@TheEdVerse Hi Ed, Hope your recovery is going well. Wondering what lore you can give on the House of Baerlaer of Arabel, and the layout of their home (#60 on the Arabel map in Cormyr). As always many thanks. ~GG
— Gareth ! (@garethgarfoot) October 3, 2019
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Hi, Gareth! See this thread at the Candlekeep forums: “Forgotten Realms Journals/Running the Realms/ THE UNRELIABLE FIVE: THEIR EYES ON THE REALMS” by Jeremy Grenemyer. From it we learn that the keyed feature #60 on the Arabe 2)
…map is a “small but grand castle” built of stone, that’s “now the seat of power for the Guild of Binders, Printers and Copyists in Arabel.”
The House of Baerlear isn’t a noble family, but a successful merchant family, based in…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019
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…Arabel for centuries. At the time of Jeremy’s adventure, the patriarch of the family (Nelezmur “the Book Tyrant” Baerlear) is the Guildmaster of the Binders, Printers, and Copyists.
Much of the guild’s daily coin (and 4)
…therefore, the income of the Baerlears) comes from printing handbills (one-page advertising handouts) and business forms (from laundry chits to detailed orders used by various craftworkers and shopkeepers). But the Baerlears…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019
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…have been successful merchants for decades, in part because they’ve diversified: they are landlords (and property buyers and sellers) in Arabel; they buy large stretches of wild forest and woodlots in northeastern Arabel from6)
…which to harvest pulp for papermaking, and timber that they sell to builders in southern Cormyr and Sembia (whoever will pay most); and they invest in the side-businesses of local gnome and dwarf families who make and…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019
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…maintain the printing presses they (and the guild they’re part of) use.
The House of Baerlear itself is a stout fieldstone castle of four towers linked by thick walls to enclose a courtyard. The only difference between the 8)
…House and an old wilderland keep is that it has large (tall, narrow) windows, a few with iron-bar windowboxes but not balconies, rather than just arrowslits. The towers end in conical roofs, built over the crenelated flat-top…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019
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…battlements sixty years ago, and the castle has a more-than-coach-wide arched main gate, currently filled by stout ironbar latticework double doors chained and barred together when closed (the metal-plated wooden doors with 10)
…inner props were replaced more than a century ago).
The Baerlears own a family (closed) coach (think stagecoach), a “fast litter” (open carriage; think phaeton), and two goods wagons, which are parked in the interior…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019
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…courtyard when not in use. The rest of the courtyard is filled with hay and a grass plot for the horses (the ground floor of the “back wall” (north wall) of the castle, facing the gate, is the stables), and a kitchen garden 12)
…sited to catch the most sun.
The “front wall” (south wall) of the castle west of the gate houses the business part of the castle: the servants dwell there, and the family business offices, stockrooms, and “working rooms”…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019
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…(workshops, etc.) are located there. The front wall east of the gate houses a three-floor entry hall reached via doors on the north/inner side of the east gate tower; one passes through a circular foyer (with cloakrooms,
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…garderobes, doorguards’ ready room, and mudroom) located on the ground floor of the tower, to reach the grand hall (with crimson tapestries and carpets, and much rich, dark woodwork) that fills that part of the eastern…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019
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…front/south wall adjoining the east gate tower. This hall is dominated by balconies on the upper floors looking down into the hall, and a grand stair ascending from the ground floor to the floor above, and then a second 16)
…flight ascending to the third. House servants have their ready rooms (and “ready pantries” and sewing rooms) on the uppermost floor, guest apartments are located on the middle floor, with the family’s suites of personal…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019
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…living quarters filling the rest of the middle floor and the southeastern tower of the castle, with a map room, dining room, withdrawing rooms, dens, library, and other rooms used in daily family life occupying the ground… 18)
…and middle floors of the east wall.
The House of Baerlear is built over its own deep well of drinkable water, which occupies the cellar of the northeast tower.
In the past, several Baerlear patriarchs and matriarchs made…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019
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…extra coin by renting out apartments in the western floors of the north wall to “suitable” tenants, often Crown officials and Arabel-stationed (sometimes as family business representatives, and sometimes more like 20)
…“remittance men,” to be away from parents who detested them or despaired of them) sons and daughters of wealthy “wannabe-noble” families of Suzail and Marsember. This practise ebbs and flows with the personal preferences of…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019
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…heads of the Baerlears; some shudder at the thought of “strangers staying under our roof as anything more than passing guests,” while others welcome the income (which at times has more than covered all running costs of the 22)
…of the home). House Baerlear currently looks gray, its stone walls surmounted by dark gray slate “awnings” over each window, and conically roofing the tower-tops.
Hope these details are of help.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019
As always, thats amazing lore, and once again thanks for all my (annoying) questions that you answer. I’ve been working on a lore paper regarding Hesperdan that I hope to post to Candlekeep one day~GG Not annoying at all, and I look forward to reading more about Hesperdan. ;}
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 3, 2019