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Defiantnight
2019-03-09, 08:42 PM
This is reserved this for an index of things in the Let's Play a Game (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?579449-Let-s-Play-a-Game-OOC) campaign.

[Reserved post 1.]

Defiantnight
2019-03-09, 08:43 PM
Lore Snippets

Many regard undead creatures as tormented spirits of some description, trapped in a pale imitation of life. While the many goals, motivations, and types of undeath are a fascinating study of their own accord, it's a universal truth that all are malefic in nature, seeking to inflict or repeat suffering upon some individual, group, or even themselves; this is universally regarded as an evil act by the holy writ of the gods, and every single one of them* regard their creation as an act that tarnishes the soul as well.

There is another holy rule that undeath disregards, however, even beyond their unnatural creation and the violation of the black gates. Scholars that study the planes other than the Prime agree unanimously that the gods have an unspoken rule, or more accurately, a concept instilled in the Prime and every other multiversal realm, that wasn't recorded or agreed upon, but is instead there as if by happenstance: the Rule of Three.

The subject is hotly debated, of course, but only by those too ignorant of extraplanar minutia to see the third concept in any given pairing. Birth, life, and death is the specific Three that undeath violates as a general rule; undeath also does not seem to follow any pattern of threes, or even twos, existing in singularity, making it very difficult at best to argue any pairing into a Three of its own. How the gods could allow such a violation of this magnitude, to interrupt the cycle of something so basic as a Three, is an interesting debate in its own accord but not one I will discuss here.

*Scribe's note: Here the High Magnus interrupts himself and assures the listener that a debate regarding the false "deity" known as the Vaunted is encouraged, if only to further spread the truth that his deification is both incorrect and blasphemous, as though other deities exist that are not of the Flesh of Light, the Vaunted is not even a deity, merely masking itself as one.

Defiantnight
2019-03-09, 09:14 PM
Immortals
Kossuth, or the Lord of Flames is the primordial of elemental fire. Kossuth is symbolized by the holy symbol of a twining red flame and his portfolio covers elemental fire and purification through fire. He is, however, not a true god but actually an elemental primordial, a being whose power rivals that of a true deity.



Gods

Name, Power
Aspects:
Symbol:
Alignment:
Portfolio:
Domains:

Draconic Pantheon
It was only after the last Rage of Dragons, that dragons drifted back into religious observance.
Asgorath was the dragon deity of creation. He (or she, as some traditions suggested) was regarded as the creator of the multiverse and of dragonkind, and he manipulated the destinies of all dragons by operating in a way that nobody suspected his involvement. Asgorath was supposed to encompass all alignments, but was often regarded as neutral. In the Outer Planes, he was more commonly known as Io. His holy symbol, an unadorned circle, represented totality.

Asgorath never manifested himself before his worshipers. However, he made his existence felt as a powerful presence in their minds.

Asgorath, however, could manifest physically if he wanted to, taking on the form of any dragon, and even in forms of other draconic creatures, such as pseudodragons. The oldest myths of dragonkind claimed that Asgorath manifested physically only once, during the act of creating the multiverse. Those who believed in this myth believed Asgorath was so huge, that even his scales were larger than the largest mortal dragon that ever existed.

According to the mysterious creation text, the Book of the World, Asgorath cast down the god Zotha and observed the two elements of existence: the world that she had made and the Crystal Sun that Zotha had made. She wrapped herself around the Crystal Sun and breathed on it. This caused the sun to shatter with fragments that pierced her flesh and killed her. Drops of her blood fell down upon the world and where they landed, red dragons were brought into existence. The new creatures lamented the loss of their creator, all except one, who pulled a fragment of the Crystal Sun out of Asgorath and cut himself with it. The blood fell to the earth and also created life, though this life was metallic in colour, rather than red. Asgorath began to stir so the "Renegade" and his progeny fled to the farthest corners of the world. The debate over Asgorath's alignment and nature was responsible for the most far-reaching holy wars of dragonkind. Every species of dragon and other dragonblooded creatures was certain that Asgorath represented the pinnacle of their particular race. While silver dragons could grudgingly accept the gold dragons' insistence that Asgorath was a lawful good gold dragon, neither could tolerate the red dragons' claim that Asgorath was a chaotic evil red. At one time the resulting wars threatened the entire dragon race with extinction. Perhaps it was the subtle influence of Kereska, god of dragon magic, but eventually most dragons turned away from the war and from religion in general. It was only after the last Rage of Dragons, that dragons drifted back into religious observance.

