Island Kingdoms

The great island kingdoms of the western seas have little to do or with each other. Nor, for that matter, do they have much to do with the rest of Faerûn. Each of them has its own people, history, and way of life, ranging from the shifting arrays of magical power surrounding the Elven Court on Evermeet to the brutal raiders of the Nelanther Isles.

The Seas of Faerûn

Three great seas—the Sea of Swords, the Trackless Sea, and the Great Sea—bound Faerûn’s western and southern coasts. A fourth, the Shining Sea, divides the peninsula of Chult from the shores of Calimshan and the Lake of Steam. Seafarers from Faerûn venture on all four bodies of water, but only the most confident and skilled mariners leave the coastal waters behind and strike out across the open seas.

The Great Sea: South of Chult lies the Great Sea. Somewhere in the vast sweep of ocean beyond the jungle peninsula, the Great Sea and the Trackless Sea become one; it’s hard to say where one stops and the other begins. The Great Sea is a wedge of water almost two thousand miles long and nearly as wide at its western base, narrowing toward the east, where Faerûn and Zakhara meet. Zakharan corsairs plague its eastern reaches.

The Sea of Swords: Between the Sword Coast and the Moonshae Isles lies the Sea of Swords, a cold and storm-wracked gulf hundreds of miles across and more than a thousand long, reaching from the Nelanther Isles of the south to Waterdeep in the north. Few harbors break the cliffs of the Sword Coast north of Amn or the rugged shores of the Moonshaes, and the pirates of the Nelanther threaten all who seek to pass Asavir’s Channel and the Race to reach Faerûn’s southern seas and the rich ports there.

The Shining Sea: Between Chult and Calimshan extends an arm of the sea more than a thousand miles long and hundreds of miles wide. Of all the waters described here, the Shining Sea has the most merchant traffic and trade, almost comparable to the Sea of Fallen Stars in the center of Faerûn.

The Trackless Sea: The western ocean extends from the western coast of Faerûn to the distant continent of Maztica, which lies more than three thousand miles west by southwest of Amn. This mighty expanse of water has barely been explored by the boldest of Faerûn’s mariners. Even the elves of Evermeet, the greatest seafarers and shipwrights of Toril, can only guess at what wonders and terrors the remotest regions of the Trackless Sea might hold.

Capital: Various

Population: See individual entries

Government: Varies by island kingdom

Religions: Varies by island kingdom

Main Imports: Varies by island group

Main Exports: Varies by island group

Alignment: Varies, all possible