@JeremyECrawford Hi, hope the beautiful and hot weather we're having is treating you nicely 🙂 I had a question about literacy rates in Faerun. Which I guess is not rules but I'd love some advice 🙂 What percentage of people are literate in Waterdeep vs a small town?

— Joseph Rainwater (@JosephRainwate2) May 28, 2020

Did a GenCon panel on this over 20 years ago!
Waterdeep is a crossroads trading city with a stable, longterm nobility, wealthy successful merchant class, and guilds who run apprenticeships.
Population at any given time is about 20 percent visiting sailors & caravan…#Realmslore2)
…outriders (3/4 illiterate), another 20 percent laborers who are 1/3 illiterate, and all the rest of the Waterdeep's populace can read and write at a basic level, or better. So: 21% struggle with the written word, another 20% get along fine, and the rest read…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 29, 2020

3)
…and write often and for pleasure.
Small rural thorps and hamlets may be very different. If not on a trade-road, they may be 90% illiterate, clergy being the main exceptions. On a trade-road, it's usually closer under 70% illiterate.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 29, 2020

Ciao Grande Saggio @TheEdVerse, does the Kingdom of Delmyr still exist in the current era? Who is the King? Is the Kingdom always populated by halfling Baronies? Thank you

— R Collotto (@RCollotto) January 22, 2020

1)
Yes, the kingdom of Delmyr still exists, though in the Spellplague and Sundering it lost two kings, Joroelner Gleddyn and his son Mendaer (and three Gleddyn brothers and their mother, ending the Gleddyn line) in the tumult; 2)
…monsters from Abeir overran the kingdom and were defeated only after decades of hard fighting (as some of those monsters were dragons who chose caverns in the Glittering Spires as ideal places to lair).
Delmyr is currently…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 22, 2020

3)
…ruled by Queen Alsarra Ambrutter, second of her line (she succeeded her older brother Jhaland, who perished slaying the red dragon Alamrauthur), and she is tirelessly rebuilding the realm (better roads and bridges, crown… 4)
…assistance in sewing and reaping crops, tending wild growth to yield more wild herbs and medicines and foodstuffs in the future). Initially derided and resisted by the baronial families, who all still exist and cling to their…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 22, 2020

5)
…power, she has won them all over into staunch support, because all can see she is bettering the lives of all and improving Delmyr.
However, a shadow is rising beneath Delmyr: someone (drow? Illithids? Elminster believes the 6)
…latter) is behind mustering monsters of the Underdark and driving them upwards through the caverns and passages of the Glittering Spires. They have almost eradicated the gnomes, and the supplies of weapons, tools, and wire…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 22, 2020

7)
…the Delmyrans traded for have dwindled to nothing. Monsters of the Underdark are frequently raiding the hin surface realm now, and if the kingdom doesn’t arm and effectively resist, the hin may soon follow the gnomes into 8)
…near-extinction.
The veteran warrior Darthyn Belrowhin leads Delmyr’s too-small army, the Defenders (really a handful of soldiers leading a motley militia).
To make coin for hiring adventurers and mercenaries, Delmyr has begun…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 22, 2020

9)
…to trade harlanthra, its nutty, green-hued mushroom cheese, with farfaring human merchants and peddlers. Prized handwheels of this superb edible now grace the tables of nobility, royalty, and the wealthy in Impiltur, 10)
…Cormyr, and Sembia. Yet most humans in the Heartlands and Sword Coast still don’t know where Delmyr is, or even what it is.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 22, 2020

@TheEdVerse in the Realms are bottled milk and beer served in ten packs due to the ten day?

— Dave Clark (@bedirthan) May 20, 2020

1)
No. ;}
Milk and beer are transported by the cask (big) or keg (the “barrel” you’re used to) or handkeg (small, rope handles both ends or in a net around it, for easy handling), and only poured out of these into flasks for serving. Some large city establishments. 2)
…(large inns, big taverns, clubs, guildhalls) have tuns (GIANT casks, that never move, rest in cradles, and have spigots) in their cellars that are filled from incoming casks.
Milk and beer are usually poured out of such storage containers into glass flasks or…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 20, 2020

3)
…stoppered decanters only for serving. Only the high-volume establishments listed above would bottle them, and it’s a matter of funnel-pouring into bottles (the funnel being topped up before uncapping, and pre-sized to hold a “bottle-full”), then the filled. 4)
…bottles corked and either chilled or later serving, or taken straight to table, depending on what liquid's inside and how particular patrons prefer the temperature of their quaff.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 20, 2020

