D&D General The Canadian Influence on the Forgotten Realms

[bloodtide]

And Ed actually tried to keep being too influenced by historical places to a minimum on purpose btw, it was conscious choice. It's the influence of others like Jeff Grubb, Douglas Niles, and others that certain regions like Mulhorand are so heavily inspired by Ancient Egypt (although I have argued that in the past it's really more like Ptolemy Egypt IMHO) and other historical locations (Moonshae Isles=Celtic/Arthorian Legend, Zakhara/Al Qadim=Islamic Golden Age with touches of preIslamic Arabia, Unther=Mesopotiumia/Canaan, ect...).

Well, not so much. Ed did create most of the Realms. Ed's focus was always on his favorate areas; the areas his players where based in: the North, The Heartlands and the Dalelands. Ed, being Ed, did make up much of the rest of the world, but often in just a reference paragraph or two. Still, that laid out a lot of ground work.. And when the others came in, they did often work with Ed or at least go off his massive pile of notes.

 

[gyor]

Well, not so much. Ed did create most of the Realms. Ed's focus was always on his favorate areas; the areas his players where based in: the North, The Heartlands and the Dalelands. Ed, being Ed, did make up much of the rest of the world, but often in just a reference paragraph or two. Still, that laid out a lot of ground work.. And when the others came in, they did often work with Ed or at least go off his massive pile of notes.

Yeah I know most of that, but I also know some regions got majorly changed from Ed's originally vision for various regions. The Moonshaes Isles got changed because they wanted to stick Douglas Niles novels in FR, Mulhorand, Unther, and Chessenta were not originally supposed to be inspired so much by historical civilizations, Mulhorand was supposed to be FRs Stygia instead, but when TSR decided to add Desert of Desolation to FR its radically as altered the region and that just triggered a chain reaction with implications for the East half of Faerun. And some nations weren't in the Ed's original FR at all, they receded the Great Glacier to fit in several more nations! Zakhara was Jeff Grubbs creation and I believe Ed had little to do with it and Kara Tur wasn't even originally for the Forgotten Realms, it had to be resized to fit with Faerun and its still absolutely huge, big enough to fit two Chinas, two Japans and a heck of alot more.

And Maztica was also created whole cloth. Abeir was created by some one in marketing I believe, and wasn't a meaningful thing until 4e.