Analysis by scribes of this text reached the conclusion that this was the red dragons creation myth, and that the Asgorath depicted on it was in fact Tiamat, while the Renegade was Bahamut; many counter-theories existed, however, and no hard evidence was available to prove anything.

For ages, sages debated whether Bahamut and Tiamat actually were a deities or not. Many believed he and she respectively were the archetype of good and evil dragonkind, the avatars of other deities, or even mortal dragons so powerful that other dragons revered them like gods. Whatever they were, sages knew for certain that they were powerful, venerated by many good and evil dragons as their king and queen, and both were respected even by dragons of their opposing alignment.
Null, Greater deity
Aspects: The Reaver/Faluzure, The Guardian/Chronepsis
Symbol: A circle divided diagonally into white and black semicircles
Alignment: Lawful evil, Lawful Neutral
Portfolio: Death, Fate, Judgement
Domains: Death, Fate, Knowledge, Law, Scalykind
Null is the dragon god of death and undeath with two aspects, The Reaver and the Guardian of the Lost. As the Reaver, he was worshiped by evil dragons and took lives, blessing those who served him in this capacity. As the Guardian, he ferried the souls of dead dragons to Dragon Eyrie and ensured they were no longer troubled by the enemies they may have had in life. The Guardian of the Lost was known as Chronepsis on other worlds and planes, while the Reaver was known as Faluzure.

The Guardian of the Lost taught that all life eventually led into death, which was simply a starting point to another kind existence. True death, on the other hand, was final and absolute.

The Reaver taught that death and decay were inevitable and omnipresent and that dragons should incorporate aspects of death into their lives in order to truly be strong. Embracing death in life heralded that one day the afterlife would be part of the living world as well.

It was widely believed among his followers that Null was the son of Asgorath and brother of Bahamut and Tiamat. Null was worshiped by dragons of all alignments, living and undead, because of his dual role. Whether a goodly dragon wished to speed a lost loved one to the afterlife or an evil one wanted to attack a city with an army of undead, a prayer was said to Null. Whichever role he was in at the time, he appeared as an impenetrable region of blackness in the shape of a dragon. Legend also had it that to touch him was to instantly die.
Zotha was a godlike being who, according to the Book of the World, created a Crystal Sun at the beginning of time, while the god Asgorath created. Asgorath cast Zotha down from the heavens, and Zotha was not mentioned again.
Kereska was the chaotic neutral dragon goddess of magic, specifically dragon magic and magical creativity. Kereska always manifested in the form of a dragon, although she was able to take on many draconic forms as she wanted to, and specific details about her natural form were unknown. However, she was always surrounded by a pulsating aura of magical power.
According to draconic myths, it was Kereska who first taught dragonkind how to wield magic.

At some point prior to 1357 DR, Kereska empowered the gold dragon sorcerer Larendrammagar with the ability to cast more spells that any dragon naturally could, and to be able to use both arcane and divine magic, as a reward for his magical achievements.

In 1358 DR, Kereska entirely subsumed the worship and portfolio of the demigod Kalzareinad. Kalzareinad died shortly thereafter.
Kalzareinad was the dragon demigod of dragon magic, in particular the selfish, uncaring, or evil application of it. Kalzareinad is said to have aided Sammaster in creating the first dracolich.

In 1358 DR, the dragon goddess Kereska subsumed the entirety of his portfolio and worshipers. Kalzreinad's corpse appeared on the Astral Plane shortly thereafter. Null may have been gifted with the secrets of creating dracoliches after Kalzareinad's passing.

