General Info

Realmspace is the term used to describe the Torilian system and its surrounding environs within the Prime Material Plane. To those on the surface of Toril, Realmspace was called the Sea of Night, while the Netherese referred to it as the Skyward Realms. Contained within a crystal sphere suspended in the enormous expanse of the phlogiston, Realmspace consisted of wildspace (empty vacuum), a sun, eight planets and their satellites, and a variety of asteroids, comets, and nebulae.

Star System Details

The Sun

The largest fire body of Realmspace was located at its centre and radiated a comfortable amount of warmth throughout the entire sphere. It was particularly susceptible to solar flares, which erupted almost continually.

Anadia

One of the two Dawn Heralds, this small, amber-and-green-coloured planet was closest to the sun and mostly populated by halflings and umber hulks. It was covered in canyons that dwarfed the Great Rift, and the equatorial regions were unliveable because of the sun's proximity.

Coliar

Coliar was a gas giant mostly populated with avian life-forms and other flying creatures. Floating islands of water and earth revolved around the planet's core. Elminster was said to own a resort on one of these islands. The planet was covered with clouds and appeared as a grey-white sphere from Toril. It was considered one of the Dawn Heralds.

Toril

The third planet in the system was the most populated, teeming with life. Approximately 60% of the surface being covered with water, fauna on Toril ranged from creatures living in the air, on the land, under the water and subterranean habitats. This planet was formerly known as Abeir-Toril.

Abeir

Toril's "twin planet", existing near Toril's orbit but located within a "pocket dimension" that was out of synchronicity with the rest of Realmspace. It had roughly the same characteristics of Toril.

Selûne

Selûne was Toril's largest natural satellite. It orbited about 183,000 miles (295,000 kilometers) from Toril, although some sages from the late 14th century DR claimed that its orbital distance was only about 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers). Only one side of it ever faced the planet; the other side was called the "dark side", yet it was not always dark. This was where most activity took place. Although Torilians had named it after the deity Selûne, the moon's own inhabitants named their home after Leira. Trailing in the orbit of this satellite were the Tears of Selûne.

Karpri

The first of the Five Wanderers, Karpri, the fourth planet in the system, was an oceanic world. It was an absolutely beautiful place to behold from wildspace. From Toril it appeared as a large star but as a sapphire ball with white caps when viewed by magical means. The poles were covered in pack ice hundreds of miles thick and stalked by deadly cold-loving predators, while floating on the equator's waters could be found seaweed, which at some points could support up to five tons of weight but were also home to massive, dangerous insects. The waters of the world were inhabited by aquatic elves and predacious sea life, making this planet as dangerous as it was beautiful.

Chandos

The next of the Five Wanderers, Chandos was another oceanic world. Its seas contained lumps of rock that, when piled high enough, created highly unstable islands. Those living on these islands were the human, dwarven, and orcish descendants from a pair of spelljammers that crash-landed here long ago. Over time, they lost their technologies and developed an enmity for each other, forgetting their pasts and becoming primitive. From Toril, this planet appeared as a greenish-brown smudge, which changed over time.

Glyth

The third of the Five Wanderers was a gray planet that had a beautiful ring and three satellites observable from Toril. In truth, Glyth was a harsh, ringed planet that, as of the mid-14th century DR, had been occupied by the dreaded illithid for about a century. Plant life was continually burned by the harsh atmosphere or by the mind flayers to prevent their humanoid cattle hiding from them. A remarkably pure, edible gelatine "water" could be found in the place of seas, and while the planet still had ice caps as normal, nothing lived there. Most activity occurred underground. As well as the planet's rings, Glyth was orbited by three satellites. One, known as Haven, was a hollowed out asteroid and treated as neutral ground for the different mind flayer factions. Another, Mingabwe, was a trading port for non-illithids. Orbiting Mingabwe was Polluter, an unmapped asteroid. A group of over 300 mercenaries from the Code Helm resided here conducting raids against illithids in the system.

Garden

Garden was not actually a planet. It was a series of earthy-masses connected together by a massive plant. Non-sentient life-forms created a balanced ecosystem with the many varieties of plant life growing here, but otherwise it was populated by pirates. Garden was also orbited by twelve satellites. Garden could rarely be seen from Toril, but when it was spotted, it appeared as a tiny green speck.

H'Catha

The last of Toril's Five Wanderers, H'Catha, appeared as a crystalline glimmer of white. Consisting of a flat disc of 300‑mile-thick (480‑kilometer) water with a single mountain in the center, close-up, this world looked like a giant wagon wheel, with the Spindle (the mountain) always pointing directly at the sun. Near the base of the mountain, six ports, each owned by a different type of beholder accepted spelljamming traffic from non-H'Cathan beholders and the Arcane. Other species were only allowed to land if they had goods to trade and left as soon as they were done. The world was orbited by two satellites, Turnbetl and Lumbe.

History

The wildspace of the Realmspace crystal sphere was unusually warm compared to others. This led sages to speculate that the sun and Realmspace itself were the oldest among the generally known crystal spheres.
It was believed that the creator races from Toril were the earliest intelligent inhabitants of Realmspace, and the first to develop the magical means necessary to travel to other crystal spheres and other planes, around the same time when inhabitants of other spheres also started to travel. These early migrations into Realmspace dated from the apex of the draconic domain over Toril. The first to arrive were dwarves, followed by treants, elves, and, lastly, mind flayers.
A second wave of migration, roughly coinciding with the time primitive humans started to develop their civilization and with the establishment of Ostoria, heralded the arrival of halflings, gnomes, merfolk, giant-kin, titans, and tritons, as well as―unbeknownst to other races―sharn and phaerimm.
Centuries later, around the time of the apex of Ostoria, a third wave of direct migrations from other crystal spheres saw the arrival of beholders, lesser dragons, leucrotta, centaurs, satyrs, and wemics, among others.
The last wave of migrations, estimated to have happened around the time humans learned magic from the elves, laying the foundations of what would later become Netheril, saw the arrival of pegasi and other winged humanoid races.
During the Time of Troubles, the chanting of the Wanderers had temporarily ceased due to the fall of Realmspace's powers. For the duration of this period, no portals could be opened through the crystal sphere.
Travellers in Realmspace were sometimes terrorized by a mysterious and intimidating bat-shaped vessel known as the Batship, an invasive presence that originated in a remote crystal sphere and adopted Realmspace as its hunting grounds.

Planets

Points of Interest