I wrote this gazetteer for my Age of Worms Player's Guide. Sources include: From the Ashes, City of Greyhawk Boxed Set, Greyhawk - The Adventure Begins, Greyhawk Player's Guide, Doomgrinder, Dragon #262, Age of Worms Overload, Canonfire, and WOTC's Living Greyhawk website.
I'm hoping some DM's might find this useful.
Greyhawk & the Cairn Hills Gazetteer
The Free City of Greyhawk
Overview: The city of Greyhawk controls a sizable estate ranging from the northern coast of the Woolly Bay to the southern shores of Midbay in the Nyr Dyv. The Cairn Hills and the Abbor-Alz mark the eastern limits of this domain, while its western boundary is generally considered to lie within the Gnarley Forest and along the edge of the Welkwood. The other towns in the Greyhawk territory each have their own history of independence. Were the entire region not threatened by upheaval in the adjacent lands, none of them would willingly submit to Greyhawk. The “empires” of the Pomarj and the Bright Desert are seen as unstable, but quite dangerous. In addition, neither Dyvers nor Celene, Greyhawk’s western neighbours, hold any affection for the Free City; the Duchy of Urnst, to the east, is a lukewarm ally.
The Selintan River and the River Road that runs alongside it are the main avenues of travel in the Domain of Greyhawk, connecting Woolly bay to the Nyr Dyv. The Western Road carries traffic to Dyvers and beyond, while the Urnst Trail crosses through the Cairn Hills to the east. Trade from all across the Flanaess passes through the Free City, and people of all nations can be found there. In addition to being a centre of commerce, Greyhawk is a city of learning. The University of Magical Arts and the Grey College, among others, attract numerous students here. Finally, it is also a city of diplomacy; statesmen and politicians from nations throughout the central Flanaess serve as ambassadors to this domain, forging alliances and treaties.
The city of Greyhawk is ruled by its Lord Mayor, who is selected by the Directing Oligarchy comprised of twelve to eighteen of the city’s major guild and military leaders, in addition to important clerics and wizards. The current Lord Mayor, Nerof Gasgal, is rumoured to be a former member of the city’s powerful Guild of Thieves. The populace of the expanded Domain of Greyhawk, beyond the city proper, has only limited influence in government. The Greyhawk Council of Mayors and Manorial Lords ostensibly gives the leaders of the various lesser communities in the city’s larger domain a voice in the government, but it is recognised that this annual gathering has no real authority.
History: The city that would command so much attention from the world at large began centuries ago as a modest village on the Selintan River. Built around a trading outpost, the original settlement came to be dominated by a warlord named Maret Nial, an opportunistic infantry captain who led a large band of soldiers across the Cairn Hills in 4 CY and proclaimed the village conquered without bothering to have a battle. He declared his domain to be part of the Great Kingdom and built a motte-and-bailey keep on a hill above the village. After several years of garnering wealth through taxation, and a bit more by overt banditry, the influence of Lord Nial was great enough to warrant a new title: Landgraf of Selintan. Lord Nial’s son and heir, Ganz, was wed to the daughter of the Gynarch of Hardby, thus cementing a political alliance that brought the whole of the river basin together under the old Landstadt of Selintan. The height of this confluence was reached in the person of the last landgraf, the so-called Mad Archmage, Zagig Yragerne, who ruled as Lord Mayor from 310 CY to 421 CY.
This Wild Coast native was a full though distant heir to the position of landgraf. Zagig’s rulership as lord mayor and landgraf was the most successful in the history of Greyhawk; he refortified the city, reformed many of its more onerous laws, established a university, and brought great prosperity to the region as a whole. His construction of Castle Greyhawk was an unparalleled achievement of engineering. While some of his projects seemed without purpose or even destructive, his rule in total was of great benefit to Greyhawk and its inhabitants.
