Tal'Dorei

Tal'Dorei, or Gwessar in the Elvish tongue, is the smaller of two continents in Eastern Exandria alongside Wildemount. The continent is host to an ancient and embattled peoples, races who have seen war, conquest and calamity in the history of Exandria. Modern society can trace its lineage back around 800 years, where the Dwarves of Kraghammer in the Cliffkeep Mountains began to set out from their subterranean city after the sundering of the Calamity. Meanwhile to the south in the Verdant Expanse, the Elves founded Syngorn and began to rebuild their own society. Humans arrived from Issylra, founding the port of O'Noa and subsequently the grand and ill-fated city of Emon. Eventually the lands from West to East saw other cities spring up, though the forbidding Cliffkeep Mountains to the north and Rifenmist Jungle hide many of their own secrets. Entire cities are hidden away, such as Tz'Arrm, nestled into the vast cast-off helm of Bane, the Strife Emperor and seat of the Hobgoblin empire known as the Iron Authority.   The lands are in many places scarred from war, torment and pestilence. The doomed vale known as the Grey Valley nestles into the Cliffkeep Mountains near to Umbra Hills, which itself is still blackened and bathed in the blood of the continent's most famous battle. Elsewhere in the Stormcrest Mountains lies the Frostweald, a forest cursed to be locked in perpetual winter by Ice Lord Errevon during the Icelost Years. Within the Verdant Expanse lies the twisted and tangled Mirescar where such thick jungle knots together that no natural light penetrates the canopy. Outside of Emon lies the Scar of the Cinder King, an ever-burning vigil to the elemental power of Thordak the Cinder King, alongside the likewise ruined Serpent's Head and the Ashen Gorge.   Years of war have temporarily abated, however, and the Council of Tal'Dorei reign in an era of relative peace. Trade flourishes with Wildemount to the East and Issylra, Marquet and Vassalheim to the West, and cities such as Whitestone and Westruun grow ever more bountiful. This success comes with scavengers however, and the ever-present criminal syndicate of the Clasp and more recently the Wildemount-born Myriad are happy to exploit the unwary.