Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms

about as far as the forest’s borders, and like the Yuirwood,
is an unbroken expanse of deep green dells and hidden
brooks. The star elves raised great glass citadels for themselves
and live there still, masters of song magic and lords
of this fey realm.
If you are using the Manual of the Planes, Sildëyuir has the
following properties.
• Light gravity.
• Flowing Time: Two days on the Material Plane equal one
day in Sildëyuir.
• Finite Size: Sildëyuir is coterminous with the Yuirwood.
• Alterable Morphic. Objects remain constant unless affected
by physical force or magic.
• No elemental or energy traits.
• Strongly neutral-aligned: Intelligence, Wisdom, and
Charisma-based checks take a –2 penalty for nonneutral
creatures; –4 for beings with two nonneutral components
in their alignment.
• Enhanced Magic: Spells with the sonic descriptor are empowered
and heightened by two levels in Sildëyuir.
The ancient menhir circles of the Yuirwood hold portals leading
to Sildëyuir, although most are keyed to function only for
star elves. The Ethereal and Shadow Planes are not coterminous
with the demiplane, so spells using ethereal or shadow effects
do not work there, but the Astral Plane is accessible.
Sildëyuir has been under assault by a race of alien sorcerers
of great power for several centuries now. The nilshais, natives
of some distant, horrible reality, stumbled across the
existence of the demiplane long ago, and they seek to invade
Sildëyuir and subvert it to their own twisted purposes. (See
the Nilshai entry in Chapter 6: Monsters of the East.) Each
incursion is more difficult to fend off, and large portions of
the realm have been poisoned by the nilshais’ alien sorcery.
From these corrupted regions horrid, unliving spawn
emerge to haunt the silver woods and terrorize the citadels
of the star elves. Some among the mithral elves counsel
abandoning their extraplanar home and returning to the
Yuirwood, while others argue for seeking help from their
kinfolk in Aglarond’s forests.
THE SUNGLADE
The Sunglade is a clearing in the center of the Yuirwood. It
resembles any meadow, except for the two concentric circles
of menhirs standing here. Long ago ensorceled, the area is impervious
to the ravages of time: Its grasses are well tended and
the rocks are free from vines or moss, despite being undisturbed
for untold centuries.
The outer circle of menhirs is the tallest of the two, the
rocks standing nearly 20 feet high. They are carved with ancient
Espruar runes dedicating each stone to one member of
the Seldarine, the elven pantheon. The stones of the inner
circle are a mere 6 feet tall. These are carved in the same style
as the others but are dedicated to the forgotten pantheon of
the folk who lived in the Yuirwood even before the star elves.
AGLAROND
101
Most menhir circle portals in the Yuirwood only transport
someone to the nearest such portal, but the Sunglade’s portal
is special. Those who use it can transport directly to any of the
Yuirwood’s portals.
People of Aglarond
Two different peoples inhabit Aglarond: those who live
along the coast and those who live beneath the trees. The
shore dwellers are predominantly descended from the
humans of old Velprin, while the folk of the Yuirwood are
mostly half-elves. The two cultures have learned to live and
work beside each other over the years, sometimes together
but most often in parallel, each ignoring the other. Aglarond’s
humans prefer to work and live along the coast, while
those with elven blood choose to remain hidden in their ancestral
woods, so there is little reason for the two cultures
to interact. Also, neither has something that the other is
ready to kill for, and so peace has endured ever since King
Brindor first donned his crown.
The geography of the land has made this strange symbiosis
possible. Its isolation means that threats come from only
one direction: Thay. This single threat has been a unifying
force: If the people of Aglarond weren’t willing to stand together,
they would surely die alone. With no current threat
from Thay, some feel the time is ripe for dividing the nation.
Ambitious human merchants and nobles dream of logging the
Yuirwood, while the more elitist half-elves hope to shift the
kingdom’s balance of power away from the teeming human
cities and back to the old elven forests. Fortunately, Aglarond
has been blessed with rulers of unusual personal vision and
wisdom, and under the governance of House Olóssyne (and
more recently, the Simbul) these bitter divisions have rarely
given rise to acts of open rebellion.
Races and Cultures
The humans of Aglarond are descended primarily from the
people who settled Altumbel, Thesk, and the Wizards’ Reach
ten to fifteen centuries ago. Most of these folk were Chessentans,
Chondathans, and Damarans, but with the passage of
time, these cultures have blended into a unique national identity.
Aglarondans have a reputation as honest and hardworking,
slow to make friends but quick to come to their aid.
Despite this, they enjoy raucous revelry during their off-hours.
Aglarondan beer and liquor is brewed for potency rather than
taste, and the inhabitants take advantage of this fact as often
as possible.
In the early years of the nation, humans and half-elves harbored
mutual resentment, and echoes of these old divisions
still resound. The two cultures tolerated each other’s company
only grudgingly, and every meeting of the Royal Council
threatened to dissolve into chaos without the strong guiding
hand of the monarch. Today, open racial strife is a thing of
the past. Most of those humans who refused to share the land