Editing Forgotten Realms

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'''Forgotten Realms''' is an official [[Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings|Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting]] created by [[Ed Greenwood]] circa 1967 for his little stories, but was not part of the official [[TSR Games]]/[[Wizards of the Coast]] lineup until 1987 and has since been supported by TSR/WotC through all five editions of the game. The setting is supported by hundreds of novels' worth of lore by dozens of authors, and is notable for prominently featuring the [[Planetouched]].

==Setting==
[[File:Toril-3e.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Deja vu, I've been in this place before..]]
Set on the planet Abeir-Toril, most of the Forgotten Realms source material focuses on the continent Faerûn. Faerûn is pretty similar to pre-industrial Europe, with the exceptions of all of that crazy fantasy stuff. At the low end, Wizards and Sorcerers make up 1% of the typical human population, and half of them are actually good at it. It seems to think that's a small number, despite being substantially more than MDs in the modern world (0.29%), most of whom are in very niche specialties. Multiple Clerics, "often" mid-level, can be found "in virtually every thorp and hamlet", and are common enough that people tend to die of old age, rather than injury their body can't heal naturally or disease. Despite a serious percentage of the population being casters, many of some skill, outside of Thay none of them do anything but maintain the status quo, try to violently conquer the world, or violently put an end to those trying to conquer the world.

There is a plethora of nations, kingdoms, organizations, deities, and fully fleshed out NPCs who are ripe with political intrigue and conflict. There is absolutely nothing on Toril that has not been fully fleshed out, so there is very, very little room for your own stuff.

Even WoTC thought that this had gotten really out of hand: when 4th edition rolled along, they decided to give the place a reboot. Hey, the Time of Troubles worked for the 1e-to-2e shift, right? They came up with the idea of "the Spellplague": killing [[Mystra]] off through the machinations of her long-time enemy [[Cyric]] and triggering another massive magical upheaval, similar to the one that had ended the Age of Magic when Mystryl had been killed off. They then skipped time forward a century, to add icing to the cake, presenting a rebuilding world and retconning Abeir-Toril from being the planet's almost never used full name (so it'd be first in the setting encyclopedia) to being twin planets, with [[Abeir]], under the dominion of the [[Archomental|Primordials]], serving as an origin for 4th edition races.

Unfortunately... the result was an absolute PR ''nightmare''. The dramatic changes in everything from geology to cosmology, with the [[World Tree]] replaced by the [[World Axis]], just infuriated the setting's fandom, who have something of a reputation as obsessive-compulsive [[grognard]]s even by the standards of the D&D fandom.

Not surprisingly, when the edition change rolled out, a new apocalyptic makeover, the Sundering, was used alongside a 10 year skip to change things more back to the way they were. Although, on the plus side, a lot of the uber-NPCs who didn't have huge fanbases actually stayed dead - they even killed off some more of Mystra's Chosen during the Sundering.

All in all, Forgotten Realms is the ultimate [[skub]] setting of D&D, with people still bitching over every little change from 1st edition onwards. Yes, even more than 2e/3e [[Greyhawk]]: at least there, the grognards enjoy a consensus, that what ''[[From The Ashes]]'' did was a blip, a Late Unpleasantness in the past. Ironically, 5e's attempt at focusing attention on the Realms has begun making it even less popular, as by this point most of the fandom is getting well and truly sick that one setting is getting all the 5e love.

You'll notice going down that a lot of the sub-settings, in particular, seem to rip-off of real-world places and people. Well, that's intentional: Forgotten Realms was designed with the idea that it has long had secret portals to our real world throughout history - which may or may not have anything to do with the D&D Cartoon. So, a lot of shit in Forgotten Realms is literally supposed to have either been brought there from earth, or inspired earth by slipping through the portals. Mulhorand, for example, is not only "Ancient Egypt in D&D with the Egyptian Gods ruling it", but is by its fluff actually populated ''by'' the descendants of Ancient Egyptians who were sucked through portals into the Realms and enslaved by evil wizards.

