The Obligatory Greyhawk Catchup Post

For those of you late or those who might have missed a post or two, I provide this post collating the post on my series extrapolating some meat for the bones of the Greyhawk Folio.

The project idea. It's drifted a bit since, but it showed you where I started and this post on inspirations will show you where I'm at.

The Bone March

The Horned Society

The Iron League

Onnwal

Ket

Keoland

Veluna

The Holy See of Medegia

North Province

South Province

The Pale

Rel Astra

The Duchy of Tenh

The Wild Coast

The Aerdian Church of Law

Some gods of the Suel and Oeridians.

And some real-world images for terrain inspiration.

[Greyhawk] Four Suloise Deities

In my last Greyhawk post, I presented some Oeridian gods. This time, a sampling of deities from the Suel.

Kord

One the most popular Suloise deities, at least in terms of folklore and tales he appears in, Kord is the hero god of strength and personal combat. He is said to have given mankind the art of wrestling and is credited with slaying numerous monsters.

Lendor

Lendor was perhaps seen by ancient Suel as the personification of time, but by the later Imperium he is the god of infinite space as well as time and the first cause that proceeded all existence. As such, Lendor is understood in some traditions as the supreme deity of Law or Divine Law's personification, though the Oeridian Church of Law (when it recognizes him at all) views him as the embodiment of the strictly mechanistic law of the material world, a flawed demiurge subordinate to higher, spiritual law. In folk belief he is again just the long-bearded Father Time.

Phaulkan

Phaulkan is a god of sky and storms among the ancient Suel, in latter times he is primarily invoked as a god of wind and weather, and of interest to sailors and travelers. Depictions in the current age more often show him as youthful and clean-shaven.

Wee Jas

Wee Jas is the goddess of magic and death. As a deity of Law, she was a frequently present but minor figure in Suloise religion, but as the patron of magic, she is frequently invoked at the start of magical rituals and shows up in the iconography of classic arcane works.

The Old World of Greyhammer

Despite their differences, the Old World of Warhammer Fantasy (at least as presented in WFRP 1e, which is the extent of my knowledge of it) and the World of Greyhawk have enough similarities, I think, to make a mashup both easy and interesting. Both have Andersonian/Moorcockian Law and Chaos alignments as a feature with Neutral a reasonable position, though it's not generally as militant a stance in the Old World as it can be in Greyhawk. Both have the Tolkienian compliment of races without the Tolkien-inspired epic. Both have an Empire that seems to take some inspiration from the historical Holy Roman Empire. 

The way history would go would be something like this: The technologically and perhaps magically advanced Old Slann open warp gates on Oerth, letting Chaos in and ultimately destroying their civilization. Their degenerate descendants are the scattered tribes of bullywugs. Human civilization arises relatively quickly through the rediscovered learning of this elder race, but the Baklunish and Suel eventually use that knowledge in mutual destruction.

Some centuries later, Oeridian tribes establish the Empire (combining the particulars or the Empire of Warhammer and the Overkingdom of the Flanaess). It persists to the present day, but it is a shadow of its former glory. Both all too human failings and the taint of Chaos have a hand in this decline.

I'm not sure what to do with the Chaos Gods, but I'd be inclined to replace them with Greyhawk deities, though I don't know exactly which ones.

I feel like this is a scene that could happen in both settings

The Old World has fewer countries, and they are more obviously analogous to earthly nations, but I don't think it would be particularly hard to map any particular aspect of the setting one wanted to a Greyhawkian surrogate. The default technological era is more advanced, too, but I don't really think gunpowder would spoil Greyhawk in any way. To honor the war game focus of Warhammer, one could also set the campaign during the Greyhawk Wars.

Neither setting is a stranger to punning humor, so there's that. Warhammer is grimmer than Greyhawk at standard, but I think the tones of both can sort of meet in the middle. 

