In the north, you’ve got untamed forbidding icy wastelands clashing with hard-fought civilization. Going through various entries for just humans, we’ve got: Chondathans, Calishites, Tethyrians, Damarans, Illuskans, Rashemi–you get the idea–and they’ve all got their own languages, customs and names. The main region, Faerûn, is an ecologically diverse continent and there are diverse peoples that inhabit it. The whole thing feels very well developed the setting is on an actual planet, Toril. Geographically speaking, the Forgotten Realms are home to just about everything you could want. With so much of the RPG landscape having been shaped by this setting, I thought it might be fun to see just what makes them tick. And it all comes back to the Forgotten Realms. I don’t think it’s too hyperbolic to say that without games like Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II, you wouldn’t have things like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, World of Warcraft, or even Knights of the Old Republic. Heck, even if you’ve never heard of any of those, if you’ve ever played a video game RPG, you’ve been influenced by it.

In those lists you can find the names of legends: Icewind Dale, Neverwinter, Water Deep, the windswept coastline of the Sea of Swords, and Candlekeep. It’s no surprise, really–Faerûn is the setting for literally hundreds of stories spread across novels, comics, video games, magazines, and campaign books. How does one land hold so much adventure? Even if you’ve never rolled a d20, odds are good you’ve at least heard of the Forgotten Realms. Welcome to Faerûn – the home of the Forgotten Realms! Faerûn. Today we delve into one of the most iconic settings in all of D&D.

Forgotten realms books