oh no! @TheEdVerse did the wizard three try to kill you here??? What did you do?? #ForgottenRealms #DND I'm in the wardrobe.
I farted, and Mordenkainen thought I was in the suit of armor and he'd take care of me.
It's all right, we're good buddies now.
In fact, I could tell you stories…— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 4, 2021
Does Elminster know English, or does he use sort of magic to communicate with you? He knows English. Various dialects and a lot of swear words included. He's even good at mimicry.
All too often, he does a mean "Sex Kitten Purringly In Need Of My Ice Cream" in my ear in the middle of the night.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) July 13, 2021
"Oh-BAR-skeer."
All my research is for naught, so I now desperately appeal to the authorities: How does one pronounce Obarskyr? Little used at Court, however, in favour of "Cormyr," as in: "Azoun of Cormyr."#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 14, 2021
Out of all the campaign setting books released for the Realms (1e, 2e, 3e, 4e, and 5e), which is your favourite? Which do you think best captures how you envisioned the Realms? We don't have 1e or 5e campaign setting books.
The "Old Grey box" is closest to my turnover, but my fave is 3e as we managed to cram the most into it; gives gamers the most for the money. I sat up all night in my hotel room across the street from Wizards and signed 1000sofcopies.— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 7, 2021
is one legally allowed to build and set up incredibly deadly traps in one’s house in the city Waterdeep? Of course. However, if one doesn't deactivate them or guide City Watch officers, city inspectors, and civic tax collectors around them, one must expect consequences. In the order of "dire."#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) July 7, 2021
And if one harms any guild members working on one's premises (roofers, plumbers, etc.) with a trap, one must expect fines, bans, and shunning.
In other words, have ways of turning them off!#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) July 9, 2021
I imagine @TheEdVerse would be the best person to tell you about the first time Baldur’s Gate was mentioned in publications (and maybe tell the tale of how/when he came up with it).
— Jeff Greiner thinks James Introcaso is dreamy (@Squach) September 23, 2021
1)
Baldur’s Gate first appeared in a Realms short story I wrote entitled “The Box That Crept On Talons” in 1968. (Yes, six years before D&D first appeared.)
My father really liked that tale, and wanted to proudly hand it around… 2)
…among his friends at work as he was in the habit of doing with most of my scribblings, but because it was a full-length story and he was afraid of losing it as it made the rounds, he had me retype it on Gestetner mimeograph…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021
3)
…stencils to make copies of it. It was later published, along with other Realms tales including one set in Baldur’s Gate entitled “Mirt Kisses A Monster” and another that has several scenes in the Gate, entitled… 4)
…“But She Kept A Dagger There,” in a chapbook collection I put together entitled COME OCTEMBER (1976).
I’ve forgotten when the first mention of Baldur’s Gate made it into The Dragon, but the first time I mentioned it in an…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021
5)
…article manuscript was for the Gates article that appeared in issue #37; I think it was in one of the paragaphs that got cut in editing, that detailed the “stops” in a chain of linked gates (one of which was in a second-floor… 6)
…bedchamber of a noble’s tallhouse in Baldur’s Gate, up on the peninsula that shelters the ‘bowl’ of the main city).
Baldur’s Gate was not named for Baldr or Balder (the son of Odin and Frigg), but for a character I’d created, …#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021
7)
…who lived there before the city grew up around him and the natural sheltered harbour at the rivermouth: a dwarf named Harbaldur, a smith who made a living forging grand, ornamented, but massively strong gates for castles and… 8)
…vaults.
“Balduran” was added later by TSR (I think by Tim Beach), though I did have a seafaring explorer who sailed west out of Baldur’s Gate to explore the seas, named Shala Lonstur (a halfling lady who disappeared from lore…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021
9)
…when TSR acquired the Realms; I’m guessing they wanted to focus to be on humans, and male humans at that, so the gamers they saw as their target audience could “identify”).
And I’ve coined literally thousands of names, … 10)
…adopting them if they “feel right” (in sound) for the character of the being I’m trying to apply them to; “Harbaldur” is one of these, as to me, the sound of it fit a skilled, confident, gruff dwarf who hammered on an anvil.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021
You are, as always, a gentleman and a scholar, my friend. Thanks for the lore, and know that in my Realms Harbaldur will always be the real founder of the city, even if that Balduran kid came around later to steal the glory. 😉 The dwarves, being shorter, always get overlooked.
(Ahem. I'll go quietly.)
Oh, while I'm at the revealing ancient history game: Anchorôme is a campaign about hopping along a chain of islands, and that archipelago itself, NOT a continent. ;}#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021
Hi Ed. In a long-ago post at Candlekeep you named the “sticks” as “garl-sticks”. Is that a moniker used in a particular area of the Realms? You also mentioned “thareea” (wiping cloths). Are the use of these widespread or again particular to a particular region? Garlsticks is the collective term for both sticks; in Waterdeep, there are always 2 (1 for a user's behind and the other for scrubbing the garderobe seat, lip, and shaft). Fastidious nobles (and wannabe nobles aping them) may use thareea, but no one else in the Deep.#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 18, 2021
They do (established in official published Realmslore some years ago). Rare scattered individuals, not cities or realms of them.#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) July 12, 2021
