Æther Age of Faerûn
The year is 1888 by Dale Reckoning, still the most common calendar in the West. The lands of Faerûn are in the throes of a techno-magical revolution. Ancient arcane lore mixes with cutting edge science, propelling the Realms into a new age: the Age of Æther. Magical factories churn out marvelous wonders and modern conveniences. Mighty locomotives and elegant airships cross nations in hours or days instead of weeks or months. Messages whispered across the æther bind distant lands together. With the spread of technology and education, populist movements topple aristocracies, autocracies, monarchies, and theocracies, even as new moneyed classes – bankers, industrialists, railroad barons, etc. – arise to replace them in positions of power.
And at the swirling center of this revolution: Waterdeep, the City of Splendors. Always a hub of trade, learning, and innovation, as well as vast criminal enterprises and supernatural conspiracies (past and present), the city plays host to the best and worst that the Realms have to offer. Sages and historians across Faerûn agree the new age was set into motion in Waterdeep – in the great melting pot where artisans, mages, scholars, and technologists from across the Realms could meet, discuss, debate, and experiment. The first elemental engine made its first sputtering strokes in the Temple of Gond Wondermaker. The first ethereal telegram was sent from Waterdeep to Neverwinter (“How's the weather up there?”). The first magical factories were built in what is now called the Graystacks, in Low Town. Now more than ever an economic powerhouse of the Sword Coast, and indeed of all Faerûn, Waterdeep is not only the beating heart but also the living soul of the Age of Æther.
As potent as this destiny may be, Waterdeep's fate is also forever entwined with a shadowy twin, lurking in the cavernous depths beneath its streets. In the endless twisting tunnels of Undermountain below, an immortal necromancer made a bargain with the infamous Mad Mage, Halaster Blackcloak, to found a community of the worst criminals that the Sword Coast could vomit up. Many of the Realms' most depraved villains find their way to Skullport, the dingy ramshackle community of pirates, slavers, and worse, that festers deep in the dungeon's bowels. And many dungeon delvers and treasure hunters who think to find safety in the subterranean town find that its streets and catwalks are every bit as deadly as the passages of the dungeon.
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