The Chronicle of Years: A Short History of the Realms - After the Spellplague

The Chronicle of Years

A Short History of the Realms

After the Spellplague: A Century of Change

Edited by Christopher J. Monte

Based on The Grand History of the Realms by Brian R. James

Just like the The Grand History of the Realms the bulk of this ebook is made up of brief entries that collectively form a timeline of the history of Faerûn and the other

continents of the world of Toril. The events are presented in chronological order according to the year or time frame in which they occurred.

This ebook and the earlier volumes in this series are meant to expand the original entries of The Grand History of the Realms with more background explanations for the events described in the original text. As this has greatly expanded the page count of the original work, The Chronicle of Years will be divided up into a series of volumes to focus on a related group of historical periods. This volume focuses on the events that occurred after the Spellplague radically altered the world of Toril. The events described herein are drawn from the Fourth Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide and Forgotten Realms

Player’s Guide as well as the unofficial chronological entries provided by Brian R. James

Calendar Conversions

One notable feature of the timeline that the expert Faerûnian historian will notice is that the dates in this work are expressed in the current Dalereckoning (DR) notation. Different cultures in the Realms have used different calendars, and reconciling them has often caused sages much difficulty. See the following notes to convert DR dates to some other calendar.

Dalereckoning (DR): This human-centric calendar has become the standard way of expressing dates across Faerûn for most historians and scholars who wish to use a numbered system of dates instead of the far more ancient—and less convenient—Roll of Years. Dalereckoning was established in the Year of Sunrise (1 DR) when the men of Chondath were first permitted by the eladrin and elves of the Elven Court to settle in the more open regions of Cormanthor. It is also sometimes called Freeman’s Reckoning in older sources.

Cormyr Reckoning (CR): This calendar starts at the founding of the Kingdom of Cormyr by the Obarskyr Dynasty (26 DR). The use of two close but not identical

calendars between Dalereckoning and Cormyr Reckoning in the same geographic area of Faerûn’s Heartlands causes historians and sages much confusion. To convert between dates you might find in other sources: DR – 25 = CR or CR + 25 = DR. The current year is 1454 CR.

orthreckoning (R): The calendar used throughout the city of Waterdeep, the Silver Marches, and the North. DR – 1032 = NR or NR + 1032 = DR. The current year is 447 NR.

Waterdeep Year (WY): Archaic Waterdhavian calendar based on the year of the City of Splendor’s founding, no longer used.

etheril Year (Y): Calendar used by the lost Empire of Netheril and still in use by the Shadovar of Shade Enclave, stemming from the formation of the Alliance of Seventon. DR + 3859 = NY or NY – 3859 = DR. The current year is 5338 NY.

Shou Calendar: The people of the vast Empire of Shou Lung mark the ascendancy of Nung Fu as the start of their empire’s calendar. DR + 1250 = Shou Year or Shou Year – 1250 = DR. The current date is Shou Year 2729.

Wa Calendar: Calendar used by the island Empire of Wa in the Eastern Realms of Kara-Tur. DR + 418 = Wa Year or Wa Year – 418 = DR. The current date is Wa Year 1897.

Mulhorand Calendar (MC): Ancient calendar dating from the founding of the Mulhorandi capital city of Skuld by the former Mulan slaves fleeing the destruction of the Empire of Imaskar. This calendar is at present only used by the deva and the few surviving descendants of Mulhorandi refugees. DR + 2134 = MC or MC – 2134 = DR. The current year is 3613 MC.

Untheric Calendar (UC): Established after the ascendancy of Gilgeam as the god-king of Unther. DR + 735 = UC or UC – 735 = DR. The current year is 2214 UC.

Aryselmalyr Calendar: Archaic calendar used by the undersea elves of Aryselmalyr at the empire’s founding. DR + 11004 = AC or AC – 11004 = DR. The current year under this calendar is 12483 AC.

Timesong Calendar (TS): Calendar established at Myth Nantar and used today by most undersea inhabitants of Serôs (the Sea of Fallen Stars). DR + 70 = TS or TS – 70 = TS. The current year for the sea elves of Serôs is 1549 TS.

Present Reckoning (PR): A newer calendar that dates the Time of Troubles and the Godswar that occurred in the Year of Shadows as Year 0. DR – 1358 = PR or PR + 1358 = DR. The current date in this seldom-used system is 121 PR.

The Roll of Years

Each year beginning with –700 DR also includes its name from the Roll of Years. The standardization of each year with an individual, proper name largely derives from two human prophets of different eras, Augathra the Mad (c. –400 DR) and Alaundo the Seer (c. 75 DR), about which little is known. What is certain is that they built on a body of elven lore and prophecy, adding their own foretellings of the future. Some historians view them as scholarly hacks, stealing and taking credit for centuries of elven knowledge. Others view them as great visionaries who sought to help future generations with their warnings and reassurances. In the years before the Spellplague, word spread of a new Roll of Years, a Black Chronology fashioned by the goddess Shar, the Lady of Loss and her faithful. The purpose of this Shadow Roll was to mark the events that would lead to the ultimate ascendancy of Shar over all of Toril, but instead, the goddess of darkness’ plans went all awry and brought on the Spellplague.

The current year in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting is 1479 DR, the Year of the Ageless One.

Prelude to Catastrophe, 1374-1384 DR

1375 DR (Year of Risen Elfkin): The ancient leShay capital city of Karador rises from the crystal clear waters of the Myrloch on the island of Gwynneth in the Moonshae Isles. The leShay archfey queen Ordalf announces the rebirth of the fey Kingdom of Sarifal

and declares herself High Lady over all the lands of Gwynneth—whether the humans of that island like it or not.

1375 Hammer 1: The moon elven (eladrin) adventurer Fox-at-Twilight discovers Negarath, a fallen Netherese floating enclave, beneath the sands of the Great Desert of Anauroch, from which she barely escapes with her life, her sanity, and a new companion, the exiled goliath Gargan.

1375 Hammer 13: Adventurers liberate Lord Mourngrym Amcathra from possession by a servant of the Netherese Shadovars of Thultanthar, the Shade Enclave. Rousing the residents of Shadowdale, they break Zhentarim control of the area and kill the Zhentarim commander Scyllua Darkhope. Following the battle, Mourngrym resigns the Lordship of Shadowdale and rejoins the Knights of Myth Drannor in Myth Drannor, the City of Beauty. With the blessing of Shadowdale’s liberators, Azalar Falconhand, son of the Knights of Myth Drannor Florin and Dove Falconhand, claims the Pendant of Ashaba and is proclaimed the new Lord of Shadowdale. In the months that follow, fey return in large numbers to Shadowdale.

1375 Hammer 17: Fzoul Chembryl, High Tyrannar of the Church of Bane and leader of the Black Network of the Zhentarim, publicly blames Scyllua Darkhope for the Zhentarim’s failures in the Cormanthor War against the returned eladrin of Myth Drannor and proclaims that the “Bitch in the Trees” shall never again be resurrected. The Tyrant of the Moonsea hopes that by blaming all the failures of the Cormanthor War on Darkhope he can save face with his drow allies, House Jaelre and Clan Auzkovyn of the Elven Court.

1375 Tarsakh 3: Troops from Zhentil Keep occupy the neighboring Moonsea city-state of Phlan, increasing the number of vassal states under Zhentarim control.

1375 Mirtul 1: Wai Yong, the tenth emperor of the Lui Dynasty of T’u Lung, secretly arrives in the Kingdom of Mulhorand under an assumed identity. The reasons for the young emperor’s journey westwards from mysterious Kara-Tur are as yet unrevealed.

1375 Mirtul 5: Druxus Rhym, Thayan Zulkir of Transmutation, is murdered in his apartments in the Thayan city of Bezantur. A Thayan army is defeated by the berserkers of Rashemen in the Gorge of Gauros during a failed invasion of Thay’s northern

neighbor. The tharchions who mounted the invasion claim to have defeated an invading Rashemi army to prevent a loss of face.

1375 Mirtul 10: In the Sunset Mountains, Thay’s Thazar Keep falls to a horde of

powerful undead emerging from Thazar Pass. In the days that follow, the undead overrun much of the Thayan Tharch of Pyarados, including half of the city of Thazrumaros.

