The Chronicle of Years: A Short History of the Realms - After the Spellplague

The Chronicle of Years A Short History of the Realms After the Spellplague: A Century of Change Edited by Christopher J. Monte Based on The Grand History of the Realms by Brian R. James

Just like the The Grand History of the Realms the bulk of this ebook is made up of brief entries that collectively form a timeline of the history of Faerûn and the other continents of the world of Toril. The events are presented in chronological order according to the year or time frame in which they occurred. This ebook and the earlier volumes in this series are meant to expand the original entries of The Grand History of the Realms with more background explanations for the events described in the original text. As this has greatly expanded the page count of the original work, The Chronicle of Years will be divided up into a series of volumes to focus on a related group of historical periods. This volume focuses on the events that occurred after the Spellplague radically altered the world of Toril. The events described herein are drawn from the Fourth Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide and Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide as well as the unofficial chronological entries provided by Brian R. James himself.

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Calendar Conversions One notable feature of the timeline that the expert Faerûnian historian will notice is that the dates in this work are expressed in the current Dalereckoning (DR) notation. Different cultures in the Realms have used different calendars, and reconciling them has often caused sages much difficulty. See the following notes to convert DR dates to some other calendar.

Dalereckoning (DR): This human-centric calendar has become the standard way of expressing dates across Faerûn for most historians and scholars who wish to use a numbered system of dates instead of the far more ancient—and less convenient—Roll of Years. Dalereckoning was established in the Year of Sunrise (1 DR) when the men of Chondath were first permitted by the eladrin and elves of the Elven Court to settle in the more open regions of Cormanthor. It is also sometimes called Freeman’s Reckoning in older sources.

Cormyr Reckoning (CR): This calendar starts at the founding of the Kingdom of Cormyr by the Obarskyr Dynasty (26 DR). The use of two close but not identical calendars between Dalereckoning and Cormyr Reckoning in the same geographic area of Faerûn’s Heartlands causes historians and sages much confusion. To convert between dates you might find in other sources: DR – 25 = CR or CR + 25 = DR. The current year is 1454 CR.

orthreckoning (R): The calendar used throughout the city of Waterdeep, the Silver Marches, and the North. DR – 1032 = NR or NR + 1032 = DR. The current year is 447 NR.

Waterdeep Year (WY): Archaic Waterdhavian calendar based on the year of the City of Splendor’s founding, no longer used.

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etheril Year (Y): Calendar used by the lost Empire of Netheril and still in use by the Shadovar of Shade Enclave, stemming from the formation of the Alliance of Seventon. DR + 3859 = NY or NY – 3859 = DR. The current year is 5338 NY.

Shou Calendar: The people of the vast Empire of Shou Lung mark the ascendancy of Nung Fu as the start of their empire’s calendar. DR + 1250 = Shou Year or Shou Year – 1250 = DR. The current date is Shou Year 2729.

Wa Calendar: Calendar used by the island Empire of Wa in the Eastern Realms of KaraTur. DR + 418 = Wa Year or Wa Year – 418 = DR. The current date is Wa Year 1897.

Mulhorand Calendar (MC): Ancient calendar dating from the founding of the Mulhorandi capital city of Skuld by the former Mulan slaves fleeing the destruction of the Empire of Imaskar. This calendar is at present only used by the deva and the few surviving descendants of Mulhorandi refugees. DR + 2134 = MC or MC – 2134 = DR. The current year is 3613 MC.

Untheric Calendar (UC): Established after the ascendancy of Gilgeam as the god-king of Unther. DR + 735 = UC or UC – 735 = DR. The current year is 2214 UC.

Aryselmalyr Calendar: Archaic calendar used by the undersea elves of Aryselmalyr at the empire’s founding. DR + 11004 = AC or AC – 11004 = DR. The current year under this calendar is 12483 AC.

Timesong Calendar (TS): Calendar established at Myth Nantar and used today by most undersea inhabitants of Serôs (the Sea of Fallen Stars). DR + 70 = TS or TS – 70 = TS. The current year for the sea elves of Serôs is 1549 TS.

Present Reckoning (PR): A newer calendar that dates the Time of Troubles and the Godswar that occurred in the Year of Shadows as Year 0. DR – 1358 = PR or PR + 1358 = DR. The current date in this seldom-used system is 121 PR.

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The Roll of Years Each year beginning with –700 DR also includes its name from the Roll of Years. The standardization of each year with an individual, proper name largely derives from two human prophets of different eras, Augathra the Mad (c. –400 DR) and Alaundo the Seer (c. 75 DR), about which little is known. What is certain is that they built on a body of elven lore and prophecy, adding their own foretellings of the future. Some historians view them as scholarly hacks, stealing and taking credit for centuries of elven knowledge. Others view them as great visionaries who sought to help future generations with their warnings and reassurances. In the years before the Spellplague, word spread of a new Roll of Years, a Black Chronology fashioned by the goddess Shar, the Lady of Loss and her faithful. The purpose of this Shadow Roll was to mark the events that would lead to the ultimate ascendancy of Shar over all of Toril, but instead, the goddess of darkness’ plans went all awry and brought on the Spellplague.

The current year in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting is 1479 DR, the Year of the Ageless One.

Prelude to Catastrophe, 1374-1384 DR 1374 Dale Reckoning (DR) (Year of Lightning Storms): Tsarra “Autumnfire” Chaadren takes up the mantle of the Blackstaff in Waterdeep, but hides herself under magical illusions that make her appear to be Khelben Arunsun.

1375 DR (Year of Risen Elfkin): The ancient leShay capital city of Karador rises from the crystal clear waters of the Myrloch on the island of Gwynneth in the Moonshae Isles. The leShay archfey queen Ordalf announces the rebirth of the fey Kingdom of Sarifal and declares herself High Lady over all the lands of Gwynneth—whether the humans of that island like it or not.

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1375 Hammer 1: The moon elven (eladrin) adventurer Fox-at-Twilight discovers Negarath, a fallen Netherese floating enclave, beneath the sands of the Great Desert of Anauroch, from which she barely escapes with her life, her sanity, and a new companion, the exiled goliath Gargan.

1375 Hammer 13: Adventurers liberate Lord Mourngrym Amcathra from possession by a servant of the Netherese Shadovars of Thultanthar, the Shade Enclave. Rousing the residents of Shadowdale, they break Zhentarim control of the area and kill the Zhentarim commander Scyllua Darkhope. Following the battle, Mourngrym resigns the Lordship of Shadowdale and rejoins the Knights of Myth Drannor in Myth Drannor, the City of Beauty. With the blessing of Shadowdale’s liberators, Azalar Falconhand, son of the Knights of Myth Drannor Florin and Dove Falconhand, claims the Pendant of Ashaba and is proclaimed the new Lord of Shadowdale. In the months that follow, fey return in large numbers to Shadowdale.

1375 Hammer 17: Fzoul Chembryl, High Tyrannar of the Church of Bane and leader of the Black Network of the Zhentarim, publicly blames Scyllua Darkhope for the Zhentarim’s failures in the Cormanthor War against the returned eladrin of Myth Drannor and proclaims that the “Bitch in the Trees” shall never again be resurrected. The Tyrant of the Moonsea hopes that by blaming all the failures of the Cormanthor War on Darkhope he can save face with his drow allies, House Jaelre and Clan Auzkovyn of the Elven Court.

1375 Tarsakh 3: Troops from Zhentil Keep occupy the neighboring Moonsea city-state of Phlan, increasing the number of vassal states under Zhentarim control.

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1375 Mirtul 1: Wai Yong, the tenth emperor of the Lui Dynasty of T’u Lung, secretly arrives in the Kingdom of Mulhorand under an assumed identity. The reasons for the young emperor’s journey westwards from mysterious Kara-Tur are as yet unrevealed.

1375 Mirtul 5: Druxus Rhym, Thayan Zulkir of Transmutation, is murdered in his apartments in the Thayan city of Bezantur. A Thayan army is defeated by the berserkers of Rashemen in the Gorge of Gauros during a failed invasion of Thay’s northern neighbor. The tharchions who mounted the invasion claim to have defeated an invading Rashemi army to prevent a loss of face.

1375 Mirtul 10: In the Sunset Mountains, Thay’s Thazar Keep falls to a horde of powerful undead emerging from Thazar Pass. In the days that follow, the undead overrun much of the Thayan Tharch of Pyarados, including half of the city of Thazrumaros.

1375 Mirtul 25: Samas Kul, Master of the Thayan Guild of Foreign Trade, is elected the new Red Wizard Zulkir of Transmutation.

1375 Kythorn 4: A Thayan army known as the Griffon Legion reclaims the Pyarados from the undead invaders. In the days that follow, Thay’s legions march up Thazar Pass to destroy those undead that escaped.

1375 Kythorn 5: Aznar Thrul, Thayan Zulkir of Evocation and Tharchion of the Priador, is killed by his prisoner, Mari Agneh, a human/bloodfiend hybrid.

1375 Kythorn 10: The lich Szass Tam, Zulkir of Necromancy, is blocked by his fellow Zulkirs from being elevated to the position of Regent of Thay. Tam, long the most powerful of the Red Wizards of Thay, desires to become the sole ruler of that nation and decides to openly make war against his fellow zulkirs.

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1375 Kythorn 14: The Griffon Legion of Thay retakes Thazar Keep. 1375 Kythorn 27: After Szass Tam’s plan to march an army south and seize Bezantur is slowed by the staunch defense of the Griffon Legion, the Zulkir of Necromancy and the six other zulkirs settle in for a long civil war.

1375 Eleint 30: A long, rolling earthquake strikes Waterdeep shortly after dawn. The city sustains little physical damage, but a number of people across the city are struck by fearsome mental visions of a screaming, bearded man whose eyes blaze with rage, sorrow, and swimming stars—Halaster Blackcloak, the Mad Mage of Undermountain. People of arcane talent struck by the visions also report scenes of destruction in the vast maze: pillars cracking and tumbling, rifts and chasms opening up, and surging explosions of blue-white sparks. It soon becomes clear that Halaster destroyed himself while attempting a ritual of tremendous power, and in the moment of his death hurled desperate visions and mysterious compulsions to adventurers and persons of magical power throughout Faerûn.

1375 ightal 20: The greatest of the Anti-Seldarine, Lolth, the Spider Queen, and Eilistraee, the drow goddess of song and beauty, battle to the death in a divine game of sava, with the fate of the entire drow race hanging in the balance. A Darksong Knight in service to Eilistraee slays Selvetarm, the Champion of Lolth and demigod of drow warriors, with a powerful artifact known as the Crescent Blade. Drow followers of Vhaeraun, the god of thieves, employ High Magic for the first time since the Descent of the Drow at the end of the

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elven Crown Wars millennia before. They succeed in opening a portal to Eilistraee’s realm on the plane of Arvandor, which the Masked Lord employs in an attempt to assassinate his divine sister. The effort backfires, as Eilistraee kills her brother instead and absorbs Vhaeraun’s divine power and portfolios. The Church of Vhaeraun is absorbed into the Church of Eilistraee. The tiny Church of Selvetarm is absorbed into the Church of Lolth.

1376 DR (Year of the Bent Blade): Azuth, the High One, the god of mages, charges his pupil, the archmage Flamsterd of the Moonshaes, with retrieving Halaster Blackcloak’s soul-shards, scattered throughout the world of Toril and beyond.

The drow Masked Brigades of the Elven Court are sorely shaken by their god Vhaeraun’s destruction, and the forces of Myth Drannor soon rout the remnants of the drow House Jaelre and Clan Auzkovyn from the territory of the Elven Court. With his drow allies scattered and disorganized, Fzoul Chembyrl of Zhentil Keep decides to end his war against Myth Drannor. The Tyrant of the Moonsea concludes an uneasy peace with soonto-be Coronal Ilsevele Miritar of Myth Drannor, leaving the forest of the Elven Court to the elves while the Moonsea city-state of Hillsfar and the open lands north of the line between Hillsfar and Dagger Falls formally fall under the sway of Zhentil Keep. In addition, the Fair Folk grant the Black Network of the Zhentarim free passage along the Moonsea Ride and Rauthauvyr’s Road, for so long as they do not fell a living tree, injure or kill an elf, or stray more than thirty paces from the trail beneath the boughs.

Strange aberrant creatures called nilshai are encountered en masse in the Yuirwood of Aglarond, usually near the ancient star elf menhirs. Reports of the creatures’ depredations are of such shocking bloodiness that the Simbul, the mage-queen of Aglarond, enacts a bounty on nilshai hides.

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The Swordbelt Alliance sacks the subterranean city of Oaxatupa in the Underdark beneath Amn, scattering the Maztican tlincallis who inhabit it like a giant stepping on an anthill. In the years that follow, the stingers boil up to attack targets throughout Amn and the ogre-ruled state of Murannheim without warning, forcing the two hostile neighbors to maintain their uneasy truce. The Armory of Nedeheim, a legendary cache of magical giant-forged weapons from the Dawn Age kingdom of Nedeheim said to be lost in the Underdark, is never recovered from the city of the stingers. But adventurers searching for the armory return from ruined Oaxatupa with reports of an arcane portal to the Abyss from which demonic servitors of the demon prince Obox-Ob, the patron of the tlincallis, continue to pour forth in support of the manscorpions. The ruling Amnian Council of Six institutes a heavy war tax on the people of Amn in preparation for years of warfare.

Throughout its existence as a nation, Rashemen has prevailed in the face of invaders. Old enemies include ancient Narfell and Raumathar, lost Mulhorand, the Tuigan of the Hordelands, and Thay. When Thay became embroiled in civil war, the Wychlaran, Rashemen’s witches, seized the opportunity to deal with a growing internal threat—the durthans. This dark group of women and hags, with powers similar to those of the Wychlaran, focused on corrupted spirits and wicked fey. Most durthans felt that the only way to protect Rashemen was to be as ruthless as its enemies. They built a secret sanctuary called Citadel Tralkarn within the Erech Forest. In what is now known as the

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Witch War of Rashemen, the Wychlaran and their commander, the Iron Lord of Rashemen, fought against the durthans and their allies. In the end, the Wychlaran prevailed and the durthans were no more.

1377 DR (Year of the Haunting): Captain Deudermont of the Sea Sprite breaks the stranglehold of a collection of pirate lords over the city of Luskan in the North, and briefly serves as the City of Sails’ governor. His reign proves short—the Luskanite populace was too accustomed to the corruption-as-usual practices of the former masters of the city. The City of Sails ultimately fell back into the hands of the surviving high captains, who immediately began to fight among themselves. Within a decade all four had either been killed or run off. Left without any central government, even a corrupt one, there was no hope left for Luskan. Rival gangs of thieves and pirates have been fighting, street by street and alley by alley, ever since. In the ensuing decades, numerous attempts have been made by master thieves, pirate captains, bandit kings, and monsters ranging from kobolds to beholders to take control of the city, but nothing resembling a government has stayed in power for more than a few months.

