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49-645: For the Dungeons and Dragons location, see Shaar (Dungeons & Dragons) . Shaar (also written Al Shaar ) is a surname. People with the surname include: Bassel Al Shaar (born 1982), Syrian football player Edwin W. Shaar (1915–2001), American writer and graphic artist Hisham Al Shaar (born 1958), Syrian politician Mohammad al-Shaar (born 1950), Syrian military officer and politician Mohammad Nidal al-Shaar (born 1956), Syrian politician and economist [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with

98-669: A kind of monstrosity. Ogre could possibly also derive from the biblical Og , last of the giants (or from the Greek river god Oiagros , father of Orpheus ). The word ogre came into wider usage in the works of Charles Perrault (1628–1703) or Marie-Catherine Jumelle de Berneville, Comtesse d' Aulnoy (1650–1705), both of whom were French authors. The first appearance of the word ogre in Perrault's work occurred in his Histoires ou Contes du temps Passé (1696). It later appeared in several of his other fairy tales, many of which were based on

147-835: A mystical field called the Weave , the source of magical energies on Toril . Faerûn has a pantheon of deities that are worshipped by the followers of this region. These are comparable to mythological deities of the ancient Greek pantheon and cover a range of ethical beliefs and portfolios of interests. Faerûn is home to many non-human creatures of varying degrees of civilization or barbarism. Among these are several different races of dwarves , gnomes , halflings and elves , as well as goblins , orcs , lizardmen , ogres , various giants , and even dragons . There are several organized alliances in Faerûn, with each pursuing their particular agenda. A few are dedicated to decent and honest causes, such as

196-476: A vast region of steppe that separates it from Kara-Tur . In the north are massive glaciers, named Pelvuria and Reghed, and a region of tundra . South of the continent, separated by the Great Sea, is a sub-tropical land called Zakhara. To the northwest, Faerûn is a region of wilderness, difficult winter weather, hordes of orcs, and barbarous human tribes. This region is generally referred to as "The North". It

245-470: A wide variety of locations, each with its own hazards and potential rewards for the participants. Likewise, the region that the players explore can determine what types of monsters they will face, which famous individuals they will encounter, and what types of missions they assume. Besides the exterior coastline to the west and south, the most dominant feature on the continent is the Sea of Fallen Stars. This

294-788: Is a mostly-untamed region that lies between the large Anauroch desert in the east and the expansive Sea of Swords to the west with a mountain range at the far north called the Spine of the World. This area contains huge wooded regions such as the High Forest and the Lurkwood , the frozen Icewind Dale to the north, and an untamed region called the Savage Frontier, which includes the Silver Marches (Luruar). The coastal region

343-400: Is an eclectic land, rich in history, that has witnessed the rise and fall of kingdoms, forever bearing the scars of centuries of war." A major difference between the setting and Earth is the presence of magic . The system of magic is subdivided into divine and arcane categories, with the former empowered by a Faerûnian deity , and the latter by rituals or innate abilities which manipulate

392-534: Is an iconic D&D experience". The green-skinned ogre Shrek is a fictional character created by the American author William Steig that since 1990 has appeared in a book , several movies by DreamWorks Animation , a TV series, and a musical. The Ogre Mulgarath is the main antagonist in The Spiderwick Chronicles books series (also adapted into a film and a TV series). Ogres make up

441-516: Is an irregular inland sea that keeps the neighboring lands fertile and serves as a major trade route for the bordering nations. Next in significance is the Shaar, a broad region of grasslands in the south that, together with a large body of water called the Lake of Steam, separates the area around the inland sea from the coastal nations at the southern edge of the continent. To the east, Faerûn is bordered by

490-581: Is called the Sword Coast, "a haven for adventurers". Here lie the "iconic locastions" of the city-state of Neverwinter and the large port city of Waterdeep. Undermountain is a vast dungeon crawl under the area of Waterdeep, rated among the "deadliest" and most iconic in the game. The Ten Towns are located within Icewind Dale with the Sea of Moving Ice at the northernmost place in known Faerûn. In

539-435: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Shaar (Dungeons %26 Dragons) Economically and technologically, Faerûn is comparable to Western Europe during the late Middle Ages , giving most new players using this campaign setting an intuitive grasp of the way the society functions. Gunpowder, known here as the magical substance smoke powder and different in its composition from historical gunpowder,

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588-516: Is in Chrétien de Troyes ' late 12th-century verse romance Perceval, li contes del graal , which contains the lines: Et s'est escrit que il ert ancore que toz li reaumes de Logres, qui jadis fu la terre as ogres, ert destruite par cele lance. "And it is written that he will come again, to all the realms of Logres , which was formerly land of ogres, and destroy them with that lance." The ogres in this rhyme may refer to

