in Sardolphyn’s Gambit you mentioned other families of Waterdeep: Eskult, Yeldred and Tramnur. Can you please tell about them more? 1)
Sure. They’re all North Ward-resident families who have made their fortunes by “mixed mercantile means.” That is, they invest in some shops, rent out North Ward and Castle Ward buildings they own to other businesses (for…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

1)
Sure. They’re all North Ward-resident families who have made their fortunes by “mixed mercantile means.” That is, they invest in some shops, rent out North Ward and Castle Ward buildings they own to other businesses (for… 2)
…shops and offices, not “workshops”/factories, and not residential) to make coin, invest in ship cargoes, and run their own businesses.
I’ll tackle just the Eskults, this time.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

3)
The Eskults make bulk glue from dead horses, run a successful locksmithing service, buy local farm crops for bulk shipping to the Ten Towns, Mintarn, and other “hungry-mouth” areas, and breed fine riding horses. 4)
The Eskults live in three adjacent, knocked-together tallhouses on northfront Saerdoun Street, in the block between Whaelgond Way and Pony Way, and are led by Jaruldimond Eskult and his wife Laedra, who have three young, …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

5)
…dashing (“idiot” is the term Hammrar prefers; for more about Hammrar, see hereafter) sons: Cloome, Dacer, and Parladane.
Jaruldimond also has three younger brothers who are increasingly dissatisfied with his handling of the… 6)
…family finances, and (separately) looking to strike out on their own (if they can figure out some practical way of taking a good share of the family wealth with them; they haven’t yet).
There are also two old, dotty, …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

7)
…stay-at-home maiden aunts, Barathta and Joysa (who prefer to live in an older era), and a fat, jovial old rake of an uncle, Hammrar, who knows where all the family skeletons are hidden (and their closets, too), and who really… 8)
…keeps things running by soothing the three brothers (Jakazmur, Brandred, and Tolyn) privately, and cleaning up after the worst mistakes Jaruldimond makes. Hammrar is a sardonic heavy wine-drinker and scourge of local ladies, …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

9)
…who love his company because he’s fun, and never controlling, cruel, or judgmental. Jaruldimond is a stubborn sort who clings to old ways and avoids the new and changes; his wife Laedra embraces the changes that must be… 10)
…embraced and tries to steer her husband to modernize, without much success.
Laedra also tirelessly attends every last noble feast and revel she can worm her way into, and tries to “cultivate” all nobles who’re there, trying…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

11)
…to ingratiate herself and mention her family in hopes someone, anyone, will remember her the next morning and consider calling on the Eskults as “worldly helpers” when it comes to engaging guilded repairers or anyone else… 12)
…for anything practical. She sees this as the road to eventually being accepted as “one of us” by the nobles, so the Eskults can be ennobled. Hammrar sees this as idiocy; he (correctly) sees her tactic as the way to make…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

13)
…the nobles think of the Eskults as commoner doormats and syncophants who can be endlessly used and then kicked aside a moment later.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2020

I can’t be the only one to have shipped Drizzt and Alustriel, right? She was apparently into elves and Drizzt was some prime elf beef. No, you're not the only one.
I've even received long, er, detailed love scenes from fans, printed on scented paper.
Some shipping crowds harbors.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 2, 2020

tell us more about Sune adventuring clerics. Something about hierarchy and so on. I started to play as aasimar sune cleric and found lack of information disturbing. Thanks! 1)
The Realms sourcebook FAITHS AND PANTHEONS (particularly p66) details what Sune’s clergy must and should do, to combat vandalism and create, protect, and promote art and the creation of new things of beauty.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

2)
On a personal level, this usually manifests as a Sunite adventuring cleric acquiring beautiful icons, statuettes, jewelry, and other portable works of beautiful art, and gifting them to Sunite shrines and temples, and to folk… 3)
…(e.g. the rural poor, or street beggars) who lack such things (it’s just fine with Sunites if such a recipient then sells or barters or regifts the art). A Sunite cleric will want to dress in “dashing” (eyecatching and…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

4)
…flattering) outfits when adventuring, may make up doggerel or recite the apt verse of others, and may whistle, hum, or sing their own musical motif (the equivalent of the James Bond theme) during moments of heroics, action, … 5)
…or crucial decision-making. Speech should be elegant, movements stylish, gestures noble.
As for hierarchy, the Sunite church is one of the most decentralized and UN-authoritarian/rank-based clergies. Rank is based mostly on…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

6)
…artistic achievements, and secondarily on length of service/experience in the field, and lastly (especially for adventuring clerics, who may do dirty and dangerous work) on personal beauty and adornment. Senior clerics advise… 7)
…junior ones, and may assist them with artistic endeavours or carrying off stylish maneuvers.
In Faerûn in the 1490s DR, the Sunite clergy consist of (ranks, from the bottom up): Novices, Acolytes, Esthetes (= full confirmed- …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

8)
… -in-the-faith priests), Craefters of the Third Altar, Craefters of the Fourth Altar (and so on, up to Craefters of the Ninth Altar), Philocalist, Archphilocalist, Enrapturand, and High Enrapturand.
However, some temples… 9)
…cling to older rank naming conventions, and all Sunites prefer personally-achieved and held titles, such as “Creator of the Bronzen Rose of Scornubel” or “Patron of the Sixteen Striking Portraits of Athkatla.” #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

