Considerable mystery surrounds the author. Because of the fantastic nature of his work and the scope of his alleged adventures, and given the large number of works attributed to Edgar Stoat over so many years, some authorities have concluded that the books are little more than fiction, written by several authors over the centuries. Officials in the Empire of the Bright Lands, for example, has called the books “nothing more than the fevered imaginings of ill-disciplined miscreants that encourage lawlessness and disrespect for duly-constituted authority.” For this reason, many Edgar Stoat books—notably Edgar Stoat and the Righteous Rebels of Rys—have been banned in several more repressive realms.

Others, however, point the striking accuracy of his description of places and events, citing them as evidence that Edgar Stoat really does exist. The discovery of the initials “E.S.” carved in such otherwise inaccessible places as the Fire Caves of Grundingfell and the Lair of the Great Horned Whiffleraptor of Thumbria Tarn have added to the mystery. Several famous and otherwise unimpeachable sources—including the late Peithrian jurist Justica Honustus, the renowned paladin Sir Everright Goodsoul III, and the elven High Queen Eliadrissal have all claimed, on their deathbeds, to personal acquaintance with the famed author. All of his manuscripts have been mysteriously delivered to his publisher (for the last hundred years, E.G. Lede and Sons of Greyhawk) in the dead-of-night, bound in leather binders, and handwritten in a single consistent hand in somewhat purplish ink (derived, alchemical tests reveal, from fermented Thrudcurrent juice).

Most accounts suggest that Edgar Stoat is an exceptionally long-lived and resourceful halfling, originating from the Dutchy of Ulek, who (by his own account) left home at an early age to explore the world. The Dwarves, however, have been known to claim him as one of his own, referring to him as Edgrr Stout. Most educated people with even the slightest drop of common sense realize how silly their claim is, however, and attribute it to Dwarven frustration that they have bald feet and furry faces (and not, as is much more appealing, the other way around).

Edgar Stoat’s most recent two volumes,  Edgar Stoat and the Heroic Halfling and Edgar Stoat and the Redoubtable Ranger of Really Rapid Ranged Ranging were to have been published on the 7th of Sages Rest of this year.