SembiaSeven 6:
1) Rurethtowers: in a stag wood east of the northernmost eastern edge of the Archwood, just across the Sembian border. A four-towered stone castle, with extensive cellars and a rumored Underdark connection due to 2)
…their intersecting with underground stream-passages, Rurethtowers has attracted many explorers over the years thanks to persistent rumors of bandit treasure being hidden in its walls. About thirty summers ago, these…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2019

3)
…treasure-seekers started disappearing; it seems monsters had taken up residence and begun preying on them. Reports vary widely as to just which sort of creatures dwell here—likely because several sorts do.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2019

1) Yaeraunt’s Keep: about halfway between Scardale and Yhaunn, in a region of rolling, wooded hills between farmed valleys. Eldred Yaeraunt was a coachmaker and pleasure-sloop shipwright who grew fabulously rich 2)
…as Sembia first became wealthy and its successful folk wanted exclusive toys. He spent a lot of coin building a many-balconied, stout stone tower country home that became fought over after his sudden death (of a…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2019

3)
…fever-inducing unknown malady) by several would-be owners, a fight that progressed to some of the combatants buying and loosing wild monsters to fight on their behalf—beasts that devoured all the humans involved, to continue 4)
…fighting with each other. Until a greater monster (some say a dragon, but tales differ) arrived to tame or devour them, until only it and its slaves remained. Their descendants still inhabit the Keep’s palatial, riches-filled rooms.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2019

5)
Legend has it that Yaeraunt’s main coin-vault, hidden and trapped somewhere in the Keep cellars, has never been found or plundered, and still holds thousands upon thousands of coins…and even a few magic items.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2019

@TheEdVerse Waterdeep has different ranks for the City Guard. Are there ones for Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, and Amn in equivalence to Waterdeep?

— Teng Lu (@AuraofMana) November 3, 2019

2)
Major General = Watchlord
Lieutenant General = Captain of the Watch
General = Commander of the Watch#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 4, 2019

3)
In Neverwinter, since the ascension of Dagult Neverwinter, these same ranks, in ascending order, are:
Blade, Armar, Swordcaptain, Onstal, Halar, Guardsword, Malrar, Watchlord, and Lord Commander of the Watch (no Lieutenant 4)
…General equivalent rank).
In Baldur’s Gate, 1450s DR onwards, these same ranks, in ascending order, are:
Constable, Shield, Swordar, Ammarar, Halthan, Orspear, Harmace, Warden, Commander, Lord Commander#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 4, 2019

5)
In the cities of Amn, 1450s DR onwards, these same ranks, in ascending order, are:
Constable, High Constable, Swordar, Shieldlord, Hornsel, Ondramar, Huthtar, Watchlord, Commander, Lord Commander#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 4, 2019

In AL adventure 02-09, thre are different ranks. Which one is canon? The ranks seen in the AL adventures came into use in the Gate circa 1476 DR, so both sets are canon but the AL ones are the right ones as of current Realmsdate (JUST before 1500 DR).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 5, 2019

SembiaSeven 1:
1) Alond’s Haven: due east of Tasselheart, across the border into Sembia; an overgrown, tumbledown mansion of many wings and several collapsed towers and open-to-the-elements upper floors. Overrun by many spiders, 2)
…some of them nigh-human-sized, and rumors say they’ve been assembled there, and bred, by something more sinister that now lairs there.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2019

If those mortals never embrace any deity in life, when they final face Kelemvor in the City of Judgement, what fate will befall them?
Please forgive me for asking so many questions. The topic of Faithless has aroused considerable controversy among Chinese FR fans😅

— coolguy (@coolguy73360922) October 1, 2019

1)
There’s nothing to forgive! Ask all you like. Some answers will take longer, though, or even be blocked by the dreaded NDAs.
If a mortal doesn’t worship a specific deity in life, they are not Faithless. The Realms is 2)
…pantheistic, not monotheistic. If a mortal doesn’t worship ANY deities at any time in life, rejecting gods as not worthy of worship or as “not gods,” they ARE Faithless (Kelemvor judges), and their fate is to be bound into…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2019

3)
…the Wall of Faithless by a green mold that only binds Faithless into the wall. Over time, the soul of a Faithless dissolves into the Wall, and is lost forever.
However, demons steal souls from the Wall, dissolving the mold by 4)
…various means, and take them back to the Abyss (this is one way that demons propagate).
If a demon steals a soul from the Wall that any deity is interested in, for any reason, that deity may send servitor beings to battle the…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2019

