Forgotten Realms
25 languages
Article
Talk
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Appearance
hide
Text
Small
Standard
Large
Width
Standard
Wide
Color (beta)
Automatic
Light
Dark
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Forgotten Realms
Top: The Forgotten Realms logo (1987–1999)
Bottom: Forgotten Realms logo (2000–
present)
Designer Ed Greenwood
s
Publicati 1987–current
on
Genres Fantasy
Languag English
es
Media Game accessories, novels, role-
type playing video games, comic books
Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons &
Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and
game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed
Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. [1] Several years later,
it was published for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first
Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have
been produced for the setting ever since, in addition to novels, role-playing video
game adaptations (including the first massively multiplayer online role-playing
game to use graphics), comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor
Among Thieves.[2]
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 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 the two worlds. [citation needed]
Forgotten Realms is one of the most popular D&D settings,[3][4] 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.
Creative origins
[edit]
Ed Greenwood in 2008
Ed Greenwood began writing stories about the Forgotten Realms as a child, starting
at the age of eight.[5]: 72 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. [6] Greenwood discovered
the Dungeons & Dragons game in 1975, and became a serious role-playing
enthusiast with the first Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) game releases in
1978.[6] 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.[5]: 72 Greenwood then starting using the setting for his personal role-
playing campaign.[7] Greenwood began a Realms campaign in the city
of Waterdeep before creating 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."[6] Greenwood has stated that his own version of the Forgotten
Realms, as run in his personal campaign, is much darker than published versions. [8]