1375 Mirtul 25: Samas Kul, Master of the Thayan Guild of Foreign Trade, is elected the new Red Wizard Zulkir of Transmutation.

1375 Kythorn 4: A Thayan army known as the Griffon Legion reclaims the Pyarados from the undead invaders. In the days that follow, Thay’s legions march

up Thazar Pass to destroy those undead that escaped.

1375 Kythorn 5: Aznar Thrul, Thayan Zulkir of Evocation and Tharchion of the Priador, is killed by his prisoner, Mari Agneh, a human/bloodfiend hybrid.

1375 Kythorn 10: The lich Szass Tam, Zulkir of Necromancy, is blocked by his fellow Zulkirs

from being elevated to the position of Regent of Thay. Tam, long the most powerful of the Red Wizards of Thay, desires to become the sole ruler of that nation and decides to openly make war against his fellow zulkirs.

1375 Kythorn 14: The Griffon Legion of Thay retakes Thazar Keep.

1375 Kythorn 27: After Szass Tam’s plan to march an army south and seize Bezantur is slowed by the staunch defense of the Griffon Legion, the Zulkir of Necromancy and the six other zulkirs settle in for a long civil war.

1375 Eleint 30: A long, rolling earthquake strikes Waterdeep shortly after dawn. The city sustains little physical damage, but a number of people

across the city are struck by fearsome mental visions of a screaming, bearded man whose eyes blaze with rage, sorrow, and swimming stars—Halaster Blackcloak, the Mad Mage of Undermountain. People of arcane talent struck by the visions also report scenes of destruction in the vast maze: pillars cracking and tumbling, rifts and chasms opening up, and surging explosions of blue-white sparks. It soon becomes

clear that Halaster destroyed himself while attempting a ritual of tremendous power, and in the moment of his death hurled desperate visions and mysterious compulsions to adventurers and persons of magical power throughout Faerûn.

1375 ightal 20: The greatest of the Anti-Seldarine, Lolth, the Spider Queen, and Eilistraee, the drow goddess of song and beauty, battle to the death in a divine game of sava, with the fate of the entire drow race hanging in the balance. A

Darksong Knight in service to Eilistraee slays Selvetarm, the Champion of Lolth and demigod of drow warriors, with a powerful artifact known as the Crescent Blade. Drow followers of Vhaeraun, the god of thieves,

elven Crown Wars millennia before. They succeed in opening a portal to Eilistraee’s realm on the plane of Arvandor, which the Masked Lord employs in an attempt to assassinate his divine sister. The effort backfires, as Eilistraee kills her brother instead and absorbs Vhaeraun’s divine power and portfolios. The Church of Vhaeraun is

absorbed into the Church of Eilistraee. The tiny Church of Selvetarm is absorbed into the Church of Lolth.

1376 DR (Year of the Bent Blade): Azuth, the High One, the god of mages, charges his pupil, the archmage Flamsterd of the Moonshaes, with retrieving Halaster Blackcloak’s soul-shards, scattered throughout the world of Toril and beyond.

The drow Masked Brigades of the Elven Court are sorely shaken by their god Vhaeraun’s destruction, and the forces of Myth Drannor soon rout the remnants of the drow House Jaelre and Clan Auzkovyn from the territory of the Elven Court. With his drow allies scattered and disorganized, Fzoul Chembyrl of Zhentil Keep decides to end his war against Myth Drannor. The Tyrant of the Moonsea concludes an uneasy peace with

soon-to-be Coronal Ilsevele Miritar of Myth Drannor, leaving the forest of the Elven Court to the elves while the Moonsea city-state of Hillsfar and the open lands north of the line between Hillsfar and Dagger Falls formally fall under the sway of Zhentil Keep. In addition, the Fair Folk grant the Black Network of the Zhentarim free passage along the Moonsea Ride and Rauthauvyr’s Road, for so long as they do not fell a living tree, injure or kill an elf, or stray more than thirty paces from the trail beneath the boughs.

Strange aberrant creatures called nilshai are encountered en

masse in the Yuirwood of Aglarond, usually near the ancient star

elf menhirs. Reports of the creatures’ depredations are of such shocking bloodiness that the Simbul, the mage-queen of Aglarond, enacts a bounty on nilshai hides.

The Swordbelt Alliance sacks the subterranean city of Oaxatupa in the Underdark beneath Amn, scattering the Maztican tlincallis who inhabit it like a giant stepping on an anthill. In the years that follow, the stingers boil up to attack targets throughout Amn and the ogre-ruled state of Murannheim without warning, forcing the two hostile neighbors to maintain their uneasy truce. The Armory of Nedeheim, a legendary cache of magical giant-forged weapons from the Dawn Age kingdom of Nedeheim said to be lost in the Underdark, is never recovered from the city of the stingers. But adventurers searching for the armory return from ruined Oaxatupa

with reports of an arcane portal to the Abyss from which demonic servitors of the demon prince Obox-Ob, the patron of the tlincallis, continue to pour forth in support of the manscorpions. The ruling Amnian Council of Six institutes a heavy war tax on the people of Amn in preparation for years of warfare.

Throughout its existence as a nation, Rashemen has prevailed in the face of

invaders. Old enemies include ancient Narfell and Raumathar, lost Mulhorand, the Tuigan of the Hordelands, and Thay. When Thay became embroiled in civil war, the Wychlaran, Rashemen’s witches, seized the opportunity to deal with a growing internal threat—the durthans. This dark group of women and hags, with powers similar to those of the Wychlaran, focused on corrupted spirits and wicked fey. Most durthans felt that the only way to protect Rashemen was to be as ruthless as its enemies. They built a secret sanctuary called Citadel Tralkarn within the Erech Forest. In what is now known as the

Witch War of Rashemen, the Wychlaran and their commander, the Iron Lord of Rashemen, fought against the durthans and their allies. In the end, the Wychlaran prevailed and the durthans were no more.

1377 DR (Year of the Haunting): Captain Deudermont of the Sea Sprite breaks the stranglehold of a collection of pirate lords over the city of Luskan in the North, and briefly serves as the City of Sails’ governor. His reign proves short—the Luskanite populace was too accustomed to the corruption-as-usual practices of the former masters of the city. The City of Sails ultimately fell back into the hands of the surviving high captains, who immediately began to fight among themselves. Within a decade all four had either been killed or run off. Left without any central government, even a corrupt one, there was no hope left for Luskan. Rival gangs of thieves and pirates have been fighting, street by street and alley by alley, ever since. In the ensuing decades, numerous attempts have been made by master thieves, pirate captains, bandit kings, and monsters ranging from kobolds to beholders to take control of the city, but nothing resembling a government has stayed in power for more than a few months.

The ancient elven archlich known as the Srinshee returns to Myth Drannor and offers Ilsevele Miritar the ancient Myth Drannan Rulers’ Blade in

recognition of her wise and resolute leadership in the realm’s re-founding. Ilsevele humbly accepts the

Rulers’ Blade and formally accepts the title of

Coronal of Myth Drannor and Cormanthor. Queen Amlaruil of Evermeet arrives in the Elven Court to congratulate the new coronal and brings with her the

Tree of Souls as a gift to the new realm. The Tree of Souls was a divine artifact grown from a magical seed

provided by Corellon, the god of the fey, to the first

elves who settled the island of Evermeet after the Green Isle’s creation during the Sundering millennia before. Over time, the souls of ancient elves who chose to stay on

Toril, rather than pass on to the Seldarine’s plane of Arvandor, merge into the Tree of

Souls, slowly augmenting its immense magical power. The artifact is planted in a

ring-shaped colonnade at the heart of Myth Drannor known as Seldarrshen $ieryll, the Starsoul Shrine.

