Is it just a function of the very small sample size of known/named Imaskari, or were the artificer ruling class exclusively male? Deep Imaskar and its descendants obviously aren’t, but the ancient Imaskar? No, there was no gender bar, and likely as many females as males. What has survived down through history is the loudest artificers who did the most dramatic/pushy/stupid things without hiding what they were doing, and THAT subset was more male than female.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 16, 2022

What about the giants? *wink*

— George Krashos (@gkrashos) January 16, 2022

1) :}
In Jotun, any spider is “attlug” (eight-legs) and spiders, plural, is “attlugga.”
This is then modified by prefixes: “iph” for tiny (a spider the size of a human palm or less), “trau” [pronounced ‘traw’] for small (up to the… 2)
…size of a human body), and “goront” for full-grown (these size words apply to anything or any creature). Three additional creature modifiers are also applied as next-in-line prefixes, if applicable, and in this order: “kah”…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 16, 2022

3)
…for biting, “duhfare” (silent-danger) if poisonous/venomous (that affects a giant, so they notice it), and “guth” for soft and easily squished/crushed.
So a tiny, easily-crushed, poisonous fanged spider would be an… 4)
…iphkahduthfareguthattlug, but a spider that bites but isn’t poisonous, and is larger than a human, is a gorontkahattlug.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 16, 2022

1) :}
In Jotun, any spider is “attlug” (eight-legs) and spiders, plural, is “attlugga.”
This is then modified by prefixes: “iph” for tiny (a spider the size of a human palm or less), “trau” [pronounced ‘traw’] for small (up to the… "iphkahduthfareguthattlug", now that's a mouthful

— Alex McClay (@AlexMcclay2000) January 16, 2022

Giants speak slowly (and deeply, and often loudly), and can verbalize while inhaling and exhaling.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 16, 2022

He has an infinite number of clones: like all Weavemasters, he can spin up "Weaveghosts" at will: phantoms that SEEM real/solid if he wants them to, that he can see and speak through, and that he can cast spells through. They're not solid and can't carry anything.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 12, 2022

For I have braved banshee’s scream and basilisk’s stare
To find at last the Hidden Stair
That ascends higher than Rapunzel’s hair
But to brave it now, do I dare?
Do I dare?

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 12, 2021

The giant’s club smashed her flat, then beat her flatter
So I now make undying vow: I’ll have that giant’s head on a platter

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 13, 2021

The wise adventurer often looks over one and then the other shoulder
As that goes a long way to ensuring they live to be a day or two older
The goal is to live to an age of ripe old senility
So they can achieve a king’s level of grand error-making ability

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 16, 2021

Hey, @TheEdVerse ! Any tips or secret lore you could share with me for a campaign starting at 10th level in Daggerdale, involving the Lord of Daggerdale's lost sister, werewolves, Malar, Loviatar, and Tethyamar?:)

— Jack the Giant Killer (ofgodsandgamemasters.com) (@JackGogsbane) January 15, 2022

1)
1)
Heh. Florin secretly rescued Silver Morn years back, so she’s not to be found in Daggerdale. (The Zhents lording it in her castle died in the rescue.)
Loviatar worshippers are, though, mainly in the settlements. In the countryside, you’ll find a lot of… 2)
…Malarites, running "holy hunts"…which is a good thing for the farmers still hanging on, as those hunts keep the foraging goblins, orcs, hobgoblins and prowling spiders roaming from the Spiderhaunt Wood down to a (somewhat) survivable level. Driders and some.. #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 15, 2022

3)
…drow explorative warbands occasionally enter the dale, but have never established any lasting presence because dwarven adventurers seeking to repopulate Tethyamar come up from under the Desertsmouth Mountains to eliminate drow whenever they find them.4)
What little hope and aid the folk of Daggerdale receive comes from Shadowdale (preferential prices on needed daily goods) and, surprisingly, from the Zhentarim rebuilding Zhentil Keep, who seek to make Daggerdale their "breadbasket" food source. They have spies…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 15, 2022

5)
…not only among the folk living in the settlements of Daggerdale (including some smiths, carpenters, and roofers) but roaming the countryside–and these roamers include some shapeshifters of various sorts (one or two might be werewolves, but most werewolves… 6)
…encountered in Daggerdale are likely long-resident in the dale, or have settled there from elsewhere (such as the Hullack region of Cormyr).
The worship of Loviatar is covertly financed by the Zhents, who see it as a way to ultimately controlling the…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 15, 2022

7)
…settlements of Daggerdale from within. Adding spice to this mix are the spies in the dale supported by Shadowdale, and the spies in the dale who are visiting Harpers. ;}
Daggerdale remains an uneasy mix of farms, abandoned farms that nature is seeking to… 8)
…reclaim (so hunting is good), and ready violence as all of these elements clash. (The elves in the forested areas to the east prevent drow, dwarves, and Zhents from expanding in that direction, so Daggerdale is something of a cauldron.)#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 15, 2022

