D&D General What's the safest place to live in the Forgotten Realms?

[Cergorach]

I was thinking that if there's a young adventuring couple looking to start a family, they have options to pretty much settle anywhere in FR/Faerun/Toril. What I often see here with young couples that have the means to move, they'll look for a safe place to raise their kids. That's often a quiet neighborhood with little crime and no natural disasters... So my thinking is how would that work for a young adventuring couple in the Forgotten Realms?

Waterdeep is located on Undermountain... Yeah... No!
Neverwinter has a big hole in it (that's been recently sealed, but it's still mostly a wreck), that spewed forth a lot of bad stuff.
Smaller settlements often have scary stuff living under them or get occasionally wiped out by an Orc horde, cult, etc.

Is there a relatively save place to live in the Forgotten Realms? Or am I just looking at the wrong locations? Something like a long established kingdom, with minimal hostile interactions?

 

[AK_Ambrian]

Silverymoon?

 

[Evaniel]

Probably somewhere in Cormyr? It's civilized, has a strong sense of order and a strong military without being overly autocratic. Arabel or Suzail, perhaps?

 

[Moonmover]

Evermeet is the safest place in the Realms, by a wide margin. As long as you're an elf, that is.

 

[Steampunkette]

Cormyr, yeah. Surrounded by knights in a lovely forest kingdom with an enemy nation, nearby, that hasn't done anything to anyone since 3rd edition.

Honestly, anywhere East of the Remembered Realms except Chult and Thay has been incredibly peaceful for a few editions with no new historical events of scale or note!

 

[see]

Oh, sure, Cormyr had a rebellion centered in Arabel, was Ground Zero for Mystra's death in the Time of Troubles (complete with a zone of magical fallout and physical chaos), and had a major mystically-fueled civil war that killed the crown princess and king, as the brief highlight reel of Azoun IV's reign.

But under his successors it just . . . had a whole series of wars with the Shadovar/Netherese/Sembian threat, culminating in the forced evacuation or siege of literally all its major cities three years prior to the "present day" of the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

So, you know, it's been safe for maybe a decade or two (it's hard to be sure what the "present year" is in FR, but the near-conquest of the country mentioned above was in 1486 DR, the SCAG date is 1489 DR, and the date of the events in Acquisitions Incorporated is allegedly 1496 DR), if the writers don't backfill in any "interesting" events when they publish the new version of the setting next year.

 

[Horwath]

Menzoberranzan

 

[KYRON45]

Wherever there are no player characters.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Yeah

Wherever there are no player characters.

Actually, I was gonna say just near the Yawning Portal. Surrounded by people who can handle things when they go bad.

 

[Steampunkette]

Wherever there are no player characters.

Which is why I say all points East of the Remembered Realms!

Oh, sure, Cormyr had a rebellion centered in Arabel, was Ground Zero for Mystra's death in the Time of Troubles (complete with a zone of magical fallout and physical chaos), and had a major mystically-fueled civil war that killed the crown princess and king, as the brief highlight reel of Azoun IV's reign.

But under his successors it just . . . had a whole series of wars with the Shadovar/Netherese/Sembian threat, culminating in the forced evacuation or siege of literally all its major cities three years prior to the "present day" of the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

So, you know, it's been safe for maybe a decade or two (it's hard to be sure what the "present year" is in FR, but the near-conquest of the country mentioned above was in 1486 DR, the SCAG date is 1489 DR, and the date of the events in Acquisitions Incorporated is allegedly 1496 DR), if the writers don't backfill in any "interesting" events when they publish the new version of the setting next year.

Most of the war between Cormyr and Sembia happens in the Dalelands, though Netheril did bring forces to their border making it a "War on Two Fronts" in 1484. That war ended in 1486 after the two traded land here and there and then basically ended the war with their borders back where they were at the start.

Going through the SCAG I find nothing about the forced evacuation or siege of all major cities in Cormyr. Just to be on the safe side I also checked the Forgotten Realms wiki and... lo and behold:

Nada.

The last mention of Cormyr in the canon is the repelled Netherese attacks on the border and the proxy-wars with Sembia in the Dalelands.

I specifically looked at the Wiki, by the way, 'cause it collects all the canon from everywhere. Every novel, every rulebook, every videogame. You can read about Karlach, there.

Karlach Cliffgate

Karlach Cliffgate was a mighty warrior and unwilling champion of Zariel that fought for the archdevil in the Blood War on Avernus during the late 15th century DR.[1] Karlach had dark red skin, that was covered in scars, and black hair that she wore long on the top, and sheared on the sides. Her...

forgottenrealms.fandom.com

If you live in the Dalelands, you had war declared over your territory by Sembia opposed by Cormyr. If you lived in Cormyr there was a war "Over there" and your life was largely unaffected unless you lived in a border community, I suppose.

But yeah... points East? Crickets.