and warred upon each other. Those were the Days
of Thunder.
The age of the creator races came to a sudden end
some thirty thousand years ago. Perhaps their wars
reached a terrible and inevitable crescendo, or they tam-
pered with forbidden forces. For whatever reason, the
world changed, and their vast empires vanished. All that
remains of them are ruins and the scattered lizardfolk,
bullywug, and aarakocra tribes, barbaric descendants of
those who once ruled the world.
THE FIRST FLOWERING
From the ruins of the Days of Thunder arose the first
nations of the Proud People-the elves and dwarves- in
the region.
The elves raised up the nations of Aryvandaar,
Ardeep, and Ilythiir. They settled Illefarn along the
Sword Coast, from the Spine of the World to the River
Delimbiyr- its capitol Aelinthaldaar in the shadow of
what is now Mount Waterdeep. Wood elves and moon
elves founded the kingdom of Eaerlann in the Delimbiyr
Valley and the High Forest, and separatists from Ary-
vandaar settled Miyeritar in the lands of the present-day
High Moor and Misty Forest.
The dwarf clans united as the nation of Delzoun,
named for its forge-founder, with dwarfholds built on
sites ranging from the Ice Mountains to the Nether
Mountains and the Narrow Sea, and settlements and
halls westward to the Crags and the Sword Mountains.
The Proud People regularly defended their homelands
against ore hordes that arose from the mountains of
the Spine of the World and surged southward to attack
and pillage.
THE FIRST SUNDERING
Thousands of years after the rise of the great elven
nations, hundreds of elf high mages united to cast a
spell intended to create a glorious homeland for their
race. The spell succeeded, but it rippled backward and
forward in time, and the land was sundered, changing
the face of the world. The largest continent of this new
world is now called Faert1n. Far from its western shores
rose the isle of Evermeet, considered a part of Arvandor,
th e home of the elven gods on the plane of Arborea, and
a bridge between worlds.
THE CROWN WARS
Some thirteen thousand years ago, war broke out be-
tween the elven nations of Aryvandaar and Miyeritar,
beginning a series of conflicts known as the Crown
Wars. Lasting some three thousand years, these con-
flicts c ulminated in the Dark Disaster, in which terrible
storms engulfed Miyeritar, turning it into a wasteland
within a single season, leaving behind the area now
known as the High Moor. The high mages of Aryvan-
daar are blamed for the destruction, although no proof
was ever produced.
The vengeful dark elves of Ilythiir turned to corrupt
and demonic powers, unleashing them against Aryvan-
daar. In the centuries of destruction that followed, elf
priests and high mages fervently prayed to Corellon Lar-
ethian and the gods of the elven pantheon for salvation.
THE DESCENT OF THE DROW
Corellon interceded in the Crown Wars and cursed the
dark elves so that they might never dwell comfortably
under the sun. Now finding themselves pained by ex-
posure to daylight, the drow-in a mere two months'
time-retreated from the sunlit lands of the World Above
into the Underdark. They abandoned all loyalty to the
elven gods who betrayed and banished them, turning
instead to Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders, as their
patron. Wars soon began between the drow and the un-
derground cities of the dwarves.THE AGE OF HUMANITY
For millennia following the end of the Crown Wars, hu-
mans spread and settled throughout Faert1n as the elven
and dwarven nations stagnated and then began a long,
slow decline. Deep in the Underdark, the drow fought
wars of survival and conquest in their new domain.THE RISE AND FALL OF NETHERIL
More than five thousand years ago, a group of human
fishing villages on the shores of the Narrow Sea joined
under the rule of the shaman-king Nether, becoming
known as the empire of Netheril. The Netherese learned
the use of magic from the Eaerlanni elves and became
renowned wizards. Centuries later, they discovered the
arcane texts known as the Nether Scrolls in the ruins of
Aryvandaar and subsequently abandoned the practices
of the Eaerlanni in order to procure even greater mag-
ical power.
Netheril grew to become an invincible nation of magic
and wonders, dominating much of the North for three
thousand years. Then the power-mad Netherese arcan-
ist Karsus attempted to usurp the role of the goddess of
magic. The resulting disruption in the fabric of magic
sent Netheril's floating cities crashing to the ground,
destroyed a host of other wards and enchantments, and
brought about the end of the great empire.THE GREAT CITIES
In the decades and centuries following the collapse of
Netheril, many cities of the Sword Coast and the North,
such as Illusk and Citadel Sundbarr, took in refugees
from the fallen empire, and new settlements made up
entirely or primarily of human survivors from Netheril
and their descendants were established throughout the
North and in the Western Heartlands.
Nearly fifteen hundred years ago, the human settlers
of the Dalelands and the elves of Cormanthor pledged
their alliance in an agreement known as the Dales
Compact. A monument called the Standing Stone
was erected to mark the occasion, and the advent of
Dalereckoning was decreed, beginning with the year 1
DR. This method of numbering the years in Toril's his-
tory has spread across Faert1n and is commonly under-
stood (if not universally accepted).
The city of Neverwinter- called Eigersstor when it
was a mere settlement-was founded in 87 DR. On the
banks of the River Raurin, the humble community of
Silverymoon Ford came into being in 384 DR, and less
than two centuries later it had grown to become the city
of Silverymoon.