637-533: Is starting to make an appearance, but much of the armament is still dominated by pre-gunpowder weaponry such as swords, spears, and bows. Most of the population of Faerûn consists of farmers, who are organized somewhat loosely in a semi- feudal system . There are also several notable cities and trade between nations is common, as in the Renaissance era. Likewise, there are regions where more barbaric tribes and customs persist. Home to many different cultures, "[i]t

686-477: The Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game as large, powerful humanoid creatures, with slightly below average intelligence, throughout its editions as adversaries but also playable characters. The ogre was counted among the ten best low-level monsters by the authors of Dungeons & Dragons for Dummies . They posit that the ogre "teaches players about fighting big, powerful, stupid monsters, which

735-632: The Arabian Nights setting Al-Qadim , are also on this continent. Maztica , home of a tribal, Aztec -like civilization is far to the west, across an Atlantic-like ocean called the Trackless Sea. The subterranean regions underneath Faerûn are called the Underdark . Faerûn includes terrain that is as varied as that of Europe , western Asia , and much of Africa is on our planet Earth . Role-playing campaigns in Faerûn can be set in

784-458: The Neapolitan tales of Basile. The first example of a female ogre being referred to as an ogress is found in his version of Sleeping Beauty , where it is spelled ogresse. Madame d'Aulnoy first employed the word ogre in her story L'Orangier et l'Abeille (1698), and was the first to use the word ogree to refer to the creature's offspring. In modern times, ogres have appeared in

833-439: The surname Shaar . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shaar&oldid=1245260772 " Categories : Surnames Arabic-language surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description

882-702: The Beast from Beauty and the Beast , Humbaba from the Epic of Gilgamesh , Grendel from Beowulf , Polyphemus the Cyclops from Homer 's Odyssey , the man-eating giant in " Sinbad the Sailor ", the oni of Japanese folklore and the ghouls of pre-Islamic Arabian religion . The word ogre is of French origin, originally derived from the Etruscan god Orcus , who fed on human flesh. Its earliest attestation

931-664: The Companions of the Hall, Cowled Wizards, Cult of the Dragon, Drow houses (like Baenre and Do'Urden), Elk Tribe, Flaming Fist, The Four (Mirt the Moneylender, Durnan, Asper and Randal Morn), Harpers, Iron Throne, The Kraken, Moonstars, Red Wizards of Thay, Seven Sisters, Shadow Thieves, and Zhentarim. Vartha Do'Urden was the previous matron mother of House Do'Urden whose unexpected death allowed her daughter Malice to take control of

980-572: The Golden (collectively called the Shining Lands ), Luiren, the land of Halflings, Ulgarth, the easternmost extent of Faerûn, and Veldorn, the land of monsters, as well as The Great Rift, a large, powerful nation of dwarves, within a titanic canyon The immense complex of caverns and passages that lie beneath many parts of the continent of Faerûn is known as the Underdark. It contains cities of

1029-641: The Great Glacier dominate the landscape in blinding white. To the south are the equatorial jungles of Chult and the tropical coasts of Halruaa. It's bordered on the west by the Trackless Sea and on the east by the Endless Wastes and the Hordelands that separate it from Kara-Tur". Kara-Tur, which was the original setting of the D&;D Oriental Adventures campaign setting, and Zakhara , home to

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1078-626: The Harpers, who protect the good-natured races and seek a balance between civilization and nature. The Harpers are opposed by evil organizations, including the Red Wizards of Thay and the nihilistic Cult of the Dragon . In the northern lands, the Zhentarim is an evil network seeking to dominate the region. Their efforts are being resisted by the Lords' Alliance, a council of knights that pursues

1127-702: The Latin orcus and the Old English orcnēas found in Beowulf lines 112–113, which inspired J.R.R. Tolkien 's Orc . All these words may derive from a shared Indo-European mythological concept (as Tolkien himself speculated, as cited by Tom Shippey , The Road to Middle-earth , 45). The Dictionary of the Academy of France alternatively states that the name is derived from the word Hongrois , which means Hungarian , as of western cultures referred to Hungarians as

1176-602: The Realms. The wizards rebelled from the Egyptian-based Mulhorand, while their occupied land is somewhat reminiscent of India. However the best parallel to Thay may actually be Stygia, an evil land from Robert E. Howard's Conan stories". Tharsult is an island of unscrupulous traders in the Shining Sea. To the southwest lies along the great Chultan peninsula that juts out toward the west. The waters to