Followers of Kiaransalee, the drow goddess of the undead, cause the strange arcane radiation known as faerzress throughout the Underdark to affect the ability of drow to teleport or employ divination magic. In hopes of reversing the effect, Eilistraee’s worshipers launch an assault on the Crones of Kiaransalee who rule the Acropolis of Thanatos amid the ruins of the drow city of V’elddrinnsshar deep beneath the Galena Mountains of Damara. At the same time, the drow mage Q’arlynd Melarn and his apprentices, employing six Miyeritari kiira, ancient elven gemstones from the lost elven kingdom of Miyeritar used to store magical knowledge, cast High Magic to strip

Kiaransalee’s name from the minds of any of the intelligent beings of the Realms. Bereft of any worshipers, the Revenancer literally fades from existence.

A minor earthquake off Amn’s coast disrupts Spellhold, the asylum for insane arcanists on the island of Brynnlaw. Several of the deviant spellcasters held within escape, vowing vengeance against the nation that imprisoned them.

1378 DR (Year of the Cauldron): A crazed cultist of the bound efreeti Memnon in Calimshan attempts to instigate a holy war in Memnon’s name. After some success in assembling the beginnings of a great fleet in Calimport to “scour” the Sword Coast to the far north of unbelievers, the cultist Roshanak has a dream so startling he abandons his effort. Roshanak disappears to a fate unknown.

1379 DR (Year of the Lost Keep): The drow goddess Eilistraee is successful in

transforming the drow who embrace her benevolent philosophy back into dark elves from their cursed drow forms with the consent of Corellon Larethian, reversing the divine curse laid on them by the elven gods of the Seldarine during the Descent of the Drow. However, in the process the Dark Maiden lost her metaphysical sava game with Lolth in

the divine realms and the Spider Queen absorbed her daughter’s divine essence. This occurred in actuality in the month of Flamerule 1379 DR when Eilistraee, while inhabiting the mortal plane in the body of her Chosen Qilué Veladorn, was killed by Lolth’s Chosen Halisstra Melarn even as Eilistraee tried to redeem her. Halisstra had been a drow priestess transformed into the demon known as the Lady Penitent as a punishment for betraying

Lolth. Using the powerful artifact called the Crescent Blade, the Lady Penitent slew the Dark Maiden and allowed Lolth to absorb the combined divine essences of both Eilistraee and Vhaeraun. Yet all was not lost for the cause of the redeemed drow, for Corellon Larethian, the god of the fey and leader of the Seldarine, as well as Eilistraee’s father, accepted the worship of the Dark Maiden’s followers in her place and decreed that they should be allowed to enter Arvandor like all other elves upon their

deaths. Corellon replaced Eilistraee in the great sava game with Lolth for the destiny of the dark elven race. The game promises to be a long one.

From his family holdings in Amn, Lionel Carrathal, a descendant of the last Carrathal high king of the Moonshae Isles, declares himself the true High King of the Moonshaes; he demands that the High Queen Alicia Kendrick abdicate to him. She refuses and finds his arrogant claims to be ludicrous. By 1385 DR, Lionel Carrathal, through profitable investments in commercial opportunities in Maztica and other business dealings, had carved out a small fiefdom for himself in Amn. But wealth and power in Amn was not Carrathal’s goal, for he had determined to regain his family’s royal heritage in the Moonshaes. Just as he had managed to assemble a formidable force of mercenaries to invade the Moonshae Isle of Callidyr in 1385 DR, the Spellplague struck, sowing ruin through Amn and Faerûn.

Amn’s colonization efforts in the jungles of Chult in southwestern Faerûn finally begin to pay off the extraordinary investment in ships, men, and gold. An entire tribe of savage Chultan humanoids is forcibly transplanted from the deep jungles and resettled in a caged preserve in the Amnian capital city of Athkatla. The parasitic disease that sweeps through

Athkatla in 1379 DR and finally kills one of the Council of Six is blamed on the presence of the preserve, but before the savages can be eradicated, they escape to Amn’s interior, adding to the troubles of that mercantile nation. The Council of Six does not replace its lost member and is renamed the Council of Five.

Lolth plots against her rivals in the drow Anti-Seldarine pantheon. The Spider Queen attempts to destroy Ghaunadaur, the god of oozes, slimes and other aberrants, but Ghaunadaur proves to be a stronger and far more ancient power than Lolth suspected. The Elder Eye abandons his divine realm in the Demonweb Pits for the Deep Caverns.

A Netherese spy is caught in the Cormyrean capital city of Suzail. The Steel Regent, Princess Alusair Nacacia Obarskyr, hangs the spy in a public square. This event touches off a short-lived conflagration of hostilities with the Shadovars, which comes to be called the Four Day War.

After years of low-level skirmishing, Mulhorand’s conquest of Unther is complete. The city of Messemprar falls to Mulhorand’s last wave of conquest and the long-slumbering Mulhorandi giant is content, for the time being, to digest its newest attempt at empire. Threskel is consolidated under the rule of the Great Bone Wyrm, with the backing of the Church of Bane and Thay, while the ancient red wyrm Tchazzar, the Sceptenar of Cimbar, cements his hold on the rest of Chessenta. In addition to low-level skirmishes along the borders of the three realms in the Old Empires region of Faerûn, regular dragon raids wreak havoc in the heart of each country.

1380 DR (Year of the Blazing Hand): In the Moonsea region, the Zhentarim

Hatemaster placed in control of Phlan by the Black Network, Cvaal Daoran, dissolves Phlan’s Council of Ten and establishes himself as the sole Lord Protector of Phlan.

The great canal linking the Lake of Steam and the Nagaflow River is finally completed, linking the Sea of Fallen Stars and the western oceans.

The eladrin High Mage Araevin Teshurr completes the restoration of Myth Drannor’s

mythal and, after visits to Waterdeep, Aglarond, and the star elven realm of Sildëyuir in

the Feywild, sets out for the hidden realm of Auseriel. There he meets and befriends Prince Lamruil. The two eladrin leave Auseriel in the care of Prince Lamruil’s seneschal and depart in search of the missing Princess Maura, set on the trail by the mysterious prophecy revealed by Araevin’s magic.

The realm of Sembia, a protectorate of the Netherese enclave of Shade, is unofficially placed under the complete control of the Twelve Princes of Shade.

1381 DR (Year of the Starving): Master architect Ivor Devorast constructs a precision mechanical clock that is installed in the tallest tower of the Cormyrean port city of Marsember, the City of Spices.

Lord Protector Cvaal Daoran of Phlan initiates the restoration of Valjevo Castle and the reconstruction of Phlan’s city walls.

A freak cold snap freezes the ground in much of northern Faerûn in Mirtul of 1381 DR, ruining food crops and animal forage in many places. The resultant dip in Faerûnian agricultural productivity sees many go hungry in urban centers across the continent. Death by starvation and malnutrition visits even the largest, wealthiest cities, but most especially in the land of Thesk in the Unapproachable East. Hunger accelerates Shou emigration out of the region towards the Heartlands of Faerûn.

1382 DR (Year of the Black Blazon): Shadovar magic raises a five-hundred-foot wall of magically-hardened obsidian around the Sembian-controlled city of Daerlun as part of the Shadovar attempt to bring all of Sembia under the control of the reborn Empire of

The free cities of Starmantle and Westgate on the Dragon Reach see increased traffic from Shou refugees emigrating from the cities of Thesk across the Sea of Fallen Stars and points even farther eastward. Cognizant of the trade opportunity implicit in the movement of so large a population, both city-states seek to portray themselves as the destination port of choice for the Shou immigrants—and their high-value cultural products like silk and tea. Several of these Shou clans eventually founded the County of Nathlan along the Dragon Coast and its capital of Nathlekh City, the City of Cats. Nathlan’s most important Shou clan were the Neng, who once garnered special privileges from the emperor of Shou Lung himself. Although friendly to trade, the people of Nathlan were suspicious of non-Shou, particularly non-humans. None but Shou are allowed to live permanently in Nathlan, and visitors are restricted to a special section of Nathlekh City.

