High Moor

High Moor

Geography
Aliases	The High Moor Plateau
Type	Hills, Swamp
Region	Western Heartlands
Inhabitants
Races	Humans, Goblins, Orcs, Serpentfolk
Realm	Hunnabar, Phalorm, Miyeritar

The High Moor is a large, monster-infested, open moorland in western Faerûn, and is bordered on the east by the Serpent Hills and on the west by the Misty Forest. It was created in about -10500 DR when the fallen kingdom of Miyeritar was destroyed by the Vyshaantar Empire's magics during the Crown Wars.

The High Moor contains numerous ancient ruins and structures, but the most familiar include Dragonspear Castle on the western edge, Hammer Hall, a log house and stables surrounded by a wooden palisade near the banks of Highstar Lake, and Orzogoth, a large ancestral hall near the Serpent Hills. Forays into the High Moor are usually based in the town of Secomber, north of the region.

Most folk think the Moor is a rocky wilderness, vast and uninhabited - except by trolls. Its soil is too thin for farming, and its stone - mostly granite - is of poor quality for mining. It’s sparsely settled by human barbarian tribes that raise goats and sheep on the moors, guard caravans coming from the east, and fight constantly with the various goblinoid tribes.

Bound on the west by the Misty Forest, whose dim blue glades and deep groves have always carried a fey and whimsical - but deadly - reputation, and on the east by the yuan-ti and ophidian-haunted Serpent Hills, these crag-studded, rolling grasslands are said to hide the ruins of lost, long-fallen kingdoms. Just which kingdoms sages argue furiously over. Minstrels sing colorful but contradictory ballads on the topic, and legends are uniformly vague."The bones and thrones of lost lands" is a favorite phrase; it’s borrowed from a long forgotten ballad.

A few wolves and leucrotta are the most numerous predators on the Moor thanks to trolls, bugbears, and hobgoblins, who have slain most other large beasts of prey. Their relative scarcity has allowed hooved grazing animals of all sorts to flourish, from small, sure-footed rock ponies to shaggy-coated sheep. Those who dare to venture onto the moor can be assured of ready food - either they catch it, or they become it. Rope trip-traps, javelins, and arrows are the favored ways of bringing down the fleet grazing animals, although those with patience and a quick hand can dine on grouse, flunderwings, rabbits, and ground-dwelling moor rats in plenty.

Like the Evermoors north of the Dessarin, the High Moor is studded with lichen-festooned rocky outcrops, moss, breakneck gullies, and small rivulets of clear water that spring from the ground, wind among the rocks for a time, and then sink down again. It’s also shrouded by frequent mists. The prevailing winds are gentler breezes than the mist-clearing, chill winds of the North.

With the obvious exception of Dragonspear Castle, ruins are harder to find in the moorlands. Foundations and cellars are usually all that remain - and almost all such serve as the lairs of monsters. Many towers have toppled into rock piles and have later been hollowed out to serve as tombs - which have in turn been plundered and then turned into dwellings by beasts arriving still later. There are also legends of magically hidden castles and high houses appearing only in certain conditions, such as full moonlight or deep mists, to those in the right spot.

Inhabitants of the High Moor

While at first glance the High Moor is a bleak, forbidding landscape, numerous nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes of humanoid creatures make their homes among the rocks and fens of the region.

Goblinoids

Though numerous small family groups and extended tribes prowl and dig beneath the High Moor, three major hordes of goblins dominate the central moorland.

The White Hand Marauders: Still the strongest and most organized force of goblinoids on the High Moor, the White Hand Marauders formed a large part of the armies of Dragonspear Castle during both the first and the second Dragonspear War. Though their numbers have been continually decimated by constant warfare, the core of their force remains intact, dwelling in the sulfurous pits of the Hellwrought Lands in the hills surounding Dragonspear.

Leader: The Black Duke, a fearsome being referred to by its' clan in hushed whispers and with great reverence.
Symbol: A crude white hand on shields, helmets, or tabards.
Signature: Goblin Warg Rider

The Night Wing Clan: A small but dangerous clan, the Night Wings have forged an unholy alliance with a breeding colony of giant bats in the Bleak Hills. From their high rock vantage, they prey upon all the inhabitants of the Moor and the Tradeway below alike.