Ultimately, his eccentricities took him far from his duties as ruler. He was also without heir. After many decades of his absence, Greyhawk was proclaimed a free and independent city by Lord Mayor Paerinn in 498 CY, slicing all political ties (which were nearly nonexistent by now anyway) with the Great Kingdom. The old Landstadt was abolished, and absolute authority was formally invested in the Directing Oligarchy. Though beginning with great promise with the legacy of Zagig, the city quickly fell into decline. Numerous thieves and crooked businessmen formed a broad alliance to enrich themselves. Parodying the many guilds in town, the leader of the thieves, thugs, smugglers, and charlatans of the city’s underworld named his organisation the Guild of Thieves, and the name stuck. The Guild of Thieves soon had several members on the Oligarchy in its pay, and eventually grew to such power that even the Greyhawk Militia obeyed the orders of its guildmaster. The city’s trade volume began to drop as foreign merchants sought new shipping routes to avoid the ever-increasing bribes and tariffs placed on their goods. Greyhawk lost its authority over much of the associated territory after 500 CY, most notably the Wild Coast and Hardby. In Hardby, the female wizards, knights, and nobles restored the sovereignty of the gynarchy, though by tradition the title of Gynarch belonged to House Yragerne. Therefore, the women of Hardby named their new ruler the Despotrix, ruling over a domain extending from the lower Selintan to the Abbor-Alz.
In 533 CY, fighting broke out within Greyhawk’s Guild of Thieves between reformers who realised that the Guild’s excesses were driving away profits, and the Kurell-worshipping old-guard, who had no desire to lose their highway to wealth and wanted to unite all thieves under the direction of the priests of Kurell. Casualties were great, including the Guildmaster and leader of the reformers, Yavos the Elder. When the war ended, the great power of the Guild was broken, and the reformers had won out. Under Yavos the Younger, the Guild of Thieves changed its tactics and began working hand-in-hand with the city’s merchants and businessmen. A rough system of paid protection and guardianship was established. Though the merchants hated it, they recognised the futility of preventing every theft, and they came to appreciate the value in having the city’s criminals not only avoiding their premises, but acting to prevent foreign and nonguild thieves from taking their goods. Yavos was even given a seat on the Directing Oligarchy, and the Guild of Thieves achieved an air of legitimacy that astonished foreigners (and many citizens of Greyhawk, too).
The subsequent rumoured appearance of a Guild of Assassins in the city was even further cause for amazement, and not a little fear. Every death in the city was suspected of being caused by hired killers, when in fact almost none were. The Guild of Assassins was formed by a group of guild thieves who were ordered to hunt down several priests and thieves of Kurell who had escaped the guild war in 533 CY, but were now making trouble for Greyhawk’s merchants in the city of Dyvers. The vengeful thieves accomplished their mission so well that they were made a permanent enforcement arm of the Thieves’ Guild. In a short time, they became a separate entity and began to serve the needs of the Directing Oligarchy as well, successfully assassinating a Hierarch of the Horned Society who tried to stir up a revolt among the masses.
Greyhawk finally recovered from its economic decline several decades ago, benefiting from dungeon-loot taken from several major troves discovered in the region, particularly beneath the ruins of Castle Greyhawk. In 570 CY, the careless intervention of Lord Robilar and other adventurers freed the evil demigod, Iuz, as well as other powerful beings, from imprisonment beneath Castle Greyhawk. Every powerful being freed blamed Zagig personally for his or her imprisonment and vowed revenge as they fled to recover from their ordeal.
A rumoured master thief named Nerof Gasgal became Lord Mayor in 570 CY at the age of 30, to the surprise of many. His close friend, Org Nanshen, became Guildmaster of Thieves and an Oligarch in 572 CY. The two brought great dynamism to the government of the city, and they were able to improve business conditions and bring in foreign merchants and tradesmen to settle as citizens, adding to the pool of local wealth and talent. In 574 CY, the Oligarchy was joined by Turin Deathstalker after the entire upper hierarchy of the Guild of Assassins was slain by a summoned daemon. Turin improved his guild’s intelligence-gathering abilities further than ever, and this was of great help to Greyhawk in learning of troop movements across the Nyr Dyv when war between the Horned Society and the Shield Lands began in 579 CY. Turin later left for his native Shield Lands during the Greyhawk Wars where he became a war-hero. Upon his return, he took command of the Safeton Border Guards and did little to hide his hatred of orcs and other humanoids.
