Gwessar

**Gwessar** is the central continent of Exandria upon which the kingdom of Tal'Dorei rests, because of this many refer to the entire continent as Tal'Dorei. Gwessar was originally named by the elves whom reside there and roughly translates to "Fields of Joy".

## History

### Gwessar

Not more than 800 years ago, what is now known as the continent of Tal'Dorei by most, housed the germinating seeds of restored civilisation. It was the hardly, dependable dwarves who best weathered the war between entities and mortals, and within the Cliffkeep Mountains, the dwarven cans built the subterranean city of Kraghammer. The proud clans were the first to reclaim the riches of the earth, and nestled in its safe embrace they founded expansive mines rich metals and minerals, ensuring a prosperous foothold under the banner of the ruling Clan Jaggenstrike.

Far to the south of Kraghammer lived the elves. In the wake of the Calamity, the surviving found shelter in the otherworldly peace of the Feywild, returning a generation later, united under the guidance of an elven sorceress named Yenlara's wise rule that elven society once again began to reform. She led her people westward to the Verdant Expanse, an untamed forest born from the surging, post-Calamity energies left untouched by the Betrayer's evil. Calling themselves wood elves, Yenlara's people began to construct a new home for elven culture in these lands. This reborn home was given the name Syngorn.

The new elven society came to call this land Gwessar-in their tongue, the Field of Joy- and they refer to the continent by this name still to this day.

The dwarves and elves are long-lived people, and when they struggled to rebuild their civilisations, there were those among them who still remembered the world that was. The humans were not so fortunate. Their histories, written by warmongers in fading ink on waterlogged parchments and vellum, did not survive the years. Yet humanity endured. Several centuries after the Jaggenstrike dwarves began this period of renewal, a clan of humans braved the angry Ozmit Sea and sailed to what is now western Tal'Dorei from distant Issylra.

These people had the sea in their blood, and sailed from island and island for generations, but something called them to Tal'Dorei. The ruins of their first settlement still stands today: the port city of O'Noa. From O'Noa the seafarers expanded outward, until all the western shores fell under their banner. In the North, they found fertile fields unsalted by the nearby sea against an inlet began to build. They did not know their city would become the heart of a great empire. They did not know the glory and sorrow that would surround their city of Emon.

### The Iron Rule of Drassig

The rise of human colonies vexed the elves of Syngorn. Forests that had stood for centuries fell under the axes of creatures who lived only a scant few decades. These tensions did not rise to war, but the humans gnawed at peace like termites.

As the first human civilisation on this part of the world after the Calamity, a handful of self-entitled noble houses arose in Emon and established law and structure, but those who designed the game stacked the deck in their favour. Corruption spread through the upper echelons of Emon, and power-hungry politicians seized each new and new kingdom. They turned their citizens against each other, forcing them to fight for scraps while they hoarded the lion's share.

Emon was a political war zone, and the greastes warrior of the all was a loudmouthed braggart and cunning oligarch named Warren Drassig. The chaos and mistrust in Emon allowed Drassig and his agents to seize power and transform the realm into the Kingdom of Drassig, with Warren himself as its supreme monarch. Drassig was quick to sever any remaining connections with the elves of Syngorn and make new alliances with the dwarves of Kraghammer, marrying Drassig's autocratic power with the dwarves' immense material wealth.

The elves were furious, but the ambassador form Syngorn to Emon, an idealistic grandson of the still living Yenlara, hoped to resolve this diplomatically. Upon arrival, he was apprehended, tortured, and slain. This final act of treachery sent Syngorn into arms, and the continent erupted into a long and terrible war between Yenlara's Kin and Drassig's bloodline known as the Scattered War.

### The Scattered War

The Scattered War lasted for thirty-two years and is colloquially known as the "Time of Shrouds". The war spanned throughout the Cliffkeep Mountains and into parts of the Verdant Expanse, with the human colonies spread throughout the soon-to-be-warring territories. The settlements, towns and cities had no means of long-range communication, and could not warn each other; Drassig was able to attack each one with little resistance. He taught his soldiers to infiltrate their enemy, listening from the shadows to uncover their weaknesses, determining the best point of attack and how best to destroy the morale of any obstinate insurgents. With the groundwork complete, one of Drassig's generals would strike at the weakened masses with swiftness and savagery. Drassig's shadow tactics were uncouth, but while viewed as highly irregular and dishonourable, proved extremely effective in preventing widespread uprising.

