Faerûn

Faerûn is the sprawling, many-climated super-region of Toril where oceans, inland seas, mountain walls, and endless grasslands carve nations into distinct cultural basins. Sailors from the western coasts call it simply “the mainland,” while Northlanders once dubbed it the “Great Island,” for its peninsulas and isle-speckled margins feel as integral as the heartland itself. Its name descends from “Faerie,” the elven homeland, a reminder that elder peoples shaped its early ages before humans became the dominant race.

At the macro scale, two features define the continent’s geography and history. First is the Sea of Fallen Stars, an enormous, irregular inland sea whose tentacle-like gulfs bind far-flung realms into shared climates, trade routes, and wars. Second is the Shaar, a grand belt of rolling steppe and savanna that, with the Lake of Steam, forms a porous cultural boundary between the inner sea’s world and the southern littorals.

Continental Shape & Great Regions

The Northwest (“The North”)

A land of granite spines, deep forests, and harsh winters, the Northwest stretches between the Spine of the World and the Sea of Swords, curving around the vast desert of Anauroch. Here lie the High Forest, an ancient elven redoubt; the frigid Frozenfar of Ten-Towns and the Sea of Moving Ice; the rugged Savage Frontier of scattered steadings and ruins; and the Silver Marches, a compact league of human, dwarven, and elven cities anchored by glittering Silverymoon. Along the coast, the Sword Coast North strings together free cities and ports—foremost Waterdeep and Neverwinter—that funnel northern timber, ore, and lore into global markets.

The North

From Anauroch eastward to the Moonsea, the North contrasts rich river-basins with stark badlands. Anauroch itself is the petrified ghost of a fallen empire’s breadbasket; to its south and east, the Dalelands stitch idyllic farm valleys to old forest margins, and the Ride opens into horse-nomad country. The Moonsea’s iron-rich shores fuel boomtowns, tyrannies, and adventurer-run enclaves in equal measure, while the Vast spreads a pioneer’s patchwork of communities amid ceaseless orc-dwarf contention.

The Northeast (The Cold Lands and Neighbors)

Bordered by glacier and taiga, the Northeast is austere and proud. Damara and Vaasa face each other across ore-laden ranges and bitter tundras; The Great Dale remains insular and druid-watched; Impiltur stands as a merchant-maritime crossroads. Beyond rise the Hordelands, the immense grass ocean of the Tuigan; alongside them, Narfell’s windswept plains echo with tales of demon-haunted empires, while Rashemen’s berserker clans answer to a matriarchy of masked witches. Thesk, straddling the Golden Way, is the pragmatic entrepôt between Faerûn and far-eastern caravans.

The West

South of Waterdeep to the Shining Sea stretch crowded coasts and intrigue-ridden interiors. Island realms flank them: the Moonshae Isles in the Trackless Sea; Evermeet, haven of the elves; and gadget-minded Lantan. On the mainland, the Lands of Intrigue dominate: mercantile Amn, genie-scarred Calimshan, and storied Tethyr. Offshore lurk the pirate redoubts of the Nelanther, while Nimbral whispers of sky-knights and hidden arcanum. The Sword Coast between Baldur’s Gate and Waterdeep hums with shipping, smuggling, and sea-borne power. Inland, the Western Heartlands—a quilt of freeholds and city-states—buffer coast from crown.

The Interior (Sea of Fallen Stars Verge)

Here the inland sea’s western arms—the Dragonmere and Vilhon Reach—lace together old powers and upstart states. Cormyr stands as a feudal bulwark of roads, beacons, and Purple Dragons; south runs the Dragon Coast, a smugglers’ alley where guilds and secret cabals thrive. Sembia plays clearinghouse for northern ore and southern grain, while Turmish and Sespech dot the Reach with towns of stout farmers and traders (the latter notoriously suspicious of spellcraft). Remnants and successors to older polities include Chondath, ophidian-ruled Hlondeth, and genasi-led Akanûl. Offshore lie the Pirate Isles, perpetual temptation to privateers and navies alike. To the south and east, the Shining Plains roll with herds and centaur prides.

The East (Unapproachable East & Old Empires)

Along the inner sea’s eastern sweep, cultures layer as densely as deltas. Aglarond—a magocracy fronted by forest and sea—checks the ambitions of Thay, a hard-edged realm of red-robed arcanists built on slavery. Southward stand successor states and ancient names reborn: Mulhorand, Unther, Murghôm (now famed for its dragon princes), and High Imaskar in various reincarnations. Chessenta’s city-states prize athletics as much as epics, while Chondalwood steadily reclaims land from axes on the Vilhon flank. The region’s straits and capes make pirates, privateers, and paladins neighbors—uneasily.

