Here Be Wizards" in Chapter 5) illustrates this ongoing friction (and the guilt creeping into Vangey recently, over his relations with Elminster).

Not knowing a polite way to go on demanding El's aid but at the same time telling him to 'butt out' of trying to twist events and attitudes in Cormyr (and dismissing the fact that El and the other Chosen had been meddling in Cormyr and everywhere else for years upon years), Vangey said it impolitely.

El took it well enough -- but went right on meddling, just choosing to now do it behind Vangey's back or without bothering to stop in and say hello to Vangey whenever he was active in Cormyr. Again, Vangerdahast chose to ignore that this is a large and well-established part of what Chosen of Mystra DO, and took it as a personal challenge to his authority. A failure to understand that "the apprentice had grown up," if you will. So Vangerdahast became increasingly frosty in his verbal and written communications with Elminster, and his comments about Elminster to other Chosen and to Harper go-betweens.

And Old El went on serenely behaving the way he always had, occasionally teasing Vangey with smart return-fire remarks of his own and ignoring Vangerdahast's decrees and demands to War Wizards that El be arrested and rendered no aid. As most of El's acidic remarks were shrewd criticisms of Vangerdahast's failings (love of intrigue, desire to know EVERYthing going on in the realm and thus crush and ruin shy or paranoid persons by repeatedly violating their privacy, and absolute need to be at the centre of things and to ALWAYS be in control, even when that need hampered the necessary personal growth of Obarskyrs destined to rule or who might come to the throne if bad things happened to their close relations, and so on), they really nettled Vangey, and the deep stings made him even more furious.

Both the Harpers and the Chosen admired Vangerdahast's successes in dealing with rebellious Cormyrean nobles and Azoun IV's personal failings, and building Cormyr into a truly prosperous, law-abiding, strong realm, and covertly helped him whenever they could. In the words of Storm Silverhand: "If we had a dozen Cormyrs, Faerun would be a shining homeland for all." They also noticed that increased experience and the goadings of Elminster were tempering Vangerdahast into an increasingly dextrous intriguer, and into a man who increasingly saw and admitted his own failings, and was willing to work to mend them.

So they wanted him to stick around, in particular to oversee the Forest Kingdom after Azoun IV's inevitable death (given ambitious nobles and Sembians, Alusair's willful nature, and other factors), and started to manipulate him into finding old magics and developing others that have longevity side-effects. Vangey is no fool when it comes to magic, and the moment he noticed these longevity effects, he embraced them so as, yes, to be around to serve Cormyr for the greatest possible time. Whereupon his manipulators increased their work to lengthen his years even more, beyond what he'd noticed. To what extent and in which ways they did so I'd like to keep secret for now (possible future fiction, again), but suffice it to say that their efforts, coupled with some magics that seem to lengthen the lifespans of all Royal Magicians of Cormyr (quite possibly because Mystra looks favourably on anyone who maintains and commands a force of government-related wizards, so long as those mages behave in ways that don't involve widespread slaughter of other wizards), gave Vangey many more years than most folk can enjoy.

And Vangey has used his time well. As SiriusBlack pointed out, ELMINSTER'S DAUGHTER shows us something of how Vangerdahast and Elminster get along "now" (current Realms time).

While I'm here, I might as well tackle Gerath Hoan's second question. Yes, the Hiloars are nobles, of a sort that's sometimes called "border nobles" around Court: successful families dwelling in border or debatable areas of Cormyr (along the Sembian border, Arabel, and Marsember) who have demonstrated some loyalty to the Crown. Vangey wants to keep them loyal and build on their success and local influence, so he ennobles them, involves them in minor services to the Crown (to test them with temptations), and butters them up (asks their opinions on matters, confers with them often so they feel important, and so on). He wants both to use their capabilities for the betterment of Cormyr, and firmly bind their loyalties to the Obarskyrs and head off intrigues and rebellions born of noble and rich merchant dissatisfaction with having to endure the laws and authority of the Crown.

