Map

A map was a document displaying the layout of a region, such as a building, settlement, landscape, country, continent, or world. A similar but separate concept was that of the merchants' map, which outlined the trade and transport used in the mass-production of manufactured goods.
==Manufacture & Design==
Many of the maps available in the Realms were simplified copies of maps from the large collections of courts, temples, and private individuals. They were made by limners (painters or portrait drawers), court heralds, and scribes who had to pay an access fee, sometimes per map. This fee covered the time involved for someone to bring them the map and watch over them as they worked. This fee also tended to be roughly half or a third of the price that the scribe would charge their client for the finished copy. Alternatively, map-making kits allowed any layperson to attempt making their own maps.
Maps were often printed on scrolls that could be rolled up, and stored in a map tube or map case.
Nautical maps—which were typically the most crude and inaccurate, yet most valuable of maps—were often drawn by sea captains themselves. This was done by using a candle or burning quill to singe markings into the cured, durable hide of a bull. Often they drew these while consulting the map of another captain, who watched over their work and charged them a stiff fee.
Just as there existed these charts for the oceans of Toril that ships relied upon, there existed star charts that spelljammers relied upon. These were navigational charts for crystal spheres and the phlogiston and were considered necessary to have if one wished to navigate the skyways accurately.
==Sources==
Stores that sold traveling supplies, such as Elgath's Provisions in Archenbridge, often sold maps, while some shops like Maskado's Maps & Legends in Neverwinter and Esklindrar's Maps, Books, & Folios in Yartar specialized in maps, books, and other records of information.
* Blingdenstone's royal vaults held rough maps that outlined the many passageways in and out of the city. The city's deep gnome inhabitants never allowed outsiders to purchase or borrow copies of these maps.
* The store Frozenfar Expeditions sold maps of the surrounding Icewind Dale region.
* The Horizon's Sails was a business in Waterdeep that sold a variety of high quality and rare maps, including ones that were enchanted.
* The Map House in Silverymoon, maintained by the Heralds of Faerûn, held a great library of maps. Other places in Silverymoon that were considered to have some of the best map collections in the Realms included—the Halls of Inspiration, the Star Court, and various vaults beneath the High Palace.
* The similarly named Map House of Waterdeep, the guildhall of the Surveyors', Map & Chart-Makers' Guild, both sold and purchased maps and nautical charts.
* The Mapper's Workshop, an obscure shop in Ravens Bluff, sold maps of places all across Faerûn. It also stocked a few maps of various countries that existed on the world of Oerth, particularly those that neighbored the city-state of Greyhawk. Its proprietor sometimes hired adventurers to explore areas of his maps that he considered to be under-detailed.
* Nautical Charts of Bral was a shop on the Rock of Bral that sold starcharts for the crystal spheres that were nearby Realmspace.
* In Neverwinter, one could purchase both maps and nautical charts from the shop of Alasturan Malatheer, though they often had fanciful errors to them.
* Nightstar Guiding and Outfitters was a general store in Waymoot that sold maps.
* Old Winding Road Maps and Charts was an old store in Waterdeep that specialized in maps and nautical charts.
* Safe Harbor Marine Guarantees, a maritime insurance business in Ravens Bluff, also sold nautical charts of both the Inner Sea and Moonsea.
* The Sailors' Own, a tavern in the city of Waterdeep, offered patrons nautical charts of areas along the Sword Coast and around the Sea of Swords.
* Serpent Books & Folios in Waterdeep was considered by some to be one of the single best sources for maps and nautical charts in the Realms, including maps of the Sword Coast.
* Summarl's Scrolls and Maps, a shop in the city of Calimport.
===Religious Sources===
* The House of the Moon, a temple of Selûne in the city of Waterdeep, had a grand Hall of Maps that held maps of nearly every known city and land in the continent of Faerûn. These were stored on crammed shelves lengthwise within unlabled, ornate tubes of bone and ivory. Among the collection there were even a few prized maps of Maztica, Kara-tur, and Zakhara. Though the collection lacked maps of Eltabbar, Evermeet, and Neverwinter. Merchants and ship captains often visited when planning new expeditions, while adventurers, hunters, and guides visited when seeking out lost trails through nigh-impassable obstacles.
* Many temples of Oghma sold maps to support themselves.
* Many of the Church of Shaundakul's priests made a living selling accurate-as-possible maps of trade routes, mountain passes, and even the layouts of castles and palaces with their (known) secret rooms and passages marked. They were also known to sell maps of short underground routes, such as sewer systems, catacombs, the cellars of ruins, and “merchants’ shortcuts” in the Underdark.
==Uses==
Maps helped people find their way between locations, whether in a wilderness environment or in a dungeon.
Maps were useful in warfare. In the Utter East during the Bloodforge Wars (648–657 DR), scroll maps surveying charts were sought after to reveal unexplored areas and dispel the "fog of war". Maps of Neverwinter were forbidden to be made in an effort to thwart Luskan spies.
In the tenday preceding the city holiday of Wintershield, sales of maps in Waterdeep would increase as many sought to consult them for discussions of politics and warfare. Additionally, it was widely considered good luck to own and examine a map on that day.
==History==
The first recognized map of Cormyr, the Dalelands, and Cormanthor was made by Cormyrian cartographers in the .
 Called "The Map of the Lands of the Inner Sea", it was commissioned by an ancestor of Aubayreer Mindosel to mark the year of their ennobling in Teshar.
In the , explorers from New Waterdeep created inland survey maps of Maztica.
Sometime after the War of the Silver Marches, several cloud giant nobles embarked on expeditions to remap the Sword Coast, hoping to uncover lost relics of their ancient kingdom Ostoria along the way.
==Appendix==
===Gallery===
Polyhedron-40.jpg|Adventurers argue about a map on the cover of Polyhedron #40
===Appearances===
===References===
Category:Tools
Category:Navigational tools
Category:Items from Faerûn
Category:Items from Toril
Category:Items