Dove Falconhand, Tharsult , magic in large cities and Elven noble Houses Special guest Eric Boyd

welcome back to episode 13 of mages and sages interview with the old mage with special guest Eric Boyd in George crashes before we get started with the episode we would like you to subscribe to our page and like the videos as you listen to them and if you have not already please go over to the fans of Ed Greenwood site over on Facebook and like our page and subscribe to that as well to get updates on the podcast as we get them edited and put out for ready to enjoy all right not any further ado here is episode 13 [Music] any story or legend concerning the figure of Rio thourough of the blades that you’d like to know about that’s a foreman pseudonym of Doug Falcon hand of the Seven Sisters she used that I think when she was in her younger adventuring phase and it’s mentioned in the Seven Sisters accessory as I recall but it’s only a mention there’s no really real information as to what Doug got up to when she was really of the blades had you got it into see on that one guess wait if you’re gonna stay in Diego go back get another glass yes that’s tokeep yeah I go and get another glass no actually I did actually write a long sword & Sworcery novella before TSR acquired the realms which had some of her adventures and a certain person at TSR read it and said oh my god we can never publish this because think of a think of conan sexed up with a female lead and think of what TSR was publishing back then and there worrying about teenage teenagers and the teenagers mothers and fathers from from heck as as James Ward used coal so yeah they just would so it is NDA but it’s not NDA because we don’t it’s because the devale of proprietary gut drawn over that because I was having great fun doing swordplay and humor and such things as you know the Guardsmen lost opened the bedchamber door and rage where the blades decides that the easy way to flee them because she doesn’t want to fight them in her current state of complete lack of dress and so on is to take the entire bed that she’s occupying with two or three other people at the time and fling it through the window and ride it to the courtyard below and that all of those pratfalls that you’ve seen in many musketeers movies involving you know swinging on ropes and draperies and and on Pirates of the Caribbean in the movie since inherited that sort of unintentional or or labored intentional hilarity space you know where there’s pratfalls going on people almost getting guillotined or almost getting hanged and not quite and all the rest of it okay I did tons of that sort of stuff and it they weren’t ready for it back then so I Raider just got quietly um put in a file drawer and the file drawer with slip the check this one edits directed from you but I imagine everybody can jump in on this it’s from Eric Todd yes what can you tell us about the island of darcel or the capital urban within the shining sea he says aside from the wiki the most I can seem to find detailing cárcel in any capacity is a candlekeep forum post from 2006 that explains it was once a lizard man kingdom but the lizard men have retreated into the Underdark via the hundreds of limestone tunnels that honeycomb the island he says he’d be very interested in more details on this island and he’s currently running a seafaring campaign with the shining sea region so I know that we’re probably gonna get the NBA hammer dropped on this but you other guys come on now we can work with this I I can I can maybe start while edx’s email go I have it out in front of me I’m loaded for bear with this foot but go okay you only hurt when I go first yeah go ahead all right so context right so Stephen wrote up Callum sham Lake esteem this is back in 1370 timeframe or I guess earlier than that when Stephen was writing and we sort of got the lands to the north and when we were writing up serpent kingdoms you know we kind of did that whole eastern side of the shining sea down to the southern side and thar still kind of stuck right there in the middle I always intended to write it up but never quite got to it but II did share a whole lot of lower back in the day around that but before we get into that the preview would be that there are little mentions of thar salt scattered around in a bunch of very obscure sources they include of course there is a little bit about the activities of the coiled cable which is a wanti organization and there they’re influenced parcels in the serpent kingdoms box are booked in races of faroan there’s a discussion of the fact that our salt is of the majority of the human population comes from the tassel our and most of the humans of the tassel are have gradually succumbed to the serpent races and so the culture around our salt in a sense is a rejection of that of that in breeding with them so you get a little bit of information there in laces of faroan there’s also a couple others as well there is sorry where is it oh yeah back in the original second edition Waterdeep product in a brief mention in in the third edition city of splendors water deep as well is a brief discussion of the may raw the Marin family who married into the island family they are from tarsals and were known to breed watch spiders which are in not uncommon use in the city of splendors so those are some of the more obscure references and then I’d take it away oh boy here we go thanks George for for sending me back the file but let me start with the quick overview the quick overview is what is star Sol okay it’s an island strategically located in the middle of the shining sea and it’s a crossroads it’s a bank and the realms equivalent of a stock exchange and a neutral trading ground for many merchants it has an arrangement with certain elves to defend it with their spell jamming ships if need be and it has many subterranean vaults and granaries granaries and vaults being chambers in all of those tunnels the major docks are at capital Pervez far salt has more wealth in or under it than just about anywhere else in the realms but many folk are interested in seeing that it stays safe so that new school ground I talked about holds firm it’s understood that if you attack our assault or try a high beast from tar salt you are dead as a traitor in a spender