Volothamp "Volo" Geddarm
Volothamp Geddarm (a.k.a. Volo)
Volothamp Geddarm is known to most Waterdavians as a braggart and a notorious embellisher of facts. For all his faults, though, Volo is a soft-hearted sort who cares for nothing as much as his friends. At present, he is grievously concerned for the well-being of one of them. He was often portrayed as the quintessential "go-to guy" of the Realms even if his information was, at best, half-accurate. He was too curious for his own good. As travelling scholar and minor wizard, Volo was always on the lookout for an exposé. He all too frequently was at odds with Elminster, who preferred some things to be kept in the dark.Appearance Description
A Very Big Man With A Blue Tilt Round Cap With A Red Feather. He Wears A Blue Tunic With Gold Lining And Red Bushy Pant's With Leather Boots. He Has A Brown Beard With Brown Hair And Green Eye'sMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
Employment
Author of several famous adventuring tomes:- Volo's Guide to All Things Magical - First notable work. Written c. 1356 DR with a reprint (with the help of Elminster) published in 1367 DR.
- Volo's Guide to the Bloodstone Lands - Unreleased. Written between 1360 - 1362 DR.
- Volo's Guide to Calimport - Notes and a copy of an old draft can be found in Candlekeep, all final drafts were destroyed by Calishite pashas or Rundeen agents. Written between 1364 - 1365 DR.
- Volo's Guide to Cormyr - Written between 1367 - 1368 DR.
- Volo's Guide to the Dalelands - Written between 1368 - 1369 DR.
- Volo's Guide to the Lands of Intrigue - Written in 1369 DR with an abridged version (which was much more widely distributed) released by Elminster the next year.
- Volo's Guide to the Moonsea - Unreleased. Extant copies were suppressed by the Zhentarim. Written between 1357 - 1358 DR.
- Volo's Guide to the North - Written between 1365 - 1366 DR.
- Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast - Written between 1366 - 1367 DR.
- Volo's Guide to the Vast - Unreleased. Original is owned by a resident of Raven's Bluff. Written between 1358 - 1360 DR.
- Volo's Guide to Waterdeep - Written between 1363 - 1365 DR.
- Volo's Guide to Westgate & the Dragon Coast - Commissioned work. Original is held by a noble of Yhaunn. Written between 1362 - 1363 DR.
- Volo's Complete Guide to the Behaviour of Nymphs - A work mentioned briefly in Storm of Zehir. Volo reluctantly agreed not to publish it after Elminster deemed it 'too naughty'.
- Volo's Guide to Monsters - A treatise on monster lore, with annotations and comments by Elminster. Sometime in the late 1480s or early 1490s DR Volo sold autographed hardcover copies to travelers and nobles in Port Nyanzaru for 50 gp.
- Volo's Waterdeep Enchiridion - A chapbook designed to be a visitor's guide to Waterdeep. It was expected to serve the reader until Volo's Guide to Waterdeep, long out of print, was updated and re-released.
The History Of Volo
In 1284 DR
According to Elminster, at least, Volo was born in a bog somewhere. He was named for the city of Volothamp in Calimshan, apparently because he had been conceived there, and he spent some of his early childhood there. From such an inauspicious start, he would travel far and wide. In his youth and obscurity, Volo once attended a Mage Fair. Here, he "overheard" something that, combined with what he learned from some Harpers, allowed him to realize the secret of the Dark Lady of Rundreth Manor.In 1352 DR
Volo made a deal with Justin Tym, then just an entrepreneurial print shop owner and purveyor of pornography based in Waterdeep. Tym agreed to publish Volo's books with an option clause for exclusive rights, and each man thought he'd gotten the better of the other. Nevertheless, it would be a successful partnership, albeit with one catastrophic beginning…Volo's Guide to Outraging Mages
“What a pretentious title. Not even I would dare to pen something that purported to be a guide to all things magical. Volo did not even try. What he foisted upon Faerûnians hungry for enough secrets of magic to make them rulers of the Realms was a grab bag full of odds and ends about the Art…”
— Excerpt from Elminster's introduction to Volo's Guide to All Things Magical
In 1358 DR
