The forward camp
Once the awakening is over, the exile finds themselves in the forward camp of Cripta — the post standing before the gates of the largest and most populous city of the Forgotten Realms. There, among soldiers, mounts, and the mist swallowing the hills in the distance, the newcomer receives their first instructions about the world they have just woken up in.
The camp exists for a simple reason: Cripta does not open its gates to bodies without a story. Whoever wishes to pass must first become someone — and becoming someone, in these lands, begins with two men: a commander and a scribe.
Commander Sirius
The camp is commanded by Sirius. He is the one responsible for receiving newcomers to these lands, and his is usually the first voice the awakened hears — "you're finally awake." A soldier of blunt speech, Sirius keeps order in the post and decides who is ready to proceed to the gates. Under his command, no one advances without first proving they deserve to cross the walls.
There is little ceremony in him and no patience for self-pity. To Sirius, every awakened is the same at first: an unknown who might become a soldier, a merchant, a legend, or a corpse. Which of these they become is not his problem. Getting them through the camp in one piece — that is.
Cassius, the scribe
Before the newcomer stands a tall figure holding a parchment: Cassius, the keeper of the official registry. His is the Document of Ingress — the parchment upon which are recorded the lineage, the bearing, and the marks of each one who crosses, and above all the name by which they will be known in the forgotten lands. "This name will echo through the realms," he is fond of saying as he closes the record.
It is also Cassius who warns the newcomer of that hard truth of the valleys: here, you must choose a side. The registry is no mere bureaucracy — it is the moment when the awakened ceases to be a body without a history and begins to exist, officially, in the world of Vashrath.
The gates of Cripta
With the name recorded and the parchment sealed, all that remains is to follow the road that leaves the camp and leads to the gates of Cripta — the city proper and, beyond it, the open world of the Forgotten Realms. It is the greatest power of these lands, seat of the sovereign emperor, and the starting point of every journey that begins here.
The valleys beyond
From there on, everything won is won by each one's own hand and steel. No one guarantees a throne; no one offers an inheritance. There are only the valleys, the three forces that contend for them, and an entire world of things the old kingdom chose to forget.
The valleys of Vashrath are not empty. They hold roads first opened by nameless nomads, camps that became walls and walls that became kingdoms, regions ruled by other lords, and wilds where every traveler answers for themselves. The deeper one goes, the fiercer the monsters grow — and, as any veteran of the camp will tell you, the fiercer the monster, the greater the spoils it leaves behind.
The powers contending for these valleys are told in The Three Forces. The emperor who rules from Cripta is told in Sangezer and the Throne of Cripta.