I'm meeting tomorrow with a new group of players and I'm planning to present a homebrew story idea, based in historical Faerûn, that's been simmering in my mind for a while. Below is what I plan to present, and I'd love feedback!

Year 1491 DR (Modern Age)

Across Faerûn, the name Waterdeep evokes feelings of wonder, awe, and envy. Although it is not the largest city in the Realms, the City of Splendors is undoubtedly the most famous and most cosmopolitan metropolis on the continent of Faerûn. Having grown rich on a steady diet of trade and industry, this crossroads city combines the best aspects of many cultures into a marvelous shining jewel. Waterdeep's cultural patrimony is all of Faerun and its inhabitants are much richer for it.

But this story starts half a millennium before the Modern Age...

It is the age of Warlords.

In 932 DR, two threats arose to challenge Waterdeep's propserity - orcs and trolls of Sword Mountain. One after the next, various Warlords took control of Waterdeep, driving back threats to the city for almost a hundred years. The final attack on Waterdeep saw the Black Claw horde encircling the plateau on which the city lies, and then repeatedly assaulting the City of Splendors. Then-ruling Warlor Laroun died defending Waterdeep during one of the most desperate battles to hold the city's walls.

Laroun's title passed to Raurlor, leader of the city's army. The Black Claw horde would have undoubtedly overrun the City of Splendors if not for the daring of an elite company of veterans, led by Raurlor, who traveled through Halaster's Underhalls, beyond the city walls, and then fell on the orc encampment from the rear. The defeats of two successive hordes shattered both the kingdom of Uruth Ukrypt and the order that sustained it. The orcs of the Sword Mountains disintegrated into warring tribes, still scattered across the plains surrounding the great city of Waterdeep.

In the Year of Warlords (1030 DR), Raurlor began to increase Waterdeep's standing army and navy to a size not seen since the fall of Phalorm, 400 years earlier.

As a diplomatic show of good faith, Zaor Moonflower, the King of Evermeet, gifted to Raulor his youngest daughter's hand in marriage. Faena Moonflower joined Raulor willingly, and quickly charmed Waterdeep's people and Council with her great generosity, kindness and beauty. As new Queen, she set in motion a series of urban renewal projects within the city and played patron to numerous scientific and artistic efforts across the populace. Raulor, inspired by his new bride's zeal for enriching the city, set his efforts to restoring the city's defenses, army and name in the region.

These efforts have culminated to the first annual Full Sails Festival, a state-sponsored naval expedition to scope the far reaches of the Western horizon, and chart the far seas...

It is an unexplored world

At almost 500 years before the Modern Age, the aquatic activity of western Faerun is restricted primarily to sailing along the Sword Coast itself, with brief half-day jaunts west to islands visible with gnomic telescopes. You see, there is the problem of Longitude.

Determining your latitude - how far north or south you are from the planet's equator - is a relatively easy matter: It can be done using the position of the sun. But finding your longitude - how far east or west you are - poses a much more difficult challenge.

Oh certainly, the denizens of Faerun know their exists lands west of the Sword Coast. The great Elven island nation of Evermeet being their surest proof. But the Elves of Evermeet are secretive races, and have not shared their means of determining longitude, whether magical or mundane, with the remaining races of Faerun. All the remaining races of the world have steered well clear of the open seas and oceans, choosing - until now - to let only their imaginations wander over the Western horizon...