Why are the Realms forgotten?

[Ulrick]

I heard somewhere that they used to have a portal to Earth somehow, but now its lost. Yet I'm not sure so that's why I'm asking the question.

Why are the Realms forgotten? Who forgot them?

And most importantly: When wil they be found?

Ulrick

 

[Leopold]

somedays they are better off forgotten...

 

[diaglo]

it is better to forget some of the ages of the realms.

did you ever read Evermeet?

or any of the Netheril stuff?

 

[Bendris Noulg]

The original premise was that the Realms were heavily involved in planar travel, politics, etc., but that events in Realms' history led to them becoming isolated, and thus forgotten. That seemed to change during the hieght of Planescape, although now, being the sole world of a divergent cosmology, it seems hard to imagine them being "forgotten" in the first place.

 

[NiTessine]

Actually, the story I heard is that originally, they intended to put in a background story that the Realms were originally connected to own world, and in the past there was much interaction between the two worlds, which then subsided and the Realms were forgotten in our world.

However, this story was never used, because they were afraid of lawsuits if some kids went and got hurt trying to find the gate.

I am not certain where I read that, but I think it was an official source. It's been a while.

 

[Caliban]

I think the current "canon" explanation for the name is that there were several kingdoms, empires, or "Realms" what existed in the past, and some of them have been forgotten. They are the ones that created all the ruins that adventurers currently explore.

Check page 266-267 of the FRCS for a list of two dozen lost empires that could fit the bill.

Also, the lost empire of Imaskar sounds like it may have had connections with our world (or a world similar to ours) in the past. It created portals to other worlds and brought back slaves. When it fell, the slaves created the egyptian-style kingdoms of Mulhorand and Unther (who follow the egyptian pantheon of gods).

 

[Faraer]

A couple of quotes from Ed:

Why include 'real world' gods in the Realms at all? Well, that's the "Forgotten" part of the name. I envisioned a multiverse of many, many parallel worlds (alternate, side-by-side Prime Material Planes, if you prefer), with Middle-Earth, Narnia, and many other favorite fantasy settings among them, all linked together with gates. There was once much travel between them (hence our own world's legends of dragons, etc., from before the links to other places became 'forgotten'), including huge migrations...until, inevitably, power groups of sinister and formidable beings fought to control access to/use of the gates.

I postulated that a high-level campaign would involve battles for control of gates/portals against shadowy 'power groups' that controlled them...which became Planescape. :} Initially, TSR downplayed the "link with other worlds" aspect because of fears of negative publicity/James Egbert/"kids doing dangerous things and blaming D&D" fears.

It's still possible (within the fiction) to travel between the Realms and Earth, as in many Dragon articles. This concept was never dropped or replaced, just deemphasized.

 

[Ulrick]

dialgo: No, I haven't read Evermeet or the Nethiril stuff.

I stayed away from most 2ed Forgotten Realms products because of my "less than good" opinion towards them.

But with 3ed The Realms are pretty cool....

...but not as cool as Greyhawk though...

...and Greyhawk isn't as cool as my homebrew!


Anyway, I just though of that question when I saw the FRCS setting on my shelf, and was wondering "Why are they Forgotten?"

I can understand why the "link to Earth" concept was deemphasized though.

But now I think "Forgotten Realms" is a misnomer. The people of Planescape know they're around. Mordenkainen and Dalamar used to chat with Elminster until both got tired of that old fart eating all the ice cream.

Thanks everybody for answering my question.

Now somebody start a flame war debating which world is better: Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, or Earth!

I'll start: I think Earth could beat the crap of the Forgotten Realms!!



Ulrick

 

[Faraer]

The term "Forgotten Realms" isn't used within the Forgotten Realms universe or the D&D universe. When people in Faerûn say "the Realms" it isn't "Forgotten Realms" shortened. It's Forgotten only, largely, by us.

Mordenkainen and Dalamar and Elminster still chat and Mordenkainen at least likely has his own source for ice cream.

 

[Eridanis]

Actually, the story I heard is that originally, they intended to put in a background story that the Realms were originally connected to own world, and in the past there was much interaction between the two worlds, which then subsided and the Realms were forgotten in our world.

However, this story was never used, because they were afraid of lawsuits if some kids went and got hurt trying to find the gate.

I am not certain where I read that, but I think it was an official source. It's been a while.

I think you are correct, and the source would be the pre-grey-box DRAGON magazine articles - perhaps the one that first described Elminster (#110, IIRC)?