Elminster Aumar is a fictional character appearing in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. He is also known as the Sage of Shadowdale, and is depicted as a powerful wizard featured in several novels by Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood. Certain aspects of his appearance and demeanor seem to echo Gandalf, Merlin, or Odin.
Elminster was one of the first characters that Greenwood created for the Forgotten Realms. Information about him can be found in virtually all Forgotten Realms game products, but the novels in The Elminster Series are perhaps the most definitive sources of information. The series includes Elminster: The Making of a Mage, Elminster in Myth Drannor, The Temptation of Elminster, Elminster in Hell, and Elminster's Daughter.
Basics
Appearance
Elminster appears as a gray-bearded man of weathered visage, with a hawk-like nose and alert, dancing eyes. He speaks in a gruff tone and generally wears nondescript attire. He is almost always smoking a meerschaum pipe that spouts vile-smelling blue or green smoke.
Personality
Elminster is normally a witty, clever, and very charming man. He can, however, be imperious, grave, and terrible. Furthermore, he is a natural storyteller and a consummate actor. He rarely reveals the full extent of his true nature to anyone who is not an extremely close friend. He can portray himself as a trickster, rake, stern father figure, fool, or any other stereotype that he wants to assume, depending on what he wants to accomplish or what reaction he wants to elicit from those around him.
Family
Readers learn that Elminster has several daughters at the end of Elminster's Daughter. Besides Narnra Shalace, two others are Laspeera of the War Wizards and the dowager queen Filfaeril of Cormyr. He has no known wife, but retains contact with several previous lovers, including the goddess Mystra — although his relationship with Mystra changed when the goddess was slain during the Time of Troubles and the sorceress Midnight assumed the mantle of the Lady of Mysteries.
Allies
Elminster's allies included the Harpers, the other Chosen of Mystra (especially the Simbul), and his scribe Lhaeo. The Knights of Myth Drannor were also close friends and confidants, and two or three knights were always in Shadowdale in case it was in peril.
Media
In Dragon Magazine articles written by Ed Greenwood, Elminster often appeared as a wise sage imparting knowledge to a fictional interviewer. He divulged lore on various Dungeons & Dragons monsters in "The ecology of ..." articles, such as "The ecology of the ochre jelly". He was used as a source of information for Greenwood's "Pages from the Mages" articles in which various spells were described, as well as various miscellaneous articles such as "Cloaked in magic".
"The Wizards Three", a series of short fiction pieces in Dragon, featured Elminster holding meetings with wizards from other Dungeons & Dragons settings. The metafictional conceit central to the series was that, unbeknownst to the other wizards, the meetings were being held in the home of real-world author Ed Greenwood. Greenwood himself was included in the stories as a character, sequestered in hidden locations in order to eavesdrop and take the notes from which the stories were supposedly written later.
Novels
The Making of a Mage
The first novel in The Elminster Series, The Making of a Mage, recounts the character's origin story, which explains why he has such extensive and varied experience. Elminster was born around 212 DR to Elthryn, the lord of the village of Heldon and a prince of Athalantar, and his wife Amrythale, in the kingdom of Athalantar. His family was killed by a malaugrym posing as Undarl, one of the magelords of the ancient kingdom of Athalantar. Taking up his father's broken sword, the Lion Sword, the symbol of the great king of the Stag Throne (who was Elminster's grandfather), Elminster became a brigand.
He soon realized that he had no taste for killing, and gave it up when he went to become a burglar in the city of Hastarl, the capital of Athalantar. He met and became friends with Farl, a local thief, who knew Elminster as Eladar "the Dark". They worked together frequently, eventually forming a gang dubbed the Velvet Hands in opposition to another local gang, the Moonclaws, who were servants of the magelords. Later, while eavesdropping on a possible thieving mark, Elminster met that era's Magister, the wizard who bore the mantle of Azuth's power. When asked if he was interested in learning sorcery, Elminster refused, hating all mages because of the magelords.