Editing Forgotten Realms (section)

===[[Faerûn]]===
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Medieval/Renaissance Europe/Near East/Africa. The setting of the vast majority of D&D stories, including those of a certain dark elf, to top it all off with the center of attention in D&D videogames to boot. If you've somehow don't know about it, there's a [[Player's Guide to Faerun|guide]] to it. This setting provided inspiration for most of the 3e [[splatbook|splatbooks]]. Most of the attention Faerûn gets is centered on its west coast, the Swordcoast, and [[Dalelands]].

A common theme of the continent, (as the others like [[Kara-Tur]] and [[Zakhara]] were original and currently treated as separate D&D worlds), is how littered the region is with the remains of long-dead temples, towns, cities, and civilizations whose existence has mostly washed from memory with the passing of time (Forgotten Realms TM). Rarely does this happen by mundane real-life means like profits drying up or being conquered by a neighbor. It always has to be the fault of some Fiend, power-hungry Mage(s), and/or adventuring party, with a notable percentage of the previous occupants dying in some horrific manner, often with a Horde of orcs being somehow involved that has come to raid and raze the place before, during or after the incident. [[grimdark|So remember when exploring some ruins, never will the original inhabitants just abandon a place willingly, minute residue from their dusty dried blood must still stain the walls]].

<gallery>
Faerun political.jpeg|full Faerûn map
Faerûn map.jpeg|the 5e map of the western Faerûn focused on Sword Coast with the immediate lands around it.
Faerun 1e.jpeg|1e
1479-faerun low-res 4e.jpeg|4e map, mostly outdated so use older ones.
YearofOathsForsakenMap.jpeg
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====[[Sword Coast]]====
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As a continent is still a Dizzying vast place, Sword Coast is the main location for adventures or at least the start, with the majority of 5e modules assuming this. In terms of operation area, the Sword Coast is the areas surrounding cities that are part of the [[Lords' Alliance]]. This is your Usual sandbox fantasy location, with cities-states overlooking smaller Towns, instead of classical kingdoms. Still tons of monsters and ruins of past civilizations. 

This is where you will find your [[Waterdeep]], [[Neverwinter]] and, if you stretch a bit, [[Luskan]] and [[Baldur's Gate]]. To ensure that the Sword Coast won't have its shit together enough to send armies out to repossess all the long-abandoned real estate surrounding these cities, they are mostly governed as city states with a few satellite towns and hamlets under their wings - you know, so us hero-types can get into loads of adventures and be needed to do generally hero-like stuff and get paid for it.

The Sword Coast is also where many of the Forgotten Realms Factions are centered, such as the [[Zhentarim]], the [[Lord's Alliance]] and so on. Whether that really means something is up to you, but if you ask sourcebooks and adventures set in this place, it's damn near the most important thing in the world.

<gallery>
The-sword-coast-campaign-map.jpeg| the Sword Coast, the place most of your official 5e Forgotten Realms games will happen.
Faerûn map.jpeg|The Sword Coast with the Heartlands, so [[Baldur's Gate]] can feel included.
Skt03-thenorth.jpeg|the North, the place most 5E modules take place.
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====[[Icewind Dale]]====
Your Artic setting is just north of the [[Sword Coast]]. Here be Frostbite, frost giants, isolation, and eldritch horrors.

====Western Heartlands====
Here be [[Baldur's Gate (City)|Baldur's Gate]] and every other existential threat the city (more accurately the [[Baldur's Gate (Games)|main character of the video games]]) has to deal with.

You have Warlock's Crypt, home to the powerful Netherese lich [[Larloch]], who hates it when you mispronounce his name as Warlock.

To the east is the Grand Protectorate of [[Elturel]], a theocracy of goodness that attracts a lot of [[paladin]] types. The highest honor of the nation is being a Hellrider, named after the brave army that rode with [[Zariel]] into [[Hell]] (you know before they bravely noped back out, shut the portal on Zariel, and causing her to fall and become an [[Archdevil]]). Zariel now hates Elturel for some reason. Depending on what time you play the holy city is either secretly ruled by a vampire lord, has a second sun over the city, and is controlled by a seemingly benevolent man who secretly sold the city to Zariel, Zariel has come collecting and dragged the city into [[Avernus]], or some ending for Descent into Avernus you and your friends made up.

You got Trielta Hills, where the [[Gnome]]s and [[Halfling]]s live like the footnotes they like to be.

