D&D General The First Map of the Forgotten Realms

The very first map of the Forgotten Realms was created by Ed Greenwood and mailed in sections to TSR during the late 1980s after he sold the setting to the company for $5000. Years later it ended up hanging in a pub near Madison, Wisconsin. D&D historian Ben Riggs talks about the history of the map on his blog.

How the First Map of D&D's Forgotten Realms Ended Up Above a Pub — Ben Riggs

An artifact from D&D history long thought lost has again been found. Behold the Martin Map of the Forgotten Realms!

www.writerbenriggs.com

The map is known as the "Martin Map" after it was saved by TSR's Forgotten Realms editor, Julia Martin -- Jeff Grubb, the then-custodian of the map -- left TSR in 1995, and left the map in his cubicle. Martin kept hold the map and took it to Seattle when WotC bought TSR.

 

[darjr]

I wish I knew he was looking for it. We had a story about it here years ago. I’ve been trying to get in to see it ever since.

 

[darjr]

Wow that map gives me chills. So awesome.

 

[dave2008]

This my favorite picture from the article:

I wish they would print maps that size for all their settings!

 

[aco175]

I always liked how things moved over the editions and how the map forced things. For instance, I have always thought that the town of Leilon was on the coast since the 2e stuff talks about mud flats and ships. 5e has the town 5 miles inland more towards the hills and mountains. Looking at these old pictures, I can see varied interpretations. Port Llast shows in the OP as on the road, but could be on the coast or just inland. The books talk about it being built into the cliffs on the ocean.

 

[Yora]

Damn it! No pictures of the northeast corner. I was really curious how the Bloodstone Lands had been integrated at this point, or hadn't.
But very fascinating that the map for The North already seems to have had it's final form, even though The Savage Frontier was later written by someone else.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

They weren't all that practical, but there was such a sense of wonder, opening up 2e's Trail Map and seeing the Realms spread out before you (on the floor because no table was big enough).

This my favorite picture from the article:
View attachment 265394

I wish they would print maps that size for all their settings!

 

[Kannik]

Damn it! No pictures of the northeast corner. I was really curious how the Bloodstone Lands had been integrated at this point, or hadn't.
But very fascinating that the map for The North already seems to have had it's final form, even though The Savage Frontier was later written by someone else.

As a fan of the Bloodstone lands myself, I very much remember this image from an earlier article that shows the area!

https://i0.wp.com/www.sageadvice.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_7945.jpg?ssl=1

They weren't all that practical, but there was such a sense of wonder, opening up 2e's Trail Map and seeing the Realms spread out before you (on the floor because no table was big enough).

For years I had the trail maps (both for the main realms and Kara Tur right next to it) affixed to my wall. They are quite glorious things -- not as dense nor as detailed in terms of drawings as the smaller maps or the atlas, but in their shear size and breadth that you could stand back from and still read clearly really gave a sense of the scope of the world.

Fortunately, I have access to a large-format roll scanner at work and have since digitized and unified them into a single, glorious image file to peruse whenever I want.

 

[darjr]

Hope no one minds I’ve posted that here.

 

[Yora]

Aww... It's the answer to my question, but not the one I was hoping for.