Matthew Dawkins @PDXCon2019 @clackclickbang@TheEdVerse
The characters in my Thayvian campaign have fallen afoul of a recurring enemy, in the form of a Talassan! Our questions for you are: 1.) Could you detail any historic zulkirs who once held Talos as their favoured deity?…— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
Okay, here’s an answer to Question 1. My reply will be in three parts because of Twitter’s wordcount limits. 2)
Haradran Baranthar, the Founding Zulkir of Evocation (1030 DR – 1052 DR), was a coldly ruthless, heavy-set man, bald and a masterful actor (in complete control of his face, voice, and body language at all times), who loved…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
…rich food and good wine, and loved dabbling in local politics in small ways all over Faerûn EXCEPT in Thay, just for the fun of it. He wore simple maroon or claret-hued robes and sandals, dismissed scents and jewelry and… 4)
…fashion as “fripperies for the weak-minded and easily distracted,” and took care to shrewdly judge his fellow zulkirs, so as never to be caught by surprise.
He became fabulously rich by manipulating Sembian traders into…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
5)
…investing in Sembian urban properties and businesses on his behalf, and indulged Talos by working on weather magic to ravage Chessenta repeatedly. “Baeranth” was feared and respected on the Council of Zulkirs, as he…
6)
…suffered no fools gladly, could be blunt in his critiques, and revealed by what he did say that he was thinking many steps ahead and watching and judging events all over Toril. He was most interested in building Thay into an…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
7)
…agriculturally self-sufficient, verdant land where innovation on the part of all inhabitants, of low or high station, would be rewarded—and exploited by the society. He was disgusted by fellow zulkirs who used their magical 8)
…might to tyrannize or in any way needlessly assert authority, believing that such behaviour should be reserved for emergencies when the realm was threatened.
He was destroyed in 1052 when a huge storm he was magically building…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
…over the Wizards’ Reach, intending to send it across the Inner Sea to Threskel and Chessenta (in part to damage crops and property, to keep those realms “behind” Thay in development and too busy rebuilding to even think of…#Realmslore 10)
…challenging the Realm of the Red Wizards), turned on him and tore him apart; he was “scattered in a red mist of blood and innards” by its winds. The storm didn’t get away from him, though that was the fiction put about to…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
…cover up his murder, but was altered by three of his foes on Council, aiding an ambitious evoker who sought his Council seat: the nasal, weasel-faced Zaeruth Vreel (Zulkir of Evocation 1052 DR – 1058 DR), who was not a 12)
…Talassan, but was so conniving and treacherous that he became the first zulkir to be exterminated by the rest of the Council, acting in concert at a Council meeting. They gave Vreel to understand they were about to reward…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
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…him, and when he stood forth to receive their praise, they all let fly with magic; their spells utterly destroyed him on the spot, reducing him to whirling, blazing bones in one breath, and sparks and ash the next.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
The next Talassan to hold a zulkirate was Lanavrar Onthrul (Zulkir of Evocation 1117 DR – 1126 DR), a young, handsome, urbane seducer of men and women all over Toril except Thay. Lanavrar made friends easily, lovers more 2)
…easily still, and learned much of local society and politics all over the Realms, quietly involving himself in wizards’ cabals and guilds in many places and gaining magic by quietly murdering and seizing the magic of wizards…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
he deemed to be “worthless”—that is, those who used their magic to be petty local tyrants, coercing or blackmailing or bullying others into obedience. Lanavrar was among the first zulkirs to “disappear” aboard, destroyed 4)
…by the spells of six wizards he’d made enemies of, assembled and sponsored by an outraged husband he’d cuckolded, in Tethyr. One of them kept his skull as a trophy, and it’s rumored to have survived to this day—as part of…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
5)
…a “feast bowl” (punch bowl) used at family feasts. Lanavrar is also rumored to have left rich treasure hidden all over Faerûn, in small amounts.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
The third Talassan to be the Zulkir of Evocation was Shalarkra Rhandalaer (Zulkir of Evocation 1166 DR – 1182 DR). She was a short, slender, dark-haired, vivacious woman with piercing dark brown eyes set under severe black 2)
…brows. Quiet of voice and movement, she had a knack of drifting onscene unnoticed, and “fading away” in the same manner. She held to simple tastes in food, fashion, and abode (few furnishings in a handful of rooms, with no…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
…servants but a halfling family of cooks and launderers), and devoted herself to Council politics—that is, meeting often with fellow zulkirs to work quiet diplomacy, intended to weld the Council into a unified group whose 4)
…disputes could remain professional, who respected each other, and who could act swiftly and decisively in accord, on behalf of Thay. She sought to do this without in any way dominating Council or trying to promote her agenda…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
or policies, and for the most part her fellow zulkirs welcomed her work and cooperated, so that during her time, the Council did act together and more or less saw Thay and its future in the same way. Had she lived, Thay might 6)
…have been far greater, far faster, but she perished of a wasting disease of the lungs contracted from a menagerie of caged monsters seized from a Chessentan “lord” whose lands she seized after he got so into debt to Thayan…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
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…merchants that he stopped all repayments to them. It’s long been rumored that Thayan wizards in exile, opposed to the rule of the Council, cast spells on the disease-ridden Rhandalaer to make her helpless and sap her vitality 8)
…so she couldn’t withstand the ravages of the disease. It was definitely some sort of magic that animated her dying self into a wild-eyed lunatic who stalked the living and tried to eat them alive, so that they struck her down…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
in fear. And then took her helpless body to a smokehouse and stoked its fires to cremate her alive. Her last act was to call a storm that lashed that Chessentan village with rain and lightning and earth-tremors for a solid 0)
…month after her passing.
So endeth my answer to Question 1. Answers to Qs 2 and 3 are coming, perhaps late tonight, or perhaps tomorrow. We’ll see. :}#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 8, 2019
2)
1)
Whoops! Sorry to you and everyone! I misread the date in my faint pencil notes. Haradran Baranthar was NOT the Founding Zulkir of Evocation, but Dlueae Sharshyndree’s successor when she died in battle in 1040 DR. So Haradran become Zulkir in 1040, not 1030 (and no, they weren’t the same person).#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 9, 2019