The ancient elven archlich known as the Srinshee returns to Myth Drannor and offers Ilsevele Miritar the ancient Myth Drannan Rulers’ Blade in recognition of her wise and resolute leadership in the realm’s re-founding. Ilsevele humbly accepts the Rulers’ Blade and formally accepts the title of Coronal of Myth Drannor and Cormanthor. Queen Amlaruil of Evermeet arrives in the Elven Court to congratulate the new coronal and brings with her the Tree of Souls as a gift to the new realm. The Tree of Souls was a divine artifact grown from a magical seed provided by Corellon, the god of the fey, to the first elves who settled the island of Evermeet after the Green Isle’s creation during the Sundering millennia before. Over time, the souls of ancient elves who chose to stay on

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Toril, rather than pass on to the Seldarine’s plane of Arvandor, merge into the Tree of Souls, slowly augmenting its immense magical power. The artifact is planted in a ringshaped colonnade at the heart of Myth Drannor known as Seldarrshen $ieryll, the Starsoul Shrine.

Followers of Kiaransalee, the drow goddess of the undead, cause the strange arcane radiation known as faerzress throughout the Underdark to affect the ability of drow to teleport or employ divination magic. In hopes of reversing the effect, Eilistraee’s worshipers launch an assault on the Crones of Kiaransalee who rule the Acropolis of Thanatos amid the ruins of the drow city of V’elddrinnsshar deep beneath the Galena Mountains of Damara. At the same time, the drow mage Q’arlynd Melarn and his apprentices, employing six Miyeritari kiira, ancient elven gemstones from the lost elven kingdom of Miyeritar used to store magical knowledge, cast High Magic to strip Kiaransalee’s name from the minds of any of the intelligent beings of the Realms. Bereft of any worshipers, the Revenancer literally fades from existence.

A minor earthquake off Amn’s coast disrupts Spellhold, the asylum for insane arcanists on the island of Brynnlaw. Several of the deviant spellcasters held within escape, vowing vengeance against the nation that imprisoned them.

1378 DR (Year of the Cauldron): A crazed cultist of the bound efreeti Memnon in Calimshan attempts to instigate a holy war in Memnon’s name. After some success in assembling the beginnings of a great fleet in Calimport to “scour” the Sword Coast to the far north of unbelievers, the cultist Roshanak has a dream so startling he abandons his effort. Roshanak disappears to a fate unknown.

1379 DR (Year of the Lost Keep): The drow goddess Eilistraee is successful in transforming the drow who embrace her benevolent philosophy back into dark elves from their cursed drow forms with the consent of Corellon Larethian, reversing the divine curse laid on them by the elven gods of the Seldarine during the Descent of the Drow. However, in the process the Dark Maiden lost her metaphysical sava game with Lolth in

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the divine realms and the Spider Queen absorbed her daughter’s divine essence. This occurred in actuality in the month of Flamerule 1379 DR when Eilistraee, while inhabiting the mortal plane in the body of her Chosen Qilué Veladorn, was killed by Lolth’s Chosen Halisstra Melarn even as Eilistraee tried to redeem her. Halisstra had been a drow priestess transformed into the demon known as the Lady Penitent as a punishment for betraying Lolth. Using the powerful artifact called the Crescent Blade, the Lady Penitent slew the Dark Maiden and allowed Lolth to absorb the combined divine essences of both Eilistraee and Vhaeraun. Yet all was not lost for the cause of the redeemed drow, for Corellon Larethian, the god of the fey and leader of the Seldarine, as well as Eilistraee’s father, accepted the worship of the Dark Maiden’s followers in her place and decreed that they should be allowed to enter Arvandor like all other elves upon their deaths. Corellon replaced Eilistraee in the great sava game with Lolth for the destiny of the dark elven race. The game promises to be a long one.

From his family holdings in Amn, Lionel Carrathal, a descendant of the last Carrathal high king of the Moonshae Isles, declares himself the true High King of the Moonshaes; he demands that the High Queen Alicia Kendrick abdicate to him. She refuses and finds his arrogant claims to be ludicrous. By 1385 DR, Lionel Carrathal, through profitable investments in commercial opportunities in Maztica and other business dealings, had carved out a small fiefdom for himself in Amn. But wealth and power in Amn was not Carrathal’s goal, for he had determined to regain his family’s royal heritage in the Moonshaes. Just as he had managed to assemble a formidable force of mercenaries to invade the Moonshae Isle of Callidyr in 1385 DR, the Spellplague struck, sowing ruin through Amn and Faerûn.

Amn’s colonization efforts in the jungles of Chult in southwestern Faerûn finally begin to pay off the extraordinary investment in ships, men, and gold. An entire tribe of savage Chultan humanoids is forcibly transplanted from the deep jungles and resettled in a caged preserve in the Amnian capital city of Athkatla. The parasitic disease that sweeps through

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Athkatla in 1379 DR and finally kills one of the Council of Six is blamed on the presence of the preserve, but before the savages can be eradicated, they escape to Amn’s interior, adding to the troubles of that mercantile nation. The Council of Six does not replace its lost member and is renamed the Council of Five.

Lolth plots against her rivals in the drow Anti-Seldarine pantheon. The Spider Queen attempts to destroy Ghaunadaur, the god of oozes, slimes and other aberrants, but Ghaunadaur proves to be a stronger and far more ancient power than Lolth suspected. The Elder Eye abandons his divine realm in the Demonweb Pits for the Deep Caverns.

A Netherese spy is caught in the Cormyrean capital city of Suzail. The Steel Regent, Princess Alusair Nacacia Obarskyr, hangs the spy in a public square. This event touches off a short-lived conflagration of hostilities with the Shadovars, which comes to be called the Four Day War.

After years of low-level skirmishing, Mulhorand’s conquest of Unther is complete. The city of Messemprar falls to Mulhorand’s last wave of conquest and the long-slumbering Mulhorandi giant is content, for the time being, to digest its newest attempt at empire. Threskel is consolidated under the rule of the Great Bone Wyrm, with the backing of the Church of Bane and Thay, while the ancient red wyrm Tchazzar, the Sceptenar of Cimbar, cements his hold on the rest of Chessenta. In addition to low-level skirmishes along the borders of the three realms in the Old Empires region of Faerûn, regular dragon raids wreak havoc in the heart of each country.

1380 DR (Year of the Blazing Hand): In the Moonsea region, the Zhentarim Hatemaster placed in control of Phlan by the Black Network, Cvaal Daoran, dissolves Phlan’s Council of Ten and establishes himself as the sole Lord Protector of Phlan.

The great canal linking the Lake of Steam and the Nagaflow River is finally completed, linking the Sea of Fallen Stars and the western oceans.

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The eladrin High Mage Araevin Teshurr completes the restoration of Myth Drannor’s mythal and, after visits to Waterdeep, Aglarond, and the star elven realm of Sildëyuir in the Feywild, sets out for the hidden realm of Auseriel. There he meets and befriends Prince Lamruil. The two eladrin leave Auseriel in the care of Prince Lamruil’s seneschal and depart in search of the missing Princess Maura, set on the trail by the mysterious prophecy revealed by Araevin’s magic.

The realm of Sembia, a protectorate of the Netherese enclave of Shade, is unofficially placed under the complete control of the Twelve Princes of Shade.

1381 DR (Year of the Starving): Master architect Ivor Devorast constructs a precision mechanical clock that is installed in the tallest tower of the Cormyrean port city of Marsember, the City of Spices.

Lord Protector Cvaal Daoran of Phlan initiates the restoration of Valjevo Castle and the reconstruction of Phlan’s city walls.

A freak cold snap freezes the ground in much of northern Faerûn in Mirtul of 1381 DR, ruining food crops and animal forage in many places. The resultant dip in Faerûnian agricultural productivity sees many go hungry in urban centers across the continent. Death by starvation and malnutrition visits even the largest, wealthiest cities, but most especially in the land of Thesk in the Unapproachable East. Hunger accelerates Shou emigration out of the region towards the Heartlands of Faerûn.

1382 DR (Year of the Black Blazon): Shadovar magic raises a five-hundred-foot wall of magically-hardened obsidian around the Sembian-controlled city of Daerlun as part of the Shadovar attempt to bring all of Sembia under the control of the reborn Empire of Netheril.

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The free cities of Starmantle and Westgate on the Dragon Reach see increased traffic from Shou refugees emigrating from the cities of Thesk across the Sea of Fallen Stars and points even farther eastward. Cognizant of the trade opportunity implicit in the movement of so large a population, both city-states seek to portray themselves as the destination port of choice for the Shou immigrants—and their high-value cultural products like silk and tea. Several of these Shou clans eventually founded the County of Nathlan along the Dragon Coast and its capital of Nathlekh City, the City of Cats. Nathlan’s most important Shou clan were the Neng, who once garnered special privileges from the emperor of Shou Lung himself. Although friendly to trade, the people of Nathlan were suspicious of non-Shou, particularly non-humans. None but Shou are allowed to live permanently in Nathlan, and visitors are restricted to a special section of Nathlekh City.

1383 DR (Year of the Vindicated Warrior): The Netherese, seeing the Zhentarim as a potential obstacle to their control over the Heartlands, raze Zhentil Keep and the Citadel of the Raven; Fzoul Chembryl, the Chosen of Bane and Tyrant of the Moonsea, is slain but is resurrected by his deity as the demigod of service to evil and exarch of Bane; the surviving Zhentarim separate their organization from its long allegiance to the Church of Bane. After Bane’s faithful suffered this serious defeat at the hands of the Shadovar, the survivors bowed out of the Zhentarim. A strong following of Cyric, the god of strife and murder, existed in Darkhold, which suddenly became a prominent fortress of the Black Network. The Cyricists quickly gained a hold in the mercenary group of Zhentarim that remained, and the Zhents are still prominent allies of the Church of Cyric. However, Cyric’s hold on the Zhentarim is far from solid. Fzoul Chembryl hates the Netherese for their destruction of the Black Network, and this hatred has earned him followers among the Zhents. Although Bane’s church is no longer formally allied with the Zhentarim, the two groups often have a common purpose and end up working together. A thread of respect and even worship for Bane still

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exists in the Zhentarim—a thread the Dark Sun’s devotees would like to cut. Manshoon, the powerful wizard who originally founded the Black Network, took control of it once more, transforming it into a mercenary force based on the Dragon Coast and in the city of Westgate. Manshoon was not the original wizard of that name but a clone of that individual who had been transformed into a vampire lord before his awakening beneath Westgate following an earlier death of Manshoon at the hands of Fzoul Chembryl during the Banite’s successful takeover of the Black Network. The vampiric Manshoon was the only one of the original Manshoon’s clones to survive the so-called Manshoon Wars that followed in the wake of his original death. In the years after the Spellplague, Zhentarim mercenaries became widespread, but reach did not necessarily equate to power. The organization of the present-day Zhentarim is somewhat loose, and far-flung mercenary cells do not necessarily report back often or even at all. The Zhentarim offered protection to merchants and arranged attacks against those who did not pay for their services. They engaged in a variety of criminal activities, from petty smuggling to open murder to elaborate extortion schemes. Zhents were caught manipulating, aiding, and leading monsters to threaten peaceful settlements for various reasons—including being hired to drive the creatures off.

The Durpari city of Vaelan becomes known in greater Faerûn for its exotic form of body art, which goes farther than mere tattooing or piercing. For a considerable fee, artisans in Vaelan offer to etch limbs of the well-to-do with “living crystal” that enhances not only the wearer’s visage but, in some small way, the wearer’s talents.

Moradin, the chief god of the dwarven pantheon, the Mordinsamman, leads the assembled deities of Dwarfhome on a crusade against the dark powers of Hammergrim, the realm of the gods of the duergar. Gorm Gulthyn, the dwarven god of guardians and Haela Brightaxe, the dwarven demigoddess of luck, perish in the battle, but Moradin

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destroys Laduguer, the god of the duergar. Clangeddin, the dwarven god of war, slays Deep Duerra, the duergar goddess of conquest. The loss of their chief deities leads the duergar to turn to Asmodeus and the devils of the Nine Hells for spiritual sustenance. The plane of Hammergrim disperses into the Astral Sea to the sounds of the Mordinsamman’s victorious battle hymns.

The War of Gold and Gloom between the gold dwarves of Earthheart and the duergar comes to an unexpected end in the caverns of the long-abandoned dwarven realm of Barakuir. During the course of a great battle between the gold dwarven Army of Gold and the duergar Army of Steel, the gold dwarven crusaders of the Great Rift discover a collection of ancient dwarven runestones detailing the fate of Clan Duergar and the betrayal that led to the fall of their kingdom and their enslavement by the illithids. This discovery, long forgotten, prompts the loretaker illithids of the Underdark mind flayer city of Oryndoll to unleash an army of their psionically-dominated thralls against both dwarven hosts, although the gray dwarves suffer most of the casualties from the onslaught of their ancient foes. In the end, the dwarves lose more than half their number, but Oryndoll’s thrall army is shattered. In an unexpected act of compassion, the gold dwarven commander of the Army of Gold offers the surviving duergar a place within his host. The united Stout Folk then march west into the ruined dwarven kingdom of Shanatar, in hopes of claiming a bastion suitable for repelling the inevitable illithid attack to come.

1384 DR (Year of Three Streams Bloodied): At the insistence of several members of the Cormyrean royal court and the young king himself, Azoun V attains his majority and is formally invested as the reigning King of Cormyr. The Steel Regent, Alusair Nacacia Obarskyr, relinquishes power to her newly-crowned and strongwilled nephew.

The newly installed King of Cormyr, Azoun V, attempts to make official a royal decree that would give all “freemen” or commoners the right to a hearing before a jury of other commoners in the face

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of accusations of wrongdoing, even if that accusation were to come from a member of the Cormyrean nobility. In the face of stiff political resistance from every major peer in Cormyr, Azoun V does not follow through with the decree as he does not yet have the political strength this early in his rule to run roughshod over his nobles. However, he puts the nobility of his kingdom on notice that someday he will successfully enact just such a decree, no matter the resistance they offer.

