[RPG] Are the Gods in the Forgotten Realms setting under copyright

The group I game with most of the time runs a Forgotten Realms campaign setting. We have played it in 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 and now use Pathfinder. There is very little change that we have to make. For 90-95% of it we just use the Pathfinder rules as is. We simply remade our characters for each edition as needed and custom FR specific monsters are converted to Pathfinder stats as needed. Deities and such are generally reused from the 3e/3.5e FR manuals and anything that may conflict we simply address on an as needed basis. But frankly, very little has needed to be resolved.

We are currently running the City of the Spider Queen module, which actually is a tiny bit easier in Pathfinder given the differences in rules for Haste and a couple other spells that the module relies heavily upon. Of course, our DM is making up for it in other ways.

Overall, though, it's been a fairly seamless transition for us to Pathfinder rules based in a Forgotten Realms world.

Yes, the old deities are really coming back. Along with the list of old deities in the Forgotten Realms section of the gods listed in the updated basic rules, (and the gods listed amongst many pantheons in the Player's Handbook) there is also the "Sundering" story line. The Player's Handbook lists 39 deities for the Forgotten Realms setting with their domains and symbols. And 24 "non-human deities" which are shared between Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms.

During the Sundering the worlds of Toril and Abeir (which were united during the Era of Upheaval) are being separated from each other. During this time, the various gods are creating "chosen" mortals who are intended to bring power to the gods, in the hope that when "things are settled" these gods will have the power required to remain a god. There seems to be confusion amongst the gods as to what Ao actually has in mind as he re-writes things.

Noted events during the Sundering are the diminishing of Spellplague effects, magic changing its nature to the way it worked in the past, such that old spellbooks work and recent ones do not. "The Weave" has new prominence, and most importantly for this question, various gods are found to either not be dead, to be re-united, or to be recreated through various events. It seems that in the various divine schemes to "get enough followers" all divine who have a "chosen", get chosen to remain a god, in a fun twist of the meaning of the "chosen".