Now for some example characters from the Mtg: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms concept push. Here's a half-orc barbarian I worked up.
Shared with permission from Wizards of the Coast. pic.twitter.com/3pAaX9pr03

— Chris Rahn (@ChrisRahnArt) July 21, 2021

Another image for the MtGAFR concept push, this time a halfling fighter. I thought having her dual wielding an elven dagger and an orcish knife as her swords (that she liberated from their previous owners) was a fun concept.
Shared with permission from Wizards of the Coast pic.twitter.com/YiyGJ1ZjjS

— Chris Rahn (@ChrisRahnArt) July 26, 2021

@TheEdVerse Good Morning Loremaster! Could you provide some insight as to the cuisine and drinks that are native to Shining South, Halruaa especially? Is there is a stark contrast between southern cuisine and the food and drink of the Savage Frontier and the Heartlands?

— Kata Strophie (@thekatastrophie) October 31, 2021

1)
A huge topic, but here’s a starter…
Yes, there is a contrast. More soups, stews, and heavy, warming food, plus food that travels well (sausages, round hardloaves of bread) in the North. 2)
Shining South cuisine has more small meals, with savory and sweet tarts (dominated not by berries as in the North, but by caramel sauces and nuts), and mint and hot spices as seasonings.
Cheeses in both cuisines, but more soft…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 31, 2021

3)
…and crumbly cheese in the South, used more in cooking, whereas in the North cheeses are more sturdy/portable/hard and eaten by hand or in wedges. The South has more strongly seasoned cheeses, with nuts and hot spices added, … 4)
…and sweet-and-sour taste combinations are found only in the South (except where traveling merchants and their trade routes have caused individual migrations of cuisine to specific eateries, inns, and taverns). Pickles in the…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 31, 2021

5)
…North have tastes like our real-world modern “bread and butter” pickles or sour pickles; pickles in the South usually taste more fiery, like mustard pickles, and include chopped-olive and caper mixes like tapenades. 6)
As for alcoholic drinks: in the North, mulled ciders and spiked-with-spirits hot broths and “slakes” (mixes of teas and root spices) and ale and firewine. In the South: chilled drinks, like the blue wine avanal and brandies… #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 31, 2021

7)
…poured over berries and shavings of ice, and wines in general in preference to beer, as well as kaeth (coffee) in preference to teas.
However, these cuisine contrasts are marked in rural and wilderness areas, but far less so… 8)
…in cosmopolitan trading cities, ports like Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate, Athkatla, Zazesspur, and Calimport in particular, where visiting traders like to eat their customary foods, and arrive in profusion enough to support…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 31, 2021

9)
…eateries offering their favourites.
Oh, and smoky food flavours are welcomed in the North (smoked fish, smoked meats) but in the South are often seen as a mark of poor cooking or attempts to hide bad-flavoured, spoiling food.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 31, 2021

Oh, I forgot to mention that the sky-blue wine "avanal" (taste: a little like a dry Riesling made tart with cranberry juice) is THE drink of choice in Halruaa. Served chilled, in chilled fluted tallglasses, but NOT served with ice.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 31, 2021

A popular Halruaan snack: a glass or two of avanal served with a small oval platter of nutbread crescents (crescent-shaped cookies; nutbread is like a very dark, rum-and-cherries-and-dark-chocolate Christmas cake; the nuts are pecans, walnuts, and pistachios).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 31, 2021

…there are many types of magic in your setting, the Forgotten Realms. From arcane and divine, to elemental and rune. So with the recent uptick in Feywild interest, I was wondering, is the “Weird Magic” of hags its own unique.. type of magic independent of the others?

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 23, 2021

The magic of hags is still calling on the Weave—but hags can call on the Weave slightly differently than other creatures casting formal, shared arcane spells, so it can SEEM at first observation a “different” magic system.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 23, 2021

BadCatMan @TheBadCatMan
Hi @TheEdVerse! I'm curious about Velsaert, the Dragon Sage of Baldur's Gate quoted in a lot of the Wyrms of the North articles. What's his story? Was he always secretly a steel dragon? Are the other great dragons of the North really just avoiding him?