House Hiloar (for some reason, they dislike being referred to as "the Hiloars," and so they're never so styled in Court converse) have long been successful overland shippers (caravan traders), specializing in linking the Moonsea lands and the northerly Dales with the southern port trade of Cormyr. This makes them local competitors with the Zhents, and prime targets for being corrupted by the Zhents and used as stooges (hence the scrutiny the War Wizards, Purple Dragons, and individual roaming Highknights subject them to). Recently, as profits have dwindled in the face of strife in the Dales and in Cormyr itself, House Hiloar has diversified by buying, breeding, and selling horses (draft beasts and warhorses), and in making divers covert property investments in Sembia. This latter move, in particular, sharpened the interest and scrutiny of the Crown (the War Wizards were worried that Sembian interests were controlling House Hiloar), but thus far no disloyalty has been uncovered, which of course raised House Hiloar's worth in Vangey's eyes, and started him on the road to really rewarding them to both keep and make use of their loyalty (Court posts and titles for younger Hiloar bloods, "help" at Court with red tape and tax and fee breaks for favoured merchants, and so on). The War Wizards are looking to find Hiloars with magical talent, so they can install friendly, helpful War Wizards (spies) as tutors. I don't want to say too much more about the Hiloar family because it'll cut down on your options as a DM, and because of possible future Realmslore publications.

So there you go. Have fun, and hey, I love answering the questions -- so now I've got to get right back to the oldest outstanding lore request (from Lashan, and almost a month old)! Ciao for now!

So saith Ed.

As it happens, I already knew almost all of what he's said here about Vangerdahast from our 'home' Realms campaign play, but this is the first time he's ever said so much in print, so: over here, scribes interested in Cormyr and in Vangerdahast! Essential Realmslore alert!

I feel I should be blowing a herald's horn.
THO

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On May 16, 2004 THO said: Oooh, yes. The problem is: appropriate. Ahem.

My serious side ("Lady Herald of the Realms" might do) or my, ahem, frisky side ("Enticing Enchantress [Wanton Flirt] of the Realms")?

Hmmm. Perhaps if I purred in Alaundo's ear...

Or not. I'm sure I give him more than enough headaches already.
THO

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On May 16, 2004 THO said: ::wince::

Someone off-line here at my end has just suggested I should be styled "Mouth of Old Ed" (a la "Mouth of Sauron"). However, knowing Ed as I do, that's a disturbingly colourful phrase.

Seriously, I'm happy with any title. And yes, SiriusBlack, I, too, am VERY interested in Cormyr's future cast. Ed's going to get some hard in-character questioning across the Realmsplay table, next session.
THO

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May 17, 2004: Well met again, fellow scribes. We Knights (the players, not our characters) had our own Realms motto: "Ed Never Sleeps." The reasons for that should by now be obvious to all of you, and he's proving it yet again by handing me MORE replies to post, to whit:

Hello again, all. Mixed platters, this time.

First, to kuje31: re. the Highfire Crown. Sigh, this is a "Can't say much due to NDAs" matter, but the short-term effect of its finding on the Realms, these days, would depend on how widely the finder advertised his or her possession of it. If word spread among mages, the usual grasping sorts (Red Wizards, Zhents, etc.) would try to arrive and forcibly seize it -- and so would a large number of elves, seeking to remove it from non-elven hands at all costs. If the finder was an elf, now... nope, straying into NDA territory again. :}

Glad you liked ELMINSTER'S DAUGHTER. "Bad Ed"? Of course. :} And I toned the revelations down some, as I recall.

Faraer, you're quite welcome -- and I'm looking forward to WRITING Volo's Guide To The Moonsea, so I can bring you Old Gharauth's House of Butter Wrestling in all its, er, glory. :}

To tide you over on the swearing, here are just a few key words, with various regional variants given (I'll leave the more colourful genitalia descriptors for the full piece):

(non-deity-specific) damn! = hrast, hrammar (hur-RAST, hur-RAM-uh) ["hrammar" is southern]

shit! = naeth, naed, orbal (NAY-thh, NAYdd, ORR-ball) ["orbal" is southern]

fuck! = tluin (tuh-LOOO-in)

fuck you/fuck off = sabruin (sah-BROO-in)

Blushing yet, anyone? Naw, thought not.

