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In this series I will look at the history of the Forgotten Realms world and publish a series of maps depicting the continent of Faerûn and the wider world of Toril at various points in its past. Like my previous series, Nations of the Forgotten Realms, this series draws on The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas and other Dungeons & Dragons resources for the setting, particularly The Grand History of the Realms, Netheril: Empire of Magic, Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves and Lost Empires of Faerûn.
The work of Richard Baker, Ed Bonny, Eric L. Boyd, James Butler, Thomas Costa, Ed Greenwood, Dale “slade” Henson, Brian R. James, George Krashos, Steven Schend and Travis Stout was particularly useful in compiling this series, along, obviously, with the work of everyone who has ever put pen to paper for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting (officially or unofficially).
A map depicting the Second Crown War, between the dark elven kingdom of Ilythiir and its neighbours to the north, Orishaar and the Kingdoms of the Three Leaves: Thearnytaar, Syòrpiir and Eiellûr.
The Second Crown War
With Miyeritar under attack in the north, Ilythiir decided to begin its long-planned war of vengeance against the northern kingdoms for the disaster of the Sundering, as well as continuing to worship gods considered anathema to the Seldarine.
In 11,700 BDR, Ilythiir ordered Orishaar to halt its trade and supply agreements with Aryvandaar by sea. Orishaar refused, believing that Ilythiir would not dare test their power and their alliance with Aryvandaar. They were wrong. The dark elves of Ilythiir invaded Orishaar with overwhelming force, deploying magic on a staggering scale. Aryvandaar was too busy securing Miyeritar to come to their aid. Orishaar was overrun and conquered within just months.
Thearnytaar and Eiellûr marshalled their strength and fortified the coast of the Lake of Steam, fearing a surprise Ilythiiri strike across the sea. But the Ilythiiri made other plans and instead sent a large army far to the east, striking Syòrpiir from the south and south-east. By 11,600 BDR Syòrpiir had been destroyed, with the Ilythiiri employing fire on a huge scale to burn out the enemy and divide their territory from Eiellûr to the west. The Golden Plains and Naga Plains were formed at this time.
Thearnytaar and Eiellûr formally allied and declared war on Ilythiir in 11,500 BDR. After forming a holding line to the east for fifty years, they invaded Ilythiiri territory by sea, with the intention of bringing Ilythiir’s rulers to justice, in a campaign known as the Sable Wars. But the dark magics of the dark elven gods were employed against them, and their forces were slaughtered, or transformed into hideous, crazed half-spider creatures known as driders, which were then unleashed against their own homelands. By 11,400 BDR Eiellûr had fallen, again through the use of fire. By 11,200 BDR Thearnytaar had likewise collapsed.
The growing chaos of the Crown Wars did have an unexpected impact elsewhere. Elven refugees fled to the lands of the Inner Sea and sought help from their aquatic elven brethren. In 11,743 BDR the sea elves of Aryselmalyr, a rising power of the Inner Sea, founded the great city of Coryselmal and employed magic so surface-dwelling elves could take refuge in the city. By 11,400 BDR the torrent of refugees had become enough that Aryselmalyr had to expand its borders through the Inner Sea, bringing it into conflict with the sahuagin for the first time. In 11,003 BDR, Coryselmal was confirmed as the capital of Aryselmalyr, marking the first year of the Calendar of Serôs, as the sea elves called the undersea realms below the Inner Sea.
Other refugees, fearing the ocean deeps, would flee elsewhere in Faerûn, to the vast forests east of the Inner Sea known as the Riildath and the Yuirwood, or north-east to the Great Forest on the Inner Sea’s north-eastern shores, beyond the plains east of Aryvandaar and Miyeritar.
Three years later, a huge, organic craft originating from elsewhere in Realmspace made planetfall in the Shining Plains, the area of open land east of Shantel Othreier and Keltormir, and to the west of the Inner Sea. This craft brough the very first illithids, or mind-flayers, to Toril. They soon disappeared into the caverns and caves below the plains where they founded the great city of Oryndoll, some twenty-six miles below the surface.
A map depicting the locations of the founding kingdoms of Shanatar, later called Deep Shanatar, the original homeland of the shield or mountain dwarves of Faerûn. All locations and borders are shown in the Underdark; surface features are shown for relative reference.
The Founding of Shanatar
In 10,800 BDR, there was a schism within the great dwarven kingdom of Bhaerynden over whether to establish further colonies or focus on their own affairs, especially given the chaos engulfing the elf kingdoms far above their heads. Finally, Taark Shanat, known as the Crusader, led his eight sons and a large number of followers out of Bhaerynden. They travelled westwards by paths unknown (possibly through what was already becoming known as the Underdark) and emerged in the mountainous lands west of the Lake of Steam. They continued westwards, eventually discovering the great underground city of Rringlor North (located just west of what are now called the Marching Mountains), a city inhabited by the species known as cloakers.
The dwarves took the nearby caverns of Alatorin as their stronghold and fended off cloaker attacks, as well as slaying four dragons from the Rift of Dhalnadar. The four dragon skulls were fused together by holy magic, blessed by Dumathoin, to form the Wyrmskull Throne. The site was renamed Brightaxe Hall, the capital of the newly-established kingdom of Alatorin. But Alatorin was merely the first of nine great kingdoms which would arise in the region. It would be joined by Barakuir, Drakkalor (under the Kuldin Peaks), Iltkazar (under the Omlarandin Mountains), Korolnor (under the Troll Mountains), Sondarr, Torglor (under the Snowflake Mountains), Ultoksmarin (under the eastern Marching Mountains) and Xothaerin (underneath Amn), each founded by one of Taark’s sons. The further kingdom of Holorarar was subsequently founded below what are now the Clovis Fields of Tethyr. These kingdoms were all part of the greater dwarf-empire of Shanatar, the Shield-Kingdom. The inhabitants of Shanatar became known as the shield dwarves.
Lying mostly under the territory of Keltormir, the dwarves of Shanatar established trade contacts with the elves above and began supplying them with weapons and armour, of which they would soon be in dire need.
A map depicting the Third Crown War, between the gold elf kingdom of Aryvandaar and its southern neighbour of Shantel Othreier. The extent of the Dark Disaster, when the conquered dark elven kingdom of Miyeritar was inexplicably scoured from the face of Toril, is also shown.
The Third Crown War
With the conquest of Miyeritar completed, Aryvandaar turned its eyes southwards to Shantel Othreier. Shantel Othreier was larger and more powerful than Miyeritar, with a longer history and powerful magic at its command. However, Shantel Othreier also had other concerns: it had lost forces fighting dragons, and lost more troops which it had sent to aid Thearnytaar and Eiellûr against Ilythiir.
Shantel Othreier tried to discourage Aryvandaari aggression, but failed. In 10,900 BDR, Aryvandaar’s armies invaded Shantel Othreier from the north and north-east, using staging areas in Miyeritar and powerful magic learned from the fallen solar Malkizid, who had rebelled against the Seldarine almost twenty thousand years earlier.
In 10,700 BDR the elves of Shantel Othreier launched a counter-offensive, planning to swing far to the east through the Gods’ Theatre with a very large force and attack Aryvandaar’s supply lines, forcing them to withdraw or starve. Getting wind of the plan, Aryvandaar sent forces to intercept. This resulted in the Battle of the Gods’ Theatre, in the modern Tunlands. Battle was joined and the outcome hanged in the balance until a vast horde of orcs swept out of the Sunset Mountains. More than seventy thousand elves were slain in the resulting massacre, one of the most severe losses of elven life in recorded history.
Shantel Othreier bore the brunt of the casualties and was permanently weakened by the loss. By 10,600 BDR, Coronal Ynloeth had died and Shantel Othreier surrendered to Aryvandaari occupation. However, Aryvandaar’s losses were also severe, weakening both their frontier armies and their occupation forces in Miyeritar. Resistance forms sprang up across both Shantel Othreier and Miyeritar, leaving the Aryvandaari having to commit vast forces to defending against hit-and-run attacks rather than preparing for the next stage of their campaign.
Tremendous pressure was now applied to Keltormir, lying as it did between the hammer of Ilythiir to the south-east and Aryvandaar to the north, unable to bring its full strength to bear against one less it be attacked on the other flank. The Keltormiri braced themselves for an impossible struggle.
The Dark Disaster
With the conclusion of the Third Crown War and the defeat of Shantel Othreier by Aryvandaar, Faerûn held its breath to see where the winds of war would blow next. The smart money was an invasion of Keltormir by Aryvandaar or Ilythiir, or both, and that realm accordingly prepared for conflict.
But the Aryvandaari were pinned down by constant rebellion, uprisings and rebel attacks throughout Miyeritar and Shantel Othreier, aided, or so the Aryvandaari suspected, by the remaining free kingdoms of the west, Ardeep and Illefarn. These attacks became so serious that Aryvandaar several times had to delay its planned attack on Keltormir to address them.
Then, in 10,500 BDR, a disaster of a magnitude not seen since the Sundering struck Faerûn. Dark clouds formed above Miyeritar and rapidly spread. A horrendous, poisonous rain struck the ground, accompanied by lightning and firestorms. The elves called it the Killing Storm, and it spread out to encompass most of the central part of Miyeritar’s territory.
It lasted at least days, possibly weeks, maybe even months. By the time it had ended, Miyeritar had been scourged from the face of the continent. A vast, blasted wilderness was left behind, an utterly dead wasteland that in later millennia would be called the High Moor. The death toll was certainly in the tens of thousands at the very least, maybe vastly more.
The calamity, the Dark Disaster, shocked Faerûn into an undeclared ceasefire that would last forty years. No precise explanation was ever found. Some believed that Aryvandaar’s High Mages had caused the catastrophe themselves, but many Aryvandaari occupation troops and civilians had themselves died in the event. Some believed that the rebel Miyeritari had caused it, but it was their own people who had borne the brunt of the casualties. Many concluded it was an act of High Magic brought about by one side but which had gotten out of control.
Whatever the cause, the Ilythiiri squarely blamed Aryvandaar, citing it as evidence that the Aryvandaari desired the death of every dark elf in Faerûn, something they could not allow to happen. They would now be urged to ever greater actions of destruction and evil, claiming it was in self-defence against the threat of genocide.
Thank you for reading The Atlas of Ice and Fire. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content before it goes live on my blogs.
In this series I will look at the history of the Forgotten Realms world and publish a series of maps depicting the continent of Faerûn and the wider world of Toril at various points in its past. Like my previous series, Nations of the Forgotten Realms, this series draws on The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas and other Dungeons & Dragons resources for the setting, particularly The Grand History of the Realms, Netheril: Empire of Magic, Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves and Lost Empires of Faerûn.
The work of Richard Baker, Ed Bonny, Eric L. Boyd, James Butler, Thomas Costa, Ed Greenwood, Dale “slade” Henson, Brian R. James, George Krashos, Steven Schend and Travis Stout was particularly useful in compiling this series, along, obviously, with the work of everyone who has ever put pen to paper for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting (officially or unofficially).
A map showing the elven kingdoms on the eve of the Crown Wars. Please click for a larger version.
The Crown Wars were a lengthy series of conflicts that tore apart elven civilisation on Toril and marked the beginning of the end of elven domination of Faerûn. The conflict raged for three thousand years, beginning circa 12,000 BDR (Before Dalereckoning) and concluding in 9000 BDR, involving almost every major elven power of the day and also drawing in humans and dwarves, amongst others.
As related previously, during the era known as the First Flowering, five great elven empires came into existence stretching down the western coast of Faerûn. There were as follows:
Ilythiir (founded 27,000 BDR): a vast empire of dark elves, descendants of earlier jungle and wood elves who had settled the vast woodlands spreading across much of southern Faerûn. The Ilythiiri forsook the Seldarine to worship the dark gods Vhaeraun and Ghaunadaur before they were fully subsumed into the worship of Lolth, Queen of the Demonweb Pits. The Ilythiiri capital, Atorrnash on the Shining Sea, was destroyed in the Sundering (the creation of Evermeet), cementing their hatred of their elven kindred.
Aryvandaar(23,900 BDR): the vast northern empire of elves, centred on the High Forest with its capital at Sharlarion. Originally home to elves of all kindreds, the sun or gold elves became dominant and increasingly arrogant, elitist and power-hungry, especially the Vyshaan clan (which assumed leadership in 15,300 BDR).
Shantel Othreier (23,600 BDR): a large kingdom of sun and moon elves located in the Wood of Sharp Teeth, in those days much enlarged and merged with the Snakewood of modern Amn.
Ardeep (c. 23,400 BDR): a colony of Shantel Othreier, founded by the latter in the forest lands around the mouth of the River Dessarin.
Syòrpiir (23,100 BDR): a kingdom of wood elves located in the modern Chondalwood, then known as the Satyrwood.
Illefarn (22,900 BDR): a wild elf kingdom founded to the west of Aryvandaar, in the lands west of the Dessarin Valley and abutting the Sword Coast North.
Orishaar (22,500 BDR): a moon elf kingdom located south of the Lake of Steam.
Thearnytaar (21,400 BDR): a wood elf kingdom located in the modern Thornwood, at the western end of the Lake of Steam, along the north shore.
Eiellûr (21,000 BDR): a wood elf kingdom located in the modern Winterwood, then part of the same vast Satyrwood as Thearnytaar and Syòrpiir.
Miyeritar (18,800 BDR): a wild and dark elf kingdom made up of those who had left Aryvandaar due to the growing arrogance of the rulers. They settled south of the Delimbiyr in what is now the High Moor, then a lush and vast forest.
