Vastar

Vastar was an orc kingdom founded circa −700 DR. It occupied the lands later known as the Vast, between Cormanthyr and Impiltur.

History
Orc hordes overwhelmed the elven community of Yrlaphon in the north of the land in the summer of −722 DR. It became a ruin held as an orcish stronghold and ruled by an orc chieftain.

The orc kingdom of Vastar rose circa −700 DR. It was in place across the land in −626 DR.

The history of Vastar was a turbulent one, with frequent coups, bloody civil wars, constant strife and regular attacks and counter-attacks against their neighbors and other creatures who lived in their land. They were populous enough, however, that they could quickly outgrow any setback. Overcrowding was rarely a problem; every dozen years, a horde would form in the summer, steal or build ships, and sail south over the Inner Sea to raid. Their survivors rarely returned, instead spreading south.

For their crude ship-building efforts, the orcs cut down the great forests of their land. When they ran out of timber, they went via rickety boats across the Dragon Reach to take what they wanted from Cormanthor, but upon landing the elves there were often quick to slaughter them with arrow and spell. Changing tactics, the orcs went by land north of the Reach, sending armies marching over the River Lis. Again elven arrows found them slowly marching through the marshes, and the slaughters gave the Lis the orcish name of "Blood River". They made several such invasions by sea and land.

Late in the Year of Cold Clashes, 331 DR, the orcs of Vastar launched a surprise attack on Cormanthyr, and occupied a portion of the lands east of the Old Elven Court. They solidified their forces in the area over the next few years, and meanwhile explored that old and ruined elven city. The Akh'Velahrn forces of Myth Drannor attempted to recover these lands four times. The fourth, in the Year of Seven Stones, 335 DR, resulted in the Darkwoods Massacre, in which the orcs took advantage of elven negligence to surround and slaughter over a thousand soldiers in their sleep. It wasn't until the Year of the Vanished Foe, 339 DR that the occupying orcs were routed by combined elvish and human forces, with the human warrior Velar emerging as a hero.

In the Year of the Wyvernfall, 512 DR, Vastar was on the rampage again, with orc hordes from here and other strongholds emerging and threatening Cormanthyr and many other lands with war. Swarming through many small passes of the Earthspur Mountains, the orc chieftain Ulbror and his horde invaded the uplands of Impiltur instead. There, the orcs slew King Sharaun Mirandor, his three heirs and their army, killing off the Mirandor dynasty. However, Ulbror and the orcs were defeated later that year by another army mustered by Duke Harandil Durlaven, being routed at the Battle of Bloody Reeds.

Towards the end of that century Vastar came under repeated attack by the elves and from dwarves who were expanding their mines west into the country. The king Ologh was killed by the black dragon Iyrauroth in -572 DR. For 39 years (610-649 DR) Vastar was the Dwarven realm of Roldilar but the orcs regrouped and won a succession of victories against the dwarves above and below ground. Unfortunately for the orcs, opportunistic humans from the Vilhon Reach took advantage of the power vacuum left by the demise of Roldilar to settle the temporarily empty lands and pushed the orcs out of the settled lands, establishing Raven's Bluff over the former dwarven capital. The orcs of Vastar still live in the region and are continually a thorn in the side of the current residents, but any victories the orcs achieve only ever seem to be minor.

Geography
Vastar was originally quite heavily forested but the trees the orcs carelessly cut down to fuel their war with Myth Drannor left only the few copses of trees surrounded by wide, empty grasslands that could be found in the Vast in modern times.