Cities crumbled beneath the shadow of Drassig's rule. The lights within the settlements of humans and wood elves alike were snuffed out, and this creeping brutality lasted more than nine years. King Warren Drassig eventually sent his troops to what was believed to be the nearly abandoned village of Torthil, rumoured to be a haven for refugees. Warren led his men throughout the ghost town, and they scattered about to look for survivors. As they regrouped in the town square, Warren delivered an inspiring speech on the utility of fear and shadow in worthwhile victory. It was at the height of his arrogance that the first arrow struck, followed shortly by a volley that clouded the sky. It appeared that after nine years of darkness and slaughter, Yenlara's wood elves and the rebellious humans of the scattered colonies joined forces and formed and alliance on their own accord, outside the need for civil agreements or political treaties.

After Warren Drassig fell, his first successor and son, Neminar Drassig rose to power. Neminar shunned the brutal methods of his father, instead finding his interests in more sinister powers. he became known as "Neminar the Black Fingered", as his dabbling in necromancy left on arm withered and useless. However, his militarising infernal magics and forbidden rites elevated the threat of Drassig's war machine. Neminar led his army back to the town of Torthil where his father was executed, to exact his hideous vengeance. In the town square, he piled high the corpses of the elven and human traitors to make pyres that lit the night. Torthil was burned to ash.

By far, the darkest days of the Scattered War were during Neminar's rule. He introduced tactics and magics to fuel his soldiers beyond human limits, leaving their bodies altered and mutated by foul, dark, necromantic magics. Their minds became warped and twisted to favour mindless bloodshed and domination. Drassig's forces became the perfect weapons of war, their ranks blessed by the unholy touch of the Fallen known as the Strife Emperor.

In the face of such terrible power and wilful tyranny, the rebellion of men and elves continued to bolster their ranks with vengeful orphans and eager heroes. One such hero who came to be instrumental in the coming conflict was called Zan Tal'Dorei. A human who rose from the harried streets of Syngorn during such dark time, Zan quickly proved to be both a mighty warrior and an inspirational leader. Rallying the broken ranks of the resistance, Zan lured Neminar and his vanguard into the mysterious brush of the Verdant Expanse, a realm where fey magic was to work in Syngorn's favour.

Having unleashed their forces upon what they thought was the Syngornian outpost known as the Shifting Keep, the illusionary magic of the locale left the army without a target, and vulnerable to ambush. The retribution of the forest merged with the weapons of Zan's warriors, striking with enough ferocity that Neminar and his blighted soldiers were crushed, signalling a shift in the tides of was. As word of Neminar's defeat and death spread, hope grew for all the oppressed peoples of the realm.

Even so, the last years of fighting were still ahead of them, for Warren's youngest son stood to take power, and was sworn to avenge his family and protect their seat of rule.

### Battle of The Umbra Hills

King Trist Drassig, second-born son of the despotic Warren Drassig, took the throne, envisioning the end of the Scattered War, and tasting victory on his lips. Trist was neither brilliant not as charismatic as his father; his armies were stretched thin and his people rose up. The rebels, led by the young warrior Zan Tal'Dorei, found themselves winning one minor victory after another. Soon, King Trist's army had its back to the imposing base of the Cliffkeep Mountains north of Westruun.

Riding the tide of certain victory, Zan and her rebels allied with the Elves of Syngorn, pursued Drassig to a valley in the Umbra Hills, but fiends fought in the ranks of their enemy. The spawn of the Betrayers had returned to the world from beyond the mountains and spilled into the battlefield like a river of nightmares. The surrounding hills ran dark with blood and ichor, and the bodies of human and demons alike littered the battlefield. Yet, against all odds, the hero Zan ended the Drassig bloodline, and with it, the internal pact it had made. The grass and flowers of the now-named Umbra Hills grow black and burnt as an echo of this battle, their sap coursing with the searing blood of the demons that was spilled that day.

### The Rise of Tal'Dorei

Society had all but collapsed during the war. The leaders of the Verdant Expanse assembled a council of trusted and proven minds, but the people were accustomed to a singular leader, a king. The council nominated the war hero Zan Tal'Dorei to take the seat, and she humbly accepted, but rejected the title of King or Queen, instead wishing to be addressed as Sovereign is a title was required.

