D&D: Come See The Original Forgotten Realms Map
Feast your eyes on a real life D&D artifact: the original map of the Forgotten Realms, as drawn by Ed Greenwood. This is where it all began folks.
Attendees of Gamehole Con this past weekend had an opportunity to look at the original Forgotten Realms as drawn by Ed Greenwood. The original map was on display at the convention, and thanks to Sage Advice, even if you weren’t in Wisconsin this last weekend, you can still take a look at the world before it was wracked with the Time of Troubles or the Spell Plague or that one time a planet was phased halfway into it and it got kinda weird.
Say what you will but 4th Edition moved the story right along
via Sage Advice
Here it is, the whole map of the Realms as they were. You can see a few landmarks, and a whole lot of tape holding everything together. For all that people criticize the Forgotten Realms for feeling too generic, or being too full of high level heroes, or feeling like a weird fantasy jigsaw puzzle, the setting is detailed. There’s a reason it’s been the “default” setting of 5th Edition, for better or worse, there are many iconic places to go.
Chief among them the thriving fantasy metropolis of Waterdeep, with its many nearby adveture attractions, including a house of stone and a lizard marsh.
Or you could go to the Dalelands or explore the Vast, where you’ll find adventure awaiting across the Dragon Reach fjord. You won’t want to stick around too long in the Dalelands because they’re due to be threatened by some kind of evil artifact, god, or villain any day now.
Villains like the Red Wizards of beautiful Thay, which is known for being run by a lich and having way too much time to build dungeons and conduct magical research into things that humanity was probably better off not knowing.
Or check out Calimshan, Tethyr, and Amn which are three great places you might here about before you get sent to hell while in Baldur’s Gate–located just a little bit north of where this map ends.
You can find the full gallery of pictures over at the Sage Advice site, so be sure and check them out.
What’s your favorite part of the Forgotten Realms? Let us know in the comments!