1383 DR (Year of the Vindicated Warrior): The Netherese, seeing the Zhentarim as a potential obstacle to their control over the Heartlands, raze Zhentil Keep and the Citadel of the Raven; Fzoul Chembryl, the Chosen of Bane and Tyrant of the Moonsea, is slain but is resurrected by his deity as the demigod of service to evil and exarch of Bane; the surviving Zhentarim separate their organization from its long allegiance to the Church of Bane. After Bane’s faithful suffered this serious defeat at the hands of the Shadovar, the survivors bowed out of the Zhentarim. A strong following of Cyric, the god of strife and murder, existed in Darkhold, which suddenly became a prominent fortress of the Black Network. The Cyricists quickly gained a hold in the

mercenary group of Zhentarim that remained, and the Zhents are still prominent allies of the Church of Cyric. However, Cyric’s hold on the Zhentarim is far from solid. Fzoul Chembryl hates the Netherese for their destruction of the Black

Network, and this hatred has earned him followers among the Zhents. Although Bane’s church is no longer formally allied with the

Zhentarim, the two groups often have a common purpose and end up working together. A thread of respect and even worship for Bane still

exists in the Zhentarim—a thread the Dark Sun’s devotees would like to cut. Manshoon, the powerful wizard who originally founded the Black Network, took control of it once more, transforming it into a mercenary force based on the Dragon Coast and in the city of Westgate. Manshoon was not the original wizard of that name but a clone of that

individual who had been transformed into a vampire lord before his awakening beneath Westgate following an earlier death of Manshoon at the hands of Fzoul Chembryl during the Banite’s successful takeover of the Black Network. The

vampiric Manshoon was the only one of the original Manshoon’s clones to survive the so-called Manshoon Wars that followed in the wake of his original death. In the years after the Spellplague, Zhentarim mercenaries became widespread, but reach did not necessarily equate to power. The organization of the present-day Zhentarim is somewhat loose, and far-flung mercenary cells do not necessarily report back often or even at all. The Zhentarim offered protection to merchants and arranged attacks against those who did not pay for their services. They engaged in a

variety of criminal activities, from petty smuggling to open murder to elaborate extortion schemes. Zhents were caught manipulating, aiding, and leading monsters to threaten peaceful settlements for various reasons—including being hired to drive the creatures off.

The Durpari city of Vaelan becomes known in greater Faerûn for its exotic form of body art, which goes farther than mere tattooing or piercing. For a considerable fee, artisans in Vaelan offer to etch limbs of the well-to-do with “living crystal” that enhances not only the wearer’s visage but, in some small way, the wearer’s talents.

Moradin, the chief god of the dwarven pantheon, the Mordinsamman, leads the assembled deities of Dwarfhome on a crusade against the dark powers of Hammergrim, the realm of the gods of the duergar. Gorm Gulthyn, the dwarven god of guardians and Haela Brightaxe, the dwarven demigoddess of luck, perish in the battle, but Moradin

destroys Laduguer, the god of the duergar. Clangeddin, the dwarven god of war, slays Deep Duerra, the duergar goddess of conquest. The loss of their chief deities leads the duergar to turn to Asmodeus and the devils of the Nine Hells for spiritual sustenance. The plane of Hammergrim disperses into the Astral Sea to the sounds of the Mordinsamman’s victorious battle hymns.

The War of Gold and Gloom between the gold dwarves of Earthheart and the duergar comes to an unexpected end in the caverns of the long-abandoned dwarven realm of Barakuir. During the course of a great battle between the gold dwarven Army of Gold and the duergar Army of Steel, the gold dwarven crusaders of the Great Rift discover a collection of ancient dwarven runestones detailing the fate of Clan Duergar and the betrayal that led to the fall of their kingdom and their enslavement by the illithids. This discovery, long forgotten, prompts the loretaker illithids of the Underdark mind flayer city of Oryndoll to unleash an army of their psionically-dominated thralls against both dwarven hosts, although the gray dwarves suffer most of the casualties from the

onslaught of their ancient foes. In the end, the dwarves lose more than half their number, but Oryndoll’s thrall army is shattered. In an unexpected act of compassion, the gold dwarven commander of the Army of Gold offers the surviving duergar a place within his host. The united Stout Folk then march west into the ruined dwarven kingdom of

Shanatar, in hopes of claiming a bastion suitable for repelling the inevitable illithid attack to come.

1384 DR (Year of Three Streams Bloodied): At the insistence of several members of the Cormyrean royal court and the young king himself, Azoun V attains his majority and is formally invested as the reigning King of Cormyr. The Steel Regent, Alusair Nacacia Obarskyr, relinquishes power to her newly-crowned and

strong-willed nephew.

The newly installed King of Cormyr, Azoun V, attempts to make official a royal decree that would give all “freemen” or commoners the right to a hearing before a jury of other commoners in the face

of accusations of wrongdoing, even if that accusation were to come from a member of the Cormyrean nobility. In the face of stiff political resistance from every major peer in Cormyr, Azoun V does not follow through with the decree as he does not yet have the political strength this early in his rule to run roughshod over his nobles. However, he puts the nobility of his kingdom on notice that someday he will successfully enact just such a decree, no matter the resistance they offer.

Siamorphe, the demigoddess of nobility, quarrels with Tyr, the god of justice, when the deities take different sides in a clash between

Tethyrian and Calishite forces. Siamorphe removes herself from the plane of the House of the Triad and instead joins the court of Sune, the goddess of love and beauty, in the plane of Brightwater. Tyr sends

his ally Helm, the god of guardians, to plead his case with Sune and restore Siamorphe to the allegiance of the Triad. The goddess of love suggests a marriage between Tyr and Tymora, the goddess of good fortune, to set the celestial planes in balance again. Helm conveys Sune’s suggestion to Tyr, and begins to chaperone a chaste courtship between Tyr and Tymora. Strange and fateful misunderstandings lead to the accusation that Helm has stolen Tymora’s heart while conveying the gifts and sentiments of Tyr. A strict interpretation of his own chivalric ideals forces Tyr to challenge Helm to avenge his stained honor, and Helm is obliged by his own ideals to meet the challenge. The two gods do battle, and Tyr slays Helm before the two deities come to their senses. Heartbroken

at the outcome, Tymora accompanies Tyr back to the House of the Triad as the Grimjaws’ consort. Though nothing can be proved, the gods sense the hand of Cyric the Dark Sun, god of murder, strife and deception, in Helm’s death.

With the House of the Triad’s unity broken because of Helm’s death, Ilmater, the god of suffering and once-close ally of Tyr, chooses to remove his domain from the House of the

Triad. He reestablishes his celestial realm in the plane of Brightwater at Sune’s invitation.

The Wailing Years, 1385 – 1395 DR

1385 DR (Year of Blue Fire): The Spellplague: An unthinkable global catastrophe ensues when the foul god of strife and murder, Cyric, the

Prince of Lies, aided and abetted by the goddess of darkness and loss, Shar, murders Mystra, the goddess of magic, in her

home dominion of Dweomerheart. The plane itself disintegrates at once, destroying Savras, the demigod of divination and sending Azuth, the god of mages and

Velsharoon the demigod of necromancy, reeling into the endless Astral Sea. Without Mystra to govern the Weave of magical power that surrounds the world, arcane magic bursts its bonds all across Toril and the surrounding planes and runs wild. The Weave essentially disintegrates without Mystra’s divine supervision and magic seeks to find a new stable configuration within the boundaries of reality. This process causes untold devastation on Toril and across the cosmos as a result. In Faerûn, this terrible event is known as the Spellplague. Thousands of mages are driven insane or destroyed by their own Art, and the very substance of the world becomes mutable beneath veils of azure fire that dance across the skies by night or by day. For eons, magic in Toril was focused through the Weave, controlled by the goddess Mystra and her

predecessors. Although Netherese wizards of ancient days learned the truth that magic was an inherent property of the cosmos, most people believed that magic would not be possible without the deity’s

existence. However, the death of Mystra gave the lie to that belief. Now the term

“Weave” is just another name for magic, if it is used at all. Just as Mystra controlled the Weave, the goddess Shar had created and maintained the Shadow Weave as an alternative conduit to arcane magic. Not satisfied with her portion of the universe’s greatest power, Shar plotted to seize control of both the Weave and the Shadow Weave after Cyric murdered Mystra. She miscalculated. The Weave collapsed so completely and rapidly that Shar not only failed to gather up its fraying threads, she also lost control over the

Shadow Weave, which was destroyed just like its counterpart. Many of the divine planes were shifted or destroyed as well in the cataclysm that ensued. Only greater deities prove strong enough to maintain their divine realms against the resultant chaos. Tyr, Lathander, the god of the dawn and Sune move against Cyric and successfully imprison the Dark Sun in his Supreme Throne dominion, under a sentence of house arrest to last one thousand years. Sages in centuries to come mark the Weave’s destruction in the Year of Blue Fire as the end of the old world and the terrible beginning of the new.

