Candlekeep: The Creator of D&D's Greatest Library Shares Its Secrets: #Realmslore Ep8 (Extended Video)

4 hidden secrets about Candlekeep shared by the original creator of the Forgotten Realms. 

Think: Big library in Dungeons and Dragons with way too many books that can kill you. 

 Like the library of Alexandria, Candlekeep serves as the Realms' greatest repository of knowledge.  

Go on a journey with Ed Greenwood as he explains hitherto unrevealed knowledge about this staple of the world he created.

FULL TRANSCRIPT
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Ed: Being as I have worked in public libraries since I was 14, I am now 63, um, the libraries have left their stamp on me, so I wanted to have a really cool library in my fantasy world and I put it there.

Ivan: Hi, I'm Ivan with many realms, and today we're talking all about Candlekeep. For many folks, Candlekeep Mysteries, which was an anthology of Adventures released in 2021, was their first introduction to Candlekeep. Today, Ed Greenwood gives us the gift of never Before Revealed Secrets of Candlekeep. And if you're hungry for more secrets of the realms, be sure to find Ed on Patreon where you'll get an exclusive look into the mind of the original creator of the Forgotten realms, extended videos, fully narrated write-ups, exclusive Discord roles and community tools, and more lore than you can shake a Wizard staff at.

Stop missing out and become a Protector of the Realms.

Ed: Candlekeep is the largest known by the public repository of written lore anywhere in the known Realms. It's right on the coast of the Sword Coast, um, and there's huge monastery that looks so, sort of like a castle fortress rising right out of the rocks and sea mists and it contains a gigantic library.

That is looked after by the a vowed monks of, um, Oghma and Deneir and augmented by every single visitor except for a special few certain, um, rulers, certain sages and, and on a personal level, you know, that, that have already paid their dues or are very important certain rulers and the chosen of Mystra and, and of Azuth and of others.

Are allowed in without paying the entrance fee for everybody else. The entrance fee is a copy of a work that Candlekeep doesn't yet own. And in other words, a book. And it could be if the, if the door guard likes it, it can be a, an accounts ledger. A romantic chapbook, you know, the equivalent of a romance novel or it can be, um, somebody's family history.

In fact, most of them are histories of minor unknown families because that adds to the lore of Candlekeep whatever it is. If the tome is accepted by the door guard, you get in. And the reason why you would want to get into Candlekeep is to do research to look up. And ask questions, and the avowed will help you locate the right tome.

So Candlekeeps now been mentioned in passing in two or three, um, uh, Realms. lore mentions down the years and then it's had a big, um, coverage recently in a, an official, uh, tome from Wizards of the Coast called Candlekeep, Mysteries which was a series of adventures with Candlekeep as the framing device set up.

And just before that, a, uh, a fan generated product called Elminster's Candlekeep companion still available from the DM's Guild came out and I provided lore guidance to it and I consider it cannon and it's the best coverage of Candlekeep. Now, uh, Candlekeep has also appeared in fiction in my novel, The Herald, at the end of, um, the Sundering Saga.

So we got to see little bits of Candlekeep laid waste, and I can tell you things about Candlekeep that have appeared in lore. It has the Sentinel Wyrm guards the secret way, um, in the Candlekeep from below the Underdark and there are other defenses that have been explored. There was actually a, a, um, an adventure module.

An official adventure module where you tried to get into Candlekeep through the wards and over the walls. Candlekeep is warded magically protected. Uh, it's monks. Some of the monks are very powerful, uh, magically, and it has all sorts of hidden things. Like any library, it has open stock that you can see.

It has stacks where you have to ask somebody to retrieve a book for you and it has hidden rooms. They're actually rooms in Candlekeep chambers that you can only reach by using tokens, magical tokens, because there's no passage leading to them. They're in solid rock. The only way in or out is using the magical tokens so they can very much guarantee.

that unauthorized eyes, no matter how good they are at, at thieving, can't get to some of the tomes, and these tomes would be tomes full of powerful world shaking spells that they don't want just anybody to look at. But that's what Candlekeep is for. It's a repository of knowledge, both forbidden and powerful and magical, and every day, like the 1211 harvest of barly

in Begot was very lousy and the cataloging of it, it's everything because you never know what's going to be valuable to know until much later on. So you keep everything

Ivan: that applies to your game as well. Knowing that something like Candlekeep exists, I imagine that was at least part of the narrative function.

