The Avatar crisis achieved no worthwhile aim, wasted a lot of publishing resources, set the destructive precedent for the Realms-Shaking Events that followed, misportrayed several prominent characters, gave a lot of people wrong ideas about gods in Faerûn, introduced an inappropriate cryptomonotheist depiction of the afterlife, and destroyed several excellent gods (just two years after the Realms was published as a setting) and replaced them with new novel characters for no reason that anyone involved who I've asked can remember. The chaotic mess of publishing the damn thing was known as the Avatar Vortex within TSR.The concept was, ironically, first proposed by Ed Greenwood himself, in "Down-to-earth divinity" (Dragon #54), seven years earlier: 'Another mechanism for keeping things under control is the “Godswar.” This concept is also a good justification to cover the changeover of a campaign from D&D rules to AD&D rules—and will also justify any other divine revisions the DM feels necessary, once.' I would guess he regrets writing that.
The Time of Troubles is not part of my Realms.
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