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Hi,
I have forgotten the name, but far from the baklunish states (northwest Flanaess), you have a huge country organized like medieval Japan, ruled by some sort of khan.
The monks commonly found in Greyhawk are from various religious orders, and lots of them come from the dreaded Scarlet Brotherhood on the Tilvanot Peninsula.
However, some classes, like the Sha'ir (dragon compendium), the wu jen (complete arcane) or the shugenja (complete divine) could easily fit in the baklunish states (medieval arabian-like states, 1001 nights or Simbad the sailor) with another name.
However, as a DM, I personnaly don't give oriental classes as a choice to my players.
Understand that this is strictly personnal.
Hi,
I have forgotten the name, but far from the baklunish states (northwest Flanaess), you have a huge country organized like medieval Japan, ruled by some sort of khan.
I always felt that this region was more Arabic then Oriental.
When 1e. Oriental Adventures came out, Kara Tur was in Greyhawk. Then, it was in the Forgotten Realms.
Hmm...Well Oriental Adventures was originally written by Gygax but it is kind of unclear if he meant for it to exist somewhere in Oerth. Kura-Tur was definitely hooked into the Forgotten Realms in 1st Edition at some point.
I even remember spending a convention harassing Ed Greenwood by insisting that he give me a satisfactory answer as to why there was the Celestial Bureaucracy that mirrored Faerun in the east but in the west there where Pantheons. I mean how could both exist at the same time? Was the West also mirrored in the Celestial Bureaucracy? Or did the world of the Celestial Bureaucracy just stop when it got to the West?
He never did give me a satisfactory answer although its possible one has come out since 1st edition.
You're right. I just mentally crammed it into Greyhawk myself 20 years ago, and it's been so long, I figured that's how it was supposed to be.
In my own defense, that's all that I had when the book came out, so that's where it went. lol
Did the same myself those many years ago only I knew better. If TSR wouldn't give me the other side of Oerth... I'd take it for myself. (insert mighty yawp here)
The first Dragon Annual from 1996 had a map of the whole continent (Oerik) on page 72, where an Island nation named "Nippon" appears southeast of the Amedio, with a "Pearl Sea" west to it, and a "Celestial Imperium" appears east of the Sea of Dust and southeast of the Baklunish lands. Northeast of the Baklunish lands, you find an "Orcreich" "ruled by a tyrannical King" (I don´t like the implied parallels to real-world history at all, but that is another topic), and east of that, you find "Khanates" of "sturdy horsemen".
So, you can put oriental culture on Greyhawk easily, even if somewhat removed from the Flanaess. It would be possible that some inhabitants of "Nippon" on board a ship would be carried by a storm very far north and arrive in the Flanaess (perhaps on the Isle of Dread :-)). The Celestial Empire is perhaps too far removed to explain their presence in the Flanaess without getting incredible. They would either have to cross the Sea of Dust or take a huge detour through the Baklunish lands.
This Dragon issue is "currently unavailable" from paizo, and I don´t think it would be worth 20 bucks. The map and its accompanying descriptions are very sketchy, but its the only "official" source on that matter that I´m aware of.
Stefan
Actually, official sources have stated that Kara-Tur was supposed to be set in Greyhawk.
But what happened was the Forgotten Realms setting began to boom, so TSR decided to take advantage by dropping Kara-Tur into the Realms and then hope the Forgotten Realms fans would start buying all their Oriental Adventures material.
It didn't work, and they abandoned the setting soon after. What I believe was TSR didn't give OA a real standing chance. They should've kept it going and maybe it wouldn't have been the dead campaign it is now in 3E. :(
Actually, official sources have stated that Kara-Tur was supposed to be set in Greyhawk.
Do you know any details on that ? I´m just curious, not sceptic.
Stefan