5)
Some places (like a real-world British off-license, back in the day) may fill a jug or ewer brought by patrons to a side-window, and a few will sell a bottle of beer (not expecting to ever get the bottle back, so priced accordingly), but no one sells “packs” of 6)
…beer, cider, or anything else. Many places sell a handkeg of ale (ranging from about 8 US gallons, so a very rough equivalent to half of a modern real-world "pony keg" or "quarter barrel," up to a whole one) and the cost is typically 1 gp (2 sp for the keg, …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 20, 2020

7)
…so refunded upon return).
Which doesn't mean your characters couldn't start a fad of assembling and selling packs…which just might catch on!#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 20, 2020

Most taverns and eateries have an ice-cellar. (Lots of blocks of ice. Purchased from ice-sellers. In summer, Auril clergy make LOTS of coin selling ice they've made.)#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 21, 2020

This got me thinking as I’m from the #pnw. 😁 What about #growlers for the refined local noble or others with the appropriate cellars/icecaves? I could envision this in some of the #Realms larger cities. #Realmslore #DnD #taverns In the Realms, handkegs stand in for the far more breakable growlers (which we have across Canada, too; nigh all craft breweries use them, as does any buyer wanting more than "a beer" to serve to friends). FR nobles gets their own full-keg delivery (servants decant).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 21, 2020

@JeremyECrawford @TheEdVerse

Can I understand it as:There is only one Weave in the multiverse,and wizards of the Toril named the only Weave Mystra?Or it is:The different worlds have different Weavemasters,and they rule the Weave of their own worlds?

— 水銀の蛇 (@Mercurius_c) March 9, 2020

1)
I’d put it another way:
Toril and all other worlds have multiple ways of accessing the energies of each world. And usually call the non-mechanical, non-engineering ways of accessing those energies “magic.”
ONE of the ways on Toril is arcane magic (in D&D, wizard 2)
…and sorcerer spells), and those who have the Gift (ability to wield arcane magic, which they call the Art) or study arcane magic (sages) refer to their way of accessing the energies as "the Weave." The Weave IS Mystra, the goddess of magic, and the Weave only…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 9, 2020

3)
…extends throughout Realmspace (Toril and moons and the void/heavens around them). Other worlds have other ways of accessing energies, and may have their own equivalents of the Weave (not identical, and not governed by Mystra) or may not. Abeir likely has an.. 4)
…equivalent, because it's the sister world of Toril, so similar and even sometimes (the Sunderings) contiguous with Toril, so that elements of the two worlds get swapped, but Weave-based spells don't work on Abeir; but innate spellcasting abilities do. I.e. the..#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 9, 2020

5)
…world energies are similar enough that magical effects can be near-duplicated, but not how they’re brought about.
So in theory, a powerful archwizard from Toril would have to start all over learning how to work magic on Abeir, and if no developed system o 6)
…working arcane magic, they may never hit upon how to create magical effects on Abeir, or may spend the rest of their lives experimenting and making very little headway.
In theory, all worlds MIGHT have their own Weaves (under various names) and their own gods…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 9, 2020

Whoops, a word is missing from #6 in my reply:
"working arcane magic EXISTS, they"
Sorry.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 9, 2020

7)
…of magic, or not. “Weavemasters” is a term I coined back in the 1990s for anyone who’d mastered the Weave (understanding its workings enough to not need the trappings of arcane magic like material, somatic, and verbal components), so they could work magic by.. 8)
…silent act of will, rather than conventional casting. Accomplished, experienced Weavemasters (like most of the Chosen of Mystra) can think of what they want to do, then mentally call on the Weave to do it. So they can work magic when tied up, gagged, and so…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 9, 2020

9)
…on, when traditional casters would be rendered helpless. They control the Weave only so much as they call upon it, and so are not the same as a deity of magic who is the Weave (e.g. Mystra) or who governs the Weave.
So Mystra IS the Weave within Realmspace 10)
…only, and is greater than a Weavemaster. Other worlds have other systems of magic, and even Toril has other systems of magic (divine magic, for example). Most other systems of magic use the Weave for convenience, but need not do so (travel from real-world…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 9, 2020

11)
…place to real-world place is easier using the existing road system, but could be accomplished, in many cases, by not using the existing road system).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 9, 2020

Master Greenwood, how is the greatness or power of spells classified in Realms (or in D&D in general)? I’m talking about spells level and slots. The same as D&D rules, 0-9 spell level (plus 10th +) or exist a Realms classification?… How do spellcasters refer to this?

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 18, 2020

Most sages and mages in the Realms use the terms and classifications seen in the PHB, expressed thus: “cantrips” and then spells “of the first” (1st level), “of the second” (2nd level) and so on.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 18, 2020