The Forgotten Realms

The place where it all happens. The Forgotten Realms was published in 1987 as the first official setting of DnD. The main setting of the Realms is the Sword Coast, the western coast of the continent of Faerun on the planet Toril. The Sword Coast consists of several city-states with peace maintained by an alliance of lords. Magic exists, and permeates every aspect of daily life. Danger lurks in every corner, on every road. Normal folk never go off into the woods, because any number of monsters may live there that might have any number of reasons to make a villager's life unpleasant. Adventureures are a rare breed of people that take advantage of this dangerous world for glory, or gold, or whatever they wish really. The Realms are expansive, and as a player in Faerun, there is detail all around you.

More information about the forgotten Realms can be found at the Forgotten Realms wiki.

The Places of the Realms

Waterdeep

The city-state of Waterdeep is a walled port city on the Sword Coast. The city is run by the Masked Lords: anonymous leaders that could be any citizen of the city, and one Open Lord: the public figure and only known lord of Waterdeep.

Baldurs Gate

A trading hub of the Sword Coast, Baldurs Gate is perhaps the most diverse metropolis of Faerun

Candlekeep

A vast library to the South, it is the largest collection of knowledge in all of Faerun

The Spine of the World

The Northern most mountain range of Faerun, it is home to the towering Cloud Giants, as well as severeal Dragons

Thay

A city whose leaders are all mages. The head leader is a lich-king necromancer

The Factions of the Realms

Harpers

A secret society of spies, will do anything necessary to keep the peace

Order of the Gauntlet

An organization of Paladins, they fight evil all accross Faerun

Emerald Enclave

An organization of Druids and Rangers, they seek to maintain balance between nature and civilization

Lord's Alliance

An alliance of the many lords accross the Sword Coast. They maintain the roads between cities and keep every day folk safe

Zhentarim

A mercenary group publically, the Zhentarim are not-so-secretly an evil organization of criminals and their ilk

The Planes of the Realms

Material Plane

Where most adventureres live, this is the normal surface world

Feywild

The land of the Fae, The Feywild is a dangerous mirror of our own. Existing in perpetual twilight, time and morality are alien here

Shadowfell

A dark parallel world of shadow and bleakness. It is dark, depressing, and horribly evil

The Ethereal Plane

A place of whispy nothingness. Completely neutral with no inhabitants, this plane sits directly atop the material plane

The Elemental Planes

Worlds of pure fire, water, wind, and earth. these four planes exist in the elemental chaos, dimensionally above the material plane

The Abyss

A chaotic evil place and the home of the demons. perpetually at war with the devils in the Hells

The Nine Hells

A lawful evil place, home of the devils. unlike the chaotic demons, the devils follow a strict heirarchal scructure to their lives which determines everything about their existence.

The Outer Planes

These outer planes are near impossible for mortals to travel to, home of the gods and astral creatures beyond the scope of mortal imagining