from that moment on all across the repels so aside from the denizens of the Underdark or other planes nobody will think of trying so it’s not a place that pirates show up and raid all the time okay our salt seems to have guardian dragons of its own to fight such threats not to mention death tyrants and other unsavory and powerful guardians down in some of the subterranean areas that’s the quickie overview and now all the stuff I wrote up my god we’ll be here all night if I read it all should i what do you do your worst buddy okay so here we go are you ready no one is the Isle of spices is a great trading center we’re in much of the bulk goods and coins involved in trading around the shining sea and sward coasts naval trading as far north as mint iron and water deep change hands so thir soul functions as a tolerant neutral ground for merchants trading in slaves drugs and just about anything everything else once a lizard folk realm later conquered by seafaring humans it’s long been known as the place where merchants trade flourishes in the shining sea kept free of piracy along with all the surrounding waters within sight of it by the Pirates themselves because as the Pirates needed access to all mainland goods not just what they could seize her from ships and so they supported and fostered the safe haven for all far salt is adjacent to the undersea aquatic or elven realm of all moth AUM are au th on Roth which are Sultan traders covertly trade for undersea delicacies in various local cloves by night and is a rocky and heavily forested Island think real world northern Italy or Tuscany in some places of that has been left natural on its cliffs rising steeply from the sea western side and it’s shoal rocks girded southeastern shore and that’s of course where any surviving can be found the rest of thar salt has been almost entirely built over in steep terraces of stucco face stone homes that abound in flat rooftop gardens balconies and small turrets these walled garden homes and tall warehouses cluster around stone and sarthe and Sarkis crabgrass stone and South streets that rise usually in spiral like roots from the many harbors notably those in the three largest and busiest coves that lie side by side on its northern shore on therm au n th you are our chaste all see a a t st al CH a sta o and zu ana Z or Z o a and a these mu rigs and their settlement share place names as does the largest harbor of thar salt southern coast to number two un um be AR to number smaller coves often have map names and different names used by local Mariners which allows thar Sultan’s to discuss smuggling and covert landings and meetings in front of Outlanders who may well mistake which codes are being discussed of old sour salt had quite a reputation for smuggling thanks to ship dashing from various shining sea ports to the island to trade cargoes with pirate parrots and other ships before naval vessels could catch up to and board them and such activities were aided by the many sea caves that honeycomb the coasts of the Isle of spices curious visitors are warned that most of these caves are now in regular used as docks and warehouses merchants who dwell above them and keep watch over them as well as of course breath all of the four largest harbors are home to large and capable shipyards which repair vessels and build many new ones our sultan crafters also produce sales wire fine chain and metal fastenings the Isle of spices is also home to many accomplished forgers and counterfeiters often outlaws who fled from authorities in various mainland realms who produce many false coins indistinguishable from real currencies for assaults nickname is derived from its hosting one of the largest spice mark no ninfa room several vintners bring shiploads of raw wine to thurso for blending and fortifying into the oily salty black wine Sherri’s and liqueurs and the Emerald huge sin tothen s int AV VI n sin tavern which is a mint flavored palate cleansing drink favored by few but used in large feasts in kalin-san and around the shining sea to clear the tongue between dishes of strong but clashing flavors so in real world terms think of having a nice drink of mouthwash or toothpaste in water in between dishes courses you’re eating and the long feast almost anything could be bought sold or traded in thar salt where wealth is king nominally ruled by a merchant council established centuries ago to put it into thieving gangs and piracy buy such prominent rich merchant families as the once famous stars family sta RT H start family a human clan of fabled wealth now possibly extinct see L minsters ever winking I number 79 on its now policed by belters clergy of joaquín of the lowest ranks usually ambitious and attentive priests seeking to prove themselves who lead small patrols of highly paid mercenary warriors around the island to primarily do three things keep order stopping violence and property crimes such as theft scuttling of ships arson and vandalism maintain fairness of trade stopping bribery cheating coercion and secret deals defined as any arrangement that affects wider market prices and conditions but is kept secret from other traders such as price-fixing arrangements of scarcities and favorable prices to insiders note that these are legal if declared openly and prevent gang operations of all kinds from secret trade deals such as here we go again price-fixing arrangement of scarcities in favorable prices to insiders whether secret are openly declared these are illegal when they involve more than to merchants and firms wholly owned by those two merchants among cabal’s to battles between mercantile organizations kidnapping on fire salt is automatically considered gang operations and no thar Sultan can be sold into slavery or traded as a slave in short if merchants avoid thievery overt violence and unfair dealing they can very much do as they please in particular free speeches of Hell on fire salt folk can’t with impunity talk openly of arranging killings civil wars coos and illicit acts on the mainland and against priesthoods the name belter comes from the distinctive belts adorned with a row of three hand sized diamond shape plates of metal which is the unofficial badge of thir soul sometimes seen in the form of banners displaying three copper hue diamonds on