The Spine of the World is a huge, frozen mountain range in the northern-most part of north-west Faerûn.
Description[]
It stretches from the Sword Coast in the West, all the way to the Anauroch desert in the East.
Places of interest[]
Being a largely impassable frozen mountain range, most of the Spine of the World is uninhabited. However, there are various settlements and points of interest scattered throughout it – in its Western part, by the Sword Coast, these include:
- Kuldahar: An ancient druidic settlement, and now town inhabited by humans, that survives thanks to the warmth of an unnatural tree.
- Vale of Shadows: An ancient graveyard near Kuldahar.
- Temple of the Forgotten God: An isolated holy site.
- Dragon's Eye: An underground cave network inhabited by trolls, lizards, and snakes.
- Severed Hand: The ruins of an ancient elven fortress.
- Dorn's Deep: The ruins of an ancient dwarven fortress.
- Wyrm's Tooth: A glacier near Dorn's Deep.
Surroundings and passes[]
Being located in the far North, most of the inhabited world lies to the south of the Spine. However, a few notable locations lie to the north of it – near the Sword Coast, these include:
- Icewind Dale: A harsh region inhabited by the Ten Towns and various barbarian tribes.
- Gloomfrost: A far-away glacier.
- Sea of Moving Ice: The northernmost known geographical feature of the continent.
The Spine of the World thus poses a natural barrier that separates Icewind Dale from the rest of the Sword Coast. There are two passes used by travellers and merchants to cross the Spine from Icewind Dale to southern cities like Luskan and Neverwinter (and vice versa):
- The Western Pass.
- The Eastern Pass (over Kuldahar).
Gallery[]
External links[]
- Spine of the World article on the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting Forgotten Realms