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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hi again, all. xaeyruudh, here's Ed on Baalimr Selmarr:

"Brund" Selmarr (the origins of the childhood nickname are forgotten, but everyone uses it, including his family and the man himself) is an affable six-foot-seven muscled mountain of a man who lives above his shop, along with his wife Rella and his seven daughters. Rella is petite, but the daughters are all tall, muscled echoes of Brund himself, and are expert dyers, polishers, gluers, and finishers of wood.
The shop never closes; Brund employs three crews who travel about Arabel (and, in the summer months, the vicinity) doing everything from building homes and barns from the dirt up, to minor repairs and renovations (such as replacing windows and/or shutters, repairing doors, replacing rotting stair treads or railings, etc.). One of the three crews is always in the shop, sorting and cutting wood for the use of the other crews, and making furniture (specializing in sturdy, well-designed stools [designed to be climbed], chairs, and "tall-narrow-nook" shelving boxes that can be latched together in pairs for easy transport of their contents. The carpentry crews are cheerful, handy local citizens, who are encouraged to bring along their sons and daughters to be "trained up" into replacement crew members. Each crew has a base strength of ten "hands," plus trainees.
Brund is a fair dealer who rushes to rectify any mistakes free of charge, and is well liked in the city and its environs. He doesn't mind his workers "retiring" to set up their own competing firms, but his work is good enough and prices low enough that competitors have a hard time making inroads on his trade (he has cheerfully worked with former staffers on big projects, and welcomed back former staffers who've found pickings slim and want to step back into the steady coin and camaraderie). Brund is a simple soul who likes working with his hands, drinking (he has developed a prodigious capacity, and so seldom seems drunk), and taking long walks with his wife, who often recites ballads or reads racy chapbooks to him when they're alone. (For her part, Rella is an expert "feed forty no sixty no seventy mouths with something simple, hearty, and FAST" cook, and a painter of suggestive [read: "safe for public" erotic] scenes on board that have slowly begun to sell well (many to caravan dealers who take them to Waterdeep to resell at huge markups). Brund's daughters tend to be as affable as their fathers, to be good carpenters and great climbers, and to regularly rebuff suitors [in between taking as lovers the partners they fancy]. They are all good with accounts, and have watched their father boss the crews attentively enough to be very good "stand in" bosses, just by aping what they've seen him do. The two eldest are Lathleira and Maelra, and the youngest (a bit of a scamp) is Teleirla.
I hope this is of help.

So saith Ed, and there you have it.
love,
THO

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hi again, all. Ed is safe back home after a great Grandcon, whereat he enjoyed the company of many old friends and fellow Realms creators (Jeff Grubb, Steven Schend, Eric Boyd, Stan! and Matt Forbeck, not to mention new friends like Marc Tassin and old friends like Mark Nelson), played a little Lords of Waterdeep (even won a game, which is, he tells me, unusual when Jeff is sitting at the same table), and Made Future Plans galore.
So I handed him your latest posts, and he hath an immediate response for Jeremy:

One or two of the King's Forest roads began as hunting trails from the days when the elves "ruled" the land that is now Cormyr - - meaning, they were "drive the large game" (some of it monstrous by human standards) routes through the forest. Expanded/linked up, widened, and drainage-improved many times since. Including linking up with clearings that began as places where dragons were fought and a small area of forest ruined in the process. And were, much later, later "maintained" as human woodcutters' cutting-places.
(However, so far as I know, none of the roads began from magical calamities or rampaging monsters in human-ruled times. None of which would prevent erroneous local legends of wild spell-battles or monster-fights from springing up; there is, for example, one such tale of two dragons fighting to the death in midair above the forest, in the days when elf rule was waning and humans were moving in.)
Hope this is of help.


So saith Ed. Providing Realmslore whenever he can.
love,
THO

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Originally posted by Markustay

Something I just came across and added to my own Realms 'Cyclopedia -

Havenmere – “Havenmere is a village in Cormyr (or Sembia, it depends upon whom you ask) amongst the Thunder Peaks a mile or two south of Thunder Gap. The village, small by any scale, is situated on the shores of a tiny lake (also named Havenmere) that nestles in a notch in the otherwise forbidding mountains. The lake is deep, clear, and very cold. The soil along its shore is a bit more fertile then anywhere else nearby...”, Dungeon Magazine #14, pg.14, “A Question of Balance”.

