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123-577: Old Empires is an accessory for the fictional Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the second edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game . The book, with product code TSR 9274, was published in 1990, and was written by Scott Bennie , with cover art by Brom and interior art by Valerie Valusek . This campaign setting supplement describes the Old Empires, classical and Egyptian-style realms. The 96-page booklet

246-597: A cataclysmic event in which the Exandrian pantheon exploded into a civil war that put the entire world in peril". Created by author and game designer Ed Greenwood as his personal campaign and detailed in a long series of articles in Dragon Magazine , Forgotten Realms became the most popular D&D setting from the late 1980s onwards and has been well received by both gamers and reviewers. Sean Patrick Fannon , author of The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer's Bible , has praised

369-476: A full hardcover setting guide to the Magic setting of Ravnica, which first appeared in 2005. It is a high-magic world with a loose Slavic flavor, and features a single city which spans the entire planet and is controlled by ten competing guilds of different ideologies. Wyatt was the lead designer on Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica (2018) and he said that "this book is, essentially, Plane Shift: Ravnica". Theros

492-579: A group known as the Knights of Myth Drannor in the Shadowdale region. Greenwood felt that his players' thirst for detail made the Realms what it is: "They want it to seem real, and work on 'honest jobs' and personal activities, until the whole thing grows into far more than a casual campaign. Roleplaying always governs over rules, and the adventures seem to develop themselves." Greenwood has stated that his own version of

615-643: A module based on the computer game Pool of Radiance , was also released in 1988. The boxed set Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms was released in 1988. It gives details of the lands of Kara-Tur , and was designed to be used with the 1986 book Oriental Adventures , which officially placed the book in the Forgotten Realms world. In 1989, DC Comics began publishing a series of Forgotten Realms comics written by Grubb. Each issue contains twenty-six pages, illustrated primarily by Rags Morales and Dave Simons . Twenty-five issues were published in total, with

738-629: A much slower publication schedule than with previous editions with a focus on quality and profit and "the D&;D teams knows that they have plenty of great campaign settings in their back pocket and are either actively developing more settings or have ideas for them further down the line". Dungeons %26 Dragons campaign settings The flexibility of the Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D ) game rules means that Dungeon Masters (DM) are free to create their own fantasy campaign settings . For those who wanted

861-603: A new way for TSR to market its Battlesystem rules, which it had supported with the Bloodstone adventure sequence which started with Bloodstone Pass ; the last two adventures in the series, The Bloodstone Wars (1987) and The Throne of Bloodstone (1988), were unambiguously set in the Forgotten Realms. Some characters from Egg of the Phoenix (1987) by Frank Mentzer were incorporated into The Savage Frontier (1988). The compilation module Desert of Desolation reworked

984-434: A once-civilized people gone feral under the debased rule of women". The 4th edition update to the Forgotten Realms brought massive lore changes which were "tied to a number of other design philosophies" and the Forgotten Realms "simultaneously had become a grittier setting, on the edge of collapse, while also becoming a more fantastic one, full of wonder and mystery". Jason Wilson, for VentureBeat , highlighted that unlike

1107-435: A patron deity to secure a good afterlife. A huge number of diverse deities exist within several polytheistic pantheons; a large number of supplements have documented many of them, some in more detail than others. Greenwood created a pantheon of gods for his home Dungeons & Dragons game, in his Forgotten Realms world, which were introduced in his article "Down-to-earth divinity" from Dragon #54 (October 1981). When

1230-782: A post-apocalyptic desert setting and the alien feel of Athas' native cultures, give Dark Sun a unique flavor among the various D&D worlds. Wizards released several pen and paper adaptations of the Diablo II video game, both for AD&D 2nd edition and D&D 3rd edition. Second edition products include The Bloodstone Tomb D&D Diablo II Fast-Play Game (1999), D&D Adventure Game: Diablo II Edition (boxed set, 2000), Diablo II: The Awakening (adventure, 2000), and Diablo II miniatures (2000). Third edition products include Diablo II: To Hell and Back (adventure, and its web enhancement "The Secret Cow Level") and Diablo II: Diablerie (supplement), all from 2001. Dragon Fist , released on

1353-714: A pre-packaged setting in which to play, TSR , Wizards of the Coast (WotC), and other publishers have created many settings in which D&D games can be based; of these, the Forgotten Realms , an epic fantasy world, has been one of the most successful and critically acclaimed settings. Many campaign settings include standard sword and sorcery environments, while others borrow Asian, Central American, swashbuckling, horror and even space-travel themes. These are official D&D campaign settings that have been published or licensed by TSR or WotC. Theros and Ravnica originated in

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1476-568: A series of six books per year – consisting of three core rulebooks as well as three setting books – beginning with the Forgotten Realms. The company started the cycle with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (2008), the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (2008), and Scepter Tower of Spellgard . These books updated the Forgotten Realms to the newest rules system which altered the setting drastically to make it fit with

1599-426: A serious role-playing enthusiast with the first Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( AD&D ) game releases in 1978. Greenwood brought his fantasy world into the new medium of role-playing games when a university student named September invited him to play AD&D with her. The setting became the home of Greenwood's personal campaign . Greenwood began a Realms campaign in the city of Waterdeep before creating

1722-508: A setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics . The various planes from the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game were first adapted for Dungeons & Dragons in a series of free PDF releases called Plane Shift by James Wyatt , who worked on D&D for many years before moving over to Magic in 2014. Wyatt also writes the text for the series of Art of Magic: The Gathering coffee table books, which reprint illustrations from

1845-660: A timeline advance were introduced to the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition in 2001 with the release of the hardcover book the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting , which won the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game Supplement of 2001 in 2002. The timeline was officially advanced from 1358 DR to 1372 DR. The adventure City of the Spider Queen (2002) did not meet its projected sales targets, so Wizards of

