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Sian
Senior Scribe
Denmark
596 Posts |
 Posted - 19 Apr 2010 : 09:53:32
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okay then ... 'nother question about Damara
could i get some names/info on some of the small mining cities on the easten side of Galena mountains, north of the Bloodstone Pass ... and what are the mining beyond Bloodstone and/or Iron if they is? |
what happened to the queen? she's much more hysterical than usual
She's a women, it happens once a month |
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Snowblood
Senior Scribe
Australia
388 Posts |
Posted - 19 Apr 2010 : 15:18:29
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| OK ED concerning Braceldaur......we know it was a city state flooded by the rising Moonsea.....without giving any NDA stuff away....what can you tell us about this little known jewel.......ps I now know why the city of Sunlit Spires was NDA...but now that it has hit the cutting room floor...what 'can' you tell us about this lost Siluvanedan city????? |
Aryvandaar, Ilythiir, Arnothoi, Orva, Sarphil, Anauria/Asram/Hlondath, Uvaeren, Braceldaur, Ilodhar, Lisenaar, Imaskar, Miyeritar, Orishaar, Shantel Othrieir, Keltormir, Eaerlann, Ammarindar, Siluvanede, Sharrven, Illefarn, Ardeep, Rystal Wood, Evereska are all available here for download:http://phasai.deviantart.com/gallery/
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 19 Apr 2010 : 16:10:39
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Hi again, all. Riverwind, I sent your query to Ed, and here's his reply:
Hi, Riverwind!
1. The 1,200 strength of the City Guard is its mandated-by-the-Open-Lord BARE MINIMUM (it's never supposed to fall below that without triggering standing orders to hire replacements from the militia trainees drilled at Castle Waterdeep. That 1,200 figure is the publicly-announced strength of fully-armored veteran Guardsmen (not to be confused with the Watch; by the 1400s, they are combined), not the true strength. The Lords want to keep the true muscle of the Guard secret, so as to be able to deliver "nasty surprises" to anyone contemplating armed insurrection, invasion, etc.
The garrison of the Castle, the inhabitants of the griffon-rider base inside upper Mount Waterdeep, and the Skullport forces are all NOT included in this figure. At any one time, there tend to be 600-700 partly-trained "sword-ready" trainees who can be pressed into Guard service in a trice (and will be quite effective, assuming some existing Guardsmen survive to be their officers).
The Navy is largely NDA'd, but as published lore (KNIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) reminds us all, there is a harbor defense force of merfolk, and as RUINS OF UNDERMOUNTAIN mentions, the navy makes use of the Seacaves and the shaft to move vessels to and from Skullport just as traders do.
One hinted-at but not "spelled out" factor is Khelben, Laeral, and Piergeiron's trusted personal mages all policing the Guard, Watch, and Navy to keep them free of corruption, and doing the same to the Watchful Order, who in turn are used to openly watch over and assist the Guard and the Watch (patrolling with both). This guards against Palace coups and against any infiltrator or noble faction managing to subvert, blackmail, or replace and impersonate more of any of the services than a handful of specific individuals.
2. Some ethical considerations; it depends on the city-state. Most will blast away, using the "better a spell than spend more time and lives," however. See the opening (and just before the climax) scenes of CITY OF SPLENDOR (the novel Elaine and I wrote, not the game products bearing that name) for what defending Waterdeep can turn into, very swiftly.
I hope these replies help. Feel free to ask more, though I see THO has pretty capably addressed most of the Waterdeep concerns in the thread you started.
So saith Ed, creator of the Realms, Waterdeep, the Guard, Watch, and Navy, and so on...
love,
THO |
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Brace Cormaeril
Learned Scribe
294 Posts |
Posted - 19 Apr 2010 : 18:59:23
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Hi Mr. Greenwood and THO
Did Dead Magic zones exist in the Realms prior to the Time of Troubles? Thanks a lot for you time and consideration! |
The Silver Fire's Blade: A Novella in Nine Parts, Available Soon, in the Adventuring Forum!
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Riverwind
Learned Scribe
133 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 08:58:48
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Dear Mr.Greenword,
First thanks for getting back to me.
Second, we came up with an idea to improve Waterdeep's Harbour defences:
1. The harbour gates can be closed. (I think right now they're just chains, but they should have some type of netting or something attached to them.