By the time of the Greyhawk Wars (582-584 CY), the city was again being called the “Gem of the Flanaess” (a term coined by Zagig) and received increasing numbers of visitors. Although Greyhawk was mostly spared the ravages of war, the domain itself was filled with refugees from the Shield Lands, the Wild Coast, the Bandit Kingdoms, and other realms. Iuz’s conquest of the Bandit Kingdoms and the Scarlet Brotherhood’s blockade of the Tilva Strait diverted even more trade towards Greyhawk. For three years, most of the Flanaess flew banners of war. Finally, the battle-weary combatants gathered in Greyhawk to declare peace. Harvester 584 CY was to see the signing of the Pact of Greyhawk, fixing borders and mandating an end to hostilities. On the Day of the Great Signing, however, Greyhawk suffered a great treachery: Rary, one of the Circle of Eight, destroyed his companions Tenser and Otiluke in a great magical battle, then fled. Many suspected that the former Archmage of Ket had hoped to hold the ambassadors hostage, perhaps capturing Greyhawk itself in the process. Instead, he and his cohort, Lord Robilar, went into the Bright Desert to form their own kingdom. Fearing further disruptions, the delegates hurriedly signed the Pact of Greyhawk. Ironically, because of the site of the treaty signing, the great conflicts soon became known as the Greyhawk Wars.
After the wars, refugees from war-torn lands continued to arrive in Greyhawk. Some of the wealthier refugees purchased invented titles, with the prerequisite counterfeit histories and lineages. As a result, the true history of the city and surrounding region is slowly being overwritten. Many see this as the price of growth and success. Greyhawk is, for all its difficulties, more vital and prosperous today than it has been at any time since the departure of Zagig Yragerne.
The Cairn Hills
The border between the Domain of Greyhawk and the Duchy of Urnst lies in the Cairn Hills, rugged uplands dotted with hundreds of tombs and burial grounds, the remnants of a bygone era. When Suloise settlers first arrived in the Cairn Hills a few hundred years ago, they discovered numerous tombs built by the Flan and by other, far older civilisations. Knowing very little of these ancient peoples, the architects of these tombs were simply referred to as the Cairn Builders. Today, the hills are home to thousands of gnomes, halflings, dwarves, and humans, some of the latter group as bandits and wild hillsmen. The region is rich in mineral deposits and gems. Greyhawk controls much of the area now; part of the southern hill country was ceded to Greyhawk in 584 CY by Urnst, an ill-advised decision in the best light. The Cairn Hills militia does much to safeguard the area from evil humanoids and bandits.
When the Suloise settlers first arrived a few hundred years ago, intrepid explorers discovered a fantastic cache of priceless artefacts entombed in one of the hundreds of ancient burial complexes hewn into the crags surrounding Greyhawk. The trove attracted legions of treasure-seekers to Greyhawk (then a mere trading post), and unbelievable wealth plundered from the tombs. The wealthiest explorers became the city’s first nobility, and Greyhawk quickly became associated with easy wealth and fabulous archaeological artefacts from long-dead civilisations. But the wealth didn’t always come easy, as many surprises in the form of bound demon guardians, relentless constructs, and ingenious magical wards and traps. The hilly lands surrounding Greyhawk became known as the Cairn Hills, and the hunt for lost magical treasure became an important part of the region’s cultural heritage.
But the treasure didn’t last forever. Eventually, the cairns dried out, and unplundered tombs became more and more difficult to locate. Every decade or so a lucky explorer managed to strike it rich, but even more came away from their endeavours with nothing more than broken ankles and clothes singed by the fires of ancient protections. Several vanished entirely. Over the years, the Cairn Hills began to lose their allure, and it wasn’t until a couple of decades ago that interest has renewed. Treasure hunters continue to explore the hills in search of any number of lost tombs and cairns, particularly the legendary Star Cairn, so named because sages expect its alignment with four known tombs traces a star pattern, and the bizarre Silver Metal Cairn, where metal tools of unknown origin and use are said to have been found.