a crimson field and the belters all report to tables and tables are trios of experienced our Sultan’s of good character usually retired successful merchants who in turn report to the council it’s well known that the council pays belters very well and pays undercover spies to watch the builders and any merchants who seem interesting as well even better so treachery against council by those working for it is typically punished by chopping off a hand for the first events and either slavery or death first second typical punishments for those who have bitch Libre Clause is to be beaten by some belters and find increasingly heavily xio is usually the ultimate punishment although death awaits those who poison others the council is said to have 14 open members and another seven hidden members who travel frequently around our salt observing conditions and intrigues and making recommendations to their fellows the council votes to establish policies sometimes in public but more often in secret meetings and thar Sultan’s widely believe the council is controlled by sinister hidden ones who are either powerful Archmage’s horrific monsters or cabal’s of mainland rulers or pirates depending on which local legend one beliefs carved statuettes seldom taller the length of a man’s forearm were used as local currency in past centuries and are still honoured unfold our salt but most visiting traders prefer to use trade bars coins and gems health’s used for the making of fur garments both are salt and crafters and by workers in realms that trade with shippers who call it fair salt and docks are also locally valued highly enough and a fairly stable prices to serve as widely accepted barter currency on the island and then there are the aforementioned alloy plaques that we talked about earlier in the podcast languages abound on our salt but common is understood by all and inhabitants are so interpret that there’s no longer any norm of skin hue I or hair color or even human pure blood appearance as a result tolerance for a very wide variety of personal appearance dress and customs is high and white spread serpent related being the notable exception many thar Sultan’s are fabulously wealthy locally pursuing one’s dreams or remaining true to one’s own principles among the many many intrigues and schemes is what’s valued most highly amongst our Sultan’s born and bred popular male given names include blamed Korth Darmon ender hello daughter Hallman jars Arthur Harris are Rollem turth and Vorlon popular female first names Alice Balala coral Duffner EV entre Phaedra gallery Clarice nayoon Oh Lara eunsuh and gsella P popular surnames Corle aunt grace Coulomb Montez Norlin on trim Kwan’s roar a der stadt and wealth and no I’m not spelling all those out we’ll have to find some other way of making all those available with the full spelling there is no way I’m making you sit there for another 20 minutes okay first time will be struck by its wealth crowded conditions ceaseless deal-making and mercantile better and it’s exotic and by exotic I mean think real world Hollywood images of hari’s dancing girls displayed in many taverns and inns by slavers looking to make on the spot saddles far salts also famous for being the place to buy stolen shifts trade charts of anywhere in the world usually very reliable if fragmentary bottled scents and treasure maps notoriously fanciful these treasure maps owned by the way the dancing girls aren’t there just for show they are the eyes and ears of the proprietor they listen to what’s going on and they quite often by sight rating on what they learn either selling it directly or making their own deals on the basis that they do very well for there’s a recent rumor a reclusive mage of fire salt who’s been magically augmenting and breeding creatures lizard folk or is this the source of it super gargoyle is slain by his creations which run amok stowing away aboard ships and causing general mayhem in the Isle of spices which serves most Sword Coast shipping as a neutral ground supply refitting and trading base of course the mage had apprentice isms some of them are missing along with some of the Augmented creatures searches don’t uncover these vanished beings or any of the mages magic except a large network of gates opening his doors from a round room of trauma the mages tower and leading to all sorts of places in the realms various power groups desiring to control these gates as a swift cargo trading slash message conveying network fight to possess them hiring adventurers and more adventures as the struggle rages on and I also have a tiny little entry on the island that you’ll see on the maps east of our salt Umbara embarras named for a sorceress who fled from the altar to avoid an arranged marriage she feared and aided centuries ago and she dwelt on this island in hiding until her death the ruins of her cave home are haunted by her off scene restlessly watching the living in silence apparition the island was once home to many world goats said to be descended from beasts that she brought there but these were hunted almost to extinction by passing pirates and sailors several wealthy merchants rumored to be pirates or part of fel secret conspiracies are said to now be settling Umbara and building palatial fortresses there Umbara has no cities or sizeable settlements but does have many springs caves trees breakneck ravines and small inlets can serve as good single ship harbours and there we are hopefully that’s enough so you can use darcel in your campaign no wait there’s more aha for folks who are really desperate for more references there is an obscure reference in the men’s Oberon’s and box set to a city called Marilyn which is a drow city of the south that is below the ocean floor to the west of far salt and appears on the map of the Underdark in grits two wardens guide to the underdog and it just for attacking a drow city of the north Joel Joel chicken something like that that’s probably not it wait wait some time ago that’s why I like Joe chicken let’s do that we’re talking about chicken earlier so I think it might be just south can but anyway yeah we’re gonna go with Joel chicken since we’re talking about money one other point to bring up is there is a cow site trade bar you also used in parcel – Luda Natasha lar and