Polski opis
Zapomniane Krainy (ang. Forgotten Realms) to świat fantasy stworzony na potrzeby gry fabularnej Dungeons & Dragons przez Eda Greenwooda. Zapomniane Krainy są jak na razie największym i najpopularniejszym światem (settingiem) w tej grze. Do chwili obecnej powstały trzy edycje tego świata. Pierwsza edycja zwana wśród fanów "Szarym pudełkiem" (ang. "Grey Box") powstała jeszcze za czasów pierwszej edycji D&D. Druga powstała podczas reedycji AD&D i jak do tej pory jest chyba najbardziej rozbudowanym pod względem detali (i zarazem ilości dodatków) światem fantasy dostępnym dla graczy (A)D&D.
Świat Forgotten Realms kojarzony jest głównie z jego centralnym i najdokładniej opisanym kontynentem Faerûn, położonym na planecie Abeir-Toril, zwanej niekiedy Torilem. W drugiej edycji poświęcono także sporo miejsca na omówienie innych kontynentów globu. Na zachód od Faerûnu znajduje się kontynent zwany Maztica. Na kontynencie tym żyją plemiona o kulturze i rozwoju cywilizacyjnym podobnym do naszych ziemskich Indian Ameryki Południowej i Środkowej sprzed czasów odkrycia Ameryki. Na południe, za bezkresnymi oceanami, leży Zakhara (znana z innego settingu do D&D - Al-Quadim). Na wschodzie zaś są Bezkresne Pustkowia, na których żyją koczownicze ludy o kulturze podobnej do Mongołów Czyngis-chana, a dalej jeszcze znajdują się krainy przypominające daleki wschód w realiach feudalnej Japonii i Chin. W trzeciej edycji pominięto te "pod-światy" i skupiono się na Faerûnie.
(wikipedia.pl)
Info: Tag "OEF" oznacza "Original Electronic Format". Sumy posiadające taki tag są najlepszymi jakościowo wersjami podręcznika.
English description
The Forgotten Realms is a fictional setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game, created by Canadian author and game designer Ed Greenwood. Commonly referred to as simply The Realms, it became the most popular setting with D&D gamers in the 1990s, boosted by the success of novels by authors such as R. A. Salvatore and numerous computer role-playing games such as Pool of Radiance and Baldur's Gate. The primary focus of the setting is the supercontinent of Faerûn, part of the world of Abeir-Toril, an Earth-like planet with many real world influences.
It is a highly developed and comprehensive fantasy world, comprising of many characters, places and events, detailed in a long line of game products, novels and accesories published since the late 1980s. It is currently one of the two campaign settings that Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast is still officially creating new material for, the other one being the Eberron campaign setting.
The Forgotten Realms were originally designed by Ed Greenwood as his own personal adventure campaign, from which he began publishing a series of short articles detailing the setting in Dragon magazine. Although The Realms were yet to be an official campaign world, the first module based on the setting, H1 Bloodstone Pass, was released in 1985 by TSR. The first fully official Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (often referred to as 'the old grey box') was later released in 1987 as a boxed set of two source books and four large maps, designed by Greenwood in collaboration with author Jeff Grubb. This was partially as a result of the departure of Gary Gygax from TSR, and a corresponding effort by the new management to minimise the royalties due him; the shift of emphasis to the Realms was intended to overshadow Gygax's Greyhawk campaign setting, and at around the same time work began on a second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons so that Gygax would no longer receive royalties from sales of the first edition rulebooks.
The planet of Abeir-Toril consists of several large continents, including Faerûn, the focus of the setting, which was first detailed in the original Forgotten Realms Campaign Set, published in 1987 by TSR. The other continents include Kara-Tur, Zakhara, Maztica, and other yet unspecified landmasses. Kara-Tur, roughly corresponding to ancient East Asia, was later the focus of its own source book Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms, published in 1988.
Various products detailing specific areas of Faerûn have been released, and as such much of the continent has been heavily detailed and documented to create a highly developed setting.
In early editions of the setting, The Realms shared a unified cosmology with various other campaign settings called the Great Wheel. In this way each of the Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings were linked together to form one interwoven world connected by various planes of existence. With the release of the 2001 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, the setting was given its own distinct and separate cosmological arrangement, with unique planes not explicitly connected to those of the other settings.
Religion plays a large part in the Forgotten Realms, with deities and their followers being an integral part of the world. They do not have a passive role, but in fact interact directly in mortal affairs, answer prayers, and have their own personal agendas. All deities must have worshippers to survive, and all mortals must worship a patron deity to secure a good afterlife. A huge number of diverse deities exist within several polytheistic pantheons; a large number of supplements have documented many of them, some in more detail than others.
Much of the history of the The Realms detailed in novels and source books is concerned with the actions of various deities or The Chosen, mortal representatives with a portion of their deities' power, such as Elminster and the Seven Sisters.
Above all other deities is Ao the Overlord. Ao does not sanction worshipers and distances himself from mortals. He is single-handedly responsible for the Time of Troubles, or Godswar, as seen in The Avatar Trilogy.
The setting is the home of several iconic characters popularized by authors, including Elminster the wizard, who has appeared in several series of novels created by Greenwood himself, and Drizzt Do'Urden the highly popular drow ranger created by R. A. Salvatore.
(wikipedia.org)
