Frozenfar

The Frozenfar was the coldest, most remote region of the North. It comprised the Spine of the World mountains;the frigid lands to the north and west; including Icewind Dale, the Cold Run, the icebergs of the Sea of Moving Ice, and the northeasternmost part of the Trackless Sea.

Geography

The Frozenfar reached the northern peaks of the Spine of the World and extended northwest through the Sea of Moving Ice. It stretched as far east as the Reghed Glacier.

Cold Run

The Cold Run encompassed the icy tundras west of the Iron Trail and extended all the way to the Sword Coast. It was bordered to the south by the Iceflow river, and to the north by the Shaengarne.
Landmarks
Fireshear Vale, a deep chasm and adjoining crater whose origins were debated by the sages of Faerûn.
Ironmaster Vale, the valley of dwarves that barred the entrance of any any but their own kind within.
Settlements
Auckney, an impoverished town of farmers that received few visitors and even fewer ships from the other towns of the North.
Fireshear, a port city run by a trio of merchants that had financial holdings in the cities of Mirabar, Neverwinter and Waterdeep
Ironmaster, a mining city founded and run by dwarves that had tunnels that went deep beneath the Frozenfar.

Icewind Dale

The tundra of Icewind Dale was named after the freezing winds and snowstorms that blew down from the mountain of Kelvin's Cairn.
Features
Dwarven Valley, a sprawling valley that was home to the dwarves of Clan Battlehammer.
Kelvin's Cairn, the massive lone mountain of the dale that according to legend, comrpised stones piled atop the resting place of the frost giant Kelvin.
Lac Dinneshere, a lake of tranquil waters that allowed locals to glean insight about upcoming lulls and storms.
Maer Dualdon, the largest and deepest of the dale's three lakes.
Shaengarne, the icy river flowed down from Maer Dualdon into the Sea of Moving Ice.
Redwaters, the smallest lake of the dale that earned its name from a bloody battle that erupted between two of the nearby towns.
Settlements
Ten Towns, a confederacy that comprised nine smaller settlements situated around the dale's three lakes, along with the mercantile hub of Bryn Shander.

Northeast Trackless Sea

The northeast of the Trackless Sea bordered the Sea of Moving Ice. This was immediately west of the Cold Run was considered to be part of the Frozenfar.
Landmarks
Ice Peak Island, a frozen isle located just off the coast of the Cold Run, southwest of the Sea of Moving Ice, that housed the settlements of Aurilssbarg, Bjorn's Hold, and Icewolf.

Sea of Moving Ice

The waters north of the Cold Run and west of Icewind Dale were densely filled with hundreds of shifting icebergs and a number of frozen isles. It was sparsely populated and accommodated only a handful of landmarks and few inhabitants, like ice trolls and tribes of Ice Hunters.
Landmarks
Revel's End, a prison used for the most devious individuals that committed crimes against the Lords' Alliance.
Tower of the Ice Witch, the sanctuary of the Ice Witch of Auril was constructed from black ice that held residual magic from the Crenshinibon.
Settlements
Svardborg, and old frost giant village that was abandoned for many years before being reclaimed by Jarl Storvald.

Spine of the World

By most accounts, the Spine of the World mountains encompassed the southern reaches of the Frozenfar,[3] separating the whole of the region from the warmer lands to the south.
Landmarks
Frost Hills, rugged hills were found on the southern stretch of the Spine of the World.
Settlements
Hundelstone, a community of dwarves and gnomes that was located in the mountains on the Ten Trail.
Karkolohk, a goblin prison-fortress led by Chief Yarb-Gnock.
Kuldahar, the mountain village founded around the Great Oak was associated with the nature deity Silvanus.
Mithral Hall, the famous dwarfhold was located deep beneath Fourthpeak in the Frost Hills.
Sunblight, the mountain fortress of the Clan Sunblight duergar
Wyrmdoom Crag, the home of the Thuunlakalaga clan of goliaths.

Ecosystem

a shorter growing season, cooler summers, and a marked reduction in species of flora and fauna. Daily summer temperatures may average only 2° to 5° C (35° to 41° F), and the plant growth season is usually less than 100 days. Although summers are brief at high latitudes, the days of summer are long.

Climate

To southern preconceptions, the north means endless winter months of blizzards, ice storms, and frigid weather. Fortunately for the hardy northern folk, this isn't always true. There's no single type of climate or weather pattern. Beyond the Spine of the World, arctic conditions prevail. From the Spine to Waterdeep, subarctic weather is found. The coastal areas as far north as Port Llast are temperate climates, due to the warm ocean currents running along the coast. The islands fall into the subarctic climate; even distant Tuern receives the waning warmth of the coastal current.