Dwarven
Moradin, Greater deity
Alignment: Lawful good
Portfolio: Creation, Metalcraft, Protection, Smithing, Stonework
Domains: Avarice, Craft, Dwarf, Earth, Good, Law, Pride, Protection, Wrath
Moradin was the lawful good god of the dwarves and the chief deity in their pantheon. A harsh but fair judge, he was strength and force of will embodied. Moradin inspired dwarven inventions and constantly sought to improve that race, encouraging their good nature, intelligence, and harmonious existence with other good races while battling their pride and isolationist tendencies. Moradin's holy day was on the crescent moon and he was worshipped at forges and hearths.

Elven
Silvanus, the Forest Father, was the god of nature, though formerly considered only the god of wild nature and druids. Silvanus was one of the oldest and most prominent deities in Faerūn, and the wilder counterpart to Chauntea the Earthmother. His worshipers protected places of nature from the encroachment of civilization with vigor and were implacable foes of industrious peoples.
The church of Silvanus had a pervasive influence, especially across the continent of Faerūn. Non-worshipers often viewed the church unfavorably due to its tendency to disrupt expansion into woodland, sometimes with violence. Examples of rituals for worship were entreaties for spells at sundown or in moonlight. The Dryad Dance was a replenishing ritual of wild, wayward dance that called out dryads to join the ritualists for mating. Most Silvanite clerics, sometimes referred to as Forest Masters, also functioned as druids or rangers.
Corellon

Giant
Goblin
Gnome
Halfling
Orc

Mainland Pantheon
Vecna, Lesser Deity
Symbol: An eye in the palm of a left hand
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Portfolio: Destructive and Evil Secrets, Magic, Hidden Knowledge, Intrigue
Domains: Evil, Knowledge, Magic
Vecna's cult is very secretive, and cells have been uncovered, at various points in history, nearly everywhere of importance in the known world.

Vecna has the desire to rule over all, living and dead. He is worshipped by all those who desire knowledge and that which is not meant to be known. Undead that are not in service to Orcus are almost always in service to the Maimed God. He commands all sorts of undead, from run-of-the-mill zombies and skeletons to Oni, Liches, Vampires and various kinds of constructs. His followers often band together in cults, dedicated to the practice of necromancy, finding secret knowledge, or both. These cults build their own altars and places of worship to their lord.

Vecna is an ascended mortal. The Church of Light denies his existence as a lesser deity, and in their lands he's most commonly known as the Vaunted, and considered a demigod of liches, undeath, and necromancers.
Vaunted, Demigod
Aspects: Mellifleur, Velsharoon
Symbol: A crowned laughing lich skull on a solid black hexagon
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Portfolio: Liches, Undeath, and Necromancy
Domains: Avarice, Arcana, Death, Envy, Evil, Pride, Undeath
Velsharoon (vel-shah-roon) is a vain, selfish, petty, but very canny deity consumed with vengeance, obsessed with experimenting on living and dead beings, and unconcerned with the fates of lesser creatures. In many ways he continues to act like the mortal he recently was, albeit with far greater power at his disposal than before.

The church of Velsharoon is a new one, and what hierarchy exists is found within individual temples. Many clerics of Velsharoon spend their days in necromantic research, seeking to understand and expand the faith's collective knowledge of life, death, and undeath. Most have created hundreds of undead servitors, some of them unique. When an undead creation has served its purpose, these self-involved researchers often brand the symbol of their deity on its chest and then order it to wander randomly across the lands. Other clerics of Velsharoon are involved in "support" activities for the faith—grave robbing, embalming, or teaching. A few of the more congenial low-level clerics sometimes cure the minor ills of the populace to bring in funding or worldly supplies for the church and to more easily gather information about its enemies.

Other Pantheons
Gods of Fury
The Gods of Fury are a group of evil and destructive deities from the Northern Icelands, led by Talos, the Destroyer. The Gods of Fury are Talos, plus Auril, the Frostmaiden, Malar, the Beastlord, and Umberlee, the Bitch Queen.