The Bronzewood Lodge
The ring of crumbling menhirs on the bluff overlooking Diamond Lake is a remnant of the ancient Flannish druidic culture that once inhabited the region. They too came to the hills for the ancient cairns, seeing them as monuments to great ancestors of the invisible past. Although modern Suloise and Oeridians displaced the native druids over a thousand years ago, pockets of indigenous architecture and culture remain. Foremost among these near-forgotten practices is veneration of Beory, the Oerth Mother, and her son Obad-Hai, the Shalm, the brooding patron of wilderness and natural order.
Druids of the Grey Circle and rangers who honour the Old Faith routinely congregate in great moots three hours northeast of Diamond Lake, at an ancient megalithic structure called the Bronzewood Lodge. Devotees of Ehlonna and the elven pantheon are welcome at these meetings, if a bit gruffly, but all other attendees must be invited personally by someone already within the circle of trust. At these great moots, the woodsfolk observe rituals from long ago, celebrate with great contests of strength and wit, and debate policy regarding the natural affairs of the region.
A small permanent community inhabits the Lodge itself and the wooded copse surrounding it. Perhaps thirty assorted druids, rangers, and scouts protect the sacred site and keep watch on the nearby roads and valleys. Occasionally, they step in to rescue a traveler from some natural menace, but just as often they warn explorers to stay on the roads and let the wilderness take care of itself. Their leader is Nogwier, an aged proponent of the Old Faith who strives to keep the focus of his community on preservation of a near-extinct way of life and away from anger at the Free City and its operatives in Diamond Lake, whose avariciousness continually rapes the land. Nogwier urges cautious cooperation with Lanod Neff via a former Bronzewood man named Merris Sandovar, who now works as the garrison’s chief scout. Nogwier’s health is starting to deteriorate however, and many fear that his successor might take an antagonistic stance against the machinations of Greyhawk and Diamond Lake.
The Twilight Monastery
About two hours north of Diamond Lake, a towering crag called Griffon’s Roost casts a dark shadow over the muddy road to Elmshire. From a perch hundreds of feet above looms the cat-infested Twilight Monastery, a three-towered monument dedicated to Xan Yae and her servant Zuoken, little known deities from the Baklunish West. Two score monks dwell within the monastery, dedicating themselves to a litany of exercises meant to perfect the body and spirit. The secretive monks hold dusk as the holiest of hours, and sonorous chants emit from the Twilight Monastery’s central courtyard when the night sky appears in the heavens.
Foremost among the monks is Izenfen the Occluded, a peerless masked combatant thought to be one of the wisest figures in the hills. Travelers frequently seek her council, but most leave Diamond Lake without ever having gained access to the Twilight Monastery, for Izenfen deigns to speak with only a handful of pilgrims foretold to her via the agency of the night sky and an immense mirrored lens called the Censer of Symmetry. When word of the Censer’s predictive prowess spread to the miners of Diamond Lake 20 years ago, a desperate contingent petitioned Izenfen to predict the location of the richest unclaimed ore deposits, appealing to her compassion with tales of starving children and dangerously unpaid debts. The masked mistress of the Twilight Monastery rebuffed their pleas, triggering the miners’ contingency plan – an ill-fated invasion of the monks’ compound that left seven miners dead. Only a single member of the order perished – Imonoth, Izenfen’s beloved daughter. The following morning, the remaining fifteen miners, who had escaped the monastery to nurse their wounds in the petty shacks along Diamond Lake’s waterfront, were found dead. Rumours of silent masked killers sent by Izenfen continue to this day, citing the disappearance or mysterious deaths of nearly a dozen political enemies within the town.
