Sphere of Influence: Sword

Coast
The Sword Coast is yours for the taking

Introduction: Conquer the world, one quest at a time. This supplement provides a broad overview of
the lands of the Sword Coast from the perspective of conquering the world by way of overthrowing
hostile regimes, securing rare and valuable resources to bring neutral kingdoms into negotiations, and
otherwise using dungeon crawling and overland exploration to the ends of world domination.

by Chamo mile

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Chapter 1: Sphere of Influence
“The Sultan of Brass might be a tyrant, but
he's our tyrant, and the only friend we have in
all Calimshan.”
—Langdedrosa Cyanwrath
So, you want to conquer the
world?
Right under saving the world and getting m ega - rich,
conquering the world is one of the m ost co m m o n aspirations
of RPG players. This works great early on. The PCs crawl build
up wealth and allies in opposition to so me evil tyrant, and at
the end they overthrow hi m and are crowned the new rulers
of the land.
Then what? The world has a lot m ore territory in it than just
the one land you've conquered, but now you're in charge of a
kingdo m. Most character m otivations for going on adventures
expire once you have an ar my thousands strong that can go
on those adventures for you. Is your paladin going to spend
all his time conquering the world instead of settling disputes
in the halls of justice and providing valuable legal precedent
to the nascent body of law? Is your rogue going to keep risk-
ing her life for loot when she could just soak up a cut of the
taxes and live the rest of her life in luxury? Even if everyone
is on board with leading fro m the front at all times, do you
really want every single adventure for the rest of the ga me to
be a m ass co m bat fought alongside a mini m u m of fifty other
guys, and quite frequently hundreds or thousands?
Maybe you do, and there's nothing wrong with that, but m ost
groups would like to continue going into dungeons and slaying
dragons, and that can be hard to m a ke co m patible if you are
running an e m pire whose standard m eans of expansion is to
m arch an ar my thousands strong into hostile territory. The
answer is the sphere of influence.
What is a sphere of influence?
The sphere of influence was the do minant political m o del for
powerful nations in the m o dern world and, m ore relevantly,
ancient Greece. In a sphere of influence, a capital nation (in
our exa m ples, we will be using Waterdeep and Thay as exa m -
ples of protagonist and antagonist capital nations) exerts in-
fluence over other states not by directly occupying the m with
their military, but through military alliance, trade agree-
m e nts, and possibly sacking (but not occupying) a city.
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Mass co m bat re mains on the table (though specific rules for
directing troops are not provided in this book), but there are
other m eans of expanding your sphere of influence, typically
by exa mining local conflicts or crises and resolving the m in
such a way that whoever's in power at the end is dependent
upon you, or at the very least indebted to you.
This might take the for m of securing a rare m agical resource
m uch desired by a kingdo m in order to push that kingdo m
into accepting a trade agree ment with you, thus bringing
the m into your sphere of influence because m uch of their
econo my is now dependent upon trade with you. This would
essentially be the plot of Lost Mines of Phandelver.
It might involve m a king a military alliance with a belaugered
territory, offering protection fro m a sinister villain in order
to draw the people under your wing. This would be a very
slightly tweaked Princes of the Apocalypse.
It might involve restoring a deposed king to his throne, es-
tablishing a friendship with that king which pulls his kingdo m
into your sphere of influence. This would be an al most unal-
tered Stor m King's Thunder.
It could also involve for ming a treaty of protection with s mall
towns in a relatively unsettled area between several m ajor
trade powers, going on a routine patrol to help secure the
area, and winding up thwarting a plot to su m m o n a god to
destroy the world. You can probably guess that this would be
the plot to Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tia mat.
What's important to all of these is that sending an ar my to
take care of it would be a bad idea. A thousand level 0
sch m ucks with spears and chain mail are a terrible choice for
rooting out giant warlords who've deposed the stor m king, as
it would straightforwardly be a declaration of war on the gi-
ant real ms. It is m uch less costly to si mply help the stor m
king reassert control over his real m.
If you try to relieve the siege of Dessarin Valley by the forces
of Ele mental Evil by sending out your ar my, they will probably
be ultimately victorious, but will face terrible casualties as
they can only bring a s mall handful of their troops to bear at
once in the narrow corridors of the dungeons below, losing
their nu m erical advantage against ene mies who are individu-
ally far m ore powerful. Even if you have enough m e n to wear
the m down eventually, that will leave Waterdeep vulnerable to
attacks fro m Kryptgarden or the Sword Mountains and leave
you with no troops to send if you ever need the m for a situ-
ation in which they're actually at an advantage over an ad-
venturer party, like a field battle.
Tracking Tia mat's hoard and hunting down the wyr mspeakers
requires both speed and discretion, two attributes that ar mies
Sphere of Influence 2
of five thousand soldiers are sorely lacking, military forces
will have trouble retaining coherency in the depths of Never-
winter Forest and, while they would probably crush the low-
level threats of Lost Mines of Phandelver, it would be at a
pointlessly high cost co m pared to sending a s mall, fast, m ore
easily supplied strike tea m to deal with the proble m.
I don't m e ntion Curse of Strahd and Out of the Abyss because
in both cases the party is trapped outside the reach of their
sphere of influence, and the default objective of returning
ho me only beco mes m ore urgent if your e m pire could be fall-
ing to pieces behind you.
And of course, you m ay be using other content entirely. You
might use D M's Guild adventures, ho mebrew content, convert
fro m older editions, convert fro m the filthy heretics at Paizo,
or any co m bination. All of these exa m ples to illustrate two
things. Firstly, that the average adventure, even if it can be
solved by an ar my, is usually m u ch m ore cost-efficient if
solved by a s mall party, and second, that the average adven-
ture can be used to m ake an ally, sign a treaty, install a
m ore friendly govern ment in a kingdo m typically hostile to
your own, or otherwise expand your sphere of influence.
If you are the m ost powerful adventuring party your kingdo m
has to offer (and you probably wouldn't have been able to
take over if you weren't), then oftenti mes you are better off
leaving a capable steward behind to m a nage day-to-day af-
fairs for a while whilst you topple an evil kingdo m, put the
rightful heir on the throne, and secure a new ally for your
e m pire.
Example: Waterdeep vs. Thay
In order to understand how a conquer-Faerun ca m paign
based on a sphere of influence would work, let's take the ex-
a m ple of the players playing as the rulers of Waterdeep (pre-
su mably after spending so me a mount of the ca m paign be-
co ming or overthrowing the m asked lords of the city) with
their pri mary antagonist being Szass Ta m of Thay.
The only area directly controlled by Waterdeep is the city it-
self, however its econo mic power and historic position within
the Lord's Alliance m eans that Waterdeep already has a sig-
nificant sphere of influence in Faerun, and especially the
Sword Coast. Many of the s maller towns and villages nearby
Waterdeep are only safe because they are m e m bers of the
Lord's Alliance, and thus under Waterdeep's protection, and
even those nearby towns which can defend the mselves are of-
ten dependent upon trade fro m Waterdeep to sustain their
econo my. If Waterdeep were to cease trade with, say, Dagger-
ford, the Daggerford econo my would im m ediately collapse, but
Waterdeep would barely even notice as they go on trading with
Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, A m n, Calimshan, and the Silver
Marches.
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So even though Waterdeep has absolutely no soldiers gar-
risoned in Daggerford or Triboar or other, related towns at
all, these towns are already well within Waterdeep's sphere of
influence. When Waterdeep wants so mething fro m one of the m,
they have enor mous and asy m m etric negotiating power.
However, Waterdeep is not alone in its position of power along
the Sword Coast. Neverwinter, the Silver Marches, and espe-
cially Baldur's Gate are all nearly as important to trade and
hold nearly as m uch power in the Lord's Alliance. Waterdeep
would have m u ch greater difficulty convincing any of these to
give into de m ands concerning trade agree ments or military
support. Even so, none of the m would be at all willing to sup-
port Thay or anyone else over Waterdeep, so these military
allies can be considered on the outer edges of the Waterdeep
sphere of influence. Unlike m e m bers closer to the heart of
Waterdeep's sphere, these outer m e m bers could probably be
convinced to declare neutrality in a fight between Waterdeep
and an outsider (like Thay).
Szass Ta m directly ad ministers the land of Thay, and Thay's
position as a vital co m ponent of eastern Faerun's slave trade
puts Chessenta fir mly in Thay's sphere of influence, and like-
wise because Thay is al most singularly responsible for supply-
ing North Unther with food, they too are deep in Thay's
sphere. M ulhorand does heavy trade with Thay as well. All of
these nations were devastated by the spellplague (particularly
Unther, which is still m ostly occupied by dragonborn invaders)
and are at a severe econo mic and military disadvantage to
Szass Ta m, so they cannot afford to refuse any but the m ost
outrageous de mands he m ay m a ke of the m. Co m plicating
m atters for Ta m, however, none of the nations deep in his
sphere of influence get along well with any other nation there
except Thay, and so me of the m don't even get along that well
with Thay, they're just dependent on Thay for trade.
Szass Ta m's outer sphere of influence includes the drow real m
of Undrek'Thaz as well as other evil nations of the Earthroot
real m of the Underdark. These places are tenuous allies prin-
cipally due to trade, but Ta m would not have m uch difficulty
enlisting their aid in a war against Waterdeep if it ca me to
that.
Both Waterdeep and Thay have ene mies. Waterdeep has A m n
and Cali mshan, which would not ordinarily be under Thay's
influence at all, but nevertheless m ay end up in Thay's outer
sphere due to having a m utual ene my in Waterdeep. Likewise,
Waterdeep has no trade contact with Rashe men or Aglarond,
but both nations are ene mies of Thay and thus m ay end up
within the outer fringe of Waterdeep's sphere of influence
si mply because of co m m o n goals. Several of Thay's allies like-
wise have ene mies, m ost notably the dragonborn of Southern
Unther and Tchazzar, for mer ruler of Chessenta. Tchazzar has
no en mity with Thay at all, but if Waterdeep pro mises to re-
instate hi m in exchange for an alliance against Thay, he
might agree and honor the treaty (or he might betray the m
to Thay or beco me a third party, hard to tell).
Sphere of Influence 3

Waterdeep additionally has several potential ene mies on their
doorstep. Kryptgarden Forest and the Sword Mountains are
both inhabited by creatures who generally consider Waterdeep
to be an ene my. Neither is an organized nation, but both are
ho me to powerful warlords who Szass Ta m could forge an al-
liance with. Most of Waterdeep's allies likewise have unta med
wildernesses full of warlords and m o nsters who could poten-
tially be persuaded to join the Thayan sphere of influence to
oppose the Lord's Alliance, places like the Wood of Sharp
Teeth, Neverwinter Wood, and the Spine of the World.
A cautious Waterdeep party will want to begin by shoring up
defenses, making friends in potential allies of Thay like
Kryptgarden Forest and the Sword Mountains and making
sure those friends are the dominant force in their respective
areas before moving on to defanging Amn and Calimshan. In
the former case, this can be done by agitating the tension
between Amn's five ruling dynasties into civil war, and in the
latter perhaps by supporting a genie invasion to reclaim
Calimshan in exchange for neutrality from (or even alliance
with) the new genie overlords. Finally, Waterdeep will want to
put pressure on Thay's core, aiding the dragonborn invaders
of Unther against the natives, helping Tchazzar reclaim
Chessenta, and then either using trade isolation to destroy
Thay or else aiding Aglarond and/or Rashemen in an inva-
sion. A more aggressive pro-Waterdeep force might want to
skip to putting pressure on the core for fear that opportu-
nities might be lost and potential allies defeated if Waterdeep
takes too long shoring up defenses.
A patient Thay will fight m uch the reverse of a patient Wa-
terdeep, beginning by helping North Unther in the war
against the dragonborn of South Unther and helping
Chessenta destroy Tchazzar's government-in-exile in Erebos
in the Sea of Fallen Stars. Then they will want to begin agi-
tating enemies of Waterdeep's somewhat weaker allies like
Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, and the Silver Marches, enemies
like the monsters of Neverwinter Wood, the Kingdom of
Many-Arrows, the High Moor, and the Trollbark Forest, help-
ing them to cripple the economy of Waterdeep and her allies
with increased raiding. With major trade partners sacked or
convinced to declare neutrality in exchange for a halt of
raids, Szass Tam can make alliances with Amn and Calimshan
to embargo Waterdeep and the Lord's Alliance, thus convinc-
ing the already weakened Waterdeep allies to depart the
Lord's Alliance to escape the embargo until finally Waterdeep
stands alone. At this point it can be either starved into sub-
mission or attacked with allies made in Kryptgarden or the
Sword Mountains. Just like Waterdeep, a more aggressive Thay
might race to tear out the heart of the enemy by skipping
to attempts to wreck the economy of Waterdeep's allies or
even trying to skip straight to pulling Kryptgarden and/or
the Sword Mountains into an attack on Waterdeep itself.
This is only an example, with many possibilities (including
everything to do with the Moonsea Region, Anauroch, Chult,
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etc. etc.) cut for the sake of space. It also focuses exclu-
sively on a single rival, Szass Tam, for the sake of simplicity,
when a more faithful following of the lore has Amn, Cormyr,
Netheril, Hillsfar, and more with their own spheres of influ-
ence, each of which will resist being absorbed into another,
more powerful sphere of influence. Even if you want to set
up Szass Tam as the final villain (and he does make for a
good BBEG both because of being quite distant from the
starting point and arguably the most powerful villain on
Faerun right now), the middle section of the campaign, be-
tween the initial rise to power and the final showdown with
Szass Tam, would probably include the players' Waterdeep
sphere of influence and Szass Tam's Thayan sphere of influ-
ence gobbling up lesser rivals like Cormyr and Hillsfar, with
the player attempting to extend their influence as fast as
possible before Thay beats them there. The amount of terri-
tory claimed in this intermediate stage of the campaign
would then directly influence the course of the final con-
frontation in the endgame.
Further Examples
Here are a few more m uch shorter examples that will hope-
fully give you some more ideas as to what spheres of influ-
ence might be interesting for players to com mand and
struggle against:
• Crown Wars Rejoined: The good drow of Cormanthor
fight with the evil drow of the Underdark, with the
Dalelands and the Moonsea often caught in the mid-
dle.
• Heart of Darkness: Cormyr, having relatively recently
driven the Netherese out of Sembia with the help of
their allies, seeks to defeat the Empire of Shadows
in their stronghold in the Shadowfell. The Netherese
seek to regain control of the Moonsea and destroy
all their enemies: Cormanthor, Sembia, and Cormyr.
• Blood for Gold: Amn seeks to exert their influence
over the Sword Coast, while Waterdeep seeks to do
the same to the Land of Intrigue. The two trade
empires are finally on a collision course and soon
one must dominate the other.
• Pools of Moonlight: Phlan, recently liberated, seeks
desperately to ham mer together a sphere of influ-
ence from nothing to stand against the rising might
of oppressive Hillsfar.
• Civil War: The Cult of the Dragon is thwarted, Men-
zoberranzan and its environs are depleted by inter-
nal wars, Amn and Calimshan are on the backfoot.
With no pressing external threat, Waterdeep, Never-
winter, Baldur's Gate, and Luruar have begun to
maneuver against one another. While their history in
the Lord's Alliance is too strong for any kind of
open warfare to be conceivable, each begins to un-
dermine the other's lesser allies while seeking eco-
Sphere of Influence 4
 nomic and cultural dominance of the Sword Coast.
As the skirmishes escalate, the brotherhood of the
Keeping the Crown
Lord's Alliance begins to wear thin, and outright
sacking of one city by another is more and more a “When you play a game of thrones, you win or
possibility. you die.”
—George R.R. Martin, Game of
• Revenge of the Black Network: The Zhentarim, driven
Thrones
from their base of power in the Moonsea, barely
clinging to a single remote stronghold in the Sunset
This document concerns itself primarily with acquiring influ-
Mountains, have not had their ambitions dulled. Still
ence in new territory. This is the part that requires the most
they seek to rule the world, and nobody will stop
attention to unique details of different regions, but it's not
them. Not Waterdeep, not Amn, not Thay, nobody.
the hard part. The hard part is hanging onto power after it's
• Rise of Thay: The chaos caused by the Spellplague
already been seized. There are three rules to maintaining
and Szass Tam's rise to power has pushed the entire
power after you've taken it: Keep the keys to power happy,
eastern reach of Faerun closer and closer to chaos.
control the treasure, and minimize the number of keys.
Aglarond has claimed Wizard's Reach, and embold-
ened by this victory, seek to put an end to the evil
No ruler is absolute. The ruler does not catch the criminals,
of Thay altogether. At the same time, Szass Tam
defend the walls, and build castles themselves. Instead, the
rules Thay absolutely and his lust for power is far
ruler uses the treasure in their vaults to pay other people to
from sated. His first step to global domination is to
do these things for them. This is most obviously true in
consolidate control of the east by securing his allies
placed like Baldur's Gate where the four ruling dukes are
and removing the pests in Aglarond and Rashemen
elected by a parliament made up mostly of the old money
who have so long vexed Thay.
and thus almost always are themselves old money, but even
in Luruar or Elturgard, nations in theory ruled over by
benevolent leaders who want only the best for their people,
the soldiers still need armor and the laborers still need to
eat and if you can't give that to them they will not build nor
defend your castles.

Some nations claim to lead with ideals and not with trea-
sure, but take away the treasure and leave only the ideals
and the nu mber of loyal defenders of the crown remaining is
going to look more like a single adventuring party than an
army. This is why heroes are a big deal in Faerun. Any major
city on the Sword Coast will have dozens of people who are
tenth level or higher, but the number of them willing to risk
their lives out of moral obligation and not necessarily for
profit is a lot smaller. Drizz't matters not because he can
fight frost giants at all, but because he'll do it whether or
not Lord Neverember is willing to pay him for it.

