Every temple, and most guilds (for members, and the children of members). The wealthy (most nobles) hire private tutors.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 2, 2022

@TheEdVerse what do i have to read to set my campaign in the forgotten realms scenario of 5e?

— Otto Varga (@seo_otto) April 25, 2022

1)
That depends on where in the Realms you want most play to unfold, and if you want to use the official published adventures or not.
The SWORD COAST ADVENTURER’S GUIDE is the only 5e “overview sourcebook,” but the official adventures cover specific areas very well. 2)
For instance, STORM KING'S THUNDER covers the Sword Coast North, ICEWIND DALE: RIME OF THE FROSTMAIDEN covers Icewind Dale, WATERDEEP: DRAGON HEIST does Waterdeep, and so on.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 25, 2022

3)
If you want to get away from the Sword Coast, Alex Kammer and I did a(n official) BORDER KINGDOMS book, and Alex, Alan Patrick, and I did a Thay book.
Other resources, like the Amarune’s Almanac series at DM’s Guild or ED GREENWOOD PRESENTS ELMINSTER’S FORGOTTEN…
#Realmslore 4)
…REALMS (I don't title these things!) are very useful for campaigns but not as 5e specific. (Some cities haven't been covered since my 2e FORGOTTEN REALMS ADVENTURES hardcover sourcebook.)#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 25, 2022

So is the best setting for a large campaign before the events of the magic plague(4e)? And thanks for the reply! If you want lots of lore to draw on, pre-Spellplague (before the end of Tarsakh in 1385 DR: 3.5e, 3e, 2e, and 1e) has far greater lore coverage over more of Toril than later.
If you want more of a free hand to "fill in the blanks" yourself, 4e. Whereas 5e is painting in the gaps.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 26, 2022

Re: Mirt as a Masked Lord
Everybody *knows* he’s a Masked Lord, right? Not tabloid speculation, but legitimately knows because he doesn’t care to keep it secret, right? That's right. In the mid-1300s DR, ere he got magically trapped (and vanished from circulation for more than a century), everyone knew Mirt was a Lord, because he attended and voted unmasked and spoke openly. So folk took complains and suggestions to him.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 4, 2022

I keep digging into Suzail and keep not finding things. Like Blackshield apartments (Court residence) on several maps but nothing else. Does this mean guests and dignitaries stay there? Court clerks? so many questions @TheEdVerse #Cormyr #ForgottenRealms #Dnd Visiting royals, nobles, and special envoys (highest-ranking clergy & diplomats) stay in special Palace suites. Lower-ranking visitors stay in ground-floor (& floor above) rooms in "Blackshields."
Court clerks are given rooms there for their duration of their service.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 29, 2022

This sounds like a big apartment complex! Do they offer any sort of amenities to the guests? room service? companionship? gym and pool? It is a big complex (4 floors of suites & an attic of servants' chambers and workshops, as well as a full cellar). There are heated baths at the rear of the ground floor, and a guest lounge with (what we would call serve-yourself-buffet) food and drink at all hours.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 29, 2022

Why is Faerun called The Forgotten Realms?

I’ve been running games in your world for over thirty years and never thought to ask that until today. Our real world has many legends of dragons, wyverns, etc. but we don't see them in the streets. Because we've "forgotten" the gates (portals) linking Earth with Toril and many other "worlds." So Toril is "the Forgotten Realms."
(Faerûn is the continent we most know.)#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 13, 2022

@TheEdVerse Hail, Goodman Greenwood!

'Tis Election Tuesday (no, not a holiday) here in the USA, and I think we'd all love to learn something about popular electoral systems of the Realms. What are some offices elected 'by the people'? How does the system work?

Cheers!

