Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms

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