===[[Faerûn]]===
{{dnd-stub}}
Medieval/Renaissance Europe/Near East/Africa. The setting of the vast majority of D&D stories, including those of a certain dark elf, to top it all off with the center of attention in D&D videogames to boot. This setting provided inspiration for most of the 3e [[splatbook|splatbooks]]. Most of the attention Faerûn gets is centered on its west coast, the Swordcoast, and [[Dalelands]].
<gallery>
Faerun political.jpeg|full Faerûn map
Faerûn map.jpeg|the 5e map of the western Faerûn focused on Sword Coast with the immediate lands around it.
Faerun 1e.jpeg|1e
1479-faerun low-res 4e.jpeg|4e map, mostly outdated so use older ones.
YearofOathsForsakenMap.jpeg
</gallery>

====[[Sword Coast]]====
{{dnd-stub}}
As a continent is still a Dizzying vast place, Sword Coast is the main location for adventures or at least the start, with the majority of 5e modules assuming this. In terms of operation area, the Sword Coast is the areas surrounding cities that are part of the [[Lords' Alliance]]. This is your Usual sandbox fantasy location, with cities-states Overlooking smaller Towns, instead of classical Kingdoms. Still tons of ruins, Monsters, and Ruins of past civilizations.  
<gallery>
The-sword-coast-campaign-map.jpeg| the Sword Coast, the place most of your official 5e Forgotten Realms games will happen.
Faerûn map.jpeg|The Sword Coast with the Heartlands, so [[Balder's Gate]] can feel included.
Skt03-thenorth.jpeg|the North, the place most 5E modules take place.
</gallery>

====[[Shining South]]====
Pseudo-Africa and Pseudo-India, in that it's mostly covered in tropical jungles and swamps, with one huge-ass desert. Notable regions include Halruaa, an isolationist [[magocracy]], [[Dambrath]], a nation of horse-riding, [[Loviatar]]-worshipping black [[amazons]] (of the "women run things, men obey" variety) ruled over the by [[Crinti]] (a matriarchal mixture of [[half-elves]], [[drow]], and half-drow), and the [[halfling]] homeland of [[Luiren]]. Is home to Faerun's native population of [[thri-kreen]], as well as a race of [[spelljammer|alien]] [[beastfolk|elephant people]] called [[Loxo]]s.

Despite the Shining South's lack of any major influence or pronounced interaction with the rest of the Forgotten Realms, the damage this region suffered as a result of the 4E [[Spellplague]] - which, amongst other things, saw [[Halruaa]] blow up and Dambrath's Crinti rulers be deposed by a human uprising that brought about a restoration of their pre-Crinti culture - was hugely unpopular. Some of that is inexplicable - Halruaa blowing up makes perfect sense, since the place was literally as magical as [[Eberron]] and the Spellplague's whole thing was making magic dangerously unstable - but other complaints are more reasonable; if such an "old ways" movement against the Crinti had ever been explicitly mentioned in 3e or 2e lore, Dambrath's civil uprising would have made sense - especially in light of the baked-in drow tendency towards slave raids - but with no explicit pretext, it seemingly comes out of nowhere.

5E brought [[Halruaa]] back from death. with foresight foreseeing the all-consuming blue fire that followed Mystra’s death, and used it to displace itself in Abeir (while displacing part of that world into the [[Plane of Shadow]]). Now their back to spread the joys of Airships.

Dambrath are still are horse-riding nomads and hate the Crinti. They take [[lycanthropy]] as a showing reverence to a favored deity and honoring their heritage.

====[[Unapproachable East]]====
Eastern Asia, a blend of Mongolian, Russian, Indian, and Chinese traits. Most famous for being the lands covering [[Thay]], the biggest civilization of evil wizards in the setting, and the more obscure land of [[Rasheman]], which is sort of Russian berserker country ruled by masked witches but which everyone knows because it's the homeland of [[Minsc]]. It's the setting for ''Mask of the Betrayer'', the first expansion pack for ''Neverwinter Nights 2'', since they decided to set a Forgotten Realms video game somewhere interesting for once.

===[[The Horde|Hordelands]]===
The Eurasian Steppes, with Tibet thrown in as well, and yes they had their own version of [[Genghis motherfucking Khan]] and Mongol invasions. Didn't get updated for [[3e]], but bits got included in a Dragon article for 4e.