1968-479: Is a D&D boxed set, published in 1994, that includes rules for playing dragon , half dragon, and dragon servant characters . It includes three rule books: one for the base rules, one for dragon family and clan histories, and one for adventure modules. In 1999 it was slightly revised and reprinted as a hardcover book. Released by TSR in 1991, Dark Sun diverges from the tone of "conventional" medieval fantasy, drawing heavy inspiration from novels like Dune and

2091-405: Is a China-inspired realm known as Tianguo, "a fictional land based on wuxia films and on Chinese folklore and legend". Beyond the initial release, the product was not supported. Dragonlance was the first complete fictional world to be intentionally produced and marketed as an RPG supplement, with product tie-ins (novels, role-playing modules, figurines, etc.) prepared and manufactured when it

2214-455: Is a city called Manifest, a mausoleum city built atop a geological feature known as the Well of Souls, a gathering place for ghosts, unique as a place in which ghosts can cross over to the realm of the living. The first published setting for D&D , created by D&D co-author Gary Gygax . Greyhawk is Gygax's original campaign, one which eventually turned into an official game supplement and

2337-434: Is a familiar, almost traditional, medieval-styled fantasy setting, it boasted unprecedented scope". "It is, quite simply, Dungeons & Dragons at its very core." Aubrey Sitterson, for PC Magazine , included the Forgotten Realms in a 2015 roundup of the "11 Best Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings" and wrote that "for most people, Forgotten Realms is synonymous with Dungeons & Dragons , and with good reason: it's

2460-417: Is a massive plateau containing a dense jungle environment. Loosely based on pre-colonial Indochina, Malatra is cut off from the rest of the world by distance, geography and powerful magic. Different races and variants of races from Forgotten Realms, Kara-Tur, and Spelljammer inhabit the plateau, and there is little in the form of technology. True gods, money, and books are all unheard of in the setting, as it

2583-431: Is a setting inspired by Greek mythology and Roman mythology . The setting originated as part of a Magic: The Gathering block released in 2013. This plane was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons in the 5th Edition campaign setting book Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020). Wyatt co-led the design with F. Wesley Schneider . The plane of Arcavios and its magical university Strixhaven were "created from scratch by

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2706-518: Is an island divided between the native Charonti, a civilization that makes heavy use of magic (especially necromancy), and the Knorr, barbarians who despise the vile practice of magic and have been driven from a far-away homeland to Jakandor. The setting was released in the form of three books, as part of the AD&;D: Odyssey line. These books are: A novel written by Grubb, entitled Jakandor: Land of Destiny ,

2829-510: Is based on the worship of elemental forces, spirits or the Sorcerer-Kings themselves – the old gods have long abandoned the world. Wizards and arcane spellcasters, on the other hand, are rarer and usually discriminated against, mainly because most of them are "defilers" who drain life force from the environment to power their magic. However, a small underground minority of magicians called "preservers" work to maintain life and ultimately restore

2952-553: Is intended to have a more primitive feel and stress heroism. Malatra was created as a Living Setting for Polyhedron magazine, and used in organized play at conventions. Most of the information from the setting can be found in Polyhedron magazine starting with issue #102, with a number of adventures being released every year. The setting started during second edition in 1995 and continued to release more adventures regularly into third edition through 2003. In 2007 one final adventure using

3075-403: Is now regarded as part of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting as its setting is mentioned in some Forgotten Realms sourcebooks and novels. Unlike other subsettings, this product line was not separated by space, but by time, taking place in the distant past. Released as a box set, The Horde ' s subheading on its front cover reads "Barbarian Campaign Setting". It details a region known as

3198-444: Is part of the fictional world of Abeir-Toril (usually just called Toril ), an Earth-like planet with many real-world influences and consists of several large continents. It was first detailed in the original Forgotten Realms Campaign Set , published in 1987 by TSR . The other continents of Toril include Kara-Tur , Zakhara , Maztica , and other yet unspecified landmasses. Kara-Tur, roughly corresponding to ancient East Asia ,

3321-401: Is retroactively considered to be a part of the Forgotten Realms, although it was not until the module The Bloodstone Wars was released that it became the official setting for the module series. Douglas Niles had worked on a novel trilogy with a Celtic theme, which were then altered to become the first novels set in the Forgotten Realms, starting with Darkwalker on Moonshae (1987). It

3444-529: Is set on the Zaporoska River, and authored by Anne Gray McCready . All three AD&D modules (CB1, CB2, and RS1) contain a two-page setting overview of "The Hyborian World", with sections on history and geography, people, technology, monsters, spellcasters, and magic items. There are also Hyboria-specific adaptations of the AD&;D rules: fear factor, luck points, and quick non-magical healing. Council of Wyrms

3567-403: Is that, long ago, planet Earth and the world of the Forgotten Realms were more closely connected. As time passed, the inhabitants of Earth had mostly forgotten about the existence of that other world – hence the name Forgotten Realms. The original Forgotten Realms logo, which was used until 2000, had small runic letters that read "Herein lie the lost lands" as an allusion to the connection between

3690-582: Is the first book in The Moonshae Trilogy , which predates the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set by one month. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Set was later released in 1987 as a boxed set of two source books ( Cyclopedia of the Realms and DM's Sourcebook of the Realms ) and four large color maps, designed by Greenwood in collaboration with Grubb. It sold ca. one hundred fifty thousand times in its first two years. The set introduced

3813-472: Is the last of a series of ground-shaking events. It really affects the whole world of the Forgotten Realms in a major way. You may remember when the Spell Plagues began, the two worlds of the Forgotten Realms, Abeir and Toril, crashed together. That created both geographic changes (the map of the Forgotten Realms and Faerûn actually changed due to that collision), and also changed the way magic works. It changed

