Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms

Thesk is most famous for the Golden Way. This well-maintained
road starts in Telflamm, crosses the River Flam, and
then passes through Phent, Phsant, Tammar, and Two Stars,
skirting the northern side of the Thesk Mountains before it
dead-ends at the River Mulsantir, between Lake Ashane and
Lake Mulsantir. From there, travelers and their cargo take
ferries across the water to Mulsantir, in Rashemen, and continue
along the Golden Way through Rashemen and the Endless
Wastes all the way to distant Kara-Tur. The Golden Way
is a major overland trade artery. Its existence is the primary
reason that Thesk isn’t simply part of the Great Dale or—
worse yet—another tharch in Thay.
With the increase in trade in and out of Thay, merchants
have developed a number of paths to Nethentir from Phent,
Tammar, and Two Stars. They are well traveled these days, but
all of them are long treks plagued by brigands and hungry
monsters. The merchant princes of Thesk have no interest in
building expensive new roads that would only make it easy for
Thay to roll its siege engines from Eltabbar to Telflamm.
Thesk may be a land of merchants rather than warriors, but
its people know enough not to build a convenient invasion
route for a power that has been their enemy in the past and
will likely be their enemy again someday.
THESK
A merchant on the Golden Way
172
Major Geographic
Features
For the most part, Thesk is a rural, lightly settled nation. Its
main sources of revenue are farming and providing services
to travelers along the Golden Way. Like the Great Dale to the
north, Thesk is also a place of untouched natural beauty. Vast
stretches of land are empty of people. Even most of the farmers
in Thesk live along the Golden Way, making it easier to
transport their harvests to market.
Few people live along the path between Phent and Nethentir,
although this is one of the most breathtaking stretches of
land in this part of Faerûn, running as it does between two
mountain ranges separated by only twenty miles. Even in high
summer, travelers can see snow high on the white-capped
peaks to both the left and right.
Ashanath
Ashanath consists of the high, windswept plains leading up to
the eastern border of Thesk, Lake Ashane. This region is
almost entirely empty of habitation, even though it has the
Illustration by Wayne England