2. You could create/build underwater ridges, with openings to allow shipping to pass, but it would also force the enemy into channels that could be defended by the merfolk. Two ridges each running perpendicular from the two harbour openings would force the enemy to channel in.
As I Posted over on that thread, you could name it Riverwind's wall
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 16:33:46
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Heh. Well, the intent is admirable, Riverwind, but the problem is that Waterdeep only exists as the flourishing trading port it is because of its good harbour (not a superb natural harbour, but by far the best one north of Tethyr). The tides, scouring currents, and onshore winds make both ridges and any sort of fixed, non-porous-to-water wall totally impractical: the presence of either would make the harbour tricky for navigation at best and frequently deadly at worst.
For another thing, Waterdeep's harbour is silty (thanks to those currents) over a rock bottom, and warmed and constantly filled by effluent from its sewers. Put ridges or a wall in to block the scouring-out that the currents and tides together do, and the harbour would very quickly fill up with stinking, disease-causing excrement-mud that would ground ships for good and kill off many city inhabitants (before most of the rest evacuated; the city south of Castle Waterdeep would rapidly become untenable).
No offense, Riverwind, but Ed thought through all of this back in 1968 and 1969, before there even was a D&D game. You're not the first person to want to add many defenses to Waterdeep's harbour: the mapmakers at TSR have added towers and walls with each map they've drawn, and Ed has patiently pruned them back when he's had the chance (which isn't always).
Ed is a worldbuilder, and always considers implications, steps and steps ahead. Many gamers aren't, and that's okay...but the man HAS thought about all of this. Decades ago.
love,
THO |
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 16:34:54
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Oh, and a postscript that's partially NDA'd:
Those harbour chains aren't JUST chains. Think wizards and magic again.
love,
THO |
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createvmind
Senior Scribe
490 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 18:24:45
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Hello,
Ed,
How are coma's handled in Faeruns various regions/races, basically how is the victim kept alive over a long period of time, say a tenday or more? How are they given sustenance especially if magic is not an option? I was looking over one of Monte cook's early edition Eldritch Might books and saw he had a poison that induced a coma for up to several weeks and I was thinking how does one kept the victim alive?
Other than Wish/ Miracle spells, would a Heal spell fix a coma caused more by despair and spiritual damage than physical damage?
Are bed sores something that occurs in Faerun, are races/cultures aware of how to treat them, again nonmagically? |
Edited by - createvmind on 20 Apr 2010 19:05:13 |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 20:54:44
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quote:
Originally posted by Snowblood
OK ED concerning Braceldaur......we know it was a city state flooded by the rising Moonsea.....without giving any NDA stuff away....what can you tell us about this little known jewel.......ps I now know why the city of Sunlit Spires was NDA...but now that it has hit the cutting room floor...what 'can' you tell us about this lost Siluvanedan city?????
Okay, Snowblood... I'm really intrigued as to your current project now, in particular where you got your answers referred to earlier after Ed's NDA reply... but I'll ask you not to clutter up Ed's scroll with your response; please either start a new scroll or PM me if preferred. It's Ed's scroll, after all, and I don't want to bring the staff of the irritated moderator down on either of us. 
quote:
Originally posted by The Hooded One
Oh, and a postscript that's partially NDA'd:
Those harbour chains aren't JUST chains. Think wizards and magic again.
love,
THO
 I can't take all this teasing... approximately when will this NDA reach maturity, and can you say whether it's for a novel or a DDI piece? I have some ideas of my own for those harbour chains after reading A Clash of Kings, however... 
I'm trying not to ask any new questions of my own lately... most of the questions that come to my mind are pre-Spellplague and still under NDA, so they're almost certain never to be answerable. I do have a question about tressym, which a quick Googling of the Ed scrolls does not seem to find, so I'll hope that it has not already been asked:
When and how were tressym created? Were they a product of wild magic in the ToT, or did they exist in the Realms before then? I suspect a magical origin of some sort, likely involving arcane experimentation of a possibly benign (but probably otherwise) nature.
Hopefully this one can be answered quickly without adding to the ever-growing pile of queries.
Again, many thanks to you both, Ed and milady Hooded One. |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
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Menelvagor
Senior Scribe
Israel
352 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 20:55:05
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| I also want to add a question regarding the harbor: Maybe we could learn a bit about how the Spellplague and the subesequent creation of Mistshore affected Waterdeep's Harbor? I quite enjoyed Mistshore, and would like to learn more about it. |
"Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly.
