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Post by GRWelsh on Dec 22, 2023 20:39:45 GMT -5
Has anyone ever done a write-up of the prehistory of the Flanaess? By this, I mean the time period prior to the great migrations of the Oeridians and the Suloise into the Flanaess and the twin cataclysms of the Invoked Devastation and the Rain of Colorless Fire that destroyed the empires of the Ancient Baklunish and Grand Suel Imperium, respectively. I am thinking from the viewpoint of the sages of the Oeridians and the Suloise, who established realms like Keoland and the Great Kingdom, history 'began' when those realms were established in the Flanaess by a much larger -- and from their point of view more civilized -- human population, and they didn't know much about what came before. That is the viewpoint we get from the Guide to the World of Greyhawk as written by the Savant-Sage of Greyhawk finished in CY 576, and recovered by even later sages such as the 'framing device' of Pluffet Smedger. This is further emphasized by the concept of a Common Year calendar that began with the Overking's rule, as if he wanted to reset history. But, we also get hints of what came before in the Guide, and in the DMG section on artifacts and relics, and classic modules. Examples are the sunken Isles of Woe, the empire of Acererak, the Lost Shrine of Tamoachan, the Tower of Inverness, Dwellers of the Forbidden City, and lore of Tsojcanth. There is also the Lost City of the Suloise, later revealed in the Gord novels to be revealed as something else and even older... There is also the question about when and where demihumans settled in the Flanaess. There is a reference in the Guide about the cairns in the Cairn Hills predating even the demihumans who settled there. EGG himself commented that the human Flan settled the Flanaess before any of the demihumans. I have always imagined the Cairn Hills to be related to the Isles of Woe, perhaps as the sites of their burial tombs and a region under their control before they sank. And the Bright Desert and Riftcanyon may be the sites of 'mini' cataclysms that occurred sometime in the prehistory of the Flanaess. Thoughts?
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Post by grodog on Dec 22, 2023 22:19:12 GMT -5
Has anyone ever done a write-up of the prehistory of the Flanaess? Only a little, and not very thoroughly: - most recently, as part of the structure for my prophecy at grodog.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-prophecy-of-the-six-and-the-twelve.html I’ve begun to build some background to the causes of the Oeridian migrations - a little history is hinted at in my (partial) adaptation of The Necronomicon to the Flanaess at www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=142- I sketched quite a bit of prehistory for my Mendenein campaign, which abuts its sister-world, Oerth (they are planarly “close”), and some of that overlaps with Greyhawk history/events; however, I wrote most of this in high school, and it shows  I have been giving this thought more-recently, however, since I have a Savant PC being played, and he is an Astral time traveller from the 300s CY. So, some of the demi-humans he knew back then may still be alive, and similar thoughts are being explored re: Zagig as well. Some of these longest-lived olves and gnomes may be a mere generation or three removed from the Twin Cataclysms, which certain long-extant undead may predate them by millennia (along with quasi-deities snd those further up the divine/infernal food chains). I haven’t thought through a comprehensive schema for the layers of mythic history and geography yet, but you’ve touched on many of the major highlights that should be in the mix. A few others to consider include: - the series of Ancient History articles Erik wrote for CF! at www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=iquander- Acererak’s history from the Vecna graphic novel - whether you want to play with the editing “error” for the demi-human realms being effected vs. affected - how far back westward you want to go (perhaps near the mythical inland lake larger than the Nyr Dyv?), which drags the Dragon Annual #1 map into the picture (or at least the Folio Oerik map at 1.bp.blogspot.com/-3WcXfFR99TM/Xo8luS3MVYI/AAAAAAAACxA/Mo11Z2s3VOE-IQp5NDtG-EDlCM2xasxogCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/map-folio-oerik.jpg which is more of a blank slate) Allan. |
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Post by grodog on Dec 22, 2023 22:21:51 GMT -5
You know, this was also a not-infrequent topic on Greytalk, and I may have some printouts from BITD that may be relevant. I’ll dig a bit over the weekend, and you can also search Scott Casper’s revived Greytalk archive blog at greytalkarchives.blogspot.com/Allan. |
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Post by geneweigel on Dec 23, 2023 10:50:50 GMT -5
I had submitted to Gary (Gygax) a very short layout for a prehistory for the "history of the City of Greyhawk" page on the website, which was approved but never finalized for the appearances in the HTML of the website format, but it wasn't much:
Was to fit it into a dungeon theme of various rooms but it just never happened. Someday some of this crap may surface from his estate but I doubt it.
Talking with him later regarding what exactly is Oerth, he said use Dangerous Journeys for culture and history layouts but not the exact states.
At LGGC 2007, I offhand said everything in prehistory Flanaess was few ziggurats and many barbaric savages and he nodded so... Thats all I got.
Until the end the "product" was still disassociated with the "game" even though they did the Elemental Evil and Stoink area campaigns it all had to be standardized to "product" form.
Since the Buck Rogers crew just regurgitated the already processed shit over and over its so hard to get a clear picture of what was the next angle for Gary if TSR had stayed stable. His dead end talking to me was recalling what exactly had been developed for Greyhawk that went into the crapper.
I picture it being a Frank Frazetta-like landscape.
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