Keltormir (17,800 BDR): a moon and wood elf kingdom located in what is now the Forest of Tethir and Forest of Mir, then one vast woodland.
A map showing the (very approximate) borders of the elven empires before the First Crown War.
The elven empires traded with one another in peace, but there was mistrust and disquiet between them. The three-century War of the Three Leaves (17,100-16,800 BDR) between Syòrpiir and Thearnytaar, largely fought on the territory of Eiellûr which divided them, had been instigated by Ilythiir to stop the three kingdoms unifying into one powerful empire. Although Ilythiiri involvement was eventually uncovered, the distrust cemented between the three nations was successful in keeping them disunified.
Other species were also present in Faerûn: the giant nation of Ostoria remained extant, although it was now limited to the northern-most parts of the continent. Human tribes had settled the mouth of the Wurlur River in Keltormir, and as time passed, they could also be found just north of the Kingdoms of the Three Leaves, as well as on the Chultan Peninsula after its formation in the Sundering, along with scattered settlements of couatl (in the west) and yuan-ti (in the east). Dwarves had emerged from under the vast Yehimal mountains of the far east and had begun to settle new mountain kingdoms across southern and eastern Faerûn. Most notable was the great city and kingdom of Bhaerynden, built thousands of feet beneath the jungles of Ilythiir itself c. 15,000 BDR.
The Eve of Disaster
The build-up to the First Crown War began with the ascendancy of House Vyshaan to the rule of Aryvandaar in 15,300 BDR. Coronal Ivósaar Vyshaan put forth his vision of a single elven nation ruling all of Faerûn and Toril beyond, a mighty power that would make the planes and worlds tremble. At first, he believed this could be achieved peacefully. In 14,700 BDR he extended the hand of alliance and friendship to Miyeritar, the great kingdom of wild and dark elves located south of Aryvandaar and made up of self-declared exiles, who had left Aryvandaar four thousand years earlier in disgust at perceived Aryvandaari arrogance and imperialism.
The Vyshaan plan for a rapprochement between the two empires sounded to the Miyeritari very much like annexation, and they turned down the suggestion almost out of hand. Ivósaar rejected the path of violence and died with his dreams unfulfilled. But the dream remained alive in his descendants.
To the growing anger of the Vyshaan, their southern neighbours underwent a Renaissance of art, culture and power. In 13,900 BDR Miyeritar was acknowledged the centre of elven art, learning and High Magic on Toril. New wizard colleges in Miyeritar became immensely popular, and those in Aryvandaar declined. In 13,200 BDR Aryvandaar accused Miyeritar of blocking its trade with the other elven kingdoms, whereas in reality the quality of Miyeritari goods had surpassed their own, and Miyeritar now became the preferred market for such goods. Aryvandaar suspended trade with Miyeritar and tried to get other kingdoms to follow suit, but these efforts failed.
Tensions between the two kingdoms continued to rise, and other elven nations put themselves forwards as mediators, such as Shantel Othreier and Ardeep. These efforts faltered, and in 12,000 BDR the armies of Aryvandaar crossed the Delimbiyr in force.
The First Crown War, fought between Aryvandaar and Miyeritar from approximately 12,000 to 11,300 Before Dalereckoning, ending with Miyeritar’s defeat.
The First Crown War
Aryvandaar sent its soldiers and mages across the River Delimbiyr, the River Shining, approximately twelve thousand years before the rise of the Standing Stone. Aryvandaar ordered the rulers of Miyeritar to surrender, and were shocked when the Miyeritari instead stood and fought. Colossal spell-battles, epic blade duels and other feats of might took place all along the border.
Miyeritar put up a strong fight, and its resistance inspired songs of bravery across Faerûn. Some Ilythiiri travelled north to join their dark elven brethren, a fact the Aryvandaari made use of in their propaganda, for the Ilythiiri did not worship the Seldarine and wished to spread their heathen beliefs among the other elven peoples. Aryvandaar also tried to elicit aid from the other elven kingdoms, particularly Shantel Othreier to the south. Aryvandaar wanted Shantel Othreier to invade Miyeritar and help crush it between their forces. Shantel Othreier refused, especially in the light of veiled threats made by Aryvandaar. Other elven nations also came to Miyeritar’s aid, with Illefarn (and possibly Ardeep) secretly smuggling Miyeritari refugees out by sea.
Miyeritar fought heroically, but the Aryvandaari were more numerous and richer, and the Miyeritari capital city (possibly the Library City of Faer’tel’miir, today reincarnated as the hidden city of Rhymanthiin, located in the High Moor) was captured around 11,800 BDR. But, to Aryvandaar’s fury, Miyeritar refused to capitulate. Each settlement had to be taken in combat, and Miyeritari irregulars took to the forests and attacked from the shadows, slaying a few invaders here and a few there. The Aryvandaari had to pay a tremendous cost in blood for their conquest. It took until 11,300 BDR for Miyeritar to finally surrender and be fully annexed to Aryvandaar’s control, and even then isolated acts of defiance and rebellion would continue all the way to the event history would call the Dark Disaster.
Although Aryvandaar’s hostility took all Faerun by surprise, it showed that one nation could strike at a weaker one without the other powers intervening. Far to the south, the dark elves of Ilythiir were taking notes.
Thank you for reading The Atlas of Ice and Fire. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content before it goes live on my blogs.
Fallout is one of the biggest franchises in video games, set in both an alternate timeline (where the retrofuturistic imagery of mid-20th Century sci-fi became a reality) and a post-apocalyptic future where the world has been partially laid waste by a nuclear exchange. Eight video games in the Fallout series have been released, along with a number of spin-off mobiles games, a board game, two miniatures wargames and a tabletop roleplaying game. The most recent addition to the Fallout canon is an 8-episode TV series on Amazon Prime Video. Here follows some interesting maps based on the franchise.
A map showing the Thirteen Commonwealths of the United States of America. Please click for a larger version.
The Thirteen Commonwealths
In the alternate history of the Fallout universe, history diverged from our own shortly after the end of World War II. The transistor was not adopted for widespread electronic use, with vacuum tubes instead continuing to be the primary technology used in televisions and computers, which remained far bulkier, slower and less powerful than in our world, at least until the development of AI in the mid-21st Century.
Politically, a major change was the unification of the American states into the Thirteen Commonwealths in 1969, an intermediary step between the US federal government and the individual states. The Commonwealths were organised as follows:
Southeast Commonwealth: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina
Columbia: Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia
Eastern Commonwealth: West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey
New England: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine
There is little information available on why and how the Commonwealths were unified, their centres of administration or how they interacted with either the States below them or the federal government above them.
The flag of the United States was adjusted after 1969 to show a single, central star representing the Columbia Commonwealth as the centre of American power and twelve other stars encircling it. In 2076 the flag was adjusted to incorporate a thirteenth external star to represent the annexed territory of Canada. However, the process of changing the flags was incomplete when the Great War took place on 23 October 2077, hence flags surviving after the war are a mixture of both types.
A map showing the known, rumoured and planned locations of Vault-Tec nuclear fallout vaults across the United States. Please click for a larger version
On the above map, note the following key is used:
Green vaults are fully canon and their location is firmly established in lore. Almost all of these are vaults you can physically visit in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4 and Fallout 76, or see in Fallout: The TV Series.
Yellow vaults appear in semi-canon sources (Fallout: Tactics, tie-in comics, cut content from the games). These can be assumed to be canon until contradicted by future Fallout franchise installments.
Pink vaults appear in non-canon sources (The Fallout Bible, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, Van Buren, the board games) and are probably not canonical at all, but have not yet been contradicted by other sources.
Blue vaults appear on the map in Fallout: The TV Series (see below). These vaults were planned for construction before the war broke out. Whether they were completed or not, or if their planned locations match the final construction location, remain unknown.
A chart showing the known information about the Vault-Tec vaults. Please click for a larger version.
The Vaults
The prospect of a global nuclear war reared its head following the detonation of the first two nuclear weapons at the end of World War II, in 1945. A lengthy cold war between the United States and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics followed, which several times threatened to turn hot. Unlike in our timeline, the USSR did not collapse in 1991 and the prospect of a nuclear war continued to threaten into the early 21st Century. By the late 2020s, Vault-Tec Corporation had been founded in the United States with a view to building large-scale nuclear bomb shelters, each one of which could house up to a thousand people for several decades.
By around 2045 the threat of a nuclear war between the United States and the USSR had receded, with both nations now cooperating and adopting a more friendly stance towards one another. However, this period was also marked by dwindling oil supplies, threatening the global economy. Tensions rose sharply first in 2051 when the United States staged a military intervention in Mexico to secure oil supplies across the border, which had been endangered by internal shortages. This was followed in April 2052 when the European Commonwealth (a strategic military alliance of European nation-states including at least the United Kingdom, France and Italy) mounted an invasion of the Middle East to secure their own oil supplies. This conflict was fiercely controversial and saw the collapse of the United Nations in July. In December 2053, Tel Aviv was destroyed in a nuclear strike, sparking a retaliatory nuclear exchange. This exchange was limited in scope, but saw several cities across the region reduced to radioactive craters.
The European Commonwealth itself collapsed in 2060, as oil supplies from the occupied territories only lasted a few years before running dry. Meanwhile, in the United States major concerns had been raised about the nuclear exchange. Vault-Tec was formally commissioned by the United States government in 2054 to build nuclear fallout shelters to protect the American civilian population. Project Safehouse was initiated to this end.
The initial findings of Project Safehouse were depressing. With each vault only capable of holding 1,000 people, 400,000 vaults would be needed to house the entire population of the United States (which was now in excess of 400 million). With each vault taking years to build and costing tens of billions of dollars, this was clearly untenable. The emphasis shifted to the vaults protecting the “best and brightest” of the American population. Aware this could cause discontent and panic, it was also decided that some vaults would be built to house more “ordinary” Americans, but these vaults would also have the purpose of running behavioural and sociological tests (many of a dubious moral nature) on the inhabitants, for the sinister purpose of engineering a “better society” after the war.
Vault-Tec funded its plans with grants and funding from government, but also subscriptions from regular Americans keen to “reserve” a spot in a vault. With such funding, Vault-Tec rapidly became the richest country in the United States and possibly on Earth, with a market capitalisation in the trillions. The fact that there were far more paying subscribers than could be comfortably accommodated in the maximum possible number of vaults did not seem to bother Vault-Tec in the slightest.
The project was initiated in 2054, but there was significant controversy between the federal, commonwealth and state governments over their share of the funding for the vaults. As a result of this, wide-scale construction of the vaults did not begin until the early 2060s and currently existing records show that the first vault was not open and ready for business until 2068. It also appears that budget cuts saw the original desired number of vaults slashed to just over a hundred, along with several proof-of-concept prototypes and a secret “command and control” vault in Colorado. Some states and commonwealths also seem to have been far more in favour of the project than others: states like West Virginia, Massachusetts, Nevada, California and the area surrounding Washington, DC had lots of vaults, whilst vast swathes of the country seem to have had none at all.
The above map shows the location of all confirmed vaults, where known or suspected. We know that at least 122 vaults (it is unclear if this count includes the secret Vault 0, three prototype vaults, a VR simulation vault and a secret research facility in Texas) were planned and at least 118 were completed or almost completed when the war took place. The location of 62 vaults – more than half the total – has not yet been fully 100% identified, whilst we have extremely firm information on 34 of the other vaults. There are 26 vaults where we have rumoured or unconfirmed information, of varying degrees of credibility.
The layout of the vaults is interesting and shows the dramatically differing commitment levels of different regions to Project Safehouse. Here is a breakdown of confirmed vaults by commonwealth:
Northern Commonwealth, Plains Commonwealth, East Central Commonwealth, Gulf Commonwealth, Southeast Commonwealth: 0
Northwest Commonwealth, Texas Commonwealth, Great Midwest Commonwealth: 1 each
Four States Commonwealth: 3
Eastern Commonwealth: 7
Columbia: 9
New England: 10
Southwest Commonwealth: 12
Here is a breakdown of confirmed vaults by state:
Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Alaska, Hawaii: 0
Note that this only refers to the vaults whose locations are 100% known.
The Planned Vaults
The Fallout television series, released in April 2024, features a major contribution to the Vault lore of Fallout. In a scene in the final episode, a map is drawn up showing the location of all the planned vaults in the United States. This map is not shown in exacting detail, but it does give us a lot more information than previously.
A map showing all of the planned vaults in North America, from the Fallout TV series.An enchanced version of the same, thanks to the detective work of Tunnelsnakesfool.
114 markers are shown on this map. However. We know from the games and even the TV series itself that some vaults are in such extreme proximity to one another (Vaults 31, 32 and 33 are so close together they might as well be one facility) that multiple vaults would fall under one marker on them map.
What the map does do is confirm the approximate locations of all or at least most of the as-yet unknown vaults in the lore (allowing for some changes to Vault-Tec’s plans or secrecy; it’s worth noting that ultra-secretive Vault 0 appears to be missing from this map).
