Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms

Across the wide lands of Faerûn, bards and travelers
tell strange tales of the Unapproachable
East, a distant land of proud barbarians, forestgrown
ruins, and dreadful wizardry. It is a world filled with
ancient mysteries and endless strife, a swirling maelstrom of
exotic beauty and hell-spawned peril, where tribes value freedom
more than their lives and slaves groan under the worst
kind of sorcerous oppression. It is a crossroads and a battleground
where East meets West and today struggles to claw
itself free of the half-remembered past. So fantastic is the reputation
of this region in western Faerûn that in the taverns
and taprooms of a dozen western cities, skeptics greet an
unlikely tale or fanciful fable with a snort and mutter, “In the
East, perhaps!”
The story of the Unapproachable East is the roll of ancient
empires, terrible magic, and the clash of human races
and realms. Unlike the lands of the west, where elven and
dwarven realms of great antiquity shielded the young
human kingdoms from monstrous threats, few nonhuman
realms have left their mark upon the east. Instead, ancient
human realms such as old Narfell, Raumathar, and the earlier
dynasties of Mulhorand and Unther have battled over
these lands for almost two thousand years, while the newer
powers of Thay, the Tuigan Horde, and the cities of the
Easting Reach continue to vie for supremacy. The battles
of old were fought with mighty magic and great armies, but
the struggle today is more often joined with deceit, guile,
and coin.
So what, precisely, is the Unapproachable East? At the simplest
level, it is a vast area encompassing the lands between
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the Easting Reach and the Sunrise Mountains, from the Wizards’
Reach (the southern coasts of Aglarond’s peninsula) to
the Icerim Mountains of the frozen north, hard on the
boundaries of the Great Glacier. More than half a million
square miles of territory fall within its bounds, divided between
five principal lands: Aglarond, the Great Dale, Rashemen,
Thay, and Thesk (Narfell counts as part of both the
Unapproachable East and the Cold Lands of Damara and
Vaasa). Dozens of independent cities, towns, and strongholds
lie scattered in the lands between the recognized countries, although
any settlement in the Great Dale or Thesk could be
considered “independent” too, as those lands lack any central
government or authority.
Aglarond is renowned as the realm of the Simbul, a mighty
sorcerer-queen who has ruled the land for generations. The
Yuirwood, an ancient forest that once sheltered a powerful civilization
of mysterious elves, blankets most of the peninsula,
sheltering its coastal cities from Thayan expansion. Unexplored
ruins filled with deadly perils and wondrous magic lie
beneath the dense woods.
East of Aglarond is mighty Thay, a populous land enslaved
by the arrogant and ambitious magocracy of the Red Wizards.
Few invaders have overcome the great escarpments and difficult
mountains girding the Plateau of Thay, and the secretive
and suspicious Red Wizards raise barriers just as
formidable to discourage travelers from venturing into their
lands. From their strongholds and estates, the Red Wizards
plot the mercantile and military domination of all the Unapproachable
East—and after that, the world.
West of Thay, in the thief-ruled city of Telflamm, the trade
road known as the Golden Way begins. For thousands of miles
it heads eastward, joining Faerûn to the fabulous lands of
Kara-Tur. Along this road lie the merchant towns that comprise
the realm of Thesk, the crossroads of the Unapproachable
East. A dozen years ago, the mighty Tuigan horde
attacked Thesk. A great alliance of western powers halted the
Tuigans near the city of Phsant, but Thesk is still recovering
from the devastation of the war while struggling to accommodate
thousands of Shou who fled their far eastern homeland
before the horde.