People of Toril [Archive] - Wizards Community

People of Toril [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Nirvana24
11-23-05, 04:12 AM I was wondering.. do the people of Toril refer to their planet as Toril? I've heard time and time again characters in books and games say " blah blah across the realms" ... they sure use "the realms" a lot. They don't actually refer to their planet as The Forgotten Realms, do they? Or are they saying across the realms as if they were saying across the lands? How would they come to think of using that expression without knowing that .. "we"... refer to them as the Forgotten Realms? I hope this made sense to someone.
Lenarior
11-23-05, 05:57 AM The people of the Forgotten Realms setting call their planet Toril, or so I have heard. Perhaps it's acctually the prime material plane they call Toril. However Forgotten Realms takes place in Fearun, and that is what they refer to when saying "across the realms", meaning all the countries in faerun.

Once there was a different setting known as Al-Qadim who was place in Zhakara, south of Faerun, but still on Toril. Zhakara is nor apart of the realms and is sometimes refered to as the land of fate.

Please note that this is information I've put together from many different sourcess and can be wrong. It just seems like a reasonable explanation to me.
dragonheart
11-23-05, 07:18 AM Toril is the name of the planet, Faerun is the name of the continent where everything goes on. Other continents on Toril include Zakhara, MAztica, Kara-Tur and several other unnamed/undescribed continents. Across the realms is almost cetainly a shrunk down version of somethin like "across all the realms of Faerun" meaning over the known world.
kaeso
11-23-05, 10:10 AM They should make a book on the planet Toril in general. They could do general summaries of the different continents besides Faerun, and then maybe name settings that you would use there (I know Maztica is Native-American-ish, and that place to the East is from OA). I would buy that just for the read, even if I wasn't going to use it in a campaign (though I probably would).
Kuje31
11-23-05, 11:05 AM The people in Faerun refer to it as Faerun or the Realms. Only we of Earth refer to it as The Forgotten Realms because Ed's premise when he made the setting is that Earth and the Realms was once connected by many portals but we of Earth have since "forgotten" about the connections. Yes, there are still some portals that connect to Earth and many of the Chosen have come to Earth, and so to have the Knights of Myth Drannor.

Feb 24, 2004: "All of which means you could easily put it “on the far side” of Toril. You could also do what I did in the ‘home’ Realms campaign, as outlined in the article I did in issue 37 of DRAGON: have it as one of many parallel Prime Material Planes linked by gates (3rd Edition: portals). This, by the way, is where the “Forgotten” part of “Forgotten Realms” came from: we people of real-world Earth have ‘forgotten’ the once-widely-used gates to Toril, which gave us our legends of vampires, dragons, et al."

and

"On June 16, 2005 THO said: Correct, Faraer. Folk in the Realms speak of "the Realms" but never of "the Forgotten Realms," which is indeed our real-world term. Confirmed by Ed, who's frantically writing some VERY major Realmslore at the moment, for official WotC publication sometime in the future (NDA, so no one ask, please).

love,
THO"
Gray Richardson
11-23-05, 11:59 AM The full name of the planet is Abeir-Toril which is said to be of dwarven etymology meaning "cradle of life". But most people just shorten it to "Toril."

The name was coined by Jeff Grubb and his interesting explanation of the name can be found at this link here: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/2566/jg-toril.htm
Faraer
11-23-05, 01:15 PM Realms folk use 'Toril' fairly infrequently; most consider themselves to live in 'the Realms' rather than on a planet.
Nirvana24
11-23-05, 06:16 PM So does "The Realms" refer to the countries and such across Faerun, or, does it refer to the continents across Toril?
Old Sage
11-23-05, 07:51 PM So does "The Realms" refer to the countries and such across Faerun, or, does it refer to the continents across Toril?Usually, it refers only to those places and regions of Faerun proper... the Realms. The Realms are the primary focus of the setting and the area of Toril with the most "forgotten" connections to our Earth.
Nirvana24
11-24-05, 12:14 AM Alright thanks. I'm actually very satisfied with dragonheart's response of :
"across all the realms of Faerun"

