What all do I need to know about Forgotten Realms?

[blackspeeker]

My group is starting another campaign in the coming weeks, and we normally stick to either Eberron based campaigns or home-brewed stuff. I'll be honest I don't know much about what we are going to be doing when playing, I know we'll be starting at level 1, it's 3.5, DM is giving away 2 free regional feats at first level (which sounds generous.) Also he's put a ban on psionics which hurts me but I guess psions aren't really common in Faerun.

So is there a top ten list of things I should know about the setting, I've tried consulting books and wikis but keep getting steamrolled by walls of text.

Also if it matters I'm planning on being a druid going into MoMF, because I like it and dont want to be a wild shape ranger. And the other guy in our party is going to start out as a barbarian in the south, I think he was going to be from Halruaa, and eventually be a frenzied berserker

[Wookie-ranger]

Top 10 think to know about the forgotten realms:
1: Don't piss everyone off, the chances are VERY high that he/she is a 17level wizard in disguise.
2: Don't piss everyone off even if you KNOW that they are not a 17lvl wizard in disguise! because the chances are VERY high that they are good friends with a 19 level cleric.
3: There will be someone stronger then you. Always. That is a fact.
4: There is (can be) a lot of intrigue and politics on a grand scale.
5: If you know that your DM wants to stick close to the forgotten realms as-is, be warned about reading too much lore. there can be lots of spoilers.
6: Don't mess with the weave. Just don't. It can only lead to falling cities and 4th editions, and we don't want that do we now. :smallwink:
7: You will have powerful friends and powerful enemies. Use them both.
8: If you encounter a talking golem, listen! that does not happen often. :smallwink:
9: Undermountain. a bit overrated, but can be a lot of fun.
10: It has lots of lore and history. for better or worse.

I personally really like Faerun, it may just be nostalgia or that i have played a lot of games there.

[hisnamehere]

The Realms isn't that intimidating. There's monsters, evil NPCs, magic (but not much psionics), and adventure to be had. As for your Top 10 list:

#11. Everyone in the Realms needs a deity to which they pay the most respect. It's okay to ask for Tymora's luck when gambling, but still hold Torm closest to you heart, but you need to have that favorite. Else, your soul goes to a version of Purgatory.

As for gaining 2 [Regional] feats at first level...it's technically illegal by Realms rules (i.e. one [Regional] feat only).
That said, you'll just have to get PGtF and sift through all the possible feat combos available.
I enjoy Damaran's for the Jotunbrud feat, but that doesn't necessarily fit a druid. Unless of course the size benefits transfer to your wild shapes.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Oh, don't attack Drow on sight while on the surface. Odds are either it's Dr**t himself, or some worshiper of the CG drow deity. The crazy ones are all underground, and mostly stay there.

In fact, don't attack anything on sight that you'd normally attack on sight, because odds are, it's just the 'emo minority' of whatever it happens to be and not actually evil, and be quite capable of curb-stomping your group because of the power of Being Different!(tm).

[Akal Saris]

I'll throw my hat into the ring!

1. Deities: Faerun has a ton of them, and they are constantly messing with people's lives. Anything interesting going on in the world typically gets traced back to a god at some point.
Some important deities:
Good: Lathander (Dawn & Spring God), Selune (Moon goddess), Oghma (knowledge), Torm (Paladins), Tyr (Justice), Tymora (good luck)
Neutral: Mystra (Magic)
Evil: Cyric (Mostly all evil stuff), Lolth (Drow and spiders), Bane (Also lots of evil), Besheba (bad luck)

2. Waterdeep. This is the Faerun version of London/New York/Tokyo. It's ruled by a wise council of anonymous lords. Underneath Waterdeep is a giant magical dungeon known as Undermountain, ruled by a crazy wizard. Near Undermountain is the underground city of Skullport, which is sort of like the Tijuana of the Underdark (see below).

3. The Underdark. Much of Faerun is premised on the idea that while the world is awesome, there is also a giant underground world that is creatively named the Underdark. There are entire kingdoms of underground variants of surface races, as well as a few oddballs. Drow are the big names here.