You can always bring your party there to find the answers to something that they might otherwise not have answers to. So I mean, for, for a narrative. From a narrative perspective. That's great. You did also say that the a vowed watch over Candlekeep, and I was wondering how important to the workings of Candlekeep is its religious function.

I know there's Spirit Soaring, which is, you know, uh, the temple to Deneir, but it's also kind of a repository of knowledge. And I'm wondering if there are some of those similar elements going on with Candlekeep or if it's kind of uh, I would, I would say secular.

Ed: It, it is almost. Secular in that it's ecumenical as in there.

There are so many faith crisscrossing that, um, and sharing it and working together that it no one faith can like dictate. So it's, it's far less of a strictly religious monastery than many because you have faiths working together and you have the public involved. Although the, and it has its own rituals that some of which have to do more with being a sage, for instance, the, the, the quasi religious ritual that most people know of than the general public, cuz they've heard about it in tavern talk and rumors and folklore and that they will sort of witness if they're a visitor, is the endless chant of Alaundo.

And that's where the procession winds, its way through all of the various buildings in, in Candlekeep. And by the way, there's a spell jamming ship just sitting there as one of the buildings incorporated that. Yeah, I mean you can see it. A Marco um, did a wonderful map that was in Elminster's Candlekeep Compendium. And which Wizards took one look at it and, and said, oh, we gotta use this and put it into Candlekeep Mysteries. And it's a beautiful map of Candlekeep. And yeah, you can quite distinctly see that there's, yeah, one of the buildings is a little odd. But anyway, um, uh, the, the endless channel of Alaundo is members of the a vowed who process in a long conga line.

Let's put it that way. Um, through the entire thing chanting all of Alaundo's chants that haven't come true yet. That haven't happened cuz they are the Alaundo's predictions when they, when they judge that one of them has happened, they drop it from the end of the endless chant. So the chant gets shorter over the years.

There's much study in rejoicing when it's confirmed that something's happened because it sort of reinforces the fact that Alaundo knew what he was doing. Alaundo is not the only prophet and there were others. Um, and, and you know, prophet is sort of a dirty word, um, in most, most of the Realms because. They don't want to confuse somebody who predicts with somebody who religiously predicts.

Mm. Yeah. But that's why the word prophet is a bit loaded, because most, um, faiths want to reserve that word unto themselves. Like, um, there is no God but Malar or Shar or Bane. And this guy here, or this woman here, or this goat over here is the prophet, is a prophet of our God. There are no other prophets. And of course that sort of talk is not popular in a world where everybody believes in all of the deities.

You know, it, it's not a question of, of faith trying. You there is only one true God and it's this one. And if you believe in it, you can't believe in any of the others. No, everybody believes in all of them. Even a Paladin or a high priest that is dedicated to one God knows that the other gods are real and are as worthy of worship as quote their God.

Um, but they have chosen to venerate that God above all. So, yeah, but I don't want to get too sidetracked on that because the thing about Candlekeep is it isn't, despite being Oghma and Deneir and Milil and others, it's not dominated by any of them because it's for everybody. What it is is an acknowledgement that the repository of knowledge has a value in calculable value in and of itself.

Because Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. Empires rise and empires fall. Entire races get swept away. But if the lore is preserved, then we know what happened in the past and nobody can rewrite it. And we have professional rewrites called Menstruals. And Bards as well as you know, sermonizing clergy, walking around the Realms all the time, rewriting history for various reasons, sometimes unwitting.

But you want to keep the lore. The only library of comparable, um, breadth is the High Heralds. Maintain a library in Herald's Holdfast. That is a library that people know about, but unless you're a High Herald, you don't get to see it ever. It's not an open library, and it is, it, it is most focused on heraldry.

And then after that genealogy, And then after that, genetics, bloodlines, lineages and breeding. So it does have a specific focus, but within its specific focus, it's as deep or deeper than Candlekeep. But Candlekeep has everything the full Dewey decimal, uh, system to, to put it that way. Um, anyway, so that's Candlekeep.

And Candlekeep is, uh, being as I have worked in public libraries since I was 14. I'm now 63, so that's quite a few years. Um, um, the libraries have left their stamp on me. Um, so, uh, I wanted to have a really cool library in my fantasy world and I put it there yes, before d and d.

Ivan: So, Ed, a little tressym told me that you might have some never before revealed lore about Candlekeep that you'll be willing to share with us today.

Ed: Oh, certainly. I have just for today, there are more secrets in Candlekeep that have not been revealed. But for today, I have four hitherto unrevealed secrets. Some large, some small but four so let us begin. Let us begin. Let us begin. Are you sitting comfortably? Uhuh? Too bad. Okay, so number one. Or the first one I came to Candlekeep contains the book that writes itself, which is a tome of blank pages, slowly filling with advice for the sworn devout of Oghma.

