Tal'Dorei
The continent of Tal’Dorei lies west of Wildemount, nearly connected by a land bridge that stands sundered by the Shearing Channel. The independent city-state of Whitestone lords over the northeastern reaches of Tal’Dorei from deep within the chilled woods of the Parchwood Timberland. Farther west, the endless green fields and forests of the Dividing Plains form a landscape of farmland, rivers, and untamed wilderness.
To the north, the Cliffkeep Mountains shelter hidden valleys, swift and deadly predators, and the mighty dwarven stronghold city of Kraghammer, beneath which lie mines and caverns that connect to the Underdark. To the south of the Dividing Plains, travelers might find themselves traversing the rocky spires of the Stormcrest Mountains or attempting to navigate the vast forest known as the Verdant Expanse, home to the beautiful elven city of Syngorn. Beyond the Verdant Expanse lies the southernmost peninsula of Tal’Dorei, a land enveloped by the volatile Rifenmist Jungle.
Along the western shore of Tal’Dorei stands the capital city of Emon, a glorious metropolis and the political nexus of the continent. Within Emon, the governing oligarchy known as the Council of Tal'Dorei maintains law and order across the many territories of the republic, partnering with the governing bodies of Kraghammer, Syngorn, and Whitestone to help maintain the safety and well-being of all who call this land their home.
History
Over eight hundred years ago, what is now known as the continent of Tal'Dorei housed the germinating seeds of restored civilization. It was the hardy, dependable dwarves who best weathered the war between gods and mortals, and within the Cliffkeep Mountains, the dwarven clans built the subterranean city of Kraghammer. The proud clans were the first to reclaim the riches of the earth, and nestled in its safe embrace they founded expansive mines of rich metals and minerals, ensuring a prosperous foothold under the banner of the ruling Clan Jaggenstrike.
Far to the south of Kraghammer lived the elves. In the wake of the Calamirty, the survivors found shelter in the otherworldly peace of the Feywild, returning a generation later united under the guidance of an elven sorceress named Yenlara. The elves rallied to her both for her defiant strength and her compassion in the face of adversity. It was under Yenlara's wise rule that elven society once again began to reform. She led her people westward to the Verdant Expanse, an untamed forest born from the surging post-Calamity energies left untouched by the Betrayers' evil. Calling themselves wood elves, Yenlara's people began to construct a new home for elven culture in these lands. This reborn home was given the name Syngorn.
The new elven society came to call this land Gwessar—in their tongue, the Fields of Joy—and they refer to the continent of Tal'Dorei by that name to this day.
The dwarves and elves are long-lived people, and when they struggled to rebuild their civilizations, there were those among them who still remembered the world that was. The humans were not so fortunate. Their histories, written by warmongers in fading ink on waterlogged parchment and vellum, did not survive the years. Yet humanity endured. Several centuries after the Jaggenstrike dwarves began this period of renewal, a clan of humans braved the angry Ozmit Sea and sailed to what is now western Tal'Dorei from distant Issylra.
These people had the sea in their blood and sailed from island to island for generations, but something called them to Tal'Dorei. The ruins of their first settlement still stands today: the port city of O'Noa. From O'Noa the seafarers expanded outward until all the western shores fell under their banner. In the north, they found fertile fields unsalted by the nearby sea against an inlet unmarred by looming rocks and dangerous reefs, and they began to build. They did not know their city would become the heart of a great empire. They did not know the glory and sorrow that would surround their city of Emon.