Najara is the evil nation that is openly-not-secretly ruled by [[yuan-ti|snake people]].

Evereska in the Greycloak Hills is another secluded place where the dying elven race lives, especially with a recent influx of refugees from [[Cormanther]].

South of Baldur's Gate we got [[Candlekeep]] where the nerds live. Can't enter the library fortress unless you give them a scribble of paper they don't already own.

And then finally we have the Far Hills in the far southeast, the base of the military arm of the [[Zhentarim]] and its main headquarters as of 5e.

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SCA-WesternHeartlands5e.png| if you play [[Baldur's Gate (Games)]], some places may sound familiar.
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====Eastern Heartlands====
Although the Swordcoast gets the most focus, the Western Heartlands is More of [[Ed Greenwood]]'s babies, where he and his players spend most of their own time. 

We have [[The Dalelands]], a loose confederation of independent small towns that were given this land by the elves of Cormanthor as a pact in hopes that these common farming folk will act as a buffer against approaching evils. Ed's OC [[Elminster]]'s hometown, Shadowdale, is here. The Dalelands is always under threat of plots by its more nationalize neighbors to break up these close nit rural communities to annex their lands in addition to other D&D baddies.

To the Southeast is [[Cormyr]] one of the very few classical fantasy kingdoms that exist in the Forgotten Realms. Nobility is important, and the only way to really get in is through political marriages. Commoners and adventures with remarkable skills that want to get their family's foot in the door could join the purple dragon knights or the War Wizards; though not a hereditary title, it's still your best way to start schmoozing with nobility.

Sembia is your conglomeration of capitalist port towns, a place where to get trade goods without the taxation or quality control of Cormyrs ports.There's always merchants willing to sell or searching for a new source of revenue to milk.

Westgate is somehow an even seedier cesspool of crime and villainy that makes Amn and Sembia look like ethical and orderly governments by comparison. Bribery and profits are only what matter.

The Moonsea is a region filled with independent cities constantly rising and falling, this is where [[Zhentill Keep]] is found, the birthplace of the [[Zhentarim]]. With the founder, the now ancient archmage Manshoom, falling out of favor, and an ill-advised alliance with the [[phaerimm]] causing a devastating shadow war with the returned Netherese, the Zhentarim's current main base of operations is now in the West but still looking to reclaim their birthplace.  

Cormanthor is your classic big ass forest containing the remains of an ancient elven empire. The main city was [[Myth Drannor]], a relatively recent city by eleven standards, attempting to preserve the few vestiges of elven civilization by opening up to other races and giving way land to the Dalelands. but like more things Elven, haters going to hate, and demons going to demon, after several incursions, the straw that broke the elven back was a idiot elf High Mage, Khyssoun Ammath, created and reared a red dragon that never known evil. Apparently the ruling counsel forgot or lacked the heart tell poor Ammath that taking this red dragon on joy rides was the impossibility required to destroy the city's protective wards, and released three imprisoned [[yugoloth|yugoloths]] that proceeded to build an army of darkness and razed Myth Drannor, one of the last real elven cities. Around the transition to 4e, ancient Elf Cambions finally conquered the ruin of Myth Drannor, only for a crusade to take it back and decide to seriously try to rebuild the city this time. 

Myth Drannor was returning to power until The Second Sundering, where Sembia invaded the Dalelands. Calling on allies, it was a war between the alliance of The Dalelands, Cormyr, and Myth Drannor vs the Netherese and their puppets, ending with the last Netherese flying capital city crashing into Myth Drannor, once again destroying the remains of two once grand empires. 

This war started about 6 to 16 years ago between 4e and 5e, With the status quote returning to how it was before in 3e. 

<gallery>
Eastern Heartlands3e.png
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====[[The Lands of Intrigue]]====
South of the [[Sword Coast]] and [[Baldur's Gate]] is basically Faerûn's slice of [[Al-Qadim|Zakhara]]. Long ago the [[Genie]] lord Calim swept into the area with his lackeys and created his slave empire. Eventually, his [[Genie]] generals tried to take a slice of Calim's pie for themselves, resulting in a brief war that absolutely ended with the local angry tree-hugging elves High mages Fusing much of the Genie across the nation into a giant floating crystal, taking care to also shatter Calim's and his former head righthand, Memnon, minds across the land, but transforming the surrounding area into a desert as a byproduct. and then the elves pat themselves on the back and called it a day instead of finishing the job like they usually do.