This places it near the entrance of Volkumburgh Vale (The Shattered Statue): I recall someone doing a map and running a campaign around there awhile back.

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• Nyenae should be Neanae
• Varlance became Pheonard
• Faenar was mispelled Fanaer
• Narantha is mispelled Nalantha
• The following Birth and death dates were left off:
  Korra Crownsilver d. 1380
  Onsara Crownsilver d. 1412
  Savanth Crownsilver 1399-1440
  Ilaria Ravensgar 1398-1461

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Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer

OK that's pretty awesome. Thank you for sharing, Erin! :)

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Originally posted by Ergdusch

Hi Erin,

my thanks for bringing this flavory piece of lore to my and our all attention.
However, I'd be interested which of those names are "true" canon and in which source I might be able to find them. Can you provide that information too?

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And what's that with the family branch following Onsara Cronwsilver? It says "Dublicate"? Can you provide some insights here as well?

Many thanks in advance, Ergdusch

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hello, fellow scribes!
(snip)
Jeremy, there have been two naval "crown ship" graveyards in existence since before Azoun IV ascended the throne: a certain canal and turning basin in eastern Marsember for ships intended for salvage and reuse, that in most cases they never got and sank at their moorings, to the extent that in some spots three or more hulks are piled up atop each other, under the murky waters . . . and Margrath's Rest, a rocky "beach" well west of Suzail where ships were run ashore to be stripped of fittings, if they carried too much to simply be set afire and left to burn to the waterline, out on the waves, to sink and be disposed of in that manner. This beach hasn't been used for decades, now, but the rotten remnants of some large vessels can still be seen. (Margrath was an old retired naval captain whose last years were spent in a hut on the beach, fishing and smoking pipes and telling old tales.)
[This of course comes from Ed.]

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

And (still for Jeremy) Ed tells me there is a Duskrose family, it's not noble (though some members of it have been knighted, so there have been several individuals known as "Sir Duskrose" in the 1100s and 1200s DR), but it has for centuries been a Palace family in royal service (i.e. its members have been staffers in the Royal Court and Royal Palace, in Suzail).
More to follow, as I work my way through Ed's e-mails.
love to all,
THO

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

. . . And well met yet again! This time I bring the words of Ed of the Greenwood to Jeremy Grenemyer, in response to this query: "When Azoun IV took the throne, did he keep whoever was in charge of the Royal Gardens? Or did he appoint somebody new?"

Heeeere's Ed:

Hi, Jeremy! Good question, indeed. Upon the ascension of Azoun IV, he confirmed the continuance of the head Gardener Royal in office: the elderly, increasingly absent-minded (later became full-blown dementia) Gordroun Palonder, a kindly old expert who increasingly relied on younger and stronger assistants. Palonder secretly kept a "poison garden" on the roof of the Royal Stables, but evidently as a hobby rather than for sinister purposes, though Alaphondar and Vangerdahast both kept a close eye on him because of it. Palonder died in office, though for the last year of his service (1352 DR) he was bedridden. His successor was Relvarra Lionwinter, his best-trained assistant, a wise and clever but homely woman of a longtime Palace family. She eventually married a Purple Dragon officer, but refused to retire from her position. (And that's where my notes end.)
Hope this is of help!


So saith Ed, tireless spinner of Realmslore...
love,
THO

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From my playing experiences, the Roaringhorns in the mid 1300s DR had close ties back and forth between Cormyr and Waterdeep, cooperating on trade and investments, and younger family members got sent in both directions once a year or two on such matters and to "learn how the others live, and what their home turf is like," with occasional less-planned journeys when a Roaringhorn got into trouble with the authorities or senior family members (the easiest thing to do was pack them off to the other place, to live there for a time while things cooled down, or while a particular uncle or aunt "took them under wing" and taught /showed them a thing or two).
The families that I recall that have branches in both Cormyr and Waterdeep are the Rallyhorns and the Roaringhorns - - and although they lack noble standing in Waterdeep, a handful of Goldswords fled Cormyr in a hurry following the events of CORMYR: A NOVEL and took up residence in Waterdeep, living and behaving as they always did (i.e. as arrogant, freely-spending nobility).
I'll ask Ed if there are any other families represented in both places, that can fit your needs.
love,
THO