other southern trade that is 7 inches long but both sides by boat long sides both smoothly in word half an inch on either end making the bar easier to grip that’s worth about 25 GP so you will find those in parcels as well and that is a reference from power of a room and then the last thing I wanted to mention is there’s an obscure reference from prayer from the faithful about a church of Amberleigh known that was once known as the Church of the deeps which was once the mightiest temple of um burly in the realms but it’s now no more than a sacred room to which umberland clergy make pilgrimages and that was led by one jurist and before the the Church of the deeps was destroyed so there’s a few other sites for you to include as well because it wasn’t enough and Ed’s summary so Eric Eric that duh that I’m really ruined is that is that something that’s on par salt yes it is okay a northerner so southern part of the island it’s on the west coast the the rocky cliffs to the west coast and it’s in a cavern on the west coast so further near the drought City that’s hiding underneath the sea Oh any any any way they can go into that to pay pilgrimage and then make it into the Underdark there’s always a way into the end that’s true why lad that was incredible both you Eric sorry I think I think when this podcast finally hits YouTube I might upload that file onto your thread at candlekeep ed so people can access that and get all the spellings right etcetera etcetera yeah a good idea um we should convert it from RTF to work and fix the firoun because it doesn’t like the bu with the accent or something weird oh no problem you know what you could put that part on there just the mages and sages podcast you can put two there too if you want yeah please do oh and I should add a promise of getting into the Underdark from the ruined um Burley temple if you are oh let’s just use the word stupid enough to move the altar like a big stone block altar and which is carved into like an open shell shape and try and see if there’s something buried underneath it gravity will help you get into the under right then right there my god silly helps you get out of the under yeah I mean you are their brief we had just enough to say it’s dark you dead okay so let’s move on as wonderful as that was I almost hate hate to do it I’ve got one here from the woolly Rupert over on candlekeep one of the moderators he says in 100 starts eating Eric we’ve already been told of tales of IDI singing and dancing like cher we don’t need that right now he says do what nothing sorry go ahead say it would be will either that’s true in a major city of the realms like water deep where there is gold to waste magic for it to be wasted on one of the cosmetic applications of magic in the sunlight something that would probably go more toward the nobility in water deep for example magic hairdos and coloring magic formal wear magic faceless tummy tucks boob jobs and how is this regarded by others the short answer is those lucky bastards look what they’ve got many my stuff kek kind of reminds me of the hole i forgot the name of the movies now but were the girl on fire in those name in a minute we’re off the people in the city the capital city had money to waste on them on all this stuff now is it kind of like water deep nobility when they can make hairdos change colour by the by the hour or maxwell football where that that has fairy fire running across it yeah many of the nobles do it would actually have all that much money left but you should always remember that in water deep this is a crossroad city where lots of people are coming and bringing their money all the time and there is a guild Wizards you know the watchful order mages and protectors and they do a lot of this stuff has sort of look what you could have our members can do this for a mere fill in the blank so there’s there’s people walking around as examples of that all the time and one of my favorite examples that I’ve used in role playing in the realms for literally 40 years a real time is ladies of shorter stature who have huge piled high hairdos that are magically kept in place and that move so that tresses sinuously move and reshape into other forms as a sort of living sculpture as they walk along I would add that there are lots of I have the feeling that it’s partly L Minister’s fault it’s probably mostly Volos fault but you know adventurers tend to focus on the magics that are useful for combat for divination for observation and and and miss some of the smaller things and just like some of the faith’s of the realms that are very important like the the church of shantia but you know the focus is on you know the Church of being Church of Tempest the Church of Mike Straub but the Church of Santi and many respects plays a very important role in the common life and I think the same is true for magic items there’s a really cool spell in Volos guide to the north that Edie wrote called Moonglow which just allows you to leave like these permanent little magical glowing lights and I don’t think we’ve seen enough of those type of magics that are just useful and practical but not necessarily for adventures more for people who are just living their lives and I suspect there are a lot of those little practical magics and magic items as well both amongst those ood and even to some extent amongst the commoners as well yeah you’d see a lot of moonglow’s of various custom hues used in nobles Gardens for late at night because you want to walk out and set them to the you know get some fresh air you don’t want to be carrying around lanterns or having to wake up a servant when you can just walk out there and Moonglow is room waiting another place you would find moonglow’s is in the high forest there’s not very many paths on the forest floor but Tana 10 of Endor which is the name for the various wood elf clans have created these trails through the treetops where they woven different branches from tree to tree together and you can run along the branches and hop from tree to tree and go miles this way without being down on the dangerous forest floor and many of those 10 of Endor trails are lit by moon glows as well so that’s that’s where you see more common uses of magic is things like how do we light a trail how do we how do we keep the