4. Menzoberranzan. Menzoberranzan is a city filled with drow, aka scheming, ultra-powerful and amoral creatures. If Skullport is Tijuana, then Menzoberranzan is Washington, DC. The city features prominently in R.A. Salvatore books.

5. Drizzt Do'Urden. Drizzt is the hero of R.A. Salvatore's novels, which are many people's introduction to Faerun. He's a good-aligned drow ranger with a pair of scimitars.

6. The Time of Troubles. This was TSR's clever way to pull the Forgotten Realms kicking and screaming into 2nd edition. Basically 3 evil gods stole a giant magical artifact (MacGuffin) and in response the king god exiled 99% of the deities to the world, where they became ultra-powerful mortals. Because the goddess of magic was mortal, magic became very unreliable. After a year of mass chaos, the 3 evil gods died and were replaced by Cyric, and all the gods returned to the heavens.

7. The Lands. The Realms have a lot of ethnic-themed lands you will never visit. These include:
1) Kara-tur - the Asia of FR
2) Maztica - the South America of FR
3) Zakhara - the Arabic themed area
4) Mulhorrand & Unther - The ancient Egypt & Mesopotamia themed place
5) Chult - the dinosaurs & jungles 'Land of the Lost' themed area
6) Luiren - the Shire from LoTR (halflings live here..)

Here's an awesome chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_index_of_Toril

8. Faerun is awesome, but it used to be more awesome. The world is filled with the ruins of a time when magic was just better. These ruins include:
1) Netheril - An ancient kingdom of wizards that built flying castles. These ruled until one wizard tried to turn himself into a god and instead ruined things for everyone else when he screwed up.
2) Myth Drannor. This is an elven kingdom that fell to demons
3) Narfell. Old evil wizard kingdom that summoned too many demons and collapsed

9. Elminster. This is an old wizard with near-unstoppable magical powers that he uses in cryptic ways to advance the cause of Good.

10. Secret societies/organized criminal organizations are big. These include:
Good: The Harpers (Elminster is tight with these guys)
Evil: The Kraken Society, the Order of the Shield, Cult of the Dragon, The Malaugryms, The Fire Knives, and The Zhentarim. You don't need to know what these guys are all about, but they are probably up to no good. Special shout-out to the Red Wizards of Thay, who are an openly evil mage society.

Homework: Reading source books can be really boring. If you want to learn about Faerun and enjoy it, I recommend the following novels:

Brian M. Thomsen: Once Around the Realms (parody of 'Around the World in 80 Days' - this book has the characters trying to circle Faerun in 80 days)

R.A. Salvatore: The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, and The Halfling's Gem

Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb: The Finder's Stone Trilogy

For a druid:
-Sylvanus is the Generic Druid God. Mielikki is the Unicorn Goddess and also has many druids. If I remember, according to the 3.0 Faiths & Pantheons, druids of Mielikki can wear metal armor (just a FYI). Malar is the evil god of hunting. Consider coming from Rashemen as they have some good feats such as "Rashemi Elemental Summoning."

Good luck and may Tymora smile upon you!

[ryu]

Don't randomly attack people with glowing swords, Hawk beak noses, old age, a kingdom, or any kind racial diversity in the group. No not common racial diversity. Weird race combinations tend to involve crack teams of experts in their respective fields. Anyone of the above who isn't dangerous in themselves is probably dangerous because of group affiliations.

The gods are pretty active shakers in the world even though they pretend not to be. Yes they're watching if you're any kind of important. No they aren't afraid to set things in motion if you threaten their organizations.

[Saidoro]

#11. Everyone in the Realms needs a deity to which they pay the most respect. It's okay to ask for Tymora's luck when gambling, but still hold Torm closest to you heart, but you need to have that favorite. Else, your soul goes to a version of Purgatory.


Honestly, not worshiping the gods sends you to somewhere closer to hell than purgatory. Good people worship good gods who reward them in the afterlife for being good, evil people worship evil gods who reward them in the afterlife for being evil. Not worshiping is the only punishment option.

[Arcanist]

Homework: Reading source books can be really boring. If you want to learn about Faerun and enjoy it, I recommend the following novels:

Brian M. Thomsen: Once Around the Realms (parody of 'Around the World in 80 Days' - this book has the characters trying to circle Faerun in 80 days)

R.A. Salvatore: The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, and The Halfling's Gem

Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb: The Finder's Stone Trilogy.

