Long History of Toril

-6500 to -6100 DR

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Era_of_Skyfire

The Era of Skyfire was a time in Faerûnian history when the efreeti Memnon and the djinni Calim brought their forces together against each other in twenty-two cataclysmic battles from −6500 DR to −6100 DR. Elven High Magic forcibly bound the two leaders and bound their elemental essences to the sky and earth respectively. The ongoing struggles of the two noble genies created the Calim Desert.

-9000 to -3000

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/The_Founding_Time

The Age of the Proud Peoples, or the Founding Time, was the period just after the end of the Crown Wars when the elves and the dwarves dominated Faerûn. During this time, the humanoid races began their expansionist efforts. Elves, dwarves, and the first human tribes founded several realms such as Evereska, High Shanatar, and Imaskar. Several major conflicts occurred during this time, including the Era of Skyfire.

~ -10,000 DR

Corellon interceded in the Crown Wars and cursed the dark elves so that they might never dwell comfortably under the sun. Now finding themselves pained by exposure to daylight, the drow—in a mere two months' time—retreated from the sunlit lands of the World Above into the Underdark. They abandoned all loyalty to the elven gods who betrayed and banished them, turning instead to Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders, as their patron. Wars soon began between the drow and the underground cities of the dwarves.

-12000 to -9000 DR

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Crown_Wars

From the ruins of the Days of Thunder arose the first nations of the Proud People—the elves and dwarves—in the region.

The Crown Wars were a series of elven wars fought early in the history of Faerûn. Over a period of 3,000 years, the great elven kingdoms participated in five primary conflicts, leading to the near destruction of the elven race.

Some thirteen thousand years ago, war broke out between the elven nations of Aryvandaar and Miyeritar, beginning a series of conflicts known as the Crown Wars. Lasting some three thousand years, these conflicts culminated in the Dark Disaster, in which terrible storms engulfed Miyeritar, turning it into a wasteland within a single season, leaving behind the area now known as the High Moor. The high mages of Aryvandaar are blamed for the destruction, although no proof was ever produced.

The drow of Ilythiir turned to corrupt and demonic powers, unleashing them against Aryvandaar. In the centuries of destruction that followed, elf priests and high mages fervently prayed to Corellon Larethian and the gods of the elven pantheon for salvation.

~ -17,600 DR

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/First_Sundering

Thousands of years after the rise of the great elven nations, hundreds of elf high mages united to cast a spell intended to create a glorious homeland for their race. The spell succeeded, but it rippled backward and forward in time, and the land was sundered, changing the face of the world. The largest continent of this new world is now called Faerûn. Far from its western shores rose the isle of Evermeet, considered a part of Arvandor, the home of the elven gods on the plane of Arborea, and a bridge between worlds.

-24000 to -12000 DR

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/First_Flowering

From the ruins of the Days of Thunder arose the first nations of the Proud People—the elves and dwarves—in the region.

The elves raised up the nations of Aryvandaar, Ardeep, and Ilythiir. They settled Illefarn along the Sword Coast, from the Spine of the World to the River Delimbiyr—its capitol Aelinthaldaar in the shadow of what is now Mount Waterdeep. Wood elves and moon elves founded the kingdom of Eaerlann in the Delimbiyr Valley and the High Forest, and separatists from Aryvandaar settled Miyeritar in the lands of the present-day High Moor and Misty Forest.

The dwarf clans united as the nation of Delzoun, named for its forge-founder, with dwarfholds built on sites ranging from the Ice Mountains to the Nether Mountains and the Narrow Sea, and settlements and halls westward to the Crags and the Sword Mountains.

The Proud People regularly defended their homelands against orc hordes that arose from the mountains of the Spine of the World and surged southward.

−30,000 DR to −24,000 DR

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Dawn_Age

The Dawn Age, also known as the Age of Dawn, the Time of Dragons, or the Time of Giants, was a period lasting from −30,000 DR to −24,000 DR, when the powerful empires of the creator races disappeared from the face of the earth and their land was occupied by giants and dragons far more powerful than those of the Present Age. It was a time of constant flux for land in Faerûn, that led to the creation of great kingdoms and empires.

Scholars believe the Dawn Age began circa −30,000 DR, when dragons launched devastating attacks against the dominant Aearee Empires throughout the land, air, and underground, creating the first flight of dragons, destroying those nations completely. They also battled against giants over territory, forcing giantkind to yield their lands and flee to the north. Individual dragons and dragon clans came to rule large swaths of territory and battled with their rivals not only for dominion of those lands, but also over matters of religious nature as the dragons of this age were devout followers of the Draconic pantheon. Those wars, known as the Draco Holy Wars, led the race to near extinction.

During that time, the "lesser" races (primarily sentient humanoids) were enslaved by the dragon lords. Although some believe the metallic dragons were less brutal masters than the chromatics, a few metallics believe this was not the case.

The Dawn Age came to an end after the first Rage of Dragons had devastated the dragons' civilizations, and elves began to built their first empires in Faerûn, starting the age known as the First Flowering.

-35,000 DR to −30,000 DR: The Days of Thunder

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Days_of_Thunder

Beginning of known history.

