Life in Faerun

[Lysha]

Though that those of us who don't have this book might be interested in this random 'fact.'

Trees and Shrubs
Travelers who have ventured into other planes and worlds claim that the same oak, ash, maple, chestnut, spruces, and pines among Faerun's are also found in those distant places. Here follow a few of the most gramatic, plentiful, or useful trees and shrubs found only in Faerun.

Blueleaf: Recognizable by the eerie, gleaming blue color of their many-pointed leaves, blueleafs (not "blueleaves") bend in winds or under ice rather than breaking, often forming snow tunnels that shelter winter travelers. Blueleafs grow close together in thick stands, reaching 40 feet in height but rarely attaining thick trunks.
Blueleaf wood is durable, and the sap and crushed leaves yield a vivid blue dye much favored in cloakmaking in the North. When burned, it yields beautiful leaping blue flames (prized in inns and taverns as "mood" illumination for tale-tellers and minstrels).
Blueleaf is found in humid temperate and subartic latitudes north of Amn.

Helmthorn: A vine like ground shrub that sometimes cloaks other bushed and dead trees, helmthorn has dark, waxy green leaves and bristling black thorns. As long as human hands, these sharp, durable thorns are often used as crude needles or dart points. Helmthorn berries are indigo in hue, edible (tart in flavor), and often harvested even when frozen or withered for use in winemaking.
Helmthorn is very hardy and grows throughout Faerun, providing food for many.

Shadowtop: The soaring giants of Faerun forests, shadowtops can grow 2 feet a year and top out at 90 feet. A full-grown shadowtop flares out to a diameter of 10 feet or more at its base, its trunk surrounded by many pleatlike ridges. Shadowtops are named for the dense clusters of feathery leaves at the tops of their trunks. Shadowtop leaves are irregular in shape and have copper undersides and deep green upper surfaces.
Shadow-wood is fiberous and tough, but unsuitable for carving or structural work because under stress it splits down its length into splayed fibers. These fibers are valued in ropemaking (a few added to he twist improves the strength and durability of a completed coil) and burns slowly but cleanly, generating a very hot fire with little smoke. This makes it ideal for cooking.
Shadow-wood is much used in the making of magical staffs, rods, and wands.
Shadowtops are found in all humid areas across Faerun.

Suth: Suth are graybark trees with olive-green leaves. They grow almost horizontally and then double back to angle in another direction. If a few suth trees grow together, their branches intertwine until they are inextricably entangled, forming a screen or wall barring passage to all things that can't fly over the tangled trees or scuttle under their lowest branches. Suth leaves are long, soft, and fluffy, but spike ended.
Suth-wood is very hard and durable, so hard that it's difficult to work without the finest tools. Thin sheets of this wood retain astonishing strength for decades, and thus are favored for use in book covers. Suth is also the preferred wood for shields since it never shatters and doesn't catch fire if soaked in water before battle. A crushing blow might crack a suth-wood shield but won't cause it to fly apart.
The name of this tree may be a corruption of the word "south." Suths are found along the edges of the Shaar, in the woods of Chondath, and farther south in Faerun.

Weirwood: Weir trees resemble oaks but have leaves that are brown (with a silver sheen) on their uppers and velvety black beneath. If undisturbed, weir trees grow into huge, many branched forest giants. Weirwood won't ignite in normal (non-magical) fire, and is resilient and durable. It's favored in the making of musical instruments because of the unmistakable warm, clear tone it imparts.
Weirwood can be used as a replacement for oak or holly in any spell. It grows throughout Faerun but is very rare. Most trees are now found deep in large forests and actively protected by dryads, treants, druids, and rangers.

Zalantar: Often called blackwood in the North because of its jet-black wood and bark, the zalantar tree has a central root and eight or more trunks that branch out form the root at ground level like the splayed fingers of a hand. The trees may reach 60 feet in height, but are usually half that. Their leaves are white through beige.
Zalantar wood is strong yet easily worked and sees much use in southern buildings and the makings of wagons, litters, and wheels. Southern wizards and sorcerers use durable and handsome zalantar wood almost exclusively in the making of rods, staffs, and wands.
This subtropical species is rarely seen north of the Shaar. It is plentiful along the shores of Chult and the southern coasts of Faerun and seems to grow in any terrain short of mountainous.

[Alaudrien]

Oooo nice to learn something new! ...and I like your sig pic its so cute!

