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LOST LORE OF THE REALMS  #6

Here’s another grab bag of Realmslore from the dimly-lit labyrinthine recesses of my lore files:

Mystra’s Current Domain

No mortal knows where Our Lady of Spells dwells, for the very good reason that Mystra is currently dwelling within the Weave (so, on Toril, but hidden, “everyone at once” and spinning her own extra-dimensional spaces out of it when she wants rooms for mortals and servitors to enter), with backup ‘echoes’ of herself in Azuth’s realm (quietly inhabiting a castle of deep royal blue mists, of the same hue as one sees when “falling”—the silently and gently plummeting sensation through mists experienced for just a moment, when plane shifting or stepping through a gate (portal) in the Realms).

Yes, Mystra is the Weave, so she’s hiding within herself.

Yes, mortals find that bewildering. As we have so much more to learn about the gods.

As Mystra is the Weave, hiding within it, for her, is about the same as your friend walking into a room naked, then turning their back on you, and pretending that because they now can’t see you, that therefore you can’t see them; they’re “hidden.”

Mystra can still be hurt or slain, but it’s hard to smite her, because if she’s subsumed into the energy flows of the Weave, she’s “everywhere and nowhere”...there isn’t a concentrated target for a foe to hit. They can easily hit her, but it’s a thin, small bit of her.

And one thing a god can normally not do is harm Mystra purely by spells: she’s their power source for spells, and can cut them off instantly. (Note: she can’t cut off spell effects, such as an avalanche caused by a blasting spell, but she can cut off the energies of the spell itself.) Gods cannot normally enter the Prime Material as gods (they can only manifest, or create avatars, or work through the minds of mortals), but there are lots of exceptions, Mystra being one, and Eldath being another.

Epic Magic That Still Works In The Realms of 1500 DR

The epic magic still usable in the Realms today are workings that take the form of rituals: long, complex sequences of spellcastings done by multiple casters working together.

Ao and Mystra sharply curb the use of these by non-mortals, particularly residents of other planes, and watching for transgressions (any castings of overly powerful spells in a reckless manner) is a major part of Azuth’s job, and the primary task of the reascended Savras.

Drugs In The Realms

Both for medicinal (healing) and mood altering, most drugs in the Realms are derived from natural herbs and fungi, mixed in particular (sometimes secret) combinations, and powdered, or distilled in particular saps or animal fluids (for their protein).

These are largely dispensed by clergy, their makings “temple secrets,” and the drugs themselves shrine- and temple-sold products.

As such, there’s no frowning upon their use, just secular frowning upon their use in particular situations (no warriors going into battle drugged except with permission of their commanders, no driving coaches or wagons while drugged, etc.).  As in our real world, stimulants like kaethe (coffee) and depressants like alcohol are consumed “for pleasure,” tobacco too, and such uses are socially accepted. Many, many folk make use of painkillers, either purchased or self-administered (“herblore”). Where temples or shrines are absent, peddlers wander by, and there are often “village wise women” who make their livings concocting ‘physics’ (medicines). In some places, such women may get called “the local witch.” They are most consulted by folk who have bad infections. Then next most consulted for contraception. Then for abortions. And then for  “help me get pregnant, but it's got to be a boy” or “a girl.”

Some make a lot of extra drugs (usually elixirs, but sometimes ointments) for sale, and peddlers and pirates are the main carriers of these goods to the wider Realms. Pirates shuttle drugs all around the Sea of Fallen Stars as cargoes, using Marsember, Westgate, and Calaunt as their most major ports.

Here are a few widely-used drugs. Most of these are secret-recipe mixtures of herbal distillations, plant saps, and animal secretions. They have no real-world inspirations or counterparts.

Alindluth (“AL-inn-dluth”): (ingested) Deadens all pain (prevents shock, nausea effects) for a few minutes. No known side-effects, but if used too soon after first exposure (or in too large a dose; dosages vary by body volume and weight), induces short-duration coma.

Chaunsel (“SHAWN-sell”): (bare skin contact) makes affected area VERY sensitive for short durations (up to about twenty minutes maximum). Often used by thieves or others working in darkness, on fingertips, to make them able to feel tiny details, seams, etc. Also used in festhalls or by wealthy lovers to increase sensations of pleasure-and by torturers to increase feelings of pain. Too much sensation usually causes fainting; revival plus repeated sensory overload (through pain or pleasure, not by chaunsel overdose) will bring on a coma lasting hours. Overdose causes days of numbness in affected area.

Tansabra (“TAN-sab-rah”): (injected, must reach bloodstream) Causes complete ‘system shutdown’ in mammals (humans, demi-humans, humanoids): breathing is suspended, body temperature ‘holds,’ need for oxygen ceases, bleeding stops, any internal bleeding and tearing ceases unless fresh wounds are induced, acids and toxins suspend operations, consciousness ceases. In effect, the body is placed in stasis. Usually used on persons near death, because they are rendered helpless, and remain that way for 4d6 days, emerging from that state suddenly and without warning. Certain little-known arcane and divine spells can force release from “tansabra sleep,” and there are rumors that certain rare gem powders and/or herbs can “shock” someone out of tansabra sleep, but otherwise, an affected being emerges from the effects of tansabra at a random time.

