Games, all sorts

To most inhabitants of the lands of the Inner Sea, the Moonsea and its cities represent the border between civilization and barbarism. The Moonsea sits like a great plug straddling the territory between the mountains of Vaasa and the Nomad Steppes, protecting the southern territories from the incursions of the savage Northerners. To the south of the Moonsea lie the civilized lands of Cormyr and Sembia. To the north lay hundreds of square miles of cold and unforgiving wastes. Even when the southern kingdoms are themselves besieged by orcish hordes, dragons, and fell monsters, they take comfort in the fact that, “It's worse around the Moonsea.”

The Moonsea Reaches are defined by sages as being those lands bordering on the Moonsea and its major contributing rivers. These rivers are the Tesh in the west, overlooked by Zhentil Keep; the Wyrmflow, in the east; the Duathamper, also known as the Evenflow, flowing from the heart of the Elven Court to the south; and the Barren River (once called the Stojanow) which flows out of the Dragonspine Mountains to the north and into Phlan.

The Moonsea itself is an odd combination of abyssal deep spots, ship-killing shoals, and rich fresh-water reefs. Despite this, travel across the Moonsea is generally safer than making the journey on land, so that most of the major merchant activity is by water.

This is not to say that the Moonsea is without dangers. While monsters are more infrequent along the Moonsea, those that exist are generally more powerful than their landed cousins. Regions of the Moonsea are recorded as being haunted, and there have been numerous sightings of ghost ships.