Tens of thousands of years ago, empires of reptilian, amphibian, and avian peoples—known in Elvish as Iqua'Tel'Quessir, the creator races—dominated the world. They built great cities of stone and glass, carved paths through the wilderness, tamed the great lizards, worked mighty magics, shaped the world around them, and warred upon each other. Those were the Days of Thunder. The age of the creator races came to a sudden end some thirty thousand years ago. Perhaps their wars reached a terrible and inevitable crescendo, or they tampered with forbidden forces. For whatever reason, the world changed, and their vast empires vanished. All that remains of them are ruins and the scattered lizardfolk, bullywug, and aarakocra tribes, disparate descendants of those who once ruled the world. 

−3830 to −339 DR

The Netheril Empire

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Netheril#History

• Began over 5000 years ago, advanced magic beyond nearly all others

• First floating city (Xinlenal) over 4000 years ago

• Eventually more than a dozen cities and a powerful conquering empire

• Netheril’s over-use of magic is destroying homeland of creatures called Phaerimm

• Phaerimm fight back, begin to take down cities almost 2000 years ago

• Over 100 years into the Netheril-Phaerimm war,

  • a super-powerful Netheril named Karsis, with his own city of Karssus

  • Seeks to stop the Phaerimm once and for all - by enveloping power of Mystryl

  • Mystryl, goddess of the magic weave (source of magic) sacrifices herself to stop him

  • All Netheril cities crash to the ground - where Karssus crashed is today the city of Karse

  • Mystryl reborn as Mystra

• The Netheril of the crashed cities become various powers and factions over history of Faerun

1385 DR The Spellplague ("The Year of Blue Fire")

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Spellplague <-- lots of effects!!!

In 1385 DR, the ascended deity Cyric, aided by Shar, murdered Mystra, the goddess of magic, in her domain of Dweomerheart. This act ripped asunder the fabric of magic in the world, unleashing its raw power in a catastrophe called the Spellplague. Thousands of practitioners of the Art were driven mad or killed, while the face of Faerûn was reshaped by waves and veils of mystic blue fire. Entire nations were displaced or exchanged with realms from other worlds, and parts of the earth were torn free to float in the air.

This also impacted the gods and planes of existence - the World Tree destroyed (once connecting all the cosmos), outer planes merged or were destroyed, creation of Astral dominions, the Feywild paths to Toril re-opened...

1374 DR The Return of the Netheril

The Empire of Netheril rose again when the floating city of Thultanthar, commonly known as Shade, returned from a nearly two-thousand-year-long excursion in the Shadowfell, to hover above the Anauroch desert. The shadow-touched nobles of the city almost immediately began hunting for ancient Netherese ruins and artifacts and preparing for a restoration of their once-great empire.

1358 DR: The Time of Troubles or "The Arrival" or "The Godswar" or "The Avatar Crisis"

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Time_of_Troubles

In 1358 DR, the gods were cast out of their otherworldly domain and made to wander the land incarnated as mortals. In seeking to recover their divinity, they warred among themselves. Magic became unpredictable, and the prayers of the faithful went unanswered. Some of the gods-turned-mortal were slain, while a handful of mortals ascended to godhood, assuming the responsibilities of the dead deities.

DR = Dale Reckoning

In the decades and centuries following the collapse of The Netheril, many cities of the Sword Coast and the North, such as Illusk and Citadel Sundbarr, took in refugees from the fallen empire, and new settlements made up entirely or primarily of human survivors from Netheril and their descendants were established throughout the North and in the Western Heartland.

Nearly fifteen hundred years ago, the human settlers of the Dalelands and the elves of Cormanthor pledged their alliance in an agreement known as the Dales Compact. A monument called the Standing Stone was erected to mark the occasion, and the advent of Dalereckoning was decreed, beginning with the year 1 DR. This method of numbering the years in Toril's history has spread across Faerûn and is commonly understood (if not universally accepted).

Neverwinter (87 DR) and Silverymoon (384 DR)

The city of Neverwinter—called Eigersstor when it was a mere settlement—was founded in 87 DR. On the banks of the River Raurin, the humble community of Silverymoon Ford came into being in 384 DR, and less than two centuries later it had grown to become the city of Silverymoon.

Waterdeep (882 DR)

In 882 DR, a village and trading post on the shore of a deep bay in the shadow of a great mountain was named Nimoar's Hold, after the Uthgardt chieftain who claimed the area and fortified it. The place became known to sea captains as "Waterdeep," a name that displaced the original within a few generations. In 1032 DR, Ahghairon, heir to the arts of Netheril, saved the city from itself by unseating Waterdeep's warlord and would-be emperor, Raurlor. Ahghairon declared that wisdom, not strength of arms, would rule in the city from now on, and created the Lords of Waterdeep.

Baldur's Gate (1068 DR)

These and other nations and great city-states rose to prominence along the Sword Coast, forming a chain along the Trade Way from Illusk in the far north to Baldur's Gate in the south, near the borders of Amn. Like their elven and dwarven predecessors, they fought off attacks by savage humanoids, including orc hordes from the Spine of the World. Waterdeep, guided by its mysterious Lords, became a rising power, while old Illusk fell to ruin for decades, until it was eventually reclaimed and the city of Luskan built upon its bones.