Faerun

On the world of Toril, between the windswept Sea of Swords to the west and the mysterious lands of Kara-Tur to the east, lies the continent of Faerun. A place of varied cultures and races, Faerun is dominated by human lands, be they kingdoms, city-states, or carefully maintained alliances of rural communities. Interspersed among the lands of humans are old dwarven kingdoms and hidden elven enclaves, assimilated populations of Gnomes and Halflings, and more exotic folk.

Economy

Faerun is filled with rich history and wondrous tales of adventure and magic, but the lifeblood of its common people is agriculture and trade. Most rural folk depend on farming to eat, and Faerunians who live in cities ply skilled trades or use brawn to earn their keep, so they can purchase the goods and food provided by others.

Knowledge

News and gossip are carried between population centers by caravans and ships that bring in supplies for trade and by traveling bards and minstrels who recount (or invent) stories to inform and entertain people in taverns, inns, and castles. Adventurers also spread news - while also creating it!
Most of the people who populate the continent have little or no knowledge of lands outside Faerun, anything "known" outside of Faerun proper is based more in rumor than in fact. The most educated among the populace agree that Faerun is but one continent and that Tori! is the whole of the world, but for the majority of people, who don't experience intercontinental travel or extraplanar exploration, " Faerun" is more than large enough of a concept for them to comprehend.

Reactions to ...

Adventurers

The common folk of Faerun look on adventurers with a mixture of admiration , envy, and mistrust . Folk believe that any stalwarts willing to risk their lives on behalf of complete strangers should be lauded and rewarded. But such adventurers , if they become successful, amass wealth and personal status at a rate that some people find alarming. Even people who admire these adventurers for their energy and their acts of valor might have misgivings: what horrors will be unleashed if adventurers , heedless or unknowing of the danger, unlock a ruin or a tomb and release an ancient evil into the world?

Outsiders

Except in the most remote or insular places, Faerunians are accustomed to seeing people of different cultures, ethnicities, and races. Only in the most cosmopolitan areas does such casual acceptance extend to evil humanoid races such as goblins , orcs , and drow - to say nothing of even more dangerous creatures . Adventurers tend to be more tolerant, accepting exiles, misfits, and redeemed folk from strange lands and with unusual shapes.

Geography

There is a lot of adventure within the Realms, for those who seek it. The routes between cities and nations often cross into the territory of brigands or marauding humanoids. Every forest, swap, and mountain range has its own perils, whether lurking bandits, savage Orcs and Goblins, or mighty creatures such as Giants and Dragons. Ruins dot the landscape and the caverns that wind beneath the surface. In these places, treasures of every living race - and a number of dead ones - wait for adventurers intrepid enough to come and claim them.
The vast central continent of Toril , Faerun is a landmass divided by a great sea known as the Inner Sea, or the Sea of Fallen Stars. The lands beyond the North can be roughly divided into those to the south and those to the east, becoming more foreign to the folk of the Sword Coast and The North the farther away they are.

The North

The North refers to all the territory north of Amn , split into two general regions: the Western Heartlands and the Savage Frontier. Along the coast there is an area known as the Sword Coast. The Sword Coast overlaps the Western Heartlands and the Savage Frontier and starts at Neverwinter in the north and Baldur's Gate in the south.

The South

To the south of Sword Coast lie ancient nations, a tremendous, forbidding jungle, and all manner of lands destroyed or transformed by magical cataclysms and upheavals. Amid the ruin and the distress in these realms are signs of renewal and hope, as tenacious civilization and peoples rebuild, reclaim, and create anew.

The East

To the east lie many of the older nations of the Realms, including Western Heartlands of Faerun - those civilizations centrally located on the continent, and thereby best able to take advantage of trade routes and access to Sea of Fallen Stars. As in The North (Faerun) , there are cold lands to the east, as well as more temperate regions. As one travels farther from the Sword Coast, one moves from lands not so different from one's own to places so foreign they might as well exist on other continents or worlds- which a few of them actually have done.

Name

Faerunians

Primary Source of Income

Argiculture and Trade

Alternative Name(s)

The Forgotten Realms

Type

Continent

Related Historical Events

• 17600
  The Sundering