Hordelands

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

The Hordelands are, for most of Faerun, the eastern edge of the known world. In Kara-Tur, the Hordelands are the no-man’s-land separating civilization from the barbaric west. In Zakhara, the Hordelands are a mythical place beyond the northern hinterlands.

Most outsiders from the west know the entire region as the Endless Waste, but merchants and adventurers who have traveled the region have named three broad regions: the Horse Plains in the north, the Quoya Desert in the east, and the southwestern High Plains which are sometimes called the Great Waste.

It’s not really a wasteland, however. It’s true that trees are few and far between, but grass and shrubs are plentiful. There is adequate water, for those who know where to look.

The inhabitants of these wind-blasted steppes know their land as Taan, and call themselves Taangan. They are divided into twelve great tribes on the plain, with additional tribes dwelling in the Ama Basin and the Koryaz Mountains.


Visiting

What You See
Settlements
Ruins
Other Landmarks
Neighboring Nations & Features

Culture and Society

Demographics

The overall population is 85% humans, 8% gnolls, 5% centaurs, 1% dwarves, and 1% other races.

The human population is 70% Tuigan, 24% Rashemi, 4% Raumviran, and 2% other subraces. The primary language is Tuigan.

Caste and Class
Religion

Among the Tuigan, the pantheon consists of Etugen (Grumbar), Teylas (Akadi), and an array of lesser gods and nature spirits. This latter group includes aspects of Eldath, Selûne, Malar, and a beast cult that venerates horses. There are no evil gods in the Tuigan worldview, but there are evil spirits.

Factions

Politics

Who Rules

With the exception of the brief rule of a khahan (such as Yamun), and the limited reign of Yaimunnahar following the Crusade, the tribes of the steppe do not form a monolithic presence. This means there is no single central ruler, for most of the region’s history.

Who Really Rules

Before the rise of Yamun Khahan, and after his fall, the steppe is ruled by the tribal khans.

Political Divisions
  • Commani Lands
  • Dalat Lands
  • Fankiang Lands
  • Gur Lands
  • Kaghun Lands
  • Khassidi Lands
  • Naican Lands
  • Oigur Lands
  • Quirish Lands
  • Tsu-Tsu Lands
  • Tuigan Lands
  • Zamogedi Lands

Sources

Primary Sources
Passing Mention
  • Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide [21828] (4e campaign setting) pages 142-143 — this would be a primary source for a campaign set in a post-Spellplague era; however, this campaign is not and therefore 4e material may be used or ignored without consideration for context
  • Races of Faerûn [88578] page 110 — the human demographics
Maps

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The Timeline of Mulhorand

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

The following events in the history of Mulhorand, Unther, and Chessenta are significant.