Volothamp Geddarm first came to prominence when he published the infamous first version of Volo's Guide to All Things Magical early in the Year of Shadows, and in doing so angered many of Faerûn's mages. While Volo purported to explain magic "for the common people" and to be honest and straightforward, it included a great many spells that had been thought long forgotten and so revealed these to folk across Faerûn. Several mighty mages, who would rather these spells had stayed forgotten, confronted Volo over this. Worse still, it contained dangerous errors and exaggerations in magical knowledge that could lead to uncontrolled summoned outsiders and the destruction of Toril, among others, as well as completely true facts that only the magically educated should know, in the view of those mages and priests who were so educated. The wizards who felt that Volo had exposed their secrets—favored spells, command words, and truenames, as well as their failings and misdeeds—via the book actively sought to punish the man, and some succeeded. One sorceress of Telflamm, Catanarla the Crimson Cloaked, threatened to transform Volo into some helpless form and magically subject him to unending torment and agony enough for him to wish for death but never find it. Snilloc was more specific, saying, with a smile, that Volo would spend "most of eternity as a dung beetle crushed under a rock at the bottom of a cesspool" and only afterward lose his head. Others threatened him with the old classic of turning him into a toad, or merely drove him out of town. Thankfully, Elminster Aumar, the Sage of Shadowdale, and Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun of Waterdeep rescued Volo from too terrible or permanent a fate, but still gave him up for their own entertainment to the Simbul, the Witch-Queen of Aglarond. She was more amused by the commotion caused by the hapless writer, so she only transformed Volo into a bird and made him fly into a wall as a punishment. The Witch-Queen dispensed some other magical chastisement on the writer, including burning all his hair off, and worse—only as an example of what would happen if he tried such unauthorized reporting again, of course. Yet, in the end, she gifted him an enchanted etched stone with a sly smile. The Simbul told Volo in a soft voice that his survival might depend on the stone's magic. She also warned him that were he ever foolish enough to anger every spellcaster on Toril again, no trinket would be enough to save his hide. Volo was also subjected to quite a number of curses that would be triggered if he ever looked too deeply into ways of exposing the secrets of magic ever again. He would not speak of these, but vowed he would be "a very good boy where dealings with wizards are concerned for a long time to come."[3] Nevertheless, the whole affair left him forced to be always on the move to avoid his foes. He could also never again go to another Mage Fair, either. Meanwhile, the book was suppressed by all powerful wizards, including Khelben. Although Elminster claimed to have nothing to do this, he supported it wholeheartedly. Yet Elminster himself undertook to lead a thorough hunt for every single copy of Volo's Guide to All Things Magical, with the aid of many of the mages who'd happened to see it. All the copies were duly burned, though false rumors persisted of one or two remaining and Elminster retained one himself. Reputedly, every copy disappeared, without even a word of refund for production costs or lost revenue, and it nearly ended Tym Waterdeep Limited as a company. Finally, Elminster prevailed on Volo to see the error of his ways. Elminster later described the book as "misguided' and said that Volo "should leave dabbling in Art to those who know better." Nevertheless, the revealed spells remained known to the magical community, and even entered common use.Volo's Guides to the Realms, Allegedly
“This guidebook is the result of extensive, often hazardous explorations of the City of Splendors, most colorful city of the Sword Coast. It is the dream of many folk across Faerûn to someday visit this fabled, bustling marketplace and grandest of abodes. This tome attempts to steer visitors to sights and folk they want to see—or avoid.”
