Global Navigation: If I can cheat, I can do whatever I want

(The next few chapters are extras, mainly about the magnificent history of Netheril, which are irrelevant to the main text, so readers can skip them.)
The First Age

The history of Netheril began with seven fishing villages about 5,000 years ago, during the First Flowering of Faerûn. Those who follow the Dalereckoning calendar would consider that to be only 3859 B.C. But for the Netheril, that year marked the beginning of a new era. For within a few decades, the fishermen of Fenwick, Gers, Gilan, Gustaf, Moran, Nauseef, and Janick had adopted the "NY" calendar, which stands for Netheril Years. It is believed that from the "Founding Age" to the 326th Netheril Year, the nation of Netheril was born.

At first, in order to deal with the hordes of orcs, the fishermen decided to form an alliance and help each other. For this reason, Nether the Elder, the shaman king of Giles, created a new calendar to celebrate the birth of the alliance. Thus, the seven sworn villages established a new country, and this union was named Seventon. At that moment, great joy dominated Seventon, and people celebrated the first step towards civilization and praised the wisdom of their leaders.

A few years later, the Great Nether King changed the country's name to "Netheril", which means the Land of Nether. He imposed heavy taxes on the people, causing people to worry that Seventon would collapse. Resentment arose within the alliance, and calls for resistance continued. The country's future suddenly became bleak.

Finally, a poisoned dagger spelled the end of the reign of Neter the Great, and a capable and upright successor, Neter the Younger, rose to power. No one knows who stabbed the Great with the fatal blow, and frankly, there was no rush to find him. After all, the oppression of the tyrannical, self-serving king was gone, and the people were able to live in peace and freely pursue trade. The country's name, although its origins are no longer extant, has stood the test of time.

The Netherese chose a new system of government, loosely based on democracy. They had a single king, whose eldest son was destined to succeed him, but each village chief had one vote. The king's one vote was equal to five of theirs, which still gave him far more power than any one chief.

Fourteen years after Netheril was founded, the Elves of Earlann came to the loose confederation. Until then, "elves" had been considered mere fictions, imaginary creatures - supposedly sent by the gods to help humans and guide lost ones back to the right path. The Netherese bowed in awe and worship before these "messengers of the world's soul." It took the Elves several years to convince the uncivilized people that they, the Elves, were just "humans." Once they had done this, trade relations between the Elves and the Netherese were established, and their friendship lasted for many centuries.

Magic is one of the commodities that the elves use for trade. Therion Gers, a friend of the young Netherese, was the first Netherese to engage in this trade. After a year of instruction - learning cantras - he used magic to light a campfire. Two years later, the first human arcanist in Netherese society became the third most important person in the society, second only to the young Netherese and the shamanic spirit summoner. From then on, people changed his name to "Therion the First of Gers".

Over the next century, trade with the elves continued to develop, and the use of magic in this small country increased by leaps and bounds. Unlike other civilizations, magic was considered indispensable here, and anyone who reached the age of "ascension" would learn magic. Those who showed a talent for magic would receive more true teachings than those who were lazy and careless. The emphasis on magic made Netheril the premier magical country in Toril.

In 132, the Netherese heard a legend that "there is a country where humanoid rock-dwelling creatures live on mud mountains and earth mounds." Brave men began to explore the south and the far west to find these strange rock-dwelling creatures. Those who went south felt the weather getting colder along the paths in the wilderness, and finally these scouts had to set off on their journey empty-handed. The travelers to the west walked and stopped, and went farther and farther. Every time they set out after resting, they felt that the weather was getting warmer.

204 years ago, scouts who arrived in the west encountered a hunting party of Rengarth on the way, and the Netherese treated them kindly. These nomadic barbarians told them stories about underground dwellers and revealed to the Netherese where those rock-dwelling creatures lived. So the scouts tried to send news back to Seventon to report their new discoveries, and at the same time, they hurried to the mountains in the north.

As they approached the Cold Forest south of the Barren Mountains, the adventurers were besieged by the largest orc horde to have ever attacked the area. No one survived, and neither the Longoath nor the Netherese approaching the horde were warned.

The orcs launched a twenty-mile offensive, filled with death and bloodshed. Their ranks marched through the ancestral lands of the Longoath and raided the elves to the south and west. The elven nations of Eilran and Illefarn were preparing for war. With the aid of Netheril (a symbolic—but sincere—gesture, given the elves' strength and the small population and ineffective magic), the elves launched a long mobile war to eliminate the orc threat.

The elves of Eilran were the greatest threat to the orc invaders, and their warriors and arcanists fought with such fervor that the Netherese were in awe of them. Behind the Netherese, the elves of Elfarn fought against the orcs. It is generally believed that the elves of Elfarn played an important role in only two battles, and achieved nothing else.