Talos, Greater Deity
Aspects: Kozah (Netheril)
Symbol: Three lightning bolts converging to one area
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: Conflagration, Destruction, Earthquakes, Rebellion, Storms, Vortices
Domains: Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Fire, Storms, Wrath
Auril, Lesser Deity
Aspects: Saukuruk
Symbol:
Portfolio: Cold, Winter, Ice
Domains: Air, Cold, Evil, Storm, Water, Wrath

Auril, also known as The Cold Goddess, The Frostmaiden, Icedawn, and the Goddess of Winter, was a fickle, vain, and evil deity, who was primarily venerated out of fear. The few among the Iulutiuns of the Great Glacier who worshiped her called her Saukuruk. She was additonally seen as being synonymous with the Queen of Air and Darkness by some communities of fey, such as those of the Shiverpine Forest in the Deep Wilds.

Auril, along with Malar, Umberlee, and their superior Talos, was a member of the Deities of Fury. Umberlee and Auril cooperated with some degree of confidence, while Malar and Auril despised each other.[7]

Much of Auril's power was absorbed by Talos in recent times, weakening the minor deity. Despite this, or perhaps as a result of it, Auril quietly siphoned power from the slumbering deity Ulutiu who was in stasis under the Great Glacier. Kossuth and Auril were mortal enemies, but their followers seldom came across each other. Uthgar hated Auril as she turned the Elk Tribe away from his worship.

At one stage, was in a relationship with Thrym, God of the frost giants. During that time she became the mother to the Empyrean daughter Nalkara.

Sacrifices to the Frostmaiden were common, especially in the North, as people hoped to appease her and thus avoid cripplingly cold winters. She also had many secret temples along the Spine of the World that brought terror and dominion to small settlements of people trying to eke out a living. The Northerners burn their dead to allow their conflagrated spirits to escape the chill of Auril's influence.
Malar, The Beastlord, was the lesser deity of the hunt, evil lycanthropes, bestial savagery and bloodlust. His dogma concerned savage hunts, the spreading of the curse of lycanthropy, and general contempt for civilization.

Umberlee, also referred to as The Bitch Queen and the Queen of the Depths, is the evil sea goddess. She is most often worshiped by sailors or people traveling by sea, out of fear of her destructive powers. She controlled the harshness of the sea while reveling in her own power and was not hesitant to drown people, if she so pleased.
She was known as a particularly malicious, petty and vain deity. Acting on her turbulent whims when making deals with mortals. She was quite greedy for power and hungry for the flattery of others.

Talona, Lesser Deity
Aspects: Kiputytto
Symbol: Three amber teardrops on a purple triangle
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: Disease, Poison
Domains: Blightbringer, Chaos, Destruction, Envy, Evil, Suffering
Talona was depicted as an old crone who brought misfortune and death, or as a beautiful and innocent woman.

Talona had her realm, the Palace of Poison Tears, on the jungle-covered orbs of Cathrys, Carceri's second layer, known for its poisonous vegetation. Faluzure's realm, the Mausoleum of Pain, on the third layer lay on the orb nestled within the one carrying Talona's Palace, while all locations on the same layer were further away.

Talona's followers scarred or tattooed themselves in horrible ways. They wore ragged gray-green robes and were expected to go about quietly and seek out new diseases. Her priests carried daggers dipped in poison.

Interloper Deities
Kiputytto, Dead Power (Formerly Demigod)
Kiputytto was a demigoddess of disease slain by Talona.

In the eastern desert, Kiputytto attacked Talona, a deity who shared a portfolio with hers. Their chosen battleground was the city of Asram, one of the four remaining cities of the Netherese. Talona gained the upper hand by plaguing the city, forcing the inhabitants to pray to her. Kiputytto struck back with similar method, however her plagues overcame the curative resources of the city and left the population dead in less than a month. In the aftermath, Talona slew Kiputytto.

