Dear @TheEdVerse would you be so kind as to suggest a knightly order (or godly) that would be interested in exploring beyond the Trackless Sea between the Year of Blue Flame and the Year of the Grinning Halfing (1481 DR), likely operating out of the Sword Coast North, if any.

— David Spring (@davespring) June 21, 2019

1)
Sure!
One good candidate order would be the Knights of the Mystic Fire, sending out expeditions from Silverymoon and Waterdeep to seek magic items beyond the Trackless Sea that may have survived the Spellplague and Sundering, …#Realmslore https://twitter.com/davespring/status/1141864821295669249 … 2)
…to destroy them if they have “gone wild” and to bring them back to Weavemasters (such as Open Lord Laeral and her head of secret police Elminster in Waterdeep) if they have not, for distribution across Faerûn for…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 21, 2019

3)
…“mere mortals” to find and further their own mastery of magic.
In these expeditions, the Knights may be reinforced and aided by rangers of the Order of the Shooting Star.#Realmslore 4)
Or for a completely different sort of exploration, certain members of the Order of the Silver Chalice, operating from their homes in Waterdeep, Silverymoon, Everlund, and Secomber, might set sail into the west in search of…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 21, 2019

5)
…long-lost descendants of particular Tethyrian noble houses.
Brief overviews of these orders can be found at:https://t.co/4dDtGRLrsF
Hope these help. :}#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 21, 2019

The Platinum Cadre would probably also have plenty of reason to journey beyond the Trackless Sea. Specifically going to Laerakond while it was still there, to try and spread their pro-goodly-dragons beliefs among the Dragonborn there (perhaps even convert the dragons there too). True, but I didn't suggest them as the Cadre is dragonborn-only; narrows the utility for existing PCs who aren't.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 21, 2019

They don't know about that yet, in the Realms. Healing spells still the best "fix" for blood pressure, circulation, stroke, and heart matters.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 31, 2019

They DO know about monk's hood/foxglove/digitalis, which goes by various names across the Realms, including "vaelis" and "sauvor."#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 31, 2019

Candlekeep requires a "worthy" book that isn't yet in their library (or a more complete copy of one already in their library), and an accepted donation grants access for life.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 20, 2019

Oh thank Ao, I was worried they’d need a new book every time you show up, the details I found weren’t that clear. How exactly do they know it’s the real visitor, though, and not someone impersonating them through magic? The monk at the gate tells them their old room is waiting for them. If they don't then head in the right direction, a senior monk secretly works a little thought-reading magic on them. (Monks who worked with them before may converse with them about past studies, too.)#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 21, 2019

So the only way to completely trick them is if you had the visitor’s face and copied at least some of their memories. Careful with that word "completely." There are some surprises among the ranks of the monks. ;}#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 21, 2019

Nice! That explains a lot, and gives me some resources to work with on a "Realms conquest" campaign later. I might have to find a reason Elminster et all don't take them down as soon as they set foot in Waterdeep though.

— Jon Forel (@Jon_4L) June 8, 2019

2)
Oh, that’s easy. Elminster runs the secret service for Laeral, and Mirt is one of her James Bond-style roving-the-world dirty-tricks agents. They have SO many problems to deal with that they’re always overworked and super-busy. Keeping the Xanathar from doing… …"Waterdeep conquest" for one, and there are literally scores of other villains and wannabe-villains busily at work. So give Elminster et al a major crisis to keep them occupied or even offstage, and your PCs can shine/do all the adventuring work, in-campaign.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 8, 2019

Makes sense. I’ve started to think about the consequences of fame, which as we all know is that everyone wants your help, has a grudge, or wants a piece of you. It makes sense, with the tiers of play as a sort of guide on adventuring life, to see why some change names, use magic/ Or costumes to change appearances, and would definitely want a potion of longevity or the life-expanding assistance of Mystra.

— Jon Forel (@Jon_4L) June 8, 2019

Yes! Add this level of "life-planning"/far-thinking to all rulers, villains, elder nobles, and merchant kingpins as well as PC adventurers, and any campaign changes instantly. For the better.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 8, 2019

question about the Anauroch Desert, I am creating a background that incorporates the archaeologist into it and would like to use the desert as his breaking point. Is it back in 5e? The map in swordcoast shows it as desert again? Did it revert back? It did. Deserts occur when rainfall/groundwater is too scarce, so back it came. BTW, Anauroch is all sorts of desert: sand dunes in some places, rocky waste to the north, and frozen ice-slick rock (condensation coating, not abundant water) north of that.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) July 3, 2019

So, a legit set of questions then. Was the Mulan addition (kidnapped/enslaved from a mythic Earth's ancient Egypt and Sumeria) an original component, and were the Creator Races and Days of Thunder original components?

— PanzerLion 🇨🇦 (@POCGamer) June 29, 2019

2)
1)
As depicted, none of them were original.
However, in my original Realms, elves and dwarves were losing the dominance fight with humans and orcs because the latter two races could outbreed and swamp them, there WERE creator races but the Realmsfolk of today were……very fuzzy on just who (as was I, though I knew one of them was large sentient reptilian), and I did have the "dragons, giants, and elves have all dominated the Realms before humans" element, and I did have migrations of races from other worlds, and figured…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 29, 2019

4)
3)
…some migrants would be enslaved. I did NOT have anything close to ancient Egypt or any other Earth culture, but TSR had the existing Desert of Desolation modules to link into the Realms, so hello pyramids.
That was the pattern. This Ed idea/element can, with a …little twisting and surgery, be repurposed to do what we need to do/add/spotlight in the developing D&D game. Which is just fine: that's what a base setting has to do, and what they'd bought FR for.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 29, 2019

I ask because in the strange and convoluted timeline of FR, they just seem odd. The former because it's just such a strange event and doesn't sync well, and the latter because it seems to have been added later.

— PanzerLion 🇨🇦 (@POCGamer) June 29, 2019

2)
1)
They seem odd to me, too. However, think of the Days of Thunder as an in-house design decision: to keep this setting from being static, we DO have to introduce change (that will have long-term consequences as opposed to just immediate). The old dilemma Stan Lee……and I talked over a time or two: "Peter Parker Never Graduates" because we don't want to change the appeal of this character that's working, BUT.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 29, 2019

@SageAdviceDnD Does justice in the Forgotten Realms include the use of attorneys/barristers/advocates?

— Corey Brand (@iac249)

2)
.1)
Yes and no. As in: there are no formal “lawyers,” but anyone may have an advocate speak for them (though they MUST be present at the trial unless the magister (judge) grants otherwise (usually only when very ill/wounded). Waterdeep and most large cities now have… ..hired-by-an-accused "lawspeakers" who argue an accused's case before the court (rarer to have lawspeakers for plaintiffs, but this use is growing). Any citizen can speak at a case (intervenor), but no guilds or groups. Lawspeakers charge anything from 1 sp/day to 6 gp/day.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 11, 2019

3)
Some lawspeakers have become pretty good at the finer points of case law, but most are at heart very good orators/actors.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 11, 2019