LOST LORE OF THE REALMS #26

Life continues to get in the way of what I hoped would be a hiccup-free steady schedule of posting lore snippets from the Realms, but here we are: right day, if a lot later than I intended. Yet, here we go!

What Does Music In The Realms Sound Like?

Here are real-world pieces of music that can be used to try to evoke or imagine the ‘sound’ of some Faerûnian music.

Minstrels usually play lutes and harps, using bells, foot-stamping, sometimes sticks (the wooden equivalent of ‘spoons,’ played for rhythm against one’s knee or thigh), and occasionally ‘pipes’ (handmade hollowed wooden instruments closer to what we would call penny-whistles or even kazoos than pan pipes or flutes) when travelling from inn to tavern, entertaining with ballads.

A strong voice (such as that possessed by Maddy Prior) is prized in such work, and the Steeleye Span renditions of the folk standards “The Prickly Bush” on their CD entitled TIME, “The King” on PLEASE TO SEE THE KING, and “Who Am I?” from Maddy Prior’s solo disc FLESH & BLOOD are good ‘general examples’ of what most good ballad singing would sound like.

Listen past the lyrics to the tune and musical performance of Jake Thackray’s “Isobel Makes Love On National Monuments” to hear the rhythm and sound of a ‘standard’ tune a minstrel might set topical ribald words to (‘jokes of the day’ singing).

More typical (Dock Ward ‘low-tavern’) singing would sound closer to Ben Jonson’s “Paggington’s Pound” as performed by The Musicians of Swanne Alley on the CD entitled IN THE STREETS AND THEATRES OF LONDON/Elizabethan Ballads and Theatre Music, or Ann & Nancy Wilson’s rendition of “My Thing Is My Own” on THE RENAISSANCE ALBUM.

Out in the countryside, untutored voices raised in (usually tavern) song would sound like the Kipper Family.

Moving up several rungs, “Dawn of the Day” from Steeleye Span’s TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT and “Reynardine” from Maddy Prior’s ARTHUR THE KING are good examples of what intimate balladry performed for high-paying patrons (nobles in Waterdeep or Cormyr, in their parlors or private chambers) sounds like.

Monastic religious singing in the Realms is usually plainsong chanting, often accompanied by instruments playing a ‘drone’ (long-held notes, somewhat akin to real-world Gregorian chant when accompanied by lone organ notes). A good example of this can be heard on the CD entitled SALVE REGINA by the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of Saint-Maurice & Saint-Maur, Clervaux. At its most gentle and elaborate (the clergy of Eldath, for instance), such performances sound very close to Enya’s “Isobella” (most easily found now on the ONLY TIME 4-CD collection).

Revels hosted by the wealthy in Waterdeep, Cormyr, Sembia, Amn, and Tethyr tend to employ lutists (alone or two lutists in duet). Try Paul O’Dette’s ROBIN IS TO THE GREENWOOD GONE disc for a taste of the general ‘feel’ of this.

Those who hear the Peter Sellers comedic rendition of the Beatles “A Hard Day’s Night” and listen past the vocal to the musical accompaniment will hear what the grandest instrumental pieces played for the wealthy sound like.

Most upper-class revel or court dance music sounds very close to Terry Tucker’s “Overture To The Sun” on the soundtrack of the movie CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Slow court dances sound very much like “O Mistris Mine” as performed on the Dorian compilation disc ELIZABETH’S MUSIC.

Although there aren’t really symphonies in the Realms, as we real-world folk know them, there are song-cycles: extended stories told by ballads being sung in a particular sequence. Most of these are ‘later inventions,’ concocted by a minstrel or bard stringing together their personal favourites (or tunes that they could perform well, and that were popular with paying audiences) into a story of sorts, and then knitting them together with altered lyrics, additional linking songs, and sometimes short spoken-word orations, into the tale of one hero’s life, or a romance (often between a male human and a female elf, and often doomed by the resistance of their families or communities), or the reign of a villainous king, or the saga of a fearsome dragon or other predatory monster (and its eventual defeat).

The closest thing to symphonic music heard in the Realms are the triumphal marches and court pieces, and one cinematic piece captures their sound closely, except that in the Realms you’d not hear as much ‘swirling strings’ carrying the rising melody (it would be sung or played with horns) is “Promise Me” from Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack for the movie FIRST KNIGHT. Realms fans who attended Azoun’s funeral at GenCon years back may recall this last piece as our processional music on that sad occasion.

I should contrast such glorious grandeur with the work song or soldiers’ march, which often sounds very like “Rogues In A Nation” from the Steeleye Span PARCEL OF ROGUES disc.

Please note that I’m not just giving you personal ‘evoke a mood’ favourites (or I’d be sneaking in Clannad, some of the Excalibur soundtrack, a lot of the LOTR movie trilogy soundtrack, and divers Jethro Tull and Genesis pieces), but rather am trying to communicate the overall character of music in the Realms as I’ve imagined it down the years.

How Classes Unfold At The Lady’s College In Silverymoon

At this highly-respected school of arcane magic, instruction unfolds thus:

For lower-level students, there’s usually some formal instruction in the midmorning, then time for dining, relaxing, and study (spell memorization) through the middle part of the day, and then casting practise and instruction in the late afternoon and early evening, and then the evening is for experimentation and study, as assigned. Higher-level students depart from this routine depending on what they’re doing and who’s teaching them (for instance, days on end might be devoted to spellcrafting and experimental castings).