Kiputytto was described as a black skinned, twisted old crone with a scarred face.
Olman humans of the Southern Jungle held up names as Olman deities: Mictlantecuhtli, god of death, darkness, murder and the underworld; Tezcatlipoca, god of sun, moon, night, scheming, betrayals and lightning; and Quetzalcoatl, god of air, birds and snakes. Kiputytto was a power that used to be among them.


Netherese Pantheon
Chauntea the Grain Goddess or the Great Mother was the goddess of life and a parallel deity to Silvanus, who was considered the god of wild nature, whilst Chauntea herself was seen as being the embodiment of all things agrarian or agriculture. She was a goddess of agriculture, plants cultivated by humans, farmers, gardeners, and summer.

Some of her worshipers claimed that her divine glimmer gave life to the natural world, and some contended that she was the creator and source of all mortal races. In some sense, Chauntea was the manifestation of the land itself - the avatar of the prime material world. Her most despised enemy was Talona, the lady of pestilence, since she had a disposition to wreak suffering, disease and decay upon the natural world.

Selūne, also known as Our Lady of Silver, the Moonmaiden, and the Night White Lady, was the goddess of the moon in the Faerūnian pantheon. In the 14th and 15th centuries DR, she held the portfolios of the moon, stars, navigation, navigators, wanderers, questers, seekers, and non-evil lycanthropes. In the time of ancient Netheril, when she was a greater goddess, she held the portfolios of the moon, moonlight, and stars; beauty and purity; love and marriage; navigation and navigators; tracking, wanderers, and seekers; diviners and dreams; good and neutral lycanthropes; and autumn. Hers was the moon's mysterious power, the heavenly force that governed the world's tides and a mother's reproductive cycles, caused lycanthropes to shift form, and drew one to the brink of madness, and back again. Her nature, appearance, and mood all changed in turn with the phases of the moon. It was unknown if the moon was named for the goddess or the goddess for the moon. Regardless, most humans believed the moon to be the goddess herself watching over the world.

Shar, the Mistress of the Night, was the goddess of darkness and the caverns, as well as a neutral evil greater deity. Counterpart to her twin Selūne, she presided over caverns, darkness, dungeons, forgetfulness, loss, night, secrets, and the Underdark. Among her array of twisted powers was the ability to see everything that lay or happened in the dark. Shar's symbol was a black disk with a deep purple border.

According to one of the most ancient myths of the creation of the world and the heavens, after the universe and its crystal sphere were created by He Who Came Before, there was naught but the primordial essence, the protoplasmic raw stuff of existence. Described as chaos and timeless nothingness, the sphere was filled with no more than dim misty shadows, neither light nor dark, for such things had not yet separated. (All that moved here were the shadevari, the thirteen lords of shadow, whose origin, whether from elsewhere or from the shadow itself, is unknown.) In time, Shar coalesced from the primordial essence, alongside her twin sister, Selūne. The goddesses were beautiful, identical but polar opposites, raven-haired and silver-haired, one representing the dark, the other the light. Yet they so close they saw themselves as one being, known later as the Two-Faced Goddess or the Sisters-Who-Were-One. They complemented each other and brought order out of the chaos.

The two goddesses then fought over the fate of their creations. From the residues of these struggles emerged the original deities of magic, war, disease, murder, death, and others. Seizing an advantage, Selūne reached out of the universe altogether and into a plane of fire and, though it burned her painfully, brought forth a fragment of ever-living flame. She ignited a heavenly body - the Sun* - in order to give warmth to Chauntea, then the embodiment of all matter.

This greatly enraged Shar; she renewed her assault on her injured sister and began to blot out all light and warmth in the universe, or the lights of Selūne, gravely weakening her. To protect the early life, Selūne tore out some of her own divine essence, though it nearly killed her, and hurled it at her sister. Selūne's essence tore through Shar, bonding with some of Shar's essence and pulling it loose. This magical energy combined to form the goddess Mystryl, the original goddess of magic. Although Mystryl was composed of both light and dark magic, she initially sided with Selūne, her first mother, giving her the upper hand. Mystryl balanced the conflict and mediated an uneasy truce. Shar was cast into her darkness for centuries, enabling light and warmth to bathe the worlds.