As the cosmology of the planes is altered by the sweeping effects of the Spellplague, the two echo worlds of Abeir-Toril, the world of Faerie, also called the Feywild and the Plane of Shadow, also called the Shadowfell or just Shadow, move closer in conjunction with Toril and its counterpart Abeir. Travel between these echo worlds and Toril

becomes much more common than before the Spellplague and incursions across the now unstable planar barriers between them occur more frequently, leading to phenomenon like “worldfalls.”

Where once stood the realm of Sespech, the Golden Plains, and the Nagalands, the passing of the Spellplague’s chaotic energies soon reveals a surreal landscape breathtaking in its beauty, grandeur, and deadly changeability. For the next century, active Spellplague cavorts on this territory called the Plaguewrought Land, contorting terrain, natural law, and the very flesh of any creature that dares enter.

The Spellplague ate through stone and earth as readily as flesh and magic. Broad portions of the continent of Faerûn collapsed into the Underdark, partially draining the Sea of Fallen Stars into the underground Glimmersea far below and leaving behind a gigantic pit called the Underchasm. The Underchasm is an expansive sinkhole formed by the collapse of a portion of Faerûn into the Underdark. The Sea of Fallen Stars, the Shining Sea, and the Great Sea all feed the Underchasm by various waterways, so many of the walls in the depths are veiled in steaming cascades whose thunder is audible for miles. The upper portions of the Underchasm’s sides host colonies of flying monsters and the occasional

dragon. The lower portions hold vast numbers of bats and darker denizens. The northern section of the Underchasm partly undercuts the thick Chondalwood. The jungle has begun to reach down into the dark, creating miles-long vines and massive roots ideal for climbing creatures. Junglemotes also float above the northern Underchasm. Several other earthmotes hover over other portions of the Underchasm, tunneled with chambers lined in luminescent fungus. Within such motes reside creatures normally confined to the deep earth, and treasures of the former Underdark are somewhat easier to reach.

The Spellplague splintered the Old Empires south of the drained sea into a wildscape of towering mesas, bottomless ravines, and cloud-scraping spires. Of those ancient

kingdoms, the most changed by the Spellplague were Mulhorand, Unther, and Chondath, as well as portions of Aglarond, the shores of the Sea of Fallen Stars, and the plains of the Shaar. What was once the arcane realm called Halruaa was destroyed in a great

holocaust, as if every spell held there had loosed its power simultaneously. The land bridge between Chult and the Shining South was sunk; now only a scattered archipelago and a large island remains.

The gold dwarven kingdom of East Rift lies along the vast Underchasm, a cavity formed mostly between the Landrise and Great Rift in the Spellplague’s wake. The floor of what was once called the Great Rift is now a shelf on the side of the Underchasm. It has come to be called the East Rift. During the Underchasm’s fall, large portions of the Great Rift were destroyed or cut off. Fortunately for the dwarves of East Rift, the elemental portals that feed the Riftlake did not close. The lake, and rivers from the Eastern Shaar, kept the East Rift from becoming a forsaken land. Drow enclaves were also destroyed, including the city of Llurth Dreier. A few years after the collapse, dark elf refugees invaded the dwarven city of Underhome. The drow overran the city and still hold its lower regions. With the loss of Underhome, Eartheart has become the center of the gold dwarven lands. Underwatch, a fortress and village near Underhome, is a principal gateway that surface adventurers use when entering the exposed Underdark. Drow in the Underchasm periodically test the dwarven defenses. Such a wide opening offers unheard-of

opportunities for moving large forces to the surface all at once. Thus, the dwarves of East Rift must remain vigilant.

Once a vast savannah, the Shaar became a desert called the Shaar Desolation when the formation of the Underchasm cut off all fresh water flowing to the plains’ western regions. An increase in temperature as the water dried up furthered the plains’ decline. The land west of the East Rift is a vast dustbowl, most of its inhabitants dead or displaced into more livable lands. No hospitable settlements remain in the west. Shaarmid is

abandoned and buried in sand dropped by unnatural storms. Rumors say that the dark serpent deity Sseth is transforming yuan-ti in ruined Lhesper, grooming them to be lords of the new desert. The snakemen enslave those who wander too far from Elfharrow. The Eastern Shaar remains habitable, however. Rivers still flow from the Uthangol Mountains and the shattered remains of the western Toadsquats. Nearby seas moderate the

temperature. Nomadic human Shaaryans survive here, along with their native horses, but competition for resources, and the ravages of gnolls, keeps the population low.

Tendrils of the Spellplague reached to many other corners of Toril, sometimes bypassing great swaths of land by infecting both sides of the many magical portals that dotted the world. Such an effect might have been responsible for drawing portions of the lost parallel world of Abeir into Toril. Some sages suggest that the two worlds have

undergone periodic conjunctions ever since they diverged, but that these were too subtle for most creatures to notice. By an accident of timing, the Spellplague occurred during just such a conjunction, which caused the briefly overlapping lands to run athwart each other instead of effectively passing through each other while out of phase as before. Pockets of active Spellplague still exist today, most notoriously in the Plaguewrought Land. Each of these plaguelands is strange and dangerous. No two possess the exact same landscape or features, but entering any of them could lead to infection by the Spellplague. Luckily for the world, the remaining plaguelands possess only a small fraction of the Spellplague’s initial vigor and are in hard-to-reach locales, often surrounded by twisted devastation. Most lands of Faerûn and Returned Abeir are entirely free of such pockets, though the plaguechanged and spellscarred might appear in any land.

The Kingdom of Cormyr in the Heartlands of Faerûn is struck hard by the effects of the Spellplague, but not so violently as many other nations such as Mulhorand and Unther, which effectively cease to exist. Roughly one third of all Cormyrean War Wizards are slain, driven mad, or simply go missing in the year following Mystra’s death.

The Temple of Mystra in Harrowdale in the Dalelands is destroyed when all the temple wards misfire simultaneously, killing head priestess Llewan Aspenhold and most of her Mystran clergy. Similar events occur at Mystran temples across Faerûn, essentially eradicating the once powerful Church of Mystra as a force for good on Toril.The Fall of Stars in Harrowdale is shrouded in a halo of blue flames for a full day, but otherwise seems untouched.

The Spellplague shattered the ancient elven High Magic that bound the efreet Memnon and the djinn Calim in the Calimemnon Crystal. The two were released, along with similarly bound elemental servants, many of whom were genasi. Ancient enemies, Calim and Memnon immediately picked up where they had left off—trying to annihilate each other. Many individuals presumed to be humans among the Calishite population revealed themselves as genasi and joined in the fight. Thousands more genasi, descendants of those scattered to the Lake of Steam, Tethyr, and Amn after the first Calishite djinn and efreet empires fell, returned and promptly declared for air or fire. Even some genasi out of the newly-arrived Abeiran realm of Akanûl joined the fight. The result was thousands dead, the Calim Desert’s expansion east across the Spider Swamp, and an explosion in the genasi population of the Realms. The period between the onset of the Spellplague and the Year of Holy Thunder (1450 DR) becomes known as the Second Era of Skyfire to the beleaguered people of Calimshan.

