Ok.
Its still correct. Forgotten Realms is "diverse" in the same way every kitchen sink fantasy is.
Want generic central european fantasy? Swordcoast
Want Beduins and Arabian nights? Anauroch is right next to it.
Oh yes, remember when Anauroch was a cold desert? Remember wheN Anauroch was actually interresting? Yeah they retconned that. like with most good things in that setting.
Want Skyrim? Go north to targos and play icewind dale. Want Dinosaurs? Go to Chult. Wnat Egypt? Theres Unther, never mind the nonsensical name, its literaly just egypt. Want Oriental adventures? Well we got an entire continent consisting entierly of this premise. Ditto for Mesoamerica.
Ironically the most interresting places in Forgotten Realms of those that are single sentance descriptions. Thay beeing a main example. "Evil wizard ruled country" is abotu as complex as it gets. But its a good plot hook for a good DM.
Forgotten Realms is to DnD settings what 3.5 is to DnD mechanics.
its not deep, its bloated.
Yes you can find the exact statistics of the racial makeup of every given district of waterdeep (with 90% beeing human in almost very one) if you want to.
You can track the exact geneaology of the Zentharim, if you want.
you probably wont tho because those elements arent actually picked up upon.
Thats the strenght of Forgotten realms, its pre chewed and its got a little bit of everything.
its the quintessentialy Kitchen sink.
I cant think of another setting that fits the description of kitchen sink fantasy better than Forgotten realms, maybe Warhammer fantasy or Everquest.
Note, this isnt even a bad thing. I like kitchen sink fantasy, but dont pretne that FR is a great setting just because 3.5 treated it as the poster child and its gotten a lot of Books as a result, also due to WoTC literaly beeing contractually oblidged to release material for it.
if the same was true for Eberron, Dark sun or even Nentir Vale which is actually a realy cool overlooked DnD setting, then they would be just as fleshed out.
