D&D General Did you realize The Forgotten Realms is the most written fantasy world ever?

[DarkCrisis]

Not “most detailed” in a curated, single-author sense—but in terms of sheer volume of material? Nothing else even comes close.

Think about what’s stacked into the Forgotten Realms over the years:

• Hundreds of novels
  Entire character-driven sagas (Drizzt alone could fill a bookshelf), plus tons of standalone and series entries across decades.
• Constant expansion through D&D editions
  Every new version adds more: regional sourcebooks, lore dumps, timelines, gods, factions, maps—you name it.
• A shared world with dozens of writers
  This isn’t one creator’s closed project. It’s been actively built out by a rotating lineup of authors for 30+ years.
• Campaign modules and supplemental books
  Adventures aren’t just gameplay—they introduce cities, conflicts, histories, and characters that become part of the setting.
• Video games and tie-ins
  Stuff like Baldur’s Gate and other adaptations layer in even more story and detail.
• Depth at every level
  You can dig into continent-spanning politics, divine pantheons, or the day-to-day life of a single town—and there’s probably multiple sources covering it.

If we’re measuring “most written about” by total pages, authors, and years of continuous expansion… Faerûn’s gotta be at the top.

 

[Tigris]

You are most likely right, but The Dark Eye also has a huge amount of material written and all because of the RPG and it also include some play by post of specific players as part of the official canon. So depending on how one counts, it could come close: The Dark Eye (role-playing game) - Wikipedia

 

[Morrus]

I don’t know about fantasy specifically, but I bet Star Wars and the Marvel and DC comic book universe give it a run for its money.

 

[aco175]

I guess you could add all the DMsGuild stuff based in there.

What about homemade games that take place there? Even if nobody but your table sees it?

 

[Reynard]

If we’re measuring “most written about” by total pages, authors, and years of continuous expansion… Faerûn’s gotta be at the top.

If you are talking about "stuff happens in the setting" then you are probably right.

If you are talking about "people writing about it" not even close. You could fill libraries with Tolkien scholarship and screeds, and twice as many with Harry Potter fanfic.

 

[Zardnaar]

Maybe not FR in particular but D&D multiverse I knew that was number 1.

Watched a video on biggest fantasy saga by volume.

 

[zakael19]

ok if we're bringing AO3 into this...

 

[Tessarael]

Forgotten Realms is certainly the most published D&D fantasy setting in English by a long shot.

 

[Toe Knee Nose]

There is a rather LARGE repository of material for Warhammer as well. I'm not sure which is bigger in terms of straight up word count.

 

[Swanosaurus]

You are most likely right, but The Dark Eye also has a huge amount of material written and all because of the RPG and it also include some play by post of specific players as part of the official canon. So depending on how one counts, it could come close: The Dark Eye (role-playing game) - Wikipedia

I'm pretty sure that in terms of sheer word-count, Aventurien of the Dark Eye is ahead of Forgotten Realms. New material has been constantly published since 1984 - I don't think there were ever any breaks. And especially the 4th edition regional guides where huge. There were 16 of this "green books", each of them coming in at around 200 pages, so that's about 3000 pages alone (and there was a lot of text in them, the writing used to be pretty small). And that's ONE of five editions, TBH, I have now idea about the page count of the current edition. Add over 400 (official) adventures and 200 novels ...