How much less them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation in the dust, are crushed before the moth?" - Eliphaz the Temanite, Job IV, 17-19.
"Yea, though he live a thousand years twice, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?" - Ecclesiastes VI, 6.
"There are no stupid questions – just a bunch of inquisitive idiots."
"Let's not call it 'hijacking'. Let's call it 'Thread Drift'." |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 21:07:11
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My apologies... one more question regarding Karse... see my first post in this scroll from April 16; I had asked about the avatar of Karsus described in FR5. My follow-up question is: Is there a map of Karse (its ruins, as it exists in the 1300s DR) that isn't concealed by NDA, and if so, where might I find said map?
I'm trying to puzzle out the spatial relationships of the red stone butte, the ring of black oaks, and the black pyramid, but the information in FR5 is not substantial enough... and, of course, Karse is the one significant location discussed in the book that we are not given a map of in the same product. I suspect there's a reason for that, something that looks a bit like [NDA]...
Many thanks again; I'll try not to ask any more questions today. |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 21:46:49
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Jakk, out-of-game, Ed created the tressym circa 1969.
In the Realms, they were around long before the Time of Troubles; centuries...they were "known" to humans when Cormyr was being first explored, and were of course around before that.
love,
THO |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 00:58:20
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Thanks for the quick response on the tressym, THO! I just remember seeing them for the first time in the (sadly greatly pruned down) Haunted Halls of Eveningstar product, and so I wasn't sure if they had existed pre-ToT.
No more questions... except perhaps to inquire as to the (likely highly remote) possibility of seeing the entire Haunted Halls some day...  |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
Edited by - Jakk on 21 Apr 2010 00:59:26 |
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 03:18:45
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Menelvagor, Ed wrote a "bible" (book industry term for root guideline document) for the Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep series that was longer than most of his novels, and detailed darned near everything writers might want to know about Waterdeep circa the Year of the Ageless One, from snacks to popular slang to a huge cast of detailed characters to current laws and policing. This document included new features and neighbourhoods of the city, and Mistshore and Downshadow are both examples of these (so, yes, Mistshore is Ed's creation).
Further, Ed has answered whatever lore questions the novel authors have asked him, as they worked on their books, and so added MORE lore to the post-Spellplague Waterdeep lore.
However, this is all NDA except for the few hundred words of it that Brian James boiled Ed's massive Waterdeep bible down to, for the 4e FR Campaign Guide.
Which means Ed may not be able to say much about Mistshore, though I've sent your question off to him.
We'll see...
love,
THO |
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Blueblade
Senior Scribe
USA
804 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 03:23:48
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Dear Ed,
Who was that incredibly beautiful young lady writer you were on the Reading Your Work Aloud panel with, at Ad Astra? You seemed to know each other, and she sure sounded fun (and, no fellow scribes, she was far too young to be our beloved THO)?
Inquiring minds want to know!
BB |
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 03:25:41
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Heh. She is, isn't she?
That was Adrienne Kress, author of two fun "tween" or "middle" fantasy books. She's a Toronto-area writer and actress, who has a blog; check her out online, interested scribes. Your eyes won't mind... promise.
love to all,
THO |
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 15:18:20
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1263 DR was the tressym's year (glad the books department didn't do their work on that one).
The use of Ed's Waterdeep-2008 bible makes Wizards' cant against setting detail all the more poisonous.
One thing that really brought home to me how sadly uncommercial the world sourcebook is was reading that C.J. Cherryh had a binder of unpublished Union-Alliance lore. Del Rey's Star Wars sourcebooks have done something to popularize it. Whereas when reading secondary-world fiction I often find myself making mental notes for how this imaginative force could be levered into telling more stories. |
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hecatedreaming
Acolyte
Sweden
2 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 15:21:49
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| Hi all especially Ed & THO! First time posting (long time lurker), I’m re-reading the Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte & it strikes me that the story-arch would make a great adventure set in FR. So Ed (I naturally assume you’ve read it), where would you set it? & any “Faustian” author of the realms that comes to mind that could have penned it + any cult/cabal that would be interested in it? |
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 15:58:19
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Hi again, all. hecatedreaming, Ed sent me back a reply for you right away, and here it is:
I have indeed read the Club Dumas. That story arc could be set in several places (and times) in the Realms (with a little tinkering, of course), including:
Sembia, Amn, Baldur's Gate, Telflamm, Var the Golden, and Chessenta.