Old Empires - Misplaced Pages Continue

3936-503: Is wrapped in a removable cover. The book includes a one-page introduction, explaining that this book covers the Old Empires , three ancient kingdoms in the South of the Forgotten Realms world: Mulhorand , Unther , and Chessenta , each of which receives its own section. Pages 3–6 detail the history of the Old Empires, including a two-page timeline of important events. Pages 7–10 briefly describe

4059-632: The Barsoom series. The campaign is set on the harsh desert world of Athas – once a lush planet teeming with life, it has since been stripped of its fertility by uncontrolled use of defiling magic and is now a desolate and savage place where civilization has retreated to city-states controlled by god-like Sorcerer-Kings. Psionics are a dominant aspect of the setting and are as commonplace as magic in other D&D settings – native / latent psionic abilities are commonly found in individuals of all humanoid races and their powers are respected. Religion and divine magic

4182-463: The Chainmail rules set in 1971, prior to Greyhawk and indeed Dungeons & Dragons itself. The D&D Blackmoor supplement was published in 1975. In 2004, Blackmoor was again published by Arneson and Zeitgeist Games. It was also run as a massively multiplayer role-playing game, or MMRPG, a type of living campaign. In 1984, TSR released two AD&D Conan modules as licensed tie-ins with Conan

4305-552: The Forgotten Realms setting, but overall darker in tone, closer to a sword and sorcery scenario. The first official edition of the campaign was published in 1980, although sections of it had appeared in articles published by the author. The campaign itself began as a dungeon and then expanded into an entire continent (Oerik) and eventually other added areas. In general, Oerth is an action-packed world which seems to be gradually descending into savagery and chaos and continually on

4428-470: The Magic: The Gathering franchise, another property of WotC. A number of the settings here are no longer published or officially licensed, though all have active fan bases. A setting in which the players took on the powers of the divinely empowered rulers of nations, with emphasis on tactical gameplay with a broad scope. The original campaign setting played for D&D , created by Dave Arneson . Arneson created this setting for use in personal games with

4551-611: The Neverwinter Campaign Setting was released which launched the 4th edition's first major multimedia release. The Forgotten Realms city setting spawned four novels by R. A. Salvatore called the Neverwinter Saga , a comic book, and a board game called The Legend of Drizzt , as well as two video games – the Facebook game Heroes of Neverwinter (2011–2012) and a MMORPG called Neverwinter (2013). Laura Tommervik, from

4674-540: The Thousand and One Nights , with genies, elemental wizards, holy assassins, and a land unified by belief in the power of Fate. The land, named Zakhara, is located near the southern border of the continent of Faerûn, the main landmass of the Realms. However, Al-Qadim appeared under its own label, and not the Forgotten Realms label, unlike Kara-Tur and Maztica. This campaign setting is no longer officially supported, but it

4797-506: The Wizards of the Coast marketing team, explained the approach: "We use Neverwinter as the connective tissue across multiple product categories. The transmedia campaign is an opportunity for fans to experience the brand however they choose to". In 2013, Wizards of the Coast announced a year-long event called the Sundering which acted as a multimedia project to transition the Forgotten Realms to

4920-530: The drow character Drizzt Do'Urden . Drizzt has since appeared in more than seventeen subsequent novels, many of which have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list . In 1988, the first in a line of Forgotten Realms role-playing video games, Pool of Radiance , was released by Strategic Simulations, Inc . The game was popular and won the Origins Award for "Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1988". Several supplements to

5043-466: The "default" setting for the 3rd edition of D&D , with deities from the setting being used as examples in the core rulebooks, and an organized play "living" campaign for the edition was set in Greyhawk. More recently, the 5th edition adventure book Ghosts of Saltmarsh is set in the Greyhawk setting. Jakandor , released in 1998, is a self-contained "campaign arena" conceived by Jeff Grubb . Jakandor

Old Empires - Misplaced Pages Continue

5166-420: The 1990s, which led to the setting being hailed as one of the most successful shared fantasy universes of the 1990s. By the first quarter of 1996, TSR had published sixty-four novels set in the Forgotten Realms out of the 242 novels set in AD&D worlds. These novels in turn sparked interest in role-playing by new gamers. Numerous Forgotten Realms video games were released between 1990 and 2000. Eye of

5289-467: The 3.5 rules was created for the organized play circuit. Maztica is a continent west of Faerûn that parallels Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica . In the fourth edition of D&D , Maztica was no longer on Toril , but was shifted to Abeir . The fifth edition of the game reinstated the 3rd edition geography. The Ghostwalk setting consists of a single campaign book. The central locale for the Ghostwalk setting

5412-470: The 4th edition changes to the Forgotten Realms: [B]asically, we authors were handed a document and told how things were going to be. We were asked our opinions, but they mattered very little – the changes were being driven from a different direction. [...] To have characters that have built such a strong history, then have that upset on the orders of someone else was very disconcerting. I will admit that

5535-467: The 4th edition concept of "Points of Light". The main lore change centered around an event called the Spellplague in 1385 DR. This cataclysm was unleashed when the goddess of magic Mystra was killed, "transforming whole nations and altering creatures. In addition, parts of Toril have fused with its long-lost twin world Abeir, whisking away some countries and adding new ones. The Underdark is more open to

5658-458: The Beholder for MS-DOS was released in 1990, which was followed by two sequels: the first in 1991, and the second in 1992. All three games were re-released for MS-DOS compatible operating systems on a single disk in 1995. Another 1991 release was Neverwinter Nights on America Online , the first graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG ). In 1998, Baldur's Gate ,