To Krash: George, The Simbul's all-time favourite tipple was mint and morel (yes, the mushrooms) wine, as made by a half-elf crone named Klarinthra Larntrout, a friend of Elminster's who died some three centuries ago. Since then, she's been searching for a new favourite, and prefers very strong drinks (warning to all: don't expect to get this lady easily drunk) that are smooth and mild-tasting, not raw or fiery.

So saith Ed. So the posset I fed her last time was close to the mark, hmm? She did get very friendly, as I recall, complimenting my figure and fragrance for the first time ever, and trailing her fingertips along my jaw . . . Hmm and double-hmm.
THO

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May 17, 2004: Bright day, fellow scribes! Thy Hooded Lady again, bearing another out-of-chronological-order reply from Ed:

Archmage Daraath, the rankings of gods are (or should be) a mystery to mere mortals. The problem with deities absorbing deities is that change always causes some worshippers fall away, so you can almost never do straight addition of worshippers to derive a new ranking. Moreover, most beings in the Realms worship a variety of deities, rather than confining themselves to one, so what the priests of the other deities have to say about the matter can also have an effect.

I agree with you: lusty teens would worship Sharess, but then again, lusty teens do less fervent worshipping than older people. They're more wide-eyed and exploring everything (including each other, with priests and worshipping be damned, so to speak, along with all other authority figures) than their elders. They also tend to (remember, most Faerunians don't confine themselves to one god) also worship Sune because those rituals can be party time, too! And some teens want to be daring and try the forbidden, others want to have a wild and swinging time, and others want to copy grownups as fast as they can (again, Sune might not be all that neglected, when compared to Sharess, and many teens might be just as hot for the worship of Shar or Mystra or Mielikki or whomever has the hunkiest/most beautiful clergy or teen worshippers; if you're hot for Nalastra the miller's daughter, and she can be found in high boots, black lace and not much else writhing on tombstones in some confused ritual to Shar, then you're either turned off/too scared to pursue her, or you're right there on the tombstone with her, aren't you?).

As for where Sharess came from, be warned: priests and worshippers alike seldom speak truth, but rather repeat what they have been told to say, which may or may not be true.

I probably won't do fiction involving the gods directly, beyond the brief sort of scenes seen in my last two Elminster novels -- and even those, I'd prefer to back away from. With deities prancing around, it's hard for mere mortals to shine as heroes.

As for your draconic queries, I regard all dragons as intelligent and strong-willed enough that except in cases of directly opposite alignment, all relationships between dragons should be determined on a case-by-case, individual basis. Otherwise, saying that Dragon Type A and Dragon Type B are friendly or hate each other is about as valid as saying "All stockbrokers are friends" or "All radish-sellers hate each other's guts." So instead, let's consider that Darvur the Radish-Seller hates his cousin Vondryn the Radish-Lord, who has a stall at the other end of Dock Ward, but is good friends with Arvul the Radish-King, whose stall is right the far end of North Ward.

Thus, the blue dragon Vaurethdraumantor may or may not hate the brass dragon Dzeldurtrar Sharpwings, though they probably have little in common and rub each other the wrong way. On the other hand, they may once have had a moonlit encounter in a ruin that has given both of them fond dreams and memories, ever since...

I do believe that all dragons CAN crossbreed (although a few individual dragons may be sterile/barren), and that the offspring will almost always favour one parent or the other very closely (perhaps with some minor shuffling of abilities), but that in rare cases a new sub-breed or a chimera-like strange draconic beast will result. I'm more interested in WHY they would want to breed (dragons mate seldom, so is it an all-consuming, driving lust or instinctive imperative when faced with imminent death or passage into a post-menopausal, non-breeding stage of life? Do dragons have such a thing? Or are they all cold-bloodedly rational enough to mate for long-term goals or mutual advantage, or to create something that they can both use as lures to enrich their hoards if they spread the word of rare crossbred-dragon eggs?).