Despite Zan's protests, the council unanimously agreed the realm should be renamed "Tal'Dorei." With power divided amongst the Sovereign and the council, Emon's leaders cleared their realm of most corruption and brutality. The leading clans of Kraghammer claimed they had been manipulated, and spent many years making amends, but the trust between the kingdom was long to heal.

### The Icelost Years

Not two years into Sovereign Zan's reign, a cataclysm struck, testing the limits of the the new council. An agent from the Frostfell, the elemental plane of ice, slipped through a secret tear between the worlds housed in the forested region now known as the Forestweald. This unknown agent watched as the realm was torn and distracted by the aftermath of war. Knowing the weakened state of the denizens, this agent returned to the Frostfell to inform its master, a cruel elemental behemoth of incredible power called Errevon the Rimelord. A short time later during a celestial solstice, the peace was suddenly sundered by a rift that opened deep within that same forest, blanketing much of the surrounding land in marched through the chasm, accompanied by sentient land they could cover in snow and death.

Many brave warriors fell beneath the weapons of the invading force, unprepared for such an onslaught so soon after a protracted war. The storm of ice widened over the course if a few years, consuming most of the mid-continent as Errevon claimed as his own all lands that fell beneath the ice. It built a greatest fortress of frost north of the rift and forced conquered folk to swear fealty in exchange for warmth and unfrozen water. This violent rule stood for several years before the Council of Tal'Dorei convinced Syngorn and Kraghammer to ally with them for the sake of the realm. They combined their resources to battle Errevon back to the rift from whence he came, cast him back into the Frostfell, and with the aid of the Ashari druid, sealed the rift once and for all. The snow began to melt, the fortress toppled into a basin, and the people took their freedom back from the oppressive cold. This victory is now remembered and celebrated annually as the Winter's Crest festival.

### The Cinder King

After many generations of peaceful rule within the city of Emon, there spread word of a shadow in the South that threatened outlying townships skirting the dges of the Council's influence. Trade caravans that hail from the Rifenmist Peninsula began to vanish, while the autonomous villages south of the Verdant Expanse sent for aid and armed protection against a "nightmare of fire and malice." Sovereign Odellan Tal'Dorei felt that the economic cost of sending a regiment that far south to outsider communities without confirmation of threat was a misuse of resources. It wasn't until two years later when reports of a powerful red dragon reached the ears of the Council of Tal'Dorei that the seriousness of the situation was considered.

By then, much of the vibrant fields covering the Mornset Countryside were turned to ash, and the Outerfolk of the region bent to slavery under this new terrible threat. Calling himself Thordak the Cinder King, the red dragon tyrant was thought slain nearly two centuries before over the Ozmit Sea by the vengeful military powers that protect the desert continent of Marquet. The beast claimed domainion over the southern lands, expanding his influence through fear and tyranny. With the martial forces of the capital city of Emon unleashed out of Fort Daxio, a terrible struggle erupted south of the Stormcrest Mountains, leaving many a good soldier reduced to bone and ember. It wasn't until a band of renowned adventurers entered the fray, led by the Emon-allied arcanist Allura Vysoren, that a lasting victory over the Cinder King was won, sealing the unstoppable wyrm within the Elemental Plane of Fire forever. Or so it was thought.

### The Chroma Conclave

Sixteen years after the sealing of Thordak, daily life in the region had long returned to the normal quarrels over trade pricing and kobold infestations. It was during those sixteen years that an old and unexpected ally of Thordak's, a green dragon called Raishan, established communication from between the planes and plotted the red dragon's return. Mysteriously diseased in her later life and seeking answers to this riddle, Raishan received a promise from Thordak. Thordak would cure Raishan's malaise, should she discover how to break the red dragon's bindings, and aid in conquering all of Tal'Dorei. She formed a plan ad amassed unlikely allies in three other chromatic dragons: Umbrasyl the Hope Devourer, Brimscythe the Iron Storm, and Vorugal the Frigid Doom.

After infiltrating the Pyrah Ashari for nearly five years, Raishan finally unlocked the seal between the planes that bound Thordak and set him free, allowing the entire circle of ancient dragons, now called the Chroma Concave, to unleash an assault of catastrophic proportions on the great city of Emon, and the Tal'Dorei countryside. Nearly three centuries of Tal'Dorei rue in the realm ended under the tule of the Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei II, his life cut short when much of Emon was reduced to rubble.