After their master was imprisoned, the humans created their own empire of [[Calimshan]], with eventually the land of Tethyr rebelling for independence, resulting in the merchant nation of [[Amn]] also getting some breathing room.

Amn the northern plutocratic nation of trade ruled by a council of once 6 now 5 wealthy families. Ships from every land on Toril make port in Athkatla, the city of a coin whose marketplace is twice the size of [[Waterdeep]]s. From magic items to your [[slavery|kidnapped grandma]] this is the best place to find, buy and sell those kinds of things. Wealth is expected to be flaunted and the only major government setback to committing most crimes is paying a fine for getting caught. The only death penalty is being an Arcane caster who has not paid the secretive Cowled Wizards' steep membership fee.

In the south, not so obsessed with acquiring wealth as Calimshan receives about as much trade as Amn. Like Amn, wealth determines power in Calimshan movement class hierarchies, with the Syl-pasha, the "chief guildmaster" of the city of Calimport being usually the most important. Calimshan is defined by how prevalent magic is in everyday life and sees itself as the greatest of nations as they accept and are willing to evoke any and all gods in the Faerûn pantheon and have at least one still working temple dedicated to each one. Nothing can go wrong when a public temple to [[Tyr|Ty]][[Lawful Stupid|r]], [[Bhaal|Bha]][[Murderhobos|al]], and [[Cyric|Cy]][[Stupid Evil|ric]] are in the same city.

Sandwiched between the two nations is the kingdom of Tethyr. The Spanish Constitutional monarchy, with landholding being important with gods that enrich it the most important. Tethyr's history has long been defined by the many secret coups and the peasants' viva la revolutions.

Muranndin is a nation of monsters and bandits that carved its place between Tethyr and Amn, just south of the Small Teeth mountain range, in 1371 DR. The Great Mur has only nominal control over the chieftains and bandit lords, who spend their time raiding the neighbouring contries and each other.

Cape Velen used to be a duchy of Tethyr, but declared indepence after getting cut off from them by Muranndin several years prior. Ghost sightings are super common here, to the point that the locals just ignore them entirely.

====[[The Old Empires]]====
South of the sea of falling stars you got your pre-Islamic middle eastern nations. Long ago some human tribs discovered the portal network of a creator race and used it to conquer a massive portion of Eastern Faerûn, with outposts even in the endless wastes. The Imaskar Empire became master artificer wizards and relied on magic items for day to day life. They still needed slave labor so they went to the actual planet Earth and kidnapped pre-bronze age humans near the Fertile Crescent and Nile River. This went bad for the Imaskari, despite being anti-theists and taking precautions to create a barrier to block divine magic, they didn't expect the slaves pantheons to bypass it with a host of Avatars. 

Imaskar wizards were not immediately wiped out, but the Mesopotamian [[Mulhorand]] and Egyptian [[Unther]] people were freed, established thier own empires ruled by god-kings that battled the remains of Imaskar artificers for years until they were mostly driven off-world or underground. 

The new empire ran smoothly, but Imaskar pregiguce placed harsh restrictions on arcane magic, which [[wizard|wizards, having no sense of right or wrong]], rebelled and formed their own magocracy they named [[Thay]] (and they have been a nuisance to everyone ever since). Their first order of business was open a portal to an orc dominated planet (which the leader of the revolution was executed before he could do something), having the world overrun with orcs while [[Gruumsh]] probably massacred all of [[Mulhorand]] pantheon that didn't peace out. After that was resolved nothing much happened until 4e.

[[Mulhorand]].

[[Unther]].

[[Chessenta]] bunch of city-states that broke away from Mulhorand under the leadership of a Red Dragon and God-king of Tiamat named [[Tchazzar]].

[[Tymanther]] during 4e, the chunk that replaced Mulhorand was filled with Dragonborn that were really sick of being ruled by dragons. They were on peaceful terms with the returned Imiskar, but when Mulhorand came back between 4e and 5e, they were also sick of dragons (including Dragonborn). Wanting to reclaim all lost lands [[Gilgeam]] had declared two wars on the new nation, which only halted for now by his father [[Enlil]], making the Dragonborn his new chosen people.

