Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
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While the Dalesfolk don’t like outlanders at all, they don’t<br />
care much for one another, either. <strong>The</strong> forests and fields are<br />
dotted with tiny enclaves of isolated clans. <strong>The</strong> common<br />
tongue here is Damaran, a legacy of ancient Narfell, but the<br />
Nar heritage of the Great Dale is long forgotten. <strong>The</strong> “old”<br />
Dalesfolk are descended from Chondathans who came to this<br />
land more than a thousand years ago, while the “new” are<br />
generally Impilturans who have settled the western reaches<br />
of the Dale for several hundred years. <strong>The</strong> Circle of Leth is<br />
the only unifying force in the region. If it were not for the<br />
druidic hierarchy, the two cultures sharing the Great Dale<br />
would be at each other’s throats.<br />
Life and Society<br />
Outside the port city of Uthmere, three different kinds of<br />
people inhabit the Dale: farmers, herders, and the druids and<br />
rangers. Most of the farmers live under the trees in the western<br />
portions of the Dale and are often of Impilturan descent.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y grow crops of all sorts but prefer hardier grains such as<br />
wheat and corn that can stand up to windswept springs<br />
and early frosts. <strong>The</strong> farmers usually end up with plenty for<br />
themselves and enough left over to barter with traveling<br />
merchants or their neighbors for things they can’t grow or<br />
make on their own. Most Great Dale farms are homesteads of<br />
one or two families.<br />
<strong>The</strong> herders keep their flocks in the open stretches of the<br />
central and eastern Dale. <strong>The</strong>ir homes are often made of fieldstone<br />
fitted together by hand and chinked with mud, halfburied<br />
in a hillside to stay below the winter winds. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
goatherds and shepherds are more likely to be “old” Dalesfolk<br />
and gather in clanholds of five to ten related families.<br />
<strong>The</strong> rangers and druids patrol the forests, keeping out<br />
strangers and protecting their beloved woods. <strong>The</strong>y warn off<br />
wayward souls who wander into something they know nothing<br />
about. People who are out to maliciously harm the forests,<br />
however, receive the harshest treatment. <strong>The</strong> rangers of the<br />
Great Dale save their greatest fury for those fools who attempt<br />
to set up logging operations within their domain.<br />
Both rangers and druids prefer to sleep under the sheltering<br />
canopy of the Rawlinswood or the Forest of Lethyr. When<br />
traveling, they may spend a night or two under the stars, but<br />
they prefer to minimize their time in the open. <strong>The</strong>se followers<br />
of the Nentyarch hunt and gather their own food. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
sometimes call on the farmers of the land to contribute food<br />
or shelter, but they prefer not to trouble the Dalesfolk.<br />
ECONOMY<br />
Uthmere has the only real economy in the Great Dale. Its lord<br />
mints coins that are used throughout the city but rarely<br />
beyond. <strong>The</strong> people of the wilds prefer barter to money. As the<br />
locals like to say, “Coins are too easy to lose.” Uthmere makes<br />
most of its money on mooring fees charged to merchants who<br />
use its harbor. In effect, this is a toll for the Great Road, as<br />
THE GREAT DALE<br />
120<br />
the only easy way to get to it from the coast is directly<br />
through Uthmere.<br />
<strong>The</strong> people of the wild lands produce herbs, alchemical ingredients,<br />
and wooden goods of the highest quality. <strong>The</strong> Great<br />
Dale has no mines within its borders, and the only forges are<br />
in Uthmere, Bezentil, and Kront. With the exception of<br />
simple iron items such as horseshoes or nails, the Dalesfolk<br />
must import metal items and tools.<br />
LAW AND ORDER<br />
Uthmere is governed by an old code based on the laws of the<br />
Impilturan crown. <strong>The</strong> city guards are empowered to enforce<br />
the law; there is no separate town watch. An appointed magistrate<br />
hears most cases, although Lord Uthlain himself presides<br />
over issues of serious crimes. Uthmere is a haven for<br />
smugglers who ferry contraband into Impiltur across the <strong>East</strong>ing<br />
Reach, and the Shadowmasters of Telflamm are eager to<br />
bring this illicit trade under their control.<br />
In the countryside, the Great Dale is almost lawless. While<br />
most folk don’t steal from or injure their neighbors, they<br />
expect only what justice they can carve out with a blade. Many<br />
people do not venture away from their homes unless armed,<br />
even if only with a quarterstaff or a club, but a well-worn<br />
longsword or longbow is preferred by travelers in the wilder<br />
reaches. Bandits and marauders are not very common, but the<br />
lands of the Great Dale are filled with wild animals and monsters.<br />
Only a “civilized” person would even consider walking<br />
around without a weapon at his side.<br />
Outside of Uthmere’s walls, justice is either swift or left<br />
undone. Wrongdoers who are caught are punished on the spot<br />
by their captors. <strong>The</strong> favored method of execution is to bind<br />
criminals high in the branches of a tree, where they either die<br />
of thirst or are eaten by animals. It’s not unusual to see sunbleached,<br />
picked-over skeletons hanging in the trees along the<br />
perimeter of either forest. <strong>The</strong>se are an object warning to<br />
those who would intrude on the peace of these woods.<br />
DEFENSE AND WARCRAFT<br />
No one has tried to invade the Great Dale in centuries. <strong>The</strong><br />
Great Road could be a path of Thayan aggression against<br />
lands farther west, but the Great Dale is hundreds of miles<br />
from Thay, and even the Red Wizards would have difficulty<br />
sustaining an army so far from home. Even if invaders were<br />
to attack the Dale, most of its people would let them pass<br />
unmolested, as long as their armies stuck to the Great Road.<br />
Any troops who entered the woods, however, would have to<br />
contend with the full fury of the Nentyarch and the Circle<br />
of Leth.<br />
It’s hard to imagine why another nation would want to conquer<br />
the Great Dale other than out of some kind of mad landlust.<br />
<strong>The</strong> riches of the land lie almost exclusively within its<br />
mighty forests, and the danger involved in extracting them<br />
would be ridiculously high. It is simpler, safer, and far cheaper