Info - Campaign Lore

General Information

Tyranny of Dragons is set in the Forgotten Realms on Faerûn's western shore—the Sword Coast. A thin strip of civilization stretches down this coast, where widely spaced cities are arranged like beads on a string. Roads loosely connect the cities that stretch from Luskan in the north to Calimport in the south, passing through Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate, and other ports along the way. The bulk of this adventure takes place on the stretch between Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter.

Our adventure starts in the small town of Greenest! Feel free to check the Map of the Sword Coast to get acquainted with the area.

As players, please read through this article and decide for yourself if this is knowledge your character knows or came across. If you have any questions, poke the Bleak.

Rumours

There's been rumours of increased activity of the devious Cult of the Dragon. Wherever these people appear, nothing good is to come from it.

• Some villagers claim to have seen terrible shadows soaring in the sky.
• Some traders claim that it is far too dangerous on the road to travel without bodyguards, as there's been a surge of robberies.
• Traders also mention how disappointed they are, having travelled so long only to find a village has been recently raided.

Religion and Deities

The two main pantheons in the Sword Coast that we'll encounter are the Faerunian Pantheon and the Dawn War Pantheon (further described below). Most people in the Sword Coast follow the Faerunian Pantheon, consisting of several gods acknowledged from different races and cultures. While some gods in this pantheon are considered evil, they are still recognized as beings that exist. Worhip of these evil deities is frowned upon when done mostly in private, but outright publically proclaiming the will of an evil god, or enacting their agenda, building temples, etc. results in persecution.
Shrines and temples serve as community gathering points for religious rites and festivals. Priests at such sites relate stories of gods, teach the ethics of their patron deity or deities, offer advice and blessings, perform religious rites, and provide training in activities their deities favor.
Cities and large towns may host several temples dedicated to individual gods important to the community, while smaller settlements might have a single shrine dedicated to any gods the locals revere.

Conflicts and Persecution

The moral and ethical values of the deities in Faerun representing all the outlooks that their mortal followers demonstrate, from the principled agents of good to the vicious proponents of evil. Most cultures and societies aren't nearly as cosmopolitan as the population of Faerun taken as a whole; as a result, religious persecution (from the viewpoint of those who garner the attention) is practiced in places where worship of certain deities is frowned on.
Most governments that engage in persecution limit such restrictions to the establishment of formal temples, priesthoods, and organized festivals.
(On a practical level, it's impossible to prevent individuals from innocuously or secretly worshiping whichever deities they choose.)
A tyrant might outlaw worship of Torm, lest it inspire rebellion, and an otherwise fair-minded mayor of a river-mill community might demand that worshipers of Silvanus find elsewhere to live because of recent problems the timber-cutters have had with local druids.

Faerunian Pantheon

The main pantheon of the civilized world, these deities are acknowledged and worshipped by many. Some people choose to dedicate themselves to a singel deity, while others turn to whichever is relevant for their daily tasks.

