Something interesting I noticed — the symbol of the Queen of Air and Darkness is a black diamond. In 2e, 3e, and D&D Next Auril’s symbol was a snowflake on a black diamond. In 4e it was said Auril was the QoAaD. In 5e they’re separate, and Auril’s symbol is *just the snowflake*. An interesting vein to explore for any characters for whom Auril or the QoAaD are important, perhaps – especially if the QoAaD still claims to be Auril to retain worshippers on Toril.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it's an interesting notion. Any thoughts, @TheEdVerse?

— Three French Bens (@CineastBenRowe) February 14, 2020

1)
The deeds of gods are often mysteries to mortals, especially when overlaid by what priesthoods say (which is often propaganda/misdirection intended to make their deity seem important/vital).
In this case, I’d say this: “The QoAaD still claims to be Auril to…
#Realmslore 2)
…retain worshippers on Toril" is exactly what's happening. And Auril cooperates because it boosts her importance and therefore worship and therefore influence.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 14, 2020

In my game, Auril has staged a coup to oust and replace the QoAaD from the Unseelie Court as retribution for her prior impersonation. In a weird way, Auril now impersonates her… Turnabout is fair play!

But on Wednesday, all of that changes… Now, THAT'S a teaser.
On Wednesday, I shall sip tea late at night and await news. Or a conflagration, followed by Elminster shaking his head as he teleports into my pantry and opens the freezer for an ice cream bar.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 10, 2020

I haven’t even told you the half of it! My party revived KARSUS (yes, that Karsus), and he is potentially going to use his ultimate spell, Karsus’ Avatar to help the party defeat Auril and reinstate the QoAaD to the Unseelie Court. Livestreamed on Wednesday at 7:30 PM EST. Oh, dear. Bad things always happen whenever anyone revives Karsus.
He's insane, you see. Some of the gods are, too. The rest…aren't.
As for the Queen…well, no, Elminster doesn't want me to share that. He says it's a much better lesson for fools to find out for themselves.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 10, 2020

Any notes on specifics of the role Cespenar (from BG2: Throne of Bhaal) took under the still-living pre-ToT Bhaal? He describes himself as a butler and is an accomplished smith, but beyond that his actual role within Bhaal’s divine domain… …isn't really detailed AFAIK.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2020

1)
Cespenar was Bhaal’s quartermaster and armorer (making, repairing, and in some cases procuring from others armor for Bhaal’s guards and household; he also saw to metal tools, flatware, and pots and pans). Loyal to Bhaal and… 2)
…without personal ambitions; the perfect “strong, ready right hand.”#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2020

Does anyone know which realm Waukeen calls home? She’s true neutral, so is she in the Outlands? See the “Realm” section in Waukeen’s writeup on the FR wiki for Her succession of homes.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 22, 2020

See the “Realm” section in Waukeen’s writeup on the FR wiki for Her succession of homes.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 22, 2020

No, I don't know what the future holds. I watch as beings alive in the Realms live their lives, and so unfold history before me. It's a great show. :}

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 13, 2020

@TheEdVerse do you have any more details on the Westgate noble families around 1371-1372 DR? The Bleths and Cormaerils are already pretty well-detailed, but I haven't found much to differentiate a lot of the others beyond their heads and house symbols.

— Erika Muse, Ascendant (@icequeenerika) September 25, 2020

1)
Going to post one noble family at a time, as I get them done…
Athagdal
Patriarch: Haelder Athagdal, “The Wise Goblet” (middle-aged, handsome, an owner of many vineyards and a legendary wine cellar, and a wine connoisseur; a retired rake, has just ascended to… 2)
…running the family upon the death of his father; unmarried and is known to have three mistresses)
Matriarch: Shaeldratha Athagdal, “the Storm Rose,” a faded beauty who was famous for her temper and allure in her younger days, but has much mellowed; Haelder’s… #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

3)
…mother, she’s now a quiet backroom tactician who derives much personal entertainment from manipulating society in Estgate, and thwarting the plans and ambitions of rival nobles she dislikes (most of them)
Heir: Hardrammar Athagdal, a bluff playboy and “blade”… 4)
…who goes about with a bodyguard equipped heavily with healing potions after losing several duels (he’s about a third as good a swordsman as he thinks he is)
Notable Rakes/Adventurers: Ragdarven, Hardrammar’s smart, wily, and darkly handsome younger brother, a…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

5)
…schemer and crook involved in smuggling and drug running; Deskult, a scattered, sardonic, and playboy wastrel rogue uncle, who’s only kept in line by two watchful, disapproving, fashionplate (of an elder era) older sisters: Raethra and Hyldra 6)
House Athagdal is thought of as “grand old coin, dignified and patrician and cultured.” Firm of word, not crooked, but shrewd in business. Major local builders, landlords, and investors in businesses large and small, owners of much warehousing. Also, major…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