Siamorphe, the demigoddess of nobility, quarrels with Tyr, the god of justice, when the deities take different sides in a clash between Tethyrian and Calishite forces. Siamorphe removes herself from the plane of the House of the Triad and instead joins the court of Sune, the goddess of love and beauty, in the plane of Brightwater. Tyr sends his ally Helm, the god of guardians, to plead his case with Sune and restore Siamorphe to the allegiance of the Triad. The goddess of love suggests a marriage between Tyr and Tymora, the goddess of good fortune, to set the celestial planes in balance again. Helm conveys Sune’s suggestion to Tyr, and begins to chaperone a chaste courtship between Tyr and Tymora. Strange and fateful misunderstandings lead to the accusation that Helm has stolen Tymora’s heart while conveying the gifts and sentiments of Tyr. A strict interpretation of his own chivalric ideals forces Tyr to challenge Helm to avenge his stained honor, and Helm is obliged by his own ideals to meet the challenge. The two gods do battle, and Tyr slays Helm before the two deities come to their senses. Heartbroken at the outcome, Tymora accompanies Tyr back to the House of the Triad as the Grimjaws’ consort. Though nothing can be proved, the gods sense the hand of Cyric the Dark Sun, god of murder, strife and deception, in Helm’s death.

With the House of the Triad’s unity broken because of Helm’s death, Ilmater, the god of suffering and once-close ally of Tyr, chooses to remove his domain from the House of the

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Triad. He reestablishes his celestial realm in the plane of Brightwater at Sune’s invitation.

The Wailing Years, 1385 – 1395 DR 1385 DR (Year of Blue Fire): The Spellplague: An unthinkable global catastrophe ensues when the foul god of strife and murder, Cyric, the Prince of Lies, aided and abetted by the goddess of darkness and loss, Shar, murders Mystra, the goddess of magic, in her home dominion of Dweomerheart. The plane itself disintegrates at once, destroying Savras, the demigod of divination and sending Azuth, the god of mages and Velsharoon the demigod of necromancy, reeling into the endless Astral Sea. Without Mystra to govern the Weave of magical power that surrounds the world, arcane magic bursts its bonds all across Toril and the surrounding planes and runs wild. The Weave essentially disintegrates without Mystra’s divine supervision and magic seeks to find a new stable configuration within the boundaries of reality. This process causes untold devastation on Toril and across the cosmos as a result. In Faerûn, this terrible event is known as the Spellplague. Thousands of mages are driven insane or destroyed by their own Art, and the very substance of the world becomes mutable beneath veils of azure fire that dance across the skies by night or by day. For eons, magic in Toril was focused through the Weave, controlled by the goddess Mystra and her predecessors. Although Netherese wizards of ancient days learned the truth that magic was an inherent property of the cosmos, most people believed that magic would not be possible without the deity’s existence. However, the death of Mystra gave the lie to that belief. Now the term “Weave” is just another name for magic, if it is used at all. Just as Mystra controlled the Weave, the goddess Shar had created and maintained the Shadow Weave as an alternative conduit to arcane magic. Not satisfied with her portion of the universe’s greatest power, Shar plotted to seize control of both the Weave and the Shadow Weave after Cyric murdered Mystra. She miscalculated. The Weave collapsed so completely and rapidly that Shar not only failed to gather up its fraying threads, she also lost control over the

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Shadow Weave, which was destroyed just like its counterpart. Many of the divine planes were shifted or destroyed as well in the cataclysm that ensued. Only greater deities prove strong enough to maintain their divine realms against the resultant chaos. Tyr, Lathander, the god of the dawn and Sune move against Cyric and successfully imprison the Dark Sun in his Supreme Throne dominion, under a sentence of house arrest to last one thousand years. Sages in centuries to come mark the Weave’s destruction in the Year of Blue Fire as the end of the old world and the terrible beginning of the new.

As the cosmology of the planes is altered by the sweeping effects of the Spellplague, the two echo worlds of Abeir-Toril, the world of Faerie, also called the Feywild and the Plane of Shadow, also called the Shadowfell or just Shadow, move closer in conjunction with Toril and its counterpart Abeir. Travel between these echo worlds and Toril becomes much more common than before the Spellplague and incursions across the now unstable planar barriers between them occur more frequently, leading to phenomenon like “worldfalls.”

Where once stood the realm of Sespech, the Golden Plains, and the Nagalands, the passing of the Spellplague’s chaotic energies soon reveals a surreal landscape breathtaking in its beauty, grandeur, and deadly changeability. For the next century, active Spellplague cavorts on this territory called the Plaguewrought Land, contorting terrain, natural law, and the very flesh of any creature that dares enter.

The Spellplague ate through stone and earth as readily as flesh and magic. Broad portions of the continent of Faerûn collapsed into the Underdark, partially draining the Sea of Fallen Stars into the underground Glimmersea far below and leaving behind a gigantic pit called the Underchasm. The Underchasm is an expansive sinkhole formed by the collapse of a portion of Faerûn into the Underdark. The Sea of Fallen Stars, the Shining Sea, and the Great Sea all feed the Underchasm by various waterways, so many of the walls in the depths are veiled in steaming cascades whose thunder is audible for miles. The upper portions of the Underchasm’s sides host colonies of flying monsters and the occasional

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dragon. The lower portions hold vast numbers of bats and darker denizens. The northern section of the Underchasm partly undercuts the thick Chondalwood. The jungle has begun to reach down into the dark, creating miles-long vines and massive roots ideal for climbing creatures. Junglemotes also float above the northern Underchasm. Several other earthmotes hover over other portions of the Underchasm, tunneled with chambers lined in luminescent fungus. Within such motes reside creatures normally confined to the deep earth, and treasures of the former Underdark are somewhat easier to reach.

The Spellplague splintered the Old Empires south of the drained sea into a wildscape of towering mesas, bottomless ravines, and cloud-scraping spires. Of those ancient kingdoms, the most changed by the Spellplague were Mulhorand, Unther, and Chondath, as well as portions of Aglarond, the shores of the Sea of Fallen Stars, and the plains of the Shaar. What was once the arcane realm called Halruaa was destroyed in a great holocaust, as if every spell held there had loosed its power simultaneously. The land bridge between Chult and the Shining South was sunk; now only a scattered archipelago and a large island remains.

The gold dwarven kingdom of East Rift lies along the vast Underchasm, a cavity formed mostly between the Landrise and Great Rift in the Spellplague’s wake. The floor of what was once called the Great Rift is now a shelf on the side of the Underchasm. It has come to be called the East Rift. During the Underchasm’s fall, large portions of the Great Rift were destroyed or cut off. Fortunately for the dwarves of East Rift, the elemental portals that feed the Riftlake did not close. The lake, and rivers from the Eastern Shaar, kept the East Rift from becoming a forsaken land. Drow enclaves were also destroyed, including the city of Llurth Dreier. A few years after the collapse, dark elf refugees invaded the dwarven city of Underhome. The drow overran the city and still hold its lower regions. With the loss of Underhome, Eartheart has become the center of the gold dwarven lands. Underwatch, a fortress and village near Underhome, is a principal gateway that surface adventurers use when entering the exposed Underdark. Drow in the Underchasm periodically test the dwarven defenses. Such a wide opening offers unheard-of

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opportunities for moving large forces to the surface all at once. Thus, the dwarves of East Rift must remain vigilant.

Once a vast savannah, the Shaar became a desert called the Shaar Desolation when the formation of the Underchasm cut off all fresh water flowing to the plains’ western regions. An increase in temperature as the water dried up furthered the plains’ decline. The land west of the East Rift is a vast dustbowl, most of its inhabitants dead or displaced into more livable lands. No hospitable settlements remain in the west. Shaarmid is abandoned and buried in sand dropped by unnatural storms. Rumors say that the dark serpent deity Sseth is transforming yuan-ti in ruined Lhesper, grooming them to be lords of the new desert. The snakemen enslave those who wander too far from Elfharrow. The Eastern Shaar remains habitable, however. Rivers still flow from the Uthangol Mountains and the shattered remains of the western Toadsquats. Nearby seas moderate the temperature. Nomadic human Shaaryans survive here, along with their native horses, but competition for resources, and the ravages of gnolls, keeps the population low.

Tendrils of the Spellplague reached to many other corners of Toril, sometimes bypassing great swaths of land by infecting both sides of the many magical portals that dotted the world. Such an effect might have been responsible for drawing portions of the lost parallel world of Abeir into Toril. Some sages suggest that the two worlds have undergone periodic conjunctions ever since they diverged, but that these were too subtle for most creatures to notice. By an accident of timing, the Spellplague occurred during just such a conjunction, which caused the briefly overlapping lands to run athwart each other instead of effectively passing through each other while out of phase as before. Pockets of active Spellplague still exist today, most notoriously in the Plaguewrought Land. Each of these plaguelands is strange and dangerous. No two possess the exact same landscape or features, but entering any of them could lead to infection by the Spellplague. Luckily for the world, the remaining plaguelands possess only a small fraction of the Spellplague’s initial vigor and are in hard-to-reach locales, often surrounded by twisted devastation. Most lands of Faerûn and Returned Abeir are entirely free of such pockets, though the plaguechanged and spellscarred might appear in any land.

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The Kingdom of Cormyr in the Heartlands of Faerûn is struck hard by the effects of the Spellplague, but not so violently as many other nations such as Mulhorand and Unther, which effectively cease to exist. Roughly one third of all Cormyrean War Wizards are slain, driven mad, or simply go missing in the year following Mystra’s death.

The Temple of Mystra in Harrowdale in the Dalelands is destroyed when all the temple wards misfire simultaneously, killing head priestess Llewan Aspenhold and most of her Mystran clergy. Similar events occur at Mystran temples across Faerûn, essentially eradicating the once powerful Church of Mystra as a force for good on Toril. The Fall of Stars in Harrowdale is shrouded in a halo of blue flames for a full day, but otherwise seems untouched.

The Spellplague shattered the ancient elven High Magic that bound the efreet Memnon and the djinn Calim in the Calimemnon Crystal. The two were released, along with similarly bound elemental servants, many of whom were genasi. Ancient enemies, Calim and Memnon immediately picked up where they had left off—trying to annihilate each other. Many individuals presumed to be humans among the Calishite population revealed themselves as genasi and joined in the fight. Thousands more genasi, descendants of those scattered to the Lake of Steam, Tethyr, and Amn after the first Calishite djinn and efreet empires fell, returned and promptly declared for air or fire. Even some genasi out of the newly-arrived Abeiran realm of Akanûl joined the fight. The result was thousands dead, the Calim Desert’s expansion east across the Spider Swamp, and an explosion in the genasi population of the Realms. The period between the onset of the Spellplague and the Year of Holy Thunder (1450 DR) becomes known as the Second Era of Skyfire to the beleaguered people of Calimshan.

Ancient kingdoms fell in the Spellplague’s aftermath, among them Mulhorand. Many of the Mulan people of that ancient kingdom were lost when the landscape rocked and changed. The few remaining Mulhorandi Mulan fled westwards to other lands, including Chessenta. Mulhorand’s pantheon of immigrant gods departed Toril as the Spellplague

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reshaped the cosmos. Only the deva, the mortal incarnations of the Mulhorandi pantheon’s angelic servants, remained behind to seek out their own destinies in a transformed Faerûn. The geography of Mulhorand was altered beyond recognition and made completely barren of civilization. A descendant of the ancient Empire of Imaskar named Ususi Manaallin founded the new realm of High Imaskar in the territory that had once been Mulhorand. She did so by relocating the ancient (and movable) Palace of the Purple Emperor from the Underdark home of Deep Imaskar to the wildscape of former Mulhorand. In the years to come, High Imaskar consolidated its hold on its new-claimed lands. Ususi was crowned Empress, the first Imaskari imperial sovereign since the last emperor, Yuvaraj, was slain in battle against the avatar of the Mulan deity Ra nearly 4,000 years before. Empress Ususi’s first dictate was to renounce the slavery practiced by her ancestors, and she outlawed slave ownership in High Imaskar on pain of death. She also set up the Body of Artificers, Planners, and Apprehenders, whose power was equal to and balanced hers.

The Spellplague was not kind to the kingdom of Halruaa, heir to ancient Netheril’s veneration of magic. Fully half of the land dissolved during the initial wave of blue fire. In the tsunamis, mudslides, and massive magical detonations that followed, the remainder of the nation was destroyed and transformed into a vast plagueland.

Near Deep Imaskar in the Underdark is a place of madness, possibly linked to the aberrant emanations of the Far Realm. The vengeance-takers and wizards of Deep Imaskar sequestered within this region three mighty arcanists driven mad during the Spellplague. Trapped, the mad mages and one of the elder Deep Imaskari vengeancetakers melded into one another, forming a quaternary entity known as the Masters of Absolute Accord. These Masters, alongside the mysterious extradimensional beings called the sharn, helped forge the Order of Blue Fire, which soon headquartered itself near the vast plaguelands of Halruaa. The order’s public face as a humanitarian entity aimed at aiding the spellscarred was a front for a more sinister organization. It was

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originally a cult dedicated to the insane idea that the Spellplague was a holy cosmic event whose work should be continued. The sharn are held by the members of the organization to be the expressions of a Spellplague godhead by those who follow the deepest precepts of the order. At times the Masters and the sharn issue erratic, contradictory, and even illogical dictates to the cult, leading to miraculous and terrible events that spread and nurture the existing active pockets of Spellplague across the Realms.

Before the Year of Blue Fire, the lizardfolk of the Great Swamp of Rethild near Halruaa were given three skyships—one from merchant houses in each of three Halruaan towns. The lizardfolk king, Ghassis, was supposed to use the vessels to harry the half-drow Crinti of Dambrath and pirates on the Great Sea for the Halruaans. After the destruction of Halruaa, wizards fleeing from the city of Maeruhal, along with their few skyships, came across the pirate base of Yaulazna. A renegade Halruaan mage had protected the buccaneer haven with powerful magic, but the arcane wards ran amok during the Spellplague, shattering the town and turning part of it into an earthmote. In a brief clash, the refugee Halruaans took the Yaulazna earthmote and made an accord with the remaining pirates there. During the deal, they learned of Ghassis’ skyships, which they then wrested from the lizardfolk. In the end, Yaulazna’s folk had five working skyships and a small, highly defensible settlement. They made the Yaulazna Pact, an agreement to protect one another from the threats of the region. From their position, they set out to assure their survival, and eventually the infamous skyfaring Five Companies were born.