No "Return of the Archwizards"? No "War of the Spider Queen"?

OT: I highly recommend taking a moment to sit down and read a used copy of "Grand history of the Realm". It is roughly 20 dollars on Amazon and It was really helpful when I first started reading through it when I first started playing D&D. It is a very good source of information on every historical moment in the Realm dating back to the beginning of the Days of Thunder.

If you're skimpped for cash I recommend taking a chance to look through the History section of Forgotten Realms Wiki (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Portal:History). There are some inaccuracies and typo's, but generally it is very useful source of information. :smallsmile:

[blackspeeker]

Thanks everyone, I know starting at level 1 I'll be a piece of plankton surrounded by small fish, surrounded by sharks, and whales and so forth. As for dont attack traditional monster races because they're likely reformed monsters who threw off the shackles of their evil relatives, I was pretty much used to behaving like this by playing in Eberron and having the monsters and evil races be rather cordial.

And as for Drizzt DM said he was out in the underdark doing whatever he does down there and we wouldn't see him. Apparently we can't just walk into the underdark?

This may have been a response to me saying I wanted to shake things up by going toe to toe with some iconic characters.

[Saidoro]

I'm also going to go out there and suggest playing a reasonably optimized character. Most of the published character stats are rather pathetically built and you could probably wind up more or less king of the heap by 20th level or sooner if you actually work at it.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Akal Saris
Mielikki is the Unicorn Goddess and also has many druids. If I remember, according to the 3.0 Faiths & Pantheons, druids of Mielikki can wear metal armor (just a FYI).

My impression is that Mielikki is more of a general nature goddess, with an emphasis on compassion and the defense of wild things. However, one of her closest affiliates is Lurue, who is an actual unicorn and a minor goddess in her own right.

And yes, it's mentioned in the FRCS that Mielikki has relaxed the druidic prohibition on metal armor and weapons, allowing any of the basics available to rangers. As a result, she's quite popular among the more militant advocates of small fuzzy creatures.



Originally Posted by blackspeeker
Also if it matters I'm planning on being a druid going into MoMF...

I would strongly second Arcanist's comment about Grand History of the Realms--but only for a casual browse, not to study obsessively. And I wouldn't bother wasting a minute on any of the novels.

What I'd recommend is to select your character's region, and then focus your reading on that particular area. If your character is from the Silver Marches, don't worry about memorizing the social structure of Halruua, nor the political issues of Mulhorand. These will be lands your character has only distantly heard of, so your unfamiliarity with the Realms will reflect--to a degree--your character's in-game lack of knowledge. As your character discovers more, so will you.

Naturally there are other schools of thought; but as you've found, it's easy to be overwhelmed by one of the most complex and obsessively detailed settings out there. So, I wouldn't sweat it too much. Focus on your character's home region, flip through the Grand History, and enjoy the ride.
.
.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Alternately, figure out which of the FR books your DM has read and make sure to read them.

[ahenobarbi]

1. Deities:
Some important deities:
Neutral: Mystra (Magic)

Actually she's Neutral Good now (but she endorses clerics of her LN predecessor).


Alternately, figure out which of the FR books your DM has read and make sure to read them.

Don't do that, this could spoil you fun.

[Libertad]

The Campaign Setting's very big. Did the DM explain what locale he planned to start off the adventure?

Iconic nations in Faerun include Waterdeep, the North, and the Dalelands. If the DM's a Realms fan, he'd probably start the campaign around there (just a guess, though).

Waterdeep's already been explained.

The North is a generic region and not a true country. It's a very cold climate, with diverse geography from tundras to forests and fields. Prominent figures include the Uthgardt barbarian tribes, who eschew arcane magic and live an existence as nomadic warriors; the city of Silverymoon, one of the most prosperous and free cities of Faerun; and Lantan, corrupt city-state ruled by amoral wizards and pirate lords. The North is a beautiful, yet harsh land, where small towns are separated by dozens of miles of dangerous wilderness. You've the Drow city of Menzoberranzen, the demon-armies of Hellgate Keep, hostile Uthgardt and Orc tribes, and the Morreume clan of Blue Dragons as some of the most prominent dangers.