MC DR Events
-353 -2488 By now, everyone has heard the nigh-unbelievable tales; Raurin, the imperial province of Imaskar, has been devoured in a cataclysm of fire and melting earth which left the Raurin Desert.
1 -2135 Re and his followers establish the city of Skuld and the nation of Mulhorand.
49 -2087 Enlil and his followers establish the city of Unthalass and the nation of Unther.
169 -1967 A territorial dispute erupts between Mulhorand and Unther.
175 -1961 Re and Enlil reach an agreement that the River of Swords will be the boundary between their lands. This agreement is honored for more than three thousand years.
c. 650 c. -1500 Mulhorand and Unther expand. This marks the beginning of the First Empires.
c. 900 c. -1250 Unther wars against both the elves of the Yuirwood and the dwarves of the Great Rift, seeking to colonize these areas. Mulhorand, in contrast, works to control lands to the east which were historically dominated by Imaskar.
1049 -1087 Thayd’s Rebellion.
1055 -1081 Thayd is captured and executed. He prophecies that the priests’ persecution of wizards in Mulhorand and Unther will cost the empires much of their power and glory. Of course, the priests don’t see things that way, and his prophecy is discredited and ignored for two thousand years.
1061 -1075 The Orcgate Wars begin. Hordes of orcs pour forth from the mountains, besieging the northern colonies. Estimates of the death toll climb into the tens of thousands within the first month.
1065 -1071 The climactic Battle of the Gods, where Re is apparently slain by an avatar of Gruumsh. However, Horus becomes Horus-Re, and the Mulhorandi armies rally.
1067 -1069 The Orcgate Wars end, as the avatars of the orc deities are defeated by the God-Kings of Mulhorand and Unther. The orcish armies are routed, and flee to the north. A “kill on sight” edict is enacted in Mulhorand and Unther, which prevents orcs from settling in those lands even to this day. The paladins of Osiris quietly stopped counting when they exceeded 100,000 dead, so no accurate record exists of how many lives were lost. Mulhorand is rocked to its core by the loss of Re. Unther is, if possible, even more disheartened; most of their pantheon was destroyed.
1086 -1050 Set defies the authority of Horus-Re, and reportedly kills Osiris. Osiris, if he fell, was quickly resurrected.
1088 -1048 Horus-Re publicly declares himself Pharaoh of Mulhorand and of the Gods. He exiles Set and condemns his church; from this day forward the worship of Set is punishable by death in Mulhorand.
c. 1250 c. -900 Narfell and Raumathar rise to power in the north.
1402 -734 Enlil passes leadership of the Untheric pantheon (and his church) to Gilgeam and vanishes from the Realms. Gilgeam immediately declares this to be Year 1 of the new Untheric Calendar. The Untheric Calendar is grudgingly recognized in Unther’s vassal states, but remains ignored by all other nations.
1513 -623 Narfell attempts an invasion of Mulhorand and Unther by sea. The northern armada is obliterated, and Narfell quickly turns its attention back to other interests.
1986 -150 Narfell and Raumathar achieve mutual destruction.
1988 -148 Predictably, a large number of demons and other creatures loosed in the final battle between the northern empires quickly leave the dead realms and enter the colonies of Mulhorand and Unther. The God-Kings defeat and banish as many of these creatures as they can find, determined to avoid another catastrophic loss of citizens.
2001 -135 Mulhorand and Unther expand again, and the Second Empires begin.
2136 1 The Standing Stone is raised in the lands northwest of the Inner Sea — this event is ignored by most of the South, but is included for reference.
2243 108 The first Great Flood of the River Alamber nearly destroys Unthalass.
2337 202 Barbarians invade southern Unther and Mulhorand.
2340 205 The armies of Mulhorand and Unther chase the fleeing barbarians back to their settlements and exterminate them.
2617 482 Delthuntle and Laothkund declare their independence from Unther.
2639 504 Teth and Nethra declare their independence, provoking Unther into a long and bloody campaign against its northern colonies.
2778 643 Nezram leaves his tower on the shores of Azulduth, and is not seen in the Realms for several centuries.
2814 679 Unther is forced to recognize the independence of all the Coaster Cities. This marks the end of the Second Untheric Empire.
2816 681 Nezram’s tower is destroyed by Chathuulandroth; Nezram’s descendants found Nezras.
2866 731 The second Great Flood of the River Alamber devastates Unthalass.
2958 823 Mourktar declares its independence from Unther.
3057 922 The Battle of Thazalhar. The Red Wizards achieve a coup in Mulhorand’s northern province, and declare themselves the sovereign nation of Thay. This marks the end of the Second Mulhorandi Empire.
3064 929 A small army of dissidents, led by Tchazzar, puts Unther’s northern province to the sword and founds the Alliance of Chessenta.
3111 976 Mulhorand‘s first (and so far, the only) invasion of Thay is defeated at the River Thazarim.
3153 1018 King Tchazzar disappears during an attack against sahuagin. His body is never found, and some of his followers form a cult based on the belief that Tchazzar is now divine.
3165 1030 A small cabal within the Red Wizards declares itself to be the head of that organization, and the rulers of Thay. Much strife ensues. The eight wizards call themselves the Zulkirs.
3209 1074 The Zulkirs eradicate the last known resistance to their rule.
3233 1098 Thay‘s first invasion of Mulhorand is defeated at Sultim.
3252 1117 Mordulkin defies the King of Cimbar, fracturing the Alliance of Chessenta.
3289 1154 The armies of Akanax and Soorenar lay siege to Cimbar. The King of Cimbar is forced to sign a pact placing severe limits on his authority. The lord of Akanax refuses to sign, on the grounds that he himself would be a better leader of the alliance. This, of course, ensures that the squabbling between the city-states will escalate and continue in perpetuity.
3296 1161 The Karanok family rises to power in Luthcheq.
3318 1183 Paladins of Osiris exorcise the fortress of Sekras and make the entire length of the River of Swords safe for human habitation. Werecrocodiles vanish, but quietly settle in the Adder River Delta.
3383 1248 Rehorusteb II becomes Pharaoh of Mulhorand.
3415 1280 Thay‘s second invasion of Mulhorand overwhelms Sultim. The city very nearly falls before reinforcements arrive from Skuld. The church of Anhur is blamed for the debacle.
3436 1301 The cult of Tiamat, long-forgotten, abruptly comes back into public awareness in Unther.
3446 1311 Rezim becomes Vizier of Mulhorand, and dramatically broadens the persecution of Anhurites. Chessentan mercenaries replace Anhurites as the guards of Mulhorand’s cities.
3452 1317 The Great Plague of the Inner Sea begins.
3455 1320 Baphoseti becomes the incarnation of Set, and quickly galvanizes that cult.
3458 1323 The Great Plague fades away. Chessenta is devastated, having lost up to 40% of its population in coastal cities and towns. Chondath and the Coaster Cities suffer similar losses. Unther has also suffered — Messemprar and Unthalass in particular, where up to 20% of the population perished. Mulhorand, in contrast, is unaffected. Murghôm, Semphar, the Shaar, and other lands further away from the Inner Sea, are also spared.
3459 1324 Luthcheq invades Mordulkin, seeking to take advantage of the plague’s ravages. Luthcheq loses the war, and most of its army. House Karanok blames wizard-spy-infiltrators who warned Mordulkin’s leaders of the attack, and begin persecuting wizards.
3481 1346 The Cult of Tiamat summons The Dark Lady.
3485 1350 The Cult of Set gains control of Sampranasz, and successfully suppresses news of the event, thus gaining a base of operations close to Skuld. Baphoseti forms the Fangs of Set.
3492 1357 Fire elementals destroy the eastern Coaster Cities. Rioting in Messemprar threatens to destroy that city.