The dragon empires of Toril’s sibling world Abeir prospered for millennia on the labor of their dragonborn servitors. Rebel dragonborn clans sometimes rose and prospered for a time, but the rebels of Tymanchebar were the most successful. Tymanchebar ruled itself, without the input of the dragon monarchs. Then a portion of Tymanchebar was ripped from Abeir during the Spellplague. The inhabitants of Returned Abeir have not yet learned that Tymanchebar fell hard across Unther’s lands on Faerûn. Already on the brink of collapse and under military threat from Mulhorand, Unther was completely undone

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after the Spellplague began. Invading Mulhorandi armies and the downtrodden people of Unther alike were mostly erased from existence. The only original residents of the area to survive relatively unscathed were the stone giants of Black Ash Plain (now commonly called ash giants). The newly-arrived Abeiran dragonborn assumed they had suffered a particularly potent magical attack by their ancient foe, the Empress Dragon of Skelkor, Gauwervyndhal. After months of confusion, chaos, and bloodshed, the Tymanchebar expatriates learned the truth. The dragonborn then knew sadness, for their numbers had accounted for much of Tymanchebar’s strength in defense against the dragons. Their absence likely spelled the doom of those from which they were separated. But the dragonborn are not a people easily bowed by sorrow. They founded a new realm in Faerûn, Tymanther, named to honor both the free dragonborn province they had left behind on Abeir and the human Faerûnian realm their own lands had replaced.

During the Spellplague’s disruption of the divine realms, the primordial entity Telos, Master of the Iron Sky, fell to Toril in the nation of Vaasa. Usually a conflict-fraught place, Vaasa had enjoyed a brief respite from trouble under the rule of King Gareth Dragonsbane of Damara in the wake of a war between the two nations. Not long after the falling star landed on the tundra, a sect of fierce arcane warriors known as Warlock Knights arose to trouble Vaasa. The Warlock Knights, servants of the mysterious but all too real entity, drove off or conscripted the small human and dwarf population of the region, and then began to organize and marshal the numerous orcs, goblins, humanoids and other monsters of the Cold Lands for their nefarious ends.

During the Spellplague, the Plateau of Thay rose thousands of feet above sea level, shattering the land and causing the Thaymount to erupt. Debris from melting glaciers on Thaymount spread more destruction. While these catastrophes raged, the undead Zulkir Szass Tam made himself the land’s regent. The Spellplague ended the civil war of the rebel zulkirs who lead the Red Wizards of Thay, though that order’s power was essentially broken. Szass Tam then spent the next several decades preparing a terrible ritual intended to transform him into a dark deity. Just as the undead

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Regent of Thay attempted it, the last few exiled zulkirs and other enemies of the lich returned from the cities of the Wizard’s Reach in southern Aglarond where they had taken refuge and foiled his mad plot, though they were destroyed in so doing. In the decades after the Spellplague, “Red Wizard” slowly lost its Thayan origin and became an appellation awarded to various mercantile enclaves around the Inner Sea and Moonsea regions that sold magic items and other magical services. These enclaves were the descendants of the defunct Thayan Guild of Foreign Trade.

Long ago, the world of Abeir-Toril was twinned by Ao, the Hidden One, to save it from a final conflict between gods and primordials (known in Abeir as the Estelar and the Dawn Titans, respectively). The gods took one sibling world (Toril) for their own, and the primordials claimed the other (Abeir). Ages later, the Spellplague (which Abeirans call the Blue Breath of Change) caused the two separate worlds to collide and overlap. Portions of each world shifted into the other. Then the worlds separated again, contact severed, but each having contributed to the other. Perhaps as much as one-quarter of Toril’s surface now hosts lands originally native to Abeir and vice-versa. The two most significant transplanted lands on the continent of Faerûn are Akanûl, the home of the Shyran genasi and the free Abeiran dragonborn’s nation of Tymanther. However, the largest new landmass by far is an entire continent that Faerûnians call Returned Abeir, which lies west of the Trackless Sea where Maztica, the True World, once stood. In Returned Abeir, dragons rule vast realms of humanoid slaves. The dragonborn are the most numerous intelligent race, but they are given to rebellion. Dwarves and humans are plentiful. Genasi were also numerous, but mostly on the eastern continent of Shyr (a continent that was not transported to Toril by the Blue Breath of Change and now coexists with Maztica on Abeir). Other intelligent races are less numerous, and fey such as elves, eladrin and gnomes are rare curiosities introduced to the continent only in the last century. Organized religion in Returned Abeir (faiths, simple shrines, and traveling clergy) is something new; even the concept of gods who answer prayers is still alien to many of the inhabitants, though some deities of Toril have set their sights on the conversion of the peoples of the returned lands.

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As with most folk who survived the Wailing Years, Lionel Carrathal spent the next two decades after the Spellplague picking up the pieces and trying to rebuild his life. Through hard work and some underhanded dealings, Carrathal once again worked his way up through Amnian society, still determined to reestablish his family in the Moonshaes.

The Kingdom of Impiltur’s royal line failed with the death of the paladin King Imbrar II during the Year of Blue Fire. In his place, the nation was ruled by a ragged Grand Council composed of lords from the remaining Impilturan cities. People talk longingly of restoring a monarchy to the land—”The king will come and put things right, you’ll see”—but for now everything keeps getting worse. Impiltur is currently in the grip of a fanatical cult of demon-worshipers, who cause no end of trouble. The Grand Council’s efforts to locate the cult’s leaders and combat its depredations have proven woefully inadequate to date. The demon cult currently running wild in Impiltur is called the Fraternity of Tharos. The group takes its name from the ancient Nar capital of DunTharos in the Great Dale’s northern forest, Dunwood. The name also reveals the source of Impiltur’s demonic contamination—the demons loosed in that northern forest by the destruction of their ancient bonds when the Rotting Man, the goddess of disease Talona’s Chosen, was defeated before the Spellplague. The Fraternity inducts new members by requiring them to kidnap an innocent victim from among Impiltur’s populace, then slay that victim in a bloody ritual calling upon various demonic names scribed with fire in the Abyssal artifact called the Demonstone. The Demonstone lies at the top of a windowless tower in the Impilturan port city of New Sarshel. The tower’s exterior is a bland, unexceptional gray; its interior is filled with all manner of demonic horrors.

When the surface lands partially collapsed into the Underdark during the Spellplague, the smoldering volcanoes in the Smoking Mountains to the south of the land of Chessenta touched off, as did Mount Thulbane to the north. From the Smoking Mountains, various disturbed creatures ravaged northward. In the north, the vampiric green dragon Jaxanaedegor was freed to forage even during the day, since the sun was obscured by an ashen sky. Faced with monstrous invasions so soon after massive upheaval and changes to the land, Chessenta nearly collapsed. The only Chessentan city-state not devastated

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and broken was Luthcheq. There, the fractious, surviving inhabitants rallied under a war hero named Ishual Karanok. Fighting off marauding monsters, abolethic horrors, and opportunistic settlers from less disrupted lands to the north, Chessenta persisted. When the immediate hostilities cooled, Ishual returned to his family home in what remained of Luthcheq. The hero disbanded a wizard-slaying cult his family had long propagated (claiming that their aims had been met with Mystra’s death), but continued to enshrine the powerful tool that served as the old cult’s focus: a sphere of annihilation. The item, its powers somewhat modified since the Year of Blue Fire, now serves as the Crown Jewel of Chessenta. Continuing the cult’s aims, if not its existence, the law of the land subjugates all arcane spellcasters. Chessenta is, as a result of this sentiment, the enemy of High Imaskar to the east. Although not initially inclined to return hostilities, High Imaskar has learned to guard against Chessentan war parties. The dragonborn of Tymanther are Chessentan allies. Although at odds with many people, Chessentans look upon dragonborn with honor. They believe (rightly or wrongly) that dragonborn are in some way related to their own red dragon lord, Tchazzar, who returned briefly to rule the city-state of Cimbar and the rest of Chessenta for six years after 1379 DR before the Spellplague devastated the region and he disappeared once more.

Much of what was formerly known as the Chultan Peninsula was drowned and became the island of Chult when the Spellplague radically reshaped southern Faerûn, causing sea levels to rapidly rise as whole sections of the continent were simply erased by the mystical blue fire. In the Year of Blue Fire, the Chultan jungle was interpenetrated by pockets of Abeiran landscape that now lie scattered in the skies and the forests. Strange, savage behemoths now prowl the shadowed jungles and wandering motes alike. Several Chultan human tribes were hunted to extinction by these voracious new predators; those that remain have learned new methods of coexistence. The yuan-ti kingdom of Serpentes fell in the course of the change, the human kingdom of Samarach was submerged, and the ancient city of Mezro collapsed into the earth, its population scattered. Principal factions in Chult now include the yuan-ti survivors of Serpentes (mostly in the east), the spellscarred humans of Samarach, savage dark-skinned human tribes (mostly in the northwest), human-run strongholds aligned with Amn and Baldur’s Gate along the

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northern coast, and strange creatures from across the Trackless Sea that have begun to colonize the Mistcliffs. Junglemotes are common in Chult. Some are populated with creatures alien and awful in aspect—entities not native to Chult, or at least absent since before the time Abeir and Toril went their separate ways.

The great tsunamis that followed the shifting continents during the Spellplague inundated the island kingdom of Lantan, long dedicated to Gond, the god of craft, as it ravaged other coasts and island nations. When the water receded, the island land was nearly gone. All its machines, its marvelous Gond-wrought technology, and its people—Lantanese humans and gnomes alike—were drowned. The land is much reduced in area, and its clockwork marvels lie rusting below the waves. The pirates of Nelanther say a monster sinks any ship that draws near.

The island of Nimbral, also known as the Sea Haven, founded centuries ago by Halruaans who worshiped the lost goddess of deception Leira, was southwest of Lantan in the Trackless Sea. Like Lantan, Nimbral vanished without a trace after the cataclysmic waves subsided. Concentrations of powerful magic were a hazard in the early days of the Spellplague, and Nimbral certainly had magic enough. Some people think the isle still exists, cloaked in illusion. Others think it drowned in the sea, or that its veils of magic carried it off into some far plane. Whatever the truth of the matter, no ships have found the island in almost one hundred years.

The island of Evermeet, the great home of the eladrin and elven races off the coast of Faerûn, is widely considered to have perished in the Spellplague like Lantan and Nimbral. Even Evermeet’s closest allies, the fey kingdoms in Faerûn, lost contact with Evermeet after the Spellplague. With the failure of all arcane portals, embassies, and attempts to reestablish contact, common wisdom on Toril now has it that Evermeet has been utterly destroyed. Yet, in truth, Evermeet survives in the Feywild, where it shifted place with its own echo in the world of Faerie during the onset of the Spellplague. That echo of the fey refuge now remains in Toril as an island with the same shape and diameter, lying off the coast of the unfamiliar continent of Returned Abeir. The echo of

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Evermeet is empty of structures and has few residents. Evermeet fey can step back and forth between the echo and the Feywild’s true Evermeet as they choose. Contact points and routes between Faerûn and Evermeet were severed during the Year of Blue Fire, and they have been slow to reknit in the years since. Queen Amlaruil is now gone, having passed on to Arvandor and the throne stands empty; Evermeet is currently governed by its Royal Council. Some suspect that an heir of House Moonflower yet walks Faerûn, severed from his or her native land.

??? DR (Year Unknown): The Stormstar Requiem: While the Spellplague rages, the god of storms and destruction, Talos, leads the Gods of Fury—Auril, the goddess of winter, Malar, the god of the hunt, and Umberlee, the goddess of the sea—in a surprise assault against the plane of Arvandor, the dominion of the Seldarine, the pantheon of elven gods. During this assault Talos revealed that he was in fact the orc god of savagery and conquest Gruumsh. The Talassan Church was folded into the Gruuman clergy, though human adherents of the Storm Lord preferred to worship using the original Talassan services rather than the more barbaric rituals and sacrifices performed by the orc shamans of the One-Eyed God.

The first outbreak of the Spellplague in Waterdeep is held at bay by the power of Tsarra “Blackstaff” Chaadren.

The second outbreak of the Spellplague in Waterdeep resurges from Undermountain and forces Tsarra to drop her magical disguise as Khelben Arunsun and reveal her true face.

Waterdeep was spared many of the ravages experienced by other cities during the Spellplague. However, the event did introduce several lesser phenomena to the City of Splendors. Hundreds of glowing globes (floating, mobile spheres of continual radiance) now drift freely around Waterdeep. Although every mage and sage who has studied them insists the spheres of light are not sentient, they behave uncannily as if they are. They seem to become curious, and for a random time, follow certain beings who are moving

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about the city; they always seem drawn to any release or casting of magic; and they seem to become excited, gathering and rushing wildly about, if anyone tries to move or harness them by magical means. A few of the fabled Walking Statues of Waterdeep went wild, striding across the city until they collapsed, toppled, or got wedged between buildings. Some were later quarried away into nothingness, but a few remain, forever frozen. One invisible local change wrought by the Spellplague is all too familiar to local spellcasters: Detection and location magic no longer functions. Such spells feature in old tales but are unknown in life today. In the years after the Spellplague the lower sewers and the uppermost level of Undermountain become Waterdeep’s newest neighborhood, inhabited by the most desperate and yet most capable: broke adventurers. They dwell in its dark chambers, moving about often, skulking and lurking to avoid monsters and thefts or attacks by their neighbors. They make their living by raiding up into the city by night, trading in illicit goods, temporarily “hiding” persons and stolen items, and delving into Undermountain. Downshadow folk are both greatly feared and greatly admired by other Waterdhavians. Waterdeep also gained an entirely new city ward in the decades after the Spellplague: Field Ward. This district is home to folk of all walks of life who lacked coin enough to hire lodgings or own buildings in old Waterdeep, but who first arrived as the ravages of the Spellplague began. It is a slum in some places, and a struggling middleclass area in others. The Field Ward is a noisy, lively area that is home to poor (and a few wealthy) eladrin and elves, half-bloods of all sorts (and anyone who has a deformity or visible taint from the Spellplague), and dwarves who are determined to get the respect they are sure they deserve. The vast and dangerous subterranean Labyrinth of Undermountain still underlies Waterdeep. The city was prevented from collapsing into Undermountain in part because of the titanic magical wards established in the dim past; these same forces largely fended off the Spellplague. The underways still connect with the wider Underdark, full of adventure and treasure for those who dare to explore them. Much has changed in the dark underground smugglers’ town of Skullport and Undermountain since the death of Halaster Blackcloak a century ago. Persistent wild magic seems to drift around the Underhalls, rather like living spells. It sometimes recharges magic items taken down into Skullport, or even alters the abilities and powers of living beings. As a result, Skullport is much visited but no longer inhabited; much of

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its lawlessness has relocated to the Mistshore and Undercliff, two other new neighborhoods of the City of Splendors. Over the last century, Deepwater Harbor has become badly polluted, its waters brown and stinking. The north shore of the former Naval Harbor became a beaching ground (and then a scuttling yard) for damaged or agerotted ships. Over the years, these hulks piled up one atop another, spreading out from the shore at the foot of Coin Alley for a long way into the harbor to form the Mistshore. This area is a permanent slum of sagging, ramshackle woodwork atop the heap of sunken ships, where the most disfigured, diseased, spellscarred, and monstrous of Waterdeep’s inhabitants now dwell. The Mistshore is the darkest and wildest neighborhood in Waterdeep, where open violence and lawlessness is frequent and the Watch patrols seldom (and then only at double strength or more). Drunken and beaten-up inhabitants can often be seen sprawled or draped over the rotting riggings that line the winding “streets.” Undercliff is by far the largest and most open new part of Waterdeep. It sprawls over the meadows east of the plateau occupied by the old city, under the cliff that still forms its eastern edge. Undercliff is large, rather lawless, and still growing; it is home to every sort of new arrival (for the last fifty years or so). Undercliff is the most fluid neighborhood of Waterdeep, where people move frequently, shanties often collapse or are torn down or torched, and change rules. Increasingly, dwarves dwelling in Field Ward who have made enough coin are seeking to buy houses in Mountainside, and on the cliff face above Undercliff, so they can tunnel out larger abodes at will. Their diggings have already breached some sewers and cellars in the city. Their activities are beginning to attract the attention of the Masked Lords of Waterdeep, who are now sending down hired adventurers to patrol the uppermost levels of Undermountain to stop the illicit delvings.