The attack not only killed the Sovereign Uriel, but also scattered the Council of Tal'Dorei, throwing the realm into chaos. Thordak the Cinder King, now swollen with elemental energy, claimed all Tal'Dorei as the Conclave's domain. The remnants of the civilized lands were divided up and taken as trophies by the Conclave, while the capital Emon was ruled by the Cinder King himself, with Raishan secretly pulling strings from the shadows to bend the momentum of these events in her favour. One by one , the members of the Conclave fell to the might and cleverness of a band of misfit warriors known as Vox Machina. These heroes eventually gathered their allies and stormed the capital of Emon, slaying Thordak the Cinder King and freeing the people. Upon discovering the machinations of the real mastermind Raishan the Diseased Deceiver, with whom Vox Machina had held a tenuous alliance, they gave chase and finally slew this last standing member of the Chroma Conclave, ending dragon reign over the land and restoring rule once more to the Council of Tal'Dorei.

## Politics

### The Council of Tal'Dorei

When the new reign of Tal'Dorei was established roughly three centuries ago, Zan Tal'Dorei did not wish to be given unchecked or uncounselled rule over the realm. Though she was crowned by a small council, she expanded its ranks by selecting her trusted allies and even dissenting voices to form an assembly of scholars, generals, and philosophers to govern at her side. This Council of Tal'Dorei worked at their Sovereign's side to rebuild the realm following the end of Drassig's line, and were instrumental in the recovery and subsequent prosperity of Tal'Dorei.

Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei II, the latest and last of the Tal'Dorei line, publically ended the monarchy and passed power over to the council, formally divesting his line of power. Tragically, this ceremony was interrupted by the arrival of the five dragons known as the Chroma Conclave, the subsequent destruction of Emon, and Uriel's death at the talons of the green dragon Raishan. In the chaos, the few surviving members of the newly-em-powered Council were scattered, desperate to find safety from the Conclave. Upon the destruction of Thordak and the liberation of Emon, the remaining Council members reformed the realm as a republic under the same name, restoring the realm as a republic under the same name, restoring a semblance of stability to Tal'Dorei once more.

## Languages

* Gwessanese
* Zemnian
* Issylran
* Marquesian
* Espruar

## Areas

### The Lucidian Coast

The stormy Lucidian Ocean crashes furiously against the rocky coast of eastern Tal'Dorei, chewing inlets into the coastline and waving vast banks of impenetrable fog across the waters. Most ships rightly avoid the more volatile northern waters, instead docking at southern ports like Stilben, or brave the Mooren River Run to Drynna. Yet even there, the Lucidian Coast is not without its dangers; vicious wildlife stalk the wilderness and flocks of harpies have harried the shores since time immemorial, drawing lost sailors to their doom upon the rocks.

#### Cities and Towns

* Stilben
* Drynna
* Zephrah
* Claw's Peak

#### Environmental Locations

* **K'tawl swamp**- The sprawling swamplands of K'Tawl cover much of the southern Lucidian Coast, enveloping Stilben and the K'Tawl Bay. The marsh is thick with cypress and tupelo trees reaching up from the muddy waters that range from one to ten or more feet deep in places. The hot, muggy air and thick, sludge-covered landscape is host to all manner of terrible beasts.
* **Mooren Lake**- North of the Summit Peaks is a crystalline lake fed by the snowmelt from the Alabaster Sierras by the Mooren river run. Mooren Lake is a shining expanse of water surrounded both by bountiful wildlife and the frightful creatures attracted to such a thriving ecosystem. Centuries of Whitestone runoff from the Alabasters Sierras has built up deposits of residuum has formed into a thrumming organ of raw magical energy.
* **Rootgarden Marsh**- The shallows of Mooren Lake leak into the tender soul, spreading eastward to create the cold and desolate Rootgarden Marsh. Tall, thin trees lift five or more feet above the muck by stilt-like roots, their sparse placement resembling a field of scattered, wooden huts. The fresh water mingles with salt here, leaving only adapted vegetation. Most humanoids avoid this area as it is populated by many monsters.
* **Summit Peaks**- The spire-like mountains of the Summit Peaks stand tall and odd, like rocky spikes reaching to the sky. The Summit Peaks stand out so aggressively against the surrounding fields and swamp that they are the guiding landmarks of the eastern coast. The mountain valleys recess into swamp-like gorges, housing all manner of giantkin and creatures migrating from the K'Tawl. As the mountains rise higher, strong winds blow across the battered rock, leaving strangely smooth peaks that harbour griffin lairs and other dangerous beasts.