I have updated my map with a new category of “Planned Vaults,” incorporating the icons from this TV map. Here is a breakdown of the planned vaults by state. Note that I have placed the nearest surface landmark to the planned vault where known, although a surprisingly large number of vaults seem to have been planned for relatively isolated areas of the country rather than close to large cities:
0: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, New Hampshire,Rhode Island
1: Alabama: 1 planned
1: Arkansas: 1 planned (Little Rock)
1: Iowa: 1 planned (Des Moines)
1: Kentucky: 1 planned (Frankfort)
1: Maine: 1 confirmed (Vault 118)
1: Mississippi: 1 planned (Jackson)
1: Michigan: 1 planned (Lansing)
1: New Jersey: 1 planned (Bridgeton)
1: New Mexico: 1 planned
1: North Dakota: 1 planned
1: South Carolina: 1 planned (Columbia)
1: Vermont: 1 planned (Montpelier)
1: Wyoming: 1 planned (Cheyenne)
1: Utah:1 confirmed (Vault 70)
2: Arizona: 2 planned (Flagstaff)
1: Florida: 2 planned (Tallahassee, Orlando)
2: Idaho: 2 planned (Boise, Idaho Falls)
2: Kansas: 2 planned (Topeka)
2: Louisiana: 2 planned (Baton Rouge, New Orleans)
2: Maryland:2 confirmed (Vaults 92 & 108)
2: Minnesota: 2 planned (Minneapolis, Duluth)
2: Missouri: 2 planned (Jefferson City, Kansas City)
2: Montana: 2 planned (Helena, Billings)
2: New York: at least 2 planned (New York City, Albany)
10: Texas:1 confirmed (Vault 39), 9 planned (El Paso, Dallas, Austin, 4 in the Houston area, San Antonio, Corpus Christi)
Intriguingly, both Canada and Mexico seem to sport at least one vault apiece. Canada was annexed by the United States during the war, so this makes sense; Mexico was partially annexed, but its status by the time of the Great War was unclear. Presumably that area of Baja California was considered stable enough to invest time and funds in building a vault there. Alternatively, a Mexican businessman or ally of Vault-Tec was able to leverage support to have a vault built in Mexico.
Note on other possible vault locations
At different times, Bethesda, Black Isle and Obsidian have considered making Fallout games set in New York and San Francisco, suggesting that both of those cities have vaults in their vicinity. There have been many other rumoured but never-confirmed locations for Fallout games over the years, ranging from Florida to Louisiana, where vaults could probably be located. Given the density of vaults in previously-explored areas (such as Virginia and West Virginia, Nevada, around Washington, DC and Boston), it is likely that those areas where there are only a few vaults may have more nearby. Texas, Colorado, Washington and California may therefore all have more vaults then the relatively small numbers we’ve seen so far. The TV map seems to support this.
The concentrated number of vaults in set locations and a presumed tally of ~122 vaults in total means that there are inevitably vast regions of the United States with no vaults at all.
Note on Sources
Remarkably, given that the Fallout franchise has been worked on by several hundred programmers, writers and developers across twenty-seven years, not to mention being owned by two different companies, there has not been a major canon clash to date given the numbering or location of the vaults (i.e. we’ve never had two sources putting the same vault in different locations). The vault numbering system has remained consistent over the years.
Primary Sources: Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3 (and DLC), Fallout: New Vegas (and DLC), Fallout 4 (and DLC), Fallout 76 (and updates), Fallout: The TV Series
These are considered fully canonical sources.
Other Sources: Fallout Tactics, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, FalloutBible, One Man and a Crate of Puppets
The attitude towards these sources seems to vary over time, but Bethesda has not outright contradicted any information in them and has still employed them recently; Fallout 76 has several moments when it seems to still be drawing on lore from the Fallout Bible, an internal Black Isle document designed in the late 1990s and early 2000s to maintain consistency between the various games. As such, adopting a “probably canon until Bethesda says it’s not” attitude is best.
One Man and a Crate of Puppets is a short comic created as a marketing tie-in for Fallout 3; how much it is considered canon by Bethesda is unclear.
Unmade Games: Van Buren, Fallout Extreme, Fallout Tactics 2, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel 2, Fallout: New Vegas 2
These games were never made, so ergo are not canon, but they in turn drew from information in things like the Fallout Bible and in some cases ideas from them did resurface later on or impacted on other choices. As such, this material should not be considered remotely canon, but again nothing in them has been outright contradicted (aside from some Van Buren elements which were upgraded for New Vegas, which was based on some of the same ideas). As such, their ideas can be considered interesting, but will likely be contradicted in the future.
Edited to Add:
Tunnelsnakesfool has a good video which has a more precise way of geolocating the vaults, which is making me reconsider some of my locations.
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This map is an update of my previous map of Toril (the Forgotten Realms planet) from 2019, mostly maintaining the same appearance but with some adjustments to better fit canonical information. As per the previous map, this depicts Toril as of the year 1372 DR (Dalereckoning) during the Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition/3rd Edition transition period; my initial plans to update the map to the “current” year of 1496 DR (5th Edition) foundered because there is insufficient information to create such a map (D&D 5th Edition focuses on the Sword Coast to the exclusion of almost everything else, as has been well-covered previously).
A new world map of Toril, the planet of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying game.
The World of Toril
The world of the Forgotten Realms is an Earth-sized planet formerly known as Abeir-toril, “Cradle of Life,” in an ancient tongue. In ancient times, some thirty thousand years ago, the world was threatened with destruction in a war between the gods and the primordials, so it was divided into two separate versions of itself. Abeir became the home of the primordials whilst Toril became the home of the gods. This event had faded to less than a rumour before it was spectacularly proven relevant again a century ago in the cataclysm known as the Spellplague, which briefly re-merged the two worlds, leaving scars behind that are fully yet to heal.
Toril’s equatorial circumference is approximately 24,000 miles, with a surface area somewhat less than 197 million square miles. Toril is the third of eight planets circling its sun, with Anadia and Coliar (the Dawn Heralds) orbiting inside Toril’s orbit and Karpri, Chandos, Glyth, Garden and H’Catha (the Five Wanderers) orbiting beyond it. Toril has one large moon, Selûne (also the name of the goddess of the night sky), and a string of asteroids orbiting in its wake, known as the Tears of Selûne. Toril orbits its sun once every 365¼ days (with an extra leap day added every fourth year) and rotates on its axis once every 24 hours.
A map of the Realmspace star system.
Toril possesses enormous ice caps which extend well into the temperate zones. During the hottest summers, the frozen ocean around the north coast of Faerûn sometimes breaks up and permits travel from the Trackless Sea to the Great Ice Sea (with ships from far Sossal occasionally seen in Sword Coast ports). There appear to be no continents or landmasses at either the north nor south poles.
Toril is divided into multiple continents, although the exact number of continents and even the definition of a continent (versus a large island) are fiercely debated between sages and cartographers. Still, the following continents are generally accepted as being extant:
Faerûn: The most famous continent on Toril, the home of note worthies such as Elminster of Shadowdale and Drizzt Do’Urden, and the location of cities such as Neverwinter, Baldur’s Gate, Calimport and Waterdeep, and nations such as Cormyr, Halruaa, Calimshan, Mulhorand, Sossal and Thay. Faerûn makes up the western portion of a larger supercontinent and also contains offshore islands such as the Moonshaes, Lantan and Nimbral.
Kara-Tur: The largest and most populous continent on Toril, located to the east of Faerûn and making up the eastern part of the main supercontinent. If Faerûn is the land of kingdoms and city-states, Kara-Tur is the land of empires, in particular the vast Shou Lung Empire which dominates much of the landmass. The offshore island chains of Wa and Kozakura are counted as part of the continent. Cloudspire, the tallest mountain on Toril (exceeding 35,000 feet), is located in Kara-Tur.
Zakhara: The Land of Fate is the southern-most part of the main supercontinent and forms a large peninsula extending south-west from Kara-Tur. It is dominated by vast deserts, ancient ruins and great cities such as Golden Huzuz, the City of Delights. The continent also includes the vast island chains of the Crowded Sea.
Maztica: Known to its inhabitants as the True World and to Faerûnian as the New World, this continent is located some three thousand miles to the west, across the Trackless Sea. Maztica was “discovered” in the year 1361 DR (Dalereckoning) by explorers from Amn and colony-states were established (the people who actually live there “discovered” it some considerable time earlier, of course), but clashes between the native gods and the Faerûnian pantheon resulted in demarcation lines being established and full-scale colonisation of the continent was subsequently averted. Maztica vanished during the cataclysmic event known as the Spellplague and returned a century later; its fate during the intervening period is unclear.
Katashaka: A vast jungle continent to the south of Maztica, south-west across the Great Sea from Faerûn. Unvisited by Faerûnians, but some Katashakans have visited Faerûn and settled there.
Arandron: A highly mysterious and little-known continent in the southern hemisphere. Some traders from this land have established ties with the island-kingdom of Lantan.
Ossë: A continent located to the east of Kara-Tur and west of Maztica and Katashaka, on the far side of the world to Faerûn. Its nature is unknown and even maps of it are speculative (Elminster of Shadowdale has indicated maps show the continent as significantly larger than is the case), although some spirit-shamans of the continent have allegedly visited Faerûn as part of their spiritual quests.
In addition to these, other, rumoured continents exist:
Anchôromé: A vast island-chain located to the north-west of Evermeet. The provenance of this name is subject to bitter conflicts between cartographers of Baldur’s Gate and Amn. The notables of Baldur’s Gate claim that Anchôromé is the name of the entire continent to the west, as discovered and claimed by their great explorer Balduran some centuries ago, as well as the islands. However, Amnian sources claim that Balduran only discovered the islands off the coast and never made landfall on the continent, citing the absolute lack of evidence for its existence prior to the “discovery” of Maztica. The Amnians claim the entire landmass is Maztica, and have named it as such (adopting the native name). The actual inhabitants of Maztica also reject the “coloniser” name of Anchôromé, which they regard as meaningless. Some have suggested a compromise of splitting the continent in two, with Maztica in the south and Anchôromé in the north, but there is no known geographic feature to mark such a split (as opposed to Faerûn, Zakhara and Kara-Tur, which are divided from one another by the massive mountain range known as the Yehimal). The actual inhabitants of “Anchôromé” – incredibly hostile wild and jungle elf tribes – have also not been consulted on what they themselves call the landmass. The only geographic feature known to exist on this landmass is the vast Mount Havraquoar, an ancient colony of the Aearee-Krocaa. The debate continues.
Myrmidune: A name of debatable provenance, applied to the very large island (or small continent) immediately west of Maztica. This island is believed to be the ancestral home of the aeraee in ancient times.
Akota: A substantial island chain to the west of Zakhara. Largely unknown, the people of Akota conduct limited trade with Zakhara via a colony-city (also called Akota) on the south-western coast of Zakhara.
Laerakond: During the Spellplague, the small continent of Laerakond was somehow transplanted from the world of Abeir to Toril, materialising in the Great Sea south-west of Faerûn (where it was known as “Returned Abeir” for a time). For a century, Laerakond traded with mainland Faerûn whilst Faerûnian adventurers travelled to Laerakond to explore that land further. However, in the Second Sundering, the event that signalled an end to the Spellplague and separated the conjoined worlds of Abeir and Toril, all contact with Laerakond was lost and has not yet been re-established. It is unclear if Laerakond remains on Toril or returned to Abeir in the Sundering; learned sages of note have claimed both versions of events. Further clarification is awaited.
Additional large islands or small continents are located north-west of Maztica, beyond the northern polar ice line, and to the south-west of Zakhara. There are also very large island chains in the Western Ocean between Ossë and Maztica which are still unexplored.
One of the first “complete” world maps of Toril, from The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas (1999).
Toril possesses several notable oceans:
The Trackless Sea lies to the west of Faerûn, separating it from Maztica and the islands of Anchôromé. Marginal seas of this ocean including the Sea of Moving Ice (off the north-west coast), the Sea of Swords (between the coast and the Moonshae Isles) and the Shining Sea (between Calimshan and the Chultan Peninsula). The Bay of Balduran and the Sea of Azul lie off the coast of Maztica. Chult and the island of Nimbral mark the southern end of this ocean.
The Great Sea lies to the south of Faerûn, separating it from Zakhara to the south and Katashaka to the south-west.
The Southern Ocean lies to the south of Katashaka, Kara-Tur and Ossë, and encompasses the frozen southern polar region of Toril. Marginal seas of this ocean include the Crowded Sea off the southern coast of Zakhara and the Segara Sea between Zakhara and Kara-Tur.
The Eastern Sea lies to the east of Kara-Tur, separating it from Ossë and extending north of that enigmatic continent. Marginal seas of the Eastern Sea include the Celestial Sea and the Yellow Sea, off the coast of Kara-Tur.
The Western Ocean lies to the west of Maztica and Katashaka, separating those continents from Ossë.
The Endless Ice Sea lies to the north of Faerûn, Kara-Tur and Maztica. The “sea” is actually an immense frozen ice pack extending across the polar regions of Toril and extending onto the landmass of the main supercontinent. The Endless Ice Sea links to the large glacial masses in Faerûn (Reghed Glacier, the High Ice and the Great Glacier of Pelvuria), as well as the Land of the Snow Spirits in northern Kara-Tur. The only notable marginal sea of this ocean is the Great Ice Sea, which cuts southwards to separate northern Faerûn from Kara-Tur.
A “satellite map” from The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas (1999).
Notes on World Maps of Toril
Ed Greenwood began writing stories about daring-do as a very young child, inspired by the stories his father read to him from his voluminous library. By around 1967, when he was eight, these stories had coalesced into a – somewhat – consistent setting, an area known as the Sword Coast, where a rotund, brawling merchant called Mirt got into hijinks in cities like Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate. Greenwood later added elements such as Durnan, a brave warrior who retired to run a tavern in Waterdeep, and the wise sage Elminster. Through the 1970s he expanded the world to encompass the entire continent, which he called Faerûn, and then a wider world, which had no name. In 1978 he converted the Realms for use in an ongoing game of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and began writing articles for Dragon Magazine, referencing elements of his home setting in his articles.
