Editing Forgotten Realms (section)

===Religion===
Religion plays a large part in the Forgotten Realms, with deities and their followers being an integral part of the world. Deities interact directly in mortal affairs, answer prayers, and have their own personal agendas. All deities must have worshipers to survive, and all mortals must worship a patron deity to secure a good afterlife. A huge number of diverse deities exist within several [[polytheism|polytheistic]] pantheons; a large number of supplements have documented many of them, some in more detail than others.<ref>{{cite book | last=Boyd | first=Eric L. | year=1998 | title=Demihuman Deities | publisher=[[TSR, Inc.|TSR]] | isbn=978-0-7869-1239-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1=Boyd | first1=Eric L. | author-link1=Eric L. Boyd | last2=Mona | first2=Erik | author-link2=Erik Mona | year=2002 | title=Faiths and Pantheons | publisher=[[Wizards of the Coast]] | isbn=978-0-7869-2759-3 | url=https://archive.org/details/faithspantheons00boyd}}</ref> Greenwood created a pantheon of gods for his home ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game, in his Forgotten Realms world, which were introduced in his article "Down-to-earth divinity" from ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' #54 (October 1981).<!-- According to the article, these consisted at the time of: Auril, goddess of cold; Azuth, patron of magic users; Bane, god of strife, hatred, and tyranny; Beshaba, goddess of mischief, misfortune, ill luck, and accidents; Bhaal, god of death; Chauntea, goddess of agriculture; Deneir, god of literature and art; Eldath, goddess of waterfalls, springs, streams, pools, stillness, peace, quiet places, and guardian of druids' groves; Gond, god of blacksmiths, artificers, crafts, and construction; Helm, god of guardians; Ilmater, god of endurance, suffering, martyrdom, and perseverance; Lathander, god of spring, dawn, conception, vitality, eternal youth, renewal, self-perfection, and beginnings; Leira, goddess of deception and illusion; Lliira, goddess of joy, carefree feeling, contentment, release, hospitality, happiness, dance, and patron of festivals; Loviatar, goddess of pain, hurt, and patron of torturers; Malar, god of wild, marauding beasts, bloodlust, and hunting; Mask, god of thieves and intrigue; Mielikki, goddess of forests, dryads, and patron of rangers; Milil, god of poetry, eloquence, and song; Myrkul, god of the dead,<ref name=Carbonell/> wasting, decay, corruption, parasites, old age, dusk, fall, and exhaustion; Mystra, goddess of magic;<ref name=Carbonell/> Oghma, god of knowledge, invention, and patron of bards; Selune, goddess of the moon, stars, and navigation; Shar, goddess of darkness, night, loss, and forgetfulness; Silvanus, god of nature, and patron of druids; Sune, goddess of love, beauty, charisma, and passion; Talona, goddess of disease and poisoning; Talos, god of storms and destruction; Tempus, god of war; Torm, god of duty, loyalty, obedience, and those who face danger to further the cause of good, Tyche, god of good fortune, luck, victory, skill, and patron of adventurers and warriors; Tyr, god of justice, Umberlee, goddess of oceans, waves and winds at sea, and currents; Greenwood also used the [[Melniboné]]an deities Grome, Kakatal, Misha, and Straasha as his elemental lords.--><ref name="Dragon 54">[[Ed Greenwood]], Dragon magazine #54 - "Down-to-earth divinity" (October 1981)</ref>

When the Forgotten Realms was published as a setting in 1987, the pantheon added Waukeen, the goddess of trade, money, and wealth, who was created by one of [[Jeff Grubb]]'s players, and added to the Forgotten Realms by Grubb.{{cn|date=March 2024}} Tyche was replaced with Tymora, and the elemental lords from Melniboné were replaced by Akadi, Grumbar, Istishia, and Kossuth.<ref name="FRCS1E">{{cite book | isbn =0-88038-472-7 | title = Forgotten Realms Campaign Set | author = [[Ed Greenwood]], [[Jeff Grubb]] and Karen S. Martin | year = 1987 | publisher = [[TSR, Inc.]]}}</ref>

Much of the history of the Forgotten Realms detailed in novels and source books concerns the actions of various deities and The Chosen (mortal representatives with a portion of their deities' power) such as [[Elminster]], Fzoul Chembryl, Midnight (who later became the new embodiment of the goddess of magic, [[Mystra (Forgotten Realms)|Mystra]]<ref name="APC"/>{{rp|140}}), and the Seven Sisters. Above all other deities is Ao, the Overlord, who 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]]''.<ref>{{cite book | title=Shadowdale | last=Ciencin | first=Scott | author-link=Scott Ciencin | year=1989 | title-link=The Avatar Series}}</ref><ref name=Carbonell>{{cite book |last=Carbonell |first=Curtis D. |date=2019 |title=Dread Trident - Tabletop Role-playing Games and the Modern Fantastic |publisher=[[Liverpool University Press]] |pages=102-107 |chapter=Forgotten Realms |isbn=9781789620573}}</ref>