Tablets of Fate

The Tablets of Fate were powerful artifacts in the form of stone slabs that served to maintain the balance between the forces of Law and Chaos, and acted as a barrier between the worlds of Abeir and Toril. The Tablets also had the additional function of recording the names and purposes of every god and primordial in the universe.

"On these artifacts, I have recorded the forces that balance law and chaos."

- Lord Ao

Description
The Tablets were described as plain clay tablets, less than 2 feet high, with the names and portfolios of every deity inscribed in glowing blue-white runes.

Although Bane and Myrkul believed some of Ao's power lay in the tablets, for Ao the tablets had little power. They served only as reminders to the gods of their duties.

History
The Tablets of Fate were created by Ao after the Tearfall and the sundering of Abeir-Toril as a way to keep the new worlds of Abeir and Toril apart, and to ensure a balance between the forces of Law and Chaos as well as between the gods and the primordials.

In the Year of Shadows, 1358 DR, Bane and Myrkul stole the Tablets from Ao and hid them in Faerûn wrongly suspecting that some of the Overgod's power was derived from these tablets. When Ao discovered the Tablets of Fate were missing, he summoned all the deities and asked for those guilty to hand them over. When no one came forward to admit to stealing the Tablets, Ao cast down all the gods from the heavens taking their divine power in the process. Ao tasked Helm with guarding the Celestial Stairways which would lead the deities back into their divine realms. For this he retained his divine powers. Before the Avatar Crisis ended, Bane and Myrkul were both slain although Bane would return in 1372 DR.

After valiant heroes (among them the mortals Cyric, Kelemvor, and Midnight) recovered the Tablets and returned them to Ao the Overgod himself destroyed the tablets, grinding them into powder. This act, however, unraveled the laws of Realmspace and began the chaotic period of time known as the Era of Upheaval.

During the Second Sundering Ao recreated and rewrote the Tablets of Fate, inscribing the names and purposes of the gods and primordials he chose to serve in a new inclusive divine reality.