Well met this new year, Great Sage. I trust your solstice festivities went smoothly.
I’ve a question to lay at your feet, if I may; (this is an enduring matter of some consternation between one Volo-of-dubious-repute, and myself),
Jan52/ Namely, he and I were discussing the origins of one Elué Silverhand. He is adamant that she is a shapeshifting sorceress of planar-renown, whereas I point to sages who claim she was hardly known outside of Faerûn!— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021
3/ Might you be able to put this matter to rest, and elaborate on the story of said maid, and her going-on before catching the attentions of the Lady of Mysteries? 1)
So far as Elminster knows (and his source is the goddess Mystra, who possessed Elué during her births of silver-haired females all destined to be famous), the half-elf Elué Shundar (who never seems to have use “Silverhand” as…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021
2)
…a surname, BTW) wasn’t known outside Faerûn, and never traveled off the continent. She did befriend some silver dragons, and even investigated some gates (portals), so it’s both possible she set boot outside Toril, or that…3)
…some mention of her might have spread beyond it, but unlikely. She was most a half-elf of the Sword Coast ports, an adventurer of the “make a living as a cargo escort and merchant hireling, in port cities” sort, until she…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021
4)
…achieved (in the early 700s DR) enough financial success to buy her own country estate (think: ranch/farm with extensive woodlots, from which, with the aid of tenant farmers, she harvested commercial crops of mushrooms and…5)
…watercress and herbs). She settled down there to try to experiment with magic, rather than just buying scrolls and books and studying from them, until her quest to gain and master more powerful magics took her adventuring…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021
6)
…again (across the Savage North, into old ruins and crashed Netherese cities and lonely wizards’ towers whose occupants had disappeared, passed into lichdom, or lost battles with dragons), and into contact with the ranger… 7)
…adventurer Dornal Silverhand, who encountered her in one such remote, tumbled tower, was smitten with her in their initial battle (he mistook her for an evil sorceress), and wooed her. She led him a merry dance across the…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021
8)
…North and two years ere accepting his advances and agreeing to relocate to Silverhand Tower, near Neverwinter.
Where Dornal’s aged mother, confined to bed and dying, accepted Elué with open arms as the “sorceress in the… 9)
…moonlight” she’d met and befriended and adventured with so often, in her long and deep dreams (Elminster suspects Mystra’s meddling brought these dreams about, and that She was “setting up” the Dornal/Elué union).#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 10, 2021