Take a Trip to Gnydron

In an abandoned fragment by Clark Ashton Smith Gnydron is "a continent of the far future, in the South Atlantic, which is more subject to incursions of 'outsideness' than any former terrene realm; and more liable to the visitation of beings from galaxies not yet visible; also, to shifting admixtures and interchanges with other dimensions or planes of entity." Smith's Gnydron eventually became his Zothique. 

Lester B. Portly has picked up the name Gnydron in the same way he's salvaged some gaming ideas of yore for a series of publications that aim to inject a bit of "outsideness" into the terrene realms of your standard OSE or other B/X-derived gaming. 

I have known Lester for a number of years. He did the layout on several of my gaming publications (in addition to the likely better paying work he did for Goodman Games), and I played in a pulp campaign he ran set in his interpretation of my Weird Adventures setting. Lester has also been a fan of true old school gaming with its incursions and visitations from other genres, based on fiction that was not so firmly and definitely categorized as fantasy is today. Each of these Gyndron supplements focuses on another subgenre of fantastic fiction (and gaming) that was once a part of the old school domain these days is often trimmed or shunted off to works dedicated to it in modern old school-derived systems. 

Supplement 1 is subtitled "Mystic Fantasy" and offers an AD&D-styled Monk class and a cool system of martial arts. It also provides a system of Psionics that again reminds one of AD&D's but this one is more streamlined and appears imminently usable. There's a bestiary of old school psionic-based monsters that have either been left out of or de-psionicized in OSE and other modern interpretations. Rounding out the supplement are some optional rules and a Saurid (lizard man) race-as-class.

"Science Fantasy" gets its due in Supplement 2. There is a star-farer class for playing those high tech individuals stranded on a fantasy world and the Vat-Born, a synthetic mutant class. To support these two, there's a chapter on high-tech equipment and one on mutations with an appearance table. Again, there is a menagerie of science fantasy monsters, many derived/adapted from classic modules like Expedition to Barrier Peaks. 

"Weird Fantasy" rises in Supplement 3. Lester gives us the Initiate class, practitioners of ceremonial magic, and adherents to strange deities, and the Formican race-class of eusocial, hive-dwelling humanoids. There's a system of ritual magic to support the Initiate, as well as a chapter on deities where you'll recognize some Lovecraftian Elder Gods and Old Ones, among others. Finally, there's a chapter on Monsters from Appendix N. Lester really did a deep dive here, and I confess I didn't catch all the derivations, but I see creatures from multiple Burroughs series, works of Jack Vance, and the Gondwane tales of Lin Carter, among others.

All of this is presented in the nice, clean layout style Lester does so well and enlivened by the always flavorful artwork of Zhu Baije.

If you play OSE or other B/X inspired rulesets and dig Appendix N fiction, then these are a must. Even if you play a bit more variant old school ruleset and like those sorts of inspirations, they are worth your money to have all this content for easy adaptation.

If drivethru isn't your preferred shopping site or if you want POD, you can also find the Gyndron supplements on Lulu and RPG Trader.

[Greyhawk] Four Oeridian Deities

This post presents the deities as if they existed in a (pseudo-)historical context where people's understanding of them might have changed and evolved with time. Obviously, Greyhawk presents a world where gods are demonstrably real. I don't think that precludes the approach I take here, but it may not fit every readers' conception of how the gods interact with the world.

Pholtus

Pholtus seems to have originally been a solar god or dawn god. Likely coincident with the development of Aerdian Nomism, Pholtus came to be seen as primeval deity who "brought forth the light" of Law, separating Order from Chaos and giving birth to the universe. 

Despite this important mythological role, Pholtus is seldom directly worshipped in the current era, with Pale as an exception.

