Ao

Ao is the Overgod of the Forgotten Realms Crystal Sphere of the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse. As Overgod, he is, essentially, the God of Gods, the aloof and indifferent ruler over all deities who occasionally bestirs himself to smack them all upside the head when they do something he finds unforgiveably stupid.

Not to be confused with Io, who is the Overgod of the Dragon deities, who we will get to in a minute.

History

Early in Abeir-Toril's history, the "Gods" fought the "Primordials" in a war over who gets dominion over the mortal realms, called the Days of Thunder. Ao himself apparently didn't pick a side, indicating that he is neither God nor Primordial himself. In any case, Io, (who was called Asgorath) was summoned to fight against the giant deity Annam and proceeded to throw a meteor at the plant, very nearly destroying it. Feeling that the game had finally gone too far, Ao finally interceded as referee, and decided to slit the planet Abeir-Toril into two parts and spread then evenly between groups; the Primordials got Abeir, while the Gods got Toril and became the center stage for the Forgotten Realms from that point onwards.

THE most significant event of that was the Time of Troubles, when he expelled all of the gods bar Helm from the heavens over Bane and Bhaal stealing the Tablets of Fate. This was ultimately revealed to actually be an excuse and really he was just sick of how the gods were so indifferent to their followers' plights. When he did end the Time and let them back in, it was only after changing things so that their power levels now depended on the faith of mortals; if a god lost all of its followers, it would fade away into nothing, whilst the more followers that god had, the mightier it would grow. This did make the gods more attentive of their followers, but it also led to much more aggressive proselytizing, too.

Worshippers

Those few eccentric mortals who learn of Ao sometimes seek to worship him; this is a foolish decision, as Ao's Overgod status means he is exempt from the "gods need prayer badly!" trope and also has far bigger things to concern himself with than mortals. As a result, such "priests" gain no spells and will never even attract Ao's notice, for they are simply too far beneath him to care.