This is well and good for Drizz't, but this book is not about
Drizz't, it's about Lord Neverember, and from Lord Neverem-
ber's perspective, for every Drizz't whose loyalty is driven by
virtue there are a dozen generals, champions, and sages
whose only concern is to make as m uch money as possible.
These people, vital to defending a territory and collecting its
treasure, are the keys to power, and the second that some-
one persuades them to work for someone other than Lord
Neverember, Lord Neverember has lost power. He is nothing
without his keys, and so keeping his keys happy is his first,
second, and third priority.

Lord Neverember is not cruel, but he is ruthless, and un-

scrupulous pandering to a few powerful people is to be ex-
pected of him. So let's turn our attention to Abdel Adrian,
the ruler of Baldur's Gate (generally speaking, I try to be as

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vague as possible as to who exactly the Bhaalspawn protago-
nist of the Baldur's Gate games was, and this document is
compatible with inserting your own character there, however
we will use the canonical Abdel as an example of the limits
of what a well-intentioned ruler can accomplish in the face
of the systemic selfishness inherent to systems of govern-
ment). Abdel was a hero who was undoubtedly dedicated to
the good of the com mon people of his city. He also main-
tained and promoted a system whereby 90% of those people
had absolutely no say in government whatsoever, presided
over an era when the gap in wealth between the rich and the
poor steadily expanded, and entrenched the Flaming Fists, an
amoral mercenary company, in the government. Why would
he do any of this?
Because Abdel cannot do anything for the people of Baldur's
Gate unless he is in power in Baldur's Gate, and he cannot
be in power in Baldur's Gate unless he keeps the keys happy.
The keys to Baldur's Gate were the wealthy patriar families
of the Upper City, who controlled the treasure, without whose
support Abdel's coffers would run dry and he would be un-
able to pay the Flaming Fists, the other key to power in the
city, whose monopoly on effective military power allows them
to depose existing governments at-will. Abdel was nominally
the leader of the Flaming Fists during his rulership of Bal-
dur's Gate, but they are still mercenaries. He may have been
the general, but a general needs his captains just the same
as a ruler needs his generals, and if a rival could have of-
fered Abdel's captains a bigger share of the city's treasure
than Abdel was offering them, enough of the captains would
have defected for such a rival to seize the city.
The first rule to power is to keep the keys to power happy,
and that means offering them more treasure and offering it
more reliably than anyone else. The wealth of Baldur's Gate
was split entirely between its mercenary defenders and its
noble families. Every copper spent on the people came out of
Abdel's personal share. The day he diverted wealth from oth-
er people's shares towards building a better life for the
com moners is the day he opened himself up to a coup from
opportunistic rivals.
The second rule of power is to control the treasure, and the
treasure here is not only the treasure in the nation's vaults
but the treasure held by the nation's people. People need
some of that treasure to run their businesses and feed
themselves so they can keep working and produce more
treasure, so while the ruler's goal m ust be to tax them as
much as possible (if he won't, an opportunist who will can
oust them from power by rounding up a critical mass of
disloyal keys to power, and it doesn't have to be all of them,
just half or more), the amount by which he can tax them
depends on the amount of money they need to be produc-
tive.
Merchants who are being taxed too m uch or who fear their
stock might be seized whenever the king wants to start a
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new war will ply their trade in another kingdom. Skilled ar-
tisans like blacksmiths aren't as capable of packing up shop
and leaving whenever the heat gets too high, but if the situ-
ation gets desperate enough they are capable of leaving and
most of them will. Too much taxation or just general tyranny
will drive the most profitable citizens out of a kingdom and
thus the king will end up bringing in a smaller amount of
wealth in the long run. This opens him up to a coup just as
surely as undertaxing out of benevolence.
Thus, how just and benevolent a kingdom's ruler is will often
be defined more by how m uch justice and benevolence is
needed to get the most out of the population. Waterdeep is a
port town, and without merchants it has no economy, so
they need their taxes light enough that merchants still find
it worth it to trade there, and laws lenient enough that
merchants aren't worried about being sentenced to a life in
the salt mines if they stick a toe out of line in the city. Cal-
imshan is a trade port, but most of its trade routes are so
pirate-infested that somewhere between 20-30% of its cargo
never arrives. Its gold mines, on the other hand, are very
reliable, very profitable, and can be run on the labor of
starving slaves with only a minor loss in efficiency. Any ruler
of Calimshan who doesn't run the gold mines brutally is
spending money on the miners that a challenger could offer
to spend on the keys to power instead. Even if the keys are
all selfless, virtuous heroes, they have keys of their own one
level down, and it won't be long before you run out of heroes
and the middle management agrees to open up the gates of
the city for Szass Tam's army to march in, enslave the poor,
and cut the traitors in on the profits.
The second means to maximizing the amount of treasure for
your keys is also the third rule of power. Minimize the num -
ber of keys that you're splitting the treasure between (this
conveniently also increases the size of your share of the
treasure, whether you're spending it benevolently or on
hookers and blow) and maximize the nu mber of people who
can potentially become keys.
Anyone who isn't necessary to the ongoing running of the
nation is dead weight that a challenger can offer to get rid
of in exchange for being brought to power by the actually
necessary keys. The keys necessary to taking power are not
the same as the keys necessary to keeping power. When
you're taking power, you need lots of soldiers with which to
fight the soldiers of whoever already has power. When you
already have power, the nu mber of soldiers you need goes
down by quite a bit, and the number of tax collectors and
customs officers you need rises. Once you've taken power,
it's time to get rid of your least loyal generals. You can let
them walk away alive, if you don't mind having a general or
champion you stabbed in the back plotting revenge. Bear in
mind that in order to expand your sphere of influence you
will need to take power multiple times, seizing control of one
kingdom after another. If you let all of the unnecessary keys
Sphere of Influence 6
live, they will ultimately form quite a coalition should they
ever find one another.
At the same time, you want your keys to be as expendable
as possible. If you rule over Waterdeep, you need both a
general and an admiral, and there's no point in having more
than one of each, however you want the number of potential
generals and admirals to be very high. If the loyalty of your
existing admiral wavers even slightly, you m ust be able to
replace them as quickly as possible. The more easily re-
placed your keys to power are, the easier it is to keep them
happy with a relatively small share of the nation's treasure,
leaving more for you and your pet projects whether base or
noble. Your keys to power aren't stupid, however, and may
turn against you if they realize you're expanding the pool of
potential replacements. You can't be m uch of an admiral if
you've never been captain of a warship, and captains in the
Waterdeep Navy are pulled exclusively from the Waterdhavian
nobility. If you make a policy of promoting com mon sailors
who show talent to captain rank, the nobles will take it as
tantamount to a declaration of war and begin plotting
against you. This doesn't mean it's a bad idea, depending on
how many other threats you're facing at the time, just make
sure before implementing such a policy that it's a fight
you're able to win, and never forget: Keep your keys happy,
but make them as replaceable as possible.
No ruler is absolute. Ignore these rules to keeping power and
you will not keep power. You will carry your morals, uncom-
promised, to your grave, having helped no one at all.
Keeping track of it all
Running a ca m paign about Machiavellian global conquest one
quest at a time sounds exciting and it is, but it can be a lot
to handle if you're not used to thinking in ter ms of politics,
intrigue, and constant treachery. This section contains so me
advice for keeping track of it all.
Every region detailed, fro m Icewind Dale down to the Green-
fields, is going to have a handful of keys to power necessary
to hanging onto that location. A general needed to defend it,
m aybe the leader of a party of powerful adventurers who keep
the local m o nster population in check, wealthy m erchants,
land owners, or noble fa milies who represent a large chunk of
the area's wealth and m a nage the taxing of that wealth, and
so on. In so me cases, the keys will be obvious. Waterdeep and
Baldur's Gate have internal factions which are thoroughly de-
tailed, and while not all of these are going to be a part of the
winning coalition players use to seize power, so me of the m
will be. Baldur's Gate, for exa m ple, has three important fac-
tions: The Fla ming Fists, the patriar fa milies, and the Guild.
Only those first two are keys to power in Baldur's Gate as it
is, but the players might use the Guild to rise to power, and
thus replace one or both of the existing keys to power with
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enforcers and assassins fro m the Guild instead. In other loca-
tions, details are sparse and you m ay have to do so me minor
extrapolation to invent characters to use as keys to power.
Whoever these characters are, keeping the m happy is the se-
cret to m aintaining power. Keep a list of the keys to power,
and co m pile the m into a d20 table. Every time the players
finish an adventure, or are dragging their feet on getting
started with a new one, roll on the table. If it co mes up a
blank spot, nothing happens and the players can continue
their plans unhindered. If you roll up a filled in slot on the
table, however, the key to power who's filled in that slot has
so me de mand. They want m ore authority, they want so me
public service canceled to increase their share of the gold
(players m ay not have bothered imple menting specific public
services, but you can m a ke one up and say it was put in
place by the previous govern ment, or attribute it to one of
the m ore benevolent paladin-type characters if that's in-
character for the m), a spy has caught the m speaking with the
party's rivals in Thay or Calimshan or whoever the villains of
your story are. If the players don't deal with the proble m, it
could spiral into an uprising.
Those in charge of collecting treasure might begin siphoning
so me off to rivals or their personal vaults, leading to a
shortage of gold with which to keep paying for all the bribes
and services that keep the players' e m pire hu m ming along,
and now they need m ore gold in a hurry and they have to
find out who exactly is responsible for the drain. Keys to
power in charge of military affairs might stage a coup or, if
they're m ore cha m pions than generals, atte mpt an assassina-
tion.
With three or four keys to power in each region and dozens of
regions to be clai med, players are going to fill up this d20
chart in a hurry, and that's intentional. Soon players will be
constantly putting out fires as different underlings m a ke de-
m a nds, so meti mes contradictory de mands (for exa m ple, both
of the m want the sa me thing and only one of the m can have
it). This m eans it's time for players to consolidate the nu m -
ber of keys. Instead of having a general in every region, unite
the ar mies of several regions under the leadership of a single
general. The generals who are being sacked might not appre-
ciate this, and m ay express their dissatisfaction with pike
for mations, but once that proble m is dealt with it won't co me
back again, and that will give players so me breathing roo m to
start expanding again.
Sphere of Influence 7
Chapter Two: Taking Power on the Sword Coast
The Sword Coast is a handful of powerful and only moder-
ately corrupt cities surrounded by a quietly churning chaos
of constant, low-grade war between frontier outposts and
hostile kingdoms of marauding barbarians. The instability
gives rise to an uncontrolled wildlife, with most trade routes
stalked by not only orc and goblinoid bandits, but also owl-
bears, manticores, and wyverns. Trade thrives, but not be-
cause the roads are well-patrolled by imperial legions, but
rather because merchants hire small armies of mercenaries
to guard shipments from one city to another.
Both politics and trade in the Sword Coast are dominated
principally by the three major cities that sit on the coast
itself, those being Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate, and Neverwinter.
Additionally, the Silver Marches are a large inland coalition
of cities which collectively form a significant power bloc.
That significance has diminished in recent years as Mithral
Hall and other dwarven citadels have departed the confeder-
ation, while at around the same time Neverwinter was devas-
tated by the Spellplague and has only begun to be rebuilt.
This has left Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate as the two most
powerful cities on the coast, and under the leadership of the
Bhaalspawn, a powerful leader despite sinister origins, Bal-
dur's Gate has become the first city of the Sword Coast in
centuries to surpass Waterdeep in economic and cultural
importance.
Stuck between these major powers are the lesser kingdoms,
like Misty Forest and Elturgard, minor towns that survive and
flourish either because they are nearby more powerful
neighbors (like Daggerford) or because they lie along trade
routes and the heavily armed merchant wagons that regu-
larly come down the those trade routes serve as a sort of
patrol keeping monsters at bay (Longsaddle, Yartar), and ar-
eas of wilderness both mostly friendly (the High Forest) and
very dangerous indeed (the High Moor).
There is a constant tug back and forth between wilderness
and civilization. Even major nations like the Silver Marches
must regularly repel hordes seeking to loot them of their
wealth, and small towns along the trade routes are under
constant threat that a sudden surge of monster activity will
see their village sacked, and possibly even wiped off the map.
The activities of the Dragon Cult saw the Greenfields' popu-
lation decimated and wealth almost completely stripped
away. The Cult was ultimately defeated by a coalition of the
Lord's Alliance, the Order of the Gauntlet, and other, less
public organizations, but even this powerful union has found
itself preoccupied with major threats to the Sword Coast and
Faerun and the small towns and outposts have been left
largely to fend for themselves against the day-to-day haz-
ards of the surrounding wilds. The lucky ones get permanent
defense from the Order of the Gauntlet or the Emerald En-
clave. The unlucky ones hope there's friendly adventurers
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nearby whenever a warband too big for them to handle
comes along.
Neverwinter
“Is anything in this city actually, officially
illegal?”
“It's definitely illegal to bury the city under
hot lava.”
—Thaemin and Langdedrosa Cyanwrath
Many cities along the Sword Coast are in the unusual posi-
tion of being a part of the Lord's Alliance sphere of influence
(headed by either Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate, according to
the current winds of fortune) while at the same time com-
manding a sizable sphere of influence of their own. Never-
winter's military power is the only defense the small villages
of Neverwinter Wood and the Triboar Trail (including Phan-
dolin) have against major threats, while their status as a vi-
tal trade link makes towns like Luskan and Mirabar as well
as Icewind Dale dependent upon them to keep food from
more plentiful lands flowing to the unforgiving north. If Nev-
erwinter were to leave the Lord's Alliance, these hinterlands
would have little choice but to follow. At the same time, los-
ing the favorable trade agreements that come with me mber-
ship in the Lord's Alliance would be a huge blow to the Nev-
erwinter economy as well as leaving them isolated in the
event of an attack from Reghed Glacier to the north, or even
from raiding from the unsavory elements of Neverwinter
Wood and the Mere of Dead Men.
A party seeking to push Neverwinter to strike out on their
own would have little difficulty convincing Lord Neverember,
a man of great ambition ousted from his position of power
in Waterdeep and now ruler only of a city beholden to its
economic might. Still, before he would turn his back on the
Lord's Alliance he requires reliable new trade contacts to re-
place Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate, and Silverymoon. The Lands
of Intrigue might provide just such trade partners.
A party seeking to poach Neverwinter to a rival sphere of
influence (or start their own) would have much greater diffi-
culty convincing Lord Neverember to leave the shadows cast
by the Lord's Alliance only to step into that of another. Even
so, Neverember greatly resents Laeral Silverhand, the Open
Lord of Waterdeep who replaced him and left him with only
Neverwinter, so he will be the first to desert the Lord's Al-
liance should their ability to defend against outside threats
begin to crumble. Alternatively, the monsters who threaten
Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Wood might be forged into an
army capable of overthrowing Neverember and seizing Nev-
erwinter for a new regime, or an army from Neverwinter it-
self may be persuaded to do the same and displace Never-
winter's self-appointed Lord Governor. Neverwinter is an ex-
Sphere of Influence 8
tremely cosmopolitan city and thus, while tensions would
certainly be high, it is even plausible that the (so-called)
monster races of the wilderness would unite with the citizens
of Neverwinter under a charismatic leader to overthrow the
self-appointed Lord Protector.
so out of date (in game time). The primary differences are
the retreat of the Netherese sphere of influence following
their defeat at the hands of Cormyr and Cormanthor and
Lord Neverember's losing his title of Open Lord of Waterdeep
and becoming ruler of Neverwinter only.

Lord Neverember is well justified in his fears of economic
collapse should the Lord's Alliance turn against Neverwinter
(or vice-versa). If the Lord's Alliance began to embargo the
city, the frigid climate would be unable to sustain the popu-
lation for longer than a few months and the city would im-
plode. A successful blockade would devastate Neverwinter's
economy and would convince any sane ruler of the city to
concede to anyone who can maintain it. Even an irrationally
stubborn or spiteful ruler would have no choice but to con-
cede after the army starves to death.
Neverwinter faces an additional threat. The Ashmadai cult of
devil worshipers were shattered by their war against the
Abolethic Sovereignty and New Neverwinter for control of the
city, but they are far from annihilated. The cult was a local
power even at their height and now struggle even to main-
tain their influence over Neverwinter and its im mediate en-
virons, but despite these odds they seek to seize control of
Neverwinter and establish a sphere of influence of their own.
As the only faction who utterly and fanatically refuses to
accept any result except total control over Neverwinter as a
sovereign and unentangled state, the Ashmadai represent a
wild card and a kingmaker who could side with or against
almost anyone.
For information on the city before its destruction in the
Spellplague, the Neverwinter Nights games are recom mended.
The city as depicted in these games is no more, but it's only
been about a hundred years, which means young dwarves or
gnomes and even old elves depicted in the games will still be
alive (provided they survived the destruction of the city),
and as well the ruins of Old Neverwinter may have sunk into
the ground or still remain amidst the reconstruction. These
could be excellent hideouts for rebel forces, either a base of
operations for players acting to overthrow whatever regime
com mands Neverwinter (Lord Neverember by default, but
these locations remain just as usable if the city should
change hands during the course of your campaign) or dun-
geons to be cleared by players acting to preserve whatever
regime com mands Neverwinter.

Aboleths

The Abolethic Sovereignty was a faction with significant influence in

Neverwinter and deeply tied to the Spellplague, whose interests
were almost purely related to using its corrupting influence to create
mutant slaves to add to their choir. The Abolethic Sovereignty was
never defeated, but the Spellplague has been reversed, which
means the aboleths can no longer achieve their objective. What do
they do now?

Presently, this is entirely up to the DM. They might begin corrupting

creatures with new techniques, they might abandon the corruption
plan but go ahead and just gun for world domination, they might at-
tempt to murder some gods again in order to bring the Spellplague
back, or they might just pack up and go home. That last one ap-
pears to be the stance taken by the Neverwinter MMORPG. Pre-
suming the Abolethic Sovereignty are still active, however, they rep-
resent an independent sphere of influence, and one powerful
enough that if they bent all of their resources to absorbing the Nev-
erwinter sphere of influence, it is unlikely anyone could stop them.

