The Danderillon

The **Danderillon** was the largest and most populous world subcontinent, the most interesting, and the one where everything cool happened. It was about 150,000 sq mi, roughly measuring six or seven hundred miles from west coast to east coast and about 250mi north to south. To the Dnaderillon's north it transitioned into the cold lands of Gildegra, whilst to the southwest it became The Burning Hills and to the southeast became Turmish.

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**The Danderillon,** also translated in Rakki texts as **Greenland**, was the largest subcontinent of Faerun. It was mostly warm, spanning grassland, temperate deciduous and evergeen forest, marsh and prairie. It was separated from Gildegra by the mountain ranges of Auril's Girdle. The range running through south Bracken and down the Mariana Woods was called the Dellings.
It bordered Netheril to its southwest, transitioning onto the orange sand by way of the Nethir Upland. To its southeast, it bordered the Turmish highlands, separated by the striking disjointed Highland Mountains.

## Names in Local Tongues

* Vreigardt: **Dană Rellein** (Land of Plenty)
* Luskan: **Il Danderilla** (The Garden, which is where the Faerun Common name Danderillon then came from)
* Rakki: **Ðanland,** which meant Green Land
* Saemhl: **Dàndegh ò Rémhlan**
* Darim: **Dänrland**
* Xantor: **L'il Danda Arilla**
* Vortais: **La Danderelle**
* Nethir: **Al'Dandahr**
* Lusk-Nethir: **Dándeħrilaan**
* Tbikhlan: **Ov Dandwynnen**
* Gildegran languages (Yilderet, Yupiit): **ᔨ ᑕᓐᑐᕐ** (luskanised: Y'dander)

## Geography

The Danderillon was home to some of the greatest heroes and cities of the world. It was home to many powerful states and famous cities. The western coast was controlled by the state of Scarossar from the mid 1510s, which ruled from its great capitals of Waterdeep and Naysayer. Scarossar extended as far as the villages near Gracemear's Run on the fringes of the mountains running through the central magical ever-present, evergreen forest, Firth, with the pass of Prior's Gap running above it. Other forests such as the Mariana and the Pearwood dominate the landscape too. Famous rivers like the Reiros, Reidos, Vikreux and Yuron dotted the landscape - though the main river drainage basins were those, plus the Triao and Olea.

The southwest Boarwood forest was ruled by the Boarwood Enclave, a gnomish technocracy with their capital Lanmop. They protected their sacred woods with great magical technology. The northwest of the Danderillon was home to the Hextorr Basin, comprised of thick fens and bog, transitioning to dense jungle in the north shielded in a horseshoe-shaped mountain range. This basin was home to the empire of Ne'em'irah, an ancient home for the lizardfolk, kobolds, dragonborn and some other uncommon peoples.

There were many landmarks of historical significance, like the oil plant of Cassalanter Kerosene and Tar, or the razed ruin of Aomodos. Intrigue and history could be found in even the smallest towns like Lupkówa/Alverosa and Pszczow/Malphur.

The western moors, known as a whole as the Sword Vreilands, were otherwise inhabited by the Sword Vreigardts people. The oldest natives of the continent, they made their homes in great hill forts like their capital Erod Warad, and upon the fruitful prairie, with territory curving around the Boarwood and onto the rainbow-hued geologically unique land between Netheril and the Nethir Upland. The Tarkas Vreigardts could also be found in the eastern plateau, in the Tarkas Vreilands pushed south by the Lusken's land grabs.

The Highland Mountains of the Turmish border were inhabited by the Highlanders, a large society of Tbikhlan dwarves who were the separated relatives of the kingdom of Tibeal in the lowlands. They ruled from the indomitable bastion of Trengolwheal.

The inlet of Farwydd was given its name in the Brackian tongue, from a stem of the Old Rakki word 'Farsjärð', meaning Farward (i.e. leading away from Rakkimar).

Strikingly by the inlet of Farwydd, the Dellings split in two like jaws, into the Bay of Drowned Wishes. This bay was home to one of the most famous cities of all - Bracken, the lawless City of Thieves. Hard to access but by sea or by gruelling mountain trek, it lay close to the proud Dwarven subterranean hold of Kol Darim, a huge underground city that ruled over several smaller Darim enclaves close by. On the shores of the Farywdd Basin, towns like the exotic bazaar of Nisos, home to Faerun's main tabaxi populace, and other once-imperial waystations like Taros sprung up. Many villages like Deadman's Rest or Jarren's Well have gained notoriety for their history, exports or strategic locations.

