Information about the Utter East

[Brakkart]

I'm currently reading the book Faces of Deception by Troy Denning, a Forgotten Realms novel in which the main character Atreus Eleint travels to the area of the world known as the Utter East (in particular a country called Edenvale) seeking a magical fountain which is said to lie in the mystical/mythical valley of Langdarma. I won't comment on the story as I'm only about a third of the way through the book so far.

I know roughly where the Utter East is (essentially it is the landbridge that connects Faerun to Zakhara), my question is: Is there any map of this area published anywhere? Considering that the book is set off the edge of the map of Faerun itself, it sure would have been nice for TSR to have included an area map for that part of the world in the front of the book, but no such luck.

As a related topic, have any of the lands in this part of the world been detailed anywhere. Thus far the book has made mention of Five Kingdoms, and two of them have been named (Edenvale itself and also Konigsheim). From the Shining South book I know of another nation in that part (not sure if it is one of the actual Five Kingdoms though) and that is Ulgarth.

Any help would be appreciated, I would love to be able to look at a map, it might help the story make a bit more sense!

 

[Razz]

They're mentioned in the Hordeland Boxed set I believe and also maybe in 2E's Old Empires and 2E's Kara-Tur supplements. Not sure what else, but Ulgarth is somewhat mentioned in 3E's Shining South.

This is exactly why WotC needs to bring back Kara-Tur/Zhakara/Maztica/Hordelands settings all ready because this is getting ridiculous. They won't publish them again because of sales from TWENTY YEARS AGO! This makes no sense. Times change, people change, desires change, views change...they need to bring these back already! It's almost two generations by now.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Is the Utter East even a part of the Forgotten Realms/Faerun, or is it more OA or AA (Arabian Adventures, not Alcoholics Anon.)?

 

[Staffan]

I vaguely recall borrowing a rather bad RTS-like D&D-base game called Blood and Iron from a friend, and I think that was set in the Utter East. I don't recall how much background info there was in the manual though.

 

[JustKim]

I vaguely recall borrowing a rather bad RTS-like D&D-base game called Blood and Iron from a friend, and I think that was set in the Utter East. I don't recall how much background info there was in the manual though.

I think you may be confusing games. Iron & Blood was a 3D fighter set in Ravenloft, made by Acclaim for the Playstation and PC. It was just as awful as it sounds.

 

[Staffan]

Right. Some research shows that it was Blood & Magic I mean.

 

[Brakkart]

Is the Utter East even a part of the Forgotten Realms/Faerun, or is it more OA or AA (Arabian Adventures, not Alcoholics Anon.)?

Technically it is part of Faerun, as the only novel set there is under the FR banner. The area seems a bit odd really, I mean Edenvale has an indigenous population called the Mars, who are clearly an indian/pakistani culture/race type. Bizarrely though the ruling class are the Ffolk (the same people from the Moonshaes of all places), who conquered the nation ages back and have ruled it ever since (a clear analogy to Ptolemy's Egypt). It does sound like an interesting place to set a campaign actually... if only there was a MAP!!

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I vaguely recall...

There was a game, I think, and it was released at the same time as the Double Diamond Books - all of which were set in or involved the Utter east. But the books were apparently something of an issue and are not considered canon (I've not read them) and I never played the game. This was several years ago.

 

[3catcircus]

Technically it is part of Faerun, as the only novel set there is under the FR banner. The area seems a bit odd really, I mean Edenvale has an indigenous population called the Mars, who are clearly an indian/pakistani culture/race type. Bizarrely though the ruling class are the Ffolk (the same people from the Moonshaes of all places), who conquered the nation ages back and have ruled it ever since (a clear analogy to Ptolemy's Egypt). It does sound like an interesting place to set a campaign actually... if only there was a MAP!!

Actually, the Ffolk did conquer it, but the theme is more in line with the way that South Africa was colonized.

In any case, the point is that there is very little regarding the Utter East. The best source of a map is the FRIA, which is currently out of "print."

 

[Kishin]

This is exactly why WotC needs to bring back Kara-Tur/Zhakara/Maztica/Hordelands settings all ready because this is getting ridiculous. They won't publish them again because of sales from TWENTY YEARS AGO! This makes no sense. Times change, people change, desires change, views change...they need to bring these back already! It's almost two generations by now.

Kara-Tur wasn't even originally supposed to BE part of the Realms, and its almost as bad as Rokugan in terms of mangling Asian history, culture and mythology. Zakhara/Al-Qadim would be in direct competition with True20's Caliphate Nights, and people would doubtless cry foul at the niche hijacking, Maztica was at least mildly innovative despite inaccurate portrayals but is the most extremely niche setting ever (I doubt even 5% of gamers give a damn/know anything about Mesoamerica) and turned Amn into a transparent imitation of late medieval/renaissance Spain, and the Hordelands was in the same boat as Kara-Tur. "Here, have a thinly veiled, poorly researched insertion of the Golden Horde into Faerun."

Let sleeping dogs lie, IMO.