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.
In Dragon Magazine articles written by Ed Greenwood, Elminster often appeared as a wise sage imparting knowledge to a fictional interviewer.
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.
The first novel in The Elminster Series, The Making of a Mage,[5] recounts the character's origin story, which explains why he has such extensive and varied experience.
Later, while eavesdropping on a possible thieving mark, Elminster met that era's Magister, the wizard who bore the mantle of Azuth's power.
In the time that followed, Elminster learned much about magic from Myrjala, reaching the point where he could finish taking his revenge against the evil magelords who had usurped the kingdom.
However, after regaining his kingdom, he passed the monarchy to Helm Stoneblade, a knight of Athalantar, stating that he had wanted to avenge his family's death, not rule.
The book details the ancient elven society and its people, as well as highlighting Elminster's continued magical studies, as he serves as an apprentice to a cruel and powerful wizard.
During much of this book, Elminster restricts his use of magic (on orders from Mystra) and he must again learn to survive by his wits and the skills he picked up earlier in his life.
The forces of evil tried to rally in Elminster's absence, but the other Chosen, the Knights of Myth Drannor, and the Rangers Three held them at bay until he returned.
As the critical moment of the Time of Troubles approached, Mystra knew of what was to come and shed most of her power into the human wizard Midnight, so that all of her essence would not cease to exist.
Once in Hell he was abducted and enslaved by an outcast Arch-Devil known as Nergal, who wished to discover the secret of Mystra's silver fire.
While the arch-fiend plundered Elminster's thoughts and memories, Mystra became aware of her favorite servant's plight and entered Hell herself to find him.
[11] Elminster is a featured character in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons "gold box" game Pools of Darkness, where he serves as the primary foil to the god Bane, who plots to steal the cities of the Realms.
Elminster aids the player's party from Limbo, offering advice and direction and shuttling them back and forth between the dimensions they must travel in order to undo Bane's plot.
In the final climactic battle, Elminster is captured by the balor Gothmenes and dragged from Limbo to be used as a bargaining chip for the crystal of Bane, which the party has stolen.
Elminster breaks free of the balor's whip and battles him only to be swept into the Abyss as the party defeats Bane's minions.
In the Baldur's Gate role-playing video game series, Elminster made brief and sporadic appearances to check on the protagonist's progress and impart words of wisdom.
In the Io9 series revisiting older Dungeons & Dragons novels, Rob Bricken describes Elminster as "the most powerful, important, and smartest wizard in the Forgotten Realms, and one of the setting's most important characters [...] more Merlin than Gandalf, which makes him less enigmatic and prone to tomfoolery than other major fantasy wizards, which I count as a good thing.