Tablets of Fate

Tablets of Fate are powerful artifacts in the form of stone slabs that serve to maintain the balance between the forces of Law and Chaos on Toril. The Tablets also had the additional function of recording the names and purposes of every god and primordial in the universe.

History
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, they hoped to depower and overthrow him. 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 stood forward to admit to stealing the Tablets, Ao cast down all the gods from the heavens, taking their divine power in the process. None of the gods was allowed to return until the tablets were found. 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.

The period the gods spent on Toril as mere mortals is known as the Time of Troubles.