A Spelljammers Perspective on Toril

After running a few Toril-based Spelljammer sessions I decided to try and figure out how the place actually fits together when you leave the Sword Coast and it is a bit strange. I took one of the few maps of all the continents and stuck it on Map-to-Globe to get a better sense of where things are - and where the Spelljamming ports are.

Starting from the Forgotten Realms Wiki Toril Map - we add in the names of the continents as a start.

First point - the sword coast is tiny compared to Kara-Tur and we have whole, enormous continents of which we know little. Taking a polar view of it all, one wonders why no Icewind Dalesman or venturer from the Moonshaes struck out across to Anchorome long before Maztica was arrived at.

Turning to the south pole, we have a nearly blank slate - certainly nothing about any of these for the last ~ 3 editions? We have Zakhara (inspired by Arabia), Katashaka (Africa) and Osse (Australia) and massive potential for a Southern Toril setting exploration. Stick a pin in this, we will come back to it later.

Realmspace, the 2e supplement on the system, fumbled the ball somewhat in its handling of Kara-Tur (putting one nations primary Spelljamming port in another nation for instance) and others have done some other thinking about that in the past decades (see Oriental Adventures and Spelljammer: A Guide by GMWestermeyer - opens a pdf) which we will also draw on to give a maximalist view of where the Spelljamming ports are on Faerun. We even throw in the Spelljamming Academy from the current edition.

Not very beautiful but it makes the point - you have two major Spelljamming powers - Shou Lung and Wa - facing off across the Celestial Sea and the major Arcane ground base (the Dock) just nearby. On the far side of the continent you have Waterdeep and Calimport who will happily trade with you as long as you are not too flashy during your approach and pretend you just sailed in by sea. There are whole continents - Maztica, Osse, Anchorome, Katashaka - with no Spelljammer infrastructure at all apparently.

In fact, you can get all the Spelljamming dock yard facilities into one view - the Resort and the Spelljamming Academy are just places to visit, they do not have proper yard facilities nor are they really trading destinations.

So if I am Joe or Jane Spelljammer, arriving in system, after getting past the Beholders, Mindflayers and Pirates on the outer worlds I have the option of dropping down into Waterdeep or Calimport or towards the Celestial Sea. Ilso is not a friendly port if Realmspace is to be believed and Waterdeep and Calimshan attack flyers so any outlanders guide is going to say 'go to Karatin' - so the Spelljammers perspective should be oriented solidly towards Shou Lung.

Another thing that jumps out to me - no Spelljamming from Zakhara, the Land of Fate? A place so happy with genies, magic carpets and voyages has no welcome for flying travellers from afar? According to The Complete Spacefarers Handbook, Zakhara is too intolerant and resource poor and Spelljamming captains avoid it - which I find hard to square with the rest of the info we have on the region.

Reading through Realmspace (which I'm happy to take as relatively canon since the quick synopsis in the Spelljammer Academy adventure copied the synopsis from AD&D Spelljammer) we have a bunch of one-trick planets; the planet of the Beholders, the planet of the Illithids, the planet of grinding marbles, the planet of floating islands, of which only Coliar has even a hint at diversity beyond Planet of Hats.

Taking all these elements and stacking them together we have identified factions of the Elven Imperial Navy broadly keeping the spacelanes secure, we have Shou Lung and Wa as organised nations in space - these are relatively canon. We apparently have hordes of freebooting Spelljammers from the Sword Coast.

I think we should have a space-faring presence from Zakhara at least equal to the Sword Coast - your free-booting scoundrels should be equally likely to be waving a long-sword or a scimitar. I think the Halruans, Thayans and other high magic nations probably should have a minor presence. Where at least Anchorome is the last bastion of the progenitor Aeree and thus unfriendly skies to strangers, surely Osse and Katashaka have been visited and know something of flying ships.

Where in previous editions we had panicky peasants who were liable to freak out and throw rocks if a tiefling came to town, the current edition has cranked the cosmopolitan acceptance of pretty much everyone way up - so the old reasoning of 'you can't fly a flying ship in, people will go bananas' does not hold water any more. Is it that the place is infested with dragons and flying monsters? Is it that the high ambient background level of wizards makes it likely someone will chuck a lightning bolt at you? Is it some residual effect from the fall of Netheril and all those flying cities crashing?

All this to say that if your Forgotten Realms based players get their hands on a Spelljamming helm and decide to just go fly around, there are a bunch of directions they can take where you will very quickly find yourself off the canon lore with near-blank canvas to work with.