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Originally posted by Zeromaru X

Hi. Here asking another map stuff (so, maybe is a Markustay question). Is there any map that shows all of Toril continents with Laerakond/Returned Abeir in it? Is mostly to do a comparative of size and distance with Faerun and Maztica (I plan to have the three continents on my Realms).

Thanks in advance.

P.S.: There is any canon answer on what happened to Returned Abeir in 5e? It's not mentioned in SCAG, and as far as I know, in Volo's MG they say Maztica returned to Toril. Was Returned Abeir returned to Abeir? (no pun intended) or is still laying around in canon Realms?

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Originally posted by Markustay

Please let me know if you guys think this is something worth finishing. I don't want to work on any maps that no-one will wind up using (no matter how 'kewl' the concept is).

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Originally posted by Markustay

I used to feel that way about mountainous cold regions as well, until I noticed that the Himalayas aren't that far from the equator. Altitude means a LOT.

The other conversion I am working on - putting the Rivlands (Norse-like setting) into the northern part of the Sea of Swords (between Ruathym and The Purple Rocks) gives us a decent 'Northmen homeland', that just like Jakandor, may have only appeared since the Sundering (2.0).

If and when I ever get around to a new world map (nothing fancy - just a prettier version of the FRIA world map), I plan to rebuild Ed's original island chain of Anchorômé, trailing outward from the top of that continent north of Maztica (which rally ISN'T Anchorômé - we've just been calling it that) toward the islands around Tuern. You'll note on the FRIA maps there is an island chain, its just very tiny and strung along the coast there. I plan to accentuate it a bit, and have it 'connect' to the northern part of Faerûn's islands (with still some distance between them, of course - I'm thinking they 'island hop', which is what Ed said many folk do in his old Realms L-list postings).

Laerakond definitely works better in a hot climate jungles, dragons, all sorts of 'scaley thangs' going on. It makes a nice go-between for Faerûn and Zakhara, IMO.

And folks are MUCH more likely to use it somehow if its placed near the main campaign area; Returned Abeir and Maztica were both practically ignored because of where they were/are.

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Eskember
This small island realm never made it into the Old Grey Box for the same
reason Evermeet got shoved several thousand leagues east (closer to mainland
Faerun): accurate maps of my 'home' Realms campaign would have been map panel
after map panel ('panel' meaning one fit-the-box folded rectangle of those
fold-out map pages) of mostly empty water stretching west, with only a few
islets and island chains scattered thereon.
So to 'find' Eskember, get out the Old Grey Box mapsheet labelled
"1031XXXX0703," and look at the Moonshaes. Start at the map panel occupied by
the Wave Rocks, the Gull Rocks, and the Moonshaes, and go due west (following
the "to Evermeet" arrow that's helpfully floating on the waves there) for two
panels of almost-blank sea (the second invisible panel has a tiny cluster of
shoals called "Wash Rock" on it, at about the same latitude and position in
the panel as the Gull Rocks occupy in the panel you're examining). In the
western half of the third panel of proceeding westwards lies Evermeet (at
least, as it was situated in the original Realms). Now shift southwest from
this panel, diagonal corner to diagonal corner, into a new panel of empty
sea. Go west along this new line of latitude the full length of another
panel, and as you enter the panel beyond, imagine it dotted with numerous
small islands and rocks, and dominated by two larger islands.
One of these large isles, about 2-o'clock in orientation to the center of the
panel, is a 100-mile-long, fairly slender (30 miles wide at best) east-west
crescent (center bow towards the north) that's wild jungle over VERY rough
terrain (rock ridges and little gorges cut by numerous small streams that all
find their own ways to the sea without ever combining into larger rivers).
Shove all manner of monsters, especially oversized bats and nasty plants of
all sorts, into this terrain, put abundant gems and a little gold into the
many gorge crevices (and if I was doing it today with 3E rulebooks, I'd
deploy generous numbers of chokers, too), put in a few deep caves with
cloakers and an ancient, subterranean automaton-guarded and
magic-item-studded tomb of a fled-from-Netheril archmage, and call the whole
thing "Sarambril."
Make Sarambril the run-to refuge of some pirates of the Nelanther, and the
place the most daring pirates come to seek gems, or put ashore disobedient
crew or slaves in a sort of rough justice ("We'll return to this
landing-place next year; if you meet us here then with X amount of raw gems
in payment, all is forgiven/you're freed...and we'll take you aboard and
deliver you ashore in the mainland, just trust us" :}). Most pirates have
never been to Sarambril; to them it's a legendary but known-to-be-real place
somewhere "far across the trackless waves."