food fresh how do we keep the milk from spoiling that sort of thing as well but most adventurers and you know public fabulous like whoa whoa don’t tend to focus in on those little things as much as the big you know smash things blow things up block things kind of smells they just want the fireball exactly yeah right right and to use a to use a useful real-world thing let us assume in the realms you are in a place that is you consider fairly safe there aren’t tons of walls or other monsters at night or brigands bandits who will be attracted to a light and therefore call you and call you into danger there is a real-world thing called leapfrogging if you’re ever in the woods at night or in fog or mist on a lake or whatever and you’re trying to follow a direction and not get lost and you have a compass or a good map you spend one party member with the glow the lantern or the magical glow you send them ahead as far as they can get and you can still see them and then you yelled for them no to the left to the right to the left until they’re right on the compass fairy and then you all go to join them and then you send them out again this is called leap frogging and it’s how you don’t get lost in the woods with lots of trees and the ground going up and down and you’re caught in it in the dark and you want to get out the other side and not something and not get lost forever that’s how you do it so like don’t tell somebody took you here now the drought do that with with their ferry fire and stuff mm-hmm the ostentatious display of power but in core man an in Cormier or in water deep I could see that being where you go into a luscious garden of a noble and as you walk the path lights as you go that’s right did I just head you know and as you step on the stones they light up different colors and and then they get these sparkly things that float up just to give you joy you know and I think I think it’s kind of what well you don’t forget the ghost harps yes mm-hmm that’s kinda guess what what Willie was was talking about you know to show to show power to show money mean if they don’t have any I mean not to know abilities still gonna hide under the God under the you know that they still have money but they may not have it but they still want to put on those airs oh sure and and if you have a house that’s a mansion in water deep that’s pretty shabby because you don’t have money to put it to keep it up and you’re gonna have guests over well you want the magic to make it look grand so to cover the cracks in the walls and the falling plaster is all right no absolutely absolutely that’s I think that’s kind of way I see it nothing is what he was talking about ostentatious knows that snare gonna go away until they absolutely have no money mm-hm okay so I think it’s time Eric this is for you to delve into our question bike Isis that was sent about the Elven noble houses okay so yes this this all stems from a conversation I had with Edie about five years ago and is informed by a couple other sources particularly some of the novels by rich Baker and troy denning so I think it’s a mistake to think about elephant noble houses as equivalent to human houses you know normally you think of human noble families is being affiliated with a specific realm and all the houses really aren’t necessarily affiliated with a specific realm they also tend to exist for a very very long time George and I have been delving into a variety of elven houses you know in some respects you can almost think of an elven house is a small extremely long-lived organization with blood ties the elven houses also tend to be far more common amongst the the moon elves and the gold elves but you know just like you know Harvard thinks its superior to Princeton the gold L house is of course offering themselves superior to the moon outhouses there are even a few wood elf houses or at least a were around the time of Mick drama but those are relatively uncommon and usually have unique stories so within the gold elf and Moon elf sub-races there’s really an elaborate society built on the concept of noble houses and each house is founded on a bloodline and either goes extinct or dormant if all blood members of the house are dead or missing and unlike humans you know elven nobility does not necessarily convey ownership of land or sovereignty or does it imply any duty to the realm and many elven houses are in fact spread across multiple realms and and and they’re more loyal in some respects to their house than they are to the realm that they live in rather such privileges and obligations are considered separately from once noble status although most leadership in moon or gold elf society are commonly given to member to members of the nobility and historically many of the elven noble houses have spanned as I said one or more elven kingdoms and it’s the weird thing is elven nobility is not a concept that can be revoked by any given elder elven ruler although a particular elven ruler can grant it so once an established coronel has granted the charter of nobility to a noble house that house is then noble even if its members spread across multiple elven realms that may or may not be closely aligned and the only means that noble status can be revoked is either through the Elvin Court which is now disbanded or possibly Queen Amla rule of ever meat might be able to have a voice there as well and the members of the open house can this is one thing that makes it complicated just because you’re a member of an elven house doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in Noble so the Elva house consists of both the nobles of the bloodline and the servitors employed by nobles the house and each elven house has different rules as to which races are permitted to be members of that particular house or like do we do we allow half-bloods of the bloodline to be members of the house do we allow humans to be servitors of the house so it kind of varies from house to house as well and then all elven houses have a certain status although the house status varies over time based on the alliances feuds the size and wealth of a house etc and as well the number of affiliated houses the deeds or misdeeds of individual members of the house whether the house possesses a moon blade even if it’s dormant the number