This is the battle you and I must fight forever, Shar—night devouring the light of the moon, the moon replenishing itself. That is our place in the balance of nature. The fragile, eternal balance was as gods must uphold."

The battle left Selūne deeply wounded, and thereafter her power would wax and wane with the ages, though she would gain strength from alliances with her daughters and sons, as well as interloper deities from other planes. Meanwhile, Shar, who'd retained much of her might, once again grew strong, and was aided by the shadevari. Consumed with bitterness and loneliness, she vowed revenge and lurked in the darkness until her time to strike. The war between the sisters would go on forever more, but life struggled and flourished on the worlds, watched over by Chauntea.

*The Eternal Sun was a plane thought to be lost long ago in the astral dominion (now called the astral sea).

Defiantnight
2019-03-12, 11:39 PM
The World: Illium

The Broken Empire (The Holy Tasqan Empire/The Antalian Republic)
The capital of Tarascon, birthplace and stronghold of the Holy Tasqan Empire, provided life to the arid lands from the center of the continent. Now that the Empire has been shattered and the lands are drying up once more, it's easy to make the connection that the gods have forsaken the newly reformed Antalian Republic.

The armies of the Empire are on the move, and they seek only slaves and flesh for their homeland. Gems cannot buy peace for even the lowliest soldier has diamonds in his ears, gold cannot save your children for even their snarling fanged dogs have golden collars. They are hungry for slaves and they are like the storm, unstoppable as a force of nature. Their troops wield armor grown from their very bones. They are tireless and fearless. Worse they are led by something beyond human. Men and woman no longer restrained by laws of blood and bone, or mercy. The signs and refugees from the east says they are on the move again, and the time of troubles is about to begin again for all kingdoms in the mountains.

Tarascon is the City. The First City, the one on which all others are modeled, the Center of the World. The Lords of Tarascon are the Lords of the World, for all know, from the Everlasting Ice in the forbidden South to the Howling Windfields of the frozen North, from the orc-kingdoms of the blighted steppes to the coral empires of the merfolk beneath the seas, that all power descends from Tarascon. The Gods rule from Tarascon, the greatest of its Lords. They walk in the very likeness of the Great Beast, and no blade forged of men can slay them.

In the Ancient Ages, before there was sun or moon by which time might be measured, there was The Beast, The Eater Of Worlds. It devoured worlds as they sprung from the cosmic soil, so that no mortal race might begin. But the Gods were born from the fluxing energies of the Cosmos itself, and they went forth to slay The Beast, armored with flaming glory and armed with cosmos-shaking spells and star-slaying weapons. The battle was beyond conceiving, and not one in ten thousand gods remained undevoured when at last The Beast was dead. And the gods saw that all the cosmos was in ruins from the depredations of The Beast and the force of the battle, and they resolved to build a new one. The Material Plane they made from the beast's carapace, each hollow between the great scales became a world. From The Beast's eyes the sun and moon were made. The Astral Plane was made from the beast's limbs, the Ethereal from its ribs, the Shadow from the lightless depths of its vast maw.The rotting ferment of its guts became the Elemental Planes, and from the dead thoughts of the monstrosity its decaying brain became the Far Realm, the world of madness.

And the gods were weary, and had grown wise in the making of the world. As the world was finished they left the cosmos, and none know whither they went, nor have they been seen ever.

But The Beast was not wholly dead, and it rose again from the least of its scales. And it plagued the world of mortals, and it grew greater and greater. And the first mortals knew that were it permitted to grow once more it would become greater than the mountains, and it would pluck the sun and moon from the sky, and in time it would consume all the worlds. A thousand warriors sought to destroy it, but all were devoured. Then four heroes went forth against it, and they bound it with chains that could lift a mountain. And yet they knew that the beast must ever be flayed and sliced, its flesh removed, so that it might not grow. So was built the First City, to house the men who went forth to slice the beast. They ate the flesh of the Beast, which carried still the energies of a million dead gods, so they became gods themselves, gods in the image of the Beast. And all the peoples of the world know well that if Tarascon falls, and the Beast is not flayed or sliced, the worlds all will end.