South of Sarambril, sheltered by it and by Eskember from the worst winds, are
many small, rocky islands inhabited by simple fisher-folk, who have no riches
or possessions to speak of (beyond their nets, spears, boats, and huts).
These brown-skinned, long-limbed people are called "the Hael" by the pirates,
after the name of one of the largest islands (Hael, about twelve miles across
and roughly circular), but call themselves after the particular island they
come from, and lack any unified government or authority beyond family elders.
Though they include many castoff pirates and descendants of shipwreck crews,
the Hael don't make war on each other or discriminate among themselves on the
basis of blood or appearance; they consider everyone on an island to be 'a
family.' Preoccupied with the daily struggle to survive, the Hael are acutely
attuned to the weather and the sea, entertain themselves with tale-telling
(visitors will instantly become the focus of new tales created from
conjecture), and have little interest in alliances, the doings of the wider
world, or riches (beyond abundant food, good sails and rope, and the like).
Hael treasure good hand-weapons (handaxes, broadswords, and daggers), many of
which they've gleaned from outlanders, but mistrust hurled spears, arrows,
and the like (any missile weapons beyond the simple sling or rolled boulder)
because of the strong, gusty local winds.
The Hael wear broad woven straw hats (tied securely on their heads against
sea-winds), and wear large, loose, wrap-around-the-body weather-cloaks
salvaged from old sails. They make small, slender, swift boats out of
palm-trunks lashed together (with lateen sails woven on looms from the
cotton-like fibers of the pods of the thradra plants that grow naturally on
the high slopes of most of these islands), fish with small drag nets and long
palm fish-spears, and flee and hide rather than fighting most outlanders.
They dwell in caves that have thatched hillside 'forerooms' built over the
cavemouths, and tiny 'back ways out' (concealed by capstones) laboriously dug
for each cave that doesn't naturally connect with another. Many of the ridges
in the islands of the Hael are honeycombed with small, spiderlike cavern
networks, customarily divided into individual sleeping-caves by
readily-rolled-aside stones, and having many connections to the outside.
The Hael neither read nor write, but they can count, have their own
arithmetical characters and symbols for warnings and place-markings, and have
a simple system of whistling and "seabird-shriek" calls that they use to
communicate across water. They speak a heavily-accented Chondathan, and
Common.

The Hael have long since exterminated most of the predators on their islands,
though wyverns fly out from Sarambril on 'hunger raids' from time to time. A
few islands amid the cluster of 130-plus small islets remain wild and
monster-roamed; Hael seeking to get rid of belligerent outlanders will
sometimes direct such folk to one of these, claiming ruins thereon contain
rich treasure. Many of the islands DO have ancient crumbling-stone-wall ruins
(of origins unknown to the Hael), but the only 'treasure' most of them hold
is monsters, monsters, and more monsters.
Some of the more populous islands of the Hael (in roughly descending order of
size) include: Hael, Sorsee, Umbar, Thloekil, Thammar, Ruveldar, Osell,
Mrasak, Oumpaun, Ilidil, Tarmusk, Faedree, and Darso.
To the west of the islands of the Hael is the large island of Eskember, which
is roughly teardrop-shaped, with its long axis running north-south and its
larger, bulbous part at the south end. Its northern spur is about forty miles
across in most places, and 120 miles or so long, curving slightly to the
northeast at its tip (which is a profusion of rocks, shoals, and islets
rising out of the sea). Its southern bulk is about seventy miles across and
fifty miles 'high' from north to south, and its entire western flank consists
of a rugged range of mountain peaks that thrust almost vertically up out of
the sea and the rest of the land-mass, forming a sheltering wall. The peaks
are said to be 'haunted' by beasts that "eat the minds of men," and few folk
trouble to go there to see what these menaces may be.
Eskember is usually covered with a light mist, and is always covered with a
forest of huge shadowtop trees, of a height and girth astonishing to most
mainlanders who see them. These forest giants are much prized for use in
shipmaking, and for centuries sawmills and shipbuilding slips have been
located here; of old a few intrepid seafaring folk of Tethyr, Tashluta, and
Baldur's Gate considered this place their 'secret hoard of ships.'
Down the centuries, sheep-farms and then small trading-ports grew up around
the coastal mills and shipwrights' yards (which are located at the only two
settlements of Eskember: the horseshoe-shaped port "Eskember" that surrounds
the natural harbor of Tarnstar Bay, a long inlet at the center of the eastern
face of the island's southern bulk; and Halamorn, located where the small
Darsurpar River empties into Rathaer's Bay, two-thirds up the eastern shore
of the island's northern spur).
The port of Eskember, in particular, has become something of a crossroads
trading place, haven, and 'neutral ground' for pirates, outlaws, slavers,
whalers, far-faring fisherfolk, and outcasts from all over Faerun. The pirate
Rathaer set himself up as 'Lord of Eskember' centuries back, largely to
establish a rather brutal law-keeping force that drove home his idea of
Eskember being a 'down-all-weapons, suspend-all-feuds' place. He died long
ago, but his best import remains: established clergies of Helm, Mielikki,
Selune, and Silvanus who govern in concert, 'in the name of' the Lord of
Eskember (whose empty throne is kept on display, never-if they or any of the
rival pirates who call in at Eskember have anything to say about it-to again
be filled). A few priests of Chauntea, Ilmater, Lathander, Lliira, Lurue,
Sune and Tymora can also be found on the island, but they take no part in
governance, and form no priesthoods larger than a dozen individuals.
From time to time folk who've fled to Eskember or parted ways from captains
or crews there will get together on a newly-built boat to sail east to the
mainland, usually sailing well south to avoid the Nelanther, and calling at
Tharsult or Tashluta. In these voyages they're aided by two things: even the
fiercest ship-wrecking storms seldom manage to actually sink ships that are
crammed full of lumber, and a deck cargo of large masts sold at the docks of
any Sword Coast port usually defrays all costs of the voyage and leaves every
person disembarking quite wealthy.
This has led to tales of "distant, golden Eskember" and "Eskember the
Sea-Haven," many of which are so embellished that folk who reach Eskember are
often bewildered not to find an empire, palaces full of riches and beautiful
folk, and the like. Those who come to conquer are warned that the Mist
Haven's forests hide more than a few simple dwellings of powerful folk who
came to this remote isle so as not to be found-but retain the means to firmly
resist unwanted visitors.