5781-454: The Coast took over publication of Dungeons & Dragons after purchasing TSR in 1997, they trimmed production down from six campaign settings to Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance , and completed AD&D 2nd edition production sometime between 1998 and 1999. They later hired Rob Heinsoo as a member of the D&D Worlds team to focus on Forgotten Realms in the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons . An official material update and

5904-462: The Coast cut back on production of new adventures. In 2002, BioWare released Neverwinter Nights , set in the northern reaches of Faerûn and operating on the revised 3.0 rules for D&D. It was followed by two expansion packs : Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark . A sequel using version 3.5 of the rules was produced by Obsidian Entertainment in 2006, and was followed by

6027-406: The Coast's 5th edition publishing strategy, which focuses on the Forgotten Realms and newer intellectual property for campaign settings, has created a rift in the fan base where some "feel that this push for new players has come at the cost of keeping the game's current players sated" by not updating campaign settings that "predate the Forgotten Realms". Hoffer highlighted that Wizards of the Coast has

6150-579: The Coast's creative department, the Eberron campaign setting was released in 2004. Straying from the "standard" Western European flavor used in many other D&D settings such as Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms , Eberron takes place in a world of pulp action and fantasy noir with steampunk influences, where the inhabitants make extensive use of magic in place of technology, or technology powered by magical energies. Fantasy versions of steam trains, airships, and even robots are commonplace, mostly replacing

6273-565: The Coast, but Kenzer & Company continues to use this setting for its own Hackmaster game. TSR released a setting based on the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber . The corrupt city of Lankhmar on the planet Nehwon is the starting place of grand adventures filled with mystery and deceit. Though Lankhmar is no longer supported as a setting for Dungeons & Dragons , its rights are held by Goodman Games , who have released it as

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6396-636: The Destroyer (1984), the second Schwarzenegger film. CB1: Conan Unchained! is set in the Vilayet Sea. CB2: Conan Against Darkness! takes place in Aquilonia. In 1985, TSR released a stand-alone (non-D&D) Conan Role-Playing Game boxed set based on the Marvel Superheroes RPG system. In 1986, TSR published another AD&D module: RS1: Red Sonja Unconquered licensed from Red Sonja Corp., which

6519-455: The Endless Waste, which lies between Faerûn and Kara-Tur. The setting is modeled on medieval Mongolia ( A Guidebook to the Endless Waste , page 9). An oriental setting loosely based on mythical and medieval East and Southeast Asia , featuring advanced and mystical civilizations populated by martial warriors, samurais, ninjas, spirit folk and other fantastical creatures. It was introduced in

6642-399: The Forgotten Realms as a child , starting at the age of eight. He came up with the name from the notion of a multiverse of parallel worlds; Earth is one such world, and the Realms another. In Greenwood's original conception, the fantastic legends of Earth derive from a fantasy world that can no longer be accessed. Greenwood discovered the Dungeons & Dragons game in 1975, and became

6765-400: The Forgotten Realms are not all ruled by the human race: the setting's planet, Abeir-Toril , is shared by humans , dwarves , elves , goblins , orcs, dragons and other peoples and creatures. Technologically, the world resembles pre-industrial Earth of the 13th or 14th century. However, the strong presence of magic provides an additional element of power to the societies. The main focus of

6888-461: The Forgotten Realms as "a classic fantasy backdrop" and highlighted that "at one time in our history, our world and this one were connected, but over time this magical realm was, well, forgotten. It is an ideal place for any D&D adventure, inspiring limitless possibilities for any smirking dungeon master". In 2019, academic Philip J. Clements called the "highly popular" Forgotten Realms "an unusually well-developed D&D setting" and "more-or-less

7011-439: The Forgotten Realms was published as a setting in 1987, the pantheon added Waukeen, the goddess of trade, money, and wealth, who was created by one of Jeff Grubb 's players, and added to the Forgotten Realms by Grubb. Tyche was replaced with Tymora, and the elemental lords from Melniboné were replaced by Akadi, Grumbar, Istishia, and Kossuth. Much of the history of the Forgotten Realms detailed in novels and source books concerns

7134-517: The Forgotten Realms were briefly supported in the early 1990s. Three more modules were produced for the Kara-Tur setting. The Horde boxed set , released in 1990, detailed the Hordelands, which featured a series of three modules. The Maztica Campaign Set , released in 1991, detailed the continent of Maztica . The original gray boxed set was revised in 1993 to update it to AD&D 2nd edition, with

7257-416: The Forgotten Realms would be a more open-ended setting than its epic fantasy counterpart Dragonlance , and chose the Realms as a ready-made campaign setting upon deciding to publish AD&D 2nd edition . Greenwood agreed to work on the project and began working to get Forgotten Realms officially published. He sent TSR a few dozen cardboard boxes stuffed with pencil notes and maps, and sold all rights to

7380-534: The Forgotten Realms, as run in his personal campaign, is much darker than published versions. Starting in 1979, Greenwood published a series of articles that detailed the setting in The Dragon (now Dragon ) magazine, the first of which was about a monster known as the curst . Greenwood wrote voluminous entries to Dragon , and used the Realms as a setting for his descriptions of magic items , monsters, and spells . When Gary Gygax "lost control of TSR in 1985,

7503-420: The Forgotten Realms, which is also the setting of a large number of novels, featuring, among others, the popular characters Drizzt Do'Urden , Artemis Entreri , and Elminster . The Forgotten Realms are the default setting for most adventures released for the 5th edition of D&D , though the core rulebooks reference the wider multiverse. Al-Qadim is a setting inspired by Arabian mythology and in particular

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7626-475: The Forgotten Realms. The focus of the Forgotten Realms setting is the continent of Faerûn, the western part of a continent that was roughly modeled after the Eurasian continent on Earth. The lands of the Forgotten Realms are not all ruled by the human race, with populations of many humanoid races and creatures ubiquitous in fantasy fiction works such as dwarves , elves , goblins , and orcs . Technologically,