As for the author and the cult, that I'm afraid runs right into a current NDA, and I can't answer you until certain things have happened (or not). Sorry.
So saith Ed. Who has read a HUGE number of books in his fifty years, and shares his house with over 80,000 of them.
love to all,
THO |
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Menelvagor
Senior Scribe
Israel
352 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 19:50:06
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| Ah, but how big is his anti-library? |
"Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly.
How much less them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation in the dust, are crushed before the moth?" - Eliphaz the Temanite, Job IV, 17-19.
"Yea, though he live a thousand years twice, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?" - Ecclesiastes VI, 6.
"There are no stupid questions – just a bunch of inquisitive idiots."
"Let's not call it 'hijacking'. Let's call it 'Thread Drift'." |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 20:42:49
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quote:
Originally posted by Menelvagor
Ah, but how big is his anti-library?
Well, Menelvagor, by definition Ed's anti-library must consist of all of the books that have been published in the history of the world that Ed does not own... hence, his anti-library is just as large (in approximate terms) as most of ours. But Ed's actual library puts mine to shame overall, although if we were to limit things to gaming products, I suspect we'd be much more evenly matched. |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
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Menelvagor
Senior Scribe
Israel
352 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 21:27:30
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| Actually, I term an anti-library as all the books you are aware of that you haven't read and want to, as a library is all the books you've read and wanted to. For example, I don't want to read health books dealing with problems pertaining specifically to women, so that's no part of my anti-library. |
"Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly.
How much less them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation in the dust, are crushed before the moth?" - Eliphaz the Temanite, Job IV, 17-19.
"Yea, though he live a thousand years twice, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?" - Ecclesiastes VI, 6.
"There are no stupid questions – just a bunch of inquisitive idiots."
"Let's not call it 'hijacking'. Let's call it 'Thread Drift'." |
Edited by - Menelvagor on 21 Apr 2010 21:28:08 |
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 21:42:27
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Hi, all.
One clarification re. Club Dumas: Ed mentioned in a later e-mail to me that it would work just fine in Tethyr, too - - but in the past (before the Black Days).
love,
THO |
Edited by - The Hooded One on 22 Apr 2010 03:03:43 |
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sfdragon
Great Reader
2285 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 23:07:02
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I have another question, but this one requires an opinion.
the Sarhuk( reptial creator race, I cant spell it from memory) as listed in the frcg as being sterile, so my question is, if a what was once known as a yuan ti abomination mated with a were serpent, would the offspring resemble a said member of the creator race???
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why is being a wizard like being a drow? both are likely to find a dagger in the back from a rival or one looking to further his own goals, fame and power
My FR fan fiction
Magister's GAmbit
http://steelfiredragon.deviantart.com/gallery/33539234 |
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Elfinblade
Senior Scribe
Norway
377 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 23:14:21
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Ed, Lady Hooded, scribes.
Are there any ranger/druid enclaves/outposts in the forested areas surrounding Delimbiyr Vale? Preferrably in Upvale, either near The High Forest or The Far Forest.
Thankee, Stig. |
Edited by - Elfinblade on 29 Apr 2010 09:30:10 |
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 22 Apr 2010 : 03:12:31
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Hi again, all.
sfdragon, I bring you a swift reply from Ed (who was of course one of the designers of SERPENT KINGDOMS):
The short answer is: No. Sarrukh are one sort of reptilian race, yuan-ti abominations are just that: "abominations" to the pureblood yuan-ti ideal; it's best to think of them as mutants or unique "weird" individuals, rarely alike but merely lumped together; they could just as well be called "the misfits." (Some being truely monstrous in shape and size; think chimaerae with all sorts of "extra" strange heads and limbs.) Wereserpents, on the other hand, can change form between a particular sort of serpent and another racial form (almost always human). So a mating between an abomination and a wereserpent would (70%) achieve nothing (the abomination would be sterile, or no conception would occur because of chemical mismatches), the developing offspring would kill the mother and be stillborn another 20% of the time, and the remainder would be 9% an abomination that could shapechange, and 1% something else (weird reptilian unique creature of DM's creation or choice). It's (not very slightly) POSSIBLE some of those 1% might be visually mistaken for sarrukh, but they would not BE sarrukh.