Further Reading
There is an embarrassing overabundance of material avail-
able on the city of Neverwinter. The most up-to-date infor-
mation on the city can be found in the eponymous MMORPG,
which is free to play as far as is required to get a feel for
the current state of the city. For a more in-depth look, the
4th edition Neverwinter Campaign Setting is only a decade or
Neverwinter Wood and the Triboar
Trail
Neverwinter Wood surrounds Neverwinter on nearly all of its
inland faces, and is ho me pri marily to elves, fey, and gobli-
noids. The goblinoids once inhabited the entirety of the re-

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gion, but are now clustered around the eastern edge, starting
at the Crags, a series of hills which cut through the northeast
end of the forest, and curving around to the south al most to
the borders of the High Road.
A pack of goblinoids operating out of the southern end of
Neverwinter Wood called the Crag ma w Tribe m e naces the Tri-
boar Trail just to the south. Additional hazards in the region
include a hag, cultists, bandits, and even a dragon. The great
wealth of the town of Phandolin and their mines in the Wave
Echo Cave, as well as the trade link between Neverwinter and
the crossroads town of Triboar to the east (just within Water-
deep's sphere of influence), have been al most co m pletely
crippled by these and other hazards.
The western edge of the forest and its interior (about 70% of
the total land area including the m ost abundant areas as well
as the m ost defensible save Mount Hotenow) is m ostly con-
trolled by the elven colony of New Sharandar and their allies
the Ring of Swords druid circle. The colony was established
after fighting an intense war in the forest with dark fey who
invaded fro m the Feywild during the Spellplague, joining the
Ring of Swords who had pushed the goblinoids to the forest's
periphery a century before but were overwhel med by the oth-
erworldly invaders. Although the fight against the dark fey
was a decisive success, New Sharandar's population isn't
nearly great enough to keep the entirety of the wood pa-
trolled, and the dark fey re m nants are adept at avoiding de-
tection. Particularly in the heart of the forest near the Nev-
erwinter River, the dark fey have a strong presence that New
Sharandar will not be able to sta mp out without outside as-
sistance. Making m atters worse, the portal to the Feywild is
still open, and a renewed dark fey invasion is kept at bay
solely by the vigilance of the guards at New Sharandar who
constantly m a n for midable fortifications against a possible
counterattack. The dark fey deeper within the forest are
so meti mes content to run a mock, but whether out of loyalty
or just a desire to have the nu m bers to cause m ore havoc,
m a ny of the m plot to overrun New Sharandar and open up
the portal to clai m Neverwinter Wood for their m asters in the
Feywild.
The Crags are, for the m ost part, just a series of hills overrun
by goblinoids, orcs, and hu m an barbarian tribes, all of which
fight with each other as m u ch as with the m erchants and pa-
trols of Neverwinter. However, deep within Neverwinter Wood is
Mount Hotenow, where lies trapped the powerful pri mordial
Megaera, who caused the eruption that destroyed Old Never-
winter thirty years ago. Megaera has since been put back to
rest, and the ancient dwarven city of Gauntlgry m has been
reclai med fro m the drow and the forces of wicked ele mental
fire by Bruenor for the dwarves of the North, peripheral
m e m bers of the greater Waterdeep sphere of influence and
thus allies (for now) of Neverwinter. Fire ele mentals and gi-
ants re main co m m o n in the volcanic heart of Hotenow and
the drow of Menzoberranzan's powerful and far-reaching Un -
derdark sphere of influence are a constant threat just below.
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The colony in Gauntlgry m is both recent and surrounded on
all sides by ene mies, however they have the support of the
entire dwarven society in the North, na mely Mirabar and
Mithral Hall. While these cities are so mewhat distant (espe-
cially Mithral Hall), the protection they offer is not insignifi-
cant. Even if the drow or the fire giants do clai m Gauntlgry m,
they would find the mselves soon besieged by dwarves fro m
afar.
Neverwinter Wood and the surrounding region are ho me to
m ultiple minor factions, which range fro m ene mies of Never-
winter to indifferent toward it to core m e m bers of its sphere
of influence. The elves of New Sharandar and the dwarves of
Gauntlgry m will by default help to defend Neverwinter fro m
outside attack and vice-versa, but their alliance is infor mal
and largely one of military convenience. None of the m wants
threats capable of successfully raiding powerful cities in the
region, so they will unite to oppose such threats. It would not
be difficult to convince New Sharandar and Gauntlgry m to
declare neutrality in a conflict between Neverwinter and a ri-
val, especially if that conflict was kept to blockades, raiding,
and other actions which, while hostile, fall short of all-out
war.
Players who find the mselves fighting for or against Neverwin-
ter might help New Sharandar in their fight against the dark
fey and Gauntlgry m in their fight against the drow and the
fire creatures of Hotenow in order to secure either their alle-
giance to Neverwinter (especially against another allied city
like Waterdeep) or their indifference to Neverwinter. On the
other hand, if Gauntlgry m or New Sharandar refuse to align
with the players' chosen faction, they might strike dark deals
with the dark fey, the goblinoids of Neverwinter Wood, or the
minions of Megaera to clai m the region with a coalition of evil
m o nsters. This would im mediately m a ke the m ene mies of both
elves of Shae m oor and the dwarves of Mirabar and Mithral
Hall. Players m ay also find the mselves battling a villain at-
te mpting to create just this coalition (possibly Menzoberran-
zan) in order to seize Waterdeep.
Further Reading
The 4e Neverwinter Campaign Setting includes nearly up to
date (it describes the region as it was a decade ago in game
time) information on Neverwinter Wood and the surrounding
area. Additionally, most of the region is accessible in the
Neverwinter MMO, which is completely up-to-date with set-
ting lore as of the writing.
The entire Triboar Trail area is described in great detail in
an already fairly sandbox-y intro adventure The Lost Mines
of Phandelver. This adventure also describes Cragmaw Castle,
the stronghold of the Cragmaw Tribe of goblinoids and a sig-
nificant goblinoid stronghold in the southern reaches of
Neverwinter Wood. Capturing and holding this stronghold will
be a serious blow to goblinoids in this region, in addition to
the damage done to them by securing the Triboar Trail
Sphere of Influence 10
against their raids (and general chaos) over the course of
the Lost Mines adventure. This adventure is a great way to
get players started with a small sphere of influence (albeit
one beholden to Neverwinter and ultimately the Lord's Al-
liance) right away, as its presumed end is with players being
personal friends with the Rockseeker family of dwarves, who
come to dominate the economy of Phandolin and the Triboar
Trail by their reclamation of the eponymous mines in Wave
Echo Cave.
Gauntlgrym unsurprisingly features heavily in the novel of
the same name, which depicts the reclamation of the ancient
city by Bruenor. The reclaimed city is also described briefly
in Out of the Abyss. The information from Out of the Abyss
may be particularly helpful in designing a confrontation be-
tween Gauntlgrym and Menzoberranzan. Although most of the
information on Gauntlgrym found in the 4e Neverwinter
Campaign Setting is now out of date, the general shape of
the city remains the same.
The Mere of Dead Men
The Mere of Dead Men m arks the southern boundary of the
Neverwinter sphere of influence. In fact, it lies as m u ch within
the Waterdeep sphere of influence as within Neverwinter's,
which would be a point of contention if the entire swa m p
were not decisively under the control of the ancient black
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dragon Voaragha m anthar. In secret, Voaragha manthar is ac-
tually two ancient black dragons, the twins who refer to each
other as Weszlu m and Wulzour (the second twin's na me is al-
legedly Waervaerendor, but he hasn't actually been called that
for over a millenniu m, so I think it's safe to say the na me
change has cleared).
The Voaragha manthar twins are an overwhel ming deterrent to
the establish ment of a sphere of influence in the Mere, how-
ever they do not bother with minor creatures. Under their
apathy, lizardfolk and bullywug tribes flourish and fight with
one another. Many of these tribes (particularly the bullywugs)
are hostile to outsiders, but others are indifferent, content to
let strangers pass through (provided they do not linger) and
perfectly willing to barter. They do not accept coins, as they
lack anywhere to spend the m.
In the darkest depths of the swa m pland, the uncontrolled un-
dead hordes raised either by the lich Iniarv or else by the
death of Myrkul wander about, further destabilizing the re-
gion. The whereabouts of the lich hi mself are unknown, as are
any goals he m ay have.
The Voaragha manthars want only to expand their hoard and
have bargained with powerful heroes passing through to that
end. In particular, they are interested in the contents of the
Mausoleu m of Ebondeath, the lair of a mighty dracolich who
ruled the m ere before they arrived. Ebondeath hi mself has
collapsed into a pile of bones during a surge of Myrkul's pow-
er, and now lingers in the m a usoleu m as a dise m bodied spirit
a m ongst the legions of the dead who guard the place.
The Mere of Dead Men was once a kingdo m before the van-
ished lich Iniarv flooded it in agitation over his slu mber being
disturbed by an invading orc ar my. As such, the place is
strewn with ruins of castles and towns. A m ongst these is Cas-
tle Naerytar, notable for the portal connecting it to Parnast,
thus allowing a base deep within the Mere to be far m ore
easily supplied.
What To Do With Iniarv?
Iniarv hasn't been seen since he transformed the kingdom of
Phalorm into a giant swamp full of zombies. The reason he cast this
apocalyptic spell in the first place is because his (allegedly aban-
doned) tower was disturbed by invading orcs, and he overreacted a
bit to the bother. A small Helmite order used the ruins of his tower
(just outside the Mere) as a base for thinning the monsters of the
Mere for two years (they were then captured by Voaraghamanthar)
without being killed by an angry lich or accidentally provoking Ar-
mageddon, so if Iniarv still remains he's clearly chilled out a little. If
Iniarv is still around, he could provide either a potential ally if he
doesn't mind being a part of someone else's sphere of influence or
else a potential rival if he insists on indepedence and/or isolation.
Alternatively, he may have left or re-died in the intervening eight
hundred years since the fall of Phalorm.
The Mere of Dead Men is a no m a n's land that would be in-
credibly difficult to ta me. In order to be resettled, the swa m p
Sphere of Influence 11
would have to be drained, the towns and castles rebuilt, the
lizardfolk and bullywugs either befriended, subjugated, or
driven out co m pletely, the thriving population of undead and
other m o nsters would have to be brought under control, and
m ost importantly, so mething would have to be done about
Voaragha m anthar.
All of this m ust be done using external resources, because no
faction within the Mere would ever consent to having it
drained. As such, the Mere cannot be clai med by picking sides
and installing a friend into the govern ment. There is no gov-
ern ment. Instead, players seeking to reclai m the Mere (and
re moving that threat to the High Road would be enor mously
beneficial even before factoring in how fertile Phalor m's
far mland was before it was drowned) m ust asse m ble a
(preferably s mall, fast m oving, and easily supplied) vanguard,
clear a defensible ruin, then bring in colonists to rebuild that
ruin into a stronghold that can be used to push the frontier
back and as a base for draining the swa m p. Once a workforce
to drain the swa m p and sufficient guards to hold the lizard-
folk, bullywugs, undead, and assorted m o nsters have been
brought in to the cleared ruin, the vanguard can advance
(slogging through m u d dense with rando m encounters) to the
next ruin to clear it as well.
The guards defending the captured strongholds will not only
be occupied guarding those strongholds for at least a decade
while the surrounding area is cleared out enough for a stan-
dard town watch to be sufficient for local threats, the guard
will also take casualties during that time and thus require a
steady trickle of reinforce ments to be sustained long after
the players have cleared all the dungeons and left.
It's boots, boots, boots, boots m oving up and down again.
There's no discharge in the war.
Further Reading
The Mere of Dead Men, and in particular Castle Naerytar, is
the setting for an adventure in Hoard of the Dragon Queen.
Additionally, a series of adventures was set in the Mere fro m
Dungeon Magazine #69-73. There is also an article in Dragon
Magazine #257 which gives an in-depth description of the
Mere in general and its twin dragon overlords in particular.
The Mere also features in the Neverwinter M M ORPG. An enter-
prising D M would do well to use this m aterial as basis for a
hexcrawl in which the goal is to clear every encounter.
Neverwinter Periphery
Luskan, Mirabar, and Longsaddle for m an arc m arking the
northern and eastern land boundary of Neverwinter's sphere
of influence (Icewind Dale to the north is also a part of Nev-
erwinter's sphere of influence, but the land route past Luskan
is interrupted by the hostile territory of the Spine of the
World).
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Luskan is fir mly a part of Neverwinter's sphere of influence
because their own port econo my was deeply intertwined with
Neverwinter's. They were a halfway point between Icewind Dale
and Neverwinter, which connected the inhospitable far north
to the rest of the Sword Coast's bountiful trade routes. When
Neverwinter was destroyed by Hotenow's eruption, Luskan's
econo my collapsed overnight and it descended into anarchy
soon afterwards. The town is now divided up pri marily be-
tween gangs of pirates who are slightly, but only slightly,
m ore civilized than you might expect of pirates. Luskan was
an aggressive naval power and had a rocky relationship with
all their neighbors save Neverwinter (who disapproved of their
belligerence, but not enough to impose sanctions or otherwise
expend political capital to curb this behavior).
The Arcane Brotherhood in Luskan are responsible for clearing
out the goblinoids and undead who captured the city after
Neverwinter's collapse (for all the difference it m a de to rein-
stall the pirate captains as leaders), and thus are de monstra-
bly powerful enough to capture the city m ore or less at-will.
So far they haven't done so for no other reason except that
they can't currently be bothered. It's anyone's guess as to
how long that will hold out.
To the east of Luskan, along a road to the south of the Spine
of the World, is Mirabar, a dwarven mining colony and the
greatest of the mines at the southern edge of the Spine. The
Spine is pock marked by mines that m a ke up tiny outposts of
civilization in a rugged wilderness otherwise ruled by orcs,
frost giants, and white dragons. Most of these mines are un-
stable and often perish to the wilderness within years of being
established, but not so Mirabar and its outlying outposts.
These are defended by the Axe of Mirabar, a powerful militia
that keeps the m o nsters of the Spine at bay. The Spine of the
World holds vast wealth and Mirabar is one of the wealthiest
towns on the Sword Coast despite its re mote location.
Mirabar was previously within the sphere of influence of Sil-
very moon due to their close affiliation with the dwarven city
of Mithral Hall and the greater dwarven co m m u nity, however
an invasion of the Many - Arrows kingdo m saw the dwarven city
of Sundabar overrun, and this ended the military alliance be-
tween Silvery moon and Mithral Hall, and thus to Mirabar's al-
liance-by-proxy with Silvery moon. At the sa me time, the re-
establish ment of Gauntlgry m has placed the dwarven co m m u -
nity into close contact with Neverwinter's allies, and this has
pulled the m, Mirabar included, into the periphery of Never-
winter's sphere (the section on Mithral Hall provides m ore in-
for mation on the dwarves of the North and their realign ment
fro m Silvery moon to Neverwinter, however Mirabar is included
here due to the implications of the Spine of the World and
the Lurkwood on their security). Although the dwarves of
Mirabar consider the fellow dwarves of the Battleha m m er
clan's holdings in Mithral Hall and Gauntlgry m to be friends,
secretly m a ny of the m re main bitter over the (century-old)
upset in their mining m arkets caused by Mithral Hall's recla-
Sphere of Influence 12
m ation, and so me fear that the colony at Gauntlgry m might
further dilute their control of the mining m arkets. As such, a
silvertongued diplo mat with a good offer (especially an eco-
no mic one) could convince Mirabar to split with the rest of
the dwarven co m m u nity and join a separate sphere of influ-
ence fro m Mithral Hall and Guantlgry m.
also secure defense treaties with Longsaddle and whoever
controls Luskan (assu ming they are open to negotiation, which
will depend on the state of the world and player actions). Al-
ternatively, an alliance between orcs of the Spine and Lurk-
wood (possibly with allied frost giants) could be used to over-
whel m the entire region with pure military power.

Not far to the southwest of Mirabar stands the Crags, large Further Reading
hills overrun pri marily by goblinoids that run south into Nev-
erwinter Wood where they cul minate in Mount Hotenow, and There is little written about these locations. The Sword Coast
on the southeast is the Lurkwood. The western fringe of the Adventurer's Guide goes into all of the m in so me detail, but
Lurkwood is settled by loggers fro m Mirabar and Longsaddle entirely in-character, and it's not always clear how reliable
(to the south), but the forest's interior is overrun by orcs and the infor mation is m eant to be. Relevantly, it's not especially
ettins, and its eastern reaches have been clai med by werewolf clear what the difference is between Luskan's current govern-
packs hostile to all civilization. m e nt and their previous state of having been overrun by
m o nsters other than the fact that it is now hu m ans and not
Longsaddle is south fro m Mirabar along the road towards Tri- orcs or goblins who are raiding the Sword Coast.
boar, It is a minor ha mlet notable only because it is defended
by a friendly pack of werewolves descended fro m a cursed
citizen of the village who retained his loyalty to his ho me.
Longsaddle's hinterlands include logging outposts in the Lurk-
wood alongside Mirabar, the edge of Neverwinter Wood to the
west (in particular the sections where goblinoids still hold
out), and to the east the lands of the Uthgardt barbarians.
The Uthgardt are fractious and so me tribes fight against all
nearby (including other Uthgardt tribes), so me honor the an-
cient alliance between the tribes against orcs and goblinoids
and refuse to attack other Uthgardt unless forced, yet are
willing to attack all outsiders, and still others are peaceful
entirely and prefer to avoid conflict as m uch as possible. In
any case, very few of the m engage in open raiding and those
that do m eet a swift end at the hands of Longsaddle's were-
wolf protectors, so the Uthgardt have little impact on
Longsaddle one way or another.