Hieroneous and Hextor

Two of the best-attested tribal Oeridian deities, the two are an example of the Divine Twin motif. Many folk tales are legends are told about them. They are as popular among the common people as the hero gods.  Hextor represents the brutal side of war: destruction, bloodlust, and brutality. These traits might suggest he is more Chaotic than Lawful, but in the Oeridian mind, his actions are traits are a contingent and circumscribed chaos, only unleashed in service of Law. In fact, some Oeridian theologians argue that his actions are Lawful at their core, representing expression of the primal Law of Battle. In the modern era, Hextor has come to represent Law at its most obdurate and brutal, and so tyranny has been added to his portfolio.

Hieroneous represents the more positive aspects of conflict: justice such justice, valor, and skill at arms. He has also been associated with the knightly class and the cult of chivalry.

Zilchus

Zilchus seems to have been a minor, chthonic deity of the tribal Oeridians. He was associated with wealth and primarily riches drawn from the earth. While he developed as role as judge and ruler the dead (perhaps by extension from his existing role of ruling things in the ground) he has never been a god of death directly. Instead, he came to be viewed as the ultimate worldly power and his purview over wealth came to extend to markets and business.

In modern times, Zilchus is a commonly worshipped deity as he is believed to bring material prosperity to this faithful.

The D&Dness of Nifft the Lean

Michael Whelan

Michael Shea's Nifft the Lean (1982) and its sequels are too recent to be in Appendix N, of course, but rereading the novel (really a collection of short stories) after 30 years, I'm struck by how much homology to a D&D game the stories have.

First, an introduction for those who may never have heard of it. The titular Nifft the Lean is a master thief whose fantastical exploits are related to us after his presumed demise by a friendly scholar. The stories recall Jack Vance and Clark Ashton Smith, but also, they remind me a bit of Wagner's Kane stories in what I see as Shea's attempt to weld Sword & Sorcery and the Gothic. Of several of them, one might could say they are Vance by way of Hieronymus Bosch.

Now, as to the D&D-like action of the stories, here's a warning: this will contain spoilers. Here's the list:

Competent Professionals

Like higher level D&D characters, Nifft and is companions (typically Barnar) are highly skilled. This is noted in world and demonstrated in comparison to others. While they likely possess inborn aptitude or talent, the learned skill aspect is more emphasized. They also complete their "exploits" (as they call them) not so much by badassery or trusting to luck (though there is some of that) but by planning and experienced execution--where they are the masters of their own destinies--and skill and improvisation when they are not.

In "Pearls of the Vampire Queen," for instance, they well plan first their illicit pearl diving and then their robbery of the queen's palace.

Improvisation

The point bears further emphasis. When faced with a challenge like say, descending from a mountain into a Subworld (Hell, essentially) in "The Fishing of the Demon-Sea," Nifft and Barnar make use of what they have around them to jury-rig a means of getting down (sort of) safely. In Pearls of the Vampire Queen," when diving for the swamp pearls proves too laborious and dangerous, they switch to another plan inspired by recent intelligence they got regarding the Vampire Queen.

Travel to Other Planes

Like high level D&D characters, Nifft and friends at least twice have to accomplish a mission on another plane of existence. In "Come Then, Mortal – We Will Seek Her Soul" Nifft and his companion Haldar go to the land of the dead to carry a wayward former suitor to a priestess for her vengeance. In "The Fishing of the Demon-Sea" they are forced to retrieve a young noble from what in D&D terms you might call the Abyss. Like in D&D, these are so much mystical places but dangerous adventure sites.

Lasting Injuries

Nifft and friends are mortal, not superhumans. They get injured a lot and retain scars. Nifft and Barnar both lose their left ears in different stories, for instance.

There are of course ways where the stories aren't much like D&D. There aren't really parties of characters nor are there explicit dungeons, though there isn't any reason there couldn't be. Also, they tend to center around specific heists or missions not general looting or treasure hunting. Still, if one was looking for fiction that mimicked the sort of things one gets up to in old school still games, I think these novels are closer than even a lot of explicitly D&D tie-in fiction.

