@TheEdVerse Where precisely is Yartar, relative to the River Dessarin? It's described in the SC Adventurer's Guide and other 5e materials as "situated in the fork where the Rivers Surbrin and Dessarin join," and as a result some fan-created maps of the city show the city … 1/5
— Jeremy Powell (@jmhpowell) February 1, 2021
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Yartar began as a ferry-base (ferries as in: barges tethered to cables stretched across both rivers, from timber pilings on the banks designed to hold even sagging ropes above the river flow) across both the Surbrin and the…2)
…Dessarin, so it does indeed occupy the northeastern “angle” between the two rivers as they join. As Yartar grew into a town, it expanded across the Surbrin to the west bank (the easiest area to swiftly evacuate if an orc… #Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 1, 2021
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…horde came sweeping south), and eventually that ferry got augmented by (not replaced by) a bridge.
Over time, as Yartar became an important town, it got its first defensive wall (really a ditch with an earthen rampart topped… 4)
…by a palisade of logs) in an arc from the Surbrin to the Dessarin, using the fast-flowing rivers as the other “walls.” This increased density in the defended area, choking the streets and leading to taller buildings, and…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 1, 2021
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…increasingly to building in stone (as timber buildings under heavy snowfalls and no maintenance tend to collapse) and cobbling the muddy lanes, and then to expansion of the walls and building them in stone, with proper…
#Realmslore 6)
…gates, and finally to expansion to the south bank of the Dessarin, until eventually what’s seen in BGIII results: rivers flowing through a bustling city to join within that bustling city, with bridges.
Many of the early…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 1, 2021
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…published maps of the Realms shift the symbols for population centers off rivers and other natural features, sacrificing accuracy for clarity, but Yartar began as a way of crossing the two rivers at their confluence (to take…
#Realmslore 8)
…the Evermoor Way through this point), and camping there and using it as a trading and transshipment (and so, caravan-mustering and -breakup) point, so Yartar has always really been where the Surbrin and Dessarin meet, …#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 1, 2021
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…initially in the “wedge”-angle between them as a built center, but from the beginning with camping-places on the “outer” banks (west bank of the Surbrin and south bank of the Dessarin). #Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 1, 2021
