1)
This gets asked a lot, but here we go again. ;}
The answer is always: it depends. Here’s why: literally thousands of sentient beings in the Realms have a ‘wild talent’ for some aspect of magic, due to the world being a-crawl…
#Realmslore
2)
…with magic (wielders of the Art using it, drawing on the Weave), and everyone born into the world being exposed to flows of magic. Over time, growing numbers of sentient beings are born with the Gift (ability to wield the…
#Realmslore
3)
…Art). Most don’t know it, and are utterly untrained, and stay that way lifelong. Say, 1 in 9,000. A rarer few (1 in 12,000) may or may not manifest a ‘wild talent’ that lets them work magical effects without casting or…
#Realmslore
4)
…knowing magic. An even rarer few (1 in 26,000) may spontaneously or thanks to a trigger event discover and use a natural ability to work spells by imagination, concentration, and their natural Gift; we call them “sorcerers.”
#Realmslore
5)
Perhaps 1 in 130,000 have the desperation or bravery to reach out to try to contact a patron and become a warlock; perhaps 1 in 300,000 succeeds.
However, of that far less rare number of beings that have the Gift (back to…
#Realmslore
6)
…1 in 9,000 again), we have an overlap with those who want to dedicate themselves to holy service (about 1 in 4000). About half of these are accepted (1 in 8,000), and of those, about 1 in 6,000 have the ability to wield…
#Realmslore
7)
…divine magic (as opposed to a deity just channeling a magical effect through them, treating them like a “dumb conduit” and perhaps destroying them or burning out their minds in the process). So IF they follow temple protocols…
#Realmslore
8)
…and don’t displease the deity, every one of those 1 in 6,000 could become clerics (as in the character class), capable of wielding divine magic. What magic they get given depends on their service, the fervency and…
#Realmslore
9)
…appropriateness of their prayers, and the mood/nature of their deity. Most clerics don’t get beyond 3rd level spells (the game rules concentrate on PCs, who are the standouts/mavericks/heroes, and can give us a distorted view…
#Realmslore
10)
…of things).
However, if we go back to beings that naturally possess the Gift, and try to figure out how many become casters of arcane magic, the answer is: those very, very few who can find a tutor, and get taught, and…
#Realmslore
11)
…survive it.
Those who survive adventuring, or just living in the Realms once others know they can cast arcane magic, are even fewer.
So…it depends. ;}
You said “spellcasters” in your query, and that includes wizards, …
#Realmslore
12)
…sorcerers, clerics, warlocks, and all of the variants and subclasses (druids, illusionists, etc.) which pushes the total numbers up a bit (but again, the game rules and published Realmslore tend to make us think folk who can…
#Realmslore
13)
…competently hurl mighty spells, or rather, unleash magic with any degree of understanding or control, are more numerous than they really are).
And the totals of, say, trained wizards will vary with time and place; if you look…
#Realmslore
14)
…at a surviving Netherese city, like Thultanthar (“Shade”), the numbers of arcanists are much higher than if you go out into the frigid wilderness northeast of Sundabar and start looking for wizards. Outcasts in the Border…
#Realmslore
15)
…Kingdoms make the numbers higher there than in, say, Tethyr. Cities are almost always far higher than in the countryside, and the countryside higher than in wilderlands, and so on.
So if we decide that the 1490s DR is our…
#Realmslore
16)
…time, and the Sword Coast countryside is our place, and it’s summer rather than winter (when those who can go south in search of temperatures they can survive, do so), and it’s peacetime, and no local ruler is rounding up…
#Realmslore
17)
…wizards and imprisoning or executing them, or Zhents or Red Wizards hunting down and slaughtering non-member wizards, we might estimate (and it IS an estimate, mind) that of the 1 in 9,000 who have the Gift, perhaps…
#Realmslore
18)
…1 in 40,000 can cast a cantrip or two, and perhaps 1 in 70,000 have and can cast 1st level spells, and perhaps 1 in 90,000 can cast 2nd level spells. Thanks to traveling priests and the teachings of shrine and temple…
#Realmslore
19)
…clergy, almost everyone has seen minor magic at work (but not personally experienced it), and thanks to bards and talkative traveling merchants and peddlers, nigh everyone has heard tales of spell-duels or spectacular…
#Realmslore
20)
…spell-hurlings or awesome feats of magic (those MageFairs, for one!), but your average “just plain commoner” in the Realms never actually sees or personally experiences magic being cast, or could hope to begin to afford to…
#Realmslore
21)
…get trained, or to hire a spellcaster to work one spell for them.
Again, be not misled by game lore and rules, which leave the distinct impression that hundreds, if not thousands, of wizards hurl spells down any given city…
#Realmslore
22)
…city street in a day.
So: it depends. :}
#Realmslore