Longsaddle, Luskan, and Mirabar are a grab-bag of fringe

settle ments united pri marily by their geography. They share
nearby wilderness threats in co m m o n with one another, but
little else (even then, it's m ore accurate to say that Mirabar
shares threats in co m m o n with both Longsaddle and Luskan).
As such, parties m ay find the mselves dealing with each town
individually with their internal politics, imposing a stable gov-
ern ment on nearly-lawless Luskan, winning the allegiance of
Mirabar by fighting against frost giants and white dragons
m e nacing their frontiers, and helping Longsaddle by driving
the goblinoids in eastern Neverwinter Wood out once and for
all. Alternatively, they could be brought in by association, with Icewind Dale
Longsaddle dependent upon trade fro m Mirabar and Mirabar a
close ally of Gauntlgry m and Mithral Hall, which m eans that Icewind Dale is a confederation between the Ten Towns, each
(with the exception of anarchic Luskan, whose govern ment has pledging to support and defend the others in times of trouble.
no friends or interests because it does not exist) this region Due to the inhospitable landscape just south of the Reghed
can be brought into a sphere of influence si mply by bringing Glacier and the m o nsters that surround their dale on all
in other regions. sides, the towns have no choice but to rely on one another or
perish. Add to this their long history of inter-reliant not-
The region can also be tackled as a unified entity, however, perishing and the odds of breaking up the confederacy is
using Mirabar as a base fro m which to fight against the dark da m n near impossible.
forces of both Lurkwood and the Spine of the World, and thus

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To the south of Icewind Dale is the Spine of the World, where
orcs, frost giants, and white dragons thrive. The northern side
of the Spine holds far fewer mining outposts than the south,
and is wholly overrun. On the north and east is the Reghed
Glacier, where the Reghed m an Barbarians live until they give
way to the great frost giant kingdo ms of the far north. On the
west is the Sea of Moving Ice. Infested with white dragons and
ice trolls, skirting the edge of this sea is one of two ways
Icewind Dale can do vital trade with lands to the south. The
other is to run a path through the western foothills of the
Spine of the World, along the northern m ost parts of the Sword
Coast. Both are fraught with peril.
The unending tide of m o nstrous forces that encircle the Dale
entirely are not so deadly nor so vital to exerting influence
over the m as the si mple cold. Unable to sustain the mselves
through far ming, the Ten Towns are co m pletely dependent
upon trade with the Sword Coast to survive. Whoever controls
Neverwinter and Luskan, the two nearest m ajor ports, will
have significant influence in Icewind Dale even if neither they
nor their representatives ever set foot in it. If one faction
were to have at least enough influence over all the Sword
Coast ports to convince the m to cease trade with Icewind
Dale, Icewind Dale would have no choice but to concede to any
and all de mands such a faction would m a ke.
Exerting influence through military m eans would be m u ch
harder. Icewind Dale is constantly pu m m eled by m o nster
raids. Defending the Dale to the point where they co me to
rely on that protection and would be unwilling to refuse de-
m a nds for fear of losing it would require either the conquest
of no less than three wilderness areas inhabited by white
dragons, frost giants, and orc tribes, or else a m assive in-
vest ment of troops in the region such that these hostile ele-
m e nts can no longer threaten the Ten Towns. On the other
hand, anyone seeking to wipe out the Ten Towns and replace
the m with a new, m ore friendly govern ment would have their
pick of local rulers.
Further Reading
Icewind Dale is the subject of two video games of the same
name as well as the trilogy of novels in which Drizz't made
his debut, all of which give an excellent close-up look at the
Dale itself. The Sea of Moving Ice was explored in Chapter 2
of the Rise of Tiamat.
The Dwarven Citadels
In addition to Gauntlgry m (described in Neverwinter Wood and
Triboar Trail above) and Mirabar (described in Neverwinter
Periphery above) there are three m ajor outposts of the dwar-
ven civilization in the North. These are the Mithral Hall,
Citadel Felbarr, and Citadel Adbar. Mithral Hall and Citadel
Felbarr were reclai med within the last century and change
fro m drow and orcs (respectively), while Citadel Adbar has
Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only.
developed a strong isolationis m due to having endured on -
and - off siege by the sa me for a si milar a mount of time. With
these dwarven citadels returned to their creators, the areas
surrounding have beco me significantly less dangerous, and
even the isolationist Citadel Adbar is beco ming m ore open to
outside contact again.
These three underground cities are geographically located
m uch closer to Silvery moon than Neverwinter, and both the
citadels lie well within what is otherwise Silvery moon's sphere
of influence. The Mithral Hall stands on the western most ex-
tre me of Silvery moon's sphere, what is now the eastern most
extre me of Neverwinter's sphere since the dwarves of the
North realigned towards the m. This realign ment occurred due
to a war with the orc Kingdo m of Many- Arrows in the Spine
of the World to the north (a section of the m o untain range
east of where it intersects with the rest of Neverwinter's
sphere of influence). The dwarven strongholds were left largely
to hold their own early on due to the city of Silvery moon
falling under siege. Mithral Hall, Citadel Felbarr, and Citadel
Adbar m a naged to hold out, however the mixed dwarven -hu-
m a n city of Sundabar was overrun. Although the territory was
reclai med, the dwarven presence in the city was nearly wiped
out, and the city is now effectively hu m an. In the after math
of the war, the dwarves of all three m ajor cities for mally de-
parted the confederation of Luruar led by Silvery moon, and
drifted into the periphery of Neverwinter due to trade rela-
tions, largely fro m Mirabar and Gauntlgry m.
The Dwarven Sphere of Influence
The only thing stopping the dwarves of the North from forming their own
sphere of influence is a lack of desire to do so. Should they ever feel the
need to cut ties with Neverwinter and go it alone, they would not find their
trade collapsing or be exposed to new threats, because their most vital
trade agreements are with each other and their greatest military allies are
also each other. The dwarven economy wouldn't even notice economic
backlash from the nearby human and elven nations unless it reached the
level of total embargo. On that note, two additional dwarven strongholds
should be noted: Ironmaster in Icewind Dale and Thornhold just outside
the Mere of Dead Men, both of which currently have very few connections
with the regions they're located in (in Thornhold's case, because there
aren't really any connections to have) and either of which could be good
bases for the expansion of the dwarven sphere of influence should they de-
cide to strike out and create one. Since both these lands are themselves on
the periphery of Neverwinter's sphere of influence, it's unlikely that poach-
ing them would even provoke a strong response from the weakened city.
Further Reading
The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide goes into particular detail
on the dwarven strongholds (and there is limited infor mation
on anywhere but Gauntlgry m and Mithral Hall outside of the
Adventurer's Guide). As with the Neverwinter periphery, the
disclai mer re mains that these lands are described in-charac-
ter by what is not necessarily a reliable narrator (and in fact,
this one is clearly biased in favor of dwarves in general and
Adbar in particular). The Silver Marches sourcebook for 3e
Sphere of Influence 14
also goes into so me detail on these citadels, though it is a bit
out of date ( most notably in that it paints the m as still being
a part of the Silver Marches).
Silvery moon
“The unity and goodwill in this place is suffo-
cating.”
—Langdedrosa Cyanwrath
Silvery moon is the political and cultural capital of the nation
of Luruar. Methra m m ar Aerasu me leads Luruar as a whole,
succeeding the nation's founder Alustriel Silverhand, who was
for merly the leader of Silvery moon itself. Although the lead-
ership of Luruar is not co m bined with the leadership of Sil-
very moon, Alustriel's pro minent position within the Silvery-
m oon govern ment prior to her ascension as well as the con-
centration of cultural, econo mic, and military power in the
city of Silvery moon itself both led to the city beco ming m uch
m ore pro minent and influential over the nation despite a lack
of explicit legal favoritis m.
Luruar and Neverwinter have been co m peting to be the third
m ost powerful sphere of influence in the Sword Coast region
for over a century, and they are as near one another in in-
fluence now as they were before. Unfortunately, this is not
because they have m aintained pace with one another but be-
cause they have both experienced disasters that set the m
back by si milar a mounts. While Neverwinter was physically
destroyed and forced to rebuild, Luruar was overwhel med by
orcish invasion fro m the Spine of the World soon after
Methra m m ar took over. Methra m m ar, lacking Alustriel's talent
for diplo macy, stewardship, and organization, led a confused
resistance against the invasion. Despite the slow start,
Methra m m ar was eventually able to for m up the ar mies of
Luruar (especially the large and powerful military of Silvery-
m oon) and drive back the invaders, but the dwarven citadels
of the north had been left to fend off the sieges by the m -
selves for m o nths while the mixed dwarf/hu m an city of
Sundabar had been overrun and co m pletely destroyed.
As a result of this, the dwarves lost confidence in the ability
of Luruar to provide m utual defense and saw no reason why
their coffers should be drained to support a nation that
couldn't keep its pro mises of protection. The loss of the
dwarven citadels, especially the wealthy city of Mithral Hall,
was a serious blow to the pro minence of Luruar and its capi-
tal Silvery moon, especially as it ca me si multaneously with the
loss of their founder and great leader Alustriel.
While Silvery moon's sphere of influence is greatly di minished
by these events, the city itself re mains an econo mic and mil-
itary powerhouse. The city is a trade nexus between all of Lu-
ruar including the valuable mining city of Sundabar (still un-
dergoing reconstruction) and the trade gateway of Everlund as
well as two of the three dwarven citadels in the north, whose
trade m ust flow through Silvery moon and Everlund to reach
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Waterdeep via Triboar. This trade nexus is m aintained due to
the vigilance of the Knights in Silver, Silvery moon's powerful
chivalric order which keeps Luruar free of orcs and for ms a
for midable vanguard for their military when m arshaled for
war. In addition, Silvery moon boasts the Spellguard and the
High Guard, two m uch s maller but far m ore exalted elite or-
ders dedicated to the defense of the city and palace (respec-
tively), as well as the Silverwatch which m aintains order in
the streets, the Moon Garrison that serves as the rank - and-
file of the city's defenses, and the Argent Legion, a m assive
ar my supplied by recruits fro m all across Luruar and dedi-
cated to the defense of all m e m ber cities.
Perhaps its m ost for midable defense, however, is the Silvery-
m o on Mythal, a powerful m agical ward that prevents all but
the strongest willed evil creatures fro m re maining, including
chro matic dragons, de m ons, devils, goblinoids, orcs, trolls, il-
lithids, drow, duergar, and giants, while also preventing the
casting of evocation spells, teleportation spells, and su m m on -
ing spells by anyone not carrying a m agical char m that
grants the m exe m ption. Silvery moon has no shortage of mili-
tary defenses nor do they lack the ability to project force.
They are quite possibly the m ost powerful land military in all
of the Sword Coast.
Given this abundance of econo mic and military power, con-
vincing Silvery moon to give up any a m ount of independence
and be absorbed even into the periphery of another sphere of
influence is a task of titanic difficulty. The orcish Kingdo m of
Many - Arrows has a de m onstrable capability to pose a serious
threat to Luruar, but that was before they took the losses
they did in their previous invasion. If the dwarves could be
convinced to co m pletely ignore an orcish invasion of Luruar,
Many - Arrows would have a fighting chance of overwhel ming
the nation. Even if Luruar survived, they might find m ore of
their internal trade network and several m e m ber cities de-
m olished, leaving the m si multaneously in need of a m assive
reconstruction effort and with their pri mary m eans of funding
such an effort crippled. If Luruar were rebuilt by an outside
party, that party might be able to sign treaties that gave
the m control over trade within Luruar, possibly even to the
extent of cutting Silvery moon out entirely unless they, too,
cede their sovereignty to treaties that would bring the m into
another's sphere of influence. Alternatively, a party might at-
te mpt to set up one of their own or a trusted ally to beco me
the next High Mage of Silvery moon or the next leader of Lu-
ruar. Each of these offices has a (usually non - hereditary)
successor designated by the current ruler. Convincing such a
ruler to designate so meone who spends m ost of their time
outside Luruar as opposed to a m e m ber of the Spellguard, the
High Guard, or their existing advisers would be difficult, but
not impossible, nor would it be impossible to find so meone
fro m one of those organizations who would be a menable to
joining another sphere of influence.
A m ore direct approach might involve invading Luruar. A
coalition between not just Many - Arrows, but also the People
Sphere of Influence 15
of the Black Blood, the trolls of the Ever moors, the Uthgardt
barbarians throughout the wilderness periphery, and the orc
and goblinoid tribes of the Nether Mountains might be able to
bring even the powerful military of Silvery moon to its knees.
Further Reading
The 3e sourcebook Silver Marches is about a century out of
date, but nevertheless provides m ostly accurate details on not
only Silvery moon and the other cities of Luruar, but also the
entire region. To avoid redundancy, this sourcebook will not
be m e ntioned in other sections, however it is nevertheless the
best source for closer details on every subsection within the
Silvery moon section of this docu ment.
The Kingdom of Many-Arrows
The Kingdo m of Many - Arrows is ruled over by the unorthodox
but undeniably effective Obould Dynasty, founded by King
Obould, the first ruler of Many - Arrows. This orc kingdo m is
re markable for its stability. There is a reason why m ost orc
territories are si mply labeled as orc territories: They are gen-
erally too unstable and their kingdo ms too short-lived to
bother m arking the m out on a m a p. Not so with Many - Arrows,
for Obould was a cautious, long ter m planner even as he was
a courageous and powerful warrior. He and his legacy forged a
kingdo m which, rather than bashing itself relentlessly against
all neighbors until they eventually m et their m atch or
stretched too thin and cru m bled, m aintained long periods of
peace with the powerful real m of Luruar. While it set the
sha m ans of Gruu msh and their not-insignificant following at
edge to ignore the wealth of Luruar to the south, Obould and
his descendants released the aggression of their subjects
through al most incessant low-grade warfare with the Uth-
gardt barbarians who lived at the periphery of Luruar, partic-
ularly in the Cold Wood and the Ever moors. The population of
Many- Arrows grew, and with it grew its power and wealth.
Eventually, the drow of Menzoberranzan decided that Luruar
needed to be destroyed and Many - Arrows was the instru ment
with which to destroy the m. They began supporting the Gru-
u msh factions within Many-Arrows, who threw a coup against
Obould XVII (Obould's descendants are not very long lived, nor
are they too creative with na ming their kids) and installed
the Gruu mshite Hartusk in his place. Hartusk im mediately led
the orcs of Many- Arrows in a m assive invasion of Luruar. The
speed and size of this invasion caught Luruar off-guard, and
led to the destruction of Sundabar and the secession of the
dwarven citadels fro m the nation. The forces of Luruar even-
tually m a naged to rally and defeat the orcs, and in the after-
m ath Lorgru of the Obould Dynasty deposed Hartusk and re-
clai med his throne in Dark Arrow Keep. The kingdo m re mains
significantly less stable and less powerful than before the war.
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Although weakened, Many- Arrows re mains the single greatest
concentration of orc power ruled directly by orcs in all of
Faerun. If the Gruu mshites were to place another of their own
on the throne, Many- Arrows could do serious da m age to Lu-
ruar in a second invasion provided that they could be con-
vinced to ignore the dwarves and the dwarves convinced to
ignore the m. Although Many -Arrows would be unlikely to ac-
tually capture Silvery moon and defeat the Argent Legion, they
could weaken the nation enough to leave it vulnerable to as-
si milation into another sphere of influence. On the other
hand, if the Gruu mshite faction were m ore decisively defeated,
Lorgru would have the breathing roo m he needs to retaliate
against orcs conducting minor raids into Luruar against his
decrees, and that in turn could lead to the establish ment of
for mal trade relations with Luruar and strengthen the econo-
m y of the entire region.
Further Reading
RA Salvatore's Vengeance of the Iron Dwarf explores the re-
cent events of Many - Arrows in great detail, albeit fro m the
perspective of Luruar's allies rather than that of the orcs of
Many - Arrows.
The Glim merwood
Previously known as the Moonwood and the Cold Wood, the two
forests have grown together in recent years and are now
known collectively as the Gli m m erwood. The elves of the
Moonwood, as m u ch a part of Luruar as any hu m an city, still
refer to their ancestral ho melands within the Gli m m erwood as
the Moonwood. The elves kept the forest cleansed of orcs and
goblinoids, but lacked the power and the will to clear the
People of the Black Blood, Malarite werewolves who lived pri-
m arily in the northern reaches. The Moonwood is also ho me to
cells of the Eldreth Veluuthra, an elven supre macy m ove ment
that despises all non - elves. Being that the Moonwood are fir m
allies of the hu m ans and dwarves nearby, this organization is
co m pletely illegal, but thrives nevertheless. So me of the m
have beco me werewolves the mselves, and fight with the People
of the Black Blood for supre macy over the northern fringe of
the forest.
The eastern half of the Gli m m erwood, for merly known as the
Cold Wood, is the territory of the Red Tiger clan of the Uth-
gardt barbarians. Pockets of orcs and ettins fight with the
Uthgardt for control of the forest. Many Uthgardt outcasts
also live in the eastern Gli m m erwood, as it stands at the far
fringe of Uthgardt wilderness.
The Eldreth Veluuthra might m a ke for better pawns than one
might expect, given their hostility towards the kind of race-
mixing that goes on in any given D &D party. While they might
want to conquer all the Sword Coast (if not the world) for the
elves as it was before the Crown Wars, a charis matic diplo mat
could persuade the m to accept the Gli m m erwood as their own
Sphere of Influence 16
and thus use the m as catspaws to destroy the orcs, ettins,
Uthgardt barbarians, and the Children of the Black Blood in
other parts of the forest.
That said, a pawn who will refuse all calls to ar ms and does
no trade is really m ore a neutral faction. Al most any party
will be better off rooting the m out and using either the Uth-
gardt barbarians or the orcs and ettins fro m the Cold Wood
as local rulers. The real utility in the Eldreth Veluuthra, then,
is to use the m to stage a coup and drive out the Moonwood
elves before subsequently destroying the m with the Uthgardt
barbarians or an orc-ettin coalition. This way the Moonwood
is brought under the party's control and no war is provoked
with Luruar.
The alternative is, of course, to befriend the Moonwood elves
by helping the m defeat the Children of the Black Blood, al-
though it would be difficult to convince the m to defect fro m
the Silvery moon sphere of influence considering they do not
face serious danger fro m the werewolves in the northern for-
est (individually m ost elves would be in serious danger against
the average werewolf, of course, but the werewolves are few
enough that elves are rarely attacked in the first place). A
party that was already aligned with Silvery moon would benefit
fro m entrenching the Moonwood elves (and m aybe also Uth-
gardt barbarians) as sole rulers of the Gli m m erwood, but
otherwise it would likely be wiser to drive the m out.
Further Reading
Various Drizz't books visit the Gli m m erwood ( mostly the
Moonwood), including repeated visits in the Hunter's Blade
trilogy. The Gli m m erwood also m a kes an appearance in
Vengeance of the Iron Dwarf.
Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only.
Elruar Mountains
The Nether Mountains once m arked the boundary between the
ancient hu m an e m pire of Netheril and the ancient dwarven
kingdo m of Delzoun, which occupied all of the territory now
known as Luruar and originally delved all the great dwarven
cities of the North, as well as so me of the hu m an ones (most
notably Sundabar). Given that, the dwarves are surprisingly
okay with Luruar's continued existence.
In m o dern times, these m o untains are overrun with orcs.
Baraskur is a series of closely packed caves fortified together
as one structure to serve as the stronghold of the Ripped
Guts tribe of orcs, inter mittently ruled over by the ghost of a
long dead hu m an sorceress who de m ands a host to possess
every few years, a possession which can last anywhere fro m a
few days to half a year. While possessed, the powerful sorcer-
ess directs the orcs to scour the Netherese ruins in the
m o untains for so me lost ite m. In between possessions, the
ghost is largely dor mant and the orcs raid and fight with
their neighbors.
Said neighbors are the Thousand Fists tribe of orcs, whose
stronghold is a m u ch m ore thinly spread series of caves
called the Thousand Maws. These caverns are linked not by
fortified out-buildings and ra m parts but by runners who
quickly run to nearby caverns to bring all the tribe to the
defense of any one cave that should fall under attack.
The two tribes pri marily fight over the Moon Pass. In stark
contrast to the foreboding m o untains, the Moon Pass is an
abundant valley. The hu m ans and dwarves of Luruar have
been known to m a ke their own atte mpts at colonizing the
area. So far, the orc tribes have prevented the m fro m seeing
m uch success.
The m ost deadly threat in the Nether Mountains are the M u -
rue me Clan. No less than a half-dozen young blue dragons led
by Nahaunglaroth and Rauri m m, a pair of adults who, m uch
to the relief of all nearby, turned upon their father, an an-
cient blue na med Kizilpazar, and killed hi m. Nevertheless, the
unusual nu m ber of dragons in the area m a kes the m a serious
threat even with their patriarch slain. The Morue me Clan is
dedicated to protecting Dalagar's Dagger, the tallest peak of
the Nether Mountains, upon which aging chro matic dragons
fro m all across the Sword Coast fly to impale the mselves. The
treasure stuck between the dead dragon's scales falls out,
so me dislodged fro m the impact, others co ming loose as the
dragon decays, to for m a sizable hoard of its own at the base
of the m o untain. The Morue me Clan won't touch a single coin
of this hoard, nor will they let anyone else do so. No one
knows why the dragons co me to Dalagar's Dagger to end
the mselves, and no one knows why the Morue me Clan don't
clai m the treasure for the mselves (certainly they each m ain-
tain a hoard of their own, each in their individual caverns at
the eastern edge of the Nether Mountains).
Sphere of Influence 17

