Vastar

Vastar was an orc kingdom that occupied the lands later known as the Vast, between Cormanthyr and Impiltur in north Faerûn. It was founded circa −700 DR and fell in 610 DR.

The rise of Vastar
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.

From time to time, the orcs of Vastar clashed with the minotaurs of the kingdom of Grong-Haap (−981 to −350 DR), which encroached upon the northern highlands of the Vast.

Following the fall of Grong-Haap, every ten years or so, entire tribes of orcs would vanish in the night, abducted by shadowy creatures that appeared suddenly and took them unawares. In time, rumors pointed to Ironfang Keep, the old capital of Grong-Haap, held to be the lair of cultists that experimented on folk and beasts. The words of the few surviving witnesses passed into orc folklore.

The hordes of Vastar
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.

The fall of Vastar
At some point, a monstrous orc called Ologh rose to the position of Overking of Vastar and created a throne for himself, holding court from the Hollow Mountain. But Ologh the Overking was killed by the black dragon Iyrauroth in the Year of Writhing Darkness, 572 DR, leaving the position vacant. With that, Vastar descended into civil war as orcish factions battled for control across the land. In the Year of the Gored Griffin, 574 DR, orcs spilled out into north-eastern Cormanthyr again.

Meanwhile, underground, dwarves from the north and east expanded their mines into the mountains of Vastar. After initial clashes with the orcs in their tunnels, the dwarves decided to let no orc who'd seen a dwarf remain alive, to prevent any word reaching orcish chieftains of their nature of their enemy. The dwarves were subtly aided by the downtrodden goblin and kobold slaves of the orcs: the dwarves left them alone, and so they never told the orcs about the dwarves they saw, nor helped them in battle. The unexplained deaths of large numbers of orcs in the mountains were blamed on the civil war.

After eight bloody years, one orc won out as Grimmerfang defeated and devoured his last rival and seized the throne in the Year of the Loose Coins, 580 DR. Orc-King Grimmerfang renamed the Hollow Mountain after himself—Mount Grimmerfang—and ended warfare amongst the orcs of Vastar, at least for a short time.

However, the dwarves continued to encroach from the west, spreading underground and applying increasing pressure on the orcs. Meanwhile, Vastar suffered repeated defeats to the elves. Working with humans and elves, the dwarves secretly developed orcslayer blades and then surged out of the mountains to "run in waist-high riot across the land" (according to the sage Fairin Icemantle, who wrote the only first-hand account of the conflict) and slaughter the orcs. Vastar fell in the Year of the Spellfire, 610 DR, and Grimmerfang was slain in his namesake mountain, while the survivors were driven north and south into the mountain peaks.

The dwarves claimed the surface lands for themselves and founded Roldilar, the Realm of Glimmering Swords, holding court from Mount Grimmerfang. Humans also began coming to the land. This peace lasted for a mere 39 years; the orcs recovered and won a succession of victories against the dwarves above and below ground. Roldilar fell but, unfortunately for the orcs, the humans kept coming and Vastar was never restored.

Legacy
Most sages thought that the name "Vastar" survived in the form of "the Vast", the name later given to the lands it once occupied, though the true source of the name was lost to history.

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

Society
The orcs were assembled in large groups called glauraur. Glauraur were not based around families and nor were they collections of clans, as some human sages mistakenly thought, but they were precursors to tribes. The orcs had little concept of family past the time children were raised, and so all the orcs of Vastar were interrelated. They were also numerous and highly fertile, so despite bloody civil wars and feasting dragons, they could be back to full strength within a generation. Overcrowding was never an issue, as internal warfare and dragons placed a limit on their numbers, and hordes invading foreign lands allowed them to migrate.

Each glauraur followed an orcish hero who led by charisma, brutality or fear. These chieftains struggled constantly against each other for prestige and thus to get closer to the Overking. The other orcs gossiped about their struggles.

The chief aims of the orcs were power and hedonism, and they loved to hunt down, torture and finally devour their prey—and their enemies. For food, they busied themselves with basic farming, fishing, hunting, while they operated mines and forges for their weapons. They regularly raided others to seize what goods they lacked. They were an undisciplined, reckless, powerful and proud people, confident that their enemies could not challenge the so-called "teeth of Vastar".

However, they never attacked their enemies strategically, let alone engaged in trade or diplomacy. Thus Vastar was characterized by frequent conflict, strife, coups and counterattacks, between the orcs and against all others who shared the land with them. Their greatest enemies were the dragons of the Moonsea, who enjoyed roast orc, and the elves of Cormanthyr, and they had some caution around them.

The orcs enslaved kobolds, goblins, and other goblinoids to work in the mines.

The Vastar orcs built ships with which they crossed the Dragon Reach and even the Inner Sea. These were crude, poorly made constructions, described as "barges with sails" by one elven contemporary.

Legends
The exact location of the Hollow Mountain, or Mount Grimmerfang—the seat of the power of Vastar's last Overkings and the resting place of Grimmerfang—became lost over the centuries. The few remaining dwarven elders who knew it refused to talk about it to humans or elves. The sage Elminster reckoned it was the first peak north-east of Mount Wolf, but hadn't investigated this himself.