— Excerpt from Volo's introduction to Volo's Guide to Waterdeep
In 1357 Dr - 1370 DR
In response to all this, Volo naturally switched his focus to his secondary interest—writing travel guides documenting Faerûn. But once again, he would not enjoy immediate success. The earliest known, Volo's Guide to the Moonsea, written over 1357 and 1358 DR, was similarly suppressed, now by the Zhentarim. His next works, Volo's Guide to the Vast, written from 1358 to 1360 DR, and Volo's Guide to the Bloodstone Lands, written from 1360 to 1362 DR, also went unreleased. Meanwhile, Volo's Guide to Westgate and the Dragon Coast was written some time in the early 1360s DR on commission by a noble of Yhaunn, Sembia, so it remained in private ownership. Continuing a theme, Volo's Guide to Calimport was written over 1364 and 1365 DR but all final drafts were destroyed by Calishite pashas and Rundeen agents and only notes and an old draft remained. One of his first travel guides to see publication was Volo's Guide to the Frozenfar, published in 1364 DR. Next was Volo's Guide to Waterdeep detailing the City of Splendors, written over 1363 DR to 1365 DR. After checking and editing it carefully, Elminster conceded that Volo had "done a better job" on it, compared to All Things Magical, but that he had missed much and got a few things very wrong too. Volo himself admitted it was limited, as he could not go everywhere, nor reveal everything. Nevertheless, it notably exposed the Hanging Lantern festhall as a front for a kidnapping operation by the Unseen when Volo casually mentioned that all the courtesans were in fact doppelgangers. Although a significant setback for the Unseen and putting Volo on the doppelgangers' hit list should he ever wander into Waterdeep again, it only increased interest in the establishment. This unwilling yet fruitful writing partnership continued with Volo's next few works, with Volo's Guide to the North written over 1365 to 1366 DR,[49] Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast written over 1366 and 1367 DR, Volo's Guide to Cormyr written over 1367 to 1368 DR, Volo's Guide to the Dalelands written over 1368 to 1369 DR, and Volo's Guide to the Lands of Intrigue, written over 1369 to 1370 DR. These would all made it to publication. At some point, Volo helped foil a conspiracy by the Unseen and their leader the doppelganger Hlaavin that apparently threatened all Faerûn. He thought that Khelben Arunsun would owe him one after that.Volo's Guide to Trying Again
In 1369 DR
, Volo returned to Waterdeep, where he had a meeting with Justin Tym to discuss business and future plans. Justin pressed Volo for forthcoming works. Volo promised he was working on Volo's Guide to the Moonsea and would soon journey to Mulmaster for research. Instead, he offered up his magnum opus once again: Volo's Guide to All Things Magical, the Revised, Authorized, & Expanded Edition. This time, he claimed to use only secondhand sources: interviews, legends, and stories, all documented, verifiable, and publicly available, with no stolen secrets (not that he admitted to having used any the first time around) and the people involved granting signed permission. After renegotiating his advances, Volo left the manuscript with "Tym"—in fact the doppelganger Hlaavin, who burned it all in the fireplace and had Volo banned from the publishing house, as only the beginnings of its revenge against him. In any case, after "due passage of time" (a decade), Elminster had now agreed that a new Volo's Guide to All Things Magical should be published, if only to prevent people searching in vain for the original version. From his own last-remaining copy, Elminster corrected, edited, and censored the work and released a new version in 1367 DR. Then he destroyed his own last copy of the original. Later, Volo visited the War Wizard club in Cormyr, braving the price on his head in that kingdom at the time to handle some business before he departed again for the Dalelands. While there, Elminster arrived and introduced Volo to his would-be apprentice Presto to give him a potted geography lesson. After they left, Ed Greenwood and Julia Martin arrived and pressured Volo to give up the manuscript of the new All Things Magical for publication on Earth, despite his fears of being turned into a toad, insisting they would clear it with Elminster later. Left alone, poor Volo contemplated life as a toad.Volo's Guide to Identity Theft
In1367 DR
Ironically, the next great scandal in Volo's life was one he was entirely innocent of, apparently. In the Year of the Shield, 1367 DR, a Waterdhavian thief named Marcus Wands, a.k.a. Marco Volo (a pseudonym he adopted to sound more appealing to women), stole from the mad wizard Sabbas a powerful artifact called the Dragonking's Eye and framed Volo for the crime, by simply sending to Sabbas an anonymous note blaming Volothamp Geddarm. After the All Things Magical affair, it seemed plausible and the wizard fell for it completely, but the plan backfired—Sabbas decided local thief Marco Volo was the real Volothamp Geddarm in disguise! He announced a 10,000 gold piece (layer 20,000) reward for Volo's capture or death, and hired mage-assassin Felibarr Blacklance to hunt him down, setting him on the trail of Volothamp, that is, "Marco Volo", that is, Marcus Wands. At first, Volo remained entirely unwitting of all this. With several bounties on his head, this was just one more. But after escaping assassination attempts, he couldn't help but take notice. When he realized the description did not fit him and he was not the real target, this time, he began to look into it, With his own well-honed