7749-555: The Forgotten Realms. In July 1990, the RPGA Network's Polyhedron Newszine began publishing a monthly column by Greenwood entitled "The Everwinking Eye" detailing various locations and personalities in the Realms. The Network used the Forgotten Realms city of Ravens Bluff as the setting for their first living campaign . Official RPGA support for this product line included the Living City module series. A number of sub-settings of

7872-527: The Netherdeep , includes some setting information; the adventure heads from Xhorhas to the city of Ank'Harel on the continent of Marquet. From there, players will be drawn into the Netherdeep – "a terrifying cross between the Far Realm and the deep ocean". The book is "the closest to cracking open Exandria's origins that Mercer has come to date. Call of the Netherdeep is steeped in the history of The Calamity,

7995-470: The Old Empires. Pages 71–80 detail the spells of Southern magic, a type of magic that is written in a manner that makes it undecipherable to a practitioner of standard magic . Pages 81–86 detail the magical items unique to the region. Page 87 consists of a chart to determine random encounters in Mulhorand. Pages 89–96 detail eight new monsters for the region, including the brown dragon , the dracosphinx , and

8118-500: The Spell Plague. Markings that marked spell-plagued people and animals will fade and go away. It's really about moving the Forgotten Realms forward, but also about bringing it around to the most beloved and most fondly remembered Forgotten Realms. The result of The Second Sundering, in game terms, was the transition from 4th edition rules to 5th edition rules of Dungeons & Dragons , published in 2014. When D&D 5th edition

8241-711: The Time of Troubles cataclysm, the 4th edition Spellplague cataclysm was "one players never embraced in the same manner as the earlier disaster". Shannon Appelcline, author of Designers & Dragons , wrote: [The 4th edition] Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide may be the most controversial D&D book ever produced by Wizards. That's entirely due to the large-scale destruction of the Realms. Similar updates have been tried by other companies — to reinvigorate settings, to make them more accessible to new players, or to make them more adventuresome. [...] It never seems to go well, because old fans feel left behind. With that said, some folks did love

8364-576: The Time of Troubles, or Godswar, as seen in The Avatar Trilogy . The setting is home to several noteworthy recurring characters that have gained wider reception, including: In his book The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer's Bible , Sean Patrick Fannon describes the Forgotten Realms as being "the most ambitious fantasy game setting published since Tekumel ", and that it "may be the most widely played-in game setting in RPG history". Similarly, in literature,

8487-434: The Underdark (an underground realm dominated by evil elves), Maztica (inspired by pre-Columbian Mesoamerica), and Kara-Tur (based on the mythical Far East). For D&D's 4th edition, the setting was reworked: the timeline advanced into the future where a major cataclysm caused by a conflict amongst gods caused the previously divided worlds Abeir and Toril to collide with several geographical areas changing place. In 2014, with

8610-475: The Wizards of the Coast website, was promoted as a new role playing game, describing itself in its introduction as an " AD&D variant". With its debut near the end of the lifespan of second edition, the variant rules blended rules found in different editions. For example, the game used the monster template of second edition, but the armor class rules of third edition. The campaign setting, created by Chris Pramas ,

8733-416: The abrupt changes forced me into an uncomfortable place, and from that place came some of the better things I've written, but I very much preferred the way it was done this time, with 5th Edition and the changes, where we, the authors, were told what was happening to the game and asked how we could make the world and the lore live and breathe it. Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com , reported that Wizards of

8856-512: The actions of various deities and The Chosen (mortal representatives with a portion of their deities' power) such as Elminster , Fzoul Chembryl, Midnight (who later became the new embodiment of the goddess of magic, Mystra ), and the Seven Sisters. Above all other deities is Ao, the Overlord, who does not sanction worshipers and distances himself from mortals. He is single-handedly responsible for

8979-410: The campaign is the region of Faerûn , the western part of a continent that was roughly modeled after the Eurasian continent on Earth. Faerûn was first detailed in the original Forgotten Realms Campaign Set , published in 1987 by TSR , and contains rough analogues of mythical versions of European, African and Middle Eastern cultures, as well as regions dominated by non-human races. Other areas include

9102-476: The campaign setting and explained how to use it, and reserved space on the map for SSI 's Gold Box computer role-playing games set in the Forgotten Realms. TSR began incorporating elements by other designers into the Forgotten Realms, including the Moonshae Isles by Douglas Niles , the "Desert of Desolation" by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman , and Kara-Tur by Zeb Cook . The setting also provided

9225-451: The cards with details for each plane's lore; the Plane Shift releases were created to allow players to use those books as campaign setting guides by providing the necessary rule adaptations. Between 2016 and 2018, six "Plane Shift" articles were released: Amonkhet , Dominaria , Innistrad , Ixalan , Kaladesh , and Zendikar , along with an Ixalan-set adventure. Plane Shift: Innistrad

9348-416: The changes, because the setting was now more playable, more accessible, more fantastic, and more PC centered. [...] Meanwhile, a series of adventures and novels called The Sundering (2013–2014) reversed many of the 4e changes to the Realms, but without rebooting the timeline. Instead, the Realms continues to evolve and advance, as it has since its earlier days. R. A. Salvatore was also publicly unhappy with

9471-533: The company saw an opportunity to move beyond Greyhawk and introduce a new default setting". In 1986, TSR began looking for a new campaign setting for AD&D , and assigned Jeff Grubb to find out more about the setting used by Greenwood as portrayed in his articles in Dragon . Greenwood states that Grubb asked him "Do you just make this stuff up as you go, or do you really have a huge campaign world?", and Greenwood answered "yes" to both questions. TSR felt that