Although the monks of the Twilight Monastery keep mostly to themselves and desire only to lead lives of undisturbed contemplation, they frequently appear on the streets of Diamond Lake to reprovision or to engage in the trade of kalamanthis, a rare psychotropic plant grown regionally only on the slopes of Griffon’s Roost. Kalamanthis is popular among all classes of Diamond Lake, but the real business is centred in Greyhawk. Rumours hold that potential buyers should seek out Golgan Hant, the Twilight Monastery’s trade envoy, who can usually be found at Lazare’s House along the Vein’s central square. Both the wagons loaded with kalamanthis and the returning coaches loaded with city coin go unmolested in Diamond Lake, for all fear Izenfen’s relentless invisible killers.
The Cairn of the Green Lady
Far from welcoming are the brooding inhabitants of the Cairn of the Green Lady, a reclaimed tomb on the opposite shore of Diamond Lake itself. Cloaked in robes of green and quick to threaten outsiders, these two-score devotees of the death goddess Wee Jas honour a fallen saint of that deity with mournful prayers to departed spirits and mysterious explorations of the hills nearby. They base themselves in the tomb of this departed servant of the Dark-Eyed Lady, whom they believe died during the great Suel migrations across the treacherous hills more than a thousand years ago. The order’s leader, the enchanting Amariss, replaced the original founder after he mysteriously vanished two years ago. An outcast priest of Wee Jas from the Frost Barbarian kingdom, Nohrtan claimed that the Green Lady came to him in a dream, entreating him to find worshippers of Wee Jas who were pure of heart and mind and lead them to her grave to protect it from destruction by heathens. It took him close to five years to assemble his flock, arriving at the Cairn in 591 CY. His disappearance only one year after his arrival has lead many to speculate, but Amariss and her followers are silent on the subject.
The Stirgenest Cairn
Located on the southeastern shore of Diamond Lake, this long abandoned cairn is oft explored by Diamond Lake’s youth, who always find it completely empty of marvels and perfectly harmless.
The Whispering Cairn
Unlike the Stirgenest Cairn, the Whispering Cairn isn’t so empty and harmless. Within a day’s ride north of Diamond Lake, this cairn lies near an iron mine that went dry about fifty years ago, its charter apparently elapsed when its owner, Ulgo Fant, died several years later. Situated thusly in a sort of no-man’s land, the cairn was all but forgotten, its yawning entrance overgrown with weeds and choked with collapsed debris. Rediscovered by a curious teenager a decade ago, the cairn has since been a sort of community secret held by Diamond Lake’s youth, who dare each other to disappear into its cyclopean entrance and spend the night as a test of mettle. These visits tapered off about six years ago, when a local girl vanished while sleeping in the cairn. Occasionally, when the wind is just right, haunting, almost magical tones emerge from the depths of the forlorn tomb.
The Mistmarsh
A broad, shallow swamp teeming with reptile life, the Mistmarsh fills the lowlands west and south of the Cairn Hills. Lizardfolk claim certain areas of the deep marsh, and wandering ghoul packs are a danger throughout. In other areas, marshmen can be found living in isolated villages, often warring with lizardfolk tribes in order to survive. Little is known of the marshmen, as they are fearful of outsiders.
Blackwall Keep
During the springs of 583 and 584 CY, lizardfolk from the Mistmarsh became unusually active and attacked livestock and some outlying farms. This resulted in the construction of two new tower keeps to the north and south of the marsh: Blackwall Keep and Marsh Keep. The keeps have apparently worked, as very few lizardfolk have been seen outside the marsh since their construction. While not technically within the Cairn Hills, the garrisons within both keeps are part of the Cairn Hills Militia. Blackwall Keep, under the command of Ranald Haradrith, lies approximately two days east of Diamond Lake on the northern edge of the marsh.
Blackstone
This mining town is nestled in a steep-sided canyon of dark grey granite. During wet weather, a slender waterfall, nearly 500 feet high, spills glittering water into the canyon in a once-crystalline lake. The mines of Blackstone bore into the canyon walls all around the town. Some of these tunnel entrances, several hundred feet up sheer walls of granite, are reached only by the most precarious of trails. Others, near the top of the wall, can only be entered by those first taking the steep switchbacks of the main trail up the side of the canyon. The miners then circle the rim to a point over their mine entrance. There they are lowered over the edge with huge cranes.
