I’m not sure if you have any insight into this but it appears to me that Elves and Dryads on rare occasions can mate and have offspring.
I’m assuming that means Dryads give birth similar to other humanoid species? 1)
This has never made it into published Realmslore because for so many years TSR's Code of Conduct prevented ALL discussion of matters sexual (incl. pregnancy, childhood development, etc.), but in the Realms, I saw dryads as engaging in sex on rare occasions and…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 23, 2022

2)
…then having absolute control over whether or not they conceive. If they do, they use “their” tree as the womb, bringing whatever trace nutrients it lacks for development of the child-to-be, and mother the child within the tree; it emerges only when able to… 3)
…walk, talk, see, reason, control its body with balance, etc. and so is far less helpless than, say, a human infant…and it's not tied to its parent or the parent's tree.
Totally unofficial (this is a creature I was never asked to write an Ecology article for).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 23, 2022

My PCs are on the hunt for the skull of Alaundo. Here's where I am putting it for them, gives us a chance to revisit Port Nyanzaru as a group, we had fun running ToA. pic.twitter.com/Y4mxpvBMHL

— NewbieDM (@newbiedm) March 1, 2022

You do know Alaundo's still using it, yes? ;}

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 1, 2022

pic.twitter.com/o16lHx4Qck

— NewbieDM (@newbiedm) March 1, 2022

Heh. Alaundo is a Weave ghost (spectral undead) still tied to his skull (can speak through it, when he wills). The rest of the time, he's just an invisible presence, flying silently about watching and listening and unleashing thunderwave and chill touch attacks.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 1, 2022

Alaundo can use his skull as a "watching and listening outpost" for him while he's elsewhere. And he can also cast the few attacks and magical effects he can muster through it (beyond the attacks, such things as dancing lights, message, etc.).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 1, 2022

He's interested in finding out ever more about the world, in hopes of regaining the Voice within him (whose identity he's never known, and yearns to learn) that gave rise to his prophecies.
(He felt special, and wants to feel so again.)#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 1, 2022

What makes a good Underbelly such as The Guild of Baldurs Gate? Should one focus on a specific goal for such a group? How complex should their organization be? Great question! Considering the nature of that group, it should be pursuing a single focus at first clash with the PCs, but be riven by simmering/covert schisms as all members pull for their own aims, behind the scenes. DM works main aims out, so can pivot instantly.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 30, 2022

@TheEdVerse Hey Ed, the question came up recently and I checked the numbers. In City of Splendors there was a map according to which Waterdeep is ~5,7 mi² (~14,8 km²). Yet it has like 1,3 Million citizens. I live in Hamburg, Germany with 1,8 Million citizens on 755,09 km². Population density is usually higher in Europe then in the US. But,… ahh… where do all these Waterdhavians live? Or is the City bigger then previously imagined?

— Sascha Morlok (@modgamers) January 29, 2022

Most Waterdhavians live in rented rooms above shops (often 3 or 4 floors). Density is high. But see the FRCS: population of the city proper is 132,661, but Waterdeep has an “official” pop of 1,347,800, due to the Deep-ruled farmlands around the city (40 miles out). Folk with means and lifestyle to do so often relocate south for the winter months (so population totals dip). The "comfortable" built capacity of the city proper is likely around 225,000 (meaning, housing stock could hold that many without rebuilding/expansion).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 29, 2022

So we have to think of the “City State” of Waterdeep not as a literal State that ends and the city wall, but more in the sense of a Greek City State, that usually own many of the surrounding area and smaller villages. Oh, yes. From the outset, Waterdeep needed "open land" for caravans to assemble and disassemble, linking with the deepwater port. Then warehouses, and all of that, very much including granaries and paddocks. The vicinity is well-watered, but the food always has to…#Realsmlore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 29, 2022

…come from somewhere. The guards for the early encampments and stockpiled goods patrolled well beyond bowshot to curb surprise bandit raids and monster attacks. From the moment the Deep was a governed area, it defended a "home ring" of surrounding farms.#Realsmlore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 29, 2022

the most sophisticated ceramic is porcelain, which is completely vitrified (turned to glass) but it’s complicated to make.

Any thoughts on which culture in Faerûn achieved this first (or at all)? On earth, in Europe the formula for porcelain wasn’t achieved until 1709, despite centuries of attempted espionage and workshops attempting to recreate it. It remained a closely guarded secret until mid-18th century.