Creatures in tansabra sleep don’t heal naturally, and magical healing doesn’t affect them—but of course they can be conveyed to magical healing while in thrall to the tansabra, and healed the moment they ‘awaken.’

Repeated exposures to tansabra kill individuals, but how much exposure is lethal varies randomly from being to being (volume of tansabra doesn’t matter; it’s number of distinct times the body undergoes its effects). Tansabra is a mixture of particular creature venoms.

Vornduir (“Vorn-DOO-eer”): (inhaled powder) This drug varies widely in effects. To many people, it does nothing at all. Others get mild rashes and itches. For a few, it ‘switches’ pain and pleasure for an hour or two (so a gentle caress brings excruciating burning/ripping pain, and a slap or flogging or heavy punch or cutting wound can induce orgasm), and for others, it makes them feel warm (even if wet and/or naked and/or out of doors in freezing temperatures) and happy and alert (for two days or more, sleep isn’t needed and dexterity and judgement don’t suffer due to weariness). Vornduir prevents shock and immobility due to exposure, but not frostbite or lowered body temperature (so a vornduir user won’t get hypothermic, but could freeze solid). Vornduir is a mixture of herbs and animal essences, and also acts as a “complete and instant” antidote to certain poisons-for some individuals only!

Swordfighting Styles In The Realms

In the past, there were some schools of blade fighting (what we would call “fencing” in our real world) run by blademasters (what we would call “masters of fence,” like Agrippa and Capo Ferro). In the Common Tongue, across Faerûn from Chessenta westwards, their various systems were collectively known as “blademastery” (elves tend to use that term with a sneer, as they see most human swordplay as ‘crude hacking’).

Famous blademasters of the Realms (who flourished in the 1200s DR) included Daunt Flarashe (human male from the Velen peninsula), his rival Szarphorra Thuree (half-elven female, from Ithmong [now Darromar]), and the elderly, white-bearded, dapper human male Irazand Meldoenndur from Luthcheq.

The acrobatic fighting style adopted by whipsword users, elven and otherwise, is known as “sworddancing,” but this isn’t a codified fighting style so much as a visual description.

Artificers From Lantan

The Lantanna carry or wear lots of enchanted portable items (like monocles, rings, belt buckles, earrings, bracers, pectorals, etc. etc. that are spell storing, or like magical batteries (they can be partially drained to boost a cast spell in potency/damage and reach/range/area effect), or that have small-scope (like a Quaal’s Feather Token in power level) permanent magical effects, but can be combined with other items touched to them, to produce a combined effect (like the Rod of Seven Parts or the Staff of Waterdeep). Artificers of Lantan enchant items, temporarily or permanently, and use items as foci for their magical discharges.

Handguns in the Realms right now tend to be what we might call “doglocks” (primitive flintlocks). The guns of artificers are an exception...not because the guns are that much more advanced (they are, but only because of better materials: lighter, non-rusting alloys), but because the bullets they fire tend to be enchanted, so they wound/penetrate and also deliver a harmful spell effect.

The Dragon Orothdroun

A dragon who perished in the time of Ahghairon, yet lived on in undeath because of the wyrm’s own magical preparations. Most bards and even tavern-tongues can figure out that Orothdroun was a breed of dragon that could shapeshift, and had the desire and the acting skills to dwell among humans disguised as one of them and not be caught, but the tales preserve little beyond his name and what he did after death. And likely still does.

 It’s known that Orothdroun dwelt in Waterdeep for decades, as a “human” alchemist of Castle Ward, Droun Havalandur. He concocted and sold medicines, sealants, lubricants, and seasoned cooking oils, work that seemed to content him. Yet in secret, he experimented with necromancy, preparing himself for continued existence beyond death. Perhaps he expected to be murdered, by humans or other non-human lurkers in Waterdeep or even draconic rivals who’d long been seeking him—or perhaps he was simply fascinated with the magical experimentations, the extending of his own mastery.

Neither Khelben nor Elminster knew Orothdroun’s motivations or even the cause of his death, though it seems to have been sudden, not noticed by the city at large at the time, and to have done nothing to extinguish Orothdroun’s love of dwelling in Waterdeep, and taking interest in the unfolding daily lives of its human citizens. Droun Havalandur died fighting evil mages who wanted to enslave him and make use of his necromantic research and skills. He’d have been helpless against them if he’d been just the human he appeared to be; as it was, he perished as a dragon, taking out almost all of them in the fight...and then, thanks to his preparations, “rose” as a ghost.

Elminster (correctly) believes Orothdroun was an adult silver dragon in life.