====[[Shining South]]====
Pseudo-Africa and Pseudo-India, in that it's mostly covered in tropical jungles and swamps, with one huge-ass desert. Notable regions include Halruaa, an isolationist [[magocracy]], [[Dambrath]], a nation of horse-riding, [[Loviatar]]-worshipping black [[amazons]] (of the "women run things, men obey" variety) ruled over the by [[Crinti]] (a matriarchal mixture of [[half-elves]], [[drow]], and half-drow), and the halfling homeland of [[Luiren]]. Is home to Faerun's native population of [[thri-kreen]], as well as a race of [[spelljammer|alien]] [[beastfolk|elephant people]] called [[Loxo]]s.

Despite the Shining South's lack of any major influence or pronounced interaction with the rest of the Forgotten Realms, the damage this region suffered as a result of the 4E [[Spellplague]] - which, amongst other things, saw [[Halruaa]] blow up, [[Luiren]] sank underwater, and Dambrath's Crinti rulers be deposed by a human uprising that brought about a restoration of their pre-Crinti culture - was hugely unpopular. Some of that is inexplicable - Halruaa blowing up makes perfect sense, since the place was literally as magical as [[Eberron]] and the Spellplague's whole thing was making magic dangerously unstable - but other complaints are more reasonable; if such an "old ways" movement against the Crinti had ever been explicitly mentioned in 3e or 2e lore, Dambrath's civil uprising would have made sense - especially in light of the baked-in drow tendency towards slave raids - but with no explicit pretext, it seemingly comes out of nowhere.

5E brought [[Halruaa]] back from death. with foresight foreseeing the all-consuming blue fire that followed Mystra’s death, and used it to displace itself in Abeir (while displacing part of that world into the [[Plane of Shadow]]). Now they're back to spread the joys of Airships.

Because [[halfling]]s luck, they treated their entire nation being underwater like their basement was flooded. After calling a plumber off-screen, Luiren now returns to being the land of hobbits everyone forgets about.  

Dambrath are still are horse-riding nomads and hate the Crinti. They take [[lycanthropy]] as a showing reverence to a favored deity and honoring their heritage.

====[[Chult]]====
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====[[Nimbral]]====
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southwest of Chult is A mysterious island nation populated by mostly half-elves, supposedly once ruled by the church of [[Leira]], goddess of illusions and lies before being taken over by a group of also super secretive illusionist archmages during the Time of Troubles. [[Alpha Legion|By the nation's very nature this is all we know about them and this may also be a very elaborate lie]]. 

You can't teleport to the island and they have invisible [[hippogriff]] knights that will sink uninvited ships.

This secrecy probably also hides the fact also has [[Spelljammer]] ports, within 2e there is a secret "the resort" where crews go for vacation. The second time Nimbral did anything was in 5e where the Spelljammer Academy is located, an also secret place where recruits across the Forgotten Realms learn how to Spelljam.

====[[Unapproachable East]]====
Eastern Asia, a blend of Mongolian, Russian, Indian, and Chinese traits. Most famous for being the lands covering [[Thay]], the biggest civilization of evil wizards in the setting, and the more obscure land of [[Rashemen]], which is sort of Russian [[berserker]] country ruled by masked witches but which everyone knows because it's the homeland of [[Minsc]]. It's the setting for ''Mask of the Betrayer'', the first expansion pack for ''[[Neverwinter Nights]] 2'', since they decided to set a Forgotten Realms video game somewhere interesting for once.

====[[Cold Lands]]====
Your other Russian/Slavic nations sandwich between the Anauroch, [[Unapproachable East]], and the Great Glacier; this is as far north you can go before getting into [[Icewind dale]] territory, but somehow the Great Glacier is even colder and more dangerous. 

You have [[Damara]], a kingdom run by incompetent nobles, and is starting to have a demon infestation problem. This is the best setting if you want to run a game in feudal Russia or [[Kislev]].

To its east is [[Narfell]], the remains of a demon-worshiping empire that conquered much of the Cold Lands and the east before that was destroyed in a protracted war with the predecessors of Rashemi. (Says devils in 5e Sword coast adventure guide, although it was demons in older sources and under the Nar peoples' description, [[durp|feel like a typo]])

To the west is [[Vaasa]], a place once destroyed by a lich before being defeated by Damara, that is now watched over by the iron-fisted Warlock Knights who are currently debating if they should break from their charge and invade their neighbors again.

Finally, there is [[Sossal]], founded what a group from [[Rasheman]] who believed they could create a kingdom in the Great Glacier near the Sea of Ice (different from the Sea of Moving Ice), the equivalent of medieval Russians following a river north and settled down in [[Conan]] [[Hyborian Age|fantasy Siberia]]. (This is still speculation as we know very little definitive about it).