As for internet fan fiction using or set in the Realms, I have nothing against the idea of such writing -- storytelling is a basic human activity, and we tend to want to write or tell stories about things that matter to us. However, I have no time to read such fiction, and like my colleague Elaine Cunningham have to be mindful of the legal dangers of offering to do so. Moreover, I recognize that Wizards of the Coast, Inc., as the current copyright holders of the Realms, may take a very strong corporate stance against the publication of fan fiction (to protect the Realms). I recall rumors of a bondage and discipline website using Drizzt images, and the rush to get them removed so that the Realms wouldn't be associated with S&M rather than D&D (and yes, angry mothers, there IS a difference :}). So I'm neither going to agree to read someone's Realms fanfic or help them to try to get it published, by Wizards or anyone else... but on a personal level, the fact that Realms fanfic is being created doesn't bother me at all.

On the other hand, satire is a defense in American law (not everywhere in the world, please note), and I've enjoyed some vicious short parodies, down the years, of Realms characters, NPC groups, adventures, and novels. Some TSR staffers deliberately sent me Realms parodies for my enjoyment, and I consider that a different matter.

I think a Dungeon Master who fictionalizes the deeds of his or her players, for their own collective consumption ONLY, is doing a noble thing.

I believe someone who wants to be a fantasy writer is better off using their own characters and own setting from the outset, because doing so forces them into doing the creative underpinnings and providing fully-fleshed-out characters and place descriptions, rather than relying on readers "knowing" an already-established place or character. Also, because such writing isn't a deliberate challenge to copyright, it can be freely shared and critiqued, and thus has a chance of leading on to something more.

Please note: I'm not a literary snob. (The ridiculous nature of someone who enjoys fantasy looking upon any writing with snobbery is another matter.) I don't sneer at Fantasy Writer X because their work isn't as good as Fantasy Writer Y, and people who viciously do so frankly bewilder me. As a longtime library staffer, I'm far more interested in finding out what the reader standing in front of me wants or likes, and giving it to them ("You prefer David Eddings to Patricia McKillip? Then you'll PROBABLY like..."). So I'm not going to comment on the quality of any fanfic I do come across, because Sturgeon's Law applies to EVERYTHING (yes, my work very much included). :} Whew. So saith Ed.

Who is probably as weary as I am, so 'tis time for us both to seek our beds (seperate beds miles apart, Wooly and Blueblade, so your hopes need not be dashed yet). Let thy blade be swift, sharp, and true until next we meet,
THO

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May 17, 2004: Fair meeting, gentles. Thy Hooded Lady once more, bearing words of Ed:

Lashan, glad you're back. Yours is the eldest neglected Realmslore request, so here we go.

I'm afraid any more direct revelations about your namesake, Lashan Aumersair, must remain unanswered for now, because I don't want to get in the way of still-unfolding, still-secret Realms projects.

However, your story requests re. the House of Twilight in Tantras and the Net of Stars are my pleasure to deal with. So here's the first one:

The House of Twilight is an establishment that has reached its current sprawling size by linking a large central hall with several adjoining standaths.

(A "standath" is the Dragonreach and Moonsea name for a rectangular stone building that has cellars -- perhaps with a shop in the uppermost cellar level, entered by a 'duck down steps' route from street level -- a shop on the ground floor, and two or more upper floors given over to residential suites. Sometimes the floor directly above the street-level shop is also occupied by that shop, or by another business, or by offices. In other words, the vast majority of close-crowded, square-stone-block central city buildings are standaths. A "murdath" is the same as a standath but with no cellars beneath, usually due to very hard bedrock at the surface, swampy ground, or everpresent flooding danger.)

In the case of the House of Twilight, one such link is a third-floor-up [counting the ground level as the first floor, just to settle the British and American differences on this matter] enclosed 'flying bridge,' but all of the other links are below-ground tunnels.

The House of Twilight fronts on the moot (T-junction) of Mountstar Street and the Stallionpost, in the Upwall district of the city.

Mountstar Street is a major east-west route crossing the southern half of the city. The House of Twilight stands in the last (easternmost) block of the eastern end of its run, on the south side of Mountstar, facing the end of the Stallionpost (a short, straight street that runs SW-NE to end in a moot with Wall Lane).