By 1986 TSR had run into a problem with its existing “traditional” settings, namely that the World of Greyhawk setting had become awkward to use after creator Gary Gygax had been ousted from the company in a boardroom takeover, and their more recent Dragonlance setting had been designed to tell one story and one story alone, and was not suitable for long-term exploration (amongst other things, the signature continent of Ansalon was pretty small and almost every corner of it had been explored in the initial campaign and related novels, not leaving too many unexplored areas for players to tell their own stories). They needed a replacement and TSR editor Jeff Grubb contacted Greenwood to enquire about this setting he’d been quietly establishing in Dragon Magazine over the past seven years. Impressed by the voluminous notes and maps that Greenwood sent (some of which rendered TSR’s offices almost unusable due to their sheer size), TSR bought the setting and fleshed it out for an official release in 1987. Accompanying the initial release were numerous maps of Faerûn and various regions and cities, but no world map. The world at least now had a name courtesy of Jeff Grubb: Toril, later adjusted to “Abeir-toril” to ensure the world name would come first in any encyclopaedia about the setting (Toril remained the common name, however).
Ed Greenwood’s 1986 map of Faerun, complete with the additions of the Moonshae Isles and the Bloodstone Lands overlaid on the original map.
A world map did exist, though. In 1982 Greenwood had already created the first global view of his setting, complete with numerous continents beyond Faerûn’s shores and a Mercator projection. However, when TSR bought the Realms, they were primarily interested in the highly-developed Faerûn and not necessarily the other lightly-sketched-out lands. They were also keen to use Greenwood’s world to incorporate other areas already developed in other projects. In short order, the “Desert of Desolation” series of adventures (from 1982-83) were retconned into the setting, in the Dust Desert of Raurin, whilst the “Bloodstone Lands” series (1986-88) was moved into Faerûn, with Grubb and Greenwood rolling back the Great Glacier to make room for the lands of Vaasa and Damara. TSR also rescued a semi-abandoned Celtic setting that had been in the works at the now-defunct TSR UK and recast it as the Moonshae Isles, off Faerûn’s west coast. TSR also made the considerably larger-scaled decision to add the entire continent of Kara-Tur to the setting. Originally developed for the Oriental Adventures sourcebook in 1985 and an accompanying series of adventures, the Asian-themed land was bolted onto the far eastern side of Faerûn.
TSR later added more landmasses to Toril: Maztica appeared across the Trackless Sea to the west in 1991 and Zakhara, the Land of Fate, was added to the south of Faerûn in 1993, as the home of the Al-Qadim campaign setting. Taan, or the Hordelands, the intermediary lands between Faerûn and Kara-Tur, were fleshed out in a new product line in 1990.
Further exploration of Toril was curtailed: products set in Faerûn itself, and thus more immediately accessible in ongoing Forgotten Realms campaigns, seemed to sell better. Also, there were concerns over the degree to which Toril had moved from being an original fantasy setting to a near-carbon-copy of Earth. The lands Ed Greenwood had focused on in his fiction and original D&D campaigns had no real-world analogues: the Sword Coast, the North, Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate, the Dalelands, Cormyr, Sembia, Thay, the Moonsea and the Great Desert of Anauroch had various inspirations and influences, but they were not 1:1 mapped to real historical settings. When TSR took over and started giving regions of the Realms to other writers to develop, they tended to fall back on copies of existing cultures: the original, much weirder version of Mulhorand became “fantasy Egypt” and Calimshan became “fantasy Arabia.”
The new continents took this problem to new extremes: Kara-Tur was based on Asia to such an extent that in some cases names were barely even changed (“Tabot” and “Koryo” feel a little too-on-the-nose), whilst Maztica was Mesoamerica transplanted to Toril with even historical events unfolding almost exactly as in real life (Captain Cordell of Amn is a carbon copy of Cortés). Taan, the Hordelands, was a riff on Mongolia, although at least they introduced some originality, in particular acknowledging that a Mongol Empire in a world with magic would be a very different kind of polity. Zakhara became Arabia writ large.
The decision after 1994 or so was to refocus on Faerûn and many of the following sourcebooks reinforced explored areas whilst also branching out to less-explored regions, like the Vilhon Reach. Steven Schend, a particularly skilled writer brought into the fold, even performed emergency surgery on Calimshan to remove its more overt Arabia-ness, and later developed the very original, alien underwater world of the Sea of Fallen Stars. Other writers explored the deep history of the Realms through material set in the distant part, like Netheril: Empire of Magic (1996) and Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves (1997).
By this time Greenwood had revised his world map, taking into account the additions of Kara-Tur, Maztica and Zakhara, and given copies to TSR. If TSR wanted to publish a world map, they could easily do so, and they soon had the opportunity.
The world map of Toril as it first appears in The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas (1999).
In 1993, a British company called ProFantasy Software released Campaign Cartographer, a programme to create fantasy maps in a variety of styles. A revised version, Campaign Cartographer 2, was released in 1998 and the most recent version, controversially called Campaign Cartographer 3, in 2006 (although it’s been updated many times since). ProFantasy took out advertising in Dragon Magazine and, apparently due to the high success of the move, became a constant stalwart in the magazine with adverts for not just the core programme but spin-offs like City Designer and Dungeon Designer. TSR contacted ProFantasy with a view to a collaboration, resulting in the release of a more limited but accessible version called Campaign Mapper (included with the Dungeons & Dragons Core Rules 2.0 CD-ROM), and a much bolder project called The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas (1999).
Developing the interactive atlas – a noninteractive atlas had been published in 1991, but only covered Faerûn and Kara-Tur – took several years with some very bold ambitions, namely to allow users to zoom in from a map of all of Realmspace to individual rooms in an inn in Waterdeep. This wasn’t exactly Google Toril, though. The maps were derived from all of the maps published so far for the setting in hundreds of campaign settings, adventures, magazine articles, video games and novels. The maps were arranged as hyperlinks, with “jumps” of detail from different scales. For 1999 it was pretty good, although the interface is somewhat janky by modern standards.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, TSR did not provide a map based on Ed Greenwood’s own world map. In fact, it’s not entirely clear where the hitherto unknown continents came from, although the existence of a South America-analogue continent beyond Maztica had been hinted at in products like Gold & Glory (1992) and given the title “the Dark Continent” in a 1999 Dragon Magazine article on languages. Where the very large new continent in the far east of the world came from is also unclear.
Although the Interactive Atlas was both hugely impressive and hugely useful, its canonicity – assumed from being an official TSR product – was in some question due to it not using Greenwood’s original material. In 2001 the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, 3rd Edition was released and, despite the core map of Faerûn being bizarrely shrunk by 15% for the new edition (it was thankfully restored to its original size for 5th Edition in 2014), the world map from the Interactive Atlas was canonised in the “Scholar’s View of Abeir-toril” map at the back of the book. The 2004 novel Lady of Poison finally gave the far eastern continent a name, Ossë, and an accompanying Dragon Magazine article on shaman-like magic hinted that it was effectively a merging of Australia, New Zealand and various Polynesian influences.
The “scholar’s view of Abeir-toril,” it appears in The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, 3rd Edition (2001).
The continent south of Maztica was referenced further in Serpent Kingdoms (2004) and finally given a name, Katashaka, in The Grand History of the Realms (2007). The island-continent west of Maztica was also given a name, Myrmidune, in the draft version of The Grand History but the name does not appear in the final text, leaving its official status unclear.
In 2008, the Forgotten Realms setting was effectively destroyed in an event known as the Spellplague, with the 4th Edition of the setting developed as a post-apocalyptic setting. Needless to say, this went down like a lead balloon with the fanbase, but it did offer the opportunity to shake up the setting. Greenwood was able to use one of his other continents from his earlier world maps, Laerakond, on the basis that the Spellplague had seen Toril collide with its “shadow world” in another plane, Abeir, and swapped some landmasses with it. Laerakond, initially known as “Returned Abeir” before the other name was adopted, was explored somewhat in the 4th Edition materials. However, with 4th Edition bombing in sales, the decision was made to return Forgotten Realms its late 2nd Edition status quo through an event known as the Second Sundering. The timeline changes were maintained, but Toril was restored to its original appearance and the overlapping lands from Abeir mostly disappeared. The status of Laerakond was unclear, with Greenwood noting in his materials that the continent remained on Toril, but Wizards of the Coast in their official material seeming to indicate it had returned to Abeir.
In fact, Wizards of the Coast took a hands-off approach to expanding the lore of 5th Edition Forgotten Realms. Almost all adventures and sourcebooks focused on the Sword Coast of Faerûn, with even the status of nearby iconic locations like the Dalelands and Tethyr left something of a mystery, let alone other continents. Even the first-ever live-action movie in the setting, Honor Among Thieves, and the mega-successful video game Baldur’s Gate III (both 2023) remain focused on the Sword Coast region.
Whether this position shifts with D&D launches its next major revision in 2024 (an update of 5th Edition rather than a brand new 6th Edition) remains to be seen. If they open up the Forgotten Realms to further exploration, hopefully we’ll get a new world map combining the previously-established material with Ed Greenwood’s original vision, or at least as much as possible.
I have, of course, globified the map and it can be seen here.
Changes from the Previous Map
I have removed the very speculative names “Braaklosia” and “Aurune.” These names had doubtful canonicity. I have retained “Myrmidune” as it is moderately more common in fan spaces and appeared in the draft of The Grand History of the Realms, but noted it as a name in-universe of unknown provenance.
I have added Ed Greenwood’s name of Arandron for a continent in Toril’s southern hemisphere, although it is unclear if this landmass is what he was referring to.
The erroneously tiny Malatra Plateau of eastern Kara-Tur (a mistake dating back to 1999’s Interactive Atlas) has been removed and a more lore-accurate Malatra Plateau in south-western Kara-Tur has been added as per the reasoning given in my Kara-Tur map. This is based on Realms cartographic expert Markus Tay’s reasoning from many years ago.
Using the known location of Toril’s equator, I have added the tropics and polar circles, also drawing on Markus Tay’s research on this matter from some years ago.
As well as the main map from The Interactive Atlas, I also consulted several other maps included in the package to add more islands to the Anchôromé region and to the ocean between Ossë and Maztica/Katashaka.
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The flying enclaves of Netheril were once among the greatest sights in all Faerûn. Netherese arcanists, using mighty magics beyond the reach of even the greatest living mage today, sheared off the tops of mountains, inverted them, floated them and used the flat space to build great cities. Thousands, even tens of thousands of people went about their daily business not even thinking of the fact they were eating, sleeping and living thousands of feet above the ground.
The enclaves of Netheril effectively ceased to exist in in the 3,859th year of the Netheril Calendar (NY), 339 BDR (Before Dalereckoning) by the modern calendar. The archarcanist Karsus carried out a mighty ritual which he believed would transform him into a god, allowing him to steal the powers of the Goddess of Magic, Mystryl. The ritual succeeded, but Karsus was simply unprepared for the flood of magical energy that he would receive, which petrified and killed him on the instant. He was also unprepared for the fact that seizing Mystryl’s power would kill her altogether, and let the Weave go into chaos. Access to magic across the entire globe of Toril was cut off for approximately five minutes. In many places this was a mild inconvenience, in others it caused limited mayhem, but in Netheril, which relied upon magic to function, it was cataclysmic. The mythallar, the great magical devices keeping the cities aloft, failed and the flying cities simply plummeted into the ground from heights often exceeding ten thousand feet. This was invariable fatal for everybody on them, especially if the cities started tumbling on the way down. The impacts also obliterated everything around them for miles in all directions, and the cumulative dust raised from the impacts hastened the spread of the Great Desert. Ironically, the three highest-flying cities – Anauria, Asram and Hlondath – managed to survive because they took so long to fall that magic and the Weave was restored before they could hit the ground. Mystra, the new Goddess of Magic, slowed their descent and was able to allow their people to disembark relatively safely (albeit many with nightmares for the rest of their lives).
A map depicting northern Faerûn and showing the locations of the resting places of the known Netherese enclaves. Please click for a much larger version.
According to history, the Netherese built fifty-four flying cities. The first, Xinlenal, was raised by the archarcanist Ioulaum in the 905th year of the Netherese calendar (2954 BDR). The last we know of, Lathery, was raised in 3357 NY (502 BDR), twenty-four centuries later by the arcanist Veridon.
Today we know the names of thirty-one of the enclaves, and their approximate, “usual” locations. Although the cities could fly where their masters willed, in most cases it was unnecessary and keeping the cities within certain areas facilitated mundane trade. In a few cases, it appears an arcanist would create a city and it would then never move at all, with the act of creation being done to merely show the arcanist’s powerful. The elves of neighbouring Cormanthyr and Eaerlann considered such displays of power for the sake of ego to be hubristic in the extreme.
In fact, only seven Netherese enclaves are known to have been destroyed beyond Netheril’s borders (now the Great Desert of Anauroch): Eileanar (Karsus), Jiksidur (Larloch), Nhalloth, Orbedal (Sanctuary), Sakkors, Ythryn (Necropolis) and, of course, Thultanthar (Shade), the enclave out of time. Two additional enclaves are still missing, their fates unclear: Doubloon, the Pirate Enclave, which vanished without a trace in 442 BDR (a century before the Fall) and Selûnarra, also called Opus, the centre of the Selûnite faith in Netheril and the bitter foe of Thultanthar, which reportedly vanished from Toril just seconds before the Fall. Some cast doubts on this latter story.