Wetland Maps

 I tend to pick up maps when I visit places that seem good candidates with the idea of using them in rpgs. I seldom get around to actually doing it, though I did base a faerie garden on a map of Keukenhof in a game, and I used a historic map I found online of the World's Columbian Exposition (1893) to represent, well, the World's Columbian Exposition. 

Here are a couple of maps I happened to come across online of wetland locations that I've visited.

Some of my middle school classmates and I once got chased to the refugee of the top of a picnic table in Okefenookee, here. True story.

Congaree is one of the least visited national parks in the lower 48, which is a same. It doesn't have the majesty of a Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, sure, but it's worth a visit.

Trapped In a Gray Town

I haven't posted about it in a while, but our campaign in Nimble continues.  

Since that last post, the party tracked the faerie kidnappers to the place where they had their ramshackle warmachine. The party defeated it (with fire, naturally) but then was confronted by the buff goblin leader who dressed like a masked wrestler, Grimbor the Battle-Brawler. He was willing to trade words instead of blows and told them that he had sold the faerie on.

They head back up the road to pick up the trail. When they travel into an area where the color appears leeched out of everything, they meet a halfling youth beside the road who is supposed to summon passing adventurers (if any) for help.

The go to the town of Baron Hill and spend the night in the less-than-quaint Dead Crow Inn. Still trying to pick up the faerie's trail, they here about a Necromancer (supposedly deceased), and go to have words with his last henchman who is now a hermit on the edge of town.

That guy, Grygor Dilvesh, lives in a cave by the river. A cave, as the party discovers, that he has filled with booby traps. Grygor isn't there, but Frea twice gets acid gas in the face trying to disarm a trap, and she and g'Mbalisto have a close escape form a spike-filled pit. Pan investigates the creepy scarecrow of a child, which turns out to be part of a fire trap.

They do get a bit of treasure out of it, but don't find a faerie or a Necromancer and the town is still gray.

Leaving, they awkwardly run into Grygor, the caves' owner.

This adventure is an adaptation of one written for 4e. I'm a bit unsure of the Nimble approach to traps in regard to mechanics, but I was able to wing it well enough.

De Camp's Pusadian Cycle

 

Lately, I've been furthering my exploration of L. Sprague de Camp's fantasy work, with the Novarian stories, but I've also dipped into some of his earlier Pusadian series. It has sort of a similar relationship to the Howard's Hyborian Age stories that de Camp's Krishna novels have to Burroughsian Sword & Planet. That is, it's an attempt to do the same thing more "realistically" or at least in a concerted and methodological sort of way. For instance, de Camp uses current (to the 1950s) understanding of geologic change to inform his design of his landforms, and more rigorously derives his imagined countries and their names from Greek myth (mostly).

Whether any of that is necessary, every reader will have to decide for themselves, but I appreciate the thought behind it, at least. As I've said before, I find de Camp a very Gygaxian writer, though this is perhaps less true of the Pusadian series than the Novarian one. Still, the humor, and the pragmatic, if not venal characters are there. I also appreciate the less "standard fantasy" sort of setting. It's mostly a Bronze Age level of technology, with iron being the bane of magic.

I discovered that a number of the older Pusadian stories published in the pulps are available on the Internet Archive:

"The Eye of Tandyla" (1951)

"The Owl and the Ape" (1951)

"The Stronger Spell" (1953)

"The Hungry Hercynian" (1953)

"Ka the Appalling" (1958)

Let's Do the GRIDSHOCK Again!

Paul Vermeren's game of futuristic, super-powered resistance fighters on the run is back in a new edition! The standalone game GRIDSHOCK ZERO, powered appropriately enough by Free League's Year Zero Engine is being crowdfunded now on Gamefound.

I've talked about my appreciation for GRIDSHOCK before. Paul has a familiar-but-fresh vision not really like anything else out there and he's assembled artists for this version (Simon Roy, Giannis Milonogiannis, and the returning Steven de Waele) to really give a great visual style.

I may even get a chance to pitch some adventure scenarios for it, so back it and stay tuned!

