Bloodstone Pass

Bloodstone Pass was the only reasonable crossing point through the Galena Mountains in Northeast Faerûn. The fertile vale through which it passed was known as Bloodstone Valley.

Geography
The pass acted as a trade route between Damara and Vaasa. Due to the extremely impassable terrain that constituted the majority of the mountain range, the pass was the easiest route and was of great strategic importance to both Damara and Vaasa. The entrances to the Pass were guarded by the Bloodstone Gates: the Damaran Gate to the southeast and the Vaasan Gate to the northwest.

In the 14 Century DR, the Pass was part of Bloodstone Barony, and contained Bloodstone Village (later called Bloodstone City), the Bloodstone Mines, Lake Midai, Waukeshire, Windless, and Virdin. The Beaumaris River flowed through the Pass.

History
Bloodstone Pass was originally formed only around 1070 DR when the edge of the Great Glacier withdrew to the north. Prior to the rise of Zhengyi the Witch-King, the Pass was mostly remarkable only as an overland trade-route between Damara and the Moonsea. However, the Witch-King's forces used the pass to invade Damara in 1347 DR, and after his defeat in 1359 DR, the Pass became one of the most impressively fortified places in Faerûn with the construction of the Bloodstone Gates.

The Pass would subsequently become the center of Gareth Dragonsbane's Kingdom of Bloodstone encompassing both Damara and Vaasa, with Bloodstone City as its capital.

In 1470 DR, the Warlock Knights invaded the Pass and burned everything, leaving the once lush Bloodstone Valley barren and lifeless. The Pass then became the site of a decades-long tense standoff between the Warlock Knights of Vaasa and the kingdom of Damara, with the Warlock Knights occupying the Vaasan gate and the ruins of Bloodstone City and the Damarans occupying the Damaran Gate in the south.