Works for me.
dragonheart
11-24-05, 12:59 PM thanks :)
something to keep in mind is the difference in perception between the rare adventurers and the mass populace. Terms like the "The Realms" are generated by the populace not the adventurers. Because of that we can make connections to what we know of similar situations in the real world. Most european peasants new only the major powers of their section with a smattering of names outside the region that were of importance for some reason (Jeruselem, Constantinople, Alexandria, Cathay etc.) and so their world was not all the continents but at best all of Europe and more likely just western or eastern Europe. So a line like "the realms" works nicely as a contraction of something like "All the Realms of Europe/Faerun" to describe the world know to the peasants and most of even the "educated" populace. The few far travelers (or in D&D adventureres) would use the common terms even tho they had a larger world since it still pretty well described what they knew.
If you can find a copy (try the library) read the adventures of Marco Polo or for a fictional view of adventure in mideval Europe and the Mideast (circa 1000 AD) try Louis L'amore's Walking Drum.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Nirvana24 11-23-05, 04:12 AM	I was wondering.. do the people of Toril refer to their planet as Toril? I've heard time and time again characters in books and games say " blah blah across the realms" ... they sure use "the realms" a lot. They don't actually refer to their planet as The Forgotten Realms, do they? Or are they saying across the realms as if they were saying across the lands? How would they come to think of using that expression without knowing that .. "we"... refer to them as the Forgotten Realms? I hope this made sense to someone.
Lenarior 11-23-05, 05:57 AM	The people of the Forgotten Realms setting call their planet Toril, or so I have heard. Perhaps it's acctually the prime material plane they call Toril. However Forgotten Realms takes place in Fearun, and that is what they refer to when saying "across the realms", meaning all the countries in faerun. Once there was a different setting known as Al-Qadim who was place in Zhakara, south of Faerun, but still on Toril. Zhakara is nor apart of the realms and is sometimes refered to as the land of fate. Please note that this is information I've put together from many different sourcess and can be wrong. It just seems like a reasonable explanation to me.
dragonheart 11-23-05, 07:18 AM	Toril is the name of the planet, Faerun is the name of the continent where everything goes on. Other continents on Toril include Zakhara, MAztica, Kara-Tur and several other unnamed/undescribed continents. Across the realms is almost cetainly a shrunk down version of somethin like "across all the realms of Faerun" meaning over the known world.
kaeso 11-23-05, 10:10 AM	They should make a book on the planet Toril in general. They could do general summaries of the different continents besides Faerun, and then maybe name settings that you would use there (I know Maztica is Native-American-ish, and that place to the East is from OA). I would buy that just for the read, even if I wasn't going to use it in a campaign (though I probably would).
Kuje31 11-23-05, 11:05 AM	The people in Faerun refer to it as Faerun or the Realms. Only we of Earth refer to it as The Forgotten Realms because Ed's premise when he made the setting is that Earth and the Realms was once connected by many portals but we of Earth have since "forgotten" about the connections. Yes, there are still some portals that connect to Earth and many of the Chosen have come to Earth, and so to have the Knights of Myth Drannor. Feb 24, 2004: "All of which means you could easily put it “on the far side” of Toril. You could also do what I did in the ‘home’ Realms campaign, as outlined in the article I did in issue 37 of DRAGON: have it as one of many parallel Prime Material Planes linked by gates (3rd Edition: portals). This, by the way, is where the “Forgotten” part of “Forgotten Realms” came from: we people of real-world Earth have ‘forgotten’ the once-widely-used gates to Toril, which gave us our legends of vampires, dragons, et al." and "On June 16, 2005 THO said: Correct, Faraer. Folk in the Realms speak of "the Realms" but never of "the Forgotten Realms," which is indeed our real-world term. Confirmed by Ed, who's frantically writing some VERY major Realmslore at the moment, for official WotC publication sometime in the future (NDA, so no one ask, please). love, THO"
Gray Richardson 11-23-05, 11:59 AM	The full name of the planet is Abeir-Toril which is said to be of dwarven etymology meaning "cradle of life". But most people just shorten it to "Toril." The name was coined by Jeff Grubb and his interesting explanation of the name can be found at this link here: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/2566/jg-toril.htm
Faraer 11-23-05, 01:15 PM	Realms folk use 'Toril' fairly infrequently; most consider themselves to live in 'the Realms' rather than on a planet.
Nirvana24 11-23-05, 06:16 PM	So does "The Realms" refer to the countries and such across Faerun, or, does it refer to the continents across Toril?
Old Sage 11-23-05, 07:51 PM	So does "The Realms" refer to the countries and such across Faerun, or, does it refer to the continents across Toril?Usually, it refers only to those places and regions of Faerun proper... the Realms. The Realms are the primary focus of the setting and the area of Toril with the most "forgotten" connections to our Earth.
Nirvana24 11-24-05, 12:14 AM	Alright thanks. I'm actually very satisfied with dragonheart's response of : "across all the realms of Faerun" Works for me.
dragonheart 11-24-05, 12:59 PM	thanks :) something to keep in mind is the difference in perception between the rare adventurers and the mass populace. Terms like the "The Realms" are generated by the populace not the adventurers. Because of that we can make connections to what we know of similar situations in the real world. Most european peasants new only the major powers of their section with a smattering of names outside the region that were of importance for some reason (Jeruselem, Constantinople, Alexandria, Cathay etc.) and so their world was not all the continents but at best all of Europe and more likely just western or eastern Europe. So a line like "the realms" works nicely as a contraction of something like "All the Realms of Europe/Faerun" to describe the world know to the peasants and most of even the "educated" populace. The few far travelers (or in D&D adventureres) would use the common terms even tho they had a larger world since it still pretty well described what they knew. If you can find a copy (try the library) read the adventures of Marco Polo or for a fictional view of adventure in mideval Europe and the Mideast (circa 1000 AD) try Louis L'amore's Walking Drum.