Steaming Springs
The mining town of Steaming Springs lies in a wider valley than Blackstone, and draws its name from several geysers outside the town. These regularly spew hot water, steam, and occasionally mud into the air. The mines dig into the lower slopes of the hills to either side of the valley. Unlike Blackstone, which sits primarily on a stone foundation, Steaming Springs is built upon dirt that has long since turned to mud. The town is visible from miles away as a brown smudge across the bottom of a once verdant valley.
Ery Crossings
Only six miles downriver from Diamond Lake, approximately halfway to High Ery, this small village is inhabited primarily by herders who raise mountain goats and sheep for wool to sell to Greyhawk’s cloth manufacturers. Light river traffic passes on the Ery, mostly hauling ore from Diamond Lake down to the Selintan River. Some barges stop in Ery Crossings to transfer cargo to or from merchant caravans traveling the Urnst Trail. Two inns and a large tavern accommodate the merchant activities, and over the years merchants, barge operators, and shepherds have coordinated their activities around one another to maximise everyone’s ability to do business in an efficient and profitable fashion.
When the herders complete their shearing for the year, Greyhawk merchants arrive in the village to purchase the wool, bringing goods intended for barter with the locals, but also hoping to trade with caravans from Urnst which have come to secure ore from the Diamond lake barges. Other craftsmen gather here, hoping to deal with Urnst caravans before their Greyhawk competitors do. Even the barge operators who are here to trade ore buy other wares for trade further down the river. Finally, wandering troupes of entertainers plan their travels to coincide with the greatest concentration of business activity in this small village – which in turn brings even more people here, many from the nearby towns of Diamond Lake and High Ery. The Ery Crossings Fair is something of a tradition, and for two weeks of the year, the community of Ery Crossings goes from about 20 residents to almost 300 inhabitants. The inns are filled to capacity, and gaily coloured tents spill into the countryside. Profitable trading and much fun are had by all.
Elmshire
This pastoral settlement of halflings has grown to become a major centre for the diminutive demihumans, no doubt because of its proximity to Greyhawk itself. Halflings, as a rule, enjoy the Free City for a time but grow tired of living there. Consequently, more than 4000 of them have settled here, near the inlet of the Selintan River. Elmshire appears quite different human communities, as it is spread out and has no community core. It is said that a man could walk from one end of Elmshire to the other and be only vaguely aware he has passed through a significant settlement. Popular deities in Elmshire include Ehlonna, Arvoreen, Pelor, Yondalla, Cyrrollalee, and Sheela Peryroyl. The majority of clerics in Elmshire are female. This has long been a tradition in halfling communities, but it is quite pronounced here. Male clerics are primarily found among Arvoreen’s worship, working as warriors or scouts.
During 583 CY, an outbreak of a mysterious plague known as Yellow Eye decimated this community and nearly a quarter of the population died. The reasons for this are wholly mysterious, but the wasting symptoms and catastrophic infectious phases of the plague appalled and terrified the halflings, who became a more fearful folk afterwards. Traditionally a city of good food and good cheer, Elmshire is still recovering from the ordeal. Many of the survivors feel guilt at having outlived younger loved ones who died.
Another dramatic event marked Elmshire and damaged its hospitality only two years later. In the spring of 585 CY, about forty adult halflings disappeared in separate incidents while on guard duty along the Midbay shoreline. An investigation revealed that the guards were being drugged by a renegade halfling in league with an evil Rhennee family. These Rhennee worked for Iuz, and they took the kidnapped halflings across the Nyr Dyv to an unspeakable fate in the Empire of Iuz. Public outcry was so intense that the normally placid nature of Elmshire’s citizens was completely discarded. The halflings involved were branded, beaten, and exiled as a result, their lands and possessions seized for public auction. The ringleader, Permen Merrifoot was hanged after a trial lasting three days, and his body was burned to ashes. The town of Elmshire then turned completely against the Rhennee, attacking two barges with missile fire in 585 CY, and the bargefolk have avoided the town completely since then. No longer welcome, the Rhennee are regarded by almost all halflings as evil until proven otherwise.