1225-610: The Sea of Fallen Stars drained into the Underdark. The northern Realms were less affected by the Spellplague, but during the 100-year gap between the third and fourth editions of the setting, it was revealed that the Netherese wizards of the city of Shade had eliminated the desert of Anauroch, returning the land to its pre-Fall state. The borders of some of the kingdoms were changed to reflect this. In addition to these changes, floating islands of earth known as 'earthmotes' appeared in

1274-455: The Sea of Swords. The west includes the city of Baldur's Gate (named for the great seafaring hero Balduran), the library-fortress of Candlekeep, both considered among "D&D's most iconic locations", the nations of Amn, Tethyr, Calimshan, the region of Western Heartlands and the elven stronghold of Evereska. These regions were the setting for the Baldur's Gate series of computer games. To

1323-645: The coastline of the Moonsea with the infamous Zhentil Keep, and the bitterly cold steppes of The Ride. Along the east coast of the Dragon Reach (a northern branch of the Sea of Fallen Stars) is a temperate region called The Vast, consisting of farmlands, forests and the Earthsea mountains. This area includes the city of Ravens Bluff, which for many years was home to the RPGA 's Living City role-playing campaign and

1372-498: The elf-related drow including the infamous Menzoberranzan and the ruins of Ched Nasad, as well as Maerdrimydra, Llurth Dreir and Sshamath; cities of duergar such as Gracklstugh and Dunnspeirrin; and almost unpronounceable cities of creatures called the kuo-toa , illithids , and beholders . When the third edition of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting was released in 2001, the designers took

1421-755: The giants in " Jack and the Beanstalk " and " Jack the Giant Killer ", the Giant Despair in The Pilgrim's Progress , and the Jötunn of Norse mythology ); while ogres may be given giant-like traits. Famous examples of ogres in folklore include the ogre in " Puss in Boots " and the ogre in " Hop-o'-My-Thumb ". Other characters sometimes described as ogres include the title character from " Bluebeard ",

1470-419: The house. The sub-continent of Faerûn is set in the northern hemisphere of the planet Toril , or, more formally, "Abeir-Toril". The continent has a "landmass of approximately nine and a half million square miles". Faerûn is the western part of an unnamed supercontinent that is quite similar to real-world Afro-Eurasia . Within the setting, "sub-arctic extremes chill its northern reaches, where ice sheets like

1519-534: The interests of the northern cities. Other organizations of Faerûn include the magical Seven Sisters, a band of assassins called the Fire Knives, a group of ruthless thieves operating out the city of Waterdeep named Xanathar's Guild, and the mysterious Shades—the returning survivors of the long-fallen Netheril empire. Faerûn is home to a large and diverse pantheon of deities, including: Numerous organizations of different types operate throughout Faerûn, including

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1568-581: The module Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden , the titular Frostmaiden Auril makes her home on an island in this sea. Deep inland are the ancient dwarven citadels of Mithral Hall, Citadel Felbarr and the largest of the three, Citadel Adbar, which was featured in the Legacy of the Drow series of novels. This area is one of the most popular regions for role-playing campaigns set in Faerûn, and has been

1617-467: The north are named the Shining Sea, a body bounded by Calimsham to the north and joined to the Lake of Steam through the Straits of Storm. To the south of the land is the Great Sea. Located in this area are Chult, Lapaliiya, Samarach, Tashalar, and Thindol. South of the Sea of Fallen Stars is a region somewhat isolated by the Lake of Steam in the west, and the vast length of the Shaar. It is bordered along

1666-580: The ogres who were, in the pseudohistorical work History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth , the inhabitants of Britain prior to human settlement. The word orco was widely used in Italy at least since 13th century, as attested by Jacomo Tolomei who, in the sonnet " Le favole, compar, ch'om dice tante " ("The many fables, my friend, people tell" – before 1290), compares popular characters of fairy tales, like ogres (whose specific characteristic

1715-500: The opportunity to redesign the continent of Faerûn. Its size was reduced slightly to remove 'empty space' from the map and the Chultan Peninsula was moved several hundred miles north, reducing the size of the empty grassplain known as the Shaar. Additionally, the designers slightly adjusted the projection of the map to better reflect the curvature of the planet. There was no in-universe explanation given for these changes as it

1764-547: The relatively peaceful Western Heartlands and the more savage North along the Sword Coast. The village of Daggerford lies along the Shining River along the Sword Coast. The sunken city of Northkeep was the first city built around the Moonsea by humans. Miyeritar and Ilythiir were ancient elven empires. The western part of Faerûn includes the nations south of Waterdeep and north of the Shining Sea , that border along

1813-611: The scenes by spiritual witches, and it is the location of the Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer computer game. The lands of Damara and Vaasa were described in a 1989 publication, FR9, The Bloodstone Lands . This area formed the setting for the " H Series " of modules that used the Battlesystem rules to resolve battles. Secomber is a small town of nearly 1,500 that acts as a de facto border town between