of high mages in the house influences status as well as I mentioned earlier goal health houses traditionally of higher status and comparable moon health houses but such distinctions are more legacy at the gold elven houses having a longer ancestry on average then necessarily the racial disparity you can label an elven house is either greater or lesser based on whether or not they have affiliated houses and those affiliated houses are known as steps s EPTs and all whether they are an affiliated house themselves so a house with no steps is usually considered a lesser noble house but it might be accorded the rank of a greater noble house and some kingdoms the other thing to mention is that noble houses are super linear or super lineal in structure and if that’s an elven concept that holds that the higher status house predominates in a marriage this is a little bit different than a lot of human Nobles so if you have two no blouses regardless of the genders object of the two individuals who are marrying the higher status house predominates in the men in them in the marriage so for example if you had a member of Lemar which is a house Georgia spent a good deal of time designing wisdom area member of house in this floor which is referred to in both Troy’s trilogy and Rich Baker’s trilogy and the latter Amos for was of higher status in house Lamar then both spouses would be considered part of house in us for blood if a noble marries a commoner then both spouses either take the name of the noble or the commoner depending on the decision of the house leadership and if they take the name of the commoner then the marriage forms a new house which is considered a Sept of the original house so for example house me misen which is rather infamous now is considered to be a hat a Sept of house duracell implying that at some point in the past adora film doble married a commoner with the family name of me misen and the leaders of house duracell decided to recognize the Union as a new Sept rather than bringing the newlyweds into house during film and that would have been their choice so you have this sort of or get organically growing houses that can either keep adding to their own number or create a large number of subs and either and their advantages and disadvantages to eat in some houses more often in moon elven houses than gold open houses any one of Elvin Bloods considered noble well in other houses only full-blooded elves are accorded that status and all Elvin Nobles the titles I’d actually like to hear a little bit from head on but in the common tongue they’re basically all considered lords or ladies after reaching 90 years of age and demonstrating some measure of accomplishment when once granted such titles are rarely if ever looked oKed and only by the agreement all the living members of house and in some houses additional titles are granted to senior members of the house particularly the house leadership although such titles are rarely employed outside of elven society so you might be lord patriarch der Sar but you know no one’s gonna call you that they’re gonna call you Lord der Sar if they’re addressing you in the common tongue and there’s probably a wide range of elven titles that would apply so most houses are led by a matriarch or patron and the method of choosing the house leadership varies from house to house sometimes it’s inherited sometimes there’s an election each house is unique and for widely scattered houses there may be the concept of a local leader per individual Kingdom but then each house is a leadership structure that spans the entire bloodline regardless of which were all may inhabit in some houses leadership is passed to a ruling duo triune or Council and ruling duos and try owns usually arise when the current matriarch of patriarchy dies and a proper heir is not yet of age that ninety or ninety years old wool and ruling tribes might include like two elder sisters and a younger brother or an elder widow or widower of the late patriarch and a matriarch or and their young child and in cases where the ruling house goes extinct or dormant rule the house may pass to the ruler of the only cept or in the case of multiple steps passes to a council composed of the matriarch of matriarch on each set so that kind of tells you a little bit about how they work and they’re definitely different than a lot of human nobility and I thought it might be useful to sort of give you an example of how to become how one family became a noble house so I’m going to pick on house der Sar which is famous for being the head of Hill holders of ever Eska it’s Lord speakers usually also the hill elder so house dura saw ancestry back to the final days of Ora char which was an elven realm ere the crown wars and what we now call the dust would in the char and it fell to a surprise attack by the armies at Iliff ear during a second ground war and the lok of that assault the surviving members of Clan der Sar which was just a merchant clan they weren’t Nobles they fled north to the high forest where the clan had a small trading outpost on the periphery of Erev and are which we now think of as the ruin known as core foon in the south wood and in the centuries that followed the elders of Clan der Sar although they were grateful for the refuge they became increasingly concerned by the erratic and cool whims of the ruling house of every vampire so they’re still not Nobles but these this is what they went through to become Nobles in their own they ally themselves with three noble houses of Arab and are who are plotting to escape and establish a better and more peaceful homeland then you know so they’re sort of a merchant clan still allied with these noble houses then about 12,000 years ago tell in Dardar so a ranger of Flanders are he made a pivotal discovery beneath what we now know as the gray cloak Hills thought they’ve also been known as the tomb Hills or the Haleiwa and he discovered a series of shallow cover housing a clutch of silver dragon eggs the eggs one admits the catching and where and there was a red worm waiting to eat the new so the Ranger of Clan dursa gave his life defending the worm legs only to find himself reborn the following morn resurrected by the worms of Eris in thir which is a dress a silver helmet preceded the elven realm