Travel between most continents is difficult (the gate networks are largely forgotten or hidden or controlled) due to harsh terrain and prevailing weather, and long distances. The few who “make it” (e.g. fartraveled merchants) don’t want to encourage competition. Add to that the abundance of monsters and sentients who prey on any sort of critters passing by, or who just don't like intruders, and you have travel at a trickle.
And on top of THAT, place this: (control of) knowledge is power. Rulers don't WANT everyone to…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 21, 2021

….readily know alternatives, and where sources of desired things are.
And to that, add that communications is and continues to be lousy, with word of mouth from peddlers and other travelers the main news sources. The game gives us a distorted view of ease of… travel and communications due to magic, which is unaffordable or simply unavailable to the vast majority of sentients. Most in the Realms are either farmers or foragers; they are tied to terrain they know, and don't move around much unless forced to. So they see…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 21, 2021

little of the world and are limited to what they’re told. Which tends to be embellished and unreliable tavern-talk, or information they have to pay for (sages and tomes). If you’re not desperately interested in getting elsewhere, that’s a low-priority luxury spend. You have said that this Scholar's View is not an accurate map of Toril's continents. Not asking to see one, but curious to know if any explorer has braved all the perils you mentioned to chart an accurate one? Or maybe a few? (hidden away, of course 😉) pic.twitter.com/6xyRkVPg83

— Questing GM (@questinggm) December 21, 2021

..I don’t think any wayfarer has done the Grand Tour with an eye to mapping. Dabron Sashenstar did so, deliberately “exploring” to map out trade routes, for much of Faerûn, but little beyond that. Balduran set sail looking for forests that could be logged etc. and…there have been many like him, but they are seeking resources/income, not touring to see many alternatives and what's where; when they find what they're looking for, they stop looking.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 21, 2021

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…conjunction, plopping down or rising up in empty ocean, and when the Second Sundering was over, it was back in Abeir and there was “just ocean” at that spot. I see the Scholar’s View art as an attempt to fancifully put continents that look like a twisted… projection of real Earth's continents into the Realms, because we have to have real-world equivalents and analogues. Except we don't. And trying to have them unnecessarily borrows all sorts of real problems with gamer audiences, when instead we could have a lot more CREATION..

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 21, 2021

Would it be safe to say at the current state of lore known about the other landmasses (big or small), any representation of Toril derived from them would be incomplete at best? Yes. That's putting it nigh-perfectly: "incomplete at best."
I have a master full-globe map (faint pencil, Mercator projection with all of the faults that has) dating from 1982. TSR had at least two updates of that (subsituting their Moonshaes for mine, then…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 21, 2021

…substituting KaraTur, Zakhara, and Maztica for what I had in those locations; that's why it's not as simple as my saying "Here's my One True Original" to you, because the published Realms diverged so much from my original.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 21, 2021

, I hope you’re having a wonderful day. I have a question I wonder if you could answer. Does Elminster, Laeral, Mirt, Volo or Durnan have any secret tattoos or remarkable scars that one could possibly use to identify them? Thank you…1)
Elminster is weathered and wrinkled all over, and has lines of scarring up the outside of both of his pectorals that climb over his shoulders, where long ago his arms were torn off (at different times), but he’s such a wreck…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 23, 2021

2)
…that they don’t “stand out.” Someone has to look closely at him in good light to notice the lines in the midst of everything else.
None of the five have any large and distinctive tattoos (Mirt has some, on insides of elbows, … 3)
…armpits, and below the bulge of his belly, that store magic, but they were made to blend in to his skin, not stand out, so they usually have to be pointed out to someone, but be noticed at all). Laeral and Volo are remarkably…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 23, 2021

4)
…unscarred and unweathered, due to repeated skillful magical healing, but the hips, chest, back, and biceps of Durnan are crisscrossed with old sword-wound scars that are clearly visible ridges (puckers) but which aren’t a… 5)
…different hue than the surrounding skin. There are a lot of them (sixteen or more), and they don’t form any distinctive pattern. Many of them DO cross over each other.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 23, 2021

Saludos Ed! Wanted to ask you: Is there an iconic fictional holiday character in the Forgotten Realms? kinda like the equivalent of Santa or the Easter Bunny?
Thanks!There are many. The Reaper who stalks on Deadwinter Day, the Maiden who dances at Greengrass, seeds sprouting wherever her bare feet touch, and so on, including many local "folk figures" (and they DO appear; they're all place-spirits).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 3, 2021

If there were ever a request for “MORE”, Ed, this would be mine) (not so much ‘holiday character’ but more ‘many’ and ‘local’ and ‘place-spirit’) 😊 Heh. I'll get back to you when I can, but life is super-crazy-busy right now (family visiting, day job, medical, a Kickstarter, 3 urgent design assignments, seasonal festive obligations locally, teaching, etc. etc.). So hang in there, and I'll share more lore in ye FullnessOfTyme

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 5, 2021