Gooday
I was tossing around some ideas for the hidden non-human history of Greyhawk. What the other beasts and humanoids were up to before the big Baklunish, Suel and Oeridarian migrations.
Comments, thoughts, suggestions welcome as always...
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Centaurs – Small villages within Furyondy, Shield Lands & Nyrond. Centaur ruins are 1,000 to 3,000 years old. Records of Fighting vs Duergar (Furyondy) & Bubgears (Nyrond)
Dwarves – Lairs and Ruins 500-800 years old. Separate kingdoms in Crystalmist Mountains, Griff Mountains, Yatil Mountains, Onwall. Fighting vs Frost Giants (Griff Mountains), Fire Giants (Crystalmists), Sahuagin (Onwall).
Elves – Lairs and Ruins 300 to 5000 years old. Celadon Forest, Adri Forest and Celene. Fighting vs Yuan-ti (Celadon), Kobolds (Adri Forest), Bugbears (Pale).
Gargoyles – Rakers, Yatil Mountains. Separate kingdoms. Gargoyle ruins are 1,500 to 3,500 years old. Alliance with Dwarves (Yatils), Fighting vs Frost Giants (Rakers).
Lizardmen – Wild Coast to Dreadwood. Tribal kingdoms. 3,000-20,000 years ago. Vandrheim. Records of Fighting vs Drow (Hellfurnaces), Centaurs (Furyondy).
• Demon - Tanar'ri allies – Drow, Fire Giants, Hag (Any), Minotaur, Red & Black Dragons.
Drow ruins are 500 to 4,500 years old. Spider symbols and designs throughout. Records of fights vs Lizardmen (Pomraj), Surfaces raids vs Elves (Celene) and Suel Imperium (Sulhaut Mountains).
Fire Giant Kingdom of Brennaheim was 1,000 to 10,000 years old. Flame and Destruction symbols and designs throughout. Records of fights vs Dwarves and surface raids vs Humans. Alliance with Drow (1,000-4,000 years ago). Lairs within the Crystalmist & Jotens Mountains
• Devil - Baatezu allies – Aboleth, Duergar, Frost Giants, Medusa, White & Green Dragons.
Duergar ruins are 1,000 to 6,000 years old. Slavery and War symbols and designs throughout. Records of fights vs Dwarves (Rakers), Elves (Cairn Hills), Surface raids vs Kobolds (North Kingdom).
Frost Giant Kingdom of Kaldrheim are 1,500 to 10,000 years old. Ice and Winter symbols and designs throughout. Records of Alliance with Duergar (Rakers, 2,000-4,000 years ago), Fights vs Dwarves (Griff Mountains) and surface raids vs Ogres. Frost Giant lairs within the Griff Mountains & Rakers Mountains.
• Mind Flayer Empire - Illithid often have Bugbear, Hook Horror & Umberhulk minions.
Bugbears – Ancient Kingdom from Duchy of Tehn to Theocracy of the Pale areas. 2,000-20,000 years ago.
Records of fights vs Centaurs (Nyrond), Elves (Pale).
Mind Flayer-Illithid ruins are 3,000 to 30,000 years old. Slavery and darkened sky symbols and designs throughout. No light sources throughout. Capture slaves for food and work force. Fights vs Yuan-ti (Bright Desert). Original empire from Lake Quag to Lortmills to Rift Canyon.
• Yuan-ti Empire – Yuan-ti often have Kobold, Mephit, Naga & Sahuagin minions.
Kobold ruins in Ahlissia from 3,000-15,000 years ago. Records of fighting vs Duergar & Elves.
Sahuagin ruins are 1,000 to 20,000 years old. Rough cut caverns half or all filled with water. Carvings to sea beasts. Records of invading Aboleth (Lordship of the Isles), Fighting vs Dwarves (Onwall), Yuan-ti alliance. Sahuagin lairs within the Sea Barons, Azure Sea, Aerdi Sea.
Yuan-ti empire was from Hepmonaland to the Bright Desert to Adri Forest. Ruins are 10,000 to 30,000 years old. Serpent & feasting symbols and designs throughout. Aztec pyramids, bladed weapons, transmute prisoners into warped beasts. Records of invading Elves (Celadron Forest), Mind Flayer (Bright Desrt). Yuan-ti lairs in Amedio Jungle, Beneath Ahlissia, Hepmonaland, Vast Swamp.
Ooh! I like this - this is the kind of stuff that is right up my alley. I am curious, are the dates and whatnot you give 'canonical'? If so, do you have sources? If not - then well done! I think I will use those as they are perfect for one of my ongoing pet projects.
I run a campaign that is set loosely in Greyhawk's future. Recently the use of scrying, legend lore, commune, and other divinatory magics has become 'fad' in-game to sort out history.
As a result I have been working up a history book / timeline thingy that PCs will have access to in-game.