7)
…investments in Sembian port city warehouses and residential properties. 8)
Bleth
Patriarch: Antemnar Bleth, a fat, sulky, glowering man of grudges and great laziness, who believes the world owes him respect and unjustly ignores his high station. Newly come to the “throne of the House,” he sees himself as born into a great house that…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

9)
…didn’t deserve its exile and disgrace, as the Bleths knew the right road to true greatness and renewal for Cormyr, and were badly treated by ungrateful and envious Obarskyrs and rival noble houses. Antemnar knows some in Westgate call him “the Petulant Toad,”.. 10)
…and he wants everyone who does that maimed or slain painfully, until those who are left won’t DARE such insolence. As one longtime (and carefully anonymous) merchant of Westgate described him, “Antemnar Bleth is a large pudding of spite and bile who’d be…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

11)
…dangerous if he had any drive or practical knowledge of the world. As it is, he’s like a spoiled child, lashing out at everyone who offends him—which is most of us who don’t happen to be named Bleth.”
Matriarch: Haraklaera Bleth, Antemnar’s bitter, … 12)
…malicious aunt, a woman governed by her feuds and grudges. Disease recently took her elder brother and his wife, who ruled the family, to their graves, but Haraklaera “the Dagger” firmly believes rival houses had them assassinated, then poisoned with disease-#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

13)
… coated needles afterwards so the deaths could be passed of as the results of disease-sickness. And who were these rivals? She suspects every last noble house of Westgate and Cormyr, and most of the jumped-up, self-styled so-called “nobles” of Sembia, too.13)
… coated needles afterwards so the deaths could be passed of as the results of disease-sickness. And who were these rivals? She suspects every last noble house of Westgate and Cormyr, and most of the jumped-up, self-styled so-called “nobles” of Sembia, too. 14)
Caustic and eloquent, she glides through life clinging to the tattered remnants of her once-striking beauty, looking more and more like a cadaver as the disease ravaging her (the same one that claimed her kin, that she refuses to admit she has) makes her thinner..#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

15)
…more cadaverously gaunt by the day. Her hobby is strategy games, and she forces handsome male servants to play games with her every evening. If they are wise, they contrive to lose without being obvious about it, so she can triumphantly claim their kisses and.. 16)
…then send them away spurned.
Heir: Cronlundar Bleth, a handsome and muscular blond swordsman of great skill, who trains daily with the blade to remain a master swordsman and knife-catcher and -thrower. He loves “roistering” about the city with his gang of…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

17)
…of swashbuckling friends, and is slowly building a network of shady, get-rich-quick business contacts among the shippers and caravan merchants based in Westgate, receiving “carefree spending money” from them in return for being a distraction (by means of… 18)
…the vandalism and bullying swordplay of his gang) to cover some of their illicit local deeds. He sees himself as smarter than all of the surviving elder Bleths, and resented his now-dead father (who despised him for being a lazy, wastrel fool, and often said…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

19)
…so) and his mother, who treated him with contempt, as an “utter disappointment.” Other folk of Westgate see Cronlundar as about a twentieth as smart as he thinks he is (in other words, a full-of-himself dupe and fool).
Notable Rakes/Adventurers: Vlanadar Bleth, 20)
…a known pirate, smuggler, and thief-of-bulk-goods who comes and goes as he pleases, breaking into Bleth mansions late at night through windows and secret doors and passages he knows well, and otherwise having very little contact with his kin. He flits between..#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

21)
…various Sembian ports and Westgate (and, some say, Marsember in Cormyr) in the conduct of his unlawful business, is a sardonic jester and superb swordsman who has an outstanding mastery of balance and so can run along ropes stretched aloft and ship rigging… 22)
…without falling, can fearlessly leap from high places through windows or onto lower balconies and roofs, and has many lovers whom he charms with gifts, and uses as safe places to sleep for a night ere moving on. Vlanadar has managed to work with several…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

23)
…guilds, caravan costers, and the Red Wizards of Thay without double-crossing or earning the ire of any of them, and has profited handsomely thereby. It’s (correctly) rumored that he owns dozens of houses in Sembian ports that he rents out, and one that he… 24)
…keeps as a “safe house” haven to run to, and puts his profits into buying ever more real estate. He sees his kin as tiresome blunderers fettered by their bitterness, their grudges, and their sense of entitlement, and won't hesitate to frame them for his…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

25)
…own misdeeds.
The Bleths are widely known to be a “bad” noble family, justly exiled from Cormyr and stripped of their lands and titles there for treason—and apt to treat anyone who crosses them as a foe to be punished, and anyone who doesn’t fawn on them as.. 26)
…someone to be blamed or exploited. Widely (and rightly) rumored to be smugglers who deal in drugs and poisons, and who sponsor kidnappings and other “dirty tricks” (like arson) to settle scores or get their own way in many Sea of Fallen Star ports, the…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

27)
…Bleths make their open public coin as investors in caravans, urban redevelopments (tall luxury rental “many-mansions” in particular; the Torilian equivalent of five-floor condominium towers divided into a dozen or more units for the wealthy), and fine art…28)
…(huge paintings sold to nobility in Amn, Calimshan—where they’re behind a fad to purchase gilded pictures of dragons and other monsters—and the port cities around the Shining Sea). They also sponsor local coups in many small rural places that result in their…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

29)
…caravans receiving preferential local treatment, or them owning a controlling interest in strategic wayside inns and warehouses.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2020

Gregory Barrett @Wax_Da_Stache
Hello @TheEdVerse! I’m curious about the origin of the “Manyhanded Curse” reference directed at humans in the Realms. Can you elaborate on what it is and why the elves specifically coined it as a moniker for humans? Thank you!