Yet a great army marches upon Tarascon, at its head a strange lord in armor brighter than the sun...


Arkhosia
A Rage of Dragons, or Dracorage, was a periodic event that occurred when many dragons living in the central mountains of Arkhosia went on a collective, senseless rampage, destroying everything in their path. This periodic madness seemed to be tied to the appearance of a lunar eclipse, and lasted for a tenday. In the event of a localized Rage of Dragons, the more common label was a flight of dragons.

After the last Rage of Dragons, in 1373 DR, the dragon population was greatly reduced in number. That realization sparked the need of dragons to look for the help of their gods, marking the prophesied "turning of the Great Cycle", an ancient myth that foretold the return of draconic religious fervor. The dragon gods who survived the long years without worshipers received a great influx of power from their new draconic followers. However, this also threatened the Holy Tasqan Empire with the possibility of a new battle in the Dragonfall War.

The Eastern Desert
Asram was originally one of the flying cities in ancient Netheril. It was one of only three cities (the others being Anauria and Hlondath) high enough above the ground that the reborn Mystra was able to save them before they tumbled to the ground and shattered. Instead, Mystra ensured they landed safely, although never again would they be able to fly.

After the Fall, Asram slowly expanded to become an independent kingdom. At its height, Asram was the second richest of the three realms that survived Netheril's fall. Abandoning or renaming the formerly-floating city that formed the realm's core, Asram became governed from the wealthy city of Phelajarama, known as the City of the Serpent for the gold-leaf-covered carved serpents that decorated it. More important, though, was Orolin, the City of Magicians. In Orolin, magic was used in everyday tasks by all citizens, not just the ruling elite as things had been in Netheril. With the wealth of its magicians, Orolin became a city of sprawling orchards and villas, with canals, parks, and a fortress in the city's central core. With the power of its magic, the merchants of Orolin found precious gold, copper, and zinc in the secret places in the encroaching sands, and used it to make themselves still wealthier. The land of Asram became the most decadent of the three realms, with parties that went on for days, citizens who believed that doing whatever they wished was the whole of the law, and jaded nobles who sought and killed monsters for naught but sport. Other settlements in Asram included Miirsar, a port on Lake Miir known for its fine ships, and Ulshantir, known for its fine works of copper and brass.

In -33 DR, Asram was struck by a horrendous plague. In the spring months that led up to what many call a repeat of the Dark Disaster, cattle were found dead in the fields and crops withered and died, sometimes overnight. During the first week of Eleasius, however, the plague struck the entire nation. Few survived. This seems to have been the result of the interloper goddess Kiputytto attacking the goddess Talona, using the city of Phelajarama as a battleground. Talona gained the upper hand by plaguing the city, forcing the inhabitants to pray to her. Kiputytto struck back with similar method; however her plagues overcame the curative resources of the city and left the population dead in less than a month. In the aftermath, Talona slew Kiputytto.

Because the plague still clings to Asram's ruins, its treasures still remain untouched.

In approximately 854 DR, a humanoid culture living in Asram created the Book of the World, a sacred book filled with myths they had apparently learned from red dragons. The book was discovered in approximately 1254 DR, at which point whatever culture had created the book had vanished.
The Book of the World was an enigmatic tome discovered in Asram in approximately 1254 DR; from the oxidation of the pages, the book was probably created some 400 years before that. The book consisted of some 300 sheets of a thin, flexible metal upon which a simplified runic script in an extremely ancient form of Thorass had been scribed. Only a single copy of the book was ever found, but it was evidently once the center of a body of religious beliefs. It contained a massive amount of mythological content, apparently having sprung from a sophisticated culture of a kind never known to have formed in Asram.

The Book of the World was notable for providing an origin myth for dragonkind, apparently a mythologized recount of the Tearfall in the Days of Thunder. Godlike beings mentioned in the myth include Asgorath, Zotha, and a dragon called the Renegade, credited for the creation of metallic dragons. The Thorass word for renegade is bahmat, very similar to the modern name Bahamut.

