Geography

Seeing every kingdom, every city-state, every mountain range and forest and ruined castle of Faerûn would be the journey of a dozen human lifetimes. Faerûn is a continent of extremes, in climate, terrain, and human geography. Almost anything can be found somewhere within its vast wilds and myriad mcultures, which collectively are home to more than sixty-eight million inhabitants. Towering mountains and oceans of grassland, blasted deserts and lush forests, barbarians in iron and furs or decadent city-folk in silk and perfume . . . all of these things and many, many more exist in this wide and wondrous land. 

Exploring Faerûn

A company of adventurers can find countless places to go and things to do in the dozens of kingdoms, hundreds of cities, and thousands of ruins, lairs, and wild places of Faerûn. Heroes are the great travelers mand explorers of Toril, the privileged few who see new lands with every sunrise and face new challenges every day.

The Heartlands

While every realm and important city-state of Faerûn is at least touched on in the rest of this chapter, the center of them all is the Heartlands, the region that includes Cormyr, the Dalelands, and Sembia. 

The nations of the Heartlands share a common language, and their cultural heritage and social order are similar. They are not necessarily the most populous, dangerous, or powerful states of Faerûn, but they are perhaps the most representative. Travelers from one part of the Heartlands generally find the same kind of villages, the same kind of merchants, and the same kind of overlords in other  arts of the Heartlands as they are accustomed to at home. Beyond the Heartlands, people seem strange and lands are wild, uncivilized, decadent, or ancient beyond belief. 

Many adventurers lead long and successful careers without setting foot outside the Heartlands. There is no shortage of dangerous monsters, mysterious ruins, and murderous dungeons within these lands. Sinister powers such as the drow, the Zhentarim, the Cult of the Dragon, the Red Wizards of Thay, and now the proud archwizards of Shade all seek to extend their dominion over the human kingdoms of these lands. Only the courage of bold and resolute adventurers stands between Faerûn and a very dark future.

HOW TO READ A REGION ENTRY

Each kingdom or subregion listed in this chapter begins with a short block of data, featuring the following points of information.

Capital: The capital city of the kingdom or realm, if one exists. In some cases, a city is not recognized as the seat of a throne, but it is clearly the power center of the domain. These are marked as capitals, too.

Population: The total number of all sentient humanoids counted as citizens of that land. The percentages indicate how the population is distributed by race. Just because a particular race isn’t represented in the population breakdown doesn’t mean that none of its members live in that kingdom—they’re simply too low in number to come close to 1% of the kingdom’s population. Note that the total population percentages equal 99% rather than 100% to account for this scattering of “other races.” Nearby humanoids do not appear in population figures unless they are actually residents of the land in question. For example, Cormyr’s Storm Horns and Thunder Peaks are home to thousands of orcs and goblins, but these creatures are not residents of Cormyr and do not appear in its population total.

Government: The form of government over that land. Some small realms ruled by hereditary nobles are not large enough to be called true monarchies, so instead they are referred to as lordships.

Religions: Deities whose temples or worshipers are particularly common in that land. Deities not listed in this block may have small numbers of worshipers in the land, but they are not well organized or sanctioned by the state.

Imports: Goods commonly carried to the land by foreign merchants. Exports: Goods or products produced in abundance and sold to other lands.

Alignment: The general alignment tendency of people within the land, beginning with the most common. At least one of the towns and cities in the region that are power centers usually follows the most common alignment.