Question for @TheEdVerse. In my reading of various 5e Adventur books I’ve noticed a certain diversity in the human settlements on and near the Sword Coast where the humans there hail from other lands in Toril. I’m wondering is Faerun a sort of melting pot of human culture? 1/2 And if so what is the draw for the Turami, the Shou, the Rashemi etc. to settle in that area? 2/2
— Tagabundok (@Tagabundok1) August 23, 2019
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It is a melting pot/draw, because there are so many resources being mined, cut, foraged for, etc. in the Sword Coast North, and so much food grown (and made, like cheese) and drink (wine) along the Sword Coast. It becomes a draw because folk from elsewhere in….Faerûn go there to trade (their exports for these resources), and stay to "work the raw materials" themselves to make more coin (e.g. ship home finished goods their countryfolk most want). As a result, the Sword Coast cities are full of folk from "everywhere."#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 23, 2019
In terms of prosperity, excluding Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate, where does the Sword Coast in general rank? Very high. LOTS of mercantile trading traffic, lots of resources being pulled out of the Savage North interior, lots of serving as supply bases for that same interior. Plus crossroads tolerance = increased ongoing prosperity.#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 24, 2019
Okay. I get the resource angle. I'm kind of wondering if the political situation may also be a factor since it's mostly made up of city states which in turn may have a hard time monopolizing those resources.
— Tagabundok (@Tagabundok1) August 23, 2019
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Sure. The city-states developed because everyone was doing their own thing/wanting to control their own costs and destinies getting at and developing those resources, and every river was a transport highway, so every rivermouth offered a potential port, and the… …topography encouraged watersheds to be their own political regions & discouraged anyone controlling long strips of coastline. So the geography begat the political situation. Warmer climates/longer growing seasons to the south encouraged larger realms/countries.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 24, 2019
Is that only recent, or did it exist back in the Era Of Upheaval? It existed back then. Or the northern Sword Coast would have been left to the orcs (devastating-everything-in-their-path hordes sweeping south all too often, remember?)#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 25, 2019