The Dalelands are rural villages, each of which contains its own government, industry, and culture. Elminster lives in this land. The Dales are human-dominated, although the proximity of the elven realm of Cormanthor means that Elves are the second-most populous people. The Dalelands primary enemy are the Drow of Cormanthor and the Zhentarim, the latter headquartered in the northern city of Zhentil Keep.

[Darrin]

1. Do not f*** with barmaids and innkeepers. They are all retired adventurers with 15 levels of wizard and a +5 vorpal butcher knife hidden under the bar.

2. All the really hot chicks dig dirty old men. I'm not entirely sure how this is helpful advice but... for some reason, it seems to be a really important part of the setting.

3. If it speaks in an annoying anachronistic accent, do not even *think* of attacking it. Just assume it's unkillable and walk away slowly. If it can be avoided, don't agree to do any seemingly mundane tasks/errands for it.

4. There's a gawd for *everything*, and if you just so happen to be near their particular slice of that *everything*, they have a habit of personally getting "in your business" about it. Fortunately, due to the way immortal powers are parceled out, the size of their gawd-gonads depends on their number of worshipers. This makes them immensely (and somewhat tragically) susceptible to flattery.

5. There's some fluff about how "Toril" is a difficult plane to reach via interdimensional travel, due to some sort of bizarre planar geography... this is complete and utter poppycock, probably dreamt up by an editor because they thought letting in Space Hamsters from Spelljammer might "cheapen" the world somehow. It won't. FR is like any other well-established campaign world: a mishmash kitchen sink full of fantastic ideas and horrible pastiche. Essentially, there's a FR-equivalent of "Rule 34": if you can imagine it, it exists somewhere, or some high-level wizard in FR has done it. Repeatedly. Probably with dragons. You can buy the half-dragon/half-whatever pups on the 5th level of this dungeon.

6. Every single person, place, or thing has an immensely important and detailed history behind it, and its own secret cult sworn to protect it to the death. While this may seem like something of a drawback, particularly when your party accidentally breaks the chamberpot which was really an ancient relic trapping the ancient Dead Gawd of Sewermancy, and now the Secret Cult of Sewermancers is threatening to take over the world, you generally just need to find the Secret Cult of Anti-Sewermancery and give their resident high-level NPC a heads-up, and things will probably work out for themselves.

7. While every minor person/place/thing may have a detailed backhistory and *seem* important, anything that's *really* important is inside some ruins that are so mind-bogglingly dangerous that high-level NPCs are stationed every 500 feet or so to warn you not to go in there. But they will totally wave you through if you say you're on an "important mission".

8. High-level wizards (which are not stationed every 500 feet or so in all major metropolitan areas... it's more like every 100 feet) are capable of destroying entire armies and flipping continents like flapjacks, but completely incapable of mundane tasks such as delivering messages, mending socks, picking up laundry, etc. Guess which tasks they ask you to help with?

9. Don't stand too close to the high-level NPCs if you can help it. Given their population density, they tend to get up in each others' grills, and well... Collateral Damage is a thing.

10. Every once in a while, magic goes completely berzerk, the gawds walk the earth and/or get killed (possibly even semi-permanently!), and a whole bunch of uberpowerful NPCs become slightly dead for a few milliseconds before their even more uberpowerful NPC buddies pull their clones out of a pocket dimension. To newbies, this can be somewhat confusing, but to more seasoned residents, this is known as "Tuesday".

[darksolitaire]

5. There's some fluff about how "Toril" is a difficult plane to reach via interdimensional travel, due to some sort of bizarre planar geography... this is complete and utter poppycock, probably dreamt up by an editor because they thought letting in Space Hamsters from Spelljammer might "cheapen" the world somehow.

Very true. It's established canon that elves in Faerun are planar travelers which popped into Toril in past.

There's also at least one miniature Giant Space Hamster in Toril, but it seems to share traits with it's mundane kin.

[Amnestic]

Very true. It's established canon that elves in Faerun are planar travelers which popped into Toril in past.

There's also at least one miniature Giant Space Hamster in Toril, but it seems to share traits with it's mundane kin.