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Hi again, all.
xaeyruudh, Markustay is right: there are graveled dirt wagon-tracks encircling Arabel, with hardpacked-through-much-use "pads" or fenced areas used for caravan paddocks (assembly, camping, etc.) and livestock droving (beasts brought to the city for sale, and sold from these outdoor, outside-the-walls enclosures, being brought inside the walls only for slaughter or if purchased for draft use by residents of Arabel).
As for Markustay's question about air roads: Yes.
(As in, they exist, but Ed will have to provide all the details. Sorry!)
love,
THO

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Hi again, all.
Eilserus, I can begin to provide a partial answer to your last question (from my years of playing a PC with Ed as my DM):
Two main sorts of things: illegal trade substances (certain poisons, kidnap victims, cadavers or body parts and organs both fresh and preserved of sentient races, identifiable stolen goods like nobles' rings and royal regalia and paintings or statuettes snatched from Cormyrean collections) and contraband = trade goods that the smugglers are avoiding import and export limits and more often duties on, like weapons, armor, certain wines and spirits, minor magic items ("glowing globes" that serve as hovering light sources, for example).
The proximity of the warehouses of Arabel (and also the "handy highway" of the valley north of Eveningstar that the Haunted Halls open into) means that various caves and ravines in the Stonelands can be used as way-storage for goods to be "beyond the reach and scrutiny" of Cormyrean authorities most of the time, and moved into Arabel at just the right moment to be bought or sold when the right caravan-traders are stopping over (and to manipulate prices by affecting local supply, either producing a glut out of seemingly nowhere or a sudden dire shortage).
The Caverns of the Claws and the front room of the Haunted Halls themselves, not to mention that hollow in the rock pillar outside the Halls in the valley, all provide handy storage for small amounts of cargo.
We Knights (back when we were the Swords) saw this sort of shady shuttling going on all the time, and got caught up in skirmishes involving it fairly often (smugglers dislike witnesses). It was a way of life for some folk in Eveningstar, and this business, plus the legitimate overland mercantile trade, plus the Purple Dragon road patrols (notably out of High Horn and Arabel), all made the Lonesome Tankard a far busier and more profitable place than it would otherwise have been.
I hope this is of help. (Ed remains wildly busy right now).
love,
THO

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Originally posted by Eilserus

I'm assuming the restrictions on publishing anything about magic are to avoid wizards angered (hello Volo!) from secrets being revealed showing up from all over the Realms to blast anyone involved to ash? Or so a book of knowingly wrong experimental disasters don't have every fledgling wizard blowing themselves and everyone around them up? Or would there be other reasons?

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Hello again, all.
Jeremy, Ed's notes (the bits that I have copied over the years, when Realmsplay meant my character had "found out" this or that)on this topic say:

Female prisoners have been far fewer in number (the nature of their offenses tends to be more fines and property - - or in rare cases, title - - forfeitures than imprisonments), and are usually housed in cells at High Horn, or even individually at various state-owned fortresses and hunting lodges.

And:

Irlingstar was instituted for imprisoning male nobles when rebellions resulted in a high number of inmates at once, and their wealth and connections meant geographical isolation was wisest, to prevent bribery and to make their imprisonment "hurt," as opposed to becoming a country club stay whereat they could still make investments, carry on businesses, and affect politics during their incarceration (which a number of nobles managed to do while locked up in cells in Suzail, years earlier).

So saith Ed. And there you have it.
love,
THO

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hi again, all. I bring you the words of Ed, in response to xaeyruudh’s query: “The 2e Cormyr book mentions the Lord Magister of Suzail, the Lord Magistrate of Suzail, and the Lord Master of Suzail, and at least the latter two are Sthavar. What are the meanings of these titles, and are they sometimes held by three different people?”
Here’s Ed:

Yes, those three titles can and have been held by different people at various times.

The Lord Magister of Suzail is the Palace official in charge of keeping straight the registrations (and reportings-in, and whereabouts) of all independent, non-Wizards of War arcane spellcasters resident in Suzail or visiting the city. (The War Wizards spy on all such individuals when they can spare the manpower, and doing so is ongoing training for their novices and junior members - - and something of “punishment duty” for veterans.)