Grossettgrottell
Three days (by coach) northwest of Diamond Lake, the Cairn Hills Trail enters a region of steep crags pocked with natural caverns. Five of these caverns lead to an interconnected series of gnome villages called Grossettgrottell. The gnomes of Grossettgrottell specialise in rare gems rescued from the subterranean depths, but each of the five villages focuses on a different trade or specialisation. All told, some 800 rock gnomes call the place home, though about a quarter as many “expatriates” live in Greyhawk itself or in the mining towns surrounding it. Able gnome wardens and gem-encrusted constructs stand vigil over the surface entrances to each community, and nongnome visitors are subject to the legendary gnome suspicion.
Greysmere
South of the immense Mistmarsh, the Cairn Hills jut up to become the Abbor-Alz Mountains, and in a tight valley stands the imposing dwarven fortress of Greysmere, its impressive stone-carved façade reflecting in the still waters of a placid mountain lake. Tall mountains completely surround the valley, making the citadel one the most easily defended locales in the region. Unusually for the dwarves, Greysmere stands open to all visitors, who are welcome in the enclave’s upper markets and vast, agoraphobia-inducing galleries. More than 400 hill dwarves dwell within Greysmere, under the guidance of Fionor the Rude, a downright mean little fellow who invites all new guests to his dinner table in hopes that they might provide a moment’s entertainment. Despite his boorishness, Fionor respects those who command respect, and is a trustworthy friend of many. It should also be noted that unlike most dwarven strongholds, the worship of Ulaa predominates in Greysmere, although the Morndinsamman has several followers as well.
Wavenair
Some humans, mostly of Flannish stock, live in the Cairn Hills much like they did hundreds of years ago. An independent lot, they deal very little with outsiders, with the exception of the marshmen. The Cairn Hills militia wisely leaves them alone. Most of the hillsmen are nomadic, but they also congregate in the tribal camp of Wavenair, north of the Mistmarsh. This ragged camp is usually settled by 30 to 80 hillsmen. The number varies with the season of the year; there are most in the fall, when they harvest swamp hay from the Mistmarsh. The camp is also the home of the Hermit of Wavenair, a druid of sorts, but no one is certain. What is certain is that he is regarded with almost religious awe by the hillsmen.
Nyr Dyv
The Nyr Dyv, or “Lake of Unknown Depths,” is the largest freshwater lake known to the people of the Flanaess. Civilisation has turned it into a veritable highway of trade, with vessels using several navigable inlets (Artonsamay, Veng, and Velverdyva) and outlets (Nesser and the Selintan). Cities such as Dyvers, Leukish, Greyhawk, and Radigast owe much of their wealth to lake traffic.
The legendary dangers of the Nyr Dyv, ferocious storms and creatures no less friendly, have not diminished, though humans are now better equipped to handle them. Few ships brave the allegedly bottomless waters, preferring to hug the coasts. Iuz’s occupation of the Shield Lands (notably Admunfort Isle) has lessened traffic in the north, to the advantage of coves and villages along the southern coast. Most ships plying the waters of the Nyr Dyv are equipped with harpoons, pikes, and ballistae, to repel creatures of the deep. Patrol ships from Greyhawk, Dyvers, Furyondy, and the Urnst states prevent organised piracy here, but waterborne banditry is cause for alarm as so many patrol ships were lost during the Greyhawk Wars or assigned elsewhere.
Despite the dangers, a singular group of humans, the Rhennee, make their homes on this lake, gathering in secluded coves along the Midbay and near the river mouths. The Rhennee keep to themselves for the most part, though outcasts often rent themselves out to lake captains in search of a knowledgeable guide. Some have also been known to work for the forces of Iuz.
Rumours abound that the lake holds the sunken remains of an ancient pre-Migration civilisation known as the “Isle of Woe,” though many have explored the lake to no avail. Occasionally, strange silver coins and jewellery and even stranger obsidian carvings, found by lucky divers, make their way to market, but these are generally discounted as forgeries.