### The Alabaster Sierras

In the north-eastern reaches of the continent, where the waters of the Frigid Depths break between the rocky shores of Gwessar, a lush treeline fills the valley between the chalk-white bluffs of the Alabaster Sierras. This cold, uncivilised territory lies beyond the direct reach of the Tal'Dorei Council, and falls under the sovereign rule of the Chamber of Whitestone. The region is framed by dangerously windy shore side cliffs and dry, desolate mountains swarming with harpies, wyverns, and other hungry monstrosities. Beneath the peaks, the valley opens into the thickly wooded pine forest known as the Parchwood. This dense, temperate rainforest is beautiful and lush, but many shadowed threats loom in the dark of the wood.

The northern centre of the valley marks a single clearing where the humble city of Whitestone stands as the source of rule and law in this land. Built around the ancient Sun Tree, the people here have been hardened through the strife and exalted through freedom enough to know honour and appreciate loyalty like few other civilisations do.

#### Environmental Locations

* **Mooren River Run**-
* **Parchwoods Timberlands**-
* **The Salted Bluffs**-
* **The Shearing Channel**-

### The Dividing Plains

Tal'Dorei's vast heartland, framed by the Stormcrest and Cliffkeep Mountains, contains miles and miles of rolling hills, tallgrass prairies, sky-blue rivers, and fertile farmlands. Within these plains, the hardworking people of the realm tend to their fields and businesses while the armed protectors of civilisations battle back the wild beasts and wandering bandits looking to prey on these points of enduring society. The Silvercut Roadway meanders across the endless plains, connecting the coasts and bringing caravans between with fresh trade and intrigue to the industrious pioneers of central Tal'Dorei and Gwessar.

A caravanner's life is not without danger, through. Warbands of Ravagers, a chaotic horde of orcs and goblinoids rove the grasslands, slaughtering and pillaging indiscriminately. Packs of nomad gnolls also steal from humanoid, though diplomats have recently begun to broker a peace between humans and gnolls to unite against the greater threat of the Ravagers. Beyond the grassy plains, owlbears and other arcane monstrosities stalk the wooded regions. Tribes of wild centaurs also gallop across the open plains, delivering the Archeart's justice as they see fit.

#### Cities and Towns

* Kymal
* Turst Fields
* Westruun

#### Environmental Locations

* The Bramblewood
* Foramere Basin
* Ironseat Ridge
* Ivyheart Thicket
* The Ruins of Torthil
* Shadebarrow
* Silvercut Roadway
* Throne of the Archeart
* Torian Forest
* Wildwood Byway

### The Cliffkeep Mountains

Spanning the northern reaches of Gwessar, the Cliffkeep Mountains are an impenetrable barrier between the known realm and what lies beyond in the distant north. The Cliffkeeps' southern foothills are dotted with forests and pockets of civilisation, standing resolute against the unwelcoming topography. Deep within the earth itself, the dwarven stronghold of Kraghammer flourishes and expands, just a few scant leagues above ancient caverns that plunge into a domain of unknowable horrors.

The Cliffkeeps are the largest mountain range in all of Tal'Dorei, home to myriad peoples: scattered tribes of kobolds scavenge in the wake of hungry ettins, roving clans of frost giants, and mobs of trolls ravage those who camp too high into the old paths. Wild wyverns can be heard screeching into the valleys, and some scattered goliath herds even tame wyverns for mounts.

Near the earth elemental rift and the Ashari village of Terrah, the mountains themselves seem to rise up in defence as earth elementals spring from the living stones. Northward brings higher peaks and colder winds, as snow and ice take the lands to become the frozen waste that is the Neverfields. These challenges keep the common folk at bay, the secrets and spoils held within these crags calling only to the very brave, very clever, or very stupid.

#### Cities and Towns

* Fort Daxio
* Jorenn Village
* Kraghammer
* Lyrengorn
* Terrah

#### Environmental Locations

* The Emberhold
* Gatshadow
* The Grey Valley
* The Neverfields
* Othendin Pass
* The Pools of Wittebak
* Serpant's Head
* Umbra Hills
* Yug'Voril

### The Stormcrest Mountains

Spanning Gwessar's distant southern reaches, buttressed against the Verdant Expanse, stand the massive Stormcrest Mountains. The winds of the Lucidian Ocean thunder between the storm-wracked peaks, and few civilized people dare make these treacherous mountains their home. The few who do call the Stormcrests home are ferocious monstrosities and godless hordes of goblinoid butchers. The only bations of civilisations anywhere near forsaken peaks lie in the Mornset Countryside pushing along the Stormpoint range, far beyond the influence of the Council of Tal'Dorei. These rugged folk are used to fending for themselves and spit at the thought of returning to so-called "civilisation," preferring life among the swaps and shadowed forests of their homeland.