Weird Revisited: In Deep Crimson Shadows

This past week, I had a brief vacation in Michigan and picked up a book on Colonial-era French folklore. It had a chapter on Nain Rouge, which reminded me of this Weird Adventures related post from 2011.

Check out the great art above from Chris Hűth for Weird Adventures. This is, of course, the Red Dwarf--the malign genius loci of Motorton in the Steel League.

Since the days when the site of Motorton was a plague-pit for Old Fort Narrows, the area has been the home of the dwarf. He’s a harbinger of calamity; doom in a dapper, red suit.

Rumor says that those unlucky enough to have an audience with the dwarf are brought to a Room with Red Velvet Curtains (sometimes just “The Red Room”). Visitors--survivors--describe the room as located in the basement of a ritzy old hotel, but no one has been able to relocated the building or provide directions to it later.

What comes from a meeting with the dwarf can’t be predicted. Sometimes, he’ll tell his visitor’s future. Other times, he’ll ask them for a favor, or tell them how they can get their heart’s desire. However it starts, it always plays out badly.

It’s worth noting that the infernal criminal organization known as the Hell Syndicate stays out of Motorton.  It’s the dwarf’s city.

Characters may have heard other rumors about the dwarf:

1. He can only be harmed by magical weapons.
2. The tea he sometimes offers visitors can bring strange visions, and cause madness
3. He carries a pocket watch whose hands only move when someone dies--or maybe when someone particular dies.
4. Bones excavated from the old, mass plague graves can be used to ward against him.
5. He’s only dangerous because Motorton’s sick. If the city could be healed, the dwarf would be benevolent.
6. The dwarf is only a midget human sorcerer cashing in on an old legend. It’s all smoke and mirrors.
7. There’s a red leather journal of a young girl, who died in an asylum, that contains, in its ramblings, the Red Dwarf’s true name, and the ritual to bind him to service.
8. The dwarf is always accompanied by the same gang--a black-haired moll in a red dress with a silky voice, and twin bruisers with the same first name.
9. The Red Room is actually the lowest level of Hell. The Dwarf is actually Morningstar in disguise.
10. The Dwarf isn’t a real entity at all, just the physical representation of the death curse of a Native shaman on the Ealderdish invaders. Treating it like a real being only increases its power.

[Greyhawk] Veluna

The Velunans pride themselves on being the first people to adopt the faith of Nomism. Whether or not this is true, it is certain that the Velunan branch predates the Aerdian church. In fact, it may be that, as is popularly claimed, the religious communities of Veluna predate the nation itself. When Veluna was organized as a part of the Viceroyalty of Ferrond, the archimandrites of the church were treated as fiefholders.

In the Velunan version of the religion, Rao is considered the personification of divine law. He is a serene and distant god, and the monks spend much time in meditation upon his glory. The common folk are more interested in the earthier Saint Cuthbert who is believed to intercede with Rao and allow those who achieve less than spiritual oneness with the Law to enter Heaven.

The Canon is the spiritual and temporal head of Veluna. The Canons are held to delay their own spiritual perfection so that they may minister to the needs of the people. The Canon is supported in the task of managing the country a council by ministers, but also has a council formed from the remaining nobles of the country whose fealty the Canon commands.

Veluna has at times been controlled by Keoland, though that land too recognizes the spiritual authority of the church.

Some Links on Naming

Thanks to Prismatic Wasteland's post, I was made aware of a blogwagon in the GLoGosphere about naming. I am not a GloGger, but that post got me thinking about the posts I have written about naming:

In 2021, I wrote a post giving my thoughts "On Fantasy Naming."

In 2023, I made some "Observations on Science Fiction Names."

In 2025, I advocated following Tolkien's practice and engaging in strategic translation.

In 2018, I presented this potentially handy Sword & Planet Name Generator.

In 2015, I discussed cultural naming practices in the Strange Stars universe.

