Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms

Sandwiched between Narfell and Thesk, the Great
Dale is considered a vast wilderness by most. The land
is speckled with lonely farmsteads and clanholds,
guarded by druids and rangers who enjoy their solitude and
protect their homes with a vengeance. Few foreigners have
reason to journey to the Great Dale, and that’s just how its
inhabitants like it.
Narfell and Damara bound the Great Dale to the north,
Impiltur and the Easting Reach to the west, Thesk to the
south, and Rashemen to the east. While a decent road runs the
length of the country (if it can be called that) between the
Rawlinswood and the Forest of Lethyr, it is not a major trade
route. There are few stops along the way, and the residents of
the Great Dale show so little hospitality to strangers that a
popular joke is “There’s no room in the dale!”
The land here was once part of the ancient Empire of Narfell,
although it was originally settled by folk from Jhaamdath.
When Narfell and Raumathar destroyed each other
1,500 years ago, the Great Dale was decimated in the fighting
and lay virtually empty and wild for centuries. The land
is now a frontier for the populous kingdom of Impiltur to the
west. For generations, Impilturans in search of land and independence
have been trickling eastward, carving out homes
from the Dale’s wide-open spaces.
Geographic
Overview
Including the great forests that flank the dale itself, the Great
Dale extends from the western end of the Rawlinswood to the
shores of Lake Ashane, a little more than 400 miles from east
113
to west. North to south, the land runs from the north side of
the Rawlinswood down through the Forest of Lethyr to just
shy of the River Flam, just over 300 miles. In all this vast territory
lives a human population numbering little more than
that of a single great city in other lands, and most of that is
concentrated at the western end of the dale in Uthmere and
the surrounding countryside. There are few settlements in the
central or eastern reaches of the Great Dale, and most people
in those regions live at least a hard day’s ride from their nearest
neighbor.
Most of the land between the forests consists of rolling
downs, a seemingly endless series of low, heather-grown ridges
steadily climbing as one travels from west to east. The soil is
thin and rocky in most spots, and few crops grow well at
higher altitudes. Long ago, ancient glaciers gouged this land
deeply, leaving behind long, snaking moraines and countless
tiny lakes, but scraped the best soil into the low plains near
the Easting Reach and the Forest of Lethyr. The folk of the
eastern dale are mostly goatherds and shepherds, not farmers.
The Great Dale’s climate is tempered by the proximity of
the Easting Reach, but winters are harsh, while summers are
comparatively cool. The Forest of Lethyr is a mix of coniferous
and deciduous forest, but the Rawlinswood is a true taiga,
a northern pine forest with bitterly cold winters and cool,
mosquito-plagued summers.