Untheric Names

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


At a Glance

Untheric names are names used in Untheric families or communities.


Names

The names listed here come from lists or generators included in Wizards of the Coast products. They are not based on actual NPC names taken from novels, sourcebooks, etc.

Male Given Names

Azzedar, Chadrezzan, Gibbur, Horat, Kassur, Numer, Samar, Ungred.

Female Given Names

Chadra, Ilzza, Jezzara, Marune, Saldashune, Xuthra, Zeldara.

Surnames

Seldom used; patronymics preferred.


Sources

Primary Sources
  • Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting [11836] page 12
Other Resources

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.

Azulduth

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


At a Glance

Azulduth, also called the Lake of Salt, is a lake in southern Mulhorand. It’s known to be inhabited by yuan-ti, who prowl the ancient ruins.

Azulduth is formally claimed by neither Mulhorand nor Unther, though both want the salt that comes out of it. However, neither nation has demonstrated an ability to decisively defeat the local population of serpentfolk. Salt mines and related businesses have been built on both sides of the lake, however. The fortified town of Buldamar stands on the eastern “shore” and Azun on the western; the forces rarely confront each other, as they keep to the edges of the lake.

Unbeknownst to the humans on the surface, the pumps of Pyraddin beneath their towns siphon off much of the water that would otherwise fill the Lake of Salt.


Sources

Maps
Other Resources

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.

Unther

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


At a Glance

Unther is one of the oldest nations of modern Faerûn, founded 3452 years ago by survivors from the fall of Raurin.


Visiting

Communities
Other Landmarks
Neighboring Nations and Features

Politics

Who Rules

The year, in the Xaeyruudh campaign, is 1365 DR. Unther is ruled by Gilgeam.

Who Really Rules

Gilgeam claims the right to overrule any decision made anywhere in Unther (and brutally slay the hapless soul who unwittingly defied his will) but the daily chore of ruling the empire falls to the appointed Great Lords… who generally have the sense not to do anything that could conceivably upset the God-King without getting his approval.

Political Divisions

Unther is divided into thirteen fiefs controlled by Great Lords.


Sources

  • Shining South [17929] page 180
  • Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting [11836] (3e) pages 186-188
  • Old Empires [FR10/9274] pages 35-49 and mentioned throughout the book
  • Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting [1085] (2e) A Grand Tour of the Realms page 121
  • Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting [1031] (1e) Cyclopedia of the Realms page 86

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 Black Ash Plain

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


At a Glance

The Black Ash Plain is a broad badlands area extending south from the Smoking Mountains to the River Alamber.

Hot, acidic ash and tephra falling from the perpetual clouds over the mountain range has formed hardened ridges in some places, silty dunes in others, and elsewhere has partially dissolved the ground.  The latter effect, in particular, is dramatically worsened by flooding from the River Alamber.  The result is an uneven, unpredictable, and dangerous landscape.

Understandably, there’s not much wildlife here, but certain creatures tolerate or even appreciate the environment.  Notable among these are the ash giants who have settled the area and built a successful business selling the ash to farmers of the Greenfields, who use it to improve their soil.


Sources

Primary Sources
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.

Sects

Sects is the word I’m using for the “gray area” of churches… something I’m going to be relying on in the Xaeyruudh campaign both to introduce variety and also to keep the players guessing.

The idea is that there can be variations in interpretation of key ideas in each church, and this can result in schisms (like the Protestants splitting from the mainstream church of their day, if you want a real-world example) but it can also be smaller in scale.  It doesn’t have to result in a church splitting into two churches.  Sometimes it can’t go that way, because the mainstream church would hunt you down and exterminate you before you could gather enough support to defend yourself.  So you spread your own ideas, as much as your self-preservation instinct allows for, and keep your heretical ideas under wraps when your superiors are listening.  If your instincts are good enough, and if your ideas are appealing enough, then you have yourself a sect.

To keep things relatively simple, I’m organizing them by alignment.  I recognize the possibility that there could be 14 CG churches of Anhur, but that would be kinda crazy and I don’t want to be crazy.  So all CG “churches” venerating one God-King are considered one sect of that God-King.  CG churches of another God-King are a sect of that God-King.  Each alignment gets its own sect.  Potentially.

The head of each pantheon (Horus-Re and Gilgeam) can theoretically have a sect for each alignment.  In practice, the church of Horus-Re only has six sects and the church of Gilgeam really only has one.  To limit the crazyness of having up to nine churches for each God-King, only the head of each pantheon gets that kind of diversity.

The other central God-Kings – Anhur, Isis, Nephthys, Osiris, and Thoth – get a sect for each alignment within two steps of their own.  Anhur is CG, for instance, so his church can have up to six sects: CG, CN, CE, NG, N, LG.  Once again, this is just a theoretical max; sects tend to combine and ally with each other.

