Table of Contents (* for new or updated topics)

*1.4.11.   It takes a 41st level mage to cast "Create Mythal".
           Elminster helped lay Myth Drannor's Mythal.
           That was long ago, and he's not even 41st level now.
           What's up? Did he lose levels?
*1.4.12.   Who are/were the Witch lords?
*1.4.13.   Who are/were the Twisted Rune?
*1.4.14.   Who are/were the D'Tarig? What races of dwarven halfbreeds
           exist in the Realms?
*1.4.15.   Who/what is/was Wulgreth?
*1.4.16.   Who/what is/was Larloch?
*1.4.17.   What ever happened to Lashan?
*1.4.18.   What elven subraces exist in the Realms?
*1.4.19.   What is the rank structure of the Purple Dragons?

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1.4.11. It takes a 41st level mage to cast "Create Mythal". Elminster
helped lay Myth Drannor's Mythal. That was long ago, and he's not even
41st level now. What's up? Did he lose levels?

Steven Schend, Mythal Consultant, explained;

The suggestion that "Create Mythal" is a 10th level spell is largely
still true, but needing 41st level casters was a bit of fiction that has
since been amended--After all, with Elminster dictating and controlling
what information we get, some of it's bound to be twisted and altered by
its messenger. In this case, the idea of setting the levels (on spell
and caster) that high were to set mythal creation out of the hands of
player characters--That's the sole reason for that.

Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves updates and amends all of the details on
Myth Drannor's mythal (in its uncorrupted, new state), its creation, and
elven magics in general. It also reveals the identities of all the
casters of the mythal, and of those you mentioned above, all are
secondary or tertiary casters who contributed powers and energy but were
not direct casters of the primary magics that built the mythal.

As for El losing levels over the years, of course he has. Going
toe-to-toe for centuries fighting liches and battling all sorts of
otherplanar dangers is a surefire way to encounter some level draining.
After all, with 12 centuries of life, he'd have to have lost some levels
if normal mortals can still reach his strict class level. Just
remember--all the power one wields cannot be measured by level numbers
alone...
TOP | Intro

1.4.12. Who are/were the Witch lords?

DM Celtic contributes:

In late 800s, kingdom of Cormyr entered conflict with Witch Lords to the
east of Cormyr. The Witch Lords were evil necromancer lords who ruled
territory east of Wheloon and Wyvernwater and west of Sembia.

In the Year of Thirsty Swords (900 DR), King Galaghard of Cormyr battled
the forces of the Witch Lords at Wheloon, Juniril, and Manticore's
Crossing. The final battle between the two forces occurred at the Vast
Swamp, with Cormyr winning with help from elven stag cavalry. You can
find information on that battle in excellent "Cormyr: A Novel" chapter
20, named "Battle of the Witch Lords". In said chapter, you can see that
these Lords have a strong affinity for necromantic magics, as they
animated a whole army of undead (even the fallen soldiers of Cormyr and
their own fallen mercenaries from other battles) along with some alive
humanoids (orcs and goblins IIRC) to face the brave king of Forest
Kingdom. The Lords' wizards flew on the backs of giant bats and battled
flying War Wizards of Cormyr in the air above the ground battle between
Cormyte army and dark horde. Coryr would have lost the battle were it
not for elven lords and their stag cavalry. The Witch Lords dropped off
the radar after this battle.
TOP | Intro

1.4.13. Who are/were the Twisted Rune?

Todd Antill found:

The Twisted Rune is a "very" secret organization (or a cabal for a more
appropriate term) of evil aligned undead beings. This cabal reigns in
the background of the South (Tethyr, Calimshan, Arnaden, Erlkazar, and
Amn) from behind the scenes. The masters of the Rune, called
"RuneMasters or Mistresses" consists of several high level Liches, a
Dracolich and powerful Vampiress who wields a pretty powerful magic item
detailed in the Sea of Fallen Stars (thanks for that one Steve!) , and
many others. They have a network of undead, and underworld beings that
span the shadier backdrop of the entire Southern Realms.  The best thing
about this Network is that they don't really know whom they are working
for.... unlike many other organizations in the south, The Rune is
"Secret", and very few know of their presence. They actually rule
Calimshan from behind the scenes...and no one is the wiser.

They are currently responsible for the War against the Sithillisian
Empire in Southern Amn, and the advance of the Knights of the Black
Gauntlet against Tethyr's Southern borders... These guys have their
hands in so many goings on in the south, a party could easily be facing
their minions for years and never realize they work for the same people.