investigative skills, he realized who "Marco Volo" really was—Marcus Wands, of the Wands noble family of Waterdeep—and spoke with the family patriarch Maskar Wands. As much as Maskar disliked Volothamp and his work, he agreed to help for the sake of his nephew. Volo used his contacts to track down Marcus and the adventurers, mainly following the chaos in their wake. He also spoke to Elminster and learned of the Dragonking's Eye. He caught up with them in the Spiderhaunt Woods in Shadowdale and at the crystalline fortress created by the Dragonking's Eye finally confronted Marcus Wands. Understandably angry at having yet another wizard after him, he demanded explanations and threatened a beating, before agreeing to share what he knew of the Eye and even help Marcus and the adventurers shut it down. He would even get a chance to try to interview the deities Tyr, Sune, and Corellon Larethian when they showed up to recapture the released Dragonking.Volo's Guide to Getting Lucky
In 1368 DR
The Year of the Banner, Volo was visiting the city of Elturel where he engaged in a table dice game with a severe-looking northern barbarian. Coincidentally, exactly at that time, the goddess of luck Tymora was affected by Iyachtu Xvim's plot to steal the powers of both her and her sister Beshaba. The luck powers of the goddess began running rampant through Faerûn. Volo's game was affected and he rolled doubles eight times, driving his opponent into a blind rage, who angrily ordered him to continue. With tears of terror in his eyes, Volo couldn't help but keep rolling doubles but finally escaped the livid barbarian by flinging the dice cup into his face and running for his life through the streets of Elturel. He prayed to Tymora, wondering why she'd wasted so much good luck on him.[59] By now, Volo and his guides were well known, enough for Joel to joke, on encountering a barghest, "I seem to have misplaced my Volo's guide to Gehenna." Volothamp Geddarm himself was a famous, much-talked-about figure all around Faerûn by 1369 DR. After this, Volo dared to return to writing about magic, with Volo's Guide to Rhyming Incantations published in 1371 DR. Volo's Guide to Magic also appeared—or at least its Appendix III did, being found ripped out of the larger work as of 1374 DR.Volo's Guide to Being a Successful Author at Last
After his return, Volo was hired by his rival Randilus Qelver to explore the valley of Barovia for a commission of 99 golden dragons. He escaped imprisonment in the demiplane by using a charm given to him by Elminster. At some point, he wrote the chapbook Volo's Waterdeep Enchiridion, a short visitor's guide to the City of Splendors intended to cover a gap in the market until a new and updated edition of Volo's Guide to Waterdeep could be released. It was again published by Tym Waterdeep Limited, with the aid of the Fellowship of Innkeepers and the Fellowship of Carters and Coachmen, and had the approval of Open Lord Laeral Silverhand. At this time, Volo enjoyed the patronage of the Melshimber noble family and had procured the services of a solicitor, Abricade Fellswop. He charged 7 copper nibs for an autograph. Volo's Guide to Waterdeep was eventually reprinted, and Volo was selling them, and loaning them, to visitors on the streets of Waterdeep as of around 1486 DR. Sometime in the late 1480s or early 1490s DR, Volo journeyed to Port Nyanzaru in Chult in order to promote his new book, Volo's Guide to Monsters. He arranged audiences with the seven merchant princes of the city to deliver autographed hardcover copies to them, and of course visited inns and taverns to share stories and sell books for 50 gp each. He gladly shared the latest rumors, advice, and information he'd overheard since arriving in town to any travelers and adventurers he met, and some of it was even true. Following his successful promotional tour, he returned to Waterdeep to take a break and to start working on his next book, Volo's Guide to Spirits and Specters, while he waited for royalty payments for his previous book, Volo's Guide to Monsters, which left him short on coin. However, he struggled on Spirits and Specters, not least because his knowledge of the ghostly variety of spirit was far surpassed by his knowledge of the alcoholic. While pondering it, he passed many of his free hours in the taproom of the Yawning Portal and catching up with friends and old friends.[9] In 1492 DR Soon after his return, in the Year of Three Ships Sailing, an acquaintance of his named Floon Blagmaar went missing, possibly kidnapped, following a night of carousing with Volo at the Skewered Dragon tavern. To find him, Volo would hire adventurers at the Yawning Portal, choosing a group that just survived a tavern brawl. They rescued both Floon and Renaer Neverember and, in lieu of the promised payment he could not actually provide, Volo offered the deed to Trollskull Manor. Reputed to be haunted, Volo had purchased the property for research material. Much later, Volo may have come cap in hand to the successful adventurers to ask for funding for his next expedition. Subsequently, while relaxing at the Yawning Portal, Volo would buy drinks for other adventurers who planned to venture into Undermountain and related tales of the great dungeon. These included the legend of the lost throne of Coronal Syglaeth Audark, last ruler of Illefarn; if rediscovered, he would tell elven friends about it. He could also introduce adventurers to Captain Jalester Silvermane of the City Watch.Volothamp Geddarm (a.k.a Volo)
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Emmeros Silmerhelve (son)
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