===[[Kara-Tur]]===
Ancient China/Japan/Korea. Updated for 3e with the ''[[Weeaboo Fightan Magic|Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic]]'' and ''Oriental Adventures'', but never updated for 4e as a setting. Little bits of it were included in Dragon for 4e, covering [[Weeaboo|Samurai and Ninja]] and horde themes as well as new monk stuff and [[Hengeyokai]] as a race.

====[[Malatra]]====
Ancient India/Southeast Asia. Got its own living campaign at the end of [[2e]] and the beginning of 3e, and was soon forgotten afterward.

===[[Maztica]]===
Pre-Columbian South/Central America, the subject of the eponymous splatbook for AD&D. Was not updated for [[3e|3rd Edition]], but skipped a generation and got an update for [[4e|4th Edition]]. In the form of being replaced by the continent of [[Abeir]] and having everything about it shunted into another universe. Wasn't in [[3e]] either so fuck them. Manages to be the skubbiest aspect of the setting; some adore it for being South American Fantasy, a rare thing, others hate it for being so transparently "the Aztec world shunted into the Forgotten Realms". Some madlads at the [[DM's_Guild|DM's Guild]] went and wrote a full translation to [[5e|5th Edition]] with a "the Aztec world shunted into the Forgotten Realms, but this time the Aztecs won and gave [[Lolth]] and to a lesser extent [[Helm]] the finger before integrating the surviving colonists" feeling. Also, they're back where Abeir used to be because why the fuck not.

====[[Anchorome]]====
Pre-Columbian North America. What's written about is based on the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestral_Puebloans Native Americans of the Four Corners] cultures.

====[[Katashaka]]====
Despite being located south of not!Central America, it's supposed to be based on Pre-Colonial Africa, and that is literally all that is known.

===[[Osse]]===
Pre-Colonial Australia. That's largely all that's known.

===[[Al-Qadim|Zakhara]]===
Medieval Middle East/Hollywood Arabia. Left to hang in the wind after 2e ended, save some 3e articles in [[Dragon Magazine]], and probably not likely to come back any time soon. But 5e did bring back the yakmen.

===[[Abeir]]===
Home to the [[Dragonborn]] and primordial elementals, as well as all the new sub-giant races and whatever else was introduced in 4e. Ruled over by evil draconic overlords, barring a few kingdoms founded by rebellious giants and humans. Oh, and some weird undead empire that has magical undead-only portals connecting to all graveyards and mausoleums and crypts on Toril, which they claim as their territory.

==Abridged History==
===Creation===
[[Ao]] creates the twin sister deities [[Shar]] and [[Selûne]]. Shar is darkity darkness levels of evil and Selûne isn't. So naturally, they hate each other. They swirl around in the void that is Realmspace for gods know how long until via catfighting, they accidentally create Toril and create a couple of gods, mainly [[Chauntea]] and [[Mystryl]]. The latter going on to die several times and become [[Mystra]] because she couldn't fucking balance the byproduct of her creation, the Weave, which is the source of all magic, both Arcane and Divine. Things just got out of hand after that and next thing you know, you've got your campaign setting.

===Karsus's Folly===
[[Netheril]], the Empire of Magic, ruled most of Faerûn long before Dale Reckoning. Netherese archmages were capable of obscene displays of magical power, such as the ''mythallar'' magic engines that enabled their signature floating cities to exist. The innately magical [[phaerimm]] opposed Netheril's heavy use of magic and retaliated, starting a war for the control of magic that created the [[Anauroch Desert]].

In -339 DR, the archwizard [[Karsus]] attempted to save the empire by becoming a god. He created what is likely the only 12th-level spell in existence, ''Karsus's avatar'', and used it to steal the power of [[Mystryl]], goddess of the Weave. His last thought before the spell turned him to stone was probably "I have made a huge mistake." The Weave, damaged by the Netheril-phaerimm war, finally collapsed without Mystryl's constant intervention, causing all magic to fail. That included the ''mythallars''. The majestic floating cities of Netheril plummeted to the ground.

