@TheEdVerse moon elves, with their very pale skin and some having such pale hair too … I’m kinda wondering how common & how received are “alt” looks? Hair colours, especially odd or multi sort, piercings, tattoos … etc.
What would they use for the dyes too if you don’t mind?

— 🌈Jaye🦄Em🌹Edgecliff🏳️‍🌈 (@jayeedgecliff) October 11, 2020

1)
Moon elves tend to be very expressive, and that includes unusual hairdos and dying. Tattoos not common, but henna and other body painting (tattoos that fade and wear off and can be redrawn or replaced with different) popular. Forest berry, leaf, and bark dyes… 2)
…(see Amarune's Almanac 1: Forests of the Realms) such as blueleaf, flamebriar, and rowan are used, mixed with various saps and oils as carrier agents, for hair, nails, and body paint as well as textiles. Piercings are very rare among elves when metal is…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 11, 2020

3)
…involved (when it is, it's usually electrum, or alloys of silver that won't readily tarnish); more often, elven piercings involve a bone from a revered ancestor or lost loved one.
Eyeshadow, and symbols painted around an eye, are favorite moon elf adornments.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 11, 2020

How does this differ from sun elves, Ed?

— Leslie Courtney (@LeslieCourtne14) October 11, 2020

1)
The vast majority of sun elves go for gilded or bronzed (tans or cosmetic) bodily beauty and perfection, not alt or “goth” looks. They want to impress with how beautiful their bodies (and expensive, often-revealing garments)… 2)
…are, not how startling/”different” they can look. (So think of all the real-world TV elegant, Euro-style expensive fragrance commercials, and the A-list actress and celebs who appear in them, and that’s more what sun elves…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 12, 2020

3)
…strive for.) Sun elves tend to have more overt vanity.
Both my moon and sun elf descriptions on this topic are of course stereotypes, and may break down entirely when applied to any individual elf, adventurers in particular.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 12, 2020

If one were to opt to utterly ignore the Second Sundering in their home #ForgottenRealms #dnd5e game, what impact might that have on the latest power structures (nations, factions, guilds, etc?) You have to decide at least 3 things:
1. Is the Spellplague "over" and what's the resulting state of spellcasting and active magic in your Realms right now?
2. What gods and their faiths are "gone" or back, dwindling or flourishing?
3. Current Realmsdate?#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 25, 2020

All excellent questions and food for thought. Thank you! Ponder, then reach out here and we can talk. The Piazza is right; if the Second Sundering didn't happen, the "macro" Realms is essentially as in 3e, but there are many local details updated for 5e that would apply (and more questions: did "Tyranny of Dragons" happen?)#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 25, 2020

I hadn’t even considered the micro/local impact. I was just thinking about the changes wrought by geography and nations transitioning from Abeir to Toril or the reverse. I like the Spellplague, and some of the events AROUND the Second Sundering…but maybe not the world-swaps? Hmm, actually now that I wrote that all out, maybe it's more that I liked the Far Realm / Wild Magic aspects of the Spellplague, but didn't so much like the world-swaps effects which were more tied to the Spellplague than the Second Sundering, yes?
Too many 'S' apocalypses! 🙂

— Jim Flory (@Inveterate_DM) October 25, 2020

So keep the wild magic, marauding Far Realm monsters, and invisible, wandering Far Realm/FR rifts, and have (post-2nd Sundering), all the lands back where they started from (no swaps). Most of 5e, at the micro/local level, is 3e updated by 150 years.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 25, 2020

If the Mulhorand culture is of egyptian descent. That mean that in country’s like Thay they make pyramids to their leaders? And that tombs or pyramids could helped some of it owners to achieve undeath?

— Adriano (@bigobionic) November 13, 2020

1)
Although other designers introduced Earth-origin Egyptian and Sumerian elements into the Realms, and adventures that featured pyramids were retrofitted into the Realms, I didn’t put any direct real-world analogues into the Realms. There are no pyramids in Thay. 2)
If you want to add some, or a belief system involving mummification and the provision of tomb supplies for the afterlife et al, to your version of the Realms, do so by all means. But none of that is explicitly there in current Realms culture, due to the god-kings.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 13, 2020

What are Murghom’s military forces like? Being ruled by Dragons, I would expect quite a force to be reckoned with. 1)
Most of the dragon princes have thirty-some-strong “rides” of horse archers (they carry light javelins, that they throw while galloping, not using them as lances); fast, mobile, and used to fighting from the saddle or afoot. Personal weapons: handaxe or…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2020

2)
…shortsword, shields worn across backs much of the time, leather armor, daggers at belt and down boot.
Plate armor is rarely seen in this land, except when worn by gate-guards and mansion doorguards.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2020

What does the fur trade look like in Faerun? Brisk, from: Sossal south to the Great Dale, the Sword Coast North to Silverymoon, Thar to Melvaunt, down the Delimbiyr through Secomber, and from the east and north through Semphar. Mainly cured pelts, as distances are too long for uncured to reach markets intact.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 7, 2020

in Sardolphyn’s Gambit you mentioned other families of Waterdeep: Eskult, Yeldred and Tramnur. Can you please tell about them more? 1)
Sure. They’re all North Ward-resident families who have made their fortunes by “mixed mercantile means.” That is, they invest in some shops, rent out North Ward and Castle Ward buildings they own to other businesses (for…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

