No, my skull flies around the room, so I had to swap out the candle for a lantern. Darned books kept catching fire and scaring the cat.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 24, 2020

Hi there. @TheEdVerse ! I’m wondering if there are any famous operas performed at theatres in the Realms?

— ErikWaddell (@WaddellErik) September 8, 2020

1)
Oh, yes. There are four really famous human operas that get performed many times and in many places across Faerûn, every year: The Lovelorn Knight, Alvaericknar, The War Of Three Castles, and Downdragon Harr. 2)
The Lovelorn Knight:
A knight falls in love with haughty woman after haughty woman who doesn’t love him. Sad and despondent, he is heartbroken when he discovers THE woman, only to discover she prefers the company of women, so…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

3)
…he goes to an evil sorcerer to be made into a woman so he can woo her. The magic works, the courtship succeeds, and they are happy together until the sorcerer tries to slay them both and steal their castle and riches; he… 4)
…succeeds, but as ghosts they defeat him, and continue their love match in the crumbling castle they now haunt.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

5)
Alvaericknar:
The merry misadventures of a rascal who outwits foe after foe, swindling them in the process, until he robs a lich who slays Alvaericknar. But the merry rogue has played a trick, and arranged that his horrible… 6)
…demise takes place in a spot of active enchantments, so he’s magically forced into undeath. As an undead, he goes right on being a swindling, fun-loving rascal, only now he doesn’t need food or drink or shelter.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

8)
The War Of Three Castles:
THE opera for those who love heavy, martial marches and triumphant horncalls and heroic deaths in battle, this saga concerns three warring kingdoms whose kings hate each other, and each decide to…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

9)
…obliterate their rivals and conquer their realms, no matter what the cost. Each hurls his warrior princes and princesses into battle, at the heads of the realms’ armies, and of course they fight each other, wound each other, … 10)
…plunge into the Underdark when the ground beneath them collapses, and there, amid the tombs of long-dead kings, they nurse each other back to health and fall in love with each other in so doing: two princes and one…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

11)
…princess, who can’t choose between the princes but is adamant that she shall have them both, equally, or neither. She prevails, and they decide to wed each other in a three-crowns union, even if their fathers execute them… 12)
…for it. Yet when they struggle back to the surface, fighting loathly worms to do so, they discover all three kings dead, the kingdoms laid waste by marauding monsters after their armies had annihilated each other, and the…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

13)
…few surviving peasants only too happy to have peace—in a new, united, three-crowns realm (where everyone seems to sing in melodious chorus). 14)
Downdragon Harr:
A princess, the only heir to a throne, is transformed into a dragon by a wicked sorceress who uses magic to transform herself, and take the place of the princess. Only to murder the king, and so succeed him as…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

15)
…a ruling, unwed queen. Her first royal decree is to command all knights of the realm to go forth and slay every dragon they can find (the dragons are all basso profundos). There is much slaughter of wyrms, but the knight who… 16)
…happens upon the transformed princess wields a magic sword, and as he gravely wounds her, it shatters the magic upon her, and she returns to her true form. They fall in love (in a famous duet, “Too Long Apart, United Now, …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

17)
…One Heart”) and the knight persuades Harr, the oldest, most powerful dragon of all, who has slept for the last century, to act as their steed as they fly to the royal castle to confront the queen. She sees their approach and… 18)
…uses mighty sorcery, that drains the life from most of her courtiers and all of her guards, to slay the dragon as it dives down on the castle—but in death, it slays her, crashing into the castle and crushing her to pulp…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

19)
…under its great bulk as it slides to a (dead) stop. (It sings in death, and so does the queen from somewhere under it.) The princess and the knight begin their happy rule, and wedded bliss, atop the carcass of the… 20)
…great dragon (right away, before it begins to stink).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

21)
…There are also half a dozen halfling comic operas (think bawdy Gilbert & Sullivan; dwarves and gnomes love these, too) that are constantly performed, with patter song lyrics altered to fit the locale and the latest news, all… 22)
…of them with utterly improbable plots involving mistaken identities, misunderstandings in bedchambers, executioners running about missing everyone who can sing with their axes, and hairy male singers who end up in feminine…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

23)
…lingerie. Their titles are Ravalar’s Roister In The Cloister; Yeomen, Bowmen, and The Taming Maiden; The Seven Drunken Swordswingers Of Silverymoon; The Haunted Bedpan; The Laughing Statue Of Beltragar; and… 24)
…The Night Six In-Use Beds Fell Into The Castle Moat.
Someday (I should live so long) I’ll write them all, and try to persuade @TheOperaGeek to star in them.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2020