[Lysha]

^^ I am glad you liked the post. I was slightly worried that no one would care.

And thanks! You can do your own face here: http://illustmaker.abi-station.com/index_en.shtml

And the rest of it I did in paint, saved as a .jpg, then put on photobucket.com

Yes, I'm giving out my secret

[Lysha]

Wild and Domestic Animals
Given the vast distances they travel, adventurers in Faerun understand the value of a reliable mount. Those who seldom travel outside a city may care nothing about mounts, and instead think of avoiding, fighting, or eliminating guard beasts owned by others.
For humans, horses and mules are the most popular mounts for almost all purposes. In unusual situations such as aerial travel, Underdark travel, and extreme climates, folk favor griffins or pegasi, riding lizards, and camels in deserts or ghost rothe in frozen wastes.
Beasts of burden are usually valued for their strength, endurance, and temperament, with oxen at the head of the list and horses considered the most nimble (again, with adjustments for climate and nature of travel). Beyond that, most folk have little care for the wildlife around them except as it competes for their viands (wolves, foxes, and rats), offers them direct peril (poisonous snakes), or is easily snared or slain in the hunt for use on the table (rabbits, deer, grouse, and river fish that can be drag-netted or caught in a weir).
Dragons and other large predators that require great amounts of food often survey beasts around them very much like humans do- prizing herd animals grazing in the open as the easiest food to take.
The same endless wheel of eat-and-be-eaten governs life in Faerun as in a dozen worlds. Folk who live close to the land (rangers, hunters, foragers, and farmers) know well that the little chipmunklike rodent they call the berrygobbler is as important in the scheme of things as the wolf that eats the creature that ate the creature that devoured the luckless berrygobbler. They also know that dying berrygobblers signals some taint or fell magic or disease upon the land.
In the Heartlands, mice, rats, berrygobblers, rabbits, hares, raccoons, and squirrels are familiar scurriers underfoot. In Calimshan and Tashlar, the warmer climes see mice, rats, slinks (very swift black-furred berrygobblers), skradda (darting, sticky-tongued lizards that eat insects and small frogs), and sardrant (armadillolike plant-chewers, slow-moving, shaggy, and semiarmored, with edible meat).
Fish leap out of the oceans and rivers: bluefin and silverfin, the brilliant, tiny, inedible silver jewelfish, and the splar (winged eels that can leap but not really fly).
The shaggy, buffalolike rothe dwells in both hot and cold climes. The North has the ghost or snow rothe. The brown rothe ambles across the Heartlands and the South, becoming lighter in hue and less shaggy as latitudes become warmer. The deep rothe inhabits the Underdark.
Only foolish adventurers or city-dwellers ignore the lesser fauna of Faerun. As the adventurer Steeleye once noted, "Rabbits fall easily into the stew pot, but downing, butchering, and cooking your dragon is a task that can take up your whole day."

[Lysha]