1)
Sure. They’re all North Ward-resident families who have made their fortunes by “mixed mercantile means.” That is, they invest in some shops, rent out North Ward and Castle Ward buildings they own to other businesses (for… 2)
…shops and offices, not “workshops”/factories, and not residential) to make coin, invest in ship cargoes, and run their own businesses.
I’ll tackle just the Eskults, this time.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

3)
The Eskults make bulk glue from dead horses, run a successful locksmithing service, buy local farm crops for bulk shipping to the Ten Towns, Mintarn, and other “hungry-mouth” areas, and breed fine riding horses. 4)
The Eskults live in three adjacent, knocked-together tallhouses on northfront Saerdoun Street, in the block between Whaelgond Way and Pony Way, and are led by Jaruldimond Eskult and his wife Laedra, who have three young, …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

5)
…dashing (“idiot” is the term Hammrar prefers; for more about Hammrar, see hereafter) sons: Cloome, Dacer, and Parladane.
Jaruldimond also has three younger brothers who are increasingly dissatisfied with his handling of the… 6)
…family finances, and (separately) looking to strike out on their own (if they can figure out some practical way of taking a good share of the family wealth with them; they haven’t yet).
There are also two old, dotty, …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

7)
…stay-at-home maiden aunts, Barathta and Joysa (who prefer to live in an older era), and a fat, jovial old rake of an uncle, Hammrar, who knows where all the family skeletons are hidden (and their closets, too), and who really… 8)
…keeps things running by soothing the three brothers (Jakazmur, Brandred, and Tolyn) privately, and cleaning up after the worst mistakes Jaruldimond makes. Hammrar is a sardonic heavy wine-drinker and scourge of local ladies, …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

9)
…who love his company because he’s fun, and never controlling, cruel, or judgmental. Jaruldimond is a stubborn sort who clings to old ways and avoids the new and changes; his wife Laedra embraces the changes that must be… 10)
…embraced and tries to steer her husband to modernize, without much success.
Laedra also tirelessly attends every last noble feast and revel she can worm her way into, and tries to “cultivate” all nobles who’re there, trying…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

11)
…to ingratiate herself and mention her family in hopes someone, anyone, will remember her the next morning and consider calling on the Eskults as “worldly helpers” when it comes to engaging guilded repairers or anyone else… 12)
…for anything practical. She sees this as the road to eventually being accepted as “one of us” by the nobles, so the Eskults can be ennobled. Hammrar sees this as idiocy; he (correctly) sees her tactic as the way to make…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

13)
…the nobles think of the Eskults as commoner doormats and syncophants who can be endlessly used and then kicked aside a moment later.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

I can’t be the only one to have shipped Drizzt and Alustriel, right? She was apparently into elves and Drizzt was some prime elf beef. No, you're not the only one.
I've even received long, er, detailed love scenes from fans, printed on scented paper.
Some shipping crowds harbors.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 2, 2020

tell us more about Sune adventuring clerics. Something about hierarchy and so on. I started to play as aasimar sune cleric and found lack of information disturbing. Thanks! 1)
The Realms sourcebook FAITHS AND PANTHEONS (particularly p66) details what Sune’s clergy must and should do, to combat vandalism and create, protect, and promote art and the creation of new things of beauty.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

2)
On a personal level, this usually manifests as a Sunite adventuring cleric acquiring beautiful icons, statuettes, jewelry, and other portable works of beautiful art, and gifting them to Sunite shrines and temples, and to folk… 3)
…(e.g. the rural poor, or street beggars) who lack such things (it’s just fine with Sunites if such a recipient then sells or barters or regifts the art). A Sunite cleric will want to dress in “dashing” (eyecatching and…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

4)
…flattering) outfits when adventuring, may make up doggerel or recite the apt verse of others, and may whistle, hum, or sing their own musical motif (the equivalent of the James Bond theme) during moments of heroics, action, … 5)
…or crucial decision-making. Speech should be elegant, movements stylish, gestures noble.
As for hierarchy, the Sunite church is one of the most decentralized and UN-authoritarian/rank-based clergies. Rank is based mostly on…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

6)
…artistic achievements, and secondarily on length of service/experience in the field, and lastly (especially for adventuring clerics, who may do dirty and dangerous work) on personal beauty and adornment. Senior clerics advise… 7)
…junior ones, and may assist them with artistic endeavours or carrying off stylish maneuvers.
In Faerûn in the 1490s DR, the Sunite clergy consist of (ranks, from the bottom up): Novices, Acolytes, Esthetes (= full confirmed- …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

8)
… -in-the-faith priests), Craefters of the Third Altar, Craefters of the Fourth Altar (and so on, up to Craefters of the Ninth Altar), Philocalist, Archphilocalist, Enrapturand, and High Enrapturand.
However, some temples… 9)
…cling to older rank naming conventions, and all Sunites prefer personally-achieved and held titles, such as “Creator of the Bronzen Rose of Scornubel” or “Patron of the Sixteen Striking Portraits of Athkatla.” #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

10)
Most adventuring Sunite clerics are Craefters of one rank (= character level) or another, who strive to earn a personal title—which MUST be bestowed by someone else NOT of their clergy (e.g. an adventuring… 11)
…companion or lay worshipper of Sune). This is a commandment of the goddess (who does not force any of her clergy to bear or use a bestowed title they don’t like, such as mocking or crude nicknames).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020