The easternmost run of Mountstar curves southeast towards the Gryphongard Tower of the city wall (meeting Wall Lane just north of that tower), from its split into Mountstar Street and Rengallon Street two blocks east of the Fountain of the Mermaid. [On the FRA map, locate "6" and go most of an inch towards the top of the page along the street the numeral 6 is drawn on, to the obvious "Y" intersection. The building in the cleft of the "Y" is The Morning Halls, the temple of Lathander, with its refectory and stables being the next building along the curve of Mountstar Street, and five buildings farther along is the moot with the Stallionpost. The large "squashed-V-shape" building across from that street is the House of Twilight.]

The House of Twilight is famous among nightclubs for its elegance. Everyone is clean, well-dressed, and quiet (there's a sound-deadening spell in effect that reduces shouts to murmurs: even whispers can be readily heard by someone the whisperer is touching, and normal converse carries about three feet, with shouting reaching maybe five feet). The House has a huge security staff attired in dark livery, who intercept drunkards, known troublemakers, ill-dressed visitors, and anyone openly carrying weapons, and all large and menacing groups. Such guests are hustled into siderooms for interviews as to their intent, secure storage of weapons (storage of non-dangerous [not explosive or living or corrosive or obviously enchanted] valuables in the same 'the House is responsible' manner is possible, for fees ranging from 1 cp to 1 gp/night; weapons storage is free), baths, shaves, perfuming, and hair care (3 cp to 5 gp total charges, depending on how much is done), and costume rental. Although the House does put on 'fancy dress' revels in which everyone dons padded monster costumes or at least masks, or all portray parody-likenesses of dwarves or elves or stags, most "costumes" are merely formal wear of great taste and distinction. The dressers, bathers, and barbers ("barber" is a term that covers hairstylists in the Moonsea) are all pleasant, well-trained, and good-looking -- and there are dust-covered merchants and salt-stained sailors in plenty who come to the House of Twilight just to get pampered and spruced up, and never enter the club itself.

The lofty main hall of the club is always dark, lit only by dim "twinklestars" (pierced-filigree, star-shaped cages of blackened brass hanging from the ceiling-beams on pulley-chains, that each hold a single candle). The light can be increased or decreased by the number of candles lit, and altered in hue by using different-colored candles (the House has a huge variety, but most often uses uncolored candles, switching to purple for illusion-casting demonstrations, blue for mime-acting performances, and red for lust-revels). There's a raised, oval 'thrust' stage (with a "backcavern" theater joined to it), a dance floor in front of the stage, tables for drinkers filling an arc around the dance floor and stage, and three tiers of balconies, with chairs set along them (that are chained to floor-bosses to prevent them being hurled down into the expanse below).

Musical perfomances and oratory are, thanks to the hush enchantments, unknown at the House of Twilight. Instead, the stage is given over to mime-acting (and short performances of tales told in a series of tableaux), acrobatics [think Cirque du Soleil], and (during lust-revels) burlesque stripteases and sexual acrobatics.

The hush enchantments don't govern the 'retreats' of the club (that is, the parts of the House of Twilight located in the various sidehouses). They are rented out at high rates for trade and illicit-dealings meetings; moots of various private clubs, cabals, and gambling groups (including gatherings as odd and innocent as 'swap meets' of male merchants who collect and trade porcelain dolls and don't want their city acquaintances to ridicule them or their wives to explode at the sums they spend); and to the Twilight Ladies (prostitutes employed by the House, who sees that they're bathed and costumed, and protects them by rushing security staff to respond to alarms rung by the Ladies).

By special, secret arrangement, the House sometimes agrees to store stolen goods in hiding, or even drugged, wounded, or enspelled persons (including fugitives from justice and kidnap victims). At least one rebellious young Sembian heiress, Telchantla Erynmoon, recently "kidnapped" herself, holing up in a House room for months whilst she sent ransom demands from fictitious captors back to her family by ship.

The House of Twilight was started thirty-some summers ago by an ailing, retired adventurer-wizard, Tanathra Sundee, who may be dead by now, or may just be really wizened and confined to a hidden suite somewhere in the House. She's either alive and magically scrying what goes on, whispering occasional tips as to trouble or interesting events to the House staff, or she's haunting the place (and doing exactly the same thing).

