The creator of the Forgotten Realms, Dungeons and Dragons’ primary setting, has settled a crucial lore question – how do people in the D&D universe swear? A post by Ed Greenwood on X from July 2 confirms that “in the Realms, everyone sane believes in all the gods, wherefore they swear by either the deities they most revere, or that anger them the most”. Also, ‘farruk’ is the Forgotten Realms version of the F-word.
This strangely swear-y conversation was prompted by a viral tweet by Bhaalsprincess, who asked “what’s the lore accurate DnD way to say ‘Jesus fucking Christ’?”. A few replies and a direct tag later, and Greenwood got involved.
Apparently, if you really love (or hate) Mystra, goddess of Magic, you’d use her Chosen in place of Jesus Christ. This gives you this glorious expletive: “Elminster Farruking Aumar!”. Greenwood offers several other examples, including “Janness Farruking Harvestmother” for the DnD god Chauntea, “Iyachtu Farruking Xvim” for Bane, and “Dazhra Farruking Headless” for Shar.
While this is directly comparable to the real-world swear, Greenwood says the structure of swearing is very different in the Forgotten Realms. “The style of swearing is more often ‘By the [attribute] of [deity]’”, he writes. “So: ‘By the Unholy Madness of Cryric!’ or ‘By the Unfailing Lash of Loviatar!’ or ‘By the Blessed Blood of Ilmater!’”
Greenwood first published his writing on the Forgotten Realms in 1979, and he’s been diligently developing the DnD setting since. We’d like to thank him for the new curse words we’ll be using at Wargamer HQ.
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