9594-424: The continent of Tal'Dorei on Exandria, where the first Critical Role campaign with the adventuring group Vox Machina took place. One critic highlighted that this campaign has the "specific flavor of high fantasy drama" akin to the "Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms books". An updated edition, titled Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn (2022) from publisher Darrington Press , moves the timeline 20 years forward to

9717-461: The continent of Taladas, noted for having a large molten sea in its middle, and a nation of minotaurs modeled on the Roman Empire , with its own imperial family, senate, and gladiatorial games . In 2003, Wizards of the Coast held a contest for fans to propose the most creative new setting, the reward being a publishing contract. Keith Baker 's setting won, and with additional design by Wizards of

9840-673: The continent of Wildemount in Exandria, where the second Critical Role campaign takes place, and adds a new type of magic called dunamancy , which focuses on manipulating time and space. Wildemount was designed with an Eastern European influence – specifically, the Dwendalian Empire was inspired by 15th century Russia and Prussia, Xhorhas by 13th-century Romania, and the edges by 14th-century Spain. Critics have highlighted Wildemount specifically as breaking from traditional fantasy tropes. A second collaboration book, Critical Role: Call of

9963-587: The desert wraith . This book also includes a fold-out color poster map of the region. The inside front cover contains a diagram of the interior and corridors of the Pyramid of the Sceptanar, and the inside back cover contains a diagram of a chariot race track. FR10 Old Empires was written by Scott Bennie and published by TSR in 1990 as 96-page booklet with an outer folder. In the June 1990 edition of Games International ,

10086-505: The era of the second Critical Role campaign . Exandria was first mentioned in an official Wizards of the Coast publication in the adventure book Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (2019). In 2020, after Mercer had been working with Wizards of the Coast for about a year and a half on the project, Exandria officially became a part of Dungeons & Dragons through the release of the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount . This book focuses on

10209-575: The expansion sets Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir . The Forgotten Realms Deluxe Edition compilation was released in 2006, containing the Baldur's Gate series (excluding the Dark Alliance games), Icewind Dale series, and all Neverwinter Nights games before Neverwinter Nights 2 . With the release of Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition in 2008, Wizards opted for a publishing plan featuring

10332-562: The first in a line of popular role-playing video games developed by BioWare and "considered by most pundits as the hands-down best PC roleplaying game ever", was released. The game was followed by a sequel, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn , in 2000 and Icewind Dale , a separate game that utilized the same game engine as Baldur's Gate . Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor was released in 2001. Several popular Forgotten Realms characters such as Drizzt Do'Urden and Elminster made minor appearances in these games. When Wizards of

10455-483: The flagship setting for D&D". He also noted that it has received the greatest number of supplements. In a retrospective on the legacy of Dungeons & Dragons , academic Daniel Heath Justice commented that the " Forgotten Realms was explicitly based on the civilized-versus-savage binary and leaned in hard on racial essentialism in its sadistic black-skinned drow led by vicious matriarchs and their terrible spider goddess, firmly melding anti-Blackness with misogyny,

10578-404: The folks at TSR did. Naturally when TSR was shopping for new campaign worlds as part of their cross-media strategy, they had to get the Forgotten Realms. R. A. Salvatore took Greenwood's world and created characters and stories for it that made him a bestselling author and sustained TSR as a major fantasy book publisher". In 1985, the AD&D module Bloodstone Pass was released by TSR and

10701-428: The gods being cast down was planned by TSR management from the top-down and started with Hall of Heroes (1989) and continued with a three-adventure Avatar series (1989) and a three-novel Avatar series (1989), and some stories in the comic book. TSR adjusted the timeline of the Forgotten Realms by advancing the calendar one year forward to 1358 DR, referring to the gap as the Time of Troubles. In early 1990,

10824-410: The hardcover Forgotten Realms Adventures by Grubb and Greenwood was released, which introduced the setting to AD&D 2nd edition; the book also detailed how the Time of Troubles had changed the setting. The Ruins of Undermountain (1991) was one of the first published mega-dungeons. The Al-Qadim setting by Jeff Grubb was released in 1992, and the setting was added to the southern part of

10947-537: The lands surrounding the Old Empires, which include Thay , Semphar and Murghôm , Aleaxtis (kingdom of the sahuagin ), the Plains of Purple Dust, the Coastal Cities, Aglarond , Raurin, Durpar , Veldorn , Eastern Shaar , and Chondath . Mulhorand (pages 11–34) describes Mulhorand's people and society, geography, current economy, current politics, laws, adventures, religion, personalities, culture, and technology. Unlike

11070-463: The last being released in 1991. A fifty-six page annual Forgotten Realms Comic Annual #1: Waterdhavian Nights , illustrated by various artists, was released in 1990. Curse of the Azure Bonds , a module based on the role-playing video game of the same name , was released in 1989. To transition the Forgotten Realms from first edition AD&D to the ruleset's second edition, a story involving

11193-492: The launch of new playtest content titled Unearthed Arcana – Mages of Strixhaven . In 2020, Greg Tito, Wizards of the Coast Senior Communications Manager, confirmed that there would be more Dungeons & Dragons crossovers with Magic: The Gathering in the future, noting "there is a huge crossover between Magic players and D&D players" and since Wyatt has worked on both D&D and Magic , it

11316-423: The launch of the 5th edition, the world of Forgotten Realms was again returned to its previous, 3rd edition geography. This campaign is currently officially supported by Wizards of the Coast and over the years has expanded into a variety of other media, including literature, comics and video games. The highly successful Baldur's Gate , Icewind Dale , and Neverwinter Nights series of video games are based on

