Eastern Shaar

The Eastern Shaar was an eastern extension of the Shaar, separated by the Landrise. Compared to the fertile grasslands of its western counterpart, the Eastern Shaar was a relative wasteland.

After the Spellplague led to the formation of the Underchasm, these roles were reversed, as the canyon cut the Western Shaar off from all sources of fresh water, turning the region from a savannah into a desert. The Eastern Shaar, however, still had rivers flowing in from the Unthangol and Toadsquat Mountains, and even gained a more moderate climate due to the now-nearby Gulf of Luiren.

As of 1479 DR, Okoth, a reawakened realm of the sarrukh, lay directly south of Azulduth (the Lake of Salt), and the Gulf of Luiren, which was a realm named Luiren before the Spellplague, lay to the south of Okoth. The eastern portion of the Eastern Shaar was called the Beastlands.

Geography
The Eastern Shaar was bounded by the Landrise to the east, the Chondalwood, the Unthangol Mountains and the southern border of Mulhorand to the north, the Giant's Belt Mountains and Veldorn to the east, and the Toadsquat Mountains to the south. The Trader's Way connected the Eastern Shaar to Dambrath in the south and the Western Shaar to the west, and the Unthangol Pass connected it to Unther.

Flora & Fauna
Like its western counterpart, the Eastern Shaar was home to wild horses. Populations of Shaaran zebras roamed here, and the gold dwarves of the Great Rift spread hammer ponies throughout the region via the markets of Hammer and Anvil.

Although found in other parts of Toril, beguilers were most common in the dry plains of the Eastern Shaar. Other local creatures included baboons, badgers, bats, bisons, black and brown bears, boars, cheetahs, darkenbeasts, flying snakes, giant ants, giant eagles, giant fire beetles, giant praying mantises, giant stag beetles, giant wasps, griffons, hippogriffs, hyenas, leopards, lions, lynxes, monitor lizards, monstrous scorpions, night hunters, nyths, perytons, rhinoceroses, sinisters, vipers and wyverns.

History
Sometime in the last 6 millennia before Dalereckoning, at a time when Jhaamdath still stood to the northwest of the Eastern Shaar, a pitched battle between yuan-ti and giants took place at the Lorrift. The event came to be known as the Rain of Flying Snakes, as the yuan-ti summoned thousands of snakes from the empty sky to land on the giants' heads. This gambit did not end up winning the serpentfolk the fight, as the snakes that survived their fall turned on their summoners and ensured the victory of the opposing force.

Inhabitants
The largest and most well-known human tribes of the Eastern Shaar included the Cheetah Tribe, who lived in the grasslands between the Unthangol Mountains, the Great Rift, and the Council Hills; the Hyena Tribe, whose domain lay between the Council Hills, the Riftwood, and the Sharawood; and the Rhinoceros Tribe, whose home was between the Great Rift, the Landrise, the Chondalwood and the Forest of Amtar.

A number of bandit tribes were also known, chief among them the horse-riding Grey Ghosts tribe led by Furifax. Based out of Bandit City to the south of Unthangol Pass, this group exerted great influence over the small trading towns between Hardcastle and Azulduth.

Besides humans, the Eastern Shaar was also inhabited by tribes of gnolls, halflings, wemics, centaurs, thri-kreen and loxoth.

The Eastern Shaar was also home to a number of Crinti runaways from Dambrath, who typically either kept to the wilderness or sought refuge among the gold dwarf towns around the Great Rift.