of ever Eska amidst the Sheridan and after learning of the Rangers mission those silver worms showed him these mysterious non natural portals with seven connections to health a rune underneath the gray cloak hills in these shallow caverns and what was interesting about this effectively non magical portal network was it was undetectable by the vise chantara high mages and so clan der Sar still not Noble they helped three air even dark and the state joined by six clans from our deep in CRP earth and they left plan der Sar behind to cover their retreat and help other refugees follow in their way and so before they left they helped construct a portal linking some standing stones near the river Delamere which is where for foon is with a similar circle in the Ethel air or Arg Lake grey cloak Hills now at this point the this clamp this merchant clan is distinguished itself by a sin actually allowing nine plant nine noble houses from three separate realms to escape the wrath of area and our and go off and fly on their own at all they’re still not noble stuff and then during the fifth crown war caverns beneath the Phil later became a rallying point for levels into the place into our empire and I’m agents from various persecuted noble houses took refuge in those caves a height from her seat each other and then in one of the last battles of the fifth round of our command vice and finally found the secret refuge and attacked a rebel outlets and countless elves died from both sides as did many of the allied silver dragons from Harrisonburg who rallied to their aid and at long last the rebels prevailed and they eat at them about the plight of Aravinda left behind a broken lamp on their bed and she’s in the light so you know this is an example of still you know we have a clan that is distinguishing itself and it’s still not in noble yet and so what happened is after the silver wag it’s over dragons have plans Silverwing departed then finally Coronel dere 10 are Terran seer of Aloha which was up and what we would now known as the desert mouth mountains where those nine clans fell had fled he he finally a noble plan der Sar for their centuries of servants like their newly elevated Lord patriarch in perpetuity is Watchers over the as watcher over the hills and he granted him the Ethel air yaki Geus which loosely translated in modern times is the ever Escott charter it’s a title and a charter that continued to outlast the realm that granted them so Illinois is gone but clan der Sar is still a noble because a core nolo villain are decided to a noble plan der Sar and thereafter they were known as haus der Sar and also gave him the title of watcher over the hills meaning the gray cloak hills set them up to be essentially first among equals of the noble houses of ever Eska and that’s kind of it takes to become an elven noble house it’s that hard if you’re kind of getting ennoble for the first time but if you marry into an existing noble house it’s fairly easy you may either be part of that noble house or leadership hu sort of on off ascent so you kind of have two widely different ways of becoming a noble house one of which is through marriage and building off an existing bloodline and the other is starting up a whole new bloodline and the latter is much more difficult to do and requires a great amount of work so hopefully that kind of explains how the nobility works and what it takes to become a newly elevated double house I don’t know edie did I miss anything nope no don’t know um except there was a second part of that question or a follow-up from crisis were there any little loan spells that you created that were used by very specific elven families that would have been passed down from member to member as an heirloom or whatnot that’s the question and my answer is yes there are many such spells but they tend to be small-scale low in power and concerned with everyday utility like dusting and polishing and fetching items that are somewhere in this house but darned if I know we’re just now or with illusions such as glowing 3d animated images like Holograms of departed memory ancestors that family who can be conjured up to dance or stand as if bearing witness or be used to trick hostile non-ells into thinking a lone elf or weak group of elves has many others nearby oh that is fantastic and I have a request because Eric that was absolutely incredible in depth in so much knowledge and there’s so much so much lore is it okay if I put if I turn that into a document and post it on to the mages and sages I can put something together for you yeah okay and you’d that be fantastic something in just like a word document so I can take it in when I do post this on when I get it done and put it on on YouTube when I posted mages and sages are with the fanpage I can post that document for people with anybody wants to download it so how’s the next one coming along Jeff is it being uploaded yet no you know I just that that little technical difficulty we had in the middle of it there or toward the end I was I was able to clean it up I’ll wash it through the noise reduction quite a bit in there was some kind of weird noise in the background and I was able to get rid of it and it’s a little washed out but it’ll it’ll suffice I’m almost done with it I should be done with it by Sunday beautiful looking forward to it yeah there’s a lot of great questions on why I watched it I did I wants to do my computer so it was a lot of laughs please there’s a lot of great information on there that that I think people would enjoy some really good questions that we had so yeah I don’t want to man I didn’t want to lose any of that information that’s why I was so meticulous about getting it cleaned up okay so I think what we’re going to do is I think we’re going to call it a night for this one we’ve gone through a lot of information not and you know we have our salt dissertation and then we had the one in Erica stir them on the elves so we have some great information for people I don’t want to overload them too much because this is going to cut up into about probably three three segments I think and get three seconds out of this so anybody else have anything else they want to say before we close it out well good Jay the pleasure is always nice you know yeah it’s great I love