Lathander, the god of the dawn and new beginnings, transforms into the reincarnation of the ancient deity Amaunator, the god of the sun, order and time, at some point after the onset of the Spellplague, a transformation that had been preceded by the spread of the Risen Sun Heresy within large segments of the Lathanderite Church in 1374 DR. The rapid spread of this old heresy had been orchestrated by the will of the Morninglord as he prepared his followers for the

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coming transition. The Church of Lathander makes a relatively smooth transition into the Church of Amaunator, though some of the Morninglord’s priests find it difficult to adjust to the more conservative and rigid doctrines of the Amaunatori and seek out new spiritual homes among the clergy of the other gods dedicated to the cause of good.

The eladrin goddess Hanali Celanil, patron of love and beauty, is revealed to simply have been a guise of the human goddess of love, Sune. The Church of Hanali is merged with that of Sune in the years after the Spellplague.

The elven goddess of the moon, death, dreams and illusions Sehanine Moonbow is revealed to have been a guise of Selûne, the human goddess of the moon and stars. In the chaos that the Spellplague causes to the divine dominions of the Astral Sea, Selûne regains her status as a greater deity equal in power to her sister Shar. When Sune’s dominion of Brightwater begins to collapse under the assault of the Spellplague’s chaotic energies, the newly-empowered Selûne offers to merge her Gates of the Moon dominion with Sune’s realm, who accepts the offer. Tymora, the goddess of good fortune, joins them. A similar dynamic occurs across the other divine dominions, with the few surviving greater gods creating new dominions or maintaining older ones and inviting surviving gods of lesser powers to join them as servant deities or exarchs. Despite this, the chaos of the Spellplague consumes many deities who were not strong enough to hold the power of the blue flame at bay, including Deneir, the god of writing and literature, the Chultan god Ubtao (actually a primordial who betrayed his fellows), and Shaundakul, the god of travel and exploration, as well as Mystra’s former servant deities, Azuth, Savras and Velsharoon.

Mask, the god of thieves and shadows, disappears from the Faerûnian pantheon after his divine essence and portfolio are swallowed by Shar, the goddess of darkness and night. Most of Faerûn considers Mask another dead deity and his former worshipers divide their allegiances between the Lady of Loss and Tymora, the goddess of good fortune. But some rogues whisper in the shadows that the Master of All Thieves still treads the path of intrigue and that he will one day return to his faithful.

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Less powerful primal deities and demigods like Ouroboros the World Serpent, Magnar the Bear, Remnis the Eagle, Quorlinn the Raven, Amarok the Wolf, Eldath, the Lady of the Lake and Nobanion the Lion are reborn after the Spellplague as primal spirits of the world. The Earthmother of the Moonshaes, the Goddess of the Ffolk, once believed to be an aspect of Chauntea, the goddess of life and agriculture, is revealed to be an extremely powerful primal spirit who is the embodiment of the Moonshae Isles. Other entities once worshipped as deities like Relkath of the Infinite Branches, Lurue the Unicorn Queen, Verenestra the Oak Princess, Sarula Iliene the Nixie Queen, and Aurilandür the Frost Sprite Queen are revealed to be powerful archfey of the Feywild.

The region of the eastern Sea of Fallen Stars once called the Vast becomes the young nation of Vesperin when its formerly independent city-states of Tantras, Raven’s Bluff and Calaunt united under the rule of an oligarchy of powerful merchants called the Golden Lords, who chose Tantras as their capital. The area later saw an influx of immigrants, especially the city of Raven’s Bluff. Many Sembian merchants relocated to Vesperin in the face of Netheril’s occupation of their homeland. Several decades later, Netheril outlawed all such emigration. Sembians who tried anyway wound up dead.

The movable citadel of Xxiphu, the Soaring City, the seat of the aberrant Abolethic Sovereignty, emerges from the depths of the Inner Sea some time after the Spellplague. The city was roused from the drowned depths by prophecy, perverted priests of Ghaunadar the Elder Eye, and unwise delvings. Because Xxiphu can change its location at will, its influence could conceivably stretch anywhere. No one knows where it might appear next, though most sightings of it are over or close to the Sea of Fallen Stars. Xxiphu is a glyph-scribed obelisk wrapped in an eternal storm that soars over the surface of the world. Tentacles slither and crawl in cold rookeries encrusting the vast object’s sheer sides. A writhing frieze carved on the age-worn exterior depicts thousands of interconnected images. These inscriptions constantly shift and change, as if invisible

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artists swarm across the stone face, inscribing atrocities to the beat of a mad drummer. The full meaning of the evolving inscription invokes concepts too ghastly for mortal minds to comprehend and remain sane. Aboleths freshly wakened from an age-long slumber creep within the obelisk’s hollow interior along with their servitors. But many of these are as children compared to the few enormous elders that shamble within. These ancient aberrations do not think or plan as do other beings, and their altered consciousness is inimical to all creatures not part of their ancient aberrant Sovereignty. Reality bends in the city’s vicinity, unfettering vast monsters of the deep like krakens to master the sky as they before hunted the sunless seas. The aboleths of the Sovereignty are not like those previously known on Toril. The solitary aboleths of Faerûn’s Underdark were startled by the appearance of this mythical city from their primeval past in the Far Realm. In fact, a few skirmishes broke out between Faerûn’s aboleths and the newcomers when Xxiphu first burst up from the Sea of Fallen Stars. Now an uneasy peace exists, in that the Underdark aboleths avoid those of the Sovereignty. The scattered, lone aboleths that currently creep in dark, watery places of the world are not of the lineages that make up the Sovereignty. Although it is possible the ancestors of lone aboleths once served as Xxiphu’s scouts, explorers, or agents on Toril before the Sovereignty’s arrival from the Far Realm, such connections have been lost to time. Thus, not every aboleth in (and under) Faerûn is necessarily an emissary of the Sovereignty. In fact, some might work at cross purposes with Xxiphu. The demons of the Abyss took advantage of the chaos caused by the Spellplague to launch a massive invasion of the upper realms of the gods. Sickened by the part he had played in Cyric’s machinations, Tyr willingly sacrificed his divinity to throw back the demonic onslaught. Tyr’s servant deity, Torm the Loyal Fury, was promoted to become the new god of law. Ilmater, the god of suffering and compassion and Bahamut the Platinum

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Dragon, the new god of justice, joined Torm to form a rejuvenated divine Triad in their shared plane of Celestia.

Untouched by the Spellplague, the city-state of Baldur’s Gate on the Sword Coast received an influx of refugees from the south that greatly swelled its population in the months and years following the disaster. Word soon spread—not entirely accurately— that Baldur’s Gate was an “open city,” a safe haven for refugees from south of the Sea of Fallen Stars—particularly for the Mulan survivors of the destruction of Mulhorand and Unther. The trickle of displaced people soon became a flood, and the city nearly collapsed under the weight of a population that doubled, then tripled in size, eventually surpassing Calimport as the largest city in Faerûn.

Once known for its vibrant green slate roofs and ferry trade along the Wyvernflow River, the Cormyrean city of Wheloon was transformed into something far darker by royal decree of King Azoun V. The Purple Dragons discovered that a majority of Wheloon’s residents, be they craftsfolk, traders, or farmers, were also secret worshipers of Shar, the goddess of darkness, and therefore de facto allies of Netheril. Fearing that the entire city was a front for Netherese spies, the king ordered it walled up with brick and magic, and all its residents declared lifetime prisoners. Now, whenever Shadovar spies or sympathizers (as well as other offenders of the Crown) are discovered, they are put over the wall and left to fend for themselves. Life as a prisoner in Wheloon is brutal and short, unless one is able to join one of the many rival gangs. To “escape from Wheloon” is a euphemism for accomplishing a difficult task in the post-Spellplague Realms. Those who do so literally are marked by prisoner and gang tattoos imprinted while behind the walls. This branding makes continued life in Cormyr one that requires constant disguise.

The Shadovars of Shade Enclave use their magic to begin bringing the ancient lands of the Empire of Netheril, long-buried beneath the Great Desert of Anauroch, back to life. With the phaerimm and their life-draining spells extinct, it became possible for Netherese magic to begin to rebuild the ancient arcane empire. The Shadovar pledged that the peoples of Faerûn would once again accept the Netherese as their rightful masters. Within

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only a few decades of the Spellplague, reborn Netheril thrived within its borders. Memory of its brutal genocide of the native shield dwarves of the region was suppressed, as was the forceful integration of the primitive Bedine peoples of Anauroch. The rebuilt cities of Landeth, Orofin, Rasilith, and Oreme are peopled with Bedine who have mostly forgotten their nomadic past. They are now city-dwellers who describe themselves as Netherese. The surrounding realms of Evereska, Cormyr, the Dalelands, and Myth Drannor patrol Netheril’s borders, hoping to stem Shadovar aggression. Although this league of allies has managed to keep Netheril’s armed forces at bay, it has failed to fend off Netherese spies, who are widely believed to be scattered all across Faerûn. Given their magic, nigh-immortality and shadow-infused flesh, Netheril’s agents could be anywhere.

In the Silver Marches of Luruar, the High Lady Alustriel of Silverymoon, one of Mystra’s Chosen and the Seven Sisters, passed away in the decades following the Spellplague, her immortality compromised by Mystra’s death. Before she passed away, Alustriel founded a mutual defense league which became Luruar in the region surrounding Silverymoon in the North. Her half-elven son and successor, High Lord Methrammar Aerasumé, came to head a much more diminished league of the Silver Marches in the years after his mother’s death. The shield dwarves of Adbar, Mithral Hall, and Felbarr parted ways with the other members of the league, unwilling to compromise their own defenses by shoring up the smaller settlements in the area. The dwarves remain potentially powerful allies of Luruar but are not always reliable. By the year 1479 DR, Luruar consisted only of the cities of Silverymoon, Everlund and Sundabar. High Lord Methrammar has reached an advanced age, and choosing the next High Lord of Luruar is the talk of the league. Each member city has its own distinct government and traditions. Some think the High Lordship should remain a meritocratic position. Others maintain that the post should rotate through the member cities, or even be done away with altogether. Methrammar’s wife, the elf ranger Gaerradh, has been put forward as a possible successor, but some folks think that would go too far in establishing the High Lordship as a dynasty rather than a meritocratic position.

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The semi-secret society known as the Harpers disbanded after the Spellplague, as many of its leaders are lost to the scourge of the blue fire. However, in the Luruaran city of Everlund is Moongleam Tower, a Harper hold of old. When Netheril returned, a remnant of the old organization re-formed. Under the leadership of Eaerlraun Shadowlyn, the small organization is dedicated to one purpose: opposing the growing power of the Shadovar. When Eaerlraun was later assassinated by Shadovar assassins for his effrontery, the old, oft-ignored rule of keeping one’s Harper membership secret gained new meaning and purpose. Even with the assassination of Eaerlraun, the fledgling organization persists, though its reach is far more restricted than in the past. Today, Moongleam Tower serves as the only known Harper hold in all Faerûn. Rather than housing Harpers, the clandestine leadership based in the tower is a patron to all who wish to take the secret pledge against the Shadovar and all ill that emerges from the Shadowfell.

After the widespread destruction defining the century after the Spellplague, a growing faction of drow divorced themselves from the old ways of their people to follow a new path. They believed the only way to weather the troubles affecting the lands would be to approach their dealings with other intelligent races in a way that did not always result in violence. Rather than taking what they wanted, when resources were already scarce, perhaps they could achieve better results by engaging their enemies in trade, exchanging valuable metals, gemstones, and other goods found exclusively in the Underdark for commodities generally absent from the depths of the earth. A group of drow merchants set aside their private agendas to forge a new commercial enterprise they called the Horizon Syndicate and set out to deal with their surface neighbors. The results have been mixed, for their enemies have long memories, and the drow have proved time and again unworthy of trust, but a smattering of ambitious merchants have seized upon these new opportunities in spite of the risks, seeing these ventures as an excellent way to expand their presence into new markets. In the years since its founding, the Horizon Syndicate has sent its tendrils across the continent of Faerûn, expanding its enterprise throughout the Realms. On the surface, the Horizon Syndicate appears to be nothing more than a

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merchant conglomerate that facilitates trade between the surface communities and those in the Underdark. A good number of its members strive to do just this, and these representatives deal fairly in their negotiations. Given the drow’s penchant for treachery, however, it should come to no surprise that not all its members are as committed to this new enterprise as the organization claims. The Horizon Syndicate is an excellent place for drow who disagree with the shifting politics and treachery of their homelands to seek to escape and integrate into surface communities. Some join the Syndicate for a time in the hopes of breaking away once they establish a network of allies to give them haven during their transition out of their societies. Others join the Syndicate to put distance between themselves and the dark experiences of their childhood, hoping to mask their memories with new ones forged in a world far from the terrors of the Underdark and the priestesses of the Spider Queen. Overall, the Syndicate enjoys a diverse membership and has even expanded to allow nondrow to join their ranks in the hopes of spreading their presence into markets ordinarily closed to the drow. The Syndicate’s operations become especially strong in the Dragon Reach and the city-state of Westgate.