(2/2)

— RPG Match – connecting TTRPG players (@RpgMatch) April 10, 2022

1
The Imaskari had it, the elves had it earlier or got it from them, and the giants had it then, too.
It was lost to humans after Imaskar fell, the giants only used it for insulation (crafting shaped coverings), and the elves preferred carved wood and growing vessels. 2)
Sometime later the dwarves gained it on their own, the gnomes and later the halflings got it from them, and it was rediscovered in the Tashalar just before 116 DR.
Always rare, expensive, and (due to fragility) little used. Much easier to make from wood or bamboo.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 10, 2022

So Tashalarian porcelain would be the thing discerning Waterdhavian collectors would covet and/display… 🤔 Yes, but Tashalarian wind-chimes, and nested eggs, and miniature castle salt-cellars, not plates and cups (exception: moustache cups) and bowls.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 10, 2022

Indeed. :}

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 11, 2022

@TheEdVerse what’s going on at Warlock’s Crypt these days? 1492DR Someone was asking this question in a Realms based Facebook Group today. #Realmslore

— DavidGrider (@dgrider1234) January 22, 2022

1)
Some of what’s going on is NDA, I’m afraid, but two important ongoing processes are complex, long-term, many-layered (spell upon spell upon spell) castings by the liches who obey Larloch, following his standing orders… 2)
…(“If I am absent for this amount of time, begin casting X”).
The first casting is a complex defense-in-depth series of wards that augment the usual wards, and involve sixteen ‘bound’ death tyrants, and eight bound dracoliches.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 23, 2022

3)
The second casting is a series of spells that will begin to covertly take over the minds of particular wizards all over Toril, including a zulkir of Thay, a member of the Twisted Rune, a member of the Arcane Brotherhood, … 4)
…several senior Zhentarim, a Cult of the Dragon mage, and so on, so they will do the bidding of their Warlock’s Crypt “controllers” (in most cases, without even realizing it).
There’s no confusion, consternation, defiance, or…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 23, 2022

5)
…power struggle going on in the Crypt. To the liches therein, Larloch is simply off on one of his longer jaunts, doing things he hasn’t told them about. The lich Aumhrathond is Acting Castellan of the Crypt. 6)
Since the end of the Second Sundering, the liches of the Crypt have successfully bred certain “new” (crossbreed) monsters, that I’ll tell you more about some other time. ;}#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 23, 2022

tThis post is glorious, Ed! Occasionally someone asks about something I’ve just been waiting to spill. ;}
I do admit to moments of glee.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 23, 2022

Hey @TheEdVerse did you and Eric Boyd ever discuss how the Frost Giant Harshnag the Grim would get around the city of Waterdeep? He would probably need special accommodations. #realmslore #waterdeep #dungeonsanddragons

— RPG Match – connecting TTRPG players (@RpgMatch) March 20, 2022

1)
No. Likely because I’d already decided. ;}
Harshnag has his own seats on the seaward side of Mount Waterdeep. He also has a cavern there that he shares with other giants (its presence is why the cloud giant castle hovers just…
#Realmslore 2)
…where it does in DEATH MASKS). Its entrance is easy to locate (though not marked) on the 2e CITY OF SPLENDORS boxed set maps: go to “The Watching Tower” tag, and track due west from the initial “T” to a gap in the cliff-scarp…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 21, 2022

3)
…drawn edge, where the 500 elevation line crosses it: right there.
Moreover, all giants have guestrooms in the South Fang (the unlabelled wall tower due south of “Gate The South” on the 2e CITY OF SPLENDORS boxed set maps). 4)
It’s bad etiquette among giants to stride through built-up Waterdeep. Much traffic chaos at the very least. (In the old days, Maaril would “take steps” magically. Later, Khelben got peeved.) So they “walk around the edges.”#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 21, 2022

No, the other "T." ("The")
Follow the "500" contour line North to where it crosses the scarp. There's a gap in the drawn scarp [the line that looks like an endless artifical eyelash]. Right at that gap.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 21, 2022

Bingo! :}

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 21, 2022

@TheEdVerse Hi Ed. Weird queries out of the blue as always: what can you tell us about Lycon "Wolf-Beard", one time tutor of Elminster. Does he have a surname?

— George Krashos (@gkrashos) January 30, 2022

1)
I can’t get to my notes at the moment (they’re somewhere in the long Hi-Cube shipping container, and it has a six-foot snowdrift-turned-to-ice in front of its doors right now), but Lycon was a jovial, hardy adventuring wizard (a gentle smartass). He was a seasoned,
#Realmslore 2)
…successful adventurer, who made a fortune out of salvaging old magic from the corpses of fallen mages or their tombs and “improving” it by combining enchantments for more effective effects, and selling scrolls of the results thereof.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 30, 2022

3)
He roamed the Heartlands in his day, and rather than having a tower, he had six different houses, one a farmhouse but the others in cities, all nondescript and purportedly owned by average guys (all “false identities” he’d established). 4)
Full name: Lycon Annamandur Haldred. His parents were far-traveled caravan merchants, and their ancestors came from the Amn and Tethyr areas, though his father’s side of the family always claimed (likely correctly) to have come from Halruaa shortly after its…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 30, 2022

5)
…founding.
His nickname, by the way, came from a neat little enchantment he’d cast on his tidy, pointed beard: Lycon could teleport a wolf from a den he maintained “out of it,” so the wolf emerged springing at a foe from empty midair in front of his beard.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 30, 2022