#### Cities and Towns

* Bronbog
* Ruhn-Shak

#### Environmental Locations

* The Ashen Gorge
* Cavern of Axiom
* The Dreamseep Marshlands
* The Frostweald
* Wrettis

### The Rifenmist Peninsula

South of the dividing lines of the Stormcrest Mountains and the Verdant Expanse, the touch of greater civilisation does not quiet reach, allowing a number of autonomous communities to exist outside the tangled wilds of the Rifenmist Jungle. Many who fled the rule of Drassig joined with outcasts of Syngornian society to establish a life away from larger politics, forming the outsider colonies of the Mornset Countryside. However, with freedom comes isolation in resources to defend against vicious denizens of this primal territory.
Enormous, ancient beasts stalk the vine-twisted paths of the jungle that consumes the majority of the peninsula's coast-line. A hidden culture of savage wood elves call the rainforest region home, keeping outsiders away and skirmishing with indigenous tabaxi tribes. An expanding morass of fungus spreads from a mysterious, corrupt source along the eastern depths of the underbrush, while a secret society of naga-worshippersbring bloody offerings to their snake-queen. This land lies on the fringe of Tal'Dorei, and is mostly avoided for that very reason

#### Cities and towns

* Byroden
* The Orroyen Tribes
* Tz'Arrm

#### Environmental Locations

* Beynsfal Plataus
* Mornset Countryside
* Rifenmist Jungle
* Stormpoint Mountains

### The Verdant Expanse

West of the Stormcrest Mountains, hundreds of miles of massive, unbridled forest shrouds the landscape in mystery and shadow. Widely understood to be the domain of the elves with Tal'Dorei the dense timberland is traversed by few beside the elves of Syngorn. Brave, well-protected merchants travel from Emon to Syngorn along roads sanctioned for trade, hunters both human and elven alike seek glory in tracking the wild beasts that roam the untamed wilderness, and the occasional band of dark elf raiders from Ruhn-Shak prowls the forest under cover of night. The enchanted nature of this wood holds the decay of the seasons at bay, the trees blooming evergreen year-round.
The Verdant Expanse sprung from the ley energies that shifted here following the Calamity, brining vibrant, accelerated growth, and rampant magical flux to the regions. This has instilled the forest with countless factions of stranded fey folk, and displaced aberrations that call the darker groves their home. Ruins slowly fall to the swelling overgrowth, and some say that parts of the wood move and hunt on their own, claiming the lives of those who wander too far from the points of civilisation. Even so, much of the Expanse is under watch of the Wardens of Syngorn, granting a measure of safety to those who travel beneath its dusky boughs.

#### Environmental Locations

* The Gladepools
* The Mirescar
* The Shifting Keep
* Tormor Falls
* Vues'dal Waters

### The Bladeshimmer Shoreline

The Bladeshummer Shoreline, named for the distant glimmering of sun across the Ozmit Sea, stretches across the central western coast of Gwessar. It is the cradle of human civilisation in Tal'Dorei, and bears the marks of the first human colonists to set foot on this contient, as well as the heart and capital of the Tal'Dorei empire. This side of the landmass is the closest to the continents of Issylra and Marquet, and dozens of tall-masted trading ships set sail to and from its calm shores each day- as well as the occasional Skyship drifting towards Emon.
Inland Bladeshimmer is mostly temperate grassland, intercut by cool, winding rivers. The bulk of western Tal'Dorei's produce comes from farms here, blessed with clean water and non-salinated soil, despite the ocean's proximity. Emon's nearby military presence lends the region some stability, but the yeoman living beyond the city's walls still struggle to defend their small plots from burrowing ankegs, nomadic gnolls, hungry goblin scavengers and other terrors.

#### Cities and Towns

* Emerald Outpost
* Emon
* New O'Noa
* The Shalesteps

#### Environmental Locations

* Crystalfen Caverns
* Daggerbay
* Daggerbay Mountains
* Scar of the Cinder King
* Ruins of Salar
* Seashale Mountains
* Visa Isle