If you are looking for more info on the Rune, I suggest Lands of
Intrigue, and Empire of the Shining Sea as a start. They are mentioned
briefly in other products (such as Stardock and Sea of Fallen Stars),
but the bulk of the info lies in the first two...
TOP | Intro

1.4.14. Who are/were the D'Tarig? What races of dwarven halfbreeds exist
in the Realms?

Eric Boyd explains In the Realms (and I stress only in the Realms),
there are three known races or crossbreeds with dwarven and human blood.

a) Half-dwarves, as defined in FR11 - Dwarves Deep, are the offspring of
a human and a dwarf, a human and a half-dwarf, or a half-dwarf and a
half-dwarf. The offspring of a half-dwarf and a dwarf is a true dwarf.
(In other words, half-dwarves favor their dwarven parent.) They look
just like dwarves, except a little taller on average, and have all the
abilities and restrictions of dwarves. It is for these reasons that some
dwarves believe the best way to restore the race is to breed with much
more fertile human females.

b) The D'Tarig are a unique race with human and dwarven ancestry and
basically human abilities. They are not "half-dwarves." It is
unspecified what the offspring of a D'Tarig and human would be, but I
would speculate the child would be essentially human. It is unspecified
what the offspring of a D'Tarig and a dwarf or half-dwarf would be, but
I would speculate the child would be a half-dwarf as defined previously.

c) The derro are a unique race with human and dwarven ancestry and there
own unique abilities. They are not "half-dwarves." It is unspecified
what the offspring of a derro and a human would be, but I would
speculate any offspring would favor the derro side, and breed true like
a derro. It is unspecified what the offspring of a derro and dwarf or
half-dwarf would be, but I would speculate that any offspring would
favor the dwarf side, and breed true like a dwarf. Regardless, the issue
is probably moot, because derro may well be infertile with both dwarves
and humans so warped are they by the process of the race's creation. If
an offspring were to be produced, they would probably be killed
immediately by any of the above-mentioned races.
TOP | Intro

1.4.15. Who/what is/was Wulgreth?

George Krashos summed up:

Wulgreth made his first appearance in FR5 The Savage Frontier. In that
accessory, he is a lich who lives in the Dire Wood and is just plain
nasty. The write-up of Hellgate Keep notes that it was Wulgreth who
summoned the first devils into Hellgate Keep - but it doesn't mention
when exactly Wulgreth became a lich. It is noted however that the devils
had many mages of Ascalhorn embrace lichdom, so it could have been
before the fall of Ascalhorn.

The North boxed set gave us a date for the fall of Ascalhorn (The Year
of the Curse 882 DR) - which IMHO is far too late in the timeline for
various reasons I won't go into now - and the Hellgate Keep accessory
gave us the timeline for Ascalhorn/Hellgate Keep in total. This
information pretty much corresponds with the information in FR5.

The outlying piece of realmslore on Wulgreth comes from the Netheril
boxed set. An arcanist named Wulgreth is enveloped by a glob of 'heavy
magic' that Karsus tipped off of his enclave's edge, and transformed
into a lich. Now I remember having a discussion on this List last year
about whether this Wulgreth was the same one as the Ascalhorn/Dire Wood
Wulgreth. I think it was meant to be, but that Slade just really didn't
have his thinking cap on when he wrote him up. Simply put I found it
difficult to reconcile the fact that Wulgreth became a lich prior to the
fall of Netheril (i.e. before the Year of Sundered Webs -339 DR),
traveled to Ascalhorn (an enclave of the Eaerlanni elves, powerful in
magic themselves, and probably not too keen on having a lich in their
midst), WAITED about a thousand years or so (this is the bit I have
trouble with) and then decided to start summoning devils to take control
of the city etc., etc.

As someone suggested at the time of the previous discussion, the best
explanation is that there were TWO Wulgreths (perhaps the latter one is
a descendant of the first): the first is the one mentioned in the
Netheril boxed set (fate unknown), and the second is the one that helped
to create Hellgate Keep. Now I stress that this answer isn't in any way
perfect/totally acceptable/proof to criticism - but hell, it's the best
I can do!:)

Tim responded with:

Let's see; we have an ancient Wulgreth and a fairly modern day
Wulgreth.  He's a lich, so long life isn't a real factor here.  I
propose that the ancient Wulgreth had been imprisoned somehow. The elves
weren't too happy with his presence. Let's say the elves did take action
against him.  Only, instead of destroying him, they trapped him. Now,
after so many years, I would think he would have mutated into a
demi-lich so the entrapment must have involved some type of stasis.
Eventually, he got free (no doubt thanks to some treasure seeking
adventurers). Anyway, that would give a reason why he exists in two
different time periods and why he waited so long to start doing that
lich-hobby of summoning demons.  And, now there's some Realmslore we
haven't heard about him (like how was he imprisoned and who freed him).
How's that? I also want the disclaimer that this isn't perfect/totally
acceptable/proof to criticism :)

Jeff Bray had the final say with:

Yep.  I remember this discussion and I asked Steven Schend about it
after Hellgate Keep came out.  I figured that he would have reconciled
it.  As it turned out, he overlooked it and had no definitive answer off
the cuff.  Not his fault, I might add.  slade botched this one royally,
IMO.