The preceding map shows the known resting places of the Netherese enclaves:
Akintaer (Quagmire): Crashed in the Marsh of Simplicity on the south-western banks of the Narrow Sea; now lost beneath the High Ice in Anauroch.
Aquessir (Shadowtop Borough): Crashed into the Jannick River, a dried-up tributary of the modern River of Gems in Anauroch, near the Shattered Tower.
Anauria: Soft-landed in the south-east of Anauroch, near the Lost Vale and Desertsmouth Mountains. Its survivors founded the realm of the same name (339 BDR – 111 DR).
Arongahurr: crashed above the north-eastern-most peaks of the Shadowmount Peaks (south-east of Yal Tengri, the Great Ice Sea; north of the Horse Plains; north-east of Taan and west of Ama Basis in northern Kara-Tur; not shown on this map.
Asram: Soft-landed in the south-west of Anauroch, south of the Wall of Fallen Djinn and Shoal of Thirst. Its survivors founded the realm of the same name (339 – 33 BDR).
Delia: Crashed into the ground north of the mountains of Azirrhat, south of the River of Gems where it terminates at the Throat, in Anauroch.
Doubloon: Vanished without a trace roughly a century before the Fall and not seen since; its former location was just north-west of the peak known as the Pillar of Tauros, on the Plain of Standing Stones in Anauroch.
Eileanar (Karsus’ Enclave): Reportedly Ground Zero for where Karsus cast the spell that caused the Fall, with some suggestions that it was atomised as a result and Karsus’ petrified corpse came plummeting to a crashing rest in the High Forest, where the city of Karse was later founded.
Farenway: Fate unknown.
Hlaungadath: Crashed in the far north-west of Anauroch, not far north-east from the ruined dwarven port of Ascore, west of Maedrin’s Rift.
Hlondath: Soft-landed in the east of Anauroch, just west of the Border Forest and north of the Desertsmouth Mountains. Its survivors founded the realm of the same name (339 BDR – 329 DR).
Jethaere: Fate unknown.
Jiksidur: Former stronghold of Larloch, crashed from a low altitude onto the south-eastern part of the Great Glacier. The glacier later retreated from its location. The crash site on modern maps, now referred to as Hark’s Finger, is on the plains of Narfell, just east of Icelace Lake and north of the town of Peltarch. Larloch and Szass Tam later recovered numerous Netherese artefacts from the enclave. One of the few enclaves to survive semi-intact (although everyone on it was still killed in the crash; Larloch had fled on dragonback just before).
Jockteleg: Crashed in the western foothills of the northern Abbey Mountains, south-west of the Frozen Forest.
Kolthunral: The Fortress Enclave, a new enclave built after the return of Shade. Location and fate unknown.
Lathery (Lachery): Crashed into the Narrow Sea near the Channel Mountains (the Targorlar) and sank, taking the entire population with it. Later buried under the High Ice.
Lhaoda: Destroyed by the phaerimm, who disabled its mythallar and brought it crashed to the ground roughly a century before the Fall. Its crash site is unknown.
Maunator (Sunrest): Vapourised in 1657 BDR by a magical experiment which went wrong, encouraging later Netherese high-energy magical research to move to fortified laboratories under the Nether Mountains. No trace remained. The site of the accident was west of the modern Snout Mountains in central-western Anauroch, near Oreme, the oldest city on Toril.
Negarath: Fate unclear. The ruler of the enclave, Barze, was driven from the enclave for criminal acts; he fled to the vicinity of modern-day Vaasa (then covered by the ice of the Great Glacier) and founded a kingdom of the same name.
Nhalloth: Engaged in long-range exploration of the Sea of Fallen Stars when the Fall took place. As a result, it tumbled into the Inner Sea and cracked apart. Its ruins lie just south-west of the Altumbel Peninsular, west of Aglarond, amidst the islands known as the Thousand Swords (aka the Altumbel Archipelago). Nhalloth is one of the best-preserved enclaves, and during the Spellplague was briefly accessible due to reduced sea levels.
Orbedal (Sanctury): Originally assumed destroyed in the Fall, with the enclave either crashing into the Bay of Ascore and being buried beneath the High Ice, or landing on the shoreline between the sea and the Sanguine Mountain (easternmost of the Nether Mountains). However, it was later revealed that the city apparently shifted in space at the last second, possibly via an attempt to avert its destruction by teleportation magic. Due to the chaos of the Fall, the attempt failed and the enclave materialised over southern Trollbark Forest near the mouth of the Winding Water, on the Sword Coast, where it promptly crashed anyway, in the north-western foothills of the Troll Hills. Later claimed by Larloch, it became known as Warlock’s Crypt.
Palter: Crashed on the banks of the Netheril River (the River of Gems). Intriguingly, the city appears to have been floating low at the time: some people survived the crash and the ruins became a still-extant hill known as Heroes’ Helm, on the Plain of Standing Stones in Anauroch.
Phylornel (Buoyance): Fell into the Netheril River (River of Gems) from a very low height: there were more than a hundred survivors. The crash-site was north-east of the mountain known as Aerithae’s Rest in the north-eastern Plain of Standing Stones, not far south from the Ice Wall.
Sakkors: The Sentient Enclave. Fell into the Sea of Fallen Stars, just north-east of what is now Starmantle, west of the Isle of Prespur and south-west of Saerloon in Sembia. Rediscovered by Erevis Cale, Chosen of Mask, just before the Spellplague. The city was located by the returned Shades of Netheril, who re-floated it as their second floating city, but just before the Second Sundering its mythallar suffered a terminal failure. The city was deliberately flown into the Ordulin Void in 1484 DR, destroying the city and sealing the void.
Selûnarra (Opus): The centre of Selûne-worship in Netheril. Located on the south-eastern shores of the Basin Lake (now the Bowl of Loneliness in south-eastern Anauroch), presumed destroyed in the Fall, falling in the vicinity of the Lost Vale. However, more recent evidence suggests that Selûne intervened during the Fall and shifted the entire city into her divine realm. According to myth, Selûnarra was to return to Toril to battle the Shades of Thultanthar, but this did not transpire at any point during the Spellplague or the Second Sundering. Whether the enclave truly survived, or survives still in Ysgard, or was destroyed as it appears, is unknown.
Spiel: Fell on the north-western shores of Basin Lake, which is now the Bowl of Loneliness near the Lost Vale and the Desertsmouth Mountains. The enclave survived semi-intact, with the mountainous ruins still visible just west of El Rahalat Oasis. However, it appears the entire population was wiped out in the Fall.
Synod: Fell into the Stonelands and partially survived, becoming a tall, craggy hill. Its precise location remains unknown.
Tanathras: Destroyed 300 years before the Fall during an internal power struggle. Fell onto the southern face of the Azirrhat (a mountainous peak eastern Anauroch, north-east of At’ar’s Looking Glass).
Telarrazhard: In the high Wu Pi Te Shao Mountains, part of the Yehimal, north-east of the goblin kingdom of Nix, in far south-western Kara-Tur, south-west of Tabot. Not on this map.
Thultanthar (Shade): The centre of Shar-worship in Netheril. According to history, the enclave crashed just north of Heip Lake (now the Dark Bones Rift in the western Plain of Standing Stones), but in reality, it was shifted into the Shadowfell by its Shar-worshipping inhabitants seconds before impact. After enduring the Shadowfell for 1,700 years, it was returned to Toril by the elves of Evereska, who were desperately seeking allies in their war against the resurgent phaerimm. The Shades of Netheril, as they became known, sought to restore Anauroch to its former state and refound Netheril. However, they made enemies of many of the extant factions of Faerûn in the process. During the Second Sundering in 1487 DR, Elminster brought the city crashed down on top of the restored elven city of Myth Drannor in the Cormanthor Forest, destroying both.
Tith Tilendrothael: Destroyed by the phaerimm roughly a century before the Fall. Location unknown.
Undrentide: Located somewhere near Netheril’s eastern border with Cormanthyr. Precise location unknown. The city’s mythallar was briefly reactivated in the early 1370s DR and the city nearly took to the skies again, but the mythallar was subsequently destroyed.
Urvraunt: In the north-eastern-most Mountains of Amara, a subrange of the Koryaz Mountains on the far northern border of Shou Lung in Kara-Tur. The crash-site is in the north-eastern most peaks, due north fo the Talmaruk Islands and south of the Wu-Haltai tribelands of eastern Ama Basin (not shown on this map).
Xinlenal (Ioulaum’s Enclave): The very first enclave. Crashed into the south-eastern eaves of Neverwinter Wood, in an area called the Forest of Hides. The Shades of Netheril were trying restore the enclave when they were recalled to Shade to battle Elminster in Cormanthor, resulting in their deaths; the enclave’s ruins have subsequently been abandoned.
Ythryn: Destroyed four years before the Fall when it tumbled out of the skies over Reghed Glacier, north-west of Icewind Dale, whilst engaged in magical research. The ruins were frozen over by Auril’s magic, leaving the city surprisingly well-preserved, later becoming known as the Necropolis. Rediscovered by adventurers in 1489 DR.
The names, locations and details of the remaining twenty-three enclaves remains unknown to us, nor what possible treasures remain within them.
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Having established a baseline canonical map – basically Danielle Rousseau’s map with the 100%-identified locations from it and those that can be definitively inferred – the next task is to start adding the major locations from the show to it. And immediately we run into debatable issues.
The map as we left it last time out.
The first thing to do is establish the crash site of Oceanic Flight 815. The pilot episode establishes it crashes on a beach, with debris and even some passengers flung into the nearby jungle.
Unfortunately, it is tricky to ascertain the crash site from visual observation alone. This is also true of most visual observations of scenes: the real filming locations on Oahu were frequently on different sides of the island for locations that were even immediately adjacent to one another, meaning that tracking the position of the sun, where its rising and setting etc is fairly pointless as these things do not correspond to the locations in the show (it’d be nice if they did, but it would also be severely limiting on the film crew’s ability to find locations etc). The main beach camp was filmed on Papailoa Beach on the north-western coast of Oahu, whilst the “Mesa” area immediately behind it was filmed at the famous Kualoa Ranch on the far eastern coast of the island, seventeen miles away.
Ben’s balloon map from Season 2.
On in-show evidence, the first indication of a location is the map created by Ben Linus, whilst he is posing as balloonist “Henry Gale,” in S2E16:The Whole Truth. This map places the camp at the far bottom of the map, suggesting, if the map is oriented as is standard, that the camp is on the south coast of the Island.
However, in the episode S3E22:Through the Looking Glass, Part 1, Ben also creates a map showing the beach camp at the top-left of the map. If this map is oriented correctly, this puts the camp on a north-western shore of the Island, and north of the Barracks. But in S4E6: The Other Woman, the map of the Tempest places the survivors’ camp, once again, firmly on the southern coast of the Island. A map created by Kate just one episode later, in S4E7:Ji Yeon, again puts the beach camp on the south coast of the Island, and further notes that the Barracks is about a day and a half’s travel northwest.
Also, just about every single dialogue reference in the series puts the Others’ territory, and later the Barracks, north of the survivors’ camp almost at the extreme other end of the Island (including the pursuit of Michael in The Hunting Party (S2, E11). I Do (S3, E6) explicitly has Locke and Sayid’s group heading north to locate the Barracks, based on the questionable directions given in the form of a Biblical quote on Mr. Eko’s stick (which explicitly says to go north).
Based on these multiple data points, it is better to conclude that Ben’s map from Through the Looking Glass is oriented incorrectly, with south at the top of the map and north at the bottom. Flipping it does not solve the map’s myriad other problems, but it does, pleasingly, allow to locate the beach camp in a way that is compatible with the other maps and directions. It also allows us to locate the Swan Station and the Pearl Station, which are both also identified on the map. However, the map may not be entirely to scale, as it shows the Barracks located very close by to the north, which is in opposition to the numerous references to the Barracks being in the far north of the Island. Still, it’s a reasonably promising start.
Which Beach is it?
Danielle’s map shows two beaches on the south coast of the Island, one west and one east of the Crater, a somewhat-eroded and overgrown circular feature at the southern extremity of the Island (based on dialogue in S3E20: The Man Behind the Curtain, possibly the remnants of an ancient volcano). The map to the east is noted for its coconuts, so I’ve called it “Coconut Bay.” The map to the west is unnamed. The question here is which beach is our survivors’ one?
Almost all existing fan maps have concluded that the beach in question is the south-western one. There is supporting evidence from Daniel Faraday’s map (from S4E06) of the Tempest that places the survivor’s camp at the south-western end of the Island. However, the same map shows a river nearby, which is not present at the SW beach on Danielle’s map, but is present at the SE one.
More interestingly, our survivors’ beach is home to coconuts: a running gag is that whenever Sayid or Sawyer is angry, they will usually storm off to chop firewood manfully or slice the tops off coconuts (shirtless or not, depending on the pandering mood of the writers that day), which are available abundantly.
Furthermore, placing the camp at the SE beach does have advantages when it comes to attempting to resolve one of the thorniest problems in Lost cartography: integrating Ben’s map of the radio tower with other maps.
Ben’s radio tower map from the Season 3 finale, original orientation.
Ben’s Radio Tower Map
As mentioned previously, this map appears in S3E22 and is drawn by Ben Linus as he attempts to plot a course to intercept Jack’s group on their way to the Radio Tower. The map is bizarre and at extreme variance with most maps of the Island, putting the survivors’ camp on the north-western coast of the Island, the Barracks far to the south and the radio tower on the eastern mountain range rather than the western, where Danielle’s map firmly places it.