The Iron Rule of Drassig
The rise of human colonies vexed the elves of Syngorn. Forests that had stood for centuries fell under the axes of creatures who lived only a scant few decades. These tensions did not rise to war, but the humans gnawed at peace like termites. As the first human civilization of this part of the world after the Calamity, a handful of self-entitled noble houses arose in Emon and established law and structure, but those who designed the game stacked the deck in their favor. Corruption spread through the upper echelons of Emon, and power-hungry politicians seized each new and valuable resource that was discovered in their bountiful new kingdom. They turned their citizens against each other, forcing them to fight for scraps while they hoarded the lion's share. Emon was a political war zone, and the greatest warrior of them all was a loudmouthed braggart and cunning oligarch named Warren Drassig. The chaos and mistrust in Emon allowed Drassig and his agents to seize power and transform the realm into the Kingdom of Drassig, with Warren himself as its supreme monarch. Drassig was quick to sever any remaining connections with the elves of Syngorn and make new alliances with the dwarves of Kraghammer, marrying Drassig's autocratic power with the dwarves' immense material wealth. The elves were furious, but the embassador from Syngorn to Emon, an idealistic grandson of the still-living Yenlara, hoped to resolve this diplomatically. Upon arrival, he was apprehended, tortured, and slain. This final act of treachery sent Syngorn into arms, and the continent erupted into a long and terrible war between Yenlara's kin and Drassig's bloodline known as the Scattered War.The Scattered War
The Scattered War lasted for thirty-two years and is colloquially known as the "Time of Shrouds". The war spanned through the Cliffkeep Mountains and into parts of the Verdant Expanse, with the human colonies spread throughout the soon-to-be-warring territories. The settlements, towns, and cities had no means of long-range communication and could not warn each other; Drassig was able to attack each one with little resistance. He taught his soldiers to infiltrate their enemy, listening from the shadows to uncover their weaknesses, determining the best points of attack and how to best destroy the morale of any obstinate insurgents. With the groundwork complete, one of Drassig's generals would strike at the weakened masses with swiftness and savagery. Drassig's shadow tactics were uncouth but, while viewed as highly irregular and dishonorable, proved extremely effective in preventing widespread uprising. Cities crumbled beneath the shadow of Drassig's rule. The lights within settlements of humans and wood elves alike were snuffed out, and this creeping brutality lasted more than nine years. King Warren Drassig eventually sent troops to what was believed to be the nearly abandoned village of Torthil, rumored to be a haven for refugees. Warren led his men through the ghost town and they scattered about to look for survivors. As they regrouped in the town square, Warren delivered an inspiring speech on the utility of fear and shadow in worthwhile victory. It was at the height of his arrogance that the first arrow struck, followed shortly by a volley that clouded the sky. It appeared that after nine years of darkness and slaughter, Yenlara's wood elves and the rebellious humans of the scattered colonies had joined forces and formed an alliance on their own accord, outside the need for civil agreements or political treaties. After Warren Drassig fell, his first successor and son, Neminar Drassig, rose to power. Neminar shunned the brutal methods of his father, instead finding his interests in more sinister powers. He became known as "Neminar the Black Fingered", as his dabbling in necromancy left one arm withered and useless. However, his militarizing of infernal magics and forbidden rites elevated the threat of Drassig's war machine. Neminar led his army back to the town of Torthil, where is father was exectured, to exact his hideous vengeance. In the town square, he piled high the corpses of the elven and human traitors to make pyres that lit the night. Torthil was burned to ash. By far, the darkest days of the Scattered War were during Neminar's rule. He introduced tactics and magics to fuel his soldiers beyond human limits, leaving their bodies altered and mutated by foul, dark, necromantic magics. Their minds became warped and twisted to favor mindless bloodshed and domination. Drassig's forces became the perfect weapons of war, their ranks blessed by the unholy touch of the Betrayer God known as the Strife Emperor. In the face of such terrible power and willful tyranny, the rebellion of men and elves continued to bolster their ranks with vengeful orphans and eager heroes. One such hero who came to be instrumental in the coming conflict was called Zan Tal'Dorei. A human who rose from the harried streets of Syngorn during such dark times, Zan quickly proved to be both a mighty warrior and an inspirational leader. Rallying the broken ranks of the resistance, Zan lured Neminar and his vanguard into the