Impiltur
Sages and loremasters throughout the Realms often refer to the land of Impiltur as the "Forgotten Kingdom."
Geography
Cartographers usually roughly divide the land of Impiltur into three main regions, beginning with the lands south of the Earthfast Mountains stretching from the Gray Forest to Sarshel, known to all as the Easting Coast. Bordered by the Earthspur Mountains and the confluence of rivers and waterways that flow into the Fasting Reach lies the region known as the Uplands. As one travels north along the Herald's Road and crosses at the Narrows between Bluefang Water and the Old Water, they come to the third and final region of Impiltur, known as the Farwater. This territory can be described as Impiltur's true frontier. The lands north and west of the fortress-town of Ilmwatch are for the most part wild and lawless, dotted with trading towns, caravan rests, and other small, fortified inns and way stops that survive thanks to the trade with Damara and lands farther north.
The Easting Coast
The Fasting Coast holds the oldest settlements of Impiltur. Of these, the cities of Lyrabar and Hlammach dominate the landscape. Lyrabar, the capital of Impiltur and the kingdom's major population center, was built atop an abandoned dwarven delve by Impil Mirandor, a refugee from the lands of fallen Jhaamdath. Originally known as Impil's Tor, the steadily growing Lyrabar benefited from trade with the elves of the Gray Forest and the dwarves of Earthfast in its early days. The city boasts Impiltur's largest and most magnificent buildings, in the forms of the golden-domed Royal Palace and the Tower Pureheart, demesne of the Lords of Imphras II, the ruling council of Impiltur.
The Fasting Coast is fertile and green, benefiting from the many streams and creeks that run down the southern slopes of the Earthfast Mountains and flow into the Inner Sea. Many small settlements and hamlets dot the region. It boasts a sizable hailing population in the villages of Klandle, Mistrenpost, and Ondle's Spur, all located within a day's ride of each other, west of Hlammach. The lands between Lyrabar and Dilpur devote themselves in the main to agriculture, with fruit orchards, small-scale cereal crops, and root vegetable plots predominating. In fact, Impiltur is famous for its blackbeet, garsar, and spear tubers and exports significant volumes of such vegetables to the Moonsea cities and Sembia. Game and other edible fauna congregate in numbers across the lands of the Easting Coast, especially on the fringes of the Gray Forest and in the foothills of the Earthfasts where good numbers of red-striped deer and mountain goats gather.
Aside from agriculture, the lands of the Easting Coast also benefit from the large number of trade caravans that travel to and from the mines of the Earthfast Mountains to the north. The mountains contain lodes of iron, silver, and a rare metal - found only in small deposits - which the miners dub "whitesteel" (akin to a metal Elminster observes is named "tungsten" on other worlds).
Part of the Easting Coast, which borders the Inner Sea up and around into the Fasting Reach itself is dotted with small fishing villages with names such as Red Bluffs and Thelnarm. These fishing communities use small coast-runners to net the large schools of amhake, whitetail, and bolroth that teem in the waters close to shore.
The only other settlement of note in the region is the city of Filur, known to all as the Royal City. When Imphras the Great reestablished the realm in 1097 DR, he raised a tower in this small town and declared it his seat of rule so as to avoid any disharmony or jealousy between the former independent city-states of the Easting Coast. Filur was sacked in the Prince's Revolt of 1295 DR, so King Rilimbrar named Lyrabar as his capital and seat of rule upon resuming the throne. Regarded as something of a backwater since its demotion, the Lords of Imphras II and the Queen-Regent Sambryl continue to use Filur for their summer retreats.
The Uplands
The sparsely populated Uplands of Impiltur stretch from the coast of the Easting Reach west and north to the Earthspur Mountains and the border with Damara. The two great fortresses of Ithfell and Mal dominate the region, and a small cluster of homes, businesses, and trading posts cluster around them. Ostensibly part of the Fasting Coast lands, the city of Sarshel on the Fasting Reach acts as a trade hub for the Uplands, as well as a point of transport and market center for its products. As a result, most of the settlers residing in the region recognize Sarshel as the "capital" of the Uplands.
