Anchorome

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Anchôromé is a Native American-themed campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition that is officially a sub-setting of the Forgotten Realms, having been released on DM's Guild by the same hard-working fans who updated its neighboring sub-setting of Maztica to 5th edition.

First Party

Meta-History

The name "Anchorome" (without all the fancy accentuation used for the 5e setting) first appeared in Dragon Magazine #63, where Ed Greenwood mentioned it as a "legendary lost land" of the Forgotten Realms, in which his own players were ultimately stranded upon in the form of a mysterious archipelago.

When Maztica brought a South America pastiche to the Realms, TSR decided to plant seeds for a more northerly neighboring land. The splatbook FMQ1: City of Gold has the party traveling to the Mexico-flavored northernmost reaches of Maztica, with mysterious lands revealed as lying even further north. The general Forgotten Realms splatbook FR15: Gold & Glory then explicitly stated that whilst the archipelago of Greenwood's table may exist somewhere in the uncharted seas of the Realms, the "real" Anchorome was a continent to the north of Maztica - the North America to its South America.

Third Party

This section is based on Third Party and/or Fan Content/Homebrew. Canonfuckers Beware.

Nothing would ever be done with Anchorome by WotC, but when the "Maztica Alive!" group got onto DM's Guild, eventually, they decided to go for something more ambitious: now calling it Anchôromé, which admittedly means nothing to anybody who doesn't know what those little squiggles above the letters indicate for tonal changes, they devoted themselves to tackling it and fleshing it out in as much detail as they had done the South American-based Maztica.

Setting

Anchôromé is a very different beast to the Historical Fantasy-based "Native American" settings that TSR attempted... which isn't a bad thing, considering how badly TSR's efforts have come to be received. Instead, it's more like similar fan-made setting Arkadia; an attempt to find a balance between the myths and "feel" of native cultures and the classic tropes of D&D. Most notably, instead of being a human-only continent, Anchôromé is home to a wide variety of races; some of them recognizably D&D based, others more unique.

In addition to several distinct human ethnic cultures - the Azuposi, the Metahel, the Nahopaca, and the Dog People - the mainland of Anchôromé is home to the Poscadari Elves, the Desert Dwarves, native Hill Giants, "The Short Ones" (druidic halflings), Thri-Kreen, the Minnenewah (an Anchôromé analogue to the Spirit Folk of Kara-tur), Aarakocra, Alaghi, Dragonborn, and Half-Elves.

The region known as the Land of the Insect Men is dominated by the Thri-Kreen (in a multitude of subraces), Abeil and a race of humanoid ants called Bacar. A cultural offshoot of the Abeil, known as the Bee Tribe, pursues a nomadic existence that ranges from the plains of the Unole to the Land of the Insect Men.

Darfellan inhabit the waters of the northwestern coasts of Anchôromé, having been driven there from their original home on the eastern coast by the sahuagin.

Snow Elves (ancestral stock of the Poscadari) and Urskans (a race of semi-humanoid polar bears) inhabit Blacktoe Glacier, in the far north of Anchôromé.

Publications

Currently, the following books have been written for the Anchôromé setting:

• ANC1: The Anchôromé Campaign Guide: A basic guideline to the geography and cultures of Anchôromé, including new races (Minnenewah and Alaghi), subraces (dragonborn, dwarf, elf, half-elf, halfling), a new base class (the Spirit Shaman), new subclasses, new backgrounds, new magic items, new spells, and new monsters.
• ANM1: The Bee Tribe of Anchôromé: A brief guide to the Bee Tribe splinter-race of Abeil, including PC stats, new magic items, and stats for the Howler Wasp monster.
• ANM2: Kci Athussos, the Great Snail Dragon: Lore and stats for the titular unique monster.
• ANM3: The Orca Folk: Lore, PC stats and magical items for Darfellan, stats for several new monsters (War Orca, Necro Orca, Infernal Megalodon, Ocean Strider).
• ANM4: The Ecology of the Odopi: Expanded lore and 5e stats for the Odopi, a tumbleweed-like monster of arms and eyes introduced in 3e.
• ANM5: The Herd of Epona: Details on a unique collection of assorted magical equines from throughout D&D's history, gathered by the goddess-turned-Great Spirit Epona. Contains monster stats for all species.
• ANS1: Land of the Insect Men: Expanded history and mechanics for the titular region of Anchôromé, with PC stats for Thri-Kreen, Abeil and Bacar, new magic items, the Ankheg Dragoon ranger subclass, and new monsters.
• ANS2: Monsters of Anchôromé: A bestiary of new monsters for the Anchôromé setting.
• ANS3: Blacktoe Glacier: Expanded history and mechanics for the titular region of Anchôromé, with stats for Snow Elf and Urskan PCs, new subclasses, spells and magic items, environmental hazards, and monsters.