In short, Karsus ruined everything for everybody on that day. Fortunately, Mystryl reincarnated herself and rose again as [[Mystra]], marking the first in the goddess's long line of deaths and rebirths. She repaired the Weave, managed to save three Netherese enclaves, and restructured the arcane magic of the Realms, cutting off mortal mages from spells above ninth level and requiring them to prepare their spells in advance.

This sparked all the shit that went down in the game [[Neverwinter Nights]] 2, and is the reason why magic sort of meets a cap.

===Times of Troubles===
The Times of Troubles, also known as the Avatar Crisis, started in 1358 DR when the two deities [[Bane]] and [[Myrkul]] thought it would be a great idea to steal the Tablets of Fate from the overdeity [[Ao]]. As punishment Ao banishes all of the gods to walk on Toril as mortals (except for [[Helm]] who was to guard the gateway back into the heavens) until whoever stole them felt bad and returned them. During this time Mystra got some of her power back and thought it would be a brilliant idea to challenge Helm to get back into the heavens. Helm wouldn't have any of it and bitch slapped her down the Celestial Stairway. She hit the bottom and died in an explosion of magic. Eventually, some mortals, Midnight (who went on to be the next Mystra), [[Kelemvor]], [[Cyric]], and [[Adon of Sune]], fixed everything and they got be gods for a reward. Except for Adon of Sune, he really got the short end of the stick on the loot table for that encounter. He lost faith in Mystra, committed suicide, then got his faith back and went on to frolic in the brothel in the sky. This signaled the change from AD&D 1e to the second edition and magic changed in real-time in correspondence to these events, depicted in the canon Forgotten Realms Comic book series, featuring [[Bruce Campell]] as an Ex-drug addict halfling, an ex-alcoholic Paladin, an Elf with expressions that would put the Laughing elf to shame, a hot golem, and other goodies.

===The Spellplague===
In 1385 DR the goddess [[Shar]] had the god [[Cyric]] stab the goddess of magic Mystra. This caused giant pillars of blue fire to ravage Toril, killing untold masses and driving most wizards to madness. One of the few wizards to be unaffected by the event is [[Szass Tam]], who continues to be a badass by turning into an uber-powerful [[lich]], seizing control over Thay, and killing off almost everybody there to create a fuck-huge kingdom of the undead. To make matters worse, unlike the previous times Mystra has died she couldn't reincarnate, a stunning development that "changes the rules of magic" which translates as another real-time spell-casting change for [[4e]] rules, just like what happened in the Time of Trouble. Parts of the planet end up either destroyed or switching places with parts of the land from [[Abeir]]. [[Elminster]] lost his special status and all his powers, and most of his Chosen buddies wound up dead. The Pantheon was reshuffled, [[Tiefling]]s changed to match the new unified tiefling look, and the [[World Tree]] was reshaped into the [[World Axis]]. It was a huge upheaval, with insurmountable [[rage]] from its critics.

===The Sundering===
In 1485, the worlds of [[Abeir]] and Toril split apart again, as WoTC tried to desperately bring back the Faerun grognards by [[retcon|retconning]] the Spellplague. It turns out being stabbed wasn't in fact enough to kill Mystra, she was just hungry and had wandered off to find a cheeseburger made of her own children. Abeir went back to where it belonged and several other dead gods who were deemed superfluous suddenly came back to life. 

This event was known as the 'Sundering' but the writers didn't want to piss off the fans, so they held off explaining what the fuck happened until the fans could tell them what, in their opinion, should have happened. While waiting to be told how to do their jobs, dragons attacked everyone, trying to rescue [[Tiamat]] from [[Baator|Hell]] where she had in fact NOT been since before the Spellplague but because she was there in every other setting, we're all supposed to pretend that she was, so mighty adventurers can stop her from escaping in a linear story which was easier than the likes of the first time this asspull was pulled with Bloodstone Pass,''' Fuck you [[Bahamut]]'''.