Aside from the major settlements, the Uplands contains the small city of Outentown, located at the crossroads where the Herald's Road meets the Prince's Road, and some two-score farming communities known as thaedar. Once common in the lands of the northeastern Inner Sea, thaedar are organizations created by several farms for common defense, transportation of goods to market, and a pool of labor for harvest time. They range in size from the equivalent of a thorp up to a small village. The most well-known and prosperous of these communities, the Red Ram, Silver Plough, and Three Horns thaedar, focus their efforts on agriculture and herding. They command competitive prices for their goods and wield power and influence in the region much like Goldenfields near far-off Waterdeep. T'haedar throughout the Uplands usually maintain their own security against bandits and other marauders, although occasionally they commission hireswords and adventuring bands for particular tasks or needs.
Other smaller settlements in the Uplands include the two mining hubs of Laviguer and Vordric Dun, which compete with each other for the natural resources of the Earthspur Mountains. These settlements are rough and wild, notwithstanding the fact they sprawl within the shadow of the great Tower Ithfell. Hard men and women dominate the mining trade and the Lords of Imphras II and the Warsword of Impiltur police them and the towns, cracking down on unlawful behavior and often declaring them under "daggerbond," a type of martial law that forbids wearing weapons openly in the towns proper. The authorities grant the hard-drinking and even harder-working miners some leeway, however, for their unstinting toil delivers much wealth into the coffers of the realm in faraway Lyrabar.
The town of Songhal, west of Sarshel, and various monasteries and abbeys dedicated to the Triad, including the Grimjaws Seminary (Tyr), the Towers of Lamentation (Ilmater), and the Hall of Loyalty (Torm), can also be found in the Uplands. Sages consider Songhal something of a center of learning, for it houses one of the largest and most prominent churches of Oghma in Faerûn, known as the House of Many Tomes. In the last year, the town achieved even greater prominence due to the naming of a new High Herald of the Realms, the first such post in the Inner Sea lands since the founding of the Heralds in the Year of the Watching Helm (992 DR). The High Herald Silver Stag, a former scribe and loremaster of Tsurlagol by the name of Ilvarthaele Everstone (LN female Damaran human bard 7/loremaster 4), established her office at the Stormspire, in Songhal's central district in the waning days of the Year of Rogue Dragons (1373 DR). The other High Heralds tasked her with the maintenance and administration of heraldry in the lands east of the Sea of Fallen Stars, as well as providing support to the heraldic structure already in place in Impiltur, Thesk, Damara, and other independent cities of the region.
The Farwater
Named for its location beyond the swirling eddies of the Great Imphras River, the Farwater boasts only one settlement of size and significance: the fortress-city of Ilmwatch. This city provides protection to the many trade caravans that take the Merchant's Run to Damara and escorts those traveling south into Impiltur as far as the Narrows, where the Herald's Road crosses Bluefang Water. At least one-third of the kingdom's standing military, the Warsword of Impiltur, can be found in and around Ilmwatch, protecting the realm from foes who make their homes in the Rawlinswood and Giantspire Mountains. Aside from Ilmwatch, the only settlement of size and significance in the Farwater is Bay Town, located on the shores of Bluefang Water. Unlike the other towns in Impiltur, Bay Town houses a plethora of thieves, smugglers, and pirates. How and why the Lords of Imphras II tolerate such a settlement in the kingdom baffles most observers, but in truth the lords realize that rogues form a part of every society, no matter the strictures or laws put into place to curtail their behavior. The Lords of Imphras II police Bay Town by means of many covert agents, and its two major thieves' guilds, the Silent Poniards and the Red Masks, house agents loyal to Queen-Regent Sambryl. Bay Town also serves the authorities as a useful source of information regarding shady dealings and cult activities throughout the kingdom, due to its role as a contact point for the underbelly of Impilturan society. The regard of the Lords of Imphras II falls only lightly upon the settlements north of Ilmwatch. The Council concedes that they fall more into the sphere of influence of resurgent Damara and, from a military point of view, prefer Ilmwatch as their first line of defense rather than the scattered trading towns of Cairnpur, Maracrath, and others further north. Uncivilized and majestic, the Farwater boasts territory ripe for farming and settlement. The close proximity of the Giantspire Mountains and the ever-present threat of the hobgoblins, however, coupled with the recent corruption of the Rawlinswood by the Rotting Man. Many settlers hire adventurers to safeguard and protect their fledgling settlements or to hunt out and slay the lurking dangers that abound.
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