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Author and creator of the Forgotten Realms. Ed Greenwood is a Canadian writer and editor who created the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons. In 1987, Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb wrote the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set for TSR—though Greenwood had used the Forgotten Realms for his home Dungeons & Dragons campaign since 1975. The spawned campaign world was a success, and he has been involved with all subsequent incarnations of the Forgotten Realms in D&D. Greenwood's most lasting character from the setting is the wizard Elminster, who he portrayed (at TSR's request) for a number of years at conventions and as a participant in the RPGA's Living City campaign. Since the release of the Forgotten Realms, Greenwood has published many Forgotten Realms novels, as listed below. He retains certain rights of his setting, but is essentially a freelance author. |
 BRIMSTONE February 13, 2010 | Mr. Greenwood, would you be willing to write for the Pathfinder Novel Line that Paizo announced? I would love to read some Golarionlore written by you. Thanks for your time. |
| Ed Greenwood February 13, 2010 | Heh. Not only willing to write Pathfinder - - I already do. (Elves for the "base" rulebook, some River Kingdoms lore and monsters; oh, yes, I've been a busy boy.) As for novels, we'll see. I'd love to, but there's this little matter of time (as in, carving out enough). And coming to an agreement, which for my novels would be handled by my agent, Andy Zack. Frankly, I'd like nothing more than to write a long string of New York Times-bestselling fantasy classics set in Golarion...but we'll just have to see. If you want to see something like that, please let the good folks at Paizo know. Really. I'll be standing by, eagerly. |
 steelfiredragon January 18, 2010 |
I have a question for you, if its not covered by NDA. what was the official fate of the elven moonblades during the spellplague, that were on both the mainland and the island of evermeet? ( does include Darkmoon) |
| Ed Greenwood January 19, 2010 | Unfortunately, that one is heavily NDA'd. Sorry. There are a lot of matters Realmsian I'd love to talk about, but can't - -and, yes, that's one of them. Cool things, moonblades, so lots of writers, designers, DMs, and players want to play with them. :} |
 Petorius December 26, 2009 | When you write do you use note cards or do a "story board" of sorts, or do you pretty much have it all in your head and lay it out and perhaps tweak as you write? What do you do your best writing (time of day) and do you have a daily word count you try to hit? Any thoughts you can share with us budding, somewhat-published writers on writing in the wondrous genre of Fantasy would be appreciated. |
| Ed Greenwood December 27, 2009 | I'm afraid my answer is going to have to be the grandly useless "it depends." The problem is the nature of professional writing. Some publishers (for short stories, for instance) hand me a theme (e.g. I need a piece on a talking dog that solves crimes in airships), a length and deadline (only 3,000 words, but I need it tomorrow), or even a piece of artwork to write something to "match" or "fit with." Others give me carte blanche, but in today's money-ever-tighter publishing world, this is increasingly rare. Some publishers only consider complete manuscripts; others want three sample chapters and an outline. Some prefer a Hollywood pitch ("LORD OF THE RINGS only in modern-day New York, as a gang fight with a Depp hero fighting a Connery-like villain, with the One Ring being a new invention that the FBI and CIA are both after...not to mention terrorists and a shadowy evil international arms corporation."), and others want a detailed, chapter-by-chapter outline. So when I write, I jump through the hoops that go with that particular project. Over the years and some 180 published books, I've tried everything, from collaborations in umpteen different ways to writing a story backwards from the final chapter towards the front, hopscotching from different character Points of View, changing tense...the works. For me, there is no one "Right Way," and beware writers who tell you there is. They may be right FOR THEMSELVES, but probably won't (except by blind luck) be right for you. I can tell you that, for me, just letting the characters tell the story is a lot of fun, but the writing takes longer and there's less of a driving pace or a lean, coherent plot. Having an outline, even if it's just a series of sparse placeholders ("Chapter 16: hero runs into the villains with the octopus. Big fight scene, everyone gets away."), yields me a better narrative flow and more coherent plot; if I write VERY detailed outlines, with key dialogue and the works, it works marvellously, EXCEPT that it never "fits;" stuff runs long and laps over into later chapters, or has to be ruthlessly pruned away if I want to avoid that "wordage creep." I also live a very busy life, with a part-time and everchanging shifts day job and lots of other obligations (I chair a local library board, for example), so my best time of day is whenever I can snatch some keyboard time. More usefully: the more tired you are, the worse your writing is, so if your time is your own, I'd wake fully (bath or shower, something to eat, and something to drink BESIDES COFFEE) and then sit down to write, working until you're satisfied with a scene or a chapter. Some writers set a wordcount they want to get "done" every day, the smart ones settling on