BadCatMan @TheBadCatMan
Hi @TheEdVerse! I'm curious about Velsaert, the Dragon Sage of Baldur's Gate quoted in a lot of the Wyrms of the North articles. What's his story? Was he always secretly a steel dragon? Are the other great dragons of the North really just avoiding him?— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
1)
Velsaertirden was a steel dragon who hatched in a clutch of eggs in Steelspires, a castle built by stone giants for his parents on a bare rock ridge that towered over the busy human port city of Haunvaerune, on the continent… 2)
…of Arandron far to the southwest of Faerûn.
It was his mother Malavauvra’s (Malavauvrantarandra’s) last clutch of eggs, for she was ancient and ailing. Most of Velsaertirden’s siblings were sickly and died soon after… #Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
3)
…hatching, or during their first year of existence. The exceptions were his ruthless, rapacious sister Rauvrahreene (Rauvrahrileenatandrar), and his brother Torthal (Torthalindrarron).
The three wyrmlings soon became dragonets… 4)
…(learning to take human form, and shift with ease between human and dragon form), and reacted in very different ways to the bustling human city their dying mother encouraged them to explore: Torthal was repelled by humans… #Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
5)
…and wanted nothing to do with them, or cities, or crowding of any sort; Rauvrahreene saw them as cattle, pawns, and playthings to be manipulated, devoured, and otherwise expended at will to further her needs to dominate, cow… 6)
…lesser beings, and further her plans; and Velsaert saw them as dangerous but fascinating sources of ongoing entertainment, to be studied and befriended and worked with to see what they’d do and achieve.
Velsaert’s father…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
7)
…Phaudron (Phaudrantanthildrar) was a withdrawn, singleminded sort of dragon who traveled widely to explore and find rare substances to use as material components in arcane magics he was devising and endlessly experimenting… 8)
…with.
His passion was magics intended to prolong draconic life and vigor indefinitely, without lichdom or other necromantic means, for most dragons who survive for many years love life and want to cling to it, and seek… #Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
9)
…longevity by various means.
While her father was away on one of his expeditions to gain a rare ingredient, Rauvrahreene found some of his written records of his magical experimentations.
She copied them, went to a lair of her… 10)
…own she’d established elsewhere, and conducted her own spellcastings and experiments, successfully learning how to reverse Phaudron’s spells. Then she returned to Steelspires, and when her father returned, weary and…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
11)
…unsuccessful, she covertly cast his reversed spells on him, killing him.
Emboldened, she sought out her weak, slumbering mother, and slew her the same way. The castle was now hers.
However, Torthal unexpectedly returned to… 12)
…Steelspires to consult his father, and found his sister fortifying the place with dragonslaying traps. One of which sorely wounded him (he discovered the traps the hard way). Rauvrahreene gloated openly over the mortally…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
13)
…wounded Torthal—and was overheard doing so by Velsaert, making his own return visit to the castle. Outraged that he’d lost his parents, Velsaert attacked, and when the battle was done, Torthal had been blasted apart and 14)
…Rauvrahreene, wounded, had fled.
Lost in grief, Velsaert decided he never wants to dwell in the castle. He searched it, and used all the magic he knew to subvert and reset the traps so if Rauvrahreene returned, they’d likely… #Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
15)
…harm her. Then Velsaert took human form and went down into Haunvaerune.
Where as soon as he could, he took passage on a farsailing ship, that would call at “strange and distant ports.”
In this case, that meant Sambar, in… 16)
…Lantan (unbeknownst to wider Faerûn, the Lantanna traded their lesser invented devices with many farflung folk, to gain goods rare or hard to find). From there, Velsaert found his way to mainland Faerûn, where he traveled…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
17)
…for over five centuries in various human guises, seeing much of different cultures.
As he grew older, he increasingly sided with the aims and doings of the Harpers of Twilight Hall, and joined them while posing as the human… 18)
…ranger Vontur of Zazesspur.