I borrow heavilly from other campaign settings and real world historical events - but try to flair it up a bit too.
These types of 'entries' are perfect, thanks!
Awesome stuff!
Is any of this canonical? If so, what are your sources?
If not, then VERY well done. This is going to fit perfectly into the history book I am writing for my campaign (a largely greyhawk descended homebrew - but with LOTS of customization and borrowing from other sources).
Thanks.
I could not find much information on the history of monster races and demi human kingdoms in canon lore, so tried to work in balanced series of kingdoms that fought over time.
Most of these clashed with Dwarves and Elves, then later the Baklunish, Suel and Oerid peoples who migrated from the south west.
The idea is you can have these races trying to reclaim their ancient birthright, still pursuing old enemies, or just nesting in ancient ruins that adventurers stumble across. Traces of the ancient kingdoms can be found in libraries of Keoland, Greyhawk City and Rauxes.
Locations of Elves, Dwarves, Drow are straight out of Greyhawk Gazetteer.
Demon, Red Dragon, Drow, Fire Giant alliance is in Against the Giants (G1-3).
The other alliances and having large ancient kingdoms is my own work.
The idea of having ancient reptilian races is not a new idea, Dr Who did it and then Forgotten Realms did it.
The Devil vs Demon alliances work into the Bloodwar.
The other two alliances just add spice to the mix. The Yuan'ti one based on similar nature, the Mind Flayer alliance is based on useful minions.
Naturally you will find small groups of any of the mentioned races wherever you like in Greyhawk, but the major kingdoms or large groups will be found in the listed areas, or near them.
Well I really like everything you have here. Later this evening, when I get a little more time I will post more of what I have done in a similar vein if you are interested.
I have every intention of using this stuff. So I figure its only fair to share.
Thanks again.
I love Greyhawk! I'll be using it along with my Pathfinder. Is there any material coming out that is Greyhawk?
I love Greyhawk! I'll be using it along with my Pathfinder. Is there any material coming out that is Greyhawk?
Naah; Greyhawk is WOTC intellectual property, so it's in mothballs.
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Greyhawk has continually faded since 1E. Original D&D didn't really have any Greyhawk material, despite the fact that it was the origial setting Gygax used. The supplement "Greyhawk" was just rules, with no actual setting information. Basic D&D never touched it, as far as I know. However, 1E gave it great support. 2E tappered off quite a bit, as TSR focused more on Forgotten Realms and lots of the other "new" settings. WotC all but ignored Greyhawk in 3.X, but the Living Greyhawk campaign was pretty big, and Paizo showed it lots of love. 4E has yet to acknowledge Greyhawk's existence.
Erik Mona is a big fan of Greyhawk IIRC. Really kicking myself that I didn't buy that copy of 'Greyhawk Adventures' all those years ago. From what I've subsequently gleaned from the internet its a fantastic setting.
The Greyhawk gods were in the 3.5 Players Handbook.
It's true Greyhawk had moments of effort and neglect from the industry over the years. The majority of generic and forgotten realms adventures can be slotted into Greyhawk with only minor changes.
One of the things that makes Greyhawk different is active/militant Neutrality, they don't sit around waithing for good and evil to fight, they have their own plans and agendas.
Most of the classic modules were originally ran and set in the Greyhawk setting. Eg-Tomb of Horrors, Temple of Elemental Evil, White Plume Mountain, Decent into the Earth, Against the Giants etc.
Some are available here for free -
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b
I bought the Greyhawk books and adventures back in the day, but also bought spare copies recently on ebay. Most of the sellers are in the UK and US, so postage should be cheap if you are there.
You can find alot of information about Greyhawk here -
http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://melkot.com/
And at the bottom of this page.
http://www.holdfast.org/downloads_greyhawk.htm
Plus you can google Greyhawk Maps and find plenty of stuff.
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Hope this helps.
Another resource worth looking at is:
http://www.oerthjournal.com/
Erik Mona, Lisa Stevens and Sean Reynolds (among others, like Roger Moore) were on the team at TSR that revived the setting in the late 90ies. Some of the best stuff for the setting resulted from the work of that team IMO.
An overview of official GH stuff for 1st/2nd Ed. ist found here: http://www.tsrinfo.net/archive/gh/gh.htm and here with a year listing: http://phammer.tripod.com/dndlist3.html
Stefan
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The Greyhawk gods were in the 3.5 Players Handbook.
The complete list of Greyhawk gods was in the Greyhawk Gazatteer made for 3.0 and Living Greyhawk. Another great source are the Living Greyhawk modules. Many of them can be found through a Yahoo! group called Black Sun Company where people request modules for Core or a specific region and the authors may provide them.
If you want a lot of background history for gryhawk a lot of it is in the old moduals. Vault of the drow etc a few years ago my friend bought several of them then used it for background material for a game.
It has a fairly rich history but itbwas never really marketed properly which is unfortunatecas it's a really neat world.