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2020

1)
Elves refer to humans in this way because the sheer numbers of humans make them dangerous to the environment (overcutting or clearing forests, for example). So their deeds are the “curse,” and it is “manyhanded” because there are so many humans (kill thousands, … 2)
…there are still tens of thousands left) and because they may all be self-interested and therefore working at cross purposes (thus, “many hands”), but still prevail through the sheer weight of their numbers (for example, if some want to preserve a forest but…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2020

3)
…others want to clear it, and the two groups end up fighting over the forest, they may destroy the forest in their fighting).
Hence, to elves and many others, humans are “the Manyhanded Curse.”
(The TRUE manyhanded curse are actually the orcs, who so outbreed… 4)
…humans and everyone else that if unchecked by strife among themselves, the depredations of giants and dragons, and so on, they will end up ruling all of Faerûn sooner rather than later.)#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2020

Had forgotten about asking this, cheers! Has Cesp returned to Bhaal’s service post-Murder in Baldur’s Gate? Oh, yes. Never stopped keeping things running, though he did formulate some policy with Bhaal not on the scene.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 27, 2020

If they have, the truths haven’t become public knowledge, so they are still NDA.
Let me hint about just one:
Sentient minds may die, enter undeath, live anew, and die again, and may shift radically in sanity, scope, and views, but are rarely utterly destroyed.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 26, 2020

@TheEdVerse Dear Ed, are there tacos in Faerun, or something like them at least? If so, where would someone find them and what culture would they be in? Asking for my taco loving players.

— Leslie Courtney (@LeslieCourtne14) November 13, 2020

“Taco” is not a name known on Toril, but fried hardcrust roundbreads (what some real-worlders might call pitas, but fried crispy-hard) that have been stuffed with a hot cooked mix of minced-meat, spices, … 2)
…vegetables (diced and fried onions and/or potatoes, and/or Brussels sprouts, and/or asparagus, and/or leeks, and/or artichoke hearts, and/or radishes, and/or mushrooms) and sauces ARE known and devoured eagerly in many…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 13, 2020

3)
…eateries, especially in the Vilhon, the lands south of there to the Shaar and beyond (so, places like Innarlith and south to include Luiren and Var the Golden), and are slowly spreading along the trade routes in all… 4)
…directions, to Chessenta and eastern Tethyr and Amn, to Calimshan and the Lake of Steam cities, and to Scornubel. You can even order them in some inns and taverns (yes, they’re becoming “the new thing” in tavern fare) in…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 13, 2020

5)
…Secomber.
The meat tends to be whatever’s plentiful and cheap locally, from lamb to rabbit and all manner of small scurrying things, from “tree-cats” [squirrels] to rats, and the flavor profile varies from merely savory to… 6)
…hot-spiced; most establishments will ask “hot” or “warming” (= fiery or mild) when you order.
So, a folded-over, exposed-spilling-edge taco is a rare thing indeed, and cheese-drenched tacos are a special variant version…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 13, 2020

7)
…anywhere they can be had, but the same sort of ingredients in essentially the same combination (so, a flat, closed taco, which varies from a “handpie” in that it was never full of gravy, and its outer pastry is thin and fried… 8)
…crispy-hard) can now be had in many places.
What it’s called varies from place to place; along the Sword Coast it tends to be called a “fryhard,” in the Vilhon, a “crunchtart,” in the South, a “hotbite,” and along the…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 13, 2020

9)
…trade-routes, any of these three or even something else.
Elminster and the Seven all like “handfry pies” made with six or seven sorts of mushrooms, parsnips, leeks or spring onions (all diced), and strong cheeses (no meat). 10)
The shell of a Torilian taco, whatever it’s called, is often rather like cornbread in its composition. Or a crisp naan (and is sometimes made by “gluing” two round-tortilla-like discs together with cheese).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 13, 2020

My mouth watered a bit. I presume, Ed is a fine cook too!
Sadly, no. I'm a great kitchen assistant (food prep and dishes). I was raised by grandmas and maiden aunts who shooed menfolks out of the kitchen, then married a wonderful wife who did all the cooking. Now that she's 85 and bedridden, I am the "cook." Hahahaha (hideous laughter).

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 13, 2020

Yes, tacos are now Realms canon! Cardiologists take note! ;}

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 13, 2020