Names and common uses of gems in Faerun

Gems of Faerun

Alexandrite: Favored for focal use in items of magic that confer good luck, favor, or protection
Amber: Offer used as a good luck charm to ward off diseases and plague
Amethyst: Rumored to ward off drunkenness and convert poisons to harmless substances (folk belief)
Andar: Green-red or brown-red, translucent, durable
Angelar's Skin: Fine pink coral, opaque, delicate
Aventurine: Golden, medium to light green, or dark to pale blue, spangled with mica crystals, sometimes called love stone
Banded Agate: Used as "soothe stones" that merchants handle to relieve tension during negotiations
Beljuril: Seawater green, periodically blazing with a sparkling, winking, flashing light, also known as fireflashils, durable and very hard
Bloodstone: Dark green-grey quartz flecked with red crystal impurities that resemble drops of blood
Blue Quartz: Favored jewels for gems of seeing
Chalcedony: Used to make magical items that ward against undead
Crown of Silver: Silver chalcedony with brilliant metallic black bands
Emerald: Used in spell ink formulae, as a spell component, and in items concerned with fertility, health, and growth
Fire Agate: Translucent, iridescent red, brown, gold, and green chalcedony
Fire Opal: Favored in helms of brilliance
Fluorspar: Pale blue, green, yellow, purple, pink, red (gemstones), purple-and-white banded (carving)
Garnet: In folktales, garnets are the hardened blood of divine avatars
Greenstone: Grey-green, soft, used in greenstone amulets
Hematite: Prized by fighters, often used in magical periapts
Hyaline: Milky (or white) quartz, often flecked with gold
Hydrophane: Frosty-white or ivory opal, opaque, used in water-oriented items
Iol: Color-changing straw-yellow, blue, and dark blue, sometimes with an internal star effect, strong associations with magic in Faerunian legend
Irtios: Colorless or very pale yellow, hard, translucent crystals, often found on sword scabbards and wizard's staves
Ivory: White substance that compromises mammal teeth or tusks, carved and polished. unicorn horns are technically not ivory, since they are not teeth. It should also be noted that unicorn horns are not used for ornamental carving and that they command prices of thousands of gold pieces from alchemists. On a cautionary note, certain Faerunian religions-especially followers of Mielikki and Lurue the Unicorn-take great exception to people hunting unicorns for their horns. They have even been known to put to death people convicted of the evil act of killing unicorns
Jacinth: Fiery orange jewel also called hyacinth or flamegem, the true corundum jacinth is found only in Faerun
Jade: Said to enhance musical ability and worn as a lucky stone by musicians
Jet: The stone of mourning and sorrow in wealthy cities
Kings' Tears: Clear, teardrop-shaped, smooth-surfaced, and awesomely hard, sometimes called frozen tears or lich weepings, very rare
Laeral's Tears: Large colorless, crystalline, soft, brittle stones named for the famous sorcerer Laeral
Lapis Lazuli: Dark to sky-blue with gold flecks, opaque
Malachite: Used as jewelry among poorer folk
Moonstone: Used in magic items that control lycanthropy, affect lycanthropes, or protect against lycanthropy, considered sacred to Selune
Moss Agate: Said to promote serenity and stability
Nelvine: White, cream, fawn, or brown-pink feldspar with celestial blue iridescence, soft and fragile
Obsidian: Can be chipped into arrowheads or weapons
Opal: Used in a number of magic items and spells
Orl: Red (most valued), tawny, or orange crystals
Orprase: Colorless or faintly straw-yellow, brittle, medium hardness, popular with followers of Tymora
Peridot: Used in items that provide protection against spells and enchantments
Phenalope: Rose-red or pink, said to protect against magical flame
Ravenar: Glossy black tourmaline, mainly valued in the North
Red Tears: Vivid cherry-red, blood-crimson, or fiery orange crystals also called Tempus's weeping, legends say they are the tears of lovers shed for their beloveds who were slain in battle
Rock Crystal: Used for optics and prisms
Ruby: Held as lucky objects in folklore
Sanidine: Pale tan to straw yellow feldspar, favorite of the Bedine.
Sapphire: Widely used in the making of magic swords and other magic items, especially those related to magical prowess, the mind, and the element of air
Sardonyx: Used in spells and in creating magic items that affect wisdom
Smoky Quartz: Black variety called morion and used by necromancers
Spodumene: Pink-to-purple gem also known as ghost stone because its color fades with time
Star sapphire: Used in devices that offer protection against hostile magic
Tchazar: Fragile, soft, straw-yellow gemstone
Tiger Eye Agate: Golden agate with dark brown striping, legends state that nonmagical tiger eyes are useful in repelling spirits and undead creatures
Tomb Jade: Rare, highly prized jade that has turned red or brown through being buried for great lengths of time
Topaz: Often mounted on protective magic items, the preferred jewel in the making of a gem of brightness
Turquoise: Prized by elves for use in sky-related spells, mages use turquoises in the creation of items concerned with flight
Violine: Purple volcanic gemstone
Water Opal: Clear, translucent variety of opal used as ornaments around mirrors and windows or in the crafting of magical scrying devices (such as crystal balls)
Zircon: Occasionally passed off as more valuable gemstones

[Ramirus]

Thanks Lysha! That's really neat, not to mention a whole lot of info I did not know before.

[Lysha]

Titles and Forms of Address

Most realms across Faerun have some form of nobility, and many also have ruling royalty. All have officials who sport titles, from a simple "Master of the..." to such mouthfuls as "His Most Exhaulted and Terrible, Beloved of the Gods and Venerable Before All His People, Hereditary and may-his-line-prosper-forever...." Many long and involved tomes at Candlekeep outline the intracies of the various systems of titles, their ranks and precedence. Here's a brief overview.

