The richness and depth of the Forgotten Realms setting now has a book that takes you through a detailed timeline, plus provides you with many interesting sidebars, maps, and more. Take a look at some of the things you'll discover inside The Grand History of the Realms . By Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood, George Krashos, Eric L. Boyd, Thomas Costa
Foreword
One afternoon early in 2006, I was poking around the Forgotten Realms message boards on the Wizards of the Coast website when I ran across an interesting thread. Several posters were raving about a great Realms history tool assembled by someone under the mysterious screen name of "Iakhovas." One of the messages included a link, and I was intrigued enough to follow it. I soon discovered a 100-page PDF composed mostly of the compiled timelines from every D&DForgotten Realms publication. This, of course, was Brian James's Grand History of the Realms, in a form very much like the one you now hold in your hands.
Needless to say, I was immediately impressed. I felt that Iakhovas's Grand History was the sort of online resource we should have put together ourselves. After all, we'd assembled a dozen different timelines in these various sourcebooks, but we'd never pulled them together into a single unified history. So I forwarded the link to Chris Perkins (Design Manager for D&D ), Phil Athans (Managing Editor for our book team), and Bart Carroll (the producer in charge of our D&D website content). "This is a great piece of work," I told them. "What do we think about contacting this guy, paying him for his work, and posting this as a web feature?"
As it turned out, they liked the idea a lot. I got in touch with the mysterious Iakhovas to let him know we were interested in his work, which is how I made the acquaintance (electronically, at least) of Brian James. Bart and Chris worked out an arrangement with Brian to make use of his Grand History for our Forgotten Realms web page, and I went back to my normal routine. But Chris already had bigger plans for the Grand History in mind, and when a slot in our product schedule opened up, he successfully lobbied our business managers to assign it to The Grand History . This was something unprecedented for us; for the first time in my long experience with TSR and Wizards of the Coast, we accepted an unsolicited, fan-created piece of work, originally available on the Internet, and put it on our product schedule.
The Grand History of the Realms is therefore not just an excellent Forgotten Realms resource, but also a truly revolutionary product and process for us. It's a sign that you, the readers and players of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, are taking control of the creative process. Your interests and your collective experience with the setting that we all know and love have become just as big a part of Faerûn as any series of novels, sourcebooks, or adventures we've ever printed. The Realms are more than what we say they are -- they're what you say they are, too.
Of course, a book composed of nothing but the timelines of dozens of Realms products would only appeal to the most dedicated of fans, so Chris decided to expand Brian's excellent compilation with nearly 60 sidebars by Brian, Tom Costa, Eric L. Boyd, George Krashos, and none other than Ed Greenwood himself, offering new insights and glimpses into the ever-growing story of Faerûn.
While most of the 3rd Edition sourcebooks are the work of a relatively small number of game designers, the timelines included in these books were frequently derived from older 1st and 2nd Edition sources written years ago by different people. By now, scores of game designers and authors have touched the great, sprawling story that unfolds in these 150-plus pages. Suffice it to say that just about everybody who's worked on a Forgotten Realms game product or written a Forgotten Realms novel has contributed to this sweeping vista of imagination. And, as always, Ed Greenwood has been exceedingly generous with his world, finding room for all sorts of story lines and ideas brought to the Realms by all the rest of us. None of this would be here if not for him.
Anyway, thanks to a little passion and a lot of hard work on the part of Iakhovas -- Brian James -- The Grand History in all its splendor is now yours to behold. Enjoy!
-- Richard Baker
Introduction
All of Toril, and especially Faerûn, is rich in history. As the eons have passed, empires have risen and fallen all around the world. This chronology presents the history of the Forgotten Realms setting in all its glory. We've brought together information from dozens of sources to provide the definitive chronicle.
Timeline Format
The bulk of this book is made up of brief entries that collectively form a timeline of the history of Faerûn and the other continents of Toril. The events are presented (naturally) in chronological order according to the year or time frame in which they occurred. In addition, the events for the four most recent years in history (beginning with 1372) are laid out in order by the day on which each event occurred or began.
Because the saga is a long and complex one, we've inserted a number of pointers -- "links," if you will -- that make it possible to read about a single chain of events by following a certain set of pointers from one year to the next one (or the previous one) in the sequence.
For instance, if you're browsing the book and you notice a mention of Elminster in the year 851, you'll see that his name is followed by [720, 1179] -- indicating that the next mention of Elminster is in the year 1179 and the previous one is in 720. By following that chain backward or forward (or both), you can soon discover every place where the timeline has something significant to say about the Sage of Shadowdale. (If a name or term is accompanied by only a single pointer, that place represents either the beginning or the end of that particular chain.)
Quite a few names or terms are not accompanied by pointers because they show up so often that putting year numbers in every location would break up the text so much that it would become too difficult to navigate. If we provided pointers for every mention of Waterdeep, Myth Drannor, and Zhentil Keep (to name just a few), the timeline would have quickly become overrun by an epidemic of numbers in brackets. So, if you want to find out all about Shadowdale (another example), you're just going to have to . . . read the book.
MONARCHIES OF FAERÛN
A worthy companion to the timeline appears on pages 74 through 86, where we have reproduced detailed lists of the rulers of all the human realms of Faerûn. This information, compiled by George Krashos, provides a host of details that are not also mentioned in the timeline. The history of each country's rulers is a story in itself!
Calendar Conversions
One notable feature of the timeline that the expert Faerûnian historian will notice is that we've expressed all the years in the current Dalereckoning (DR) notation. Different cultures in the Realms have used different calendars, and reconciling them has often caused sages much difficulty. See the following notes to convert DR dates to some other calendar.
Dalereckoning (DR): This human-centered calendar has become the standard way of expressing dates. Dalereckoning was established in the Year of Sunrise when men were first permitted by elves to settle in the more open regions of Cormanthor. It is also called Freeman's Reckoning.
Cormyr Reckoning (CR): This calendar starts at the founding of Cormyr by the Obarskyr Dynasty (26 DR). The use of two close but not identical calendars in the same geographic area causes historians and sages much confusion. To convert between dates you might find in other sources: DR - 25 = CR or CR + 25 = DR.
Northreckoning (NR): The calendar used throughout the city of Waterdeep, the Silver Marches, and the North. DR - 1032 = NR or NR + 1032 = DR.
Waterdeep Year (WY): Archaic Waterdeep calendar, no longer used.
Netheril Year (NY): Calendar used by the lost empire of Netheril, stemming from the Alliance of Seventon. DR + 3859 = NY or NY - 3859 = DR.
Shou Calendar: The people of Shou Lung mark the ascendancy of Nung Fu as the start of their empire's calendar. DR + 1250 = Shou Year or Shou Year - 1250 = DR.
Wa Calendar: Calendar used by the island nation of Wa in the Eastern Realms. DR + 418 = Wa Year or Wa Year - 418 = DR.
Mulhorand Calendar (MC): Ancient calendar dating from the founding of Skuld. DR + 2134 = MC or MC - 2134 = DR.
Untheric Calendar (UC): Established after the ascendancy of Gilgeam as god-king of Unther. DR + 735 = UC or UC - 735 = DR.
Aryselmalyr Calendar: Archaic calendar used by the undersea elves of Aryselmalyr at the empire's founding. DR + 11004 = AC or AC - 11004 = DR.
Timesong Calendar (TS): Calendar established at Myth Nantar and used today by most undersea inhabitants of Serôs. DR + 70 = TS or TS - 70 = TS.
Present Reckoning (PR): A newer calendar that dates the Time of Troubles as Year 0. DR - 1358 = PR or PR + 1358 = DR.