Any info you could share on 3 or 4 Highknights active during Azoun IV’s reign, possibly into Alusair’s regency? Thank you! Let me dig into my records and get back to you (there are NDAs that I have to skate around; I know I can, but to do so, must check old products drafts and editors' missives).
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 29, 2018
1) I will be thrilled with anything you can provide! Thank you for all you do for the Realms fans – you are truly appreciated! Hi! Your request that I share Highknights active into Alusair’s regency was helpful; it sent me to younger Highknights in my notes, rather than those featured in past stories and game lore. I was going to give you notes on four…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
2) Highknights, but tweet length is making this WILDLY long, so let’s start with three. So here we go…
Halantha Bowdragon (CG hf T7/Ftr2), a young street urchin and former sneak-thief of Suzail, who came to the notice of Laspeera when she— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
3) was captured in an upper bedchamber of a noble’s city mansion with the aid of a hold person spell cast by Laspeera during a murder investigation (the starving-at-the-time Halantha wasn’t involved in the killing, but was opportunistically
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
4) visiting to thieve a lady’s evening snack while everyone was, Halantha thought, downstairs, involved in “the excitement”). Halantha was a raven-haired, dark-brown-skinned, butter-brown-eyed woman from Chondath who stood about four feet
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
5) tall and was as “thin as an eel.” Agile and an expert climber, she had sharp eyesight and hearing, and a shrewd mind, and spent her youth living by her wits on Suzail’s rooftops, after her ship-owning parents died of a shipborne fever
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
6) en route to Suzail. Although lawless and self-reliant by nature, she soon befriended Laspeera, and then adored and became fiercely loyal to her, willingly serving as a Crown spy and later a formal Highknight who often posed as a child
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
7) when “undercover.” Much of her career was spent spying in Cormyr and Sembia on behalf of the Crown of Cormyr.
Possessed of a great natural gift of personal balance, she was good at jumping, scaling buildings, and other aerial acrobatics,— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
8) including catching things without falling and landing on balconies or slowing her falls by means of downspouts and fastened-on exterior building ornaments, and became good with hurled knives, slung stones, and handy rocks. Alusair liked
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
9) to make use of her as a spy in the Royal Court (i.e. among Crown courtiers) and upon highborn and wealthy households, often as an assistant to legitimate tradesfolk like house painters, plasterers, roofers, carpenters, and deliverers
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
10) for bakers, butchers, and grocers.
Thalvur Handcastle (LN hm Ftr11) was the homely, tall, gangling son of a Purple Dragon veteran (mother; she rose to the rank of lionar, and was stationed in High Horn until wed, when she had seniority— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
11) enough to transfer to Suzail) and a Royal Court clerk (father), inheriting his height and build from his father. Thalvur was much bullied because of his looks, and became a shy, withdrawn man of few words, but he missed seeing and
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
12) hearing very little, and after impressing his father several times with his ability to recall writing seen at a glance when passing a desk without slowing, and scores of gems and other small items on display in a room he merely hastened
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
13) through, his father privately approached Mage Royal Caladnei and let her know of his son’s gift, in hopes of finding him a place at Court. Caladnei saw the lad’s potential utility in spying for the Crown, and he was covertly recruited
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
14) into the Highknights (via a process that tested his honesty, loyalty, and strengths and weaknesses, without revealing his father’s approach to the Mage Royal, or even her knowledge of his existence, to Thalvur). Thalvur impressed the
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
15) senior Highknights of the time as someone who kept secrets, was silent and humble and a perfect “hand of the Crown” (we might say “team player”), and so made a perfect assistant for many Highknights on missions (Thalvur was perfectly
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
16) content to stand watch or act as a rearguard, and never grew bored or restless, so he remained still and silent if need be, or “in role” if called on to pretend to be a merchant or delivery-hand, and stayed alert at all times).
These— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
17) qualities, and his performance—never screwing up, and often noticing things that proved very useful—very quickly made him a trusted Highknight, and his many, many deployments soon made him a senior Highknight. He had no personal life,
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
18) beyond a fascination with the map collections of the Palace and a delight in dropping by the kitchens to hear cooks and platter-maids banter and sass each other, and so, soon put in more “active time” than many Highknights years his
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
19) senior.
Varland Hornrel Luthgard was the bastard son of a young Hawklin nobleman, and a commoner mother distantly related to the now-extinct Cormyrean noble house of Tavernant. Darkly handsome, cat-graceful, arrogant, slender, and sharp— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
20) -tongued, he got into scrape after scrape growing up in Suzail with his “installed in upper rented rooms in Suzail for cuddling purposes” mother, until his father lost patience and forced him into a role we would call a “remittance man”
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
21)—so long as he stayed away from his mother and father, and told no one, ever, of his parentage, his father (Bracehelm Hawklin, the youngest-but-one of six brothers, so far from being the Hawklin heir) would pay him 20 gp/month (via a
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
22) particular innkeeper; Varland was to pay for a room one night a month, and receive his coins in person, privately, behind its locked doors) to live on. “Luthgard” was the surname Varland invented on the spot, once this arrangement
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
23) began.
Varland was vain, a dandy in his dress (preferring florid takes on current fashion), and liked to drink. He had a fondness for gambling, but knew he dared not partake due to his limited funds, and so instead cultivated wealthy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
24) and noble friendships, so he could attend feasts and revels as an invited guest. This meant he had to willingly engage in pranks and other shady-work that those he was seeking to make and keep the friendship of were “up to,” and got
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
25) into trouble from time to time thereby, earning him the suspicion of Suzail’s Purple Dragons, certain courtiers, and Highknight spies. The latter started covertly investigating him to make sure he wasn’t an agent for any foes of the
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
26) Crown, found nothing except that he was drifting and dissatisfied and so could become a potential danger, and noted the potential usefulness of the social network he was developing.
So they sent Jhantra Spurbright, a bored, elderly,— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
27) lonely noblewoman who was a personal friend of Queen Fee (and one of her Blades) to seduce Varland, and recruit him. It went very well, and the two, despite their great difference in ages, became genuinely fond of each other. Jhantra
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
28) became Varland’s confidante and mentor until her death, and was the making of him—she taught him patience and to bridle his temper, and showed him his worth and that he could win a (high) place in the world.
Without telling him what— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
29) was happening, various courtiers gave him personal secretive missions, for pay, in Crown service, to test his morals and loyalty to the Dragon Throne, the results pleased Jhantra, and Varland was quietly recruited into the Highknights,
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
30) but remained undercover. The Crown sold him a house in Suzail for a single silver coin (through intermediaries, of course, and sharing the price with no one), put him on the payroll, and let him go on being an idle friend to nobles
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
31) except when he regretfully had to go and “make money” by trading here, there, and everywhere (really, of course, he was going on missions as a Highknight). Varland remained a caustic, sarcastic wit and flirt throughout, developing a
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
32) a prodigious tolerance for drink and great quantities of fine food.
Whew; my tweeting fingers are getting weary, so that’s three Highknights done, and that’s also all for now. ;} Enjoy!
(And please let me know if any of these tweets don't reach you or arrive garbled…)— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018
That is amazing – more than I could have hoped for! Thank you so much for taking the time to provide this info! Just amazing! 😃
— jburdett (@BattleHammer167) September 30, 2018
It is truly impressive that you take the time to provide such detailed information, so quickly. I am moved by your generosity – thank you! It's my pleasure, sir! Have fun with them!
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2018