Deity	Alignment	Suggested Domains	Symbol
Auril, goddess of winter	NE	Nature, Tempest	Six-Pointed Snowflake
Azuth, god of wizards	LN	Knowledge	Left hand pointing upward, outlined in fire
Bane, god of tyranny	LE	War	Upright black right hand, thumb and fingers together
Beshaba, goddess of misfortune	CE	Trickery	Black antlers
Bhaal, god of murder	NE	Death	Skull surrounded by a ring of blood droplets
Chauntea, goddess of agriculture	NG	Life	Sheaf of grain or a blooming rose over grain
Cyric, god of lies	CE	Trickery	White jawless skull on black or purple sunburst
Deneir, god of writing	NG	Knowledge	Lit candle above an open eye
Eldath, goddess of peace	NG	Life, Nature	Waterfall plunging into still pool
Gond, god of craft	N	Knowledge	Toothed cog with four spokes
Helm, god of protection	LN	Life, Light	Staring eye on upright left gauntlet
Ilmater, god of endurance	LG	Life	Hands bound at the wrist with red cord
Kelemvor, god of the dead	LN	Death	Upright skeletal arm holding balanced scales
Lathander, god of birth and renewal	NG	Life, Light	Road traveling into a sunrise
Leira, goddess of illusion	CN	Trickery	Point-down triangle containing a swirl of mist
Lliira, goddess of joy	CG	Life	Triangle of three six-pointed stars
Loviatar, goddess of pain	LE	Death	Nine-tailed barbed scourge
Malar, god of the hunt	CE	Nature	Clawed paw
Mask, god of thieves	CN	Trickery	Black mask
Mielikki, goddess of forests	NG	Nature	Unicorn’s head
Milil, god of poetry and song	NG	Light	Five-stringed harp made of leaves
Myrkul, god of death	NE	Death	White human skull
Mystra, goddess of magic	NG	Knowledge	Circle of seven stars, or nine stars encircling a flowing red mist, or a single star
Oghma, god of knowledge	N	Knowledge	Blank scroll
Savras, god of divination and fate	LN	Knowledge	Crystal ball containing many kinds of eyes
Selûne, goddess of the moon	CG	Knowledge, Life	Pair of eyes surrounded by seven stars
Shar, goddess of darkness and loss	NE	Death, Trickery	Black disk encircled with a border
Silvanus, god of wild nature	N	Nature	Oak leaf
Sune, goddess of love and beauty	CG	Life, Light	Face of a beautiful red-haired woman
Talona, goddess of disease and poison	CE	Death	Three teardrops on a triangle
Talos, god of storms	CE	Tempest	Three lightning bolts radiating from a central point
Tempus, god of war	N	War	Upright flaming sword
Torm, god of courage and self-sacrifice	LG	War	White right gauntlet
Tymora, goddess of good fortune	CG	Trickery	Face-up coin
Tyr, god of justice	LG	War	Balanced scales resting on a warhammer
Umberlee, goddess of the sea	CE	Tempest	Wave curling left and right
Waukeen, goddess of trade	N	Knowledge, Trickery	Upright coin with Waukeen’s profile facing left

Dawn War Pantheon

An ancient pantheon before the emergence of the Faerunian Pantheon, this group of deities is mostly revered in distant corners of the world, in small villages, and even by some intelligent or semi-intelligent creatures. Still, some worshippers of these deities, such as Bahamut, are prominent in populated areas, and knightly orders may even exist dedicated to the non-evil kind.

Deity	Alignment	Domains	Symbol
Asmodeus, god of tyranny	LE	Trickery	Three triangles in tight formation
Avandra, goddess of change and luck	CG	Trickery	Three stacked wavy lines
Bahamut, god of justice and nobility	LG	Life, War	Dragon's head, in profile, facing left
Bane, god of war and conquest	LE	War	Claw with three talons pointing down
Corellon, god of magic and the arts	CG	Light	Eight-pointed star
Erathis, goddess of civilization and invention	LN	Knowledge	Upper half of a clockwork gear
Gruumsh, god of destruction	CE	Tempest, War	Triangular eye with bony protrusions
loun, goddess of knowledge	N	Knowledge	Crook shaped like a stylized eye
Kord, god of strength and storms	CN	Tempest	Sword with a lightning bolt cross guard
Lolth, goddess of spiders and lies	CE	Trickery	Eight-pointed star with a web motif
Melora, goddess of wilderness and the sea	N	Nature, Tempest	Wavelike swirl
Moradin, god of creation	LG	Knowledge, War	Flaming anvil
Pelor, god of the sun and agriculture	NG	Life, Light	Circle with six outwardly radiating points
Raven Queen, goddess of death	LN	Life, Death	Raven's head, in profile, facing left
Sehanine, goddess of the moon	CG	Trickery	Crescent moon
Tharizdun, god of madness	CE	Trickery	Jagged counter-clockwise spiral
Tiamat, goddess of wealth, greed, and vengeance	LE	Trickery, War	Five-pointed star with curved points
Torog, god of the Underdark	NE	Death	T attached to a circular shackle
Vecna, god of evil secrets	NE	Death, Knowledge	Partially shattered one-eyed skull
Zehir, god of darkness and poison	CE	Trickery, Death	Snake in the shape of a dagger