The Lord Magistrate of Suzail is head of the courts in which legal disputes in the city are adjudged. Cases involving nobles are an exception; they are heard in the Royal Court by senior courtiers, an Obarskyr, and usually also by a jury of peers (i.e. other nobles), treason being an exception often handled in near-secrecy by the Court Wizard and the reigning monarch. For matters large and small involving commoners, in which nobles and royalty are only involved as property owners, will be heard by the Lord Magistrate or magistrates (“magisters,” a term which often causes confusion with the “Lord Magister”) reporting to him.

The Lord Master of Suzail is an office that could in real-world terms probably best be described as “Manager of Public Works/Civic Works/Roads, Streets, and Sewers (also: Water and Drainage).” This “lord” can be a commoner (it’s an office awarded by the Crown, sometimes as a reward), and oversees the actual city workers.

So saith Ed. Providing Realmslore for us all, whenever he can.
love,
THO

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Found some other jottings I made (during play, with Ed as DM) re. those three offices of Suzail, so for xaeyruudh and all scribes interested in the lore of Cormyr:

The Lord Magister of Suzail advises the Crown on regulations and laws regarding the use of magic (so do the War Wizards, so the Lord Magister usually ends up championing the interests of visitors and "just plain citizens" as opposed to lawkeeping and state interests).

The Lord Magistrate of Suzail is responsible for the written records of all sentences. When records are incomplete or unclear, he acts as an appeals court of sorts, because he can change sentences in such cases.

The Lord Master of Suzail recently* hired some Suzailan beggars, idle street youths, the lame, and the elderly, to go about the city peering up at all buildings and noting crumbling stonework, roofing in need of repair, rickety outside stairs, and other "weathering that needs attention," so civic officials can talk about such things with property owners before collapses or really major repairs come about precipitously.

* = "recently" in this case meant 1358 DR

Knew I'd made some notes, but took me some time to find them, because none of this ever featured much in our adventuring.
love,
THO

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Ed shares:

Hi, Damian. Neiron later, I'm afraid, but as for Neiroon, I can now reveal more (as play has unfolded in the home Realms campaign, and so what I say here won't spoil things for my players).
Neiroon already had a habit of vanishing for long periods before the Knights first met him, and this continued. His hut beside the River Lis is nothing more than a small, ramshackle weathered one-room wooden structure with a moss-covered cedar shake roof. The dim interior has a huge wooden bed (four Knights once shared it comfortably, without undue intimacy), a simple trestle table with one good chair and a bench, a chamberpot, and a tiny heart with cauldron-hook. There's no basement, and when Neiroon's away, the chait, chamberpot, and cauldron-hook are all missing, as are the bedcovers (three blankets and a large array of beast-pelt furs). Neiroon has a well-concealed underground storage niche for all of this about a mile farther from the rive: a stone-lined shallow pit with a camouflaged earth-and-vegetation "lid" cover, on higher and drier ground.
Neiroon is absent for long periods because he travels a lot, alone and often employing avian or beast shapes (using his druidic magic). He maintains at least a dozen small, simple residences (and even more hidden storage caches, including at least two on the roofs and in the attics of grand mansions and palaces belonging to others).
Neiroon is an adviser, tutor, and sometime spy for at least six rulers (from petty "robber barons" in the Border Kingdoms and elsewhere to the heads of Chessentan city-states to noble families of Cormyr and Waterdeep who dominate the towns and villages nigh their countryside retreats. Neiroon makes a living hiding things or finding things and people for such patrons, carrrying messages for them, and either training or arranging for the right other person to discreetly train family members and trusted retainers of his patrons. He is something of a soft-voiced, quiet man of few words version of Aragorn, more apt to use illusion and ruse and silently slipping away or misdirecting than he is to draw sword and fight openly, but he has his own moral code, and has been known to dispense "poetic justice" to some he meets, in the manner Elminster has become so notorious for. He's not interested in publicity, reputation, or "the general public" getting to know his face, whereabouts, name, or what he's up to - - but he has been known to show up in Storm's kitchen on rare occasions for a warm bed, a good meal, and to dry out. As a friend, NOT a Harper. And that's probably about as much as I should say, given where events are right now in the home Realms campaign.

