Sword Coast

The Sword Coast is an expansive tract of wilderness, dotted with independent cities and overrun by bands of monstrous creatures, that some saw as merely a place through which you had to travel in order to reach an actual meaningful destination. It is much more than that of course, a rich and vibrant land with a long and storied history that encompasses some of the most important cities in all the Realms. It is considered one of the rougher locales of Faerûn, both geographically and by virtue of its people.

Government

While there is no central government of the Sword Coast, several cities are member-states of the Lord's Alliance. Each of these cities enjoyed a degree of increased security and lawfulness, benefits that accompanied membership in the coalition of the West.

Society

The spirit of the Sword Coast was one that comprised the shared traits of its people and their ancestors: courage, resourcefulness, and a resolute sense of self-determination.

Culture

Venues and festivals across the Sword Coast often hosted tableaux, plays in which motionless performers reenacted historical scenes to live music backing. While they were known by several other names, they often featured provocative wardrobing for their actors.
Common among other live performances, often referred to as the "good old plays", was the character Old Duiwin, a wily peasant from the backcountry. Current jokes and political commentary were updated in these kinds of plays as the years went on.

Trade

Beyond the shared protection offered by various alliances and nations, the cities of the Sword Coast were bound together by their shared common interest in successful commerce.
Powerful financial and mercantile organizations operated throughout the Sword Coast, including the Merchant's League of Baldur's Gate, the High Moon Trading Coster, the Seven Suns Trading Coster, and the Iron Throne among others. The Sword Coast Traders' Bank of Daggerford allowed traveling merchants to deposit their accumulated wealth at a single location, for safe-keeping during their travels along the coast, and withdrawal the same amount at either city of Baldur's Gate or Waterdeep.

Organizations

As a result of the absence of a single, centralized government in the Sword Coast, many competing organizations such as cults, religious-militaristic orders, secret societies, and mercantile consortiums haven taken root in the coastal cities. Most notable among these were the good-intentioned spies and operatives known as the Harpers, the network of self-serving merchants and mercenaries of the Zhentarim, the secret society of conspiratorial financiers referred to as the Knights of the Shield, the expansive criminal organization of the Shadow Thieves, the altruistic and sometimes-zealous druids of the Emerald Enclave, and the most-recently founded collective of knights, paladins, and other holy crusaders united under a single banner, the Order of the Gauntlet.
By the same reasoning, the region attracted many smaller adventuring companies, mercenary outfits, and minor military outfits. The Flaming Fist was perhaps the most-renowned of these groups, serving as peacekeepers in Baldur's Gate and its a standing army for threats that arose throughout the coast and beyond. While the Fist absorbed many smaller outfits during its founding and growth in power, other well-known mercenary companies continued to operate throughout the Sword Coast despite being headquartered in other lands. Notable among these were the Chill from the Lurkwood forest, the Amnish Order of the Blue Boar, and the Blacktalons of Iriaebor. 
Some of the more storied adventuring companies included the Order of the Burning Dawn, the Knights of the Unicorn, and the Heroes of Baldur's Gate. The firm known as Acquisitions Incorporated served as a brokerage between prospective clients and lesser adventuring groups that operated throughout the Sword Coast under a shared charter.

Defenses

While the Lords' Alliance provided some shared defense of the northern coastlands, and the Baldurian Flaming Fist protected the city's interests beyond its walls, much of the Sword Coast and its residents living away from the central trading routes were left to seek out aid or defend themselves from the region's many threats, while travelers of appropriate means were encouraged to hire personal guards or adventurers.

History

Tens of thousands of years before the Era of Upheaval, the Sword Coast was dominated by the ancient elven kingdom of Illefarn.
During the Age of the Proud Peoples,circa -4974 DR, the dwarven realm of Haunghdannar emerged as a power of the Sword Coast. It remained active for over 1500 years before rapidly falling into decline for reasons lost to time.
The elves of land secured a great victory against the orc hordes when they routed the armies of Gluthtor in the Year of the Shattered Skulls, 225 DR.
Delimbiyran the Kingdom of Man arose within the northern lands of the Sword Coast during the early 6th century DR. It continued for nearly two hundred years until the Year of the Triton's Horn, 697 DR, when riots broke out across the cities, subsequently leading to the martyrdom of the Sharran priestess Lalondra and the assassination of King Davyd. The kingdom's dissolution saw the formation of numerous lesser realms and the founding of new cities and settlements.
A devastating plague spread throughout the Sword Coast in the Year of the Scourge, 1150 DR. Worship of Talona soared in the wake of the disaster.

14th Century

The people of the Sword suffered years of strife during the onset of the Era of Upheaval. The First Dragonspear War broke out in the Year of the Worm, 1356 DR, and saw the armies of Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate fighting back against goblinoid and fiendish forces that poured out from a portal beneath Dragonspear Castle. Interestingly enough, this conflict led to a swell in the tiefling population in the region. (A.K.A. a lot of people fucked demons.)
The Second Dragonspear War broke out a mere seven years later, following the Realms-wide catastrophe of the year-long Time of Troubles. The battles of this conflict far eclipsed the first, calling to arms a coalition of united dwarves, elves, soldiers from Daggerford, along with Waterdhavian forces, some of whom fought in the first Dragonspear conflict. For two years the people of the Sword Coast were forced to defend themselves from the forces of the Nine Hells in battles across their homeland and even at the gates of their cities. The losses were much great than before however; many of the coasts' people suffered great loss and the collective trauma took its toll on many.
While the Sword Coast enjoyed a brief reprieve for a few years, the ever-looming threat of war arose again in the Year of the Banner, 1368 DR. The organization known as the Iron Throne manipulated the availability and quality of iron, while simultaneously hiring bandits to ambush any caravans bearing iron or weapon shipments, in a series of events that came to be known as the Iron Crisis. These events were revealed to be a piece the political machinations of the charismatic Iron Throne leader Sarevok Anchev and were put to a stop before the year's end.
Before the end of the year, war and chaos did finally erupt for the third time in less than a decade and a half. The charismatic aasimar paladin Caelar Argent raised the Shining Crusade army and marched her followers to the ruins of Dragonspear Castle, claiming she could bring back the souls of those that died in the previous wars. Innocent bystanders fled from small towns and farmlands along the crusade's path of conquest and sought safety from nearby cities and fortifications. The profound migration of people created a refugee crisis in the fortified city Baldur's Gate. Caelar Argent's crusade was finally put to an end at the decisive battle at Dragonspear Castle, when Caelar Argent and a group of adventurers entered into the Nine Hells themselves.

15th Century

Circa the early 1470s DR, a movement to resurrect the glory of ancient Illefarn emerged among the wood elf communities along the coast. These efforts were led by Alagarthas, the son of King Melandrach of the Misty Forest.

Maps

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  Sword Coast

Type

Region

Included Locations

• Neverwinter
• Phandalin
• Thundertree

Geography

While scholars disagreed as to the exact borders of the Sword Coast, it was generally considered to have been bordered by the merchant nation of Amn in the south, and in the north by Waterdeep the Delimbiyr Vale. Some guides considered it to begin south at Candlekeep and continued all the way north until the city of Luskan, though most other cartographers and writers shared the former opinion on the matter, designating the coastal lands north of Waterdeep as the separate Sword Coast North.