This is my 100th video!
I thought I’d go back and make a video summarizing the creation myth, which was my first video.
I’m a little bit wiser now in the Forgotten Realms and D&D Lore, so here is a brief history
of Faerun and the Forgotten Realms for D&D 5e.
It’s important to understand that although this is the creation story for Faerun, the
Forgotten Realms doesn’t explain where everything came into being.
Such as the various planes of existence or other crystal spheres.
Each campaign setting has a slight variation on the creation of the D&D universe and there
are parts that have no origin story; such as the elemental planes.
Mysteries exist still within the world of Dungeons and Dragons, questions not answered.
In my mind it makes the worlds even better; for there to be some aspects we just can’t
explain.
In the beginning there was nothing, well there was the elemental Phlogiston, in some myths,
and from this (or from nothing) Lord Ao created the universe.
The universe at this time was a timeless somewhat empty place.
With a shadowy mist that existed before there was light and dark.
At some point these shadows, this mist, coalesced to form twin beautiful goddesses.
They were named Selune and Shar.
These two goddesses were opposites of each other.
Selune is the goddess of moonlight and stars, beauty and purity.
Shar was the evil goddess of darkness, loss, night, forgetfulness and secrets.
Being the only two creatures in this universe they started creating the heavenly bodies,
which, perhaps inadvertently, created the goddess Chauntea.
Chauntea is the goddess of life, the great mother, she is the planet of Toril itself.
Toril was lit by the cool radiance of Selune during what we would call the day, and each
night Shar would swallow it back into darkness.
Although Selune shown with brilliance there was still no heat in the universe, and that
meant no life.
Chauntea begged for warmth.
She wanted to nurture life on Toril.
Selune agreed but Shar opposed this and the two deities started a feud that has continued
to this day.
Through their fighting other deities were created, gods of war, disease, murder, and
death.
In defiance to Shar Selune put her hand into the plane of fire and ignited one of the heavenly
bodies.
It brought light and warmth to the planet of Toril.
Shar detested this and went to snuff out this candle of life.
Selune, greatly weakened from the fighting, tor the divine essence of magic from her body
and hurled it at Shar in an all or nothing attack.
It ripped through Shar stealing with it her magical essence.
This mass of energy formed Mystryl, the goddess of magic.
Mystryl was composed of the two most powerful creatures in the universe and fortunately
for us, and the universe, she favored Selune.
Shar now outmatched went into the darkness to plot her revenge.
Other gods from other planes, or other crystal spheres if you’re interested in Spelljammer lore,
came to Toril as well.
We get more deities to the Forgotten Realms Pantheon from visiting gods.
There was some addition to the creation myth once 4th edition D&D came into play.
These worlds in the Realmspace Universe brought powerful beings of entropy and elemental might.
They are referred to simply as the Primordials.
They helped shape the universe, not necessarily with Shar and Selune but in tandem.
They took things that were too bright and too dark placing them in a shifted plane.
Creating both the Feywild and the Shadowfell.
Also in 4th edition lore the goddesses gave life to the realm of the astral sea, (now
called the Astral Plane) and the primordials were from a realm known as the elemental chaos.
Now 4th edition really liked the idea of these primordials, and so the creation story was
changed a bit to incorporate them.
Instead of Shar attempting to darken the sun created by Selune there was an event known
as the Shadow Epoch.
Or perhaps the sun was attacked by Shar, and this is a separate event, the lore is not
clear.
A primordial known as the Night Serpent devoured the sun, and plunged Toril into darkness.
This oceanic world was soon chilled and many parts of it turned to ice killing most life
on the planet.
The gods and were now in direct conflict with the primordials over the fate of Toril and
Realmspace.
The fight went in the favor of the gods when a primordial known as Ubtao the Deceiver assisted
the gods in slaying, imprisoning, or driving away the remaining primordials.
As reward he was given the land Chult in Faerun to rule as he sees fit, which is one reason
that Chult was so different from other places in Faerun.
A land before time protected from outsiders by Ubtao.
This brings us to the creator races and the Days of Thunder.
The Sun came back eventually, through the gods influence or naturally I’m not sure
and life returned to Toril.
The timeline of this is about -35,000 DR and the creator races dominated Toril’s large
supercontinent called Merrouroboros. These creator races were the original sentient
life on Toril, and they in term created other races that still exist in the current timeline
of the Forgotten Realms.
The races are the Sarrukh, the Batrachi, the Aearee, the Fey, and humans.
All of them except humans ended up creating others of their kind.
The Sarrukh created the naga, lizardfolk and the Yuan-ti while the Fey created sprites
pixies.
It was during this time the Batrachi were losing a war against the Titans and in desperation
released the primordials from their imprisonment on Toril.
The gods intervene immediately and there were earthquakes, fires, and destruction upon the
planet.
Lord Ao finally intervened and sundered the planet in two, giving the new planet of Abeir
to the primordials and the other Toril to the gods.
This magic sent a ripple forward in time, to cause further complications to the world
of Toril.
Almost a ribbon of magic that could be tapped into at certain points in the future.
By - 30,000 DR the creator races faded into memory and ushered in the time of Dragons
and Giants.
Dragons ruled areas over some of the lesser races and Giants had large tribes that controlled
sections of Toril and Faerun.
The two battled one another over territory in a thousand years of war.
The giants were saved from death when fey creatures used high magic to send the dragons
into a rage of self destruction.
Now in -24,000 DR with the dragons under control other races, including humans, were able to
thrive in safety and build their own civilizations.
Elven high mages invoked the power of sundering magic in an event known as the first sundering.
This caused a new island for the elves to be created known as Evermeet, a magical place
that was hidden from the other races.
After this many empires rose and fell, empires of elves, dwarves, and humans.
The Forgotten Realms is built upon these ancient empires for current adventurers to explore.
For evil necromancers to find powerful artifacts.
And ancient dragons to live in ruined temples to a now dead god.
This history is part of what makes the realms so much fun and malleable for Dungeon Masters.
There could literally be anything under the earth, waiting for your party to explore.
I hope you enjoyed this brief history of the Forgotten Realms.
If you’re new here and would like to know more this is literally my 100th video on the
Lore of Dungeons & Dragons.
So explore, find a topic you enjoy or start from the beginning and go through a playlist.
Thanks for the thumbs up, for watching, and subscribing.
I’m looking forward to bringing you more lore videos in the future.