From there, various other intersecting adventure modules happened at roughly the same time, and since things were mostly back to the pre-4e days everyone was happy.  Except for [[dragonborn]] fans (and Dragonborn, whatever you think of them, are still a damn core race), as the writers quickly killed almost all of them off, or crammed them into a tiny corner of the world.  Nonetheless, many grognards still balk at the return of several 4th edition era elements, such as cramming the [[Shadowfell]] and the [[Feywild]] in the Great Wheel.  But, appeasing the old guard is ridiculously hard anyway.  As much as the old guard wants a full reboot back to the Old Gray Box era (or some other era which can't be agreed on), the Sundering made it pretty clear that there is "One Canon, One Story, One Realms".  Given the popularity of this new Realms among new players, it's unlikely that any major reboot or alteration will happen any time soon.

==The Appeal of Forgotten Realms==
In 1975 Sony released the Betamax video cassette system as a system of playing recorded TV shows and similar on your TV. A year later JCV released the first VHS system and there was a competition between these two formats. Both of these systems had their pros and cons comparatively with Betamax having among other benefits higher image quality. But ultimately VHS won the competition, mostly because it was more accessible to consumers and movie studios and as such established itself as the standard. Everyone had a VHS VCR, so everyone was buying VHS tapes and since everyone was buying VHS tapes people bought VHS VCRs and similar until DVDs and Blu Rays showed up.

Similarly, Dungeons and Dragons have become the standard for what people think of when someone brings up a tabletop RPG and Forgotten Realms has become that for the DnD setting. People may not have read the lore books 100% through but nowadays most people could imagine the broad strokes of the setting going in. Parties of Human Bards and Paladins, Dwarf Warriors, High Elven Mages, Wood Elven Archers and Halfling Rogues and Bards wandering the countryside and delving dungeons dealing with orcs, kobolds, bandits, beholders, skellingtons, necromancers, and various monsters leading up to the many flavors of dragons. When you see someone doing a tabletop campaign in fiction, it's usually based on Forgotten Realms more often than not. For better or worse, Forgotten Realms is the Archetype. It's the thing that most people are familiar with and as such is something that is easy for a tabletop group to get into. You may think the whole Tolkien Knockoff world thing is overdone. You may desire something with fresh ideas in a novel setting built largely from the ground up. Fully valid positions to hold which encourage creativity. But the ability to get into a familiar setting without having to look through a whole bunch of homework is convenient and lets you shake things up if you want to using that common framework.

==Interesting Side Notes==
*[[Drizzt]] will outlive all of his friends and he cries about this often until they fixed it.
*There was a time Drizzt was bearable until all of his adventures amounted to the power of friendship and his magical power of secretly Lolth's blessing empowering him into a [[murderhobo]] [[edge]] lord that got so broken he BEAT FUCKING [[DEMOGORGON]] with the power of an anime power-up one-shot asspull to SAVE THE [[UNDERDARK]]
*The Neverwinter Online scenario of this event had the Demon Prince smack him and his party straight into an Abyssal rift, after the generic shounen speech of the power of friendship which is a great way to retcon this entire event for a ranger beating a monster so hard to kill based on how much it can throw at a party in summon-spam alone, nevermind the threat the creature itself actually poses.
*[[Elminster]] has sex with Elvira who is polymorphed into a man. He also was turned into a woman once, he's effectively, [[Heresy|a massive fucking degenerate]] that hasn't been killed off because plot Armour and horribly oppressive "good" organization of spies, scouts, and adventurers he tricks into doing his work for him, he also advertises Faerun as anything but a clusterfuck continent so full, it feels more like the description of the endless murderfest an MMORPG provides over an actual living setting.
*[[Szass Tam]] is fucking awesome and basically Ming the Merciless in D&D.
*[[Larloch]], Feared Master of the Warlock's Crypt, is one of the few statted NPCs representatives of a finalized epic-level minmaxed PC wizard, with so much shit in his arsenal he ranks as a DMPC in his own right. He's also (with a little bit of Szass Tam) the inspiration for the character of Ainz Ooal Gown from [[Approved anime|Overlord.]]
*[[Tempus]], the badass bro jock god of battle.
*The world goes to hell in the [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition|4th edition]].
*After apparently being killed by one of his only friends, the god Helm survived the Spellplague in the form of a goat.
*The first 3-D CRPG was set in FR.
*[[This Guy|Jarlaxle the dashing drow mercenary]] had a [[Monstergirls|three way with twin copper dragon sisters]] named Tazmikella and Ilnezhra. 
*[[Khelben Blackstaff]] has a fear of Lawyers and will do ANYTHING in his powers to avoid them, even resorting to elaborate illusions of unwanted marital scenarios to avoid lawsuits from extraplanar entities (I am not making this up)
*The setting is so high magic that even before the current established era in 3.5 and onward, even back in Ancient Netheril, there were FUCKING LICHES EVERYWHERE.
*The God of Vampires does not give a fuck, do not try to make him, he will just try to eat you and fuck with you on his layer of the Abyss.
*His high priest fucks Lolth, and this is the reason why Drow like vampires so much
*The last time a vampire gave a shit in FR, he nearly conquered [[Baldur's Gate]] itself solo, but got his ass kicked because he went ahead of a forty-thousand undead strong army with a [[macguffin]] that literally made him an [[Elder Evil]], by technicality of demigod level strength which would have been even more broken anyway as he was a base vampire + vampire Lord
*[[Minsc]] was petrified, turned into stone, and kept preserved until [[Wizards of the Coast|marketing]] would call upon him again for a lackluster comic book series that is only good for shilling 5th edition products as bad as Neverwinter Online and [[Baldur%27s_Gate_(Games)#Siege_of_Dragonspear|Siege of Dragonspear]].