Arctic Climate
Arctic climate conditions dominate Icewind Dale and the Sea of Endless Ice, bringing bitterly cold winters with lows of -40° F and highs rarely exceeding 30° F. Summer brings warm days of 70° F or more, but with lows that can drop to 11-19° F. Stiff breezes off the Trackless Sea create bitter wind chills by as much as 10-20° F. Winter snowfall is heavy enough to regenerate the glacier mass dominating the Utter North. This translates to about 20-50 inches of snow accumulation each winter, but no more than a few inches each snowfall. The rest of the year, drier weather prevail
Subarctic Climate
The majority of the North, including the islands and the Spine of the World, fall in a subarctic clime. Long, bitter winters typically last from mid Marpenoth to late Tarsakh, with temperatures dropping to -30° F and rarely climbing past 40° F. Winters are punctuated by destructive storms howling off the westem ocean, dumping mixed snow and rain on the coastline and heavy snow across the mountains and midlands. Frequent blizzards blanket the land in snow drifts (often 10 feet deep) that isolate communities from one another. In the mountains, temperatures approach arctic iciness, while the forests shrug off the worst effects of winter (some woods, like Neverwinter Wood and the southern High Forest, never feel winter at all). Rivers freeze over with ice thick enough to support wagons and draft teams between Uktar and early Ches. Summers in the North are short, but temperatures climb to 80° F, which along with high humidity and warm breezes from the southern seas keeps it warm enough for most anyone (if not uncomfortable at times). Precipitation normally takes the form of rain, but hail, sleet, and snow are common. Summer is the time for wizard weather, when unpredictable even magical weather patterns occur in the vicinity of the High Forest. The cloud cover over the North seems eternal and unbroken. Partially sunny days are common, but a day without clouds.
Temperate Climate
True temperate climate begins south of Waterdeep, yet the coast between the City of Splendors and Port Llast stays warmer and wetter throughout the year than inland regions. Southerners are surprised to find mild weather so far north, but the coast also bears the brunt of fierce storms that shriek out from the sea. Winters are warmer on average, but the coast is often subjected to damp, bone-chilling cold far worse than that felt farther inland. Summers are warmer here, with temperatures reaching 100° F or higher, but are relieved by nearly constant sea breezes. As with the inland areas, the skies over the coast are often cloudy. This stretch of coast usually receives some precipitation every day, usually as rain (or sleet in winter). Thick fog is a trademark of the coastal ports and makes hugging the shore a deadly proposition near the tiny, rocky islands north of Waterdeep.
Inland Climates Though they fall in the scope of subarctic climate, the Ice Peak has a different type of climate than on the mainland. Like the Moonshaes, it lives at the mercy of the stormy seas. Yet unlike those southern islands, the Ice Peak feels winters bite eight months out the year. When not locked in iceoften a mile wide by Altruriak its shrouded in dense fog. The storms lashing the island are far harsher than those on the mainland, and most settlements are wisely built on the islands lee sides, away from Aurils breath as the islanders call the bitter northwestern winds. Island summers are cool, though the southern shoreline often bakes in the summer heat