It does help to rotate the map by 180 degrees, which immediately makes things look more familiar. This map puts the radio tower in its correct location (some fan maps move the radio tower to the eastern range to try to square these issues, which feels unnecessary given it’s firm placement on Danielle’s map) and it also shows an extremely rocky coast to the west of the beach camp which might be a weird depiction of the Crater. This seems to support the SE location for the beach camp as well as locations of the Swan and the Pearl in the vicinity of the eastern mountain range rather than the western.
Ben’s radio tower map, rotated 180 degrees.
The map still has problems, mostly notably that the Barracks cannot be that far south, our heroes would have found it a lot earlier, and S3E01: A Tale of Two Cities firmly establishes that the Barracks is much further north, with a panoramic, sweeping view of almost the entire Island possible from overhead. But by rotating the map and putting the camp on the south-eastern coast rather than the south-western, it does allow the map to be integrated more successfully with Danielle’s map.
My updated map, trying to take the above into account.
Conclusion
After much consideration, I will split from Lost cartographic orthodoxy by placing the beach camp on the south-eastern coast of the Island, and use Ben’s map to also place the Swan and Pearl stations.
There are a couple of tweaks that are needed. We know that an area of extreme rocky coastline is located close to the beach camp. This is the area where Inman works on Desmond’s boat, the Elizabeth (S2E23: Live Together, Die Alone), as well as the area the tail section survivors are stymied by, forcing them to cut through the jungle to get to the camp (S2E6: Abandoned). Traditionally this area has been identified with the Crater, specifically its rocky slopes which fall into the sea. However, I’ve always been put off by the lack of an identifiable Crater caldera or similar feature in the area in any episode. To me it makes sense that the Crater is therefore mostly unvisited and located a bit further off from the camp rather than immediately adjacent to it, and the rocky area of coastline is a more modest area of rocky land where the eastern mountain range reaches the sea.
Pleasingly, this resolves a number of other minor issues: it puts the Swan closer to the boat, so first Inman and later Desmond can more convincingly do round trips from the Swan to the boat and back in under 108 minutes. It also puts the camp closer to the submarine cable and Danielle’s area of operations. This helps explain how Hurley (S1E18: Numbers) and later Desmond and Charlie (S3E20: Greatest Hits) get to the cable so fast (Sayid, more exactingly following and mapping the coast, took longer to get there in S1E9: Solitary). It also allows for an area between the mountain ranges to the immediate NW which can serve as the Mesa, between the camp and the Dark Territory; placing the camp on the SW beach meant the characters had to awkwardly head NE around the western mountains and then NW to get to an area resembling the Mesa, which feels like an untenable hike, especially for the hypochondriac who was just trailing around bothering Jack for a while. Finally, it puts the beach camp further away from the radio tower, justifying the epic hike up there in the Season 3 finale, whilst the camp being the SW beach put it right next to the radio tower and not really justifying that huge journey. It’s not a perfect solution and either introduces new problems (it puts the beach camp further from the Tempest than feels comfortable) or it does little to resolve old ones (whether the rocky area is the Crater or not, it doesn’t explain why Sayid never finds the Elizabeth). But it feels like an interesting solution to other, long-standing problems. We’ll see as the series continues if these conclusions still hold firm.
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Airing for six seasons from 2004 to 2010, Lost became one of the biggest water-cooler TV shows of all time. Millions of viewers tuned in to see the ongoing attempts by the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 to escape the mysterious Island, whilst flashbacks explored the background of each character in tremendous depth. The show also developed a complex mythology and backstory, with fans assembling timelines and, of course, maps to track the action.
To some extent their efforts were supported by the creators of the show: Lost co-producer Gregg Nations kept track of both a timeline and a map in the writers’ room, allowing the show to develop a degree of consistency in both dates and locations over its first couple of seasons. However, with Nations switching tracks to become a writer on the show, the tracking of the geography became sketchier over time, with inconsistencies and errors accumulating to make creating a map of the Island increasingly fraught with contradictions and difficulties.
Still, human nature being what it is, that has not stopped people making repeated attempts. Since Lost started in 2004, there have been dozens of efforts to create the definitive Lost map. Most of these are excellent, but have floundered on the numerous aforementioned contradictions and problems. Obviously, being a glutton for punishment, I will also throw my hat in the ring here with my own effort, but I will try to explain my reasoning as we go along.
Danielle Rousseau’s map of the Island.
The ur-map for Lost, the base map for almost all subsequent attempts, is the map that appears in Solitary, the ninth episode of Season 1. This map was created Danielle Rousseau, aka “the French woman,” who has been stranded on the Island for sixteen years. The inference is that Rousseau has spent sixteen years roaming the Island, mapping and exploring it in detail. Later episodes made this claim somewhat more dubious (Danielle’s maps are missing many key locations from the Island that are later revealed in the course of the show or flashbacks, and she herself notes she never visited the Barracks or even found any of the DHARMA stations). However, no other convincingly detailed map exists: an illustration of the Island found on the complete DVD and Blu-Ray box sets is highly stylised, and clearly derived on Danielle’s map in the first place.
The same map translated and transcribed.
Below is a “cleaned-up” version of the map, or at least as cleaned-up as possible.
A cleaned-up version of the above, please click for a larger version.
The Map
The basic layout of the map matches what we see visually in the show itself, more or less (bearing in mind the show was shot on location on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, which is not a precise match for the Island). The Island is dominated by two mountain ranges, one in the west and one in the east, paralleling the coast with a central valley in the middle. The tallest peaks in the eastern range are listed at 1,837 metres (6,026 feet) and 2,257 metres (7,404 feet).
There are two major rivers in the northern part of the Island and one in the south. The only other area of high ground is a crater (partially collapsed) at the southern tip of the Island. The Island has three smaller islands located off the east coast, and a small atoll of five islands located off the western tip. Danielle has named these after family members: Robert Island after her deceased husband and Alex Island after her deceased daughter.
The map has lines of latitude and longitude, going as far as to suggest that the Island spans more than ten degrees of latitude (from 20°S to 30°S) (but see below). However, we know from later seasons that the Island – or at least the access window to its location – “moves,” so such coordinates are highly unreliable.
Danielle does not delineate the tree or jungle cover of the Island, but we know from the show that almost the entire Island is covered in jungle, barring the mountains, the beaches and a few areas in the valleys (most notably the castaways’ golf course and the area around the Barracks). To maintain clarity, my maps will not include tree cover, as it can be assumed that the overwhelming majority of the “clear” area of the maps has extensive tree cover.
For the purposes of creating a final map of the Island, Danielle’s map is most useful for identifying several locations and locking them in. This is pretty much limited to two specific features and a more general area: the radio tower and the submarine cable, and the Dark Territory.
The radio tower is definitively located atop the western mountain range, whilst the submarine cable is located on the south-eastern coast of the Island, where Sayid stumbles across it in Solitary. The cable leads out to the Looking Glass underwater station, as established in Season 3’s Greatest Hits, so by inference that also allows us to definitively locate that DHARMA station.
One interesting note here is that Sayid locates the cable on a beach, but Danielle’s map does not show a beach in that vicinity. Given this is a very familiar area for Danielle, her not marking it is unusual. This suggests that the areas marked “beach” along the coast are perhaps “major” beaches of extensive length and size, but other, smaller beach areas dot the rest of the coast of the Island. These are too small for Danielle to mark on her (admittedly very large-scaled) map.
Vaguer is the Dark Territory. This appears to be the area noted on the map as “the most dangerous place (the strange phenomena).” It is located between the two mountain ranges, north of the southern river. However, Danielle does not give an indication for how large the area is. Assuming the Dark Territory refers to the area where the Monster may be encountered, we know this area encompasses the river area (where the Monster dispatches Mr. Eko early in Season 3), the cockpit crash site (where the Monster kills Seth, the pilot of Oceanic 815) and the Pearl Station/question mark/crashed beechcraft (around which the Monster is active, as seen in The 23rd Psalm in Season 2), as well as the Black Rock ruin site. The edge of this area is also inland from the initial Oceanic 815 crash site, as the survivors see the trees moving and hear the Monster during their first night on the Island. However, this never happens after they move to the secondary beach camp later in Season 1, suggesting they have moved away from the Monster’s territory. The relatively nearby caves and the Swan Station also seem to be outside the Monster’s hunting area, as it is never encountered there.
Both Danielle’s flashbacks in Season 5 and events in Season 6 confirm that the Dark Territory extends to the Temple, and Season 3 confirms it also seems to abut the Barracks, the home of the DHARMA Initiative (and later the Others).
As a result, the Dark Territory appears to be a substantial area extending inland through the central valley towards the crater and the south coast but not quite reaching there, but also expanding northwards to encompass a large part of the Island (perhaps even the majority of it). Our heroes also traverse this area several times without encountering or hearing the Monster, indicating that the Monster simply can’t cover such a vast area by itself too speedily (or, as indicated by later seasons, it simply isn’t active in that form all the time).
Danielle map is also covered in numbers, the meaning of which is unclear outside of the altitude of the mountains. The “20m” notation in the Central Valley suggests it is around 20 metres (65.6 feet) above sea level. Some of the offshore numbers may be references to depth, with the sea floor dropping off to a remarkable 120 metres just offshore to the north-east, and a more startling 390 metres to the north-west. On the other hand, these numbers may have other applications.
The map also notes the resting place of her ship, off the Atoll off the Island’s western coast. Some numbers dotted around this area may refer to the order in which the French expedition investigated features of interest. More interesting are “Xs” dotting the Island, mostly along the shore. Since the first of these is marked as the first expedition’s camp, it is likely the other Xs refer to additional camp sites along the shore. These apparently culminate in a set of “Ruins of Unknown Origin” on the eastern shore, suggesting the French team migrated in a rough arc around the northern coast of the Island until they encountered ruins, possibly the Temple. However, the events in Danielle’s backstory (mostly explored in Season 5) suggest this is impossible and the Temple is much closer to the French crash site. This discrepancy can be explored in detail later on. There are also numerous ruins dotting the Island, including the stone columns where the Others tie up Anthony Cooper and the ancient stone seat favoured by the Man in Black, as well as the more obvious Temple and Statue locations, and Danielle had ample time to locate some of these ruins.
There is also a reference to “extremely dangerous rivers” in the far north, with “strange light and sounds.” The nature of this area is unclear, but it’s possibly a reference to the Sonic Fence surrounding the Barracks, beyond which Danielle was unable to explore (although she appears unfamiliar with the Sonic Fence in Season 3, but later episodes confirm her memory about Alex’s birth and abduction may not be the best). She also notes an interesting bay on the east coast, with great quantities of shellfish and crabs, along with a bay on the south coast which is home to many coconuts. There are also the two large islands off the east coast, “Robert Island” in the north, named after her deceased partner, and “Alex Island” in the south-east, named after her missing daughter. Presumably one of these is Hydra Island, but given the location of Hydra Island is the most fiercely-debated point of discussion in Lost cartographic circles (and both candidates have strong arguments for and against), we can table that debate until later.
Problems with Danielle’s Map
The map has several issues which immediately raise doubts about Danielle’s state of mind whilst creating it. The first is that the map’s scale and lines do not add up. To span ten degrees of latitude, the Island would have to be over 600 miles in length! This would make it not so much the size of Oahu but the size of Great Britain. This is clearly erroneous and is immediately disproven by Danielle’s own scale bar on the map, which indicates the map is 59 km (36 miles) long from north to south and about the same at its widest point from east to west. The longest axis of the Island (from SE to NW) measures about 69 km (42 miles). The show itself backs this up: whenever our characters have to traverse the Island from one side to another, they normally take about two days or a bit more to do that, which tracks with hiking through moderately to thickly forested cover.
We can assume that that latitude lines are therefore conjectural and not to be relied upon. I’d also be wary of the scale, except that it does track with the distances we see in the show hiking across the Island, and in the absence of other data it seems a reasonable assumption to go with.
Other problems with the map only arise in later episodes which seem to clash (sometimes wildly) with it, so those can be discussed in later entries.
A base map of the Island, taking Danielle’s map as a base and cleaning it up, and only including features 100% present on her map or whose locations can be definitively established from it.
The Best Canon Map
By drawing on Danielle’s map as the main source and comparing to the show itself, it should be possible to create the best, canonical map of the Island. This is not particularly detailed and is missing most of the major features, but it provides an excellent foundation for further developments.
So on this map we can determine the location of the radio tower, the wreck of Bésixdouze, the original French camp, some “ruins” on the north-east coast, the submarine cable (and thus the Looking Glass DHARMA station), the major offshore islands, the Dark Territory and two of the mountain peaks, plus the crater, atoll and three major rivers.
Next time, we’ll look at what the episodes themselves and several additional maps drawn by other characters add to the process.
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In this series I will look at the history of the Forgotten Realms world and publish a series of maps depicting the continent of Faerûn and the wider world of Toril at various points in its past. Like my previous series, Nations of the Forgotten Realms, this series draws on The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas and other Dungeons & Dragons resources for the setting, particularly The Grand History of the Realms, Netheril: Empire of Magic, Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves and Lost Empires of Faerûn.
The work of Richard Baker, Ed Bonny, Eric L. Boyd, James Butler, Thomas Costa, Ed Greenwood, Dale “slade” Henson, Brian R. James, George Krashos, Steven Schend and Travis Stout was particularly useful in compiling this series, along, obviously, with the work of everyone who has ever put pen to paper for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting (officially or unofficially)
Merrouroboros on the eve of the Sundering, showing the major elven empires which had arisen in the preceding millennia.