11439-525: The new edition, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (2015), was released on November 3, 2015, and only covered a fraction of the Forgotten Realms. It describes the 2013 Sundering event, referred to as the Second Sundering in the book, and its consequences in game terms and lore. The video game Sword Coast Legends (2015) published by Digital Extremes was also released in the same month as

11562-586: The next edition of the game. This release included a weekly D&D Encounters in-store play event, a free-to-play mobile game Arena of War (2013), and a collaborative novel series: The Companions (2013) by R. A. Salvatore, The Godborn (2013) by Paul S. Kemp , The Adversary (2013) by Erin Evans , The Reaver (2014) by Richard Lee Byers , The Sentinel (2014) by Troy Denning , and The Herald (2014) by Ed Greenwood. Liz Schuh, Head of Publishing and Licensing for Dungeons & Dragons , said: The Sundering

11685-408: The novels have been among the most requested books by fans of the fantasy genre. D&D chroniclers Michael Witwer et al. , in the book Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana , noted that the "level of Tolkienesque history and detail that Greenwood had infused in his creation - and almost "real world" quality - granted the Realms an irresistible allure [...]. While at its core the Forgotten Realms

11808-530: The novels written in the Forgotten Realms setting have formed one of "the industry's leading fantasy series". Over time these novels have gained "unprecedented popularity", which led, as Marc Oxoby noted in his book, The 1990s , to the novels having an "extraordinary shelf life", remaining in print for many years. This popular reception has also been reflected in public libraries; for example, Joyce Saricks states in The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction that

11931-514: The original Oriental Adventures rulebook published in the 1980s. It later became part of the Forgotten Realms and was eventually placed on the eastern edge of Toril. The lands of Kara-Tur are split between several peoples and kingdoms, the most powerful of which is Shou Lung, a sprawling empire (inspired by historical China) and arguably the largest nation in the Forgotten Realms. A lesser known setting located south of Shou Lung in Kara-Tur, Malatra

12054-582: The original boxed set were released under the first edition rules, beginning with Waterdeep and the North , which was followed by Moonshae in 1987, and Empires of the Sands , The Magister , The Savage Frontier , Dreams of the Red Wizards , and Lords of Darkness in 1988. The City System boxed set was released in 1988, and it contained several maps of the city of Waterdeep. Ruins of Adventure ,

12177-404: The pantheon of the gods. The Sundering is all about those two worlds separating—coming apart—and the process of that separation is really the story that we're telling over the next year. At the end of this story arc, Abeir and Toril will be separate again, and many of the things that happened when they crashed together will go back to the way they were before. So magic will be much like it was before

12300-526: The previous adventures to fit as part of the Forgotten Realms. The module Under Illefarn published in 1987 is set in the Forgotten Realms, as is the module released in 1988, Swords of the Iron Legion . R. A. Salvatore wrote his first novel for the Forgotten Realms, The Crystal Shard (1988), which was originally set in the Moonshae Islands before being moved to a new location and introduced

12423-533: The primeval lushness. Playable humanoid races in Athas include the Thri-Kreen (mantis people) and Half-Giants, as well as warped variants of races found in other conventional fantasy settings: humans, the dominant race in most of known Athas, appear to be tougher than in other worlds; elves are nomadic desert dwellers and long-distance runners; halflings are depicted as savage jungle cannibals. These elements, combined with

12546-546: The release of a new Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed set containing three books ( A Grand Tour of the Realms , Running the Realms , and Shadowdale ) and various "monster supplements". Additional material for the setting was released steadily throughout the 1990s. Forgotten Realms novels, such as the Legacy of the Drow series, the first three books of The Elminster Series , and numerous anthologies were also released throughout

12669-513: The release of the 2001 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting , the setting was given its own distinct and separate cosmological arrangement, with unique planes not explicitly connected to those of the other settings. Religion plays a large part in the Forgotten Realms, with deities and their followers being an integral part of the world. Deities interact directly in mortal affairs, answer prayers, and have their own personal agendas. All deities must have worshipers to survive, and all mortals must worship

12792-450: The reviewer thought this supplement represented "the usual TSR value for money." The reviewer criticized the lack of any included adventure, but concluded "I'm sure we'll see some full-fledged modules set there appearing soon." Forgotten Realms Forgotten Realms is a fantasy world setting, described as a world of strange lands, dangerous creatures, and mighty deities, where magic and supernatural phenomena are quite real. The premise

12915-480: The setting for a token fee. He noted that TSR altered his original conception of the Realms being a place that could be accessed from Earth, as "[c]oncerns over possible lawsuits (kids getting hurt while trying to 'find a gate') led TSR to de-emphasize this meaning". Jon Peterson, author of Dungeons and Dragons Art and Arcana: A Visual History , said that Greenwood "was that rare obsessive DM who just seemed to have more ideas and energy to pour into his world than even

13038-503: The setting that played home to the massively popular Baldur's Gate video game, as well as R. A. Salvatore's Drizzt books. Currently, it's the only campaign setting actively supported by D&D makers Wizards of the Coast, which would be restrictive if Forgotten Realms wasn't such an incredibly diverse place, housing classic European middle ages tropes, as well as a heroic fantasy take on African, Middle Eastern, and other real-world cultures". Brian Silliman, for SYFY Wire in 2017, described

13161-532: The setting's scope and ambition and considered that it "may be the most widely played-in game setting in RPG history". The Forgotten Realms is a high fantasy world – magic is powerful, legendary monsters are commonplace, and gods often intervene directly in mortal affairs. Players can indulge in several types of fantasy adventures, from straightforward hack-and-slash treasure hunting in dungeons to epic campaigns involving regional wars, cataclysms and direct contact with gods and extra-dimensional beings. The lands of