Tyr

Grimjaws, the Maimed God, the Evenhanded Lawful Good - Balanced scales resting on a warhammer
Tyr Grimjaws, Tyr the Evenhanded, Wounded Tyr, the Maimed God, the Blind, Blind Tyr, the Lord of Justice - all of these names speak to the nature of the Faerunian god of justice. Tyr appears as a noble warrior missing his right hand, which he lost to Kezef the Chaos Hound in an act of bravery and sacrifice, and with his eyes wrapped in cloth to signify his blindness, caused by a wound dealt to him by Ao when he questioned the justice of the Overgod's actions.
Tyr's followers devote themselves to the cause of justice, to the righting of wrongs and the deliverance of vengeance. This devotion isn't necessarily concerned with equality or fairness, but rather the discovery of truth and the punishment of the guilty. Those who favor Tyr tend to be stiff-necked about matters of theology and laws, seeing things in terms of black and white. Tyr's credo of lawfulness and honesty is a demanding one, and his priests remind the faithful not to hold in contempt others who can't live by it- it wouldn't be an honorable calling if everyone could muster the strength of will to follow it.
Many orders of knighthood are devoted to Tyr, including the Knights of Holy Judgment and the Knights of the Merciful Sword. Such knights-as well as judges and priests, clerics, and paladins who worship Tyr- sometimes wear thin strips of diaphanous cloth over their eyes to remind others of the blindness of justice.

Tiamat

Goddess of Wealth, Green, Vengeance Lawful Evil - Five-pointed star with curved points
Tiamat is a greedy, vain, and arrogant goddess who embodies all the strengths of evil dragonkind, and few of their weaknesses. The Queen of Evil Dragons demands reverence, homage, supplication, and tribute from her subjects. She is sometimes called "Her Dark Majesty" or simply "Dark Queen". Tiamat is most concerned with spreading evil, defeating good, and propagating chromatic dragons. She never forgives a slight. Although she is not averse to razing the occasional village, her true schemes are subtle and hard to detect. She has been compared to a puppeteer manipulating her creations from within shadows.

Worship

Although she claims dominance over all evil dragons (and despite her misleading title, Queen of Chaos), Tiamat's priests, who are known as Wyrmlairds or Wyrmkeepers, are either neutral evil or lawful evil. Tiamat's church has a rigid hierarchy, beginning with the lowly Custodians of the Copper Chalice and continuing with, in ascending rank, the Defenders of the Silver Shield, Wardens of the Electrum Mail, Guardians of the Gold Scepter, Keepers of the Platinum Crown, Scales of the White Wyrm, Horns of the Black Beast, Wings of the Green Gargantua, Talons of the Blue Baatoran, Breaths of the Red Ravager, and the Dark Scaly Ones leading them all. The ceremonial garb of a humanoid priest of Tiamat is a form-fitting suit of scales. Dragons or those whose scales naturally cover their bodies do not require this. Adventuring garb typically includes scale mail, and priests are preoccupied with gathering treasure and undermining other faiths.
Few humans or other humanoids worship Tiamat, but her children, the chromatic dragons, all acknowledge her sovereignty. Blue and green dragons obey her most readily. The grotesque reptilian creatures known as the spawn of Tiamat worship her as their mother. Kobolds may also revere her as their progenitor. Prayers to the Dragon Queen focus on the promise of filling the world with evil dragons and either destroying it or dominating it utterly.