The elves had established many great civilisations stretching across much of Merrouroboros. Their power and greatness were unmatched, but many elves were wary and weary, feeling their new kingdoms were becoming too concerned with maps and borders. They yearned for the simpler life they had known in Tintageer and Arvandor, bound to the land spiritually rather than materially. But they also did not want to forsake Toril, at least not yet. They decided to create a new homeland for the elves on Toril, but away from the hustle and politics of the mainland.
To this end, circa 17,600 Before Dalereckoning, the elven High Mages came together in a ritual like nothing seen since the days of Tintageer. The elves chose a mighty fulcrum of magic, the High Mage Starleaf, and through her cast a spell which combined the best of the material world with the best of Arvandor, with the blessing of the Seldarine themselves. Some elves were uneasy about the prospect, recalling myths that it was a High Magic ritual gone awry which destroyed Tintageer, but their fears were dismissed.
The ritual began in a mighty white tower, erected in the very centre of the continent. Magical energy coursed outwards, consuming all of the High Mages in the ritual bar only Starleaf. Then it found faultlines and fissures deep underground, extending through the very rocks of Toril for dozens, maybe hundreds, of miles below the surface. The world tore apart, the single supercontinent of Merrouroboros blowing apart to form a number of lesser landmasses, scattering islands like leaves in its wake. The land quaked and the seas rose. In far Ilythiir to the south, where the dark elves did not worship the Seldarine so had not been invited to take part in the ritual, the seas rose and destroyed the capital city of Atorrnash, consuming it outright. Ka’Narlist, ruler of the realm, was killed. The devastation was extensive, and the dark elves furious when they discovered their erstwhile cousins were responsible.
By all rights, such a cataclysm – the Sundering, now sometimes called the First Sundering – should have destroyed Toril outright, or at least rendered the planet unable to sustain life. But, it is believed, the gods and Ao himself intervened to dissipate the damage with magic, even scattering the forces involved through time. Histories of this period are confused in the extreme, speaking of the Shining Sea, the Chultan Peninsula and the Sword Coast many millennia before they were formed in this event.
The elves assumed their plan had failed and returned to their lives, relieved that their realms had survived the cataclysm mostly intact. But Starleaf awoke to find herself on a peaceful island far out in the new sea that had formed to the west of the elven homelands (the continent they continued to call Faerûn, now just one of many). This was the promised land of the elves, the island called Evermeet, a piece of Arvandor incarnated in the mortal Realms. Starleaf became the first ruler of Evermeet, but for now the island was cloaked in magic. The time was not right for the elves to learn of the success of their plan.
The continent of Faerûn that formed in the wake of the Sundering. The major elven and nonelven powers are depicted roughly 12,000 years before the beginning of Dalereckoning, on the eve of the Crown Wars.
In the aftermath of the Sundering, the three elven kingdoms of the Satyrwood – Thearnytaar, Eiellûr and Syòrpiir – continued their discussions for an alliance. Alarmed, the dark elves of Ilythiir used magic to slay the leader of the Syòrpiir delegation, framing the representatives from Thearnytaar for the murder. War broke out between the two kingdoms, and in their haste to come to blows they violated the territory of Eiellûr that lay between them. The War of the Three Leaves raged for three centuries (17,100-16,800 BDR) before it was confirmed that Ilythiiri agents were responsible. Ilythiir disavowed their actions, and the three kingdoms ceased their conflict, but were now too mistrustful of each other to continue their discussions for an alliance.
This was also the era when other sentient species began to call Faerûn home. From the east came the dwarves, a diminutive people who had build vast mines and mansions under the towering Yehimal for many millennia. The origins of the dwarves, whether they were created on Toril by their god Moradin Soulforger or came to this world from elsewhere via magical means, is unknown. What drove them from their homes under the Yehimal is also unknown, although historians note the proximity of their exodus with the Sundering. By 15,000 BDR, it is known that the dwarves had tunneled under the plains of the Shaar, which narrowly extended from the Satyrwood to Ilythiir, and then under northern Ilythiir itself to established the kingdom and city of Bhaerynden.
From the west came another species, known as humans. The origin of humans is likewise unknown, although it is believed with greater certainty that they originated on a different world and were brought to Toril by the Creator Races. The earliest reports of humans speak of small, primitive tribes dwelling in what is now Katashaka as early as 32,000 BDR. Some human tribes had spread through Katashaka into what is now Chult and Mhair ere the Sundering, and there had fallen under the yoke of the yuan-ti. Other humans later crossed the Shining Sea to settle along the forested banks of the River Wurlur (the modern Ith, in Tethyr). The elves of Keltormir viewed their arrival with initial mistrust, but, around 14,000 BDR, granted them tracts of land to take as their own and co-existed with them with success for millennia afterwards. Around 11,700 BDR, when dragons burned the southern forests of Shantel Othreier, clearing much of what is now the kingdom of Amn, humans were also granted those lands to dwell in.
Around 15,300 BDR, Ivósaar Vyshaan became Coronal of Aryvandaar, marking the ascendancy of House Vyshaan. The Vyshaan had a powerful vision, of all Faerûn united under the rule of Aryvandaar, united in a single powerful elven empire that would make all of the worlds and all of the planes tremble. In 14,700 BDR, Aryvandaar extended a proposal of alliance and friendship to the dark elves of Miyeritar. But the Miyeritari remembered their disdainful treatment in Aryvandaar many millennia earlier and turned them down. To the fury of the Vyshaan, Miyeritar then underwent a Renaissance of art, culture and power. In 13,900 BDR, Miyeritar was acknowledged the centre of elven art, learning and High Magic on Toril, and elven High Mages flocked to the wizard colleges of Miyeritar to learn the ways of sorcery, disdaining those of Aryvandaar. Circa 13,200 BDR, Aryvandaar accused Miyeritar of blocking its trade routes to the south and trying to stymie Aryvandaari growth.
Tension between the two powers continued to rise, despite efforts by the other elven kingdoms to mediate. But by 12,000 BDR it was clear these efforts had failed.
What followed is known to the elves by many names, such as the Time of Great Regret, but to both the elves and other species it is better-known as the Crown Wars.
Thank you for reading The Atlas of Ice and Fire. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content before it goes live on my blogs.
In this series I will look at the history of the Forgotten Realms world and publish a series of maps depicting the continent of Faerûn and the wider world of Toril at various points in its past. Like my previous series, Nations of the Forgotten Realms, this series draws on The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas and other Dungeons & Dragons resources for the setting, particularly The Grand History of the Realms, Netheril: Empire of Magic, Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves and Lost Empires of Faerûn.
The work of Richard Baker, Ed Bonny, Eric L. Boyd, James Butler, Thomas Costa, Ed Greenwood, Dale “slade” Henson, Brian R. James, George Krashos, Steven Schend and Travis Stout was particularly useful in compiling this series, along, obviously, with the work of everyone who has ever put pen to paper for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting (officially or unofficially).
The supercontinent of Merrouroboros during the time of the domination of the giants and dragons, when the elves had only just first appeared on Toril.
The coming of the dragons, spawned some say in the Tearfall, ended the time of the original Creator Races on Toril. The aearee were destroyed, or forced to flee to remote corners of the globe. The dragons were triumphant, but the nature of dragons is individualistic and they soon fell to bickering and infighting. The murder of Nagamat, General-Priest of Tiamat, by followers of Xymor (as Bahamut was then called), triggered the Dragonfall Wars, themselves part of a wider religious conflict known as the Draco Holy Wars. The dragons eroded their own numbers, slaughtering themselves in the thousands. The early draconic “nations” of Argissthilliax, Caesinmalsvir and Tharkrixghontix were soon destroyed, leaving only Darastriverthicha to survive somewhat longer in the lands later claimed by Netheril. Notable at this time (c. 30,000 Before Dalereckoning) was the establishment of Darastrixhurthi, a vassal-state of the horned, lesser dragon-kin known as kobolds.
As the rule of the dragons weakened, there was a resurgence from the giantkin. As already related, the titan-led Jotunbrud clans had emerged from the uttermost north to establish dominion over parts of the continent before being driven back by the ferocity of the batrachi and their primordial allies. The giantkin then returned to establish the Colossal Kingdom of Ostoria and its allied states of Darchar, Grunfesting, Helligheim, Nedeheim and Rangfjell.
Relations between the dragons and giants were respectful if cool. The giants of this age were powerful warriors and employed mighty sorcerers and wizards among their ranks. They were also vastly more numerous than the dragons. The dragons decided that coexistence was a wiser course than conflict, and since, for the most part, their territorial requirements did not overlap, there was plenty of room for everybody.
However, the fourth Creator Race now began to impugn upon Toril. The Fey were not native to Toril, having instead established control of their own plane or dimensional realm known as Faerie, or, in more recent terminology, the Feywild. The Feywild had been created by the primordials circa 34,000 BDR, but the Fey had now taken it as their own and was used by them in their creation of lesser species including the korreds, pixies and sprites. The Fey also had a strong kinship with the eladrin and the elves, the species native to the realm of Arvandor (on the plane of Arborea). Many eladrin and elves moved to the Feywild, attracted by its magical nature.
The relationship between the Feywild and the primordials gave the Fey the ability to observe events on Toril, a world much to their liking. They were wary of the raw power of the dragons, fearing what would happen should they gain access to the Feywild, so starting c. 27,000 BDR, the Fey sent their minion species to Toril with the aim of undermining the power of the dragons. These minion races took root in the vast forests covering much of Merrouroboros. The first elves soon followed, including aquatic elves, avariel (winged elves) and lythari (elvish lycanthropes). Some of these settlements were more successful than others, with the aquatic elves flourishing in both the inner and outer seas, but the avariel being decimated in conflicts with the dragons and other winged species. A second wave of green and wild elf settlement began within a few centuries, settling the vast southern jungles and negotiating with the dragons to establish the first elven kingdom on Toril: Ilythiir, with its capital at Atorrnash.
In 26,000 BDR the detente between the dragons and giants ended at the command of the draconic god Garyx, who ordered his followers to destroy the Colossal Kingdom. The resulting Thousand Year War saw both giantkin and dragonkind bloodied, and the dragons reduced to a bare few thousand in number. Realising both species were threatened with destruction, at least according to legend, the giant god Annam All-Father and Garyx played a game of wah-ree to decide the matter. The game ended in a draw, so it was decided to end the war with the battle lines where they stood. Ostoria were reduced to the northern fringes of Merrouroboros (in the land now called Hartsvale, and some parts eastwards), several of the other giant kingdoms were destroyed, and others became enclaves in territory otherwise controlled by the dragons.
Merrouroboros on the eve of the Sundering, showing the major elven empires which had arisen in the preceding millennia.
Circa 30,000 BDR, the Seldarine, the (relatively) newly-established pantheon of elven gods, was riven by war and civil war. Araushnee, the elven goddess of destiny and artisans, had become the lover of Corellon Larethian, the chief god of the Seldarine. But she was also jealous and bitter, desiring his power. She arranged for a coalition of the enemies of the Seldarine to invade Arvandor and slay Corellon so she might usurp him. She was aided in this task by her son, Vhaeraun, but opposed by her daughter, Eilistraee, whom history and myth would later call the Redeemer.
During the final battle in Arvandor, Araushnee’s machinations were exposed and thwarted by Eilistraee and Sehanine Moonbow. Corellon was saved from death and he condemned Araushnee and Vhaeraun to exile. Eilistraee volunteered to go into exile as well, so she might redeem those whom her kin would seek to corrupt. Araushnee was given a further punishment, transformation into a tanar’ri, a demon of hideous, spider-like aspect. She took a new home on the 66th layer of the Abyss and also a new name and title: Lolth, Queen of the Demonweb Pits.
Almost five thousand years later, c. 25,400 BDR, the great island kingdom of Tintageer, in Faerie, was attacked by unknown warriors. The elves used High Magic to destroy the invaders, but this display of power had an unintended side-effect, namely the flooding of Tintageer and its inundation. Barely fifty elves, led Prince Durothil of the sun elves and Sharlario Moonflower of the moon elves, escaped through a portal. They found themselves on Toril, in what would later be called the High Forest, and Durothil uttered the word the elves would take to describe their new home: “Faerûn.” The elvish word for “One Land.”
Almost immediately the elves found themselves in a battle for survival with the ruling dragon of the region, Mahatnartorian, but were aided in their struggle by both lythari and avariel. They built the first great elven city of the north, Sharlarion, and Sharlario and his son travelled this new world in search of allies. Hearing of an elven kingdom in the far south, they arrived in Ilythiir and struck up friendly relations with its ruler, Ka’Narlist. However, they were wary of the dark gods Vhaeraun and Ghaunadaur worshipped in the kingdom. Eilistraee also appeared to Sharlario in a vision to warn him of the southern elves’ amoral nature. Ka’Narlist gifted Sharlario with a dagger ensorcelled so he might spy on events in the north. Upon Sharlario’s return home, he witnessed the great battle between Durothil and his silver dragon ally, Silverywing, and the dragon Mahatnartorian. All three perished in the conflict.
In 25,000 BDR, elven High Mages unleashed the power of their sorcery to create the Dracorage Mythal, an artefact of tremendous power. Drawing on the magic of the Kingkiller Star, they drove every dragon on Toril insane for several days, resulting in mass casualties among the draconic race. Every few centuries, the Rage of Dragons would strike again, keeping draconic numbers low enough so that they would never threaten the elves again.