The Southwest (Chultan Peninsula)

The green anvil of Chult juts into warm seas: gold-veined mountains, dinosaur-haunted jungles, and disease-ringed deltas give rise to city-states like Tashalar and proud unions such as Lapaliiya. Samarach veils itself behind crafted illusions; Thindol and serpent-blooded enclaves testify to ancient sarrukh legacies. Northward lies the Shining Sea, gateway to Calimshan; southward spreads the Great Sea, linking Chult to the far Shining Lands.

The South (Shining South & Shaar)

Between the Lake of Steam and the long sweep of the Shaar unfold realms of wizards, wanderers, and dwarven fastnesses. Halruaa (when extant) keeps its sky-ships and spell-wards close; the Great Rift cradles the gold dwarves; Dambrath pendulums between human and Crinti rule; the Border Kingdoms constantly redraw their maps with every ambitious adventurer-lord’s rise and fall. The Lake of Steam hosts a ring of independent, polyglot ports; eastward, the Shaar’s horizon hosts wemics, centaurs, caravans, and thunder-herds.

The Southeast (Shining Lands & Utter East)

Across the Great Sea from Zakhara, the Shining Lands—Durpar, Estagund, and Var the Golden—prosper under the Adama’s merchant-ethic and knightly codes; Luiren stands as the heart-realm of halflings; Ulgarth preserves a feudal balance along the world’s edge. Beyond lies the Utter East, the Five Kingdoms tucked between continental empires, and Veldorn, where monstrous princes rule and treaties are written in claw.

The Underdark

Under much of Faerûn yawns the Underdark, a continent-spanning maze of caverns, vaults, and worm-roads that hosts whole civilizations in lightless exile. Duergar forges (notably Gracklstugh and Dunspeirrin), svirfneblin delves like Blingdenstone, and notorious drow metropoli—Menzoberranzan, Maerimydra, Sshamath, ruins of Ched Nasad—rise and fall in cycles of intrigue and war. Kuo-toa, illithids, and beholders hold their own alien demesnes. Trade, raiding, and slave-taking bind this night-empire to the surface in a ceaseless, dangerous exchange.

Climate, Borders, and Exchange

Faerûn’s climates run the gamut: arctic glaciers in the far north; temperate belts around the inner sea and western coasts; monsoon jungles and savannas to the south. Mountain arcs—the Storm Horns, Thunder Peaks, Troll Mountains, Cloud Peaks, Small Teeth, and more—create rain-shadows and chokepoints that define travel and war. Seas and straits—Trackless Sea, Sea of Swords, Shining Sea, Lake of Steam, Vilhon Reach, Alamber Sea—make sailors as decisive as soldiers. Caravans along the Golden Way, river fleets on the Chionthar and Ashaba, and coastal cogs crossing from Baldur’s Gate to Calimport stitch cultures together; so do smuggling routes, pirate alleys, and clandestine portals best left unadvertised.

Peoples & Patterns

Humans dominate by sheer numbers and statecraft, but dwarves, elves, halflings, gnomes, orcs, dragonborn, genasi, and many others hold ancestral lands or new homelands, often layered upon older ruins. Confederations (like the Silver Marches), merchant leagues (Sembia’s costers, Dragon Coast syndicates), knightly orders, and secret cabals knit across borders. Frontier bands, witch-led communes, and horse-tribes endure beside palace courts and senate halls. Everywhere, Faerûn’s oldest strata—elven retreats, dwarven delves, serpentfolk vaults—still shape the present, whether as partners, rivals, or buried perils waiting for a map to be found.

Why Faerûn Endures

Faerûn’s defining quality is connected variety: no realm exists in isolation. Storms that rake the Moonshaes change harvests on the Dragon Coast; policies in Thay ripple into Rashemen’s rites; a war in the North alters shipping insurance in the Shining Lands. The inland sea binds unlike neighbors into a single conversation; the Shaar and the Golden Way carry that conversation across horizons. From ice-rim to jungle edge, the continent is a living palimpsest—new nations writing over old empires, old magics bleeding through new borders—where every map is both invitation and warning.