Weird Revisited: Random Ultra-Warriors Generator

Looking back through some old files on Google Drive I found this generator I made back in 2015 for MOTU-esque characters. Could also be used for something more broadly post-apocalytpic, too.

The Random Ultra-Warriors Generator is just a first draft--I haven't updated it since I made it, so maybe also "final."

[Greyhawk] Onnwal

Occupying a narrow, rocky peninsula, Onnwal has ever relied on the sea and the hills for its livelihood. When it was an obedient part of the South Province of the Great Kingdom, it served as a convenient place for agents of the crown to oversee (and tax) trade looking to enter the Azure Sea from Gearnat Strait. 

It's capital, Scant, was not the largest port, but it was an important one. It was fortified town with a castle serving as a customs house on a rocky islet just offshore. After the Iron League rebelled against the crown, the castle periodically changed hands between the Onnwalers and the Overking's forces, causing its upkeep to be neglected, even as Scant itself stayed well-defended.  At the best of times, command of the isolated castle was a post few sought, though it did provide an opportunity for its occupants to collect bribes provided they weren't just killed by pirates.

Onwal's proximity to Pomarj and its raiders are part of why the coast is only sparsely developed, the other reason being its occasionally marshy terrain. The relationship Onnwal and Pomarj is not completely adversarial, however. Coastal villages have profited from wrecking and aiding smugglers. The Iron League as a whole takes a dim view of latter, and those that are caught are punished, but few are caught.

The hills of the Headlands were mined first for copper and tin and later platinum. Much of this was done by dwarf clans, though for the most part humans and dwarves have shared the region peacefully. The strong dwarven presence has led to human miners of the region adopting dwarven customs and superstitions to a degree.

I've conceived of Onnwal a lot like Cornwall, a bit like Romney Marsh, and with its Mediterranean climate, a little like Koroni, Greece during the Middle Ages, too.

Appendix G (for Greyhawk)

Art by Gary Gianni. Check out all those polearms!

While my Greyhawk series of posts are all just sort of pseudo-encyclopedia entry sort of stuff, they are informed by a certain conception of Greyhawk, at least. I thought it was worth taking a post to outline the works that inform the way I'm presenting and interpreting what I read in the 1980 folio, and other "primary sources." 

As I mentioned, initially thinking of Greyhawk as a more firmly Medieval place was the impetus for this series, but as these things tend to do, my approach has drifted some with time. While my view remains more realistically Medieval elements are nice to bring in, I also don't want to lose site of the Gygaxian Implied Setting Recipe, because at the end of the day, a Greyhawk that feels like Greyhawk (if more rationalized) is more interesting to me than a straight pseudo-history.

Fiction:
Anderson, Poul. The Broken Sword — Fantasy in a historical setting with some science fictional rationalization.
Buehlman, Christopher. Between Two Fires, The Blacktongue Thief  — The first is a horror/fantasy novel in a Medieval setting, full of horrific monsters and historic detail. The latter is a secondary world fantasy in a world with interesting cultural detail and humor.
DeCamp, L. Sprague. The Reluctant King — Humorous fantasy with good worldbuilding. I've opined before about the relationship between De Camp and Gygax.
Chabon, Michael. Gentlemen of the Road — A historical adventuring duo, highlighting some less discussed areas of history like the Khazar Khaganate.

Howard, Robert E. Conan series, various historical adventure stories. — Pulpy historic adventure or pseudo-historic adventure, with a sweep of history element. "The Hyborian Age" essay seems to have been a strong influence on Greyhawk's presentation.
Jókai, Mór. Told by the Death's Head — Picaresque adventure.
Leiber, Fritz. Fafhrd & Gray Mouser stories — Picaresque-inspired fantasy with the archetypal fantasy city and active gods.
Potocki, Jan. Manuscript Found in the Saragossa  — Stories within stories that mix Gothic, picaresque, and a bit of secret history.
Smith, Clark Ashton. Averoigne stories — Pulpy pseudohistorical fantasy with a lot of atmosphere, humor.