The original orc king Obould survived his now-legendary encounter with the drow hero Drizzt Do’Urden before the Spellplague. He was scarred, but he took from that duel newfound strength and clarity of purpose. In the end, he united the disparate orc tribes of the Spine of the World mountains in the North into a cohesive army. Leaving Drizzt and the dwarves to their own ends, Obould sealed off the territory he had claimed in the mountains. At the end of his life, his extraordinary accomplishments earned Obould the reward of being raised to immortality by the god Gruumsh, who made Obould the demigod of warriors and his exarch. Here and there today are posted crudely written border-markers on which is written “Kingdom of Many-Arrows.” The creation of a unified, relatively stable orc society provided the other powers of the region a single entity to negotiate with, contain, or fight. Mithral Hall, the dwarven citadels, and the town of Nesmé were tired of war and curious about the orcs attempting to become civilized. A hundred years later, the orcs have largely succeeded in keeping this local coalition of tribes together. Though the orc kings who ruled after Obould have not enjoyed his popularity, they have kept the kingdom together most of the time. The region

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suffered a few civil wars, and for a decade the realm was split. Since the Year of the Malachite Shadows (1460 DR), however, the orcs of Many Arrows have maintained a single kingdom of their own.

The once-thriving city of Neverwinter along the northern Sword Coast was destroyed in the aftermath of the Spellplague, eventually becoming an extensive series of ruins picked over by adventurers.

In the Gray Vale, the region of the North south of the High Forest, the town of Loudwater sees much of its once extensive prosperity destroyed by the fall-off in trade along the Delimbiyr and Grayflow Rivers after the Spellplague, though it survives over the course of the next century as a town of about 2,000 rugged frontierspeople. The town of Llorkh, once a terminus for Zhentarim caravans coming from the Eastern Heartlands, is mismanaged by a string of incompetent rulers after the destruction of Zhentil Keep and becomes a bandit-controlled ruin. Yet, by 1479 DR the Gray Vale had grown into a trade center in the North in large part due to the success of Loudwater. This small town has an advantageous location at the confluence of the Delimbiyr and Grayflow Rivers. Rich and arable farmland enables the community to thrive. Most merchants in the vicinity use the river to transport goods, making Loudwater an ideal nexus for nearly all commerce in this part of the world. Although Loudwater and other small settlements enjoy some prosperity, the threat of danger checks their growth. Displaced human savages from beyond the High Forest are a constant peril. Goblins infest the Southwood, snatching cattle, supplies, and the occasional child before retreating to the dim shelter of their foreboding forest. Whispers of Najaran serpentfolk fill the taprooms as locals peer suspiciously at strangers, ever watchful for these sinister yuan-ti infiltrators. All of these dangers and more cast a pall of fear and mistrust over Gray Vale that calls for heroes.

The theocracy of Elturgard in the Western Heartlands is forged from the formerly independent city-states of Elturel, Iriaebor, Scornubel, Triel, and Berdusk. The capital of the realm is established in Elturel and the theocracy as a whole is controlled by the Church of Torm, the god of law, and his most powerful clergyman, the High Observer.

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Over the years, hundreds of people fleeing a mummy’s curse, a vampire lord’s service, or some other undead involvement have arrived here, settling in Elturel in particular. The forests surrounding this land have grown wild and dangerous. A pocket of plagueland festering several miles to the south has a habit of spewing forth occasional monstrosities. Elturgard is a theocracy ruled by those who are certain they walk the path of righteousness. The paladins of this land take pride in their moral clarity and pursuit of good. Elturgard is dominated by a “second sun” called the Companion or Amauntaor’s Gift that hovers eternally in the sky above the city of Elturel, making this a realm of endless daylight. The Companion was a miracle of Amaunator’s created before the Spellplague that was intended to herald Lathander’s reincarnation as the ancient sun god. Creatures of darkness cannot abide even the sight of the city. Unlike most nations of the Realms, Elturgard has a state religion: Torm is revered in the temples that dot the landscape. Elturel is the capital of the wider kingdom it claims. The High Observer of Torm keeps order within the city and the wider realm through a knighthood of paladins who share Elturgard’s goal of one day bringing righteous judgment to all Faerûn. Numerous citizens dream of joining the knighthood, and many succeed. Though not all serve the same god, as Amaunator, Ilmater and Bahamut also have strong followings in the land, all have sworn oaths to Elturgard and wear the blazing insignia of the Companion. Yet, in some quarters, Elturgard has garnered a reputation for being too righteous. Many problems attend its inflexible laws, inquisitorial persecution of evil, and bold plans for “setting Faerûn aright.”

The vampire lord Saestra Karanok, once a native of the city of Luthcheq in Chessenta, was discovered by her horrified father to be undead after the Spellplague and driven out on pain of destruction. After several years wandering southern Faerûn, she ended up in the sleepy, out-of-the-way Kingdom of Erlkazar. It did not take Saestra long to exert her influence over the bandits there, and she soon had them united under her thrall. The bandits, some now vampires in their own right, ceased their raids in Erlkazar. Through wiles and threats, Saestra garnered the cooperation of all five baronies of Erlkazar. She seduced and then transformed the king of Erlkazar into a vampire, leaving the palace in the capital city of Llorbauth a haunted symbol of the realm’s true ruler. When the sun

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shines, the Day Baronies of Erlkazar live on, unmolested by either vampires or bandits. After sundown, though, the Night Barony holds sway, using Erlkazar as a base of operations to raid caravans, settlements, and even cities from the edge of the Plaguewrought Land to the east, south into Calimshan, and west into Tethyr and Amn.

Over a century ago, in 1358 DR, a great Hordelands warrior named Yamun Khahan of the Tuigan tribe united the tribes of the steppes under his banner. (For this reason, the majority of Faerûnians think that all Hordelands tribesfolk are Tuigan.) His horsemen invaded Faerûn but suffered huge losses in Rashemen, and they were all but annihilated in a final battle in Thesk in 1360 DR during a crusade led by the great Cormyrean King Azoun IV. The barbaric horse culture of the plains has diminished further with the birth of the Tuigan nation of Yaïmunnahar. This kingdom, forged by Yamun Khahan’s son Hubadai Khan, is only about a century old. It centers on the grand trading city of Kourmira along the Golden Way, where many Tuigan have settled. Those who travel the Golden Way need worry little about bandits. They have more to fear from monsters that the Tuigan might have kept in check were their numbers greater on the steppes.

The Spellplague expanded across the globe to the continent of Kara-Tur. The Empires of Kozakura and Shou Lung are great nations within Kara-Tur, and the Spellplague was at least as destructive there as it was in Faerûn. In the last hundred years more refugees fleeing from the destruction in Kara-Tur have begun to settle in Yaïmunnahar and Faerûn, bringing their cultures and unorthodox fighting styles with them.

1386 DR (Year of the Halflings’ Lament): A portion of Toril’s sibling world Abeir violently exchanges place with large sections of Chondath and western Chessenta in Faerûn. Displaced genasi from the Abeiran continent of Shyr quickly set about creating a new kingdom of their own called Akanûl.

The former expanse of the Sea of Fallen Stars is altered when wide portions of the landscape collapse into the Underdark as a result of the geographic disruptions caused by the Spellplague. When the sea level reaches its new equilibrium, the average drop in

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water level across the Inner Sea measured nearly 50 feet. The waters of the Vilhon Reach were similarly drained, uncovering several drowned ruins from the ancient psionic realm of Jhaamdath. The shallow Gulf of Luiren is formed when the hin (halfling) nation is swallowed up by the Great Sea.

The sea elven city of Myth Nantar is partly revealed by the drop in the water level of the Sea of Fallen Stars. This city is the center of sea elf society and the capital of an evergrowing undersea kingdom called Serôs, and it is protected by a powerful mythal. Despite the lurking presence of the Abolethic Sovereignty above the water, the sea elves have enjoyed decades of relative peace below. Myth Nantar, now partly revealed by the lower sea level, lies both above and below the waves. With some of its accommodations completely free of water, sea elves and surface races can and do mingle here, both for trade and for councils regarding the threats facing modern Faerûn. Despite the threat presented by the aboleths of Xxiphu, the sea elves’ most prolific and tenacious enemies remain the sahuagin tribes that dominate the eastern stretches of the Inner Sea.

The Arnrock volcano in the Lake of Steam region erupts violently, wiping out the Quick Folk that had settled around the old crater.

In the Shining South, bold, monstrous armies from the Beastlands and surrounding mountains, along with the lack of a strong military, cost the merchant nation of Durpar most of its cities. The drowning of Luiren and Var the Golden in the Spellplague cost it allies, and fluctuating sea levels cost it trade routes. The shifting climate further fueled anxiety. The prominent Datharathi chaka (Durpari merchant house) proposed a consolidation of power and alliance with the Iron Eye goblins from the Curna Mountains. Despite the Adama, the strict Durpari code of honesty and personal conduct, several chakas broke with the proposed compact as the Adama became somewhat discredited in Durpari eyes because of the nation’s travails. The resulting Merchant Wars of Durpar ended with the Datharathi on top. After the Spellplague, Durpar became a frontier region. Most of its lands are menaced by monsters from the Beastlands, marauders from the mountains, and roving brigands. Humans, halflings, kenkus, and

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other races inhabit the Durpari cities of Vaelan, Assur, or scattered keeps controlled by independent sovereigns and petty princes. Others live hand-to-mouth as desperate wanderers. Only the Durpari capital, Vaelan, retains a glimmer of its former strength. Since the ascendancy of the Datharathis, Vaelan has existed in relative (and unusual) peace. House Datharathi keeps its coffers stuffed by taxing the other chakas’ right to trade with Delzimmer, Estagund, and High Imaskar. The ruling house also maintains a standing army, which includes bugbears, hobgoblins, and goblins that were integrated during the Merchant Wars. The Datharathis and the wealthy of Vaelan are also known for their magical technology of body enhancement, using plangent crystal.

Drow half-elves known as Crinti formerly ruled the Southern Kingdom of Dambrath under a state religion dedicated to Loviatar, the goddess of pain. Native human Dambrathans, who call themselves Arkaiuns, rebelled during the Spellplague. Turning to their totems and primal nature spirits, they drove the drow half-bloods from their lands and burned every priest of Loviatar they could catch. Surviving overlords fled to T’lindhet, a drow city under the Gnollwatch Mountains, but the city proved no refuge. The drow offered a cold and deadly welcome, thinking little of the newcomers’ mixed racial heritage and devotion to a foreign goddess rather than the Spider Queen. Today Dambrathan clans revere Silvanus, the god of nature and his exarch Malar the Beastlord, and occasionally worship Selûne, the goddess of the moon. Through this devotion, they have come to embrace lycanthropy. The blood of shapeshifters flows in many a Dambrathan’s veins and there is now a growing population of shifters in Dambrath. Through totems and primal magic, even some who lack such heritage take on animal shapes when danger threatens.

Long ago, monsters from the Giant’s Belt Mountains and a vast stretch of wilderness called the Beastlands overran or conquered the inland Durpari cities of a region known as Veldorn. Kenkus, bird-like humanoids from the Eastern Realms of Kara-Tur, settled part of the area later. During the Spellplague and the intervening century, dragons, giants, and rakshasas from the Giant’s Belt and Dustwall mountain chains destroyed or took all but the last remaining cities in Durpar. The flooding of Luiren and the desolation of the Shaar

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allowed the Beastlands to expand west and south. To outsiders, the Beastlands are and have long been a barbaric region where humans are kept as slaves and monsters walk without fear. Most of the Beast Lords acknowledge a loose alliance, created by the charismatic vampire lord Saed of the ruins of Old Vaelan in what was once western Durpar. As a result, the despots defend one another from all would-be invaders. Otherwise, each rules alone over separate lands. Tirumala, one of the monster-controlled city-states of the Beastlands, has a strange alliance with the human-controlled nation of Estagund. The raven-like kenkus have become integrated into almost every state in the Beastlands, as well as the cities of Durpar and Estagund. They have a hidden rookery in Blackfeather Barrens where, it is whispered, they maintain a network loyal only to kenkus. The Beast Lords include undead, dragons, giants, and even beholders, but plenty of humans live here—mostly slaves or outlaws who have fled other realms. A few folk of the common intelligent races who find the rulership of monsters to their liking also dwell in the Beastlands.

The land called Var the Golden precipitously collapsed beneath the waves in the Year of Blue Fire. Thousands died immediately, and thousands more in the days and weeks afterward. The land was no more. The sunken ruins of Myrmyr, Zelpir, and Pyratar, once rich trade cities, are treasure-rich prospects for adventurous salvagers. Tomb raiders now return with incredible treasures and even more incredible tales—if they survive.

1387 DR (Year of the Emerald Ermine): The druidic Emerald Enclave, dedicated to the god of nature Silvanus, begins sending agents throughout the Vilhon Wilds to counter the effects of the Spellplague. As years become decades, their original mission is slowly perverted from one of respect for and guardianship of nature to a vain struggle against forces far beyond their control.

An Abeiran mountain range made entirely of dense prismatic glass appears along the Northride, sealing off Shadow Gap.

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1388 DR (Year of the Tanarukka): Bullywug tribes from the Farsea Marshes begin harrying Zhentarim forces operating throughout the Tunlands, diminishing the Black Network’s activities in the region.

Some members of Cormyr’s remaining War Wizards, having lost access to the Art because of the Spellplague’s unraveling of the Weave, begin cross-training with the Purple Dragons of Cormyr in swordplay and martial defense. In the years to come these Cormyrean swordmages will prove invaluable against neighboring aggression in the region.

The Gundwynd line of Waterdhavian nobility is exterminated as the Spellplague transforms the family into rampaging monstrosities that spread chaos across Waterdeep.

Fiirnel’ther Vandree of House Vandree of the great drow city of Menzoberranzan in the Underdark assassinates her mother, Troken’ther Vandree, in order to assume leadership of her house.

1389 DR (Year of the Forgiven Foes): A strangely angular black monolith is sometimes visible breaking above the waves along Cormyr’s coast, never in the same place twice. It is not a great leap of reason to suspect that the Monolith, as it became known, with its disquieting geometry, is a movable watchtower or beachhead of the aboleths of Xxiphu. These rumors have been sufficient to keep all who view it from investigating. In fact, upon witnessing it, most ship captains or coast-walkers flee in the opposite direction.

1390 DR (Year of the Walking Man): The Dowager Dragon Queen, Filfaeril Selazair Obarskyr, wife of King Azoun IV, dies. The former Steel Regent, Alusair Nacacia Obarskyr, attends the state funeral for her mother, argues briefly and privately with her nephew the king, and then disappears altogether from the Cormyrean royal court. Rumors persist of her riding through the frontiers and borderlands of Cormyr

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from Suzail, but no confirmed reports of her appearance exist following the burial of Queen Filfaeril.

