, I hope you’re having a wonderful day. I have a question I wonder if you could answer. Does Elminster, Laeral, Mirt, Volo or Durnan have any secret tattoos or remarkable scars that one could possibly use to identify them? Thank you…1)
Elminster is weathered and wrinkled all over, and has lines of scarring up the outside of both of his pectorals that climb over his shoulders, where long ago his arms were torn off (at different times), but he’s such a wreck…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 23, 2021

2)
…that they don’t “stand out.” Someone has to look closely at him in good light to notice the lines in the midst of everything else.
None of the five have any large and distinctive tattoos (Mirt has some, on insides of elbows, … 3)
…armpits, and below the bulge of his belly, that store magic, but they were made to blend in to his skin, not stand out, so they usually have to be pointed out to someone, but be noticed at all). Laeral and Volo are remarkably…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 23, 2021

4)
…unscarred and unweathered, due to repeated skillful magical healing, but the hips, chest, back, and biceps of Durnan are crisscrossed with old sword-wound scars that are clearly visible ridges (puckers) but which aren’t a… 5)
…different hue than the surrounding skin. There are a lot of them (sixteen or more), and they don’t form any distinctive pattern. Many of them DO cross over each other.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 23, 2021

Saludos Ed! Wanted to ask you: Is there an iconic fictional holiday character in the Forgotten Realms? kinda like the equivalent of Santa or the Easter Bunny?
Thanks!There are many. The Reaper who stalks on Deadwinter Day, the Maiden who dances at Greengrass, seeds sprouting wherever her bare feet touch, and so on, including many local "folk figures" (and they DO appear; they're all place-spirits).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 3, 2021

If there were ever a request for “MORE”, Ed, this would be mine) (not so much ‘holiday character’ but more ‘many’ and ‘local’ and ‘place-spirit’) 😊 Heh. I'll get back to you when I can, but life is super-crazy-busy right now (family visiting, day job, medical, a Kickstarter, 3 urgent design assignments, seasonal festive obligations locally, teaching, etc. etc.). So hang in there, and I'll share more lore in ye FullnessOfTyme

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 5, 2021

Jon Forel @Jon_4L@TheEdVerse is there anything like rock or metal music in Faerun? If so, what is it called, who started it, where can one find equipment for playing it in Faerun, and which higher entity would enjoy it most or have it in their provinces/portfolios?

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 24, 2019

1)
Metal music, no. Rock, yes, though we real-worlders would call it prog rock or New Age because of its sounds, which would be soft and flowing, because the only instruments capable of sustain (like an electric guitar)…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 24, 2019

2)
…are elven/half-elven. I can see elves of the Realms being able to play and sound like Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Genesis, and ELO. Note: the instruments that would be used are NOT amplified or electric.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 24, 2019

Mr. Greenwood, but a question remains, what would the realmers call such a music? Thank you!

— Milos (@NiftyArchmage) February 5, 2022

1)
To folk of the Realms, just “music.” They don’t tend to speak/think of musical genres/movements as we do, just in terms of social norms: thudding drums, wailing warhorns, and unison shouts = goblinkin; drums and metallic percussion = dwarves; flutes and harps and..2)
…soft-voiced harmonies = elves, ditties and/or plainsong = humans or halflings, dronesong (with warhorns) = giants. Within local society (e.g. a city), musical shifts tend to be discussed linked to individuals or groups, the same way real-world sports speak of…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 5, 2022

3)
…”the X era,” where X is the name of a dominant athlete (like Jordan in basketball, or Favre or Brady in football). In the Realms, dance fads and fashions do get named, and their associated music with them, like lammuer (slow waltzes), tonsets (slow formal… 4)
…courtly dances), and whirls (reels). Folk in the Realms also distinguish between "elder-time" or "ancient" tunes and songs, "traditional" tunes or styles of music, and "newclang" (innovative and fresh, seen as either good or bad depending on personal taste).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 5, 2022

Well again @TheEdverse!

Three questions if I may:

1) Have you any idea if Queen Raedra intends to build a road north from Stag's Skull Bridge to the East Way?

2) Are her appointed lords properly termed "Queen's Lords"?

3) Has Elminster visited Ath Cliath?

Many thanks, Ed 🙂

— Commonplace Publishing (@CommonplacePub1) November 30, 2021

…And "crown lords" is the informal, everyday colloquial collective term for them.
3. I don't know. The Sage of Shadowdale keeps secrets from everyone, me very much included. He can't be everywhere (if the Weave doesn't reach it), but…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 30, 2021

Hi @TheEdVerse I've got another obscure Waterdeep question for you: where does ice come from and how common is it?