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Originally posted by sleyvas

On the Laerakond relocating, I like the idea of if somehow getting "dragged" by evermeet (as the fake evermeet and real evermeet swapped). As far as I can tell in my research, we never got a spatial relationship between the fake evermeet and Laerakond (i.e. was the fake evermeet southwest of it or northwest or northeast of it). However, that may be delving too deep into the mystery without a good reason for why, and we can always say "uh, magic broke... things shifted"

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Originally posted by Zeromaru X

Yeah, it would be easier. And technically what you say is true: Abeir and Toril were one world at some point in the past, so Laerakond was part of Toril at some point... But I really like the concept of this continent being from a parallel world. It allow me to export rare stuff from other settings into my game without so much thinkering (like Dark Sun's defiling magic)

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Originally posted by Markustay

Borrowing defiler magic from Dark Sun. Once again, no need. FR has the concept, as I am sure most D&D worlds do (its juts better hidden). What happened when the Phaerimm started draining the magic out of the Anauroch? They destabilized The Weave in a localized fashion, causing havoc (including at least one Enclave falling). The Phaerimm's magic-eating was called 'life-draining magic'. Once again, magic (Arcane Magic/The Weave) = 'Life', and when you drain it away, life dies... like a desert. The Phaerimm ARE defilers.

The Thayans 'Dread Rings' seem to function on a similar concept. All roads lead to Toril.

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Originally posted by Markustay

Also, the article I wrote in Candlekeep IV detailed a number of 'Sea Gates', and there could be many more.

I'm not so thrilled with Jakandor precisely where I placed it in the above link. It probably would have been fine by itself, but with Abeir there it is awfully crowded, which goes against the whole premise of Jakandor. I'd probably shift Jakandor south, and somewhat west. Not entirely replacing 'Tabaxiland', but in that general direction (its a LOT smaller than Tabaxiland).

The only thing I don't like about that is that i feel the futher away we push it, the less likely folks will use it. I felt the other placement was a compromise, but it just don't look right, and the Maztica-crossing has become somewhat easier because of it (although ships might just sail far north of it, rather than circling around the coasts). We could even plunk Jakandor down on the other side of Zakhara, and it might actually be a better fit - perhaps the knorr are from Osse. Of course, than no-one would use it. LOL

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Originally posted by dazzlerdal

I love finding the little snippets on the Realms L List. If only there was a way to find all the ones Ed posted there (and George and Eric and others).

I know the Secrets of the Archmages website has all the posts on there but I just need some way to auto sift through them

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