[DnD Series] – Famous events of Forgotten Realm

Welcome Adventurers back to Tavern Talk, where you will hear stories of a fantasy world called Dungeons & Dragons. As a long-standing game with many improvements and developments, D&D’s storyline has also continuously expanded with many different changes. Today, let’s open the pages of Candlekeep with us, go back through history to learn more about this vast universe.

And today, we will start with three main events that have shaped the world of D&D in the current version, Fifth Edition, also known as 5E. All three of these events took place before all the D&D campaigns we know, thereby becoming the foundation for all the changes that took place later.

But first, to understand time, we will get acquainted with a term called Dale Reckoning. In the world of D&D, the races used a calendar called Harptos, which was created by a wizard of the same name. They believe that the history of Feurun really began the moment the Human race officially set foot on this land with the permission of the indigenous Elves. We can consider this event similar to the birth of God and define before and after AD. And that is the Dale Reckoning. From here, Feurun began to become a prosperous continent and the Harptos calendar also developed widely until today. Basically, the calendar has 365 days divided into 12 months, quite similar to our Earth’s Solar Calendar. Since then, the historical events of Forgotten Realm have spanned the following timelines:

Perhaps this is one of the most famous events in D&D, with several times being an Easter Egg in the game Baldur’s Gate 3. Since the Dale reckoning, races in general have spent centuries establishing villages, cities or even nations. Along with that came the rise of religion, when the line between mortals and gods became blurred. People at that time found rituals to worship, connect or even become a god, thereby becoming the foundation for the Times of Trouble event. It is also known as a war for power between the gods, when powerful celestial entities were brought down to earth by God AO. Everything started with the Dead three: Bane – Bhaal – Myrkul with their ambition stole a divine artifact called the Tablets of Fate.

Angry at the gods’ indifference to the mortal world as well as to the theft itself, God AO stripped most of the entities of their powers and forced them to descend to earth to find the treasure’s whereabouts. However, in the form of Avatars, gods walk among humans to find and destroy each other, competing for positions to return to the divine world. In less than a year until the Times of Troubles truly ended, many Avatars were murdered, but at the same time, some mortals appropriated divine power for themselves. Only when Midnight, Cyric and Kelemvor destroyed the Dead three and returned the Tablet of Fate to AO did the Times of Trouble truly end, opening a new and turbulent era called the Era of Upheaval. The divine system has also undergone many changes, as the gods now realize that their power comes from the beliefs of their followers. Along with the change in worship and magic, the gods also wanted to ensure that their position could not be easily shaken again.

Also known as the Blue Breath of Change, this can be said to be another famous event or disaster during the Era of Upheaval. Legend has it that the event began with the dark goddess Shar and the evil god Cyric plotting to murder her own daughter, Midnight. At that time, Midnight had another name for herself – the goddess of magic Mystra and the ruler of the magical network the Weave. With Mystra’s death, the Spellplague disaster occurred across the fabric of the multiverse. In it, not only does the Weave’s magic collapse, but it also affects the balance with the Shadow Weave, with the power of the gods, or even different space-time dimensions. Finally, Spellplague ends with the return of Mystra, as she attempts to repair the cracks in the Weave and restore the magical web. However, a century of chaos caused the world to sink into chaos and imbalance, contributing to the Second Sundering event later on.

A century after the Spell Plague disaster and before that, the Times of Troubles, many planes have drifted into the Elemental Chaos or Astral Plane. Meanwhile, in Toril, the consequences are even more severe and the chaos is sparking new war conflicts. However, all this does not seem to worry God AO, because He has a great plan of His own.

In 1484 DR, signs of disaster began to appear across the surface of the planet Toril. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions have split and leveled everything, or replaced it with new lands. By 1489, this shift had entailed changes in both the environmental and cultural geography of the entire continent. It’s all part of God AO’s “restructuring” plan, to re-establish world order once again. That’s right, in the year -17600 BC, The First Sundering happened, and a connection between the two events was formed through prophecies at that time. Back then, the turmoil of the Second Sundering forced kingdoms, armies, and even gods to fight each other. This is a similarity to Spellplague and Times of Trouble, but its influence, whether good or bad, is much greater. On the one hand, this event “overcame” the consequences of other disasters such as Spellplague, stabilizing the magical foundation as well as forming new lands. However, with the resurrection of the gods, the Second Sundering brought back old enemies and the rise of new plots. These changes further fan the flames of contradictions and disputes, posing new risks of a world full of chaos in the future.

And those are three typical events that occurred throughout the history of the Forgotten Realm. Today’s story is compiled from many sources, so if you have any comments, please feel free to share them in the comments below. In addition, the world of Dungeons & Dragons still has many other memorable pages, so please like, share and subscribe to wait for our next issues. Thanks for stopping by Tavern Talk and see you soon.