The House is currently owned and run by eight to twelve (wider Tantras isn't sure on how many owners the club has, or precisely who all of them are) local citizens, among them the wine merchant Halmidur "Oldbottle" Dransun, the dressmaker Amranthe Tantelhand, the cabinetmaker Menyurl "Manychairs" Haeltree, and at least two of the Twilight Ladies, Shamurla "the She-Stallion" Dlaevul (her nickname derives from her tall, thin stature and her long, long mare's tail of blond hair, said by many to be a deliberate attempt to copy the locally-famous adventuress-mage Tarntassa) and Mureena Osskont. The House enjoys friendly relations with the High Council, and it's long been rumored that several wives of High Council members are among the club owners (gossip usually 'identifies' the imperious Iyeirintra Ormitar, fat and lazy Wyndlanna "the Worm" Kaetril, and Suspanna Vulthyndur).

Current rumors swirling around the House involve the brusque, bearded and very aggressive-in-trade noble merchant Belmar Horthantar regularly changing his shape by hired magical means into that of a beautiful woman, and spending nights at the House selling pleasure to men; Helvel Drunstable, longtime priest of the city's shrine to Lathander (who maintains the simple Morning Altar on Straeth Street because he has long publicly considered High Morninglord Alansyn Ambrilar a supercilious lover-of-luxuries who's lost touch with the real folk of Tantras and the true state of everyday life in Faerun, to chase "empty fantasies of foolishness" of somehow "drawing nearer to the Light" by winning Lathander's favour, in frivolous ways Drunstable believes Lathander scorns, such as bathing in rose-petals, conjuring up rose-pink smokes that one breathes out by the mouth, and so on) being seen often at the House meeting with mysterious outlanders; that two of the owners of the House have become locked in a deadly feud that's going to soon be settled either by a duel between the two, shut naked in the darkened, deserted House to hunt each other with daggers -- or by hiring spellcasters to temporarily imbue them with spell ability, and fighting a magical duel; bored, jaded Umbarra Stauntcantle, an aging widow and the last living member of the rich, noble Stauntcantle merchant family, has begun preparations for a 'treasure hunt' in the House that should end with the finder of a jewelled token bringing it to her and receiving her hand in marriage, regardless of their gender and marital status, so they can become Stauntcantles and the family endure; and that someone is enspelling rivals into trapped existences in the House by magically immobilizing them, whereupon they're stripped and painted to resemble stone, and set up on plinths as statues.

Oh, yes: and the House never really closes, though the main hall shuts down from dawn until after highsun every day for cleaning and 'dressing' (fresh candles on some tables, preparing the stage, seeing to the twinklestars, and so on). The House allows food to be brought in, but serves none -- and offers an awesome variety of drinkables, both exotic and mundane. A recent "rushsails" cellar delivery was to the House was for twelve bottles of elverquisst and six casks of Berduskan dark.

There. That ought to be enough to begin with. Oh, and Lashan, please: it's Ed. "Mr. Greenwood" is my father. :}

So saith Ed, who's uttered that line about his father a time or twenty thousand before (and, Eddie-Bear, shouldn't he really be "Professor Greenwood"? or does that courtesy not extend to Professors Emeritus?).

I can add just one tale of the House: we Knights visited it and danced there, one night, only to be attacked by a Zhent foe who was also a guest -- and spread confusion, once hostilities began, with a spell that severed the chains of many of the hot twinklestars, sending them crashing down onto the heads of revelers. The staff of the House revealed that their ranks include at least one mage or sorceress, and that they can call on the swiftly-arriving aid of BOTH the Grayclaws and local Harpers, who will work together to quell problems in the House, expel or defeat combatants, and magically bolster the Fireward enchantments of the House to prevent fires spreading. And during the fray, my character personally proved that given a sufficient running start, it's possible to leap from the stage up and onto the rail of the lowest encircling balcony -- and an obliging Zhentarim proved that one can plunge from the highest balcony right down to the floor of the main hall and survive provided one crashes through a handy table on the way, and lands on the thoughtfully-placed bodies of other Zhents.
THO

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May 17, 2004: Ah, Lashan, this is your lucky day. Thy Lady Hooded, bringing Ed's second reply, this time about the Net of Stars.

