Hey @TheEdVerse , if you had to pick your top 5 publications that had an abundance of knowledge/lore useful to newer DMs(trying to catch up) running games in the Forgotten Realms, what would those be? There's so much content sometimes its hard to know where to start.

— Michael Butler (@thembutler) June 6, 2020

1)
I get asked this a lot, and the answer depends on where (geographically) you are setting your games, and their nature (urban, wilderness, underground). The Sword Coast Adventurers Guide is your 5e baseline, but for more depth and wider geographical coverage, I’d.. 2)
…add the 3e core book, the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting hardcover; it's the largest and most comprehensive overview Realms fact-guide published. To it, I'd add EdGreenwoodPresentsElminster'sForgottenRealms for details of life in the Realms, and then the…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 6, 2020

3)
…2e Forgotten Realms Adventures hardback for a broad city overview.
Then decide where you want to adventure: the various 5e super-adventures provide the best up-to-date coverage of places (for example, Storm King’s Thunder covers the 5e Sword Coast North), and.. 4)
…if I did a 2e Volo's Guide to an area you want to use, grab it! Then decide the nature of interests: 2e Cloak & Dagger if you want shadowy organizations and intrigue, 3e Lost Empires of Faerun if you want old ruins to explore, and so on.
Then go to the FR wiki to look up…

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 6, 2020

5)
…specific things. All entries have their published sources at the bottom (the footnote citations lead there) and that will show you which specific books, adventures, and magazine articles covered the elements you want. Anything not covered? Ask me!#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 6, 2020

Would you continue adding in events regarding children of Elminster like Narna? Sure. I keep track of about 400 NPCs in the Realms (where they are, what they're up to, important events that befall or involve them), and El's direct descendants are among these characters.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 30, 2020

Y’know, I could also ask the kindly wizard @TheEdVerse himself, if there are any dhampyr or vryloka in the Realms.
7:42 PM · May 10, 2020 Certainly. See “Playing Dhampyr” by Brian R. James in issue 371 of The Dragon, and “Heroes of Shadow” (4e) for vryloka (I don’t think they’ve had their official 5e version yet, but they were in the Realms then!).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 26, 2020

@TheEdVerse In the Realms is it more common for folks to have the ability to study and use arcane/weave magic such as a wizard or those given the divine spark of a spell using cleric?

— stephen parlin (@smparlin) August 3, 2020

1)
The Gift to wield the Art (arcane magic) is far rarer than the ability to have the gods (or their spell-granting servitor beings) listen to your prayers and answer them by sending magic.
The Gift is a rare personal innate… 2)
…ability; receiving divine magic is a matter of mortal belief, the divine judgment of that mortal (or the situation, and how granting something would public-relations-benefit the deity or their mortal church), or divine whim.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 4, 2020

Woaw so the gods taking favor is not as rare as the study of arcane? So that means that it’s easier for the gods to see merit in mortals versus the mortal to embark on their own journey for power? Yes. Gods have bestowed spells on non-clerics who were devout believers and prayed fervently in their hour of need: farmers making a knowing-they're-doomed lone stand to defend their village, for instance.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 4, 2020

All arcane and divine magic works through the Weave to access the natural energies (tides, wind, convection, etc.) of the world. Other systems of magic (table magic, etc.) are alternatives to the Weave. So, not "all" but otherwise, spot on.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 4, 2020

If you mean the illo at the bottom left of page 10, that's a blowpipe.
The wayfarer in the background isn't going to know what hit him.
The story? Which recipe the kobold uses, when preparing said wayfarer…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 9, 2020

Your typical blowpipe is a hollow swamp reed (it takes a LOT more work to find a straight branch and hollow it out). Over time, reeds dry out and split at the ends, deflecting your dart. To prevent this, a whittled wooden 'sleeve' is affixed over the end with pitch.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 9, 2020

I’m confused…I swore I read the Zhents were working towards being similar to the Harpers (Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide); this looks like there still up to their old ways. What you see in Secrets of the Zhentarim is the military arm of the Zhentarim, and some of its higher-up wizards and clerics.
It also has a trading arm, of merchants and trade agents. That's the newer, "softer" side of the Zhents. There are "good" Zhent traders.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 19, 2020

Hello Ed! What’s the different between sorcerer and wizard in understanding the magic and performing spells? Wizard learn it from books and teachers, but sorc can do it from his intuitive. He just doing it. How sorcs perform they use V and S components of the spell? It depends on the sorcerer.
If they get an idea of what they MIGHT do with magic, or see someone else's magical effect, they try to create the magic, calling on the Weave intuitively. They MIGHT gesture, or speak, or not. If it works, they'll likely go on doing that.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 6, 2020