Returned in 1372 DR, Thultanthar, the City of Shadows, was a floating mountaintop, sliced off and inverted, with a city built upon it. 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. Lastly, the southern part was commonly known as the Sword, a hot sandy desert. 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. The northern area of the Anauroch was a frozen land of rocks and the black glacier known as the High Ice. They all but ignored the Bedine and Zhentarim, considering them beneath their notice. 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. 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. 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 phaerimm were forgotten by all but the wisest of sages until the barrier holding them was broken. īelow 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 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. After years of painstaking effort the Zhentarim created a caravan route via oases in the Sword, the sandy southern portion of Anauroch. 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. The Zhentarim, always eager to make a profit, fought long and hard to secure routes for their caravans through the desert. Suspicious of magic at the best of times, they had to deal with a vastly superior magical force altering the environment around them. The Bedine were good-natured and noble, and the encroachment upon their home by the Shadovar trapped them in an exposed position. 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 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. 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.
įinally, 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. 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. 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.
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