Abeir, I know for the most part been purposely kept vague. Could you correct me on some things? Magic itself isn’t supported unless it’s innate (genasi abilities) or stored (magic items). Would psionics work there? I assume… …some form of ritual magic, (not tied to the weave) is possible for Gileam to make a deal with Graz'zt prior to being moved back to Toril) or would other magics not tied to the weave like mages from Krynn or Oerth be able to work there?
Abeir is on another plane correct? So…

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2020

…it’s not in Realmspace as far as a spelljaming ship could reach? Would a planeshift spell work to get you there? Any other planar or geological features to keep in mind? 1)
Yes, psionics work on Abeir. Psionics are innate abilities.
The Weave is a way of accessing the natural energies of Toril; it’s the conduit for what mortals call “arcane magic” (the sort practised by wizards). There are other…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2020

2)
…ways of working magic, alternatives to the Weave, and every one of them that isn’t innate could be described as a “ritual,” so, yes, forms of ritual magic are possible. Mages from Krynn or Oerth using arcane magic on Toril 3)
…are calling on the Weave, whether they realize it or not; on any other Prime Material Plane world, their spells are accessing the energies of the world through the local equivalent of the Weave, which means there’s a chance…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2020

4)
…that some spells will have different, unexpected effects. (The same applies to mages of Toril, casting spells on another world.) However, on Abeir, we know from observed events that even though Abeir’s arcane magic may not… 5)
…use something called the Weave, and Mystra may not hold sway or any influence there, spells for the most part function the same way.
Abeir is on another Prime Material Plane from Toril, and from time to time (the Sunderings)…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2020

6)
…the two worlds ‘pass through’ each other, with much physical landscape chaos, swapping of features, and other ‘weirdness.’ We also know that the two worlds are very much the same in terms of ‘normal’ conditions when apart… 7)
…(gravity, breathable air, and so on), so a being from one can live out their lives, functioning, on another. Yes, a plane shift spell would work, but if you the caster know nothing about Abeir except its name, you might well…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2020

9)
Abeir is in Realmspace, but in a ‘pocket dimension’ out of synchrony/synchronicity with the rest of Realmspace, which means that a spelljamming ship could never find it without someone on that ship knowing how, and having the…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2020

10)
…power/magical ability, to ‘shift the ship’ dimensionally, to reach Abeir. Elminster says this can be done, by magically temporarily altering a functioning spelljamming helm, but is dangerous to the operator of that helm, 11)
…and will draw a LOT of magical power (more than a typical spelljamming ship would customarily carry), likely requiring the permanent draining/destruction of several magic items.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2020

Welp no one told me! Lol I definitely made both wizard and warlock spells not function in Abeir in The Devil You Know.

— Erin M. Evans (@erinmevans) March 8, 2020

No, no! I did NOT say your spells work in Abeir without a hitch because they worked on Toril!
I said "spells for the most part function the same way" in Abeir; that is, beings of Abeir have their own arcane magic. (There are wizards and presumably warlocks on Abeir.)#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2020

Well, there are no infernal warlocks if TDYK is considered canon. There’s no connection between the Nine Hells and Abeir in that—otherwise the book’s pretty broken! Lol

Not saying I didn’t create a glitch, but that’s what’s there. Heh. TDYK is canon, so…no infernal warlocks.
Warlocks making pacts with primordials? Possibly, but that means they might differ from Torilian warlocks, or might not exist at all.
Closes can of worms, backs away… ;}#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2020

Since psionics is innate, does that mean it’s not dependant on the weave? I know that been a tricky question over some editions. I’ve always personally opted for the psionics are seperate That's right. Psionics is not dependent on the Weave.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 9, 2020

"Even Toril has other systems of magic (divine magic, for example)"

Wasn't it a point of contention during the Time of Troubles that Mystra was blocking the other God's access to magic? Wouldn't this mean Divine is just the Weave funneled through a god to their followers?

— A Voice for Truth (@TruthSalvo) March 9, 2020

1)
You recall the ToT correctly. Divine magic customarily uses the Weave as the conduit, because (like an existing real-world road system) it’s the fastest, easiest, most high-capacity way. But there are other ways (real-world web of railroads): place magic, table 2)
…magic, etc. that I put into Realmslore at the beginning. So Mystra stopped the other deities in their tracks by denying them Weave access TEMPORARILY. They all then had to activate their alternatives. Raging.
And Mystra paid for that.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 9, 2020

Would Shar’s “Shadow Weave” fall into this category, or is that, too, just an extension of Mystra’s Weave? The Shadow Weave is an alternative to the Weave crafted by Shar that literally rides atop the Weave; it is an echo of the Weave and can't survive without it. If you see the Weave as a bright conduit of energy, the Shadow Weave is a conductive coating around it.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 10, 2020