There are integrated classes in some minor disciplines: defenses (an approach to magic that combines wards, mythals, shieldings, detection, traps, double-spell locks, and deceptions), ‘building the will’ (learning how to concentrate despite mental weariness, physical discomfort, and distractions), and Weave Theory (trying to understand the interactions of natural energies harnessed by spells, and the implications of castings—for example, the “weakening the planar fabric” effect of opening too many portals near to each other, and how the presence of some spells cause others to decay, in mythals or just nearby).

There are no formal workshops wherein attendees can ask Art questions of prominent mages, but students can request private audiences with particular mages present at the school, or ask ‘masters’ (instructors) to “intercede” for them, introducing them to important mages who are visiting Silverymoon but not present at the College (most wizards make a point of avoiding the College because they don’t want to face a barrage of student audiences; when such wizards do grant interviews (these will almost always be conversations with perhaps light refreshments, not ‘how to’ spellcasting sessions), they tend to allow all interested students to come at once—the only occasions upon which several students will end up meeting with an important mage together.

THE NORTH boxed set told us that Vihuel is the Headmaster, but he later resigned his position to become High Master Emeritus, meaning ‘retired Headmaster still resident at the College as a researcher assisted by students.’ This sort of burn-out isn’t unusual, and there were cordial private voting moots among the faculty to choose a successor.

His replacement as Headmaster was the kindly, grand-voiced, whimsical and craggy-faced old man Avalann Phondras (LN hm W16), who preferred to be a friendly guide rather than an authoritarian. He was old and not expected to remain Head of the College for long before he, too, retired. As it happened, the Spellplague melted his brains, as he was tied to a hastily-erected protective ward, and he later died in care (in some back rooms of the College). Vihuel, already in the grip of mild dementia when the Spellplague made him worse, died soon after, also in care.

The current Headmaster of the College is Marlmurra Daethur, a NG hf W21 from the Tashalar, a seven-foot-tall, rail-thin brown-skinned woman with very large blue-black eyes set in a face that wears a perpetually-surprised expression, who acts quiet and demure and innocent and is anything but—as four Red Wizards recently learned to their cost (their teaching was swift, brutal, and fatal; she cast spells that literally turned them inside out, to die messily on the steps of the College after they’d attacked students and threatened her).

The sacrifice Phondras made, however unintentionally, saved the minds of almost all of his faculty and most of his students, if they were within the College when the Spellplague first struck.

The teachers include two haughty male gold elves, Calavondur Lathranue (CG em W17) and Tezayaurond Valthorr (NG em W16), who are carrying on a long-running feud with a female moon elf of greater magical accomplishments who’s incredibly beautiful (so most of the students and a few of her fellow faculty are helplessly in love with her). Her name is Thaeluvae Aunglimmer, and she’s a CG ef W19 who loves to teach and rarely sets foot outside the College.

The faculty also includes two crotchety male human ex-adventurers (in looks and manner, think Hoggle from the movie LABYRINTH) who teach novice students the basics in a worldly, gruff manner. They try to one-up each other with fanciful “Now, when I was an adventurer” boastings, and are Belloz (“Bell-OH-ss”) Flamdurn (NG hm W9) and Handur Skeldyn (LN hm W8).

There’s also “the Vulture” (though few dare call him that to his face), a master of illusions and battle-magic hight Lyland Blackrune, a tall, darkly handsome black-robed “I’m oh-so-important” type (LN hm W12) who loves acting mysterious when he’s not snapping orders and looking disapproving. He provides much of the daily discipline around the College, and tries to make both faculty and students scared of him. To his way of thinking, awed and frightened persons are respectful persons.

The Locations Of A Handful Of Powerful Magic Items In The Realms

In the city of Waterdeep, a deck of many things remains hidden behind a loose stone somewhere in the older, deeper chambers of Castle Waterdeep. Once word got around about this, a Watchful Order magist crafted a fake deck (its cards look the same, and are enchanted to keep them from mildewing, rotting, or easily catching fire, and they can glow from time to time, but do nothing more) and hid it where it can be more easily found in the Castle. It’s been found twice, and eventually put back, both times.

There’s a staff of the magi ‘hidden’ as one of the four posts of a canopied four-poster bed in Alustriel’s guest bedchamber in her palace in Silverymoon. There’s another a staff of the magi somewhere on a rooftop in Suzail (dropped there during an aerial night battle above the central streets south of the Promenade). And somewhere in the firest-overgrown Ghost Holds in Battledale, on the finger of an undead skeleton that can’t operate it, there’s a ring (finger-ring) that can make the user blink and emit a flame blade, and summon (teleport) yet another staff of the magi from an unknown elsewhere to the ring-wearer’s hand.

...And the "wouldn't fit" tags this time around are:

#Spellplague

#staff of the magi

#Suzail

#symphonies

#taverns

#(the)Tashalar

#Tethyr

#Tezayaurond Valthorr

#Thaeluvae Aunglimmer

#triumphal marches

#Vihuel

#(the) Vulture

#wards

#Watchful Order (Waterdeep)

#Waterdeep

#Weave Theory