A m o nastery to Loviator, goddess of pain, overlooks the Ever-
lund Pass at the far west of the Nether Mountains. Ordinarily
such a tiny outpost would not m erit m e ntion, but its strategic
location m eans that it could be used, were its inhabitants so
inclined (or killed and replaced by those who are), to inter-
dict trade between Silvery moon and Everlund, which would
seriously da m age the econo my of all Luruar (and the dwarven
citadels) as practically all trade that isn't co m pletely internal
goes through Silvery moon to Everlund and fro m there down to
Waterdeep.
The Rauvin Mountains cut through the center of Luruar and
the for mer kingdo m of Delzoun. Three different orc tribes
have taken up residence in these m o untains, each one taking
their na me fro m their favored m ethod of slaughtering hapless
victi ms for Gruu msh: The Tornskulls, the Heart Takers, and
the Red Fangs (the latter devour their victims alive). The
foothills of these m o untains are pock marked by goblinoid
strongholds.
A party sided with Silvery moon will have no shortage of
colonists willing to push into the Moon Pass, nor will they be
unable to find recruits to garrison Baraskur and the Thousand
Ma ws. The trouble, then, is of course to actually capture these
orcish strongholds and drive the orc tribes who inhabit the m
southwards. A party working against Silvery moon would need
to seize control of one orc tribe or another, perhaps by exor-
cising the sorcerous ghost who regularly tyrannizes the
Ripped Guts, and use the m to destroy their rival. Either way,
the Morue mes will have to be dealt with, and they very rarely
fight alone. A si milar strategy would have to be taken in the
Rauvin Mountains, however this time there is no fertile valley
which Luruar is eager to settle, which m eans the party will
have to provide incentive or per manently garrison troops in
the Rauvin Mountains to retain control after driving out the
orcs and goblinoids. Alternatively, they could pick their fa-
vorite tribe and lead the m to victory or unite the goblinoids
and lead the m in an uprising against the orcs who raid and
extort the m regularly for cannon fodder and slaves.
Further Reading
The Northern Marches re mains fir mly reco m m ended for m ore
details on these m o untain ranges. The Nether Mountains in
particular still have lost Netherese ruins hidden in the m.
While these are unlikely to prove critical to a sphere of influ-
ence due to their lack of strategic importance, a party might
take a break fro m world do mination to plu m b their depths
for personal wealth and m agic ite ms. In this case, Netheril:
E m pire of Magic is an excellent sourcebook to the ancient
e m pire, and the sections of Lost E m pires of Faerun dealing
with Netheril m ay also prove useful. Although these books are
old (E mpire of Magic is fro m clear back in 2e), Netheril was
already an e m pire thousands of years fallen when the setting
was first released, so infor mation on it fro m any real world
year of publishing is all equally valid, as they are all dealing
Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only.
with a fallen e m pire (although it should be noted that so me
sourcebooks m e ntioning the Netherese are referring to their
15th century successor state, who are descended fro m the
original e m pire but otherwise unrelated).
The Evermoors
The Ever moors are a lu mpy bog with hills rising irregularly
out of largely stagnant, brackish water. Their pri mary inhabi-
tants are trolls and giants, who do not get along with one
another. The trolls used to be the sole inhabitants and largely
kept to the mselves, however a frost giant incursion (with hill
giant lackeys) has pushed the trolls into the outlying regions,
m uch to the distress of the outlying regions.
Delzoun and Netheril alike created cairns out here for their
dead, and these ancient to mbs re main, co m pletely sealed by
thick stone slabs to prevent the re mains fro m being dis-
turbed. The to mbs were so frequent and so weighed down with
m agical treasures that, for a brief time when the bog water
began eroding m ost of the m away, people could actually m a ke
a living panning for m agic rings in the Laughingflow as it
flowed out of the m o or. These days m ost of the cairns have
been looted or flooded, but a few still re main undisturbed and
packed with treasure.
Prospectors believe that the hills of the Ever moors are ex-
tre mely ore-rich and that it would be a mining location as
valuable as the Spine of the World were it not for the giants
and trolls occupying it. As such, although its strategic posi-
tion is questionable due to how incredibly difficult it is to get
an ar my through it on any kind of reasonable timetable, the
Ever moors would quite possibly be a valuable addition to a
sphere of influence. Mining rights to that area could poten-
tially be a powerful bargaining chip in negotiations, particu-
larly with the nearby dwarfhold of Mithral Hall. Any sphere of
influence that did not already have the dwarves on their side
could easily lock the m into beneficial treaties with such valu-
ables to offer.
The issue, of course, is the giants in the north and the trolls
in the south. As the giants are already quite handily winning
the war, they have little incentive to m a ke any concessions in
exchange for assistance in the fight (though they might still
be willing to hire m ercenaries for a one-time pay ment in
treasure), which leaves two options: Either rally the trolls or
enlist outside aid for an invasion. The only outsiders in any
position to attack are Luruar and the dwarves of the north,
both of who m are still fairly depleted fro m their recent war
against Many - Arrows. The good news is that ar mies of both
giants and trolls tend to be relatively s mall, nu m bering in the
dozens rather than the thousands, due to the m u ch higher
supply needs of such large creatures. As such, adventurers
who can slay even a s mall nu m ber of the creatures might
m a ke a serious difference on the battlefield, and m ay provide
the edge needed to lead Mithral Hall and/or Silvery moon to
Sphere of Influence 18
victory. Of course, if the resources of the Ever moors were in-
tended to be used as a bartering chip to bring Mithral Hall
into a sphere of influence, that sphere of influence would
have an extre mely difficult time convincing the dwarves to
then also do m ost of the heavy lifting in securing those re-
sources.
Further Reading
RA Salvatore's Rise of the King is the only recent depiction of
the Ever moors, and the attention paid this region by the oth-
erwise fairly exhaustive Silver Marches sourcebook for 3e and
5e's Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide have little (though not
nothing) to say about it.
Waterdeep
“Why would you expect anyone here to care that
like eight tons of unmarked cargo passed
through the city? It's Waterdeep. Pay the cus-
toms and you can ship severed orphan heads
through here.”
—Robyn Hood
The trade capital of the entire Sword Coast, one of the
greatest concentrations of wealth in all of Faerun, and from
centuries ago until only very recently the most powerful na-
tion 'till as far away as Amn or Cormyr (and this despite be-
ing a citystate), Waterdeep is one of the most famous, ac-
complished, and influential cities in the world.
Waterdeep is run by the masked lords and a single open
lord, currently Laeral Silverhand. Laeral is personally dedi-
cated to the Lord's Alliance and thus, although Waterdeep's
influence over that coalition is waning somewhat in the face
of the rising wealth and prominence of Baldur's Gate, Water-
deep can be counted on to remain a com mitted me mber of
the Lord's Alliance for so long as it continues to exist and
Laeral is running the city.
Laeral does not rule alone, however. The open lord and all
twenty masked lords come to agreements in secret councils,
the results of which are then announced by the open lord.
The im mediate thing to notice here is that an enterprising
young autocrat needs only the cooperation of the open lord
to take over the city, as the masked lords can all be killed
and replaced without anyone in the city knowing that the
assassinations were political. Only the lords' un masked secret
identities would be reported dead. Of course, the masked
lords are well aware of this and make themselves as hard to
assassinate as they possibly can. The Shadow Thieves of Amn
certainly take a stab at violent political realignment from
time to time, and at one point the open lord Kerrigan the
Arcanist did indeed manage to kill nearly half the masked
lords before his plot was discovered and he was killed by a
rival in the streets of Waterdeep.
Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only.
Although they have final say over the city's law, there are
m ultiple other powerful influences in Waterdeep besides the
lords. There are over seven dozen noble families of varying
degrees of importance, who are famous (and infamous)
throughout the Realms for their obscene wealth and aristo-
cratic vanity. The merchant class also has tremendous influ-
ence due not only to their wealth, but the fact that everyone
else's wealth depends on their trade. Waterdeep is a trade
nexus connecting the islands of the west, the Lands of In-
trigue to the south, Neverwinter and Silverymoon to the
north, and Cormyr and Sembia to the east. The merchants of
Waterdeep, as a collective, can paralyze the economy of most
of Faerun if they want to (fortunately for everyone, the
merchants have no incentive to destroy the economy that
pays for their dinner). The city is also host to a large clergy
of nearly every deity imaginable, with representation for
Oghma, Tyr, Tempus, Beshaba, Gond, Selune, Mystra, Silvanus
and Mielikki (these two share a temple), Lathander, Sune,
and Tymora. The clergy wield significant influence as many
of them are the most senior and respected of their faith in
all of the Sword Coast. Any one of these three groups (no-
bles, merchants, and clergy) stands a serious chance of
staging a successful coup against the masked lords if they
could be convinced to attempt one. All three together would
be virtually guaranteed.
Waterdeep's City Watch protects it within and its City Guard
protects it from threats without, but perhaps its greatest
military asset is the steady stream of adventurers who con-
gregate there to receive jobs from various powers in the city.
Chief among these are the Grey Hands, a band of powerful
adventurers dedicated to the defense of the city, although
their power is dwarfed by the sheer nu mber of other adven-
turers who come to and from the city every day.
Also of note are the Red Sashes, a vigilante group dedicated
to removing criminals when the City Watch won't. While these
are too weak to pose a threat to the masked lords, they
might be built up into such a force should an ambitious
would-be ruler manage to take control of the organization,
and they could also serve as kingmakers in a civil war.
Seizing Waterdeep is no easy task. Their ground forces, while
incredibly numerous, lack the skill of Silverymoon's Knights
in Silver or Baldur's Gate's Flaming Fists. Their greatest mil-
itary asset is their adventurers, who can be bought into
leaving the conflict or switching sides if Waterdeep attacked
by an enemy wealthy enough to outspend them. Waterdeep's
navy is unmatched in power throughout the Sword Coast, but
Silverymoon in particular has little reason to care, and Bal-
dur's Gate has plenty of land trade routes to keep itself
supplied. Even so, the city is surrounded by quite a bit of
friendly territory. Attacks from Silverymoon would have to
hack their way through Triboar and Dessarin Valley, and at-
tacks from Baldur's Gate would first have to seize Dagger-
ford. The only local allies against Waterdeep available are
those found in Kryptgarden Forest, the Sword Mountains, and
Sphere of Influence 19
Undermountain, and all the inhabitants of these areas are
either very difficult to control or relatively weak when com-
pared against the powerful walls and sheer nu mber of sol-
diers Waterdeep has at their disposal.
Waterdeep's greatest protection against invasion from their
neighbors is their economic significance. The more dangerous
Waterdeep is, the fewer merchants want to go there, and the
more Waterdeep ceases to be a nexus of trade for half the
continent, the weaker that half of the continent's economy
gets.
Given this, anyone who wants to seize Waterdeep without
damaging the juggernaut economy that makes it so valuable
in the first place would be best advised to do so by either
internal coup (and very quickly, before it blossoms into civil
war) or a stealth usurpation by successfully doing what Ker-
rigan the Arcanist attempted: Becoming open lord and then
killing all the masked lords to replace them with friends and
cronies.
Further Reading
Waterdeep went through quite a few changes in the 15th cen-
tury, and thus while the most complete guide to the city is
3.5e's City of Splendors: Waterdeep, that book is tragically
rather out of date and has not been replaced except in the
space dedicated to it in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.
Nevertheless, the book's information on specific noble fami-
lies, guilds, and other important factions remains relevant,
even if most of the individuals named are no longer alive or
have retired from their posts. Most of the dungeons and ad-
venture hooks provided also remain valid, and could prove
excellent springboards for a party attempting to curry favor
with one faction or another within Waterdeep. While the
events of any given game of Lords of Waterdeep are non-
canon (and the Knights of the Shield are no longer active in
the city anyway, since they were routed from it some time
ago), a playthrough of that game does provide a good look at
how the masked lords of Waterdeep interact with one anoth-
er when the going gets rough. Waterdeep has also featured in
too many novels to be listed here.
The Sword Mountains and Kryptgarden
Forest
The Sword Mountains are, and if you've been reading this
docu ment sequentially you m ay find this a bit of a rerun,
overrun by orcs. These orc ar mies have periodically attacked
nearby kingdo ms, m ost notably the kingdo m of Phalor m that
once stood where the Mere of Dead Men is now. The orcish in-
vasion was set to successfully overrun the kingdo m when
Iniarv flooded the entire land out of spite. Since then, the
orcs have fought pri marily with the trolls who once lived
there until the orcs successfully drove the m out and into the
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Ever moors, where they lived until the giants started pushing
the m out fro m there, and have also staged two separate in-
vasions of Waterdeep, neither of which succeeded. The orcs'
unity was shattered by this pair of defeats, as each tribe
sought to assign bla me to the others for the failure of the
invasion and they descended into infighting.
Centuries later, that is still the current state of affairs, with
the orcs fighting each other m ore than anyone else. They do
frequently raid the High Road between Neverwinter and Wa-
terdeep, but never m uster up enough force to pillage settled
lands in the Dessarin Valley, let alone attack Waterdeep itself.
Kryptgarden is ho me to goblinoids and dark fey, as well as a
powerful, ancient green dragon Claugiyliya matar, known as Old
Gnawbones to people who hate trying to re me m ber dragon
na mes. The goblinoids are led by the Zartruss hobgoblin clan.
The Cult of the Dragon has m a de alliance with Claugiyliya-
m atar, who rules over the Zartruss clan and their goblinoid
minions, but they haven't been able to secure the allegiance
of the dark fey, who could prove a crucial ally in the fight to
wrest Kryptgarden fro m the powerful dragon.
Kryptgarden and the Tyranny of Dragons
If you're one of the lucky few to play in the epic quest for Tyranny of
Dragons, you may distinctly recall that Old Gnawbones was already de-
feated and possibly killed, the Cult of the Dragon driven from the for-
est, and the dark fey of Kryptgarden have already been set at odds with
the Zartruss Clan of hobgoblins. If your group wants to accept as canon
the outcome of either the official Tyranny of Dragons epic quest or
your local iteration of it, feel free to do so. However, since a relatively
very small number of people were able to attend these events and be-
cause we want as much published material (including the Tyranny of
Dragons hardbacks and Adventurer's League pdfs) to be compatible
with a sphere of influence campaign as possible, this document makes
the assumption that the Tyranny of Dragons hasn't happened yet. The
Cult of the Dragon still controls Parnast and Castle Naerytar, they're
still raiding the Greenfields for treasure, and so on. Feel free to use the
Tyranny of Dragons hardback as a launching point for sphere of influ-
ence quests set in the Sword Coast. The exception to this is the re-
placement of Lord Neverember as open lord of Waterdeep by Laeral
Silverhand, since that is not a result of any player actions in the hard-
back and more neatly divides the Neverwinter and Waterdeep spheres
of influence.
The Sword Mountains and Kryptgarden Forest have little eco-
no mic value, but the strategic location of the for mer over-
looking the High Road and the latter bordering the Dessarin
Valley, as well as their close proxi mity to Waterdeep, m eans
that controlling these areas is absolutely vital for anyone
looking to control the Waterdeep sphere of influence. While
the inhabitants are too weak to overco me Waterdeep's m assive
ar my, organized raiding or blockading of Waterdeep's northern
trade and breadbasket could do serious da mage to the city's
econo my and the forests and m o untains provide plentiful op-
portunities for a m bush, chokepoints, and other co m bat situa-
tions in which Waterdeep's superior nu m bers would co me to
Sphere of Influence 20
naught. This m eans that the inhabitants of this region cannot
attack Waterdeep, but nor can Waterdeep attack the m, leaving
the m to raid and pillage Waterdeep's m ost valuable hinterland
with impunity.
The dark fey have little desire to engage in such raiding. This
m eans a party working to protect Waterdeep could achieve
this indefinitely by defeating the Zartruss clan and their dra-
conic m aster, while a party working to attack Waterdeep
would want to lead the Zartruss clan in an uprising against
Old Gnawbones and the Cult of the Dragon. As they are seek-
ing to su m m o n a world-ending kaiju, the Cult of the Dragon
m a ke poor allies for anyone seeking to rule over a non - de-
stroyed world, so one way or another a party seeking to con-
trol Kryptgarden will have to deal with Old Gnawbones.
The Sword Mountains are m u ch m ore straightforward: Pick
your favorite orc tribe and crush the others. Alternatively, get
the m all to m eet up and agree to spend their forces attacking
Waterdeep again, and when this inevitably fails, crush every
orc tribe in the after math using a friendly military (prefer-
ably an ally fro m Kryptgarden, due to its proxi mity). Even a
party working for Waterdeep might want to take this route. If
Waterdeep knows when and where the invasion is co ming, they
can m eet it before the orcs do any serious da m age to
Dessarin Valley. On the other hand, if Waterdeep doesn't know
when and where it's co ming, the invasion would do serious
da m age to Dessarin Valley (though it would stand no chance
of capturing Waterdeep itself), which would weaken the Water-
deep econo my.
Further Reading
These regions are pitifully underdescribed. Outside of DDEP1:
Corruption in Kryptgarden, they have not appeared in any
m ajor m o dules, novels, sourcebooks, or video ga mes (techni-
cally they do m a ke an appearance in Waterdeep: City of
Splendors, but only as historical notes, not fully described).
Corruption in Kryptgarden covers only Kryptgarden, not the
Sword Mountains, and m ore importantly is not publicly avail-
able. You can find su m m aries of the adventure's results at
various cons and a (possibly illegal) pdf of an unfinished draft
online, but that's it.
Dessarin Valley
Dessarin Valley is just to the northeast of Waterdeep, a fertile
far mland surrounding the Dessarin River. The valley is Water-
deep's breadbasket, supplying the city with m ost of its food,
and it is also a sparsely settled, underdefended region depen-
dent upon Waterdeep's ar my and adventurer econo my for de-
fense. The m ajor towns all lie along the Long Road to Luruar
and the Savage Frontier ( most notably the Neverwinter pe-
riphery). A m phail is a playground for Waterdhavian nobles
where they carry out their squabbles and intrigue fro m within
their su m m er ho mes. Yartar and Triboar are m ore heavily
Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only.
defended than m ost of Dessarin Valley, situated as they are at
its frontier. This is particularly true of Triboar, which was of-
ten used to m eet orcish invasions fro m the Sword Mountains.
Conversely, towns deep within the valley like like Red Larch
are badly under manned.
The entire region is plagued by pri mordial unrest caused by
the hidden cults of Ele mental Evil. These cults (knowingly or
not) seek to reduce the entire world to a churning, ele mental
chaos of pure fire, earth, water, and air, constantly clashing
against each other and never settling or co m bining. As this
state of affairs would be inhospitable to say the least, aligning
with Ele mental Evil is not really an option for any sphere of
influence. However, anyone who can provide Dessarin Valley
protection fro m Ele mental Evil m ay be able to peel the m away
fro m Waterdeep's sphere of influence, or at least pull the m
fro m the center to the periphery, particularly if they can
provide si milar protection against the Sword Mountain orcs
(and the Kryptgarden goblinoids, if they ever start doing any-
thing).
Dessarin also has a s mall population of Uthgardt barbarians
who might be used to seize Dessarin fro m the locals, or the
Sword Mountain orcs or Zartruss clan fro m Kryptgarden. The
trouble with this approach is that any attack on the Dessarin
Valley is undoubtedly going to be treated as an attack on Wa-
terdeep, which m eans seizing the valley would inevitably lead
to a full blown war against a m ajor power on the Sword Coast.
A sphere of influence not ready for that would find all their
gains in the region reversed as soon as Waterdeep's Guard re-
clai med the region.
Another option is to m a ke alliance with nobles in A m phail who
have been on the losing end of Waterdhavian politics and then
re-establish their political sway in the city to the point where
they can prevent retaliation by the Waterdeep Guard against
anyone trying to take over the Dessarin Valley. The only way
they could possibly convince the m asked lords to keep the
Waterdeep Guard at ho me, however, is if the valley continues
to supply Waterdeep with food, which m eans the valley cannot
be peeled all the way out of Waterdeep's sphere of influence
using this m ethod. Still, having Dessarin Valley on the party's
side would be very helpful to political m a neuvering in Water-
deep itself, and could be useful for a strategy of overthrowing
the m asked lords fro m within the city.
Further Reading
Dessarin Valley features quite pro minently in Princes of the
Apocalypse, which could be used as the basis for bringing the
region into a sphere of influence, though you might want to
cut it down a bit if you intend it to be one s mall part of a
sphere of influence ca m paign, as Dessarin Valley would not be
secured until around level 15 if used as-written.
Sphere of Influence 21

