Sorry to bother you, but I (or rather, my drow wizard and her wife) have two questions. One: can the Changedance work both ways (could a female use it to turn into a male)? (1) Two: assuming the answer to one is yes, if someone shapechanged into a male mated with a female, would the union be able to produce offspring? (2)

— Dennis (@Dennis80884970) January 12, 2021

1)
Yes, Changedance works in both directions, so long as you perform it correctly (it’s not a straight reversal or “use it exactly the same way,” there are subtle differences in how one does it). So yes for female to male. 2)
Yes, the male is functional and can produce offspring, genetics unaltered, though the X-Ys might favour the chances for female offspring over male.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 12, 2021

is there a market in Toril for glass stuff? What kind of glass products are the most sought after? Stoppered/corked small glass bottles, for powders, oils, and drinkables.
Contents: spices, leaf herbs (e.g. bay leaves), perfumes, salves, powdered dyes, meal worms and composting worms/grubs, cleansers, alcohol, and cold broths used for seasoning and "walking meals."#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

Guldar
Patriarch: Lareskur Guldar, a haughty, hawk-nosed and flowing blond-haired man of cold looks, firm control of his voice and facial expression (a born actor) who likes to dominate any room, lording it over all others. The youngest of five brothers, it’s…2)
…widely (but incorrectly) rumored in Westgate that he covertly murdered his siblings to wind up the sole survivor and heir (the truth: two brothers murdered each other, a third was poisoned by a business partner he’d swindled, and disease killed the fourth).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

3)
Lareskur knows about his reputation and does nothing to quell the rumors, because he likes to be feared by the populace. The inheritor of great wealth, he does little to earn anything, devoting his time to playing at being an above-all-inferiors (which in his… 4)
…eyes, is everyone short of the gods and their archpriests) senior noble. He loves good food and drink, has a prodigious capacity for strong drink without succumbing to debilitating drunkenness, and likes to hunt.
Matriarch: Glazrathella Guldar, a former Urdo…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

5)
…who is even more of a sneering snob than her husband. Her striking blonde beauty and statuesque height would make her even more remarkable if she didn’t wear a perpetual sneer, and spend so much time being icily dismissive. She often doesn’t speak or directly… 6)
…look at individuals she deems servants or “common.” In private, she’s a passionate hedonist who takes many lovers from among the household staff and other nobles at revels, not because she doesn’t love Lareskur, but because her appetites would need seven or…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

7)
…eight Lareskurs to be satisfied. She eats very little, just takes “a taste” at every meal, and when not flirting or coupling, works in her studios (sculpting or working on cabinetry).
Heir: Harondro Guldar, a coarse-featured, raven-haired strongman who loves…
8)
…wrestling—and sculpting and carpentry. There’s nothing at all wrong with his brains, and he’s both cunning and very quick-witted, but he prefers to work with his hands to learning, reading, or paying any attention at all to matters of business, society, or…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

9)
…culture. Revels bore him unless he can wench or wrestle or roughhouse, and he’s been known to start brawls for entertainment. He thinks the family wealth will take care of itself, and that he can’t possibly spend enough of it to wind up poor once he inherits,…10)
…so why concern himself with it at all? If anything angers him, he searches Westgate for a worthy foe to beat to a pulp (often in a dockers’ tavern) and cuts loose.
Notable Rakes/Adventurers: none still living
The House of the Black Hawk is known to be very…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

11)
…rich, and to have a long heritage of equipping and sponsoring mercenary companies active in Chessenta, the Vilhon, Amn, and the Border Kingdoms. All of the current family also have personal sidelines in sculpting and in fine carpentry, with a reputation for… 12)
…building in artfully-concealed secret compartments, and selling their work via the most exclusive dealers to various Sword Coast nobles. House Guldar remains a major Westgate landlord, and owns a lot of farmland (worked by others) in Turmish. …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

13)
… They claim a large expanse of the Gulthmere Forest as a private hunting preserve, though its exclusivity tends to be honored only in their presence.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

@TheEdVerse Help me!
Recentrly I started Principes of Apocalypse and I wondering why 1491DR is called the "Year of the Scarlet Witch". Is there a lore-level motivation aside from the Avenger Age of Ultron link?

— Filippo Riccardo Baretta (@FB_Drakens) February 28, 2021

1)
Considering that year was named decades before any MCU movies were even planned, there’s no link. Steven Schend and I are both comics fans, but Wanda has never been part of the Realms. “Scarlet Witch” was a phrase in folklore long before Timely Comics gave way… 2)
…to Marvel (I'm oooolld).
The hidden lore reason behind Alaundo giving 1491 that name has yet to come to public attention, but it's up to the good folks at Wizards to reveal it. If I was a hinting man, I'd direct you to a realm that has "witches," and a nearby…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 28, 2021

3)
…realm that has a ruling class that dresses in scarlet. But as I'm not a hinting man, I won't. ;}#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 28, 2021

Why the lack of a “South Pole” continent for Toril? It would be below Zhakara but those maps show nothing. Also where is Toril’s prime meridian, since we already know where the equator officially is. Thank you! There's a landmass at the "South Pole," but those maps are NDA.
A Prime Meridian requires multiple realms to agree on not just the concept of longitude, but where to measure from (in real-world history, England and France long reckoned from "their own" meridians).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 25, 2020

1)
Thorsar
Patriarch: Palimond Thorsar, a handsome man who never smiles, but glares at the world from under heavy brows, his face set in a perpetual scowl. He drinks constantly from huge, ornate goblets without ever seeming the slightest bit tipsy, and never seems… 2)
…to concern himself with matters of earning coin. What does seem to consume nigh all of his waking energy is carrying on feuds (with the Athagdals and many, many wealthy merchants he judges have crossed him or failed to properly respect him in some way); he…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