13284-618: The surface. Thay has become a nightmare land of death and the Elves, sensing the newfound connection to the Feywild, have returned to Faerûn in force". The event moved the fictional world's timeline 94 years into the future to 1479 DR. The Spellplague acted as "a narrative justification for design changes". In 2008, the Forgotten Realms also became the setting for the RPGA's sole living campaign, Living Forgotten Realms , replacing Living Greyhawk . In 2011,

13407-597: The tabletop campaign guide. 5th edition details on "the rest of Faerûn had been untouched until the Tomb of Annihilation (2017), an adventure that leaves the northern Sword Coast for the southern jungles of Chult". The official Dungeons & Dragons actual play web series Rivals of Waterdeep , which premiered in 2018, is set in the Forgotten Realms. It has adapted adventure modules such as Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (2018), Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (2019) and Candlekeep Mysteries (2021) which are also set in

13530-631: The traditional medieval trope of knights in shining armor. Originally created by Matthew Mercer for his personal campaigns in 2012, Exandria is the world where the Critical Role web series is set and is a high fantasy setting, which moves away from the "harmful tropes in D&;D " around monstrous races. In 2017, Green Ronin Publishing released a setting book written by Mercer and James Haeck, Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting , which focused on

13653-506: The two worlds. Forgotten Realms is one of the most popular D&D settings , largely due to the success of novels by authors such as R. A. Salvatore and numerous role-playing video games, including Pool of Radiance (1988), Eye of the Beholder (1991), Icewind Dale (2000), the Neverwinter Nights and the Baldur's Gate series. Ed Greenwood began writing stories about

13776-636: The typical deities of the Forgotten Realms , the people of Mulhorand worship the gods of Egypt, such as Isis , Thoth , and Osiris . Unther (pages 35–49) describes Unther's people and society, geography, religion, personalities, and culture. The people of Unther primarily worship the gods of the Sumerians, including Ishtar and Ramman . Chessenta (pages 50–64) describes Chessenta's people and society, geography, current economy, current politics, religion, personalities, mercenary companies, and culture. Pages 65–70 detail several short adventure scenarios appropriate for

13899-403: The verge of war. It is originally centered on the region of Flanaess, whose fictional history has parallels with that of ancient and medieval Europe – a powerful Oeridian Empire has pushed away barbarian tribes and has become a decadent, evil state, while smaller states, kingdoms and tribes compete for power amidst wildlands populated by monsters, magic and fantastical creatures. Greyhawk was also

14022-468: The world of Magic: The Gathering , Strixhaven is the largest and most powerful magic academy in the multiverse [...]. Due to its relatively recent addition to the Magic: The Gathering universe, it's likely this Dungeons & Dragons adventure will significantly expand on the lore associated with the magic school". A preview of Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos was available on June 8, alongside

14145-436: The world of the Forgotten Realms resembles the pre-industrial Earth in the 13th or 14th century. However, the presence of magic provides an additional element of power to the societies. There are several nation states and many independent cities, with loose alliances being formed for defense or conquest. Trade is performed by ship or horse-drawn vehicle , and manufacturing is based upon cottage industry . The Forgotten Realms

14268-434: The world-building team" for the 2021 Strixhaven: School of Mages Magic: The Gathering set. The university is divided into five colleges: Lorehold, Witherbloom, Prismari, Quandrix, and Silverquill; each college was founded by a different Elder Dragon. In June 2021, a crossover campaign book Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos was released which introduces the setting to Dungeons & Dragons . CBR reported that "in

14391-491: Was first released. The success of the Dragonlance series encouraged role-playing game producers to invent and market additional fictional game worlds. Dragonlance is an epic fantasy campaign focused on a war between good and evil gods and the return of dragons after centuries of absence. It was created by Tracy Hickman and his wife Laura, with tie-in novels by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis . This box set introduced gamers to

14514-421: Was greatly expanded upon with many supplements throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Many of the setting's concepts were based on ideas generated during Gary Gygax's D&D gaming sessions. Several characters in the setting were also based on characters created by Gygax's gaming partners. Oerth (the name of the world where Greyhawk campaigns take place) is a "standard" medieval fantasy world, similar in many ways to

14637-595: Was later the focus of its own source book Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms , published in 1988. There is also a vast subterranean world called the Underdark beneath the surface. In early editions of the setting, The Realms shared a unified cosmology with various other campaign settings called the Great Wheel. In this way each of the Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings were linked together to form one interwoven world connected by various planes of existence. With

14760-427: Was planned for January 1999 but not released. A campaign setting designed and produced by Kenzer & Company . The Kalamar setting focuses mainly on six human sub-races on the world of Tellene and its creators pride themselves on grounding the fantasy setting in 'reality' by taking advantage of realistic looking geography and political structures. This campaign setting is no longer officially supported by Wizards of

14883-404: Was published in 2014, Wizards of the Coast announced that the Forgotten Realms would continue to serve as the official campaign setting for its upcoming published adventure materials. The village of Phandalin in the Forgotten Realms acted as the primary setting for the new 5th edition Starter Set (2014) which was published before the release of three new core rulebooks. "Tyranny of Dragons"

15006-405: Was released as a free PDF in 2016. However, these articles are not considered official material for organized play. In 2017, Mike Mearls wrote: "It's basically a thing James does for fun, and we don't want to burden it with needing all the work required to make it official". The positive response to the "Plane Shift" articles lead to the 2018 publication of Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica ,

15129-660: Was the first multimedia storyline for the new edition and included two adventure modules, Hoard of the Dragon Queen (2014) and The Rise of Tiamat (2014), and an update to the Neverwinter (2013) video game. The next two storylines, "Elemental Evil" which included Princes of the Apocalypse (2015) and "Rage of Demons" which included Out of the Abyss (2015), were also set in the Forgotten Realms. The first campaign guide for

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