Boo knows that sometimes butts must be tricked before being kicked! Boo is smart like that.

[Hirax]

There's a very good chance that your DM will focus on Faerun, and mostly, if not completely, ignore all the other continents. This is simply because Faerun is the primary focus of FR, and the other continents either have no information on them, or haven't had much, if anything, new published about them since 2nd edition.

[Agent 451]

10. Every once in a while, magic goes completely berzerk, the gawds walk the earth and/or get killed (possibly even semi-permanently!), and a whole bunch of uberpowerful NPCs become slightly dead for a few milliseconds before their even more uberpowerful NPC buddies pull their clones out of a pocket dimension. To newbies, this can be somewhat confusing, but to more seasoned residents, this is known as "Tuesday".

This is fantastic!

[Akal Saris]

No "Return of the Archwizards"? No "War of the Spider Queen"?

OT: I highly recommend taking a moment to sit down and read a used copy of "Grand history of the Realm". It is roughly 20 dollars on Amazon and It was really helpful when I first started reading through it when I first started playing D&D. It is a very good source of information on every historical moment in the Realm dating back to the beginning of the Days of Thunder.

If you're skimpped for cash I recommend taking a chance to look through the History section of Forgotten Realms Wiki (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Portal:History). There are some inaccuracies and typo's, but generally it is very useful source of information. :smallsmile:

I enjoyed both series, but somehow they never really gripped me. If I were to expand the list it would probably be to add The Horselords.

[herrhauptmann]

And as for Drizzt DM said he was out in the underdark doing whatever he does down there and we wouldn't see him. Apparently we can't just walk into the underdark?

You can, but don't. It's a bad idea.


This may have been a response to me saying I wanted to shake things up by going toe to toe with some iconic characters.
See above.

Very true. It's established canon that elves in Faerun are planar travelers which popped into Toril in past.

What book is this in? I remember reading it years ago, and got shouted down prettty hard by some forum-goers who disagreed with me a while back.

1-Gods die.
2-Heaven has a revolving door. Even for gods. (Heard rumors that Mystra will come back in 5E)
3-Not having a patron deity is bad.
4-Having a patro deity whom you not only ignore, but actively oppose (undermining the faith or something), is worse.
5-That said. Being a Heretic (feat, heretic of the faith), can net you some neat powers. But you still get punished for it after death. Read power of faerun for details. Otherwise, ignore that book. It's for EPIC games.
6-There's a big shift in tone from early to recent FR novels. Chances are, you'll like one or the other, but not both. (Unless you like Drizzt, which is more of an old-school feel).
7-There's dragons everywhere! Don't be afraid to run. A bad roll on a FR encounter table can have you facing a dragon/drake with a CR 5 higher than your level.
8-For secret societies/spy organizations, it's often easy to identify the harpers and zhents. Look for a tiny silver harp, or a gold coin with a black Z. Most DMs don't screw around with this one for some reason. If of course, they allow it to be that easy to ID a spy.
9-Look up the Karsite template/race in ToM. Your magic hating barbarian will love you. Cross it with quorbred for extra fun.
10-Have fun.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by blackspeeker
Apparently we can't just walk into the underdark?

Correct. One does not simply walk into the Underdark.

:smalltongue:

[Alleran]

The elven origin is mentioned in Evermeet and the Grand History of the Realms. I think.


And as for Drizzt DM said he was out in the underdark doing whatever he does down there and we wouldn't see him. Apparently we can't just walk into the underdark?
It's actually very easy to just walk in, as long as you find one of the entry points. It's just a very bad idea to do so, because the Underdark can be a very nasty place even if you're prepped and think you're ready for it. Entry points are usually caves or old, sometimes-malfunctioning portals. There are a lot of portals scattered around (usually remnants of an old empire or kingdom that has since vanished from history), and they can make travel really quick at the early levels, before you pick up teleport spells. Crossroads and Backroads (from Magic of Faerun) will also be of use to you. Seriously, throwing points into some Knowledge (history, nature, arcana) skills, even if you do it cross-class, can all but entirely remove travel time.

And give your DM some fun plot hooks to throw at you when you walk through a malfunctioning portal. Or the wrong portal. Wanted to go from Luskan to Waterdeep via a portal? Oops, you're now in the Border Kingdoms. Or the Underdark.