mysterious brush of the Verdant Expanse, a realm where fey magic was to work in Syngorn's favor. When they had unleashed their forces upon what they thought was the Syngornian outpost known as the Shifting Keep, the illusory magic of the locale left the army without a target and vulnerable to attack. The retribution of the forest merged with the weapons of Zan's warriors, striking with enough ferocity that Neminar and his blighted soldiers were crushed, signaling a shift in the tides of war. As word of Neminar's defeat and death spread, hope grew for all the oppressed peoples of the realm. Even so, the last years of fighting were still ahead of them, for Warren's youngest son stood to take power, and was sworn to avenge his family and protect their seat of rule.Battle of the Umbra Hills
King Trist Drassig, second-born son of the despotic Warren Drassig, took the throne, envisioning the end of the Scattered war and tasting victory on his lips. Trist was neither as brilliant nor as charismatic as his father; his armies were stretched thin and his people rose up. The rebels, led by the young warrior Zan Tal'Dorei, found themselves winning one minor victory after another. Soon, King Trist's army had its back to the imposing base of the Cliffkeep mountains north of Westruun. Riding the tide of certain victory, Zan and her rebels, allied with the elves of Syngorn, pursued Drassig to a valley in the Umbra Hills, but fiends fought in the ranks of their enemy. The spawn of the Betrayers had returned to the world from beyond the mountains and spilled into the battlefield like a river of nightmares. The surrounding hills ran dark with blood and ichor, and the bodies of humans and demons alike littered the battlefield. Yet, against all odds, the hero Zan ended the Drassig bloodline, and with it the infernal pact it had made. The grass and flowers of the now-named Umbra Hills grew black and burnt as an echo of this battle, their sap coursing with the searing blood of the demons that was spilled that day.The Rise of Tal'Dorei
Society had all but collapsed during the war. The leaders of the Verdant Expanse assembled a council of trusted and proven minds, but the people were accustomed to a singular leader, a king. The council nominated the war hero Zan Tal'Dorei to take the seat. She humbly accepted, but rejected the title of King or Queen, instead wishing to be addressed as Sovereign if a title was required. Despite Zan's protests, the council unanimously agreed that the realm should be named "Tal'Dorei". With power divided amongst the Sovereign and the council, Emon's leaders cleared their realm of most corruption and brutality. The leading clans of Kraghammer claimed they had been manipulated and spent many years making amends, but the trust between the kingdoms was long to heal.The Icelost Years
Not two years into Sovereign Zan's reign, a cataclysm struck, testing the limits of the new council. An agent from the Frostfell, the Elemental Plane of Ice, slipped through a secret tear between the worlds housed in the forested region now known as the Frostweald. This unknown agent watched as the realm was torn and distracted by the aftermath of war. Knowing the weakened state of the denizens, this agent returned to the Frostfell to inform its master, a cruel elemental behemoth of incredible power called Errevon the Rimelord. A short time later, during a celestial solstice, the peace was suddenly sundered by a rift that opened deep within that same forest, blanketing much of the surrounding land in a terrible winter of ice and snow. An army of frost giants marched through the chasm, accompanied by sentient blizzards led by the Rimelord himself, conquering all the land they could cover in snow and death. Many brave warriors fell beneath the weapons of the invading force, unprepared for such an onslaught so soon after a protracted war. The storm of ice widened over the course of a few years, consuming most of the mid-continent as Errevon claimed as his own all lands that fell beneath the ice. He built a great fortress of frost north of the rift and forced conquered folk to swear fealty in exchange for warmth and unfrozen water. This violent rule stood for several years before the Council of Tal'Dorei convinced Syngorn and Kraghammer to ally with them for the sake of the realm. They combined their resources to battle Errevon back to the rift from whence he came, cast him back into the Frostfell, and with the aid of the Ashari druids sealed the rift once and for all. The snow began to melt, the fortress toppled into a basin, and the people took their freedom back from the oppressive cold. This victory is now remembered and celebrated annually as the Winter's Crest festival.The Cinder King