Ancient kingdoms fell in the Spellplague’s aftermath, among them Mulhorand. Many of the Mulan people of that ancient kingdom were lost when the landscape rocked and changed. The few remaining Mulhorandi Mulan fled westwards to other lands, including Chessenta. Mulhorand’s pantheon of immigrant gods departed Toril as the Spellplague

reshaped the cosmos. Only the deva, the mortal incarnations of the Mulhorandi pantheon’s angelic servants, remained behind to seek out their own destinies in a

transformed Faerûn. The geography of Mulhorand was altered beyond recognition and made completely barren of civilization. A descendant of the ancient Empire of Imaskar named Ususi Manaallin founded the new realm of High Imaskar in the territory that had once been Mulhorand. She did so by relocating the ancient (and movable) Palace of the Purple Emperor from the Underdark home of Deep Imaskar to the wildscape of former Mulhorand. In the years to come, High Imaskar consolidated its hold on its new-claimed lands. Ususi was crowned Empress, the first Imaskari imperial sovereign since the last emperor, Yuvaraj, was slain in battle against the avatar of the Mulan deity Ra nearly 4,000 years before. Empress Ususi’s first dictate was to renounce the slavery practiced by her ancestors, and she outlawed slave ownership in High Imaskar on pain of death. She also set up the Body of Artificers, Planners, and Apprehenders, whose power was equal to and balanced hers.

The Spellplague was not kind to the kingdom of Halruaa, heir to ancient Netheril’s veneration of magic. Fully half of the land dissolved during the initial wave of blue fire. In the tsunamis, mudslides, and massive magical detonations that followed, the remainder of the nation was destroyed and transformed into a vast plagueland.

Near Deep Imaskar in the Underdark is a place of madness, possibly linked to the aberrant emanations of the Far Realm. The vengeance-takers and wizards of Deep Imaskar sequestered within this region three mighty arcanists driven mad during the Spellplague. Trapped, the mad mages and one of the elder Deep Imaskari vengeance-takers melded into one another, forming a quaternary entity known as the Masters of Absolute Accord. These Masters, alongside the mysterious extradimensional beings called the sharn, helped forge the Order of Blue Fire, which soon headquartered itself near the vast plaguelands of Halruaa. The order’s public face as a humanitarian entity aimed at aiding the spellscarred was a front for a more sinister organization. It was

originally a cult dedicated to the insane idea that the Spellplague was a holy cosmic event whose work should be continued. The sharn are held by the members of the organization to be the expressions of a Spellplague godhead by those who follow the deepest precepts of the order. At times the Masters and the sharn issue erratic, contradictory, and even illogical dictates to the cult, leading to miraculous and

terrible events that spread and nurture the existing active pockets of Spellplague across the Realms.

Before the Year of Blue Fire, the lizardfolk of the Great Swamp of Rethild near Halruaa were given three skyships—one from merchant houses in each of three Halruaan towns. The lizardfolk king, Ghassis, was supposed to use the vessels to harry the half-drow Crinti of Dambrath and pirates on the Great Sea for the Halruaans. After the destruction of Halruaa, wizards fleeing from the city of Maeruhal, along with their few skyships, came across the pirate base of Yaulazna. A renegade Halruaan mage had protected the buccaneer haven with powerful magic, but the arcane wards ran amok during the

Spellplague, shattering the town and turning part of it into an earthmote. In a brief clash, the refugee Halruaans took the Yaulazna earthmote and made an accord with the

remaining pirates there. During the deal, they learned of Ghassis’ skyships, which they then wrested from the lizardfolk. In the end, Yaulazna’s folk had five working skyships and a small, highly defensible settlement. They made the Yaulazna Pact, an agreement to protect one another from the threats of the region. From their position, they set out to assure their survival, and eventually the infamous skyfaring Five Companies were born.

The dragon empires of Toril’s sibling world Abeir prospered for millennia on the labor of their dragonborn servitors. Rebel dragonborn clans sometimes rose and prospered for a time, but the rebels of Tymanchebar were the most successful. Tymanchebar ruled itself, without the input of the dragon monarchs. Then a portion of Tymanchebar was ripped from Abeir during the Spellplague. The inhabitants of Returned Abeir have not yet

learned that Tymanchebar fell hard across Unther’s lands on Faerûn. Already on the brink of collapse and under military threat from Mulhorand, Unther was completely undone

after the Spellplague began. Invading Mulhorandi armies and the downtrodden people of Unther alike were mostly erased from existence. The only original residents of the area to survive relatively unscathed were the stone giants of Black Ash Plain (now commonly called ash giants). The newly-arrived Abeiran dragonborn assumed they had suffered a particularly potent magical attack by their ancient foe, the Empress Dragon of Skelkor, Gauwervyndhal. After months of confusion, chaos, and bloodshed, the Tymanchebar expatriates learned the truth. The dragonborn then knew sadness, for their numbers had accounted for much of Tymanchebar’s strength in defense against the dragons. Their absence likely spelled the doom of those from which they were separated. But the dragonborn are not a people easily bowed by sorrow. They founded a new realm in Faerûn, Tymanther, named to honor both the free dragonborn province they had left behind on Abeir and the human Faerûnian realm their own lands had replaced.

During the Spellplague’s disruption of the divine realms, the primordial entity Telos, Master of the Iron Sky, fell to Toril in the nation of Vaasa. Usually a conflict-fraught place, Vaasa had enjoyed a brief respite from trouble under the rule of King Gareth Dragonsbane of Damara in the wake of a war between the two nations. Not long after the falling star landed on the tundra, a sect of fierce arcane warriors known as Warlock Knights arose to trouble Vaasa. The Warlock Knights, servants of the mysterious but all too real entity, drove off or conscripted the small human and dwarf population of the region, and then began to organize and marshal the numerous orcs, goblins, humanoids and other monsters of the Cold Lands for their nefarious ends.

During the Spellplague, the Plateau of Thay rose thousands of feet above sea level, shattering the land and causing the Thaymount to erupt. Debris from melting glaciers on Thaymount spread more destruction. While these catastrophes

raged, the undead Zulkir Szass Tam made himself the land’s regent. The Spellplague ended the civil war of the rebel zulkirs who lead the Red Wizards of Thay, though that order’s power was essentially broken. Szass Tam then spent the next several decades

Regent of Thay attempted it, the last few exiled zulkirs and other enemies of the lich returned from the cities of the Wizard’s Reach in southern Aglarond where they had taken refuge and foiled his mad plot, though they were destroyed in so doing. In the decades after the Spellplague, “Red Wizard” slowly lost its Thayan origin and became an appellation awarded to various mercantile enclaves around the Inner Sea and Moonsea regions that sold magic items and other magical services. These enclaves were the descendants of the defunct Thayan Guild of Foreign Trade.

Long ago, the world of Abeir-Toril was twinned by Ao, the Hidden One, to save it from a final conflict between gods and primordials (known in Abeir as the Estelar and the Dawn Titans, respectively). The gods took one sibling world (Toril) for their own, and the primordials claimed the other (Abeir). Ages later, the Spellplague (which Abeirans call the Blue Breath of Change) caused the two separate worlds to collide and overlap. Portions of each world shifted into the other. Then the worlds separated again, contact severed, but each having contributed to the other. Perhaps as much as one-quarter of Toril’s surface now hosts lands originally native to Abeir and vice-versa. The two most significant transplanted lands on the continent of Faerûn are Akanûl, the home of the Shyran genasi and the free Abeiran dragonborn’s nation of Tymanther. However, the largest new landmass by far is an entire continent that Faerûnians call Returned Abeir, which lies west of the Trackless Sea where Maztica, the True World, once stood. In Returned Abeir, dragons rule vast realms of humanoid slaves. The dragonborn are the most numerous intelligent race, but they are given to rebellion. Dwarves and humans are plentiful. Genasi were also numerous, but mostly on the eastern continent of Shyr (a continent that was not transported to Toril by the Blue Breath of Change and now coexists with Maztica on Abeir). Other intelligent races are less numerous, and fey such as elves, eladrin and gnomes are rare curiosities introduced to the continent only in the last century. Organized religion in Returned Abeir (faiths, simple shrines, and traveling clergy) is something new; even the concept of gods who answer prayers is still alien to many of the inhabitants, though some deities of Toril have set their sights on the conversion of the peoples of the returned lands.

As with most folk who survived the Wailing Years, Lionel Carrathal spent the next two decades after the Spellplague picking up the pieces and trying to rebuild his life. Through hard work and some underhanded dealings, Carrathal once again worked his way up through Amnian society, still determined to reestablish his family in the Moonshaes.

