Baulders Gate 3 index to give context for people new to DND stuffs.
I've been playing DND for over 15 years now and all of this is mostly from memory so bare with me.
Let's start with some big stuff then go to smaller things:
Ithilid: a creature of the mind. They are a hive mind species around a singular queen. The queen is called the elder brain and she is the source of psychic power. They originated from the under dark but became an evasive species to the astral plane. These creatures are also known as mind flayers.
Astral plane: In DND lore there are a bunch of different planes. We live on the material plane. The astral plane is where thoughts and prayers are but they exist. Other notable planes are the fey wilds, the 9 hells, the elemental planes, and shadowfell.
Teifling: originally a monster in aDND and 3.5 the teiflings origins are muddy. The common origin story is they were humans who lived in concert with or near the 9 hells. Or offspring of humans and the princes of hells. In 4e they became a player race and became very popular. Largely do to the fact they were humans but cooler.
Faerûn: the name of this settings major continent.
The sword coast: the name of this settings major area. It's the western most coast of Faerûn.
Baulder's gate. The largest trade city on the sword coast do to its location in the middle. It's a tad inland but on a major river that is connected to the ocean.
Other notable cities on the sword coast going from top to bottom are Icewind Dale, Neverwinter, Water Deep (this is where gale is from), Daggerford, Candlekeep, and an area called Calimshan.
The Harpers: a group dedicated to the preservation of Lore of the sword coast. Elminster is one of their founders.
Elminster: a former prince of Athalantar he's got a long messy story because he's a major story character. Read his book in Elminster: making of a mage.
Shar and Selûne: these two are God's of the material plane. Selûne is the lunar goddess and shines light in the darkness. Shar is the night goddess she resents her sister for claiming dominion of people during her time. They have a messy rivalry. Shar is also ambitious and has slain other gods.
Some context from Baulder's gate 1 and 2: those games were about Bhaal, the god of murder, who was foretold by a prophecy to fall from the pantheon. So he created children from mortals, demigods of murder, to have vessels to be reborn and reascend to godhood. All these vessels should have been destroyed by the end of the second game. And supposedly it's been 80ish years since the events of the second game.
If you like this game and want to spend more time here I recommend the famously fun couch co-op game: Baulder's Gate: dark alliance both 1 and 2. Find a friend and get two controllers.
And
The Icewind Dale trilogy made up of 3 books.
The crystal shard, streams of silver, and the halflings gem.
These books start to the north and explore the sword coast a bit. Easy to digest reading.