Art by Marie & John Severin

The nonfiction is perhaps less definitive, but it has provided some inspiration to me in the course of the posts I've written so far.

Nonfiction:

Armstrong, Dorsey. Powerful Women of the Medieval World (Great Courses) — Vignettes on the lives of some figures of the Middle Ages.

Bale, Anthony. A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages — A fairly light, but informative series of examines of the stories of various travelers in the Middle Ages.

Devereaux, Bret. "Practical Polytheism," blog series  — A great read on how real polytheism worked.

Gies, Francis and Gies, Joseph. Life in a Medieval City — Street level (literally) view of life in the city of Troyes in 1250 CE.

Haywood, John. Historical Atlas of the Medieval World — Just the one I happened to have at home.

Hoffman-Becking, Dirk. History of the Germans (Podcast) — I particularly found this inspiring regarding the Great Kingdom.

Muesse, Mark W. Great World Religions: Hindusim (Great Courses) — useful inspiration for the thinking about the religions of Oerth.

Various. Osprey Publishing military books — mostly for the pictures of armors and armor of various cultures/eras.

[Greyhawk] Keoland

Proud Keoland is the oldest of the human nations of the Flanaess. Though diminished from its greatest glory, its rulers never bowed to lords of the Aerdi in the Great Kingdom. Its warriors have been successful in the main in protecting the land from invaders, though they have been powerless against the folly of its kings.

Keoland's origins are in the migrations following the war between Ancient Suel and Baklunish. Suloise refugees, harried by the humanoid warbands and reavers of their own people, fled across the Crystalmists and settled in the fertile basin formed by Sheldomar and Javan Rivers. The Flannae population of the region was small, owing to the depredations of the humanoids and a plague brought by earlier waves of Suloise fleeing war and destruction. The remnant Flannae and scattered demihumans were pushed to the fringes by the newcomers who sought to create a unified Suel kingdom but were thwarted by conflict with others and their own fractiousness.

In another century, the Oeridian Keogha peoples swept into the region, scattering the encircling humanoid tribes. The Oeridians came in friendship to the Suloise and demihumans alike, but they brooked no disagreement with their intention to share the land between the rivers. They expanded rapidly, soon claiming hegemony over all the human settlements, as they began to intermingle with the Suel peoples.

Eventually a monarchy was declared with the old Suloise town of Niole Dra as its capital. Over time, it would come to dominate the entire basin. This was not accomplished solely through conquest, however. Keoish kings shrewdly made allies of the demihuman lands Ulek and Celene.

The people came to embrace Nomism in the main (though pockets of folk religion still exist). In fact, it is possible the belief system may have coalesced here with the blending of Suel and Oeridian beliefs. Saint Cuthbert is the patron deity of Keoland, and the land's churches are adherent to Velunan doctrines and traditions.

Periodically over the centuries, Keoish kings have succumbed to dreams of empire. Such ambitions have tended to fare poorly beyond the two rivers. Indeed, Keoish entanglements elsewhere allowed the Sea Princes to gain a foothold to the South and lost the kingdom control of the Yeomanry. 

Though Keoland is currently at peace with its neighbors, it may be that it is being weakened by enemies from within. The ancient and entrenched noble houses game and scheme to see their house ascend the throne. Humanoid bands and human renegades lurk within the Dreadwood and the expansive [as in bigger than Ireland!] Hool Marsh. The coastal marshes rely on a brisk smuggling trade and secretly deal with the piratical Sea Princes.

Keoland's real world inspirations are perhaps not as distinct as many of the eras in the Aerdian East. The Mediterranean climate suggested by Anne Meyer's maps brought to mind for me the Iberian Peninsula. That might make the Keoish Oeridians the Vandals/Visigoths. On the other hand, it's position on the map, and its use of light cavalry reminiscent of the turcopoles are reminiscent of Byzantine Empire.