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More from @TheEdVerse

30 Dec 20
1)
Palonder nods and sets to work. The King’s stomach promptly growls. Loudly.
“Meals for us all, soonest,” Wolf says briskly, and the King closes his mouth on the demand he was going to make. And then peers all around.
#epicfantasy
2)
“I don’t remember this part of the Palace at ALL,” he says dubiously. “Why is that, Wolf?”
“You’re sober, Elvar. You never staggered in this direction, I recall, until revels were done and dawn was peeking through…
#epicfantasy
3)
…yon windows.”
“Oh, gods spew, MUST you wax poetic?”
“Courtier, Sire, remember?”
“I’m seldom given a chance to forget, these days.”
“That’s because we so attentively attend you.”
“Behold, my royal gratitude shineth.”
#epicfantasy
Read 4 tweets
29 Dec 20
I have a name @Madlockfreak
Hey Mr.Super Dm, I had an interest in the wedding rites in DnD. One of my characters plans on marrying a countess of Cromm's Hold. Are there established wedding rites I can look to? If it matters, the countess…
…reveres Tyr and Ilmater. With the second part being, as my character is a lowborn, currently the court physician, will he need to be granted Nobility before he would be eligible for marriage towards a highborn?
1)
I can’t speak for D&D in general, but only for the Realms. Wedding rites are one of the topics that’s seldom been covered in print due to wordcount being needed for wilder adventure encounters, and so as not to offend any…
#Realmslore
Read 32 tweets
29 Dec 20
1)
The Chronicle of Years by Maglas the Seer consists of 4 matching volumes that contained cryptic prophecies, one to a page, with relevant notes, observations, and reports beneath each prophecy. A common mistake among members of the Cult of the Dragon is to think..
#Realmslore
2)
...that the simplified translation by Sammaster is the same text as the original. (Some of the references you cite describe Sammaster’s translation.)
Some of the later pages of the original were “spellbound” (their real writings concealed beneath innocuous gossip..
#Realmslore
3)
...pennings by a powerful spell that had to be solved to “untwine” it and reveal the true text).
Some of the earlier pages in the original contain still-unsolved prophecies that weren’t spellbound. These include the following:
...
#Realmslore
Read 11 tweets
28 Dec 20
1)
“Someone’s coming, Lord,” Palonder murmurs.
“Then THIS way,” Wolf hisses, “and ABSOLUTE silence and stillness.” He leads them around a corner, and shoves his glowing hand under his clothing to quell its light.
#epicfantasy
2)
Two men trudge into view from the buttery, carrying a limp body between them. It’s a man whose throat has been slit wide—long enough ago that no blood remains to spray, drip, or ooze out—so his head lolls loosely.
#epicfantasy
3)
It bobs sickeningly at every step of his carriers, staring wide-eyed at nothing, as the two men carry him into the dark passage, around the corner almost to Wolf’s feet, and drop him.
“Here’s far enough,” one of them growls.
#epicfantasy
Read 7 tweets
28 Dec 20
1)
Yes.
I'll repost here what I said on FB: "Certainly. The Realms (with Tempus in it) started in 1966; so far as I can recall, the first Mirt tale in which I mentioned Tempus was written in 1968. Thieves World first saw print in 1978, the Sacred Band envisaged...
#Realmslore
2)
...as a series later. "Tempus" is Latin for time, and I named my wargod for time as a nod to the 'history is written on the battlefield' saying, and for this: my father was in signals (radar) and military intelligence with the Canadian forces, and did work on...
#Realmslore
3)
...missile guidance in the Cold War, in which accurate targeting in tests was written down as "YTIO" in case 'the wrong eyes' saw the writings; YTIO stands for "Your Time Is Up." So I borrowed the word tempus for my wargod. Years later, I asked Bob Asprin where...
#Realmslore
Read 6 tweets
27 Dec 20
1)
“I don’t see or hear anyone. Anywhere near. You think they ransacked these chambers for all the food, did a little looting, and moved on?”
“It’s the usual way.”
“Oh? How many invasions have you experienced?”
#epicfantasy
2)
“Sixteen, Elvar, but in your father’s time we did them the other way around: WE invaded other realms. That’s why they all came here, now: to get even.”
“So you looted, pillaged, and plundered?”
#epicfantasy
3)
“At your father’s side. SOMEONE had to carry the royal sword. That’s how I know how heavy it is.”
“My father—?”
“Enjoyed his invasions in person. REALLY enjoyed them. That’s how he met your mother.”
#epicfantasy
Read 5 tweets

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