Position - Male (M) (F) Female
Commoner - (M) Goodman (F)Goodwife or Maid
Knight, Officer - (M) Sir (F) Lady or Lady Sir
Mayor, Warden, Commander, Seneschal - (M) Lord (F) Lady or Lady Lord
Baron, Count - (M) Milord (F) Milady
Duke, Viscount, Marquis - (M) High Lord (F) High Lady
Grand Duke, Prince - (M) Highness (F) Highness
King, Queen, Archduke - (M) Majesty (F) Majesty

General titles for nobility of uncertain rank include "Zor/Zora" in Mulmaster, "Syl" in Calimshan, and "Saer" (for both genders) almost everywhere else. The latter term also applies to children of nobility too young or low-ranking to have been awarded titles of their own.
In general Heartlands usage, if the head of a noble house is "Lord Grayhill," his children are all "Saer [name] Grayhill." His widowed or aged parents, or older uncles and aunts living but bypassed in precedence are "Old Lord (or Lady) Grayhill."
Various Faerunian professions and races have popular verbal greetings and farewells, but "Well met" for both is almost universal. Olore ("oh-LOR-ay") serves the same purpose around the Sea of Fallen Stars, and human nobles are adopting the elven "Sweet water and light laughter until next we meet." Merchants of all races often use the terse dwarven "I go."

[Lysha]

The calendar of Harptos
Most of Faerun used the Calender of Harptos, named after the long dead wizard who invented it. Few bother to refer to Harptos by name, since the calendar is the only calendar they know.
Each year of 365 days is divided into 12 months of 30 days, and each month is divided into three tendays. Five special days fall between the months. These annual holidays mark the seasons or the changing of the seasons. The months of Faerun roughly correspond to the months of the Gregorian calendar.

Month - Name - Common Name
1 - Hammer - Deepwinter
Annual holiday: Midwinter
2 - Alturiak - The Claw of Winter
3 - Ches - The Claw of the Sunsets
4 - Tarsakh - The Claw of the Storms
Annual holiday: Greengrass
5 - Mirtul - The Melting
6 - Kythorn - The Time of Flowers
7 - Flamerule - Summertide
Annual holiday: Midsummer
8 - Eleasis - Highsun
9 - Eleint - The Fading
Annual holiday: Highharvestide
10 - Marpenoth - Leaffall
11 - Uktar - The Rotting
Annual holiday: The Feast of the Moon
12 - Nightal - The Drawing Down

Seasonal Festivals
Five times a year the annual holidays are observed as festivals and days of rest in almost every civilized land. Each seasonal festival is celebrated differently, according to the traditions of the land and the particular holiday.

Midwinter: Nobles and monarchs greet the halfway point of winter with a feast day they call the High Festival of Winter. Traditionally it's the best day to make or renew alliances. The common folk enjoy the celebration a bit less-among them it's called Deadwinter Day, noted mainly as the halfway point of winter, with hard times still to come.

Greengrass: The official beginning of spring is a day of peace and rejoicing. Even if snow still covers the ground, clerics, nobles, and wealthy folk make a point of bringing out flowers grown in special rooms within temples and castles. They distribute the flowers among the people, who wear them or cast them upon the ground as bright offerings to the deities who summon the summer.

Midsummer: Midsummer night is a time of feasting and music and love. Acquaintances turn into dalliances, courtships turn into betrothals, and the deities themselves take a part by ensuring good weather for feasting and frolicking in the woods. Bad weather on this special night is taken as an omen of extremely ill fortune to come.

Highharvestide: This holiday of feasting to celebrate the autumn harvest also marks a time of journeys. Emissaries, pilgrims, adventurers, and everyone else eager to make speed traditionally leave on their journeys the following day-before the worst of the mud clogs the tracks and the rain freezes into snow.

The Feast of the Moon: The Feast of the Moon celebrates ancestors and the honored dead. Stories of ancestors' exploits mix with the legends of deities until it's hard to tell one from the other.

Shieldmeet
Once every four years, shield meet is added to the Faerunian calendars as a "leap day" immediatly following Midsummer night. Shieldmeet is day of open council between the people and their rullers. it is a day for making or renewing pacts and for proving oneself in tournaments. Those not seeking advancement treat the elite 's tournaments, duels, and trials of magical prowess as welcome additions to the holiday's theatrical and musical entertainment.