This one's going to be rather shorter, I'm afraid, because the Net is basically just a tavern. A very good one, but still just a drinking-place.

The Net of Stars is large and popular (and hence, crowded and noisy at all hours) tavern. It's known around the Reach for its friendly safety, its clean, cheerful, well-lit ambiance, and for the source of its illumination: huge glass three-quarter-globes (spheres with the uppermost quarter missing, so they're open at the top) that diffuse the light of oil lamps hung at their hearts, and that are gathered together overhead in a vast network of ceiling-nets -- obviously, the source of the establishment's name.

The Net of Stars occupies a corner location three blocks from the docks, on the northeast side of the moot of Marampur and Steth Streets, in the Oldcoin neighbourhood of the city. Steth Street is the short, curving lane that arcs northwest from the Fountain of the Mermaid, and is only a block long; Marampur Street is the longer north-south route Steth Street ends in.

Murak Sandorn, a former hiresword (warrior) of note who looks like a large, amiable bear with long, always-tangled honey-brown hair, is the owner and tavernmaster of the Net of Stars. He runs a large staff of young, eager men and women who know their drinks and how to serve them swiftly and deftly, grin when groped, and whistle for swift aid if something more serious occurs. Murak's known to have reached an agreement with the Grayclaws: the Net of Stars is 'safe ground' for both the Grayclaws and those they see as potential victims (they won't operate inside the place, except to conduct business discussions over drinks, but DO size up other drinkers, for pounce-thefts later). Murak's on-duty staff never numbers less than a dozen, and he prides himself on training them to be good-natured, sexy and flirtatious without being wanton or ever going farther (though arranging moots elsewhere with patrons for steamier matters is allowed), and alert to trouble or a possible thirsty throat. If a patron holds up one hand overhead cupped around empty air in a 'drink please' signal, a staffer should be at the table asking the patron's pleasure in three breaths or less.

Murak allows all manner of meetings and negotiations to take place in the Net, but patrons are forbidden to bring live animals inside, or any food that's still alive, is hot, or has sauce on it or with it. Patrons are also forbidden to exchange items, with two exceptions: coins and other currency, and paper documents (in other words, a payment can be made or a contract drafted or signed, but merchants can't directly buy or sell goods).

Murak does this to keep merchants from treating his tables like permanent business offices, not because he's an 'ogresnout' (nasty authority-hurler). He gives members of the Watch free drinks, and in return gets himself not only exemplary response from the Watch whenever brawls erupt, but at least a handful of off-duty Watch members in his taproom at all times. They understand that they're expected not to scrutinize or eavesdrop on fellow patrons in an obvious manner, and are treated like family.

As a result, the Net is the safest tavern for miles. It never closes, and serves inexpensive drinks, nuts, handwheels of cheese, small roundloaves of salty bread, and "everything in" (usually boar-scraps and barley, thickened with mashed yellow peas, always salty, and always served in tankards, with long spoons handed out when the tankard grows low) soups.

Murak and a lot of his staff live above the taproom, in a communal, everchanging family (Murak himself is best described as a "lazily tomcatting batchelor"), and has one 'sick room' suite up in the attic, but normally rents out no rooms, and permits no guests to stay overnight (he has been known to 'take in' a hunted guest as part of his family for a night).

The cellars of the Net of Stars are often flooded knee-deep by stinking harbor-water, and are haunted by the ghosts of drowned smugglers, but that doesn't deter Murak from hiding some of the wealth he won during his mercenary days in hidden cellar chambers, or chasing his prettier serving-wenches down one of the two secret stairs (crowded with cobwebs and smuggler-chains) that link attic and cellars.