)
…remembers every slight and is determined to pay all of them back fivefold, or more. Which he works at doing; as a result, he’s become—and seems to enjoy being—one of the most detested men in Westgate.
Matriarch: Thoumea (“THOO-may-uh”) Thorsar, a warm, … 4)
…affectionate hugger of a woman who seems determined to cuddle and kiss her way into softening her husband’s every rudeness. She isn’t wanton, but does like skin-on-skin contact and befriending anyone who’ll have her as a friend; many who would otherwise loathe..#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

5)
…House Thorsar are mollified and softened by her embraces and friendly converse, and wind up thinking that Palimond Thorsar is “impossible” to deal with, but the rest of the Thorsars are…tolerable. Thoumea is very shrewd and perceptive, and well-read besides, .. 6)
…not to mention benefitting from the reports of a small network of good, well-paid spies she’s developed over the years to look into everything unfolding in Westgate, but she takes care to act like a simple, direct person. She may know more about everyone in…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

7)
…Westgate, high and low, than anyone else—including the Night Masks; she just takes great care not to show it. She does, however, steer family investments and policies according to what she knows, so they tend to profit from just about every situation—nothing… 8)
…takes House Thorsar by surprise.
Heiress: Vuloushaea (“Vell-OO-shay=uh”) Thorsar is a taller, younger, slimmer version of her mother in looks, and admires her mother greatly. She also loathes her father almost as much, but takes care to always be polite to…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

9)
…him. She thinks feuds and holding grudges and trying to get even or more than even is utter life-wasting foolishness, and that one should live in the moment, and work towards satisfactions, and ignore all the misfortunes and times when others do you dirty as… 10)
…just part of life, the “tests of the gods upon us all.” Personally, she laments that she doesn’t seem to have the Gift for wielding the Art, so can never become a great wizard (or sorceress), so she’ll have to covertly acquire enough powerful magic items to… #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

11)
…have some magical power that way. She longs for the day when she can use magic to alter her appearance and stop being a Thorsar long enough to get things done for herself in Westgate, and to taste life and adventure beyond Westgate. Perhaps she could journey… 12)
…to fabled Waterdeep, and meet and marry one of its nobles, winning him as herself, and not as the Thorsar heiress.
Notable Rakes/Adventurers: Sarandra (“Sar-ANN-drah”) Thorsar, “Lady Bloodrake,” now semi-retired from her days as a sorceress-adventurer who… #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

13)
…earned her nickname slaying pirates of the Sea of Fallen Stars and seizing or sinking their ships, so as to stop them preying on Thorsar shipping. Sarandra has firm friends in most of the cities in Cormyr and Sembia from her adventuring days, and often rides… 15)
…the owner of two dancing longswords that she’s been known to use in battle at the same time, to even the odds when outnumbered. She’s also one of the few nobles of Westgate to go drinking in the worst taverns on occasion, to openly bed both men and women, … 14)
…to their aid; when not doing so, she lounges around the Thorsar mansion in Westgate, nettling her older brother Palimond (and quietly making amends for some of his rudenesses, behind his back, in a more practical and serious manner than Thoumea does). She’s…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

16)
…and even to enjoy watching the goings-on in festhalls.
House Thorsar first rose to wealth by importing small wares from the Sword Coast to the Sea of Fallen Stars, but long ago diversified into becoming a major investor in farming (in Turmish and the Vilhon)…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

17)
…so as to guarantee itself a plentiful supply of crops to ship to the Sword Coast on return journeys, and then gradually abandoned the shipping and importing, to focus on food-growing and foodstuff warehousing and preservation to feed Westgate, Cormyr, … 18)
…Sembia, and the Moonsea cities. Thorsar granaries remain vital in bad winters.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

Hey Ed. Since my digging hasn’t revealed much past 1375 DR, I thought I’d ask the Master Sage. Is there still an official process for joining the Harpers in the 1490s? And who, if any, are the active Senior/High Harpers on…..the Sword Coast in the 1490s?

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 26, 2020

1)
It’s never been “official” in the formal public ceremony sense. What usually happens is that the Harpers spy on likely candidates for some time, and if they think at the end of that time that someone is suitable (senior Harpers have a veto over this), a senior… 2)
…Harper will approach the candidate in private (usually trying to arrange circumstances where no one will observe the Harper approach or depart the meeting, so it’s often at night, wherever the candidate is sleeping, or returning from a privy) and ask them if…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 26, 2020

3)
…they’re interested. If they want time to think it over, any later approach will have the same privacy but the Harper will bring reinforcements, nearby but usually hidden, to deal with any ambushes. On acceptance, the candidate is given a Harper pin and a… 4)
…Harper mentor, who gives them their first mission, accompanies them on it (often spied on by another Harper), and answers any questions the candidate may have/renders them aid/becomes their once-a-tenday-or-a-month contact.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 26, 2020

Would the process be any different if the candidate was infamously competent and experienced, for instance Drizzt Do’Urden?No. It's still a one-on-one, in private (in front of
Guenhwyvar counts as private) ask, and there's still a mentor and a spy. How CLOSE a role a mentor plays is always up to the candidate.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 26, 2020

So it’s essentially about seeing the candidate’s performance first-hand and verifying its level of competence, regardless of their No, the competence of the candidate has been determined long before they're approached.
It's about their loyalty to the idea/aims of the Harpers, and helicoptering so as to swoop in and prevent their first Harper foray/mission being a fatal one for them.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 26, 2020