Existing Dragonspear Lore - What is known?

kcwise

Here's a bit of the existing lore surrounding Dragonspear Castle. I know there are several Realmslore experts on these forums, so please share anything you know.

Dragonspear Castle:

From: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Dragonspear_Castle

The castle was built in 1255 DR by Daeros Dragonspear, around the lair of his ally Halatathlaer. Ithtaerus Casalia set in motion the destruction of the Castle by creating a portal in 1290, and following the exodus of its defenders it was taken over by various tribes of humanoids, notably hobgoblins. In 1315, armies from Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate cleared out the ruin and built a temple of Tempus. One or more hostile entities including the Zhentarim opened new portals, and by 1354 the castle was controlled by devils. The next years were spent fighting off fiends and the humanoid armies they gathered. In the 15th century, the ruins are claimed by Born and a growing army of undead.

Kanaglym:

From:http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Kanaglym

Kanaglym is the name of an abandoned Dwarven town. Located entirely underground and reachable by a series of caves located under Dragonspear Castle, the town is the site of the Fountain of Nepenthe, a watery portal to the Fugue Plane.

The town was built when the High Moor was warm and fertile. However a year after construction was completed, the town well ran dry. The well shaft was deepened and eventually struck water. However the source of this water was actually the Waters of Forgetfulness. A month later the town was abandoned.

Boareskyr Bridge:

From:http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Boareskyr_Bridge

Boareskyr Bridge was the crossing over the Winding Water connecting Soubar, Triel, and Scornubel to Waterdeep and the Trade Way.

The bridge was built by the traveler Boareskyr.

The 4th edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide states the bridge was named after a Realm, while the 2nd edition sourcebook Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast cites Boareskyr was an adventurer.

During the Time of Troubles in 1358 DR, the gods Cyric and Bhaal fought a battle on the bridge. The resulting destruction of Bhaal poisoned the water in the vicinity of the bridge and further downstream. Because of this, an oft-heard curse was "Go drink from the west side of the bridge!"

The bridge was made of black granite and had a statue of Cyric at one end and another of Bhaal at the other end.

Other Interesting Points:

From:http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/1255_DR

Halatathlaer, the dragon featured in Screenshot 15, was a copper dragon. It was bound to the Dragonspear Castle by Ithtaerus Casalia before it was killed by three evil dragons. With that knowledge, and a closer inspection of the screenshot, it seems likely that Hala is a ghost dragon of some sort, whose soul is probably still bound to the location by Casalia's magic.

Another interesting tidbit - Daeros Dragonspear was apparently a "half-dwarf" which most likely means the other half was human. You don't see half-dwarves wandering around all that much.

LordInsane

kcwise said:

Another interesting tidbit - Daeros Dragonspear was apparently a "half-dwarf" which most likely means the other half was human. You don't see half-dwarves wandering around all that much.

One early source, IIRC, suggested that was partly because a half-dwarf, half-human was a dwarf - sometimes a more fertile dwarf (the northern, mostly Shield, dwarves have some lingering issues from the Spawn Wars), but basically just a dwarf for all practical purposes (although of course not necessarily all cultural purposes).

kcwise

I believe they called them Muls in the Dark Sun universe, where they often ended up being gladiators.

Kamigoroshi

Though we don't have Muls in the Forgotten Realms. Instead we've got something much more interesting: the half-human, half-dwarf hybrid race known as Derro. And they are so much more adorable than both humans and dwarves combined with their crazy glittering little eyes~

Would be kind of funny if the Bhaalspawn would unearthen the truth that Daeros Dragonspear were in fact a Derro. And that their infamous racial insanity lead to the destruction of Dragonspear Castle in the long run.

kcwise

Daeros the Derro, daring delver into dangerous deeps

Gallowglass

Arghh! Noooo! Not another "delved too greedily and too deep" trope! (And anyway, a level 8-12 party isn't tough enough to fight a balrog ... although I think we could eat them for breakfast in ToB.)

Fardragon

Does someone with a good map know the exact distance and direction of Dragonspear Castle from Baldur's Gate? I think it is quite a long way ENE.

kcwise

Gallowglass said:

Arghh! Noooo! Not another "delved too greedily and too deep" trope! (And anyway, a level 8-12 party isn't tough enough to fight a balrog ... although I think we could eat them for breakfast in ToB.)

You'd think dwarves would just give up after a while!

Fardragon said:

Does someone with a good map know the exact distance and direction of Dragonspear Castle from Baldur's Gate? I think it is quite a long way ENE.

The Forgotten Realms Atlas indicates it is about 315 miles from Baldur's Gate, about 325 from Waterdeep, and roughly 200 miles south of Daggerford if I'm reading the map correctly and it's more north than east of Baldur's Gate.

kcwise

Here's an image of that area of the map.

Fardragon

The direct route is through Trollclaw Ford. I wonder if that way will be blocked to put Boareskyr Bridge on the route, or if there will be some other reason for going that way.

Fardragon

s

Cahir

I wonder how will devs introduce Bhaal's death? I'm thinking of some vision that will hit CHARNAME while reaching Boaerskyr Bridge.

tokarev748

Hope they will put Soubar in the game,exploring a new city/town/village is fun.

Gallowglass

Fardragon said:

The direct route is through Trollclaw Ford. I wonder if that way will be blocked to put Boareskyr Bridge on the route, or if there will be some other reason for going that way.

They don't go via Boareskyr Bridge. We can see, on a map shown in the announcement video, that Dragonspear Castle becomes accessible (and going there launches Chapter 4) before Boareskyr Bridge (which must be some later Chapter). Presumably, therefore, they go by a more direct route (presumably Trollclaw Ford), and return from the Castle via Boareskyr Bridge, perhaps the latter being the grand finale before being jumped by Irenicus's guys.

brus

kcwise said:

Kanaglym:

From:http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Kanaglym

Kanaglym is the name of an abandoned Dwarven town. Located entirely underground and reachable by a series of caves located under Dragonspear Castle, the town is the site of the Fountain of Nepenthe, a watery portal to the Fugue Plane.

The town was built when the High Moor was warm and fertile. However a year after construction was completed, the town well ran dry. The well shaft was deepened and eventually struck water. However the source of this water was actually the Waters of Forgetfulness. A month later the town was abandoned.

I found very interesting story behind Fountain of Nepenthe and Fugue Plane.

"There are only three methods of getting to the Fugue Plane: as a divine servant collecting a deity's future petitioners, through non-permanent portals from the Nine Hells or the Abyss, or through death."

Astral sea would be a nice place to stay and explore.