Anauroch

Anauroch, or The Great Sand Sea, was a magical desert in northern Faerûn. It held the remnants of the once-powerful Netherese Empire, their flying enclaves having crashed to the ground when their greatest mage Karsus, in a desperate bid to end the war against the phaerimm, challenged the goddess Mystryl for her divine mantle, causing the Weave to falter and all magic to fail. For generations since, Anauroch, the greatest desert in Faerûn, encroached relentlessly on border nations, burying them beneath the sands.

""Desert, but not lifeless. Scorching hot by day, chill at night, but only dunes and hard plain in the south, where the Bedine swing their swords at you and play "I'm fiercer" with any intruder. Cold rock to the north, and more life than you'd think for a land so parched, with old, fell magic beneath your boots and the stony spires of ruins covered and then laid bare by the sands when storms howl, like old teeth sticking up from a buried jawbone."

- Anonymous Harper agent

Inhabitants
The only people to call Anauroch home were the nomadic Bedine tribes and a small Zhentarim garrison, tasked with patrolling and defending a line of oases along the Black Road, the trade route that winded west from the ruins of Teshendale to Llorkh at the foot of the Graypeak Mountains. A diminutive people called the D'tarig were the only other major inhabitants, who lived along the borders of the desert and interact somewhat with peoples from surrounding countries.

Finally, on Nightal 20 in 1372 DR, the Netherese enclave of Thultanthar (also known as the City of Shade) of the ancient Netherese Empire re-emerged from the Plane of Shadow in the skies above the Dire Wood, before drifting into Anauroch, settling above the Shoal of Thirst, bringing the evil and warped Shadovar into the Realms. This Shadovar population subdued the local Bedine for roughly 100 years before their fortunes were swiftly reversed when Thulanthar crashed down on Myth Drannor, robbing the Netherese of their capital and reducing them to a handful of settlements and forces skirmishing with the Bedine.

Life and Society
The Bedine nomads were simplistic in nature and survived by raiding and guiding caravans through the hidden passes, making their home on the surface of the wastes, traveling from oasis to oasis. They were divided into a dozen or so minor tribes lead by sheiks, whose wealth was measured not by gold, but by the size and well-being of their herds. The Bedine were good-natured and noble, and the encroachment upon their home by the Shadovar trapped them in an exposed position. Suspicious of magic at the best of times, they had to deal with a vastly superior magical force altering the environment around them.

The Zhentarim, always eager to make a profit, fought long and hard to secure routes for their caravans through the desert. The northern routes across the High Ice were plagued by monsters too numerous to fight and in the south humanoid raiders and interference from the Dales and Cormyr hindered their efforts. After years of painstaking effort the Zhentarim created a caravan route via oases in the Sword, the sandy southern portion of Anauroch. The garrison constantly fought to defend its territory, but despite years of bitter fighting with the Bedine, the Zhentarim held little more land in Anauroch than that on which they stood.

Below the dunes of Anauroch lurked what remained of the evil phaerimm, a race of reptilian spellcasters with near-unrivaled mastery of the Art, long imprisoned in a magical shell called the Sharn Wall under the desert. The phaerimm were forgotten by all but the wisest of sages until the barrier holding them was broken. After fighting the combined armies of most of Evereska, Evermeet, the Heartlands, the Chosen of Mystra, and the Shadovar—all at once—the remaining phaerimm were scattered beneath the surface.

The returned masters of Anauroch, the ancient Netherese wizards of Thultanthar, warped and twisted by their long exile in the Plane of Shadow, were determined to retake what they considered their birthright, longing to restore the barren wasteland that was Anauroch to the once-fertile land of Netheril. The Shadovar had a regimented society, ruled by Telamont Tanthul and his Princes of Shade, all working in unison, toughened by centuries of hardship in the Plane of Shadow, to accomplish their common goal. They all but ignored the Bedine and Zhentarim, considering them beneath their notice.

