FR - Who "created" the North region?

[Yora]

I just was flipping through my old 2nd Edition FR campaign setting box, and noticed how very briefly the North is mentioned in that box and how much focus is given to Cormyr and the Dales. Might just be me, but to me, Forgotten Realms was always "Heartlands, Sword Coast, and some others". So I was wondering how much relevance the North had in Ed Greenwoods creation.
"Waterdeep and the North" from 1987 was written by Greenwood, but also focuses entirely on Waterdeep, where he used to run a campaign, and just has some small mentions of the other places inside the actual North region. (Waterdeep basically being the gateway between the North and the Heartlands.) "The Savage Frontier" from 1988 is probably the definite source on the North, but doesn't have Greenwood in the credits at all. And in the same year, "The Crystal Shard" was also published. "Volo's Guide to the North" from 1993 has again Greenwoods name on it, but the big "The North" box set from 1996 only has him as one of seven secondary writers.

So I am getting the impression, that Greenwood had some basic idea what lies north of Waterdeep, but it was developed into an actual sub-setting later on by other people. The Savage Frontier lists Paul Jaquays as writer, but did he come up with most of that material, or was there already something in place. And given that The Crystal Shard came out the same year as The Savage Frontier, I am wondering how much new stuff was established by the Drizzt novels.
Does anyone of the old folks remember anything about this? :smallbiggrin:

[hamlet]

There are three primary sources for info on "The North."

Well, four actually.

1. The "Waterdeep and the North" book FR1 by Mr. Greenwood himself
2. "The Savage Fronteir" book FR6 by Paul Jaquays
3. "The North" Boxed Set by somebody I don't know who
4. "Waterdeep" boxed set by somebody I don't know who

There are some other bits here and there, but these are, for an AD&D player, really the crux of the whole thing. Past these, I don't know of any major source books that cover this stuff.

Really, it appears to have been a joint venture with the city itself being Ed's baby while the Savage Fronteir was taken up by a group of other authors. Did they invent all the material? Or were they following a grand plan laid out by Greenwood? No real idea.

If I had to guess, and mind this is pure speculation, Ed Greenwood had a very vague and broad idea of what was "up there" so to speak, but for the most part left it blank in case he needed it for future adventures. That is his style, I believe, leaving most of things blank except for very broad strokes and creating only as needed for the sake of the current adventure. The real trick is keeping it all straight as you go forward.

So, I believe that what Ed knew about the North really was Waterdeep and then some broad strokes for the Savage Fronteir and surrounding environs. Interesting, though, that it's probably my favorite part of the Realms entirely.

[Rhynn]

So, I believe that what Ed knew about the North really was Waterdeep and then some broad strokes for the Savage Fronteir and surrounding environs. Interesting, though, that it's probably my favorite part of the Realms entirely.

Same here. I've got a gigantic hexmap of the Savage Frontier done (but not filled up with locations of interest, yet), all the way from the Frozenfar and Icewind Dale to the edge of the Anauroch, and the Marsh of Chelimber. Just waiting for me to have time to run an ACKS campaign based in Waterdeep, with Undermountain as the underpinning megadungeon.

I'm away on vacation so I can't check the authors of the boxed sets, but IIRC the boxed sets were later and drew heavily on the first two books. (The Waterdeep boxed set might even have directly reprinted some of the earlier material, like the crime and punishment and guild listings? I forget.) Were the boxed sets 1E or 2E?

Waterdeep and the North actually admits to having been intended to cover the North, but just running out of space; so I imagine Ed Greenwood may have had a lot of ideas he intended to put down, but he knew so damn much about his Waterdeep that it took up all the space. (And holy heck, does that book tell you stuff about Waterdeep. I love it.)

[Toofey]

"The North" has different authors depending on the book. the wilderness has Slade, ed Greenwood, jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, steve schend, paul Jaquays and Steve Perrin. Cities and civilization has slade (one name), greenwood, Jim Butler and Schend. "Daggerford" is credited as "based off under Illefarn, by Steve Perrin" which makes sense as it's mostly a reprint of that.

I have a box set here "City of Splendors" which seems to be the other "waterdeep" you're referring to. Which seems to be all is Greenwood and Schend,

So the North Box set at least has a ton of authors.