Bedorn
A verdant coastal land of water-meadows, thickets, and treacherous bogs that protect it against anyone trying to invade from the Shaar, this little-known realm is quietly prosperous. The town of Dapplegate, nominally independent, marks its northern limits; the only other coastal settlement south of Scelptarmouth, Oparl, is the center of Bedorn.
Bedorn boasts all manner of wealthy, powerful, and eccentric citizens - but only the fearless and powerful dare poke around the realm to find out just who lives there and what they do.
The realm has long been the little-known private playground of rich satraps from Calimshan, where they can host beast-hunts, month-long revels, or dangerous games involving monsters and champions fighting to the death; or have landscapes rearranged to please themselves. As a result, boasting all manner of pleasure-palaces they could sail to, and hold feasts or go hunting from, Bedorn long ago became what it is today: a landscaped, manicured realm of great beauty, dominated by extensive lawns of "greengrass" or moss (so vast, even, lush, and yet close-cropped as to be unheard-of elsewhere in Faerûn) and trees planted and pruned back to create pleasant vistas for the eye, and adorned with the crumbling remnants of many grand (often grandiosely over-ornate) palaces, surrounded by follies and terraces that fade into the surrounding wooded swamps. The decaying riches of yesteryear are studded with shining new mansions and soaring palaces, and no trace of decay can be seen in the center of the realm (in and immediately around Oparl).
The Current Populace
Rich nobles, retired merchants, and archmages or high priests desiring seclusion for their studies dwell here in grand houses, maintaining bodyguards (often as bored as they are richly uniformed) against intruders and possible nomadic or pirate invasions. The last such strife, a pirate landing in Oparl, was bloodily repulsed by a flight of gargoyles sent forth by one of the resident wizards (Ilcanorr of Luthcheq, a raven-haired, handsome, jaded NE male Turami human Wiz20/Acm1/Epic2 who affects a chin-spike of a beard and a large menagerie of perfumed and dyed pet cats) who retired to Bedorn because the attacks of his rivals - and fearful neighbors - were interfering with his researches, notably the perfection of items known as seven circling wands, wherein seven magic weapons were linked so a single being - or predetermined event or situation - can trigger one or more of them to unleash offensive magic, even though the wands aren't held by anyone, and may in fact be hidden away behind panels, tapestries, or paintings in different rooms. Gargoyles and golems are popular estate guardians in Bedorn.
Darth Ilcanorr is probably one of the true rulers of Bedorn, a land that appears to have no government beyond the servants and bodyguards of each landowner, and the often whim-driven "justice" dispensed by that landowner (but in truth is secretly governed - albeit loosely - by a handful of the most powerful landowners, working together behind the scenes to influence the rest).
Aside from vast armies of house servants (administered by stewards, gatelords, châtelaines, chamberlains, seneschals, and all manner of other grandly-titled head servants), jugglers, animal handlers, cooks, vintners and other professions devoted to the work of giving its wealthy citizens pleasure, Bedorn has one sort of business: breeding farms where rare, unusual (sometimes monstrous) pets are bred, reared, and trained for sale in Calimshan, Chessenta, and the Tashalar. Tantar's Fine Enchantments, just east of Oparl, once produced spell scrolls, healing and love potions, glowing globes to illuminate shops and homes; firewarded doors and shutters; and magic daggers (such as glowing daggers +1 that once blood-linked to a purchaser could be unerringly found by that individual if within 70 feet, by a locate object-like magic requiring no aptitude for working magic on the part of the linked being) for sale to the wealthy. It was recently destroyed in an explosion that has left spells spontaneously taking effect at random times in the ruins, fatally discouraging salvagers.
Settlements: Oparl.