During his sixty-odd years as Vontur, he came across several tantalizing mentions of a dragon who MIGHT be his sister Rauvrahreene, but could never track her down. Velsaert was also increasingly… #Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
19)
…fascinated by the magic-spreading role of the Chosen of Mystra, and watched their doings—and so, in return, was watched by them.
Eventually, Vontur was cornered in a perish-or-call-on-draconic-powers situation, so Vontur… 20)
…“died” and the dragon that slew him and his foes flew away…and a young woman by the name of Shalant Mornwind, hailing from Athkatla, joined the Harpers. An eager volunteer daunted by nothing and avoiding no unpleasant task…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
22)
…she discovered that the secret of the success of the wealthy local Sembian family hight House Morarshar was due to their matriarch, Lady Ambrele, being the human guise of Velsaert’s sister Rauvrahreene.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
21)
…nor company, she rose in the regard of senior Harpers, and gained an ever-larger role as a trusted and capable adventurer, active all over western Faerûn, until, in an undercover operation in the Sembian city of Selgaunt, … 22)
…she discovered that the secret of the success of the wealthy local Sembian family hight House Morarshar was due to their matriarch, Lady Ambrele, being the human guise of Velsaert’s sister Rauvrahreene.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
23)
Velsaert attacked, and in the battle that followed, Morarshar Hall was torn apart, the family and their staff died bloodily, several surrounding buildings were shattered and hurled down, Rauvragrene was maimed and forced to… 24)
…flee to another plane of existence, and Shalant Mornwind “died.”
In truth, Velsaert was aged three centuries by spells cast by Rauvrahreene to try to kill him, and left saddened by the deaths of his Harper adventuring…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
25)
…colleagues and the destruction of so much of what had been a luxurious street in downtown Selgaunt.
So he “retired,” becoming a sage in Baldur’s Gate under the name of Imbryn Velsaert (borrowing the name Imbryn from Imbryn… 26)
…Ultal, the captain of the Aelusteen, the ship that had brought him from Haunvaerune to Sambar). Velsaert dwelt above his small shop in the Temples District (a street above the Helm and Cloak inn), quietly selling information…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
27)
…and old books related to magic, and becoming a passive observer of all the bustling human activity around him. Noticing the great extent to which various humans were being manipulated by clergies, cults, cabals, and powerful…28)
…entities like illithids, beholders, and dragons, he increasingly slipped into human guises to travel and investigate the doings and aims of various dragons and dracoliches active in western Faerûn (notably Laerahkralan, a…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
29)
…greatwyrm working with yuan-ti and human agents to covertly influence various ruling courts, from towns and villages up to countries, in the Shining South). He located their principal lairs and watched what he could of their… 30)
…activities, befriending the bronze dragon Nymmurh in particular. During the 1360s and 1370s DR, Velsaert gained a reputation as “the” current expert on the lives and times of the dragons of the Sword Coast.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
31)
The merchant Andlar Verikho of Tharsult dubbed him the “Dragon Sage,” and this nickname stuck.
After the Dracorage, an ashamed and regretful Velsaert wanted nothing further to do with the Harpers, and foresaw that his… 32)
…profession as a sage specializing in dragons was going to bring endless adventurers (Harpers among them) to his door, so he “retired” again, relocating to the Upper City and later the south side of the river, and then…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
33)
…dropping out of sight.
Just in time, it seems, for a force of mages and able-to-pass-as-human creatures he suspects was sent by sister, or someone working for her, descended on his lodgings by night to slay him—and when they… 34)
…couldn’t find Velsaert (who was lying on a nearby rooftop, not his own, observing comets in the night sky) settled for slaughtering many neighbours instead.
Velsaert hunted them for a month thereafter, trying to find whoever… #Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021
35)
…they reported to, but after he’d fought and slain several of them, they turned to hunt him again, and he decided to simply disappear into a new human guise, under a new name, elsewhere. 36)
So the greatwyrm Velsaert survives to this day—as, presumably, does his sister Rauvrahreene.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021