Because there were no humanoid mythological figures in the myths, it's been speculated that the myths originated among dragons, probably red dragons because it credits red dragons as the original draconic species, and subsequently spread to whatever humanoid culture created the book.

Languages
Thorass, or Old (Auld) Common, was an old human language, the original trade language of the eastern desert and the direct ancestor of Common. Thorass was similar enough to modern Common that it could be directly translated into the latter language, though it would have an jarring form and archaic vocabulary. It had a base 10 numbering system.

There was also a great deal of evidence that Thorass was derived in part from older incarnations of Jotun, the language of giants.

The Howling Windfields
The Great Glacier (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/7/73/Pelviria.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110420022034) was created in -2550 DR when the god Ulutiu laid himself to rest in his ice barge in the Cold Ocean, a favourite inland sea of his. The barge sank soon after and the Necklace of Ulutiu, an artifact that he wore, encased his body in ice when his divinity had departed to the Astral Sea.

The Cold Ocean became completely frozen by the necklace's magic over the next seventy five years then, due to a lack of interference from the giant kingdom of Ostoria, encroached upon the land as well. The glacier eventually destroyed the remains of Ostoria (the city of Gharreil was a testimony to its former existence) but was held in check by the High Magic of the elves of Lethyr.[2] Over three thousand years later, the Ice Queen Iyraclea was granted the power to overcome the High Magic by Auril and the glacier began to grow larger once more.

However, some rumors credited the extremely old gold dragon Protanther the creation of the glacier, as one of his plans to get rid of the evil from Vaasa. Although there was no absolute proof of this, given Protanther outstanding magical abilities, such a feat was not impossible for him, giving credence to this rumor.

It is not known exactly why she stopped, but Iyraclea ceased her magical ministrations to the Glacier, causing it to begin to retreat in 1038 DR, four hundred years after her original icy expansion, suddenly clearing massive swathes of formerly frozen land on its southern edge. The Glacier continued to retreat more and more, but much slower, and when the Ice Queen died in 1373 DR, there was nobody to reverse the process.

The Forbidden South
The forest of Cormanthor was long the place of the elven empire of Cormanthyr. It is a large, dense forest made up of a variety of species of plants, including some trees that can grow over 100' (30m) high deep in the woods. It is largely abandoned today because of the Retreat, when over 90% of the elven inhabitants left for Evereska and Evermeet or other places in the west. It remained a large mysterious forest with old secrets for many centuries and only recently, with the revival of Cormanthyr, has it come alive again.

The abandoned Elven Court is rumored to be hidden in the country-spanning forests. It is a holy site for the elves, a Seldarine-blessed place of pilgrimage, where the elves first convened to serve justice and decide the outcome of the Crown Wars and the fate of elves. Celebrating a two-thousand year old peace between Arcorar and the dwarves of Sarphil, the elves held a feast in the Hall of Ages on Midwinter Night, -4400 DR. Then began the "Dark Court Slaughter" as a combined horde of drow and duergar swarmed from the Underdark and attacked the city. Aided by magics that cloaked the area in darkness throughout the day, as well as the fact that none carried weapons on Elven Court's hallowed grounds, the drow and duergar easily routed the elves, sacked the city and desecrated its temples. Two Coronals (those of Jhyrennstar and Rystall Wood) perished in the battle, along with many nobles and commoners alike. In the end, the city was a monster infested ruin, and the drow abandoned it.

For millennia afterwards, the Old Elven Court remained forsaken by the elves. When Cormanthyr was founded in -4000 DR, the institution of Elven Court was moved to the city of Cormanthor, the capital, and that city served the purpose of togetherness and judgment in the wake of the loss of the old city. Too many monsters wandering the woods (now called the Darkwoods by the sylvan elves who lived nearby) proved an unsurmountable obstacle for the armies of Cormanthyr, already stretched thin in maintaining its existing borders against further threats from the dark-skinned cousins. All that was left was to mourn the loss of the most holy place.