Six centuries later, the demonic lord Haeshkaar invaded Toril with a vast horde of orcs, the first of the creatures to appear on the planet. He destroyed the gold elf city of Occidian but was unable to take Sharlarion. His forces were defeated, but he captured the high priest Anarallath in the process. Anarallath’s lover, the great archmage Kethryllia Amarillis, purused him back to the Abyss and, aided by the capricious goddess Kiaransalee, slew Haeshkaar in battle and rescued her lover. To this end she employed the magical dagger of Ka’Narlist. The presence of this weapon in the Abyss drew the attention of Lolth to Toril, where she located Ka’Narlist and allied with him, subverting of the worship of the Ilythiiri to her dark cause. By 23,200 BDR, Ilythiir had strengthened its hold over a vast swathe of the south, extending from the fringes of the Mhair Jungles through what would later be the Forest of Amtar and Lluirwood.
Occidian’s destruction saw Sharlarion become predominantly a sun or gold elf city. After their victory over the orcs, the elves flourished and numerous colony towns and cities were established across the High Forest, the vast woodland located south-west of the Narrow Sea. By 23,900 BDR these communities had allied into the kingdom of Aryvandaar.
Other elven kingdoms followed. Other sun and moon elves allied to found the realm of Shantel Othreier around 23,600 BDR, located in the forests north of the Cloud Peaks and extending east to the Gods’ Theatre (the modern Tunlands). A moon or silver elf colony state was also established at Ardeep to the north, near the mouths of the Dessarin and Delimbiyr, the two great rivers of the north. Syòrpiir was founded in the what later became the Ankhwood and Chondalwood (23,100 BDR), followed by Illefarn to the north-west of Ardeep, in the forested mountains along the coast (22,900). Orishaar was established in the lands immediately to the north-east of the Pourounkorokale (22,500), and Thearnytaar in what would become the Thornwood (21,400). Eiellûr followed in the Winterwood (21,000).
Relations between the kingdoms were mostly good, but occasionally strained. Orishaar and Ilythiir’s borders clashed south of what is now the Border Kingdoms and the two skirmished for a time around 20,000 BDR before settling a common frontier. The three kingdoms of the vast Satyrwood, namely Eiellûr, Thearnytaar and Syòrpiir, also had initial tensions before becoming more friendly and allied, known as the Kingdoms of the Three Leaves. Indeed, their rulers would occasionally ponder the positives of allying together into a single empire to rival Ilythiir or Aryvandaar.
Circa 18,800 BDR, a major political schism within Aryvandaar saw the nation’s wild and dark elf kindreds, fed up with centuries of being treated as inferiors, departing the realm. They crossed the Delimbiyr and established the realm of Miyeritar. In 17,800 BDR, moon and wild elf explorers from Thearnytaar crossed the mountains of the Iltkazar Range to colonise the vast woodlands that later generations would call Tethir, Darthiir and Mir. The great kingdom of Keltormir grew up in this region.
Despite their sheer power and profligacy, some elves began to experience pangs of regret for their species’ increased interest in politics and borders, and a retreat from the spirituality and mysticism their ancestors had experienced in Arvandor and Faerie. Many elves began to call for the creation of a new homeland, a land apart from the petty concerns of the mainland where the true spirit of elvenkind could be enjoyed. The elven High Mages began to prepare for the casting of a tremendous spell to establish such a homeland, where the mortal world of Toril and the elven spiritual homeland of Arvandor could mingle.
The effects of this spell would be extremely far-reaching…and disastrous.
Thank you for reading The Atlas of Ice and Fire. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content before it goes live on my blogs.
In this series I will look at the history of the Forgotten Realms world and publish a series of maps depicting the continent of Faerûn and the wider world of Toril at various points in its past. Like my previous series, Nations of the Forgotten Realms, this series draws on The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas and other Dungeons & Dragons resources for the setting, particularly The Grand History of the Realms, Netheril: Empire of Magic, Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves and Lost Empires of Faerûn.
The work of Richard Baker, Ed Bonny, Eric L. Boyd, James Butler, Thomas Costa, Ed Greenwood, Dale “slade” Henson, Brian R. James, George Krashos, Steven Schend and Travis Stout was particularly useful in compiling this series, along, obviously, with the work of everyone who has ever put pen to paper for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting (officially or unofficially).
The supercontinent of Merrouroboros, which existed in the millennia preceding the First Sundering. The supercontinent later split apart to form the continents of the modern era: Maztica, rumoured Anchôromé, Katashaka, Faerûn, Zakhara, Kara-Tur and Ossë. Please click for a larger version.
This first world map looks at Abeir-Toril, as it was then called, in the period after the Age of Creation. This is circa 40,000 BDR (Before Dalereckoning), some 41,500 years before the present day.
According to myth, the star system of Realmspace was created by the Hidden One, the entity Ao of whom little is known. Ao charged the first two gods of this realm, the twins Selûne and Shar, with nurturing life within the system. The two goddesses created a third, Chauntea, to help them in this task. Chauntea’s recommendation was to create light and warmth within the system, but the twin sisters quarrelled; Shar, Sister of Night and Darkness, hated the idea. The two sisters warred and Selûne proved victorious, creating the Sun. However, this activity attracted the attention of the primordials, powerful beings who desired dominion over all worlds in the multiverse. The goddesses united their power to defeat the primordials, driving them into hiding or imprisoned in remote corners of Realmspace. A fourth goddess, Mystryl, Lady of Magic, was created during this period. Mystryl withheld her powers from both sisters, bringing an end to their warring.
Although life flourished on all worlds in Realmspace, the most promising was Abeir-Toril, third planet from the Sun. The planet was completely covered in water, but a multitude of life grew in the deep oceans, during what became known as the Blue Age. Many other gods formed at this time, as sentient life spread through Abeir-Toril’s oceans and their need for faith and worship grew.
Alas, the primordials returned. One of the mightiest of their number, Dendar the Night Serpent, consumed the Sun to plunge Realmspace into freezing cold, an era known as the Shadow Epoch. His opposite number, the god known as Ouroboros, the World Serpent, led the gods of the system into battle. A long war resulted, but the two sides were too evenly matched. In the end, the primordials were defeated by one of their own; Ubtao swapped sides, helping the gods defeat the primordials in return for lands and worshippers of his own. The primordials were destroyed, or forced to flee across the planes.
The Sun was kindled into life once more, and Abeir-Toril again flourished. But this time the seas had retreated, much of their mass being locked away into ice. A single, enormous supercontinent was revealed: Merrouroboros. More than 10,000 miles across, the landmass contained all the lands that would later be scattered as the continents of the modern day.
For untold millennia or maybe even tens of millennia, life on Abeir-Toril developed. Then, circa 36,500 years ago, the first sentient lifeforms began to build cities, learn the ways of magic and ascend to greatness. This marked the beginning of the Days of Thunder, also known as the Age of the Creator Races.
A map of western Merrouroboros, depicting the reign of the sarrukh. Three powerful sarrukh empires ruled over the lands between c. 35,000 and 33,500 Before Dalereckoning. The sarrukh created the successor races known as the yuan-ti, naga, lizardfolk, pterafolk, troglodytes and other types of serpentfolk and scalykind.
The Creator Races, or Iquar-Tel’Quessir in the tongue of the elves, were immensely powerful, pre-human and even pre-elven species that ruled over Toril and, before it, Abeir-Toril, in the earliest of days. There are five credited Creator Races, although only three existed in this remote epoch.
The first to arise were the sarrukh. Also called the saurians or Progenitors of the Scaled Ones, the sarrukh established the first-known empires: Okoth, Mhairshaulk and Isstosseffifil. They also built the oldest-known surface cities in the Realms: Sar’Rukoth, the capital of Okoth, now believed to be buried under Azulduth, the Lake of Salt south of Mulhorand; and Oreme, long-since buried under the sands of Anauroch, the Great Desert. They worshipped the World Serpent, who first accepted their faith directly but then through vassal incarnations.
The sarrukh were also the first power – but far from the last – to suffer the depredations of the phaerimm. They encountered the phaerimm in the lands north of Oreme, where the creatures seemed to hail from caverns many miles below the surface (the ancestor tunnels of the modern Underdark). The origins of the phaerimm are unknown, but the creatures, then as now, were unrelentingly hostile. The sarrukh did successfully defeat the phaerimm and drive them back into the Underdark, but only through the unleashing of powerful magic to shift the entire course of the Narrow Sea, flooding the caverns below with millions of gallons of water.
Roughly 2,500 years after their first rise to power, the sarrukh peaked as a civilisation. Isstosseffifil collapsed as a result of the war with the phaerimm, although its capital Oreme endured as a multi-species library city for the study of magic. Mhairshaulk endured under the rule of the yuan-ti, but its sarrukh rulers left to explore other planes. Okoth continued to endure until around 31,000 BDR, when it abruptly vanished. Sages assumed it had declined and faded away, but some evidence suggests that the realm was transferred to the shadow-world of Abeir instead. The truth of the matter remains unclear.
A map of western Merrouroboros, depicting the reign of the batrachi. Four powerful sarrukh empires ruled over the lands between c. 33,500 and 31,000 Before Dalereckoning. The batrachi created the successor races known as the bullywugs, doppelgangers, kopru, kuo-toa, locathah, sivs and tako. The rule of the batrachi came to a rather abrupt end in the event known as the Tearfall.
Next to emerge were the batrachi, an amphibian species originating in the seas around Merrouroboros. With the sarrukh in decline, the batrachi were able to emerge onto the dry land and forge their own empires: Nadezhda, Boitumelo, Kolophoon and, greatest of them all, Zhoukoudien, the domain of the High One. These empires flourished for two thousand years before they came into contact with the Jotunbrud, a towering race originating from the freezing lands in the north-east. This race, whom history would recall as the first titans, were formidable but appeared slow and ungainly. Bazim-Gorad, ruler of Nadezhda, urged caution in dealing with the creatures, but the High One Zhoukoudien scoffed at such an idea and treated them with disdain. This led Omo, the titan thane, to slay Zhoukoudien in battle. This sparked a bloody war between the two species.
The titans proved the batrachi’s match and more, driving them back in defeat. In desperation, the batrachi sought magical allies and and found them in powerful spirits imprisoned in various parts of the world. Unfortunately, these were not allies at all, but some of the imprisoned primordials from the most ancient times. The primordials renewed their war against not just the titans, but also the gods of the Realms, who were taken by surprise by the return of their foe. Despite this, the gods were more numerous and more powerful, and quickly gained the upper hand.
In apparent desperation, the primordial Asgorath, the World-Shaper, also known as Io, hurled a moon of ice at Abeir-Toril, intending to destroy that which the primordials could not conquer. The moon was destroyed before it could hit the planet, but the resulting inundation of meteorites, rocky fragments and ice caused widespread destruction. The centre of the continent, between four great lakes or small seas, collapsed, resulting in the creation of the Sea of Falling Stars, also called the Inner Sea. Many of the smaller fragments of the moon which missed the planet looped back around it in a never-ending orbit, becoming known as the Tears of Selûne. Batrachi civilisation collapsed and the titans beat a hasty retreat into the lands of the uttermost north. This apocalyptic event became known in history as the Tearfall, and took place circa, 31,000 BDR.
Ao intervened, furious that, one again, the Balance that was in his care had been endangered. He split Abeir-Toril into two worlds, identical but separated by a whisper of a thought. He gave Abeir to the primordials and Toril to the gods, and split them apart so the two worlds could not meet or be travelled between, thus ending the great war.
But the Tearfall had an unexpected consequence: many of the rocks and stones that had poured out of the shattered moon were actually eggs. And, soon after the Tearfall, they began to hatch.
A map of western Merrouroboros, depicting the reign of the aearee. Three mighty aearee “flocks” ruled over the lands between c. 31,000 and 30,000 Before Dalereckoning. The aearee created the successor races known as wyverns, aarakocra, kenku and owlbears.
The third Creator Race to emerge were the aearee, an avian species originating on a large island in the Silver Sea. Some of the aearee had been enslaved by the batrachi, so the rest of the species kept a low profile until the destruction of the batrachi in the Tearfall. The aearee then moved to the mainland, establishing mighty holds at Viakoo (on Mount Havraquoar, in the lands north of what is now Maztica), Phwiukree (on the Star Mounts of the High Forest) and Shara (in the Orsraun Mountains of modern Turmish.
The rule of the aearee was rather brief. Having established three great holds, the aearee were hard-pressed fighting against enemies such as the lammasu (who assailed Viakoo but were driven back by vast numbers of wyverns) and the gnolls of Urgnarash, who sought to destroy Shara using a plague. The desperation of the times saw the aearee reluctantly join forces with their old enemies, the few surviving batrachi and sarrukh at Oreme, where they undertook great magical feats together. There, the magic of the three races united to create the greatest repositories of magical knowledge in the history of the world. Later history would call them “the Nether Scrolls.”
But word was already spreading from the east of a ferocious new threat, winged and fanged creatures of immense strength and cunning, not to mention magical power. The dragons born of the Tearfall had, after a thousand years, come of age. Led by Nagamat, a draconic general and worshipper of the goddess Tiamat, the first great Flight of Dragons seen on the face of Toril scoured the three aearee holds from the face of the world. The surviving aearee, sarrukh and batrachi were destroyed or forced to flee across the planes. Some believe that some aearee survived on Toril by returning to their original homeland in the uttermost west, but the truth of the matter remained unclear.
The Days of Thunder had ended and the Dawn Age, the Time of Dragons, had begun.
Thank you for reading The Atlas of Ice and Fire. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content before it goes live on my blogs.
Atlas of Ice and Fire 