Fauna & Flora

aarakocra • aballin • aboleth • abyss ant • aerial servant • afanc • air elemental • ankheg • ankylosaur • aquatic elf • aurumvorax • azer • baelnorn • banelar • bat • black bear • black dragon • blue dragon • bombardier beetle • brain mole • brain spider • brass dragon • broken one • bronze dragon • brown bear • brownie • bugbear • bulette • bullywug • campestri • carrion crawler • catoblepas • cave bear • cave fisher • centaur • centipede • cheetah • chimera • chitine • choke creeper • cloaker • cloud giant • cockatrice • copper dragon • crabman • crawler • crimson death • crypt thing • crysmal • crystal ooze • cyclops • deadly pudding • death's head tree • deep dragon • deinonychus • derro • desert giant • desert troll • diplodocus • displacer beast • doppelganger • dragon-kin • dread wolf • drider • drow • dryad • duergar • duster • earth elemental • earth weird • elasmosaur • ettercap • ettin • feystag • firbolg • fire beetle • fire elemental • fire giant • fire snake • flameling • fog giant • foulwing • freshwater troll • frost giant • galeb duhr • gambado • garbug • gargantuan spider • gelatinous cube • ghoul • giant crustacean • giant lynx • giant slug • giant spider • giant troll • gibbering mouther • gibberling • gith • gloomwing • gnasher • gnoll • gnome • goblin • gold dragon • gorgimera • gorynych • gray ooze • greelox • green dragon • green slime • grey elf • griffon • grig • grimlock • hairy spider • half-elf • half-ogre • half-orc (half-dwarf) • half-orc (half-gnome) • half-orc (half-goblin) • half-orc (half-halfling) • half-orc (half-hobgoblin) • half-orc (half-human) • halfling • hangman tree • harpy • hatori • heart tick • high elf • hill dwarf • hill giant • hobgoblin • hook horror • human • ice troll • intellect devourer • jackalwere • jaguar • jarbo • kenku • kirre • kobold • lambeosaurus • lamia • laraken • large bat • leech • leopard • leprechaun • lion • living steel • lizard man • loxo • magebane • malenti • manscorpion • mantrap • marrashi • mind flayer • minotaur • mold • mold man • mongrelman • mountain dwarf • mountain giant • mountain lion • muckdweller • mustard jelly • myconid • nereid • nightshade • nishruu • nixie • noran • nymph • obliviax • ogre • ophidian • orc • ormyrr • orog • otyugh • owlbear • pech • pegasus • peryton • petty faerie • piercer • pixie • polar bear • pteraman • pteranodon • purple worm • quaggoth • quickwood • rakshasa • rat • rautym • red dragon • remorhaz • retch plant • roper • rust monster • salamander • saltwater troll • saluqi • sandling • sandman • satyr • sea lion • sea sprite • selkie • shadow • shadow dragon • shambling mound • silver dragon • singing tree • skriaxit • skum • smilodon • snake • snapper-saw • snow troll • spectral troll • sphinx • spirit troll • spitter • spotted lion • sprite • stegosaur • stirge • stone giant • storm giant • su-monster • sundew • suwyze • swanmay • sylph • thornslinger • thorny • thri-kreen • treant • tri-flower frond • triceratops • troglodyte • troll (two-headed) • tyrannosaur • ulitharid • umber hulk • undead dwarf • unicorn • vampire moss • walrus • water beetle • water elemental • water weird • wemic • whipsting • white dragon • wild dog • wild tiger • will o' wisp • wind walker • wolf • wolfwere • wood elf • wyvern • xantravar • xaren • xorn • yellow musk creeper • yeti

