The Forgotten Realms: Explore the Realms

[Stefan]

The Forgotten Realms: Explore the Realms

Dungeons & Dragons offers incredible worlds to explore. Some, like the legendary Forgotten Realms, are rich with storied history. All need heroes looking for adventure.


The Land of Faerûn

From the bitter, windswept steppes of the Endless Waste to the storm-lashed cliffs of the Sword Coast stretches a wide, wild land of shining kingdoms and primal wilderness, Faerûn is only one continent of the world known as Toril. Other lands lie in distant corners of the world, but Faerun is the center of it all, the crossroads and crux upon which all else turns. Dozens of nations, hundreds of citystates, and countless tribes, villages, and settlements dot its expanse.
The continent of Faerûn is a landmass of approximately nine and a half million square miles, located mainly in the northern hemisphere of the world of Toril. Sub-arctic extremes chill its northern reaches, where ice sheets like the Great Glacier dominate the landscape in blinding white. To the south are the equatorial jungles of Chult and the tropical coasts of Halruaa. It’s bordered on the west by the Trackless Sea and on the east by the Endless Wastes and the Hordelands that separate it from Kara-Tur.

Faerûn is an open land full of kingdoms and empires, large and small, and scattered city-states and villages struggling to make their way in a landscape that can be unforgiving wilderness one mile and cosmopolitan city the next.
Countless millions of humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, and other sentient beings call Faerûn home. It is a land of magic and intrigue, cruel violence and divine compassion, where gods have ascended and died, and millennia of warfare and conquests have shaped dozens of unique cultures.

High-Res-Karte der Schwertküste


Waterdeep - The City of Splendors

The City of Splendors is certainly the greatest of the Sword Coast cities and perhaps the greatest cities on the face of the world. It’s home to as many as two million people, though an accurate census is all but impossible since so many come and go, visiting the open city to trade and otherwise seek fame and fortune. Waterdeep is a stable and generally peaceful city, where the rule of law is enforced by a huge and well-equipped watch further backed up by some of the most powerful personalities in the Realms.

Still, there are parts of Waterdeep that can be dangerous for the unwary, and the rough-and-tumble Dock Ward is one of those parts.

Dock Street
Running the length of Waterdeep Harbor, this infamous lane is always crowded with strangers to the city just off he many ships that dock there.

Waterdeep Harbor
The busy harbor is protected by enormous gated sea walls above the surface and by a cadre of merfolk beneath it. It is known all over the world as the safest of harbors, with the finest repair facilities for ships across Faerûn and with everything a merchant captain needs—from storehouses and marketplaces to myriad inns, festhalls, and taverns for the entertainment of the crew.


Baldur's Gate - Home to Legends

Cradled in a crook of the Chionthar and often swaddled in mist, Baldur’s Gate clings tight to the granite bluffs that channel the river. Trade nursed, the city grew from pirates’ port to farmers’ fort to the bustling urban center it is today.

Generations have worn smooth the cobbles of its narrow streets, and tens of thousands have lived their entire lives in the long shadows of its walls. The city’s stone has soaked in the blood of acclaimed heroes and terrible villains.

Alongside and atop such stains, nobles and commoners, rich and poor, have lazed and sweat, ruled and bled, as they’ve played out the stories of their lives—making Baldur’s Gate a place of history and a home to legends.


Neverwinter - Jewel of the North

Once famous as the Jewel of the North, Neverwinter rivaled Waterdeep in splendor. Then Mount Hotenow erupted, rocking the city’s foundations and scouring its streets with flame. Nearly five decades later, Neverwinter is within sight of reclaiming its former glory. People have returned, great buildings have been restored to beauty, and a strong ruler reigns—Lord Neverember, a kingly man from Waterdeep.

Despite these advances, Neverwinter faces many challenges. Rivalry between power groups threatens its recovery. Sections of the city lie in ruins, serving as the lair for bandits and monsters. And dangers abound in neighboring lands: Mount Hotenow still rumbles, undead and dark fey stalk Neverwinter Wood, and giants have been seen descending the slopes of the Sword Mountains to the south.

Neverwinter is a city that needs heroes.


Icewind Dale - Welcome to Icewind Dale

Frozen winds blow across the flat strip of tundra north of the Spine of the World, coming in from across the Sea of Moving Ice and freezing everything in their paths, including the hearty barbarians and frontiersmen who call Icewind Dale home.

This is a harsh and unforgiving land of fierce tundra yetis, barbarian tribesmen, roaming giants, and ten small towns of tough people from across the Realms who are dedicated to carving a living from the ice and snow. The barbarian tribes follow herds of reindeer, and the people of Ten Towns fish the clear, frigid waters of their half-frozen lakes while the towering peak of Kalvin’s Cairn keeps watch over all.

Kelvin’s Cairn
The snow-capped peak of Kelvin’s Cairn rises alone above the frozen tundra, the only mountain in a thousand square miles. Because it appears to be a loose collection of boulders piled into a rough pyramid, barbarian legends call it a grave marker, though most likely it is an extinct volcano. Verbeegs make their dens on its rocky slopes, the dwarves of Clan Battlehammer mien a river valley along its south face, and Drizzt Do’urden found a secluded home in a deep cave on its lonely north face.

Ten Towns
The rough and tumble pioneers who settle in Icewind Dale are constantly on guard against roaming monsters, raging barbarians, and killing weather. The unforgiving landscape is rich with wild resources, but it doesn’t give up anything easily.

The folk of Ten Towns are a hard lot, but they have come together in close-knit communities where neighbors depend on each other for their survival. The towns have attracted their share of rogues, but even these one-time criminals tend to either make themselves a part of the community or face a harsh form of frontier justice—if they aren’t smart enough to just head south.


LG

Stefan