(In discussing the possibility of 2 Wulgreth's Jeff responded)

Maybe it was I.  That's how I reconciled the facts myself.  Another
reason is that Clayton Emery's Netheril trilogy has Wulgreth in it. Now,
in the novel, Wulgreth is undead and got that way from heavy magic a la
Netheril box.  Here is why I think there were 2:  The lich in the novel
is a large, bestial creature that uses physical strength to
bully/terrorize others.  I can't imagine that this creature as portrayed
would evolve into something slick enough to be the catalyst of the fall
of Ascalhorn.  Also, how could he be a lich in a place crawling with
many powerful beings that might've taken offense to an undead in their
midst?  This would be before the summoning of devils, and them bringing
the knowldge of lichdom with them.  See also George's comment about the
time discrepancy between the 2 events.  I think the second one (of
Ascalhorn fame) found out about Karse and headed there at some point
after setting of the chain reaction.  I have him leaving before the
demons came so to outside Ascalhorn when it fell (for whatever reason).
Whether he used the devil-controlled method of lichdom or an independent
method, is unclear to me.  The fact that 2 guys with the same name are
involved with Karsus is in my book, a coincidence.

As before, there is no definitive answer to this question, despite the
fact that some are SURE that they are one and the same. Hmm, looks like
we'll have to just wait for the definitive answer to pop up somewhere -
if it ever does.
TOP | Intro

1.4.16. Who/what is/was Larloch?

According to Ed Greenwood:

Larloch is a onetime Netherese sorcerer (still possessed of a lot of
Netherese scepters, which he knows how to make) who is now a quite
insane "ultra-lich" (in this case, the term means he has many unknown
powers which are up to you the DM, among them the fact that he can still
learn and develop new spells, increase in levels, etc.). He's probably a
46th level evil-aligned wizard right now, and he crafted many of his own
undead abilities prior to undeath, which argues that he found his own
'process' for achieving lichdom.

Larloch is served by many (60+ ?) liches, formerly archwizards, whom he
guides in concert, as the leader of a telepathic-web 'Overmind.' Thus
far, neither psionics nor mind-influencing magics have ever been
effective against him or any of his servitor mages, because the others
in the link can withstand and overcome such influences, causing them to
fail.

In theory, an attack could reach all of them through the link, but some
quite powerful Red Wizards have tried and failed (Szass Tam didn't try
such an attack, which may be why he survived...he remains fearful of
approaching Larloch and his mages, but fascinated by the details of
their lichdom, hoping it might yield him some powers.)

One of Larloch's given-to-himself powers (which - in a long, involved,
and secret, personally-developed process - cost him 10 years of life and
some vitality, irrelevant of course given his goal of lichdom) is
automatic spell reflection (of all magic cast upon him). He can by act
of will override this ability, for example when he wants to work a spell
on himself; otherwise, it always operates.

Mystra (Midnight's predecessor as the goddess) is said to have allowed
Larloch to acquire powers approaching those of "old Netheril" in return
for 'leaking' spells to persistent adventurers he or his minions might
come into contact with, but this may be no more than rumour spread by
the Zhents or Red Wizards or Dragon Cultists, designed to lure
adventurers into Larloch-weakening forays...

As for Larloch knowing the identities and locations of other
liches/Netherese survivors...no, only the one's he's destroyed. Larloch
is too self-centered to hunt down folks who don't come within his easy
reach. He controls plenty of archwizards/liches already, but may decide
to try to either control or destroy a new one when they come into
contact. He seems to be pursuing other goals, however. Which ones?
That's up to each DM....."

Larloch and his lich minions have no interest in attracting attention
that would waste their time and magical resources (and perhaps, if word
got around how dangerous they were, even threaten their existence in the
face of a concerted attack from various magical power groups working
together). Larloch is not interested in ruling Faerun...but he IS
interested in creating and controlling a series of magical gates linking
many worlds (parallel Prime Material Planes) and Outer Planes...and so
rigging their enchantments that anyone using them comes under his
control/faces his forceful removal of their magic items, information
from their mind, and so forth. The gates are easy for him to create (he
licked all of those problems long ago). The control enchantments have
been giving him troubles for thousands of years now, and as an obsessive
perfectionist, he isn't going to let this rest until he gets everything
just so...nor is he going to create the gates until he's ready to put
the controls on them.

