The power-hungry. No one else wants it; they do it out of a sense of duty, and a desire to make the Deep a better place (see Laeral, in every scene we see her in, in DEATH MASKS). But yes, there ARE safer jobs in the world. ;}#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
Didn’t one of the elven gods make Evermeet for them during that sundering?
Also … I love elvish ‘now’. Some 500yrs debate on whether to retreat to Evermeet 🥰— 🌈Jaye🦄Em🌹Edgecliff🏳️🌈 (@jayeedgecliff) October 14, 2019
1)
So the elven beliefs run. For the rest of us, it’s so long ago that we can’t know the truth. To Elminster’s way of thinking, that means ye might as well accept the elven view, as the best available. 2)
Others are inclined to dismiss the elven view, as they like elves less.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 14, 2019
@TheEdVerse Are middle names a thing in FR? Or stuff like more elaborate noble names.
— mAc Chaos 🔜 PAX U (@mAcChaos) October 31, 2019
1)
In the Realms, names are usually sorted alphabetically by first (given) name, because after wars and cataclysms like the Spellplague and Sunderings there were so many orphans. However, inheritance is important, so family names never go away, and in the cases of… 2)
…nobility and royalty and courtiers and important figures (local heroes), these surnames are important and well-used. Middle names are used, as in our modern real world, as homage to past family members (i.e. you might carry the given names of grandfathers or…#Realsmlore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 31, 2019
3)
…great-grandmothers as your middle names, particularly when these are rare or quirkily-spelled “family names”), and this is REALLY widespread/prevalent among nobility and wealthy, rising wannabe-noble social-climbing families. For example, one might encounter,… 4)
…in Suzail, Beliard Lustrigus Haummard Undreth Cormaeril (a young Cormaeril brother), and all three "middle names" are rare, nigh-unique-to-the-Cormaerils names (I say nigh because servants often adopt the name of someone they admire).
Hope this is of help!#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 31, 2019
@TheEdVerse I just finished "Death Masks" (great book, thank you!) I was wondering tho. Why don't the gods want people raised anymore? I don't see any other references to this any any of the d&d books…
Plus raise dead is a 5th level spell.— Chris (@TheHyperLord) November 30, 2019
1)
When writing Death Masks and most of my Realms novels, I was closely consulting with the good folks at Wizards re. Realmslore elements that should appear in the book, and this was one of them.
Why? Mortals don’t know; all they know is that priests were. 2)
…discouraged from raising folk from the dead at that place and time. I (like many priests and sages in the Realms) can guess: it was to discourage a godly 'arms race' of reviving 'more Chosen than the next god' and so having more power/influence (the gods, …#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 1, 2019
3)
…in general, were ‘stepping back’ from walking around among mortals as avatars and generally taking such a direct, on-stage hand in mortal affairs…because it Had
Not Worked Out Well. And as for Raise Dead being a fifth level spell: divine magic works or. 4)
…doesn't work at the favour of a deity. There are times when it fails, despite priests massed around a holy altar in a great temple…and times when a weeping adventurer of too-low level weepingly calls on the deity to bring back a fallen comrade, when the…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 1, 2019
5)
…magic SHOULD be beyond the adventurer-priest, but the deity deems the fallen worthy, and the attempt works. Life all too seldom follows a predictable script, which is part of its wonder…and our doom.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 1, 2019
Gods help me my current pet project has me trying to piece together the history of Waterdeep post-Spellplague, including the fate of the myriad noble houses. RIP my whole entire sanity. @TheEdVerse I don't suppose you can kick a brother a list of the Open Lords post-Piergeiron?
— Joseph Carriker (@oakthorne) December 1, 2019
23)
The weary Lords agreed to this, and the wily Ultrumpet began his subtle reign. Under the guise of meeting with Lords to learn their will so he could humbly carry it out, he developed the habit of meeting with small… 24)
…groups of Lords—meetings that filled most of the days of his forty-odd year reign. Ultrumpet took the Open Lord’s throne in the early summer of 1391 DR, and was assassinated in 1440 DR. The last year of his rule he spent…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
25)
…surrounded by his personally-hired bodyguards, shut up in the inner room of the Palace, as by then all of the Masked Lords had realized how subtly he’d been steering them (some of them had realized this as long as thirty 26)
…years earlier, but been unable to do much about it). Under Ultrumpet, the nobles and guilds lost power, all citizens saw cleaner and safer streets, everyone paid more taxes but these were raised so slowly and quietly that…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
27)
…there was little unrest—and more and more real daily power was sapped from the Masked Lords and gathered to the Open Lordship.
Ultrumpet’s slayers were hired by a cabal of nobles, but they merely succeeded where more than two… 28)
…dozen earlier assassination attempts mounted by various covert groups of Masked Lords had failed. Fearful of an attempt to wrest power by the nobles, the Masked Lords turned to the general populace to
suggest candidates, …#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
29)
…causing the expected utter chaos of hundreds of candidates being put forward. However, the Lords plucked a timorous meal-server, a shy young Waterdeep-born woman named Ilmyndra Lhethrus whose quiet but attentive service to 30)
…several Lords’ family members had been appreciated, from among all the tumult of promoted candidates, and installed her, hoping for self-effacing innocence and obedience (a pawn who’d get no sly ideas of her own).