Daggerford
Daggerford is the geographic southern most point of Water-
deep's direct sphere of influence (i.e. not counting the greater
Lord's Alliance sphere of influence), a fortified town that
m arks the border between the civilized land of the Waterdeep
region and the wilderness that stands between the m and Bal-
dur's Gate. Daggerford is prosperous due to its location along
the Trade Way, but also under constant threat fro m the Lizard
Marsh and the High Moor.
The Lizard Marsh is inhabited by lizardfolk who usually keep
to the mselves, but are extre mely hostile towards any who en-
ter the m arsh and so meti mes raid caravans on the Trade Way.
The High Moor is not adjacent to Daggerford and the Misty
Forest absorbs m ost of its aggression, but due to the wealth
of the Trade Way and Daggerford, the High Moor's raiders
so meti mes m a ke the trip around Misty Forest to raid the
Daggerford hinterlands, and so meti mes even atte m pt to sack
the city itself. These raids are largely co m prised of orcs, gob-
linoids, trolls, and ogres, although all m a nner of m o nsters live
in the vast reaches of the m o or.
Daggerford is an independent duchy, but while the duke is in
charge of foreign affairs, local m atters are usually deferred to
the council of guilds. For a sphere of influence, this m eans
that the duke is the ruler whose opinion m atters even though
the council of guilds m a nages m ost actual govern ment func-
tions. The duke collects taxes and directs the military, so for
the m ost part he is the one you care about even if he al most
never writes or adjudicates any laws.
The current duke is Maldwyn Daggerford, who inherited the
position in accordance with the tradition of m ale pri mogeni-
ture despite the popularity of his elder sister Morwen. This
isn't headed towards a succession dispute on its own, however
interested parties might be able to escalate it into one if they
could convince the council of guilds (who support Morwen) to
take m ore drastic actions to pressure Maldwyn into ceding the
throne. With luck, this concession might even happen without
a civil war. In the event of war, Daggerford's ar my is barely a
hundred soldiers and a high-level party could easily provide
the power a guild militia needs to m atch Daggerford's profes-
sional soldiers. Whether defending Maldwyn's clai m or pushing
Morwen's, a party working against Waterdeep could provoke a
succession crisis to push a treaty onto Daggerford that would
see the m in the party's preferred sphere of influence. A party
working for Waterdeep will want the m ore capable Morwen on
the throne of their allied city state (not that Daggerford can
really be called a city, but they're self-governing), although
they'll want the transition to be m u ch m ore peaceful.
Further Reading
Daggerford plays a starring role in the D &D Next playtest ad-
ventures Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle and Scourge of the
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Sword Coast. By default, Morwen assu mes the throne of Dag-
gerford peacefully during the course of these adventures, and
this is how Daggerford is presented in the Sword Coast Adven-
turer's Guide.
The Western Isles
A nu m ber of island kingdo ms lie off the Sword Coast. Most
pro minent a m ong these is the Moonshae Archipelago. Riven by
war between the native ffolk and the northlanders, neither
side has yet gained a decisive advantage. Although the inva-
sion of the northlanders has been te mporarily stalled, the
ffolk were too exhausted by the fight to capitalize on the ad-
vantage and it appears as though both sides will si mply re-
group, likely for the span of a generation, before resu ming
the war again. There are three notable exceptions to this
general state of affairs. The island of Snowdown labors under
the brutal occupation of A m n, who have repeatedly put down
revolts and stripped the island of m ost of its resources,
O m an's Isle has been occupied by fo morian giants, and Moray
is overrun by lycanthropes of the People of the Black Blood.
The other islands of m ajor note off the Sword Coast are Or-
lu mbor and Mintarn. Ruled over by the ancient red dragon
Hoondarrh who de m ands regular tribute fro m the inhabitants,
Mintarn had a brief period of prosperity when Lord Nevere m -
ber used the m to replace his navy, shattered after a failed
war with the northlanders. The influx of gold led Hoondarrh to
de mand m ore tribute, the econo my collapsed due to lack of
currency, and the shipbuilding industry folded. Nothing m a kes
a dragon stupid like the pro mise of gold.
Orlu m bor is an island of shipwrights and the key to Water-
deep's world-class navy. Any attack on the m would m ost cer-
tainly be treated as an attack on Waterdeep.
There are other islands in the region, but none of the m ca me
out of the Spellplague in particularly good shape except the
Nelanther Isles, and those did well because they're full of pi-
rates of every race and description imaginable. Lintan blew up
and then phased into an alternate world ruled by dragons for
a century, and while they've recently returned, they're very
m uch worse for wear. Ni mbral was so reclusive in the first
place that people barely noticed when it was transported to
Abeir for the duration of the Spellplague.
The important islands here are firstly the Moonshaes, because
they're potentially valuable naval bases that can be used to
strike against or interdict trade to al most anywhere on the
Sword Coast, including the Lands of Intrigue, which m eans
anyone who controls both the Moonshae Isles and a powerful
enough navy to resist anyone who wants to take the m has
control over the entire Sword Coast, full stop.
This brings us to the second important group of islands, Or-
lu mbor and Mintarn, both of which have a de monstrable ca-
Sphere of Influence 22
pability to produce a navy worthy of Waterdeep, the greatest
naval power on the Sword Coast (not including the Lands of
Intrigue, as Cali mshan does have a co m parable and perhaps
even superior navy). Controlling only one of these islands
m eans that a rival m ay control the other, so the best thing
to do would be to control both of the m. If you are not Water-
deep, this is going to be difficult. Even if you are Waterdeep,
you still have to kill an ancient red dragon in order to secure
the loyalty and long ter m econo mic viability of Mintarn.
If you are not Waterdeep, you m ust additionally find so me way
to secure the loyalty of Orlu m bor, which is fir mly in the Wa-
terdeep sphere of influence since their entire econo my is
building ships for the Waterdeep Navy. Any effort to take con-
trol of the island (even non - violently) would be tanta mount
to a declaration of war on Waterdeep itself.
As for the Moonshaes, the obvious route to power is to draw
out so me concessions for naval bases fro m either the north-
landers or the ffolk in exchange for resolving the current
stale mate in their favor. The northlanders have a powerful
navy of their own and thus it would be wise to side against
the m si mply because defeating the m m eans one less co m peti-
tor navy on the Sword Coast. That said, defeating the north-
landers in a naval/a m phibious war for an island chain is no
m ean feat, so particularly if your party needs im mediate
control of the Moonshae Islands in order to project naval
force against another ene my (perhaps Baldur's Gate or Never-
winter or especially Waterdeep, in which case having the pow-
erful northlander navy on your side is the only thing that will
m a ke you co m petitive against the Sword Coast's naval super-
power), siding with the northlanders m ay be a defensible
choice.
Either way, O m an's Isle, Moray, and Snowdown are largely in-
consequential. O m an's Isle would not be especially difficult for
a veteran adventurer party to reclai m, nor would assisting the
ffolk in their resistance against A m n's tyranny (although in
the latter case it is important to do so subtly, as a war with
mighty A m n would be unwise for al most any sphere of influ-
ence on the Sword Coast), and this would help to solidify
control over the region. After all, any island you don't control
is a potential naval base for an ene my. Moray might be hard-
er, depending on just how m u ch a taste you have for hunting
down lycanthropes, but its position on the western end of the
archipelago m eans that the only navy that can reach it with-
out being interdicted by a Shae moor-based fleet is one based
in Ever meet or Maztica. Neither is especially likely to be a
m ajor concern, but if you have a taste for hunting the
hunters, it can't hurt to be thorough.
The Nelanther Isles could be a target, but if you don't mind
quite a bit of pillaging in ene my territory, they could also be
used as a m ercenary ar my. So me pirates might resist having
even one nation's shipping taken off the potential list of tar-
gets, but dealing with the m will only prove your might to the
others. If you already have a powerful navy, you can flush out
Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only.
the pirates fro m the Nelanther Isles fairly easily. Pirates nev-
er fare well against organized navies, as they are both disor-
ganized, having no unified co m m and above the rank of cap-
tain (and occasionally co m m odores of s mall fleets) and poorly
disciplined, abandoning ship whenever the tide of battle is
against the m. Pirates are in it for the cash, not king and
country. Even so, the pirates of the Nelanther Isles are not
likely to be a high priority target. While victory is virtually
guaranteed, whatever navy fights the war against the m will be
entangled for several years and weakened for a decade or
m ore afterwards. With the northlanders on one side and Cal-
imshan on the other, even Waterdeep would be foolish to
weaken the mselves like this (especially after it's only just re-
covered fro m their losses to the northlander navy under the
rulership of Lord Nevere mber).
Further Reading
The islands of the Sword Coast have a reasonably sized sub-
section (seven pages) in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.
The Moonshaes in particular have appeared in quite a few
novels as well, including an entire trilogy dedicated to the m.
Misty Forest
“Kelemvor should send more missionaries. Every-
one here has resigned their entire race to the
inevitability of oblivion. They are convinced
that accepting their fate absolves them of re-
sponsibility for it.”
—Arvensis Cotula
One of the weaker spheres of influence in the Sword Coast
region, the Misty Forest is the heart of the region's elven
co m m u nity, which is a mish - m ash of the Misty Forest's
sphere of influence with several re mote elven co m m u nities in
other spheres of influence, m ost notably the Moonwood elves
and the Neverwinter Wood elves. These elven co m m u nities in
other regions are arguably a part of the Misty Forest's sphere
of influence, not Neverwinter or Silvery moon's, because if it
Sphere of Influence 23
ca me to a fight between one of the m and Misty Forest, the
elven co m m u nities would likely defect to Misty Forest's side,
or at least declare neutrality. Since all three are m e m bers of
the Lord's Alliance and have not engaged in even minor skir-
mishes with one another within living m e m ory, this has not
yet co me up.
The Misty Forest itself is a s mall but powerful wood elf king-
do m that is perpetually at war with the orcs, goblinoids, and
other m o nsters of the High Moor to their im m ediate east. The
edges of the forest are only loosely controlled by the elves of
the Misty Forest, and m o nsters regularly pass through to raid
the Trade Way. So meti mes the Misty Forest elves intercept
the m, and so meti mes they don't. Only the interior of the for-
est, where the elves m a ke their ho me, is reliably clear of orcs
and goblinoids.
To declare war on Misty Forest is to declare war on every elf
nation in the Sword Coast. This is true whether you declare
war directly or m ore prudently use the High Moor as your lo-
cal proxy, although if the connection between you and your
proxy is not discovered, it will at the very least only be your
proxy who is at odds with all elves in the region. This is, in
any case, not the sa me deterrent that such alliances usually
present. The pri mary m e m bers of the Misty Forest sphere of
influence are the Moonwood and Neverwinter Wood elves, both
too distant and with too m a ny hostile wildernesses or un-
friendly nations in the way to provide significant help, the
High Forest, which is too disorganized to project force even
though they have great nu m bers, and Evereska, which shares
the Moonwood and Neverwinter Wood's distance proble m even
before getting into the fact that they're isolationists who want
no part in the world beyond their borders.
Thus, although an attack on the Misty Forest im m ediately
m a kes m a ny nations unfriendly, they aren't very likely to
send reinforce ments. The Misty Forest is a m e m ber of the
Lord's Alliance and nearby Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate will
send extre mely capable ar mies (in the latter case, quite pos-
sibly the m ost powerful land ar my in all the Sword Coast) to
relieve any siege on their ally. The Misty Forest is quite ho-
m ogenous and stable m a king an internal coup unlikely and
they have neither trade dependencies nor im m ediate threats
that can be exploited to force the current govern ment into
signing treaties or otherwise joining a sphere of influence.
This leaves two routes to gaining power of the m. First, dis-
m a ntle the Lord's Alliance (at the very least get Waterdeep
and Baldur's Gate to back out of it or be too reduced in
strength to m eaningfully supply reinforce ments as part of it)
and then attack Misty Forest directly or using the High Moor
as proxy. Second, gain control of the Lord's Alliance without
causing it to disintegrate (by gaining control of Baldur's Gate,
Waterdeep, or preferably both without conquering/razing any
m e m bers of the Alliance), thus auto matically gaining control
of a sphere of influence which already includes the Misty For-
est. In the latter case, it would be wise to then expand into
Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only.
the High Moor in order to secure it against the possibility of
ene mies using the m o nsters therein as a proxy.
Further Reading
Rise of Tia mat pays a visit to the Misty Forest in one of its
adventures, and in addition they are represented on the
council that m eets m ultiple times throughout the entire Rise
of Tia mat ca m paign. This gives so me look into both what an
average patch of the forest is like (both a wood elf village
(albeit raided) and a wilderness hideout of evil doers are de-
picted) as well as their political relations with the rest of the
Lord's Alliance, relations which m ay well be shaped by player
involve ment.
The High Forest
The High Forest was for merly the capital of the grand elven
e m pire of Aryvandaar. After the Crown Wars, largely caused by
Aryvandaar, resulted in the e m pire's destruction, the entire
forest collapsed into anarchy. Thousands of years later, it re-
m ains in m uch the sa me state, although the initial bloodbath
of civilization's collapse has given way to the inter mittent vi-
olence of tribal societies. The forest is post-post-apocalyptic,
with the ancient ruins of Aryvandaar (and its successor
states) still scattered around the forest where tribes long past
the point of caring about the faded e m pire live. Although
Aryvandaar was a high elf kingdo m (and later e m pire), the
m ajority of the tribes in the High Forest are wood elf tribes,
although even a few s mall dark elf tribes ( mostly followers of
Eilistraee) exist in the wood. Aryvandaar re mains in the occa-
sional ruin, but the wilderness has swallowed up m ost of its
works and the culture has evaporated entirely.
In addition to the elves, various fey live in the forest, m ost
notably centaurs, whose tribe has grown so great that it m ay
soon split into several. In addition to this are several s mall
packs of satyrs, treants, unicorns, pegasi, and other generally
good m agical creatures and races. The ghosttree tribe of the
Uthgardt barbarians also m a kes their ho me in the wood. The
Star Mounts within the forest are the ancestral ho me of the
aaracockra, and m agic winds prevent any but they (and those
strong enough to fly against a stor m) fro m landing there.
None of these races are especially warlike or violent, but nev-
ertheless there is sporadic conflict between the m at times.
Morgwais, an elf of the High Forest, is seeking to unite the elf
tribes into a unified entity. While she has united a handful of
the tribes at the eastern end of the wood, the vast m ajority
of the forest re mains co m mitted to isolationis m. Were Morg-
wais to succeed, she would co m m a nd a kingdo m that would
rival Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate for influence on the m erit
of its vast size, the potential bounty of the woodland if culti-
vated, and the mineral wealth inside the Star Mounts, yet to
take full advantage of these natural resources would require
Sphere of Influence 24
convincing the native elves to co m pletely reverse their atti-
tude towards the forest, and even Morgwais herself is unlikely
to endorse such exploitation, to say nothing of the fact that
it would m a ke the other tribes even m ore hostile to unifying
with hers.
The easiest way (though it is undeniably still difficult) to
bring the forest into a sphere of influence would be to help
Morgwais unite the elves in exchange for an alliance with the
newly for med state. Convincing the elves to unite would then
require providing the m with enough support against whatever
troubles they face ( most of which probably lurk in ruins of
Aryvandaar or perhaps Netheril) to de m onstrate the value of
ongoing outside support.
Conquering the High Forest fro m the outside would be an
enor mous undertaking. There are at least a dozen m ajor
tribes in the forest, including the Uthgardt and centaurs, and
they are m ostly spread out and no m adic. There are a few lo-
cations that can be used as strongholds to patrol a region,
but m ost strongholds would have to be constructed fro m
scratch while in hostile territory. It would be an enor mous
invest ment of military resources, and would also im m ediately
earn the ire of every other elven nation in the Sword Coast. If
Neverwinter Wood and the Moonwood re main a part of the
spheres of influence of Neverwinter and Silvery moon (respec-
tively), they m ay be able to convince their allies to intervene
on the High Forest's behalf, especially Silvery moon, which is
located not far fro m the forest. Although significantly harder,
this path also has the benefit of putting the entire resources
of the forest's great bounty at the disposal of the victor. The
High Moor's m o nstrous inhabitants might m a ke for a good
proxy ar my if given the training and discipline needed for a
ca m paign of this scale, one which requires so m u ch m ore
guarding of castles than stor ming the m, but the best option
would be to clai m another sphere of influence (Silvery moon is
quite close) and use their ar my as the garrison, perhaps while
using the High Moor's forces as cannon fodder to strike and
scatter tribes before m oving in the m ain force to build (or
rebuild) a fortress to garrison the area.
Further Reading
The High Forest has changed little fro m the 14 th century to
the 15th. Volo's Guide to the North, the Savage Frontier source
book, and the 3e Forgotten Real ms Ca m paign Setting source
book are all good sources of infor mation. The Sword Coast
Adventurer's Guide also gives the region a respectable write-
up.
The High Moor
The High Moor is a dark reflection of the High Forest. Filled
with savage orcs, goblinoids, and trolls who fight constantly
with one another and regularly raid the area nearby, espe-
cially the Trade Way between Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate,
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and the site of an ancient evil when the elven empire of
Aryvandaar wiped out their rivals Miyeritar with such ex-
treme prejudice that the forest was reduced to a swamp that
eventually regrew into equal parts peat bog and grazing land.
The easiest place to ambush caravans on the Trade Way is
while they pass through the edges of the Misty Forest, where
the trees can disguise the approach of the bandits. This lu-
crative raiding territory is controlled, of course, by the elves
of the Misty Forest, so the High Moor and the Misty Forest
are in perpetual low-grade warfare for control of the Misty
Forest's periphery, with occasional retaliatory strikes by the
elves into the Moor in order to disrupt the monsters.
At the northwestern edge of the Moor is the town of Sec-
omber. This town is the eastern edge of the Waterdeep
sphere of influence and lies along the trade route between
Waterdeep and the Moonsea running through the Anauroch
Desert, and the proximity of the High Moor to Secomber is
only the start of that route's dangers. Secomber is often
used as a base for forays into the Moor, and is often raided
in return by the Moor's inhabitants.
Just like the High Forest, the High Moor has its fair share of
ruins, although these ones favor the Netherese over those of
Miyeritar, mostly because of just how thoroughly Miyeritar
was obliterated. One such ruin is Orogoth, a Netherese family
villa home to a noble family that attempted to capture
dragons and somehow steal their power. Unsurprisingly, the
stone walls of the estate are partly melted by dragon fire
and are still home to a malevolent dracolich. This dracolich
is thankfully quite content to keep to himself in Orogoth
rather than laying waste to the countryside, but it would
nevertheless be wise to remove him at soonest convenience,
lest he decide to take action against anyone operating in the
area.
The most famous ruin of the High Moor is Dragonspear Cas-
tle, which has changed hands innumerable times and thus
has remnants of undead, fiends, and evil elementals lurking
about its halls currently. Both a necromancer and a Red
Wizard (possibly a necromancer Red Wizard) have been ru-
mored to have taken up residence in the castle currently.
As with most places infested with orcs or similar, the easiest
path to power in the High Moor is to align with one orc tribe
and then beat the others into submission. After the infight-
ing required to unite the monsters of the region, the result-
ing military is usually too weak to be a huge threat to m uch
of anything on its own, but the High Moor is different. Its
sheer size means that even a weakened force of its inhabi-
tants could be a serious threat to neighbors, particularly
Misty Forest. While the forces of the Moor couldn't threaten
Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate on their own, they could certain-
ly do serious damage to these mighty cities' hinterland be-
fore being caught and destroyed by their army, and if sup-
plemented with forces from other regions could also form
Sphere of Influence 25
the foundation for an army that could challenge even titans ery other source. It's not always clear whether this is an in-
like Baldur's Gate and Silverymoon. tentional difference due to the advance of time, an official
retcon, or a mistake. Normally when this happens I rely on
Further Reading the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide as the most recent and
reliable source, but Ardeep Forest does not appear in that
Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle deals primarily with Daggerford guide. So what I'm saying here is that you're on your own
and its surrounding areas, but the final adventure of that with this one.
book does take place in the eponymous Dragonspear Castle
at the Moor's edge. The Moor is also fairly unchanged since
the 14th century, so the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Set-
ting still applies, and as usual the Sword Coast Adventurer's
Guide does go over the Moor in some detail.