The Kingdom of Impiltur’s royal line failed with the death of the paladin King Imbrar II during the Year of Blue Fire. In his place, the nation was ruled by a ragged Grand

Council composed of lords from the remaining Impilturan cities. People talk longingly of restoring a monarchy to the land—”The king will come and put things right, you’ll see”—but for now everything keeps getting worse. Impiltur is currently in the grip of a fanatical cult of demon-worshipers, who cause no end of trouble. The Grand Council’s efforts to locate the cult’s leaders and combat its depredations have proven woefully inadequate to date. The demon cult currently running wild in Impiltur is called the Fraternity of Tharos. The group takes its name from the ancient Nar capital of Dun-Tharos in the Great Dale’s northern forest, Dunwood. The name also reveals the source of Impiltur’s demonic contamination—the demons loosed in that northern forest by the destruction of their ancient bonds when the Rotting Man, the goddess of disease Talona’s Chosen, was defeated before the Spellplague. The Fraternity inducts new members by requiring them to kidnap an innocent victim from among Impiltur’s populace, then slay that victim in a bloody ritual calling upon various demonic names scribed with fire in the Abyssal artifact called the Demonstone. The Demonstone lies at the top of a windowless tower in the Impilturan port city of New Sarshel. The tower’s exterior is a bland,

unexceptional gray; its interior is filled with all manner of demonic horrors.

When the surface lands partially collapsed into the Underdark during the Spellplague, the smoldering volcanoes in the Smoking Mountains to the south of the land of Chessenta touched off, as did Mount Thulbane to the north. From the Smoking Mountains, various disturbed creatures ravaged northward. In the north, the vampiric green dragon

Jaxanaedegor was freed to forage even during the day, since the sun was obscured by an ashen sky. Faced with monstrous invasions so soon after massive upheaval and changes to the land, Chessenta nearly collapsed. The only Chessentan city-state not devastated

and broken was Luthcheq. There, the fractious, surviving inhabitants rallied under a war hero named Ishual Karanok. Fighting off marauding monsters, abolethic horrors, and opportunistic settlers from less disrupted lands to the north, Chessenta persisted. When the immediate hostilities cooled, Ishual returned to his family home in what remained of Luthcheq. The hero disbanded a wizard-slaying cult his family had long propagated (claiming that their aims had been met with Mystra’s death), but continued to enshrine the powerful tool that served as the old cult’s focus: a sphere of annihilation. The item, its powers somewhat modified since the Year of Blue Fire, now serves as the Crown

Jewel of Chessenta. Continuing the cult’s aims, if not its existence, the law of the land

subjugates all arcane spellcasters. Chessenta is, as a result of this sentiment, the enemy of High Imaskar to the east. Although not initially inclined to return hostilities, High

Imaskar has learned to guard against Chessentan war parties. The dragonborn of

Tymanther are Chessentan allies. Although at odds with many people, Chessentans look upon dragonborn with honor. They believe (rightly or wrongly) that dragonborn are in some way related to their own red dragon lord, Tchazzar, who returned briefly to rule the city-state of Cimbar and the rest of Chessenta for six years after 1379 DR before the Spellplague devastated the region and he disappeared once more.

Much of what was formerly known as the Chultan Peninsula was drowned and became the island of Chult when the Spellplague radically reshaped southern Faerûn, causing sea levels to rapidly rise as whole sections of the continent were simply erased by the

mystical blue fire. In the Year of Blue Fire, the Chultan jungle was interpenetrated by pockets of Abeiran landscape that now lie scattered in the skies and the forests. Strange, savage behemoths now prowl the shadowed jungles and wandering motes alike. Several Chultan human tribes were hunted to extinction by these voracious new predators; those that remain have learned new methods of coexistence. The yuan-ti kingdom of Serpentes fell in the course of the change, the human kingdom of Samarach was submerged, and the ancient city of Mezro collapsed into the earth, its population scattered. Principal factions in Chult now include the yuan-ti survivors of Serpentes (mostly in the east), the

spellscarred humans of Samarach, savage dark-skinned human tribes (mostly in the northwest), human-run strongholds aligned with Amn and Baldur’s Gate along the

northern coast, and strange creatures from across the Trackless Sea that have begun to colonize the Mistcliffs. Junglemotes are common in Chult. Some are populated with creatures alien and awful in aspect—entities not native to Chult, or at least absent since before the time Abeir and Toril went their separate ways.

The great tsunamis that followed the shifting continents during the Spellplague inundated the island kingdom of Lantan, long dedicated to Gond, the god of craft, as it ravaged other coasts and island nations. When the water receded, the island land was nearly gone. All its machines, its marvelous Gond-wrought technology, and its people—Lantanese humans and gnomes alike—were drowned. The land is much reduced in area, and its clockwork marvels lie rusting below the waves. The pirates of Nelanther say a monster sinks any ship that draws near.

The island of Nimbral, also known as the Sea Haven, founded centuries ago by Halruaans who worshiped the lost goddess of deception Leira, was southwest of Lantan in the Trackless Sea. Like Lantan, Nimbral vanished without a trace after the cataclysmic waves subsided. Concentrations of powerful magic were a hazard in the early days of the

Spellplague, and Nimbral certainly had magic enough. Some people think the isle still exists, cloaked in illusion. Others think it drowned in the sea, or that its veils of magic carried it off into some far plane. Whatever the truth of the matter, no ships have found the island in almost one hundred years.

The island of Evermeet, the great home of the eladrin and elven races off the coast of Faerûn, is widely considered to have perished in the Spellplague like Lantan and Nimbral. Even Evermeet’s closest allies, the fey kingdoms in Faerûn, lost contact with Evermeet after the Spellplague. With the failure of all arcane portals, embassies, and attempts to reestablish contact, common wisdom on Toril now has it that Evermeet has been utterly destroyed. Yet, in truth, Evermeet survives in the Feywild, where it shifted place with its own echo in the world of Faerie during the onset of the Spellplague. That echo of the fey refuge now remains in Toril as an island with the same shape and diameter, lying off the coast of the unfamiliar continent of Returned Abeir. The echo of

Evermeet is empty of structures and has few residents. Evermeet fey can step back and forth between the echo and the Feywild’s true Evermeet as they choose. Contact points and routes between Faerûn and Evermeet were severed during the Year of Blue Fire, and they have been slow to reknit in the years since. Queen Amlaruil is now gone, having passed on to Arvandor and the throne stands empty; Evermeet is currently governed by its Royal Council. Some suspect that an heir of House Moonflower yet walks Faerûn, severed from his or her native land.

??? DR (Year Unknown): The Stormstar Requiem: While the Spellplague rages, the god of storms and destruction, Talos, leads the

Gods of Fury—Auril, the goddess of winter, Malar, the god of the hunt, and Umberlee, the

goddess of the sea—in a surprise assault against the plane of

Arvandor, the dominion of the Seldarine, the pantheon of elven gods. During this assault Talos revealed that he was in fact the orc god of savagery and conquest Gruumsh. The Talassan Church was folded into the Gruuman clergy, though human adherents of the Storm Lord preferred to worship using the original Talassan services rather than the more barbaric rituals and sacrifices performed by the orc shamans of the One-Eyed God.

The first outbreak of the Spellplague in Waterdeep is held at bay by the power of Tsarra “Blackstaff” Chaadren.

The second outbreak of the Spellplague in Waterdeep resurges from Undermountain and forces Tsarra to drop her magical disguise as Khelben Arunsun and reveal her true face.

