Summary
The Time of Troubles was precipitated by an attempt by the gods Bane and Myrkul to steal the Tablets of Fate from the overgod Ao. The tablets were created by Ao to sustain the balance of good and evil, law and chaos and contain the areas of which each of the gods of the Forgotten Realms rule over. Angry with the gods for their habitual pursuit of power and negligence toward their mortal faithful, Lord Ao relegated every god (except for the guardian god Helm, selected to protect the gates to the heavens) to walk among their followers on the earth. The immediate effects of this edict were threefold. First, divine magic (spells granted to clerics by their patron deities) ceased to function altogether unless the cleric was within one mile of their deity's avatar. Second, arcane magic (a force channeled from The Weave by wizards and sorcerers) ceased to be regulated by its steward, Mystra, and became dangerously unpredictable. Third, the characteristically immortal and aloof deities were now vulnerable (though devastatingly powerful) and dwelling among the civilizations of Faerûn.
The Time of Troubles coincided with the release of the second edition of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game, and events in the story reflected changes in the game rules. For example, the demise of the assassin cults in Faerûn reflected the fact that the assassin player character class was discontinued in AD&D Second Edition. Similarly, in the comic-book series based on Forgotten Realms, a wizard notes that after the upheavals in magic caused by the Troubles, some of his spells had changed in power and effect; and indeed, the game rules for those same spells had been revised.
Read more about this topic: Time Of Troubles (Forgotten Realms)
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