The Nether Age

The 326th Year of Netheril marks one of the most significant moments in Netheril's history - the discovery of the Nether scrolls. This set of hundred-page tomes enabled the Netherese to achieve incredible advances in magical skill, unprecedented in Toril's history. An era of feverish learning began in Netheril, and lasted until the birth of the nation's greatest archwizards.

It is not known who discovered this significant and legendary magical knowledge; however, he is known to them as the Finder. While exploring the lands west of the Far Horns Forest, the Finder came across an ancient ruin. It seemed that there was once a race of people who walked on the walls as if they were flat land. The chairs and furniture used by them suggested that these animals had more than two legs - possibly twice that number!
The finder searched the ruined building inside and out, looking for something valuable to sell. But when he found the golden tome, he realized that what he had found was worth far more than the money he could exchange it for. So he took the tome back to Netheril and continued to study it. The finder discovered that the 100 golden scrolls were actually divided into two sets of 50. One set looked much older and darker. He called the golden scrolls "nether scrolls" after his homeland. Years later, he shared his discovery with the arcanists of Severton and Zenith. Within a few decades, everyone in Netheril benefited from the knowledge of the scrolls.

Congenio's Pebble Few practitioners earn the respect of their peers during their lifetime, and even fewer still earn their names after death. Congenio Ioun was one such arcanist; his name, still known four thousand years after his death, is due to the Ioun Stone. These magical stones float above their owners' heads, granting them special powers. Later, arcanists of Netheril sought them out.

Born in 364, Congenio had an unprecedented mastery of magic. At the age of 33, he created his first magical artifact: the Congenio Stone. He created more than 30 Congenio Stones throughout his life, and they have many functions, from granting night vision to temporarily increasing levels.

In 451, he changed their name to the Stones of Eorn. In 1319, Congenio died at the age of 955. He is considered the first major arcanist to come from Netheril, and a genius unrivaled in his time.

Delzoun

In 401, 269 years after the "132-year expedition", the Netherese finally discovered the legendary country, where a short, fat race lived among the mountains. They were the Delron dwarves. The Netherese had gone through a long exploration to find these dwarves, but this did not help to reduce the difficulty of communication between the two sides.

It took several years for each race to figure out what the other wanted. The Netherese found it nearly impossible to sell the dwarves new magic items and techniques for spell research. And later, spells (Dweomer) would sometimes fail here. (The Netherese blamed the dwarves because of their similarities to the Jannath, a race that, according to the Netherese sages, was extremely ignorant of magic.) The dwarves, in turn, found a steady stream of buyers for their fine metal weapons, the Netherese. This single commodity accounted for the vast majority of the trade between the two sides.

The Netherese opened a trade route across the Narrow Sea between the dwarven port city of Askol and the Netherese cities of Harborage and Dennis. They also built the Lowroad, a heavily guarded route through the Underdark. Dating back to the days before the coming of the phaerimm, this region has been carefully protected by the dwarves from illithids, drow, and other evil denizens of the Underdark.

Mythallar Era

With the discovery of the Tome of Nether, the Netherese began to focus on the study of magic. During the time of Mysera, a new device was invented that made the future of Netheril uncertain. This device brought incredible power to its creators.

Ioulaum

As one of the greatest human archmages, he was born in 554. Iolum is the main disseminator of Netheril magic, and there are more than 3000 arcanists under his tutelage. More importantly, without his grand appearance in history, the Mythallar core that allows Netheril's cities to fly into the sky would no longer exist.

Iolum launched a major war in 714. He led thousands of arcanists and warriors to Rampant Peaks and attacked the largest orc settlement in Netheril at the time. After 14 days, the orcs retreated, but more than 18000 bodies were scattered throughout the mountains and valleys of Rampant Peaks, including more than orcs.

But Iolum did not give up. He hoped to find the orc army's base and solve the problem once and for all. He had had enough of it all. The people were killed, the food was stolen, the caravans were robbed... all because of these damn beasts. Nothing could stop the war until he killed all the orcs. A year later, after constant reconnaissance and tracking, and even divination with a crystal ball, Iolum's spies and fortune-tellers found the main base of the orcs: the mountains around the source of the Canton River.

So, Iolum led an army of 50000 men in the biggest battle of his life, which lasted for 16 months. In the battle of "Excursion into Extinction", 32000 soldiers were killed, but Iolum still won. No orc escaped from his grasp, because his army surrounded the entire area. Portals were erected one after another, all over the hills. It allowed the troops to move from place to place instantly, cutting off all the enemy's retreat. More than orcs were brutally slaughtered, and the blood flowed like a river, dyeing the snow on Bone Hill and Thunder Peak red.

The First Loss

In 764, a tragedy occurred in Netheril: half of the Nether Tome - a complete set, was stolen. Fortunately, in order to prevent fire and thieves, the two volumes were stored separately, so the stolen one was the one that looked newer, although it has never been found since. (End of this chapter)