what seems to work best for them rather than clinging to an arbitrary number. It's NOT an arms race, folks; although you need to do a little better than a book a year to hope to earn a living purely by writing, some of us can churn 'em out, and some of us take three years or more per book: do what suits YOU. Here's the "Big Trick," though: if you possibly can, don't finish at a nice clean breakpoint like the end of a chapter. START the next chapter or scene, then leave it unfinished, because it will be easier to start writing again in your next session if you can step into the middle of something unfinished. For me, I like to write in the mornings when my schedule allows it, and like to polish off a 3,000-word chapter and get comfortably into the next one, plus reading over the previous day's work to catch and polish awkward bits, every day. I have written as much as 12,000 "final" words in a day, and as little as a paragraph, but the "chapter-and-a-bit" seems to be my usual. Your mileage may very well vary. I don't use note cards, but if you have been mentally mulling over a tale for a long time, and have written some vivid scenes, use note cards to represent them and shuffle them into the best story order, to identify the missing scenes you need to write to link them, and to get them into the right order to tell the most stirring tale. I can go on and on blathering, but as I said, what works for me may not work for you, so I'll stop now. :} All fair fortune, on whatever you write! |
 Jeremy G. December 26, 2009 |
Hello Ed! To help populate my 4E Realms campaign, I've decided to create one War Wizard NPC a day for 2010. One of the themes I'm exploring are War Wizards who act as crown investigators of murders and thefts of valuable objects. Something I'm running up against, though, are the new, more stringent laws that govern all in Cormyr (such as the no mind-reaming law) that even the War Wizards must abide by. This led me to wonder about old laws and customs that might have changed due to the circumstances surrounding the Spellplague and the war with Netheril/Sembia; in particular the rule that no War Wizard may ask to be told the location of, nor enter a noble family's extradimensional refuge created by the Sword Heralds. Would you consider it plausible for King Azoun V to enact a Royal Decree that all of Cormyr's portals (including Sword Herald refuges) are to be cataloged and confirmed by War Wizard investigators as still functioning as intended -and not leading now, for example, to the mustering grounds of the Shadovar army or the lair of a hive of Troll-producing Deepspawn- before any can be used legally again? Thank you! |
| Ed Greenwood December 27, 2009 | Some of what you ask about treads into NDA territory for me, I'm afraid, but to dance the dance and try to answer you usefully . . . the mind-reaming law has to do with Spellplague effects that started to drive the reaming wizards as well as the reamed victims barking insane, withiut yielding useful results (this was random, and to varying degrees, but the point is: this isn't just a law that a "dark ops" can ignore; someone who ignores it can end up crazy without learning anything useful, and they might or might not ruin the "witness" for anyone else to try). Yes, it's plausible that the Crown would want such a catalogue and investigation carried out, but an official decree would probably backfire (and Azoun V would know it): everyone involved would cooperate as little as possible, and set traps to kill the maximum number of War Wizards. So it would far more likely be an internal "standing order" that senior courtiers, Highknights, and War Wizards know about and obey, and no one else (if nobles end up confronting said agents in their own mansions, the agents will tell them, "We're here because of your portal, and a grave peril to all the realm - - yourselves included - - that we've learned about. No, we can't tell you what it is, yet. Speak to the King, and he'll reveal to you what he can. In the meantime, stand back and let us work, or else."). There is no "legally using" portals, there is only "forcibly controlling access to them," although you can be sure that War Wizards (and a lot of other mages) will be busily trying to create new, post-Spellplague wards to prevent creatures from using portals, or that sound alarms if creatures try. And so on . . . have fun. :} |
 Snowblood December 19, 2009 | Hi Ed just a simple query...if Siluvanede's symbols is a griffon, and Ammarindaar's is a 3 point crown with 4point stars above, then what is the symbol for Eaerlann???? |
| Ed Greenwood December 19, 2009 | Eaerlann's symbol is the maranthae. Specifically, the maranthae is a small woodlands flower found throughout much of Eaerlann (and almost nowhere else in Faerun). It's faintly phosphorescent, in that it captures and gives off (as a VERY faint glow) sunlight and other radiances (e.g. a lantern). As a badge or symbol, the maranthae is depicted as an eight-petaled flower seen "straight-on" from above (so the long, thin, curved-to-symmetrical-points petals occupy the four cardinal compass points and their bisectors). The petals are, as in nature, a rich blue at their central hub, shading to gold one-third of the way "out," with two-thirds of each petal gold. The maranthae is closely surrounded by a circular wreath of overlapping green leaves, points to the right (clockwise), with the ring of space between flower and circle of leaves being a light sky blue. There. :} Potted Realmslore! |
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