Ardeep Forest
Ardeep Forest was once a part of Phalor m before that nation
was overrun by orcs fro m the Sword Mountains and subse-
quently destroyed when its last re m nant was swept out to see
by the for mation of the Mere of Dead Men. The last of the
elves retreated fro m the forest out to the sea so me time ago,
leaving behind only construct guardians m a de of tree and
vines as well as a powerful m ythal that prevents any creature
who intends ill to the forest fro m entering (though creatures
of sufficient willpower can m uscle through, and the m ythal
can be overwhel med if too m a ny ill-intentioned creatures at-
te mpt to enter at once). A s mall elf colony has resettled the
forest during the recent resurgence of the elves on the m ain-
land. Ardeep is a close ally of the Misty Forest.

Cells of the Eldreth Veluuthra, elven supre macists who despise

all other races, are active in Ardeep Forest. They resent the
forest's participation in the m ulti-racial kingdo m of Phalor m
and have vowed to keep Ardeep for elves and elves only. They
also actively hunt down dark elves of Eilistraee who seek to
help resettle the wood.

The Eldreth Veluuthra present an obvious proble m for any

sphere of influence that includes any non - elves (especially in
the party itself). Thus, getting rid of the m is probably going
to be necessary. However, it m ay be better to first feed the m
until they grow large enough to pose a serious threat, espe-
cially to the Eilistraee dark elves of Ardeep. Under this kind The Eastern Mountains
of pressure, the dark elves might be convinced to for mally
secede fro m Ardeep's m ain govern ment or even stage a coup, The Greypeak Mountains stand at the eastern edge of the
and to join the new state with a helpful sphere of influence in High Forest and High Moor, not far from the Anauroch
doing so. Because this is all resulting fro m an internal con- Desert. They are sparsely inhabited primarily by stone giants,
flict, this would not even provoke retaliation fro m the rest of although a few hu manoid settlements do exist in the area,
the Misty Forest's sphere of influence (including Neverwinter almost entirely along the trade route from Waterdeep to the
Wood and the Moonwood). Moonsea.

Further Reading
Ardeep is a bottomless pit of realmslore. I don't even know if
my sum mary here is even the most up-to-date lore, be-
cause it gets tons of lore, but it's all a few paragraphs here
and there and usually at least a little bit different from ev-
Near the mountains lies the Far Forest, home to Hellgate
Keep, a castle given by the native elves to Netherese
refugees and eventually taken over by an evil Netherese wiz-
ard. Although the Harpers defeated the wizard and gave the
castle over to the care of the treant Turlang and his light
fey, the Far Forest remains the site of ongoing guerilla war

