Sunrise Mountains
The Sunrise Mountains, which many consider to mark the eastern end of Faerûn proper, run all the way from the center of Rashemen to just past the southeastern border of Thay. They form the entirety of Thay’s eastern border, towering almost 15,000 feet above sea level. To get to the Thayan portion of the Sunrise Mountains, a traveler must first tackle the Surague Escarpment. Few find even this to be worthwhile, as the Sunrises themselves are virtually impassable to those on foot. As well, the lands above the Surague Escarpment are wild and untended, nothing like the civilized plains of the First Escarpment. They are teeming with dangerous animals and hostile humanoids. From time to time, scouts from the goblin and kobold tribes living here forage into Thay proper.
Every now and then, the tharchions of Surthay, Gauros, Pyrados, and Thazalhar send an expedition into the peaks. Old Raumviran towers and strongholds lie buried under the snows of the high slopes, as well as the ancient well-like fortresses of some even older people now forgotten by time. High and perilous passes cross the mountains at Daggertooth Pass and Thazar Pass, but there have long been rumors of a secret passage through the deeps into the Endless Wastes beyond. If this could be found and secured, it might divert the trade of the Golden Way south to Thay and increase tenfold the power of the tharchion whose people discovered the pass. Scouts and adventurers have so far failed to discover such a way through, despite centuries of searching. The dangers of the mountains multiply the farther one descends from the surface. The caverns beneath the Sunrise mountains are filled with horrible creatures, including nagas, chimeras, and things unspeakably worse.
The patrols along this edge of Thay are not as alert as those of the nation’s other borders. The denizens of the mountains rarely descend the Surague Escarpment to attack, and the idea of invading force coming through the mountains is preposterous. Border patrol here is considered one of the dullest and most miserable jobs a soldier can get, so it often draws the less ambitious of Thay’s defenders. No one ever became a tharchion on such duty, after all.