5)
…demon and wrest the soul from it, giving that soul ‘another chance’ in a new body. This often happens to adventurers, or spellcasters who in life devise new spells, or anyone who does something creative and daring. They are 6)
…reborn into a new body and life, as the deity who ‘rescued’ them watches to see what they do in this new life. (Mortals provide the main source of entertainment for the gods.)
Kelemvor judges some souls to be False rather than…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2019

7)
…Faithless. These are the souls of mortals who deliberately betrayed deities after making a commitment to those deities. The False are punished for all eternity (which sometimes means forever, but in very rare cases means 8)
…until a deity sends servitors to ‘harvest’ them for a new life [again, another chance for the soul]. The severity of punishments fit the severity of the crimes against the deity during life, and vary from hideous tortures…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2019

9)
…that would result in death if done to a live mortal (like slow dismemberment), to attentively escorting and caring for visitors to Kelemvor’s City of Judgment that the soul in life would dislike or despise (e.g. due to family 10)
…or racial hatreds). Kelemvor himself has been known to (for unknown reasons) pluck certain souls away from the usual fates of his judgments, to serve him. Often they end up sent back into mortal life on missions, often in…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2019

11)
…bodies of a different race and/or gender than that of their previous life.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2019

@TheEdVerse,
Another, unrelated question. On your map of the Realms, 2E or 3E, I can't find a drain for the Sea of Fallen Stars.

1/3

— Random.Queriant (@RandomQueriant) November 9, 2019

Some of those rivers which drain to the ocean come within a few dozen miles of other rivers which drain into the Sea of Fallen Stars, in terrain that isn’t particularly mountainous.Does the Sea drain into the Ocean? Does it evaporate such that it doesn't need to? Does it drain into the Underdark?
And even if it does drain to the ocean, why hasn't anyone cut a canal so it drains somewhere more convenient? Like the Lake of Steam or Lake Esmel?

3/3

— Random.Queriant (@RandomQueriant) November 9, 2019

1)
1. As covered in existing Realmslore, the Sea of Fallen Stars drains into the Underdark.
2. That’s right. Just as in many, many “well-watered” places in the real world2)
3. As for the canal idea: someone did. See the Watercourse trilogy (of FR novels) by Phil Athans. :}#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 10, 2019

I may have to seek out those books. I didn’t want to throw around words like Karst, as, really, all I know are the words, but I get your meaning.
Thank you for the answers. There's LOTS of karst terrain in the Realms (e.g. in the Dales, Cormanthor, Cormyr, Tethyr, the Border Kingdoms, eastern Amn, eastern Sword Coast North) as karst = lots of caves = monster lairs, adventurer caches, "dungeon" entrances = lots of adventure opportunities.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 10, 2019

Hey Ed, How are you feeling now? Better I hope. Just wanted to check in with you. Never thought to ask this before, but how is Elminster these days?. I know he powered up Mystra with the power he collected. Is he back to his old self? All Chosen of all deities in the Realms are less powerful than they were, and keeping lower profiles. El is otherwise his old self, plus he's mastered the Weave (so he can sink into it and survive the loss of his body, etc.). Primary mission: still distributing magic.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 4, 2019

good sir Ed, in your realms, does Loudwater and Secomber have guilds or are they every merchant for themselves? In my Realms, neither place has formal guilds because the trading costers who've used them as bases for the last two centuries don't want guilds, and keep breaking them up. Which means that instead both have many small, short-lived secretive merchants' cabals.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 10, 2019

Thanks! What would a trading costar look like in that area? In my mind I see a merchant buying cheap and moving the good elsewhere where they sell for more?

— stephen parlin (@smparlin) November 10, 2019

1)
Thereabouts a trading coster’s presence would be a way-base (warehouses, wagon repair shops, paddocks for remounts and replacement draft horses, mules, and oxen) for Heartland overland caravan travel. And yes, all of that travel is to buy low, locally, and…
#Realmslore 2)
…transport to where more will be paid for the goods. (In most cases, in this region, it's extract raw resources, turn them into something useful [e.g. timber into furniture or building lumber], and sell them in large cities, Sword Coast or Inner Sea shores.)#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 11, 2019