History

In a time when the North was always warm and the seas of the world were deeper, the lands of Toril were dominated by empires of inhuman peoples. In the elven oral tradition, these were the days when cruel lizard, amphibian, and avian peoples (known as the Iquar Tel Quessir, or creator races) tamed the dinosaurs, built towering cities of stone and glass on the shores of the warm seas, spanned the wilderness with shining roads, and fought wars of extermination such was their hatred toward each other. These were the Days of Thunder. Magic in those days was more raw and potent. These ancient peoples experimented endlessly with magic more powerful than today. Mages hurled devastating bolts of seemingly godlike power, leveling armies and mountains. Like gods, they played at creating life, wryly choosing to release their monstrous mistakes rather than destroy them. The wizards who created this new life considered their creations unnatural horrors, unlike anything that walked the land. Most died in the cruel jungles, yet many lived and as thought awakened in them they hid from their creators. When the end came at last, it was they not the surviving creators who seized control of the suddenly colder realms. And so it was that the first of the elves, the dragons, the goblin races, and an endless list of creatures of a new age took possession of their heritage. Their creators the ancestors of the lizardmen, bullywugs, and aarakocra declined into endless barbarism, never to rise again. Sages speculate about the overnight destruction of the creator races. There are wildly diverging theories, but all agree that a rapid climate change occurred, creating a world unsuitable to them. Many believe the change resulted from a cataclysm the races unleashed upon themselves. Proponents of this theory point to the Star Mounts in the High Forest, whose origins are most likely magical and otherworldly. The elves believe that around this time the greater and lesser powers manifested themselves, aiding the new races and confounding the survivors of the creator races. There was civilization the North during this time period, yet little more than tantlyzing vauge tales and myths survive.
For millennia, gold elves dwelt in Illefarn (where Waterdeep now stands) and Eaerlann (along the River Shining). From their ornate forest cities, they traded with emerging human nations like Netheril and Illusk and repulsed the attacks of the goblin races. Meanwhile, dwarven clans united as the nation of Delzoun, named for the dwarf who forged the union. The nation, existing primarily underground, extended from the Ice Mountains to the Nether Mountains. Silver Moon Pass was its western border and the Narrow Sea its eastern shore. Orcs came from north of the Spine of the World but were turned back in great slaughter by the elves. To this day, this is the homeland and stronghold for orcs and similar races
Humans immigrated in bands from the Shining Sea and up to the Sword Coast. They became seafarers, striking out across the waves to the Moonshaes, Mintarn, Ruathym, and the northern islands. Elves engaged in an unceasing war against each other with the humans and orcs taking over the resulting ruins. Perhaps the greatest calamity to befall the Fair Folk was the Dark Disaster, a killing magic that took the form of a dark, burning cloud. It enshrouded the kingdom of Mieyritar, and when it faded away some months later, not an elf lived nor were trees left; only an open, blasted moor: the High Moor All was not dark for the elves. Although in retreat, as barbarian humans and orc hordes grew in strength, their power rose in Evereska (remaining a stronghold today) and in the Elven Court. They conceived of cooperation between dwarves, kindly humans, and other elves for mutual survival against orcs, marauding humans, and the tide of beasts (ogres, bugbears, trolls, goblins, gnolls, and other nonhuman creatures) led by the rising power of giants. Astonishingly, in at least three places the Fallen Kingdoms and the cities of Silverymoon and Myth Drannor they succeeded with shinning grace. To the east, on the sandy shores of the calm and shining Narrow Sea, human fishing villages grew into small towns and then joined together as the nation of Netheril. Sages believe the fishing towns were unified by a powerful human wizard who had discovered a book of great magic power that had survived from the Days of Thunder a book that legend calls the Nether Scrolls. Under this nameless wizard and those who followed, Netheril rose in power and glory, becoming both the first human land in the North and the most powerful. Some say this discovery marked the birth of human wizardry, since before then, mankind had only shamans and witch doctors. For over 3,000 years Netheril dominated the North, but even its legendary wizards were unable to stop the final doom.
his era left behind elven strongholds ripe for pillaging by humans and orcs. When elves chose to leave the North and travel to Evermeet, their works quickly disappeared, leaving only places like the Old Road and a ruined port in the High Forest to mark Eaerlann’s passing. And yet it was not only the elves who would disappear from their long-held homes. The human nation of Netheril also stood on the brink of history. Doom for Netheril came in the form of a desert, devouring the Narrow Sea and spreading to fill its banks with dry dust and blowing sand. Legend states when the great wizards of Netheril realized their land was lost, they abandoned it and their countrymen, fleeing to all corners of the world and taking the secrets of wizardry with them. More likely, this was a slow migration that began 3,000 years ago and reached its conclusion 1,500 years later. Whatever the truth, wizards no longer dwelled in Netheril. To the north, the once-majestic dwarven stronghold of Delzoun fell upon hard days. Then the orcs struck. Orcs have always been foes in the North, surging out of their holes every few tens of generations when their normal haunts can no longer support their burgeoning numbers. This time they charged out of their caverns in the Spine of the World, poured out of abandoned mines in the Graypeaks, screamed out of lost dwarfholds in the Ice Mountains, raged forth from crypt complexes in the Nether Mountains, and stormed upward from the bowels of the High Moon Mountains. Never before or since has there been such an outpouring of orcs. Delzoun crumbled before this onslaught and was driven in on itself. Netheril, without its wizards, was wiped from the face of history. The Eaerlann elves alone withstood the onslaught, and with the aid of the treants of Turlang and other unnamed allies, were able to stave off the final days of their land for yet a few centuries more. In the east, Eaerlann built the fortress of Ascalhorn and turned it over to refugees from Netheril as Netherese followers built the town of Karse in the High Forest. The fleeing Netherese founded Llorkh and Loudwater. Others wandered the mountains, hills, and moors north and west of the High Forest, becoming ancestors of the Uthgardt and founders of Silverymoon, Everlund, and Sundabar.
The adaptable humans made use of magic they could seize or learn from the Proud Peoples to defeat all enemies, breaking (for a time) the power of giants and orcs. Waterdeep was founded. The last of the pure blood elves died out, a result of continued marriages with humans. In the far west, men also dwelled wise, clever primitives called the Ice Hunters. They lived simple lives on the coast since time beyond reckoning, countless generations before Netherils first founders set foot on the Narrow Seas western shore. Yet this peaceful folk fell prey to another invasion from the south: crude longships that carried a tall, fair-haired, warlike race who displaced the Ice Hunters from their ancestral lands. This race, known as the Northmen, spread farms and villages along the coast from the banks of the Winding Water to the gorges of the Mirar. Northmen warriors drove the simple Ice Hunters farther and farther north, forced the goblinkin back into their mountain haunts, and instigated the last Council of Illefarn. Within 500 years of the Northmens arrival, Illefarn was no more—its residents had migrated to Evermeet. From the Coast, Northmen sailed westward, claiming and establishing colonies on the major western islands of Ruathym and Gundarlun, eventually spreading to all the islands in the northern sea. Others migrated northward, past the Spine of the World, and became the truly savage barbarians of Icewind Dale. In the centuries that followed, Ascalhorn became Hellgate Keep when it fell into the hands of fiends, and Eaerlann collapsed under the attack of a new orc horde. The elves fled southeast, joining with Northmen, Netherese descendants, and dwarves to form what would later be known as the Fallen Kingdom. This realm was short-lived and collapsed under the next orcish invasion though in dying, it dealt the goblin races a blow from which they have yet to recover.

Location under

Northwest Faerûn