After many generations of peaceful rule within the city of Emon, there spread word of a shadow in the south that threatened outlying townships skirting the edges of the council's influence. Trade caravan's that hailed from the Rifenmist Peninsula began to vanish, while the autonomous villages south of the Verdant Expanse sent for aid and armed protection against a "nightmare of fire and malice". Sovereign Odellan Tal'Dorei felt that the economic cost of sending a regiment that far south to outsider communities without confirmation of a threat was a misuse of resources. It wasn't until two years later, when reports of a powerful red dragon reached the ears of the Council of Tal'Dorei, that the seriousness of the situation was considered. By then, much of the vibrant fields covering the Mornset Countryside were turned to ash, and the Outerfolk of the region bent to slavery under this new and terrible threat. Calling himself Thordak the Cinder King, the red dragon tyrant had been thought slain nearly two centuries before over the Ozmit Sea by the vengeful military powers that protect the desert continent of Marquet. The beast claimed dominion over the southern lands, expanding his influence through fear and tyranny. With the martial forces of the capital city of Emon unleashed out of Fort Daxio, a terrible struggle erupted south of the Stormcrest Mountains, leaving many a good soldier reduced to bone and ember. It wasn't until a band of renowned adventurers entered the fray, led by the Emon-allied arcanist Allura Vysoren, that a lasting victory over the Cinder King was won, sealing the unstoppable wyrm within the Elemental Plane of Fire forever. Or so they thought.The Chroma Conclave
Sixteen years after the sealing of Thordak, daily life in the region had long returned to the normal quarrels over trade pricing and kobold infestations. It was during those sixteen years that an old and unexpected ally of Thordak's, a green dragon called Raishan, established communication between the planes and plotted the red dragon's return. Mysteriously diseased in her later life and seeking answers to this riddle, Raishan received a promise from Thordak: Thordak would cure Raishan's malaise, should she discover how to break the red dragon's bindings, and aid in conquering all of Tal'Dorei. She formed a plan and amassed unlikely allies in three other chromatic dragons: Umbrasyl the Hope Devourer, Brymscythe the Iron Storm, and Vorugal the Frigid Doom. After infiltrating the Pyrah Ashari for nearly five years, Raishan finally unlocked the seal between the planes that bound Thordak and set him free, allowing the entire circle of ancient dragons, now called the Chroma Conclave, to unleash an assault of catastrophic proportions on the great city of Emon and the Tal'Dorei countryside. Nearly three centuries of Tal'Dorei rule in the realm ended under the reign of Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei II, his life cut short when much of Emon was reduced to rubble. The attack not only killed the Sovereign Uriel, but also scattered the Council of Tal'Dorei, throwing the realm into chaos. Thordak the Cinder King, now swollen with elemental energy, claimed all Tal'Dorei as the Conclave's domain. The remnants of the civilized lands were divided up and taken as trophies by the Conclave, while the capital, Emon, was ruled by the Cinder King himself, with Raishan secretly pulling the strings from the shadows to bend the momentum of these events in her favor. One by one, the members of the Conclave fell to the might and cleverness of a band of misfit warriors known as Vox Machina. These heroes eventually gathered their allies and stormed the capital of Emon, slaying Thordak the Cinder King adn freeing the people. Upon discovering the machinations of the real mastermind, Raishan the Diseased Deceiver, with whom Vox Machina had held a tenuous alliance, they gave chase and finally slew this last standing member of the Chroma Conclave, ending dragon reign over the land and restoring rule once more to the Council of Tal'Dorei.Tal'Dorei Reborn
Twenty years have passed since Vox Machina slew the Chroma Conclave, and much of Tal'Dorei is returning to prosperity. Major cities like Westruun and Emon are especially fortunate, for the vast amounts of wealth plundered from the dragons' ancient hoards have allowed them to hire legions of arcanists to magically restore much of what was lost. Tal'Dorei is on the road to recovery, but not all is well. The young Republic of Tal'Dorei finds itself increasingly indebted to the mages who facilitated Emon's rebirth, and there is worry that the fledgling republic will crumble under the pressure. Beyond Emon, the landscape of Tal'Dorei has been forever scarred by the presence of the Conclave, especially the Cinder King. His hellfire left marks on Tal'Dorei that will never heal—magical wounds that bleed fire and ooze chaotic magic. Smaller cities beyond the reach of the council have begun to succumb to sinister influences. The Betrayer Gods sense weakness within teh world. The lightless madness of the Chained Oblivion churns beneath Gatshadow. The lost blade of a powerful and seductive infernal lord calls from the Umbra Hills for a new master. The Cloaked Serpent raises armies south of Syngorn. The cults of the Whispered One spread like a poison through Tal'Dorei's remote frontiers. Tal'Dorei needs heroes—and this time, Vox Machina alone will not be enough.
Alternative Name(s)
Gwessar
Type
Continent
Included Locations
Included Organizations
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