D&D 5E (2024) Atlas of Faerun (with some pictures from the internet)

[Parmandur]

Look at the post that's literally above yours. There is going to be a poster map in at least one of the books.

I think the marketing right now is talking about the Atlas because thwt is more novel: a first in class product, whereas poster maps are pretty common.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I was thinking more Sword Coast since that's mostly all that's been covered in 5e's timeline advancements so far.

Anauroch is back to being a desert again after Netheril's brief return ... but deserts are always PoL what with their little oases separated by vast stretches of nothingness. We don't know what the 5e Dalelands will look like just yet.

Even the Sword Coast is pretty wild, with lots of untamed areas. Between Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep, which are hundreds of miles apart, there are no settlements of any size other than Daggerford, which is basically an exurb of Waterdeep anyway. The entire coastline is basically deserted, with no settlements along it (which is not helped by being mostly cliffs). Between Baldur's Gate and Amn, there's only one settlement, Beregost, and the anomaly of Candlekeep. Most of the settlements in the area are inland along the rivers like the Chionthar and Delimbiyr. In fact, pretty much everything between the Chionthar and Delimbyr is an untamed wilderness, with naga and yuan-ti filled swamps, troll-haunted moors, old battlefields teeming with udead, and monster-filled ruins like Dragonspear Castle and Warlock's Crypt. It's little wonder that the Trade Way degrades to little more than a cart track in that area. The Boareskyr Bridge is about the only point of light in that darkness.

 

[pukunui]

Even the Sword Coast is pretty wild, with lots of untamed areas. Between Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep, which are hundreds of miles apart, there are no settlements of any size other than Daggerford, which is basically an exurb of Waterdeep anyway. The entire coastline is basically deserted, with no settlements along it (which is not helped by being mostly cliffs). Between Baldur's Gate and Amn, there's only one settlement, Beregost, and the anomaly of Candlekeep. Most of the settlements in the area are inland along the rivers like the Chionthar and Delimbiyr. In fact, pretty much everything between the Chionthar and Delimbyr is an untamed wilderness, with naga and yuan-ti filled swamps, troll-haunted moors, old battlefields teeming with udead, and monster-filled ruins like Dragonspear Castle and Warlock's Crypt. It's little wonder that the Trade Way degrades to little more than a cart track in that area. The Boareskyr Bridge is about the only point of light in that darkness.

The Sword Coast is more settled than the zoomed-out maps make it look. There are lots of little farms, villages, thorps, hamlets, communes, and the like that simply don't get included on the maps. The area between Waterdeep and Daggerford is basically all settled farmland. Most of the area between Waterdeep and Red Larch is the same. There may not be a Kingdom of Waterdeep governing the region, but it is nowhere near as empty or uncivilized as it looks on the map.

That being said, I'm not really talking about the physical aspects of a PoL setting but more the metaphysical ones - technology, attitudes, politics, etc. It's been a long time since FR societies were small, isolated communities with little outside contact. Even with the vast distances between them, there's a lot of trade and communication going on. Groups like the Lords' Alliance provide military and diplomatic alliances.

Then you've got stuff like Baldur's Gate with its steam-powered cranes in its port, and Waterdeep appearing more like its in the 1700s or 1800s in much of the Dragon Heist art.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The Sword Coast is more settled than the zoomed-out maps make it look. There are lots of little farms, villages, thorps, hamlets, communes, and the like that simply don't get included on the maps. The area between Waterdeep and Daggerford is basically all settled farmland. Most of the area between Waterdeep and Red Larch is the same. There may not be a Kingdom of Waterdeep governing the region, but it is nowhere near as empty or uncivilized as it looks on the map.

That being said, I'm not really talking about the physical aspects of a PoL setting but more the metaphysical ones - technology, attitudes, politics, etc. It's been a long time since FR societies were small, isolated communities with little outside contact. Even with the vast distances between them, there's a lot of trade and communication going on. Groups like the Lords' Alliance provide military and diplomatic alliances.

Then you've got stuff like Baldur's Gate with its steam-powered cranes in its port, and Waterdeep appearing more like its in the 1700s or 1800s in much of the Dragon Heist art.

I mean, I did leave out those areas for a reason, and mentioning that, yes, the areas around the rivers are settled. But once you get past Daggerford, you've got hundreds of miles before you'll be seeing civilization again.

For me, PoL the technology doesn't matter. Are there still wide swathes of untamed wilderness with minimal settlements is what counts in my opinion. FR is big enough to handle both.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

We as fans know so much about the world it's impossible not to metagame

Only an issue for very hardcore fans. My players know more about Eberron. And there are still regions that are little touched by the fiction that you could use to challenge setting fans, since knowledge of the political situation thousands of miles away is completely useless.

And, of course, the DM can change whatever they like, so trying to meta could be ver6 dangerous.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

now the setting has more of a Renaissance/Enlightenment

That was already there in 2e (look at the art in BG1) but is largely the Sword Coast region. Different places have different tech levels. Also see LotR.

I think a lot of people thought Tudor was medieval at one time, and so there is a lot of pseudo-Tudor around. It’s actually Renaissance/Early Modern of course.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I'm afraid the setting is far too detailed to be a points of light, which is part of the problem. We as fans know so much about the world it's impossible not to metagame, but the characters in the world themselves would have almost no ability to know anything from the next thorp over.

That might have been true up until the time-skip at the start of 4e. Before that, every area of Faerûn had been pretty much been fully detailed. Since then, we've had decent coverage of the Sword Coast, but just about everywhere else has had a few paragraphs, at most.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Between Baldur's Gate and Amn, there's only one settlement, Beregost, and the anomaly of Candlekeep

The books tend to focus on cities and important towns, and sites particularly important to adventurer like Candlekeep. If you look at BG1, there are four hamlet-village level settlements in the area in addition to the places you list. And enough black space and lone farmhouses to imply more.

If there is a city, it will have satellite towns, the towns will have satellite villages, the villages will have satellite farms.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Look at the post that's literally above yours. There is going to be a poster map in at least one of the books.

Which post is that? Is it going to be a digital "poster" map or a physical poster map?

If I were making the decision at Wizards of the Coast, I would put a two-page spread of this map in the physical book and only make the digital map available on D&D Beyond.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Look at the post that's literally above yours. There is going to be a poster map in at least one of the books.

Oops. Cool!

I still hope it ends up on blankets and other more durable physical products.