Leader: Drascua the Blind, a terrible hag said to be able to see through the eyes of her pet bats.
Symbol: A crude black bat wing, sometimes a mummified bat wing worn around necks and in armor.
Signature: Goblin Bat Rider

Tribe of the Hark: The savage goblins of the Hark are feared less for their martial strength than for the disease they spread with their attacks, for they are infected therianthropes. The wererat goblinoids roam the northern reaches of the High Moor sadistically playing with, or devouring, anything that comes in reach of their claws. They are said to inhabit a warren called the Dungeon of the Hark, but none have discoverd its location and lived.

Leader: The Hark, a creature only rumored to exist within the warren of the goblinoids. What its' true nature is, none can say.
Symbol: A three clawed gash, left upon rock or tree within their territory
Signature: Goblin Wererat Savage

Orcs

Terrible, filthy, and savage, the hulking orcs of the High Moor are a remnant of the dozens of ruinous mountain orc raids that have penetrated from the northern Spine of the World. In the past, the hated orcs of the High Moor have formed the backbone of the armies of Dragonspear, or mercenaries in the Everhorde or the Horde of the Wastes that foundered Phalorm. Now, only two major tribes survive to threaten the inhabitants of the Western Heartlands.

The Deadwalkers: Horrifying even to their own kind, the Deadwalker tribe has fallen into the veneration of Orcus, Demon Prince of Undeath. As such, they have integrated the "gift" of undeath into their brand of savagery. The necroshamans of this orcish tribe dominate the northwestern haunts of the High Moor and their "children", in the form of orcish ghouls and flesh-grafted berserkers often raid the low lying forest when the mists run strong in search of elf flesh or valuable magic.

Leader: Gazanath the Bloated, an immense half orc/half ogre, the leader of Deadwalkers is himself an accomplished necromancer despite currently being a ghast.
Symbol: Red ram horns, sometimes drawn.
Signature: Orc Ghoul Berserker

The Red Tusk: Inhabiting the southwestern reaches of the High Moor, the Red Tusk tribe of orcs has managed to build something resembling a semi-nomadic nation in the wastes. Venerating Gruumsh and the martial spirit, they are renowned for capturing slaves among the other moor inhabitants and forcing them into ritual combat in the gladiatorial pits beneath Ang'tharil, their bleak stone capital in the red wastes.

Leader: The Red Tusk, their great emperor who attained his position, and the traditional spear of the same name, in gladiatorial combat against the old leader.
Symbol: A red spear or tusk
Signature: Orc Gladiator

Humans

Despite the dangers of the High Moor, humans have always made their homes here. Perhaps due to a lingering echo of the magical bloodlines tracing back to the Ffolk of the Moonshaes or to the degraded legacy of fallen Netheril, all the humans of the High Moor possess an unusually strong propensity for magical power.

The Mist Crows: Dwelling near the Hark River and the eaves of the South Wood, the Mist Crows raise hardy sheep and boar in the fog shrouded northern tors. They are deeply religious, holding to an old faith druidic religion led by their Kukagan. They are deeply superstitious and insular folk, as likely to disappear into the woods as to engage with a trespasser, and have a respect and fear of elves in particular.

Leader: The Kukagan, a druid of great power who leads the council of elders.
Symbol: A raven's feather
Signature: Raven-guided Ranger Hunters

The Eyes of the Wyrm: Claiming direct blood descent from the archwizards of ancient Netheril, the matriarchal Eyes of the Wyrm use their blood magic to dominate the lands within their reach. Centered around the "sacred" ruins of Orzogoth, the fiery sorceress barbarians have dominated a colony of red drakes which they use as bonded mounts.

Leader: Sonjarra Dragoneyes, the beautiful and fierce warrior queen of the Eyes.
Symbol: A charred stone tower
Signature: Drake Riding Sorceress

The Serpents' Sons: Sworn enemies of the Eyes of the Wyrm, the Serpents Sons are a fiercely patriarchal tribe of serpent blooded men from the southern Moor. They favor ritual scarification and tattoos of entwined serpent figures and wear armor of bronze and iron.

Leader: Thugra Khotan, the Serpent Lord, said to possess hypnotic powers over men's minds
Symbol: Ssatharla, the entwined serpent god
Signature: Bronze Barbarian