Waterdeep was spared many of the ravages experienced by other cities during the Spellplague. However, the event did introduce several lesser phenomena to the City of Splendors. Hundreds of glowing globes (floating, mobile spheres of continual radiance) now drift freely around Waterdeep. Although every mage and sage who has studied them insists the spheres of light are not sentient, they behave uncannily as if they are. They seem to become curious, and for a random time, follow certain beings who are moving

about the city; they always seem drawn to any release or casting of magic; and they seem to become excited, gathering and rushing wildly about, if anyone tries to move or harness them by magical means. A few of the fabled Walking Statues of Waterdeep went wild, striding across the city until they collapsed, toppled, or got wedged between buildings. Some were later quarried away into nothingness, but a few remain, forever frozen. One invisible local change wrought by the Spellplague is all too familiar to local spellcasters: Detection and location magic no longer functions. Such spells feature in old tales but are unknown in life today. In the years after the Spellplague the lower sewers and the

uppermost level of Undermountain become Waterdeep’s newest neighborhood, inhabited by the most desperate and yet most capable: broke adventurers. They dwell in its dark chambers, moving about often, skulking and lurking to avoid monsters and thefts or attacks by their neighbors. They make their living by raiding up into the city by night, trading in illicit goods, temporarily “hiding” persons and stolen items, and delving into Undermountain. Downshadow folk are both greatly feared and greatly admired by other Waterdhavians. Waterdeep also gained an entirely new city ward in the decades after the Spellplague: Field Ward. This district is home to folk of all walks of life who lacked coin enough to hire lodgings or own buildings in old Waterdeep, but who first arrived as the ravages of the Spellplague began. It is a slum in some places, and a struggling middle-class area in others. The Field Ward is a noisy, lively area that is home to poor (and a few wealthy) eladrin and elves, half-bloods of all sorts (and anyone who has a deformity or visible taint from the Spellplague), and dwarves who are determined to get the respect they are sure they deserve. The vast and dangerous subterranean Labyrinth of

Undermountain still underlies Waterdeep. The city was prevented from collapsing into Undermountain in part because of the titanic magical wards established in the dim past; these same forces largely fended off the Spellplague. The underways still connect with the wider Underdark, full of adventure and treasure for those who dare to explore them. Much has changed in the dark underground smugglers’ town of Skullport and

Undermountain since the death of Halaster Blackcloak a century ago. Persistent wild magic seems to drift around the Underhalls, rather like living spells. It sometimes recharges magic items taken down into Skullport, or even alters the abilities and powers of living beings. As a result, Skullport is much visited but no longer inhabited; much of

its lawlessness has relocated to the Mistshore and Undercliff, two other new

neighborhoods of the City of Splendors. Over the last century, Deepwater Harbor has become badly polluted, its waters brown and stinking. The north shore of the former Naval Harbor became a beaching ground (and then a scuttling yard) for damaged or age-rotted ships. Over the years, these hulks piled up one atop another, spreading out from the shore at the foot of Coin Alley for a long way into the harbor to form the Mistshore. This area is a permanent slum of sagging, ramshackle woodwork atop the heap of sunken ships, where the most disfigured, diseased, spellscarred, and monstrous of Waterdeep’s inhabitants now dwell. The Mistshore is the darkest and wildest neighborhood in Waterdeep, where open violence and lawlessness is frequent and the Watch patrols seldom (and then only at double strength or more). Drunken and beaten-up inhabitants can often be seen sprawled or draped over the rotting riggings that line the winding “streets.” Undercliff is by far the largest and most open new part of Waterdeep. It sprawls over the meadows east of the plateau occupied by the old city, under the cliff that still forms its eastern edge. Undercliff is large, rather lawless, and still growing; it is home to every sort of new arrival (for the last fifty years or so). Undercliff is the most fluid neighborhood of Waterdeep, where people move frequently, shanties often collapse or are torn down or torched, and change rules. Increasingly, dwarves dwelling in Field Ward who have made enough coin are seeking to buy houses in Mountainside, and on the cliff face above Undercliff, so they can tunnel out larger abodes at will. Their diggings have already breached some sewers and cellars in the city. Their activities are beginning to attract the attention of the Masked Lords of Waterdeep, who are now sending down hired adventurers to patrol the uppermost levels of Undermountain to stop the illicit delvings.

Lathander, the god of the dawn and new beginnings, transforms into the reincarnation of the ancient deity Amaunator, the god of the sun, order and

time, at some point after the onset of the Spellplague, a transformation that had been preceded by the spread of the Risen Sun Heresy within large segments of the

Lathanderite Church in 1374 DR. The rapid spread of this old heresy had

coming transition. The Church of Lathander makes a relatively smooth transition into the Church of Amaunator, though some of the Morninglord’s priests find it difficult to adjust to the more conservative and rigid doctrines of the Amaunatori and seek out new spiritual homes among the clergy of the other gods dedicated to the cause of good.

The eladrin goddess Hanali Celanil, patron of love and beauty, is revealed to simply have been a guise of the human goddess of love, Sune. The Church of Hanali is merged with that of Sune in the years after the Spellplague.

The elven goddess of the moon, death, dreams and illusions Sehanine Moonbow is revealed to have been a guise of Selûne, the human goddess of the moon and stars. In the chaos that the Spellplague causes to the divine dominions of the Astral Sea, Selûne regains her status as a greater deity equal in power to her sister Shar. When Sune’s dominion of Brightwater begins to collapse under the assault of the Spellplague’s chaotic energies, the newly-empowered Selûne offers to merge her Gates of the Moon dominion with Sune’s realm, who accepts the offer. Tymora, the goddess of good fortune, joins them. A similar dynamic occurs across the other divine dominions, with the few surviving greater gods creating new dominions or maintaining older ones and inviting surviving gods of lesser powers to join them as servant deities or exarchs. Despite this, the chaos of the Spellplague consumes many deities who were not strong enough to hold the power of the blue flame at bay, including Deneir, the god of writing and literature, the Chultan god Ubtao (actually a primordial who betrayed his fellows), and Shaundakul, the god of travel and exploration, as well as Mystra’s former servant deities, Azuth, Savras and Velsharoon.

Mask, the god of thieves and shadows, disappears from the Faerûnian pantheon after his divine essence and portfolio are swallowed by Shar, the goddess of darkness and night. Most of Faerûn considers Mask another dead deity and his former worshipers divide their allegiances between the Lady of Loss and Tymora, the goddess of good fortune. But some rogues whisper in the shadows that the Master of All Thieves still treads the path of intrigue and that he will one day return to his faithful.

Less powerful primal deities and demigods like Ouroboros the World Serpent, Magnar the Bear, Remnis the Eagle, Quorlinn the Raven, Amarok the Wolf, Eldath, the Lady of the Lake and Nobanion the Lion are reborn after the Spellplague as primal spirits of the world. The

Earthmother of the Moonshaes, the Goddess of the Ffolk, once believed to be an aspect of Chauntea, the goddess of life and agriculture, is revealed to be an extremely powerful primal spirit who is the embodiment of the Moonshae Isles. Other entities once worshipped as deities like Relkath of the Infinite Branches, Lurue the Unicorn Queen, Verenestra the Oak Princess, Sarula Iliene the Nixie Queen, and Aurilandür the Frost Sprite Queen are revealed to be powerful archfey of the Feywild.

The region of the eastern Sea of Fallen Stars once called the Vast becomes the young nation of Vesperin when its formerly independent city-states of Tantras, Raven’s Bluff and Calaunt united under the rule of an oligarchy of powerful merchants called the Golden Lords, who chose Tantras as their capital. The area later saw an influx of

immigrants, especially the city of Raven’s Bluff. Many Sembian merchants relocated to Vesperin in the face of Netheril’s occupation of their homeland. Several decades later, Netheril outlawed all such emigration. Sembians who tried anyway wound up dead.

The movable citadel of Xxiphu, the Soaring City, the seat of the aberrant Abolethic Sovereignty, emerges from the depths of the Inner Sea some time after the Spellplague. The city was roused from the drowned depths by prophecy, perverted priests of

Ghaunadar the Elder Eye, and unwise delvings. Because Xxiphu can change its location at will, its influence could conceivably stretch anywhere. No one knows where it might appear next, though most sightings of it are over or close to the Sea of Fallen Stars. Xxiphu is a glyph-scribed obelisk wrapped in an eternal storm that soars over the surface of the world. Tentacles slither and crawl in cold rookeries encrusting the vast object’s sheer sides. A writhing frieze carved on the age-worn exterior depicts thousands of interconnected images. These inscriptions constantly shift and change, as if invisible