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

1)
Velsaertirden was a steel dragon who hatched in a clutch of eggs in Steelspires, a castle built by stone giants for his parents on a bare rock ridge that towered over the busy human port city of Haunvaerune, on the continent… 2)
…of Arandron far to the southwest of Faerûn.
It was his mother Malavauvra’s (Malavauvrantarandra’s) last clutch of eggs, for she was ancient and ailing. Most of Velsaertirden’s siblings were sickly and died soon after… #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

3)
…hatching, or during their first year of existence. The exceptions were his ruthless, rapacious sister Rauvrahreene (Rauvrahrileenatandrar), and his brother Torthal (Torthalindrarron).
The three wyrmlings soon became dragonets… 4)
…(learning to take human form, and shift with ease between human and dragon form), and reacted in very different ways to the bustling human city their dying mother encouraged them to explore: Torthal was repelled by humans… #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

5)
…and wanted nothing to do with them, or cities, or crowding of any sort; Rauvrahreene saw them as cattle, pawns, and playthings to be manipulated, devoured, and otherwise expended at will to further her needs to dominate, cow… 6)
…lesser beings, and further her plans; and Velsaert saw them as dangerous but fascinating sources of ongoing entertainment, to be studied and befriended and worked with to see what they’d do and achieve.
Velsaert’s father…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

7)
…Phaudron (Phaudrantanthildrar) was a withdrawn, singleminded sort of dragon who traveled widely to explore and find rare substances to use as material components in arcane magics he was devising and endlessly experimenting… 8)
…with.
His passion was magics intended to prolong draconic life and vigor indefinitely, without lichdom or other necromantic means, for most dragons who survive for many years love life and want to cling to it, and seek… #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

9)
…longevity by various means.
While her father was away on one of his expeditions to gain a rare ingredient, Rauvrahreene found some of his written records of his magical experimentations.
She copied them, went to a lair of her… 10)
…own she’d established elsewhere, and conducted her own spellcastings and experiments, successfully learning how to reverse Phaudron’s spells. Then she returned to Steelspires, and when her father returned, weary and…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

11)
…unsuccessful, she covertly cast his reversed spells on him, killing him.
Emboldened, she sought out her weak, slumbering mother, and slew her the same way. The castle was now hers.
However, Torthal unexpectedly returned to… 12)
…Steelspires to consult his father, and found his sister fortifying the place with dragonslaying traps. One of which sorely wounded him (he discovered the traps the hard way). Rauvrahreene gloated openly over the mortally…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

13)
…wounded Torthal—and was overheard doing so by Velsaert, making his own return visit to the castle. Outraged that he’d lost his parents, Velsaert attacked, and when the battle was done, Torthal had been blasted apart and 14)
…Rauvrahreene, wounded, had fled.
Lost in grief, Velsaert decided he never wants to dwell in the castle. He searched it, and used all the magic he knew to subvert and reset the traps so if Rauvrahreene returned, they’d likely… #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

15)
…harm her. Then Velsaert took human form and went down into Haunvaerune.
Where as soon as he could, he took passage on a farsailing ship, that would call at “strange and distant ports.”
In this case, that meant Sambar, in… 16)
…Lantan (unbeknownst to wider Faerûn, the Lantanna traded their lesser invented devices with many farflung folk, to gain goods rare or hard to find). From there, Velsaert found his way to mainland Faerûn, where he traveled…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

17)
…for over five centuries in various human guises, seeing much of different cultures.
As he grew older, he increasingly sided with the aims and doings of the Harpers of Twilight Hall, and joined them while posing as the human… 18)
…ranger Vontur of Zazesspur.
During his sixty-odd years as Vontur, he came across several tantalizing mentions of a dragon who MIGHT be his sister Rauvrahreene, but could never track her down. Velsaert was also increasingly… #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