Geography
The northern area of the Anauroch was a frozen land of rocks and the black glacier known as the High Ice. The middle area was the dry Plain of Standing Stones, where winds abraded jagged rocks that stood in the middle of a sea of gravel. Lastly, the southern part was commonly known as the Sword, a hot sandy desert. Anauroch was bordered on the west by the Silver Marches, the Savage Frontier, and Evereska; on the south by Cormyr and south-east by the Dalelands; on the east by the Moonsea and the Ride.

Empire of Shadows
Returned in 1372 DR, Thultanthar, the City of Shadows, was a floating mountaintop, sliced off and inverted, with a city built upon it. It was built centuries past, before the folly of Karsus, and no magic like it survived in Faerûn in the 14th century, as the reincarnated Mystra restricted mortals from ever again creating such potent spells as the ones that created Shade's mythallar.

Ruins of Hlaungadath
About forty miles east of the ruined city Ascore on the northwestern border of the desert, another abandoned city rose from the sands. Hlaungadath was one of the three floating cities that Mystra saved during the destruction of Netheril. It was a city that landed near the High Ice and was eventually abandoned. Old but largely intact, the ruins were inhabited by a clan of lamias. The lamias stalked the nearby oases, preying on careless Zhentarim or unwary Bedine. Anyone knowledgeable of the desert knew of the evil of Hlaungadath and gave the ruins a wide berth.

History
In -34,500 DR, the sarrukh empire of Isstosseffifil rises. Throughout the Days of Thunder they rule much of the land that will one day become Anauroch. In -33,800 DR, the Isstosseffifil empire's wizards reroute the Narrow Sea in an effort to drown the phaerimm inhabiting Phaerlin. This resulted in a massive ecological change that devastated their empire. Eventually, their empire falls at the hands of the phaerimm and they are forced by the Netherese to scatter.

In, the phaerimm started casting spells in the land of Netheril that eventually causae the creation of Anauroch.

In 10 DR, the Netheril region was renamed Anauroch, to reflect the great desert that the region had become.

In 329 DR the Anauroch desert finally stops perpetually expanding outward as the sharns defeat the phaerimms.

In 1038 DR, the sands of Anauroch begin to spread out southward once more.

The arrival of Thultanthar in 1372 DR brought about significant change in the political and geographic landscape of the Anauroch.

By 1479 DR, large parts of Anauroch had grown lush and verdant.

However, by 1485 DR the Anauroch was once more a desert. During this year, Bedine rebels began a concentrated effort to overthrow their Netherese overlords following Netheril's war in Cormyr.

In 1487 DR, Thulanthar's cataclysmic destruction in Myth Drannor signaled the end of the Second Netherese Empire, and by 1488 DR the empire was reduced to a shadow of its former size. By this point Netherese forces and Bedine tribes were in full conflict, warring over key points in the desert. One such battle near the Memory Spire managed to awaken a hive of phaerimm sleeping within, causing the aberrations to begin leeching life from the land around them.

Notable Locations

 * The Obsidian Chapel: a temple to Bane that was plundered by Bedine raiders sometime well before 1281 DR.

Notable Inhabitants

 * Telamont Tanthul, ruler of the Shade Enclave, a powerful shadow archmage.
 * The Princes of Shade, the sons of Telamont Tanthul.
 * Ruha, a Bedine Harper. She attempted to capture the Seraph of Lies Malik el Sami yn Nasser to bring him before a High Harper court.

Rumors & Legends
The ruins of the very first cloud palace, belonging to the father of the cloud giants, Nicias, were thought to be located somewhere in the great desert.

There was a Faerûnian folktale that stated the Anauroch desert was formed by a single golem. The construct was tasked by its master to shovel sand into the region, but was subsequently forgotten about. After continuing with its task for so long, it was said to have formed the desert.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * The Parched Sea • Return of the Archwizards • Blackstaff
 * The Ring of Winter • Shadowdale
 * Video Games
 * Baldur's Gate • Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
 * Card Games
 * Spellfire: Master the Magic
 * Card Games
 * Spellfire: Master the Magic