10)
Most adventuring Sunite clerics are Craefters of one rank (= character level) or another, who strive to earn a personal title—which MUST be bestowed by someone else NOT of their clergy (e.g. an adventuring… 11)
…companion or lay worshipper of Sune). This is a commandment of the goddess (who does not force any of her clergy to bear or use a bestowed title they don’t like, such as mocking or crude nicknames).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 8, 2020

Hi! Just a little question… when you described Shar in The Herald: “her darkness rolling down, down, reaching out with great dark tentacles…” Is there a specific reason for the word tentacles or was it just descriptive? Random question, I know 😅just curious One of Shar's spells, that focuses her dark power to attack, grasp, or manipulate things, does so in the form of tentacles. I was describing that particular magic (a favourite of hers) in action.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 10, 2020

1)
Ssemm
Patriarch: Tarkuld Ssemm, an aloof, stonefaced elderly man of few words, who avoids public displays of emotion as “common.” His family knows that when his emerald eyes blaze, he’s excited or has flown into a fury, but his face and voice will betray.. 2)
…nothing of any strong feelings. Calculating and practical, determined to turn a profit every waking day, he despises nobles who splash coin about, make grand gestures, indulge their eccentricities, or are needlessly cruel or “loud” in their words and deeds.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

3)
Restraint is the true mark of the cultured.
Matriarch: Valinethe (“VAL-ih-neth”) Ssemm, of wealthy but non-noble Sembian heritage, Tarkuld’s second wife (after the first died in childbirth), Valinethe is twenty summers younger than her husband. Petite, dark-haired, 4)
…and the owner of magnificent cheekbones and large storm-gray eyes that give her a truly strikingly beautiful face, Valinethe is graceful and quiet—but in a low, musical voice, does all the public talking for her husband that she can. Tarkuld dotes on her, but…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

5)
…only in private. In public, they might be two statues allied to each other, not two humans fond of each other.
Heir: Raldinor Ssemm, the only child of Tarkuld and Valinethe, a sulky, spoiled, handsome young man who looks very like his mother, but twice as tall.. 6)
…and male. He collects models (miniatures) of ships and castles and wizards and warriors, the more exquisitely sculpted the better, and has just discovered girls—and how. Nightly he visits the festhalls of Westgate, or has the most acrobatic escorts brought by..#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

7)
…coach to the back gate of the Ssemm mansion and hustled up to his rooms (on the way, they are usually briefly intercepted by his father, who quietly tells them what horrible death of slow maiming they will experience if they harm his son in any way, or steal… 8)
…anything). And he’s trying orgies with dozens of participants, sex with shapeshifters, sex while affected by fly spells, and anything else he can think of or find. While his parents pretend not to notice, so far as he is concerned, and hope he’ll soon move on…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

9)
…to less dangerous entertainments, and choose some regular partners.
Notable Rakes/Adventurers: Kordravvam Ssemm, a broken-nosed but otherwise strikingly handsome, debonair, lithe and athletic master swordsman who always dresses in black leather. He wenches… 10)
…and drinks his way through life with many a merry jest, spurning Tarkuld’s company but visiting Raldinor to give him gifts—and ideas his father frowns upon—and Valinethe to flirt with her (she indulges him, but firmly resists him if she thinks Tarkuld will…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

11)
…discover them). His adventures, which include dabblings in piracy and smuggling, take him all around the Sea of Fallen Stars ports, and on rare occasions into the Moonsea, or inland into Sembia and the Dales, and he long ago bought houses in many places to… 12)
…be his various havens, and sponsored a small gang of brigands to live in them when he’s not there and carry on various quite legal activities as cover for their lawless ones. He did this with the wealth he made adventuring, that has made him not quite as rich..#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

13)
…as the entire rest of the Ssemm family, so he has no interest in sponging off his kin, or abandoning his happy-go-lucky life of derring-do, unless or until age and ill-health force him to settle down. (When that happens, he has plans to woo a suitable… 14)
…Cormyrean noble heiress and become a “rich old bad nobleman” of the Realm of the Purple Dragon.)
House Ssemm have a reputation in Westgate of having a sinister past, and connections to yuan-ti (based on nothing more than the hissing pronunciation of their…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

15)
…surname). They are said (baselessly, nowadays, though it was once true for just two family members, operating independently of their kin) to be involved in slavery. What they truly are is hard bargainers who keep to details of contracts and pacts (and so are… 16)
…trusted in Sembia and the Vilhon, with the result that gangs of Ssemm-hired workers are always employed there), and are heavily invested in shipbuilding and local repairs (roofing, roof-tile-making, plumbing) in Westgate.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 1, 2020

Hi Ed! In a city like Waterdeep, who is responsible for the *ahem* horse deposits around the city? I is there public works for that? Is the rider or owner expected to? Does it matter in which ward it occurs? The Dungsweepers' Guild takes care of that in Waterdeep (detailed in the 2e CITY OF SPLENDORS boxed set, and covered more briefly in several other sources). There are similar organizations in other cities (there's a Suzail nightsoil wagon scene in one of my novels). #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 25, 2020