Source

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Timeline of the Great Glacier

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

The following events in the nearly-4000-year history of the Great Glacier are noteworthy.


Events

UC DR Events
1 -2550 Ulutiu sinks into the sea, and the glacier begins to form.
75 -2476 The glacier encroaches into what will later be known as Damara and Vaasa.
276 -2275 A clan of shield dwarves from the Tortured Land is exiled to the glacier, and become the progenitors of the Innugaakalikurit.
902 -1649 Some human hunters from Sossal become lost in the glacier. They make their new home on the ice, and their descendants will be the first Ulutiuns.
1188 -1363 The Ulutiuns discover the Glacier of Ulutiu. Some of them believe Ulutiu to be a god, and devote themselves to his teachings; they declare themselves Nakulutiuns and move northward, founding the settlements of Nakvaligach. The remainder return to Alpuk, thereafter calling themselves Iulutiuns.
1364 -1187 One group of Iulutiuns settle the eastern portion of the glacier, taking up a nomadic life following the large herds of caribou. These are the first of the Angulutiuns, and they call their land Angalpuk.
1587 -964 The Keryjek Wars begin, sparked by Iulutiun settlements poaching caribou in Angalpuk.
1637 -914 The Keryjek Wars end with a treaty between Iulutiun and Angulutiun leaders. The first koatulit is held to commemmorate the treaty, and has been held every year since to facilitate peace.
1649 -902 Iulutiuns reach out to the Innugaakalikurit by inviting them to participate in the koatulit. The dwarves decline, but a cordial relationship begins.
1790 -761 An unusually warm summer results in extensive flooding around the Lugalpgotak and Nakalpgotak seas. Several villages are washed away, and hundreds of Ulutiuns drown.
1952 -599 A small group of Innugaakalikurit provoke the frost giants of Novularond by discovering and stealing a giant-built catapult. The elders of Gronne offer to arbitrate the dispute, eventually finding the dwarves guilty of theft; the thieves are given to the giants as slaves. Descendants of those dwarves remain enslaved by the giants to the present day.
2338 -213 Nakulutiuns inadvertently awaken a monster in the Olyniak Crevasse. They call it Ufloq.
3010 460 Treasure hunters from Sossal enter Angalpuk, bringing with them a strange disease which becomes a plague before the victims are isolated and exiled to the Ibelgrak Valley. The survivors remain exiled to this day, due to fears that the disease is merely dormant rather than extinguished.
3588 1038 A rotational shift of Toril causes temperatures to rise and the glacier to recede, uncovering the the lands of Vaasa and Damara.
3691 1141 A cabal of wizards from Vaasa construct a castle of ice at the base of Mount Okk, and use the castle as a base for developing new cold-based magic.
3698 1148 A massive earthquake rocks the Lugsaas Chain; the ice castle and its wizards are swallowed by a fissure and presumed dead.
3777 1227 Palus Frohm, an explorer from Vaasa, begins his twenty-year journey across the glacier. He writes Blood and Ice: Survival in the Great Glacier, which becomes popular among would-be adventurers in the north.
3836 1286 Work begins on the Shistak Pass.
3889 1339 Sharra Frohm, a descendant of Palus Frohm, enters the glacier intending to write volume two of Blood and Ice about the Nakvaligach region, which her ancestor was unable to fully explore. She entered the glacier, alone, 100 miles northeast of the Frozen Forest. She has not been heard from since.

Sources

Primary Source

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The Kingdom of Man

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

Another realm unifying humans, dwarves, and elves, now fallen. The Kingdom of Man lasted only two brief generations, following the fall of Phalorm.

It was survived by seven “splinter kingdoms” known as Calandor, Ellermere, Harpshield, Loravatha, Scathril, Stonegard, and Talmost; all of these have also fallen.

Sources

  • Forgotten Realms [1085] A Grand Tour of the Realms page 124
  • George Krashos shared the lore regarding the survivor states in a Candlekeep thread.

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Ellermere

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A “splinter kingdom” (survivor) of the Kingdom of Man.

Source

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Stonegard

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A “splinter kingdom” (survivor) of the Kingdom of Man.

Source

Disclaimer

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Talmost

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A “splinter kingdom” (survivor) of the Kingdom of Man.

There is probably some connection with the Talmost family of Waterdeep.

Source

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Harpshield

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A “splinter kingdom” (survivor) of the Kingdom of Man.

Source

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Loravatha

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A “splinter kingdom” (survivor) of the Kingdom of Man.

Source

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Scathril

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A “splinter kingdom” (survivor) of the Kingdom of Man.

Source

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.