Myths

The Murder of Vorel Tiamat's enmity with Bahamut dates back to their creation, when Io made them; they were made with the intention of becoming complements and mates, but their personalities were too much at odds. Tiamat murdered Vorel, their elder sibling, and tried to frame Bahamut for the deed. Io realized who was truly to blame and banished Tiamat from his presence.
The Violation of Tiamat's Lair In one kobold creation myth, Kurtulmak owes his existence to an assault launched on Tiamat by an army of thieves shortly after she had laid a clutch of eggs. Badly injured and with her lair heavily damaged, she caused one of her eggs to hatch, thus creating Kurtulmak. The newly hatched godling quickly began creating a defensive perimeter of traps and restoring the caverns. During the process, Kurtulmak found an egg of Tiamat's that had fallen away from the nest and, deeming it had been away for too long to ever hatch naturally, used his magic to cause it to hatch, thus producing miniature versions of himself: the first kobolds.
The Banishment of Tiamat Many myths claim that Tiamat lived for a long time on the Prime Material Plane, seeding it with evil dragons and dark magic. Eventually she was banished to the Nine Hells by Bahamut and a sky/sun god.

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Factions and Groups

There are several factions and groups at works throughout the Sword Coast. Below are listed a few that your character might know of or have encountered before. Keep in mind more organizations exist, and while the ones listed give you extra lore, it doesn't particularly mean they'll appear.

The Lords' Alliance

"The Lords' Alliance" is not a metaphor. This organization was created and is led by leaders and nobles from across Faerûn. Although many of its members have conflicting goals and long-standing rivalries outside the alliance, they band together in the face of events that are too big for any of them to handle on their own. The rulers of Waterdeep, Silverymoon, Baldur's Gate, and other cities, families, and trading houses of the Sword Coast might never set aside their differences, but they can pull together when the survival of all depends on it.
The Lords' Alliance represents the richest interests and the most powerful armies on the Sword Coast.

The Order of the Gauntlet

Bearers of the gauntlet are holy warriors on a righteous quest to crush evil and promote justice, and they never hide in the shadows. Evil must be opposed openly and vanquished in the light of day, so that all can see and be emboldened by its destruction. Members of the order are driven by religious fervor and by devotion to the principle of justice for all. Whether a member places more emphasis on one or the other of those ideals is an individual choice. Camaraderie and esprit de corps run high within the order, and an individual member will risk anything to save a fellow member or to complete an important mission. The Order of the Gauntlet is a young organization, and it is eager and restless for action. It does not take orders from any government or temple, although the opinions of holy figures are greatly esteemed within the order. When evil threatens, the gauntlet strikes.

The Zhentarim

The Zhentarim—also known as the Black Network—is a loose affiliation of merchants, mercenaries, and malefactors. Common folk know the Zhentarim as the people to talk to when you need the best guards or mercenaries money can buy. And if the cargo is shady or the cause you're fighting for is questionable or even unjust, the Zhentarim don't mind.

Dragons

Dragons are among the oldest, most intelligent, and most powerful monsters in Faerûn. There are two categories of Dragons: Chromatic and Metallic.
Chromatic dragons are named so due to the different colors of their scales: blue, green, white, red, black. These colors also tend to indicate certain traits to expect, but all are evil and merciless, and every battle against these creatures should be a life-or-death struggle. They acknowledge the divine deity Tiamat as their sovereign.
Metallic dragons are named as such due to the brilliant shine of their scales: gold, silver, brass, bronze, and copper. They are generally good, altruistic, and righteous creatures. Despite their relatively benign nature, metallic dragons are also aggressive when threatened or challenged. They usually worship Bahamut, whom they regarded as their king.

Cult of the Dragon

This cult has been active in Faerun for centuries. It has been focused on making undead dragons to fulfill a prophecy most of the time, but that's changing... While the plots of the cult are secret, their existence is not. Most folk of the Sword Coast have heard of the cult, but know only that its members revere evil dragons. They do not seem to have any identifying cultist regalia, or do not wear these in public in cities.
Founded long ago by a powerful wizard, the Cult of the Dragon venerates dragons, evil dragons in particular, and specifically dead evil dragons. They reanimate the gargantuan corpses as powerful and fell dracoliches. The Cult acts as an information network for its draconian "masters", brings gems and riches as offerings, and encourages evil dragons to become dracoliches. Their belief is that dracoliches are destined to one day rule Faerûn and beyond. Recently, rumours say they've been leaderless and are organized into separate cells instead.

