Whispered of in obscure legends of the North for some six centuries (and described as frail with age even in his earliest mention), Eldenser is a great wyrm of unknown type, decrepit and wearywise in appearance. Long ago he mastered magic that allows him to leave his withered, wasted body in a secure hideaway (reportedly a crypt in Waterdeep's City of the Dead) and transport his sentience into the blade of any metal weapon. In this way, Eldenser has cheated death down the ages, preserving his slowly-crumbling form as much as possible by leaving it unused and walled away from air and elements, as he passes from blade to blade, able to see, hear, and speak freely out of the metal.

Tales unanimously refer to this dragon as a male, and the few that make mention of his true draconic body say that his wings are little more than tatters hanging between the structural spines, and that his scales are almost white in places, paling with age in the same way that the ancient black dragon of Cormyr became "the Purple Dragon." He is said to have tufted eyebrows and an extensive "beard" of spines on his chin, both white in hue, and to have very wise large eyes whose customary appearance is "twinkling with inner amusement."

In younger days, Eldenser was said to be a solitary wanderer among dragons, who flitted about Faerūn (the Sword Coast North wilderlands in particular) without apparent rhyme or reason, following his own whims. It's also said that Eldenser tends to avoid other dragons -- but to reveal himself as a wily, enthusiastic, and savage fighter when attacked. Three women of the household of the long-ago nomad Lord Tharnor of the North saw Lorragauth, a black dragon of some reputation, swoop down to attack Eldenser when the Lurker was intruding into Lorragauth's territory. As Lorragauth spread his wings to slow and aim himself for a devastating pounce, Eldenser calmly snapped his wings once, rolling to rise sharply under Lorragauth's right wing - and burst up through it, tearing one of his foe's wings almost right off the wyrm's body, sending the luckless Lorragauth "cartwheeling across the rocks and sky, to a broken and splintered death against a mountainside some way off to the south."

Eldenser is also said to have snatched up a fishing boat while in full flight from a gigantic red dragon and looped in the air to use the vessel as a crude spear, piercing his foe's eye and slaying him before the racing red wyrm could slow down or duck aside. Most of Eldenser's exploits preserved in Realmslore, however, concern his deeds while lurking in various swords -- such as the time he caused the death of the notoriously cruel and destructive mage Arnaglym of Arrabar by unexpectedly reflecting a fireball spell that Arnaglym had cast at Eldenser's wielder, hurling it back at the mage, who stood in a hall with a massive hammerbeam ceiling hung with huge old tinder-dry tapestries -- which became a smothering inferno from which even the fell Arnaglym could not escape.

There are a score of similar surprising tales of astonishing powers bursting from blades that Eldenser is known to be the cause of, and many more that he isn't connected to by present-day bards and sages -- but for which he may in truth be responsible.