Amn

Amn

Amn is Faerûn’s archetypal mercantile oligarchy: fabulously wealthy, intensely status-conscious, and unapologetically pragmatic. From the “City of Coin” Athkatla to the caravan hubs strung along the Trade Way, money is law, leverage, and identity. The state’s reach has extended far beyond its modest borders through colonies, chartered costers, and a web of guilds, cabals, and quiet threats.

Land, climate, and notable features

Geographically compact by Heartlands standards, Amn sits between Tethyr to the south and Baldur’s Gate/Calimshan trade lanes to the north and west. The country enjoys long growing seasons and mild winters; rains fall from Uktar into early Tarsakh. Blizzards in the Cloud Peaks can isolate Nashkel each winter, and the rivers will skin with ice but rarely solidify.

Key terrain includes:

  • Lake Esmel (east): deep, mineral springs, resorts at Esmeltaran, and rumors of a resident wyrm.

  • Cloud Peaks / Small Teeth / Troll Mountains / Snowflake Mountains: monster-haunted ranges that also hide valuable gem and ore seams. Mount Speartop is the country’s highest point.

  • Forests: Shilmista (Forest of Shadows) overlapping the elven realm of Elbereth; Snakewood farther east.

How Amn is run (and who really runs it)

Amn was unified under Thayze Selemchant and ruled for centuries by the masked Council of Six from Athkatla. After the Spellplague, the mask slipped: the Council of Five rules openly through the houses Alibakkar, Dannihyr, Nashivaar, Ophal, and Selemchant. They coordinate trade policy, taxation, and defense—and allocate lucrative monopolies.

Beneath them stand dozens of head merchant families and mercantile houses (consortia pooling several fortunes). Elections for village lords and harbormasters in smaller settlements are public, witnessed by clergy, and decided by pebble-in-jar tallies, though large cities typically award such posts as favors to investors and allies.

Three extra-legal pillars share real power:

  • Cowled Wizards — the only legal arcane body; all other arcane practice is outlawed without their license. They serve, surveil, and strong-arm on behalf of Selemchant interests.

  • Shadow Thieves — a vast syndicate headquartered in Crimmor, running smuggling, “protection,” and intelligence across the Sword Coast.

  • Emerald Cabal — secretive dissident arcanists opposing Amn’s ban and, by extension, its ruling order, often via sabotage or terror.

Courts & coin: Local justice is rendered by tessarchs; the Council can override by decree. Currency is famously stratified: 1 roldon (pp) = 5 danters (gp) = 10 centaurs (ep) = 100 tarans (sp) = 1000 fandars (cp)—denominations engraved, cut, or ring-minted to suit the trade.

Trade, rivals, and heraldry

“The Pride of Amn” flies on bright red keystone banners bordered in gold: six featureless gold discs (coins of all realms, anonymity of the Council) above a steel-gray open maw (daerag) symbolizing the devouring of competitors. It’s not idle symbolism. Amn sits astride north–south exchange, funneling Calimshan and Tethyr goods to the Heartlands and competing fiercely with Waterdeep and Sembia. Historic friction with Baldur’s Gate peaked in the 1360s’ Iron Crisis; to the south, Muranndin (“monster kingdom”) has repeatedly imperiled caravans and enslaved border folk.

Exports: ale and beer, tea, grain, horses, arms and armor, gems, gold, jewelry, caravan gear, and iron.
Imports: magic items (strictly controlled), mercenaries, pearls, siege engines, and—formerly—exotics from Maztica.
Stone once arrived from Mirabar via Luskan by magical freight; Luskan’s decline severed that artery.

Who lives here

Amn’s population hovered around 3 million pre-Spellplague, with roughly a sixth in cities. Humans (Calishite/Tethyrian heritage) dominate; halflings form a large, respected minority—larger still after Luiren’s destruction sent many west into Esmeltaran and Riatavin. Dwarves cluster in mountains; wild elves keep to Shilmista and the Snakewood; half-orcs are rare (except Purskul, whose labor force includes many) and socially constrained.

Halfling firms tend toward collaborative leadership versus human hierarchies, but both are prized for business acumen; in practice, competence trumps lineage at the ledger.