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Great questions, Hoondatha, and off they go to Ed.
From my notes, I can go this far (quoting Ed verbatim here; he was writing about the Dalelands, Cormyr, and Sembia, but the wording suggests he meant it to apply more widely):

In general, because of the fragility of glass, glass is blown just about everywhere that isn't arctic, so your "fairly common" supposition is correct (some local glass is just terrible, that's all: cloudy/full of inclusions and bubbles, fragile, thick and ugly).

However, we'll see what Ed has to add to that admittedly paltry lore.
love,
THO

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Hello again, all.
dazzerdal, great questions, and off they've gone to Ed. Here is what little I can say:

"First and foremost among the questions for me is what is the current status of the purple dragon. I realise history records him as being killed but i am wondering if that is the entire story."
THO: So far as I understand, this is still NDA.

"Second, has Thauglor ever been involved with any tinkerings in the weave around Cormyr (like Embrurshaille in Thar)."
THO: Yes.

"Sources indicate that the Obarskyr family are linked in some way to the Weave and this may have been inherited (not in a genetic sense but perhaps through knowledge or manipulation) from the elves. Is this linkage and malleability of the Weave in Cormyr in any way linked to Thauglor and have any other groups or peoples discovered and exploited this link (such as the Sword Heralds or Nalavaroth the Devil Dragon who Jeremy informs me could direct teleporting mages within Cormyr into her mouth). [Jeremy: "Oops! I meant to say she could redirect already teleporting wizards away from their destination directly into her maw."]"
THO: BIG NDA here. Beyond hints Ed has given me in the past that several individual dragons know some secrets of the Weave, and exploit them, and that this is the source of much "dragon magic" that doesn't fit the casting of known arcane magic spells.

"Third, what is the legacy of Thauglor, does he have any children, does he survive in some fashion, where is his lair and has it been discovered yet, how did he shape Cormyr after its beginnings (when he allowed the realm to be settled) apart from the purple dragon imagery which i understand started with Prince/King Duar."
THO: NDAs, yes, but I do know Thauglor had children. How many and their fates and/or present dispositions, I don't know - - but I can tell you that in the home Realms campaign, years ago, we encountered a beautiful human woman who escaped us in dragonshape (and so was a weredragon or song dragon or something else able to shapechange into a dragon and back) who used the name "Tharaela Blood-Of-Thauglor." And I'm afraid that's ALL I know about her, except that we Knights saw her watching us, just for an instant, years later.
And of course that means that Ed, as our DM, probably isn't going to say much more about this mysterious Tharaela.
However, when it comes to spilling about Thauglorimorgorus (who of course Ed created and named, though Jeff Grubb first brought him to life onstage in fiction, in CORMYR: A Novel; that is, Jeff wrote the first draft of the Thauglor scenes), we'll see . . .
love,
THO

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dazzerdal, you may well be on to something, re. Thauglor. (Ahem, hint, hint...)

And in regards to your second question (the one I answered with a bald "yes" because I've no idea until Ed and I talk how much I can share, let's just say that several of the Royal Magicians of Cormyr have come to believe that the dragons worked covertly with the Weave before both elves and humans were "allowed" to come into the area that is now Cormyr, possiby as something of an experiment. (The ability of certain dragons to work with the Weave akin to the way the veteran Chosen of Mystra do is one of the great unexplored areas of Realmslore - - and every time I nudge Ed to provide more, he smilingly directs me to his next novel, and his next, and his . . .
love to all,
THO

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And hello again, all.
Re. this, from Jeremy Grenemyer: "I was also wondering if any of the undead in the Haunted Wing have been successfully quelled, or at least subdued, by song alone?"

Ed just sent me an e-mail that included this answer for you:

Yes. Several of the "sad queens" (sad-eyed gliding court ladies, not actually queens or princesses, but the public gave them this nickname nonetheless) seem comforted by skilled harping of the style popular several centuries back, and will smile and nod and withdraw. And there are at least two minstrels among the ghosts, who can be driven away in rage by bad playing, or playing certain loud and uptempo modern dances. Legend holds that playing just the right tune will make one of them your friend, guide, and nightly confidant (if, ahem, you consider that a reward), but no one seems to have yet hit upon just what that "right tune" is.

So saith Ed. Intriguing me greatly, as it sheds light on some events in the home Realms campaign from YEARS ago. Gods, what a mind the man has . . .
love,
THO

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Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer

This thread is like a fine wine. The more time that goes by, the better and more valuable this thread gets.

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