Regions

Regions mentioned here are covered in passing. More detail can be found from the official Forgotten Realms Campaign Sourcebook. Additionally, Regions where your characters are familiar with are detailed in PC character & background handouts which are given during the start of the Campaign.

The Dalelands: Surrounding the edges of the old elven forest, Cormanthor, the Dales are home to both a tough, independent people and many dark secrets of the past.

Cormyr: A rising power under the command of King Azoun IV (now deceased), Cormyr is an established nation under the rule of law.

Sembia: A kingdom of allied merchant cities on the coast of the Inner Sea, Sembia is a land of opportunity and treachery.

The Moonsea: A small, deep lake, the Moonsea is bordered with independent city-states and their Vassals. Great evil lies on the shores of the Moonsea in the form of Mulmaster and the fell Zhentil Keep.

The Vast: Situated on the far side of the Dragon Reach, the Vast is the gateway to the east. The region is centered in its greatest city, Ravens Bluff, and is both friend and challenge to heroes from throughout the Realms.

The Dragon Coast: A wild region of pirates, rogues, and traders, the Dragon Coast includes the Pirate Isles of the Inner Sea. Its most powerful city, however, is shadow-plagued Westgate.

The Western Heartlands: A wild, wide open space of endless plains, haunted moors, and monsterinfested hills, the Western Heartlands is still an untamed frontier, waiting for the birth of new kingdoms and leaders.

Waterdeep: The City of Splendors, the greatest city in the North, Waterdeep is a merchant's dream, a wizard's marvel, and potentially an adventurer's worst nightmare. It sits upon one of the great underground complexes of the Realms - Undermountain.

The Island Kingdoms: Diverse and mysterious, the kingdoms of the Trackless Sea include the Moonshaes, elven Evermeet, magical Nimbral, and wondrous Lantan.

The North: The North is defined as the region north of the River Delimbiyr, excluding Waterdeep ^nd reaching to the Spine of the World (the mountains also known as the Wall). This is a region of barbarian tribes and walled cities that challenge the dominance of the goblin races.

Anauroch: Anauroch is the Great Sand Sea, a spreading desert in northern Faerun. Within its borders, entire ancient nations have been swallowed and lie waiting for any who would brave the desert's perils.

The Cold Lands: Crouched in the shadow of the Great Glacier, these areas include Thar, Vaasa, Damara, and Sossal. They are under the continual threat of monstrous incursions.

The Unapproachable East: A land of magic and treachery, the Unapproachable East lies hard on the borders of the barbarian Hordelands to their east. The land is dominated by Thay, with its fell Red Wizards, and the various nations that oppose it.

The Old Empires: The eldest living cities and organized nations of the Realms, the Old Empires claim to be the birthplace of the modern world. Under the stagnant control of their soulless god-kings, they remain as they were millennia ago.

The Vilhon Reach: The southern coast of the Sea of Fallen Stars is a land of fallen nations, opulent cities, and ancient woods. It is a land of mercenary companies and petty kingdoms in endless minor wars.

The Empires of the Sands: The southern countries of Amn, Tethyr, and Calimshan are a mixture of the established Realms and the wonders of the South, influenced by both cultures and different from either.

The Shining South: The strange and magical lands of the far South are little more than legends to the natives of the Dales and Waterdeep, but they are legends of power and glory. From the jungles of Chult, to mage-dominated Halruaa, to Luiren, land of the halflings, the South is a diverse and deadly land.

The Underdark
The wildest frontier in the Realms is not reached by moving in a cardinal direction, such as north or south. The most dangerous frontier in Faerun is reached by going down.

The lands of the Realms are riddled with geological uplifts, sinkholes, caverns, lava tubes, smokeholes, and fault lines. Add to this a millennium of delvings by dwarves and other ancient races, and another world lurks hidden beneath one's feet. This is the world of the Underdark.

The Underdark is huge, sprawling, and for the most part unmapped and undiscovered. It is possible (it is said) to walk from the Spine of the World to Calimshan, and from there to Unther, without once drawing a breath of surface air. Great empires have risen and fallen deep within the earth without the surface-dwellers having the slightest inkling of their birth or passing.

And the Underdark is inhabited by nations of mind flayers, abolechs, kuo-toans, myconids, and other creatures of the darkling plain. The best known of the Underdark races are the drow, for they maintain their relationship with the surface through raids and outposts. Only 500 years ago Shadowdale was a drow surface outpost, and reports of drow raiding parties are still common.

The best-known of the drow cities is fabled Menzoberranzan, reputed to lie beneath the Savage Frontier, but there are others: Eryndlyn, which lies beneath the High Moor; Sshamath, in the Far Hills; and Llurth Dreier in the Shaar. The oldest drow city, Bhaerynden, was destroyed in a civil war, the cavern it occupied falling in to form the Great Rift now occupied by the dwarves.

The drow are not the only individuals within these dark tunnels, and races and peoples undiscovered and much deadlier than they await the incautious traveler and the foolhardy adventurer.

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