Spring Equinox: Ches 19
Summer Solstice: Kythorn 20
Autumn Equinox: Eleint 21
Winter Solstice: Nightal 19

[Lysha]

Marking the years
Almost every land and race has its own preferred system for marking the passing years. The ancient realm of Mulhorand begins its calendar at the founding of Skuld, the City of Gods, more than 3,500 years ago. Cormyrians reckon years from the foundation of House Obarskyr almost 1,350 years ago. Some draconic calendars are reputed to stretch back more than 10,000 years, although few dragons care about something as mundane as the scholarly accounting of events that even the oldest dragons alive today do not remember.

Dalereckoning
The calendar against which most others are compared is Dalereckoning (DR), marked by the raising of the Standing Stone and the pact between the elves of Cormanthor and the first human settlers of the Dalelands. Dalereckoning was the first human calendar the Elven Court reconciled with its own ages-old calendar, and thus became widespread anywhere elves and humans lived in peace.

The Roll of Years
Very few of Faerun's common folk bother with musty calendars and meaningless numbers. Instead, years are known by names. People refer to births, deaths, weddings, and other events by the name of the year. Children learn the order of the years from bards' songs, artistic designs in the great temples, and the teachings of their elders.
The naming of a year is not random, nor does it necessarily commemorate any great event or occurrence. Many centuries ago the Lost Sage Augathra the Mad wrote out thousands of years and named them in the great library of Candlekeep. It's a rare year that doesn't see some event that seems clearly connected with its name, and most folks view Augathra's names as mysterious portents of the years ahead.

1372 DR The Year of Wild Magic
1373 DR The Year of Rogue Dragons
1374 DR The Year of Lightning Storms
1375 DR The Year of Risen Elfkin
1376 DR The Year of the Bent Blade
1377 DR The Year of the Haunting
1378 DR The Year of the Cauldron
1379 DR The Year of the Lost Keep
1380 DR The Year of the Blazing Hand

[Lysha]

Day and Night
Faerun's days are 24 hours long, divided into night and day by the rising and setting sun. In southern lands such as Halruaa, the length of night does not vary much with the season, and 12 hours of light and 12 of dark is the rule year-round. In the north, the days are markedly longer in summer and shorter in winter. Midwinter day in Silverymoon sees little more than 8 hours of daylight, and Midsummer almost 16.
Ten days comprise a Faerunian week, also known as a tenday or, less commonly, a ride. The individual days of the tenday do not have names. Instead, they're referred to by number: first-day, second-day, and so on. Most folks start counting using their thumb as first-day, but halflings are famous for using their pinkies to count first-day, so much so that the phrase "counting like a halfling" means that someone is just being different just to be difficult.

The Hours of the Day
Timepieces are very rare, and most people break up the day into ten large slices-dawn, morning, highsun (or noon), afternoon, dusk, sunset, evening, midnight, moondark (or night's heart), and night's end. Dozens of conventions for naming these portions of the day exist, and cause no little confusion for travelers in foreign lands.
These customary divisions are only approximations, and one person's late afternoon might be another's early dusk. Local customs dictate the general length of each portion of the day. Each of these customary periods lasts anywhere from 1 to 4 hours, so highsun is generally accounted to be noon and an hour or so on either side.
Few Faerunians have cause to measure an hour (or any length of time shorter than a day) with any great precision. People are accustomed to gauging time by intuition, the movement of the sun, and the activity around them. Two merchants might agree to meet at a particular tavern at dusk, and chances are both will show up withing 15 or 20 minutes of each other.
In large cities, the tolling of temple bells replaces the more casual accounting of the day's passage. Several major faiths attempt to measure time more accurately. The priests of Gond treasure their mechanical clocks and delight in sounding them for all to hear. Lathanderians assign acolytes to watch sundials, carefully adjusted by years of observation of the sun's movements in the sky. Traditionally, the hours are numbered 1 to 12 twice, and the bells sound once for each hour on the hour. "Twelve bells" is virtually interchangeable with "midnight" -or "highsun," depending on the context.

[Horace]

Thank you Lysha, I found that post particularly interesting.

[Lysha]

You are welcome, hon.

[Briek]

yeah I second that, as I am sure not every player has access to the campaign setting it is good to see the information that could enhance RP going up

[Brodnur]

ZOMG! This is the post I have been searching for. I don't have access to the campaign setting rules, so I searched all over the net for items of interest pertaining to FK. This fills in the blanks really, really well. Great job putting this one together, Lysha. I'll be keeping an eye on this post, just in case, and I can assure you, you will see some of my chars. using some of the info in game. Great job.