That is priests of Oghma, an unseen hand, pens, new sentences, and the writer. Is Oghma Oghma himself? Yes or so. It is believed. The writer Never interesting. The writer never says Hi. I'm Oghma now, but, but it is the belief of all the, a vowed in Candlekeep handed down for low these many generations down the centuries that the book is being personally written by Oghma.

Ivan: I wish we had something similar so they could do our taxes for us. Yes. Coming. Just coming outta tax season

Ed: last year you made this much money. Send it. Okay, so second secret of Candlekeep that I found came across dredged up unearthed Candlekeep contains several tome guardians, but one of them. Is a fairy dragon.

This tome guardian watches over visitors and a vowed over the monks that it's suspicious that it's suspicious of and it pounces. And of course when it pounces, it becomes visible. Um, if they damage despoil. Or try to steal a book and by despoiling that would be writing in it, tearing a page out and trying to stick the page under their clothing or something.

Um, this fairy dragon is an elder fairy dragon, a blue skinned female, and it Anne Alva by name. And she has a paralyzing venom tail sting that retracts into her prehensile tail. And she was given this tail sting magically in 1376 by Qilué Veladorn the transformer. Um, the seventh of the seventh sisters, the drow sister in return for aiding Qilué in a hard battle.

So, beware and the fairy dragon tome guardian.

Ivan: That's, that's one hell of an alarm system. I was expecting like a loud siren, a klaxxon and maybe some armed guards, but nope, a poison

sting from a fairy dragon.

Ed: Now remember this, this sting, all it does is paralyze. So what happens to most people is they fall over because if they're stung and they don't happen to be sitting balanced in a chair or standing with perfect balance, when they're paralyzed, eventually they'll fall over.

You know, it's the old Captain Morgan thing. You have one leg raised and over you fall. Okay? So, okay, number three in our hitherto unrevealed secrets of Candle. Candlekeep contains the Book of the Blade. This is a book that contains a single word, ver,

excuse me, ver Verna ro. When this word is uttered aloud by someone touching the written word at the same time as they utter it, in other words, you open the book, you put your finger on the written. And then you say the written word, stra. It transforms the tome into a weightless glass steel plus four long sword, only the Harpers, the High Heralds, the chosen of Mystra and two senior avowed know of the book and its properties and its hidden whereabouts, precise, hidden whereabouts in Candlekeep.

As of 1490 Dr. So just between you and me, this little secret, I guess now that all of you know it, um, well anyway, whoops.

Ivan: Yeah, only, only the chosen.

Yeah. Some very high up Harpers. And now everybody watching this video? No. Of the

books. Everybody watching this video?

Ed: The fourth and final secret of Candlekeep that we're going to reveal here and now is Candlekeep contains the Litney Libra.

The Litney Libra, A slender chapbook in which Velsharoon the deity, Velsharoon has recorded. The precise whereabouts of the Draesrum D R A E S R U M, Draesrum sometimes called by the uninitiated phylacteries, although strictly speaking, phylacteries are holy texts. But anyway, um, The whereabouts of the Draesrum of 24.

Powerful liches of Toril, including its rumored, Szass Tam and Vecna. When a Draesrum is moved, Velsharoon updates its entry in the book.

Ivan: So you're telling me that the Draesrum were the phylacteries of Szass Tam and Vecna are, are in this book in Candlekeep and wait a minute, does that mean Vecna is back in the

Realms?

Ed: It would appear so, wouldn't it?

All right.

I I, I have no comment. But, but, um, because, um, bad things will happen to me if I comment about, um, sire Vecna, but yes, it would appear so. It would appear so.

Ivan: So Ed, I feel like it would be very easy for some people playing in Candlekeep to get overwhelmed just by the sheer breadth of things there are to do.

And also I feel like, I know me personally might have a difficult time not wanting to like screw up what's cannon or do something somewhat irreparable, um, because it is such a staple of the Realms. Do you have any advice for people that are looking to roleplay in Candlekeep and not get overwhelmed by these things.

Ed: Sure, you can constrict player surroundings and activities very easily. Think of a library that you always have a minder, as in there's a very nice little lady who need not be female and need not be little and need not be old, but I'm trying to put this in real world terms. A little old lady. Is convinced that every single person who steps into the library is here to steal books, burn books, tear books apart, so she never leaves you alone for five seconds.