1391 DR (Year of the Wrathful Eye): The human druid Zalaznar Crinios, transformed into a mighty treant for his service to nature, takes control of the druid circle in Cedarspoke. A lesser druid, able to take lion form and calling himself Firemane, rises to prominence in the same circle. The Eldreth Veluuthra, a militant group of eladrin who seek to eradicate human power and influence throughout the Realms and restore the era of elven dominance over Faerûn, seize control of the Hullack Forest.

Auril, goddess of winter, assimilates the palace of Aerdrie Faenya, the elven goddess of the air, into her divine domain. The Winged Mother had been killed during the Gods of Fury’s attack on Arvandor. Auril had moved to the Deep Wilds, the new plane in the Astral Sea ruled by Silvanus, the god of nature, after the Spellplague destroyed the Frost Maiden’s former dominion.

1392 DR (Year of the Scroll): The Dragon Coast city of Pros petitions the Cormyrean Crown to become a vassal-state of Cormyr in order to protect it from the ravages of the Spellplague. Azoun V reluctantly accepted the petition. By year’s end, Pros’ sister-town of Ilipur joined the Forest Kingdom as well. Unfortunately, the receding waters of the Sea of Fallen Stars spelled ruin for the economies of these small trading towns.

1393 DR (Year of the Ring): Sembian investors begin buying up land in the southern Dalelands. Concerned about the growing influence of Netheril through its Sembian puppet, King Azoun V issued a formal objection to the Dale’s Council in Archendale but the king’s emissary was rebuffed.

Spellscarred beings and pilgrims hoping to obtain a spellscar begin journeying to the Plaguewrought Lands in large numbers. They are welcomed in the city of Ormpetarr near what remained of Halruaa by the recently-established Order of Blue Fire.

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1394 DR (Year of Deaths Unmourned): The Grand Cabal of the druidic Emerald Enclave begins attempting to stem the tide of spellscarred pilgrims that pass through Turmish and the Vilhon Reach in a vain and misguided attempt to limit the effects of the Spellplague on the natural order—by any means necessary.

Years of straining with their conflicted Sembian and Cormyrean identities, and struggling against the encroaching rule of Netheril, culminates in the outright annexation of the Sembian border city of Daerlun into the Forest Kingdom.

A brief conflict between Cormyr and the Eldreth Veluuthra of the Hullack Forest breaks out, ending when King Azoun V turns his full attention to more pressing threats from neighboring Sembia and Netheril.

1395 DR (Year of Silent Death): Sakkors, the Netherese floating enclave not seen since the days before the Spellplague, makes a reappearance over Daerlun in the dead of night. The following morning civil unrest breaks out throughout the city. King Azoun V sends his elite Cormyrean swordmages to restore order in the city. The Sembian city of Urmlaspyr, also considering giving its allegiance to Cormyr, withdraws those plans when the Netherese floating enclave of Sakkors next parks itself above the city. The power of Netheril over Sembia and across Faerûn grows at a rapid pace.

Plaguebringer’s Blight: Sickness and pestilence spreads throughout the North, unleashed by the hideous disease called the Putrescent Anathema. The Putrescent Anathema was released from Stump Bog to the northeast of Waterdeep by a coven of vampire-wizards to spread sickness and pestilence throughout the region. The plague hit the temple-farm of Goldenfields, dedicated to Chauntea, the goddess of life and agriculture, particularly hard. The loss of Waterdeep’s primary supply of grain coupled with the swift spread of disease devastated the city’s citizenry, primarily the poor, who died in the thousands. Since that time, Goldenfields has recovered under the leadership of Mother Jamandra Anuvien and expanded greatly. Goldenfields is now heavily fortified;

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in effect, it has become a small walled kingdom. For years, it has been a stable, peaceful breadbasket to surrounding lands, friendly to but independent of Waterdeep.

]1396 DR (Year of the Secret): Marriage of King Azoun V of Cormyr to Nalara Marliir, the daughter of Cormyr’s Lord High Marshal Dauneth Marliir and Krystin Lhal.

1399 DR (Year of the Fallen Friends): Caladnei, the Mage Royal of Cormyr, finally succumbs to a years-long struggle with the Spellplague; he is succeeded by Laspeera Inthré.

Tsarra “Blackstaff” Chaadren, her heir and many of the members of the secret society known as the Tel’Teukiira—the Moonstars—die fighting the coven of vampire-wizards in the Stump Bog who created and released the Putrescent Anathema on Waterdeep and the North. The drow half-elf wizard Kyriani Agrivar risks her sanity by bearing the artifact known as the Black Staff and the arcane abilities of the position of the Blackstaff back to Waterdeep. Kyriani Agrivar becomes the new so-called “Blackstaff,” which becomes a semi-official position as the archmage of Waterdeep rather than just a nickname given to the bearer of the Black Staff. To acknowledge her legitimacy as the City of Splendor’s new archmage, Kyriani proclaims it from atop Blackstaff Tower, with the Open Lord Caladorn at her side. This form of proclamation of the inheritance to the title of Blackstaff becomes a new tradition in Waterdeep.

1400 DR (Year of Lost Ships): Krehlan “Blackstaff” Arunsun, son of Khelben Arunsun and Laeral Silverhand, assumes the role of the Blackstaff, the Archmage of Waterdeep, from Kyriani Agrivar.

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The merchants’ realm of Sembia, long a protectorate of the City of Shade since the disastrous Sembian Civil War of the mid-1370’s DR, is fully absorbed into Netheril as one of the reborn arcane empire’s provinces. Outsiders were not welcome in the floating Netherese cities of Shade and Sakkors, but the Sembian port cities of Saerloon, Selgaunt, and Yhaunn were busy shipping centers even on the diminished Sea of Fallen Stars. Netheril, gone from Toril for long centuries, relied on Sembia to remake its economy and to provide sea ports and capital for trade, as well as soldiers and workers to protect and serve its needs. Though the Shadovar maintained a tight grip on Sembia, they had also grown dependent on it as their only link to the outside world. The canniest of the Sembian merchant princes have been able to capitalize on that fact, filling their own coffers with unprecedented riches—as long as they remembered who was in charge.

The Cormyrean Alliance of Freesailors is formally disbanded. Ranks in Cormyr’s newly established Imperial Navy swell.

1404 DR (Year of the Sceptered One): The Amnian Council of Five, pressured by the Amnian nobleman Lionel Carrathal, agrees to invade the Moonshae Isles. The Ffolk city of Caer Westphal is seized by an Amnian fleet led by Carrathal and Snowdown Isle is subjected to Amnian rule. Lionel is established as the Amnian Viceroy of Caer Westphal.

Elfharrow oral tradition has it that this region’s green elves’ ancestors betrayed their ancient kin to the depredations of the drow during the Crown Wars. Following those events, they settled the Misty Vale in remorse over their betrayal. For years, the elves of the Misty Vale secreted themselves in the forest so no one would see their guilt. They vowed to live in isolation forever after. Climatic shifts following the Spellplague dried out and killed their forest over the course of twenty years. The elves gradually moved out onto the plains after about 1404 DR, claiming all the emptied lands north and northwest of the devastated ruins of Halruaa. This change in lifestyle was accompanied by extensive heartache and loss of life. Old elves, confident and set in their knowledge of the forest,

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had to learn a completely new way of living with the land. For the most part, such innovation became the province of the younger generations. These elves now subsist as herders and hunters. A few even moved north into the Shaar Desolation, building their homes in the lees of towering mesas and deep caves.

1407 DR (Year of the Halls Unhaunted): The unexpected death of High Queen Alicia Kendrick. Through a network of spies and informants strategically located across the isles with Amnian backing, Carrathal family loyalists ignite uprisings in the Moonshae cities of Caer Corwell on Gwynneth and Caer Callidyrr on Alaron.

1408 DR (Year of the Solitary Cloister): In a bold move, Viceroy Lionel Carrathal attacks not Callidyrr as the new High Queen supposed, but instead sailed a flotilla of warships through Corwell Firth to besiege Caer Corwell. Viceroy Lionel Carrathal, citing his descent from Cymrych Hugh, claims the throne of the Kingdom of Corwell on the Moonshae isle of Gwynneth in challenge to the newly ascended High Queen Feithline Kendrick of Caer Callidyrr, the daughter of High Queen Alicia. High Queen Feithline, beset by her own political difficulties as she tried to stabilize her unexpected ascension to the throne, proved impotent to forestall Carrathal’s rising insurrection. However, Lionel, after years of bitterness and vitriolic scheming, becomes a tyrannical ruler, unwisely executing and imprisoning dissenters among his subjects.

1409 DR (Year of True Omens): Refusing to swear allegiance to what he claims to be the unlawful High Queen of the Moonshaes, King Lionel Carrathal of Corwell orders the hanging of High Queen Feithline’s emissary Lord Aesun Koart in Corwell Square.

An epidemic ravages the dragons of the Copper Mountains, with several survivors fleeing south, crossing over the dark eaves of the Great Wild Wood. One fleeing blue dragon named Skalnaedyr, more through accident than design, hit upon an ingenious method to assure his survival. Hungry and feverish from his close call with the draconic illness, he alighted in a village called Phannaskull. The village ataman thought to protect his people by offering obeisance to the dragon. Taken aback, Skalnaedyr agreed, becoming the first

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Dragon Prince of Murghôm and setting an example for the swarm of dragons that would come to follow him south from the mountains. To show his respect, the ataman immediately changed the name of the town to Skalnaedyr. Other chromatic and metallic dragons fleeing the same infection soon learned of Skalnaedyr’s ploy. After that, the largest dragons each sought a village to rule, either through fear, deceit, or promises of protection against later waves of dragons that might be less diplomatic. Murghôm’s cities and settlements today are ruled by mighty dragons. Each dragon prince claims a particular village and the region around it. Most are served by a retinue of human viziers, mercenaries, advisers, and chamberlains. Humans not part of a prince’s coterie view those who willingly serve a malicious dragon as traitors and betrayers. Some dragon princes are benevolent, others distant, and a few downright nasty. Some require the name of the city they rule to be changed to their own; others do not care, as long as they receive monthly tribute in gold, jewels, and food. Dragon princes regard dragonborn with suspicion, knowing most of them have little love for draconic kings.

Prince Foril Obarskyr, the second son of King Azoun V and Queen Nalara Marliir of Cormyr, is born.

1411 DR (Year of the Wrathful Vizier): Corwell Crown Princess Cymidei Carrathal had inherited her father King Lionel’s stern demeanor and harsh countenance. Facing resistance to Carrathal rule over Corwell from the servants of High Lady Ordalf of Sarifal, Cymidei leads a massacre of all fey dwelling within Deachtere Wood southeast of Cantrev Dynnatt on the Moonshae isle of Gwynneth.

1412 DR (Year of the Dauntless Dwarves): War erupts in the Moonshaes as High Lady Ordalf of Sarifal, a leShay, declares all non-fey settlers must be driven from Gwynneth Isle in response to the Deachtere Wood Massacre. One by one, human settlements that had stood for centuries and comprised the heart of the Kingdom of Corwell were quickly overrun by the fey and abandoned. High Queen Feithline Kendrick orders a flotilla of swift carracks to Kingsbay to succor the Ffolk evacuating Gwynneth in the wake of the fey

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onslaught. High Queen Feithline’s armada, led by Admiral Felim Voel, is victorious over Amnian warships in the epic maritime Battle of Mog Goidel.

1413 DR (Year of Sunken Vessels): King Lionel Carrathal and his family flee Gwynneth as Caer Corwell is overrun by the fey. The Earthmother’s Leviathan sends the king’s vessel to the bottom of Corwell Firth. The Carrathal family is never heard from again. The Kendrick dynasty remains in control of the isle of Alaron and the city of Caer Calliddyr, and the ruler by 1479 DR was High King Derid Kendrick. High King Derid’s most pressing concerns were the same as those of all the rulers of the Ffolk after the rise of Sarifal and the Amnian invasion—to retake ancestral holdings on Snowdown stolen by the Amn-sponsored mercenaries, and to establish a lasting peace with the fey kingdom of Sarifal. The Ffolk and Northlanders of Alaron also faced a threat in Dernall Forest, where dark fey led by fomorian kings sought to reestablish control, breaking the armistice between the Ffolk and the fey High Queen Feithline had negotiated after the fall of Corwell and the Carrathals.

1418 DR (Year of the Lords’ Coronation): The Shadovar of Netheril “accidentally conquer” Featherdale after years of Sembian investments in the dale.

Xenfyrth’s Abyss is discovered in the Underdark ruins of the dwarven kingdom of Old Shanatar by an adventuring company, of which Xenfyrth is the sole survivor.

1420 DR (Year of the Dark Goddess): Unable to subvert their neighbor as bloodlessly as Featherdale, Sembian mercenaries out of the city of Yhaunn overrun Tasseldale.

1421 DR (Year of the Walking Trees): A Sembian mercenary army arrives in Chandler’s Cross in the Dalelands, slaughtering many folk of the Scar and scattering the rest.

1422 DR (Year of the Walking Hopes): Battledale comes under heavy attack by forces from Netheril, forcing the evacuation of the town of Essembra. Purple Dragon Knights of

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Cormyr move into the High Dale to stave off Sembian advances upon their kingdom.

1423 DR (Year of Thundering Hosts): The Duchy of Velen secedes from the Kingdom of Tethyr. The secession initially produced tension with Tethyr, but the duchy worked hard to mend relations over several years until it was able call Tethyr an ally in truth. But troubles would beset this small forested realm for decades after its independence, with threats as diverse as pirates, unquiet spirits, and internal politics. Many ghosts allegedly haunt the city of Velen, but the living residents get by well enough as long as they leave recalcitrant spirits in peace. To the east, the ogre kingdom of Muranndin cuts Velen off from the Trade Way. The pirates of the Nelanther Isles threaten its western coasts. Powerful Amnian interests have rendered the Duke of Velen almost powerless in his own land. Tethyr is far away and spares few resources for its supposed ally. Possibly in response to the gathering threats, the Duke of Velen has handed down stricter and stricter laws in recent years, though their harsh nature is concealed in rhetoric about honor for honor and the loyalty due friends. Murderers are executed, which most accept as an apt punishment, assuming the criminals are truly guilty. Thieves have all their possessions confiscated, no matter the scale of the theft. The thief must work in service of the robbed person for a set period of time based on the value of the stolen item. Even being caught in a lie is cause for a whipping. Some citizens began speaking against these draconian laws, but quietly, lest they besmirch the Duke’s honor.