1862-730: The sea extends far to the west, ending close to the Western Heartlands. To the south, the Vilhon Reach forms a second arm leading to the southwest. The notable areas within this region include Chondath, Cormyr, the Dragon Coast, Hlondeth, the Pirate Isles and Prespur, Sembia (and its largest city of Selgaunt), Sespech, Turmish, and the Shining Plains. Along the eastern expanses of the Sea of Fallen Stars,

1911-412: The setting for a number of popular role-playing video games . Another city is Mirabar, the mining center for the Sword Coast. North of the Sea of Fallen Stars is a region that stretches from the wide Anauroch desert in the west to the eastern edge of the inland Moonsea , in the northern region of the continent. It is a region of contrasts, with the forested Dalelands, the desert wastes of Anauroch,

1960-517: The site of the Living City series of game modules . The Dragonspine Mountains , which house the infamous Citadel of the Raven on their western slopes, is a mountain range northwest of the Moonsea. Northeastern Faerûn is a remote area that begins in the cold, forbidding lands along the great ice sheets and continues south toward the northeastern shores of the Sea of Fallen Stars. It is bordered on

2009-485: The skies above Faerûn and the continent of Maztica across the western ocean vanished along with the Faerûnian colonies on its east coast. Ogre (Dungeons %26 Dragons) An ogre ( feminine : ogress ) is a legendary monster depicted as a large, hideous, man-like being that eats ordinary human beings, especially infants and children. Ogres frequently feature in mythology , folklore , and fiction throughout

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2058-579: The south by the Great Sea; to the west by the Chultan peninsula region, and in the east by Luiren. The south includes the Border Kingdoms, Dambrath, the Great Rift, Halruaa, the Lake of Steam, and The Shaar. South and east of the grassy plains is an area known as the Shaar, along the shores of the Great Sea opposite the land of Zakhara. The region includes the lands of Durpar, Estagund and Var

2107-503: The south of Chondath and Chessenta. Thay is a magocracy ruled by the Red Wizards which was described in the 1988 publication FR6: Dreams of the Red Wizards . The nation has made multiple attempts to invade neighboring countries and following a civil war, the lich Szass Tam became Thay's leader. Shannon Appelcline, author of Designers & Dragons , highlighted that "Thay doesn't have an obvious real-world derivation like some of

2156-463: The water forms a long arm that travels to the east before turning south to become the Alamber Sea. The northern nations of this mysterious area are termed the "Unapproachable East" and the southern nations the "Old Empires" in campaign setting publications. This region includes the nations of Aglarond, Ashanath, Altumbel, Mulhorand, Murghôm, Thay and Unther. Chondalwood is a long, forested region to

2205-463: The west by the mountain-hemmed land of Vaasa and stretches east to the vast steppes of the Hordelands, with its largest city of Winterkeep. This region also contains the lightly populated kingdom of Damara, the druidic forests of the Great Dale, the coastal kingdom of Impiltur, the fallen and once evil empire of Narfell, and the trading nation of Thesk. Mystical Rashemen is a land ruled from behind

2254-606: The west in the vast ocean called the Trackless Sea is a multitude of islands, collectively named the Nelanther Isles. Other island kingdoms include the gnomish realm of Lantan, the country of Nimbral and, further west, the Moonshae Isles. With the exception of the Shining Plains, the interior lands of Faerûn lie along the irregular coastline of the western Sea of Fallen Stars. In the north the Dragonmere arm of

2303-465: The world. They appear in many classic works of literature , and are most often associated in fairy tales and legend. In mythology, ogres are often depicted as inhumanly large, tall, and having a disproportionately large head, abundant hair, unusually colored skin, a voracious appetite, and a strong body. Ogres are closely linked with giants and with human cannibals in mythology. In both folklore and fiction, giants are often given ogrish traits (such as

2352-399: Was classified as a retcon . The fourth edition of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting , released in 2008, saw major changes to the geography of Faerûn and the world of Abeir-Toril . Due to a magical cataclysm known as the Spellplague, the southern parts of Faerûn were devastated. Chult became an island detached from the mainland, the kingdom of Halruaa was utterly destroyed, and parts of

2401-571: Was to eat people), giants, witches and talking animals, to real people he could see in his city of Siena . The Italian author Giambattista Basile (1575–1632) used the related Neapolitan word uerco , or in standard Italian , orco in some of his tales, and first talks of female orcs (IE in Petrosinella ). This word is also documented in earlier Italian works ( Fazio degli Uberti , 14th century; Luigi Pulci , 15th century; Ludovico Ariosto , 15th–16th centuries) and has even older cognates with

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