Jon Gomez @ZeromaruX
Hi, @TheEdVerse
I have a quick question for you.
According to the 4e Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, there was a significant minority of dragonborn and genasi in Luruar. Is this info still true in the 1490s?
Thanks in advance

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2020

1)
Genasi seem to be rare in that region in the 1490s DR, and dragonborn fewer.
There was much Spellplague tumult, and deaths, and fleeing to places folk had heard (or hoped) were in better shape, so although many folk were killed… 2)
…in the Spellplague and its aftermath, that doesn’t mean the “missing” dragonborn and genasi are dead; they may very well just have gone elsewhere (likely south and inland).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2020

Say a cleric of Bahamut cuts a deal with an evil dragon out of necessity (to survive). The dragon might make him swear to Bahamut to honour the deal & Bahamut wants oaths respected, obv. But how would Bahamut feel about his cleric… …dealing with a chromatic at all?

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2020

2)
…(otherwise, dragons may be wiped out, well before orcs dominate all other sentients).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2020

Hi Ed! We’re starting a single class campaign where everyone is a cleric of Mystra, each character’s domain determining his role in the temple. The grave domain player asked me about death and afterlife before the Time of Troubles and I’m unsure.. …how to handle it.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 26, 2020

1)
The cleric would be told, and in turn would tell worshippers, something like this: All mortals die, and their souls go to judgment to be sent to either dwell in the afterlife with the deity they’ve most served in life, or to serve that deity in a new form or on… 2)
…a mission, likely in a new body…or they might “tarry” in undeath to fulfill pressing unfinished-in-life business. “Afterlife is in the hands of the gods. Afterlife is a new adventure, for those adventurous enough to make it so. The souls that actively serve…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 26, 2020

3)
…often please the divine by their offer of service, and are given new tasks, and perhaps new lives in which to pursue those tasks.”#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 26, 2020

@TheEdVerse The duration of K’s Avatar spell in Netheril sourcebook was “unlimited” but in P&P was “limited”. The P&P came out later so it replaced the former.

What will be the states of M (didn’t sacrifice herself) and K (wasn’t destroyed by godly power) after the end of spell?

— coolguy (@coolguy73360922) January 10, 2021

1)
In the Netheril sourcebook, the lore reflected the beliefs of Karsus (or his insane propaganda, if you prefer), whereas the P&P lore reflected the truth so far as it was known.
Canon tells us the fate of Karsus: see… 1)
In the Netheril sourcebook, the lore reflected the beliefs of Karsus (or his insane propaganda, if you prefer), whereas the P&P lore reflected the truth so far as it was known.
Canon tells us the fate of Karsus: see… 2)
… https://t.co/kQRrWVygOP for a summary, and that of Mystryl: https://t.co/mz65jAh89i (reincarnating as Mystra).
Karsus cast the spell, and its expiration doesn’t undo what…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021

3)
…happened. If he’d cast it on another deity, he’d still have been overwhelmed by the receipt of their divine power, but Mystryl, undamaged, would have stepped in and restored the divinity to its rightful owner (with no… 4)
…damage to magic, or to her, or to the floating Netherese cities). What would have happened to Karsus then would have depended on his actions; if he’d tried to attack Mystryl, she’d likely have ignored him and so let the…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021

6)
…sharply limited his access to the Weave, so he’d have ended up as a minor mage or sage of magic.
If Karsus had never dared to cast the spell, Mystryl would have watched over him, ready to step in (see above) in an instant if…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021

6)
…sharply limited his access to the Weave, so he’d have ended up as a minor mage or sage of magic.
If Karsus had never dared to cast the spell, Mystryl would have watched over him, ready to step in (see above) in an instant if…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021

7)
…he did try the steal a god’s power, and he’d likely have gone on to greater and greater acts of tyrannical insanity, rooting his righteousness in the “certain” knowledge that he was “as good as” a god, and could become a god… 8)
…whenever he wanted.
But if you’re asking what would have happened if Mystryl hadn’t sacrificed herself, and Karsus had cast the spell and become a god, he would still have been overwhelmed and catatonic, the spell would then…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021

9)
…end and he’d be a brain-dead mortal, there would have been brief but intense magical chaos (ripples racing across the Weave, colliding and ricocheting, only lessened where various deities strove to abate them or nullify their… 10)
…effects), and then the deity would have regained their power with Mystryl’s aid.
Exeunt Karsus, in any case.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021

DISCOVER Netheril: Empire of Magic

Hello, O Sage, @TheEdVerse a friend @YungBuckyBarnes and I are curious. As of the 15th c DR, do the Sylvan Guardians still exist within Shadowdale? Yes. They're more widespread, ranging over a lot more forest, and so "thinner on the ground" in any one place. They work with the elves, and face fewer armed foes; their main enemies these days are woodcutters from Sembia and Archendale seeking to clear forest areas.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 2, 2020

Assuming you used mummies in your home Realms, where did you envision them coming from?

— AdamDravian (@AdamDravian) November 15, 2020

1)
I didn’t use mummies in the home Realms campaign, but you have stumbled on one of the Great Untold Secrets of the Realms (ta-dah!).
To whit: my Realmslore explanation for the mummy monster in the game runs thus: most mummies… 2)
…(on Earth) remained just that: mummified corpses, embalmed and prepared for the afterlife. A few were “possessed” by evil spirits (evil undead entities that had lost their bodies, sometimes because the bodies had fallen…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 15, 2020

3)
…apart, sometimes in the process of achieving lichdom, and sometimes because they are devils in search of a body) looking for a host body. And a few of these evil undead animated mummies found their ways through gates, from…4)
…Earth to Toril, and they are the “mummy” monsters of the game. They either hid from sentient societies in existing tombs they found and took over, or they sought power by entering hallowed temple or abbey or holy site tombs, …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 15, 2020

5)
…and “rose” from venerated tombs there to influence high priests in secret, or even magically overcame high-ranking clergy and took over their bodies to become the “greater mummies” with clerical magic. Many were selfish and…6)
…paranoid, but a few sought out other mummies (often using living priests as agents/go-betweens) to work together to gain covert influence, by means of cults they founded within priesthoods, over increasing numbers of the…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 15, 2020

7)
…living.
Meaning they formed an Eminence of Araunt-like shadowy evil power group who saw adventurers as dangerous potential foes who had to be duped, eliminated, or manipulated into (usually unwittingly, as that was safer for… 8)
…the mummies) serving them.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 15, 2020

Wow, a juicier response than I expected. I love the thought you put into explaining an element that you didn't even originally intend to be part of the Realms. Thanks again, Ed!

— AdamDravian (@AdamDravian) November 15, 2020

A pleasure.
The published Realms of course has to support everything in the game rules…so a great amount of fun can be had concocting explanations to link it all up.
Sages extraordinaire have been doing this for years, such as Eric Boyd & George Krashos, …2)
…Brian Cortijo for Cormyr, the James brothers, Bryon Wischstadt, Tom Costa, all of us who've wielded an official pen like Jeff Grubb and Steven Schend, and many, many more creators down the years.
And in the process, the lore has been made richer for us all!#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 15, 2020