The Tortured Land is a location on Faerûn, a fictional continent, the primary setting of the Forgotten Realms, for Dungeons & Dragons.
Description
The Tortured Land is an area of land in the Moonsea region which was formed by ancient lava flows that were then carved by flowing ice. Giant stone pillars, like teeth, smoothed by the wind jut out from the landscape. Strange monsters chase small animals but the only other inhabitants seem to be the bats that lair in the few caves of the area.
Over 3000 years ago, dwarves mined the metal deposits that were to be found but they were exiled to the Novularond. Only four members of the clan survived and they went on to found the Innugaakalikurit clan.
Nowadays the majority of the Tortured Land is occupied by flind-led gnoll tribes. The ruins of a forgotten city known as Frozen Flindyke to bards, could have once been a bastion of civilization for these Gnolls in times past or could have been the home of a settlement of humans, surrounded by the Gnolls. The truth is lost to the sands of time but the shamans of Yeenoghu who now rule over the Gnolls and Flinds are said to have been descended from those who summoned the Trio Nefarious that aided in the fall of Myth Drannor.
"This is a barren place where monsters chase smaller beasts around endless spires and weirdly sculpted rocks. It's a deities' playground of teeth and swirls and fingers and suchlike of stone, some of them pierced by caves where bats lurk, but most of them just in your way as you flee from the next prowling monster. A little metal to be had, but no safety in which to mine it. Water, but not enough, and the beasts watch the waterholes for their next meal."