Or on another plane. The sky is definitely not the limit.


2-Heaven has a revolving door. Even for gods. (Heard rumors that Mystra will come back in 5E)
She's a vestige at the moment.


3-Not having a patron deity is bad.
With reference to this, think of having a patron as a bit like venerating a Greek god (e.g. you might not like Umberlee, the "Bitch-Queen of the Sea" and a CE deity, but even a Lawful Good sailor would probably still throw a few coins her way as an offering before setting out on a voyage, despite that they might worship Ilmater). You might identify with one god more than another, but that doesn't stop at least acknowledgement/token faith that the others exist (e.g. a mage could identify with Mystra or Azuth more than Oghma or Tymora, but would still occasionally give them a prayer if it came up). It's a polytheistic world with a staggering number of deities and even local variants of deities or deities going by different names for whatever reason.

Just grab a patron who agrees with the majority of your character's, erm, character, and get going. There are enough gods that it should be quite difficult to disagree with literally all of them. I think Tymora in particular is a patron of adventurers.

[Arcanist]

I enjoyed both series, but somehow they never really gripped me. If I were to expand the list it would probably be to add The Horselords.

Ooo... That is a good addition. I liked Return of the Archwizards because it was a book a former DM lent me after my first game with him and it sparked a sudden affection for Magic in this game that nothing could crush... (Except for 4th edition)


She's a vestige at the moment.

Hopefully, she comes back as a Fully-Fledged Greater Deity so she could fix up that whole Spellplague thing :smallannoyed:

[darksolitaire]

What book is this in? I remember reading it years ago, and got shouted down prettty hard by some forum-goers who disagreed with me a while back.

Well, Races of Faerun page 26 is first I can point out, but I assume that it's mentioned in other places too.

Edit: Faerun Campaign Settings page 13 is bit indecesive.

[Yora]

Most important thing to know when learning about Forgotten Realms: Don't listen to the haters.

The game is full of normal people who are actually high level characters and take away all the fun from the PCs only if the DMs want it to be that way. Same goes for good monsters and so on.
In all the many FR campaigns I played over the last 15 years, this has never happened to me or anyone I know.

[blackspeeker]

Most important thing to know when learning about Forgotten Realms: Don't listen to the haters.

The game is full of normal people who are actually high level characters and take away all the fun from the PCs only if the DMs want it to be that way. Same goes for good monsters and so on.
In all the many FR campaigns I played over the last 15 years, this has never happened to me or anyone I know.

I'll be honest looking at the campaign setting that is one of the things that is off putting, it makes me wonder why any one would hire level 1 nobodies to do anything when you have gods walking around, of course I'm sure they have more important things to do.

[ahenobarbi]

Check out "Volo's Guide to <some region>" these are old books but fun to read and you can learn a lot about the world without learning anything you shouldn't.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I'll throw my hat into the ring!

1. Deities: Faerun has a ton of them, and they are constantly messing with people's lives. Anything interesting going on in the world typically gets traced back to a god at some point.
Some important deities:
Good: Lathander (Dawn & Spring God), Selune (Moon goddess), Oghma (knowledge), Torm (Paladins), Tyr (Justice), Tymora (good luck)
Neutral: Mystra (Magic)
Evil: Cyric (Mostly all evil stuff), Lolth (Drow and spiders), Bane (Also lots of evil), Besheba (bad luck)

2. Waterdeep. This is the Faerun version of London/New York/Tokyo. It's ruled by a wise council of anonymous lords. Underneath Waterdeep is a giant magical dungeon known as Undermountain, ruled by a crazy wizard. Near Undermountain is the underground city of Skullport, which is sort of like the Tijuana of the Underdark (see below).

3. The Underdark. Much of Faerun is premised on the idea that while the world is awesome, there is also a giant underground world that is creatively named the Underdark. There are entire kingdoms of underground variants of surface races, as well as a few oddballs. Drow are the big names here.

4. Menzoberranzan. Menzoberranzan is a city filled with drow, aka scheming, ultra-powerful and amoral creatures. If Skullport is Tijuana, then Menzoberranzan is Washington, DC. The city features prominently in R.A. Salvatore books.

