Hello everybody Jorphdan here the PH is silent.
Today we’re talking about the Sea of Fallen Stars!
This is the largest body of water that is inland in Faerun.
It’s known as the Inner Sea.
All around it are thriving coastal towns and cities.
The sea is treacherous though and is home to hundreds of shipwrecks silent underneath
thousands of feet of water.
The Sea of Fallen Stars gets its name from the stars that fell from the sky and shaped
the land allowing water to rush in and create this sea.
This event, which we’ve talked about before but I’ll recap, is known as the Tearfall.
The Tearfall was a planet wide disaster that struck Abeir-Toril back when they were one
planet during the Days of Thunder.
Much of the inner seas merged together forming the Sea of Fallen Stars and it’s called
the Tearfall because one theory says that the Tears of Selune (which were stars in the
sky or a large ice comet) fell to Abeir-Toril.
This dramatically changed the climate and brought an end to the Batrachi civilization
and heralded in the age of Dragons as the apex predator of Faerun.
There is another myth that it was dragon eggs not an ice comet or moon that fell from the
heavens during the Tearfall and these dragon eggs hatched into the first dragons.
Regardless if this is true or not it is well documented that dragons appeared shortly after
the Tearfall.
Yet another myth states that the Tearfall was caused by the Batrachi themselves.
They were losing a war against the Titans and performed a summoning ritual to release
some primordials from their ancient prisons.
One of these primordials known as Asgorath the World-Shaper attempted to destroy Abeir-Toril
by hurling an ice moon at it.
Lord Ao intervened and sundered the world in two, forming Abeir and Toril.
This event was always known as the Tearfall but later on in history became known for what
it actually was, the first Sundering.
Asgorath is known as being the dragon’s creator because the dragons appeared shortly
after the Tearfall.
It was a lot of earthquakes and continent rearranging that formed the Sea of Fallen
Stars.
The Sarrukh’s writings dated around -31,000 DR mentioned a “changing of the stars”
that followed the Tearfall.
Perhaps this is where we get the idea that a comet or literally stars fell from the sky
and reshaped Abeir-Toril.
The communities around the Sea of Fallen Stars rely heavily on fishing.
Usually small boats near the coast will fish for food and profit.
Larger cities have whole fleets, and the very rich of Sembia and Cormyr might take part
in deep-sea fishing for sport.
Also these communities have become excellent shipbuilders, as being able to utilize and
traverse the Sea of Fallen Stars is crucial to their survival.
Shipping food and materials across the Sea of Fallen Stars can be dangerous.
The sea is often home to wild storms making the waters unsafe.
There are hundreds of sunken ships on the seafloor, some still with gold and merchandise
waiting for a lucky adventurer to find.
Most cargo ships hug the coastlines, they are not fast but can hold up to 100 tons of
cargo with a crew of thirty men and women.
The bulk of surface activity happen within fifteen or twenty miles from the coast, and
the primary trade lanes run from the Dragon Coast, Cormyr, and Sembia down to Turmish.
Pirates!
It wouldn't be a sea without pirates.
There are various types of pirates on the Sea of Fallen Stars.
There are “True” pirates who attack ships, killing their crew to take any gold and cargo.
There are “Nobel” pirates who take cargo but leave the crew intact, many of these are
decent people thrown into piracy for survival.
There are smugglers that have been branded as pirates attempting to avoid taxes and other
fees they view as unjust.
Finally Corsairs are the pirates at the beck and call of individual coastal governments
who raid other pirates or political enemies.
Geographical locations around the inner sea consist of Cormyr, Sembia, The Vast, Thesk,
Aglarond, and Thay; as well as others.
Surprisingly most of these governments have similar laws when concerning seafaring.
Salvaging treasure from the various shipwrecks of the inner sea is more difficult but not
unlike dungeon delving.
Any sunken ship within territorial waters becomes property of the authorities but the
government usually only take a 20% tax.
The waters of these governments are considered to be the first 10 miles from the shore.
Anything further than that isn’t in their jurisdiction.
Attacks on a ship in their waters are considered acts of war against the city or state.
Also fishing without paying for a permit in their waters is considered illegal.
There are plenty of superstitions that surround the Sea of Fallen Stars.
They’re a little silly but some of the more interesting ones are…
“If a shark bites a boat and leaves any teeth in the wood, the boat has as many days
as there are teeth before falling prey to disaster.”
“Red-haired people bring back luck onto ships, thus barring their use as dockhands.”Never
utter the word ‘drown’ while at sea.
It attracts Umberlee’s attention without fail.” and “Tattooing open eyes on your
eyelids warns you of danger while you sleep.”
There are some interesting fables, lore, or history of the Sea and it’s past civilizations.
The Netheril have a sunken city called Nhalloth.
Nhalloth was an enclave that was floating over the sea of fallen stars during Karsus’s
Folly (more info on that in the popup above) and when the floating city fell it crashed
settling 200 feet below the water’s surface.
Numerous monsters inhabit the Sea of Fallen Stars.
Dragon Turtles for one are great dangers of the lower depths.
Kuo-toans, Krakens sea zombies, and sea hags often live in or around the Sea of Fallen
Stars.
If you want to explore further there are a whole geography to the bottom of the sea of
fallen stars, and the weird creatures that live there.
I got a lot of information for this video from the AD&D Accessory “Sea of Fallen Stars.”
The book has whole sections on running a campaign or interlude campaign on or below the Sea
of Fallen Stars.
If your party members find themselves exploring undersea ruins you might want to pick up this
book.
It has information on Breathing underwater, as well as vision, and underwater communication.
How does water pressure affect your party or temperature for that matter.
Everything from movement to underwater combat.
Although it’s AD&D I think most of the information can be converted to 5e with little effort.
And that’s it for today.
Thanks for watching everyone.
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I really appreciate all the love and support!
I’ll see you all in the next video!