Kara-Tur

Kara-Tur lies east of Faerûn on Toril. It roughly corresponds to ancient East Asia in the real world, and many countries, places and peoples can find common ground with real life examples.

Countries
The various countries of Kara-Tur include:

Kozakura
Kozakura is an island kingdom modeled after Japan.

Malatra
Malatra is a jungle country, similar to India or Malaysia.

Shou Lung
Shou Lung, which is located to the east of Faerun is arguably the most powerful nation on Toril. Places of interest includes the port of Karatin, capital of the Hai Yuan, or Maritime provinces and Kao Shan province with the semi-independent city of Kai Shan. The main criminal organisation in the country is the Tsui Tong. The most massive mountain range of the known world is Wu Pi Te Shao.

T'u Lung
T'u Lung is a splinter faction of Shou Lung.

Wa
Wa is another Japanese-influenced kingdom.

History
Originally a stand-alone campaign setting, by 1988 it was combined by TSR with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. In that year TSR released a boxed set with two books detailing the campaign setting and maps.

In 1989 a printing of trail maps for Kara-Tur appeared.

In 1990 the maps were again included in the Forgotten Realms Atlas. Later that year TSR gave the monsters for Kara-Tur a proper treatment for Second Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the Monstrous Compendium series.

After 1990 Kara-Tur was a mostly discarded campaign setting. It only received a few mentions in cross-over products such as Spelljammer and Ravenloft, plus a few mentions in other Forgotten Realms products and Dragon Magazine articles.

With the release of Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast decided to do a proper treatment for Oriental Adventures. All the character classes, monsters, spells, weapons and feats were converted to Third edition format, but this time with the campaign world being Rokugan, the setting for Alderac Entertainment Group's Legend of the Five Rings.

The setting of Kara-Tur still exists on Toril and is often mentioned. Characters and artifacts from Kara-Tur sometimes show up in Faerûn, but beyond that there is little interaction between the continents.

Official Material

 * List of source material on Kara-Tur
 * The Assam Portal
 * Harmun Righthand
 * Room 13: Ogre Trouble (features Tharrusk - an Ogre Mage from Kara-Tur)

Specific prestige classes

 * Dragon Samurai
 * Drunken Master
 * Geomancer
 * Kensai
 * Ronin
 * Shou Disciple
 * Shugenja
 * Wu-Jen

Other

 * Dragon 315, for information on ancestor feats and martial arts styles