In short, he's a munchkin only if played that way. All Player Characters
have to learn sometime that there are folks in the Realms just too
powerful to tangle with. I'm reminded of the original Realms campaign,
and the Company of Crazed Venturers attacking Shaan the Serpent-Queen
(who briefly appeared in a Wizards Three DRAGON article). She was busy
working magic on a small island off Mintarn. They attacked, broke her
concentration, and she looked up with an irritated frown. They bid her
stop, or they'd destroy what she was working on; to demonstrate, one of
the Company mages touched (and disintegrated) a stone he was standing
beside.

She shook her head in derision, and touched the island beneath them,
disintegrating IT, and dumping the Company into the chilly sea waves for
a long swim...whilst she turned back to her spellcasting, floating on
nothing and ignoring them once more.

A heavy-handed lesson, but...well, Larloch's in the same league, and
more. Just consider him a power of the Realms and Don't Go There.
TOP | Intro

1.4.17. What ever happened to Lashan?

According to Ed Greenwood:

Lashan's in stasis, entombed in rock, deep beneath the Underdark. He's
also in larva (as in the Lower Planar creature) form, and rendered
forever mindless...thus, as Lashan, he was "destroyed." (Heeeheee! You
should have seen the faces of the my players when their persistent
enquiries led them to THAT calmly-related information!) P.S. Now is as
good a time as any to remind folks on the list that TSR editors often
change our wording...I never wrote "destroyed" re. Lashan, because in my
original, some of his men were still wandering around the School, blades
out, to bump into PCs at exactly the wrong times...(heh-heh)...
TOP | Intro

1.4.18. What elven subraces exist in the Realms?

Eric Boyd:
The elven subraces of Faerun are known by a variety of names, listed
below in decreasing order of "correctness." Those in parentheses are
known to be insulting.

Ar'Tel'Quessir, gold elves, high elves
Teu'Tel'Quessir, moon elves, silver elves, (gray elves)
Sy'Tel'Quessir, green elves, copper elves, sylvan elves
Alu'Tel'Quessir, sea elves
Ssri'Tel'Quessir, dark elves (pre-Descent, but used post-Descent as
well), drow (post-descent)
Avariel, winged elves
Cha'Tel'Quessir, half-elves of the Yuirwood
Lythari

In terms of population, the Avariel and the Lythari are by far the
rarest. While there are many half-elves, only a small population dwell
in the Yuirwood. Sea elves and green elves seem reasonably common. Moon
elves are somewhat rare, but most likely to be seen in human
settlements, so they seem more prevalent than they really are. Gold
elves are quite rare. Drow are rare on the surface, but there are large
numbers of them dwelling in the Underdark.
TOP | Intro

1.4.19. What is the rank structure of the Purple Dragons?

According to Ed Greenwood:

The Purples used ranks similar, but not identical, to the military ranks
in use in Cormyr  (and Sembia, though be warned that ranks in that land
vary wildly because of private patrons bestowing whatever titles they
like, from "Sword-Dog" to "Exalted Whirlwind of Might," these two
examples both being given to common footsoldiers).

In short, Purple ranks ascend, from lowest to highest, as follows
(modern-world VERY rough equivalents given in brackets):
Blade (soldier/private)
Swordcaptain (sergeant)
Lionar (lieutenant)
Ornrion (major)
Constal (colonel)
Oversword (general, force leader)

Another title in later and current use:
Swordlord (for unit commander;  where this falls in the hierarchy varies
with the size of the unit, from patrol to army)

...with bigwigs who sometimes never fought giving themselves "High
Oversword" and similar honorifics. (The bigwigs were senior nobles and
sometimes war wizards given military command for an undertaking.) Please
be aware that these titles were also changed at the whim of the leaders,
so DMs are quite safe in having a few 'weirdo/don't match these' titles
in their games.

In more recent times, the overall leader of a large force, if he or she
customarily did such things, is known in Cormyr as a "battlemaster"
(modern Americans might say "five-star general"). There IS one War
Wizard rank: "alarphon." An Alarphon is an internal War Wizards
investigator (sort of like a military policeman), allowed to ask probing
questions of everyone (Azoun and Filfaeril can tell him certain answers
just won't be forthcoming, but everyone else is supposed to furnish him
with the full truth).
TOP | Intro