So saith Ed. Not that he's tried such matings, mind you.
love,
THO |
Edited by - The Hooded One on 22 Apr 2010 03:15:18 |
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sfdragon
Great Reader
2285 Posts |
Posted - 22 Apr 2010 : 03:31:03
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| many thanks.....now about that river in my previous question, am I to assume its dried up? |
why is being a wizard like being a drow? both are likely to find a dagger in the back from a rival or one looking to further his own goals, fame and power
My FR fan fiction
Magister's GAmbit
http://steelfiredragon.deviantart.com/gallery/33539234 |
Edited by - sfdragon on 22 Apr 2010 03:31:45 |
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hecatedreaming
Acolyte
Sweden
2 Posts |
Posted - 22 Apr 2010 : 08:53:06
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| Thanks for the swift reply, a follow up question. Our campaign is set just pre-ToT & I’m thinking that SoFS with Telflamm as the main backdrop will work fine, so on to my question; any prominent bibliophiles in the area? |
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Zandilar
Learned Scribe
Australia
313 Posts |
Posted - 22 Apr 2010 : 09:12:32
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Heya,
quote:
Originally posted by createvmind
How are coma's handled in Faeruns various regions/races, basically how is the victim kept alive over a long period of time, say a tenday or more? How are they given sustenance especially if magic is not an option? I was looking over one of Monte cook's early edition Eldritch Might books and saw he had a poison that induced a coma for up to several weeks and I was thinking how does one kept the victim alive?
Other than Wish/ Miracle spells, would a Heal spell fix a coma caused more by despair and spiritual damage than physical damage?
Are bed sores something that occurs in Faerun, are races/cultures aware of how to treat them, again nonmagically?
I'm not Ed, but I think this is more something for an individual DM to decide, as it's more rules based than lore. :) My understanding is that Heal works on both natural and unnatural insanities. I suppose despair and depression might well be considered insanities, but I'd think that would be up to the individual DM. Also, as a DM I'd rule Heal would cure comas, unless they were caused by a curse, in which case Remove Curse would fix it. As for those caused by spiritual damage, that would all depend on exactly what you mean by spiritual damage.
Also, since biology mostly works in Abeir-Toril as it does on Earth (excluding magic from the equation, of course), there's no reason why bedsores wouldn't exist. I'm sure that medicine has evolved in Faerun enough that most civilized races would know that you need to move your patient to stop them from happening (prevention being better than cure)... In any event, such injuries would probably be easily handled by Cure Light Wounds. (Remember also that probably the vast majority of people with any medical training at all are likely to be clerics, so...) |
Zandilar
~amor vincit omnia~
~audaces fortuna iuvat~
As the spell ends, you look up into the sky to see the sun blazing overhead like noon in a desert. Then something else in the sky catches your attention. Turning your gaze, you see a tawny furred kitten bounding across the sky towards the new sun. Her eyes glint a mischevious green as she pounces on it as if it were nothing but a colossal ball of golden yarn. With quick strokes of her paws, it is batted across the sky, back and forth. Then with a wink the kitten and the sun disappear, leaving the citizens of Elversult gazing up with amazed expressions that quickly turn into chortles and mirth.
The Sunlord left Elversult the same day in humilitation, and was never heard from again. |
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Kyrene
Senior Scribe
South Africa
729 Posts |
Posted - 22 Apr 2010 : 13:54:07
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quote:
Originally posted by The Hooded One
Oh, and a postscript that's partially NDA'd:
Those harbour chains aren't JUST chains. Think wizards and magic again.
love,
THO
I seem to recall something about those chains in Mel Odom's Threat from the Sea trilogy (specifically the chapters detailing the attack on Waterdeep).
Which of course sparks another question: how much (if any) did he collaborate with Ed when writing it? (I'm assuming quite a bit, since the details he wrote into it are astonishing sometimes)
And I would give a substantial part of my savings to be able to read the 'Waterdeep Bible' (even if I may never say a word about it–the reading act, not what I read while reading–as some additional clause to the NDA I would have to sign to do so) |
Lost for words? Find them in the Glossary of Phrases, Sayings & Words of the Realms
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Questions for Ed Greenwood (2010)
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