Money = status (and how to show it)

Amnian culture measures worth in visible wealth, polished conduct, and address. Titles can be bought; reputations are appraised daily. Lavish parties, patronage, and strategic gifts serve as social currency. Status markers include Athkatlan real estate (the Gem District being peak prestige), lake estates on Esmel, and wardrobe: metal-embroidered silks, Northern furs (even in mild weather), and discreet, high-grade jewelry—black pearls favored. Ironically, the truly rich dress simpler to signal that status needs no gilding.

A slang metal ladder grades esteem: ore (vile) → bronze/copper/steel (working ranks and soldiery) → silver (rising merchant) → gold (born wealthy) → platinum (house head) → adamantine (self-made elite) → mithral (perfection).

Languages: Thorass underpins official instruments and speeches even when others use Common; rural “Amnian common” blends Common with Thorassisms.

Faith and the law on magic

Amn tolerates all faiths that do not threaten commerce or the Council’s writ. Popular powers align with daily life: Waukeen (preeminent; temple rites feel like galas), Lliira (boosted during Waukeen’s abeyance), Sune (appearance and aesthetics), Chauntea (harvest), Selûne (ports), and Helm and Ilmater (locally strong in Trademeet before Helm’s fall). Bane’s temples once ceded ground to Cyric; by the 15th century a Council seat (the Pommarch) openly favored the Black Sun, making Amn unusual for its public Cyrics.

Arcane law: unlicensed arcane magic is illegal. Only Cowled-sanctioned spellcasting is permitted; divine magic flows freely through registered temples and orders.

From colonies to “local” empires

Ambition carried Amn across the Trackless Sea: the Golden Legion carved New Amn from Maztica (Helmsport, 1361 DR), enslaving, killing, and assimilating native peoples. The Spellplague wrenched Maztica from Toril, but Amn’s colonial impulse didn’t end—fortified ports in Chult (Port Nyanzaru), the Mhair Archipelago, and the Moonshae isle of Snowdown (under vampire Erliza Daressin) kept tribute and tariffs flowing. Closer to home, Riatavin and Trailstone’s secession to Tethyr (1370 DR) almost ignited war, underscoring that Amn’s grasp sometimes exceeds its grip.

Cities, forts, and waypoints

  • Athkatla (122,000): Capital, pilgrimage city for Waukeenites; the Goldspires temple dominates its skyline. The Cowled Wizards and countless houses run licenses, ledgers, and intrigues.

  • Crimmor (40,000): Walled market just south of the Cloud Peaks; open nerve center for the Shadow Thieves.

  • Esmeltaran (35,000): Lake Esmel’s spa city—baths, resorts, and luxury trade.

  • Eshpurta (24,000): Eastern garrison city; drills, depots, and road patrols.

  • Keczulla (47,000): Gem-town turned diversified hub after early gold/iron booms.

  • Murann: Principal seaport on the Sea of Swords.

  • Purskul (27,000): Granary and caravan stop.

  • Riatavin: “Gateway to the East,” now Tethyrian.

  • Trademeet: Famed for fair dealing and pious practicality.

  • Nashkel: Northern frontier town beyond the Cloud Peaks, gateway to the Sword Coast.

Strongpoints: Citadel Amnur and Citadel Rashturl guard the mountain passes; the three Hillforts (Ishla/Keshla/Torbold) anchor rough frontier defense. At sea and abroad, Port Nyanzaru (walled, three gates) serves as Amn’s Chultan keystone; Spellhold on Brynnlaw lies abandoned and taboo since the Hundred Years of Chaos.

Heralds of coin, with teeth

Amn’s genius is institutionalized opportunism. The Council orchestrates tariffs and truces; the Cowled Wizards police the Weave and silence rivals; the Shadow Thieves oil locks from Calimport to Neverwinter; and if profit demands, the state buys “nobility,” pardons, or private armies overnight. Allies eye it warily, rivals respect its reach, and citizens—human and halfling alike—learn early that the surest spell is a full ledger.

In short: Amn is the Realms’ great countinghouse and confidence game: cultivated, ruthless, and endlessly adaptive. If it can be bought, sold, franchised, or taxed, Amn will weigh it—then take its cut.