Data Sources

The Toril GIS project aims to be an accurate and lore-faithful cartographic resource. We use a “foundation-first” approach: we start with a primary global source, place it within a precise, lore-based coordinate system, and then enrich this foundation with details from other official and community materials. As a core principle, every feature is attributed to its origin in the source data field.

Primary References

Surface

The project’s surface-world baseline is the 2d Edition Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas (FRIA) from 1999. FRIA was chosen as the primary reference because it provides a consistent, globally-complete framework whose continental shapes and major features are largely compatible with maps from both 5th Edition and—with some tweaking—3rd Edition (sorry, lovers of 4th Edition 😉). This makes it an ideal foundation to build upon, providing a reliable layout for detailed areas and a starting point for lesser-documented regions. The maps in this source correspond to a scale of approximately 1:2,000,000.

Underdark

For the vast, world-spanning caverns of the Underdark, the primary reference is the map from the Underdark sourcebook by Bruce R. Cordell and others (Wizards of the Coast, 2003, 3rd Edition). This map provides the foundational layout and major features of the “world below” and correspond to a scale of approximately 1:8,000,000.

Future Data Integration

Future development will focus on integrating information from officialsourcebooks, campaign settings, and adventure modules. Additionally, valuable community resources like the Forgotten Realms Wiki and the official novels could be used to add finer details and cross-reference information not found on the primary maps.