The remaining mainstream God-Kings – Bast, Geb, Hathor, Nut, Shu, and Tefnut – are limited to one alignment “step”.  Hathor is LG; her church has up to three sects… LG, LN, and NG.

The other God-Kings – and churches of foreign deities trying to get established in the Old Empires – don’t get sects, with the exception of Set.  Set is sorta like the head of his own subpantheon (which contains only himself) so he gets a loophole.  But it’s mostly academic because most of Set’s followers join his church because they like what he stands for.

The result of this “graying” is a bewildering array of possibilities… like CE followers of Anhur and CG followers of Set.  This is by design.  It creates a framework for unexpected interactions… roleplaying opportunities!

The Untheric Pantheon

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

At a Glance

Gilgeam is the God-King.  There is no other god.  Worship of any other beings is punished by death.”

That’s the official story. Under the propaganda, however, there is more to be known.

DM’s Notes

This “pantheon” was once a living pantheon.  Anu, Ashnan, Enki, Inanna, Kabta, Ki, Lahar, Marduk, Nanna–Sin, Nergal, Ningal, and Utu were slain in the Orcgate Wars.  At the time, the Mulhorandi pantheon was reeling from the loss of Re and the intrigue related to Anubis and Set, so no attempt was made to claim the fallen Untheric God-Kings’ titles or duties.  Since that time, various Faerûnian powers have occasionally considered making a push into Unther, but Gilgeam’s extreme violence toward all other religions is a “turn-off” for most benevolent and neutral powers.

Enlil survived the war, but later ceded leadership of the pantheon to Gilgeam and retired from his active role in the Realms.  Some time after that, Gilgeam expelled Assuran and Tiamat from the pantheon, for offenses which were probably imaginary.  Assuran left grudgingly, and later became Hoar of the Faerunian pantheon… arguably a “step up” in terms of power and respect.  Tiamat’s cult actually grew much larger after she was publicly denounced by Gilgeam, and it remained in Unther to be a thorn in Gilgeam’s side, though her influence had been expanding into the rest of Faerun for some time.

Ramman and Ishtar were harangued for years, and eventually defeated or browbeaten into obscurity by Gilgeam.  Ishtar willingly ceded her divine power and her cult to her friend and rival, Isis — a very old pair; they were students together at the same academy in Imaskar, more than 4,000 years ago.  Ramman submitted his power to Anhur, or was defeated in honorable combat, depending on the story.

Now Gilgeam stands alone against Tiamat, who was old and powerful before he was born.  Tiamat, who styles herself the Nemesis of the Gods, and has the power and cruelty to back it up.  Gilgeam, in contrast, is too arrogant to ponder the possibility that his ambition might outreach his sword, or that millennia of “big talk” with no real challenges might have left him unprepared for a challenger whose bite is far worse than her hiss.

Unlike Mulhorand, where (other than the outsider powers who pose as God-Kings) there’s almost no worship of the Faerunian pantheon, several “foreign” powers have a foothold in Unther.  This is due primarily to the near-universal hatred of Gilgeam among the people of Unther, but it’s also difficult for one god to be all things to all of his people regardless of how much they might like him.  Among the powers who have significant followings in Unther are Anhur, Bane, Mask, Mystra, Sebek, Tempus, Umberlee, and Waukeen.  There is also a cult of “The Old Gods” which remains loyal to the fallen members of the Untheric pantheon… unfortunately they don’t have any magical or political power.

Source

  • Gilgeam, Ishtar, Ramman, and Tiamat are described on pages 44-46 of FR10.  Enlil is mentioned in a couple of places.  Marduk, Nanna-Sin, and Utu are mentioned under The Old Gods. The other gods were added for the Xaeyruudh campaign.

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 Methwood

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

At a Glance

A forest on the border between Unther and Chessenta. The Methwood is teeming with life, some of it not found in other nearby forests.

A Visual

Unnamed forest in Utah... aka the Methwood?

Residents

Eldreth Veluuthra is active here.

Whenever Gilgeam is not present, the undisputed master of the forest is Skuthosiin, a green dragon with a fearsome reputation in Unther and Chessenta.

Sources

  • Candlekeep — Hoondatha suggested that Gilgeam stocked the Methwood as a hunting preserve.
  • The image is courtesy of the wikipedia article on forests; unfortunately it doesn’t give a specific place name, just that it’s in Utah.

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.

Divine Minions

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

At a Glance

A native outsider.

This is the term given by lay persons to the servants of the God-Kings… not in the sense that “we are all servants of the God-Kings!” but specifically to the individuals who directly attend the manifestations and guard the incarnations. Each God-King has his/her own minions, and they are quite diverse.

DM’s Notes

Divine minions are the messengers and agents of the God-Kings and therefore may be found anywhere in the Old Empires, occasionally in other places around the Realms where a God-King has interests, and rarely in other Primes or other planes. In other words, they can be anywhere.

Source

  • Old Empires [FR10/9274] page 93

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.