19)
…fascinated by the magic-spreading role of the Chosen of Mystra, and watched their doings—and so, in return, was watched by them.
Eventually, Vontur was cornered in a perish-or-call-on-draconic-powers situation, so Vontur… 20)
…“died” and the dragon that slew him and his foes flew away…and a young woman by the name of Shalant Mornwind, hailing from Athkatla, joined the Harpers. An eager volunteer daunted by nothing and avoiding no unpleasant task…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

22)
…she discovered that the secret of the success of the wealthy local Sembian family hight House Morarshar was due to their matriarch, Lady Ambrele, being the human guise of Velsaert’s sister Rauvrahreene.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

21)
…nor company, she rose in the regard of senior Harpers, and gained an ever-larger role as a trusted and capable adventurer, active all over western Faerûn, until, in an undercover operation in the Sembian city of Selgaunt, … 22)
…she discovered that the secret of the success of the wealthy local Sembian family hight House Morarshar was due to their matriarch, Lady Ambrele, being the human guise of Velsaert’s sister Rauvrahreene.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

23)
Velsaert attacked, and in the battle that followed, Morarshar Hall was torn apart, the family and their staff died bloodily, several surrounding buildings were shattered and hurled down, Rauvragrene was maimed and forced to… 24)
…flee to another plane of existence, and Shalant Mornwind “died.”
In truth, Velsaert was aged three centuries by spells cast by Rauvrahreene to try to kill him, and left saddened by the deaths of his Harper adventuring…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

25)
…colleagues and the destruction of so much of what had been a luxurious street in downtown Selgaunt.
So he “retired,” becoming a sage in Baldur’s Gate under the name of Imbryn Velsaert (borrowing the name Imbryn from Imbryn… 26)
…Ultal, the captain of the Aelusteen, the ship that had brought him from Haunvaerune to Sambar). Velsaert dwelt above his small shop in the Temples District (a street above the Helm and Cloak inn), quietly selling information…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

27)
…and old books related to magic, and becoming a passive observer of all the bustling human activity around him. Noticing the great extent to which various humans were being manipulated by clergies, cults, cabals, and powerful…28)
…entities like illithids, beholders, and dragons, he increasingly slipped into human guises to travel and investigate the doings and aims of various dragons and dracoliches active in western Faerûn (notably Laerahkralan, a…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

29)
…greatwyrm working with yuan-ti and human agents to covertly influence various ruling courts, from towns and villages up to countries, in the Shining South). He located their principal lairs and watched what he could of their… 30)
…activities, befriending the bronze dragon Nymmurh in particular. During the 1360s and 1370s DR, Velsaert gained a reputation as “the” current expert on the lives and times of the dragons of the Sword Coast.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

31)
The merchant Andlar Verikho of Tharsult dubbed him the “Dragon Sage,” and this nickname stuck.
After the Dracorage, an ashamed and regretful Velsaert wanted nothing further to do with the Harpers, and foresaw that his… 32)
…profession as a sage specializing in dragons was going to bring endless adventurers (Harpers among them) to his door, so he “retired” again, relocating to the Upper City and later the south side of the river, and then…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

33)
…dropping out of sight.
Just in time, it seems, for a force of mages and able-to-pass-as-human creatures he suspects was sent by sister, or someone working for her, descended on his lodgings by night to slay him—and when they… 34)
…couldn’t find Velsaert (who was lying on a nearby rooftop, not his own, observing comets in the night sky) settled for slaughtering many neighbours instead.
Velsaert hunted them for a month thereafter, trying to find whoever… #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

35)
…they reported to, but after he’d fought and slain several of them, they turned to hunt him again, and he decided to simply disappear into a new human guise, under a new name, elsewhere. 36)
So the greatwyrm Velsaert survives to this day—as, presumably, does his sister Rauvrahreene.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 28, 2021