5. Drizzt Do'Urden. Drizzt is the hero of R.A. Salvatore's novels, which are many people's introduction to Faerun. He's a good-aligned drow ranger with a pair of scimitars.

6. The Time of Troubles. This was TSR's clever way to pull the Forgotten Realms kicking and screaming into 2nd edition. Basically 3 evil gods stole a giant magical artifact (MacGuffin) and in response the king god exiled 99% of the deities to the world, where they became ultra-powerful mortals. Because the goddess of magic was mortal, magic became very unreliable. After a year of mass chaos, the 3 evil gods died and were replaced by Cyric, and all the gods returned to the heavens.

7. The Lands. The Realms have a lot of ethnic-themed lands you will never visit. These include:
1) Kara-tur - the Asia of FR
2) Maztica - the South America of FR
3) Zakhara - the Arabic themed area
4) Mulhorrand & Unther - The ancient Egypt & Mesopotamia themed place
5) Chult - the dinosaurs & jungles 'Land of the Lost' themed area
6) Luiren - the Shire from LoTR (halflings live here..)

Here's an awesome chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_index_of_Toril

8. Faerun is awesome, but it used to be more awesome. The world is filled with the ruins of a time when magic was just better. These ruins include:
1) Netheril - An ancient kingdom of wizards that built flying castles. These ruled until one wizard tried to turn himself into a god and instead ruined things for everyone else when he screwed up.
2) Myth Drannor. This is an elven kingdom that fell to demons
3) Narfell. Old evil wizard kingdom that summoned too many demons and collapsed

9. Elminster. This is an old wizard with near-unstoppable magical powers that he uses in cryptic ways to advance the cause of Good.

10. Secret societies/organized criminal organizations are big. These include:
Good: The Harpers (Elminster is tight with these guys)
Evil: The Kraken Society, the Order of the Shield, Cult of the Dragon, The Malaugryms, The Fire Knives, and The Zhentarim. You don't need to know what these guys are all about, but they are probably up to no good. Special shout-out to the Red Wizards of Thay, who are an openly evil mage society.

Homework: Reading source books can be really boring. If you want to learn about Faerun and enjoy it, I recommend the following novels:

Brian M. Thomsen: Once Around the Realms (parody of 'Around the World in 80 Days' - this book has the characters trying to circle Faerun in 80 days)

R.A. Salvatore: The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, and The Halfling's Gem

Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb: The Finder's Stone Trilogy

For a druid:
-Sylvanus is the Generic Druid God. Mielikki is the Unicorn Goddess and also has many druids. If I remember, according to the 3.0 Faiths & Pantheons, druids of Mielikki can wear metal armor (just a FYI). Malar is the evil god of hunting. Consider coming from Rashemen as they have some good feats such as "Rashemi Elemental Summoning."

Good luck and may Tymora smile upon you!

I am kinda afraid to ask; but why is skullport like Tijuana?

[Arcanist]

I am kinda afraid to ask; but why is skullport like Tijuana?

Because their kingpin is effectively a Beholder that wised up and realized "Holy crap, if I'm actually nice AND bad ass, I can actually run this joint"? :smalltongue:

(See "Xanathar's Guild") I have might not like some of the choices they made with the whole Netheril thing, the Spellplague and the Return of the Archwizards fiasco (More specifically when... well read it... :smallredface:), but I seriously like what they did with that :smallamused:

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I am kinda afraid to ask; but why is skullport like Tijuana?

More like Tortoga, if you ask me. Fence your loot. Don't ask questions. Watch your back, don't look like a target, and you might get out intact.

[blackspeeker]

More like Tortoga, if you ask me. Fence your loot. Don't ask questions. Watch your back, don't look like a target, and you might get out intact.

If that's what Skullport is like then they're pretty much the same thing but Tijuana is a more contemporary analogy.

[Arcanist]

If that's what Skullport is like then they're pretty much the same thing but Tijuana is a more contemporary analogy.

Honestly when someone mentions a wrenched hive of scum and villainy to me, I think of Mos Eisley... after which I think of Singapore circa 18th century (Can't remember when the golden age of piracy was...)