Originally designed as Greenwood's personal campaign and detailed in a long series of articles in Dragon, it became the setting most popular with D&D gamers in the 1990s.

Its fame has been boosted by dozens of novels (including the exploits of the famous drow hero Drizzt Do'Urden) and the series of CRPGs Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Pool of Radiance, Icewind Dale, and so on.

The Realms are home to diverse races and cultures, from arctic dwarves to Egyptian-like Old Empires.