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between them and the fiendish creatures and twisted magical
creations (most notably owlbears and giant spiders) that
spewed forth from Hellgate for centuries.
Turlang and his allies are steadily winning that war, however,
pushing the monsters inch-by-inch into the Lonely Moor.
The Moor is otherwise inhabited primarily by gnolls, who pe-
riodically raid into the nearby forests and along the trade
route passing through the Greypeaks.
Turlang is only very distantly allied to the rest of the elven
sphere of influence. His primary allegiance is with the
Harpers, who have spies everywhere but direct influence al-
most nowhere, so siding with the Hellgate remnants against
him has very few consequences. On the other hand, it would
not be too difficult to convince him to join a sphere of in-
fluence in exchange for helping him clean up the Hellgate
remnants.
The stone giants of the Greypeak Mountains are not defend-
ing any particularly valuable resources, nor do they hold any
particularly important strategic locations, nor are they es-
pecially hostile, so there is very little reason to bother with
them at all. The Dragon Cult does control the village of Par-
nast, which anyone who likes the world undestroyed will
probably want to do something about.
Further Reading
The Greypeak Mountains, and particularly the village of Par-
nast, make an appearance in both Hoard of the Dragon
Queen and several Adventurer's League quests in Season Five:
Storm King's Thunder. The 2e Hellgate Keep adventure also
provides information on the keep's layout (useful for anyone
planning to side against Turlang) as well as the creatures
that lurked within it.
Evereska
Evereska is an isolationist elf kingdo m intended to be the last
refuge of elves on the continent of Faerun. What with the
Misty Forest, the High Forest, Ardeep Forest, Neverwinter
Wood, the Moonwood, the Quivering Forest, Cor manthor, and
others besides, it's a little bit redundant these days. Even so,
Evereska re mains co m mitted to its ideals of peace through
isolation. It is a well-defended enclave, with hel med horrors
and other constructs guarding the town in addition to elite
elven warriors whose ar mor is enchanted with the power of
flight. Indeed, Evereska m ay well be ho me to the m ost power-
ful ar my of all the elven lands of the Sword Coast, though
their willingness to set foot outside their valley ho me is lim-
ited to only the m ost dire of circu mstances.
Evereska stands on the border of the Anauroch Desert and
their protective m ythal was essentially ruined by an attack
fro m the Netherese when they first returned at the very end
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of the 14th century. What effects of the m ythal re main blanket
the kingdo m in perpetual mist or light rain and otherwise
provide no protection at all. Fortunately for Evereska, their
own military was m ore than capable of fending off Netherese
attacks, which happened sporadically throughout the next
century until the collapse of Netherese military power after
their war with Cor myr and Cor manthor.
Evereska wants nothing to do with the outside world, and dis-
turbing their isolationist peace would be a grave offense to
the rest of the elven co m m u nity of the Sword Coast and the
Heartlands alike (as well as any other regions, if word actually
gets that far, which would take quite a bit of time). Generally
speaking the kingdo m is probably not worth bothering with,
except that they m ay prove to have a vital strategic position
against the Netherese, given that they are a well-fortified lo-
cation right on the edge of Anauroch.
Further Reading
Evereska is featured pro minently in Richard Baker's novel
Forsaken House, whose protagonist is fro m Evereska. It is not
depicted m uch in adventures or ga mes. Isolationis m has that
effect.
Ss'khanaja
“So we all agree that it's okay to stab these
people in the face?”
—Robyn Hood
Ss'khanaja is the m ostly underground capital of the serpent
kingdo m of Najara. The city is located in the Serpent Hills,
the heart of the kingdo m, which are densely populated by
yuan - ti and naga. Jarount, the spirit naga king of Najara,
keeps his court in Ss'khanaja along with dozens of other
courtiers, m ost notably the young green dragon E mikaiwufeg,
one of m a ny chro matic dragons ( mostly young, so me adult)
living in the Serpent Hills, seeking to use an alliance with
Jarount to establish herself as pre-e minent in the region.
The Serpent Hills are linked together by underground pas-
sageways that for m a network of roads between the m a ny
caverns of the yuan - ti. The yuan - ti care very little for what
travel goes on over the hills, but are quick to slaughter or
abduct anyone who sets foot in any of the caves. It's anyone's
guess how long this bizarre approach to m aintaining a border
will last, particularly since Najara's only neighbor of note, El-
turgard, is in a state of cold war with the m.
Najara is deep yuan - ti territory, and none of the co m peting
factions of Jarount's court (there are several pro minent
courtiers detailed in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide) are
at all willing to cede Najara's sovereignty to any outsiders.
They have no less than four potentially hostile neighbors,
however. While the Zhentari m of Darkhold have been happy to
engage in the slave trade with Najara, they're Zhentari m and
Sphere of Influence 27
would undoubtedly be just as happy to switch sides if a better
offer ca me along. Elturgard has all but declared war already
and it would take only a little convincing to get the m to
co m mit to it co m pletely. The lizardfolk of the Marsh of Che-
limber are vassals of the serpent kingdo m, but so me or all of
the m could be persuaded to rise up by a sufficiently skilled
diplo mat. Finally, while Najara rules over the eastern fringe of
the High Moor, m ost of it is overrun by orcs and trolls who
would be all too happy to plunder a wealthy kingdo m if a
would-be dark lord can ha m m er the m all into one ar my to
do it.
Further Reading
A visit is paid to the Serpent Hills in Rise of Tia mat, and the
idea of yuan - ti nations in general is thoroughly explored in
the 3e sourcebook Serpent Kingdo ms. As an added bonus, this
sourcebook also contains one of the vital ingredients of Pun -
Pun.
Marsh of Chelimber
The Marsh of Chelimber is inhabited by lizardfolk tribes living
a mongst the ruins of a shattered kingdo m fro m centuries ago.
These tribes have, through bribery or intimidation, all sworn
fealty to Jarount and his serpent kingdo m of Najara, however
the m arsh has changed hands several times within the past
century or so, fro m va m pires to the Zhentari m and now to
Najara. If Ss'khanaja were to fall to an outside power, the
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lizardfolk would think nothing of realigning to the new power
in the region, and they might also be persuaded to rise up
against their serpent overlords. The m arsh is also ho me to a
relatively s mall population of bullywugs, who do not get along
with the lizardfolk and could potentially be used as proxies in
a fight against the lizardfolk.
Further Reading
The Marsh was visited in the 14 th century in Baldur's Gate:
Dark Alliance II (which is a decent-ish ga me that is not to be
confused with the proper Baldur's Gate series, which are high
water m arks for the entire co mputer RPG genre).
Forest of Wyrms
The Forest of Wyr ms is full of giant snakes, for reasons which
no one is entirely sure of. On the bright side, this is one for-
est that is extre mely unlikely to ever have a giant spider
proble m. At the north end of the forest are the ruins of
Ss'thar'tiss'ssun, a holy site for the yuan - ti where they m a ke
regular pilgri mages, and nearby is the citadel Thlohtzin, a hub
for the yuan - ti slave trade, especially with the Zhentari m in
Darkhold. The southern half of the forest is ruled by the an-
cient green dragon Ralionate, who is not aligned with Najara.
Driving the snakes out of the Forest of Wyr ms would be a
m o nu m ental task, but because there is not m uch valuable in
it, there's also little point in trying. The forest's strongholds,
particularly Thlohtzin, do hold great strategic value, however,
as they co m m a nd the road between Ss'khanaja and both
Darkhold and Elturel. Control of Thlohtzin could be used to
interdict or collect the profits of Najara's slave trade, and
would also provide a staging area for an attack on the Ser-
pent Hills. Capture of this citadel, as well as of
Ss'thar'tiss'ssun for both strategic and sy m bolic purposes,
would be a key first step to leading Darkhold, Elturel, or both
to victory over Najara. Unfortunately, there are not any in-
ternal factions to turn against one another, so using one or
both of these outside forces is necessary.
Getting rid of powerful dragons lurking on your border is a
good idea in general, if you have the prowess to m a ke it hap-
pen.
Further Reading
While Serpent Kingdo ms is reco m m ended reading for all of
Najara, it m e ntions the Forest of Wyr ms in particular.
Baldur's Gate
“You need only two things to rule the world:
Numbers and ruthlessness.”
—Arvensis Cotula
Sphere of Influence 28
Baldur's Gate is the single m ost influential city in all of
Faerun. Having beco me the m ore pro minent trading port than
Waterdeep in the 15th century, Baldur's Gate is a nexus of
trade going east to Cor myr and Se m bia, north as far as Nev-
erwinter, south to Calimshan and A m n, and out west to the
islands of the Sea of Swords and beyond. Their Fla ming Fists
(no minally still a m ercenary co m pany free to fight in any war
so long as they don't side against Baldur's Gate, but effec-
tively the city's military) for m what is potentially the m ost
powerful land military in all of the Sword Coast, and their
navy is not far behind that of Waterdeep.
Baldur's Gate is run by a council of four dukes, one of which
is always the leader of the Fla ming Fists and the others of
which are elected by the Baldurian Parlia ment, co m prised of
fifty peers about one quarter of which are taken fro m the
poor and middle class of the Lower City (including the new
m o ney m erchants who seek to e m ulate, but are ulti mately not
accepted by the Upper City) and the rest fro m the wealthy
psuedo- noble old m o neyed m erchant fa milies of the Upper
City.
Baldur's Gate is also ho me to the Guild, a cri minal syndicate
that reaches into every aspect of the underworld. S m uggling,
thievery, assassination, and m ore are the purview of this
cri minal superpower, and it deals regularly with the ene mies
of the city, especially A m n. The Guild doesn't seek to rule the
city but is m ore than happy to profit fro m it changing hands.
This m a kes the m natural allies of any foreign sphere of influ-
ence willing to m a ke the m filthy rich in exchange for effect-
ing political change.
Unfortunately, Baldur's Gate is very nearly a de mocracy,
which m a kes overthrowing it fro m the shadows actually quite
hard. You need to control at least twenty-six seats on the
parlia ment before you can take over, not just one or two im-
portant posts. The assassination ca m paign required to position
your cronies to control parlia ment would be extre mely diffi-
cult to keep secret, especially since everyone knows who all
the peers of the parlia ment are. If the secret gets out, you're
guaranteed not to get any m ore seats on parlia ment, because
obviously no govern ment would appoint new m e m bers fro m a
faction who is trying to destroy that govern ment.
Baldur's Gate has a vast trade network, so controlling enough
of that network to m a ke the m econo mically dependent will
not be easy (you'd have to have Cor myr on your side, and
they aren't even included in this docu ment). They have a
powerful military, so even if you've dis mantled the Lord's Al-
liance by targeting its other m e m bers, Baldur's Gate can repel
even very large invasions on their own. The only city on the
Sword Coast who can m atch their military might is Silvery-
m oon, on the other side of the region, who would have diffi-
culty m aintaining the supply lines needed for such a war (the
sa me would be true in reverse, but a stale mate is not a vic-
tory).
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As such, the best way to take over Baldur's Gate is probably
to get elected. You need to control at least twenty-six m e m -
bers of the parlia ment, but you don't need the m to pass your
policies, you just need the m to elect you and at least two of
your friends to be three of the Four Dukes and then you have
total control over the city's actual legislature. If one of you
beco mes leader of the Fla ming Fists, that so meone gets to be
one of the dukes auto matically, without any votes fro m par-
lia ment at all. You also control the city's military, which
m eans that if you and at least one other duke (the leader of
the Fla ming Fists breaks ties) revoke parlia ment's authority
to impeach dukes and m a ke your positions lifelong, nobody
can force you to back down even if the parlia ment or the
other dukes would like to. It wouldn't even be illegal.
Further Reading
The first installment of the inestimable Baldur's Gate series
takes place in and around the eponymous city. It is strongly
recom mended on its merits alone, and also gives a good look
at not only the city itself, but the surrounding area, includ-
ing most of Baldur's Gate's sphere of influence. Like most
Forgotten Realms material, the game does take place in the
14th century, however, and in particular the entire Outer City
is not present and the barriers to becoming a me mber of
the city's upper class in the Upper City were not as strong.
Troll Country
The Troll Hills and nearby Troll Forest are split between
m ultiple competing troll kingdoms, raiders from which occa-
sionally raid the Trade Way from Baldur's Gate to Waterdeep.
Trollish dynasties contend with one another and rarely last
more than a few generations before being conquered by their
neighbors or deposed by an ambitious vassal.
Not too far to the south are the Fields of the Dead, where
the trolls of this land often fight with mostly Baldurian
homesteaders, pushing the frontier of civilization northwards.
The fields are so named because they were a com mon bat-
tlefield for control of the Sword Coast in the days before
Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate rose to prominence. It's easy to
see why, as the fields are where the Baldur's Gate military
would meet any attacker from the north, and Baldur's Gate
is a natural location for a port. If Baldur's Gate should ever
go to war with Najara (or the Misty Forest, Waterdeep, or El-
turgard, none of which are as likely), the fields would be
covered in fresh dead.
There's plenty of old dead to go around. Plowing new fields
often turns up humanoid bones, and barrows nearby are of-
ten broken open from without by tomb raiders or from
within when some unfortunate twist of the Weave awakens
the bones within.
Sphere of Influence 29
In addition to the trolls and the undead, these lands are
plagued by werewolves from the Wood of Sharp Teeth, who
hunt cattle and farmers alike for food before returning to
the shelter of the wood.
Despite this abundance of threats, the homesteaders in this
region have seen no small amount of success and are
steadily pushing back the frontier. They have become a
breadbasket for Baldur's Gate in much the same way as the
Dessarin Valley has long been for Waterdeep, and indeed, be-
ing able to reliably feed themselves with nothing but the
nearby fields is a major reason for the rise to prominence of
Baldur's Gate in the past century.
The homesteaders of the Fields of the Dead are dependent
upon Baldur's Gate for finished goods, but they can create
all vital goods for themselves. Thus, while it is generally true
that as goes the city, so goes the hinterland, the people of
the fields could break with Baldur's Gate if they wanted to.
They cannot, however, fend off a troll invasion without help
from the Flaming Fists, so if the people of the Fields of the
Dead should prove uncooperative to a new authority in Bal-
dur's Gate, uniting the trolls of the north into an army with
which to pillage the fields would be an effective approach,
although it would provide a significant (if temporary) blow to
the Baldurian economy. For the same reason, using the trolls
the pillage the fields would be a decent opening move
against Baldur's Gate, although it is difficult to imagine what
the follow-up could possibly be unless you plan on open war,
since Baldur's Gate has too many trade partners for the loss
of any one component of its economy to force it into making
any concessions at all.
In order to secure the Trade Way properly, the trolls will
have to at some point be either united under a friendly troll
dynasty or completely eliminated. The latter would require
the construction of fortresses to keep the Troll Hills and
Troll Bark Forest patrolled to prevent them from regrouping.
Further Reading
The Cyclopedia of the Realms contains the only write-up the
Fields of the Dead seems to have ever gotten. The area is
technically the subject of a chapter of Hoard of the Dragon
Queen, but the emphasis there is on traveling along the
Trade Way, not detouring into troll country just off the
route. Still, the encounters in that chapter give a good look
at all the unfortunate things that anyone profiting off of the
Trade Way (i.e. anyone who controls either Waterdeep or Bal-
dur's Gate) would want to happen m uch less often than they
currently do.
The Wood of Sharp Teeth
The Wood of Sharp Teeth, also known as the Werewood, is full
of werewolves. There are additionally dryads, satyrs, and
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some other fey within the forest, but the werewolves are the
only ones who leave and menace the surrounding country-
side, so they get the forest named after them. This wood
forms the eastern barrier to Baldur's Gate's sphere of influ-
ence, and also as a buffer between them and Elturgard (al-
though relations between the two are currently quite friend-
ly).
Just west of the wood is the town of Beregost and the nearby
scholar's fortress of Candlekeep, and just to its south is the
mining town of Nashkel. These towns are all dependent upon
Baldur's Gate for trade. Even though Nashkel is technically a
part of Amn. Nashkel's mines are vital to the regional econ-
omy (except for Baldur's Gate, which has too many other
trade connections to care), and Candlekeep is the greatest
repository of lore in all of Faerun, but neither of them (nor
Beregost) has much strategic value, if only because Baldur's
Gate is so damnably difficult to isolate economically that the
capture of Nashkel means so little.
Nashkel in particular is vulnerable to the ogres, hill giants,
and gnolls living in the Cloud Peaks to the south. Anyone
who could offer them more reliable defense than they al-
ready have would exercise a great deal of influence there.
Beregost and Candlekeep both would have little choice but to
be swayed to whatever side Baldur's Gate takes, due to their
trade dependence. The entire region would become signifi-
cantly more prosperous if anyone could sort out the were-
wolf problem in the Wood of Sharp Teeth.
Further Reading
This region is the main setting of the Baldur's Gate video
game (except for the sections that take place in the city it-
self). While things have changed a fair bit in Baldur's Gate
over the past century, they are still mostly the same as
they've always been in the area in and around the Wood of
Sharp Teeth.
Elturel
“Whenever the innocent pray for help, I shall
be the answer.”
—Thaemin
The capital city of Elturgard, Elturel is a powerful city de-
fended by an impressive force of paladins and bathed in the
constant light of a m assive glowing orb which har ms any un-
dead who strays within its rays. It also m a kes getting to sleep
at night m uch harder than nor mal. People there have thick
curtains.
Elturgard's Co m panions, powerful paladin defenders, are the
m atch of any Fla ming Fist veteran or Knight in Silver, but
their limited nu m bers m a ke the m a lesser military force than
Baldur's Gate or Silvery moon, even supple mented as they are
Sphere of Influence 30
by the Hellrider cavalry and the Elturel Guard infantry. Even
so, their might is sufficient to defend Elturgard fro m her nu-
m erous surrounding ene mies: The yuan - ti of Najara just to
the north, the lycanthropes of the Wood of Sharp Teeth to the
west, gnolls fro m the Reaching Woods nestled on the east, and
the ogres and m ore gnolls in the Sunset Mountains slightly
further east.
Elturel is a theocracy run by the High Overseer of Tor m. This
m a kes toppling it fro m within very difficult, as getting pro-
m oted up through the Tor m theocracy isn't so mething you
can have a crony do in a couple of m o nths. Elturgard has no
significant internal rifts and their pri mary trading partners
are the im mensely powerful Baldur's Gate and si milarly stable
and titanic Cor myr. As such, finding a military proxy with
which to conquer Elturgard is easily the best option for
adding it to the sphere of influence. An alliance between the
gnolls, ogres, and lycanthropes would have a fair chance if
organized by effective leaders. An alliance of convenience with
Najara isn't out of the question, for while Najara would never
accept non - snake sovereignty over their territory, they might
be convinced to help non - snakes capture Elturgard si mply to
get rid of Elturgard as a potential threat.
Further Reading
A brief visit is m a de to Elturel in Hoard of the Dragon Queen,
but m ore importantly, Elturgard is a psuedo-capital of the
Order of the Gauntlet, which m eans any m aterial on said Or-
der can be applied m ore or less to Elturgard.
The Reaching Wood
In decades past, the Reaching Wood was inhabited by m ultiple
forest dwelling creatures and races, but the gnolls have co m -
pletely exter minated all co m petitors. Elturgard is in a state of
low-grade war with the m due to their raising shrines and
te mples to their de monic patron Yeenoghu within the depths
of the wood. The gnolls raid in Elturgard and Elturel returns
the favor.
Just on the other side of the Reaching Wood are the Trielta
Hills, a land allied to Elturgard and inhabited by halflings and
gno mes. Like Elturgard, the Trielta Hills are constantly fend-
ing off raids fro m the gnolls. Their m ain source of wealth are
the s mall but not insignificant veins of silver and gold in the
hills.
The Reaching Wood are a concentration of military power but
have little econo mic value. The Trielta Hills, on the other
hand, have valuable mines which any sphere of influence
would do well to bring under their control. The gnolls of the
Reaching Wood would m a ke a good proxy with which to take
over Trielta, or alternatively Trielta might be convinced to
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sign favorable treaties in exchange for defense against the
gnolls.
Further Reading
There's basically nothing written about this fringe area out-
side of all-inclusive source books. The Trielta Hills in partic-
ular are specifically called out as not having any particular
ancient kingdoms, lost wizard towers, or other points of in-
terest in it. It does have those gold mines, though.
The Sunset Mountains
The Sunset Mountains are inhabited atop by ogres and gnolls
and down below by dwarves and drow, with an adult white
dragon m a king its lair a mongst the peaks. These s mall and
divided tribes and clans are drastically overshadowed by the
power of Darkhold, the Zhentari m capital. Although drastically
reduced in power and influence in Faerun since the loss of
al most the entirety of their sphere of influence in the Moon-
sea to the Netherese, the Zhentari m re main a local power in
their one re maining stronghold here in the Sunset Mountains.
The Zhentari m of Darkhold are m ercenaries and slavers, not
as vicious as they were in the 14th century but certainly
ruthless and willing to side with whoever will grow their power
and wealth.
As such, seizing the Sunset Mountains m eans bringing the
Zhentari m to heel so mehow. The easiest way would be to si m -
ply e m ploy the m reliably. If the pay is good enough, Zhent
loyalty will not waver, and there are plenty of nearby ene mies
against which the might of the Zhentish m ercenaries would be
useful: Elturgard, Najara, Cor myr, the gnolls of the Reaching
Wood, the other inhabitants of the Sunset Mountains.
Also lurking nearby the Sunset Mountains is the Well of Drag-
ons, the stronghold of the Cult of the Dragon, which seeks to
su m m on Tia mat to destroy the world (they imagine they will
rule over what rises fro m the ashes). Particularly after the
Draakhorn is e m ployed to su m m o n ar mies of chro matic drag-
ons, the Cult of the Dragon represents a m ajor military power
in the area. Their power is particularly concerning because
they are a s mall nu m ber of very durable m o nsters. If a single
dragon fights a cavalry squadron, and half the squadron is
killed and the dragon is halfway killed and both break off,
that might be a stale mate im mediately, but within a few days
the dragon will be healed. The cavalry squadron will still be
half-dead, unless they're willing to pay thousands of gold to
get their fallen co mrades raised, so mething which no ar my
can keep up for very long. Indeed, once they have the
Draakhorn's ar mies on their side, the Cult is a greater mili-
tary force than even Baldur's Gate or Silvery moon.
While they stand no chance against the united forces of the
Lord's Alliance, the Well of Dragons is quite a defensible
fortress, and stor ming it quickly would be m uch m ore difficult
Sphere of Influence 31
than laying siege to it for m o nths until the Cult is starved
out and forced to fight in the open, where their breath
weapons are less effective and the Alliance nu m erical advan-
tage is m ore easily brought to bear. The upshot of all this
being that the Cult is a significant military threat to the
Sword Coast who would be extre mely difficult to dislodge fro m
their fortress.

Just south of the Sunset Mountains is Iriaebor, a city state

that stands between Elturgard and Cor myr. Although indepen-
dent, Iriaebor m aintains a close alliance with Elturel. Their
econo my is wholly dependent upon trade going fro m Cor myr
to Elturgard, as a city state they have little production of
their own and can't survive trading with only one of the two
partners, which m eans anyone who controls either of the two
nations would exert significant influence over the m. So meone
who controls both Elturgard and Cor myr would have Iriaebor
at their m ercy.

Further Reading

The Well of Dragons is fully detailed in the Rise of Tiamat,

and Darkhold is detailed in the 3e source book Lords of
Darkness. This source book is out of date, as the Zhentarim
have undergone a serious shift in vision and operating pro-
cedure since their near-annihilation at the hands of the
Netherese, but much of the details of Darkhold's construc-
tion and defenses remains accurate.

The Greenfields
The Greenfields are a bounteous far mland that for m the
breadbasket of Elturgard and also ship significant a mounts of
food west to Baldur's Gate and the region near the Wood of
Sharp Teeth. The entire region is usually quite peaceful, but
recently has been plagued by raids by the Cult of the Dragon.
These raids have even gone so far as to threaten Greenest, a
large-ish m arket town that serves as a sort-of capital of the
area (if only because al most everywhere else is either spread
out ho mesteads or tiny ha mlets). As the Cult's raids on the
Greenfields grow, the concessions its inhabitants would be
willing to m a ke in exchange for protection go up along with
it.

Further Reading

Greenest and the Cult of the Dragon's nearby hideout are de-
tailed in the first several chapters of Hoard of the Dragon
Find m ore content fro m the author at:
Queen.
w w w.criticalinsignificance.wordpress.co m

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