— Brian Johnson (@JohBri) November 9, 2022

Hi! Really busy with design work tonight, but let me say a few words about local elections for “village lord” (mayor) and harbormasters (in ports) in Amn and Tethyr. In the smaller places where they are elected, as opposed to appointed (in the larger places, it’s… 2)
…often a “reward posting” for investors handed out by local nobles or wealthy and powerful locals).
Voters in such elections are stakeholders: property owners in a settlement, or owners of docks and warehouses and shipyards in ports. They go before a local…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 9, 2022

4)
…local resident can stand), and for each vote, a pebble is put into a jar labeled for that candidate, and all jars are safeguarded by the herald and the clergy (often in a secure structure to minimize tampering). When the election time is deemed over (it may… 5)
…be as long as a tenday, but by local custom is usually three or four days, dawn to dusk), the pebbles are counted by the herald and all clergy in unison, and the high total wins. If there’s any dispute or anomaly (more pebbles than local voters, for…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 9, 2022

6)
…example), a new election is held, but any incumbent running again does NOT stay in office until it’s done; rather, clergy step in to serve.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 9, 2022

@TheEdVerse @ChrisPerkinsDnD
I saw a question about the size of Waterdeep. Answers had different lengths x widths for the City of Splendors. What would you say was the size of Waterdeep as of 5e?
So far the sizes are ~3.8×1.5 miles & ~1.63x.643 miles. Thank you in advance.

— Rob Rowe (@twitcher1979) May 28, 2022

1)
Waterdeep has grown in both population (density) and surface area covered, over the time of the published Realms (mid-1300s DR to kissing 1500 DR).
In the 5e era (1490s DR), Waterdeep is just under 4.5 miles north-south… 2)
…(using as boundaries the “ring” patrol path below/outside the outermost walls, which marks the limits of normal bowshot, not the limits of city patrols, which extend for a day’s ride in all dry directions), and just over…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 28, 2022

3)
…1.8 miles west (low tide mark outside the Seacaves) to east (the gravel-filled trench that we modern real-worlders might call a “French drain” on the eastern edge of the Meadows, that marks the area caravans cannot camp 4)
…within, as it must be left free for foot and wagon traffic along the eastern edge of Undercliff).
The city’s walled-plus-eastern-cliffedge area is smaller, but don’t be misled by dimensions of Ahghairon’s Dragon Ward, which…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 28, 2022

5)
…was crafted in an earlier era when the inhabited (as opposed to warehouse and caravan-camping area) of the Deep was much smaller, and was only intended to protect the major core area against aerial dragon flyover, breath… 6)
…weapon, and “stoop-pounce” attacks. The Ward has been renewed and tinkered with many times since, but its core “dome” shape can’t be extended or distorted markedly without sacrificing the stability of the entire magic.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 28, 2022

Ted Imperius @Xjandinast@TheEdVerse
any news on Daurgothoth?

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 26, 2020

1)
Certainly, but known only to the Chosen, Mystra and Azuth, me, and now you, not the wider Realms! The Creeping Doom’s tireless explorations of all manner of magic enabled him to easily survive the Spellplague intact by… 2)
…using magic NOT of the Weave to take himself into an extra-dimensional pocket of his creation and riding out the chaos (as a dracolich, he doesn’t need to eat or breathe, and patience he already had, in spades). When things…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 26, 2020

3)
…had settled down, he returned to Dolblunde and set about rebuilding his plaything: the Cult of the Dragon.
He still intends to use the Cult to destroy the Zhentarim, the Red Wizards, the Arcane Brotherhood, and every other…
#Realmslore 4)
…group along his way to becoming the most powerful creature on Toril, and to found his race of living dracoliches (who, of course, will all serve him).
However, right now he’s busy manipulating merchants and adventurers into…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 26, 2020

@TheEdVerse What is a “living dracolich” in concept? What would that entail if he is able to complete that? That they have all the benefits of undeath but aren’t undead anylonger?

And do Dracoliches need to eat souls like liches? It doesn’t *state* they have to, unlike lichesDaurgothoth envisages dragons who still live, but have the undead abilities of dracoliches (and no need to eat), but are bound to him (they MUST obey him). Azuth has told the Chosen this is impossible; attempts to craft them will fail.
No dracolich needs to eat souls.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 29, 2022