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The Vast was a region in north Faerûn that rested along the north coast of the Sea of Fallen Stars, bounded by the Dragon Reach in the west; the Earthspur Mountains, the Gray Forest, and Impiltur in the east; and the Moonsea and Damara in the north. It was a land of great open spaces and rolling farmlands, sparsely settled but far from empty. These were home to green and fertile fields and hunting grounds; long rivers such as the Fire River and River Vesper; old-growth forests like the Brynwood and Gray Forest that survived orc logging, as well as new-growth woodlands; and the great mountain ranges of the Earthspurs that girded it and the Earthfasts that ran through it to meet the sea at sheer cliffs.

Over its long history, this land was home to many great cities and realms. There was the ancient elf city of Ylraphon, an outpost of nearby Cormanthyr and once the abode of the famed Srinshee. Among the oldest human cities north of the Inner Sea were Procampur, orderly, peaceful, and proud; and Tsurlagol, oft-ruined yet the Gateway to the Unapproachable East; both settled by the fallen Jhaamdathan Empire. There was also Vastar, for which the land was named, an ancient orcish nation with a turbulent history of strife and civil war and hordes that poured into other lands. Procampur. It fell to the dwarf kingdom of Roldilar, the Realm of Glimmering Swords, a brief but shining surface holding for the Stout Folk. Next came the so-called Time of Glorious Fools, a fresh wave of human settlement and human adventurers who carved a new land out of the ashes of the old, giving rise to the new cities of Calaunt, corrupt and gloomy and foul; Tantras, boisterous and home to many temples, and once even the god Torm the True; and finally Ravens Bluff, the Living City, freewheeling, vibrant, and a city of adventurers. Lastly, these three united in the nation of Vesperin, a neutral land for trade and intrigue in the 15th century.

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