They were…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
31)
…right, and although Lhethrus hated the role and sickened under the attention and demands, she served well for sixteen years, resigning in 1456 on her deathbed of ‘dragonback fever.’
Not wanting a return of the tumult or any 32)
…candidate of the guilds or nobles in the Open Lord’s chair, the Masked Lords quickly chose one of their own, the moneylender Fandral Daerakus. Many Lords suspected he’d be unable to resist the temptation to dip into city…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
33)
…coffers to enrich himself or expand his moneylending business using city funds, and kept close watch over him, employing hired mages and mundane spies—and they were right.
Daerakus attempted to cover up his misdeeds by 34)
…proposing that the city openly lend money to enrich its coffers, under the Open Lord’s direction, but that cut no harbor ice with the Masked Lords, who expelled him for life from the city, not just from the Open Lordship, …#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
35)
…late in 1457 DR. (He soon fell in with several unscrupulous traders of Amn who tried to use his inside knowledge of Waterdhavian courtiers and dealings to advance their own enterprises, but they worked through the wrong…# 36)
…guilds, and didn’t get far.)
The Masked Lords swiftly replaced Daerakus with another of their own, the aging and conservative Malthavyn Thunstone, a stolid, honest, unimaginative stickler-for-details whom no one was enthused…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
37)
…about but no one was enraged by. Under his steady hand the city flourished, and he lasted until the doddering wits that afflict some in old age led him to resign in 1462 DR.
Thunstone was quickly replaced by another 38)
…citizen-not-of-the-Lords, Hamaera ‘Hammerbrow’ Nalaver, an independent (non-guild-member) designer of cloaks, gowns, and winterwraps of fierce temper, drive, and swift wits. Her rages were many but short-lived, and she held…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
39)
…no grudges; she might be laughing with someone at supper that she’d shrieked at and thrown things at, nigh highsun. Some loved her, and some hated her, but none were bored by her, and she lasted four years, until dying in… 40)
…what almost everyone believes (and the Watchful Order was called in to investigate, and also believed) was a genuine accident—run over by a heavy-laden wagon in Dock Ward late in 1466 DR, after losing her footing in…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
41)
…fish-slop and sliding under its wheels.
The nobles had been biding their time under her mercurial Open Lordship, and were ready with a candidate of their own and a covert behind-the-scenes vote-buying push to back him, 42)
…which quickly succeeded, in large part because their candidate, Dathjet Deepwinter, was an amiable, principled, unambitious, acceptable-to-all young nobleman—who came from a small and not particularly wealthy or encumbered…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
43)
…(by obligations, debts, or alliances) noble house. Dathjet made mistakes but tried to do what was best for the entire city, and explained his reasonings in open Council, which endeared him to many even when they thought his 44)
…decisions were wrong.
However, he grew dissatisfied with what he saw as his increasing blunders, and resigned early in 1471 DR, surprising most of the city.
The Lords hastily voted one of their own into the Open Lord’s chair, …#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2019
@TheEdVerse Strange question, but perhaps one you've had before. Aside from the followers of Eilistraee are there any groups/sects in the Realms that practice non-sexual nudity? How is public/social nudity perceived in the Realms in general? I ask because I'm wanting to…
— NaturistGaming (@NaturistGamingE) October 11, 2019
1)
In general, folk of Faerûn are far more “easy going” about public nudity than we are, hereabouts and now in the real world. With that said, in the cold North (or anywhere and anywhen else when exposure will be a 2)
…physical problem), sane folk ‘cover up.’
Many folk in rural Samarach go bare by day, with two exceptions: they wear knee-high or higher boots, and when the day isn’t overcast, they wear large woven-grass hats…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 13, 2019
3)
…(circular headgear looking rather like flattened tagine pots, only three feet across or more) to shield them from the sun. These always have a chinstrap, and are worn down the wearer’s back when not on the head, but 4)
…expected to be needed.
The folk of Tirumala in the Beastlands (Veldorn) customarily go unclad, a custom that began when their ruling rakshasa wanted to see at a glance if slaves were carrying suspicious weapons or tools. …#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 13, 2019
5)
…And there’s a human tribe among the barbarians of the Utter East who by custom go naked (despite riding horses much of the time), though every rider carries a big cloak that can serve as a garment or tent if need be. They are 6)
…the Nuarrleth (or just “Nuarr” in daily speech), and are a nomadic matriarchy, led by a council of the elder women of every family. Much of their diet is edible roots and birds that they fell with spears, crossbows, and…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 13, 2019
7)
…hurlsticks (= boomerangs).
Also, the Jungle Dwarves of Chult have always gone naked, except for their tattoos and body paintings.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 13, 2019
Is there a reason why Aerdrie Faenya was left out of the creation of the Dancing Place even though Hanali Celanil & Sehanine Moonbow were present with the other elven gods?
Reference Volo’s Guide to the Dalelands pg. 157. Yes, but not an in-game reason.
At the time of the writing of that lore, Aerdrie Faenya was "off-limits" due to being considered for use in a licensed third-party computer game. I wasn't a TSR staffer and so wasn't privy to the details.— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 26, 2019
Ahhh so it’s safe to say that as part of the Triune goddess she would have been there retroactively? Oh, yes!
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 26, 2019
How long have you been doing Realmslore answers? All my life. Here on Twitter? Since 2014. :}
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 7, 2019