doing these let’s hang out I do too I think it’s wonderful Erik thank you again and your glass and alex has been hanging in here and loving every minute Alex you’re stronger boy than I was at that age yeah guys all of your superstar author game developer writer friends and tell about this great podcast that we do Tom we need guests and Khan that was great if you flex little Boris absolutely I mean we’re gonna have Brian Cortile on soon and Eric Scott be and anybody else if you could think anybody else who wants to do it ethically and Steve Chen D&O Stevens chin I’ve already talked to him but he was sick at the time but he also wants to wants to do something we can I can yell at him for the book black staff tower so because he hit me right in the fields as they say [Laughter] so no definitely if you have anybody that just has something coming out soon an article a supplement your wizards or just something on the DM z– guild yes give him a call see if they want to come on and we’d love to have them you know the more the merrier I think we’re our limit is about five people on the podcast so it’s interesting had I got approached by a guy half know who is doing some stuff that DM skilled he’s doing a product on importer and he asked if I would have a look at it and whether I wanted to be a part of it and I great graciously said no guess what I’m doing my own one day and I don’t really want to help you with yours no offense and he said oh you guys I’ll send you a copy because we’re using pretty much a lot of most of your information from candlekeep etc and I said well you’re entitled to do so that’s fine I said it’s in the public domain I said any guys so I’ll send you a copy I said no don’t send me a copy either I don’t want to read your copy because I don’t want to be influenced when I write mine oh okay well thanks anyway yeah even when I did find out that I found out that you guys are being quoted on candlekeep as well AJ actually did a transcript of a portion of one of our earlier podcast and he trained he transcribed the best he could word-for-word almost on on Decatur kiemce I thought that was a great that was great that he did that because I haven’t done it wonderful to although I was worried that it might have taken away his cycles from detailing every last one of the 125,000 NPCs of Waterdeep which he well that way that theory absolutely absolutely sensational I feel like what do you think you mean to say if he come up with some for input though for me cuz he just goes like free and neck for it he does it so well no absolutely but it’s kind of neat that and then and one of the questions I asked earlier about the magic hairdos is actually from from tonight they got put on there okay oh yeah so yeah janna anybody you can that’d be fantastic we’d love to have on the show to talk and promote themselves and and just sit here and chat about the realms and Eric it’s been absolutely incredible to have you we will have you again I promise we’re gonna we still have more questions but I think we’re gonna wrap it up tonight so there was there was one disappointing feature tonight there guys and then do any questions Mike Murphy oh we talked about his wedding and that was it he got his own plug come on now spike we did the first question was from him next to us from his wife I’ve answered a bunch from from him on messaging and and Twitter too so he’s been well served yes he is he’s well done he’s all done now but yeah that’s fantastic I’ve been wonderful I loved I loved tonight’s show because of the Thor assault and the elves Eric that was incredible in Alex you’re welcome anytime your dad’s even when he’s not come on on your inputs fantastic I’m waiting for the time Alex days of dad I don’t think that’s quite right and then I will say that frequent debate is Alex by far knows the fifth edition interpretation of the realms far better than I and we routinely where I’m comfortably ensconced in 1375 thinking through the realms Alex brings a very updated modern perspective as to where things need to end up so it’s actually he’s doing a great job keeping me honest I think I see a supplement of oneness as Eric in the Dalek talk about the realm son he is proud of Elon I’m actually going to put him in the credits because he’s been helping me with an awful lot of it fantastic week oh my god rude crap a collations is such a young age I love it now the guys think you won’t make a living off of it but you know you could be consulted by weird people from all over the world if you have weird people and shadows as you walk through convinces going on here aren’t you that guy I will I will say so oh one more quick thing so I was doing a job interview the other day for someone that we ended up hiring and we completed the interview process and I and the hiring and everything and then he said and I just wanted to say I love what you did in there are you serious it was great oh my god it’s you’re like so I got the job right here just a front they say you know what if you are me I’ll make your own supplement for you you’ve got years and years of lore just waiting to be put out I know but I know everybody does so but really fantastic guys thank you so much again and appreciate you taking away your Friday night to do this and y’all have a great weekend if you had and if you haven’t seen Avengers and game go do it happy Star Wars day tomorrow guys Star Wars day may the Lord be with you ha ha ha I think it’s Revenge of the fist but then that’s what I’ll be drinking that’s right well guys thank you and you’ll have a great rest of your night ok yes guys [Music] thank you for joining us for the episode 13 of mages and sages interview with the old maid special guest Eric Boyd in George crash shows we hope you join us next time when we have Bryan core kyo-ahn to discuss his work on the area of Cormier and we hope you enjoy should be a fantastic time until then keep playing in the realms [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

D&D Sage Advice

Questions on Dungeons & Dragons answered by game designers

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Dove Falconhand, Tharsult , magic in large cities and Elven noble Houses Special guest Eric Boyd – Mages&Sages by Ed Greenwood ep13

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