## Ancient History

Back in the centuries before the Dalereckoning, the land was inhabited mainly by the Vreigardt people from coast to coast, plus the Darim and Highlanders in small enclaves. The Darim, once Rakki Skýndrar landed on the Danderillon early, but remained fairly isolated.

During this era, the land was still untamed - forests and rivers covered most of the landscape, with the occasional farm dotted about. Small independent towns dominated the Danderillon lowlands, like Pszczow and Lupkówa.

Independent cities and city-states like Kol Darim and Nisos were the few large centres of culture, but there was one more.

The single, and pretty much sole power of the Danderillon during this era was the Kingdom of Bracken (Rice Bræknge). Ruled by the Wulfborn family, it culminated in its third ruler, King Æthelwulf, son and second-oldest child of the original ruler, King Palifrun. Æthelwulf had big plans, and wanted to turn Bracken into the greatest (and first) kingdom of the continent.

Beginning in the year -1799 DR, the beginning of the next Skýndrar ventures onto the Danderillon began with the Crew of the Klemmuvængválf. This led to raids on towns like Lupkówa. The Rakkimarrans would not arrive for some time...

## Middle History

In the first few centuries, the Lusken Empire attempted to colonise the Danderillon. This was very successful - they gained the Sword Coast of Waterdeep and its ward, the Tarkassian Coast of Datria and its environs, and the land around their mountain bastion of Carmogan, built into Mount Carm. They also won a war against the Darim, exacting a heavy toll on them for centuries to come, but mountain warfare proved to be too consuming. They could not occupy Kol Darim nor Bracken.

Nonetheless, their advance was halted by a multitude of factors. The enigmatic Boarwood Enclave, the fierce Tarkas and Sword Vreigardts and the Highlanders all offered heavy resistance to their land being taken. These people were driven back and their land shrunk, but they stood firm. During this time, the Lusken strongholds were the centres of civilisation - Waterdeep, Carmogan, and Datria were the three imperial bastions of west, centre and east.

## Recent History

In more recent centuries, Waterdeep declared independence in 1514 from the Empire, and since then ruled over Scarossar without its strings being pulled by a higher power. Likewise, Datria fell in 1490, to the Violet Catastrophe, and lost much of its power, becoming an independent city too - nonetheless, the Lusken presence is still felt in the culture of the land, even if its imperial claw is retreating. Lusken has made her mark on the land forever.

In far more recent years, much has happened in the land, with heroes, villains, and stories galore. Cities have declared independence and formed bonds - now Waterdeep leads Scarossar's state on the west. The isolated Lusken Army have reformed Pelia to Datria and declared themselves the successor empire to Lusken. The west and east Vreigardts were finally united, the gap bridged by the non-Lusken conscript led Carm Junta. The formation of the pan-Danderillonian Pătrat faction proved a threat to the Lusken-derived powers of the east and west coasts. This sparked into the Moor Wars in the early 1520s.

## The Moor Wars

Waterdeep and her environs have long been on track to become the most industrially advanced city in the world. But such a machine demands fuel. To power their factories, their great spluttering steam engines, furnaces and forges, they needed oil, coal and gas.

The Sword Vreilands, (colloquially called the Moors) were rich in it - quite possibly the richest land on the continent. It was theorised that when the Boarwood and Firth were joined by a contiguous habitat corridor many hundreds of millions of years ago, the abundant dead organic matter formed the substances beneath the ground. It was well known that Firth was one of the most species-rich and species-abundant places on all of Toril, with both the flora and fauna displaying a unique, significant example of isolative gigantism, best seen in the *Saurischia (Ornithischia, Sauropodomorpha, and Theropoda)* found in the forest.

Whatever the reason, Waterdeep capitalised on it. In the late 1400s and first decade of the 1500s, countless plants, mines and refineries sprang up around the Moors, as seen on the map. Kerosene, paraffin, tar, diesel, naphtha, hexane, tin, salt, butane, copper, zinc, lead and bitumen were just some of the products that Waterdeep guzzled, drilling into the historical lands of the native people to feed itself. Many refineries were owned by famous Waterdhavian families, making their names from such a venture - the Davis-Brook, Putnam and Cassalanter reputations as 'tycoons' was well founded in truth. Forts were built, or some historical Lusken-era ones re-stationed, to guard Waterdeep's money-makers, the backbone of its industry. The many rivers that web the moors were lined, one side with factories, stone forts and cannon, and the other with sharpened stakes, green flags and ditches. Tensions had been reaching a fever pitch for years, and in 1521, the Moor Wars sparked. They ended some years later, the land forever changed. The Pătrat, a union of the native powers, stood firm, and for the second time, Lusken's claw retreated - Scarossar lost much land.