D&D General Transgender Drow are Canon in Forgotten Realms! Woo!

[Staffan]

Ed is good people, and of course gives anything he posts or publishes a degree of canon-feel, as he is the beloved creator of the Realms . . . but he does not own the rights to the Realms, nor does he work for WotC. So Ed's word on the Realms isn't canon, although I often feel it is better than that . . .

At least according to this tweet, anything Ed says about the Forgotten Realms is canon unless contradicted by TSR/WOTC stuff.

I'll also add that the Realms has long been fairly LGBTQ+-friendly. At least as far back as Forgotten Realms Adventures (1990), the independent city of Elversult was ruled by Lady Lord Yanseldara and her "companion" Vaerana Hawklyn. The book doesn't outright call them lovers, but Vaerana is described as Yanseldara's "deeply trusted companion" and they live together in a mansion called "the Ladytowers."

 

[MGibster]

I'll also add that the Realms has long been fairly LGBTQ+-friendly. At least as far back as Forgotten Realms Adventures (1990), the independent city of Elversult was ruled by Lady Lord Yanseldara and her "companion" Vaerana Hawklyn.

I have it on good authority they were just good friends. And very thrifty. Think of all the gold they saved on heating fuel by sleeping in the same bed. Yup. Good, thrifty roommates.

 

[Seramus]

Ed is good people, and of course gives anything he posts or publishes a degree of canon-feel, as he is the beloved creator of the Realms . . . but he does not own the rights to the Realms, nor does he work for WotC. So Ed's word on the Realms isn't canon, although I often feel it is better than that . . .

It is my understanding that Ed Greenwood's contract stipulates that anything he writes about the Realms is canon. I'm sure the reality is that Ed consults with WotC on anything major involving the Realms, but he is well known for answering all manner of Realms-lore questions in forums.

 

[Dire Bare]

At least according to this tweet, anything Ed says about the Forgotten Realms is canon unless contradicted by TSR/WOTC stuff.

I'll also add that the Realms has long been fairly LGBTQ+-friendly. At least as far back as Forgotten Realms Adventures (1990), the independent city of Elversult was ruled by Lady Lord Yanseldara and her "companion" Vaerana Hawklyn. The book doesn't outright call them lovers, but Vaerana is described as Yanseldara's "deeply trusted companion" and they live together in a mansion called "the Ladytowers."

I'll take it!

I know that Ed has been LGBTQ+ friendly . . . probably since before he even sold the Realms to TSR! So, no surprise that the Realms has always been a friendly place.

And I love the "Um, Actually" reference!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'll also add that the Realms has long been fairly LGBTQ+-friendly. At least as far back as Forgotten Realms Adventures (1990), the independent city of Elversult was ruled by Lady Lord Yanseldara and her "companion" Vaerana Hawklyn. The book doesn't outright call them lovers, but Vaerana is described as Yanseldara's "deeply trusted companion" and they live together in a mansion called "the Ladytowers."

Yeah I literally remember this from when FRA in what, 1990? Thinking "Ohhhh I see what they're saying". And interestingly Taladas from the same year had a major culture which viewed changing your gender as just a thing that people could do (with neither the culture nor the writing implying judgement of it). So my immediate impression of RPGs, which was, at that time, just D&D, was that they were more open-minded than the culture in general, which was very much a good thing.

 

[Morrus]

It is my understanding that Ed Greenwood's contract stipulates that anything he writes about the Realms is canon.

I'd want to see a cite for that, as it sounds unlikely. Also 'canon' is not a legal concept; I'm not even sure how it could be in a contract.

 

[Alzrius]

At least according to this tweet, anything Ed says about the Forgotten Realms is canon unless contradicted by TSR/WOTC stuff.

This idea has been around for ages, and I've seen numerous permutations of it, yet it's never been demonstrated to be more than hearsay.

For instance, there was a long period where the idea was that TSR (and later, WotC) had to publish at least one Forgotten Realms book per year, or the rights to the setting reverted to Greenwood. And just like the "everything he writes is canon" idea, it was said to be in his original agreement with TSR. Another variation on it was that they had to publish at least one product written by Greenwood himself each year or lose the rights. And numerous other twists on this that, quite frankly, don't pass the smell test.

Even if TSR had made such an agreement, there's no indication that WotC would have ever agreed to such a clause, let alone Hasbro. And while that's all technically different from the "everything Ed writes is canon idea," that Greenwood himself is the only one "confirming" that rumor makes it more suspect, not less.

He's the creator of the Forgotten Realms, and has an incredibly fertile imagination, but the idea that he's contractually empowered to have everything he says about it be canon (a concept that most fans can't even define anyway) unless WotC says otherwise should be all the proof anyone needs that not everything he says is canon.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I'd want to see a cite for that,

As an aside, thank you for putting this in whole sentence format. I keep seeing people online put "[Citation needed]" in actual conversations like they were in the middle of editing a Wikipedia page and it drives me up the wall.

Anyways, IMO the whole question of canonicity is a red herring. The creator of Forgotten Realms has declared positively that transgenderism is accepted in Drow culture (the good-guy and bad-guy factions thereof), and that carries pretty much the exact same weight regardless as to whether some bizarre contractual clause makes his words 'canon' or not. Which is to say it's a positive step for people that care about both the movement and D&D, but unless it shows up in game text most gamers aren't going to see it*.*to that end, the Drow gunslinger brought up in discussion is a positive step.

 

[Morrus]

.

Anyways, IMO the whole question of canonicity is a red herring.

Well, it’s a tangential but related conversation, sure. It’s a perfectly valid thing to be curious about, though.

The creator of Forgotten Realms has declared positively that transgenderism is accepted in Drow culture (the good-guy and bad-guy factions thereof), and that carries pretty much the exact same weight regardless as to whether some bizarre contractual clause makes his words 'canon' or not. Which is to say it's a positive step for people that care about both the movement and D&D, but unless it shows up in game text most gamers aren't going to see it*.*to that end, the Drow gunslinger brought up in discussion is a positive step.

Sure. I understand the conversation.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'd want to see a cite for that, as it sounds unlikely. Also 'canon' is not a legal concept; I'm not even sure how it could be in a contract.

Canon

forgottenrealms.fandom.com

And the man himself:

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x.com

(Sorry for the Twitter link, it is from the Before Times)

Wait here's a screenshot so nobody needs to click unless they want to verify.

According to the Reddit thread, Ben Riggs' book Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons discusses it, but says it's not a formal requirement, but rather a courtesy (I haven't read this book myself but others here may have). Certainly is the generalized belief (c.f. the FR wiki, which didn't make that decision at random) and it's something Ed himself and others have referred to before.

Of course this somewhat conflicts with Jeremy Crawford's assertion that only material published in 5E books is canon, but that itself is complicated by the fact that it's obviously not true in the sense that 5E's FR generally accounts for previous canon and only occasionally contradicts it. I think that's more about different uses of the word canon though.

If nothing else, the FR wiki is usually regarded as fairly authoritative on FR stuff (and does edit to reflect changes, usually fairly rapidly), and it shares the "Ed's work is canon until contradicted"