The ghosts don't enter the secret stairs or the hidden rooms they lead to, but keep to the surrounding ring of chambers (which aren't directly connected to the hidden rooms). These surrounding chambers are usually choked with mold, rotting barrels, and a few inches of water, are reached down several stairs from the jakes (which empty into high-sided 'nightsoil' carts run down wheel-trough ramps to sit under the privies on chains, and hauled up and away by mules VERY early every morning, when replacements are brought) and from locked doors around the taproom.

Murak hollowed out space under the 'backbar' room to serve as a wine-cellar, and abandoned the cellars to the ghosts, who attack all intruders. There is one trapdoor into the cellars that Murak can open precipitously by pulling a lever behind the bar, dumping undesirables in the taproom twenty feet down into the damp darkness. Only very small persons can be sent down into the nightsoil carts through the privy-holes, and the ghosts don't bother anyone in the ramp area, thanks to the presence of a crypt thing.

The crypt thing, once the priestess Hurlara Snowstill, died fighting in the ramp to prevent smugglers from plundering a shrine to Tempus that once stood on the site of the Net of Stars, and was set here as a guardian. She prevents all living things, from rats to adventurers, from using the ramp as a way between the cellars and the street outside -- and more than one drunken sailor, urinating down the ramp, has been "hair-standing startled" at the sight of a red-eyed skeleton walking slowly and gracefully up the ramp towards him, clad only in the tattered ruins of a gown. The ghosts avoid her and the areas she guards, and Murak knows all about her and brings her new gowns (down the ramp, in the brief time between one nightsoil cart being removed and its replacement introduced) from time to time. A small flagstone in a passage near the privies can be lifted and set aside to allow things to be dropped down to her, and Murak sends her reading material in this way whenever he can. Hurlara carefully keeps and re-reads everything sent to her, and can sometimes be eerily heard entertaining herself by softly reading random words aloud from several sources, to stitch together a new (and inevitably rather stilted) tale.

So saith Ed.

I recall Murak, but now that I know all this, will use the Net as a swift way of tipping off the Watch and Grayclaws to the Knights' presence in Tantras without all the bother of accosting someone to make an announcement. That way both groups can start following us right away, and we can all save time.
THO

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May 18, 2004: Back again, fellow scribes, with some swift'n'simple replies from our Ed:

Krafus, when it comes to heavy-lifting Realmslore answers: yes, you're next, I promise!

Damian, in answer to your May 8th comment in this thread, I think we ARE seeing some elven propaganda regarding the "history" that tells us they lifted humankind on Toril out of barbarism and first gave them magic. I believe some few humans of sophisticated spellcasting powers survived an earlier 'great war' among human civilizations, and lured the elves into Faerun through the gates so the Fair Folk could by their very presence hold the land against rampaging monsters, overly-grasping dragons, and innumerable orcs long enough for these few sophisticated humans to return to lives of contemplation, study, and pursuing pet magical projects rather than endlessly defending themselves merely to survive.

The elves did find the great majority of humans as nomadic, brawling barbarians (albeit with a great adaptability for magic and everything else), but some Fair Folk MUST have known about the few human sorcerers and wizards... and their xenophobic lore since has "forgotten" this, despite the evidence of the gates, half-elves (hence human/elf interbreeding, and we can't all be fascinated by smelly savage barbarians, right?).

Athenon, your glimpses of Calaunt and Harrowdale should follow the reply Krafus is waiting for. Glad you liked the wilderland terrain parts of the Silver Marches: the kudos you offer me should actually belong to Rich Baker, who made an outline of what was to go into the book and carefully made sure that all of those features were covered (me, I could have filled the thing just with Silverymoon, and then done it all over again with Everlund, and then -- well, you see why they don't let me manage any sort of game department :}).

I certainly hope that Wizards will hurl forth similar products on the Dalelands, Cormyr, AND Sembia in the near future, but I can honestly say I don't know of any definite plans to do so. As the old adage goes, "Ask and buy, and ask again, and perhaps, just PERHAPS, in the fullness of time..."

On the unfolding tidbits about The Simbul, well, George, I can add this much: she DOES have a close friendship with a dragon who lairs somewhere northeast of Thay, and can in fact call on this wyrm for aid as a steed, pounce-rescuer, and even diversionary attack force. The name, breed, and locale of the dragon and