==Forgotten Realms And Sex==
The current Forgotten Realms material is highly sanitized from Ed's original vision. In FR as created by Ed:

*Bi-sexuality is normal (and yes, this means the [[Elf|men]] as well as the [[Amazon|women]])
*Transition is encouraged by several deities so that priests can experience life as the other sex
*"Revels" (some of which involve sex) are normal 
*"Festhalls" (many of which employ prostitutes as staff) are relatively common and visiting them is the normal way to spend evening.
*Prostitution is a core industry of Forgotten Realms; "sex workers" are all over and there are about 40 different names for different kinds of prostitutes.
*Incest is a normal way for noble families to "indulge feelings of mutual affection" (poor people don't as they can't afford the contraception)
*Pretty much all of the immortal NPCs in the Realms have come to believe that accepted sexual norms are bullshit, so they flout them. Constantly

All of this is confirmed by [[Ed Greenwood]] himself, from Ed's responses to fan queries on the Candlekeep forum.
[http://www.candlekeep.com/library/articles/sse/so_saith_ed.htm So Saith Ed here,] [https://pastebin.com/hEVadYsN here,] [https://pastebin.com/1MuQ6wFt and here.] It's also all completely, 100% canon thanks to Ed's ludicrously favorable contract. 

Of course, this isn't exactly out of place in certain historical periods and cultures (Per example the Greeks, the Etruscans, were particularly known for having frequent orgies, Canaanite religion frequently involved cross-dressing (which may be why the Bible forbids it) and the nobility of many cultures like Hawaiians and the Ptolemy Egyptians practiced sibling incest so as to avoid muddling the bloodline with peasant genome; Rome had all of the above at various points), so some individual cultures or nations with this going on probably wouldn't be off the mark, and notably, the post that included the stuff about incest also included that Ed himself is against incest... but when the whole damn world is into this stuff, it's not treated as a problem, no one questions it and there's no sign of things changing, then clearly the author has something on his mind. 

In short, the Forgotten Realms are [[Ed Greenwood]]'s [[magical realm]] cleaned up by [[TSR]] and later [[Hasbro]] for general consumption, and the Romantic Encounters mod for [[Baldur's_Gate_(Games)|Baldur's Gate]] is probably canon.

{{editwar}}

As of 5E, WoTC has decided to embrace the first bullet-point, there are random bits of homosexuality everywhere. Two men sharing a bed, a married pair of male porters and married pair of homesteaders, a gnome settlement with two kings, and a shopkeeper with nonbinary pronouns all appear in 5e adventures.  An attempt to [[Retcon]] the massively corrupt and crime-ridden city of Waterdeep into "Seattle during Pride" was actually met with significant backlash.

No regular orgies in every village yet, but [[Rime of the Frostmaiden]] does feature a completely inbred town.

{{D&D-Settings}}

[[Category:Forgotten Realms]]