Forgotten Realms

The Forgotten Realms is a fictional setting created by author and game designer Ed Greenwood for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Most action in the Forgotten Realms takes place on the supercontinent of FaerÃ»n, which is part of the world Toril.

Originally designed as Greenwood's personal campaign and detailed in a long series of articles in Dragon, it became the setting most popular with D&D gamers in the 1990s.

Its fame has been boosted by dozens of novels (including the exploits of the famous drow hero Drizzt Do'Urden) and numerous computer role-playing games, including Pool of Radiance, Unlimited Adventures, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale.

The Realms are home to diverse races and cultures, from arctic dwarves to Egyptian-like Mulhorand.

Geography
Technically, the Forgotten Realms is set on the planet Abeir-Toril. Various lands in this world are also home to other Dungeons & Dragons adventuring campaigns. Abeir-Toril includes the continents of FaerÃ»n, Kara-Tur, Zakhara, Maztica, and other yet unspecified landmasses. However, most publications regarding the Forgotten Realms are specifically about FaerÃ»n itself.

While Abeir-Toril is on the Prime Material Plane in Dungeons & Dragons' planar mechanics, some action may also take place on other planes of existence. Visitors from other planes of existence are also a commonly used plot device in the Forgotten Realms although the realms cosmology is completely enclosed and separate from the standard D&D 'Planar wheel' (the only exception being Sigil, where you can get from anywhere to anywhere).

Religions
The Forgotten Realms has several polytheistic pantheons. Deities are an integral part of the world. They interact with mortals, answer prayer, and have personal agendas. There are epic characters and classes. In the history of Forgotten Realms some mortals rose to godhood. They have many servants on the Material Plane, in the form of worshipers, clerics, paladins, proxies, and the Chosen.

Clerics and paladins, both Dungeons & Dragons core classes, are devout worshipers who pay tribute and receive power from particular deities. The Chosen are mortal worshipers who have received a portion of their deities' power, acting as mortal representatives of their deities. The most famous are the Chosen of Mystra: for example Elminster, the Sage of Shadowdale.

Above all other deities is Ao the Overlord. Ao does not sanction worshipers and distances himself from mortals. He is single-handedly responsible for the Time of Troubles, or Godswar, as seen in The Avatar Trilogy.