One of the reasons I continually and patiently tell folks that I have never based the Realms directly or closely on any real-world history or culture is because of misunderstandings like this.
Waterdeep has never been feudal, and real-world feudalism is about… …service to rulers on the part of the nobility. The specifics about local land ownership, jobs, and customs in feudal societies varied widely from place to place and over time.
Specifically, in Waterdeep, household servants are salaried, can be hired away from…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 3, 2021

..someone, and there are retired governesses, hostlers, and even doorjacks (not to mention, of course, guards) who train novices to become “new” servants, so they can be hired by either nobles, or the large and growing segment of the Deep’s citizenry who are…wealthy and rising and want to live like nobles (such as most guildmasters and senior guild members, and a huge number of successful "self-made" entrepreneurs). Yes, there are lifelong loyal servants to some noble families, but their numbers are small and dwindling.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 3, 2021

@TheEdVerse1)
Religious feasts can differ markedly depending on what deity, and the customs adopted and promoted by the clergy (e.g. Silvanus: wild bounty, eaten raw, Chauntea: baked grain goods), but large family get-togethers in the Dales… what would a family meal look like in the dalelands. Something like a family reunion or marriage or granny's 100th birthday? Or a religious feast?

— jwill9311 (@jwill9311) December 25, 2021

2)
…tend to follow this general pattern: huge amounts of food, prepared by many family members and any invited guests (if you’re a guest, you bring something) and with the majority of them being baked savoury pies (think: …#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 25, 2021

3)
…casserole but in a dish and cover made out of thick, durable hard-baked pastry) or stuffed roast fowl or sausages of all flavours or seasoned loaves of bread (i.e. baked with added cheese or strong herbs and spices or… 4)
…berries). The “sides” include lots of pickled veggies and preserved fruits. What’s done to make things “special” are to break out exotic, expensive foodstuffs from afar kept in the “precious larder,” to call on aged wine or…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 25, 2021

6)
…a crock.”
Also, folk in the Dales pride themselves on the cheeses they make, so strong and “different” cheeses will feature prominently.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 25, 2021

Hey there Mister @TheEdVerse, would you mind enlighten me with your delightful knowledge?
What kind of food and drink (besides wine, of course) would an elven festival in Evereska feast on? 1)
If the festival has light “finger foods” rather than huge, sit-down formal banquets, it would likely feature the following (all from local ingredients):#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2021

2)
Thammaera (mint salads: mixed broadleaf plants and brassica buds [think “Brussels sprouts”] flavored with a fermented mixroot dressing, which the crushed, sprinkled-on mint leaves react with to create a sweet-sour taste). 3)
Bowls of pynchanar (we would say antipasto) of chopped, diced particular types of olives, nuts, and forest roots.
Sorren (fried, salted rhubarb shaft).
Tathkaer (fried, salted plantain).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2021

4)
Mint jelly (bonded as well as American canned cranberry jello, and served in cut slices; dark green translucent).
Mixed-berry jellies, some curried, some nut-roast, and some sweet (these are loose spreads, that go on marangar [see #7, below]).5)
Lathklan (fried, salted dew-worms [thick, white before frying, segmented]).
Murlathan (fried, salted ground-worms; brown, small, segmented, and when fried are like crispy potato fries, but with a walnut taste).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2021

6)
Brathaer (think of flatbread, but made by making an omelette of particular forest-bird eggs atop leaves of particular forest vines [randreen and horlthra] that half-melt, bond with the egg, then harden when cool into a… 7)
…cracker/biscuit-like rigid consistency).
Marangar (this is like cabbage in its looks and structure, but tastes like semi-sweet mango if left raw, layers torn apart for eating, but more like cornbread if torn apart and the… #Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2021

8)
…pieces fried). This is everyday “fill up” food, but when served at feasts, the cooks go wild in seasoning it, so everyone’s is different, and feasters may be offered six or seven very different tastes.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 2, 2021

Has Volo’s birthday been established? I’ve got an astrologer PC who’d like to provide his horoscope. Volo has given various evasive answers to this over the years, but according to Storm, whose Harpers once traced his past, he was born on Highharvestide (between Eleint and Marpenoth).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 20, 2021