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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 NightsNeverwinter Nights NWN , produced by BioWare and Infogrames Entertainment (now Atari), is a third-person perspective computer role-playing game that uses the Third Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons rules (with minor changes). It was released on June 18, 2, Baldur's Gate and Icewind DaleIcewind Dale is the arctic region of the fictional world of the Forgotten Realms, along the northernmost part of the Sword Coast. It is famous because many events involving the drow hero, Drizzt Do'Urden, occurred here, chronicled in The Icewind Dale Tril.
The Realms are home to diverse races and cultures, from arctic dwarves to Egyptian-like Old Empires.
Main article: Faerūn Geography.
Technically, the Forgotten Realms is set on the planet Abeir-TorilAbeir-Toril is the name of the fictional planet (and the crystal sphere) that the Forgotten Realms is set. The name is archaic, meaning "cradle of life". It consists of various supercontinents and islands, including Faerun, Kara-Tur, Zakhara, Maztica, and. Various lands in this world are also home to other Dungeons & Dragons adventuring campaigns. Abeir-Toril includes the continents of Faerūn, Kara-TurKara-Tur is a fantasy world created by Gary Gygax, David Cook and Francois Marcela-Froideval detailed in 1985's Oriental Adventures for the First Edition Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Versions Originally a stand alone campaign setting, by 1988 it, Zakhara , Maztica , and other yet unspecified landmasses. However, most publications regarding the Forgotten Realms are specifically about Faerūn itself.
While Abeir-Toril is on the 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.
The Forgotten Realms has a polytheistic pantheon. Deities are an integral part of the world. They interact with mortals, answer prayer, and have personal agendas. 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 Overgod. 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 .