Varisia in Greyhawk?


Rise of the Runelords


Copied from another, less appropriate place.

The new Rise of the Runelords players guide got me thinking.

Having just got my players to actually like Greyhawk 1/3 through the STAP campaign, I wonder if I should use Varisia in its own world or in Greyhawk. I figured out where I would put it; to the east of the Great Kingdom, across the sea, as a lost colony of said Great Kingdom. The back stories match decently enough. Of course, there will be loads of details that needs to change, and once the players go continent-hopping, things might go critical.

I mainly want to avoid introducing a new pantheon of gods; though the pantheon of Varisia is mercifully small and simple, some of my players are getting attached to the Greyhawk gods.

Of course, by the time we are done with STAP, the entire Rise of The Runelords run will have come and gone, along with lots of supplemental material. So by then I'll know a lot more.

Anyone else gave a thought to this?


You could place it west of the Dry Steppes and Sea of Dust. It's a big continent, and most of it isn't detailed.


Well, there's a couple of places that might fit. Looking at this map, either the Barbarian Seameast or Terra Anakeris Incognita might be appropriate.


Where you place Varisia on Oerth isn't a great problem - Varisia is the size of Texas, the Flanaess is the size of the U.S., and as the map evilash posted shows, there's plenty of unexplored Texas-sized areas on the map.

The challenge to maintaining the Greyhawk feel is finding compliments for each world's Human subraces. Perhaps the Rhop of Rhenee legend is actually Varisia. The people of the Shoanti tribes sound very similar to the Flan. And the people of Cheliax sound a bit like (GASP!!) and admixture of Baklunish and Suel blood and culture.

As for gods, with seven Human pantheons plus the various non-Human pantheons, Greyhawk already sports nearly 200 individual gods, demigods and hero-gods. A handful more aren't going to hurt.


Well, since most game worlds burrow heavily from Earth myths and people, how can there not be similarities between game worlds? :D


If you look closely in Pathfinder #1 & the Player's Guide, you'll find a couple things that are very 'Hawkish about Varisia.

1. Molaho Khem. This legendary hero is mentioned in both Pathfinder #1 & in Living Greyhawk Journal #1 (plus various other places).

2. The "Land of the Linorm Kings." This region is mentioned as being north of Varisia. This could be a homage to Oerth's Empire of Lynn, which seems to have an affinity with dragons.

Looking at the map of Varisia, I'm thinking it might fit rather nicely on the west coast of Oerik, around the Gulf of Ishtar.

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