The volcano Mount Kolimnis in the central Aphrunn Mountains erupts, burying the city of Gildenglade in Turmish under hundreds of feet of ash and mud. The ruins of the city are eventually overrun by creatures from the Underdark.

1424 DR (Year of the Dog-Eared Journal): Chartham Dellenvol kills Krehlan “Blackstaff” Arunsun. In the month of Ches 1424 DR, Ashemmon of Rymanthiin becomes Waterdeep’s new Blackstaff.

1425 DR (Year of Seven Sisters): The Simbul is thought to have perished in the blue fire that destroyed Velsharoon, the demigod of necromancy, a servant of Mystra. In truth,

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she survived in the Dalelands where she became the caretaker of Elminster the Sage, the other Chosen of Mystra who was badly diminished by the death of his goddess and the destruction of the Weave. The corpse of Velsharoon is kept in Aglarond by those who honor the Simbul’s sacrifice by seeking to keep this powerful artifact out of evil hands. In the wake of the Simbul’s death with no heir, Aglarond is ruled by a council of fifteen simbarchs, all spellcasters. They meet in the old Palace of the Simbul, a mansion of pale green stone built upon a rise overlooking the capital city of Aglarond, Veltalar, once called Velprintalar. The simbarchs inherited both the palace and their titles from the country’s former ruler, though their current positions required armed strife with outlying populations who were initially disinclined to be governed by the Council.

In the years after the Spellplague, Thay had literally risen as a land of shadowed death. Exiled zulkirs, the former wizard rulers of Thay, appeared in the already Thayaninfluenced Wizard’s Reach region of the southern Aglarond peninsula. As a result, Aglarond was forced to recognize that Thay’s presence (expatriate or not) was not going to fade anytime soon. Following their rise to power, the chronic irritant of Thay galled Aglarond’s newly formed Simbarch Council beyond reason. The nation raised armies and took the fight to the exiled zulkirs of the city-states that made up the Wizard’s Reach. The war was long and fierce, and Aglarond suffered much. Having defeated the Aglarondan advance, the zulkirs-in-exile returned to Thay to proclaim their victory and to use the outcome as a springboard back to power in their lost homeland. They misjudged the situation badly. The Thayan Regent, the lich Szass Tam, rewarded them only with death. The zulkirs left behind Thayan administrators and soldiers in the Wizard’s Reach, but in the chaos and confusion that followed the rulers’ deaths, Aglarond declared renewed sovereignty over this region of southern Aglarond. It remains to be seen whether the Thayan remnants will gainsay the Simbarch Council’s declaration without their former leaders.

The age-old Dales Compact between the eladrin and the Dalesmen is reaffirmed with Myth Drannor and the Standing Stone restored. The Standing Stone had been destroyed

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in 1374 DR by the daemonfey and fey’ri of House Dlardrageth, fiend-touched eladrin who had been defeated by the eladrin Crusade of Evermeet to recover Myth Drannor and the Elven Court from the fiends and drow who had infested it.

1428 DR (Year of the Elfqueen’s Joy): The Seven Burghers of Harrowdale in the Dalelands announce a formal alliance with Myth Drannor and rename the city New Velar.

1430 DR (Year of Stalking Horrors): Prince Foril Obarskyr of Cormyr marries Jemra Rhindaun, niece to Queen Sybille of Tethyr.

1431 DR (Year of the Lashing Tail): The future Crown Prince Irvel Obarskyr of Cormyr is born to Prince Foril Obarskyr and Princess Jemra Rhindaun.

1436 DR (Year of Silent Shadows): Several Cormyrean cities bordering Netheril and Sembia are blanketed by an unnatural miasma, blocking out the sun.

1437 DR (Year of the Silent Flute): Cormyrean Crown Prince Emvar Obarskyr dies in an ambush carried out by Sembian forces south of the Vast Swamp. In the same month, Queen Jemra is killed in a failed assassination attempt on King Azoun V believed to be carried out by agents of Sembia acting on behalf of their Netherese masters. Prince Foril Obarskyr unexpectedly becomes Crown Prince of Cormyr.

1439 DR (Year of the Silent Tear): Cormyr and Sembia wage a series of increasingly bloody skirmishes, which escalate into full-scale war.

1440 DR (Year of Azuth’s Woe): After nearly two decades of non-aggression, Sembia marches a large mercenary army against the Dalelands at Archenbridge. The Swords, cloaked autocrats that ruled Archendale, were unmasked and found to be on Sembia’s payroll. The people of Archendale staved off incorporation into Sembia only by becoming aware of the danger and making common cause with the free Dales.

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The destruction of Mystra’s plane of Dweomerheart during the initial unraveling of the Weave had sent the dying god of mages, Azuth the High One, spinning into the Astral Sea where he eventually came to rest in the fiery domain of the Nine Hells, ruled by the archdevil Asmodeus, himself a former deity who had long desired to regain his lost divinity. The archdevil killed Azuth and consumed his divine essence to become the god of sin, the Supreme Master of the Nine Hells. Asmodeus then ended the ancient Blood War between demons and devils by using his newfound power to push the Abyss to the bottom of the Elemental Chaos, radically reshaping the planar cosmology. This made it very difficult for the demons to launch another invasion of the planes similar to the one initially repulsed at the cost of his existence by the god Tyr.

1441 DR (Year of Resurrections Rampant): Cormyr honored its defensive alliance with the Dalelands, marching troops from Daerlun and Highcastle to besiege the Sembian cities of Saerb and Urmlaspyr and relieve the military pressure on the Dales.

The Treaty of Griffonfang Bridge: Pressured on all sides, Sembia (with approval from its Netherese governors) agreed to a cessation of hostilities with Cormyr, the Dalelands, and the elven realm of Cormanthor. The uneasy armistice endures to this day. The formerly Sembian cities of Daerlun and Urmlaspyr gain their independence from both Sembia and Cormyr and become a buffer zone between the contending kingdoms and Cormyrean and Netherese ambitions.

1442 DR (Year of Darkenbeasts): Prince Foril of Cormyr carries the ensign of the Purple Dragon, which can only be carried by a blood member of House Obarskyr, into battle.

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1443 DR (Year of Silver Bell Tolling): The fey kingdom of Sarifal in the Moonshaes and High Imaskar exchange ambassadors, reaffirming their millennia-old alliance. Embassies are established in each nation.

1445 DR (Year of the Malachite Throne): A golemwork clock called the Timehands is finished by a collaboration of Waterdhavian guilds and installed into the Lords’ Palace in Waterdeep.

1446 DR (Year of the Queen’s Honor): Deep gnolls are spotted hunting in the Northtrees March. It is unknown what menace drove these hahlorkh to the surface.

1449 DR (Year of the Godly Invitation): Death of King Azoun V of Cormyr. Before his death, Azoun V honored an old promise and signed the Suzail Writ, which bound the king of Cormyr by law and gave the free commoners of Cormyr inalienable rights— notably trial by a jury of their peers, even in cases involving a crime committed by a commoner against a member of the Cormyrean nobility. The Writ restricted the powers of the nobility on their estates and elevated the common people to a more equal footing with their lords and ladies. Most Cormyrean nobles eventually accepted the new status quo of greater legal equality between commoners and the nobility, but a few still scheme to gain influence over the throne (or to gain the throne itself ) and thereby return the noble houses to their former prominence and greater privileges. King Foril, Azoun V’s son and successor, remains a strong proponent of the Writ.

Coronation of King Foril of Cormyr. King Foril becomes a respected strategist, statesman, and administrator over the course of his thirty-year reign.

1450 DR (Year of Holy Thunder): The scorching desert of the Skyfire Wastes are frozen over for months when the goddess of winter, Auril, sent her vassals to battle the djinn and efreet of Calimshan. The Second Era of Skyfire comes to an end when the djinn Calim and the efreet Memnon are sent back to their homes in the Elemental Chaos by

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unknown means. Their genasi lieutenants and foot soldiers remain in Calimshan, and continue a bloody war based on little more than opposing elemental philosophies.

1453 DR (Year of the Strangled Jester): Around the year 1399 DR, a Shou hero named Tai Shing arose in the city of Phsant in Thesk. He battled the criminal gangs that dominated the city, driving them underground. Tai Shing became First Council Lord of Phsant and went on to be elected the first Suzerain of Thesk, the first ruler of a united Thesk. Tai Shing died in 1453 DR and Thesk then degenerated into a patchwork of feuding nobles, powerful merchants, secret societies, and hidden criminal gangs. The current Suzerain, a female orc named Vunmal Murn, is a weak compromise candidate who stays out of everyone’s business while fomenting a rivalry with Aglarond over the trade through the Tannath Gap.

1454 DR (Year of the Emerald Sun): Prince Baerovus Obarskyr of Cormyr is born to Crown Prince Irvel Obarskyr of Cormyr and his wife, Princess Ospra Goldfeather.

1459 DR (Year of the Forged Sigil): Azalar Falconhand resigns his Lordship of Shadowdale, passing the Pendant of Ashaba to the young shieldmaiden Addee Ulphor.

The last heir to the old Dragonsbane dynasty of the Kingdom of Damara is assassinated and the ambitious Lord Yarin Frostmantle takes the Damaran throne. King Yarin’s hand in the death of his predecessor is an open secret in Damara. Stronger and wealthier than anyone else, Yarin is absolutely ruthless in crushing those who dare question his legitimacy. In the capital of Helgabal (formerly the Damaran city of Heliogabalus), the despotic King Yarin Frostmantle clings to power, heedless of the threats gathering around his land. While Damara’s people groan under tyrannical rule, deadly perils loom on all fronts. To the west, the Warlock Knights of Vaasa grow stronger and threaten war. To the north, the receding Great Glacier has uncovered passages to the monster-infested Frostfell at the top of the world. Deadly creatures completely new to Faerûn haunt the northern marches. To the east, the demon-haunted Dunwood of the Great Dale (formerly

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known as the Rawlinswood) grows darker and more deadly every day. All the while, feral tribesfolk from Narfell engage in ever bolder raids.

1460 DR (Year of the Malachite Shadows): Princess Raedra Obarskyr is born to Crown Prince Irvel Obarskyr of Cormyr and his wife.

The Kingdom of Many Arrows, the orcish realm in the Spine of the World mountains of the North, is reunited after a decade of civil war between contending orcish factions. The Kingdom of Many-Arrows exists alongside the dwarves and humans of the North in a tenuous peace. These bitter enemies tolerate each other most of the time, even trading, and see occasional friendships arise. Even so, the area could explode into war any second, and has done so from time to time. The current orc ruler, King Obould XVII, continues a mostly unbroken dynastic line that began when the original Obould strode the North, unifying disparate orcish tribes with fire and sword.

1464 DR (Year of the Six-Armed Elf): The Waterdhavian archmage Ashemmon (formerly of Rhymanthiin) dies, passing the mantle of the Blackstaff of Waterdeep to Samark Dhanzscul.

1469 DR (Year of Thundering Beasts): The Children’s Massacre occurs in Tethyr, with the slaying of all Queen Anais’ nieces and nephews, with the exception of Ysabel Linden. The Tethyrian queen’s half-sister, Evonne Linden, who made a play for the throne at this time, is killed the same night in a coordinated attack in another town. With the chaos of the Spellplague, Calimshan’s disintegration in the Second Era of Skyfire, and troubles with the monsters and humanoids of Muranndin, the Tethyrian monarchy has substantially weakened since the Spellplague. Tethyr is too big to be ruled easily from its capital city of Darromar, so dukes and counts have little help from the Crown. The remote Duchy of Velen, cut off from the rest of the kingdom by the ogre-ruled nation of Muranndin, used this situation as an excuse to secede from Tethyr in 1423 DR.

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1474 DR (Year of Ascendant Serpents): The realms of Evereska and Elturgard become aware of the existence of the Kingdom of Najara when the dark naga Jarant slew the naga Ebarnaje to become the new King of Snakes of Najara. The short internal civil war that preceded the power change saw great activity among the yuan-ti and lizardfolk of the area. The border nations had clear cause to be concerned that war was mounting from the long-slumbering marshes and hills. Nagas, yuan-ti, and lizardfolk inhabited the monstrous realm of Najara. Najara encompasses the eastern reaches of the High Moor, the Serpent Hills, the Forest of Wyrms, the Marsh of Chelimber, and the river valleys that meander through the area. Its center lies in the Serpent Hills. For all its size, the existence of the realm remains a point of debate, because it is not a state or country in the human sense of those terms—the monstrous denizens of the region do not patrol their borders or carry on any sort of commerce or relations with nearby lands. The naga Terpenzi, slain by the Shadowking, returned as a powerful undead entity. Though it possesses power equal to that of divine exarchs, Terpenzi has been enslaved to the will of successive naga kings. It is bound by a relic called the Marlspire of $ajara and holds the position of Guardian of Najara. As the King of Snakes, Jarant proudly wears the Marlspire of $ajara. He rules unchallenged, but has not yet issued any edicts setting Najara on a war footing against its neighbors. Other than claiming power for himself against the aged former naga monarch, Jarant seems content to allow Najara to continue the policy of obscurity that has served the serpent realm so long. Even so, Najara is now widely known in the Realms, if only as an area of interest to adventuring companies, since it contains ruins of all ages that remain unexplored. Some yuan-ti in Najara, disillusioned with their god Sseth, recently turned to the worship of an interloper deity named Zehir, the serpent god of poison. Despite the King of Snakes’ ban on such devotion, the cult of Zehir has become a real, if hidden, force within Najara.

1475 DR (Year of the Final Stand): Draeven Rapparees claims credit for the fiery destruction of Dauntinghorn Manor in the Dragon Coast city of Teziir.

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1478 DR (Year of the Dark Circle): The Black Robes, the municipal judges of Waterdeep, welcome the tiefling Kylynne Silmerhelve into their ranks. This act marks a new level of social acceptance for tieflings, at least in the cosmopolitan City of Splendors.

Shadow creatures start appearing at random places in the eastern region of Cormanthor, the eladrin realm. The threats presented by these creatures are believed to be the latest plot of Netheril to destabilize the hated eladrin kingdom ruled from Myth Drannor.

1479 DR (Year of the Ageless One): Vajra Safahr becomes the Blackstaff of Waterdeep. Vajra is a thin, small, dusky-skinned Tethyrian. Vajra assumed the role of the Blackstaff earlier in this year following the death of her popular predecessor and lover, Samark Dhanzscul. The young Blackstaff dwells alone in Blackstaff Tower and commands what is left of the Watchful Order of Magists & Protectors.

The present. The adventure begins…

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