It's referenced as being used at Seaswealth Hall to pack fish, so they can be distributed around the city for sale. Thanks! #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #waterdeep

— RPG Match – connecting TTRPG players (@RpgMatch) October 28, 2021

1)
In winter, anyone can “harvest wild ice” near Waterdeep, from ponds and marshes and the banks of rivers and streams.
The rest of the year: several nobles with holdings along the banks of the River Dessarin have long-standing agreements with the Watchful Order of… 2)
…Magists and Protectors: they provide shifts of Order members with luxurious abodes, meals, and servants, in return for cold spells being cast on water diverted from the river into small holding-channels and basins. The nobles get free ice for their own…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

3)
…icehouses and cellars, and a payment from the Order that more than covers the costs of the food and servants (and wine); the Order has agreements with various guilds to provide them with bulk ice; the guilds come and break or saw the ice from the channels and… 4)
…basins, and rush it to Waterdeep in straw-insulated, covered wagons.
The clerics of Goldenfields (and clergy in many other temples across Faerûn) make their own ice with cold spells, for sale and barter locally. Some Goldenfields ice makes its way to…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

5)
…Waterdeep, packed around perishable cargoes.
Almost no ice is produced by this method in the city, however, as salt water makes poor ice, and sewer-water even less desirable ice.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

how far does the eye of the Xanathar thieves guild spread across Faerun? My players managed to earn the wrath of Xanathar himself and I’m wondering where is safe: Athkatla? Thay? Or is it confined mainly to Waterdeep and surrounding areas? Well, there's safe and then there's safe.
Let's just say MOSTLY confined to the Deep and environs.
Both places you mention have their own crime lords who fend off the Xanathar's agents VERY effectively.
There's a real-world saying about frying pans and fires…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 29, 2021

Thanks heaps! So they may have to watch their backs in Neverwinter or Baldur’s Gate? Oh, yes. That's not to stay that those places don't have their own crime lords, who may deliberately thwart the Xanathar's agents even if they're not certain precisely what they're thwarting, but the agents DO exist.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 29, 2021

1)
Vrantavvar Ruldegost (NE hm Rog6/Ftr4): House Ruldegost is a popular noble family in Waterdeep, with many and varied interests and successes, and a wide variety of living members. They all bear the shining mantle of the… 2)
…far-traveled gallant adventurers, sponsors of adventurers, and very successful merchants of the last seventy years, including the nigh-legendary seacaptains Urtharl Ruldegost and Tansheira Ruldegost, “She-Wolf of the Seas.”#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 1, 2021

3)
Ranthar and Tulvin and Lasheira Ruldegost are all popular, socially-busy, energetic younger Ruldegosts, but their younger brother Vrantavvar (like his namesake uncle, who long ago retired to Scornubel and has been a focus of…4)
…disquieting rumors of monster-breeding and worse, in his declining years) is a quieter, more private person, with iron-strong control of his facial expressions and voice. The younger Vrantavvar was introduced to certain drugs…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 1, 2021

5)
…by his uncle as a young boy, and has both enjoyed their effects and built up a near-immunity to them, so his uncle started dosing him with poisons so he’d become nigh-immune to them, too—with, Elminster informed the Harpers, … 6)
…great success.
The elder Vrantavvar did this because he wanted a young, vigorous sidekick to assist him in his smuggling activities to and from Skullport, and the younger Vrantavvar took to it like a natural, making much more…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 1, 2021

7)
…extensive contacts in Skullport than his uncle ever did. Including quite a few “monsters,” with whom he works frequently on activities “of mutual benefit” (a favourite phrase of the younger Vrantavvar).
Over the last decade, … 8)
…the young Vrantavvar Ruldegost has built an empire of trading connections between various folk of Skullport and shady merchants of Waterdeep—and calmly fended off repeated attempts by the Xanathar’s agents to eliminate him, …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 1, 2021

9)
…or take over this or that strand of his trading network. Vrantavvar’s own agents of choice as go-betweens and to thwart the Xanathar’s agents are hired bands of adventurers who came from outside the city, and are seeking… 10)
…hirings or their fortune in the Deep. He provides steady employment for many, and in return they have pruned so many branches of the Xanathar’s network that the crime lord sent Vrantavvar a formal, explicit “I’m going to…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 1, 2021

111)
…leave you alone now, please stop” message. Which Vrantavvar was quite happy to do; he much prefers to spend his time making everyone illicitly richer. He hates paying taxes, has no qualms about trading with beings who eat… 12)
…humans, and thrives on the thrills he gets from the dangers involved. He’s also become incredibly personally rich—so much so that he’s buying city real estate in Baldur’s Gate, Athkatla, and now in Cormyrean and Sembian…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 1, 2021

13)
…cities, and hiring distant agents in such places to act as his landlords and reinvest the rents in their own sideline businesses (he doesn’t care if they cheat him, he’s already made more than he can ever spend in his life). 14)
He’s toying with the idea of toppling any local rulers who cross him or harass his agents or trading partners with converging bands of anonymously-hired adventurers.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 1, 2021