Greyhawk Rising

 

Last year, I was working on a blog series doing my own take on the world of Greyhawk. As it goes with these things, my interest petered out after a bit, and I moved on to other things. I'm feeling that Greyhawk jones coming on again, and I think I have at least a few more posts on that topic in me. We'll see, but if so it seemed a good time to revisit where I'd been. 

I summarized collated the posts summarizing what I wanted to do with the project and the first batch of posts here.

I had three posts after that:

The Wild Coast

North Province

South Province

Saving Throws and Implied Class Characteristics

Art by Jeff Easley

Savings throw in latter day editions of D&D are intrinsically tied to ability scores, which is pretty easy to understand. Old school saving throws, in contrast, are oddly specific and therefore difficult to generalize. Beyond that, given that they are tied to class, and only a few get ability score bonuses, it's not immediately clear what's going on in the fictional world.

Of course, this can be seen as a feature not a bug. Proponents point out the abstraction allows the player and DM to interpret what happens in the fiction, making this an unexpectedly more narrative sort of mechanical feature.

That's all sort of interesting, but a problem (for me at least) is that their progression is uniform based on class, and every member of the same class has the same distribution of saving throw aptitudes. So, while you're free to interpret success (or failure) any way you like, whatever situational explanation you give doesn't really build or develop the fictional world. As written, every cleric's better saving throw than other classes against Death Magic is just a mechanic.

I think it's more interesting to view them as telling us something about the world, while leaving room for situational factors. The fact that every member of a class is more resistant to certain dangers than others can tell us something about the training, aptitudes, of characteristics of people in that class.

Compared to the normal individual (0 level Fighter in AD&D parlance), we could conclude that:

Clerics have divine favor bolstering their spiritual and mental fortitude.  This particularly protects them from effects that would destroy or disrupt the body. Their biggest advantage is against Poison & Death Magic, but they have consistently good defense against all sorts of dangers.

Fighters have their martial spirit increasing their fortitude and perhaps giving them a "sixth sense" for danger. At first level, they are neophytes and haven't cultivated this to a great degree, but by the time they max out, they have the best saves on average.

Magic-Users possess an innate arcane aura that strengthens slowly as they develop their skills. It makes them particularly resilient in the face of spells and spell-like effects cast from common magical implements like wands and staves. Interestingly, they are also somewhat protected against the magical breath of dragons. Their aura adds little to protect them from poison, though.

Thieves rely on luck to get by. In the beginning it mostly protects them against things that would bind, hinder, or directly impair them being who they are. Unfortunately, they tend to wear their luck out and they max out their saves worse off than the other classes.

Certainly, these aren't the only implied class abilities you could take from these, but I wanted to come up with an explanation that didn't implicate ability scores, and I haven't really seen another approach that does that.

Weird Revisited: Kung Fu Dark Sun

As when I wrote this post in 2019, I've been watching some wuxia film lately, and then there was the announcement of a new edition of Dark Sun, so it seemed a good time to revisit this idea...

   

art by Eric Belisle

Still on a wuxia kick and thinking about the arid lands of Northern China, it occurs to me that Dark Sun might be an interesting mashup with kung fu action. It is true that the default 80s barbarian film meets Mad Max aesthetic of Dark Sun doesn’t scream Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon, but that aside, I think it’s actually not a bad fit. Let me run the list:

• The downgrading of weaponry due to the scarcity of metal in the setting leaves space for bare-handed martial arts.
• The Elemental clerics thing can easily spun in a wuxia direction (as seen in Avatar: The Last Airbender).
• The "fighting oppression" angle of Dark Sun dovetails nicely with with the "fighting corrupt authority" aspect of some wuxia.

• There are Thri-Kreen who are praying mantis people, essentially, who would be natural practitioners of praying mantis kung fu. 
• Athasian Dragons aren't common monsters but beings of immense power, like the Chinese conception of the creature (though Athas's is certainly not benevolent).