She's watching you like a hawk very politely. She's at your elbow, she's assisting you, and if you say to her, you know, I really need to see that atlas. She says, but of course, and she turns, gives a signal to another person who scuttles off and gets the atlas. She doesn't leave you. So another avowed is always within sight.

So if you just decide that this little old lady is so insufferably, a pain in the patoot and you just walk behind her and clunk her across the head gently, but you know, deftly. So she just starts to fall over unconscious and then you lower her gently into a seat. And so you can tell somebody, oh, she was tired.

I think she's just napping. Um, there's gonna be a second avowed at least one and probably a third one using a spyhole somewhere watching you that you can't. Who's watching you at all times now? Yes. This is sort of, you know, creepy it's supposed to be. And the other thing is think of Candlekeep as a, a castle, the inside of a castle that you've seen in so many movies.

And you know how in so many movies they show you modern castles. There's no beautiful stucco and painting. It's grim gray walls. Okay, now imagine the grim gray walls are covered up to beyond comfortable reach with bookshelves everywhere, crammed with books, and all of these bookshelves are like 14, 16, 20 feet tall and.

They have a rail way up high, like at about the 16 foot mark with the library ladder, um, rolls sideways along it so you can reach the upper shelves. So, and you can't see in most cases, any doors anywhere. There's the occasional passage leading out of the room you're in. On deeper into the castle, but there are also rooms that you get into that you can't see any doors because every single bookcase around you could be a door that just rotates A secret door.

A hidden door, and most of them are okay. So you don't have to worry about player characters wandering everywhere in Candlekeep, no, they can't wander anywhere. And it's basically a library where you know you're sitting reading. So the Dungeon Master can just describe the most restrictive school library that any player has ever been in.

You know where people sh you every five seconds, and you can only use books that are brought to you. And in some cases, you will be given gloves and asked to dawn them before you're allowed to touch a single book. So the oils from your fingertips will not sully this irreparable. Historical artifact, this ancient book.

So you don't have to worry about, oh, we have to explore the entire thing. I have to map it. I, no, you're not gonna be allowed to go anywhere except supervised. So therefore, it's really easy to dungeon master cuz it's just sitting in a room, reading things, asking questions, and the dungeon master tells you what's on the pages of the books that you look at.

So it, it, it's pretty easy what it is, can and can be really cool is finding stuff with research and reading out the passages and having player characters say, can I copy this down? You see some things you can copy some things you're not allowed to copy at all, and some things you can purchase a copy by asking a monk to copy from here to here, and the book has taken away from you.

And a monk starts copying it and you're told that'll be ready by next morning or that'll be ready by nightfall and the cost will be 500 gold pieces or whatever. Now, uh, you see, and here's the thing, if you're copying something germane to your family and it's just writing, the cost is gonna be fairly low.

50 to 75 gold pieces. If you're trying to copy a spell and they know you're trying to copy a spell. Or a ritual, you know, the magical ritual, the price is gonna be very high because they want to restrict how many of those go out into the world. They don't want some eager beaver get sent in by a king who wants meteor swarm and, okay, I'll need 16 copies of Meteor Swarm, please.

Ivan: I would hate to defile the sanctity that is Candlekeep, but I gotta say, Ed, it sounds like a rife opportunity for a heist.

Ed: It does doesn't it and that would be the last coherent thought you ever had? No, uh, just remember, Candlekeep is haunted and the ghosts are guardians of Candlekeep and everything in it.

And some of the, a vowed are very powerful in an adventuring sense. And boy will they be irked but let me be polite and say, irked if you start a fight in a place with all these precious tomes, so they're gonna lower the boom on you as fast as and hard as they can because they want to protect those books. And one of the ways they can do it is to teleport you into one of those rooms that has no other outlet, like into a cavern in the solid rock.

So like level three, four, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So problem gone, and then we'll just leave you there for six or seven days till you're really thirsty and starving. Then we'll go and talk to you about the bad thing that you did, the inappropriate behavior in the library, which means you're never gonna be allowed back in there again.

Hi Realms fans. Welcome back to another little segment of Realms Speak, where we tackle words, names, and phrases of the Realms that you might stumble over pronouncing, and we stumble over them for you and tell you how most people in the Realms might pronounce them this time around. Let's begin with this.

The ruler of the Nine Hells Asmodeus is correct Asmodeus is correct . It's okay. It's all in where you place the emphasis. And guess what, Asmodeus or Asmodeus, he hears and answers all of them.