[Lysha]

You are most welcome. I'm really glad that this helped. I get tickled pink when I see someone refer to something from this post in the game that I'm sure I hadn't seen reference to before.

[Lysha]

In response to Gesine's and Takket's lecture today, thank you for a very fun and informative RP!
I'm going to trim this down a bit.

The Weave

Mortals cannot directly shape raw magic. Instead, most who wield magic make use of the Weave. The Weave is the manifestation of raw magic, a kind of interface between the will of a spellcaster and the stuff of raw magic. Without the Weave, raw magic is locked away and inaccessible-an archmage can't light a candle in a dead magic zone. But, surrounded by the Weave, a spellcaster can shape lightning to blast her foes, transport herself hundreds of miles in the blink of an eye, even reverse death itself. All spells, magic items, spell-like abilities, and even supernatural abilities such as ghost's ability to walk through walls, depend on the Weave and call upon it in different ways.
The exact nature of the Weave is elusive because it is many things simultaneously. The Weave is the body of Mystra, the goddess of magic. Mystra has dominion over magic worked throughout Toril, but she cannot shut off the flow of magic altogether with out ceasing to exist herself. The Weave is the conduit spellcasters use to channel magical energy for their spells, both arcane and divine. Finally, the Weave is the fabric of esoteric rules and formulas that comprises the Art (arcane spellcasting) and the Power (divine spellcasting). Everything from the texts of arcane spellbooks to the individual components of spells is part of the Weave. Magic not only flows from source to spellcaster though the Weave, the Weave gives spellcasters the tools they need to shape magic to their purposes.
Whenever a spell, spell-like ability, supernatural ability, or magic item functions, the threads of the Weave intertwine, knit, warp, twist, and fold to make the effort possible. Whenever characters use divination spells such as detect magic, identify, or analyze dweomer, they glimpse the Weave. A spell such as dispel magic smooths the Weave, attempting to return it to its natural state. Spells such as antimagic field rearranges the Weave so tat magic flows around, rather than through, the area affected by the spell.
Areas where magic goes awry, such as wild magic zones and dead magic zones, represent damage to the Weave.

Wild Magic
In some areas of Toril, the Weave is so warped or frayed that magic does not function reliably. This damage may be due to some magical disaster, such as those that were common during the Times of Troubles in 1358 DR, or due to some powerful effect that distorts the Weave, such as mythal*. Most zones of wild magic created during the Time of Troubles have since disappeared, but small pockets or wild magic still remain, especially underground and in wilderness areas.

* See below for information

Dead Magic
In some areas of Toril, the Weave is absent altogether. The Weave has a tear or a hole, and the area has no magic at all. Like the rare wild magic zones, many regions of dead magic were created during the Time of Troubles and have since faded or retreated. Dead magic zones often persist in places where extreme concentration of magical power were abruptly scattered or destroyed-in the vicinity of a shattered mythal, at the spot where an artifact was broken, or at the scene of a god's death.

* A mythal is an ancient form of elven magic created by a group of spellcasters working together to create a lasting magical effect over a large area. Mythals that remain today usually are beginning to fail but resist attempts to dispel them. They can produce any number of bizarre effects, including wild magic. The exact nature of such effects varies with each mythal.

[Lysha]

Ethnicity of Existing Characters

Although published in Forgotten Realms game material has long included references to various human ethnic groups, the actual ethnic group of individual NPS's has rarely been identified. If no ethnic group is specified or implied for a particular character, assume the following ethnicity:

Northwest Faerun: Illuskan
Southwest Faerun: Tethyrian
Northcentral Faerun: Chondathan
Southcentral Faerun: Shaaran
Northeast Faerun: Damaran
Southeast Faerun: Durpari
Calimshan: Calishite
The Old Empires: Mulan
Rashemen: Rashemi

I'll expand on these in more detail later.

Should I do it in the Races instead?

[Kallias]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... itical.png

This picture applies well. I think the big thing to notice is the City State of Waterdeep and what it controls.

[Raona]

I'll expand on these in more detail later.

Should I do it in the Races instead?

I think this the right place for it, Lysha. An Imm can copy or you can cross-post it to Races if it seems to fit with FK well enough, but not everything canon is directly applicable to FK, and I'm not sure where human races fall on that continuum. Thanks for getting folks thinking about it, though! I do see a variety of human races being played in-game, and there's certainly no frowning on that.