Red Wizards of Thay

The Red Wizards hail from Thay, over two thousand miles east of the Sword Coast. A grim, dismal region spread across a towering plateau, Thay is defended by an army of undead warriors and ruled by the lich Szass Tam and the zulkirs he appoints to rule over the eight schools of magic. The Red Wizards of Thay are known across Faerûn, and are easily recognized by their distinctive crimson robes and the arcane sigils tattooed onto their shaved heads. Because of their evil reputation, Red Wizards are arrested or killed on the spot in many lands. For that reason, they often travel in disguise, invisibly, or by magical means.

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Law and Order

While a trial is oft preferred, law and punishment may be administered by those properly ordained. The ruling nobility of the land may dispense these punishments as they wish, but may also preside over a trial or assign a vassal, magister, or city officer for such. Other ordained dispensers of justice includecity guards, justiciars, paladins, and knights of established Orders. Punishment for a crime can include one or more of the following, based on the nature of the crime, who or what the crime is committed against, and the criminal record of the convicted:

• Death
• Exile (for a number of years or summers)
• Flogging (a set number of strokes)
• Hard labor (for a period of days, months, or years depending on the seriousness of the crime)
• Imprisonment in jail, prison, or the dungeons of the closest available city (for a period of days or months depending on the seriousness of the crime)
• Fine (payable to the city; inability to pay the fine leads to imprisonment and/or hard labor)
• Damages (payable to the injured party or victim's kin, inability to pay damages leads to imprisonment and/or hard labor)
• Edict (forbidding the convicted from doing something; violation of an edict can result in imprisonment, hard labor, and/or a fine)

Crimes Against The Lords or Nobility

Severe Offenses: Treason, Assault Upon or Impersonation of a Lord, Assault Upon or Impersonation of a Magister, Forgery of an Official Document
Serious Offenses: Theft, Vandalism or Arson Against the City, Impersonation of Guardsman or Officer of the Watch, Repetition of Lesser Offenses, Willful Disobedience of any Edict Uttered Against One by a Lord
Lesser Offenses: Unlawful Observation or Copying of an Official Document, Assault Upon Any City Officer Who is Acting in the Line of Duty.
Minor Offenses: Blasphemy against Lord, Magister or any City Officer

Crimes Against the Realm, City, or Infrastructure

Severe Offenses: Poisoning of City Wells, Murder, Spying, Sabotage
Serious Offenses: Fraud, Fencing Stolen Goods, Unlawful Dueling, Murder with Justification, Repetition of any Lesser Offenses
Lesser Offenses: Bribery of a City Officer or Official; Hindrance of City Watch/Guards in their Duty
Minor Offenses: Bribery, Unlawful Flight over the City, Blasphemy Against Foreign Ambassadors, Vagrancy, Littering (includes relief of human wastes in public), Brandishing a Weapon Dangerously or Threatening without Due Cause, Dangerous Operation of a Coach, Wagon or other Conveyance.

Crimes Against the Gods

Severe Offenses: Defiling of a Holy Place
Serious Offenses: Theft of Temple Goods or Offerings, Tomb-Robbing, Repetition of any Lesser Offense
Lesser Offenses: Assault Upon a Priest or Lay Worshipper
Minor Offenses: Public Blasphemy of a God or Priesthood, Drunkenness and Disorderly Conduct at Worship

Crimes Against Citizens

Severe Offenses: Arson, Rape, Assault Resulting in Mutilation or Crippling, Magical Assault, Forgery, Slavery
Serious Offenses: Robbery, Burglary, Theft or Killing of Livestock, Repetition of a Lesser Offense, Usury
Lesser Offenses: Damage to Property, Assault (Wounding), Assault on Livestock, Unlawful Hindrance of Business
Minor Offenses: Assault (without wounding or robbery), Excessive Noise